The WRANGLER Horse and Rodeo News is an equine and rodeo publication with circulation in Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, Utah and Idaho.
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34 • The WRANGLER • October, 2024 Over the past decade, rodeo at all levels has grown in terms of money, viewership, and sponsorship. With this growth, cowboys and cowgirls are faced with not only pursuing success in the arena, but also running themselves as a business. Neither is particularly easy, so some cowboys choose to be signed with athletic agencies to handle the business as they go down the road. No rodeo media agency has found such success as Double J Sports Media. With some of the top bronc riders and bareback riders in the world signed, they've amassed over 200,000 followers on Tik Tok and over 50,000 on Instagram. But who are the faces behind the success, and how did it come to be? Double J Sports Media was founded by Jade Johnson of Kapunda, South Australia. She comes from a strong agricultural background as a member of a fifth-generation family business exporting feed to southeast Asia as well as manufacturing feed for domestic and foreign use. For the past 15 years, Jade has bred cutting horses and has been heavily involved with the performance horse industry in Australia and America, and she has always been a rodeo fan, particularly saddle bronc. While developing media for performance horse events, she came across videographer Nate Anderson's TikTok. "I was homeless living in my car. I was traveling around filming and she picked me up and got me on my feet. In terms of filming, I'd never done it professionally and she was the first person to boost me into that," recalled Nate. Eventually, Jade and Nate were invited to film at the American Performance Horseman in 2021, and after walking out with practically every phone number in the room, the sports agency was born. Kade Bruno, fresh off his first NFR, and Damian Brennan, who hadn't yet made it to Vegas were two of the first signees. The two proved to be exceptional scouts and have spent 2024 trading first and second place in the world standings. "She does a lot for us guys over here, she helps me with my social media, promotes me really well, and gets me sponsorships. As a bronc rider, we're a brand, we've got to promote ourselves. She's really helped me in that aspect. You can put up normal bronc rides but the way they do it makes you look a lot more professional," said Damian. In the past year, Jade brought in a business partner, cinematographer, and filmmaker Meng Lee of MakeLine Productions. Meng and his family immigrated to Fresno, California, from Thailand when he was only a few years old. After attending Fresno State for information technology Meng began working with non-profits and was catapulted into a filmmaking career when a video he filmed on an iPhone 4 raised $250,000 overnight. By Erin Rees d o u b L e J d o u b L e J s P o r t s m e d i a : s P o r t s m e d i a : Meng Lee filming at the Cal Poly Break-A-Wave. Photo Courtesy: Meng Lee