Just snapping a photo on some printer paper hatched the idea for a company that has now evolved into signing its first athlete through name, image and likeness legislation.
2011 Penn State graduate Bill Corcoran Jr., now founder of the #OnTheStacks podcast, was working for his family's printer company when he decided to take a photo of himself sitting on top of a couple of stacks of paper to promote his family's company.
Corcoran didn’t realize that his “goofy” photos of himself on the stacks of paper would make others want to do the same.
“I thought people were kidding,” Corcoran said. “I told somebody ‘Yeah, sure…’ I posted that on social media, and once I did that, it blew up. I literally had like 100 people message me saying, ‘Hey, I want to do this. Hey, how can I do this?”
Corcoran said people wanted to get their photo taken on the stacks of paper because it was a form of self-promotion.
His photo operation went on for a year, which caused him to hire a professional photographer.
After another year passed, Corcoran started to build an audience that he said wanted “more,” and one of his fans suggested that he do a podcast.
“I turned it into a podcast just to be able to interview these people that were coming to get their photo, so I can now share their story and share their journey,” Corcoran said.
Before Corcoran could start up his podcast, he needed a name, and he had just the idea.
Corcoran said in the paper industry, they don’t call them stacks of paper. It’s pallets of paper.
“I’ve never heard somebody call pallets of paper ‘stacks,’ except for that first guy that came here, Mark,” Corcoran said. “He called them stacks. He said, ‘Yo, let me come jump on them stacks with you.’ I kind of took that. I was like, ‘You know what? I'm gonna call it OnTheStacks.’”
Corcoran added the hashtag to make it “#OnTheStacks,” so if anyone wanted to see who was on the stacks, they could just search the hashtag.
2011 Penn State graduate Bill Corcoran, who founded #OnTheStacks, interviews former Penn State quarterback Matt McGloin for a podcast episode.
The podcast has grown into what it is today, with over 100 episodes with numerous guests, including former Penn State quarterback Matt McGloin.
McGloin appeared in episode 107 of #OnTheStacks, where he talked about how his Pennsylvania roots shaped the person he is today.
#OnTheStacks looks for certain characteristics in its guests, mainly someone who has an entrepreneurial background or is a community leader.
“I try to look for people who have that type of story where they really worked hard to get to where they're at,” Corcoran said. “I have them come on the show and share their journey and their experiences.”
As the show began to grow, Corcoran added more members to his staff, including Jimmy T. Martin, who’s an entrepreneur himself and made an appearance on the podcast prior to joining the crew.
Martin spent four years on “Saturday Night Live” before founding his own fitness company, Brrrn, in 2016.
After appearing on the podcast, Martin saw firsthand what Corcoran was trying to achieve with the company, and he had to get involved.
“I really believed in his vision,” Martin said. “I wanted to come on board as a producer to help him scale his business, so it could be something that's not a hobby and is a full-time career one day.”
Martin said his experience with Brrrn could help Corcoran with growing the company.
Now, Martin is an executive producer of #OnTheStacks and helps Corcoran with the business side of things.
“My main objective with helping him is to extend his reach,” Martin said, “sort of brand awareness and to create channels for him to continue to help support the show on a financial level.”
Corcoran said his vision is to make #OnTheStacks bigger than just the podcast, turning it into a platform that houses multiple different content creators.
He said he wants to create a space where there’s not just the #OnTheStacks podcast but other shows with different hosts.
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A recent step Corcoran took was getting back involved with his alma mater, signing Penn State redshirt-freshman linebacker Dominic DeLuca to an NIL deal.
“It's still a bit of a learning curve, but it's exciting just to be involved in [NIL] because it's so new,” Corcoran said. “I think there's a lot of opportunities.”
DeLuca and Corcoran grew up in the same town, so it only felt right to have his first signee be DeLuca.
“I felt like it was just a really good connection between the two of us,” Corcoran said. “Dominic's athletic ability, grit and determination to play the game and to be better, all those things just aligned.”
Corcoran’s plan for his first NIL athlete is to promote DeLuca while promoting #OnTheStacks at the same time, which he said could be through collaborative merchandise.
“It’s cross-promotion,” Martin said. “Help cultivate [athletes’] brands, [and] on the same side for us, to align ourselves with their growth and for them to point their followers in our direction to learn what we're doing on our end, so it's a mutually exclusive relationship.”
Martin said DeLuca’s contract is built alongside the athlete because other contracts often don’t allow for the athlete to have a say.
Corcoran said this type of “cross-promotion” through social media is the future of advertising, branding and marketing.
For Corcoran, #OnTheStacks is just getting started with big goals still to be achieved, but he’s still happy with how far he’s come from just taking photos with people on a couple of pallets of paper.
“My goal is to inspire people to go after their goal and dreams,” Corcoran said. “Go out there and be motivated, do a great job and love what you're doing while you're doing it.”
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