- I think that's the other thing, the really
positive thing that can happen
as you're seeing in community.
(plane engine humming)
(men chanting)
- You got your perspective.
(plane engine roaring)
(crowd cheering)
Don't you want to be happy,
don't you want to be happy?
(upbeat music)
- Erika, it's so good to see you.
- What's up.
- How're you?
- I'm doing really well.
- Great.
- Erika, Barstool is just such an iconic
to the culture, such an iconic platform.
I did a Barstool podcast yesterday
with Adam Lefkoe, you know, like , it's just so
impressive to watch what the organization has done.
And I thought when they hired you, because we
we got to jam together in prior life.
That that was a huge coup for them.
And you've absolutely delivered on my intuition.
To that question, how has Barstool pivoted
during this new world we live in,
how'd you think about it?
How'd you absorb it?
Were you like me and completely underestimated
how long we would be in
you know, in this predicament, you know,
how did it play out for you and the gang?
- Yeah, awesome.
Thanks for having me, Gary.
I always love to see you and, you know
look, Barstool pivots all the time.
I think we are a company that is very present.
We're just present.
So Corona virus is present, you know
it's a difficult time in the country.
That's present, you know, our goal is to make people laugh.
Our goal is to make content.
Our goal is to stick it to the big guys
and to be as disruptive and innovative as possible.
We pivoted a lot.
You know, I think one
of the advantages we had going into the quarantine is
that this is a company that was never spoiled with much.
When I got to Barstool, there wasn't a single studio.
They didn't have producers.
There weren't a huge amount of resources.
People had a computer, they had an iPhone
maybe they had a microphone.
Only very few of them did.
And we kind of went back
to what made Barstool so great to begin with
when Dave Portnoy started it, which is it's a bunch
of guys and girls who are sharing their world
trying to be funny, being very innovative, using what's free
and available from a platform perspective to make content
and to give people an escape.
And, you know, I think it's a big responsibility.
I think people need an escape right now.
I think there's a lot that people want to escape from.
Things are very heavy.
And for us, you know, we needed to pivot back from
you know, we, now we have a lot of resources.
We have a headquarters, we have all types, types of studios.
We have all types of...
- Its a transition, I'm sorry to interrupt you,
but I'm sure a lot of entrepreneurs
versus executives are growing companies.
I'd be lying if I didn't say, would have been a hell
of a lot more easy and fun and interesting to deal with
COVID when we were 42 people
in one tiny office, not a thousand global,
the way, you know, we have an office in Singapore now
that's doing extremely well
and exploding in the last 18 months, they got hit first.
So I was already dealing with COVID
before I was dealing with COVID...
- Yeah, and then you have to always pivot your business.
You know, you always,
you got to have your head on a swivel.
You know what I mean?
Like, that's kind of how I think about like,
how are you gonna make money?
How are you going to make content?
How are you going to build partnerships?
How do you, how do you fix
and focus on what's happening right now?
- Speaking of that, and I'm sorry to interrupt
and in general, I'm trying to be better in interrupting
but in my podcast I have an hour and these
I have 15 minutes and I'm trying to bring as much value
to the audience.
- Go on.
- In your, you know, restructuring
when that happens, you know, what can people learn
from the way you attack that in the way, you know,
'cause I'm watching from afar.
I don't know all the details,
but I'm dangerous and everything.
So, you know, what can they learn from that?
- You know, I think you have to be very
I think people can be delusional.
I think people spend a lot of time...
(Gary laughing)
Which is rude. - I think you're right.
No, no, I think it's, but it's honest.
I think it's honest.
- People spend a lot of time looking back.
They wish things were the way they used to be
or they spend time looking down
which I think is looking at problems.
And I think you have to look ahead and in front of you
you know, so we got small, you know what I mean?
We started focusing on not multi-million dollar
multi-year ad deals or partnerships.
We started looking, what can we do today?
And what is something that can run right now?
We've had our two biggest months
in commerce ever in the history of Barstool.
And the reason is we started to make content
and we realized we had to find a new way to monetize it.
That would be relevant right now.
So those are two examples on the business side.
- Talk to me about the app.
I'm hearing a lot of buzz
from the Barstool characters about this app.
You know, it's getting a little hyped here.
- The Sportsbook?
Yeah, the Sportbook's coming.
So, you know, it's a good example
of we've been busy the last three months building
you know what we want to be the number one sports
betting brand in the United States
which will be Barstool Sportsbook.
We partnered with Penn National.
We've been hard at work with them
in terms of building the Sportsbook product, both retail
as well as from a mobile perspective
we're spending a lot of time on the marketing.
We're thinking about how do we launch it?
How do we do it the Barstool way
which will be different, more unconventional
more unexpected, more ridiculous than anybody else.
And I'm fired up about this category.
Sports betting is a huge area of growth in sports.
I think it's a huge area
of growth of opportunity from a revenue perspective.
But I think it's going to be about trust and loyalty.
And those are two things that we have
and take really seriously.
- Yeah, I think that's right.
And so, what about,
what's your biggest observation as just a human
in your own buying behavior or consumption behavior
during COVID, just curious you, the gile, like
are you buying, what will, like, what have you bought DTC
or direct to consumer that you'd never bought before?
And now you're like, I'm never going
to the store to buy this anymore.
I like this new product this way.
You have anything like that?
- I, you know what I think has changed is,
I'm a massive online shopper.
Like I bought a shit ton of air plant.
I love air plants.
I'm on Etsy buying air plants.
It's ridiculous.
Like it makes there's zero point to have an air plant.
I have a game with a guy who works for me
where we just text each other, what we buy.
And, you know, he bought a yellow truck
and I'm buying air plants.
I think it was Toyota.
So shout out Jack, but...
- Big shout out Jack.
- Big shout out for Jack.
But you know what I would say has changed
is I think people are realizing what they need
and what they don't need.
And part of what drives consumer behavior is want.
And I think that's really changing.
I buy a lot of clothes.
I don't need to buy clothes anymore.
I'm like, this is I don't, I see the same frigging
for people every day.
Like, it's not what I wear.
(Gary laughing)
So, so I think that that's changed.
I also think people want things that are special
and limited edition and mean something like that's what
I think is going to change is that
commoditized products or things that fit
in the middle are what are going to get hurt the most coming
out of pandemics.
I think it's true for colleges,
I think it's true for a pile of friends.
- By the way, you know, this is literally
what I wrote about my first book.
That's what the internet does, period.
- Correct.
- The internet eats the middle.
- Yeah.
- A hundred percent.
- It's not the end of it.
- I think you just fully explained to me why I'm
spending literally all of my money on sports cards.
I didn't get into this with Jack cause I wanted to
because I got to find some Jack minor-league cards.
Cause I know they exist, but Erika,
I'm telling you right now for Barstool,
you need, as the leader of the company
you need to get the whole organization to realize what's
going on with sports cards.
I am watching a ton of sports betting DNA, go, yeah,
it's out of control.
- It's awesome.
And it really, it shows people are, you know,
I think there's some really
good things that are going to come out of the pandemic.
I think how people think about their time, their priorities,
but nostalgia and collection are two things
that I think you are going to see more.
It will create a reversal of...
- I will argue that when all of us are much
older watching documentaries about the pandemic
there's going to be an incredible amount of good that came
from it.
What pandemic has done is created stress.
- Yeah.
- And what that stress has done is exposed things.
And I think that we're all going to go through a lot
of pain, whether that is macro social injustice
whether that's micro, "hey, wait a minute,
I don't think I like my partner as much as I thought,
we were just getting along,
'cause we weren't around each other.
Now that we're in the same place for 120 days...",
you know that's obviously very painful.
That's very painful.
- But its long term, a good thing, yeah.
- I mean, there may not be a person
on earth that more appreciates one step back
two steps forward.
I'm obsessed with it.
And I think you said something earlier
I'm obsessed with as well, which is delusion.
I think this has caused reflection.
And, and I feel like that's why there's so much going
on in the macro and the micro and to your point
and I've always been hot on this.
If you're, you know, you and Jack had been in my office
I am obsessed with nostalgia.
I believe that it makes you feel something
like when I look at a 1990 Frank Thomas, leaf rookie card,
something weird happens in my chemicals.
I go back to, you know, it feels delicious.
And so I actually, you know, ironically
we haven't gotten to talk about this
so I'll just do it publicly.
I actually think you made a very important point
about Barstool.
Barstool, much, by the way
I associate with it personally,
'cause in a lot of ways, I feel like, as a human
have this happening, which is, there is some pushback
to some of the things that are done, but, when
you triple click into and you take it to the macro
there's so much right.
There's so much authentic and the loyalty which
gives permission.
And I actually think Barstool has the permission to be one
of the biggest players in sports cards.
I actually think it's going to be a trillion dollar thing.
So I'm basically just pitching you on doing more sports
card content 'cause I want to consume it.
So if you can just throw, throw your old friend a bone
it would down a lot to me.
Alright good.
Alright, final kind of question or statement.
Is there anything that we haven't talked about?
You've got, I saw something.
Are you doing some sort of running?
Maybe I'm getting the story,
is there a running club or?
- I started a running club.
- I got this right, right? Running club.
- I started a running club.
- I saw it on Twitter, go ahead.
- That's ridiculous.
I don't even like to run
but I think that what you're hitting on is circumstance.
What people have had to wake up to
is what're your circumstances,
that's what the pandemic brought on.
It created a heightened sense of circumstance.
For me, it was like, I don't have to commute.
I've really stopped working out.
I do prioritize my wellness to do work basically every day
of the week.
So I created this thing where basically you just
run two miles a day
like you just run two miles a day and it's been awesome.
People do it, like I do it every day.
So I think that's the other thing, the really
positive thing that can happen
as you're seeing in community.
And there are, yeah, there's a lot of negatives happening.
There's a lot of things wrong with a lot of people's
circumstances, but there's also real community
and support that you're finding on
on a pretty micro basis.
And that's, that's what I've created with the run club.
- Love that.
Okay, well, you know there's a lot of innovators
watching right now, like a lot
of entrepreneurs or corporates that are really
trying to change ship, you know, Barstool, you know
controversial, you know, energy-based founder, you know
grow it back to what you said, growing into maturity, right?
How has it been navigating the kind of, you know
corporate business world?
You know, I gave Jack a lot of daps earlier, which is like
you know, the reason that he got all those daps to be very
very Frank besides his deep humanity
and kindness is you can,
once in a blue moon find an executive who actually sees it
and then is willing to try, forget about like, you know
mission not accomplished as much of Toyota's I'd like
or almost anywhere else I do business with, you know
how is it for you to navigate that on the other side,
where like I spend time when
it has nothing to do with VaynerMedia
and people are like, where should we spend this money?
And my first meeting at Craft, they're like,
"we're going after this guy."
I'm like, "You should spend on Barstool."
I'm like, "This is why you fucking lose."
Like, you know, like, so if I'm doing that.
Like, how are you navigating that
with a founder that, you know, it's probably
the same question I would ask Andrea, you know, like
how do you deal with a founder like this?
You know, like what are you dealing with?
Cause I think it might help a lot of people watching.
- Yeah, look like I love working with Dave Portnoy
and I think Dave Portnoy is one of the most genius
gifted people on the planet.
Now we get a lot of flack
because the cameras and microphones and blog has been
on for this company for 16 years.
And these guys made a piece of content every 30 minutes.
So the mind field of, "shit people said", is enormous.
Like it's just enormous.
But what I like about Barstool is
that we are a place that is
in progression and it is the true story of the evolution.
Brands evolve, people evolve, we evolve
and Barstool has evolved in a massive, massive way.
Now you can either choose
to your point triple click into that or not.
And that's I know what I've had...
- You, I, others that innovate can't control that.
- Correct, I cannot control the good people at Craft.
What I can say is that if you are
ignorant to what your consumer wants and you
are uninterested in understanding the truth of something
then you're not the right partner for us anyways.
- Yeah, and from afar, it seems
that the industry has very much figured
out Barstool the last 24 months, there's dramatically more
you know, acceptance and the running with it, you know.
- Because we work, I mean,
that's the, at the end of the day like...
(Gary laughing)
- Can we just actually, I apologize.
I don't, I actually don't want you to say anything else.
Honestly I swear to...
Andrea I'm not sure, listen, Jabari's a beast
and I know we have some other good...
- Great.
- I'm not sure I want to do anything else.
- Yeah.
- That little statement just fucked with me so heavy.
Like there is such a disconnect in this entire goddamn thing
of the small percentage that actually worked
and the large percentage that pontificate.
- Yeah, that's right.
- Yeah, I love that, Erika, thank you so much for being on.
- You're welcome, thanks for having me.
- Thank you.
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