Outkick Sports Media Advice

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One of the most common things I get asked is for career advice. Outkick readers or viewers want to talk or meet or get coffee or grab a beer and discuss how I got to where I am and what advice I can give them. While I appreciate the inquiries, there is no magic bullet or spectacular career advice that I can give to guarantee that you'll be successful. What's more, I work so much now I don't even have time to spend with my wife and kids, much less go meet with strangers and talk about careers. When you wake up at four in the morning, host a daily three hour national radio show Monday-Friday, run a website, and host a daily Periscope and Facebook show, all while having three kids eight and under and a wife, every single day feels like a sprint. 

But I still want to try and help out everyone who is seeking advice. 

So here's my distilled wisdom in a single sentence of how to guarantee you'll be successful no matter what career you pursue. 

The simple truth is this -- you have to find something you like and then you have to work your ass off.

That's the most succinct way I can summarize how to be successful. There are no shortcuts, there are no brilliant nuggets that I could share that will put you ahead of others. You just have to find something you like and then work your ass off. If you do that, you'll create opportunities for yourself. And then you have to not be a pussy #dbap, and not be afraid to take risks when those opportunities present themselves.  

Having said that, there are a lot of questions about how a 25 year old lawyer in the Virgin Islands can go from not knowing a single sports person in the industry in 2004 to being a sports media multi-millionaire by 2016. What was my career path and what lessons, if any, have I learned along the way?

Yesterday, at Outkick the CLE -- thanks for those of you who came in person, lawyers get a free hour of CLE credit on sports topics for signing up here -- I gave a talk about my career path and the lessons I'd learned along the way.

I think it's pretty instructive -- it's already the most viewed Periscope Outkick the Show we've done -- so I'm posting the Facebook video here. If you'd rather watch it on Periscope I'm going to leave the video pinned to the top of my Twitter page and you can see that here. 

 

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Clay Travis is the founder of the fastest growing national multimedia platform, OutKick, that produces and distributes engaging content across sports and pop culture to millions of fans across the country. OutKick was created by Travis in 2011 and sold to the Fox Corporation in 2021. One of the most electrifying and outspoken personalities in the industry, Travis hosts OutKick The Show where he provides his unfiltered opinion on the most compelling headlines throughout sports, culture, and politics. He also makes regular appearances on FOX News Media as a contributor providing analysis on a variety of subjects ranging from sports news to the cultural landscape. Throughout the college football season, Travis is on Big Noon Kickoff for Fox Sports breaking down the game and the latest storylines. Additionally, Travis serves as a co-host of The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show, a three-hour conservative radio talk program syndicated across Premiere Networks radio stations nationwide. Previously, he launched OutKick The Coverage on Fox Sports Radio that included interviews and listener interactions and was on Fox Sports Bet for four years. Additionally, Travis started an iHeartRadio Original Podcast called Wins & Losses that featured in-depth conversations with the biggest names in sports. Travis is a graduate of George Washington University as well as Vanderbilt Law School. Based in Nashville, he is the author of Dixieland Delight, On Rocky Top, and Republicans Buy Sneakers Too.