Trading Secrets - 4: Barstool Sports' Chicks In The Office on Negotiating Contracts, Dave Portnoy, & what's next!

Episode Date: June 7, 2021

From college drop outs to media superstars at Barstool Sports, Ria and Fran, from the successful podcast “Chicks in the Office” break it all down. They delve into their branding, launch, and contract negotiations, sharing behind the scenes details of Barstools success, leadership and work culture. Produced by Dear Media.

Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. I'm your host, Jason Tardick, and today we have the honor of talking both dollars and career cents with one of Barstool media's biggest shows and personalities. We're discussing all things, business, podcasting, media, creating a pretty badass brand while this is pretty cool taking a very, very non-conventional and unorthodox career path to the top with none other than the highly entertaining chicks in the office, Ria and Fran. What's cool is you'll hear them in this episode say, I love this interview because these are things we very, very rarely talk about, which is exactly what we're trying to do. And we drill down into just how the hell chicks in the office

went from being college dropouts, interns, bar stool full-time contracts, getting their first contract, renegotiating their second contract, which I'll explain in, and they'll tell us how much more that was in the first contract, all in literally less than a time, it would have taken them to finish their degree.

It's absolutely wild. Now, before I ring in the OPEC, opening bell. I want to quickly talk about the big money in finance play that happened with Barstool Sports. January 29th, 2020, a company called Penn National Gaming, which is traded in the market right now. Their ticker is Penn, P-E-N-N, if you want to look them up. They acquired 36% ownership of Barstool for $163 million in cash and in stock. And then in January 2023, okay, So that's going to be three years from that acquisition. From the original acquisition, Penn will pay another $62 million to increase its stake of Barstool from 36% to 50% ownership.

So this acquisition suggests that at that time, Barstool, right? This company, this little internet company. And let me quickly just tell you how they started, just to give you a little inspiration. Dave Portnoy, may have heard of him. He graduated at Michigan, 1999. He goes back to Massachusetts and he works in an IT firm. He's miserable. He said, I hated my job, wanted to find something I like doing, and he took a huge gamble.

And so he started marketing to offshore casinos. This is in 1999, saying that he wanted to create a newspaper for these offshore casinos. They rebuttal, this is 99, right? This is a long time ago. They said, listen, we're not going to hire you to create a newspaper for us. However, if you do create a newspaper, a gambling newspaper, we'll buy some ad space in there. So the paper, it was like really hardcore sports, hardcore gambling. And he began printing the newspaper by himself, literally, in distributing it at train stations.

And it slowly started to grow. Some of the crazy facts is that he was, I mean, utilizing every resource, he was hiring homeless people to distribute his newspaper, which was just like gambling newspaper. And they started growing and growing. Then they got online and continued to grow. And it has just taken off like no other. I mean, I just told you that Penn National Gaming acquired them 36% of their company for $163 million. Now, anybody here that's hearing this, it's like, dude, you're talking too fast.

I don't understand the finance stuff. Now, for my finance people, bear with me. My people that don't, let's learn something here before we get into chicks in the office. you might say, who is Penn National Gaming? What are you talking about? So let's slow down. They own 43 racetracks in casinos. They're a big company that owns those racetracks in the United States and Canada. And then when I said the word ticker is Penn, P-E-N-N, that is just the symbol that represents the company that is publicly traded on the NASDAQ. So in basic layman terms, you go to that little Apple stock app or any stock app and you put in P-N-N-N.

And you can see the company. And so that company right there, they now own 36% of Barstool. And then come January, 2023, they'll offer another $62 million to then own 50% of Barstool. I really want you guys to take some finance stuff away from this, too. So Penn is currently selling right now. They do $3.74 billion in total sales. And they do $30 million in net income. And then this is a big one where you're going to lose a lot of people,

but they have a market cap of $12.78 billion. So Penn is huge. People say market cap. What is that? I don't understand. It's really simple. A lot of times in finance people just try and complicate things

and throw these big jargon out there, but it's simple. The market cap is just the share price of the stock. So today, Penn, this is Thursday, June 3rd, Penn is trading at $80.47 per share. The market cap is just $80.47. cents, which is the amount per share, multiplied by the total share is outstanding. So it's just your price per share times your total share is outstanding. That gives you the market cap of the

company, which for Penn, it's $12.78 billion. One thing that's wild about this stock is in the last year, it's up 157%. It's outrageous if you think about it. Right now, the best bank savings accounts out there are paying 0.5%. However, if you had invested in Penn, P-E-N-N, a year ago, that stock has paid you 157% in returns. It's crazy. And so what Barstool then did is they partnered with Penn, Penn bought a portion of them. They created and released a sports gambling app that was only available in Pennsylvania because there's so much regulation associated with these apps. And in the first week of their launch, just in Pennsylvania, 11 million dollars in wagers were placed. It's freaking crazy. But it is time now to ring in the opening bell with chicks in the office. I like what Dave Portnoy says, their boss, and they talk a lot about Dave and what it's like to work from him in that company. But he said there's so much PC police these days. You can't do this. You can't do that. We're the exact opposite of that. So,

which also correlates to what Ria says in this podcast. There's almost nothing I can say that would get me fun. So without further ado, let's ring in the bell with the one the only, our guests, bar stools, rock stars, and the hosts of Chicks in the office, Fran and Ria. Chicks in the office, Ria and Fran girls, thank you so much for being on this episode of Trading Secrets. Thank you for having us.

We're super excited. Yeah. And I mean, listen, before we're going to talk like career in your path, which has been pretty badass. But before we even get into that, I'm going to give you guys a future idea here. I think you need to do a little bit of like matchmaking chicks in the office because I've said it once. I'll say it again. The only reason I'm here, Dayton, Caitlin Bristol, living under her roof is because you guys. You guys said it all. Yeah. Listen, I love that we get this credit every time. I truthfully don't even feel like we really deserve it, you know, but at the same. We kind of do.

At the same time, it feels, it feels good. Yeah. And honestly, I feel like you're on to something. I feel like maybe we need a matchmaking show. Like, we get people to sign up online and we do our own matchmaking show, like a million-dollar matchmaker, but for us. Right. Yeah, it's like the millennial version of Patty Stanger. Yes.

You guys can do that. There really isn't a young woman that does that. Obviously, you know, Patty, million-dollar matchmakers, I feel like always older people. Maybe we need, like, to start matching post-grad kids. No joke, I'm taking this idea. Like, I'm taking this to Erica, A-Sah. Take this to Erica, get the creative going. The other thing, too, is you get all the people from Bachelor that end up, like, heartbroken.

And then you got Love Island. I mean, you guys got every reality show in the house. We can definitely do that. And if we put something together where we get past contestants from the shows to then host some dates, like, we just start stealing the Bachelor method to make our own. I don't know. Shit. Speaking of that, obviously. obviously, even this creative is pretty, I would say, non-traditional. And I look at your career

paths for both of you guys. And I would say to myself, you guys kind of broke this blueprint. You did it differently. You know, my understanding is that Ria, you were enrolled at FIT. And then Fran, you're at Georgetown. But both of you guys dropped out and pursued your opportunity for a different career. So I want to kick it off to you, Ria first. If you could just walk me through what the challenge endured to actually leave school. Because both of these are like hugely notable institutions in which people that get in probably don't really leave at their own will. So what was that like? And how'd you overcome that? Well, I feel like growing up, I secretly knew that college really wasn't for me at all. And I think my parents knew that as well. Like, I think in school,

I'm a smart person. I would say that. But I was not focused on like my studies at all. Like I was always preoccupied with something else. I did a lot of modeling and acting growing up. So I really was just focused on that or hanging out with my friends or whatever it was. Never really thought fully about college. But I knew that I wanted to be in the entertainment business of some sorts. You know, like I said, I grew up doing that. So it was like, okay, well, if I'm not going to make it on camera, I maybe want to do something behind the camera. I maybe want to be a casting director. I could do film. So I was trying to go to school for film.

I didn't want to do like business or anything like that. Nursing, you know, doctor. I wasn't interested in any of that. So finally, I didn't get into FIT my first time around actually applying there. It took me my second time because it's a hard school to get into because you have to have like a fashion background, but they also have a communications major as well, which is what I went into. And I actually went to pace first for film. So I went to PACE for film, dropped out of there, got into FIT and went there.

But I started interning at Barstle in 2016. I was 19 years old. And I just found myself spending a lot of time here doing what I've always wanted to do. I was doing some stuff on camera. I was doing some stuff off of it. I saw that there was an avenue here for me because there wasn't, the only other woman was Erica, who was the CEO. And then myself. So it was like, okay, if I stick around, like, what can I do?

do here. And I just, I just was spending so much time there. And then Fran came in a few months after I did. And we started bonding. We realized that we had something there in terms of like, we really love entertainment. And we would talk about it all the time while we were doing other things in our internship. Yeah. But it was really the guys here, you know, Kevin Clancy, Brendan Clancy, they were like, oh, you guys, you guys have something here. You guys both like entertainment. You guys, We were the only girls here. We were also literally the only girls here. They were like, you guys can do something as the first women here, make a show out of it,

but do it about something you like. Don't just do like, oh, we're the first girls here. Hey, you know, it's got to be something. So we ended up coming up with chicks in the office and the Instagram took off right away. We started doing those one minute clips where we would just give like the biggest story of the day. Sure. And from there, which was, I feel like we've talked about this very, rarely, but it's an interesting part of our story is that two weeks after we started

The Chicks in the Office Instagram, casting director from Amazing Race reached out to us, and they were like, we love what you guys are doing, we want to fly you out, like we'll just skip all like the initial audition. They basically said like we'll give you, we'll fast track you to like the last round of auditions. Right. So we go to LA, they lock us in a room for seven days and They shoot us up with vaccines. They get us all ready to go. Jason, I have a visa in my passport. From Thailand.

Like, that's how close to you were to go. We both got one. I literally have the visa in my passport. They were like, this is it. Like, you guys are doing this. And so we, this was at the very end of the summer. And that's when Fran and I had to make the decision. Do we go, we can't go back to school.

We're going to be on the amazing race. How do we go back to? school we're going to be on the amazing race we drop out we're like okay we're not going back we're going to be on the amazing race soon after that they call us and they're like okay we we we go with 11 teams and you guys were the 12th team yeah yeah we're not we're cutting you but they're like if something happens to the other team you guys will be called up so at this point we're like shit we just dropped out of college however we were offered full-time jobs though no no we but no I'm getting to that we were not offered full-time jobs before that point it

was after the amazing race wasn't happening, where then we had the meetings where we were like, okay, we're going to be full-time employees here now because this is working out, clearly. We were almost on the amazing race. Let's offer you guys contracts. And then at that point, it was an easy done deal. It's like, okay, we got full-time jobs. We're not in school. Yeah. That's it now. And the fact that happened when it did, and you guys still haven't been on an amazing race is absolutely bullshit. But one thing I don't want to overlook it. To be honest, to be honest, Thank God we didn't go on the amazing race. Because I think that's actually where we ended up today was a great thing because we ended up getting full-time jobs because of that.

And we ended up being able to work at Barstle. We would have missed like three months of time by going to the amazing race. And they ended up begging for us the year later. And we did not do it. Interesting. The leverage was then in your corner. So what we do on Trading Secrets 2 is once a month. We do a reality TV series.

We have someone from every single show. They break down the money and career decision, what they were like before the show, how they were paid on the show, and then what it was like after. And we had someone from Amazing Race, and they said they were treated well and paid well, but the actual benefits monetarily didn't seem to be too substantial. And things obviously worked out for you guys. One thing I don't want to overlook, though, is Barstool Today's reputation, brand, market cap, everything is a whole lot different than it was when you guys made the decision to actually pursue this full time.

Did it sound like, Ria, your path was some, there weren't, correct me if I'm wrong, but there weren't too many challenges or pressures that you're receiving from others, parents, friends, colleagues, be like, what the hell are you doing? Do any of you guys have any stories that people were just like questioning the decision that you guys were making, how you were making it, and the company you were making it with? I feel like Fran struggled with that a bit more. Like I said, because I had been doing that since I was growing up, my parents were like, oh, okay, you've made it.

You've made it. You're down to drop out. I'm out of here. Yeah, no, my parents were 100% like, all right, let's do it. You're dropping out because they, they just knew that this is what I had been working for my whole life. So they were so supportive of that. And my dad is kind of like a momager in a way. He's like the Chris Jenner of dads.

No, he definitely is. So I feel like he was all for it. No, for me, it was definitely different. I was at Georgetown for two years. And I actually left and I left school after two years after, just, kind of going through like my major oh mental health struggle like was struggling to the point where it was like we got to pull you from this place like this is bad news so I went home and actually lived at home for about a year and a half um and worked I worked at you know just like a little

restaurant um I started taking classes at other schools and then I went to Mary Mount Manhattan on the Upper East Side which is how I ended up back in New York and after my first semester there is when I, what's the word, applied to the, to the, to the, to an internship at Barstool. So for me, I was closer to the end of school than, than Ria was. I'm a few years older than Ria. So I was at that point where like I kind of only had a couple semesters left. And because my journey was like such a struggle and my parents really wanted me to finish school and my my whole family around me, my parents are, my parents are fantastic people, but you know, they met and both went to Georgetown at Georgetown.

So, like, when that kind of failed for me, it was tough on all of us. It was tough on them. It was tough of my family. And so when we got to this point, like, my mom was like, you're so close. Like, don't you just, like, get your diploma, get your diploma. And I had to sit down with them and kind of be like,

look, you guys know my entire life. Like, whenever I've been asked what I want to do, I have said, like, I want to be. Aaron Andrews. That was always my thing. Like I was like, I want to be a sideline reporter and I want to host dancing with the stars. Like I want to like be in the sports and entertainment world. And when I sat down with my parents, I was like, this is like I'm going to school right now for broadcast journalism. I am taking classes on things that I am already doing at work.

Like I don't feel like I am getting enough out of school where it's worth giving up this opportunity at barstool to totally focus on school. like I'm already doing what I want to be doing and at that point they were like well there's really no arguing with that so they kind of they were like okay if this is what you want to do

and you know now they joke because it worked out but at the time they at the time there was a lot of like oh boy what is she doing and there was already a lot of pressure from my family and my friends and the people I grew up with one when I left Georgetown to begin with because it was like is she good like what's happening to her

and two, like, oh, she went to another school and now she's not finishing that school. It definitely kind of added up a lot. And I also think this was a time where it's definitely way harder to get your foot in the door at Barstool. So I feel like we got in at a really good time. But also a time where Dave was kind of like,

listen, you're either going to drop out of school and work here full time or you're going to go to school and still have an internship, you know? So it wasn't, I feel like now the people that there are some people that have full-time jobs here that are doing full-time and also are finishing school. They're going to be done in a few months. But money-wise, they were like, if you still go to school, like, we're paying you, like, we're paying you as, you know, the same internship

money. If you want to take the full-time job, you'll become a salaried employee. Yes. So. No, that makes so much sense. And you guys are early adopters and almost every person that came on to this show in some capacity were early adopters. The risk was high. They took the risk. it's paid off drastically. So now with people listening to this, though, they hear it and they're like, well, how can I apply that to my life? And what you guys did were interns and then worked your way up to where you are today, right? Between chicks in the office and you two, over a million and a half followers, you got over 200 episodes, shit, tons of views and tons of downloads. It's off the charts.

What advice, also for millennials, we want something, we think about it, we want to be a CEO tomorrow. So two people that did it successfully and did it quickly, what advice would you have for them as they may be pursuing a complete detour in life against the wishes of their parents, friends, and family as they pursue some type of internship to actually work up and build the brand like you guys did? I think you have to have no doubts and, like, no, you cannot second guess yourself. I think there's a lot of times when Ria and I were in that intern position and it was like, oh, is it. Is this okay? Like, should we be doing this? Are we doing, is this overstepping? Like, and it was kind of like we,

and we got the freedom at Barcelona to really do whatever we wanted, which was awesome. Like they said, you know, throw it at the wall if it sticks. Amazing if it doesn't try something else. But we, I really think like you have to 100% believe in what you're doing. And if you do take that risk, don't continue to tell yourself like, oh, God, I shouldn't, like, was this a bad idea? Like, and always second guess.

because there were times that I think that in the early stages, I was like, was this the right thing? Like, should I have done this? And now looking back, I'm like, I almost wish I had gone even more just head on. Like, this is what I'm going to do. I'm not going to think about school ever again. Like, I'm just going to 100% throw all my energy into this.

And that's, like, because I think a lot of kids, our age two, want to do so many different things. Like, they have so many interests. and they're like doing 30% this and 30% this and 40% this and it's just like go 100% in on one thing and I think Ria and I both like went 100% in on Chicks in the Office. Yeah, I agree. I also think it's about staying consistent.

Like when you say you're going to do something every day, you have to do it every day. Like the reason Chicks in the Office really took off was because we made those videos every single day. And a few years in, we stopped making them every single day. But at first we were making them every single single. day there wasn't a day we didn't do it there wasn't a day we didn't put something out and I also think see you say that you had some doubts I actually would say I had no doubts and I wish I still had

the mindset that I did when I first started because I think that there is a point where you become too self-aware like self-awareness is good but over self-awareness will kill you because then you rethink everything you're doing and I had no self-awareness I didn't I look back I'm like I said those I wore that. I did those things. I wasn't actively thinking about that at the time. So I feel like have self-awareness, but not to the point where you just overthink every single aspect about yourself. You are you. People are going to like you. People won't like you, whatever it is. Whatever field you're going into, that's true for anything. So you just have to be yourself. Yeah. I mean, sometimes ignorance is bliss, though, right? Sometimes

you have those blinders up. You keep moving forward, keep making it happen. But then I guess for you, Fran, where ignorance wasn't bliss, where you did have some doubts. You guys become these recognizable figures within Barstil. You build the brand. What was like the first monetization moment you had where you didn't have doubt? And you're like, holy shit, this could be a career. This isn't just an internship that I can also go to school and my pay staying the same. We're kind of making some movement here.

And I'm seeing the money associated with it. I would say the contract we got after our first contract. So we got our, you know, we started, like that, the first contract we signed coming off of being interns was like, we're giving you guys a shot. Let's see what you can do. Let's see what happens. Here's the number. And we were like, okay, great. We can work with this.

This is good. It only took one year for us to then get a new contract that was double the amount we started at. Yeah. So when that happened, like when we heard the number the second time, we were like, oh, this is working. Right. No, we were like, oh, this is, this is real. Like, I remember because I do remember the first contract, my parents being like, okay, cool.

And then the second one, my parents, you'll be able to live in New York, like, not extravagantly, but like, you'll be, you'll be okay. Yeah. And then the second one of my parents were just like, oh, great, Joe. Like, this is, they were like, this is awesome. Keep this path, you know, and that was only one year in. So it's been great. And I feel like that was the exact moment.

I remember me and you sitting down. We were so nervous for our meeting. We were so nervous for that second meeting, and it was awesome. Like, we were on cloud nine, and I, yeah, I'll always remember that day, too. Two questions for you. What was the time period between internship, contract one, contract two? Second question is negotiating for things like this is a huge concern for anyone in the entire world. Is this something that you guys had to really think out?

Did you negotiate? What was that process like? She was an intern for longer, first of all. I started my internship in September of 2016, got hired full-time September of 2017. The second contract was September of 2018. Yeah. So that moved quick for you guys. It was super quick.

And I was even later. I started end of January, February of 2017. And then that was full-time September 2017 and the same thing, different contract coming into September 2018. And then for, I feel like negotiation purposes at Barcelona. don't know how it goes for everybody else, but Fran and I have always been a part of ours together, which I think is also not really conventional.

It's super not conventional. It's super not conventional. I like it, though. But like, we've just always done them together. We work together. And so we're like, this is fair. And I think that's how they look at it too. They're like, this is fair. Right. And it also really helps because not to like bring in

other stories at Barstool, but there have been podcasts that have had problems because one person was asking for a certain amount, but didn't tell the other one, didn't tell the other one who, who they do the show with. And then that causes problems. It's like, all of a sudden, the other person is like, wait, you're making that much more money than me. And I didn't even know, like, for us, we were like, you know what, we do the same work. We do the same thing. We show up on the same days. Like, let's just be on the same playing field. That's just how it's

been and I would say like the negotiation part of it we've never I can't sit here and lie and say that we've really had to like negotiate our contracts it's always been performance based and not terms in terms of like you have to sell this amount you have to get this amount of download it's really just looking at it as a whole how is chicks in the office doing as a whole how much have you guys grown from last year and then we will pay you based off of that and we've always felt like we've had been compensated. We've never actually have gone back and forth and have had multiple negotiations. Well, part of the reason people need to negotiate is because we were, it's been instilled, and this is my personal opinion, it's been instilled on us by big corporate to don't talk about

what you're making. You can't have that conversation with your colleague. Those things are things that are uncomfortable. They've made it uncomfortable. And as a result of that, we have no idea where we stand. We don't know what our peers are making. We don't know if we're valued right. and now they have some like bullshit website like glassdoor.com that's trying to predict and estimate it. And so in my opinion, as per usual, Barstool is doing things unconventional, but the unconventional way is becoming the new norm. And I think we're going to get to a point where you're going to work at a company and you're going to know what every person makes and you're going to know why they earn it, the value. And we're going to get there. And it's going to put you in a position

where you don't have to negotiate because you know the value you're bringing. And as a result of that, there is no discussion as to if you're being paid. fairly or not. But one cool thing about you guys is that obviously you found your purpose. Most people in life have a struggle finding their purpose. And it sounds like you found some financial benefit that you're very surprised about. Do you guys think that if you stayed on the path you were on, this is a financial question, that you'd be making more than you would now? No, I do not. Oh, no way. Not even close. Oh, no. I was like, wait, do you think we'll make more in the future? No, I think I think if we just went to college and, no, not even close.

Like I, I think I would have taken, I think if I stayed and left and departed from Barstow, I think I would have graduated. I think I would have taken like an entry-level media job at some, maybe a bigger kind of company where I'm low man on the totem pole and have worked my way. Hopefully I had worked my way up at some point, but I still don't think financially, I would be where I'm at now. And I also just kind of think of that based on my friends that I have, you know, certain friends that work in media or certain friends that work in sales and or more in the financial world. And I kind of know like where they are at.

Yeah. And I know that I am, I make more than that. Right. And I also think for my age, like I'm 23 years old and I think it would have taken me 10 plus years to get to my point. Yeah. Yeah, he is 23. So I always think of it like that, like how fortunate I am at, at this young.

young of an age where people, it takes getting into your 30s or well after to be making a substantial amount of money. Reyes the same age as my little brother. My little brother, you know, went four years, college, graduated, moved to New York, works in commercial real estate, and nowhere close. Like, the number, nowhere close. It's crazy, though, because the way I think about it, I'm like, I get, I feel a little guilt in some ways where I'm like, why me who just like talks about entertaining?

you know but I guess you can't really think of it like that and it's like you can't because you've worked your ass off right no I don't think you should think you should look at it as like being a poster child for what people need to start doing and rethinking right like it's not this whole thing that we're taught growing up of just going to school taking on debt becoming an employee uh putting our passions and desires to the side because we got to be the yes man for the higher person is just bullshit and obviously you broke that whole mantra you've done it successfully successfully you've wildly exceeded your expectations and then you're in a career that you love. So you're exceeding your financial and personal and professional expectations. It's literally the poster child for what

people need to see and need to hear. You guys are obviously, you start as interns, you're crushing it, you're building your brand, and now you're to the point you're growing personally and professionally on your own. A couple questions I have for is one, did you ever think about potentially going off on your own and making a show without barstool behind you? And secondly, if not, do you have the opportunity to monetize on an individual basis? And I'll give you an example. I had one episode. I open up everything. Every deal I did, how much I've made to date on social media, had a CEO of an influencing company come on and talk to me about what he thought my rates were. We just kind of open the whole books. And I'm curious from, and I don't have, like if I do a deal or anything,

there's no cuts that go to ABC or the Bachelor or on the show or anything like that. Do you guys ever, can you do deals on your own? And was there ever? Or has there ever been a thought to say, you know what? Should I go on my own like some others have in the Barstool world? So this is how I look at it. No, we do not make any money off of deals. All of the deals that we get go through sales at Barstool. So they do all of it for us.

But it's all through ticks in the office. It's not like our personal hand. They sell ads through checks and office, not through our personal stuff. And so all the money goes to them. But in the way I look at it is that I feel like we are. are compensated through our salary and I feel fortunate to be like a salaried employee because I feel like to me that's a bit more stable and with benefits and a 401k. Right. There's just so much more and with pen and everything like there are things more things to it that it's like I feel like

I feel stable in the way that I am getting paid. It would be great to if we could make more money off our Instagram of course. But I also don't feel like that is truly like, Fran and I, I feel like we are not the, I don't feel like an influencer. Right, like swipe up and buy this. Like we do it on church in the office. Of course, and we do love those products. We really do. But for our own selves, I think the only thing we would really push is close. And I feel like that's more of like a swipe up thing. Yeah, I agree with you. Like I think there's a lot of times when people are like, oh, like you're not making money off your Instagram. I'm like, yeah, but I'm not really that much of an of an Instagram person to begin with. I'm on there and I post and I

share and I do and I do that but I am not fully comfortable with like bearing my whole life on Instagram and I do think that if you are to be like a super authentic influencer like the influencers that I love that I swipe up when they say like buy this are ones that I feel like I know so well because they post so much of what they're doing like Caitlin like like we follow you and Caitlin's lives so we're like whatever they're selling it feels like it's implemented into your lives and so we're like oh we should buy it right and I just show our lives on there. Right. Right. Like I just don't feel like if I was to take a product and go on to my own personal Instagram and be like, I really love this. This is great. Like it just doesn't feel as like authentic to me. And it's just also never really like some people, the influencer life and going that way and doing it. That's what they want is their career. And that's amazing. Like power to you. The Instagram stuff has come with us like with the podcast and everything. And like the podcast and speaking and talking about pop culture and doing all that stuff. That is what. what I love.

Right. So yes, like I'm getting paid for that. Yeah. And I don't really worry about the other stuff. And on top of that also, I think that we have never really thought about taking our show anywhere else. We have been given such a blessing of really being able to do what we want with our show.

Like we have talked to other women who have podcasts elsewhere and other people who do other jobs. And it's like, oh, you can do that? like, oh, you don't have someone curating your content or telling you what you can and can talk about or doing, like, we fully make our show on our own. Like, we, we could say whatever we want and we will not be fired.

Like, we will be okay. Well, maybe not. Maybe not. You know what I mean. Like, we have Dave as our boss. Dave speaks his mind, whatever he's feeling. And having like, he's never going to tell somebody you can't say what you're feeling.

And having the support behind us from Dave or Erica, whoever it is, you know, we can sell our own merch we have a whole department here that helps us do that we have our sales team like all of these things i think if i was out on my own would just flood me with stress and anxiety and like i like that i have it taken care of yeah and you end up paying money for those things right like the podcasters and the influencers who are out on their own and they're making their own merch and they need they and they have people working for them they got to pay those people it's not just all fun and games i feel like whereas here they give us all

of the tools we need to really succeed if we want to. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I mean, obviously it looks like the loyalty is reciprocated. You guys are in there for the long term because they find more opportunity for you too. So there's nothing short-slayered about what you're doing. And it's obviously like well-planned and well-thought-out. I know you guys kind of dabble another podcast. And you're right, by the way. I mean, I've seen multiple podcasts and influencing deals from other people. And like you said, like usually microphones, people are paying for themselves. If they want social, they've got to hire someone on their team to do it, and you guys have infrastructure to do what you guys do best and do it for the long run.

And obviously, you have benefits and packages associated with it. And it sounds like, you know, for the way that they upped your contracts, like as quickly as they did, they obviously see the value and are taking care of you to do that. It's good to hear that's the case, though. And because obviously you read stuff about Caller Daddy and you hear the whole battle to Sophia and Alex and all this shit. And to hear it from you guys directly, that that's. the case is fantastic. But is there ever, because that you guys kind of are in that own world,

I'm trying to think of like how I was when I was at the bank. There was a lot of internal competition. So other bankers, you know, maybe we'd kind of go at it a little bit or be battling for who had the better show. Is there that at Barstool? Because I think our show is so different than everybody else's. It's easier for us to kind of separate ourselves. Like if we, I don't know, like it's like if we were, had an NBA podcast. It's like, we're talking about, like, an NFL podcast. I mean, I have an NFL podcast, but like if we're doing other things that I felt like we're in direct competition with some of these other shows than maybe.

But I just feel like we've always kind of been in our own lane. And people have tried to compare us to other people, right? Like with Caller Daddy being so big, people have been like, oh, how to Chicks in the Office feel about Caller Daddy? Like, oh, Caller Daddy's Better. Oh, Chicks in the Office is better. It's like, they are the most opposite shows. It's like, it's like, Collar Daddy is the number.

one female podcast in the world like what are we supposed to like all we can do is say Alex has a fucking awesome job exactly that's it like exactly and so and it's just so different it's like we we are never going to talk that explicitly about our lives our sex lives about our relationship so it's like that's great she could do that we're going to talk about pop culture and that's not done here really in the way that we do it at barcel yeah and this is I we need to just send this clip to Erica because right here this is the exact example of employee engagement. All these companies spend all this money from McKinsey and all this bullshit to have people come in and interview people to understand if there's employee engagement.

And this is like the definition of employee engagement. We work for a company. We want the company succeed. We all do different shit. We do it well. And if it all succeeds, we succeed. For sure. If caller daddy succeeds, we succeed. You succeed. Yeah. Exactly. That's what Dave said when everything was happening and Alex was coming back. He was like, if Alex succeeds, like, You succeed as a company, so we just got to get behind this. And I don't know. I think you guys know us, but that is so rare, right? Like Microsoft, one of the biggest and best companies out there.

Most people working for them are multi-millionaires, and they just did a survey. 54% of employees at Microsoft are trying to find a way out right now. Like that, what you guys have and so many of the people we talk to, it's so unique, it's so cool, and you guys should be proud of that. So I wanted to adjust a little bit. We got a finance business podcast here. I got to ask you about this, because I saw March Madness that you guys won a Bitcoin

and talked at O'Roberts University, making it to the Sweet 16. First and foremost, congratulations. But did you know about, like, how well-versed are you in the Bitcoin space? Like, what did that actually mean to you to win? Literally not at all. But just to clarify, we split the Bitcoin with all the other winners in the office. So if we would have been screaming from the top of the Empire State Building, if we of a full Bitcoin.

Everybody knows, so I could just tell you the price that we have because everybody, everybody knows that we split like, it was split what eight ways I think? So right now I have

seven thousand nine hundred and twenty four which is an awesome piece of dollars an awesome piece to have. Yeah. Like just being able to say that I have a little piece. One point two five one point seven two percent. Yeah. Yes.

No wait. No, that's not right. That was just how much it went up. Look, Jason, we also have no idea what we're talking about. They were like this is,

they were like, you're winning this. And we were like, okay, cool. Oh, we have point one to five. Point one to five Bitcoin. Yeah. You know what? Hold on to that puppy. You don't know what's going on. You just let that thing ride because we've had, we had one guy come on. All he does is crypto investments. 96% he's got some serious though. Ninety six percent of his whole portfolio is in crypto. It reminded me of when you guys said early on in your career is like, you know, too many people do too many things to diversify their skill set, like go all in. That's another common theme I think of like every guess we've had is whatever it is, they've gone all in. And as a result of that, it's paid just like monster, monster dividends. The last question I have before we

crack open the vault with you guys is I'm curious your stance as Erica as a leader. So many people that are going to listen to this podcast have a boss or a boss's boss in which they're having issues from a communication standpoint, negotiation standpoint, understanding. And I think leadership is just far and few between. So I'm curious as Erica and Dave Portnoy is your leaders from a CEO and founder perspective, just some of your takes as to why you believe they're such good leaders and good at what they do. I think they're both very honest people. I think that's why they're really good. I think that Erica handles the business side really well and that sort of thing. Um, I feel very comfortable going to Dave with any question that I have because I know I'm going to get a straight up answer. No matter if it's a bad answer, if it's a good answer, he's going to give me an answer and he's going to be straight up about it. So that's what I really appreciate about, about Dave. Um, and Erica just being a woman and being in that position and having her to like, you can get to Erica at any time, text her at any time, walking to her office. She's almost too accessible. She's probably like, stop. She probably wished.

she wasn't as accessible as she is. Yeah, definitely. But also just having a woman in that role to go to if we have any sort of problem that say we don't want to talk about with a guy or whatever it may be. It's just like comfortable to have her in that position. And also I think she's just obviously a badass at what she does. I mean, how much has changed from when they were just in Boston to then, you know, working with Chernin and bringing on Erica. It's like she has done so much. Ria's been here since the beginning of Erica's time.

So like it's crazy to see how she has changed this company as much as she has. Definitely. And it's really cool. Like the whole, our basically entire C-suite is women. Like I don't know if that's,

it's like not talked about as much. From a leadership standpoint, it's really cool to see all of these women run this company and do it so well. For Dave, like people I think who don't know Dave that work here because I think there is kind of the new people that have come in

and Dave isn't, he's more in Miami now and it's not like it really was. Dave's your boss? Yeah, it's like, well, Dave's our boss. He is super easy to go to as well. Like he is so easy to go to and ask any question. And like I said, just give you an answer straight up.

So I feel like that's also important. I feel like people always wonder like, what is Dave Portnoy like as a boss? And I think Dave as a boss is great. Because first of all, I think he's hilarious. And also you're like, that's my boss. And like I say, he always says like if I'm leaving you alone, you're doing your job. Yeah. And he's like, you know, like, if he's up

your ass, then like, hey, you got to fix something because he's watching you and you're doing something. But he's like, hey, if you're, like, if you're doing your thing, like, I'm leaving you alone, you're in a good place. And he doesn't, I think this is something they talked about on his show recently where somebody texted him being

like, thank you, somebody who works here was like, thank you for all the opportunities, whatever. And Dave didn't answer. And he was like, was that mean? He's like, what am I supposed to say to that? But in a way, it's, it's almost comforting in a way because you're like, oh, this guy's not bullshitting me. He's just, he wants us to do our job. Yep. Yep. And I think like all those answers, obviously everyone can see the growth and numbers. You could look it up. But some of the things we don't see, we can't Google

are those things you guys are talking about. And one of the biggest things people come to me with is like, how do I interview or why I need to get out of my job? I think this part of the issue with like retention and turnover is because the things that you're describing that you see in the C-level suite that you want in a boss, that you want an organization, people when they're interviewing for companies aren't doing the due diligence to look for those things before. And if you look for the things that you guys are talking about right now, it can save your entire career and the longevity of it. But it's really cool to hear how that stuff all works actually behind the scenes.

And I mean, obviously Dave, genius at what he does. But to see what Eric has done since the day she got there to now. And every metric of Barstool is fucking wild. Yeah. It's incredible. It's incredible. All right, guys. Let's crack into the vault.

I'll do some rapid fire questions. We'll start with you, Fran. Go to Ria. So let's do the first question. We're cracking into the vault with chicks in the office. We know that you guys would not go on an amazing race. But Fran, if you were to go, and then we'll go right to Ria. If you were to go on one reality show, what would it be?

I know Dave Portnoy recently answered this question, and he said The Bachelor. Like the hills. Like I think I would want, you know, like something that is friend and family-based. I don't think I would want a competition show. Like, I think I would want something that's a little bit more like people are just filming my life kind of thing. I like that answer. Yeah.

The challenge. I mean, I do not want to see me kissing on camera. I don't. It's like a big fear that I look like Matt James. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fair. Super fair. I love it.

If you did cash in your Bitcoin today, we each know you got around 7K. What is the first thing you're buying? Oh, man. I already have my answer. I'm about to move. I'm moving at the end of this month. And I don't own, like, any of my own first. I don't like so I have to buy I'm buying all this stuff and it's been very hard for me because I've been going back and forth talking a lot of people I'm like I know I know I should probably hold it but like if I could buy like a really nice couch it'd be my Bitcoin couch it would be awesome so if I were to do it it literally would be in two weeks and I'd be buying a couch I would throw away my entire wardrobe and start fresh and just buy all new clothes from the beginning every single item item of clothing I would just restart I love

that. That's amazing. All right. So let's, let's keep this going. What is one thing you think you spend too much money on that you don't care? Or a two-part question, what do you think is the biggest financial regret you had? So you could take that one either way. Okay. One, I have, I spend way too much money on food delivery services. Live in New York. I don't cook really at all. And so I seamless my dinner like every night. And I, and when I look back at like my credit card statement, I can't believe how much money I spend on ordering food. So that is by far probably the biggest one. And then, you know, I really haven't made that many mistakes. I would say money-wise. Like, I don't spend frivolously ever really. I have purchased myself like one very nice item

when I was like, it was my birthday. I got myself something nice. But clothes, I spent a lot of money on. And then... What was the nice item? Oh, I bought myself a Chloe bag. It was for my birth. You earned it. Yes. And then I guess the one thing that I spent a shit ton of money on that, probably looking back was a bad idea was I'm a massive Jonas Brothers fan. And I spent like, I spent like, what was it, like $700? Yes. I spent like $700 to join the Jonas Vinyl Club.

And it was a subscription that for one year, every quarter, they would send you vinals of all their songs, like everything from start to finish. And, of course, I had to buy the deluxe version, which, you know, you could get everything possible. And it ended up being around $700. And I will tell you, like, I have the record player. I have them all organized in their little case. And I've probably, like, played them three times. So, yeah, that was. Jonas Brothers got a business going shit.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Yes, they suckered me and a bunch of other fans into that one. Bad news. I would say Uber's, I, 100% is my biggest downfall. And I have made a lot of reckless purchases. I can't even pick one. Brand knows. I make reckless purchases once a week.

The Uber is what drives me nuts because when I see, I'm like, Ria, do not call an Uber. Take the subway. It's so bad. I just recently started taking the subway again because I was like, this is bad.

This is really bad. Last week we were going on vacation and I couldn't find sandals around my home and I went and bought $200 sandals that I will never wear again. But I was like, this is the only thing in my view. It's the only thing I got back home and found two more pairs of sandals.

I was like, that's the biggest, reckless, reckless decision. To fix it, you got to own it. You know what else? You got to talk to your sales team. Tell them to get you an Uber and or Lyft deal. And in return, you guys got to get some credits. Like, give some credits to these girls. They're working.

That's smart. All right, I got two last questions as we crack open the vault here. The more personal, and this one goes for Ria. What is it like to date someone in the office as Barstool's first couple? Oh, wow. Such an honor, by the way. You guys are Barstool's first couple. Yeah, like a little plaque.

the other day. We won 10K together the other day. That was great. Honestly, and I know people hate this answer because it's not juicy at all, but we really have had no issues working in the same place. Like, we've really

we live together as well and we just really get along. I'd hope so. We've been dating for almost five years. But also you're so busy all day and Hank so busy all day. We don't see each other at the office. There's not a lot of time that all of us like are sitting at our desks and typing away and working like we're all in studios or moving or filming or doing so you don't even see him that much we don't see each other often during the day and we do such different things yeah that it's like

we're not even in it's not like we're competing against each other or we're in each other's spaces it's not it's not like i'm giving him ideas and he's given me ideas we know we don't do the same thing at all so it works in that way um i i i thought it was the worst sisters and i've ever made when i first did it of course i like was up at night couldn't even sleep i was mortified. I was like, what am I doing? I can't believe this. Like, who does this? It's totally not like like me, but it's worked out. So I think it's, it sounds like Kaylin and I have more issues, not even working at the same company just in the same house. I was like, Hank is also super, super chill. That helps. He's like the chillest person of all the time. The chillest human being

ever. Ever. It's ever. So that helps. And so many times I'm like, does Hank care about that? She's like, nah. I'm like, unbelievable. Good for him. Right. Because like so chill. Like there's things that like maybe we're doing together. I'm like, oh, because, you know, I've been dating my boyfriend for a long time as well. And I've said like, oh, you know, he doesn't really love that. And Ria's like, ah, Hank could care less. I'm like, I'm waiting for Hank to say something. I almost feel like he doesn't care.

About me, in general. Hank sounds like a beauty. He's great. But I also think personally, I don't think that I could date somebody who didn't understand what I did. I really think Fran does a really great job at it. And I just don't think it would be for me at all. I think I'm more consumed in my job than Fran is a little bit. So I feel like that works because we both get it.

Another thing. It's another thing Barstool does well. You can date in the office and there's no issues. Like this is a fucking dream come true. I almost don't believe it. We didn't get HR to like three years after they started dating. I can see Dave not being a fan of HR. Yeah.

What did you win? How did you win 10K? So, Dave just was like, well, the gamblers in the office. office, one of them ended up getting Corona, so they couldn't do the big stream that they would have done for the national championship for March Madness. And Dave was like, well, what do we do? We got to do a stream. And he was like, all right, I'm putting up Hank and Ria against Zah and Jetsky, who are two other people who work here. And he was like, winner gets 10K. And we flipped a coin. Yeah. They picked Gonzaga and we picked Baylor. And we didn't pick Baylor. We just ended up with

Baylor. Sure. They ended up winning. And I know nothing really about basketball or March Madness or anything. And thank you, Dave. From leaving college to being an intern now, just fucking flip of the coin in a game, making 10K on a Tuesday night. All right, personally, professionally, financially, all three freaking cylinders you guys are just crushing it. So knowing that you're crushing it, we got to wrap up with one trading secret. And it could be any one of those topics, a financial tip, professional tip, career navigation,

something that people just can't find in the textbooks or Google or see it online. Any one of you guys want to start? I can throw in like a relationship thing if you're dating something. somebody at work. This was something that I definitely struggled with in the beginning was I would text Hank all the time throughout the day and he was not feeling it at all. Like he's not a big textor and he was like, if you need to tell me something, walk over to me and tell me because I would end up causing like a lot of fights over text messages while we're

both in the office and he's like, we're both here. What's the issue here? Don't, I would say don't text a lot during the day. with your significant other during work hours. Don't text a lot during the day. Keep it after hours. That has helped me tremendously because now I'm not even on my phone texting a lot as much as I would be during the day

because he's like it's work hours. Let's talk about this later when we're at home. Yeah, and then you could also set like some of the biggest issues people have too as their professional life's now bleeding into their personal issues and being able to separate that can make like the night better, right? When you guys can relax and chill and have a couple drinks and not worry about the work. Absolutely. And getting into a bad mood while you're at work, then reflects on your work when, if you just let it die down or whatever it is that happening, you're talking about it later. It's always going to turn out better. That's a trading secret. I'm going to implement. Yeah, you got to get that going. I got to get on that shit. All right, Fran, I got to hear yours now. What is your trading secret as we wrap up this podcast?

Financially, I think it's starting to pay attention more to your everyday purchases. I think, you know, you go to lunch or you pick up food or you do And then you kind of just write it off as like, oh, well, I have to. I got to eat. But there's a lot of spots where I think you can be better with it. You know, you got the restaurant. Like I said, I don't cook. So, like, there's a restaurant I order delivery. It's three blocks away.

I can walk and go pick it up and save those dollars. And you don't think it means a lot. But down the line, it does mean a lot. You'll look at your bank account after a month and see hundreds of more dollars than you would have on other months. And then personally, I was going to say, I'm good with this sometimes bad with it other times normally bad, but I really try and tell us to myself, and it's something that I've, you know, picked up from my significant other. He's really good at it too. It's like at a certain

point at night, you got to turn your phone off. I think that like you're, that's one of the worst things. It's one of the worst things that that I do also. And that I think is what keeps me up too late a lot of nights is like 11 o'clock, 10 o'clock, whatever it is. Airplane mode, go to bed, put it down. Because there's just nobody needs you after 11 p.m. Like, there's, especially for me, like, it's shocking to me that I still can't, like, put my phone down sometimes at 11 o'clock. Like, it's 11 o'clock. Put it down.

Like, you don't need to be talking to anyone. And then you realize, like, you're scrolling Instagram and it's midnight, 1230. And it's so much easier when you shut it off to actually turn your mind off a little bit and go to bed. And that's for anybody, like people who are on their phone all the time. It helps so much when you actually do it. The weeks when I actually do it, I feel so much better. So I, that's my tip.

Those are two good trading secrets financially, professionally. The crazy thing is everyone tries to make finances complicated. And to your point, it's not. It's work on increasing the amount you earn. Work on decreasing the amount you spend. Take the difference and find a way to invest it and you'll end up wealthy. It's simple. The complicated thing is actually what you talked about, hanging up your phone and taking

it down. We had a sex therapist come on. Her whole PhD studies. Like, I mean, think about it. be a PhD. You got like years and like a book bigger than a Bible thinking about a thesis. And it's all about how like these are ruining relationships. And she talked a little bit about how the psychology is that as fuck as fucking weird as this is, the male or female, or regardless of the sex will of their partner get very jealous of the phone. Yeah. So like they'll actually get envious

to your phone and it'll totally impact your sexual relationship and your personal relationship. my phone out of my hand sometimes. And it's like, he's like, he like fake throws it across the room because he's like, you got to stop. He's like, those stoolies can DM me all day. Yeah, yeah. You got to put the phone away. Honestly, Hank does the same thing. And even though he works here, he is so good at putting his phone down. He's so good at it. And he's like, if I can do it, you can do it. I'm like, you're right. You're so right. It's amazing. Well, guys, thank you so much for being here today and telling us all about your journey, the way that you guys kind of broke the conventional process, took a huge risk, did it. And the gamble has paid so many

dividends in every aspect of your life. It's awesome. When people hear from you and they want more you, where can they find your personal Instagrams, both chicks in the office, anything and everything. Where is it all? Thank you so much for having us, by the way. This was, I love this type of podcast. Just really talk about stuff. We don't talk about this stuff. Yeah, it's fun for us. Yeah, this was really awesome. So thank you, first of all. And you can follow my personal. Instagram is at Maria Chiffo. That's C-I-U-F-F-O, hard to spell. And then Chicks in the Office is the Our Show Instagram handle. Chicks in the off on Twitter, because not enough characters to get the whole thing. And then Barstool Ria on Twitter. Yeah, I'm Barstle-Fran on

Twitter. And Instagram, I am at Francesca Mariano. Yes. That is a beautiful thing. Guys, well, thank you for being on here. Also, I just remembered this last minute. I owe you guys a chirp because you guys chirped me on your social media when I was dipping Nikki Bella at WrestleMania. And you guys said, leave it to the pros. I was like, oh, that's a dig, but I'll take it. I earned it. Honestly, we didn't write that. Hilarious. That's our producer. Noah runs the chicks in the office Twitter and he is ruthless. He really is ruthless. But he's ruthless to the people he knows he could take it. Exactly. And the people we can only joke. Exactly. You can only joke with the people who we know can take it and who we really care about. Because

there are ones where we're like, delete that. They're not. I respect that. I respect that. No, there's going to be like a case of wine at your front door in like three weeks. That means have my back moving forward. All right, guys, really appreciate your time. Always a pleasure to talk to you. And I'm looking forward to this upcoming season of The Bachelorette. Might have to come on your pod to cover an episode or two because it gets interesting. Hell, yeah. Of course. We're going to be inside scoop as to what's going on with Caitlin.

I know, definitely. Thanks, Jason. Thank you so much. All right, guys. Take care and all the best. Ding, ding, ding, we are ringing in the closing bell on the Chicks in the Office episode with David, where we break down and recap our guest. As you guys know, David is the voice of the viewer, the curious Canadian who will get my take on everything we just discussed. David, I know that you are a big barstool fan. You hear the name Dave Portnoy and you get fired up. And I know, whether you're going to admit it or not, I know you're watching chicks in the office every now and then. So you have to be pretty pumped up about this episode.

I'm a huge chicks in the office guy. I've been watching them since they came on the scene. And so I thought the interview was fantastic. I thought they were great, as always. But I wanted to kind of start my first question to you at the beginning when you mentioned their career path in the intro. And it seems crazy and unique to see what they did, like drop out of college. But I actually think it may be relatable to some of our listeners who may be at that point, too.

So what about their past, do you think it would be kind of takeaways for our listeners? Oh, my God. I think there are a ton of takeaways given. what they did at the age they did and how they did it, that I can learn from and hopefully everyone else can learn from. I think the big thing, which I talk about a lot, is breaking the blueprint. They did something unconventional that really society was probably telling them it didn't make sense to do. Now, as interesting, because you got both perspectives here. You got Rhea, whose parents were all on board, go get it, go after it. And she was at FIT, which is, as she alluded

to a very prestigious place to start from an education standpoint. But then you got Fran. And what's interesting about friend of her parents, huge Georgetown people, they both went there, they met there. There is a lot of pride in schools like that to make sure that from generation to generation, you're graduating from the same school. And I don't think she gave us probably a fair example of what the severity of that was like to actually not go to Georgetown. That had to be so challenging. And to see that they both did it and did it the way they did it, but also experienced different pressures in the decision they made was fascinating, but to see how it paid off was just absolutely inspiring. Now, I got some, I got some, you know, I'm a stat guy, did some

research here. You cool if I break into some stats on students and graduation rates. Numbers guy, of course. Do a recap without numbers. Yeah, I got to throw numbers out. And I want to know from your vantage point, which of these stats surprises you the most. It's that one, 41% of students graduate in four years. Only 41% graduate in four years. That's to say they might graduate five or six, but that's low. 30% drop out after the first year. 70% of Americans actually attend a four-year college and less than two-thirds of those 70% of Americans that attend a four-year college will actually graduate. What breaks? What's most surprising to you? I think the first one, I think going to school and graduating four years, only 41%. Like, since I say that because the

expectation that you would think would be like, oh, people who go to the undergrad, they graduated at a 90% graduate in four years. And I think, I just think that kind of pops out to me a little bit. Yeah. And again, for anyone that didn't graduate four years or knows someone that took a different route, again, you're not alone. Fifty nine percent of freaking humans that go to college aren't graduating in four years. And then I think one of my biggest takeaways from that whole thing. And David, I want to hear your take on it was when they said, I'm literally going to class every day, paying an organization to study this exact major so that if I do graduate with this title of major one day maybe I could be so lucky to land the job I'm being offered now. And it just hit me in

weird places when they're like, I'm done. I'm not going to go to school because I got that offer. Why we don't do more of that? I don't know, but I found it really interesting. I think like if you're in that position and you know that there's something else that you want to like study or get experience or like you have a passion towards, do it and do it for free. Do an internship for free. If you're in college, join a club or organization for free, learn about that because what's going to happen is you're going to meet people, which is going to help your networking, and that networking is going to meet you someone else, and that's going to meet you someone

else. And eventually, you're going to be in an internship doing something that you wanted to do that maybe you're studying to do it or you didn't study to do it. Now you're in the real world, and now you're actually doing that and you're getting fulfilled through your passion. So that's my biggest thing. And like Fran said that exactly like you said, like that's what she did. She made the realization that she's doing something for a career that she's going to school for.

I finish it. Exactly. Loved it. Good take. So something else that Ria said, and it kind of hit me hard, because I know it's something that I don't do as much as I should, but she said, when you say you're going to do something every day, make sure you do it every day. And that someone said it who's doing something successful. I want to know, is there something that you do every day, whether it be professionally or personally that you live by? You know, the first word that comes in mind when she says that is consistency. And consistency is one of the hardest things to do in any forum of our life. And when I look at my life, I think three things that weirdly enough I am consistent with. And I know you're going to chirp me on the first one. But the first one is almost

every day, whether it's my app or here comes the chirp, the print edition. I literally get the you're a newspaper guy. I take notes. I do the finger thing. I have a cup of coffee while I'm doing it. I'm literally a grandpa. You're so in the role of the newspaper guy. I'm going to throw some stats at you. How many percentage people still read the newspaper? I don't know, but I'm supporting the freaking paper. Sorry, I know that's not a Save the Trees thing, but I need it. How do you get it? It gets delivered every day.

Okay. Yeah, yeah. And then sometimes I will say, though, it's like 2021. How are you still screwing up paper deliveries? I still get screwed. I have to call service, and then they take care. How much you pay? It's 1999 a month, and I get print every day and the app.

They must. I got a good promotion. Carry on. Yeah, so jump on that. But so that's one thing I do. I read the Wall Street every day. Even if I'm hung over, I'm going to read it. Do I read it?

Start to finish? No, but I pick out what's interesting to me. The second thing I do, when the market's open, I always go to finbiz.com. Everyone could do that. F-I-N-V-Z.com. In my opinion, the best free resource out there to get information on companies and everything, A-to-Z. Then the last thing is I'm going to make a shameless plug here, but I do do it. Bring it on me.

FinTron is a stock trading app that I invested in. So I have an ownership in Finchron, F-I-N-T-R-O-N. You could go to my profile. There's a link there, and I will update my watch list on Finchron. So I'll have all of my stocks that I'm watching that I'm updating based on what I'm hearing, and I'll update that watch list to see when it makes sense to pull the plug. And also with Finchran, I will say, with that link, they're now given, it's free, and they're also given $20 for anyone that downloads.

So check that out. There you go. My biggest thing I try and do every day is like 100 push-ups, and I said that like two months ago and I still haven't done it. So I need to get it. So what is something though that you do do every day? Well, I reflect every day. I make sure like my wife voice chirps me because like I need to sit in silence. So I need to sit in silence like whether I'm just by myself like I'll be in the living room, no TV on. And I reflect on everything. I reflect on it changes every day. But I always put 20 to 30 minutes aside in silence like and just reflect on. Am I happy? Am I doing my best in my

job, you know, what, what things do I need to do for me personally? Just I'm a big reflect guy. So I think that's good though. Sit in those feelings, baby. That's probably why you're so connected to your feelings. Yeah. So, but enough about my feelings. Let's get some dollars and cents. Let's get some dollars and cents on this pod. So they brought up their contract negotiations. You're a big contract negotiation guy. So I'll have a couple questions hoping your answers can relate to our listeners who may be in the same situations. Number one and number two, why do you think it was so easy and so quick for them to negotiate their second contract after for only a year, and thoughts on them negotiating together?

It was so easy because Barstool had seen the historical performance of their podcast and saw the way it was trending, and they were making so much damn money off that podcast that they knew, if they didn't lock them in as soon as possible, they could have a huge risk because those two, in such a short period of time, create an incredible brand. That's why it was easy. Do I think that it makes sense for them negotiate together? A hundred percent. That is everything that I'm pretty much advocating is like go to your employee, see what they're making, talk about it, because the more information you have, the better you'll be able to negotiate against your boss, who probably doesn't want you to be paid as much because your payment is a reduction of his personal P&L for the company or business he's running, and as a result of that, he'll get less bonus or take home money. So you go fucking negotiate. I end there, but I will say I think it's really cool that they go in together. And I think that the fact that they love it, they're on board with it, and that they're overall engaged, not only in their show, not only in their

work, but everything Barstool is doing, like even when they called out, call or daddy, they're like, hey, if they do well, we do well, is what a CEO or a leader would dream of. What dream of? I found it pretty cool. And one thing I do love about Barstool as a company, and I've actually learned this in my personal life, is if you're going in and asking for a raise, it better be for work earned and not work expected, right? So always write things in your accomplishments down and don't go in a meeting or a negotiation

saying, hey, in this year, I'm going to do this. so pay me this amount. It's like, no, go do it, write it down. And then that's your value that you can use for negotiation. I think Barcelona kind of does that for their employees, which is kind of why negotiation might have been so easy. Yeah. And I think that brings up a quick point is like how I think they saw the historical performance of the show and then gave them and locked them up in a good deal right away. I think any human that goes to negotiate for themselves needs to do the same thing as that companies do at the biggest levels. How do you value a company, right? There's a lot of ways, but look at historical performance, then based on the information you have of historical performance,

project what the future will look like for your output and know your worth. I got two questions that are money-related questions. They never gave us dollars and cents of how much they made. So question one is, do you think that they can disclose how much they make, or do you think they actually have no idea because they didn't read through their contract clauses like every single person who sent a contract? And they're probably too scared to say because they don't know. And B, how much do you think that their contracts were?

I think, you know, if it wasn't for contracts, I would open up everything. But even in our last episode, David, I was shaking in my boots because I knew there were contracts I couldn't speak to. And I'm glad I didn't because I would have a freaking cease and desist at my door. Wouldn't be the first one. It wouldn't be the first one. But we're only four episodes in. But I think about that. And I just got rattled by the cease and desist. But they're the number 40. I looked at there's a podcast chart information out there. I think there are the number 44 podcast and pop culture. They've done tons of episodes, have tons of reviews. I'm assuming, and this is strictly my estimation based on numbers I see, which could be way off. But I'm, I'm thinking that at a minimum, they're earning, that podcast is grossing at least $2 million in ad sales. That's my personal guess, at least. They got a good merch. They got a good merch line, too. Friday Energy?

Friday, I didn't even know that. Is that what it is? Yeah, Friday Energy. It's a little bird lighting bolt. If you guys want to send me some merch, not up in due. There go. I think they get, I think in their performance, the merch sales counts. But I did talk to someone else at Barstool who has a show and we'll get him on this.

podcast for sure he implied that they don't receive any type of merch revenue but if I had to get let's take a stab at this what do you think they're all in package looks like you know the contract one they alluded to was like contract two doubled what do you think um so the only thing I'm going off of is they said their first contract when they set it to their parents they were like okay like that you can survive in New York City like that and you know I've been in near close to the city for five years so I think that range is if you're saying like that like 70 75. And then they got a double up from there, they said, in the second one. So I'm thinking 150. Okay. I think that's fair. I think my guess, I always hate throwing numbers out there when

I don't have enough information, but I'm putting it out there that we don't. It's just a guess. I'm going to guess that they make in the all in with their salary, performances and everything around the two to 300K mark. That's my guess. But then in addition to that, they got benefits 401K. And if, I mean, could you imagine? working for a company like Rio where on a random Tuesday night they did a flip of a coin and Dave Port and I gave a 10K.

My dream. Like, what? All right. So to go off your 200 and 300K mark, knowing what we know now from our Joy viral episode and your tell all episode, do you think that they're underpaid?

Oh, when you think about the support. The reason I say that is they said that they can't make money off their personal brands. They can't make money off their own merch. I'm just saying now that we know what we know about the influencer industry, you know, they are very open about saying, we like the fact that we don't have to do that. We like the security that we're a salary employee. We like the 401k, the Penn Stock option. But do you think that they're underpaid because they don't, they're not

able to explore more entrepreneur mindset? Here's my take. I think today they're making a pretty small percentage of what their overall value of the brand is. So in that fact, they're underpaid. I think if you look at the overall longevity that they will have with Barstool, the way that will grow, the way that their stock is valued because of when they came on the company and the relationship with the CEO and Dave, over the course of the career, if you look at like time value and money and future value over like 30 years, that package, I think is much greater than making sure today that they're compensated directly for everything they're doing. Because I think what they're earning is relates to their brand, it's probably low. But the overall stock value they have in Barstool is massive. I could see Fran being the CEO one day. Right. Whoa.

Hot take. Hot take. Hot take. I think, I think Fran could be the CEO. What I think is that I think they know themselves really well. And I think that they've found a good partner in like playing to their strengths. In their career and in their personal life, like you got into the weeds about like the relationship and how they handle those like in the office. Out of the office. I thought that was great.

But Ria did say that she feels guilty at times for the money that she makes, especially at her age compared to people who clearly are working in like the corporate grind, kind of just like you squirming around on your pod about feeling like guilty about talking about it. Does that give you justification for starting this podcast to try and open those conversations up a little bit? Yeah. I mean, exactly. I think everyone, it's interesting that she felt that same way. But those are the reasons that we have to talk about this stuff, right?

This is the stuff. And not only are we going to talk to people like chicks in the office who are crushing it, we're going to talk to your average person who's burying credit card debt, who's dealing with negotiations of a pre-nump. We're going to talk to people who are dealing with funeral expenses, right? So I want everyone to know that those things will be had. And we will answer your questions. That's another episode of working on.

Strict Q&A from you guys as the viewers. But this is the beauty of it, is that the people you look up to or people you might listen to on the microphone every day like chicks in the office that work at a company that you appreciate their media are saying these things. And so I think that's literally the premise of this podcast and what we're going to try every episode to really do. And kind of build off what she said, too, like I found it fascinating because I know I've talked to you about this a little bit before our viewers. Like, how deep do you dive into your comments, your DMs, your reviews? Like, what does that look like for you?

It's inevitable. You can't, it depends how you get into it. You can't escape it. I think it's the tough ones, the bad feedback hurt the most. I think you can't let it bring you too high. You can't let it bring you too low. But I want anybody to know that if they do put something in the reviews and they put their at Instagram,

I or someone on our team is going to do our best to get back to you. And we want to hear from you. Please, if you have questions, let us know. If you have constructive feedback, let us know. Give us five stars. Keep the feedback coming. As hopefully the voice of the viewer to kind of put them in my shoes, doing it for the first time, like reading reviews and comments off something

that I'm involved in, like online. It's terrifying. And I think I've had one bad reviewer is like, David does not fit. He's not, I was like like, like, sulking for like five minutes after. But then there's been so many positive ones and productive that we're taking questions of. And, oh, I can't. But feedback, it doesn't define you. Feedback is just a means of trying to make yourself better.

So the really good stuff that sounds stupid, ignore it. And the feedback are like, you suck, stupid. You want to give me constructive feedback? Some of which I got in our last episode, David, be more like, you want to have a podcast about your finance, I wanted you to be more open with your numbers. Good feedback. I'm going to take that to heart. I'm going to think about it. There's also reasons why I couldn't because of contracts, but I'm going to listen to that and that's going hopefully make me better. The reviews that we've gotten on the podcast on Apple has been so helpful

and the feedback's been so great and it definitely makes doing the work better. So keep those coming, keep subscribing, keep rating, keep reviewing. Beautiful. Well, David, this was another great episode with you. It is such a pleasure to have the chicks on the office on. I appreciate their transparency and honesty. And next week, we have an episode you guys can't afford to miss the skinny confidential, Lauren Bostic. Actually, what's so fascinating is her husband and started this network, dear media that I'm currently on. Yet she started her business as a blogger years ago. She was a bartender, became a blogger, and is now built a business empire. She provides tips that I still to this day, am implementing in my life. So get ready for another episode that you can't

afford to miss trading secrets next Monday. Thank you guys again for tuning into another episode. If you could, please subscribe, give us five stars, and tag your IG name in the comments as my team and I are reaching out to get feedback and connect with our listeners. Thank you so much again and get ready next week for an episode you can't afford to miss. Bringing that money, money, playing on me. Making that money and money, living that dream. Making that money, money, money, rain on me. Making that money, money, living that dream.