When Mean Girls left Barstool Sports last fall, some speculated that their dispute with founder Dave Portnoy had reached a breaking point.
That wasn’t the case for Alex Bennett and Jordyn Woodruff, hosts of the “Mean Girls” podcast. The podcast offers candid and humorous perspectives, primarily from women, on topics such as sex, friendship, mental health, and navigating urban life as an outsider. audience.
The “Mean Girl” podcast earned a spot as a Top 8 brand on Barstool Sports and became a cash cow for media companies through its social media-heavy business model.
Their monetized social media clips (usually 60-second snippets about everything from sex and relationships to dinosaurs) go viral. double Podcast download.
So why did Bennett and Woodruff leave in September 2023?
divorced twice
Bennett and Woodruff had been planning a divorce for some time — and Bennett sold his wedding ring to fund his media company. just media housein the fall of 2023.
“Really, it was all about risk,” Bennett told the Post. “At the same time I was going through a divorce, so my financial situation was very tough, I didn’t have anything and I didn’t have any funds yet.
“We had to sell our wedding rings. It was just a cry-out-loud moment for me. But at the same time, we weren’t a startup in a sense, we didn’t have a product, so this… That was the moment I knew it was going to work.”
Bennett was married to Graham Bennett, the son of Oklahoma City Thunder owner Clay Bennett, for four years before divorcing.
During a November 2023 episode of Mean Girls, Bennett said Graham “left five months ago” and started divorce proceedings.
Ms Bennett explained that she and her ex-boyfriend are on good terms and he supports her in her big business ventures.
“I told him [I sold the ring] It was a very amicable divorce. Everything was always like, “I don’t mind having a ring”…and he loved me so much. It seemed like a really emotional thing,” Bennett said.
“I never told him to be nice. It just came out in writing one day. In fact, we don’t talk that often anymore.
“But what I do know is that when I was selling it, I felt such peace. He wanted me to do something with it… If I had sold it and gone and bought a wallet, I wouldn’t have been able to sleep at night. But I just know he was proud to sell it and start a company. . and [Jordyn and I] We are both forever grateful for that. ”
Bennett and Woodruff said they used most of the money to pay vendors, producers, cameramen and others who helped make their vision a reality.
Bennett has since been working with Harrison Fagman, founder and CEO of The Naked Market, a food and beverage brand products company, whom she calls “Mr.・I call him “Fagman.” President,” she posted on her social media account.
Influencer and Hagman was “founded by one of his investors,” said Bennett, who has 462,000 followers on Instagram and TikTok combined.
Woodruff and her boyfriend met on the dating app Hinge.
“We had the ‘Mean Girls’ pod, and Dave gave us the IP from Barstool. We’re forever indebted to that guy because it was our lifeblood,” Bennett said. “So we had that, we had something to bet on.
“But the risks at the time were very scary because we had just had two weeks of problems and we didn’t have the funds. But you felt very alive.”For a moment, you couldn’t even pay your rent. …But when you look back on it, you’ll think, “That was just a dream.” ”
of genuine Tea about separation…
Bennett is the founder and CEO of Just Media House, the content platform behind the podcast “Mean Girls,” and plans to represent more creators and podcasts.
Woodruff, who has 413,000 followers on TikTok and 131,000 followers on Instagram, is the company’s COO.
Just Media House’s first external podcast debuted on January 10 with “This Is The Worst,” hosted by comedians and television personalities Brittany Furlan Lee and Brittany Schmidt.
portnoy announced His decision not to renew Bennett and Woodruff’s contracts while appearing on Barstool Radio in September 2023.
Bennett and Woodruff said at the time: We were good friends A conversation between Portnoy and former Barstool CEO Erica Ayers Badan A farewell video has been posted “Mean Girl” Instagram account.
It came after mass layoffs at Barstool and drama with fellow Barstool host Kevin Clancy [known as KFC]claimed that Bennett and Woodruff ghosted him when they asked him to be a judge in the Barstool Only Fans pageant.
All of this came on the heels of another situation with another Barstool host, Kelly Keegs. Blog from March last year Title: “I Officially Hate Mean Girls.”
At the time, Keegs explained that although she liked Bennett and Woodruff “in real life,” she believed they had personas that made the other women at Barstool look foolish. However, their actions were praised and encouraged at work as they received “crazy clicks”.
Keegs said Mean Girls could be “sneezing,” that they were downplayed on barstools, promoted on the company’s main social media accounts with millions of followers, and that “clicks are clicks.” ” and other employees were encouraged to “be like them.”
Portnoy later said that the Keegs situation “killed” Mean Girls, which was “growing” Barstool.
“[At one point, the show] It was growing,” Portnoy said at the time. “They got off to a very quick start. What was a little different, at least from the outside looking in, was that they were really down after Keegs killed them, so the Barstool crowd was mainly their crowd. It just seemed like it was.”
Bennett doesn’t believe it. Keegs’ situation influenced her and Woodruff’s departure from Barstool.
“I think the outcome is the same whether there is a Keegs article or not,” she told the Post.
Portnoy also clarified that Bennett and Woodruff have not been fired from Barstool.
“To be honest, based on some of the decisions, they probably weren’t going to stay anyway,” he said at the time.
A new beginning…
“Alex and I just wanted to go in a direction that would grow us in different ways,” Woodruff said. “Because Barstool would have been great, but it would have plateaued and we would have wanted more.
“We had talked about starting a business and doing this and that, so there’s nothing wrong with staying there. We just wanted to grow in different ways. , the only way you can truly achieve that is by being your own boss.”
Parting ways with Barstool wasn’t a plan the two came up with overnight.
“We talked about it for a long time,” Woodruff said. “I think we started talking around March of last year. We just started working on growing the podcast and building connections, and the deal closed and it worked out perfectly.”
Bennett said this year is all about “being a student of the game” as she and Woodruff continue to build Just Media House and the “Mean Girl” brand.
Since launching “Meal Girl” in January 2022, the company has reached over 3 million annual downloads, over 50 million TikTok views, and over 1.8 million monthly Instagram viewers, primarily among female viewers. contributed to.
Bennett and Woodruff independently launched Season 2 of their podcast Meal Girl under Just Media House in October 2023.
The “Mean Girls” podcast celebrated its 100th episode in January, and things seem to be on an upward trajectory for Bennett and Woodruff.
They’ve maintained solid viewership and social media engagement since leaving Barstool, and are hoping to hit “number one.” 1 Podcasts and Networks” someday.
“We were really scared [when we first left Barstool] Because when we walk down the street, people don’t shout your name, they shout ‘Barstool’ at you, as if that’s the first thing they associate with you,” Bennett said. Told.
“And it’s really scary to lose that, because you think that’s who we are.” Barstool? right. But we knew our demographic and our listenership, and we knew we were more than that. ”
Bennett and Woodruff plan to simplify and better leverage content, amplify voices, and ensure everyone’s contributions are fairly compensated through the company.
