Central Connecticut State alums Jimmy O’Brien and Jake Storiale met with students virtually to share their stories about their CCSU journey to running a highly successful baseball media company.

The virtual talk was sponsored by the CCSU Communication Department and the Robert C. Vance Endowed Chair in Journalism and Mass Communication. The talk, moderated by Prof. Carolyn Lumsden, provided behind-the-scenes insight into the development and operation of Jomboy Media.

Jomboy Media is a digital media company that boasts over a million subscribers and followers across multiple platforms. They produce a wide range of sports content with a primary focus on baseball and a healthy infusion of comedy.

On YouTube, O’Brien, more commonly known as “Jomboy,” is known for his videos that break down dramatic moments in sports such as brawls, ejections, or unusual plays.

O’Brien and Storiale record podcasts such as “Talkin’ Yanks” and “Talkin’ Baseball.”

Before going viral and building a successful company with one of his best friends, O’Brien barely made ends meet as an event videographer. Nevertheless, he held out hope that one day he could make a living doing what he had a passion for: creating content. In his free time, O’Brien was recording, editing, and posting videos he enjoyed online.

“I was doing as much on the side then as I am now,” O’Brien said. “People just weren’t watching. I would do all these videos, and I would spend all of this time editing, just because that’s what I liked doing. So I stayed as a wedding videographer, not making enough to live, hoping the hobby would take off, and luckily it did.”

In 2017, O’Brien’s hard work finally paid off. With investment from a friend, O’Brien quit his job, partnered with Storiale, and committed all his time to a podcast about their favorite baseball team, the New York Yankees, called “Talkin’ Yanks.”

O’Brien credited that early investment for his rapid success in Jomboy Media and the company’s unique trajectory in the sports media landscape.

“That early investor really helped everything and gave us the mindset of ‘let’s build a company,’” O’Brien said. “You’re not going just to be somebody that gets hired by ESPN. You’re not going to be somebody that gets hired by MLB or FOX. This is not talent building. We’re building a company.”

Jomboy Media is based in the Bronx, New York, blocks away from Yankee Stadium. It employs over 30 people to manage social media, sales, production, and editing of various podcasts and Youtube shows.

O’Brien stressed the role confidence played in the growth of Jomboy Media.

“We’ll bet on ourselves more than people think we will,” O’Brien said. “Our belief that we’re gonna be successful no matter what allows us to try things and pivot. It allows us to not act from a state of fear, but it allows us to say, ‘well, why not?’”

O’Brien offered advice for those who want to become successful content creators, emphasizing the importance of being a go-getter.

“If you’re looking to get into content, do it,” O’Brien said. “Don’t wait for an internship. Don’t wait for anyone to tell you to go. You have to go. Have the tenacity to just go. I made videos for six years, nobody watched them, and then I broke out.”

O’Brien and Storiale pushed back on the idea that baseball is a dying sport, pointing to ever-increasing revenue around the sport.

“Our audience, MLB, told us it didn’t exist, and it does,” Storiale said. “‘Baseball is a dying sport.’ The financials won’t tell you that. Our audience won’t tell you that. It’s a narrative.”

O’Brien was quick to harmonize with Storiale’s sentiment.

“The first time those words were written was in a newspaper in 1887,” he said. “‘Why is baseball dying?’ It’s the ‘how’s the weather?’ of the sports world.”

O’Brien and Storiale said baseball dying is simply a narrative and concede that the sport has catching up to do with marketing, a task that Jomboy Media seems to understand well.

“Not to be a shot across the bow to [MLB], but there are some parts, they were not super forward-thinking, and I think they’ve gotten to the point where they’d admit that,” Storiale said. “It’s about personalities. Like, sports are the best reality TV. When you know the stories behind guys, that’s how you get attached.”

CCSU baseball player, Noah Martinez, cited the unique lens Jomboy videos portray baseball through as a reason for becoming interested in the sport.

“You turn on MLB Network, and it’s more analyzing statistics and data and all of that stuff, but Jomboy is more the drama and the cool stuff that goes on around baseball,” Martinez said. “It’s a cool spin on what’s going on, and it’s very entertaining.”