Going After It...

“Hello and welcome to week 1 of the NFL season and the first week of The Turnover NFL Podcast…”

Everyone who has a passion for sports surely has talked and debated endless hours about teams, opinions and anything associated with said sport. I have incredible passion for sports and competition, and I’m a bit of a geek with statistics and am a firm believer that numbers never lie. A lot of people I argued with always said I could be one of those guys that talks nonstop about sports, for the sole reason how often I talk about them and use numbers to back up my arguments. While the thought had always crossed my mind, I deemed myself too busy to fit in trying to start a podcast or talk show. That is until my soccer season got delayed due to COVID-19. Though disappointed that I’m not able to be playing this fall, it opened the idea of trying to start one for the upcoming NFL season. I emailed Andrew Du Fresne, the manager at UFTV about my idea and he quickly responded and we met up and discussed a plan of action for making it happen. Within a couple of weeks I found a partner, came up with a name and we were live.

Though it has only been 5 weeks and 5 shows, I can tell my time speaking with a camera on me has changed how I present myself, my ideas and the way I speak. Each week, I get feedback from friends and family that say that that weeks show is better than the previous one. It is most obvious in the first show, which lasted about 40 minutes, as my co-host and I gained confidence the show got smoother and our voices had a better tone than the monotone we started with. I’ve always been a huge critic of myself and analyzing each weeks show has allowed me to critique everything and try to better myself in that sense. Given how times have changed and may change for the future with Covid and technology, having this experience with a camera and speaking with poise and confidence can do wonders. For a 30 minute podcast I probably put in three to four hours a week of work for it. Prepping the slideshow and analyzing games, highlights, rumors and stats really is a lot more work than the average person would think. Getting better at writing down less notes and knowing the material and looking at the camera is another thing that's consistently improving. So what does all this mean in terms of going after something you want? Well as previously mentioned, this has been one of the greatest things I’ve gone out and done on my own. To sit and talk about football for 30 minutes a week with a friend as a job is something I only dreamt of. I enjoy putting in the hours of work each week and am constantly improving and learning on camera skills that will make me a better candidate in the future. If I have to present something via zoom or have some type of interview in the future that’s online, I’ll be fully prepared and more confident than I would’ve been before. I consistently am trying to better myself and this is a great way to analyze how I speak week in and week out and try to perfect what I'm saying each show. Going after it has paid off incredibly and I'm glad I finally took that step for this experience.