Nobody Cares About Your Career with Erika Ayers Badan

Your Working Life with Caroline Dowd-Higgins

Erika Ayers Badan is a digital innovator, disruptor, and seasoned executive on the cutting edge of content creation, distribution, and monetization of premier and culturally relevant content. As an early adopter of internet culture, Ayers has always been interested in what’s next, driving digital entrepreneurship and large-scale revenue growth within companies.

Ayers Badan was recently named CEO of Food52 after serving as a board member and advisor since 2019. Ayers Badan currently serves on the boards of the Premier Lacrosse League, and global public safety technology leader Axon Enterprise (AXON).

Ayers Badan is the author of forthcoming book “Nobody Cares About Your Career: Why Failure is Good, The Great Ones Play Hurt and Other Hard Truths.” Intertwined with anecdotes from her own career, Ayers Badan shares inspiring insight into how work really works, and how you can get it to work for you.

As the first-ever CEO of media magnate Barstool Sports, Ayers Badan led the company through explosive growth (+5000% in revenue and significantly more in audience), expanding the company from a regional blog to a national powerhouse brand and media company. During her 9 years steering the company, Barstool became a top ten podcasting publisher in the US, with the world's #1 sports, hockey, golf, and music podcasts, and a top 6 brand globally on TikTok. Ayers Badan has launched over 35 brands, including breakout franchises like Pat McAfee and Call Her Daddy.

Following Barstool’s exponential growth, Fast Company named Ayers Badan as one of its "Most Creative People in Business" in 2018, citing Barstool Sports' expansion into multimedia and merchandising during her tenure. That same year, Forbes ranked her 25th on its "Most Powerful Women in U.S. Sports.” In 2019, she was ranked #19 on The Big Lead's list of "The 75 Most Powerful People in the Sports Media Business." That year, she was also included on Crain's New York's "Notable Women in the Business of Sports.” Adweek named Ayers Badan as one of its "Most Powerful Women in Sports" in 2017 and 2020.

Ayers Badan has also held several senior roles at influential media and technology organizations, including President of BKSTG, CMO for AOL, VP of Branding at Yahoo! and Senior Director of MSN Branded Experiences for Microsoft.

NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOUR CAREER is for first-time job seekers who think no company will ever want them, people stuck in second or third jobs who don’t know how to move on to the next thing, and for those who have the job they thought was their brass ring but who discovered it’s not all that. In the book, Badan intertwines compelling stories from her own work experiences with straight-forward, no-nonsense advice. Peppered with humor, quick-wit, and compassion, topics in the book include:

• Work pays you to learn. It’s a privilege, so treat it like one.
• Do what makes you happy and f*ck anyone who says otherwise.
• Your career and your life don’t have to make sense to anyone but you.
• Know what your company is paying you to do.
• Don’t be an asshole at work. Run toward what scares you. Take risks and bet on yourself.
• Failure comes in all different sizes. Success is the worst teacher.
• Have a vision and stick with it.
• Nothing ever good happens after 11:00 P.M.
• How to get feedback without having a tantrum.
• Remember, nobody cares about your career, and this is a good thing.

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