Erika Nardini: CEO, Barstool Sports

Suiting Up with Paul Rabil

Paul Rabil

Sports, Business

5 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 17 September 2018

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Erika Nardini is the CEO of Barstool Sports, a hardcore New England sports fan (Go Coach Belichick...also a podcast guest), and one of the trailblazers of the internet. I'm lucky to call her a friend and mentor. Quick Erika snapshot: after changing her career trajectory out of school from legal to advertising (opting to take a $35K pay cut), she immediately became fascinated by the connections that people and brands could make online. With each creative campaign and team of workers (she talks about the value of "managing around" vs. "managing up"), she continued to climb the executive ladder, pushing branded content and internet advertising into a multi-billion dollar industry. With executive positions at MSN and Yahoo, she was then named the CMO of AOL, and in 2016 was brought over to Barstool Sports via her friends at Chernin Group. She's taken Barstool from 2 shows and 3 podcasts to one of the largest media companies in the modern era, attacking revenue at a clip that's unmatched -- featuring branded content, unique merchandise strategies, and PPV events. On the show, we discuss her road to CEO, management tips, predictions in media, and her stint as a college lacrosse net-minder. Suiting Up is a show that explores the psychology, playbook of tools, and strategies of the most influential people in sports, entrepreneurship, and entertainment.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know what I love about sports and I love about the internet in Barstool is like I think there's a lot of people and companies that just want to manage up
0:10.3	And what my frustration as a woman and it's and employees like the guys were always better at
0:15.2	managing up like I was never good at managing up I was good at managing around me and
0:20.7	making things happen and I think that that's on a sports team like you can't
0:25.3	manage up like you got a either are genius and you're going to get the goal or make the
0:29.7	save or you're going to move the ball up and down the field and I think that analogy
0:33.6	applies like exactly to the internet and exactly to business.
0:37.1	Here we go.
0:40.1	Erica Nardini, the CEO of Barcel Sports.
0:43.2	She's a passionate, many would say hardcore New England sports fan,
0:46.8	and one of the trailblazers of the internet.
0:49.2	I'm lucky to consider her a friend, definitely a mentor,
0:52.1	and frankly one of the most inspiring people I've ever met in
0:54.8	media. Highlights. After changing her career trajectory out of school, going from legal to
1:00.1	advertising, she took a $35,000 pay decrease by the way which if you're a
1:04.6	first-year professional that's gutsy. She was long on this thing called
1:09.1	the internet while everyone else in the advertising industry was long in printing television.
1:14.1	But make no mistake, her road to the top where she has now took guts and grit.
1:18.8	Years of creative risk-taking work product that ultimately culminated with her being hired at Barstool,
1:24.6	which is one of the highest engaged platforms in the world that also spits off the most daily
1:28.7	content across new media.
1:31.3	On the podcast, Erica and I discuss her road to CEO, including her collegiate
	...

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