John M. Phillips

Happy early Halloween from your friendly neighborhood Phillips Boys.

Thank you Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. We caught Doom at Murray Hill Preservation Association Hill-o-ween. @jsosheriff @JSOPIO

Currently over Jacksonville.

Lots of progress this week. Hey DCPS, time to do the right thing.

Yes, yes… the hair is shaggy again. Joey is cutting it tomorrow. It was sooooo good to see Rosa this weekend. She got the 1/1 signed Phillips Boy edition of @FolioWeekly on newsstands now. You can read the story here: folioweekly.com/2026/08/19/i… The tribute my mom and their grandmother at the end was long overdue. We love you, mom.

Wrote a back to school article with my kids for @folioweekly which hit me in the feels. It’s coming out this week.

As a true empath, as a child, I was often a puzzle piece which didn’t fit. I still am. There’s something about being a deeply sensitive and intuitive human (particularly from Alabama) that made it a very difficult childhood, but I always had my mom to turn to who understood my soul. In 2011, I lost her. In 2012, I met Jordan Davis’s family and became a story teller for lives lost way too soon. No one had helped me tune that balance more than Lucy McBath and Ron Davis. When I met with Rashaud Field’s family, I walked into our conference room and immediately felt their pain and needed to get control quickly so as not to look like I was a mess when I needed to be the calm eye of that hurricane. It has made me really good at the hard cases. Their loss is channeled inside me. It is hard to explain. It’s harder to adapt to. And it doesn’t work the same for my own personal battles. My soul is happiest around pure people and children. Especially my three boys who were raised to love everyone. For every year of my career, we’ve given out backpacks to the same neighborhood of kids. No press release. No media. Just love. Today was that day. While narcissists and self absorbed folks often swirl around my head, email and court docket, I started the day feeling even more pain from a co-worker who lost someone. I was going through the pleasantries, but not appreciating the moment. Good luck in school. Here’s a backpack. And then came in this light of a kid. His energy- all of the families energies -slowly made my biological and neurological sensitivities appreciate the opportunity. The blessings. The team around me. Like the Schneider kids and Jordan, Brandon, Kalil, Rashaud and countless others, my balance was equalizing. Simply put, the misfit kid in me fits best when helping others. I say this to say- be kind. Teach your children to be kind. After Season 2 of tiger king came out, one of the guys who bullied me in middle school emailed and apologized. He said he was wrong and wanted to make it right decades later. Find that inside you. We are not all alike but we all have stuff inside us you can’t possibly know or appreciate. Love the weakest because one day they may be the strength you need. And you may be weak and grace makes bad days better. Love you all.

Let’s just say you have boys. And you are trying to find an event to have a blast. I’ve been living that life for over a decade. Disney, Universal, sporting events, charity events, national sports card show and the Olympics. We’ve done a lot. It helps to have celebrity clients but this trip was all basically standard level tickets. We went to Fanatics Fest in NYC. Actually, my Fanatics contacts blew me off as I’m a small fish in their space. And it didn’t matter as much. So, years ago Michael Rubin (who pushed us aside in a crowd to get through this weekend with his security team and I don’t hold it against him) took a sports apparel franchise and leveraged relationships in all of sports. He took that and got into collectibles. Bought Topps and acquired all of the major licenses. Acquired exclusive licenses with not only teams but top players and throws an annual party where the top names att me. He’s relentless. He looked left and right and saw a Sportscard and collectible industry propped up on stale old ideas and injected cross promotion and viral moments. It’s both genius and monopolistic. You must respect his game. He’s one of the biggest names in sports and entertainment you probably haven’t heard of but in some way bought from. So- how good and different could Fanatics Fest be? Very. The integrations of every sport competes with Universal or Disney for the sports fan. You stand in a line and get to jump off the top rope of a cushioned wrestling ring or fight a bit in a UFC octagon, shoot hoops, kick field goals, whatever. All the while, the national top sports and entertainment names are competing against fans for $1 million on the same attractions. $1 million sports and entertainment card deals are going down at little booths while many is giving things away in some way. They have digital kiosks where you can get free cards which can pay for the admission. It’s rather wild. You have Kevin Hart hosting a live show with Cooper Flagg in an ice tub on one stage while Wemby talks soccer cross training on another. There is an entire room for autos and photos which is more efficient than the national could dream of. Weston let Justin Jefferson and he was so nice we almost forgot the photo. Mike Tyson had a blast with the boys. But we got far more photos around the area than the pay to pay ones. It’s rare you get more than you pay for. There is so much dirty in the sports collecting industry- from unregulated gambling to money laundering to fraud, but most are good people. And you don’t have to buy or sell cards to be in the game here. I got the boys each a $50 box and got a free pack which had a card which more than paid for it. Topps and Fanatics have the clout and connections to change the game. Some are mad that it’s got things like Tom Brady slapping Jake Paul for attention, but sports and entertainment are fully integrated. The new world is in part pushed by influencers who have done very little in the business world. It’s ridiculous but I’m also glad the boys got to see behind the curtain and meet some of these thirsty wonders and see -like Rubin figured out- that there are huge holes in any market you can find to fill. And perseverance and relentless effort often gets rewarded.

Great time on @CourtTV last week talking about the Utah probable cause hearing concerning whether there is evidence Tyler Robinson shot and killed Charlie Kirk. There definitely is. While I agree there is much more to the story, the evidence of Tyler Robinson's involvement is clear and compelling. Few lawyers have researched mass shooters more than our firm. While this was only one bullet killing one person, it had all the hallmarks of the unsound minds we are fostering in our country. If your child spends hours on 4-chan, 8-chan, discord, dark web message boards, gaming servers and you just ignore it, you aren't parenting. If your household talks of hate and politics in the same conversation, you are poisoning your children. Pandora's box of guns, hate, division and internet radicalization are more influential than you can imagine while mental health is a real struggle. Love your children by being interested in their lives.