For roughly 20 straight weekends last fall, Travis made the cross-country trip from Nashville, Tennessee to the FOX Sports 1 studios in Los Angeles.
Even as FSI’s newest college football analyst for the network’s Saturday pre-game show, he still managed his widely regarded blog, Outkick The Coverage, and also performed radio for 15 hours a week on Nashville’s 104.5 The Zone. On Saturday’s, he jumped over to NBC Sports for his weekend three-hour radio spot as well.
And yet, the erratic schedule — which he still maintains — is in part what drives the 35-year-old Nashville native. It’s a 180-degree change of pace from his former days as a litigator during the mid-2000s.
“It’s pretty wild sometimes,” said Travis, who had just returned from a week-long stay out in Los Angeles. “…It’s why sometimes I almost flip out when the Wi-Fi isn’t working well on my Southwest flights. I feel like I have to be able to use those four hours that I spend in the air to work. I’m kind of always on the go, but there are a lot of people that do that. It’s like anything else — it’s a balancing act.”
In 2006, Travis finally gave up his legal practice and turned his full attention to writing, earning just $100 for three articles a week on CBS Sports. In the same year, he traveled to all 12 SEC stadiums on his “Dixieland Delight” tour, with the end result being a comprehensive book from the fan’s perspective. He’s since become a one-man sports media personality following the launch ofOutkick The Coverage in 2011. Some may even call him his own “brand,” if you will.
While sitting in a Birmingham hotel room, Travis channeled his inner Jerry Maguire and drafted a mission statement for Outkick, the foundation for his continued success.
“I’ve always been fearless,” he said to his readers. “That’s why I can promise you this, at (Outkick) we will be smarter, faster and more entertaining than any of the major sports sites on the Internet. We’ll also be 10 billion % funnier. And we’re going to break news, lots of news.…But most importantly, we’re going to have fun.”
Through a combination of pop culture pieces, Johnny Manziel briefings, breaking news regarding SEC conference expansion, and the weekly mailbag distraction, Travis has turned Outkick, and in turn himself, into a multi-million dollar business that not only offers gear for its supporters but also continuing education (CLE) online sports credit for lawyers. The site garners upwards of two million unique readers a month as the ‘Official College Football Blog’ of FOX Sports. Needless to say, through the SEC corridor and even more so now after three years running, Outkick is one of the most visited college football sites on the web.
With writing, radio and now, television, Travis’ plate is pretty full. He credits his wife, Lara, for not only her career support, but arguably more importantly, for raising two sons while he’s on the road.
“I have an incredible wife,” Travis said. “She does what I could never do and handle a six-year-old and a three-year-old boy all day in addition to being pregnant. …That’s a tougher job than anything I do.”
While Travis admitted that he is “probably doing too much” in the sports media industry, he said he’d “rather be doing too much than not enough.”
“I’d just hate to have to choose to give up writing, radio or television,” he added. “They’re all different challenges, and I enjoy them all for different reasons. The only way to not work as much would be to give one of them up, and I’m not willing to do that.”
They’re three separate entities, but as Travis said, they all “feed off each other,” which makes his life easier when he transitions from one to the other throughout his workweek. With the assistance of Twitter and the 24-7 online news cycle, there is probably rarely a time when Travis doesn’t have a finger on the pulse of the happenings within the sports world.
“While I’m writing, I’m paying attention to all of the news of the day, which keeps me plugged in for radio,” he explained. “I can try out arguments or opinions on radio and see what kind of response I get, so that maybe I can turn a few things into articles. And then on television, it’s all about synthesizing that information.”
For the rest of this article check out Forbes where it was originally published
Jason Barrett is the President and Founder of Barrett Media since the company was created in September 2015. Prior to its arrival, JB served as a sports radio programmer, launching brands such as 95.7 The Game in San Francisco, and 101 ESPN in St. Louis. He also spent time programming SportsTalk 950 in Philadelphia, 590 The Fan KFNS in St. Louis, and ESPN 1340/1390 in Poughkeepsie, NY. Jason also worked on-air and behind the scenes in local radio at 101.5 WPDH, WTBQ 1110AM, and WPYX 106.5. He also spent two years on the national stage, producing radio shows for ESPN Radio in Bristol, CT. Among them included the Dan Patrick Show, and GameNight.
You can find JB on Twitter @SportsRadioPD. He’s also reachable by email at Jason@BarrettMedia.com.
