Latest / The Gill Athletics Track and Field Connections Podcast / BONUS: The Podcast About Podcasts – Featuring Athletes Mondiaux
Transcript
- 0:00Here we go back on our podcast about podcast.
- 0:03I'm super excited about today. I've got Matilde here with me.
- 0:07I love when we get to expose our audience and expose myself to
- 0:11other outside of the US borders podcast.
- 0:14So super excited about this one. Matilde, why don't you get
- 0:17started? Maybe kind of like on a 30,000
- 0:19foot level. Tell us who you are.
- 0:22How did you get started? What's your relationship to
- 0:24track and field, and what's the name of your podcast?
- 0:27Well, first, thanks for having me.
- 0:29I'm glad to be here. I'm Matila, I'm from France and
- 0:32I have a podcast podcast called Aclete Mondeaux, which is French
- 0:35for let's say, athletes of the world, something like that.
- 0:39It's a multilingual podcast that I started in January of 2023.
- 0:43So it's been over two years now and I do interviews in various
- 0:47languages. So French is the main language,
- 0:49but I also do interviews in English, Spanish, Italian.
- 0:53I'm a polyglot. So this is, and this is what I
- 0:55love about track and field is everybody can do track and
- 0:58field. So you get, I get to talk to
- 1:00people from different backgrounds who have different
- 1:03languages. So it's a lot of fun.
- 1:05So yeah, it's been 2 years. I do mostly interviews with
- 1:09athletes, but also with coaches, agents, photographers,
- 1:12journalists, Yeah, many different types of people.
- 1:15Well, it's going to be hard for me to keep this in the 15 to 20
- 1:19minute round because I want to ask so much about just being a
- 1:22polyglot, just all those different languages.
- 1:24Holy cow, that's quite amazing. I'll steer away from it though.
- 1:29Maybe I'll have to have a have you come back to the show and
- 1:31we'll do a, a regular content for that.
- 1:33That's quite, quite amazing. Talk to us about the podcast,
- 1:37about your focus. You mentioned you do have some
- 1:40athletes and coaches, so is the style one-on-one interview?
- 1:44Is it panel? Is it solo?
- 1:45Talk to us about the actual style that we could expect when
- 1:48we listen to the podcast. It's mostly 1 to one.
- 1:53I don't really do a lot of solo episodes because I think what my
- 1:56listeners want to hear hear about, it's just, you know, the
- 1:59athletes journeys and it's not they don't really want to hear
- 2:01from me. I mean, they like me as, as the
- 2:03host, but they want to hear from the athletes.
- 2:06And it's mostly with one guest at a time.
- 2:08But I've also done interviews with several guests and I find
- 2:11it also quite interesting because it's a conversation.
- 2:14A few months ago I had Jeff Hardwick, Sam Kendricks and
- 2:17Chris Nelson together in English.
- 2:19And it was interesting because they they're friends and they
- 2:21have a lot to talk about. And, and it was not just a
- 2:24formal interview. It was a conversation between
- 2:26friends. So that was a lot of fun.
- 2:29But so I try to explore different, different things,
- 2:32different ideas. It's also quite, yeah, things I
- 2:35hadn't planned from the get go, but it's interesting.
- 2:38I can only that sounds like a fun episode because Jeff Hartwig
- 2:42is I'd call a very good friend of mine as well as business and
- 2:46and I know those three very well.
- 2:47So I can't imagine just the the the kind of inside jokes they
- 2:50would slip in the chirping over each other.
- 2:54Sam Kendricks, when we had Jeff Hartwig on our show, popped in
- 2:57as like a, you know, they were in a hotel overseas and they
- 3:00popped in and, you know, again, just the chirping.
- 3:03That sounds like a fun one. I love that one.
- 3:05What about the Well, let's talk about first of all, the
- 3:08significance of the name. It seems kind of understood of
- 3:11like, oh, we we deal with athletes around the world.
- 3:14How was the intentionality of coming up with that name versus,
- 3:17you know, a million other probably ideas that you had?
- 3:20Well, The thing is I started at Let Mondo in 2005, but as a
- 3:23blog. So I think Mondo is turning 20
- 3:26this year, which makes me feel quite old.
- 3:29But it was a blog back then I had, I mean, podcasts were not
- 3:32even a thing. So when I decided to launch the
- 3:35podcast, I thought, oh, should I go with another name?
- 3:37And then people told me no in the French speaking track and
- 3:40field. Well, it is known.
- 3:41So just stick to it, stick with it.
- 3:42It's it is known and it sort of made sense, athletes of the
- 3:46world with the idea I had for the podcast.
- 3:48So I kept it. But yeah, it was, I think Monday
- 3:51was turning 20 this year. I love that and what a great
- 3:55example that podcast can start from other avenues.
- 3:59So here's a successful blog that turned into a podcast that may
- 4:02give someone who's listening hope that their blog one day
- 4:05might be a podcast. And when we press play Mathilde,
- 4:08what's the average? I know there's, you know,
- 4:10there's Min and Maxes on some of the different episodes, but what
- 4:13would be the average length of an episode?
- 4:17I'd say around an hour, but when I feel like the guest has a lot
- 4:21to say and a lot of time, I keep them.
- 4:24I mean, I don't mind having them having them talk a bit a bit
- 4:27longer and when they don't have a lot of time.
- 4:31Like when I was at the World Indoors in Glasgow last year, I
- 4:33got to interview David Woodisha and I was told by my contact at
- 4:37World Athletics he only had 20 minutes and I said 20 minutes
- 4:40will do you know, I was not going to say no, I passed just
- 4:42because he has only 20 minutes. But more recently, do you know
- 4:47Jean Gelfion, the 96th Olympic champion in the pool bowl from.
- 4:51France. Yes, of course.
- 4:53I interviewed him over yeah, one 1 1/2 year ago, but earlier this
- 4:57year I sat down with this coach who's 90 now.
- 5:00And so that was in France. So sorry for your American
- 5:02listeners. You guys understand French too,
- 5:05to enter the interview. But he, he really wanted to
- 5:08talk. He's 90, but still very sharp
- 5:10and he had a lot to say. So I was not going to tell him,
- 5:12you know, one hour is enough. No, no, you have a lot to say.
- 5:15I'm I'm all years, you know, keep talking.
- 5:18So it depends. I'd say around an hour, but it
- 5:20depends. I, I love that you're creating
- 5:22these windows into someone's life that it, while it's
- 5:26extremely important today and say 2025, in 2035 and 2045,
- 5:32people are going to be able to hear these stories and
- 5:34experiences. And that to me, that's one of
- 5:37the responsibilities I feel as a host sometimes of like, hey, you
- 5:40know, this, we're telling this guy or gal story that people in
- 5:43the future, people aren't even born today are going to be able
- 5:46to, to hear. So I love that you're doing
- 5:48that, Mathilde. So what was the you had a
- 5:51successful blog 20 years, by the way, that bravo to that alone.
- 5:56What was the motivation to move from from blog to pod?
- 6:01What? What was the idea there and why?
- 6:05Well, I was actually bored in my life.
- 6:06I worked as a translator and I just needed something new to do
- 6:09with my life. I wanted to step out of my
- 6:10comfort zone. And I love listening to podcast.
- 6:13I love track and field. I know I speak a few languages.
- 6:15I have contacts, I thought why not?
- 6:19And The thing is, I know there are podcasts started a long time
- 6:23ago in the in the US and in in the UK, but in France it was
- 6:26still quite new back then. So we had no track and field
- 6:29podcasts. In French there were a lot of
- 6:31running podcasts, but there was nothing about the entire sport
- 6:33of track and field. And I knew we had the the Paris
- 6:36Olympics coming up, so I thought if I want to do it, I should do
- 6:40it now. Great idea.
- 6:41Yeah. Great timing.
- 6:42Yeah, absolutely. And yeah, and I, I thought maybe
- 6:47it won't work, maybe I won't like it, but I never know if I
- 6:49don't try. So I did try and I.
- 6:52What was the Was the blog a interview style blog or did that
- 6:57style come in with the podcast? No, in the beginning it was
- 7:00mostly me talking about the best athletes in the world.
- 7:03It was more like BIOS, but I did do some regular interviews.
- 7:09But it was fun. But I had no ambition with it.
- 7:11It was just interviews. It was fun, but I never saw it
- 7:16as more than just something I did in my free time.
- 7:19Yeah, makes sense. But yeah.
- 7:22And when we go to the podcast, you mentioned that this is in
- 7:26several different languages, maybe majority of French, maybe
- 7:29it's kind of what I'm gathering. When I look at the list, will I
- 7:32see like, oh, OK, this one's in French, this one's in Spanish,
- 7:35this one, like I'll know which ones are in my native language
- 7:38right off the bat. I'll kind of know.
- 7:40Yeah, it's in the title, but everything that is not recorded
- 7:44in French is also available in French because I wanted to have
- 7:47a common language for all episodes.
- 7:48Yeah. OK.
- 7:49So if you do one in English, you have a translated French one as
- 7:52well. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 7:53Perfect. That's good.
- 7:54And with today's technology, we're probably, you know, very,
- 7:57very close to you just doing it in French.
- 8:00And I just picked the English option and it dubs over.
- 8:02We're probably closer than we think on that.
- 8:04So that's that's really cool. You know, Matild in business,
- 8:08you know, we're a manufacturer of sports equipment.
- 8:10So we make pole vault pits, hurdles, vaulting poles, all
- 8:12those kind of things. You know, a lot of different
- 8:15people order our equipment. So we have moms that will buy a
- 8:18discus for their son. We have obviously track coaches.
- 8:23We we sell internationally, we sell into the construction
- 8:27industry. But our ideal customer, like the
- 8:30person that we're thinking about at all times when we create a
- 8:34new product, market a new product, etcetera, is the high
- 8:37school and college track coach in America specifically, right?
- 8:40That's who our main, our ideal customer.
- 8:43The same can be said for a podcast that many, many
- 8:46different people might consume your podcast, But when you're
- 8:49really thinking about the next guest and the type of
- 8:51questioning your release schedule, things like that,
- 8:54you're really thinking about a very specific person inside of
- 8:57track and field who might that be for your podcast?
- 8:59Who might be the ideal listener profile for the show?
- 9:04Am I allowed to say myself? Because no, because you know, I,
- 9:10I, I do the podcast I like to listen to.
- 9:13And I know I have very different, very different types
- 9:17of listeners. I have a lot of coaches who
- 9:19listen to the podcast and I find it very rewarding to hear from
- 9:23them when they tell me, you know, I'm, I was, I've been
- 9:26struggling with an athlete dealing with whatever problem
- 9:28that might be. And listening to your interview
- 9:30with your guest, it helped me understand what she's going
- 9:33through right now and I'll be able to help her better.
- 9:35So it's really rewarding. But sometimes it's just people
- 9:38who enjoy watching track control on TV.
- 9:41Could be I have members of the French team who listen, who do
- 9:44listen. So yeah.
- 9:46But I because you know what it's like, it's a lot of work.
- 9:49So I think you should have fun doing it, because if it if you
- 9:52don't like it, it's not really worth it.
- 9:55I think that is a fantastic attitude and actually one that I
- 9:59see people making the most mistakes when they try to create
- 10:02a podcast or a blog is they try to, to be something that they're
- 10:06not. They're trying to be something
- 10:07else instead of like, Hey, what would I like?
- 10:10There's a plenty of people that are like me, So what, what would
- 10:11I like and do that. And I think that attract, that's
- 10:14authenticity is really what that is.
- 10:16And that's what attracts people. So bravo, I, I love that.
- 10:18Absolutely. OK, Matild, this is kind of two
- 10:21questions. It's a big, it could be the same
- 10:23answer, but more than likely not.
- 10:26Do you have a favorite episode you've done?
- 10:28You've done this now for two, going on three 3:00-ish years.
- 10:31Do you have a favorite episode? And again, this might not be the
- 10:34same answer, is what has maybe been the most popular episode,
- 10:38the most downloaded? So what's maybe your most fun
- 10:42episode you've done and what has been the most popular?
- 10:46My question to you is, does anyone like being asked what
- 10:48their favorite episode is? Like it's their babies.
- 10:51No picking. It's like picking your favorite
- 10:55child. Absolutely.
- 10:57Yeah, it's yeah, The most listened to in French, it is.
- 11:01Rene Lamott, 800 runner, made the Olympic final in Paris.
- 11:05I knew the episode would have a lot of success.
- 11:09Within 24 hours. It was the most listened to
- 11:11episode ever. She is Fernet is very popular,
- 11:15very genuine, very funny on social media.
- 11:17People love her. So that was no surprise.
- 11:21When it comes to other languages, it's mono duplanes,
- 11:23which is not really a surprise surprise either.
- 11:26Yeah. So yeah.
- 11:29So these are the the most listened to episodes.
- 11:31When it comes to my favorite episodes, I think you've had it
- 11:36on on the show Ashton Eden. Yeah.
- 11:40Ashton is, yeah. When I reached out to him, I
- 11:44just thought he's never going to get back to me.
- 11:47But I thought, I have nothing to lose, let's try.
- 11:50And he did get back to me, and he said yes, OK.
- 11:53And he's just a lovely guy, has some so interesting, so easy to
- 11:57talk to. So that was a lot of fun.
- 11:59More recently, I had a canny Zambino who was also super fun
- 12:03to talk to. And then Jonathan's coach,
- 12:05Marques Souvian, who is 90. That was very special.
- 12:08Yeah, I love that. That's cool.
- 12:11Yeah, all three great people. And I would echo Ashton as well.
- 12:15Just he doesn't know. He doesn't know AVIP.
- 12:18And what I mean by that is he treats everybody equal.
- 12:21It don't matter if you're the CEO of Oracle or you're just an
- 12:25up and coming track kid. He he is so great.
- 12:29So I love that you had him and had that experience.
- 12:32You know Mathilde, there are certainly some people that have
- 12:35heard and listened to each one of your episodes.
- 12:38It's rare, but there are some. Most people, most listeners come
- 12:41in and out, right? Maybe depending on the language
- 12:43that you have for that episode, the athlete or coach, even the
- 12:46time of year. Some people listen less during
- 12:49non track season and more during track season.
- 12:51But you have been behind the mic on each and everyone of them.
- 12:54What have you learned from hosting a podcast?
- 12:57There's so much that goes into it, the marketing, the editing,
- 13:00the guest reach out, think the interview and etcetera.
- 13:02What you know If you look back over the last couple years, what
- 13:05have you learned the most about being the host of a podcast?
- 13:10Well, all of that, what goes into making a podcast and of
- 13:13course what the topics we talked about in my guests.
- 13:18But more than that, I think, and it might surprise you, but I
- 13:21think it was a good reminder that these athletes who break
- 13:24records and win medals are human beings.
- 13:29And I can tell you a quick story.
- 13:32In the beginning of each episode I asked my guest to do the
- 13:34intro. Then I have my own intro where I
- 13:36introduce them, but they do the intro when the interview is in
- 13:40French, it's just in French. But if it's for instance in
- 13:43English, they have to do it in English and in French.
- 13:45So I tell them what to say. It's all in phonetics.
- 13:49So and I remember 1 guest who has world and Olympic medals and
- 13:53when I asked her to do the intro in French, I could see the
- 13:56nerves she was so far out of, of our comfort, of our comfort
- 14:02zone. And it was just a good reminder
- 14:06for me that OK, she's she's been competing on the world stage,
- 14:09but she still has doubts and fears.
- 14:12And I don't know about you, but when I listen to podcasts, I
- 14:15want to be able to relate to the guests.
- 14:17Otherwise, I don't find it inspiring because if I feel like
- 14:20I'm listening to a superstars superstar with no doubts and no
- 14:23fears, I can't relate to that. But if I know they also have
- 14:28fears and doubts and struggles, it's a good reminder that it's
- 14:31OK to have doubts and fears and struggles.
- 14:33It doesn't mean I can succeed. They are successful people and
- 14:36they still have doubts and fears.
- 14:38So I think that it is inspiring to me because yeah, they do a
- 14:42lot of amazing things, but what while they are in the comfort
- 14:47zone out of it, they are. They're just like us, and I
- 14:53think that's a good reminder. I.
- 14:54Love that that's a lesson you've learned because that is called
- 14:58humanization, right? That no matter where you are in
- 15:00this life, you know what? We still wear our pants the same
- 15:03way. We still have to figure out what
- 15:04to cook for dinner that night. I I love that.
- 15:07That's a that's really cool. It's a great reminder.
- 15:09All right, last two questions here.
- 15:11Where can listeners find the podcast?
- 15:13Meaning, are you on YouTube? Maybe you're possibly on the
- 15:16most popular 1 Apple and Spotify, things like that.
- 15:18But where? Where can we find the podcast?
- 15:21Where we listen to podcasts on YouTube as well, but it's just
- 15:25audio because I don't have time for yeah, I just uploaded as
- 15:29audio on YouTube but otherwise, yeah, I've already listened to
- 15:33podcasts. It's just audio.
- 15:35But if you want to see clips from the from the podcast, you
- 15:37can find it on Instagram and Facebook and X and but it's just
- 15:42clips. Perfect.
- 15:43And if we we just search the name of the podcast that'll pop
- 15:46up on all those places platforms.
- 15:48Perfect. Awesome.
- 15:49Well, you mentioned you are a podcast listener yourself.
- 15:51I'd like to know what is your favorite podcast to listen to
- 15:54that's not track related and and not your own podcast?
- 15:57What? What's kind of like at the top
- 15:58of your listen list right now? I listen to a lot of podcasts to
- 16:03improve my language skills. So I listen to podcast in seven
- 16:08languages. And so it's often it's track
- 16:11related, but not often, not all, all the time.
- 16:14It could be like there's an Italian podcast about the US.
- 16:17Actually it's in Italian, but it's about the US.
- 16:20It could be anything. You know, I I love podcasts
- 16:23because it's you can listen to podcasts when while doing
- 16:27something else And but I listen to a lot of podcasts that are
- 16:30track related, if not track related, I might say in English,
- 16:34the ritual podcast, but I there's no single podcast that I
- 16:39have listened to every single episode.
- 16:41I just you should look at my feet.
- 16:43There are so many podcasts I can't possibly listen to every
- 16:46single episode, but I just tear pick what I think might be
- 16:49interesting. Very cool.
- 16:50I love that. All right, here's my challenge
- 16:52to you guys that are listening right now.
- 16:53As you can see, we're getting close.
- 16:55I actually kind of have a bonus of a bonus coming up that I
- 16:57didn't tell Mathilde until I kind of thought about it halfway
- 17:00through. So I'm going to challenge her in
- 17:01a second. But right now my challenge to
- 17:04you is whatever podcast app you're using right now to listen
- 17:07to this show right now, hit pause on this show because we're
- 17:09we're we're getting close to none and search in search
- 17:12athletics. Well, look at the title of the
- 17:15podcast, because I don't want to mispronounce it.
- 17:16And then you go search the wrong spelling of it.
- 17:19But go look at that. Go search the name of the
- 17:20podcast that'll show you the show.
- 17:22Here's my recommendation. Here's kind of the way I think
- 17:24about new shows is 1 is I go look at what she talked about
- 17:28her most popular, her most favorite episodes.
- 17:32Go, go find that one. Go find one of those athletes
- 17:35and coaches that she talked about.
- 17:36If if she liked it and it's the most popular, that may be a good
- 17:39place to kind of figure out if this is a good show for you.
- 17:41And then listen to the latest episode as well, cuz that'll
- 17:43kind of give you the most up to So actually having just the
- 17:58audio called the kind of a large audiogram, if you will, is
- 18:02wildly, wildly popular. So you may be the type of person
- 18:05who likes to have YouTube up on their desktop while they're
- 18:07working and having that audio playing and you don't have to
- 18:10worry about missing any video. So go check that out right now.
- 18:14Highly encourage you to hit the subscribe button.
- 18:16That'll let you know when the next episodes drop and you'll
- 18:19always be on top of everything. So that's my challenge.
- 18:22You go check it out. Now, Mathilde, I've got a
- 18:24challenge for you. I kind of thought about this
- 18:27during the intro. How many languages do you speak?
- 18:32This is a tricky question because it depends what you mean
- 18:34by speak. How many languages do you speak
- 18:36really well? I do interviews in four of them.
- 18:41OK, so English obviously, right in French.
- 18:45Spanish. Italian.
- 18:46OK, let's take those four. You've already done one, you've
- 18:51done the English. What I would like for you to do
- 18:53is give me the 32nd version of your podcast, but in that
- 18:57language. So we already did.
- 18:58We did 15 minutes on English, so we're good there.
- 19:01I want to hear you explain your podcast in French and then pause
- 19:06and tell me when you're switching to Spanish just 'cause
- 19:08I'm a dummy so I won't even know.
- 19:10And then do it in Spanish and then do an Italian.
- 19:12I'd. I'd like for just to kind of
- 19:13have that out there in the world, please.
- 19:15The transition from Spanish to Britain will be interesting
- 19:18'cause these languages are always mix up, so French is fine
- 19:22'cause it's my main language. I will.
- 19:24I will have no clue if you mess up, just so you're aware.
- 19:27OK, French is fine. Don't smaple Matilde SU Francis
- 19:31je en podcast multilanquis a pellete montrois gente vu
- 19:39principal montes athlete megal Monde coach the decision the
- 19:43journalist ESA Don Francis pal moncatrolong le Francis long le
- 19:48espanola Italian. Does it sound good to you?
- 19:52In. French.
- 19:52Yeah, yeah, it. Looks like you understand.
- 19:54You know, I caught a few words. I, you know, I, I told you
- 19:57before we hit record, I took 2 1/2 years.
- 19:58So I you'll have a a remembrance of things.
- 20:01I just can't speak it anymore. Yeah, OK.
- 20:03That was beautiful. Now Spanish.
- 20:11OK, I'm Sobreto and Frances in English and Espanola in
- 20:17Italiano. I'm going to regista sobreto con
- 20:21con athletes, managers, periodistas EO mas de dos anos
- 20:30at the end of the podcast in I love that all right and.
- 20:38Now Italian. I just.
- 20:43Got. To say you got to move over to
- 20:54the Italian part, right? Well, these two are similar, so
- 21:08it's. That's about it.
- 21:33Dude that's awesome, thank you for indulging me in that.
- 21:35That was purely selfish. I just wanted to hear the
- 21:38different languages. It's quite amazing.
- 21:40I'm still working on speaking English.
- 21:41So anybody who speaks more than one language is just, you know,
- 21:45I bow down. That is that is quite, quite
- 21:47amazing. All right, Mathil, thank you so
- 21:49much. Thank you for being here.
- 21:50If you guys are still here, you just heard it in four different
- 21:52languages. That's that's a first.
- 21:53We've never had that here on the podcast.
- 21:55Go check out the podcast and on YouTube or Apple, Spotify, every
- 21:59place again, whatever app you're using right now, go check it
- 22:02out, subscribe and hopefully it adds value to you and your
- 22:05listening library. Thanks everybody.
- 22:07Thank you.