What the KoopCast is about with Billy Yang⎮KoopCast Episode 0

All right, people, here we go. Welcome to episode zero of the KoopCast. First episodes in the can and I cannot wait for more of these episodes to drop. But before we before we get into it too much, what I wanted to do is I wanted to take a little bit of time and explain what's going to become of the KoopCast. What kind of guests can you expect? What's the tone of the podcast going to be like? Who's going to be on? What topics are we going to discuss and things like that? And rather than just me talking on the mic about what I'm going to talk about in the future, I decided to bring one of my good friends and also a prolific podcast host and somebody who's a way better content creator than I am, Bill Yang, to help me out and to basically interview me on what to expect from this podcast. We did this from Jorge Maravilla's house over in Marin County, just before the North Face Endurance 50 at a dinner party that he was throwing in the food.

There was actually quite fantastic. But we sat down in his kid's room on some, you know, kind of play table and, you know, small child chairs and things like that. It was kind of a ridiculous setting, but it was really fun. And I think we did a really good job explaining what to exactly, what to exactly expect from this podcast. So here we go. We're going to get into it. Episode zero, myself and Billy Yang talking about what is going to become of the KoopCast. Let's check it out. Jason Koop. I'm so impressed by you, man. You're kind of like me. I did not want to start. I did want to control the controllables. And if that meant just buying decent equipment, so the sound quality is good. I do think that's important. I don't want to regurgitate that. Oh, you don't need the fancy equipment. Yes, fine. But you need like a base level. There's a minimum. Yeah, there's a minimum standard. And all of this looks very fancy. Thanks, man. Paint the picture here.

This is an odd picture because it's both professional, the equipment, but then here you are sitting in a kid's chair and the mics are mounted on a kid's table. The equipment is very professional. I would say the environment is not. We're at Jorge Marvia's house and he is cooking us a fantastic and elaborate Latin feast along with a whole lot of friends and their kids. And so I'm sure they'll be yelling and screaming and whatnot in the background, but at least the equipment is professional. Yeah, we'll give it that. Well, let's talk about why we have the equipment, why we're set up here, Coop. What are you embarking on, my friend? Because this has been a long time coming. I don't know if it's been a long time coming, but yeah. It has for me, man. You've been waiting on pins and needles for this?

Well, I've always said that this was just the next evolution of Jason Koop because I've always thought you were so good on the mic and I would call you a storyteller and I do think you have very strong opinions and I do think it has to be out there more. That's just been my personal take. So I'm glad you're finally embarking on this podcasting journey. Yeah. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. I've been very reluctant about it. I don't need to tell you that just because it's another, you know, it's just another thing to do and, you know, how am I going to carve time out of the day and things like that? But finally, once I got around to the point that it doesn't need to be perfect, right? I can go out and I can do a lot of the same things that I do in my coaching practice with the athletes that I work with and with the kind of network of professionals that I built up. I can do, you know, really similar things that I do with them and just bring it to a lot larger audience. Once I really wrap my head around all that, then it just started to, it just started to make sense that this is something that would be really neat to do. So what is, what could possibly among the hundreds of thousands of podcasts, I don't know if that's the actual number in the hundreds of thousands, maybe tens of thousands.

Millions. Is it really? It feels that way. What could you possibly lend to this space coop? Like what is, what is the coop? Is it the KoopCast? Is that the official name that we're going with? Yeah, it's the official name. All right. The KoopCast. What is the KoopCast going to be about? And what do you think your contribution can be in this space? Because if you're anything like me and I always reverse engineer from the end consumer, right? There is, it's hard just to keep up with the podcasts that I have currently in my queue. But to, to bring on another voice would mean I, it has to distinguish itself. It has to be different. So what is your podcast going to be about? What is the fresh new voice of Jason Koop? Like, what is that going to be?

Well, it's not a fresh new voice for me. No, no, no, no. But I mean, I mean really in, in every sense of the world word, it is a lot of just what I do day to day repackaged in a format that I can broadcast to a larger audience. Um, you know, I, I, I, I listen to podcasts for two reasons. You know, I have my informational podcasts that I use as a, more of like a professional development and they're super obscure. They're with like really incredibly smart domain experts, but they're typically horribly produced. They have a really small audience. They're hard to listen to just because the quality is so bad. And the, give us an example of something that might surprise people out there that know you. Well, no. Okay. So there's one, there's one that he actually does a pretty decent job with. This is the Dr. Bubz podcast. So he's a, he's a performance physiologist, does a lot of work in the team sports and he brings on just like incredibly narrow domain experts on anything from nutrition to sports psychology to, you know, how the coach team dynamic works and things like that. And I get a lot of professional value out of those by getting into those deep dives with those individuals.

But if your wife Liz was in the car with you, she would fall asleep in 13 minutes. She can't, yeah, she can't stand it. And I don't think it's, it's not meant for a very broad audience. It's meant for a very narrow specific audience, very, you know, sports performance type of orientation. And then there's the other podcasts that I listened to that are purely for entertainment value. And most of those have very little to do with running at all. Like sometimes it's some MMA stuff or some league sports things. Joe Rogan's podcast comes to mind, which roles I, which both you and I, we, we really like a lot. And yeah, there's, there's good informational content in a lot of those. Some, very few of them would have any information that's kind of like relative to the sport of ultra running, but I like listening to them just because they're entertaining. They're funny, you know, they're good guests, sharp guests and things like that. But what I, what I kind of really struggled to find specifically in the ultra running space is something that could kind of merge the two, something that was entertaining to listen to. And that also had a high, you know, informational value to the end user. So really that's what I'm trying to like bring out in a lot of these conversations that I have. You're talking present company aside, right? Because there's at least a couple of podcasts that I know of that both, you know, give out useful information, but it's also highly, highly entertaining and valuable. Yes, absolutely. Especially when you bring on really smart guests that are incredibly gifted coaches. Yeah. Mario's a great guest. Very inside. Mario is a

good guest. All right. So I'm curious because I, in, in the vein of wanting to do it in a way that can further distinguish yourself, I told myself that at the very minimum, I want to conduct these interviews in person. That's easier said than done. Yeah. And, um, I think, you know, my personal podcast, I'm going to give a quick plug here. The Billy Yang podcast is somewhat irregular because of, in terms of the output, because that is, that is the very minimum bar that I've set for myself. And it's hard to get that face time. So are you going to like follow the same philosophy of having it be in person only? Are you going to Skype certain calls, bringing callers? Like how is that format going to look like? So my audio standards are not as high as yours. I'm certainly going to have people call in, but also a lot of times I'm going to bring in kind of two sides of, of an argument. And so that, that obviously means three people or sometimes even four people in a room.

Is this going to be like the politically incorrect where you get a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. A little bit to compare and contrast and a little bit of different, different angles on the same perspective. So you might have like a, like a nutritionist angle and then an athlete angle. I actually just recorded one with, uh, Stephanie Violet and David Clark. So Stephanie took kind of the, the practitioner's point of view being, you know, PhD in sports science and nutrition and have her own, having her own nutrition practice. And David took the practitioner's point of view of, you know, being a former 320 pound, you know, alcoholic that turned into a bad-ass ultra runner. And so because of all of those logistics, there are going to be some that are in person just like this. And just like I recorded over the past couple of days when I've been out here in San Francisco, but there are going to be other times where I just have to do, I just have to do a phone call.

And I'm actually trying to work through some higher quality scenarios on that. So I've got some mics, like a bank of mics that I'm going to ship around with instructions. So people have some high quality mics to, to, to plug in. And obviously the equipment that you're seeing in front of you has the capability of piping those in. So I'm trying, I'm trying to do it right to where it doesn't sound like a scratchy USB Skype call all the time where it actually does sound more like of a, like a, in a studio production quality. It sounds like you're going to be like the Flintstones vitamins of the podcasting world or you're striving to be where you're getting. Exactly. You're getting some good nutritious, uh, vitamins in you, but it's, it comes in a package. That's also delightful to pop into your mouth. I don't think anybody's ever used that.

All right. Well, maybe I can think of a better one, but that was the first thing that came to mind. Okay. So Coop, as we, as we're here right now, uh, in advance of the North Face 50, which is the Bay area, you're about to run an errand to perhaps facilitate the, uh, the merging of guests. So why don't you tell the audience, like what's what you're about to do in the next couple hours? Cause I am green with envy, but, uh, I also think it's a brilliant, brilliant idea. Yeah. I'm so, I'm so stoked about this. I've been working on this for a few years now and it seems really cliche, but I'm, I'm going to go and buy a converted built like custom built out Sprinter van for transit actually. Um, and you, you know, cause we see each other all the time at races.

I'm at races constantly during the summer from April all the way to August and September, usually three out of the four weekends of the month. I'm here or there, you know, working with athletes, meeting athletes and things like that. And honestly, the, the initial impetus for, for, for getting one of these vans was I was sick of my hotel bills. You know, I'd look at the end of the year when I, when I was reconciling my expenses and things like that. And I just, you know, I almost felt bad. Like it's just, it's just such an astronomical bill every year to go all these places. And so getting a van simply from that perspective made a whole lot of sense. But then when I started on this, on this journey of starting a podcast, I, I basically have it spec'd out to where it becomes a mobile recording studio. So, so I can go, I can go. That is the dream people. That is a dream for me.

So, so you can come on, you can, Hey, I can wrench you time in the van. We can work that out later. I'll give you a good deal on it. Um, and so the fact that I'm at a lot of races, I'm around a lot of athletes. I'm, I'm, I'm around a lot of movers and shakers and ultra running space. And the fact that I've got, you know, a recording studio on wheels, it just made all the sense of the world to, to do. So I'm literally going to leave Jorge's house in the next 30 minutes. I'm going to try, drive down South to Cupertino and put a, put a deposit down on this van. Then I'm going to come back in a few weeks and pick up and drive back to Colorado. So I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm really, really stoked about it. Are you also scared a little bit about the investment? Cause you're all in now, brother. You are all in. Not really. Cause it's like, it's multifunctional. Like I said, I've been looking at this for a long time, just even before this whole podcast thing, because I wanted, I wanted simultaneously to, to just be more functional at races and also be able to go to more of them and not be so hamstrung on the, on the cost of it all. So I'd wrap my head around getting one and, and, and have been doing anybody who's looked at these vans know how, how much of a black hole this can be just doing the inordinate amount of research and, you know, just going down every rabbit hole that you can kind of find. I've been doing that for, for, for quite a while. And it just added more kind of fuel to the fire to, to, to make this purchase once I started this thing. Well, thankfully you have a ton of me on these ads and stamps.com ads lined up, right? I assume like, how are you going to pay for all this, man?

Cheeky, cheeky, very cheeky. Yeah. I put a, I put a lot of thought into this. I'm not taking any ads at all. I'm not taking any advertising dollars. I'm not going to have any sponsorships. So you won't hear the me undies thing or, you know, whatever, you know,.com or nutrition sponsor, you know, whatever kind of comes along. And, um, the, the, the real reason, the real reason I want to do that is because I don't want to have a filter to adhere to. If you know, there are products and things out there that I really like, I want to be able to say, Hey, this is a really good thing that athletes should check out. I mean, I just went to goo, you know, and talked to Roxanne there. Who's a total badass, by the way, she's done six of the seven. Oh yeah. Yeah. Roxanne Vogel. She's, she's a badass. Yeah. She's a total badass. And I wanted to be able to talk to her from a standpoint of, Hey, these are the things that I agree with that you were doing. And these are the things that I don't agree with. And we had a really frank conversation about what a lot of those things are. If I have, or if I'm trying to bring on nutrition partners, they're going to look at that and go, I don't want to give this guy any advertising dollars if he's going to have, you know, this kind of unfiltered view. So that that's one piece of it. But then the other piece of it is, I think it's something that a lot of, uh, just a lot of people in the outdoor space are kind of getting sick of right now is you don't know what's real anymore. Yeah. Like you look on Instagram and you can't tell if it's an ad or if somebody just genuinely likes whatever watch they're wearing, whatever, you know, footwear they have on their feet, whatever hat, sunglasses. And the fact that,

that, that we can't tell what are paid endorsements and what are not right now, it just, it just personally turns me off a lot. And to avoid all of that, I'm just saying, I'm not taking a dime for sponsorships or ads. And on the tail end, if more people come into coaching, that's, that's really the way that it gets monetized to be frank with you. Are you at all flexible on that? And could you perhaps change your mind six months from now, a year from now? It would take, so if somebody non-endemic came and Volkswagen offered, yeah, Volkswagen wanted to come in and offer me, you know, a billion dollars to sponsor the, you know, podcast for five years, I'd, I'd, I'd entertain something like that, but you know, the chances, I don't think you have any like handle on the going race. I think a billion might be a tad steep, a tad steep, but my point is, is it, is it would have to be a lot? And yeah, I, I'm, I'm, I'm really committed to it, especially in the space of coaching and fitness and training and things like that. I mean, at the end of the day, Billy, I'm a purveyor of advice and I've been in the industry long enough to where I've had like really good partners that I can stand by and say, yeah, I really, I really actually do love the things that, you know, they've provided to us. I can stand by the products, but I've also had partnerships where you got to kind of hold your nose at. And that that's, that's a really hard statement to make when you're in the middle of it, taking those types of partnerships. But I guarantee you that almost all of the companies and the athletes that are out there that have been a part of that have

had to had, have had something that they've just looked at and go, Oh God, this is, I just, I just don't believe in this product for whatever reason. And they just can't say anything about it. And that's part of the gig, you know, and I'm just not playing a part of it. It's amazing how for the amount of money is currently being poured into podcasting ads, how you and I, I'm going to speak for you, how you and I will go out of our ways to distinguish the, the ad voice from the regular conversational voice. And we have the, the 15 second fast forward, the 30 second fast forward, and you can cut through all that bullshit. So I'm really one, I'm very curious and this is not something we have to get into now, but I'm really curious to see how that ultimately plays out because the ROI can't be that great. If there are people like you and I, yeah, I don't know. I don't know if we might be, we might be speaking too highly of ourselves, but the other thing with that is it's just weird. It doesn't matter how they do it, whether they do it in the intro or they do a library or they like minutes of intro, forget about it.

They cut in the middle with, Oh, and here's another, and here's something from our sponsors, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like it's always really awkward. And sometimes I honestly feel bad for the guests because they get looped in. It's almost, it's almost like, uh, it's, it's almost like they're endorsing the product as well, just by being on. Like I know a lot of people would think about it like that, especially when it's in the middle of a conversation. So the, like I said, the whole thing, I'm just going to avoid it all. I'm not going to chase those dollars around. I'm not interested in it. I'd rather just do, you know, just do what I want to do when I want to do it and have the most flexibility possible. And ultimately I think that serves the end user, the end listener the best because they know, they, they kind of, they know what they're getting and they know what they're getting is like real and authentic. Yeah. If you're in the middle of, Hey Jason, let's put a pin on the Alberto Salazar thoughts. You like shipping and post, you're sick of the post office. What the, like, what does that have to do with what we're just talking about? Yeah. The segue is never that clean. Hey, so when and where can people find your show? Because I feel like the buildup, just being your friend, maybe I'm, I'm a little too close to this, but it feels like the buildup's been building up, at least in my head. Like I'm, I'm excited to check out episode number one. So when should people anticipate, uh, hearing first episode? Uh, first week of December, they're going to drop every Thursday, every Thursday, every Thursday, every week. Yeah. Every week I've got seven of them in the can right now

and it's, uh, November 15th. So I've got almost two months kind of already waiting in the wings. Give me the pie chart ratio of nervousness and excitement. How does that break down? Well, right now it's just excitement and I sure I'm absolutely certain when I push the submit button on the first one, it's going to completely turn to nervousness. Cause that's exactly what happened when I wrote the book is like, I was super excited the entire process of writing the book. Cause it's like, yes, I get to like put all these things down on paper that I've been doing for almost 20 years. And you know, I just, I just really, I was, I just really, I just really liked that concept. But then when it got time to turn it in and my editor said, Nope, you're done. Yeah. I cannot make any more edits after this. I was like, Holy crap. Whatever I just turned in is now going to go out to the world with all of its flaws. And it's going to be this thing that you're cleaning from, yeah. Out of like thinner and just like putting it out there is insane.

Consume it and please. Yeah. So it was, I was, it was kind of a scary moment when I knew I couldn't make any more changes. So it's going to be the same. Yeah. The good thing is that the internet is a very fair and rational place though. I'm sure it'll be nothing but, um, you know, non-critical. Well, you know me, like there's going to be some time to your credit. Yeah. I'm not going to pull punches on certain things. And I was going to say to your credit, you have a pretty thick skin and I think you're rooted pretty well in who you are, your own opinions. Like they're not just, you know, like you definitely believe in everything you say. So if you, if you at least have that as the foundation, then, you know, you're going to stick to your guns or you're going to plead your case, but you're not going to be like, well, it's not, I can't say it's not going to be without controversy is the wrong word. Cause it's not like we're talking about, you know, impeaching the president or something like that. Like we're talking about nutrition and running. Like it's like, you know, but there, there are going to be, I am intentionally setting up scenarios and topics and guests that have differences of opinions on things. And I do think that that's something that's missing, especially when you get an interview format, cause obviously there's one side of the equation. But when you have a host like me, who I'm also a domain expert and I can put that hat on and take that hat off kind of at any point, I can switch from the host to the domain expert back to the host back to the domain expert. And the person who's on the other end of the table has to, you know, respond to that. And if we have two people, we all have to, you know, kind of play

off of each other. So it's not going to be all one-sided. They're going to be different sides of different topics. And we just went through going back to that, uh, the one that I recorded earlier with David, David and Steph, we definitely went through some things where should you become a vegan to improve your performance? And the answer to that is not very clear. And we got David's perspective on it. And he was very clear that, yep, I'm in that camp. You got a pretty balanced perspective from Steph. Here's where it works and here where it doesn't, here's where it doesn't work. And I think that from the listener's perspective, those are the better things to hear because it's impossible for the listener to be the expert. And when you get both of, when you get two people with those differing perspectives, the end result is, is just, you have a more informed audience at the end of the day.

That is what's frustrating about say a Joe Rogan where he brings on a hunter or something and it's just completely one-sided and, um, you don't get that differing, uh, you know, push and pull of the differing opinions. I'm super stoked for you. Like I mentioned this, this feels like it's been a long time coming. You're a great guest. I think you dispense some excellent advice. So as long as you continue to bring that value to the audience, you can't not win. Was that a double negative? You cannot, you cannot lose. You can't not win. Who's the professional? Was that right the first time? No, you can't not win. Yeah. Okay. All right, Jason. Well, before we go though, yes. Is there anything else? I owe you a debt of gratitude. Like we, you're right. We have talked about this a lot and you were a really, really instrumental part from me being on the reluctant side of the fence to me actually doing it. And so I've always appreciated that counsel, but more, more importantly, I've appreciated the inspiration and motivation. Well, like I said, you're a natural in the space and I'm, I'm excited, genuinely excited to see your contributions to this space, man. I think it'll be a great show. Thanks man. I appreciate it. Good luck. Bye.

Here we go. Appreciate it, man. Boom. Fist bump. And there you have it. Episode zero is in the books. Thank you to my homie, Billy Yang. I really appreciate you doing that for me. Uh, like I said, uh, like I said, during the podcast, I do owe you a debt of gratitude, not only, uh, for episode zero, but also just to, you know, kick me onto the side of the fence where I'm actually, uh, I'm actually doing this thing and thank you to the listeners. Um, you know, this podcast is really not going to go anywhere without people on the other end listening. And I promise that I'm going to come with my best every week, every Thursday, when these things drop, I'm going to bring on things that are exciting to talk about. They're interesting to listen to. And hopefully, uh, you guys listening on the other end, come away informed, inspired, and, you know, really ready to, you know, crack at it and do some good training, do some long runs, do some hard runs and things like that. So I'm really appreciative of that. If you have any suggestions for topics, I'd love to hear them. You can hit me up on social media. I'm on Instagram and on Twitter as at Jason Koop. That's coop with a K. I'd love to hear your feedback. Click subscribe on all of your pod catching platforms. It'll be on iTunes, Stitcher, SoundCloud. What are the other ones? Google podcasts. I'm a little bit out of my element because I'm still trying to figure out what the heck is going on, but go ahead, subscribe to them, give them, give them a like, if you like

them. And similarly, if you hear something that, you know, you don't quite agree with, you want, you know, me to elaborate a little bit further on, like I said, hit me up. I'm happy to have those types of discussion and create that type of dialogue. Once again, thank you to all the trail runners out there. If you see me at a race, I just totally forgot about this. You see me at a race in the van. Come on, stop by, say hi. We'd love to, you know, cut it up and chat. I get a lot of ideas just simply by going out to races and being in the community. So we would love to see you in the KoopCast mobile. I got to come up with a better name for that in the mobile recording studios, whatever it ends up becoming. I'd love to see you out there whenever I'm at all these races. Once again, you guys, thank you guys for listening. Tune in to episode one, which is dropping today at the same time with my two good friends, Stephanie Howe Violet and David Clark. And I'll see you guys out on the trails.

We'll see you guys now. Thank you.