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BONUS: The Podcast About Podcasts – Featuring Athletics LLC · The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast

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  It's bonus time. Here we go.
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  This month in February of 2025, we are doing a podcast about
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  podcast. We want to introduce you to
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  other track and field themed podcasts that are out there that
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  might be great for your listening pleasure.
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  So all month we're introducing a new podcast each and every day,
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  showing you who they are, what they are, how they are, why they
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  got started, and even their favorite episodes and most
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  popular. And hopefully this adds to your
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  podcast listening library. So here we go.
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  Let's get started with today's podcast about podcast.
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  All right, let's get started with this one.
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  So why don't we start with give us an introduction of you, maybe
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  a 30,000 foot level of who you are and the name of your show.
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  My name is Marissa Shu. I am currently the vertical and
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  combined events coach at TCU. I am.
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  I call myself the moderator because I think I am that most
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  more often than not of the show for Athletics LLC.
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  Awesome. And we're, you know, as you guys
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  are watching and listening to these bonus episodes, we're
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  talking about podcasts, this show, The Athletics LLC, a
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  little unique, I don't know. That actually probably describes
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  a lot of the people on the panel that we'll talk about here soon
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  as well. But they're a YouTube show, so
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  not you. You're probably listening to us
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  right now on a podcast app. You're not going to find them
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  there, but you are going to hop over to youtube.com and just
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  search Athletics LLC and it'll pop up there.
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  So let's talk about Athletics LLC and hopefully maybe there's
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  people that are listening right now didn't know your show was
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  going on and they need to be checking out this show.
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  So let's start with what do you focus on?
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  You know, every show's a little different.
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  They focus on the athletes and the track meet.
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  Some focus on coaches. Some focus on the political side
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  of track and field. What does Athletic LLC focus on?
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  So what we focus on is the layer just beneath all of that, you
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  know, a little more on the educational side, not quite like
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  coaches education, but you know, what does it take to hit the
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  standards to get into World Championships?
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  Why is it set that way? What are some of the logistics
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  that you need to be aware of, you know, when you're trying to
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  navigate the international waters, NCAA waters?
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  You know, we don't necessarily go to age group just because of
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  a lot of us on the panel are collegians coaches.
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  So we just try to stay away from recruiting stuff.
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  But things like that, drawing on experiences and just really
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  highlighting the things that the water cooler talk that no one
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  really talks about. So we we do stay away from the
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  chitchat and and the rumors. We try to keep it very factual
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  and if we're not in the bed, we don't talk about it.
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  Well, I like that's a good way of like check yourself if what
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  should we be talking about this and I like that a lot.
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  Talk to us about your style. You talked about you're the
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  moderator. So is this a panel?
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  Is it consistent people who are they?
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  Talk to us about that kind of style of the show.
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  Got it. So we call ourselves the tiles
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  being on Zoom. So we refer, I refer to
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  everybody on the tile, you know, in its first starts, we had
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  coach, Coach Holloway from Florida.
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  Sorry, I don't know why I just drew a blank myself.
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  Charles Ryan from San Jose State and then Chris Huffman, who no
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  longer coaches collegiately but does coach in the pro ranks.
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  When Coach Ryan was having his baby, we called in Coach Cream
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  St. Thompson as his fill in and then
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  he just never went away. And we love it that way.
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  So it's it's been a great addition, you know, in that we
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  do kind of set up as a platform for panelists because we do have
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  guests, for lack of a better way to say it.
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  We kind of do around the horn ish where I, the moderator will
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  bring up topics, help navigate the conversation completely stop
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  the conversation at times or, you know, I sometimes can't hold
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  my tongue and just chime in. So that's where everyone's
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  blessed with my two cents. But you know, that's how we kind
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  of go. The biggest thing that we wanted
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  to make sure that everybody got from the show itself is our
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  experiences. We're not speaking on
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  speculation at all. All of us, if are talking from
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  our experience, and if not, we're really drawing on
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  experiences very close to what we're talking to or talking
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  about. And what's your average length?
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  I know they sometimes can vary, but what's the average length of
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  a show? We try, emphasize, try to keep
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  it about to an hour, hour 15. There is a moment there when
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  we're getting up to two hours. And I was like, all right, I got
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  to ring my own back in. Like we came in, I was writing
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  topics down and I literally had minutes and I would start typing
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  in the chat, like wrap it up, wrap it up.
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  And then we got to stop topics that were really impactful.
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  So I let the conversation slow and then I had a couple people
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  tell us that we're getting along.
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  So like heard, when the audience is saying something, you got to
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  listen. Imagine that a bunch of track
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  guys talking and you go for a long time.
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  That's that's so surprising here.
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  When did you guys start and why did you guys start?
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  What was the motivation behind that?
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  So when how long you guys been going on and what was the
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  original motivation for it? Our first episode aired the
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  third week of April during COVID, so 2020.
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  So we've been in existence for a while now.
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  We're currently in season 5. It's been a minute.
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  It's pretty crazy. None of us thought it would last
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  this long. Not that we didn't want it to,
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  but we just didn't realize it would.
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  We started because Chris Huffins and Mike Holloway and Mouse
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  Holloway did Lucius and Lamar via their phone calls.
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  So as we first started that those were their names.
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  We all have stage names, appropriately stage names.
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  And so that was theirs and that is theirs.
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  We've now evolved to Sir Luscious and Lamar always makes
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  a name up whatever. But they were, you know, on
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  their daily phone calls or weekly phone calls, they were
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  having these assumed characters and they were giving
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  perspectives so they could speak more freely.
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  Not in their own shoes, right? So that's how it started.
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  And that those things started happening 10 years prior to the
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  show. And then so during COVID, we
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  were all so bored that they said, OK, let's do this in life.
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  And then me being who I am, they're like, we need her to
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  make sure we stay inside the ring.
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  And so that evolved into that. And then we need a little bit of
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  controversy. So who else better than Charles
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  Ryan to assume that role? You've been going now for five,
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  going on 6 years. That alone is amazing.
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  By the way, Has it kept its original idea informed
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  throughout like what you guys did?
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  Does season 1 look a lot like season upcoming Season 6?
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  It does, but it doesn't at its root.
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  We always try to keep like educating others or giving
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  everybody knowledge at least in one part of piece of the show.
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  We have evolved because track is evolved.
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  You know, we've added so many different things in the track
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  and field world, coaching, things like that.
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  So we try to hit all pots, make it so that everyone gets what
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  they need entertainment wise as well as you know, in what do
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  they call it? Info, info, educational.
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  Infotainment. Yes.
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  Entertainment. Yeah.
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  So you kept your original motivation of and goal set of
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  what you have been doing. Good love that, you know, in
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  business. So like here at Gil Athletics,
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  we serve a lot of people, you know, moms and dads will buy
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  equipment from us athletic directors, but our ideal
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  customer, like who we think about when we make products,
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  market products, etcetera, our track coaches, high school and
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  college. What is your ideal listener
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  profile? So there's a lot of people that
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  may listen, athletes, coaches, moms, dads, fans, they may
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  listen, but who are you ideally targeted?
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  Who's out there listening right now going, oh wait, that's me,
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  but I should go check this out? So ideally our target audience
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  is coaches of all rings, new senior, everybody in between
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  that, athletes who are transitioning and wanting to
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  know the ropes and trying to figure out how to navigate this
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  thing that we call our passion of crack coaching track and
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  field. And then the novice person who
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  maybe sees the posts on Instagram or sees the little
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  blurbs on YouTube or wherever it might be, but doesn't quite know
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  the context behind it. So that's who we try to target.
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  That's the ideal listener profile.
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  I love that. What has been, you know, you sit
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  in a very unique seat there not only as moderator, but you are a
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  coach, you are a peer amongst them and your guest.
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  What for you, what's been your favorite episode?
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  And maybe a different way, another way of asking that
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  question is also maybe what has been your most popular episode?
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  So I think, I think mainly because of how long it's been,
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  our first episode is got over 1100 views.
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  So I thought that was pretty cool.
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  There's some episodes here and there that have upwards to 8 to
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  900 views, one of them being the episode with Tim Hall and Abby
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  Steiner. Any episode with John Drummond
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  gets a lot of clicks. You know, we've had auto a
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  couple times. We've had a lot of different
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  viewership. So on average we average around
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  300 to 400 clicks. And then on a, on a spike when
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  we hit a, you know, we've had, we've had some conversations
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  that have been clipped and reused and those get anywhere
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  between 600 to 800. Which one's been your favorite,
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  whether it was a a guest or something that you were able to
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  chime in on or something you learned, What's been been your
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  favorite there? The most memorable is the
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  episode with Brooks Johnson. So many pieces so and there, you
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  know, don't get me wrong, we've had episodes with Jackie Jordan
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  or Kersey. Just so many names to be so
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  grateful for John Anderson, that was another good 10 Goodness
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  gracious. But Brooks memorable for so many
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  different reasons. So many different reasons.
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  But because you just, you got the real Brooks and you know
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  most people did when they conversed with him, but we have
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  it for eternity on an episode, so that is one of my favourites.
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  Love that. Yeah.
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  That that's, that might be one of my favourites as well because
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  of the guest, you know? Exactly.
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  Loved him. What have you.
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  You know, you sit in a unique spot.
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  You've been with the show from day one.
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  You operate in the background of what the show does.
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  Like you're, you're helping write notes and subjects and
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  things like that as well. So you're doing kind of the
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  producing side of it as well. Even though he calls himself the
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  executive producer. What what have you learned as
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  being the moderator of the host? And I don't necessarily mean
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  that of like, oh, I learned how to become a better coach or
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  things like that. Maybe it's you learn how to
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  become a better moderator, a better interview or a better
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  writer of notes. I don't know.
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  Maybe a better probably not a better picker of who's going to
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  place at the USATF and NCAA champions.
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  Probably not that you guys aren't great at that, but doing
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  this for, you know, half a decade.
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  Well, how have you grown as the host of the podcast?
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  I've definitely grown in regards to how I communicate and the
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  words I use. Viewers, the viewership likes to
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  tell you when you just don't use the right word.
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  And so you, you get better at that.
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  You know, most recently I, I'm big on presentation and how one
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  presents oneself. And there was an episode that I
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  actually was exhausted and about to get sick.
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  And there was someone who commented like, Oh, she, what is
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  she doing? She didn't pay attention.
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  She was half laying down. And I, I, I, it stung for a
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  second. I got a little busy and I was
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  like, but they're right, right. And so when you get called out,
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  you have to be more aware of what you're doing.
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  And, and this does go quote UN quote on the Internet.
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  So knowing how to present myself and convey my messages very
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  clearly is what I've definitely gotten away as a mom.
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  As a female, I already I'm good at reading out what's coming
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  before other people can foresee that and that's only been
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  enhanced since so. You know, and you know, choose
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  someone who's known you and known you through a journey,
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  meaning through podcast. You know, you, you're our first
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  two time guest on our podcast here at Go Connections.
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  But through Coach's collab and now this as well, you know, it
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  is on the Internet. And so right now, someone can go
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  back and watch episode #1 and see your very first time, and
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  then go see episode 500 or whatever and see the journey,
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  how you've become a much, much better communicator.
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  And your confidence level there was a little bit it felt like
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  you didn't feel like you belonged.
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  Oh, absolutely. For a bit and now it's like Oh
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  yeah no, no, I'm I'm a peer I know where I sit with everybody
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  here but you're a peer so I just I appreciate seeing that journey
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  in you as well all right last two questions first one's super
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  easy. Where can they find you They
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  can't find you on the app, but again, you can be found on
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  YouTube. This is a YouTube show, which I
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  think makes it more unique a little harder.
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  You got to go to YouTube instead of just a simple podcast app.
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  So definitely go to youtube.com and just search.
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  Literally if you just enter athletics SLC, it pops right up
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  and you can see all those episodes.
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  My second question, the last question here, you know, again,
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  we're calling this a podcast because it is on, but it is on
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  YouTube. Most podcast listeners listen to
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  a lots of different podcasts and maybe you listen or watch a
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  couple of different YouTube shows.
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  What is your favorite podcast that's not track related?
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  That doesn't exist. It just doesn't exist.
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  So I'd love to have an answer. I don't.
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  That is fair. I love that.
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  Sorry. No worries guys, that you're
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  listening right now. So here's my challenge.
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  Press pause because we're done with this episode here and go
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  over to youtube.com and just search Athletics LLC.
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  And probably for this one, I would say most of the time I'm
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  going to tell you to go back and look at the backlog.
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  I think on this one, I'm going to tell you to watch the latest
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  episode and then go back and look if you see some guest or
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  topics again, they talk about world champs.
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  How do we pick? They've had great episodes on
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  relays and we can all know what what happens, good and bad
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  there. But go back and maybe pick an
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  episode or two that has a title that interests you and then
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  subscribe. That's the real easy part.
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  And then, you know, every week when they do publish their
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  episodes still on on Fridays we're publishing.
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  Yeah. So every Friday when they
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  publish, you'll know it's live and it's a great, great thing to
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  watch as you're traveling to and from a track meet as well.
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  So they talk about a lot of important topics.
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  So that's my challenge. Go to youtube.com right now,
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  search Athletics, LLC hit that subscribe button and check it
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  out. You'll you'll be better for it.
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  Thank you so much, Marissa. Thank you.