A must listen Podcast for every College Baseball Coach - Focused on Recruiting Uncommitted Prospects

I'm Allen Gay of Now_d1(a Baseball Recruiting Facilitator) and Now_d1 Speaks(a podcast focused on uncommitted high school baseball prospects). I'm a father of a baseball son who went through the recruiting process several years ago. Through that process I learned just how hard it is to be recruited in baseball so I decided to help other young men in their journey and developed this platform of Now_d1 and Now_d1 Speaks.

The Now_d1 Speaks Show is a podcast for uncommitted high school and junior college baseball prospects to be heard. The world of recruiting is filled with videos and stats, but the Now_d1 Speaks podcast gives young men a voice. Here they can talk about their accomplishments both on the field as well as off, highlighting such things as GPA, honors programs, dual-enrollment college courses and extracurricular activities.

Our core listeners are college coaches looking to expand their recruiting boards. We also cater to other uncommitted prospects, their teammates, families and current coaches.
 

I started the podcast to give a voice to uncommitted high school baseball prospects as well as giving college coaches an opportunity to hear from prospects that might not know otherwise. In addition, the podcast allows coaches to listen at their leisure.

I've had a twitter account for sometime, @Now_d1, with over ~18,000 followers. So just thinking of ways to help recruits, I thought it would be a nice compliment to offer a podcast. I enjoy the format podcasts provide and thought generally it would be fun!

Initially I just hoped I would be able to book one guest and then would be able to figure out how to publish the podcast, haha. I was able to accomplish both and the show is still very new having started the podcast about a month ago.

I did my first podcast as a Twitter Space. I just recorded the Space, downloaded and converted it into an MP3. That allowed me to upload on my Substack account. And with that a podcast show was born!
 

Now_d1 Speaks is live Monday through Thursday at 9pm EST on Twitter Spaces. The show has been booked every night since the first of May. In addition, we have done a handful of Fun Fridays, which include some of the best known names in baseball. The great thing about Twitter and Substack is that both are free, no funding needed!

Since the show is recorded live on Twitter, the publishing days are the following morning. Essentially a new podcast is released Tuesday through Friday with an occasional Saturday release. The beauty of doing a 9pm show is it allows me to continue my consulting job during the day. Again, its worth repeating Twitter and Substack are free, no funding necessary.
 

Podcasting is fulfilling in its own right but it's a perfect offering to my consulting position. It gives Now_d1 one more offering that is part of an overall attractive portfolio. Now_d1 partners with a national recruiting service, posts written articles related to recruiting, offers affiliate discounts through companies that have partnered with Now_d1, publishes a podcast, runs a social media platform and is an overall social media influencer
 

Now_d1 Speaks uses only a phone and computer. The phone for live interviewing on Twitter Spaces and a computer for small edits as well as converting to MP3, I recommend the Audacity program. The uploads are to Substack for publishing. The whole process takes about an hour and half which includes the interview through publishing. Very efficient!

My guests come from the 18,000+ followers on Twitter, my website, listeners of Twitter Space, subscribers of the podcast and word of mouth. I use a Google interest form doc, that potential prospects complete as well as Calendly to present and book available dates. Once a guest is booked I email them an outline of the show as well as 10 or so questions I like to base our interview around. The day of the show I will call the guest and go over any technical requirements for joining Twitter Spaces and how to accept the co-host invite. That's about it!
 

Now_d1 Speaks is marketed through our Now_d1 website, Twitter (really all social media), Substack; including that website, email subscribers, etc. Also through other podcasters mentioning our show, Feedspot ranking Now_d1 Speaks as a top 15 college baseball podcast for 2023. The most useful channel has been Twitter posts as well as the live Twitter Space which gives me the opportunity to advertise the Podcast

Substack has some limitations but is really good at gathering acquisition sources. It allows me to see which platform has the most listeners and downloads. In order to claim the Now_d1 Speaks podcast I had to manually provide the show's URL and RSS feed to each platform. That was a little time consuming but ultimately it led me to learn more about managing a podcast online. That process also gave me the opportunity to download badges and logos to put on my website including embedding shows. I think at a minimum I have claimed ownership on at least 20 or more platforms.
 

I'm still a new podcaster looking for ways to improve; however, my advice to anyone thinking of doing a podcast is just go for it. I wouldn't spend any money using Twitter and look for a free podcast host. Try it out to get a feel to see if there are opportunities to make money and if there are then you can look to upgrade your equipment, podcast host, etc.
 

I think the best way and one of the simplest ways to connect with me is through Linktree. Includes website, podcast, affiliate links, social links as well as PayPal for Donations $$ - Thank you

I call it Now_d1 Connects https://linktr.ee/now_d1
(Hey ListenNotes can you help me save that Linktree URL as a clickable link, I couldn't figure out how to make it a hyperlink....)