586: Erika Ayers Badan (Former Barstool Sports CEO) - Deserving Great Mentors, Learning From Failure, Building Your Career, Earning Your Dream Job, & Other Hard Truths About Life As A CEO
Jun 9, 2024
auto_awesome
Former Barstool Sports CEO, Erika Ayers Badan, shares insights on learning from failure, building a career, and earning a dream job. Discusses the importance of mentors, letting go of control, showing gratitude in job applications, navigating challenges, effective communication, and qualities of a leader. Shares Barstool Sports' journey of success and evolution from a $12 million to a $550 million company.
Embracing failure and stepping out of the comfort zone is crucial for personal growth and career success.
Demonstrating genuine care and compassion in the workplace is vital for building meaningful connections and driving success.
Effective communication, particularly over-communication, is essential in fostering team cohesion, aligning goals, and driving progress.
Deep dives
Embracing Failure and Comfort
Embracing failure and stepping out of the comfort zone is emphasized as critical for personal growth and career success. The speaker acknowledges the importance of facing challenges and being motivated by setbacks to drive improvement and innovation.
The Power of Caring in Work
Demonstrating genuine care and compassion in the workplace is highlighted as a crucial factor in building meaningful connections and driving success. The speaker stresses the impact of showing empathy and investment in others.
Importance of Communication and Over-Communication
Effective communication, particularly over-communication, is emphasized as vital in fostering team cohesion, aligning goals, and driving progress. The speaker shares insights on the significance of clear and honest communication in leadership.
Lessons Learned from Mentors and Mentorship
The significance of mentorship and learning from various sources, including both higher and lower-ranking individuals, is discussed. The speaker emphasizes the value of seeking learning opportunities from diverse experiences and individuals.
Making Strategic Hiring Decisions
Key attributes for successful leadership roles are highlighted, including the ability to learn from failures, demonstrate genuine care for the company, and bring a unique point of view to drive innovation. The importance of hiring individuals who contribute value and align with company goals is underscored.
This episode is supported by Insight Global. Insight Global is a staffing company dedicated to empowering people. Please CLICK HERE for premier staffing and talent.
Notes:
What Erika learned from her dad: “He loved his work and was so full from it. Three weeks before he died he was doing Zoom calls with students from the ER even though it was beyond unnecessary and impractical to do so. If you love what you do it can add so much dimension to your life and the lives of others. He liked people and to learn from them. There’s something to learn from everybody. And the best control was no control - let things happen and learn from them & adapt.
Career advice: Know what your company is paying you to do. And the better you make your boss look, the better it will be for you. Find problems and clear the path for your boss. Make their life easier. Make them look good. That’s the role when you have a boss.
Must-Haves When she’s making a hiring decision:
Be able to share stories of how you’ve gone for something that failed, and learned
Be curious, ask thoughtful questions
Do research on the company. CARE.
Test the product. Be able to demonstrate that you know what it does.
Bring a point of view. Articulate what you could bring to the role and how you could make the company better.
Joanne— I wanted to be you until I realized I couldn’t, so I decided to be me. I studied you for twelve years. You are the architect of all my work dreams, and you are the scaffolding I built myself on. You put force into my nature, and for that I am so grateful.
Getting the Barstool CEO role: She earned the job over 74 male candidates. “I wanted this job because they were considered too rogue, too untouchable, too badly behaved, too unproven. Dave Portnoy (the founder) was powerful, seemingly unmanageable, and volatile.”
In 2012, when Chernin bought a majority stake in Barstool, the company was worth $12 million. You sold it to Penn Entertainment seven years later for $550 million.
Make Your Own Luck – When Erika was nearly graduating college, she applied for an internship at Converse no less than 45 times. She never got an interview. Why? “I didn’t do anything unique enough, passionate enough, or memorable enough to deserve a chance at the job.”
“It was a heart attack every day for nine years,” Erika said of being Barstool’s CEO.
As the first-ever CEO of media magnate Barstool Sports, Ayers Badan led the company through explosive growth (+5000% in revenue and significantly more in audience), expanding the company from a regional blog to a national powerhouse brand and media company. During her 9 years steering the company, Barstool became a top ten podcasting publisher in the US, with the world's #1 sports, hockey, golf, and music podcasts, and a top 6 brand globally on TikTok.
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode