Dan Le Batard is a unique figure in American sports media. He made his name as a columnist at The Miami Herald, rapidly becoming one of the most interesting voices in the industry. He transitioned to radio, first locally in Miami and then for a number of years at ESPN. While at ESPN, he developed a television show called Highly Questionable that featured a rotating panel of guest co-hosts, as well as Le Batard’s own father, Gonzalo. Now, LeBatard has gone out on his own with former ESPN President John Skipper, founding Meadowlark Media, which has attracted some of sports’ most interesting and thoughtful voices, and creates content across a number of formats.
Le Batard has long been an iconoclastic voice in an industry that tends to suffer from self-importance. The business of sports is unquestionably serious. But sports themselves are games, and meant to be fun. And those of us that are sports fans invest so much of our own satisfaction and even identities in outcomes of those games that it’s easy to lose track of the fun part. Le Batard has carved out a place for himself and his team as one of the few voices willing to poke fun at the edifice, and lean into the silly and the ridiculous amidst the sublime.
The team also leans into vulnerability in ways that are unusual in sports media. Le Batard himself has spoken about deeply personal issues related to his mental health, and provided a venue for athletes and other personalities to do the same. He’s been a vocal critic of professional sports’ long-time hostility towards LGBTQ+ athletes, and promoted talented personalities like Bomani Jones, Pablo Torre, Mina Kimes, Adnan Virk, Amin Elhassan, Renee Montgomery, and Jessica Smetana who don’t look or sound like the stereotypical talking heads on legacy sports broadcasts.
Since 2019, Le Batard and his staff has produced a podcast called South Beach Sessions. It’s a one-on-one interview show that takes advantage of Le Batard’s considerable gifts as an interviewer. As Meadowlark Media has grown, the producers of South Beach Sessions have encouraged Le Batard to lean into topics that make him uncomfortable. In particular, they’ve pushed him to wrestle with his own emotions and motivations. That led to a remarkable interview last week with Greg Cote, one of Le Batard’s earliest professional friends and mentors, and a frequent contributor to Le Batard’s radio show and podcast.
I encourage you to listen to the entire show (available via the linked image below) because it’s fascinating and moving, but I’m writing this post today because of what Le Batard says about leadership and running a business. Meadowlark Media is his first venture as a corporate executive, and while he has very experienced and successful businesspeople helping run the business, he acknowledges the heaviness of being the head that wears the crown. At the same time, he’s adamant that he needs to bear certain responsibilities that he might otherwise delegate, saying that “on the other side of pain is growth”.
There’s a moment at the 46:20 mark (near the end of the interview) where Cote asks Le Batard how he wants to me remembered. “The short answer is: he cared,” says Le Batard. “The longer answer is “He cared what he built”.
I have long wanted to be known as someone who cared. About people. About growth. About results and making an impact to customers and my community. I’ve been thinking about Le Batard’s framing of caring for what he builds since I heard this interview. It takes caring from something that’s personal and even passive to something that demands action and thoughtful, purposeful commitment. And I’ll take that notion with me as I take on my next professional challenge.
Didn’t expect to get a business lesson from Dan Le Batard this month, but I suppose we can find inspiration in lots of places. And now if you’ll excuse me, the Red Sox are about to play the Angels, and I don’t need an excuse to watch baseball at 11:00 in the morning.
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12 comments:
Listened to the Dan/Cote podcast last week and the week previous the Domonique Foxworth interview. Dan is good people that attracts good people. Go figure. I wonder if his running that ship is sustainable for the long term. Will define that as 3 years or more. He does not strike me as the type to hire a trusted right-hand person that he'd be comfortable with running his business, and I think that will get him in the end. This guy's hunch.
john skipper is a serious dude, and he's the ceo. i think having him there will be a big benefit to le batard.
True that. I view Dan as the Pres & COO and I may be way off there. If I'm not way off, my money is on him relinquishing that role voluntarily or otherwise. He's the top billing - he can't do both forever. It'll kill him. He's too nice, cares too much. He's internalizing something miniscule as I write this. I'm not judging either.
I would not have thought that Father John Misty would be touring in two full size busses, but apparently I thought wrong.
You seeing FJM, Rootsy? I’m seeing him here soon.
I listened to both episodes and agree with Rob. Made me laugh, made me cry, made me think. And if I was a different point in my life, I'd tap into my network and make a pitch to be COO at Meadowlark Media.
I did not go to the show last night. I'll probably check out his stuff now that it's too late to go to the concert.
I'm interested to see how LeBatard and crew evolve. They seem to know what their lane is. How that jives with the imperative for corporate growth remains to be seen.
anyone wanna go to grand rapids in september to see isbell supported by amanda shires, shemekia copeland and dessa?
playoff kawhi is a motherfucker.
10pm playoff games are a motherfucker, too. Also, Fox got off cheap.
just a cost of doing business for fox. no lasting impact, and the bullshit will proceed uninhibited. cheap, indeed.
if you're wrexham-curious, the red dragons can clinch promotion into league two with a win in either of their final two matches or a notts county loss in either of theirs. the wrexham women were promoted into the welsh first division last week. not too shabby.
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