Today we’d like to introduce you to Karlil Wilson
Karlil, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story started in my apartment in College Station, TX, three years ago. I had just recently moved to College Station, and I remember sitting on my couch, feeling like I wanted more from life. I was in a brand new environment where I had no friends, family, or extracurriculars, and overall, I had nothing to do to help ease the emptiness in my everyday life. I felt like I was going through the motions. This was also around the time that podcasts were starting to reach mainstream popularity, and I had started listening to a few of them more and more every day. I also started watching the morning sports shows a lot more, like First Take, Get Up, Undisputed with Skip & Shannon, First Things First, and many more. Other than sports, I started listening to programs that gave me more information and interesting opinions on different things I was interested in, such as anime, music, and movies. The more I started consuming, the more I developed my own opinion about what I was hearing. It got to the point where I would find myself debating against the TV because I disagreed so much, and the desire to be the one to give my thoughts and opinions to an audience of my peers kept growing and growing. That’s when I knew that I wanted to start a podcast. I’ve always aspired to be a social media influencer and even attempted in past ventures, but I never committed and always gave up when things became difficult. If I wanted to do something like this, I had to take it seriously. The only thing is, I knew I didn’t want to do it alone. I knew that if I was going to do a podcast, I wouldn’t want to be the only one giving my thoughts and opinions; I wanted to hear others’ opinions as well. I wanted to share, I wanted to create, and I wanted to debate. After some thought, I contacted two friends who later became my co-hosts. Kenny Trotter and Bamba Fall. Kenny and Bamba are friends I made while living in Lexington, KY, and attending the University of Kentucky. Kenny has been my best friend since 2016. We met in 2015 but became close in 2016 while going through the process of joining the same fraternity; ever since then, we’ve been locked in. I met Bamba in late 2017. Bamba and I met, working the same part-time job. We were grillers at BD’s Mongolian Grill, a popular stir fry restaurant. Bamba and I quickly gravitated toward each other after he started because a lot of our interests were similar, and we always seemed to have great conversations. We soon started hanging out outside of work, and I was bringing him around the campus and my friend group. Since then, we’ve been great friends. I decided on these two because we all shared the same interests. We all love watching/playing sports, are super deep into anime, and listen to the same type of music. I decided to get them on a group Facetime and pitch the idea. I told them I wanted to start a podcast with three different talking points. I want the podcast to focus on Sports, Anime, Media & Entertainment. They were both on board immediately! Quickly after that, Kenny came up with the name, and we collectively brainstormed how we wanted to operate. The SAME Convo was now a real thing. We started off recording on Zoom with the intent to post the videos on YouTube. I say “with the intent” because we had major technical difficulties and could not post our videos so we pivoted and started to broadcast on Instagram Live. We recorded on Instagram Live for months, having little to no audience, but we didn’t care. We were simply enjoying creating our content. After a while, we decided that we should try pre-recording again and posting on YouTube. We finally figured out what we needed to do and decided it would be way better this time. Shortly before we started to do that, A podcast network called Age of Radio reached out to us and asked if we wanted to join their network. Their central selling point for us is that they would make it easier for us to post our audio on streaming services such as Apple Music and Spotify, which we desperately wanted. After a few days of discussion, we decided to join the Age of Radio, and the rest is history. After four seasons, 200 videos on YouTube, over 150 episodes on streaming services, a new gaming channel, and a bigger team, I can say we are currently in a great place and constantly improving. We aren’t as big as the major podcasts in the media today, but we have the potential to blow up at any moment.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
One of the first obstacles for us was figuring out how to record. Our laptops needed more space, and we couldn’t afford the necessary equipment to help us out at the time. Another struggle was establishing a serious audience that would consume our content. Then, we also needed help with producing quality content. Finding the right microphones and cameras took us a long time. Personally, I struggled with consistency. I am in charge of posting our YouTube and streaming services, and there have been so many times when I have been behind schedule on editing and posting, but now I am doing a lot better and working off of a set schedule.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a podcast host of The SAME Convo. It’s a podcast where we talk about Sports, Anime, Media, & Entertainment. On our podcast, we are all responsible for coming up with topics for each segment, but the sports segment is my specialty. We are known for being loud, having heated debates, and making hot takes that will make you question our way of thinking. I am most proud of our continued consistency in our work. We’ve been doing this for three years and counting, and every time we log on, the passion continues to grow. What sets us apart as a collective is that no podcast in the world talks about the same three topics in rotation as we do. That’s what makes us unique; what sets me apart from everyone else is my relentless takes and my desire to make sure my points are being heard and understood.
In my everyday life, I am a property management professional. I’ve been in residential property management for over five years. I currently work in Account management and assist in managing resident accounts.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I see the podcast industry continuing to grow. Right now podcasts and streaming are the two main outlets in media right now. Sometimes they are actually hand in hand. I believe podcasts will start phasing out regular morning talk shows and sports shows. Everyone has one now and everyone wants their opinion or their story to be heard!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/thesameconvo
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesameconvo/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thesameconvo
- spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3okPYJVol3SzqWBRdXkPEG
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@thesameconvo
