Berner Phone - Hannah's Hot Takes: The Real Problem With Call Her Daddy

Episode Date: May 22, 2020

Taylor Strecker joins Hannah to explain what actually happened between Barstool, Dave Portnoy, Alex Cooper, Sofia Franklyn, Suitman, and Call Her Daddy.--- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/appSupport this podcast: https://anchor.fm/berninginhell/support Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hannah's Hot Takes Hello everybody Welcome to a very special episode of Hannah's Hot Takes We have a senior correspondent I feel like I'm on CNN right now This is also on YouTube if you want to watch I'm with Taylor Strecker from the Taylor Strecker show And her podcast, The Taste of Taylor.

Welcome to Hannah's Hot Takes Hey girl, hey, also never call me senior ever again I'll tell you Taylor's the reason I got into radio I joke that she's my Russian Olympic coach because she would yell at me. I ate a scone on air and I will never put food near my mouth again, near a microphone in any situation. Good. I taught you well.

But Hannah's had take started as me giving my unprofessional, highly opinionated advice to people. And we're going to continue doing that. If you guys want advice on anything, email H. Burning in Hellpod at gmail.com. Because people, whether they're going through hell or dealing with demons or they're just stuck in a pickle, I love. Sucking a pickle. Yeah. Are they sucking a pickle? Issues come about. And that leads us perfectly to the issue we're going to talk about today because someone's in a pickle. They might have had a couple too many pickles near around their face. And they were at a company that has a lot of pickles. All the pickles. Those pickle jars from Costco. They went into a jar of pickles and they started

as cucumbers and now shit's gotten salty. Wow. Wow. The metaphors are insane. We're talking about the drama with Call Her Daddy and Barstle Sports. Dave Portnoy has been kind of loud. I want to start with a brief, just synopsis of what happened, and you can pipe in with any, but basically, they came out with an episode around April 8th, and it said something like Kesha the end. Yeah. And they played her song, and they basically opened up the podcast saying, you know, interpret

that as you will. And as we know, Kesha with Dr. Luke, like, she was in a bad contract with him, but he also, he was accused of sexually assaulting her and using his power, like a very me-to moment. So for them to, that's a strong statement, like to not explain it and say like, well, we're just talking about the contractual side. They left a lot to the imagination. And sometimes speculation and assumption is even worse than the truth. So that, I was like, I don't know if that, I mean, listen, if they're calling victims,

then like, let's have a conversation. But I feel like to make that very subtle allegation. I don't know. I don't know if it was irresponsible or if they're just trying to tell the truth. I'm not sure. I love drama. I love genius marketing tactics. I love breadcrumming. That's why I do kind of respect that they have us talking about it right now. However, you're right. The New York Times wrote an article about it. Yeah. Don't bring women back hundreds of years by accusing someone of like potentially sexual misconduct if that's not the case, 100%. Yes. But, but call her daddy if you guys don't know they're these two girls they actually started on um the same network that i started on anchor it was called potable that ended up like they lost funding and it was me and those girls and their first episodes got like 10,000 listens mine got like 5,000 and they were like we think these girls they're wild but they have talent and then they switched to barstool

because they realized some weird stuff was going off potable and i got out shortly too and went to anchor. Um, and as you can tell, these two girls, they're great for two reasons. One, they, they're these beautiful girls that normally would be private. Like, I'm going to say, no, I'm going to use the word hot in describing them. Because beautiful has like a level of sweetness to it. These girls are straight up sex pots. And that's, and that's like they're, that's a part of their brand. They like being the blow up doll aesthetic. And they've had work done. But I like how Alex Cooper kind of owns, like, that she dyes her eyebrows and she gets her lips done.

And, like, I don't know if her, like, Alex Cooper was a former athlete. And she's actually, she edits all her own videos. Like, I really have respect for Alex Cooper. I don't know a lot about Sophia Franklin. But so going in, they, they, Instagram just shows all these beautiful girls who look like blow up dolls. Imagine if those girls told you what their life was really like. So it's not the girls you're looking forward, you're looking up to who, like, have great families or, like, run an amazing company. These are the girls that you're like, what professional athletes are you fucking?

Yeah. What kind of dirty shit do you guys do in the background? Like, why did you get your lips that big? Like, what kind of sucking dick tips do you have? Right. But the two kind of people who love this, I've realized are, it's 50% male and 50% women. 50% are guys who like, like the audio porn of it. Yes.

of these hot girls talking about fucking and some good advice. And then the other 50% I almost feel like are these girls who like always wanted to hang with the cool girls or like hang with the slutty or like go to those weird Coke parties and know what it's like. Right. Well, so it's interesting because we've talked about Call Her Daddy before you and I, Hannah. And, you know, so the thing with these girls is and, you know, women supporting women, yes, I get it.

But like their brand of radio is not my favorite. I feel like it's one step away from like it's audio porn in my opinion to be fair never listen to one episode so I've not even exposed myself to the content I'm just going off of what I've seen on Instagram and New York Post articles so they've also like in the last six to eight months they've been getting there's been like a lot of drama around them they've been fighting with the New York Post they you know they slammed a photo shoot they did with the New York post there's just been a lot of chaos around them so that's a lot of great amazing talent is fucking crazy and I'm not calling them crazy but I know they're not necessarily like easy to work with

but then again how many male talents are easy to work with exactly and listen I mean I have to respect I remember because my podcast came out probably so they started in 2018 I think taste of Taylor like officially launched with dear media I guess it was around 2019 this time so obviously I got very um I got very chart savvy and these girls were always at the motherfucker top of the charts And I'm like, do fuck. These girls are the number one female podcast. Now, if you're listening. Yeah, and they're top 20 on Apple, like overall.

Overall. So if you're listening. It's only 33% of women in podcasting have, like, top charted podcasts. So that's saying a lot. You get your friends around and shit. I know. I mean, well, it's because I work with Dear Media. And so their, Dear Media is very like, is a very female.

female friendly podcast. I mean, it's like feminism to boot, which I love, but it's interesting because Barstool cannot be the further thing from Dear Media. Barstool is bro, fuck boy radio and podcasting, right? Would you say? So issues begin, but what we're going to explain to you guys is the issues are not what the media is making it sound right now. It's actually distracting you from what the actual issues are. I will say this. If you really want a good take on it, read the New York Post because it really does actually, I mean, I, as a podcaster, could read between the lines, but I think you're right, Hannah. A lot of people, all they're doing is listening to Dave Portnoy, right? Portnoy. And he is definitely, I mean, he's doing something right, right?

Barstool is wildly successful. I mean, look what this platform did for these girls. So the fact that these girls did a podcast for two years and got so much notoriety in two years, that's a very short amount of time. So, you know, we have to really look at what, catapulted them to this like level of stardom it was um you know a half a tablespoon tablespoon of them maybe maybe it was like three three tablespoons of bar stools platform but now we're in this interesting debate where it's like who deserves a credit for wildly successful talent is it the media company that found them or the talent themselves or marketing themselves that's what's going on really a hundred percent so everyone

keep them the back of your head um what what ended up happening is they're, can you hear me right? Yes, totally. They're, because we're about to get in some hot shit, their podcast does not air for a month. A month in the midst of quarantine. And everyone, they've created this daddy gang that is basically like, where are our people?

And they post on Instagram a couple weeks later being like, we love you, we'll never leave you, we cannot legally speak right now. And I know what that means. means. So I worked at Sirius for 15 years. I got fired on a Saturday. I was completely blindsided. I thought I was maybe in a little trouble, but I thought maybe a slap in the wrist or I had to cancel the thing that I knew was like not making serious happy. It was just basically like a retreat, a side project. It was nothing. Anyway. But it wasn't nothing. It got you fired. Well, I feel like the punishment didn't fit the crime, if I'm going to be completely

honest. I think my head was on the chopping block. This is just my theory. I think my head was on the chop and block for some other reasons that I won't get into on this, you know, hot take, because we got other things to focus on. But I definitely, I felt super, super blindsided. Wait, I just totally lost my train of thought. What was I saying? You were, shit, you were saying that with serious, you got in trouble for side projects. No, but it wasn't that. Oh, contractual. Yeah. Okay. So when I got fired from serious, I was totally blindsided. but they didn't give me a goodbye show. And so my audience, I just went radio silent,

kind of like the girls did, with Barstool. And when people asked me, I was legally not allowed to talk about it until it had been resolved legally with serious. Like, you know, my term... But still, are you legally allowed to talk bad about serious? I, well, now that, you know, I had a non-compete for an entire year

where I could not, per my contract, that I signed when I was 13 and a half years old. I mean, I was so young. You guys, she was with Sirius for 11 years. Yeah, 11 years. Before doing her own shows. I started when I was 22. I didn't know a contract.

I didn't understand these things. And I had a shitty lawyer looking it over that didn't really know what he was doing either. How long was your first contract with them? Honestly, the first contract I signed it. Well, this is the thing that's interesting is I can really speak to this because my contract with Serious was an employee contract. It wasn't a partnership contract. And I know that now because now I work with a company like a Dear Media.

and we have a partnership contract, and it's wonderful. Another reason, like, I can't say enough nice things about your media because they are all about the content producer owning the content, being a part of the business, and they take a cut, obviously for putting you on your platform, getting you advertisers and things of that nature. But, like, you're really in business together. And that's the thing is when you get hired by a media conglomerate,

like a serious and now a bar stool, they like to hire you as an employee on a salary, which when you're 21 or 22, $70,000 is like, oh, so rich. And, you know, like, you're like, I only have to do one show. Like, this is great pay. But then as the show gets more and more successful, add dollars are coming in. Subscribers maybe are coming in in Sirius' case. You know, you are making that company so much money and you're seeing a millifraction of, you know,

what you're bringing the company. And that's just simply not fair. And that's why contracts should be short and be renegotiated. but sometimes when you're not hip to the jive, you sign something long term. That's bullshit. Although I will say, call her daddy, their contract is only three years, which, and I don't know what their non-competes look like. I don't know. But I can say that, you know, I have experienced, I want to be clear, serious as contracts were not like, they weren't criminal. They were industry standard, but the industry standard is flawed. And that's where we are right now. We're at a

That's where we are right now. So with Barstool, these girls, the level that their podcast reached was with, like, Joe Rogan and all the top podcasts that are making millions and millions of dollars. So these girls got offered $70,000 as a base, and then with merchandise and increased podcast downloads, they would get more. So they ended up making about half a million dollars. The reason we know that is because Dave Portnoy is great at making Barstool into, like, reality TV.

When there's drama, instead of hiding it, he embraces it, and he put every, one on blast. He said, this is what's going on. Everyone form your opinions, fight about it. Right. But what happened is these girls decided, we need more money. Sophia is dating. Let me just say really quickly. So Dave Portna, Portneo said that every single day that call her daddy was off the air, or every single week, rather. It's a weekly podcast. They were losing $100,000, I'm assuming in ad revenue. Yes. So if the girls in a week, the show makes $100K, right? So that's $400,000 a month times 12.

That's like a lot of money. I'm not going to math. Give me a second. Hold on. I'm going to do the math because I want to know. So $400,000. Okay. That's like $6 or $7 million.

My phone can't even hold this much money right now. It's like $7 million. It's $4.8 million. Around the same thing. I was close. So, yeah, of course the company needs to take a cut. So let's just do it a clean $5 million. So if this podcast makes about at least $5 million a year, okay,

the company wants to take, like, for example, industry standard now for podcasts, the company takes 30% and they give the talent 70%. But if the girls are, maybe they have to split it into, that's fine. But if they're taking 30%, I mean, the girls should be walking away at least a million plus in, you know, each a year.

So when you really break it down, because I know that, like, their fans, when they found out that they made half a million dollars a year, they were pissed. And they were like, they cry poor, blah, blah, but it's like, well, they were only making $70,000 a year. And in Manhattan, that's not a lot. Also, you don't get a fat check for half a million dollars. They were slowly getting it in. Um, but this is why they kind of made it like they were poor in the beginning yes. And people felt. They were. They were making 70,000 dollars a year in New York City. That is not a lot. Cut that in half as like 35. They're making, yeah, about six grand a month, which rent is, let's say, let's say, two grand. Four. Two to four. If you don't have a roommate. I know. But my thing is so then, so their whole thing is based on never let a guy get in between your friendships.

They have a concept like, remember you're just a whole, which is- That's lovely. See, this is the thing. I actually thought we were going to do this, cover this, Hannah, and I was going to be like anti-the-girls. And when I first started reading all the material, I was kind of like, they got what they deserved, like, who the fuck do they think that they are? Like, it's been two years, because I'm coming it from a bitter,

old lady perspective of like, I've been grinding in this business for 15 fucking fucking $1 million years. Yeah. And I'm not making fucking half a million dollars a year and haven't been for quite some time. So for me, and I know you're seeing my apartment right now and you think liar. No, I promise. This apartment makes me look richer than I am. I swear to God. But I will say that, you know, I really went in at being like these girls, you know, they were just blow up dolls. They did like, they basically are glorified like audio porn stars. Barstool made them what they are, who the fuck do they think they are. They breached contract. They shopped, you know, everything around. But then I, the more I read, I was like, no, man, I'm on their

side. This is the thing. There's a bigger issue here. So anyway, the suit man guy basically comes in. Sophia's new boyfriend. He was the SVP at HBO Sports. Apparently he has a vendetta against Barstle and people, they're making, but they're, but I don't even know if he has a vendetta. There was like one HBO documentary that made Barstle look bad. And Portnoy is kind of, I think he's getting sued for defamation of this guy's suit man, Peter Nelson, but becomes suit man. And he's saying how Superman ruined it. But also, part of me, he put merch out just, like, two days ago, and it said cancel

suit man. You guys have to understand what's marketing strategy and what's real. What's reality TV and what's honest? I have a feeling that, so I, and this is where it gets confusing. I believe from what my the way I interpreted it was Dave Portnoy they were the girl he found that the girls were shopping around their show right yes so and he thinks that suit man was the one who she asked for advice and her boyfriend happens to be very experienced and the boyfriend was like let's give you what you deserve right exactly which everyone's been in that situation before

of course and if he's on the business side of this he's knowing probably what they're pulling in and what cut the girls making so are they making a lot of money yeah But are they making what they deserve? No. So he actually, I got to give him snaps because he gave them good advice. I don't think it was great to breach contract and shop it around. However, you know what? This shit happens all the time in the industry because talent is underpaid, undervalued, treated like employees when actually they should be treated more like partners. Also, the average person who's listening does not know that this happens with every podcast. Everyone is doing this. Everyone's trying to figure out the fact that they're calling these girls greedy. makes me upset because no man would be called greedy if his podcast blew up at Barstow in two years and was like, yo, I'm getting paid a base of 70. I want more. I'll take it somewhere else. Let's figure some shit out because what they did actually worked. Portnoy offered them a better deal for the IP. What they did work. So I want to be clear though. So Portnoy offered them 500K. Okay. So that means, guys, they haven't been making that. That's what they were about to go into making.

and you bet your ass he was probably trying to sign them up for like another five to 10 years at that rate which they're saying is that a lot of money yes but this podcast is worth so much more than that and so they're holding out for their worth and i've got to respect them for it but now the girls are fighting okay this is the issue you have to be a united front some people say don't go into business with your friends i'm about to start a podcast with my best friend page and we're kind of laughing and i think it's a great idea and i joke because she has her boyfriend Perry who's like this really smart financial dude. I'm like, is he going to be suit man? Like what's happening? But what the girls, where they kind of messed up is that, um,

Alex should have in the very beginning said, I edit, you don't. Alex takes hours and hours to edit the content. They said it could take them four hours. They'll just repeat stories till they like it the best. Like they put so much care and detail-orientedness into doing their podcast. And Alex apparently like asked for a raise six months in. I think that Sophia didn't know about that was sketchy and was I don't know I mean I think but but but but I got to say if I'm because I've I've I've I've lived their life just like way less fame and way less money yeah fuck but but good for them I and I can't be jealous I have to be like I you know what you're right because I'm thinking from a entrepreneurial perspective like I would tell page hey I want more because I edit but if you're dealing with a business

it doesn't matter with Sophia thinks pornoi needs to do it but so fee but but but I've I've I I've worked before my very first co-host I ever had on Cosmo Radio when I started at Syria's. She literally did dittily shit. I did everything. I planned the shows. I was at the office for hours. I did everything. She just wanted to walton, be a princess, and get like equal billing. And honestly, she wanted to get higher billing. And I was like, fuck this shit. It didn't end up working out because I was doing all the work and she wanted to take all the credit. And that's very frustrating. So I will say, I was in the exact same situation before. And when I asked for more money, the company said, no, you must be crazy. And it didn't work out. Right, exactly.

And the thing is, you know, I wish the story went that the girls were United Front fighting against Barstool and Portnoy, because then we'd have something. But the issue here now is the fucking media company did what they do. And they got in between the talent. And now they're totally in control because the girls, like, first of all, I know they're saying now that maybe the girls are going to do separate shows, which Barstool completely benefits from. Even if they each make a million dollars a year, right? Barstool is the one that benefits from that. But also their magic was kind of together.

Like I know they'll be a little bit, but people also, you have to understand what the media. They might not succeed apart. People don't care about things longer than a couple weeks. So after the initial excitement of like Sophia versus Alex, the content has to be good after the initial marketing like push. So I think, and then apparently all these girls are, applying for their own shows. And that's where I want to say, I've actually been in talks with Barstool before. I don't talk about it because it's not, but Barstool's now like out with their

stuff. Right. After my first season of Summer House, Barstool reached out and was like, we fucking like love what you do and we think you'd be a great talent at Barstool. I remember this. But their contract, as you know, is like, when you come on, I can't just do a podcast with them. They would own everything I do. I can't do any side deals. All the, all the shows I was doing So like when you say side deals, so like they, you can do like branded content on your Instagram? Well, that's the whole thing with the girls. They can't do branded stuff on their Instagram. They're missing out on so much money. With a million followers, they can make $20,000 a post. I was also already doing a comedy tour. I already had like 150,000 followers. And I was like,

I've worked so hard to build this. Granted, will I get a, but then also I would get like a ton more male followers that you know what? Brands don't care about male followers. They want women. I was going to say that when you say that, like, 50% of the people that listen to them are men, men are, in the eyes of advertisers, they're not the consumers. Men are useless, except, unless it's like watches, beer, and cars. In the eyes of advertisers and the world in general, men are useless. So I'm a lesbian.

So I'm Taylor's lesbian. And I'm contemplating every day. But what I have to say is what's going on, and this is why you're listening, this is my final point that I've been trying to, that I want to announce. The issue is not with caller daddy. The issue is now with Barstool. The issue is this new age of social capitalism of followers. Yes.

These girls have almost a million followers each, which is social capital. When you were at serious, you had no idea how many people were listening to your show and you had no way to capitalize it on your own. These girls are literally like, I have a million followers. One post, they can make minimum 10K. Yep. And they could do as many posts as they want, but Barstall is saying you can't. So for the first time ever, BuzzFeed,

Vine Serious These people I mean think about even So this is my question to you Yes Let's say Warner Brothers I'm an unknown actress

But I'm very fucking talented And you could get any other actresses The movie's not going to do well But I have that X factor You put me in your movie Do am I owned by Warner Brothers For two years Because I wouldn't have been famous without you

Or are you doing well Because of me well this is the constant battle you know what we're in an interesting time and it's really thanks to social media specifically instagram now tick talk to but i will say that talent has their own platform and there is no basically a company is a middleman okay and trust me working at like serious is incredibly corporate it's a public company and i had managers have you been watching the michael jordan movie or i have been watching parts of it it's also it really speaks to this too but like you know there's this, you know, interesting thing where management, usually older white men and suits,

okay, they are the, they're the determining factor between you getting something and the audience being able to hear you or see you or what have you. But there comes a point in time, even like in basketball, where coaches become stars. The athletes themselves, the players, become massive stars, and they start to make more money than the management. So the GM of the Bulls, right, Jerry Krause, the reason the Bulls, they were a, dynasty and they broke up in the middle, the height of their success because Jerry couldn't get his fucking ego in check and he was pissed that they were making more money. He was pissed that they were the stars. And he came out and basically said, um, teams or like coaches and

players don't win championships, um, like associations do. Basically saying like the Bulls franchise is the reason why it's not because we have Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan was the biggest star on the face of the planet. Like they were so lucky to have them. Also when Michael created his own brand and like the Jordans. Yeah, it started with the Bulls, but it was Michael Jordan that did that. But I'm saying, Michael Jordan couldn't have done it with the Bulls. So what I'm saying is this shit has been happening forever. Stop trying to like vilify Sophia or vilify Alex or vilify Barstool. This is a bigger issue. Think about, think about Vine. Yeah, barstools, honestly, they're just now exposing their best. Industry has been doing forever. And they're trying

their best to own the girls as long as possible because their thing is don't come. You our audience and leave. That's what they don't want. But also it's like, or just make two million off the girls and then let them do their thing or let them do side deals. Or treat them so well that they never want to leave. Why don't you let the girls stay? Let them have side deals so they can make a ton of money. Aren't complaining being like, Dave, can you pay me more? Dave, just let her do a fucking fat, fat, fit, fun deal for a hundred grand. I know. This is the thing that frustrates me. so after serious i got real smart real quick okay still made fucking mistakes but that's okay but the thing is you know it's a it's a it's an evolution you know i'm you're you're constantly growing and learning

and sometimes even when you know what's right you still can't negotiate the fairest deal so you take what you can get and you just keep on moving but i will say for like after i was at serious i i'm not joking tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees which fucking hurt i cried over it but because I was intent on making sure every fucking project I did, the only thing I wanted, honestly, even over money was freedom. I don't want to non-compete. I don't want, like, if, like, if this isn't working out for me, because a lot of times with these companies, if they want to fire you, they can fire you. But if you, like, basically, they can get rid of you and no skin off their back, like, like, no severance. But, like, if, but you can't leave.

They can fire you in a blink of an eye. You're done. And that's the thing is that these contracts are so uneven. And when you have an uneven negotiation, that is inevitably going to end badly. I don't know why the industry. And now because we're talking about like being a social media influencer and you're having direct contact to your own audience out and you're making, you're creating this like loyal, loyal fan base that will follow you anywhere, these media companies, whether it's Warner Brothers or Barstool or serious or what have you, they need to recognize that they have to start

treating the talent more like partners and less like employees. You nailed it. And once they do that, I think it's going to be harmonies for everybody. And it's like, do you know what I actually love? There's so much food to go around the table. Do you know what I actually love? I'm about to, I love Bravo. Because Bravo has me by the

fucking balls. Yeah. Because Bravo knows they can get another Hannah character. Like, they don't need me. And I kind of need them for the exposure right now. So it's like, but they don't say Hannah. I mean, they don't say, Hannah, you can, you can't do other brand deals.

You can do what they say stay with our network. Yep. And you can do anything, run it by us, make sure that there's no cross-pollination. Right. But we have this amazing partnership where I go on their show. I show my whole life to the world. I put in 150%. They pay me okay.

And then they let me do whatever I want as long as I'm not with another TV show. So I can't Barst will do something like, hey, you can't do work with any other podcast networks. Yeah, that's fair. Grow as big as you want because then the money just comes back to Barst. Because there is this mentality of this, I'm sorry, but this middle-aged white guy in a three-piece suit that they want to own you. We found you and we own you forever. Listen, you can own me for my contract. Own me for a year, two years, three years. But after that. That doesn't help Barstall. And Barstow wants to be like, we own you for three years. We take all your money and then go be free. What if Barstow was like, hey, we will give you everything and you stay with us and we'll have a long-term partnership, make money on the side, just don't, you know, compete with other podcasts. and do with other podcast networks will build you your own shows. But let them-

It's ego. It's ego, Hannah. That's what it is. And it should happen with Barstool with Jenna Marbles is a very successful YouTuber that was discovered by Barstool. And she popped off there. And guess what? The same thing happened.

She said, I don't need you guys. Fuck you. It ended really badly. And now she's living her life with, she has millions of followers. And just to be clear, when a talent says to a company that found them, okay, I don't need you, fuck you. I promise you that they have gone to their bosses and their boss's bosses and saying, I want to stay here.

This is where, you know, I launched my career. You got to meet me at industry standard. And when they told no, and honestly, a lot of times companies, too, they will down-talk you to make you feel worthless so that you stay and you make pennies on like the thousands of dollars that they're making. And so trust me, when a talent walks away saying, fuck you that it's been a long road to get there it's not just like oh my god i woke up and i had like so many followers and like i have like i have such an amazing audience and like fuck you bye you want to

stay with your parent you want the structure of the parent company exactly of course you do it's just fun to leave i do want to say my interesting experience was i was at a media company and i didn't go to get famous i started as just a producer there and then i was doing into stories that got their own kind of excitement i started putting myself in videos and I, when my face was in it, it was doing better. And I was a video producer and I put myself in things I thought would do well. I got like around 6,000 followers over a year, which is not a lot. And then I started on my own page tweeting. And the tweets were getting picked up because this media company would never promote their own people inside it. But they promote it, but other

Twitter pages would promote me. So I grew up to 40K. Then I got another year followers within like a couple months just because other media companies were promoting me, not the one I was with. Because they were trying to keep it safe. They were like, if we don't blow anyone up within our company, then we won't have any drama. But because I'm able to, with other ways, blow up, it just naturally started happening. And then I got announced to be on Summerhouse. And I think they got on a crossroads and they saw it was a fairly small company. If one girl in this company is starting to blow up, we can either take advantage of it, give her podcast, give her stuff to do her own thing or say, you know what, this is going to be toxic to the company as a

whole and let her go her own way. And I was, I went my own way and now I, I learned so much from that company. I wouldn't be where I am without them. However, if I would be, I would be silly to be making, I'm making at least a lot. I can't even say how much better I'm doing right now than what I was at that company. Well, let me speak about my experience with Syria. So, you know, first of all, When I started with Sirius, I started with Cosmo Radio. So actually, the people, the higher-ups of Cosmo were the ones, yes, of course, people at Series had to pick me, but that was their brand partner. So Cosmo was kind of like steering the ship.

And the editor-in-chief at the time was Kate White. I love Kate. And she adored me. And when I was under the Cosmo umbrella, I got treated great, great, because I was protected by the higher-ups at Cosmo. The second Cosmo went away, and then I was just working for a channel at Series that was not branded. That's when things started to change. And basically, you know, again, I'm so grateful to Sirius for giving me a platform for introducing me to my audience for everything that they did.

But I do think like once I left, I started to find out all these things. And I started to find out how much money my show made, not even in subscribers, okay, because that's kind of hard to navigate. But there were, because I was on the talk side, there were advertisers. They were there live reads. And I remember I went to one of my bosses one time and I said, you know, we're getting more and more live reads. They seem like they're doing really good. is there way, anyway, I can get a percentage of the live rates, because I'm saying that I use the product for my own likeness. So, like, and, you know, rather than you give me a raise,

which no one wants to do here, how about you just give me a percentage of ad deals? And then I'll even go out, I'll shrews with advertisers. I'll do dinners. I'll work on partnerships. And then, like, can I get a percentage of that? And they were like, no, we don't really care about ad dollars. I was like, well, then why are we doing it? Anyway, when I left, I found out that my show was pulling in millions of dollars a year in ad, just, just, just. ads, not even subscriptions. And I thought to myself, if you've given me a fraction, five to 10 percent of that added to my, my salary, I would have never left. I would have been happy. We are like figuring this out right now. The idea is if you are going to work with talent.

They fired me, to be clear. I'm not delusional. I was fired too. I was fired too. And we're both in better places. I want to say that. I make, honestly, I make more money having my own independent radio show than I did then I didn't with my salary it's serious now that's not saying much because they didn't really pay me that much however you know and now I have the freedom to have a podcast with dear media to do another podcast with betches to like to do to work with freedom is scary for some people and that's why like these talent are not trying to run away it's they're realizing they're in weird situations and you nailed it there has to be a relationship and an even power dynamic with these bosses and their talent, but some of these bosses don't want to give

them that. And you have to have a mutual functioning relationship. For example, Vine. This isn't a media company, but it's a platform. Do you know why Vine ended? Because all these top Viner's were blowing the fuck up. And Vine was not, they said that Vine compared to like, MySpace, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, they were like, they didn't care about their top creators they weren't helping them in any way they weren't like the creators you advertise so they had an emergency meeting because they basically the viner said look we're going to leave to other platforms because we're not getting you guys are not doing anything for us and they're not greedy they were smart and they go you guys are one percent of our creators we don't care about you so they said you know what

fuck you they left and guess what vine collapse everyone left vine collapsed so that's the thing barstool Yes, you are the ones who created them. But now they are the ones while you were hemorrhaging money, which just came out an article, Barstow's hemorrhaging money, you have to be able to get that balance. And that's why I think Portnoy came back with a better deal for them. I think Portnoy listened and was like, you guys can own part of the IP, let's make this work.

But it sounds like there was already a lot of shit that happened before that made the- Too much damage had been done. And then the relationship to the girls. Actually, the girls weren't fighting. But I, this is just my, I have no evidence to this, but this is just my belief, my theory. I think, because I saw a lot of this, too, when I worked at Sirius, there was a lot of, like, management loves to get between talent because then they can keep control, right? And so I feel like management got between the girls to get control.

But now it backfire, because now the girls are so pissed off at each other that, like, they might not even be able to work together again. And now call her daddy. I mean, that's lightning in a bottle. the fact that they got so popular so quickly, that's not going to happen again. And if you split them up, they actually might not be able to continue without each other. It won't be as good. And everyone will compare whoever the next girl is if they go on with Alex.

She is good, Sophia. Maybe they'll bring on that guy, Miltf Hunter, that they talk to. And maybe they'll continue. But one of the girls is going to get fucked, at least one that was going to be fucked over. Both of them might. Both of them might. And they also probably signed in their contract. They can't talk bad about Barstool.

And for all we know, Barstool had, like, at a certain working environment, it might get ugly. They might have Kesha shit that they want to talk about. Like, we don't even know when they're planning it. So, because Dave seems like he's really trying to get ahead of the narrative because he can, because he legally can and they can't. But then Sophia went on Instagram saying Alex went behind her back. And part of me is just like, girls, we need to stay together. You guys are, you're so powerful, you're so strong. If they made up and they went back and they were like, this.

is what happened. We are so sorry that we learn from it. People will forget in three weeks and then you're back doing your thing. But I think you're right. They are lightning in a bottle and any girl or guy that just goes on bar stool is not going to have a hit podcast. And there has to be that I think that these media companies have to start understanding that these people are not employees and you can't just treat them like that. They are fucking talent that is bringing you an absurd amount of income that you have to treat differently. Yeah. And you can keep them for a long period, but you cannot lock them up in your jail for a certain amount of time and then have them run away. I don't think that's the best thing to do. And you can't

have people feel like they owe you everything when it's a mutual, it's a mutual thing. So what I do now with my contracts is I always make sure that basically in legal speak, I can't speak it. My lawyers do. They love them. But that it says that, you know, we work together when we want to work together. And if one party doesn't want to work together, we don't have to work together anymore. I don't want to work with anybody who says to me, well, if you don't like it here, we still, for the rest of our lives, you have to collect 10% or 20% or whatever of this business because we gave it a shot for six months. It's like, give me a reason to want to stay here.

Make me want to stay here. And also. But Barr still would say we don't want people to come, take our followers. And I do get that. And I do get that. That's why it's like, if you give them a comfortable reason to stay as and stay, have all our followers. and then grow, because then you'll grow even more barstool.

Don't they see that if those girls grow more by doing other shit, that it'll make barstool better? What's good for the goose is good for the gander. Like, let's all fucking make money off this thing. I know I get it. Listen, I will say that there are companies. And I do want to be clear, you know, that was my experience at Sirius, but I have a very good friend that works at Sirius currently,

and she just had a really good experience with them. So I just want to be clear that that was my experience. cannot speak for the whole company, but she, you know, went to negotiations. She was very worried and she came out, like, basically being very validated and told that she's very valuable. So that, so that was good for her. It also made me feel even worse about myself because they defy me. But I just want to say, like, I think companies are starting to get, this is the beginning of the end of what it was. And companies are starting to see that they can't just have these ridiculous contracts where they own talent forever and ever and ever. You know, it's a long time

coming in the industry for this shift to be happening. And I'm so grateful to the bars to call her daddy girls. And also, whether he means to or not, Dave Portnoy, he is, he's exposing the inner workings of this industry. And so I'm great, even though he's being a dickbag, I'm grateful for the openness and the honestness. And I keep trying to compare it to other situations like in movies, like back Ben Judy Garland would have a movie deal with like MGM. And she'd have to do like 12 movies with them, which makes sense. But it's also like now moving on, people don't need MGM. We have YouTube.

We have Instagram. So it's like instead of doing that, say it's a new time, do a movie with us, blow up on your Instagram, and then do another movie with us when you feel like it. But see, this is the thing is that there's these old media conglomerates. They are going to be holding on to the power. They need rules. They want, they're terrified of these platforms where, where, these free. bitches. Yes. I mean, even in the New York Times article, they said the best route. Honestly,

the only route for talent to go moving forward in the future is an independent route. And I was like, fuck yes. I pitched Barstool a one-off podcast. And they were, they, I think they were like thinking about it. They just didn't get back to me about it. And that's okay. But I let them know, like, I want to work with you. But I hear the terms. I've also worked so hard to make everything I have now. Why would I hand it over to you? And, they understand that too but i do think that barstool is um they they also want people they have all these like really heart like like culty following from the beginning of these guys who will never leave barstool but you can't expect these girls coming in new having that same allegiance to barstool

right when like they're they're just new talent and barstow has to admit that like these girls they can blow up on like so many different places well listen i work and i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm i'm I'm saying it because I mean it. Dear Media is so amazing. And they're like all the wrong things that old media is doing. This company is like, like dear media, they're doing it all the right way. They've learned all the lessons from their predecessors. And like this is the future.

So the companies that are going to survive and thrive are the ones that treat talent like partners and humans. And the ones that are going to die are the ones that treat you like. They have to treat them like partners instead of employees. Because also they weren't acting like employees and that was causing tension. They weren't going to the office every day. But they were going doing their YouTube channel and having fun because I guess it was part of their contract because they had it before that they could travel, do YouTube, they come in, they do their work. I want to wrap it up with the final thought that like stop telling girls they're greedy because you sitting at home, you know, with your 9 to 5, you see these girls are going to make half a million off a one hour thing a week. First of all, it's not a one hour thing a week.

But they're doing on social media, the editing, the preparing, the living, they're putting their lives out there, the talent. it's not an hour a week. But second of all, when you're doing something, I don't care if you're fucking jerking off in your bed alone and you know the person next to you doing the same thing is making a million dollars, you're going to want that because that's called a fucking wage gap. Right.

I will say this. You know, I think I'm with you. The facts of the girls are being called Grigy, first of all, what the amount of work it takes to get an hour or 45 minutes of content is you have no idea how much work it takes. So you just got to let that one go. And also, you can't overlook the fact. $100,000 a week, at least, at least these girls, their show, was pulling in.

Yes, that's partly due to Barstool and partly due to them. And that's just a podcast. That's not merch. That's not this new alcohol company they're starting. Exactly. That's not the following that they've established on chicks and the following they established on Call Her Daddy on Instagram that they can use forever. There's so many social capital.

The girls deserve a fair cut of one. their show is bringing in and talent it's it's not just you know paint by numbers you can't just throw two girls in there and get the same same chemistry and have the same exact show and just slap call her daddy on it and even Dave Portnoy said they're not intending to do that because he knows it won't work yeah it's not they're not replaceable but you know so I have my radio show the Taylor Stricker show amongst other things that I do but Hannah is one of my technically employees right I mean listen and I don't pay you guys that much I pay you an hourly wage and it's not it's it's it's it's sneezable however you have complete

and total freedom have any of you signed a contract with me no also did you help blow me up did bernan house start with mainly taylor strecker fans who are watching yeah but that's the thing is that so i am i own a very small business but i should i like i would like to say from my from the three years i've been an entrepreneur to these companies it's two things if you want ownership you've got to pay massive money. And if you don't want to pay massive money, then you've got to let them be free. You're so right.

It truly, it's that simple. But up until this point, Tay, it's that simple. Up until this point, to work for these cool media companies, they don't pay you shit because they go, well, you're part of a cool media company.

And then you realize, fuck, I can make what I'm making in a month at this media company with two Instagram posts. well, if you're able to grow it the way you're very, you're a very talented influencer. You really are. But I'm just saying, I want people to understand that like some of these media companies low ball the fuck out of you.

And that's why when you start asking for more, they're like, no, no, no, you're lucky to be with us. And then you're like, no, now you're lucky that I'm with you. And then it becomes a battle of egos. And I think, you know, the media company I was at was basically like, we don't want it to be an ego. I don't know. They avoided any tension.

It was like, just please leave. and they probably lost a lot of potential money they could have made with me, but they decided overall it's better. But now I notice that company is starting to promote people within and build talent within. So maybe they learned something from me. I wasn't the one that ended up being, you know, but they're 100% giving people podcasts.

They're sharing people stuff more. And I think companies have to realize it's okay that your employees start to have social capital and deal with them like partners more. It comes down to this. you want your employees to want to work with you. You don't want your employees to have to work with you. And that's what I do in my show.

You guys, I can't believe the fucking talent that works on my show. I'm, I am shook at the core. But, I would argue these bigger companies, do they have the capability of caring about their employees like that? But then I argue my brother works for Bloomberg. Bloomberg literally invest so much into them. They give them, like, free schooling, teach them, teaches them everything, have snacks, the whole everything they want they have he pays for like anything they want and he only asked that

they that he wants he doesn't ask but he hopes that they when he teaches them things that they stay and they grow within the company for long term and when they leave they normally don't get us back because it's like we've given you everything and if and we hope you stay so companies have to change and I hate to tell companies treat them like a partner companies like we can't do that but start to change how you deal with them I don't necessarily know what the answer is but this far still call her daddy issue, no one's actually in the wrong. It's the industry that's changing and this is a natural bump in the road of a changing industry because social media has made people so valuable on their own. To their audiences. Exactly. Exactly. Fascinating. I know. When I was

reading it, I mean, I just was like, I went into the articles being like thinking I was going to have such a different reaction. And the more I read, the more I was like, this is not even about the call her daddy girls. It's not even about barstool. It's about something so much bigger. And it's for us being in this industry, it's fascinating. And the thing with podcasting, everybody always says, even the New York Times Senate, they said podcasting is like the ocean. It's like cover 70% of the, of, you know, the globe and like 80% of it is undiscovered, which I was like, fuck you. But I will say that even everyone will say like, oh, podcasting, so saturated, podcasting. Podcasting, we have not even come close to the peak of podcasting in terms of

understanding value and ad dollars and just, you know, and subscriptions, everything. So, you know, we're in, we're treading new waters, businesses and employees and talent are figuring it out. It sucks that it's got kind of ugly, but also they've got an amazing press from this. And I'm interested to see what happens. But I needed to have you on as someone who's worked for a big business. You've been with series for 11 years. You now created your own business. You're doing amazing. And someone like myself, who was part of a media company, very similar to Barstool who now is on her own. I think we saw this in a perspective that was slightly different than people who haven't been like in it. Exactly. And I wish both of them the

best. I wish both them the best. I hope Barstool is like builds more and more amazing shows and gets more and more amazing talent and that it is a fun place to work. And then I hope the call her daddy girls really work it out because girls, we don't need to bring each other down. We don't you throw anyone under the bus. You're two girls that are fighting for what's best. My biggest piece of advice to them, guys, you got to sit down in a room, hash at the fuck out, make up, and you get back on the air and get your money, honey. So if you just went on Instagram saying Alex threw under the bus,

could you forgive a girl for doing that? Or you'd have to be like, go on and tell people you take it away. Because I believe that management manipulated the cracks in their relationship. And there's going to be cracks in every partnership. That's just the way it is. And, you know, it makes, it really breaks my heart. And ultimately, Alex is not a bad person for trying to get a raise for that. Maybe the communication could have been better, but she's young.

I mean, I don't say girls are young, they don't know. But, like, she wanted better for herself and everyone wants better for themselves. We're playing a single game, but you have to realize sometimes it's better for yourself is with someone else. Yeah, yeah, well, spoken like a true tennis pro. Doubles is a fun game sometime. Taylor, I love you so much. I'm so happy. This was like an actual CNN in-depth analysis of the bars to a caller-dadi drama.

We'll keep tabs on it. This was a very fun hot takes episode. Taylor, where can people listen and follow and watch you? Okay, so follow me on Instagram at Taylor Strecker. You can listen to my podcast. It's called Taste of Taylor. It's with Dear Media. I fucking love them.

And then I also have a daily radio show called the Taylor Strecker Show. And it's actually a subscription-based independent radio show. I took the format I learned it's serious, and I plopped it right into this show. So that's where, like, that's where, you know, if you're like a super fan and you want all the content, go there. Go everywhere. And I'm on it all the time. I'm on all the time.

And hands on it every single Friday. This, also, this girl, I'm pointing next to the screen, because that's where you are, she taught me how to do radio. She gave me a chance. And whenever you see women who are killing it in media, there was a woman before them that gave them the opportunity. and Tay lets me be free and every now and then

we work together and it's the most amazing thing and I love you so much Burning and Hell is ranked top 10 in comedy right now which is fucking crazy like there's like call her daddy Mark Marin and me and Conan O'Brien

and which is fucking insane I guess everyone loves the me and Luke episode but I want to say thank you everyone rate subscribe review tell your friends about Burning and Hell and let's take over yes Queenie And if you're listening and you're at a media company or you're at a company that you feel like is taking advantage of you, figure out the biggest addiction, besides cocaine or heroin, is a monthly salary. And if you think that you deserve better, take that risk because two people who have been low and now are doing better, do what brings you joy and the money will come.

I agree. I love you, baby. I love you. I'll talk to you later. And thanks for burning in hell with me. It was a hot one.