In these celebrity-driven times, Roslyn native Jesse Itzler knows how to get publicity—and even more publicity.
A 1986 graduate of Roslyn High School, Itzler is the son of Elese Itzler, who served as president of the Roslyn Board of Education. Right from the beginning, the man had a knack for creativity. After graduating from American University, Itzler worked as a songwriter for Delicious Vinyl records, ironically enough when vinyl was on its final legs.
After recording his 1991 album, Thirty Footer In Your Face under the pseudonym Jesse Jaymes, Itzler wrote “Go NY Go,” which became the New York Knicks theme song. It wasn’t the man’s last encounter with the NBA at all. He would write original songs for more than 50 other professional teams. Itzler wrote and sang the Emmy Award-winning song “I Love This Game” and also produced the theme song for Inside the NBA. Itzler is credited with campaigns for Foot Locker and Coca-Cola. In all, Itzler has written original songs for more than 50 other professional teams.
Itzler’s time at American University was especially fruitful. Right away, Itzler knew how to make the best of any situation. Or as a profile on him in the American University Alumni magazine relates: “During his senior year at American, [Itzler] persuaded his Pop Culture and Society professor to allow him to skip multiple classes so he could record a demo in Queens. Since the only studio time he could get was on Monday (the same day as his class), he negotiated a deal with his professor for a “customized curriculum”: the result, a recording contract two months after graduation. When Jesse has made bold moves, they have usually paid off.”
There were also the cultural amenities the nation’s capitol had to offer. “Before I left for American University, my mother told me to sign up for everything I could. To take advantage of everything from on-campus lectures, to sports and social events, to the amazing DC culture,” he told the magazine.
Since 1987, Itzler has collaborated with Washington, DC native Dana Mozie. The city boy and the suburban lad hit it off and the two worked on several music projects. In 1996, Itzler, along with Kenny Dichter, co-founded Alphabet City Sports Records. Named for the Lower East Side neighborhood, the record company hit stride by mixing arena songs with highlights of play-by-play calls for such NBA teams as the Washington Wizards, the Dallas Mavericks, and the Los Angeles Lakers.
With his status as a prolific songwriter well established, Itzler ventured into the world of big business. That experience has also been successful. In 1998, Alphabet City was sold to SFX. In 2001, Itzler co-founded Marquis Jet, a private jet card company. Eight years later, it was acquired by Berkshire Hathaway.
The same year, 2009, Itzler created the 100 Mile Group, a brand incubator and accelerator. This was done in partnership with ZICO Coconut Water and the Coca-Cola company.
Successful as a songwriter and businessman, Itzler, in 2015, published Living With a SEAL: 31 Days Training With the Toughest Man on the Planet, a book that made it to both The New York Times Best Seller and Los Angeles Times bestseller lists. A follow-up volume, Living With the Monks: What Turning Off My Phone Taught Me about Happiness, Gratitude, and Focus came out in 2018.
By then, it was back to professional sports. In 2015, Itzler and his wife, Sara, were part of a consortium that purchased the Atlanta Hawks.
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How did Itzler come to write books on such different topics? The man saw David Goggins, the retired Navy Seal known also as the “toughest man on the planet” perform at a track. Impressed, Itzler asked Goggins to live with his growing children. “I figured if a little bit of his grit and determination could rub off on me, then I would be better off in many of the various buckets of my life,” he recalled. It worked. “We all have a reserve tank, but only by tapping into it can we truly get better,” Itzler learned from the demanding experience.
Then came Living With The Monks, published in 2018. As the book jacket states:
“Entrepreneur, endurance athlete, and father of four Jesse Itzler only knows one speed: Full Blast. But when he felt like the world around him was getting too hectic, he didn’t take a vacation or get a massage. Instead, Jesse moved into a monastery for a self-imposed time-out. In Living with the Monks, the follow-up to his New York Times bestselling Living with a SEAL, Jesse takes us on a spiritual journey like no other. “Having only been exposed to monasteries on TV, Jesse arrives at the New Skete religious community in the isolated mountains of upstate New York with a shaved head and a suitcase filled with bananas. To his surprise, New Skete monks have most of their hair. They’re Russian Orthodox, not Buddhist, and they’re also world-renowned German shepherd breeders and authors of dog-training books that have sold in the millions. “As Jesse struggles to fit in amongst the odd but lovable monks, self-doubt begins to beat like a tribal drum,” the book jacket concludes.
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“Questioning his motivation to embark on this adventure and missing his family (and phone), Jesse struggles to balance his desire for inner peace with his need to check Twitter. But in the end, Jesse discovers the undeniable power of the monks and their wisdom, and the very real benefits of taking a well-deserved break as a means of self-preservation in our fast-paced world.”
What will Itzler come up with next? The man will surely take a winning season from his beloved Hawks.
