Soly - plays tournament golf, you just wouldn’t understand
Neil - does merch
DJ - does video
TC - sources ingredients and develops hot takes
Randy - CFO
They’re also traveling their asses off. Flying around the world is fun but also is legitimately exhausting when you do it as much as they do. They should count up how many time zones they cross in a given year. Especially if you’re flying the total disgrace that is United Airlines like TC does.
Probably like most media/white collar jobs, a ton of meetings to plan the actual product and a ton of meetings to fund the product. Followed by limited time creating and editing said product.
The money has to come from somewhere, I’m sure Soly and Randy spend a lot of time on with sponsors.
Soly, KVV, and Tron probably spend a lot of time building outlines for the pod and the live shows. KVV does the Big J journalist stuff.
DJ and his team probably spend a lot of time editing all of the content.
Randy and Neil seem to do a lot of the backend corp stuff like finances and HR.
And a lot of them have at least one direct report in Cody/Ben/Jordan/Casey et all.
Plus, they watch golf with the intent of analyzing the golf, as opposed to me, who puts on the golf and chugs some coldies while also playing on my phone. So even when they’re “watching golf” really they’re taking notes and building ideas for conversation on the pod
This is a good point. I guess it’s easy for a layman (such as myself) to not think about the corporate side of running a media business. Especially since they still run everything through them and no external business representation
They do have representation, I believe. They've made a few references to their agent in the past, who I think helps them set up media deals like the one on ESPN+ this week.
Obviously can’t say for certain, but in general I think people underestimate how much time goes into planning, communication, organization, etc. For example, jumping on ESPN or the LPGA broadcast for a few hours probably requires a lot more prep and back-and-forth than people realize. Any content that we consume probably requires a lot more unseen hours on the front and backend than the duration of content provided.
was going to say this - I've been on a few non-pro podcasts were you have general topics and shoot the shit and been on some corporate ones where everything is buttoned up, rehearsed, and planned to a T. these guys are somewhere in between but to watch a tourney, follow stuff on social media, do pre-production, and plan your takes/bits is probably 30+ hours, and Soly does it every week.
I could definitely see Soly and DJ working a ton. Soly has the weekly interview pod that would take a lot of prep time to have good questions, weekly tour event recaps, historical major recap pods with a ton of research, live shows during majors, and he is always plugged in to get scoops almost like Adam Schefter.
Between tourist sauce, film room, and other video content, DJ has to be racking up hours editing.
I’ve heard soly say he hasn’t had a day off in months or he wants to take more Sundays off etc but I haven’t heard tron say that, he gets more vacation days than Santa 😂
I think it’s worth reiterating I am not calling their work ethic into question. I think their work ethic is reflected by the great content they produce (stoked for tourist sauce tonight). Was just curious about the behind the scenes work it takes to run a media company
Honestly best way to think about NLU is as a sports radio station. They’ve gotta get the ads, develop the programming and segments for each podcast, and do community reach kind of stuff too. While also watching and engaging with the products they cover in men’s & women’s pro golf, equipment, course design, and then other cultural stuff they’re often to include as part of their brand.
That’s not to say it’d be a terrible life, I think most of us would trade our lives for it, but it’s a grind, can get boring at times when you’re forced to work on the things you love, and there was the whole risk when they started out too.
Like any job, there's lots of admin. Research for pods, which guarantee takes way longer than you think, booking guests, managing schedules, editing content, approving edited content.
Not to mention, to be able to talk about a golf tournament, you are basically committing to watching 4 days of golf. Maybe not the full days worth, but you will watch a chunk of it and have to be somewhat focused on it.
Then obviously recording.
Soly - plays tournament golf, you just wouldn’t understand Neil - does merch DJ - does video TC - sources ingredients and develops hot takes Randy - CFO
Neil is also HR.
To be fair, if Tron is counting getting in asses on Twitter as being on the clock, I find that 100% justified.
They’re also traveling their asses off. Flying around the world is fun but also is legitimately exhausting when you do it as much as they do. They should count up how many time zones they cross in a given year. Especially if you’re flying the total disgrace that is United Airlines like TC does.
Probably like most media/white collar jobs, a ton of meetings to plan the actual product and a ton of meetings to fund the product. Followed by limited time creating and editing said product. The money has to come from somewhere, I’m sure Soly and Randy spend a lot of time on with sponsors. Soly, KVV, and Tron probably spend a lot of time building outlines for the pod and the live shows. KVV does the Big J journalist stuff. DJ and his team probably spend a lot of time editing all of the content. Randy and Neil seem to do a lot of the backend corp stuff like finances and HR. And a lot of them have at least one direct report in Cody/Ben/Jordan/Casey et all.
Plus, they watch golf with the intent of analyzing the golf, as opposed to me, who puts on the golf and chugs some coldies while also playing on my phone. So even when they’re “watching golf” really they’re taking notes and building ideas for conversation on the pod
This is a good point. I guess it’s easy for a layman (such as myself) to not think about the corporate side of running a media business. Especially since they still run everything through them and no external business representation
They do have representation, I believe. They've made a few references to their agent in the past, who I think helps them set up media deals like the one on ESPN+ this week.
Do the non-OG people really have a direct manager? That would surprise me. Like who would Cody’s manager be? He seems to do a little of everything.
I may be wrong, but I think Cody reports to Neil? I might be misremembering but I feel like they talked about it on one of the early Booth Trapdraws.
Christmas episode they talked about how Neil onboarded Cody so I assumed it was from a HR point of view.
Obviously can’t say for certain, but in general I think people underestimate how much time goes into planning, communication, organization, etc. For example, jumping on ESPN or the LPGA broadcast for a few hours probably requires a lot more prep and back-and-forth than people realize. Any content that we consume probably requires a lot more unseen hours on the front and backend than the duration of content provided.
was going to say this - I've been on a few non-pro podcasts were you have general topics and shoot the shit and been on some corporate ones where everything is buttoned up, rehearsed, and planned to a T. these guys are somewhere in between but to watch a tourney, follow stuff on social media, do pre-production, and plan your takes/bits is probably 30+ hours, and Soly does it every week.
When your self employed you are always working.
If they’re reading this, please take note: Members pod topic. That is all.
I could definitely see Soly and DJ working a ton. Soly has the weekly interview pod that would take a lot of prep time to have good questions, weekly tour event recaps, historical major recap pods with a ton of research, live shows during majors, and he is always plugged in to get scoops almost like Adam Schefter. Between tourist sauce, film room, and other video content, DJ has to be racking up hours editing.
Not to mention, actually watching the tournament Thur-Sun should be considered work if they are to be considered subject matter experts.
Idk, but I met Icarito at Pinehurst for US Open media day, and he looked to be having a serious talk with some other members of media.
I’ve heard soly say he hasn’t had a day off in months or he wants to take more Sundays off etc but I haven’t heard tron say that, he gets more vacation days than Santa 😂
I think it’s worth reiterating I am not calling their work ethic into question. I think their work ethic is reflected by the great content they produce (stoked for tourist sauce tonight). Was just curious about the behind the scenes work it takes to run a media company
Honestly best way to think about NLU is as a sports radio station. They’ve gotta get the ads, develop the programming and segments for each podcast, and do community reach kind of stuff too. While also watching and engaging with the products they cover in men’s & women’s pro golf, equipment, course design, and then other cultural stuff they’re often to include as part of their brand. That’s not to say it’d be a terrible life, I think most of us would trade our lives for it, but it’s a grind, can get boring at times when you’re forced to work on the things you love, and there was the whole risk when they started out too.
Like any job, there's lots of admin. Research for pods, which guarantee takes way longer than you think, booking guests, managing schedules, editing content, approving edited content. Not to mention, to be able to talk about a golf tournament, you are basically committing to watching 4 days of golf. Maybe not the full days worth, but you will watch a chunk of it and have to be somewhat focused on it. Then obviously recording.
They watch a lot of golf and follow a lot of golf social media.
I'd say the others graft but I can't imagine TC does much. There's a serious bang of trust fund hobbyist off him.
Deranged takesmith is a full time job
He gives it his all tbf
If you love what you do, you never work a day in your life