A podcast for Navy Sports fans that focuses on the teams that compete in the 33 different sports at the U.S. Naval Academy.

I am a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a 20 year Navy veteran. I'm also a HUGE Navy sports fan.

This podcast covers the different varsity sports at the U.S. Naval Academy. I've also featured some of the very popular club sports that compete nationally. I make it a point to also focus on sports that fans don't often hear about, such as rowing, track & field, and lacrosse. The men and women who compete in sports at the Naval Academy are truly unique. They perform at an extremely high level and will later go on to serve their country. I started this podcast not just to talk about Navy sports, but to also bring some exposure to a group of terrific athletes that much of the country knows very little about.

My listeners are primarily Navy sports fans. Recent polling information has shown that 50% of my audience graduated from the Naval Academy, 32% are just big Navy sports fans, whether they served in the Navy or not, and 18% are either the parent of a Midshipman (either currently at the Academy or recently graduated), or they had a close friend or relative who attended. I manage a private group Facebook page that has 700 members. This is where I stay connected with them on a daily basis. In addition, I also publish written features on my blog. It's called Navy Sports Nation. I actually started it two years ago. My priority right now is the podcast since I am just a one person operation. But for features that lend themselves more to being written, I use the blog for those.

I decided to try doing this podcast as a hobby. When I was in high school, I liked listening to local sports talk shows on the radio. I even called in to ask questions or make a comment. The idea of actually hosting such a show or something similar to it sounded like a lot of fun to me even back then. Now that I have more time, I figured I would give it a shot.

This is just a hobby for me. I'm doing it for my own enjoyment. I was encouraged by several of my classmates to start my blog, and the podcast just seemed to be a natural extension of that.

I started the Navy Sports Central podcast in February 2021. That was when I released the trailer.

The initial idea to do a podcast first came to me in December of 2020. It took me about 6 weeks to get through some on line courses that I felt were necessary. Then I spent another 3 weeks researching and buying equipment, recording software, etc. Finally, it took me about 10 days to research and produce the content for my first full episode.
 

I release an episode about every two weeks. The time it takes me to produce one usually varies depending on the content. My episodes average about 40 minutes in length. I try to have a guest on at least every other episode, and I'm trying to bump that up this year (every 2 out of 3). It's tough for me to give you the exact amount of time it takes for me to put together an episode from inception to the time it is published because I take a lot of breaks. Basically, I could be more efficient with my time, but that's a choice. However, if I had to guess I would say it takes me about a couple hours to script and record an episode plus another 5-6 edit it. I know that may seem a little long, but I'm pretty OCD about the quality of the audio. I know I can't get it perfect, but there's no harm in trying. Again, that's the choice that I make.

As far as finding the time, it isn't too hard these days. I am semi-retired and only work 2-3 days a week. My schedule is pretty flexible too.

My hosting fees work out to about $216 annually (billed at $18 per month). The remote recording service is $110 per year. I currently don't pay to market the podcast since it is just a hobby. I rely on word of mouth and all my social media platforms. As far as the costs go, I cover them all. But I do have a "donate" button on my page and have managed to pull in a few small donations from listeners.
 

Right now, I don't have any sponsors and don't share revenue. To be honest, I don't know that I would ever hit the critical mass necessary in terms of the number of downloads to even start thinking about this. My niche is pretty specific. I would have to generate a significantly higher number of downloads per episode before sponsorship would become a consideration.

I personally benefit from podcasting from learning more about the process, and generating new content that my listeners might find interesting. That's what I get out of it. And at this point in time, that's good enough for me.
 

My hosting service is Buzzsprout. I use Squadcast for my remote interviews and Hindenburg Journalist Pro to edit each episode. My microphone is an Audio Technica ATR2100x. I've found one guest through Podmatch. I've made requests directly and through the Navy Sports Information office. Many of my guests are friends that I went to school with who exceled in their respective sports while they were at the Academy. Those are the most fun conversations for me since we know each other so well. But I have also interviewed coaches and current athletes.

After I get an idea, I start with a general outline of the content. If I plan to have a guest, I will create the questions and send them over a few days in advance. My side (whether I have a guest or not) is pretty heavily scripted. This works better for me because if I see the words in front of me, I can make it sound very conversational. I'm trying to get to where I can do that using just bullet points. After that's all done, I move on to recording the episode. After I do the guest recording, I will add my other segments to the front and back end. For solo episodes, I tend to record and edit as I go by segment.

All of my interviews have been done remotely using Squadcast.
 

I am listed on just about every podcast directory that is out there right now. When I publish a new episode, 33% find it through Apple Podcasts or another Apple related app, 24% use the link to my podcast page, 7% go through Spotify, 6% have found it through their web browser, and 5% get it through Facebook. The rest of the smaller directories make up the other acquistion sources.

To market the podcast, social media has worked best for me. Buzzsprout also has a feature where you can create a sound byte up t one minute long that I use to post on FB, IG, and Twitter. That seems to be working out pretty well for me right now.
 

The first piece of advice is to just do it for your own enjoyment. If the expectation is to earn enough of a living to support yourself, you may want to rethink that. I'm not saying it can't be done. But everything I've seen tells me that it is a pretty decent grind. I don't have any aspirations of my podcast making me any money, just like I don't expect to earn any revenue from my other hobbies like reading, playing chess or taking pictures. But if I ever get to the point where the donations or any affiliate marketing opportunities wind up covering my annual hosting and recording fees, that would be cool.

Regarding helpful resources, I like Buzzsprout's group Facebook page. It is very well moderated, and people share great advice on a regular basis. They also have a great podcast that keeps me up to date on what's going on in the industry. Pat Flynn as some excellent videos on YouTube as well. He has a full blown podcast course also. I did not go through it, but it's gotten some really good reviews. He's really easy to listen to also.
 

Here are my links:
-Podcast Webpage: https://navysportscentral.buzzsprout.com The "Donate" button is a heart icon in the top right corner of the main page. You can also find it in the show notes for each individual episode. I don't use PayPal though. The Cash App has worked pretty well for me.
-Blog Webpage: https://navysportsnation.com. The podcast can be accessed through the embedded player on the right side of the page.
-Facebook; https://facebook.com/navysportsnation. This is my company page where my podcast gets published. I also have a private Facebook group.
- My Twitter handle is @naVsportsnation. I upload links to the latest episodes here as well as the audio sound bytes I mentioned.
- I can be found on Instagam @navysportsnation.
Finally, I know that a from a marketing standpoint, it may not be optimal to have a blog and a podcast with different names. But when I created the blog, I hadn't really considered a podcast yet. And when I did finally develop the idea, I felt I needed to distinguish the two. I wasn't crazy about naming the podcast "The Navy Sports Nation Podcast", so I eventually settled on Navy Sports Central, using the subtitle "The Offical Podcast of the Navy Sports Nation" in the description.