Today’s edition of Social Studies features a mainstay of the Dan Le Batard universe, JuJu Gotti. While JuJu’s responsibilities at Meadowlark Media have evolved – hosting Wake and Take, Sunday Night Live and launching branded merchandise – his bread and butter remains on the social media side. JuJu is charged with Tweeting from the main Le Batard Show which includes pulling clips from the show and handling the fan-favorite Twitter polls.
When he started with the show in 2020 JuJu was a one-man department on social. He also isn’t based in South Florida like much of the Le Batard crew. Couple that with the non-stop nature of social media and JuJu found himself under a lot of pressure early on. And that’s where the heart of our conversation pivoted to. How he learned to lean on other people on the social team, how his camaraderie with talent blossomed and the responsibility he feels to portray the Meadowlark talent – people he now considers close friends – in the best possible light on social.
Enjoy this conversation with JuJu Gotti of Meadowlark Media. Be advised this conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity. For the full interview visit the Barrett Sports Media YouTube page.
Alex Reynolds: “Put it on the poll Juju @LebatardShow” is something that is said about 20 times an episode. Put me in that place when Dan is saying that on the show, what you’re doing and why polls are so important for the show.
JuJu Gotti: Yeah, I’m usually pooping myself because it always jars me at attention. Because it’s while he’s doing the show. I’m trying to get clips from a certain part of the show. So I have one headphone on this, another headphone on this. So that always snaps me out of what I’m doing.
When I was a listener of the show, and not working with these people, the polls would kind of be like a mystery. What could that possibly be about? Why would that question ever be asked today?
But now I understand it is important because those polls have so much engagement, like thousands and thousands of people vote on simple things.
AR: Take me through an average day in your world.
JG: I wake up around 6:45 or so and put a little mental oil on myself. When I say mental oil I mean I do my meditation, do the things that remind me to be present. Then around 8:00 we have our production meeting with the show where all the ideas are bouncing. Mike gives us the rundown and we pitch our ideas to Mike. We go live at 9:00. We go live and I start listening for clips and posts. Around 10 in the morning we get our first break and we’re cutting more clips. It’s just a clip-a-thon pretty much and you just have fun. You see Dan in a ridiculous outfit and laugh at him, you make fun of him. You see somebody in wack shoes we talk about them and then you keep cutting clips.
AR: For you, what is a good clip for social?
JG: Anything that catches my eye and doesn’t put someone in an embarrassing situation. Bomani Jones gave me a great phone call one time during this job and reminded me of certain ways to post certain things. Because certain aggregators out there, they’ll clip you out. And so [you post] stuff that’s this whole piece of the pie. A whole piece.
It’s basically my honor to get this message out. When Dan says something, I’m like, people gotta hear that. You gotta hear the way he put it. And so it means a lot to me to make sure it is up to par.
AR: How do you know what’s going to be the right clip to put the talent in the perfect position?
JG: It’s getting to know them for real. That’s basically the key. I think that’s the key to make the whole world around, communication. It’s one thing to say, ‘Okay, this is what I think about this person and this is what I assume they would like.’ It’s another thing to invite them over for dinner. It’s another thing to invite them out to a movie or the bar. Hang out with your brothers and sisters. Me and Jessica (Smetana) hang out, Lucy (Rhoden), the production, the camera crew, we all hang out as friends. You feel me. And so whenever it comes to the work side, I kind of know what they like, because that’s my friend. Like you understand and you take care of your people. It’ll hurt me if I put something out that they didn’t want. So I take it into context. Just being a brother.
AR: Tell me a little bit about strategy. Like what are the different strategies you have for different platforms?
JG: That’s one thing I’m getting schooled on right now because at first I was just a guy who’s you know, posting things that I think would be cool. But now we’ve got people in place like Kirsten and Thomas. Thomas is a YouTube specialist – algorithm wise, keyword wise. Kirsten, she’s an algorithm expert on Twitter, Instagram, what time of day to post, what times of day when you’re not getting traffic. So I’m soaking up information from like I said, hanging out with these people. So I’m getting the game from them and learning as I go.
Another important part of it is I’m not ashamed to let somebody know that I don’t know what I’m doing. Or I don’t know what this is. And I found that I’ve learned more in those moments of humility than I’ve learned trying to do it myself or handle it on my own. I love the community aspect of this job.
AR: How much would you say of the content that you’re doing, and also what you’re putting out on social media, is trying stuff and being experimental?
JG: I would say when it comes to Dan and his costumes, and ping pong, everything is a trial for the most part because they’re so different. These are not 20 year old men that even know the trend. First, I gotta introduce the TikTok to them. And so getting the buy-in is always hilarious. I get so much joy in seeing Dan and Stugotz try some young person stuff.
AR: How important is it for you, personally, to have a team that you can lean on for new and emerging platforms?
JG: It’s important because from 2020 to 2023, it was only me. And Ryan Cortes as well, salute to Ryan Cortes. Whenever he could find time to help me out, he helped me out, taking clips from different shows as well. That whole time I was so petrified that I was gonna make a mistake. Because we got Jemele Hill, we got Dan Le Batard we got Bomani, we got intelligent people. And me putting their words online, I felt the pressure from 2020 to when the first formal help came in, because I’m just that kind of person. So if I make a mistake, if I make a typo, if Clay Travis aggregates this I’m like ‘oh my god.’
It’s been very important for me to feel like if I do make a mistake it’s not the end of the world. During the first three years, I couldn’t handle it because I was acting like I could. They didn’t know I was juggling all these plates. But now that I got help, it’s way more fun to do. And way more, I’d say therapeutic just for me as a man to just be able to lean on a brother or sister for help. Because I’m used to doing everything alone. And I don’t think that that’s healthy in the long run.
AR: To wrap up anything else you want to say, any bold takes about the social media space or anything like that?
JG: Man, I think that we need to show more love man. If we can band together and just no matter what, no matter what your allegiance is, if your show is left, right, if your show is Democrat or Republican, we can do a better job of showing each other love online. We don’t got to stoop to all the negativity that the world is used to. It’s up to us to be the change we want to see.
I feel like as social media people, people be listening when we tweet and stuff, so if we can make it more about peace and love. And if we do have an opinion, let’s make sure that thing is still wrapped in respect. You know what I mean? So let’s progress the game social media people, let’s progress the game with love.
Alex Reynolds serves as Barrett Media’s Digital Director. In this role, he oversees all social media scheduling and content creation, monitoring of the brands analytics, and contributes to the brand’s newsletters, conferences, and websites. Originally from Rockville, Maryland, Alex is a passionate lacrosse fan, and graduate of Elon University. He can be found on Twitter @Reynolds14_.
