Justin Leusner is anything but your average 21-year-old. Growing up in Morristown, New Jersey, he turned his childhood love for sports into a booming social media business where he’s building Gen Z’s ESPN. He’s partnered and worked with well-known brands including Prime Video, Gatorade, and 15SoF. 

As the founder of TDAY Sports, Justin has racked up over 1.2 million followers across various platforms. His story proves his passion and perseverance, as he balances his studies as a senior at Penn State with the demands of running a successful social media business that reaches more than 170,000,000+ people worldwide every month. 

From his days as a shy kid attending games with his mom at the Wells Fargo Center in Philly to becoming an influential leader in the sports social media world, Justin’s journey speaks volumes about his dedication and genuine love for what he does. 

Read more about the journey of this extraordinary Gen Z entrepreneur who’s shaking things up in the sports and social media world. We guarantee you’ll find the inspiration and wisdom you’ve been searching for. 

Table of Contents

• About Justin
• YouTube: The start of Justin’s entrepreneurial journey
• Balancing college life and entrepreneurship
• Creating TDAY Sports and TDAY Productions
• Self-Care, Values, and Christian Faith
• Challenges, risks, and 2024
• Advice to Entrepreneurs
• Books, resources, and tools recommendations
• Connect with Justin

About Justin 

TL;DR Version: 

• From Morristown, a suburban town in South New Jersey 

• I am a huge Philadelphia sports fan and grew up attending games at the Wells Fargo Center

• My early passion for sports has influenced my current activities as a young adult.

• I grew up as a shy, introverted kid, though I have become less introverted.

Q: Where are you from? 

I am originally from Morristown, a suburban town in South New Jersey, about 25 minutes from Philadelphia. 

Q: What was it like growing up? 

Growing up just outside of Philly, I was a huge Philadelphia sports fan. My mom worked inside the Wells Fargo Center, where the Sixers and Flyers play, and I grew up going to countless games with her.

In addition, I played virtually every sport under the sun at least once in my life, and competitively as a kid. 

This love of sports at such a young age certainly has influenced what I am doing now as a young adult. 

I also grew up as a pretty shy, introverted kid, and I’d say that I’m still a bit introverted now, but have certainly grown out of that prior extremity from my childhood. 

YouTube: The start of Justin’s entrepreneurial journey 

TL;DR Version: 

• Discovered a love for sports and social media at age 8 during a family trip to San Francisco, and was fascinated by YouTube.

• Launched YouTube channel on January 13, 2013, initially creating daily sports videos and later finding a niche in Madden Mobile and Madden NFL content.

• Continued creating videos out of love for YouTube, leading to rapid growth and brand deals by eighth grade.

• Managed explosive channel growth by negotiating brand deals late at night due to time zone differences, building a sports and social media business

Q: When did you discover your love for sports and social media? 

I was about 8 years old when I discovered my love for sports and social media. 

I went on a trip to San Francisco with my family, and one of our family friends who worked for Apple showed us an app called YouTube. The logo back then was the old TV, and I thought it was the craziest thing ever. I thought, wow, you can just upload videos, and anyone can see them? 

This was 2010, so YouTube was a few years old, and I was super fascinated. When we got home from the trip, I went straight to my iPad and watched YouTube videos. I did that for two years before I launched my own channel on January 13, 2013. 

Q: What kind of content did you create on your YouTube channel? 

I made sports videos. Every day, I came home from school, rushed to do my homework, and then created a video to upload. 

I got 100 subscribers within the first 3 years of my channel, and it was trash content; no one was watching it. But I’ll give myself a little grace. I was like 10 or 11 years old. I also remember making a video shouting out at my 14th subscriber; looking back at it now was kind of cringe-worthy. 

Screenshot of younger Justin playing NBA Live Mobile

By years 5 and 6 of my YouTube channel, I finally found a niche: Madden Mobile and Madden NFL. I recorded myself playing the game using a cardboard box. I cut a hole in the top, laid my iPad on top, and recorded myself playing Madden on my iPhone. This was the most bootleg setup, but it got the job done! It wasn’t until year 7 that I learned about OBS and QuickTime for video screen recording.

Q: What made you continue to create YouTube videos despite not getting views or having a large subscriber following? 

You know, I didn’t care about the views. I loved YouTube so much; it wasn’t about the money because I was having so much fun. But then, starting in eighth grade, everything changed. 

I started getting checks in the mail from Google Adsense for my YouTube videos, and brands were reaching out to me for brand deals and opportunities. My channel quickly went from 1000 to 5000 to 20,000+ subscribers. 

Q: How did you manage to handle the explosive growth of your channel as an eighth grader? 

I handled it pretty well. I remember sneaking on my iPad at 12 a.m. on a school night to negotiate brand deals with brands from different countries. These brands were based in different time zones, so I had to be up at weird times to communicate with them. 

Some of these brands were based in Asia, so they were like 8 hours ahead, and so late night was the only time I wasn’t in school and when I wasn’t asleep to message them right as they were waking up and getting their day started. 

This was back when phones weren’t allowed in school, but nowadays things are different and kids have phones everywhere. 

But that’s beside the point. The moral of the story: love sports, and love YouTube, eleven and a half years later, I’m building a business in sports and social media. 

Balancing college life and entrepreneurship 

TL;DR Version: 

• Third-year student at Penn State majoring in entrepreneurship

• College has significantly improved time management skills, relying heavily on a structured and organized calendar.

• Balances 60-hour work weeks on social media and sports business with full-time studies and personal life.

• Initially planned to skip college to become a full-time creator, but parents insisted on attending, leading to valuable experiences and opportunities at Penn State.

Q: Are you currently in college? 

Yes, I’m a third-year student at Penn State majoring in entrepreneurship. Since there was no social media major, I chose entrepreneurship, which I absolutely love.

Justin Speaking at Invent Penn State’s Startup Week 

Q: What impact is college having on you and your entrepreneurial journey? 

College is where I’ve grown the most as a person, especially with time management. My calendar is structured and organized because I have no choice. I rely on it for everything. If you were to look at it, you’d probably go, woaaahh, that’s a lot of stuff. And it is. 

If I didn’t have my calendar planned and organized, I wouldn’t be able to get anything done. It’s definitely a grind because I work 60-ish hours a week on my social media and sports business while committing to being a full-time student taking 15 credits a semester, in addition to just being a human and enjoying my life. 

Q: How did you know you wanted to go to college? What was the factor that made you decide? 

Great story here. From 9th to 11th grade I was set on not going to college. I was going to be a full-time creator, and when I graduate high school I’ll move to LA and live or create a social media hype house. I had this planned out, sort of. 

Something that did push college out of my mind is that there wasn’t a social media major or program, and that’s what I wanted to learn. I thought to myself, what am I going to learn then? I’m already making money, so I don’t need to go to college.

But my parents were like: nah, you’re going. I kind of fought with them about college, but it was both parents versus me, and I’m a teenager, I wasn’t going to win a debate against my parents about college. They ultimately decided that I should go to college, and looking back I’m so glad I went to Penn State because I’ve met many great people and have been fortunate enough to be involved in cool opportunities. 

Creating TDAY Sports and TDAY Productions 

TL;DR Version: 

• Transitioned from creating Madden Mobile and NBA Live Mobile content to video editing, launching TDAY Productions in 2020 due to burnout from daily content creation.

• During freshman and sophomore years at Penn State, started Basketball Today after an accelerator program, leading to hiring other creators and launching Football Today and Hockey Today.

• Conducted customer discovery with Gen Z sports fans and decided to create sports content on social media platforms where Gen Z engages, filling a gap left by traditional sports networks.

Q: What led to you creating your social media sports businesses, TDAY Sports and TDAY productions? 

As I mentioned before, I was a content creator, creating videos on YouTube, which I pretty much did until my junior year of high school, when the pandemic happened. 

My channel was focused on Madden Mobile and NBA Live Mobile, two of the biggest sports games. However, the games started to lose traction and eventually died around late 2019 or early 2020. No one was playing them anymore. This was when Fortnite started to take off and became the hot thing everyone was playing and talking about. 

I also created five years of mobile gaming content, which reached its lifecycle. So I was like, shoot. I tried pivoting into NBA games, but views weren’t rising. 

I then reflected a bit and thought, what am I good at? I’m good at video editing, so I built a business there called TDAY Productions, which I launched in 2020. The video editing business was great at that time because I didn’t want to make content every day, that’s what I’d been doing every day for years and I’ve reached the burnout point. 

Then, between my freshman and sophomore years at Penn State, I got the itch to be back in front of the camera and create content. Out of that desire, I started another brand called Basketball Today and did an accelerator program at Penn State through the Happy Valley Launch Box. 

Check for TDAY Sports from Invent Penn State 

While in the program they basically told me that I’d already burnt out two years ago, and it might happen again, and suggested that I build a time hiring other creators and editors. It was a challenge at first because my mindset then was: this is my business, I’ll run it along and do everything myself. But that wasn’t sustainable. 

So I took their advice and hired two other creators to help me with Basketball Today, and with their help, we launched Football Today and Hockey Today, which I’m not even involved in. They run the show on those brands. I play more of a CEO role, running the business ops side of things. 

To date, we have more than 1.2M+ followers across all of our platforms. 

Q: TDAY Sports, in the brand’s words, is described as Gen Z’s ESPN. Why did you decide to build this and become a hub as Gen Z’s version of ESPN? 

We basically did this thing called customer discovery and talked to 15-20 Gen Z sports fans, asking questions like how do you watch sports content? Do you watch ESPN? Do you watch TV? 

I’d also observe my roommates whenever we hung out to watch a sports game together in our dorm. I’d look at what they were scrolling through on their phones during the game and what they talked about.

TDAY Sport’s Website

I quickly learned that Gen Z sports fans watch TV for the games, but that’s pretty much it. No one’s watching ESPN or Fox Sports anymore like they did back in the day. It’s just not a fit for us. We consume everything on Instagram, TikTok, or YouTube. 

And so I thought, why not create something that ESPN isn’t doing on social media? 

Self-Care, Values, and Christian Faith 

TL;DR Version: 

• Improved self-care by scheduling a fun day off each week, which helped reduce burnout and made life more enjoyable.

• Christian faith became important in high school, leading to personal growth and healthier habits after connecting with a new church and building a friendship with a pastor.

• He embraces authenticity by being true to himself, forming stronger relationships, and focusing on what he does best.

Q: How do you care for yourself and prevent burnout? 

I love this question because honestly, I haven’t ever been good at this. I’m still a work in progress regarding self-care, and I’ve been reading books about this. I read a book called The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry last summer, and it was super convicting. It made me realize I was on this path to absolute burnout and asked myself what I was doing. 

I added another book to my audiobook list, To Hell With Hustle. It’s about hustle culture and its impact on mental health and relationships. 

But up until a year ago, I worked every day Monday through Sunday. It wasn’t healthy at all. So I met with a pastor and his advice to me was to take at least one day off. And I told him, I don’t think I can do that. I said if I did that the business would crumble, but in reality it was a way to say I would go insane if I wasn’t working.. because I have to work. 

But I followed his advice and took Wednesday off as my fun day. He knew I loved scheduling and calendaring, so he suggested scheduling fun and relaxing activities like hanging out with friends and basically going outside to touch some grass. That’s literally what I needed. 

Justin hanging out with friends

As soon as I started doing this, my life changed, and Wednesdays became my favorite day of the week. On Wednesdays, I’d binge-watch Disney+ movies, meal prep, read a book, and hang out with friends. I even joined a bowling league, which I had NEVER done before. 

I’ve since moved this to every Sunday because of classes. Sundays are the most fun and important day of the week to recharge and enjoy my life. I know that we Gen Zers love to work hard and love what we do, but we gotta take a day off. 

Q: You describe yourself as a Christian Founder on LinkedIn, how does your faith play a role in your entrepreneurial journey? 

Interestingly enough, I wasn’t big into my faith until my junior and senior years of high school. And I never grew up in a super religious family. We went to church for two Easters, and I went to Sunday school, but I was like any other kid: I wasn’t into it and thought it boring. 

That changed in high school. I was in a relationship with a girl and she wasn’t super religious, nor was her family, but her parents invited me to their church. They mentioned that they loved going every Sunday, and I said wait… I’ve never heard anyone say they LOVED going to church. 

So I went with them on Sunday, which was such an experience. It was a non-denominational church, and they had a band playing. I could actually understand what the pastor was saying in his messages and sermons. The way he spoke to us made sense to me. It didn’t sound like confusing passages from the Bible that sounded like Shakespeare. I actually understood the message and its meaning. 

The church Justin attends

I realized that this isn’t boring, that it makes sense, and that the messages apply to my life. I even started to go by myself after breaking up my relationship, and I became best friends with one of the pastors, who’s like a brother to me today. He influenced so many of my decisions and told me to take a day off. 

I’ve absolutely grown as a person. I used to be a selfish, immature kid, addicted to my phone, and with many unhealthy habits. One night, I prayed in my room to God. I apologized and asked him to change my heart, but I didn’t think anything would happen. 

The very next morning felt surreal. All of the unhealthy and harmful desires just disappeared—poof. Gone. I felt confused, but my heart completely changed, and since then, I’ve been on a healthy path and on a mission to serve others. God changed my heart. 

Q: What role does authenticity play in your life? 

I think I’m way more authentic and open about who I am than ever—and this is recent, like a month or two ago. I’m more honest and transparent, which has helped me form stronger relationships on social media and in person. I have more confidence in myself, and I feel like God’s blessed me with an extroverted personality, compared to my introverted younger self. 

I also read a book called Good To Great. It’s an entrepreneurial startup book, and the author discusses The Hedgehog Concept. I didn’t understand it, but the author mentioned it repeatedly. I was confused, but now I finally understand. 

Basically, when you’re running a business or start-up, there will always be a temptation to do different things, which I still struggle with. I always say “yes” to clients and opportunities, even when I know I shouldn’t. This can lead to rocky revenue streams and feeling overstretched and burnt out. 

When things aren’t going your way, you can enter the hedgehog concept, which basically means you need to focus on one thing you do best and avoid the things that aren’t important or outside of your expertise. 

So I asked myself, what is my hedgehog concept in my business? What is the one thing my business is great at its core? That’s video editing. 

Then I asked myself, what is my personal hedgehog concept? What is the one thing I’m the best at in the world? It’s actually a trick question. The answer is being myself. I am the absolute best in the world at being Justin Leusner. 

Things won’t work out if I try to become someone I’m not. I just embrace who I am. 

Challenges, risks, and 2024 

TL;DR Version: 

• Struggling to balance being busy and resting, even on days off, and working on saying “no” to opportunities that don’t align with his goals.

• Biggest risk taken was hiring people to expand his brand, which paid off significantly. 

• Excited for 2024, with plans to travel between California and Pennsylvania, graduate in the fall, and attend various conferences and events, including a speaking gig in London.

Q: What challenges are you facing in your business and personal life? 

I’m still working on the whole aspect of being too busy. I’ve realized that I’m not super present, and even on Sundays when I’m supposed to be having fun and not working I still think about work. I’m finding ways to have more rest and leisure time because my days are 6 am – 9 pm. Everyday. There’s a path to burnout that I probably need to avoid. 

I’m also working on saying “no” to business opportunities and opportunities in my personal life that don’t align. We’re starting to get a little overstretched because we’re saying “yes” to things that don’t align with what we’re good at. 

But it’s hard to say “no,” especially to people because I’m a people pleaser and it’s not always the greatest. But I’m working on it by being more conversational, transparent, and speaking the truth. 

Q: What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken with your business that paid off? 

To me, this was a significant risk, and it was uncomfortable to do at first because it was the first time I’d ever done it… and that was hiring someone. It was a risk because hiring someone meant I would trust someone else to represent me as a creator by editing my videos or making graphic designs for my business. 

But oh my goodness, it paid off. I’m so glad I did it. 

Q: What are you looking forward to this year in 2024? 

Well, it’s going to be an absolute whirlwind of a year, with traveling, moving back and forth between California and Pennsylvania, and coming back to Penn to graduate in the fall. 

There’s a lot happening. I’m excited to visit new places and travel. I’m going on a road trip across the country soon, and I’ve got a speaking gig in London, which is exciting because it’ll be my first time in Europe! There are other conferences and events I’ll be presenting and speaking at in new places, where I’ll get to meet new people and share my story to continue inspiring young entrepreneurs. 

Advice to Entrepreneurs 

TL;DR Version: 

• Talk to people and ask lots of questions to learn about their interests and problems, which can lead to business ideas.

• Starting a business young gives you time to experiment, learn, and grow; failure is part of the process, and the key is to keep going.

• Taking action now will give you a head start and the experience needed to succeed in the long run.

Q: What advice would you give a young person who wants to enter entrepreneurship but doesn’t know where to start? 

Talk to people and ask questions. The more questions you ask, the more you’ll learn. Talk to everyday people, anyone you know, and ask questions to learn about their interests, what they like, and what they hate.

When they start talking about what they hate, you ask them, why do you hate that? And that right there is a business idea. You can solve a problem and need that other people are willing to pay for. Explore that and see where it leads you. 

I’d also say that if you start on social media or build a product or service, be authentic and transparent. Set boundaries for yourself and your work to prevent burnout so you can genuinely enjoy your work and stay true to yourself. 

So those are my two pieces of advice: ask questions and be authentic. 

And guess what? If you never give up, you can’t fail. 

Q: What advice would you give a young person struggling with starting a business because they believe their age or lack of experience is an issue? 

That’s a tough one.  I struggle to answer this because, with my growing YouTube channel and building the businesses I have now, I didn’t see my age as a barrier. 

Starting a business as a young person gives you more time to experiment and experience things. You can try to learn, fail, experiment, and do so much as a young person, especially in entrepreneurship. The point is to fail, apply lessons learned, and keep going. 

I started when I was 10. And now, at 21, I’ve had 11 and a half years of that experience to build on. My best advice is to think about it this way: if you just take action and start right now, you’ll be so ahead, which should give you the firepower and the will to keep going. 

Books, resources, and tools recommendations 

Q: Do you have any other recommendations for business self-development books, resources, or podcasts you’ve listened to that people could benefit from?

If you’re a content creator or building a digital business with a personal brand, Superfans by Pat Flynn is a great marketing book that teaches you how to cultivate a community of fans. There’s also the classic How to Win Friends and Influence People, although I would be careful because some tactics can be manipulative. I view these tactics as ways to serve people, but anyone can use them differently. 

The Mom Test is an excellent book on how to start a business, conduct customer discovery, and talk to people to find out if your business is worth building. The Compound Effect is a great business book in general that teaches you how everyday decisions, no matter how small, compound over time.

I also mentioned The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, a book about living a less hurried life, which I definitely need to re-read. 

In terms of podcasts, I love the Craig Groeschel Leadership podcast. It’s one of the most famous leadership podcasts, teaching you about leadership with lots of insight. I’m also a big fan of the Colin and Samir Show, which covers topics related to the Creator Economy. 

Q: Do you have any newsletters you’d recommend? 

The Published Press is great for news related to the creator economy and social media. 

Q: What software or tools do you recommend a young entrepreneur can use for their own business? 

For learning I recommend YouTube. It’s free and it’s where I still learn from. I’ve started to dive into different AI tools like Google Bard, Perplexity, and more for idea generation and conflict management. 

I do love Slack for communication and Loom for video recording. 

Connect with Justin 

You can connect with Justin on LinkedIn and Instagram @JustinLeusner. 

Interested in getting in touch with TDAY Sports? Reach out through their website or LinkedIn company page, and follow them on IG @TDAYSports.

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Disclaimer: This article is written in the voice of Justin Leusner. The conversation and answers are based on Justin’s actual responses and have been edited in collaboration with him to reflect his authentic voice and experiences.