Erika Ayers Badan Launches Mule Media
April 14, 2026
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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.
“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.
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.
“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.
Biography
Erika Ayers Badan is an American businesswoman and media executive, best known for her tenure as CEO of Barstool Sports and Food52. She is currently the host of the WORK podcast and the founder of Work Like A Girl.
Ayers Badan served as CEO of Barstool Sports from 2016 to January 2024, leading the company’s expansion into multimedia, merchandising, streaming, and pay-per-view programming. During her tenure, Barstool acquired the amateur boxing league Rough N’ Rowdy (2017) and significantly scaled its business—from a $15 million valuation in 2016 to $450 million in 2020—while growing revenue by 5,000%.
In 2022, she further expanded Barstool’s presence in live sports and streaming, overseeing broadcasts of the College Basketball Invitational and the Barstool Sports Arizona Bowl, and launching the NIL marketplace platform TwoYay to connect college athletes with advertisers.
Following her success at Barstool, Ayers Badan became CEO of Food52, a platform connecting a global community of home cooks and culinary experts.
She is the author of Nobody Cares About Your Career: Why Failure Is Good, the Great Ones Play Hurt, and Other Hard Truths, published in June 2024.
Ayers Badan has received numerous industry honors, including Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” (2018), Forbes’ “Most Powerful Women in U.S. Sports” (#25), The Big Lead’s “75 Most Powerful People in the Sports Media Business” (#19), and recognition from Adweek and Crain’s New York for her leadership in sports and media.
She serves on the boards of the VICE Media, Malaria No More, Premier Lacrosse League, and Axon. She previously served on the boards of World Wrestling Entertainment, Torchy’s Tacos, and Food52.
From 2020 to 2023, she hosted the podcast Token CEO, covering business and sports. A sought-after speaker, she has presented at the Milken Institute, CAA World Congress, MIT Sloan Sports Conference, SALT Conference, G2E Las Vegas, and more.
Ayers Badan began her career at Fidelity Investments and has held executive marketing roles at Demand Media, Yahoo!, Microsoft, and AOL. She holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Colby College.
On behalf of the entire SheInnovates team, we want to thank WWSG and Erika. I have not stopped receiving messages saying this was our best summit yet. Erika was truly the star of the day, her keynote resonated with every woman in the room. Truly blown away! Erika is creating an amazing space for women as well.
SheInnovates
Erika was great! She was so relatable and so easy to work with. The group loved her!
International Fresh Produce Association
No surprise but Erika was incredible! Thank you to WWSG for all your help in facilitating.
K1
There is no doubt Erika was the perfect and probably only fit for [Barstool Sports]. It's been quite a run and we couldn't have done it without her. She was everything I dreamed she'd be and more in a CEO.
Dave Portnoy, Founder of Barstool Sports
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