AP 1202: Where Are They Now? Steve Collins

Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here and welcome to episode 1,202 of AskPat 2.0, and it's the last episode of the year. Happy new year, let's go! 2022 right around the corner. I'm so excited for this episode because we're bringing back somebody who's been on the show once before. His name is Steve Collins. He was in episode 1,013, like three years ago. He teaches at teachhoops.com. His target audience are other basketball coaches at all levels and his business at the time. When we chatted before in episode 1,013, he was building his membership site. He's building out his YouTube channel. As soon as we start chatting, I'm like, wow. Steve went crazy with some new stuff that he's got going on. His plans for the future are absolutely incredible and inspiring. I'm really excited for you to catch up and listen in on Steve and I chat. Let's just go right in. Here we go. Steve. Welcome back to AskPat. It's been a long time. It's great to see you again. How are you?

Steve Collins: I'm good. Post COVID is what I'm saying.

Pat Flynn: COVID baby, that's what I'm talking about. All these "where are they now?" episodes that we've been doing this year have mostly been about how the pandemic has affected a person's business in one way or another. I'm very curious to hear what's happened, but the last time you were on the show was episode 1013. Almost 200 episodes ago. That's two or three years ago. How have things been going since then?

Steve Collins: Good. I would give it an A, I would give myself an A, if I was grading as the math teacher. It's been going really well.

Pat Flynn: That's great. What is going well?

Steve Collins: Everything. I started three new podcasts, if you can believe it. I have four now.

Pat Flynn: Wow. You're obsessed like I am.

Steve Collins: I have three new podcasts. I've gotten sponsors. I'm on Blue Wire now, which is one of the big kind of networks for athletics for sports, basically. They're basically hosting one of my podcasts. Actually, all four of them. The business is going well, Facebook group blew up over COVID. Now I have the biggest Facebook group in the world for basketball coaches. It plateaued a little bit during COVID, as far as my actual membership site. After that, the last six months have been great. To be honest with you, it's blowing up. I'm going to need to retire from teaching. I think so.

Pat Flynn: Still at teachhoops.com. Right. Can you remind everybody what teachhoops.com is for?

Steve Collins: It's basically a one stop shop for basketball coaches. If you're a youth coach or a high school coach or a college coach, it's mentoring, it's one-on-one calls, it's videos, it's basically a roadmap to being a basketball coach. I thought there was a need for it when I was a dad or a younger coach. I figured if there's a need, I should try to fill it.

Pat Flynn: Nice. The last time we chatted, we discussed increasing membership to your group and your YouTube channel as well. I don't even think we talked about the podcast. I do want to ask you, where did that come from? What inspired you to go full on with that?

Steve Collins: You, first of all. I've been listening to your podcast forever.

Pat Flynn: Thank you.

Steve Collins: You're welcome. I was always doing it. I don't have to be hit over the head 10 times. A lot of my customers were coming from my podcast. Obviously they come from my email. There's lots of places they come from, but it seemed like that was the biggest spot. The last time we talked, we were hoping to help me pay for my kids college. I think I've been able to do that. It's a win. Your advice helped a lot.

Pat Flynn: Good. Incredible. Well done. What are the names of the podcasts in case anybody's listening and then want to check them out?

Steve Collins: Here we go. We have Coach Unplugged, which is the basketball one. I don't have quite as many as you, I think I'm almost at 1200 episodes on that one. I have High School Hoops, which is for high school coaches. I have the 5 Minute Basketball Coaching Podcast, which I have to work on that name. I realize that, but they're basically little snippets kind of like AskPat 2.0, and then the one I just started recently is the Funnel Down Defense. It's a defense that I kind of invented. I'll probably do a limited run on that podcast. I just kind of want to share some thoughts and stuff with that as coaches kind of jump in and want to learn more about the Funnel Down Defense.

Pat Flynn: The five minute one, maybe it's something to do with fast breaks or countdown timer or something as far as the brand. Anyway, four podcasts.

Steve Collins: Something like that, I agree. It's the commute, some of them like that. I'm trying to help the coaches and some of them like that, they got a seven minute commute and they want to listen to something really quick.

Pat Flynn: Yeah. You're kind of infiltrating this space in all kinds of ways. What has this done for you as far as your authority in this space? What opportunities have opened up since starting the show and really going all in with it?

Steve Collins: A lot. It was really kind of pre COVID. I was going to start going on the speaking tours, there's a lot of coaching clinics and stuff like, but sponsors what I've noticed, the biggest, especially with the podcast and the Facebook group is as you increase, people start reaching out a lot. I've had to say no, a lot of times.

Pat Flynn: It's a great problem to have.

Steve Collins: It is a good problem to have, I want to be able to say yes to the right people and to the right products and the things that I, again, compliment to you, because you've always done that. As a listener, you kind of appreciate that.

Pat Flynn: Thank you.

Steve Collins: I've kind of tried to stay along those lines and only done things that I truly believe in or I own, that's what I've noticed a lot as you become everywhere, I'm a little bit of everywhere. People start are doing that a lot. Like you said, it's a good problem to have.

Pat Flynn: Now, are you at a point where you feel like you have fans and people who, if you see them in person, they want to snap a photo with you and that kind of stuff?

Steve Collins: I'm not sure I'm at that point. I don't know. I definitely have super fans similar to your book, but I'm not sure it's a picture. It's definitely a reach out and you can tell that they're always surprised that I'll respond to them or call them or talk to them. Which is weird, but no, I'm not sure. I'm not sure it's the picture part yet. I'm not sure I'm there at that.

Pat Flynn: You'll get there. Especially when you start speaking again like that, that can happen. You had mentioned COVID stunted growth a little bit on the membership. How was your reaction to that? What did you do to sort of get out of that and what was your next move from there?

Steve Collins: I was teaching virtually at that point. I really leaned in, that's where the podcast kind of multiplied and then I just leaned into content at that point. It was give, give, give. The good thing is that what I love about my membership is it wasn't increasing at the percentage I am now or prior, but I was staying steady. That's the great thing about a membership is it's almost like having a teaching salary. I'm a statistics teacher too. I can tell you basically what I'm probably going to make next month and my increase, and what's going to happen. That threw all the math off for about nine months. Now my prediction, my steps, I can kind of see it.

Pat Flynn: That's funny, you get those standard deviations coming into play now and all this stuff.

Steve Collins: I started one, I started another, I started a Teacher Side Gig podcast too during it, because I was trying to help teachers during that night and I stopped it. I thought I gave enough value there. I kind of stopped it because a lot of teachers have a side gig or a side hustle. That was one way of sharing just with teachers "Hey, do this" talk to all different types of teachers that were from window washers to basically a little bit of everything. It was crazy.

Pat Flynn: I love it. I'd love to ask you now that you have four shows and you're doing a lot in the podcasting space. Tell me about your production schedule for those. What's the system you use to, some people get overwhelmed with one show. How are you able to stay on top of four?

Steve Collins: I tell people I'm part vampire because I don't really need to sleep, but I batch it. I have some people helping me when on the editing side, which is very helpful. Yeah. I think batching is the key. There's Sundays where it's going to be podcast Sunday and I'm going to stack it. I'm to the point where I've got a part-time assistant that kind of helps me with scheduling and stuff, similar to to Jess, probably just like boom, boom, boom, and confirming things. That's probably the easiest way is the just kind of, you got to, I block time away from it. I'm still coaching. I'm still teaching, still trying to be a dad and a husband, all those things too. I think that's one of the keys to that.

Pat Flynn: Getting help is definitely great. Batch processing changed my life. For sure. I'd love to ask you if you don't mind me asking about, you're doing a lot of things, a lot of great things. You have four shows and the income is growing there. You have the membership with predictable models. I hope this doesn't come across wrong. Why are you still teaching?

Steve Collins: I love it. The kids ask me that too. I love it, I do. I like it and I didn't want to, and I'm relatively close. I'm within five years of probably retiring because I can retire and I'm probably ready to lean into this, but I didn't want my teaching of 30 plus years to end with this. I want to end on a good note. Relatively normal, no masks, all those kind of things. That's probably the biggest. I like it. And I want to end on a high note. Like I want to end with my kids seeing my face and us having that interaction. Teaching is great. I mean it's the best profession in the world, in my opinion.

Pat Flynn: That was the answer I was hoping you would give. You got to really love it, if you're making this much money over here and yet you're still, I mean, teaching is hard and teachers don't get paid as much as they should.

Steve Collins: I told my stats students, I said, "This is my side gig" when we're talking about it. Like I like, and they laugh.

Pat Flynn: You guys are my side gig students.

Steve Collins: Yeah. You're my side gig. I really love you a lot.

Pat Flynn: That is true. Like you could tell them, I don't have to be here, but I'm here for you because I care. I love that. Imagine with a career that long in teaching, I would imagine that it would be pretty difficult to walk away from. Even after you retire and you retire on a high note, do you think you would get the same kind of fulfillment sort of in this next era of life, post teaching or find ways to find that fulfillment?

Steve Collins: I do. I think COVID showed me that a little bit. I think it pulled the curtain back and showed me my days would still be full. I'm in my home office right now. I'm going to get an office outside the house. I can tell you that, so I get up. When I come down the stairs and then have to teach in my... I'm going to get an office outside. My brother, who's a very successful business person said, "Get an office, Steve. It will get you a routine. You'll get out of the house. It will make things better". That will probably be the next phase to figure out how to do that.

Pat Flynn: Now will that office include a basketball court, easily available, so you could coach right there too?

Steve Collins: That would be nice. It probably won't, but that would be nice.

Pat Flynn: Or at least a mini one on the door.

Steve Collins: My brother has one in his house, a court in his house. I guess I could move out to New Hampshire.

Pat Flynn: Imagine the video podcasting you could do if that was possible. Right?

Steve Collins: I know. Blue Wire who I hosted, they have a studio in Vegas. I can go to there whenever I want.

Pat Flynn: Oh, that's neat.

Steve Collins: In the Wynn casino. At some point, I think in the next summer, next couple summers, I'm going to try to get some coaches because a lot of coaches go to Vegas for tournaments and stuff. I'm going to try to work something out with that too. That would be fun.

Pat Flynn: In addition to the new office, which is coming in the near future, what else is going on? What do you have in your plans, Steve?

Steve Collins: I really want my YouTube channel to grow and it's been growing in the last two weeks, which is weird. I'm trying to figure out the revenue and algorithm in the last two weeks has been unbelievably crazy. I want that to grow. I'm going to try to lean into the YouTube a little bit more.

Pat Flynn: The Teach Hoops on YouTube. Almost 2000 videos.

Steve Collins: I have like 28K. I put a new video up every day. It's good. It's good, it's not great is what I would describe it as. That's one spot, and to be honest with you, this is where my students, I teach seniors, AP statistics. They go, "Mr. Collins, you got to get on TikTok. And Mr. Collins, you got to get on Instagram". I go, "I only have so many hours in a day, guys". I think as this generation pivots, they are on TikTok and Instagram. I'm going to have to figure out that too a little bit. I've plenty of things in the hopper that I could work on, for sure.

Pat Flynn: I am looking at your stats right now on socialblade.com where you can kind of look at a little bit of analytics for things, and I see a huge spike in the last two weeks. That's awesome. I don't know why.

Steve Collins: I understand it, the stats teacher doesn't understand why other than... yeah, I go, "I got five years of data and why is there a spike in the last two weeks".

Pat Flynn: Let me get you insight on stuff that we're doing at SPI as podcasters, that we're going to be utilizing YouTube for. Starting in January of 2022 for the interviews that are on SPI, I'm going to be turning on the camera when I do those interviews, similar to how right now you and I can see each other, but everybody's just listening. We'll have the camera on. What we're going to do is we're going to A) publish the full length video recording of that podcast on a YouTube channel. It'll likely be separate, but we'll take clips that are very specific from those episodes and pop them into our YouTube channel as well. Those become searchable, those become things that you could even reformat for TikTok. You can reformat them for Instagram. This could be an option for you moving forward with your shows, maybe experiment with it for one month for one show, just to kind of see what that's like. There are services out there that can do all of this for you so that, you know, you're already busy.

Steve Collins: Do you think people go to YouTube to listen to people talk, though?

Pat Flynn: Not as much as audio. However, it's these clips that really become the play because people will go to YouTube and say, "how do I shoot a better free throw?" And then you take a five, 10 minute clip from your podcast episode that's really informative. That's just about that. Or you take a 60 second chunk and put it on TikTok. The idea is not even to bring people from YouTube to your podcast or from TikTok to your podcast, it's you going to them because that's where they live and you have all this beautiful content on podcast. Just something to think about, because we're doing that as well for next year and you too apparently has some fun things coming out that could help podcasters. We'll see what happens, but just a thought.

Steve Collins: I want to give you another compliment, too. I use your stick all the time.

Pat Flynn: Oh, the SwitchPod?

Pat Flynn: Oh, it's awesome.

Steve Collins: Yeah. Thank you for that. That's awesome.

Steve Collins: It's awesome. I scooter to work. I have a little flat scooter that I scooter to work and I'm starting to use that. Oh, it's awesome. It's great.

Pat Flynn: Good. Oh, thank you so much for that. I love it. Still available on Amazon and switchpod.co, everybody. Anyway, Steve, thank you for this. This has been an awesome update. One more time, where can people find you and your work?

Steve Collins: At teachhoops.com. That's my membership site. If you're looking to become a better basketball coach, but you can search those podcasts, or Teach Hoops on YouTube, any of those places. Or reach out, you can always reach out to me if you have a question, it's [email protected] I'll always answer your question. If you've got any, I'm here to help.

Pat Flynn: Thank you, Steve. One final question for you. This one's the most important question. Who's taking home the championship this season in the NBA?

Steve Collins: First of all, I live in Wisconsin, and Giannis is the best player in the world.

Pat Flynn: Giannis is crazy.

Steve Collins: I'll go with Bucks.

Pat Flynn: Okay. We'll see the Bucks and the warriors At some point fight for it.

Steve Collins: I will be going to Crypto.com Center to watch basketball game.

Pat Flynn: Right. World staples. It's so weird to say still.

Steve Collins: The.com, I get the crypto thing, but don't put the dot com's what makes it, mmm.

Pat Flynn: If you're Crypto.com, you'd want it there, but for everybody else, it's like, oh really?

Steve Collins: I agree.

Pat Flynn: It just doesn't make sense. We'll see what happens. Steve, thank you so much for coming on today and for the update. This has been amazing and keep up the good work.

Steve Collins: Thank you. Bye.

Pat Flynn: All right, I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Steve Collins from teachhoops.com. Super inspirational, and I'm promising you I didn't pay him to say those compliments about me and the Switchpod, but it is true. Switchpod.co. It's available now. Anyway, what a wonderful year of AskPat and where are they now's? I'm just so excited that despite the pandemic having happened with every single person who's come on, they've grown, they've learned, they've put things into action from Tarun last week, we talked with him, he started doing lives online and he'd been wanting to go online for years. The pandemic is really what started that. And Steve really having success with his podcast as a result of this and just perfect timing, right? So through a lot of dark moments in time, we can find the light. We can make things happen, but we have to really go out and find that light, right?

Pat Flynn: We have to give those opportunities a chance to happen. This is very much reminding myself of 2008 and what had happened when I had been lost, I had gotten let go, and I had just been in darkness for a while and I'm super grateful for the opportunities that came about, but it definitely didn't just fall into my lap. I had to go and get them and I had to go find people to inspire. Hopefully, every single person here on the show this year had inspired you. I hope that I've had in a way, shape or form inspired you as well. I'd love to hear from you. I'd love to say happy new year to you in person or not in person, but yes in person, but also online, Twitter or Instagram @PatFlynn. Say hello, say that you've listened to the show.

Pat Flynn: I'd love to hit you back. I cannot thank you enough for this year. This has been incredible and look out for some new stuff coming next year. We have some fun things happening here on the show. If you haven't heard yet, I mentioned it in episode 1200 that The Smart Bar is coming to Ask Pat. What that means is we're going to be utilizing not just my own knowledge and my own experience, but my network and their knowledge and their experience and my team and the SPI Pro community and other members of tools and software that we use to come on and help you. If you go to AskPat.com, that's where you can ask your question. That's where you can go and get some help and we're going to help you. Not just me, but all of us, because there's so much power and knowledge in this community.

Pat Flynn: We're here to serve you. Thank you so much. I hope you're excited for that. The Smart Bar coming, it's kind of like AskPat 3.0, but it's going to be The Smart Bar, not in the next episode, but very, very shortly here. We're still producing it at the time of this recording, but it's going to be a lot of fun. Cheers. Take care. Thank you so much and Happy New Year. You're the best.

Pat Flynn: Thanks for listening to AskPat at askpat.com. I'm your host, Pat Flynn. Our senior producer is Sara Jane Hess. Our series producer is David Grabowski and our executive producer is Matt Gartland. Sound editing by Duncan Brown. AskPat is a production of SPI Media. We'll catch you in the next session.