Our Kids Play Hockey Is Growing! - New Ways to Watch, Connect, and Be Heard

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Hello, hockey friends and families around the world, and welcome back to another edition of our kids play hockey. This is gonna be a micro edition because we've got some pretty cool show updates to share with you about new ways you can experience and support the show. We're always trying to evolve here to get you as involved as humanly possible because while the three hosts here, we obviously love having these conversations and we have our experiences. The truth is this is a community effort, right? It takes a village. And the more we can hear from you, the more we can interact with you, I think the better it's gonna be. So the first thing we want to do is tell you about a new way to experience the show. So Apple Podcasts recently released the ability to do video. Now, what's cool about us, since day one, since episode one, we have been doing video that has often appeared on YouTube. But now, if you listen on Apple Podcasts, you will see the video there as well. We want to thank our friends over at uh Apple and Buzzsprout for making this possible. Uh, it's just another way to experience the show. You can see the guests first up, um, and you can see us if you haven't for some reason and and do that, right? Um, but it's a really nice evolution of the platform and another way for people to experience it. Uh easy viewing, and again, just better integration uh overall. So every time you watch or listen to the show now on that network, um, it's gonna help us whether you're in the car or you're doing your laundry, um, either way, you win. Okay. Uh the next one, which is kind of the big one we're excited about, is the ability for us now to reply to fan mail. Now, I don't just mean the email, which again is team at our kidsplayhockey.com. That's all the time open from an email standpoint. But you hear me at the end of each episode saying, hey, there's a link accompanying this description. I'm sorry, accompanying this episode in the description. Uh previously we could not reply to those, but now we can privately reply to those. Uh, it's a pretty cool community building tool. I always remind everybody that just if you message us, it does not mean it's going to appear in an episode. We get a lot of messages from listeners that just have a question, just want to interact, get some advice, that's fine. We always appreciate it when we're allowed to talk about them on episodes, but we respect all of you and your kids and your privacy. If that's not something you want to do, just let us know in the message. So, again, we get messages from parents, coaches, and even players sometimes. Um, it's just a clearer, cleaner way for us to have those conversations with you now. Uh, because I'm not gonna lie, it was a little awkward when you'd message us and we wouldn't know your name or where you're from or how to reply. So we kind of just had to let it sit there. But again, if you have follow-up questions, um, if you want to uh connect with listeners, if you want to turn your story into an episode topic, or you just want that conversation, um, it's the best way to do it. You know, one of the best parts of our kids play hockey has always been the relationships that come out of it. When when you stop us at the rinks and talk to us, it actually really means a lot to us. So uh let's keep doing that because this is gonna make the show feel even more personal, right? Um, the another one on the fan mail is, and this is kind of cool, you can actually leave a voicemail now. Again, uh, this makes it really easy. If you're not someone who likes to type, uh you can send us an honest voicemail. Uh, it's a game changer for shows like us because we could probably put them on the air if you want us to. We don't have to, but your kids can ask hockey questions, you can give your parents stories, coaches can share advice, you can give your team a shout out, uh, you can give us a ride to the rink moment, whether you've listened to one or you have something you want us to talk about. Your funny hockey stories, we'd love to hear those. Um, or um very importantly, questions for future guests. These are all ways um you can do it. Also, there's something powerful for us about hearing your voice um and your family's voice uh to us. It helps us connect to you, uh, especially the kids. So that human connection uh is what youth sports is all about. We talk about it all the time, right? So it also opens up future possibilities for us, right? More mailbag episodes, we could do listener spotlights, uh, we could have some guest QA uh and just community reaction episodes, which is something we love to do. So it's a great way to show your support. Um, and while we're talking community, we also want to quickly mention there's a few ways you can support the show if it's brought uh value to your family. One is a free one. Uh, if you go to ourkidsplayhockey.com and you look in the top right, there's a rink flyer you can download and print out and bring to your rink with a QR code to the show. Uh it helps us get out there to more people. We always say you can share it in your Team Snap or whatever communication device you use. Uh, that's free again on the website. Print it, put it up at your rink, share it with the organization. Uh, and then as many of you know, we're authors here, right? Christy and I have written many books together. Uh, hockey never stops this one. You can get that at hockey never stops.com. Uh Twig and Biscuit, uh, Twigbiscuit.com is a children's story that we're writing for new hockey families. It makes a tremendous gift for anybody getting into the game. Again, you can find those on Amazon as well. Twig and Biscuit, Hockey Never Stops, and obviously Christy's the Puck Hog series, all of these are available. They support us directly. Um, and everything we create is to help build better hockey families, better hockey environments. And then obviously, look, we have sponsors on the show. Uh, your ability to support them helps us out, right? We do not bring anyone on that we don't think is going to benefit you. We get asked all the time for sponsorship opportunities. If we don't feel that the brand aligns with you or the best interest of our listeners, we just simply say no. So show them support. We have vetted them thoroughly when we bring them on. And uh, you really do help support independent hockey media when you do that. And again, above all, share the show, send no episodes to your team, uh team friends, share the Facebook post that we put out, the micro uh quote, I'm sorry, the micro content that we put out, which many of you are doing, by the way. Uh, we we appreciate that. Recommend it at your rink and post your favorite episodes, right? Uh, I'll say this again: this show has grown almost entirely through word of mouth from hockey families like yours. Uh, over the last six years, we cannot believe from episode one when we weren't sure if anyone was listening, to the massive audience that this has become, uh, we can't thank you enough because you're the ones who do that. We appreciate you more than you know. The stories, the messages, the support. It really matters. And we're really excited about where this community is heading next. So for Christy, Mike, and myself, Lee, we will see you at the rank. That's gonna do it for this micro edition of Our Kids Play Hockey. You are the beating heart of this show and this programming, my friends, and we cannot thank you enough. We'll see you next time. Take care. We hope you enjoyed this edition of Our Kids Play Hockey. Make sure to like and subscribe right now if you found value wherever you're listening, whether it's a podcast network, a social media network, or our website, ourkidsplayhockey.com. Also, make sure to check out our children's book, When Hockey Stops, at When Hockey Stops.com. It's a book that helps children deal with adversity in the game and in life. We're very proud of it. But thanks so much for listening to this edition of Our Kids Play Hockey, and we'll see you on the next episode.