Josh Faize

I like to write words from time to time.

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

Top rep energy: instinct, unreasonable focus, impatience with process. Manager energy: teaching, patience, systems. These are opposite skill stacks. Almost nobody is elite at both — and pretending otherwise costs you your best rep.

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

Rogers hit its cap on phone customers. Only way to grow: buy something scarce that customers already love. Enter the Leafs. The Leafs aren't content — they're the reason 3 million people don't cancel their phone bill.

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

Wimbledon fired the line judges. Kept the strawberries, the whites, and the royal box. That's the whole automation playbook: mechanics → machines. Theater → protected. Most companies can't tell which is which. That's the consulting fee.

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@Boomskie Not far!

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@MonteroOnBoxing Thank you! I agree !

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

Good things in life take time

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@DaleJ_1031 Very true indeed

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

ESPN just fired a guy who gave them 33 years. they're about to pay another guy $60M a year for a show they don't even own.

both moves are the same move.

everyone's calling this cost-cutting. it's not. the payroll isn't shrinking — it's moving. and where it's moving tells you everything about what happened to sports media.

Karl Ravech was an employee. SportsCenter's whole model was that the brand made the person — anchors were interchangeable parts in a machine ESPN owned. ESPN paid salaries and kept all the upside, because being on ESPN was the only way to get famous.

@PatMcAfee is not an employee. look at the actual contract: it's a licensing agreement. he owns the show. he pays his own staff. ESPN doesn't employ its biggest star — it rents him, the same way it rents the NFL.

that's the whole story. ESPN spent 40 years as a star-maker. now it's a star-renter.

and renting is forced, not chosen. the star-making machine ran on two things:

1. scarce distribution. ESPN owned the only beach. want to be famous in sports? you needed their airtime.

2. talent couldn't measure its own drawing power. THAT's where the margin lived. you paid a guy $400K who was worth $4M and nobody could prove otherwise.

social media killed both on the same day. now every personality sees their own numbers in real time and can monetize them directly. every homegrown star either reprices to market or walks — @BillSimmons left and built a company that sold for $200M. Le Batard built his own. Stephen A repriced to $20M.

growing a star at ESPN today is just running R&D for the talent's future company.

so ESPN keeps the only rational portfolio left: rights it doesn't own (paying the NFL with 10% of itself), personalities it doesn't own (McAfee), and cuts everything in between.

the layoffs aren't a strategy change. they're the accounting finally catching up to one.

https://t.co/dJ4fROAiYv

[Front Office Sports @FOS]

Karl Ravech is expected to be laid off by ESPN after more than 30 years at the network, sources told FOS.

Ravech joined ESPN in 1993 and was a longtime host of SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight, plus the network's lead caller for Sunday Night Baseball.

https://t.co/qvbJ9SqFFB

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@dontskipabeat40 @MarkMaddenX Agree! Thank you!

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

World cup final: 66 million viewers.

Spanish broadcast alone: 23.9 million.

Knicks' first title in 53 years, the biggest NBA game since Jordan: 24.5M.

English broadcast alone: 42.5 million.

the most-watched world series game (GM 7, 2025) in 8 years: 26.9M.

Meanwhile, home run derby dropped 7% the same week. best hitters on earth.

People show up when something is on the line, and the competition is elite.

The idea that we're not a "soccer country" is simply misguided. We're not an MLS country...yet.

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@jtep24 thank you!

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

The fastest way to ruin your best salesperson is to make them a manager. You lose your #1 producer AND you get a bad manager. Two problems, one promotion.

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@TheBenPeck true, but I guess it depends on your definition of "star", too

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@mbatiato22 Yes!

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@GoodeReport Indeed

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@BestBallSaul Thank you!

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

@GospelOfGrace_1 Thank you!

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

A phone company just paid $3 billion to finish buying every sports team in Toronto. This isn't a sports story. It's churn insurance.

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

full story: https://t.co/CQCKA9xpqn h/t @FOS

[Josh Faize @Josh_faize]

Every business runs on two categories: mechanics and theater. Mechanics = CRM entry, quote math, follow-up timing. Theater = discovery calls, dinners, "I'll personally handle this." Automate mechanics yesterday. Automate theater and you've deleted the product.