Speaker 1: Hey va, fam, it is my favorite time of the
Speaker 1: week time for a Halaback Monday, and this week it
Speaker 1: is one of my favorite episodes. I know I always
Speaker 1: say that, but legit because not only is this person extraordinary,
Speaker 1: and you're going to learn all about the business of
Speaker 1: podcasting and how even y'all can start your own podcast
Speaker 1: one day from Carlo will Meris. But I also met
Speaker 1: a friend that day. So Carla is so real, so raw.
Speaker 1: She's a mama, she's a single mama at that and
Speaker 1: an entrepreneur and I learned a ton from her. And
Speaker 1: you get to listen to Carla share her journey on
Speaker 1: how she pivoted from accounting to become a podcast guru y'all.
Speaker 1: She has worked on podcasts for Tiffany D. Cross and
Speaker 1: Rachel Rogers. And also she is going to give some
Speaker 1: expert advice on how y'all can maybe start your own
Speaker 1: podcast anyone interested in that. It ain't easy, but hey,
Speaker 1: give it a listen. Let us know what you think. Hey, Hey,
Speaker 1: it's Mandy here and I have a very very very
Speaker 1: special guest today. I cannot wait for y'all to meet her.
Speaker 1: But before I introduced our illustrious guest. I want to wish,
Speaker 1: of course, my co host Tiffany. I hope she's having
Speaker 1: the most amazing time off during the month of March,
Speaker 1: taking some time for herself, go into Egypt, of all places.
Speaker 1: And as I'm thinking of her, I'm like, she better
Speaker 1: have flown for his class, because the days of economy
Speaker 1: are over for her and she needs to embrace her
Speaker 1: rich auntie life. All right. So, for those of y'all
Speaker 1: who have followed BA from the beginning, and I know
Speaker 1: we have some ogs in the audience, first of all,
Speaker 1: thank you because in twenty fourteen, fifteen, when we launched
Speaker 1: the show, we were one of like none women of color,
Speaker 1: no women of color who were covering finance in the
Speaker 1: career and doing it in the way that we were
Speaker 1: doing it. And for those of you who don't know
Speaker 1: the origin story of Brown Ambition Podcast, tiff and I
Speaker 1: met at a conference, became friends, and I was a
Speaker 1: reporter at the time at Yahoo Finance and for my career,
Speaker 1: like I literally studied print journalism because they allowed me
Speaker 1: to do that in two thousand and five, even though
Speaker 1: it was a dying industry, or at least a rapidly
Speaker 1: changing one, and It was one of my survival tactics
Speaker 1: throughout my career to figure out these new skill sets.
Speaker 1: And so I taught myself video, taught myself broadcast how
Speaker 1: to actually talk to a camera, which I had huge
Speaker 1: fears about, and podcasting was sort of that next chapter.
Speaker 1: And so when I thought about a show i'd want
Speaker 1: to do, Tiffany of course came to mind. We had
Speaker 1: such great chemistry and brown Ambition was born, and we
Speaker 1: launched a podcast in twenty fifteen. I remember going to
Speaker 1: Yahoo at the time. I loved telling and everyone loves
Speaker 1: a story where someone passed on you and then you
Speaker 1: did it anyway. So bruh. Yahoo actually said, no, we're
Speaker 1: not interested because you can't guarantee, you know, a million downloads,
Speaker 1: and you can't guarantee that we're going to be able
Speaker 1: to advertise immediately and make a revenue. So thank goodness
Speaker 1: they did, because of course, we went on to make
Speaker 1: the show on our own and to this day fully
Speaker 1: owned the IP.
Speaker 2: We own the show. Obviously, we have a.
Speaker 1: Great podcast partner in Westwood One are our network, but
Speaker 1: still it is our show and we are so proud
Speaker 1: of it. And one of the questions I get a lot,
Speaker 1: especially from people in my career coaching group, Mandy Moneymakers
Speaker 1: is I'm thinking of starting a podcast. It feels like
Speaker 1: it's such a crowded space. Now, do you have any
Speaker 1: tips for me? And I do offer all of the
Speaker 1: insights that I have, But I've only ever worked obviously
Speaker 1: on Brown Ambition. So I am so excited to welcome
Speaker 1: today's guest because she is someone who has become a
Speaker 1: podcast crew and her own right, has worked on multiple shows,
Speaker 1: and she is here today to talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about her journey. And I'm hoping on y'all's behalf, I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask all the juicy questions so that you
Speaker 1: feel more empowered if it's what you want to do
Speaker 1: to launch a show of your own, because, as I
Speaker 1: try to say to it everyone, I still think that
Speaker 1: there's room for new voices, new ideas, everything in the
Speaker 1: podcast space. So I want to introduce our guest, Carla
Speaker 1: will Meris. She is the founder of Idea to Launch
Speaker 1: Academy and the host of the Idea to Launch podcast.
Speaker 1: But before she became a podcast guru, she was like me,
Speaker 1: a corporate girly crunching numbers behind a desk as an
Speaker 1: accountant working forty to sixty hours per week, but then
Speaker 1: ultimately decided to make the brave and bold move to pivot,
Speaker 1: lean into new skills and become totally fulfilled in her
Speaker 1: new path. And in less than a year, Carla was
Speaker 1: able to sell out a live show, quit that corporate job,
Speaker 1: and go full time as a podcaster. Since then, her
Speaker 1: show hasn't massed over a million downloads, over one hundred
Speaker 1: K and AD revenue, and in her business the idea
Speaker 1: to launch academy, she helps others just like herself do
Speaker 1: the same. I am so honored to welcome Carla to
Speaker 1: the BA Studio. Welcome Carla, thank you for having me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: have creaty introduction.
Speaker 2: I'm bringing you in my pocket everywhere. Thank you.
Speaker 1: Well, you know I have an editor so I can
Speaker 1: stop and start again. I love that some of the
Speaker 1: shows you worked on, y'all might have heard of the
Speaker 1: No for Sure podcast holding Court not just another sex
Speaker 1: podcast powered af But take us back to your journey,
Speaker 1: you know, as a podcaster, and what year did you
Speaker 1: really get your start and when did you start to realize, Okay,
Speaker 1: this could actually be a career for me.
Speaker 2: So, like I said, I come from corporate. I was
Speaker 2: an accountant for six years. I was a young mom,
Speaker 2: so it was like, you're going numbers. It pays well,
Speaker 2: get it done. That's what you basically do, right, especially
Speaker 2: in my culture. You know, I'm from Puerto Rico, Caribbean.
Speaker 2: It's just like a woman just gets a job and
Speaker 2: works nine to five, and that's what you do. I
Speaker 2: never fit the mold, but as I'm in accounting, I
Speaker 2: started to feel like there was something that I needed
Speaker 2: to change. This wasn't for me and it wasn't fulfilling me.
Speaker 2: So I turned thirty and I started this blog called Shit,
Speaker 2: I'm thirty. My dad had just passed away, and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 2: what year was this? This was twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1: Oh man starting a blog in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: I didn't know what I was doing. I just knew
Speaker 2: that I needed to. It was more like a journal. Honestly,
Speaker 2: I'm like, well, I'm gonna just put it out there.
Speaker 2: I usually do it on Instagram, and the business side
Speaker 2: of me, I'm like, well, maybe I can monetize this somehow,
Speaker 2: some white other than just putting it out there on
Speaker 2: videos or talking to friends or maybe going live whatever
Speaker 2: it was so I did the blog that didn't last long.
Speaker 2: There I would put like the fucks in like all
Speaker 2: caps and a bunch of exclamation marks, and it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: what the hell. It wasn't giving what I needed to give,
Speaker 2: although a lot of people were resonating with it, like oh,
Speaker 2: we love this one's the next one coming out, but
Speaker 2: I'm like, I was still itching, like there's something that's not.
Speaker 2: I need to say my fucks better. You know, I
Speaker 2: really need you to know, because sometimes you read something
Speaker 2: and it's it doesn't translate the way I wanted it
Speaker 2: to translate. So I was.
Speaker 1: Laughated versus saying it out loud.
Speaker 2: Yeah, she's like a text message. You ended up arguing
Speaker 2: with your man because he said something and he meant
Speaker 2: it in a different way, but we were already mad
Speaker 2: at we read it in a different way, so when
Speaker 2: you hear it, it's different. So I went ahead and
Speaker 2: started listening to pods. I already did that for years.
Speaker 2: In accounting, you do nothing but sit behind a desk
Speaker 2: and crunch numbers. So audiobooks and podcasts were my thing
Speaker 2: from seven am until nighttime, you know, so all day
Speaker 2: long that's what I would do. So I didn't started
Speaker 2: teaching myself because how do you get a podcast on iTunes.
Speaker 2: I'm not famous. I literally live in Disney World, Orlando,
Speaker 2: I have a kid. I'm just I don't know any
Speaker 2: of this. I'm not on the entertainment space. So I
Speaker 2: started to teach myself. It took about six seven months.
Speaker 2: Bought so much equipment that I didn't need, but I
Speaker 2: figured I became an engineer myself. I had a surface
Speaker 2: you know those pads, yeah, tablet, and so much equipment
Speaker 2: and you're not gonna like I spent so my Polo
Speaker 2: Chick I was going on that.
Speaker 1: I've seen it happen, yes.
Speaker 2: Because when you go through the rabbit hole of Google,
Speaker 2: there's all these gurus telling you what to do. So
Speaker 2: I had to just learn trial and error. Started the
Speaker 2: podcast March two thousand eighteen, so it'll be five years now.
Speaker 1: And was it always idea to launch? What wasn't?
Speaker 2: No? No, So it's called Shit I'm thirty. I just
Speaker 2: switched the blog onto the pod Shit I'm thirty. It okay,
Speaker 2: and within eight weeks. My actual idea to launch is
Speaker 2: the pod that it's kind of like a branch. It
Speaker 2: just has a few episodes of like tidbits and how
Speaker 2: to podcast, but it was shit, I'm thirty, and now
Speaker 2: it's called pivot with Purpose. So shit I'm thirty was
Speaker 2: on the charts, and I always say with Oprah, right
Speaker 2: on the Oprah. Within eight weeks, I was like, me
Speaker 2: and her best dies, you're right, but you know that
Speaker 2: it was a big deal back then, right, I'm like,
Speaker 2: I don't know what I'm doing. I'm in my daughter's playroom. Literally,
Speaker 2: I kicked her out, and I'm like, this is a
Speaker 2: studio now. So I did that and just kept going right,
Speaker 2: it was audio. I had a friend. My friend's like,
Speaker 2: I don't really like this. I kept going on my
Speaker 2: own and from there I realized, specifically that people of
Speaker 2: color were asking me how do I start. I don't
Speaker 2: have the money to spend ten thousand dollars for someone
Speaker 2: to teach me how to do my own podcast. So
Speaker 2: I started testing out how to launch a podcast in
Speaker 2: thirty days. So I would charge like forty nine bucks
Speaker 2: for an hour, and I would give them the whole
Speaker 2: rundown and help them. I did this for a while,
Speaker 2: then I started the academy. I then taught people everything
Speaker 2: I knew. You know now I know what equipment to use. Now,
Speaker 2: I know how to simplify this. So I made it
Speaker 2: very simple for us to just start, because you can
Speaker 2: make it very difficult. Then the pandemic hit. And I've
Speaker 2: been doing this now for a while virtually because again
Speaker 2: I live in Orlando. There's no Mecca. This is not
Speaker 2: New York because it's not La like it's there's not
Speaker 2: much media here. So the pandemic hits and big corporations
Speaker 2: like iHeart don't know how to simplify things, and they're
Speaker 2: home and they don't know what to do. So then
Speaker 2: I was able to step in and show them, hey,
Speaker 2: we can do this. And at that time, Riverside wasn't
Speaker 2: a thing, So it was showing them how to use
Speaker 2: zoom but without zoom audio and using the backup audio,
Speaker 2: and they're like, oh, this is it. I'm like, that's it.
Speaker 1: Pay me now, yeah, yeah. Talk to us about choosing
Speaker 1: the idea for your show. You already had the blog.
Speaker 1: When did you realize, like, this is the focus of
Speaker 1: the show and it's actually resonating with an audience. Because
Speaker 1: I think some folks will rush in, like they'll think
Speaker 1: that they have an idea for a show. They'll do
Speaker 1: the show without actually like testing or seeing if there's
Speaker 1: an audience for it, especially if you're not, like you said,
Speaker 1: a celebrity who has a built in fan base, you know,
Speaker 1: So talk a little bit about that. And I also
Speaker 1: hear that your show pivoted over time. Now it's pivot
Speaker 1: with purpose. So yeah, tell people who are wondering, what's
Speaker 1: the thing. How do I know that people are going
Speaker 1: to resonate with this?
Speaker 2: How you sort of? I did some things right, and
Speaker 2: I did some things not looking back that weren't the best.
Speaker 2: What I did do was I come from a business background, right,
Speaker 2: so I remember doing a lot of like customer avatars
Speaker 2: and knowing who my target audience is for business, so
Speaker 2: I figured I needed to know that from the pot
Speaker 2: as well. So although it was called shit, I'm thirty
Speaker 2: and everything, I still remember my spiel. It's like getting
Speaker 2: rid of society's expectations about where you should be in
Speaker 2: your thirties as a woman of color when you turn thirty.
Speaker 2: And that's where I stayed, and I talked about parenting
Speaker 2: and career and relationships everything, but through the lens of
Speaker 2: a woman of color turning thirty, trying to figure out
Speaker 2: what to do. So I was very intentional with my content.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, well you talk about everything, yes, but no,
Speaker 2: I talk about what I'm going through. But it's in
Speaker 2: a very linear way, right, I don't kind of I
Speaker 2: didn't deviate from that, and my guests also were very
Speaker 2: aligned with that. So that's when that was my test essentially,
Speaker 2: and that's why I believe everyone kept coming back because
Speaker 2: whoever liked episode one, two and three also liked four, five, six, seven,
Speaker 2: and eight. And that's I think a lot of people
Speaker 2: that want to start a pod where they fall is, Oh,
Speaker 2: I want to it's for everybody, It's for all black women,
Speaker 2: it's for all No, it's now, we're not monolithic, were out,
Speaker 2: We're not all the same, So why would you put
Speaker 2: me in the same category as what's her name? Candice?
Speaker 2: But moving right along, we're not all the same. So
Speaker 2: that thing, that's the very first thing that one of
Speaker 2: the things that I think I did wrong was choosing
Speaker 2: that name. So although I was very I was sad,
Speaker 2: I was anxious about turning thirty. I'm not where I'm
Speaker 2: supposed to be like in society and in my family.
Speaker 2: I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing.
Speaker 2: I should settle down and get married, have more kids,
Speaker 2: have the white picket friends, you know, just stay home
Speaker 2: after five o'clock, do whatever you have to do for
Speaker 2: your husband. It wasn't me, and I felt trapped in
Speaker 2: my thirties. But then as I got to my thirty
Speaker 2: four thirty five, I'm like, oh, I like it here.
Speaker 1: I like it a lot.
Speaker 2: You can't can't am I tell me nothing. I'm not
Speaker 2: a kid, I'm not too old. I love who I'm becoming.
Speaker 2: So that's when I pivoted and I started really finding
Speaker 2: out what my purpose was through the podcast. It was
Speaker 2: I enjoyed speaking, but at the same time, I started
Speaker 2: finding my passion and my purpose through storytelling and helping others,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, oh, this is where I'm supposed to be.
Speaker 2: And that's when, with the help of the community of
Speaker 2: the podcast, we came up with pivot with purpose because
Speaker 2: I didn't know where to take it. But I believe
Speaker 2: also the name is very important because you'll get to
Speaker 2: a point where you're like, oh, does this still fit
Speaker 2: who I am today? We are forever evolving. Who I
Speaker 2: was when Shit I'm thirty started is one hundred percent
Speaker 2: not who I am today. So we have to be
Speaker 2: able to evolve with our podcast as well.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Absolutely, I mean it's hard to like, it's impossible
Speaker 1: to foresee into the future where you're going to be.
Speaker 1: I think we got lucky because Brian ambition has just
Speaker 1: it never gets old, it never is stale. I do
Speaker 1: remember in the early days someone saying, like someone who
Speaker 1: also was launching a podcast, like, well, are you afraid
Speaker 1: of alienating people with the title, and feeling a little
Speaker 1: bit like I was confident, but also she made me
Speaker 1: think twice and of course, now, of course we want
Speaker 1: it to be called this. You know, this is who
Speaker 1: we are, who we want to speak to, and it's
Speaker 1: okay to be specific and be niche down in that way.
Speaker 1: And also what I'm hearing is like, it's okay for
Speaker 1: you to change your mind and to change the title
Speaker 1: of a show. And I've seen this happen, Like I
Speaker 1: was on someone's podcast and it was one title and
Speaker 1: then they were launching a book book and they're like, okay,
Speaker 1: so we're going to change the name of the podcast
Speaker 1: now to the name of the book. And it was
Speaker 1: like planned out. And when you do that, like are
Speaker 1: you able nothing changes, Like you can keep the same
Speaker 1: you know, home on Apple, the same links, all that
Speaker 1: stuff you know on the technical side, so you don't
Speaker 1: have to actually lose any like ground you've made in
Speaker 1: terms of placement on the charts and things like that.
Speaker 2: Mm hmm, yeah, you absolutely a can. Oh you have
Speaker 2: to change that are basically what it's called an RSS feed.
Speaker 2: It stays the same. You just update your artwork, you
Speaker 2: update your description. Everything stays there, depending of course on
Speaker 2: what media host you use. But you can keep everything
Speaker 2: the same. All your subscribers will not go anywhere. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh man, you said hosts. I mean when we launched
Speaker 1: Brown Ambition, our host used to be Libsen and I remember, okay,
Speaker 1: like teaching myself how to use that.
Speaker 2: What was your first host? I still use libs in.
Speaker 2: I use that seen and libs in.
Speaker 1: M hm okay nice. Yeah, Libsen is one of the OG's.
Speaker 1: But now there's several more, you know.
Speaker 2: Oh, there's so many that. Yeah, Libsin has been around
Speaker 2: since the getting of podcasting. But there is Art nineteen,
Speaker 2: there is bus brout there a spreaker. I don't recommend
Speaker 2: as anchor. If you are serious about podcasting, I know anchor.
Speaker 2: It hates me since Clubhouse days. I am very opinionated,
Speaker 2: but I do not because that was amazing. For those
Speaker 2: like three months I made a lot of money at
Speaker 2: Globhouse just talking about podcasting because it became so big
Speaker 2: during that time, you know, and people didn't know what
Speaker 2: to do. But if you're taking this seriously and you
Speaker 2: really wanted to eventually be a business, I'm all about
Speaker 2: owning your ip owning your content, and everything that's free
Speaker 2: comes at a cost.
Speaker 1: Every Oh, that's the thing. And when it yeah, yep,
Speaker 1: even Lips's. I think lips and I could start with
Speaker 1: like five fifteen blucks something like that depends on fifteen
Speaker 1: dollars a month. So what else when those in those
Speaker 1: early days when you said that you got a bunch
Speaker 1: of equipment, did everything wrong? Like if someone's starting out today,
Speaker 1: what would be I know it's in my starter kit,
Speaker 1: but what would be in your starter kit? For a podcaster?
Speaker 2: All you need is a Samsung Q to you, what's that?
Speaker 2: It's literally a sixty nine dollar microphone. It's you plug
Speaker 2: it in straight to your computer. But I'm like, what
Speaker 2: that you? No, you probably have a short It looks
Speaker 2: like a I have a saying yeah, okay, so there
Speaker 2: is like you probably have the MV seven. I have
Speaker 2: a short mic as well, like this one will run
Speaker 2: you about two hundred and fifty dollars and it'll be XLR.
Speaker 2: And you can also just go directly to your computer.
Speaker 2: You can choose if you grow, you can grow with it.
Speaker 2: But the same thing with a Samsung it has for
Speaker 2: you to be able to put it straight to your computer.
Speaker 2: So all you need is your computer and your microphone.
Speaker 2: That's it. And then something like this riverside or squad
Speaker 2: casts or zencaster that records you know, interviews or yourself
Speaker 2: by your or you by yourself, your audio and your video,
Speaker 2: and boom, you have a full studio at your house
Speaker 2: with your computer and your microphone. That's all you need.
Speaker 2: Of course, there are productions that cost ten twelve thousand
Speaker 2: dollars a month to make, but it's not necessary to
Speaker 2: get you off the ground.
Speaker 1: Yeah, talk to me about the production side. Like obviously
Speaker 1: in those early days, I'm like us, I'm sure you
Speaker 1: edited the show yourself and like behind the scenes, uploaded
Speaker 1: it yourself. How did you what did you use to
Speaker 1: learn how to edit? Did you already have some familiarity
Speaker 1: with like audio editing or did you teach yourself that girl.
Speaker 2: I didn't even know how to plug in the cable box.
Speaker 2: Like if my cable went down, I'm calling Spectrum and
Speaker 2: then they're like, can you do this? No, send someone
Speaker 2: right now. I don't want to touch the cables. I
Speaker 2: YouTube University was where I went and got my degree
Speaker 2: YouTube Anyone. When I get dms from people was like
Speaker 2: how do I do this? Or how do I do that?
Speaker 2: I won't answer those. If you give me a specific question, Hey,
Speaker 2: I have my XLR cord and this is not working
Speaker 2: or whatever, then I'll answer that question. Because there's so
Speaker 2: much information on YouTube for free, for free I have
Speaker 2: literally I've been producing some of the biggest podcasts. We're
Speaker 2: talking about two million downloads a month off of Audacity,
Speaker 2: which is also free. And where do I learn how
Speaker 2: to do Audacity? On YouTube? Literally? And it's free on
Speaker 2: a it's free on a PC. You don't have You
Speaker 2: don't have to have a huge computer. Again, I said
Speaker 2: in the beginning, I started with a surface tablet. That's
Speaker 2: all I had. I didn't even I mean, I had
Speaker 2: my work computer, but and I would use that to
Speaker 2: the Lenovo from work. I ended up getting fired from accounting.
Speaker 1: It's fine. Specifically, I don't record your podcast on your
Speaker 1: work computer though, just you know.
Speaker 2: Don't don't do it. I would do a lot of
Speaker 2: research on there and then record on the surface, so
Speaker 2: all my research and my outlines were on my laptop
Speaker 2: and then I would use all this stuff. But literally,
Speaker 2: all you need is your computer, your microphone, something like Riverside, Squadcast,
Speaker 2: Zancaster and just get started.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, I think I also have a plan starting.
Speaker 2: It is because many people go in without a plan.
Speaker 2: What is your plan? What is what's your why? Why
Speaker 2: are you doing this? Who are you impacting? Once they
Speaker 2: leave your podcast, what are you leaving them with? Because
Speaker 2: just because you have cool conversations with your friends does
Speaker 2: not mean you need to have it on a podcast.
Speaker 2: So there are a lot of podcast gurus out there.
Speaker 2: They're like everybody needs a podcast, Like, oh, broh, you
Speaker 2: get a podcast, You get a podcast? No, shut up,
Speaker 2: they don't. And now we're seeing how everyone should not
Speaker 2: be on a pod. And I truly believe the power
Speaker 2: the tongue. We're so powerful with the things that we
Speaker 2: say and the influence that we can create. And the
Speaker 2: people that are listening that could be very easily influenced.
Speaker 2: So just be very careful with what you're saying, because
Speaker 2: once you get on this microphone, I feel like we
Speaker 2: should have a duty on what we say and how
Speaker 2: we say it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and to whom you're speaking. Like being able to define.
Speaker 1: I feel like if you can't define your person, like
Speaker 1: how old are they, where do they live, what apps
Speaker 1: are on their phone? You know, what kind of shows
Speaker 1: do they enjoy? What are they struggling with? Like actually
Speaker 1: being able to share excuse me, actually being able to
Speaker 1: like personify your audience and like what and always center them.
Speaker 1: I think that's one of the best things we did
Speaker 1: at BA was of course our personalities, our personal stories
Speaker 1: infuse the show with color and all that. But we
Speaker 1: never forgot about her. You know, we never forgot about
Speaker 1: our listener.
Speaker 2: And did you have a name for her?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: Actually no, I might.
Speaker 1: Fortunately, we have so many people submitting questions we have
Speaker 1: like real names now, you know, we think about I
Speaker 1: think about uh, dang it. There's so many that just
Speaker 1: have over the years. They're always sending questions and encouraging words.
Speaker 1: But we never forget about what the brown and black
Speaker 1: woman's experience is and what she's going through and how
Speaker 1: the news, what about the news is stressing her out?
Speaker 1: And like how can we, you know, help comfort and
Speaker 1: provide some insights into everything that has to do with
Speaker 1: her pocketbook and her career. So that's such a good
Speaker 1: point that you made.
Speaker 2: For sure.
Speaker 1: I used to use garage band. I had a Yetie
Speaker 1: mic because everyone had a Yetie mike, you know.
Speaker 2: I know, I mean they're terrible. They're They're a model
Speaker 2: of podcasting, that's it.
Speaker 1: They have such bad like you pick up so many
Speaker 1: different background noises. I was like, what am I getting wrong? Anyway? Anyway, Yes,
Speaker 1: so I used Apple earbuds. Plus they're not portable yet,
Speaker 1: these are heavy, and I would be going into the city.
Speaker 1: So I literally would use Apple earbuds and a laptop
Speaker 1: and garage band and I would, you know, rock that
Speaker 1: out for years, like I'm probably until the pandemic until
Speaker 1: I was forced to stay home because it was supportable, functionable,
Speaker 1: And we used to use Skype back in the day,
Speaker 1: like I know.
Speaker 2: No, it was a thing spiper.
Speaker 1: It was no squad cast back in twenty fifteen. Okay, okay,
Speaker 1: So we covered some technical stuff, and I want to
Speaker 1: talk to you about. One of the other questions that
Speaker 1: I get frequently from anyone wanting to start a show
Speaker 1: is and then how do I tell people about it?
Speaker 1: Like how do people find the show? You started the show,
Speaker 1: you know, not long after your blog, right, So about
Speaker 1: a year after you launched your blog, did you all.
Speaker 2: Have literally I only had like seven blog posts, and
Speaker 2: I was like, okay, off to audio.
Speaker 1: We go, lowercase B blog got it?
Speaker 2: Yes, very all of it. I need like ten.
Speaker 1: People getting really caught up and like put you know,
Speaker 1: the same thing that Yahoo was caught up in, which
Speaker 1: is like, but is anyone going to listen? And I
Speaker 1: feel like for us, we had to not care about
Speaker 1: that for a while. I mean, of course you care,
Speaker 1: but like, you can't make that the reason for doing
Speaker 1: it because it takes. In my experience, I found it
Speaker 1: takes time to build that loyalty, that trust, you know.
Speaker 1: So talk to me about your show and how you
Speaker 1: grew it and if there was any strategy that particularly.
Speaker 2: Worked for you. Yeah. So back then there was no video,
Speaker 2: well I didn't have video, right, it was audio only.
Speaker 2: But then I knew about audiograms, so I would create
Speaker 2: these audiograms with clips of the show on social media. Again,
Speaker 2: I had maybe a thousand followers back then. If I
Speaker 2: got twenty likes, this is my favorite joke on such
Speaker 2: as like dad jokes person, I'm like, if I got
Speaker 2: twenty likes in a picture, I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 2: Kim Kardashianna, watch out. You know, I thought I was
Speaker 2: poping with twenty likes on social media, right, So I
Speaker 2: had these audiograms and that's what I would do, create
Speaker 2: clips and just push them out constantly. And I do
Speaker 2: remember some people saying, oh my god, you're always posting
Speaker 2: about your podcast. Okay on follow That's fine. I'm gaining
Speaker 2: more than what I'm losing. So how will they find you?
Speaker 2: You have to be your number one fan, you really do.
Speaker 2: If you start thinking about what other people might think
Speaker 2: about your little podcast or you think, that's when you
Speaker 2: have to literally put your blinders on. And unfortunately, I
Speaker 2: will say, I don't know if this is in every community,
Speaker 2: but definitely, for hours, our biggest supporters are not our
Speaker 2: family and friends. Yeah yeah, especially in the beginning, Oh
Speaker 2: what are you doing the little podcast? You know, you
Speaker 2: think you're an iTunes or you think you're bake me mad?
Speaker 2: What is that doing? And you're making any money? You
Speaker 2: can't go out with us anymore because you're recording. Yes,
Speaker 2: because I'm passionate about it. And you will know if
Speaker 2: you're passionate about what you're talking about and what you're
Speaker 2: doing when you have to pass up on brunch or
Speaker 2: you have to pass up on a friend's vacation because
Speaker 2: like you know, I have to record X amount of
Speaker 2: pods or I need to learn how to do this,
Speaker 2: or I have to work on my outline, or I
Speaker 2: have to edit whatever that is. For two and a
Speaker 2: half years, I wore all the hats, you know, marketing, graphic, design, editing, engineer,
Speaker 2: like all of it was just me onto the pandemic
Speaker 2: when I found, you know, my May, who's amazing and
Speaker 2: still work with her, but we you know, I need it,
Speaker 2: and with her, I was like, I'm going to give
Speaker 2: you four episodes and do it for free, and I
Speaker 2: want to see what you can do. Edit, yes, edit,
Speaker 2: And the very first one was mid pandemic on my
Speaker 2: birthday and it was Charlemagne and she goes into the
Speaker 2: zoom and she's like what and I'm my girl, don't
Speaker 2: ask any questions we just got to get this done.
Speaker 2: Everything went wrong. Internet was going down. We were doing
Speaker 2: it on a hot spot which didn't break, by the
Speaker 2: grace of God at all during the entire hours listening
Speaker 2: to the story.
Speaker 1: So you're interviewing Charlemagne.
Speaker 2: Yes, oh okay, and I am terrified because I've been
Speaker 2: I've been trying to get this forever right, and he's like,
Speaker 2: hey day, yeah, one day. Finally the day comes and
Speaker 2: I got you on here because the world shut him down.
Speaker 2: So now you're sitting down nothing but time. It's May
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, and my internet's not working. Internet works every
Speaker 2: day all day. But we made it work without a hiccup.
Speaker 2: And from then I knew, Oh like, she's as dedicated
Speaker 2: as I am, and we spent. She hasn't left my
Speaker 2: side since.
Speaker 1: Okaba fan, so many gems are being dropped right now.
Speaker 1: You do not want to miss the rest of my
Speaker 1: conversation with Carla, and I'm gonna put the full respect
Speaker 1: on it. Will Marie coming back to you and just
Speaker 1: a few All right, we are back with our guest,
Speaker 1: Carla well Madis, who's gonna tell us all about the
Speaker 1: power of podcasting and how you, yes, you can actually
Speaker 1: launch your own podcast if you have a plan and
Speaker 1: you never forget about your purpose, which hopefully is to
Speaker 1: help others. What like the key for me with you
Speaker 1: talking about showing up, skipping things, you know, being really
Speaker 1: serious about it is if you're treating it like something
Speaker 1: you pick up and put down, it's almost like why bother?
Speaker 1: Because consistency is so key, like showing up when you
Speaker 1: say you're going to show up for your audience so
Speaker 1: they rely on you. How did you build that cadence? Like,
Speaker 1: for example, with Brown Ambition, we started recording I think
Speaker 1: in the early days we aired every Tuesday and then
Speaker 1: we switched to Wednesday. You know, we've didn't make very
Speaker 1: many changes over eight years, and now we do two
Speaker 1: shows a week, you know, consistently Wednesday and Fridays, which
Speaker 1: we record on one day. So talk to me about
Speaker 1: deciding the cadence and we are a week we are
Speaker 1: we never miss a week, like we have something new
Speaker 1: every week. And we chose that life for some reason
Speaker 1: I can't remember, but it's the life that we have now.
Speaker 1: But we show up, you know, we say we're going
Speaker 1: to show up.
Speaker 2: So how did you decide you're kiding? So if you're listening,
Speaker 2: You're like, I just don't have time. This is too much.
Speaker 2: I was an accountant close week. I would be there
Speaker 2: from seven am to sometimes midnight to do it again
Speaker 2: the next day. Bulk recording was my friend. For sure,
Speaker 2: I would sit down, but I chose weekly. I knew
Speaker 2: that I have if someone wants to it's just like
Speaker 2: a relationship. You got to show up. When you start
Speaker 2: not showing up at being some timy, then I'm not
Speaker 2: going to invest any time, any money, any anything into you.
Speaker 2: So I was showing up weekly. There were times there.
Speaker 2: I remember one time specifically, I had nothing in the bank,
Speaker 2: and by that I mean no episodes that were recorded
Speaker 2: extra and the audio somehow someway was like distorted. It
Speaker 2: was really weird, like none of the audio worked, and
Speaker 2: I'm like it made no sense. Sometimes with tech you
Speaker 2: just have it doesn't you can't explain it. So I
Speaker 2: was I had to be to work the next day
Speaker 2: at six o'clock, wake up my daughter, take her to school,
Speaker 2: like I'm single mom. So I stayed up until three
Speaker 2: o'clock in the morning and recorded a solo episode for it.
Speaker 2: But think it was like a thirty minute episode. But
Speaker 2: at the end of the day, I showed up in
Speaker 2: that episode ended up having the most downloads I had
Speaker 2: had to date because I showed up and I was
Speaker 2: real and wrong. I'm like, listen, this is not supposed
Speaker 2: to be the episode, but I have an outline and
Speaker 2: we're going to talk about and I did some research
Speaker 2: and at two three in the morning, I'm recording it,
Speaker 2: editing it and putting it out. But definitely I chose weekly.
Speaker 2: I have clients that tell me, oh, what about bi weekly,
Speaker 2: And I'm like, no, what about once a month? Especially today?
Speaker 2: That won't cut it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't know how anyone can do it with
Speaker 1: less than once at least once a.
Speaker 2: Week at least.
Speaker 1: And I love the fact that we went to too.
Speaker 1: The strategy behind that was shorter episodes because we loved
Speaker 1: the content of our show, but we were paying attention
Speaker 1: to engagement rates throughout the duration of the show, which
Speaker 1: now factors a lot into like rankings and things like that.
Speaker 1: So for us, it was like, let's break off a
Speaker 1: chunk of the show and make it all about our listeners.
Speaker 1: So B a Q and A was born on you know,
Speaker 1: we do that on Fridays, and then Wednesday we had
Speaker 1: the main show. But yeah, you got to have that.
Speaker 1: I remember that consistency, that dedication. Like there were times
Speaker 1: when it was always me and I'd be the one
Speaker 1: because you know, Tiffany could just show up bless her.
Speaker 1: But I knew, and I knew that about our relationship.
Speaker 1: We were a duo, and I knew tips only going't
Speaker 1: do this cause if I'm handling the tech side, so like,
Speaker 1: let me show up for that. But I also was learning,
Speaker 1: And there was like one time, more than one time
Speaker 1: when like my audio would be screwed up and I'd
Speaker 1: literally go home listen to her audio and just have
Speaker 1: a conversation with her, like like pretend like it was live,
Speaker 1: just to get my side of the conversation, sweating bullets
Speaker 1: like the whole time is.
Speaker 2: That shows your dedication lo right, and the fact that
Speaker 2: you were there to show up even when you're not
Speaker 2: making any money. Some of this time you're not going
Speaker 2: to be making any money. But what you will see
Speaker 2: is that when you're showing up, you have an impact
Speaker 2: on someone. If you're doing it right and if you're
Speaker 2: really passionate about what you're talking about, and if you
Speaker 2: find that to be your purpose, go for it. You
Speaker 2: never know what's going to happen. I mean my course
Speaker 2: specifically to launch of podcasts in thirty days. I always
Speaker 2: talk about because she now works with you, Imani, she
Speaker 2: took that course in the beginning, you know, to start
Speaker 2: her own path, to start her own pod. And she's
Speaker 2: one of many now who are what now producers for
Speaker 2: big you know Webby, not even a winning podcast, and
Speaker 2: they can do a B and C. Everyone at the
Speaker 2: agency for me has gone through I d to launch,
Speaker 2: all my editors, all my producers, They've all gone through,
Speaker 2: and they're like, well, what what school do you have?
Speaker 2: None again YouTube University. I was an accountant, but I
Speaker 2: was able to put the work in and teach someone in.
Speaker 2: Podcasting can take you in so many different directions, so
Speaker 2: many different directions. Once you get started and find what
Speaker 2: you love about it. You might fall in love with
Speaker 2: the back end of it, which is editing or video
Speaker 2: or coming up with outlines or scripting. You never know
Speaker 2: what you will love about it until you start.
Speaker 1: So today, Pivot with Purpose, can you talk about how
Speaker 1: the show's direction, like the tone, the focus of the
Speaker 1: show has changed since.
Speaker 2: You a lot. I would say pivoted.
Speaker 1: I was trying to use word pivot, but it.
Speaker 2: Was it's the word shifting, pivoting, Like however, the word
Speaker 2: became like a thing a couple of years back, but
Speaker 2: it just fit for me. I was like, I don't
Speaker 2: want the word, but it fit because my life did
Speaker 2: pivot and I found my purpose. Now does that purpose
Speaker 2: sometimes look different? Yes, it shifts. Let's you this is
Speaker 2: the beauty of podcasting. We're actually talking. Yeah, it changed.
Speaker 2: I went from you know when it was shit, I'm thirty.
Speaker 2: I'm like, I'll never get I've been married before, I'll
Speaker 2: never get married again.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Uh, there was I'll never have a big one, I'll
Speaker 2: never have another child ever ever ever, Like I was
Speaker 2: gonna be a one and done. I'm gonna travel the world,
Speaker 2: go to Italy, have my boobs out in the sun,
Speaker 2: Like that was gonna be my life. But I was
Speaker 2: gonna be the rich aunticket. She was gonna be eighteen
Speaker 2: and them a kicker out of my house. Well, I
Speaker 2: fell in love and chose to get off birth control
Speaker 2: and have a child like as Asai.
Speaker 1: Like damn it, he came along.
Speaker 2: This is the one where you can do it in
Speaker 2: a blog where you gotta be like, fuck. I did
Speaker 2: all that, got engaged, up rooted my entire my kids,
Speaker 2: moved to New Jersey, did the whole thing, and it
Speaker 2: didn't work out. And it didn't work out. And the
Speaker 2: big thing about that was that I was already living
Speaker 2: in my purpose. I just had to pivot. I just
Speaker 2: had to pivot when most of us would crumble and
Speaker 2: just say, you know what, why did this happen to me?
Speaker 2: I chose to lean into me and my children and
Speaker 2: not you know, sitting in there. So now what I
Speaker 2: do is I talk a lot about my experiences and
Speaker 2: I bring people onto the pod that can inspire you
Speaker 2: in a way with you know, humor and whatever else.
Speaker 2: But now it's like, oh, how do we go from
Speaker 2: what you went through to where you are now? Because
Speaker 2: there's so many women and men, which is crazy. I
Speaker 2: have a big male listenership. But I think it's because
Speaker 2: I know I carry you like a lot of dyestosterone.
Speaker 2: They just you have to watch someone. There's so many
Speaker 2: people that I've watched, like you guys being one that
Speaker 2: I'm like, oh my god, look at where they are.
Speaker 2: I want to be there. I want to be in
Speaker 2: those rooms. Let me listen to them. Let me learn
Speaker 2: from you, and we are very much so accessible through podcasting,
Speaker 2: so it's like, listen to us and you'll find ways
Speaker 2: to engage with us where we are and you'll learn more.
Speaker 2: And that's what I found with Pivot with Purpose. It's
Speaker 2: like I can still be me. There's a lot of
Speaker 2: things that haven't changed about me. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: it's like, how do I go through adversity and how
Speaker 2: do I choose to pivot every time? Because it's not
Speaker 2: just the one time, it's not just the baby, it's
Speaker 2: not just the broken engagement. It's been family issues, it's
Speaker 2: been money or career, all these different things. It's like
Speaker 2: it's my journey with other women or men that have
Speaker 2: been able to do it themselves and kind of encourage you.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I mean, if you're looking for a really hard life,
Speaker 1: then try to avoid pivoting. Try to assume that there
Speaker 1: will be a clear and linear path for you. I
Speaker 1: think one of the great lessons of my life was
Speaker 1: learning how to pivot at a very young age and
Speaker 1: sort of being I mean, of course you're ganged in
Speaker 1: different directions by circumstances you're a child, but man, I'm
Speaker 1: so grateful because as an adult, like things don't really
Speaker 1: phase me in the sense that, oh, something big is changing. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm just going to go in this direction now, from
Speaker 1: you know, being a journalist to pivoting into marketing and
Speaker 1: then pivoting out of corporate altogether to running my career
Speaker 1: coaching business. I mean, it's such a powerful it's when
Speaker 1: people resist the pivot or don't give themselves permission like
Speaker 1: they can feel it. It's and I'm sure in your
Speaker 1: work and in mine too, it's about encouraging and giving
Speaker 1: people the confidence that you deserve, like a different chapter,
Speaker 1: and you can give.
Speaker 2: Yourself creation to pursue it. As you're saying this, I'm
Speaker 2: sure your audience is like, oh, she's just so confident,
Speaker 2: But it's Mandy. Mandy is just so good at doing it.
Speaker 2: And it's like, I don't know about you because I
Speaker 2: won't speaking if you're thinking that. There are days that
Speaker 2: I don't get out of my bed. There are days
Speaker 2: that I'm just like, God, take me down, you know,
Speaker 2: I quit. I don't want to do this anymore, even
Speaker 2: with you know, one of my larger pods because they
Speaker 2: grew so fast. No, for sure would be someone in
Speaker 2: Megan and I'll say this not because she just said
Speaker 2: at the live show, She's like, there's so many times
Speaker 2: I wanted to quit, And I said, well, amen, because
Speaker 2: there are plenty of times that I've as successful as
Speaker 2: it's been. Early on, I don't want to do anymore.
Speaker 2: Just too much. It's a lot of work. But you
Speaker 2: even on those days when you don't want to keep going,
Speaker 2: you have to find it in you. You have to
Speaker 2: do it scared, you have to do it when you're tired.
Speaker 2: Just get it done and it'll pay off eventually. I
Speaker 2: can't tell you when, because sometimes it takes years. There's
Speaker 2: things for me that I have been, you know, stay
Speaker 2: in constant with, and it took years. I mean I
Speaker 2: didn't get into radio. All I wanted was radio back
Speaker 2: in twenty eighteen. That's all I wanted. I'm on the air. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I wanted radio, father bad.
Speaker 1: And now you're working. Tell me about what? Yeah, tell
Speaker 1: me about today? What's Carla up to? So you have
Speaker 1: that that you have the academy of course, but still
Speaker 1: you have like what you've worked full time as a
Speaker 1: radio producer.
Speaker 2: Well, I have the academy and I have the agency
Speaker 2: where we now have about seven or apods that we
Speaker 2: produce fully, and then we also launch for people. And
Speaker 2: then once we get the full launch going your entire concept,
Speaker 2: then they can take it and edit it and produce
Speaker 2: it themselves.
Speaker 1: Number behind a desk seven to twelve.
Speaker 2: Okay, literally it.
Speaker 1: Turned out fine, but it would have been nice.
Speaker 2: And you know what, I also listening to the serial
Speaker 2: podcast absolutely, but we're here now. So twenty eighteen, when
Speaker 2: I first quit, I just I actually quit because I
Speaker 2: knew I was getting the radio job. So it was
Speaker 2: a big station here called XL one sixty seven, and
Speaker 2: I just knew I was going to get the job.
Speaker 2: I'm on air and everything. I got this Mandy Me
Speaker 2: absolutely got it. Yeah, psych I quit in October February
Speaker 2: when they're supposed to make the decision, and I didn't
Speaker 2: get it.
Speaker 1: The job was for what an on air personality?
Speaker 2: Yeah? On air?
Speaker 1: Oh okay, it was a morning show.
Speaker 2: It was a morning show, one of the biggest morning
Speaker 2: shows here in Orlando. So I was like, how did
Speaker 2: I not get that? So then I really went hard
Speaker 2: on the podcasting part and just kept going and kept going.
Speaker 2: And now twenty twenty two, when I come back from
Speaker 2: Jersey and I let go of that relationship and you
Speaker 2: know how I was bringing me down and I had
Speaker 2: to walk back in my purpose. I come home and
Speaker 2: without looking for I get the phone call and it's like, oh,
Speaker 2: we're starting a morning show, you know as the show
Speaker 2: for radio. And I'm like I'm good and they're like no, no,
Speaker 2: I'm like I'm good. I already have my agency going,
Speaker 2: I have my academy going. I'm all right, and radio
Speaker 2: puts all these restrictions on you that I don't want
Speaker 2: because now at this point, all these years later, my
Speaker 2: croagam director won't get me a dumb button. And every
Speaker 2: week he's like Carla, and I'm like, give me your
Speaker 2: dumb button. Shit will slip out. But yeah, they called
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two, and as I saw it first,
Speaker 2: it's actually their JBC Broadcasting so it's independent broadcasting company. Uh.
Speaker 2: And I'm with some of the biggest talents Rickydilla, DJ
Speaker 2: Nasty who goes on tour with Beyonce, He's DJ Khalids,
Speaker 2: like big talents, and I'm like, what do you want
Speaker 2: me on there for?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: And they're like, they want off of my clips, my podcast.
Speaker 2: That is it? The fact that I've been showing up weekly,
Speaker 2: the people notice that. Yeah, just showing up, and I
Speaker 2: got the job when a morning show at that.
Speaker 1: I fucking love that so much because you have to
Speaker 1: do the work and not understand the end goal like
Speaker 1: not sometimes not understand how the story is gonna end
Speaker 1: or where it's gonna take you, but the faith to
Speaker 1: continue to share your voice, to do the thing that
Speaker 1: you want to be doing by yourself, like you know,
Speaker 1: because you believe in yourself. How else are people gonna know?
Speaker 1: You know, how else are people going to find you
Speaker 1: if you're not making yourself findable?
Speaker 2: So hell, whether it's podcasting or Instagram or blogging or
Speaker 2: whatever it is that you do, keep showing up. Because
Speaker 2: in twenty eight and eighteen, I really thought it was over.
Speaker 2: I didn't think about radio again. But I created my
Speaker 2: own lane with my podcast, created my own lane. I
Speaker 2: did retreats with women. We would do a Patreon, we
Speaker 2: have virtual what did we call them, Oh my god,
Speaker 2: you know this, pajama parties. Once a while, we would
Speaker 2: go in our robes and on zoom and we would
Speaker 2: do book all these things. I just kept showing up.
Speaker 2: I kept doing things for my community to where finally
Speaker 2: they noticed and they're like, we need her. And then
Speaker 2: at that time, I had the leverage. This is what
Speaker 2: I want and this is how I'm going to do it.
Speaker 2: And now they're like, oh, you're now working corporate again.
Speaker 2: I am, but I have a business that they're very
Speaker 2: aware of, and I'm like, I got to go for
Speaker 2: a week, and I go, I have a production in
Speaker 2: New York. Give me the equipment and I will broadcast.
Speaker 2: I have broadcasting now from Miami. I have broadcasts from
Speaker 2: New York, from LA from Atlanta because I'm working my
Speaker 2: own personal business which they have no ownership of or
Speaker 2: restrictions on me. But it was because I created my
Speaker 2: own space. Very unusual, but at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: I created my own lanes in order to be able
Speaker 2: to have that leverage. And a lot of us really
Speaker 2: depend sometimes and what others can give us. Even in
Speaker 2: podcastsing like oh we want to deal first, start on
Speaker 2: your own, figure out what you could do. Start on
Speaker 2: your own first, really invest into yourself first and see
Speaker 2: where that goes.
Speaker 1: Yeah, when did you start to well pivot with purpose?
Speaker 1: When did you start to court advertisers and were you
Speaker 1: doing that on your own? So let's talk about monetization
Speaker 1: because for broad ambition been pretty straightforward. We've sold ads
Speaker 1: since about twenty eighteen, so I guess like three four
Speaker 1: years into the journey, and we partnered with an agency
Speaker 1: to do that. But talk to me about your experience
Speaker 1: with monetizing and any advice.
Speaker 2: I started with affiliate stressed. I started, and I tell
Speaker 2: everyone to start with affiliate marketing. My first one was audible,
Speaker 2: so I would get fifteen bucks every time someone used
Speaker 2: the code, So you better believe I had a pre
Speaker 2: roll in a mid row for that fifteen dollars. I
Speaker 2: wanted it. I wanted it bad, so.
Speaker 1: I was not so hard like if you really use
Speaker 1: something or you like it, correct, I do. Like a
Speaker 1: lot of places have affiliate programs if you just Google, so.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so many right now. One of my biggest affiliate
Speaker 2: is Better Help. You know, they do just ads, But
Speaker 2: I actually make more money as an affiliate, so I'm like,
Speaker 2: keep it as an affiliate for right now. You know,
Speaker 2: O good, Let's not do CPM, but affiliate program anything
Speaker 2: that you use on a daily basis for your pod.
Speaker 2: Like if you guys were a finance I'm not sure
Speaker 2: you know you're a network now but your finance and
Speaker 2: that's that you you are. Quick Books is something that
Speaker 2: you use all the time. You can get an affiliate
Speaker 2: like right now, you might not have quick Books or
Speaker 2: the numbers for a main sponsorship, but they have affiliate
Speaker 2: programs and you can get that. Or Honeybooks has affiliate programs.
Speaker 2: So it depends what you're in. If you're like a
Speaker 2: DJ podcast, is there a DJ equipment that you can
Speaker 2: contact them and say, hey, for every sale that I
Speaker 2: make with this code, I get back X amount. So
Speaker 2: that is the easiest way in how I started monetizing
Speaker 2: the pod. Then I went to local businesses. I had
Speaker 2: an attorney, a real estate person that would buy ads
Speaker 2: for seventy five dollars an ad and it was local
Speaker 2: and I'm like, hey, this is realtor. I also had
Speaker 2: an attorney that because I talked about and I had
Speaker 2: my daughter and I was dealing with a lot of
Speaker 2: child supporting and my divorce at that time in twenty seventeen,
Speaker 2: I had just finished it. I had an attorney since
Speaker 2: I talked about it. I'm like, oh, and if you
Speaker 2: need here in Central Florida someone for your child support
Speaker 2: or whatever it might be, this is the attorney for
Speaker 2: you boom fifty to one hundred dollars an ad.
Speaker 1: So you have your like you're focused with local in
Speaker 1: the beginning too local yep, and anything digital that could
Speaker 1: be for anyone. Okay, So and I would pitch myself
Speaker 1: just like cold email, hold emails.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: See, you guys are waiting for her to be like
Speaker 1: and then I had the magic idea. But there is
Speaker 1: no cheat code. It's just and some people think the
Speaker 1: cheat code is hiring out for help. And I can't
Speaker 1: think of a worse trap in the sense that if
Speaker 1: you are not clear, like you said on who your
Speaker 1: audience is, what your show is about, what you want
Speaker 1: to say, all that point of view format things like that,
Speaker 1: it can quickly sort of spiral, I don't know, just
Speaker 1: become something that you never wanted to begin with, if
Speaker 1: you're even lucky enough to make money that way.
Speaker 2: Outsourcing is now. I wish I could outsource the gym
Speaker 2: and someone would take my body and take me to
Speaker 2: the outsource everything. But there are two things that we
Speaker 2: can outsource, and that is like our physical health and
Speaker 2: our mental health. We got to do it ourselves. But
Speaker 2: everything else, I am a fan of outsourcing everything but
Speaker 2: at the right time, you need to know what you're outsourcing. Yes,
Speaker 2: I outsource now my editing, my video and all that,
Speaker 2: but I was doing that all myself at one point.
Speaker 2: So if at some point, whoever it is, they mama
Speaker 2: dies or dog dies, or they just want to quit
Speaker 2: because they're irresponsible, I can pick up that slack and
Speaker 2: you kind of know how you want it done. So
Speaker 2: I definitely will say, learn how to do everything yourself
Speaker 2: first and then outsource. That works for most people. There
Speaker 2: are some that are like, hey, I got the budget,
Speaker 2: take it on with the agency, right, That's why have
Speaker 2: the academy, to have the agency. The academy is everyone
Speaker 2: that wants to do it on their own, you know,
Speaker 2: I can launch with the agency is like, hey, I
Speaker 2: have the budget, help me get it done, and let's
Speaker 2: just put it out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And for folks who are wondering and have the question, well,
Speaker 1: how do I determine how much an ad is? You
Speaker 1: mentioned CPM, which is it's just its cost per thousand,
Speaker 1: even though it's cost per million, right, like whatever it means,
Speaker 1: like the dollar amount her thousand listeners, you can estimate
Speaker 1: that you're going to deliver. So let's say an ad
Speaker 1: is one hundred dollars. You know, for every thousand listeners
Speaker 1: that we have, you're the accountant, so you can probably
Speaker 1: do that math.
Speaker 2: Well, the CPM is actually in the end in this
Speaker 2: industry specifically, is twenty five to thirty five dollars is
Speaker 2: their CPM. So for every thousand downloads, it's thirty five dollars.
Speaker 2: So some people are like, oh my god, it's such
Speaker 2: a lucrative business. When it comes to sponsorship. The top
Speaker 2: one percent is the ones that are making money, honestly,
Speaker 2: so you have to have one hundred thousand downloads to
Speaker 2: get thirty five hundred dollars.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the average side count of ties. When we got
Speaker 1: to fifty k, when we could consistently get fifty k
Speaker 1: per month, that's when an advertiser was like, I mean,
Speaker 1: an agency was like, okay, we'll sell adds for you,
Speaker 1: and fifty thousand is not easy to do. Her average listener,
Speaker 1: there's average is.
Speaker 2: The average is one hundred and fifty two downloads. Wow,
Speaker 2: the average podcast gets between one hundred and fifty to
Speaker 2: two hundred downloads an episode. And if you're there, be
Speaker 2: really proud that you're there. And with that just Imagine,
Speaker 2: I tell everyone as I'm teaching, imagine walking every single
Speaker 2: week into an auditorium with one hundred and fifty people.
Speaker 2: You're popping.
Speaker 1: I love that, and yes, I do that too.
Speaker 2: If you can. If you're walking every Monday into a
Speaker 2: room with one hundred and fifty people that are showing
Speaker 2: up for you, you're doing a great job. Now, how are
Speaker 2: you going to monetize those one hundred and fifty people?
Speaker 2: Now they're showing up, Now they really trust you. Create
Speaker 2: something for them. Start selling, and don't be scared to sell.
Speaker 2: They want to buy. They literally want to buy from
Speaker 2: you because they want to support you. Do it. Get it. Then,
Speaker 2: don't feel scared about your frenzy and fething being like,
Speaker 2: oh my god, who's gonna buy from you? You're just
Speaker 2: pooky from the corner. No, you, these people really do
Speaker 2: love you, despite of what anyone else may think. Get
Speaker 2: Start providing products and services or retreats or groups or
Speaker 2: you know, whatever it may be that you can monetize,
Speaker 2: whether it's ten dollars a month to fifty bucks a month,
Speaker 2: whatever it may be. Monetize that one hundred people before
Speaker 2: you get to fifty thousand.
Speaker 1: Yes, have a plan to your point, have a strategy.
Speaker 1: It's almost like it's important to think about what's the infrastructure,
Speaker 1: like what are the bones of this operation because you
Speaker 1: don't want it, Like you said, like if you wait
Speaker 1: until you get there to whatever that, to whatever there is,
Speaker 1: whatever goal you have right then and like all those
Speaker 1: people that you could have, you know, have built a
Speaker 1: deeper relationship with and monetize all that all that time
Speaker 1: that could now be even more you know, have even
Speaker 1: more trust for you and be more on your side
Speaker 1: and jumping on products that you're offering, like you're kind
Speaker 1: of leaving out on the table and then you're just
Speaker 1: not ready either. Then it's like, oh wait, I need
Speaker 1: a strategy. And it's like it depends what you do
Speaker 1: in the table.
Speaker 2: I have a pod like No for sure, who gets
Speaker 2: easily two hundred and fifty thousand an episode on a
Speaker 2: regular week right then I also have like Chino Na Revolution,
Speaker 2: which is Erica Cruz. She's a business coach. Essentially, she
Speaker 2: has this community so we use it as a lead generator.
Speaker 2: She just had to launch ninety thousand dollars launch and
Speaker 2: everybody's like, oh my god, but she's her pod is
Speaker 2: not like crazy her social media, I think she only
Speaker 2: has like twenty some one thousand followers. How does she
Speaker 2: do that? She keeps showing up and we produce her
Speaker 2: stuff and we have ads in her podcast, and she
Speaker 2: has extra many episodes with testimonials. We have so I
Speaker 2: used to be people will be like, oh, you're a
Speaker 2: podcast coach. I really consider myself a podcast strategist. There's
Speaker 2: a strategy behind all of this where it doesn't people
Speaker 2: don't even realize that they're being sold to. And I
Speaker 2: think that's the gift that I was giving, is being
Speaker 2: able to sell something without making it feel salesy and
Speaker 2: finding what works for you and what's successful to you,
Speaker 2: because to some people is two hundred thousand dollarads to
Speaker 2: others five hundred, but making ninety thousand on a launch, yeah,
Speaker 2: and investing twelve hundred a month.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And I to your point about, you know, whether
Speaker 1: you work with people or you sell ads on your
Speaker 1: own or something like that, Like what's your take on
Speaker 1: that when it comes to because I've heard from some
Speaker 1: podcasters who don't have a network and they're selling six
Speaker 1: figure you know, you know, deals with partners, and it's
Speaker 1: almost like the beauty is that there's no rules, like
Speaker 1: you make up the numbers that you want when you're
Speaker 1: doing it yourself.
Speaker 2: Zero rules. So I've never been with a network as
Speaker 2: I have shows my network.
Speaker 1: Shout out to Cumulus and Westwood and you're great, but
Speaker 1: you know, thirty five sixty five split, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like they're thirty five are sixty five, that's
Speaker 1: pretty standard. Yeah, and you know then tip and I
Speaker 1: sput that, you know, fifty to fifty from there. But yeah,
Speaker 1: the sky can be the limit, you know when you're
Speaker 1: doing on Absolutely, there's beauty of podcasting is that we're
Speaker 1: an untapped market when it comes like music industry that
Speaker 1: even streams in the music industry is like it's split
Speaker 1: this way, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: There are no rules to podcasting. There's no right or
Speaker 2: wrong way. You choose what your value is essentially and
Speaker 2: what you want to charge, so you know, success will
Speaker 2: look very different to every body. And this space I've never,
Speaker 2: like I said, I've never been part of a network,
Speaker 2: and I choose the price for my stuff. I said, well,
Speaker 2: look at my conversion rate, especially with affiliate links. Look
Speaker 2: at what my conversion rate is. Every time I talk
Speaker 2: about it, Well, now I want X amount and get
Speaker 2: that done. And there are deals where it's completely exclusive.
Speaker 2: There are non exclusive deals that I also work on
Speaker 2: where it's like it's a small split, but we can
Speaker 2: still bring in whatever we want. You can do whatever
Speaker 2: you want with your podcast. Just have a strategy where
Speaker 2: it doesn't look crazy. Wait where it works.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, well we could do this for hours and
Speaker 1: hours and hours. But Carla, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: sharing your insights and from one self made woman to
Speaker 1: the next. I think your story is super inspirational and
Speaker 1: I appreciate you sharing it with brand ambition. Where can
Speaker 1: people find you and find out all the amazing work
Speaker 1: that you're doing.
Speaker 2: So Carla will Maris and I know what the name
Speaker 2: the last thing whatever even worse.
Speaker 1: I was like, oh the Madis, Yeah, that's what it is.
Speaker 2: We Maddi's with Maddis. Yeah, girl, go that exactly what is? So,
Speaker 2: Carla will Madis on all social platforms. I have my
Speaker 2: podcast Pivot with Purpose, where I speak on you know,
Speaker 2: weekly every Monday. We have an episode Tuesday comes out
Speaker 2: on YouTube. I am on the radio if your local
Speaker 2: fly on all three to one, and we have an
Speaker 2: app as well. So I get in the morning show
Speaker 2: and get in trouble once a week for things that
Speaker 2: I say, but they knew what they were getting themselves into.
Speaker 2: And if you're looking to launch a podcasts on your own,
Speaker 2: I have a self paced course, or if not, you
Speaker 2: can do a consultation with me as a twenty minute
Speaker 2: console and I kind of I'll decide or we will
Speaker 2: decide if we're good for each other. I don't If
Speaker 2: you have an idea and I don't feel close to it,
Speaker 2: I won't work with you. I would love to take
Speaker 2: your money, but so many times I'll be like, you
Speaker 2: know what, I just don't think we're a good fit
Speaker 2: or whatever it may be. Maybe you should try this instead.
Speaker 2: I'll give you an idea, but I don't take on everyone.
Speaker 2: But we can do a consult and say, hey, this
Speaker 2: would work for you.
Speaker 1: Amazing? All right, bea fam again to Carla, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for sharing your wonderful insights Pivot with Purpose.
Speaker 1: Y'all go check out that show asap. I know I'm
Speaker 1: going to ah another amazing throwback episode. Such a fun
Speaker 1: trip down memory lane. Hey ba fan, make sure to
Speaker 1: check out Brown Ambition every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and
Speaker 1: while you're at it, leave us a review. Please. You
Speaker 1: can leave us a review on Apple Podcasts. It's entirely
Speaker 1: free to do and it means so much to us.
Speaker 1: Hi