We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Deonte Epps a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Deonte thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

In college, I decided to change my degree from Statistics to Film & Digital Media with a minor in Corporate Communication. This brought on a range of classes that I did not know then would be the building blocks of my skills as a podcaster and content creator. It was there, I first learned the intricacies of audio and video editing, and how to have a camera presence. After graduating from Baylor, I spent the next three years in the news industry starting as a production assistant; continuing my skills of audio/video editing, as well as camera setup, to sports reporter; where I produced my own sports segment for the weekend news shows. I believe learning both audio and video editing skills prepared me to produce my own podcast, and my time as a sports reporter on camera definitely helped with being in front of the screen, not afraid of the issues that may come about because I’m familiar with it. I think knowing what I know now, I would have been more loose, I was so afraid of messing up that sometimes I put too much pressure on myself and I may not have sound natural or maybe read something too fast. The most essential skill I learned was being more calm and just having fun with it.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I was a sports reporter for a news station in Waco for about a year before becoming a full-time teacher (now finishing my 6th year). Sports has been the mainstay in my life since I could learn to walk. Although I played a ton of sports growing up, football is what stuck with me and became my life. My best friend, Dane Beasley, I’ve known since the 3rd grade and we grew really close during our high school years. One of the things that made us grow closer, of course, was our love for sports. We would always have conversations about what’s going on in the sports world, as well as entertainment, comic book movies, video games, and everything in between.

For years, we had always talked about starting a podcast so our family and friends could listen and jump in on the discussions that we have almost every day. In November 2019, we launched “The Duo: Sports and Stuff Podcast,” which “The Duo” came from the nickname everyone use to call Dane and me in high school because we were always together. In under a year, we’ve had big-time guests from ESPN (Jay Bilas, Marcus Spears, Joe Lunardi), Bleacher Report (Master Tesfatsion) and from the Netflix hit show “Last Chance U (RJ Stern, John Mosley). With what started as a podcast just about sports, video games, and movies turned into something more. We decided to use our platform and speak out on society and how not only it affects up, but call out the injustices that have always been a mainstay, and how things need to change. We felt it was our responsibility to push for change and encourage our listeners to do the same. It’s definitely been an amazing experience to listen to the praise and feedback we’ve been getting for the podcast and definitely excited for what’s next for us.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is having fun. I’ve had the opportunity to do something so cool with my best friend and meet some amazing people in the sports industry that I could not have imagined. And the best part is when we have a guest on, and they compliment us on our hard work, whether it’s the thought-proving questions we ask, or the ability to garner more conversations, that really makes a mark on me.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think it’s just important to support the people close to you. Everyone around you is trying to make it in their own right, so it doesn’t hurt to support, whether it’s a retweet or a like or whatever the case may be, support friends and family that are doing great things for great causes.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theduosportsandstuffpodcast.com
• Instagram: @deppsrightsteps/@duosnspodcast
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deonte-epps-63ab657a/
• Twitter: @deppsrightsteps/@duosnspodcast
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5fe8pBXGpxNaVxsxefP7yQ