"I Drove The Company" - Ex-Daily Wire CEO Says Replacing Him Wasn't Easy

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:00)
Do you miss being the CEO of Daily Wire versus being a content creator today? I know you're still running a business, you're a business guy, but do you miss being an operator?

**Jeremy Boering** (0:09)
Absolutely, yeah.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:10)
What do you miss about it?

**Jeremy Boering** (0:11)
Well, my ambition has never been to be a podcast host. At one time, I owned and operated one of the 10 largest podcast companies in the country. It would have been very easy to launch a podcaster in those days when, you know, on this side of the Daily Wire, it's actually challenging.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:25)
So you never did, you never had a podcast.

**Jeremy Boering** (0:27)
I hosted our backstage show, which was we all got together once a month. Every now and then, if there was some like thing that we felt like the CEO of the Daily Wire needs to weigh in, I would do a little one-off, speak to the audience or a town hall or something. But no, I've never tried to be in the hosting grind the way I am now.

**Patrick Bet-David** (0:44)
How do you like it now?

**Jeremy Boering** (0:46)
It's an act of creation. So I love that. I like having a voice back after spending a year kind of in the wilderness after leaving Daily Wire. I like having my team back together and being in motion again. But there's nothing like the thrill of running a business at scale. We had 275-plus employees when I left and a couple hundred million dollars of annual revenue. That's an enormous amount of pressure that always forces you to be your very best.
It's addictive. You know better than anyone, that's an addictive lifestyle.

**Patrick Bet-David** (1:19)
So do you think like sometimes, because sometimes when there's a guy like you, and I wonder how you're going to answer this. Sometimes when there's a guy like you, when you're working with a guy like you, it's annoying, okay?
But when the guy leaves, you also say, shit, he did a lot of stuff we didn't even think about. You know, it's kind of like, that guy was doing this, and he was doing this. Yes, he was annoying. Yes, he was kicking our ass. Yes, he was difficult. Yes, he was, you know, thought very highly of himself and all this stuff. But my God, it's tough to replace this guy. Do you think something like that happened after you left?

**Jeremy Boering** (1:51)
You like to think so. I know that I wasn't an easy guy to work for. I used to have, we'd start our day every day with what we called the 1030 meeting, where we would get an assortment of people together from the top executives in the company to a lot of the management of the company. And we would just make sure that everyone was sort of chasing the same set of priorities, especially in a news business.
It's very dynamic. Things change every day that require an immediate pivot. Some story breaks, some opportunity for one of the hosts appears. Those aren't things that you plan weeks or even days in advance. So you have to be very responsive. And I would often say in the 1030 meeting, you know, I know that I'm a difficult person to work for. I know that if you're looking for work-life balance, this probably isn't the company for you. I don't really believe in the concept of work-life balance.
We're building a rocket ship while it's in flight. And that's one of the hardest things you can ever do. But that's what we have to do to pursue the mission, to pursue the mission of the company. And so in that way, you know, I'm certainly aware that I was a tough boss and but it also, I'm also aware that I really drove the company. You know, the style of leadership at the time was very hands-on. And I was very in the weeds with my team and every day choosing a direction, ordering the priorities of the company and keeping everyone on mission. Which, you know, this is, I think it's probably true in every business, but it's particularly true in an ideological first, in an ideology first business, that you both have business objectives and missional objectives. And keeping, resolving the tension between those two things was also a huge part of what I was engaged in in leadership. And listen, I'm not the only person on earth who can do it, but I suspect that there's some pain points in the transition.

**Patrick Bet-David** (3:38)
Yeah, how do you find, because I think who replaced you? Caleb, the other third one, who's the top three big partners are you, Ben and Caleb, right? So Caleb took over, but then Caleb recently stepped down in 30 week of May or 40 week of May, and then the new guy is the Jeopardy guy or the Wheel of Fortune guy.