The culture of international soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
"The most important thing you can do is find something you care about to be your topic. If you don't care, no one will."
Today Eric Schmitz, Donald Wine and Jonathan Slape, the creators of World of Concacaf Podcast share their story of soccer podcast.
► Tell us about you and your podcast
The three of us met through the American Outlaws, a supporters group for the United States men's and women's national soccer teams. We're from around the United States, but we've known each other for years because of soccer. The national teams are part of the regional confederation, Concacaf, and many of their games, both home and away, are against nations from around the region. We attend as many games as we can, which means we'll travel abroad to see the team play in other countries, and we've fallen in love with our soccer neighborhood. The things that happen in soccer around our region can be ridiculous, from the corrupt executives to the random moments of wonder you find in sports. We're here to talk about how incredible the soccer culture in our region is.
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
This was an idea Eric thought of during the pandemic. With qualification for the 2022 FIFA World Cup approaching, there was so much intrigue and not enough coverage of it beyond the national teams of US and Mexico. There are a lot of soccer podcasts, and a lot about the games, the players and the tactics, but not enough about the culture surrounding it. We knocked around ideas for a month before we recorded our first episode.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
We try to release two to three episodes a month, depending on the soccer schedule and when we can virtually meet to record. We are a passion project, and finally started a Patreon to help cover costs of hosting and equipment, etc. We've also created a line of merchandise that's as ridiculous as Concacaf is.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
The podcasts exists to create a record of our travels, to talk about the places we've been and to share knowledge about our region. We have a segment called CONCACAF LASER FOCUS that each episode we'll focus on one of the 41 countries of our region. The goal is to dedicate one episode to every country, from Canada to Curacao and the United States to the US Virgin Islands.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
Each episode starts by settling on a topic in our group chat. Eric will do the background research and outline the episode, Donald handles the recording, and Jonathan does the editing. We'll record over Zoom from our separate locations and try to create the most informational, entertaining content we can.
► How do you market your show?
Our social media channels are the most important. We've got a solid brand there (@podcacaf) and when we post an episode, we'll share it on all of our channels and post it on our Patreon page.
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
The most important thing you can do is find something you care about to be your topic. If you don't care, no one will. If you care passionately, people will follow you. We care about Concacaf.
► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?
www.patreon.com/podcacaf
podcacaf.podbean.com
www.twitter.com/podcacaf
www.facebook.com/podcacaf
www.instagram.com/podcacaf
Donald's twitter is www.twitter.com/blazindw
Jonathan's twitter is www.twitter.com/JSlapeSSP