Erika Ayers

CEO of Barstool Sports

Topics: Business Growth, Women Leaders, Empowerment, Branding & Marketing, Business, Business Leadership, Communication, Corporate Culture, Entrepreneur, Inspirational & Motivational, Leadership, Media, Strategy, Success, Teamwork

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Biography

Erika Ayers is the first CEO of Barstool Sports, the most influential sports, lifestyle and entertainment media brand on the internet. As a seasoned executive, Ayers has a proven track record of building digital businesses, developing culturally relevant brands, and pioneering distribution and monetization strategies.

Since taking the helm in July 2016, Ayers has led Barstool Sports through explosive growth, expanding the company from a regional blog with 12 employees to a national powerhouse with over 400 employees. Under her leadership, Barstool has become a top ten podcasting publisher in the US, with the world’s #1 sports, hockey, golf, and music podcasts. The company also drives 5 billion monthly video views and 216 million social followers, making it the fastest-growing sports brand on every platform.

Ayers has launched over 40+ brands for Barstool, including breakout franchises in sports, entertainment, female lifestyle, business, and sports betting. She has also led the company in generating revenue from multiple business lines, including merchandise, advertising, licensing, and experiential. Under her tenure, Barstool Sports has launched several successful products, such as Pink Whitney, the #1 flavored vodka, Big Deal Brewing’s super-premium golden ale, Pirate Water malt beverage, and Stella Blue Coffee.

Prior to joining Barstool Sports, Ayers held leading roles at Microsoft, AOL, Demand Media, and Yahoo. She has been named one of Variety’s Most Powerful Women, Forbes’ Most Powerful Women in the U.S. in Sports, Crain’s Notable Women in Sports recipient, Adweek’s Most Powerful Women in Sports, and Cynopsis’ Top Women in Media. Ayers also hosts Token CEO, a business podcast within the Barstool Sports Network that she conceived and created. Overall, Ayers’ leadership has propelled Barstool Sports to new heights, making it one of the most innovative and successful brands. Erika currently sits on the boards of Axon and Premier Lacrosse League.

Videos

Speech TopicsExpand each topic to learn more

Scaling a Business

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.

Branding & Marketing

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.

Women in Leadership

“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.

Nobody Cares About Your Career: Why Failure Is Good, The Great Ones Play Hurt and Other Hard Truths

“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.