Erika Ayers

Who better to take advice from than the CEO who grew a company’s revenue 5,000% in under eight years? During her tenure at Barstool Sports, Erika Ayers Badan oversaw the company’s expansion into multimedia, merchandising, streaming, and pay-per-view programming. The workforce also grew at an exponential rate. That’s a lot of growth in a short time. Erika can offer audiences and leadership teams practical insights as to how she did this for Barstool with proven strategies as takeaways.

Erika Ayers Badan calls herself a “token CEO”—while in reality she’s anything but: after traditional marketing jobs at Microsoft and AOL, she took a rough-and-tumble sports and betting brand and turned it into a $550 million juggernaut with more than 5 billion monthly video views and 225 million followers. With Erika, smart media is always in the mix and her recipe has proven its worth in spades (or 5,000% in revenue, if that’s what gets the point across). No one is better equipped to enlighten a team with practical takeaways for success. If your audience or leadership team have a common goal—to take your organization to the next level—Erika Ayers Badan can help.

“I don’t think about my gender at work.” That’s what Erika Ayers Badan replied when Barbara Corcoran asked her, “What’s it like working with all those boys?”

Barstool Sports, known for its sports journalism, pop culture content, —and sure, its raunchy humor—made headlines when they hired a female CEO to run and grow the company in 2016. Few CEOs can say they’ve achieved as much as Erika Ayers Badan when tasked with the same growth and revenue objectives. So, does gender play a role in success?

In this interesting and entertaining address, Erika Ayers Badan draws upon her several leadership positions in media and technology at Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo, and of course, Barstool Sports. She reveals her observations, addresses misconceptions, and reveals humorous anecdotes about men and women in the workforce. This speech is suited for all genders and will leave women, in particular, feeling inspired and ready to take their careers to the next level.

“It’s about making your own luck at work—because if you don’t care, nobody else will.”

Erika Ayers Badan believes a rich and fulfilling career is the gateway to a rich and fulfilling life. This talk correlates to her book, Nobody Cares About Your Career (June 2023). In this motivational speech, Ayers Badan seeks to empower all generations of the workforce to do and be their best at work. It’s about being yourself and being successful; neither you nor work is perfect, but you can both be great. Upon request, this talk can include a book order and signing.