A nostalgia based banter podcast between two best friends. We curate drinks to match the topic discussed.

Hello, my name is Zach, and together with my friend Kris, we cohost the podcast Gin and Sofa. A little bit about my background, I am a Navy vet, having recently gotten out of the service after 10 years. My family is from Pittsburgh, PA and I like to claim that as my second home, however, I have spent the better part of the last 30 years living in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia. This podcast is a little bit of a combination of cocktail creating (and reviewing) with some nostalgia-based bantering. We enjoy reminiscing on our childhood memories that everyone somehow endures, such as the toys, video games, and movies we grew up watching, and we use that as topics for the podcast. The main goal is to have this podcast feel like you are just hanging out with friends and having fun. Our listeners are currently mostly close friends of Kris and I, however, we have slowly been growing with the demographic being in the 25-35 male area. If you are a self-appointed "nerd" or just a fan of nostalgia, cocktails, and movies, you'll be a fan of Gin and Sofa
 

Podcasting is an excellent outlet for me. It's been a fantastic opportunity to express my ideas and opinions. I started listening to more podcasts back in 2020 when Covid unfortunately hit. Initially my goal and motivation in starting Gin and Sofa was to just have a place to express myself and honestly, just to have fun. I felt that my conversations had with my friends were always outlandish yet humorous and I wanted a way for everyone in the world to share our experience. We started Gin and Sofa officially in March 2022, yet we had started recording and having trial runs dating all the way back to the summer of 2021. So, from the day we bought our first microphones to the day we released our first episodes, about 8 months had passed.
 

We release episodes weekly and try to release them on Monday. We have gotten better and our recording which has led to a much lower amount of time required to edit the episodes, so only a couple hours a week is needed to comb through the episode. We both do have regular day jobs and have similar schedules of Monday-Friday. So, in order to have time to record our episodes, we try to set aside at least one weekend a month and aim to record about 4 episodes worth of content. Gin and Sofa is completely self-funded. We spend about 30-50 dollars/month to maintiain and host the podcast, this doesnt include money spent on hardware and outfitting of the studio, which we spent about 500 dollars on.
 

We currently do not have any sponsorship, although we would definitely love to have some! We also currently don't create any revenue. While we havent gained our first sponsor yet, we have about 250 downloads/month. We have currently been trying to focus on creating content and growing our audience and hope that the sponsorships we naturally find us. Podcasting has helped us find fellow podcasters out there and taught me how many more people are out there with the same ideas and vision as myself.
 

We record our episodes using Garageband on my Mac. Our microphones are currently JLab Talk Go. Currently our guests are only friends of us and people we know, we are trying to branch out and diversify our guest list. Since our guest are close friends, we only do in person interviews. Most of our episodes have a general idea or topic to go on, but is usually very unscripted with the idea of going with the flow of the conversation.
 

Listeners can find our show on any of the major podcast platforms, such as iTunes, Spotify, Google podcasts, etc. We are currently hosted by Buzzsprout and they provide a breakdown of which platforms the episodes were downloaded from. We are also available on all the social media apps, including Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. On Instagram we try to update frequently to keep our followers aware of when a new episode is available and a post to include recipes of the drinks we make for it. I have found that Instagram has been the most useful in us gaining awareness and new listeners.
 

The biggest thing I've learned from podcasting is to focus on the quality of your content and on having fun with it. I genuinely enjoy doing this, and podcasting has given something fun to look forward to our recording sessions. I've learned that most podcasts that fail are due to the host finding out that 6 months in, they haven't made money yet, or aren't famous yet. That is a fatal flaw that I have learned to avoid and its helped me actually enjoy the product that we put out. The best resource I've found to help with podcasting is actually fellow podcasters. We've all started from scratch at some point and the community is one of the most supporting I've found, we all want to help each other succeed.
 

Here are all the links for Gin and Sofa.
Website: https://ginandsofa.com/
Instagram: @ginandsofapodcast
Twitter: @Ginandsofapod
TikTok: @gin_and_sofa_podcast
Youtube: @ginandsofapodcast
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/gin-sofa/id1611345055
Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/4xIQ1cSyzFI76N3a9Ggw5n?si=7a0a76585d2641fd
Patreon: ginandsofapod
Merch: https://GinandSofa.threadless.com/