Meet Travis Mewhirter | Podcast host

We had the good fortune of connecting with Travis Mewhirter and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Travis, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
The funny part about starting our business was that it was never intended to become a business. It started mostly out of boredom from my partner, Tri Bourne. Long one of the best volleyball players in the world, Bourne had been diagnosed with an enigmatic autoimmune disease that would keep him out for the better part of two years. At the time, I had begun carving out a career in beach volleyball media, freelancing for a number of magazines and writing my first of three books on the subject. With the rare skill-set combination of journalistic bona fides and a knowledge for the game – I eventually became a professional player myself – Bourne called me and asked if I’d want to start a podcast with him. To me, this was a no-brainer. This was one of the best players in the world asking me to work with him for the foreseeable future.
No question.
We both figured when Bourne returned, the podcast would stop and he’d focus 100 percent on playing. Only, when he did return, he was known to fans more for his work with the podcast than his own playing. That, in retrospect, seemed to be a turning point for us. As more sponsors came in, and revenue continued to be reinvested, which brought more revenue in, we realized we had a legitimate business on our hands.
Now it’s a full-fledged LLC, and we’re able to pay our own contractors decent sums of money, though we still rarely, if ever, pay ourselves.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
There is a book called Blue Ocean Strategy that I’d never heard of prior to meeting Tri Bourne, but the concept of which we have, intentionally or not, taken and ran with. The concept is to, rather than compete with hundreds or thousands of others in crowded categories, to simply invent your own.
We’ve done that.
Never before our podcast has there been a beach volleyball podcast, recorded and published, as our motto goes, for the players, by the players.
My own career, too, is decidedly Blue Ocean – a writer, player, podcaster, commentator, now coach in the sport of beach volleyball. We have followed our own curiosities and passions to create a category that didn’t exist, and lives we could have never dreamed of.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
This is a tough question, as I’ve only recently moved to Tallahassee, Florida, where I am the assistant beach volleyball coach. But I’d take them on the 1.5 mile walk around the lake in town, which is absolutely stunning. As for restaurants – well, who needs them when I have my wife, Delaney, as the best cook in town?

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
The women of SANDCAST. My own wife, Delaney Mewhirter, has allowed me to spend, at this point, literally hundreds of nights at Tri’s house to podcast rather than hang out with her, doing something in which I don’t get paid — and she understands the benefits that come with it. The podcast has led to nearly every other contracting job I’ve landed, paying for itself dozens of times over. And, of course, The Pod Mama, Gabby Bourne, designer, engineer, and architect of our studio. She is the podcasting world’s Wonderwoman.

Website: https://sandcastvolleyball.com/

Instagram: @sandcast_podcast

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@SANDCASTPodcast

Image Credits
Bryan Malloch