Everyone is trying to cancel @joerogan
Hot take: it won't work.
Here's why:
With a podcast that boasts 200 million+ downloads per month, a health and fitness brand, stand-up comedy, and a commentary job with the UFC...
Rogan's brand is unstoppable
But it's a great case study of the leverage and power you can build without the support of legacy media.
1/ The crown jewel of Rogan's brand is his podcast the Joe Rogan Experience (launched in 2009)
> Signed a deal worth $100M with Spotify in 2020
> 200M+ Downloads per month
> Estimated $30M annual revenue (with sponsorships. More on that later)
The most impressive thing?
His entire brand (and his various businesses) are all built around him and his natural personality.
To understand how he's done this we need to go back to the beginning.
2/ Joe Rogan's story began in 1988 after friends goaded him to get on stage at a local comedy club.
Rogan liked it and decided to go all in with stand-up comedy performing in bars, clubs, bachelor parties etc.
To pay his bills, he delivered newspapers, taught martial arts and was a driver to a private investigator.
He moved to LA 1994 to make it in entertainment.
His first big break came in 1995 when he landed a role in a sitcom called NewsRadio.
Then from 2001 to 2006 he hosted Fear Factor, a reality show where contestants were challenged to take on scary tasks like eat maggots.
While this was happening, Rogan was still doing stand up
and building a name for himself in the entertainment world.
3/In 2007 Rogan appeared as a guest on Tom Green's web streaming show.
It was here where Rogan saw the power of independent media and building and monetizing your own audience without corporate backing and MSM.
Little did he know that in ten years he would be the biggest voice in podcasting (the word didn't exist in 2007).
4/While he was juggling stand-up comedy and his TV career, he was also big into MMA.
After watching Royce Gracie win UFC 2 Rogan fell in love with BJJ.
He started training and now holds a black belt.
His love for MMA and UFC led him to Dana White who offered him a gig as a commentator in 2002 but according to Joe "I just wanted to drink and watch fights".
White persisted with his offers and eventually got Joe to sign on.
Rogan is now the color commentator of the UFC where he makes a reported $50,000 per PPV which amounts to around $550,000 per year.
Not bad for someone who started going to the UFC because he just wanted to drink and watch the fights.
Now he sits ringside and gets paid for it.
5/ Rogan's best move happened on December 24th 2009 when he and comedian Brian Redban recorded episode one of the now epic Joe Rogan Experience.
It's just the two of them smoking weed and shooting the sh!t.
But here's the big lesson for anyone looking to build an audience:
Leverage what you have.
Since Rogan didn't have the influence he has now, his early guests were limited to his friends in the comedy and MMA worlds.
As the podcast grew, so did the variety of his guests which include:
> Former cops
> Scientists
> UFO experts
> Writers
and so on.
As far as his strategy on finding guests? He doesn't have any.
He's got a wide range of interests and will interview any guest as long as he's curious about the topic they're an expert in.
And that's why legacy media hates him.
Unlike mainstream interviews, Rogan's podcasts don't have a fixed agenda.
He gives his guests a chance to talk at length which allows listeners to hear and catch all the little nuances you couldn't otherwise pick up in a traditional media format such as a TV interview.
E.g: His most popular episode with @elonmusk clocks in at 2 hours 47 minutes but still garnered over 50 million views on YouTube.
Rogan's strength according to a reporter "he has the patience and the generosity to let his interviews be an experience rather than an inquisition.”
6/ If getting paid to make people laugh, watch MMA and hang out with the world's most interesting people wasn't enough...
He found another way to make money from his personal interests by co-founding a health and fitness brand called Onnit with @AubreyMarcus
The brand began with the nootropic Alpha Brain but has since expanded to a full line of products including:
> Fitness apparel
> Fitness equipment
> Physical and mental supplements
> Training courses
Onnit makes an estimated $41M per year and was bought by Unilever in 2021.
7) In addition to his investment in Onnit, Rogan's podcast makes a ton of money through sponsorships deals with several brands like:
> Athletic Greens
> Butcher Box
> Primal Kitchen
> Omaha Steaks
> Zoom
> and many others
8/ I forgot to mention while all this is happening and his popularity and podcast is growing exponentially....
So is his comedy career.
He's got two specials on Netflix and continues to travel the country selling out live shows.
What we're seeing is a David vs Goliath battle between legacy media and independent media.
With the leverage Rogan has, I think he wins this fight by way of KO.
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