138: Working Like A Woman ft. Erika Badan

In this episode, host Alex sits down with Erika Ayers Badan — CMO of AOL, first-ever CEO of Barstool Sports, board member, author, and now founder of Mule Media — for a conversation about what it really means to bet on yourself when the data says don't, build something that didn't exist before you showed up, and lead with the kind of conviction that turns a regional blog into a media empire. Erika spent time in marketing at Demand Media, Yahoo, and Microsoft before becoming CMO of AOL and President and Chief Revenue Officer of Bkstg. Then in 2016, she walked into Barstool Sports — a company with no infrastructure, no playbook, and a lot of prevailing wisdom telling her not to — and over the next nine years, grew its valuation from $15 million to over $100 million. She expanded it into multimedia, merchandising, streaming, and pay-per-view, and landed on Forbes' list of the Most Powerful Women in U.S. Sports. After leaving Barstool in 2024, she became CEO of Food52, leading the brand through a major restructuring. Now she's building Mule Media — a company created to bring women together across career, motherhood, leadership, and reinvention — and she's doing it on her own terms. She also sits on the boards of AXON Enterprise, the Premier Lacrosse League, and VICE. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, she wrote a book called Nobody Cares About Your Career. The data said don't go to Barstool. The prevailing wisdom agreed. She went anyway. And it was the single best decision she ever made. 💬 Topics we cover: What it actually took to walk into Barstool Sports in 2016 — and what she had to become to lead it Why she believes working like a woman is a superpower — and how she built an entire brand around that conviction What she learned about community building at Barstool that most brands are still getting completely wrong The difference between access and true community — and why it only works if it's vulnerable How she and Leila are building Mule Media to serve women from 18 to empty nest — and why the creator economy makes now the exact right moment What she tells the ambitious person waiting for permission to finally build the thingWhy getting comfortable being uncomfortable is the only real career strategy that holds If you've ever trusted your gut over the data, bet on yourself when nobody else would, or believed that the thing that makes you different is actually your greatest asset — this is the episode for you. New episodes drop every Monday. Ready to Cultivate? Hit Subscribe. Get your ticket for Women + Wealth in Saratoga Springs, NY on August 25 at: https://sherofund.myflodesk.com/women... ⛺️ Camp Collective: https://www.cnywomensnetwork.com/camp... 📝 Follow Cultivate with Alex Canavan on Substack: https://substack.com/@cultivatewithal... 🎥 Follow Cultivate with Alex Canavan on Instagram:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠   / alexcanavanpodcast   Apply to be a guest on Cultivate:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FA... Connect with Alex Canavan, the host of Cultivate: Website: https://www.alexcanavan.com/ LinkedIn:   / alexcanavan   Instagram:   / alexcanavan.co   ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ This episode is brought to you by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Diam Media Group⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠: https://www.diammedia.com/