Tis I, Lord Podcast. Are you yearning to equip yourself with the confidence to record?
Elijah, the skilled podcast professional, is preparing himself for a tale of tools and
skill that only a mighty podcaster may employ in one's podcast journey. Elijah, I do believe
that we shall teach our weary wanderer the confidence that they strive to achieve. Shall
we start a podcast? We shall. It's settled. Let's start a podcast.
I'm your host Elijah. Marcia is here joining me to answer the age old question. How do
I grow my audience? But more because there's a story, there's patience, and there's a lot
going on behind the scenes. You can't just wait for people to show up and likey like
your stuff. You got to go out there and grind. Marcia, thank you so much for being here to
give a dose of reality. I am grateful to be here Elijah. Thank you for having me. And
I very much believe in a dose of like reality. I'm more way more about reality than anything
else. You live every day with intention, including saluting your hats and your tire when you're
doing walks in the park. I think from years of podcasting, I have downloads when I move,
like it's just how it happens. And I tend to share what I'm walking through every day.
And it's funny because I think that as humans, we overthink our content constantly. And we
think the things that we're walking through every day are boring or not relatable. They're
the most relatable parts of us. And so I just tend to share, I'll get a download that might
be three or four stories and I will share it. And then sometimes if I get good feedback,
that becomes another podcast episode coming up. Like I'm honestly creating an ongoing
loop and list of content that's resonating with people.
It's interesting because a lot of people, the social experts will tell you, do the long
form content and then clip it out. But it seems like you're a bit of a reverse or it
just works for you where you take the Insta, the clips and then hammer out a long form
content. Does that work for you?
Yes. And actually, I don't know if I really looked at it that way, but I would say, yes,
I am a big fan of repurposing content, huge fan of it. So when I will do the stories,
I talk, like I want to say, talk mostly for what I do for a living and I talk and ideas
come and then I listen to feedback. I look at comments and I'm like, okay, there's an
idea for a podcast. I'll sit down and batch record three or four podcasts and that will
become content that I'm continuing to share online. People are worried about repeating
what they're doing. And honestly, you should be repeating what you're doing because that's
what you're about.
Not everybody is going to get the magic of the algorithm or whatever excuse you want.
So every, what is it? The repeat every day you repeat something or every month or every
quarter? What works for you?
Well, that's a great question. So I kind of reverse engineer. I'll look at like, what
do I have coming up? Right? So in this example, like at this time, we're starting like a book
writing mastermind coming up and there's some bonus calls. So it's officially not starting
until September, but there is some things earlier. So for the last probably six weeks,
maybe two to three times a week, I'm talking about book writing. I'm talking about what
does it look like? I've done some podcasts on it. I've really broken down the content.
And so I am building up that content as I go. And that's kind of how I map it out. Or
if I'm walking through something personally that I feel is relatable and can support others,
I will look at it and go, okay, this is what we're going to cover this month in my, because
I'm typically about a month ahead for my solo episodes. And then I will break down that
content and find different ways to share it. Like you can share, I will take an Instagram
reel, for example, if it hits and I got a lot of comments from it, I will turn that
into a hard feed posts. I will take that content and put it into an email. I just will find
different ways of using it. Because as you say, I think the numbers only 3% of your audience
in social media are seeing what you have. That's like 3%. And the average person needs
to, there was a time where we used to need like three to seven views before we would
be interested or wanting to inquire more about working with a person. I think we're close
to 21 now. And so if only 3% are seeing it and it's 21 times they need to see it, you
should be talking about what you're doing. And I'm just going to be super bold and blunt
in a second that if you're not passionate about what you're doing and you're not excited
enough to talk about it a lot, then you probably don't have the right thing.
So this is why people just flutter or crumble after six months, majority podcasts poof out.
They don't have a plan. They don't have the passion and they haven't had the experience
Marcia has clearly.
No, and I think when it comes to podcasting, less than 3% get to over 21 episodes. It's
really small. And I think there's like, I'm not correcting my number, but I know it's
I believe it's less than 300,000 active shows, but well over three to 4 million have started.
Most of them are just starting up and then poof off they go.
I think people want instant results. I'm sorry, but they do want instant results. And I can't
tell you how many people have reached out to me about podcasting. They're like, well,
how long before you make money? And I'm like, if that's what your goal is, I actually encourage
you not to do it. I really don't.
You've started in 2017, you have almost 600 episodes and now you have organic reach or
listening count about 200,000, maybe more now.
Yeah, we're about 215,000 in the last three years. And those numbers like my in 2020,
I had 10,000. And in 2021, we had 54,000 in 2022, we were about 115,000. So just and I
know it's a number, but I'm just sharing as like you can have, you know, leaks in your
growth.
Remind me what the podcast name is.
It's called own your choices, own your life.
Talk about trauma and difficult conversations.
I do talk about the stories that most people don't want to talk about is literally what
it comes down to is the stories that that we want to pretend aren't happening, but are
actually affecting all of us in some way, shape or form. So I like to open up the doors
and create safe space to have the conversations that can support a lot of people. And most
of the people that I get to interview, they have walked through a very difficult story.
And they not only have they walked through a difficult story, they are doing something
very positive with it and trying to help somebody else out. So that's really what the clients
and people that I get to interview are doing.
Very cool. And that comes from your own experience having drug addiction kids at young age learning
life lessons, and then convert that into positive energy. When was the leap? When was that trigger
that aha moment where I got to get out of this, I got to snap out and live my life?
I think my I mean, our story probably started about 12 years ago. And I would probably fought
hard for five years of that where it was like very much isolated alone, lots of trauma,
lots of challenges. And then there was a few turning points where it was like, okay, this
is not working. Like, he's just not working. And I was losing myself in the process. And
through that couple things that happened, I had a counselor who said to me, you know,
if your boys come back to you, you need to be a springboard to be able to support them.
And right now you're nothing but a big pile of quicksand. You couldn't help anyone if
you wanted to. And that she was right. She was right 100% right. And also the next piece
was that I was sick and tired at that time. We hear a lot about vulnerability now, but
I invite people to go back to like 2014 2015. The world of social media was incredibly curated,
incredibly curated then like right down to did your feed match? Did things look a certain
way? It was always positive quotes. And I just didn't fit into anywhere in there. And
I couldn't figure it out. And I said, no matter where I go, people are not talking about difficult
stories. And she looked at me and she said, maybe that's because you're supposed to. And
I remember having a moment of like, that's crazy. And what if I am like I had a moment
of like, what if what if I am actually, how would I do that? Would it look like and I
got curious. And I think that's a really important piece as humans, we want the answers, like,
I could have said to her, well, how am I going to do that? She couldn't have told me and
I didn't know. I just got curious and started asking different questions. And how could
I do that? What would that look like? So I guess it came to a point where a public broadcaster
believed in you. And you didn't expect it. This was cool. Because all of a sudden, in
your view, out of nowhere, CBC, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for those uninitiated, the big
shot in Canadian television and radio came out to you and said, Hey, Marcia, you're doing
something cool talking about drug addictions, we need to talk to you. Can you tell me a
bit about this? How that happened? That's cool story. I'm gonna get into
Absolutely was a very cool story at the time. I bet you I don't have to look up the year
on that I bet it was 2015 if I had to guess. And with that, I had been speaking, you know,
we've been working in the schools talking to a couple parents, we've been doing a lot
of, you know, group support programs, and nothing really big yet. I think my very first
time on stage was in 2016. And I think this might have even come before I did my very
first talk on stage. And somebody had passed along or they had found my information. And
they asked if they could do an interview and typically for CBC radio for anybody who doesn't
know, they will never do a live interview because they want to interview you first.
So we started the interview on a Thursday, and we started the questions. And I think
they wanted to make sure that I was not going to be one of those angry moms that was going
to get in and slam everyone and be negative. We barely got about five minutes in. And they
said, You know what, nevermind, you need to can you come to the radio station tomorrow
morning? We'll do it live. And I'm like, live never been on live radio before. And like,
okay, what time in there like 7am? I'm thinking that's okay, because nobody like nobody listens
to CBC radio in the morning, right? And I literally told myself that I'm actually probably
grateful that I told myself that. And I went in and did the interview, I felt like it went
really well. I was very, you know, honest. And I learned to speak from a space of not
anger. I frustration, but not anger. And during that time, that's we did the interview, I
came out, turned my phone on. And I was just like, Oh my god, like it literally blew it.
My phone blew up. And I just went, Well, everybody knows. And it just was this free moment of
and I mean, a lot of people knew we were walking through something, but nowhere's near to this
level. And it just felt like it opened up the doors that wait, maybe I could do something
good with the worst story in time in my life. So what's your advice be to tell your story
and see if a radio station picks you up and then you have no choice but to tell yourself
nobody listens and then you're good like NPR in the state. It's like radio who cares?
Well, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that's the advice for everyone because not everybody
wants to be able to be in that seat, right? It is definitely it's not comfortable. But
at the same time, I mean, I get people all the time who reach out and say, I don't want
to speak publicly. I feel like my story is meant to do something. The reason they say
that is because of the fear of what are people going to think or say. And I just the way
I look at it is, is that stories are just challenges we walk through, right? Like the
story only ever has the meaning that you give it. And so if you give it the meaning that
you have failed, that you are a horrible human, then that story is going to hold you back
from living the life that you're meant to live. And so I think it's actually really
powerful to learn how to share it, even if it just frees you from the chains that you've
created with it. But if you do feel called to share it, then yes, I say definitely start
to learn how to do that. Now, one of the things that holds people back is that, and I did
this and I openly talk about this is is that we don't share because of fear of what about
the people in our life now, what will they say? What will they think? This story is not
meant for them. It's actually not meant for them. That's not who you're meant to share
it. It's meant to be shared. Like when I look now at who's in my life, like 99% of the people
who are in my life now, they weren't here back in 2015 or earlier. And so it has brought
the most incredible people into my life. So don't, and that just doesn't go for sharing
your story. This goes for anything business wise or whatever it is that if you're afraid
to take that next step, don't get advice from people who are not doing what you want to,
like if they're not doing what you want to do, stop asking them, like stop asking them
for the advice. And if you are in that space of, you know, asking the people for their
advice and opinions and you know the feedback you're going to get from them, you're just
doing that self-sabotage and stay in the same spot. Like I say that out of love, but it's
just don't ask the people who are not doing what you want to do. Like go to where people
are doing what you want to do and learn from them. That's what I would say.
Did you go and seek out Lisa Nichols who motivates the masses for your inspiration to do what
she does?
I did in a very unique way. So what happened was, I mean, one of the reasons I feel so
passionate about podcasting is back in like 2014, 2015, it was podcasts, YouTube and books
for me. That was literally all I could access, right? I was not in a space to hire coaching,
but I was in a space to hire and there were two events that I was gifted tickets to. That
event was a seven day event in Vegas. It was a personal development event, like an ironic
place to go for personal development. I'm not a Vegas person, but because I, yeah, it
was not my thing, but being there for a very immersive, like 12 hours a day, hearing from
like some of the best to me, personal development speakers, like was Robin Sharma was there
and John Maxwell and Lisa Nichols. And it was, I was definitely meant to hear Lisa Nichols.
I'd already listened to her on YouTube, but the one thing she said openly, she said, if
you are wanting to learn how to be more open, authentic, share yourself, share your story
and you don't know, and you have a vulnerable story and you don't know how to share it,
this message is for you. And I was like, I swear she's talking to me. And she just shared
openly, how do you do that? Like, how do you speak a story and be vulnerable, but leave
everyone in integrity? And I've followed her rules since then. I really have. To me, they
just, like, I openly share, this is my story as a parent, what I walked through. I don't
share my kid's story because that's not, it's not, it's not right for me to do it and it's
not accurate. And that's not why I'm here. So I openly share that. And I learned that
definitely from her.
Now you're doing three episodes a week, solos, interviews.
I'm doing two solos and one interview a week. And it's like, we are booked out until with
probably banked episodes close to the end of the year. I mean, when I first started,
I had to look for guests. Now I have to practice saying, I'm sorry, I can't take you for guests.
And we probably get anywhere between 15 and 20 pitches a week. I might take one or two.
And it's cool. It is very cool. It's hard. Cause there are times where I'm like, I'm
so sorry, but this is where we're at right now. And this is what I asked for. Like this
is literally what I, I knew I was like, there was a point where I was like, I can't wait
to be able to have like so many different pitches to choose from. And the flip side
of that is that you have to say no to people. And so I still, I cheer people on. I'm encouraging,
but I'm grateful that I get to have some of the conversations that I get to have now.
Fantastic. Do you have a team that helps you out or are you a one woman show on the podcast?
No, I was for a really long time until I, and I know this is hard for business owners,
so I sat down and tracked how many hours I was spending a week on editing episodes, getting
them ready, doing it. And I believe we all have our zone of genius and excellence. I
believe that we do. And when I started to recognize that I was spending like 10 hours
a week plus doing interviews and editing, et cetera, 40 hours a month. It's like, okay,
wait, can I pay somebody else who is way better than I am at this and can do it faster? And
I can. So I do have, I have one person who helps me out. I have a second person who was
also in behind the scenes. And I mean, the goal, the goal is to get to the point that
it's literally, I record it and I pass it on completely. I don't do show notes. I don't
do, but I do all of that. Now I do the show notes. I do all the social media with it because
again, I like to honor the people that I've interviewed, right? Like I really do. I want
to, I, I, I I'm invested in them and their story.
Sounds fair. Cause it's hard not to remove yourself for these emotionally attached conversations
that you have. You, you put your soul and heart into all this and then say, well, now
it's somebody else's problem. Do you think you're able to do that at some point or never?
No, I don't know. I think, I think that I will always be in some way, shape or form.
I like it's podcasting will always be a pillar in my business because I believe in it so
much. I love it. And there's something else for me that again, going back to my own story,
when I first started, I couldn't afford it. There's no way I could have gotten coaching
or done anything. We were just trying to figure out how to survive. And so for me, I'm really
proud that this is a free resource that's out there regularly. I really am proud of
that. And I think it's important. You know, I've had people reach out and say, I can't,
I can't afford to do coaching right now. What would you recommend? And I'm like, it's 500
episodes. Like just start picking something that speaks to you because that content is
always out there to support people at different points in their journey.
And then rinse and repeat. You can help so many people on a mass scale and they still
get that, that nugget that they need without taking up your time over and over. Cause you
have to set boundaries as you said. Yes, definitely have to. Definitely. So now you have a Patreon
community called Outspoken working on Outspoken magazine and then your book. Collab is she
moves mountains. And then when she stopped asking why those are huge topics, those really
resonate with me. Like it's all powerful stuff that you're working on.
Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's a lot of big puzzle pieces at once. And like my solo book, when
she stopped asking why I was in 2017 and then in 2020 and 2022, we released two collab books.
So we've helped like 30 plus authors with really difficult stories, owning your choices
and everybody holds a story. And now, um, about two months ago, you know what? I started
TikTok. I had somebody, I've had people reach out to me. It's just been nonstop about publishing
and writing vulnerable stories. And I'm just listening. And this one person, Aaron, who
is amazing. I was like, can you help me with my story? Cause I can write a story, but how
do I bring my vulnerable side to it? Like how would, how do I share? What is oversharing?
What does that look like? And so then we started working together and we're editing his book
and he was like, you know what? This is just, I like what you're doing. Would you be interested
in publishing? And I'm like, um, yep, let's just see what we can do and how this works.
And so now there's three of us in our, I call it team, cause I couldn't do any of this without
them. And we worked together behind the scenes, building out what publishing is going to look
like we're starting, um, like a book writing mastermind because I want to be able to give
people support and how to even write a book and put a vulnerable story together. And then,
um, the outpoken digital magazine is an interesting thing because that was an idea I had for probably
four or five months that I felt like was ridiculous. And how could I bring that to life? And I'm
only being honest with you because how many of us like hush our own ideas down and we
shove them down and say, this is not going to work until I spoke to my podcast manager,
editor, incredible soul. And I said, look at, I can't, this idea keeps dropping down.
I don't even know what it looks like. And I think it's probably ridiculous. And she goes,
Oh, no, it's not ridiculous at all. Like this is the, it's actually brilliant. What we can
do is start to link, you know, podcasts, episodes, you link them with QR codes, talk to other
podcasters and her ideas just started to download. And the reason I share that is because I'm
like, okay, I don't want to be on this podcast anymore. I want to be on this podcast. I want
to be on this podcast because how many of us have great ideas, but we cut ourselves
off at the knees because we can't figure out the how when actually it was never supposed
to be for me to figure out on my own anyways, it was meant for others to come on board and
support it. And we're in this time and space where, you know, to be part of some of the
podcasts, they are big, but it's like, no, I want to create something so that the people
who are just starting, who can have access, who can market, who can do with their magazine,
can be able to put that out there. And so I sat down and I went, what are the four key
pillars that helped me all the way along? And it all just downloaded really quickly.
It is like literally connection. You build connection first. That comes from vulnerability,
learning how to share your story, who you are. Then you build collaboration. You're
able to work together, right? And you help each other. You can both succeed. Then you
build community. And when you build community, then you can have contribution. Like you can
build more contribution. And I've got a lot of podcasters and people I've worked with
who have their own nonprofits. They build things. I'm like, okay, we can build a give
back component. I only share that because the whole idea downloaded really quickly.
And we started to talk it out. So, you know, if an idea keeps downloading on you for your
business or whatever it is, like it's for you, it's already for you. It's just, don't
leave it so that you're the only person who has to figure it out because that's going
to slow it down. It's going to slow the whole thing down.
Even though you're old enough to see Cheers references in Ted Lasso, you still got a lot
to go. I love that reference on your Instagram.
Oh my gosh, sorry. Ted Lasso is one of my favorite shows and I was so sad when it was
done. And then when I saw the reference to Cheers, I'm like, whoa, wait, it's a reference
to my other favorite show. And so I caught it. But yes, I definitely, there's a definite
connection there.
Is that how the universe tells you that you're on the right path by linking your two favorite
shows together?
Maybe that and a whole bunch of things. I believe and I built a very strong intuition
with myself and I know from the outside in, some people look at what I've done and it
makes no sense. It honestly does make no sense. It's not, I have followed my intuition every
step of the way. When I wanted to write my solo book in 2017, all of my immediate family
thought it was absolutely ridiculous. Like people thought it was crazy. Why would you?
And extended family, they were even more upset by the whole thing because we come from a
generation where you don't talk about difficult things, right? We shove them down, we push
them under the carpet, we pretend that we don't have any problems and we keep going,
but that's why we're in the position that we're in. That's why we're constantly feeling
alone in our challenges. And so most people thought it was crazy and I had this gut feeling.
I kept sitting with it and it's like, no, you actually have to do this. And so I spent
most of that year on my own and I mean that in a way I did, I spent a lot of it on my
own writing, editing and doing it. And I look back now and I think when I have doubt kick
in, I stop and think you need to tap on tap into the courage of you in 2017 who didn't
give a crap what anyone else thought. And you still did it because I wouldn't be doing any
of the work I do today without that book and starting. So don't that I cannot say it enough.
Do not get stuck on the opinions of the people in your life today because your message very
well might not even be for them at all.
I'm going to risk linking every single thing you've talked about in the show notes so that
people can't tell me what to do. Marsha, we're just going to shout the rooftops of the tens
of people that are prepared to listen. So we'll do that. What is it? The Patreon community,
the podcast, the magazine and everything that happens with Marsha and where we can find
you, whether it's LinkedIn or Instagram, we'll debate later which one is the link you link,
but we'll get there. This has been amazing. This will teach people that patience is a
virtue and you just got to dig deep.
You do have to dig deep. Oh my God. Thank you so much for having me, Elijah. Honestly,
I love this kind of content and I love supporting other podcasters. Like I think podcasting
is a beautiful way to connect with people from all over the world. And I mean, if you
want to get and build more confidence in your voice and trust your message, start podcasting.
People think it's saturated, but really it's just getting started. It's beautiful.
It's not saturated. And I would say that even the fact that lots of people start it, we
talked about that earlier, lots of people start it, but very few consistently see it
through because it's work. It is work, but it's, I think it's a beautiful medium. It's
worth it. I couldn't agree more.
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