Sportonomics

Uncle Charlie
  • 5.0 (9)
  • Sports
  • Updated Weekly

Two sports marketers (Jake Kranz and Tyler Webb) interview the most unique people in sports, business, marketing, and technology to learn about the ideas shaping the future of the sports industry.

  1. 6d ago

    Why I Failed as a Content Creator for 14 Years

    For the first time, Jake flips the mic around — putting Tyler in the guest chair to unpack the entire, occasionally chaotic story of how he became a full-time content creator. From basement Halloween-costume skits filmed straight into a webcam, to a scammy Wild West era of follow-for-follow growth hacks, to the exact 45-second video that finally broke through and changed everything, this is the origin story Tyler says he's never told this fully before. It's raw, reflective, and full of the insecurities most creators never admit to on camera. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Intro 00:40 — The Guest Nobody Saw Coming 02:38 — Basement Sketch Comedy: Halloween costumes, a clown under the table, and a webcam 05:00 — Early YouTube obsession, pre-strategy 07:25 — The Green Bay Discovery 09:34 — Pre-Med, Wrong Reasons: One chemistry class ends a doctor dream 11:58 — Ten Employees, Zero Dollars: The most over-organized unpaid Twitter account in history 16:37 — Instagram pages, Nate Dorton, and Phenom Elite 18:05 — The Wild West Era: Follow-unfollow apps, $10 shoutouts, and getting scammed constantly 21:19 — Uncle Charlie Is Born: From service business to full-blown agency 24:09 — The gap between growth and actually getting paid 28:19 — Talking About vs. Doing the Thing 29:56 — The Savannah Bananas Video: From 800 views to 200,000 overnight 31:42 — What actually unlocked the breakthrough 34:52 — Same Camera, Seven Years: Why the process barely changed 39:32 — Why short-form success still isn't "enough" 44:13 — Ignoring the Shiny Objects 46:48 — Relearning how to enjoy sports without filming it 49:56 — Advice for Aspiring Creators: Throw it at the wall for 30 days 51:32 — Outro

  2. Sep 23

    Bond Almand Biked To All 30 NFL Stadiums. Next, He Wants To Bike The Whole Planet.

    Bond Almand just biked to all 30 NFL stadiums — 11,000-plus miles in 65 days — and it's not even his craziest idea. This week, Tyler and Jake sit down with the ultra-endurance cyclist who broke the Alaska-to-Argentina record; they learn what it actually takes to build a sport from scratch with zero teams or leagues, and hear about the next audacious goal on his list: biking from Cape Town, South Africa to the southern tip of Argentina. It's part athlete interview, part crash course in the brutal economics of being your own brand when your job is suffering on camera for a living. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Intro 00:45 — How Do You Even Get This Job? 02:02 — The Letter to Argentina: A note from Alaska, reread at the end of the world 03:59 — Curiosity Over Comfort 05:59 — The Impossible Gap: Flying over the one stretch you legally can't bike 07:47 — Breaking the Record by Nine Days 08:46 — Building a sport as a privateer 11:19 — The Mark Dowdle Comparison: Pulling the sport forward instead of riding its coattails 14:25 — The Three-Act Suffering Story: Why audiences don't like pain, they like stakes 21:58 — How a Wi-Fi Company Found Him 22:41 — The AI Ethics Gut Check 26:10 — Racing the Story, Not the Clock: Why 175 miles a day beat 250 29:37 — Waffles and Hotel Rooms: A day in the life of a cross-country cyclist 32:20 — The Death Valley detour nobody asked for 40:12 — Tyler's unsolicited advice on shortening the idea-to-post gap 42:35 — The Nightclub Bouncer Theory 45:44 — Stepping Onto the Field: Sixty thousand fans, forty-five seconds 46:47 — The Impossible Next Goal: Biking from Cape Town to Argentina, frozen Bering Strait included 55:58 — The Creator Middle Ground: Why recap content is getting squeezed out 58:30 — Outro

  3. Sep 16

    What Happens When AI Can Get More Views Than You?

    There's a 23-year-old who ran over a hundred YouTube channels staffed by $26-an-hour Fiverr actors reading AI-written scripts...and collectively, they pulled more views than the New York Times. Jake came back from the woods with a new term for this corner of the internet ("ghost creators") and a surprisingly optimistic case for them; Tyler came in with a Semaphore investigation and a lot of skepticism. What follows is a genuinely unresolved debate about who polices manufactured news, where authentic content ends and paid acting begins, and what's left for real creators when views become a commodity. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Intro 01:13 — Introducing the "Ghost Creator" 06:01 — Influencer, Creator, or Celebrity? 09:04 — Why "user generated" usually isn't 10:25 — Blame TikTok Shop: When authenticity became a commission rate 12:35 — $26 a Video: Inside the Semaphore ghost creator investigation 14:11 — Bragging Your Way to a Ban: The dumbest possible way to run a secret network 16:30 — Manufacturing News vs. Reporting It: Gaming YouTube's breaking-news signal 20:04 — The Paid Actor Precedent 22:37 — Whose Job Is This, Anyway?: Platforms, incentives, and the responsibility question 24:18 — The Detection Problem: Why AI tags are harder than they look 27:27 — "Too Big to Solve" Is Not an Excuse 31:28 — The Big Tobacco Playbook: Going after the biggest actors first 33:14 — More Views Than the New York Times: What that means for real creators 35:20 — Clipping Accounts and Stolen Good Ideas: Can anything nefarious be repurposed? 36:46 — Pick a Lane: Fastest or Best: Why speed is the first thing AI takes 38:13 — Outro

  4. Sep 9

    His First Brand Deal Was $50. The Rest Is History.

    PeteTakes turned a fantasy football weatherman bit and a parody song into a career — but somewhere along the way, he learned the hard way that getting paid for something you love can quietly ruin why you loved it in the first place. Tyler sits down with the creator behind "Coop DeJean Is Not a Safety" to unpack the slow climb from 43 TikTok followers to a booming business, the brand deals he's turned down, and where exactly the line sits between sports betting content and selling out your audience. It's a rare, honest look at what it actually costs to build an audience...and what it costs to keep it. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Intro 01:00 — The Glazing Segment 03:06 — Why boredom built his imagination 06:04 — VHS Confessions: Childhood home videos and a theory about creative kids 13:43 — The quiet start of an account with no face attached 16:24 — The Fantasy Football Weatherman Era 18:34 — 20,000 Followers: When it stopped feeling like a hobby 19:53 — The Song vs. The Business: Why the viral hit isn't what pays the bills 21:53 — The $50 Deal That Started It All 23:39 — What happens when passion turns into paychecks 26:05 — The Influencer Cliff: Falling off the edge of relatability 30:15 — Legacy Media's Blind Spot: Why ESPN can't say no to a sportsbook 34:51 — Closed Loop vs. Open Market 38:07 — Why nobody bets to actually win 45:10 — The DC Internship He Didn't Take 48:58 — The Pep Talk: Why there's no better time to go all in 54:38 — Outro

  5. Sep 2

    Austin Ekeler On Turning Fantasy Football Players Professional

    Nine seasons in the NFL, one torn Achilles, and a newborn later, Austin Ekeler is rebuilding his career in real time — not on the field, but inside Claude Code. Tyler sits down with the former Chargers and Commanders running back to talk free agency at 31, the surprisingly firm rules around players and fantasy football, and Austin's bigger bet: turning fantasy sports into a legitimate profession with its own "pro card." It's part locker-room confession, part startup pitch, and a rare look at what an NFL career looks like the moment the cameras stop rolling. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Intro: Meet Austin Ekeler 00:29 — Life After the Cameras Leave: What actually happens post-injury 01:34 — Time to Move On 02:47 — The Adrian Peterson Effect: Why "back in nine months" became the norm 04:51 — The Bell Curve of a Career 05:35 — Social Currency: Why Austin's staying in the game even off the field 07:01 — Learning Claude Code 08:04 — The Shovel Analogy 09:41 — From Website to App: Fixing the login complaints that started it all 11:26 — Where Fantasy Meets the Law: The $250 rule for active NFL players 13:31 — Drafting Himself... and Losing: The celebrity league story 17:29 — The Missing Pro Card: Why fantasy sports has no industry-wide "legit" status 19:13 — What a Pro Card Actually Buys You: Benefits, credibility, and bragging rights 21:41 — Inside the $100K Leagues: Gamblers, owners, and friend groups with deep pockets 23:20 — Why casual players might lead the whole industry 25:07 — How to join Fantasy Royale before the season starts 26:29 — The Austin origin story Tyler never told

  6. Aug 26

    The Real Advice for Breaking Into Sports

    Two guys who both dropped out of pre-med, stumbled into sports by accident and somehow built a business anyway are finally answering the one question that won't stop landing in their inboxes: how do you actually get a job in sports? Tyler and Jake trade origin stories, from a $30-an-episode podcast gig to a Photoshop tutorial learned in real time for a $100 graphic, before laying out the exact advice they wish someone had given them at 19. It's part confession, part career manual, and fully unfiltered about why "I'm passionate about sports" is the worst pitch you can make. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Intro 01:30 — Pre-Med Dropout, Round One: Jake's chemistry class ends a medical career 03:57 — The LLC That Did Nothing: Starting a business with zero business to run 06:06 — $30 an Episode: The first time getting paid felt like winning the lottery 06:59 — Meet the Gopher: How a sports lawyer's errand-runner became a career launchpad 09:15 — Enter Tyler: A COVID-season baseball league, a cold call, and a new partner 12:20 — Patch Adams Did This: Why two guys both wanted to be doctors for the wrong reasons 16:38 — The $100 Graphic: Googling "How to Photoshop" mid-freelance-job 21:02 — Skip the Job Hunt: Why the real advice is "go work at a pizza place" 23:36 — The Worst Pitch in Sports: Why "I'm passionate about sports" gets you nowhere 26:09 — Get Paid Without a Boss: The new path that skips the job application entirely 29:31 — The College Loophole: Why four years of low stakes is your biggest advantage 34:26 — The Story of the Story: How people talk about you when you're not in the room 41:02 — Six Paragraphs Is Too Many: What actually makes a cold DM worth answering 43:16 — Outro

  7. Aug 19

    Cullen Honohan Made College Sports History for Free

    A local pizza-shop photo op with a coach's kid just rewrote the rules of college sports sponsorship. Cullen Honohan of All Hail BBall joins Tyler to break down how he became the first content creator with his own logo on a Division I jersey — without paying a single dollar upfront. From the wild backstory to the six-figure value he says social reach can deliver instead of cash, this is a first-hand look at a deal that could change how creators and college programs do business. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 — Intro 00:49 — Reunion Tour: Cullen's back, and he's got receipts 01:28 — A Photo, A DM, A Deal 03:33 — Why Cullen's paying zero dollars for a jersey patch 06:23 — Who's Really Winning Here? 09:05 — Butts in Seats: The real scoreboard Cullen's tracking for success 11:31 — Alumni reactions and a Miami Dolphins fan analogy 13:32 — Why the story might outshine the season itself 15:41 — Creative Freedom, No Committee: Cullen's non-negotiable 18:33 — Cullen's advice to creators 21:08 — Hiring His First Employee 26:31 — ESPN Vets Need Not... Actually, Apply 28:12 — Put a Price On It 30:23 — Outro

  8. Aug 12

    Surviving Shark Tank & Disrupting a $1B Equipment Market

    From tutoring pre-med students to making custom 3D-printed mouthguards for NFL and NHL stars, TrueFit Customs founder Matt Hall reveals how he disrupted a untapped billion-dollar sports market. This week Tyler and Jake break down his journey pitching on Shark Tank, how he leveraged advanced material science and AI, and secured game-changing investments directly from professional athletic trainers. Discover how taking a player-first approach turned one of the most hated pieces of athletic gear into a high-tech equipment powerhouse. ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – Intro: Meet Matt Hall & TrueFit Customs 00:51 – From Pre-Med Tutor to "Tutor Pimp" 02:18 – Why 3D Printing Changes the Custom-Fit Game 04:44 – The Wild Early Days of Stone Models & Manual Labor 07:11 – Resins, Lasers, and Light: Modern 3D Tech Explained 08:20 – Spotting a $1B Untapped Sports Vertical 11:44 – The 1990 Japanese Dental Paper That Built TrueFit 14:56 – Surviving Shark Tank & Facing Mark Cuban 20:54 – Negotiating Valuations with Kevin O'Leary & Rashad Jennings 24:22 – Hacking the Pro Sports Distribution System 27:44 – Why Nike and Big Tech Missed the Mouthguard Loophole 32:07 – Securing Investments directly from Pro Athletic Trainers 38:05 – Scaling Custom Fit: AI, Material Science, & Scanners 41:00 – Protection vs. Fit: How Ultra-Thin Guards Work 44:09 – Outro: Key Takeaways on TrueFit's Category Dominance

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
9 Ratings

About

Two sports marketers (Jake Kranz and Tyler Webb) interview the most unique people in sports, business, marketing, and technology to learn about the ideas shaping the future of the sports industry.

Information

  • Creator
    Uncle Charlie
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Uncle Charlie
  • Show Website
    Sportonomics

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