September 29, 2021 • 21 mins
Mike Cunningham host of Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections. Mike talks about the importance of providing value with your podcast. Mike Cunningham also provides business podcasters with some advice and talk about creating podcasts to preserve the family legacy.
Subscribe to Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections - https://bit.ly/3CR2Pub
Recorded on Riverside. If you like the way this interview looks and sounds and want to use it for your show please use this link - https://bit.ly/2VsuvW3
Follow Mike Cunningham on Twitter - https://twitter.com/mikecunningham
Mike's LinkedIn article - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/start-your-podcast-today-mike-cunningham
Mixer - Rockville Rockmix 2 https://amzn.to/3kVqOSW
Mic Stand with Pop Filter - Rockville RTMS21 https://amzn.to/3uqOS35
Headphones - Pro-M50 https://amzn.to/3AZNlU4
Microphone - Rockville RMC-XLR https://amzn.to/3EYcvoB
Podcast Creator Studio
Rode Rodecaster pro - https://amzn.to/38Ve3Ri
Rode Podmic - https://amzn.to/2YHLftQ
Rode PSA1 Mic Stand - https://amzn.to/3hf5KnR
Sony A7C - https://amzn.to/2XfaHpY
Sony 24mm F1.4 Lens - https://amzn.to/3ngwQPl
Benro Aero 4 Tripod - https://amzn.to/3niiUV7
2x Elgato key light - https://amzn.to/3trC3VL
Elgato Game Cature 4k60 mk.2 - https://amzn.to/3tuFmLQ
Edited by Willy Kosovich - https://www.willykosovich.lol/
Edited using Adobe Premiere - https://bit.ly/adobePC
Original Music Composed By David Rosen - https://bit.ly/3E3dIdS
*Many of the links provided are affiliate links by which Indie Drop-In LLC will make a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Independent Podcast Creators.
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Subscribe to Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections - https://bit.ly/3CR2Pub
Recorded on Riverside. If you like the way this interview looks and sounds and want to use it for your show please use this link - https://bit.ly/2VsuvW3
Follow Mike Cunningham on Twitter - https://twitter.com/mikecunningham
Mike's LinkedIn article - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/start-your-podcast-today-mike-cunningham
Mixer - Rockville Rockmix 2 https://amzn.to/3kVqOSW
Mic Stand with Pop Filter - Rockville RTMS21 https://amzn.to/3uqOS35
Headphones - Pro-M50 https://amzn.to/3AZNlU4
Microphone - Rockville RMC-XLR https://amzn.to/3EYcvoB
Podcast Creator Studio
Rode Rodecaster pro - https://amzn.to/38Ve3Ri
Rode Podmic - https://amzn.to/2YHLftQ
Rode PSA1 Mic Stand - https://amzn.to/3hf5KnR
Sony A7C - https://amzn.to/2XfaHpY
Sony 24mm F1.4 Lens - https://amzn.to/3ngwQPl
Benro Aero 4 Tripod - https://amzn.to/3niiUV7
2x Elgato key light - https://amzn.to/3trC3VL
Elgato Game Cature 4k60 mk.2 - https://amzn.to/3tuFmLQ
Edited by Willy Kosovich - https://www.willykosovich.lol/
Edited using Adobe Premiere - https://bit.ly/adobePC
Original Music Composed By David Rosen - https://bit.ly/3E3dIdS
*Many of the links provided are affiliate links by which Indie Drop-In LLC will make a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting Independent Podcast Creators.
*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Value may be one of the mostimportant concepts in podcasting that you must master
if you want to be successful.Welcome to Podcast Creators, a show where
we get podcasting advice from real podcasters. On the show today we have Mike
Cunningham, host of the Gill AthleticsTrack and Field Connections podcast. Mike walks
(00:22):
us through what the value of hispodcast is to both the company and to
his guests. This interview was recordedon Riverside FM, so if you like
the way this sounds, we'll putan affiliate link down in the show notes
below. We'll also put links toTrack and Field Connections and everything we talk
about in today's episode down in theshow notes below. All right, let's
(00:45):
get to it. Mike, thankyou so much for coming on Podcast Creators
and sharing a little bit of yourwisdom with the community. How are you
today, sir, I'm awesome,man, Greg, thank you so much
for having me. Is Track andField Connections your first podcast. I'm actually
on my third iteration of podcast,and this one is through our company here,
(01:07):
Gil Athletics. So this is thefirst corporate podcast. The other two
have been kind of personal passion projects. They actually were so that I can
learn how to podcast, so Icould do it for work. Well,
now that you've experimented and you've learnedon your own podcasts, when you started
Track and Field connections, what wereyou trying to accomplish? It's really about
kind of three things, marketing,bizdev and giving value back to our customers.
(01:32):
Well, there's all sorts of waysto do a corporate podcast where you
can talk about your products or servicesor where you fit in the community.
But you're an interview show where youtalk to coaches. What is it that
you talk to coaches about? Wereally kind of do the bio of the
coach, so we talk about whenthey first got into Track, their different
coaching stops, their mentors, thingslike that. That sounds like it could
(01:55):
take some time. What we dois we do very long form. Probably
we average an hour and thirty andwe've gone as high as like three hours.
Wow, that's quite the commitment.So let's talk about some of the
technical details of your podcast. Wheredo you host your podcast? And so
when I first started, you know, I found anchor. I think everybody
(02:15):
had a you know, a tonof podcasts are done through anchors. Hopefully
everybody knows anchor and found it becauseit was free and it was simple,
and that was all I needed.I could use my phone. So that's
how I first started. So,you know, the first podcast that I
ever did you know the audio?I mean, it is terrible. You're
doing it through the phone, andyou know, there's a lot of hangups
and stuff like that. If you'relooking in any of the social media groups,
(02:37):
Anchor seems to be a very controversialchoice. Is anchor doing everything that
you need it to do? Doyou like using anchor? I do you
know? As again, you knowyou can read everything out there and how
good or bad anchor is. Wehave been one hundred percent set aside with
what they provide for free, that'sawesome. Maybe we can get into what
(02:58):
equipment you use to record track andfield connections. We created a little mini
studio here at work, so Ido have, you know, the acoustic
paneling and all that kind of goodstuff. I went out and found honestly,
kind of the I don't know ifit was the cheapest package I could
find on Amazon, but I foundI think it was for two hundred dollars.
I found a company called Rockville.It's probably a private label. It's
(03:20):
probably you know, just to everybodyhas probably the same mic on this level
of cost. But it was apackage that worked for me, right,
So it had two mics, hadall the you know, the windscreens and
the pop filters and the boom arms, the headphones and the mixer, and
so that's what I use. Iuse Rockville. It's not the greatest equality,
but it works. It works.That's kind of the basic line.
(03:44):
It actually sounds really good. AndI'll put all the links to all this
equipment down in the show notes below. But the microphone is a Rockville RMC
da XLR. The headphones is aRockville Pro dash M fifty, the mixer
a Rockville rock mix too, andthen you have mic stands and pop filters
which are Rockville RTM S twenty one. As I said, I'll put all
(04:08):
this in the show notes. Now, you could have bought something a little
bit higher quality or at least alittle bit more expensive. Why is it
that you chose Rockville. I'm areal in the dirt kind of guy,
right, So, like I don'tget hung up on it has to be
perfect to get going. A verylow cost setup or a down and dirty
(04:30):
setup as you say, has servedtrack and field connections pretty well. Would
you recommend other podcast creators by lowcost equipment or should they get that microphone
that they've always wanted. You know, my fear is that people don't get
into podcasting because they think, oh, well, I have to spend eight
hundred to a thousand dollars. Andcertainly, you know, there's a little
(04:51):
bit of the addict of you getwhat you pay for, so certainly there's
higher quality and maybe this thing isgonna go. I've had it for a
little bit over probably a year now. Maybe it's gonna bunk out of me
in a year, you know,after a year. But but yeah,
I'll pay another two undre bucks ornot even because I'll just need the mic.
Well, even though you have allof the Rockville equipment, you have
to record these interviews somehow, whatdo you use for that? We record
(05:13):
through Zoom and as we wanted toget into more than one guest on at
a time, so we've done somewhere, we've interviewed the entire staff. At
the same time, you do haveto pay for that next level up in
Zoom to get that. Okay,so you have the meeting on Zoom.
I'm assuming you get all of therecordings from Zoom separately, and then you
do, what how do you editthem? You know, down and dirty.
(05:35):
You're gonna hear that term all throughthis podcast. You know, there's
a whole subculture of the editing sideof podcast. I don't spend a lot
of time. I used to takeour audio from the Zoom and put it
through Audacity and do a couple offilters through there. That just takes time.
I literally take that audio file dropit straight into anchor. I do
(05:58):
have a pre recorded intro and withschedule it to post. So the hours
that I spend on it is reallythe interview itself. It's about getting to
know my guest, in building thatrelationship and that link there. So you
know, two hours a week,depending on how many interviews I do in
a week. You're right about thissubculture. I mean, there are people
who believe if you edit your podcastthat it's fake or somehow not reality.
(06:23):
I am a big fan of editing. I think editing is art and it's
part of the style that I like. Is there a style that you kind
of model your show after? Iwas this past tense now a fan of
the Joe Rogan experience. Like Iliked his style. I like the long
form. You really got into alot of stories and tangents. I liked
his you know, interview style,and so that's kind of where I mimicked
(06:46):
that style off of. But Ido wish I could take, you know,
a two hour audio and put itdown into like a narration form to
where you know, I'm post editing. I'm saying, like, you know,
hey, coach really brought up agood point about the new nil here's
what he had to say. ThenI run it. So I'm cutting out
a lot of periphery. If youwill, I I just don't have time.
If you're a full time podcaster ata boy, that's exactly what you
(07:06):
should maybe be doing for your style. But for me, I've got you
know, when I recorded to ourpodcast during work, I've got five phone
calls that I've missed in about twentyemails that I've missed back in my office,
and I've got to get it done. So I just kind of forego
that side and non apologetically just getthe content out there and provide the value
to our listeners. Well, Iguess that leads us to the biggest question,
(07:29):
is it working what kind of downloadnumbers does Track and Field Connections get.
Yeah, so we've been doing thissince January twenty and marketing that since
April of twenty and we're at fiftytwo thousand downloads, so monthly we're probably
at about two to three thousand.Depends a lot on the guests. If
it's a quote unquote big name,it gets more obviously, but so yeah,
(07:50):
i'd say about two two to threethousand a month. Two to three
thousand downloads a month is well abovewhat the average podcaster receives. So that's
amazing work. Can you remember backto the beginning when you launched Track and
Field Connections, What did your firstfew months of downloads look like? Yeah,
a little skewed. So from Januarythrough the end of March, I
(08:13):
published but didn't publicize at all.I would yeah, I would have done
it a little differently, but Ididn't tell the company, right, So
it's just kind of like, let'ssee just what organically happens, and of
course organically nothing happened. You know, the guests would know they're published,
so they would tell their friends andfamily, so you know, it was
in the if I got fifty soI was like, whoa, hey,
that's pretty cool, right. Andthen as we started, I started doing
(08:37):
on my personal social and I coppedup to the bosses that, hey,
man, this has been going on. So we started doing it through our
you know, our corporate social mediaand stuff like that. Uh, you
know, certainly it took off andyou know, probably the lower end of
our episodes or in the few hundreds, and then we'll have you know,
we'll have a pop out star thatI'll go you know, six hundred,
seven hundred, eight hundred pretty prettyquickly. Since didn't tell the company you
(09:01):
were starting a podcast, you obviouslydidn't have a marketing strategy when you started,
But did you create a podcast launchplan or anything like that? I
wish I did. I wish Iwas that smart and that uh coach you
know, intelligence to do things likethat. And I think you should because
it'll help you not make as maybemany mistakes as I did. So I
was. I didn't tell anybody atwork. I didn't tell my bosses.
I just said, Okay, I'mgonna do it. And then it was
(09:22):
about, well, who's going tobe the first get like who? You
know? Nope, no one wasdoing this in our space When I went
to go ask my first coach,Hey, here's this crazy idea I've got
going on, would you like tobe our guest? It was a little
little nerve wracking because it was sofar. It's like, what are you
doing? Like, you're the guywho sells me my shot puts, why
are you trying to interview me?But as we know, kept doing it
(09:43):
and stayed consistent with it. Andthen as the pandemic hit, I mean,
coaches were starting so many podcasts inour area and track and field got
started, it almost became like ifyou're not on a part on a podcast,
you even coach. This kind ofhow it started going. Did you
reach out to coaches that you knowor did you reach out to coaches that
you wanted to get to know?The guests are kind of a half and
(10:05):
half mixed. Some of them.Half of them are coaches that I like,
I actually know, like I eitherI've known them maybe for upwards of
twenty years at this point. Andthen other coaches are honestly people I have
never met at all. I knownothing about them, but maybe they coach
at such and such school. Sincecoaches are your main target and this is
a corporate podcast. Does interviewing themresult in future sales? What I've seen
(10:28):
through you know, one hundred pluscoaches now is both sides, the ones
that I know real well and theones I have no idea about. When
we're done with this interview, whichyou know takes two hours no matter what,
for a pre and post interview andthat kind of stuff, we're connected.
I mean, it's a it's analmost an almost batting a thousand percent
almost betting all the way on thisthat after an interview happens, we'll get
(10:52):
business from that coach. Okay,this makes total sense to me. The
value GIL Athletics gets from track andfield connections is once you've interviewed the coach,
their likelihood to buy is pretty certain. But what kind of value does
the coach get out of coming ontoyour show? It's both intrinsic and extrinsic,
right, So intrinsically, I've hada lot of coaches. When we're
(11:13):
done, they're like, man,that was a lot of fun to relive
these stories. Right, They've lived, you know, they coached twenty thirty
years, had a lot of greatexperiences, and sometimes because the day to
day coaching, they don't get tothink about the great teams they had ten
years ago, or the experiences.So some of its intrinsically, just like,
man, I had a good time, like this was cool to kind
of give my story out there.Extrinsically, it's a little bit of ego,
(11:35):
right, It's like, oh seeI was on the Gill podcast.
We're the world's largest track equipment manufacturer. So egotistically, I want to say
we're a big deal in that sense. But there's a little bit of like,
oh, man, Gil Gil putme on. They thought enough of
me to have me on the show. There's thousands of coaches. I only
get fifty two coaches a year.Now, that's a pretty select group.
Well, I think there's a lotof truth to that, because you could
choose probably any coach that you want, and you specifically ask them to come
(11:58):
on the show. Do you knowif these coaches use your podcast to enhance
their personal brands. I have heardfeedback from coaches who have been on the
show. They've used it for recruiting, They've sent it to other high school
coaches, etc. For college,they've sent it to their alumni. They're
like, hey, here's who's leadingyour program By the way, we're also
fundraising, so they use it inthat sense. So and I've heard of
coaches who have utilized it in regardsto their own recruitment of finding other jobs,
(12:22):
like ads who have said, Hey, I heard you on that podcast,
and you expressed some values that weactually really care about here, so
you know, we're looking for anew coach. Wow, it sounds like
both the coaches and GIL athletics geta tone of value from track and field
connections. Now, would you recommendthat all companies create a podcast? Surely
there's value there. I wanted toautomatically say yes. I think I would
(12:46):
actually say no. If you're goingto do a podcast, you know,
my counsel would be that if you'renot going to put it out in some
kind of regularity, then don't doit. If it's just going to be
hodgepodge, you know, we doit on January one and then March fifteenth,
and then you're not going to buildingup any kind of listenership that you're
going to really drive the engine everytime you publish that episode. Some companies
might be nervous about the commitment ofpodcast takes. I mean, do they
(13:09):
have to produce content every single week. You don't have to do it weekly.
It could be bi weekly. Itliterally could be monthly. That also
would work. It's as long asyou're on the same kind of cadence and
you know that you're doing it togive value to listeners, not to do
it as a commercial. There's otheraspects for commercials type of marketing. I
don't think podcasts are it. Ithink that's really great advice. Consistency is
(13:33):
key in just about anything that youdo in life. Now, maybe we
can switch gears. You actually teacha college course on podcasting. How did
that start? Life got real goodfor me when I started giving value to
as many people as possible with zeroexpectation of return in our space, at
least in the check and field market. I kind of feel like I led
(13:54):
the way for podcasting. So Iwas the first one to start, and
then we had so many that youknow, blew up and started doing themselves,
and so I did everything I couldto help them. So that led
me to actually write an article onLinkedIn kind of a again, you know,
down and dirty. You want tostart a podcast, man, I
can get you up in ten minutes. And then it's interesting how things just
(14:15):
kind of happen. A friend ofmy wife's, a friend of a friend
of my wife's works for a communitycollege up in the Chicago area actually called
Triton Community College, and they werelooking for someone to teach and intro to
podcasting class. So I reached outto this school and I was like,
there's no way. I mean,they're in Chicagos. There's a lot of
people and a lot of podcasters,right, But I was like, maybe,
(14:35):
you know, if it all fallsthrough, maybe they'll have me do
it. And I interviewed with thedean of the continue Education and I got
it. You know, you know, sometimes you get desperate, you pick
people out of a hat. Iguess. So the spring was our first
semester at twelve week course where wedo it all through Zoom and let's intro
to podcasting. Well, I thinkanyone that's made it this far in the
podcast will agree that I doubt theypicked your name out of a hat.
(14:58):
When the students show up to yourclass, they're obviously trying to learn podcasting,
but have you noticed any commonalities withthe questions or things that they want
to know? A lot of themare coming to the course looking for that
pill that magic pill. We feellike, hey, if I put out
this podcast and I tweet it onInstagram and Facebook, it I should get
(15:18):
whatever you think successes thousands of downloadsper episode, and so a lot of
people are looking for that. Howdo how do I make this a thousand
download episode podcast? And I'm afraidthe answer is what they don't. It's
not there's no magic pill. It'sit's give value. To make sure your
value is good that people you're providingsomething for people to come back to every
week or every episode. And thentoo, it's it's longevity. It's doing
(15:43):
it over and over and over andbuilding that base one listener at a time,
almost as you build up to whateveryou deem as success. So that's
what a lot of people are doing. And then the other half is,
um, I have no clue.It just sounds like a cool thing,
So teach me how to podcast?Yeah, I don't know. If there's
like this glut of podcasters who havecreated podcasts and spontaneously become rich. There
(16:07):
is this weird culture around podcasting wherehalf of them think they're never going to
charge money for it, and theother half think that they're going to get
rich instantly. There's very few whorealize that it's a grind until you make
it, if you ever do.When I teach this class, like I
talked to him, is like,you know, first of all, let's
just slay the expectation. You're notgoing to get rich off of this.
So if that's your expectation, justthe wrong class. So if you tell
(16:32):
them that, at least initially,money isn't going to be the reason they
create their podcast, what kind ofadvice would you give them? You know,
you have to be doing this foryour own intrinsic reasons, like you
want to provide value, you wantan outlet for your feelings or emotions,
depending on what kind of podcast I'mreally big into teaching, I don't know
what I actually would call it,but more like a heritage or legacy type
(16:52):
of podcast. And what I meanby that is the podcast you're actually doing
it not for the mass of strangers. What you're doing it for your own
family. So your interviewing your grandpa, your grandpa, your great aunt,
granduncle, and you're capturing their storiesin a longevity form like we can come
back if someone were to interview metoday about my history, my grandkids,
or my great grandkids who may nevermeet me will get to hear from me.
(17:15):
Hey, here's how I grew upin the nineteen eighties, and here's
what I was doing when I firsthad children in the twenty tens. There
certainly is an appeal to maybe creatingaudio content just for the consumption of your
family, and you never know theremight be someone out there who also thinks
your family's pretty interesting. So isyour position that if somebody wants to start
(17:37):
a podcast that they should do it, or would you say that the work
it takes to be successful just makesthe barrier to entry too hard. If
someone were to come to you,Greg and say, hey, should should
I start a Twitter account? Youwould probably say, yeah, sure,
what's the harm? Do it?Well? Who cares if you don't post
anything, or if you'd post thewrong thing, you'd do it whatever.
Yeah, do it's a big deal. That is my attitude towards podcasting,
(18:02):
Like, should I start a podcasting? Absolutely? Do it? Figure it
out. You'll learn, you'll getbetter just in your own life, just
from learning and doing a new thing, which I'm a big believer in.
So it's like, yeah, doit. Figure out whatever topic you want
to do, maybe you want totalk about being a parent, or maybe
you want to talk about bicycling orwhatever you want to do. In today's
world, you can find something thatyou're passionate about. There are other people
that are passionate with you. Idefinitely think it's true that you can find
(18:25):
a group of people that likes justabout any one thing. Now, let's
say there's a podcaster who has foundtheir thing to talk about, and they've
been grinding a way at their podcastfor a little while and they just want
to grow, and they think,maybe I'll just buy that new microphone.
If I sound a little bit better, maybe people will love my show.
(18:47):
Bring it back to that microphone.It's a great circle back there. That
would be my biggest piece of advice. If you're grinding along, I love
that term. You use their gregand you think, you know, how
can I jump from one hundred toa thousand. It's like, you know
what, there's this new microphone,the blue yetis and all this stuff.
It's like, if I buy that, that'll do it. And it's like,
man, your audio can be perfect. You can go to a professional
(19:08):
studio all you want. If thevalue if what you're giving out isn't of
value to others. It doesn't matter, literally does not matter. A brand
new mic, a brand new video, whatever, is not going to do
it if the value you're creating isn'tvaluable. Well, you've given such great
advice throughout this whole interview. Isthere anything that you're struggling with on track
(19:32):
and field connections? Yeah, youknow it's the editing side, like how
do we who's going to come alongand maybe it's out there and you can
point me in the right direction,but how do we figure out how to
edit our audio so it is better? I mean, that is an important
aspect, but not spend days doingit. Right. If somehow there's a
(19:52):
little machine that you feed your audiofile in and it spits it out perfect,
man's that person's going to be richbecause I actually that would be something
I would pay for on our podcast. Well, if you have any advice
for Mike, leave a comment onwhatever platform it is you're listening to this
podcast on, or you can hitMike and I up on Twitter speaking to
that. Mike, how does everyonefind you? My name is Mike Cunningham.
(20:17):
My Twitter is at Mike Cunningham,So no spaces, dashes, all
that kind of stuff. Just spellmy name and I put my money where
my mouth is. You connect withme on Twitter and send me a message.
I actually respond. It's a socialnetwork for me, so it's no
different than sending me a text messageif you will. So that's the best
place is through Twitter. Mike,thank you so much for being on the
(20:37):
show. I know I received tremendousvalue from our conversation and I know our
listeners will too. Thanks. Iappreciate you, maam. Thank you so
much to Mike Cunningham, host ofthe Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections podcast.
I'll put all the links to Trackand Field Connections, plus everything that
we talked about on today's show downin the show notes below, So if
anything sounds interesting to you, youcan check it out there. If you're
(21:00):
an indie podcaster, you should checkout Indie drop in dot com. Forward
slash creators for a chance to befeatured on one of Indie drop in shows
for free. And if you madeit this far in the podcast, go
ahead and hit subscribe. And ifyou found this information valuable, forward it
to one podcaster who also might findit valuable. I'm sure they would appreciate
(21:21):
it, and I know I would. Thanks again for listening to podcast creators
by Indie drop In Network. Seeyou next time.
Value may be one of the mostimportant concepts in podcasting that you must master
if you want to be successful.Welcome to Podcast Creators, a show where
we get podcasting advice from real podcasters. On the show today we have Mike
Cunningham, host of the Gill AthleticsTrack and Field Connections podcast. Mike walks
(00:22):
us through what the value of hispodcast is to both the company and to
his guests. This interview was recordedon Riverside FM, so if you like
the way this sounds, we'll putan affiliate link down in the show notes
below. We'll also put links toTrack and Field Connections and everything we talk
about in today's episode down in theshow notes below. All right, let's
(00:45):
get to it. Mike, thankyou so much for coming on Podcast Creators
and sharing a little bit of yourwisdom with the community. How are you
today, sir, I'm awesome,man, Greg, thank you so much
for having me. Is Track andField Connections your first podcast. I'm actually
on my third iteration of podcast,and this one is through our company here,
(01:07):
Gil Athletics. So this is thefirst corporate podcast. The other two
have been kind of personal passion projects. They actually were so that I can
learn how to podcast, so Icould do it for work. Well,
now that you've experimented and you've learnedon your own podcasts, when you started
Track and Field connections, what wereyou trying to accomplish? It's really about
kind of three things, marketing,bizdev and giving value back to our customers.
(01:32):
Well, there's all sorts of waysto do a corporate podcast where you
can talk about your products or servicesor where you fit in the community.
But you're an interview show where youtalk to coaches. What is it that
you talk to coaches about? Wereally kind of do the bio of the
coach, so we talk about whenthey first got into Track, their different
coaching stops, their mentors, thingslike that. That sounds like it could
(01:55):
take some time. What we dois we do very long form. Probably
we average an hour and thirty andwe've gone as high as like three hours.
Wow, that's quite the commitment.So let's talk about some of the
technical details of your podcast. Wheredo you host your podcast? And so
when I first started, you know, I found anchor. I think everybody
(02:15):
had a you know, a tonof podcasts are done through anchors. Hopefully
everybody knows anchor and found it becauseit was free and it was simple,
and that was all I needed.I could use my phone. So that's
how I first started. So,you know, the first podcast that I
ever did you know the audio?I mean, it is terrible. You're
doing it through the phone, andyou know, there's a lot of hangups
and stuff like that. If you'relooking in any of the social media groups,
(02:37):
Anchor seems to be a very controversialchoice. Is anchor doing everything that
you need it to do? Doyou like using anchor? I do you
know? As again, you knowyou can read everything out there and how
good or bad anchor is. Wehave been one hundred percent set aside with
what they provide for free, that'sawesome. Maybe we can get into what
(02:58):
equipment you use to record track andfield connections. We created a little mini
studio here at work, so Ido have, you know, the acoustic
paneling and all that kind of goodstuff. I went out and found honestly,
kind of the I don't know ifit was the cheapest package I could
find on Amazon, but I foundI think it was for two hundred dollars.
I found a company called Rockville.It's probably a private label. It's
(03:20):
probably you know, just to everybodyhas probably the same mic on this level
of cost. But it was apackage that worked for me, right,
So it had two mics, hadall the you know, the windscreens and
the pop filters and the boom arms, the headphones and the mixer, and
so that's what I use. Iuse Rockville. It's not the greatest equality,
but it works. It works.That's kind of the basic line.
(03:44):
It actually sounds really good. AndI'll put all the links to all this
equipment down in the show notes below. But the microphone is a Rockville RMC
da XLR. The headphones is aRockville Pro dash M fifty, the mixer
a Rockville rock mix too, andthen you have mic stands and pop filters
which are Rockville RTM S twenty one. As I said, I'll put all
(04:08):
this in the show notes. Now, you could have bought something a little
bit higher quality or at least alittle bit more expensive. Why is it
that you chose Rockville. I'm areal in the dirt kind of guy,
right, So, like I don'tget hung up on it has to be
perfect to get going. A verylow cost setup or a down and dirty
(04:30):
setup as you say, has servedtrack and field connections pretty well. Would
you recommend other podcast creators by lowcost equipment or should they get that microphone
that they've always wanted. You know, my fear is that people don't get
into podcasting because they think, oh, well, I have to spend eight
hundred to a thousand dollars. Andcertainly, you know, there's a little
(04:51):
bit of the addict of you getwhat you pay for, so certainly there's
higher quality and maybe this thing isgonna go. I've had it for a
little bit over probably a year now. Maybe it's gonna bunk out of me
in a year, you know,after a year. But but yeah,
I'll pay another two undre bucks ornot even because I'll just need the mic.
Well, even though you have allof the Rockville equipment, you have
to record these interviews somehow, whatdo you use for that? We record
(05:13):
through Zoom and as we wanted toget into more than one guest on at
a time, so we've done somewhere, we've interviewed the entire staff. At
the same time, you do haveto pay for that next level up in
Zoom to get that. Okay,so you have the meeting on Zoom.
I'm assuming you get all of therecordings from Zoom separately, and then you
do, what how do you editthem? You know, down and dirty.
(05:35):
You're gonna hear that term all throughthis podcast. You know, there's
a whole subculture of the editing sideof podcast. I don't spend a lot
of time. I used to takeour audio from the Zoom and put it
through Audacity and do a couple offilters through there. That just takes time.
I literally take that audio file dropit straight into anchor. I do
(05:58):
have a pre recorded intro and withschedule it to post. So the hours
that I spend on it is reallythe interview itself. It's about getting to
know my guest, in building thatrelationship and that link there. So you
know, two hours a week,depending on how many interviews I do in
a week. You're right about thissubculture. I mean, there are people
who believe if you edit your podcastthat it's fake or somehow not reality.
(06:23):
I am a big fan of editing. I think editing is art and it's
part of the style that I like. Is there a style that you kind
of model your show after? Iwas this past tense now a fan of
the Joe Rogan experience. Like Iliked his style. I like the long
form. You really got into alot of stories and tangents. I liked
his you know, interview style,and so that's kind of where I mimicked
(06:46):
that style off of. But Ido wish I could take, you know,
a two hour audio and put itdown into like a narration form to
where you know, I'm post editing. I'm saying, like, you know,
hey, coach really brought up agood point about the new nil here's
what he had to say. ThenI run it. So I'm cutting out
a lot of periphery. If youwill, I I just don't have time.
If you're a full time podcaster ata boy, that's exactly what you
(07:06):
should maybe be doing for your style. But for me, I've got you
know, when I recorded to ourpodcast during work, I've got five phone
calls that I've missed in about twentyemails that I've missed back in my office,
and I've got to get it done. So I just kind of forego
that side and non apologetically just getthe content out there and provide the value
to our listeners. Well, Iguess that leads us to the biggest question,
(07:29):
is it working what kind of downloadnumbers does Track and Field Connections get.
Yeah, so we've been doing thissince January twenty and marketing that since
April of twenty and we're at fiftytwo thousand downloads, so monthly we're probably
at about two to three thousand.Depends a lot on the guests. If
it's a quote unquote big name,it gets more obviously, but so yeah,
(07:50):
i'd say about two two to threethousand a month. Two to three
thousand downloads a month is well abovewhat the average podcaster receives. So that's
amazing work. Can you remember backto the beginning when you launched Track and
Field Connections, What did your firstfew months of downloads look like? Yeah,
a little skewed. So from Januarythrough the end of March, I
(08:13):
published but didn't publicize at all.I would yeah, I would have done
it a little differently, but Ididn't tell the company, right, So
it's just kind of like, let'ssee just what organically happens, and of
course organically nothing happened. You know, the guests would know they're published,
so they would tell their friends andfamily, so you know, it was
in the if I got fifty soI was like, whoa, hey,
that's pretty cool, right. Andthen as we started, I started doing
(08:37):
on my personal social and I coppedup to the bosses that, hey,
man, this has been going on. So we started doing it through our
you know, our corporate social mediaand stuff like that. Uh, you
know, certainly it took off andyou know, probably the lower end of
our episodes or in the few hundreds, and then we'll have you know,
we'll have a pop out star thatI'll go you know, six hundred,
seven hundred, eight hundred pretty prettyquickly. Since didn't tell the company you
(09:01):
were starting a podcast, you obviouslydidn't have a marketing strategy when you started,
But did you create a podcast launchplan or anything like that? I
wish I did. I wish Iwas that smart and that uh coach you
know, intelligence to do things likethat. And I think you should because
it'll help you not make as maybemany mistakes as I did. So I
was. I didn't tell anybody atwork. I didn't tell my bosses.
I just said, Okay, I'mgonna do it. And then it was
(09:22):
about, well, who's going tobe the first get like who? You
know? Nope, no one wasdoing this in our space When I went
to go ask my first coach,Hey, here's this crazy idea I've got
going on, would you like tobe our guest? It was a little
little nerve wracking because it was sofar. It's like, what are you
doing? Like, you're the guywho sells me my shot puts, why
are you trying to interview me?But as we know, kept doing it
(09:43):
and stayed consistent with it. Andthen as the pandemic hit, I mean,
coaches were starting so many podcasts inour area and track and field got
started, it almost became like ifyou're not on a part on a podcast,
you even coach. This kind ofhow it started going. Did you
reach out to coaches that you knowor did you reach out to coaches that
you wanted to get to know?The guests are kind of a half and
(10:05):
half mixed. Some of them.Half of them are coaches that I like,
I actually know, like I eitherI've known them maybe for upwards of
twenty years at this point. Andthen other coaches are honestly people I have
never met at all. I knownothing about them, but maybe they coach
at such and such school. Sincecoaches are your main target and this is
a corporate podcast. Does interviewing themresult in future sales? What I've seen
(10:28):
through you know, one hundred pluscoaches now is both sides, the ones
that I know real well and theones I have no idea about. When
we're done with this interview, whichyou know takes two hours no matter what,
for a pre and post interview andthat kind of stuff, we're connected.
I mean, it's a it's analmost an almost batting a thousand percent
almost betting all the way on thisthat after an interview happens, we'll get
(10:52):
business from that coach. Okay,this makes total sense to me. The
value GIL Athletics gets from track andfield connections is once you've interviewed the coach,
their likelihood to buy is pretty certain. But what kind of value does
the coach get out of coming ontoyour show? It's both intrinsic and extrinsic,
right, So intrinsically, I've hada lot of coaches. When we're
(11:13):
done, they're like, man,that was a lot of fun to relive
these stories. Right, They've lived, you know, they coached twenty thirty
years, had a lot of greatexperiences, and sometimes because the day to
day coaching, they don't get tothink about the great teams they had ten
years ago, or the experiences.So some of its intrinsically, just like,
man, I had a good time, like this was cool to kind
of give my story out there.Extrinsically, it's a little bit of ego,
(11:35):
right, It's like, oh seeI was on the Gill podcast.
We're the world's largest track equipment manufacturer. So egotistically, I want to say
we're a big deal in that sense. But there's a little bit of like,
oh, man, Gil Gil putme on. They thought enough of
me to have me on the show. There's thousands of coaches. I only
get fifty two coaches a year.Now, that's a pretty select group.
Well, I think there's a lotof truth to that, because you could
choose probably any coach that you want, and you specifically ask them to come
(11:58):
on the show. Do you knowif these coaches use your podcast to enhance
their personal brands. I have heardfeedback from coaches who have been on the
show. They've used it for recruiting, They've sent it to other high school
coaches, etc. For college,they've sent it to their alumni. They're
like, hey, here's who's leadingyour program By the way, we're also
fundraising, so they use it inthat sense. So and I've heard of
coaches who have utilized it in regardsto their own recruitment of finding other jobs,
(12:22):
like ads who have said, Hey, I heard you on that podcast,
and you expressed some values that weactually really care about here, so
you know, we're looking for anew coach. Wow, it sounds like
both the coaches and GIL athletics geta tone of value from track and field
connections. Now, would you recommendthat all companies create a podcast? Surely
there's value there. I wanted toautomatically say yes. I think I would
(12:46):
actually say no. If you're goingto do a podcast, you know,
my counsel would be that if you'renot going to put it out in some
kind of regularity, then don't doit. If it's just going to be
hodgepodge, you know, we doit on January one and then March fifteenth,
and then you're not going to buildingup any kind of listenership that you're
going to really drive the engine everytime you publish that episode. Some companies
might be nervous about the commitment ofpodcast takes. I mean, do they
(13:09):
have to produce content every single week. You don't have to do it weekly.
It could be bi weekly. Itliterally could be monthly. That also
would work. It's as long asyou're on the same kind of cadence and
you know that you're doing it togive value to listeners, not to do
it as a commercial. There's otheraspects for commercials type of marketing. I
don't think podcasts are it. Ithink that's really great advice. Consistency is
(13:33):
key in just about anything that youdo in life. Now, maybe we
can switch gears. You actually teacha college course on podcasting. How did
that start? Life got real goodfor me when I started giving value to
as many people as possible with zeroexpectation of return in our space, at
least in the check and field market. I kind of feel like I led
(13:54):
the way for podcasting. So Iwas the first one to start, and
then we had so many that youknow, blew up and started doing themselves,
and so I did everything I couldto help them. So that led
me to actually write an article onLinkedIn kind of a again, you know,
down and dirty. You want tostart a podcast, man, I
can get you up in ten minutes. And then it's interesting how things just
(14:15):
kind of happen. A friend ofmy wife's, a friend of a friend
of my wife's works for a communitycollege up in the Chicago area actually called
Triton Community College, and they werelooking for someone to teach and intro to
podcasting class. So I reached outto this school and I was like,
there's no way. I mean,they're in Chicagos. There's a lot of
people and a lot of podcasters,right, But I was like, maybe,
(14:35):
you know, if it all fallsthrough, maybe they'll have me do
it. And I interviewed with thedean of the continue Education and I got
it. You know, you know, sometimes you get desperate, you pick
people out of a hat. Iguess. So the spring was our first
semester at twelve week course where wedo it all through Zoom and let's intro
to podcasting. Well, I thinkanyone that's made it this far in the
podcast will agree that I doubt theypicked your name out of a hat.
(14:58):
When the students show up to yourclass, they're obviously trying to learn podcasting,
but have you noticed any commonalities withthe questions or things that they want
to know? A lot of themare coming to the course looking for that
pill that magic pill. We feellike, hey, if I put out
this podcast and I tweet it onInstagram and Facebook, it I should get
(15:18):
whatever you think successes thousands of downloadsper episode, and so a lot of
people are looking for that. Howdo how do I make this a thousand
download episode podcast? And I'm afraidthe answer is what they don't. It's
not there's no magic pill. It'sit's give value. To make sure your
value is good that people you're providingsomething for people to come back to every
week or every episode. And thentoo, it's it's longevity. It's doing
(15:43):
it over and over and over andbuilding that base one listener at a time,
almost as you build up to whateveryou deem as success. So that's
what a lot of people are doing. And then the other half is,
um, I have no clue.It just sounds like a cool thing,
So teach me how to podcast?Yeah, I don't know. If there's
like this glut of podcasters who havecreated podcasts and spontaneously become rich. There
(16:07):
is this weird culture around podcasting wherehalf of them think they're never going to
charge money for it, and theother half think that they're going to get
rich instantly. There's very few whorealize that it's a grind until you make
it, if you ever do.When I teach this class, like I
talked to him, is like,you know, first of all, let's
just slay the expectation. You're notgoing to get rich off of this.
So if that's your expectation, justthe wrong class. So if you tell
(16:32):
them that, at least initially,money isn't going to be the reason they
create their podcast, what kind ofadvice would you give them? You know,
you have to be doing this foryour own intrinsic reasons, like you
want to provide value, you wantan outlet for your feelings or emotions,
depending on what kind of podcast I'mreally big into teaching, I don't know
what I actually would call it,but more like a heritage or legacy type
(16:52):
of podcast. And what I meanby that is the podcast you're actually doing
it not for the mass of strangers. What you're doing it for your own
family. So your interviewing your grandpa, your grandpa, your great aunt,
granduncle, and you're capturing their storiesin a longevity form like we can come
back if someone were to interview metoday about my history, my grandkids,
or my great grandkids who may nevermeet me will get to hear from me.
(17:15):
Hey, here's how I grew upin the nineteen eighties, and here's
what I was doing when I firsthad children in the twenty tens. There
certainly is an appeal to maybe creatingaudio content just for the consumption of your
family, and you never know theremight be someone out there who also thinks
your family's pretty interesting. So isyour position that if somebody wants to start
(17:37):
a podcast that they should do it, or would you say that the work
it takes to be successful just makesthe barrier to entry too hard. If
someone were to come to you,Greg and say, hey, should should
I start a Twitter account? Youwould probably say, yeah, sure,
what's the harm? Do it?Well? Who cares if you don't post
anything, or if you'd post thewrong thing, you'd do it whatever.
Yeah, do it's a big deal. That is my attitude towards podcasting,
(18:02):
Like, should I start a podcasting? Absolutely? Do it? Figure it
out. You'll learn, you'll getbetter just in your own life, just
from learning and doing a new thing, which I'm a big believer in.
So it's like, yeah, doit. Figure out whatever topic you want
to do, maybe you want totalk about being a parent, or maybe
you want to talk about bicycling orwhatever you want to do. In today's
world, you can find something thatyou're passionate about. There are other people
that are passionate with you. Idefinitely think it's true that you can find
(18:25):
a group of people that likes justabout any one thing. Now, let's
say there's a podcaster who has foundtheir thing to talk about, and they've
been grinding a way at their podcastfor a little while and they just want
to grow, and they think,maybe I'll just buy that new microphone.
If I sound a little bit better, maybe people will love my show.
(18:47):
Bring it back to that microphone.It's a great circle back there. That
would be my biggest piece of advice. If you're grinding along, I love
that term. You use their gregand you think, you know, how
can I jump from one hundred toa thousand. It's like, you know
what, there's this new microphone,the blue yetis and all this stuff.
It's like, if I buy that, that'll do it. And it's like,
man, your audio can be perfect. You can go to a professional
(19:08):
studio all you want. If thevalue if what you're giving out isn't of
value to others. It doesn't matter, literally does not matter. A brand
new mic, a brand new video, whatever, is not going to do
it if the value you're creating isn'tvaluable. Well, you've given such great
advice throughout this whole interview. Isthere anything that you're struggling with on track
(19:32):
and field connections? Yeah, youknow it's the editing side, like how
do we who's going to come alongand maybe it's out there and you can
point me in the right direction,but how do we figure out how to
edit our audio so it is better? I mean, that is an important
aspect, but not spend days doingit. Right. If somehow there's a
(19:52):
little machine that you feed your audiofile in and it spits it out perfect,
man's that person's going to be richbecause I actually that would be something
I would pay for on our podcast. Well, if you have any advice
for Mike, leave a comment onwhatever platform it is you're listening to this
podcast on, or you can hitMike and I up on Twitter speaking to
that. Mike, how does everyonefind you? My name is Mike Cunningham.
(20:17):
My Twitter is at Mike Cunningham,So no spaces, dashes, all
that kind of stuff. Just spellmy name and I put my money where
my mouth is. You connect withme on Twitter and send me a message.
I actually respond. It's a socialnetwork for me, so it's no
different than sending me a text messageif you will. So that's the best
place is through Twitter. Mike,thank you so much for being on the
(20:37):
show. I know I received tremendousvalue from our conversation and I know our
listeners will too. Thanks. Iappreciate you, maam. Thank you so
much to Mike Cunningham, host ofthe Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections podcast.
I'll put all the links to Trackand Field Connections, plus everything that
we talked about on today's show downin the show notes below, So if
anything sounds interesting to you, youcan check it out there. If you're
(21:00):
an indie podcaster, you should checkout Indie drop in dot com. Forward
slash creators for a chance to befeatured on one of Indie drop in shows
for free. And if you madeit this far in the podcast, go
ahead and hit subscribe. And ifyou found this information valuable, forward it
to one podcaster who also might findit valuable. I'm sure they would appreciate
(21:21):
it, and I know I would. Thanks again for listening to podcast creators
by Indie drop In Network. Seeyou next time.
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