Talk Tennis (2024-NOW)
Having created podcasts since the early 2000’s, I’ve had the fortune of working with a lot of great people that are passionate about any given subject imaginable. Talk Tennis is no different, featuring a diverse cast of Tennis Professionals serving up banter that’s both educational and philosophical, as well as hilarious and sincere.
After the success of one of my other current podcast projects with Running Warehouse, I was tasked with doing the same for Tennis Warehouse. The show’s host, Michelle, had been producing the show herself for years, connecting with other tennis influencers over Skype, often being delivered with technical issues due to the lack of resources allocation toward the production. With time, she amassed an audience, proving the value of her vision to the company. As our team neared completion of our new, dedicated podcast studio, the podcast turned into something more– More production, more laughs, and an all around better program.
Some episodes receive special love when there’s a bit of drama floating around the studio. To keep viewer retention strong, I often pick a theme and front load the episode, like this clip where I dramatized an inside joke into a full-fledged Netflix-style docudrama, a spoof of the Netflix logo included.
With a bigger budget, and a bigger team, we were able to portion all of Michelle’s previous efforts to dedicated team members, including resources from Sports Warehouse’s Graphics Department. The original logo and brand was re-designed by Abbi with Michelle’s direct input and aesthetic in mind… fun, honest, but most importantly: the right amount of sparkly. I worked directly with the all-female team to produce the show’s motion graphics package, with dozens of iterations and redesigns between the title and ends slates, lower thirds, transitions, YouTube cards, and additional one-off animations and goofy bits to add levity/play with the onscreen personalities’ humor.
My creative abilities gathered the attention of the global Video Department’s head, and was then tasked with creating a new 4 second video stinger, which will be viewed at the beginning of every Tennis Warehouse video released to our 120k YouTube followers, and beyond. The process was highly collaborative, bouncing iterations between myself, the global Creative Director, and clients at Tennis Warehouse.
Audio and Video production skills also lead to working with sister company, Pickleball Warehouse, capturing additional racquet sport fanatics in the rapidly growing sport. Pickleball Warehouse reached out to do a segment in the podcast studio to highlight their favorite products of 2024, as well as having me do audio and video mastering for ad spots for worldwide broadcast on ESPN, the Tennis Channel, and others.
Check out episodes of the podcast wherever podcasts stream!
Sporst Warehouse
Podcast Host: Michelle Heidebrink
Pickleball Warehouse Edit: Kash Dierksheide