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Transcript

Build the Podcast Community Your Audience Needs · Your Mic

• 0:00
  So many people say they want to build and grow an audience.
• 0:03
  What they mean is they want the audience without the part where they have to be seen.
• 0:08
  Mavi Rodriguez started a podcast during the pandemic with a mic, a laptop, and a mission to help women navigate plastic surgery safely.
• 0:18
  More than 300,000 downloads later, she has learned that confidence does not necessarily show up before you post the video.
• 0:26
  It shows up because you did.
• 0:28
  My friend Brittany from Fun Love Media and I talk with Mavi about camera confidence, community, and betting on yourself when nobody else has bought a ticket.
• 0:36
  By the way, Mavi is going to be expanding on all of these topics in a panel called The Beauty of Podcasting with me and my friend Dr. Angela Sturm.
• 0:45
  It's going to happen at Illuminate October 2nd at the Health Museum in Houston.
• 0:50
  You can grab your ticket to the event by tapping the link in the show notes.
• 0:57
  Mavi, your life has taken quite the turn and it all started in 2020.
• 1:00
  So let's start there.
• 1:02
  Oh, my gosh.
• 1:03
  2020, middle of the pandemic.
• 1:08
  I had been working as a patient coordinator for plastic surgeons for like 14 years by that time.
• 1:14
  And my babies were little.
• 1:16
  I had a three and a six year old.
• 1:18
  And I missed my kids and I was like, how am I supposed to just go through life with not seeing my kids as much as I wish I could?
• 1:27
  And they're so little and pandemic happened.
• 1:31
  Something hit me.
• 1:31
  I quit my job and decided to launch a podcast about how to have safe surgery, how to go navigating through the plastic surgery process and,
• 1:44
  And with the intention of helping women stay safe and helping them reach their dreams and become the women of their dreams.
• 1:54
  And from there, it just grew.
• 1:56
  It was needed.
• 1:57
  The ladies love it because they need the information.
• 2:01
  So before I knew it, it was completely changed my life.
• 2:06
  One of the things I love about this story, Britt, is that Mavi was one of the 2020 podcasters.
• 2:13
  And in the industry, we all know because Brittany has a podcast too, Mavi, is that there was like this influx of people who wanted to be podcasters because everyone's staying at home and there's only so much Netflix you can do and only so much time you can spend outside walking your dogs.
• 2:28
  And so everyone's a creator and everyone thinks they're going to be Joe Rogan and Mel Robbins, right?
• 2:33
  And well, the thing about Mavi is that she kept going.
• 2:37
  and is still going and is 300,000 downloads in the journey.
• 2:42
  Yeah.
• 2:43
  Yeah.
• 2:44
  You know what I, I read somewhere when I was about to launch my podcast.
• 2:50
  Um, well, for one, I've always been a podcast listener, but I like crime podcast, I'm a crime junkie podcast listener.
• 2:59
  And during the pandemic, I listened to a podcast and it was a girl
• 3:05
  who was trying to find the murderer of her sister.
• 3:08
  And she said during her episode, it's just me, my mic, my laptop, and a mission.
• 3:15
  And I am going to find my sister's murderer.
• 3:18
  And I still get chills because hearing her say that made me like a light bulb went off.
• 3:24
  Like, it's just her in her room with the microphone and her laptop.
• 3:29
  Like, I wonder how hard it would be to
• 3:33
  have my own podcast.
• 3:35
  And so I started researching and trying to figure out how can I do this?
• 3:40
  How can I do this?
• 3:42
  And I remember reading one of the top
• 3:46
  ways of becoming a top podcaster is to not stop.
• 3:49
  Yeah, that right there.
• 3:52
  And it's one of the most underrated pieces of advice that anybody who has hosted, I would say, more than 50 episodes of any podcast can give, is that you just don't...
• 4:03
  quit.
• 4:04
  And whatever don't quit means for you, that could be 50 episodes and that's over two years, or it's 50 episodes and you're trying to compress it into six months, or maybe you want to compress 50 episodes and to stretch it out into three years or what have you.
• 4:21
  But as long as you're consistent, whatever that word consistency means to you, as long as you have that writ.
• 4:33
  and true crime podcasts.
• 4:37
  What is it?
• 4:39
  I'm going to leave this to Mavi because I am one of the only women in existence that does not listen to them.
• 4:43
  And I just think it would raise my anxiety way too much.
• 4:46
  So I steer clear.
• 4:47
  Oh my gosh.
• 4:48
  I think for me, it's like I can pop it in my ear and I can fold laundry.
• 4:55
  I can work on something.
• 4:57
  I can be doing other things and still be listening.
• 5:02
  like stop and sit on the couch and watch something.
• 5:05
  I can be productive while I'm listening to something.
• 5:07
  And they're so interesting.
• 5:09
  I wanna know who killed her.
• 5:11
  I mean, yeah, I'll take it.
• 5:20
  Says the guy whose network is actually launching a true crime podcast, but it's a nonviolent one.
• 5:25
  No one got killed during that show.
• 5:28
  But one of the things when I first learned of you, Mavi, I'm like, big butts, no lies.
• 5:35
  And one of the pieces of conventional wisdom, and I use that term very loosely, is that you name a show that's going to be SEO-friendly, search-friendly, discoverability-friendly, what have you.
• 5:47
  So in your case, it would be, well, Mavi, I'm a professional podcast consultant, and are you sure you want to name your show that?
• 5:55
  Why not the Plastic Surgery Consultation Podcast?
• 6:00
  And that way it gets you ranked in the SEO blah, blah, blah.
• 6:04
  But no, you went with this badass name and it worked.
• 6:11
  You know what?
• 6:12
  I was looking at so many names.
• 6:14
  It was like beauty time.
• 6:19
  So many names that I was trying to come up with.
• 6:23
  And I worked in the industry where women were really looking for BBLs.
• 6:28
  And they wanted to know the truth.
• 6:29
  Like, how can I get a fat transfer?
• 6:32
  Like, who's the good doctor?
• 6:33
  How can I...
• 6:34
  not die during surgery after a BBL, because that was a hot topic during that time.
• 6:39
  And I'm sorry, what is a BBL?
• 6:42
  It's when they remove fat with liposuction from other parts of your body and they transfer it to your booty to give you shape.
• 6:52
  Sign me up.
• 6:55
  There's a misconception that it has to be a big booty.
• 7:00
  And that's not true.
• 7:01
  They're just shaping.
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  There's just placing the fat, removing some, taking some from here, putting it over here, and just giving a nice shape.
• 7:11
  So I was writing names.
• 7:14
  And one day I was talking to the girl who was helping me design my brand.
• 7:20
  And she was like,
• 7:22
  what about Big Butts?
• 7:25
  What if you put Big Butts in the name?
• 7:28
  And I was like, you know what?
• 7:33
  I like it.
• 7:34
  Let's do it.
• 7:35
  And I was like, let's talk about Big Butts and no lies from the, I like Big Butts and I cannot lie.
• 7:44
  So that's kind of where the inspiration came of finding
• 7:52
  Big books, no lies.
• 7:54
  So it definitely worked.
• 7:55
  What is the difference between the way you host your podcast now?
• 7:58
  Because you started in 2021.
• 8:02
  And so what's the difference?
• 8:03
  We're going on, what, five years of hosting podcasts.
• 8:07
  So what's the difference between 2021 Mavi and 2026 Mavi?
• 8:13
  Oh my God.
• 8:14
  If I could talk to 2021 Mavi now, I'd be like, keep going.
• 8:18
  Just keep doing it.
• 8:19
  Like show up.
• 8:21
  Back then I was kind of shy.
• 8:24
  And so I did my first 20 or 30 episodes audio only, no video.
• 8:31
  And they still took off because women are listening.
• 8:35
  They're not looking for it online.
• 8:37
  And so back then I was just doing audio.
• 8:41
  not really doing video, but I was looking for stories of women who are going through this, the experiences that they're having, the questions that they're having.
• 8:53
  And I really honed in on going back to the SEO, what are they searching on Google?
• 9:01
  What questions are they asking Google about surgery?
• 9:04
  And that I reversed it from there.
• 9:06
  Okay, this is what they're asking, then I'm gonna make an episode about this and answer their questions.
• 9:12
  And I started doing that back then.
• 9:14
  And it really helped solidify my community with my listeners who have these questions.
• 9:21
  And they're looking for not just answers, but somebody that they can trust.
• 9:26
  Somebody that I tell them, I don't care who you go to.
• 9:29
  I just want you to be safe.
• 9:30
  I want you to go back home to your kids.
• 9:33
  And there's things that you can do.
• 9:34
  to stay safe, to make sure that you make it back home.
• 9:38
  And ultimately that was my goal back then and it's still my goal now.
• 9:43
  But now I've done a lot more physician interviews and bringing on the experts to talk about the different topics and really get more of a professional input.
• 9:55
  Probably 2023 was when I really,
• 10:00
  went hard into video and clipping my content and putting it online and putting it on TikTok and putting it on YouTube was when I was really able to go harder once I incorporated video.
• 10:13
  But there's, as you guys know, there's hurdles you have to jump through before you're ready to put your face out there, to put your person out there, not just your voice, but fully.
• 10:27
  And I had to jump through hurdles
• 10:30
  with myself of like, you're going to do it.
• 10:32
  It's okay if you look a little bit pale today.
• 10:36
  It's okay if your eyelashes aren't perfect.
• 10:39
  It's okay.
• 10:39
  It's just do it.
• 10:40
  Just get on there.
• 10:42
  And one lady gave me the best piece of advice.
• 10:47
  She said, the more you hold yourself back from posting the videos and making the content,
• 10:56
  the less you're helping the women who you really want to help because you're not putting yourself out there.
• 11:01
  And that, it still gives me chills because it really knocked me out.
• 11:06
  Like, okay, you're right.
• 11:08
  If I'm really on a mission to help these women, I can't hold myself back just because I don't like how I look on camera.
• 11:16
  And why don't I like how I look on camera?
• 11:18
  So I had to do a lot of internal work of
• 11:23
  You're beautiful, mommy.
• 11:24
  You can put yourself on there.
• 11:26
  You can put yourself online and you're going to be okay.
• 11:28
  And if people judge you, then they're not for you.
• 11:32
  And it really took a lot of motivation to get there.
• 11:38
  How long did it take for you to get to where you were comfortable, where flipping on the camera was just as easy as turning on the mic for an audio only show?
• 11:49
  Yeah.
• 11:51
  I sometimes I still don't do it.
• 11:54
  Sometimes I still.
• 11:55
  You too.
• 11:56
  Me too.
• 11:57
  Sometimes I still have to push myself to do it.
• 12:01
  I have to be like in the right mood with the right content in my brain of what I want to talk about with a goal of how I what I want to get across.
• 12:12
  And once I have that, I can turn my camera on and deliver.
• 12:17
  How do you formulate your interviews?
• 12:20
  Because you do talk to surgeons and people that are in the aesthetics field, cosmetic surgeons, so on and so forth.
• 12:26
  So how do you go about curating your guest list for your listeners who are looking into that one very specific area of health and beauty and whatnot?
• 12:36
  So is it as easy as having just a big Rolodex over the course of the years that you've built up?
• 12:44
  Are you asking guests questions?
• 12:47
  Who do you think will be a fit for the show?
• 12:49
  What goes into your process?
• 12:51
  My process goes, I reverse engineer it from what answers am I trying to answer?
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  What questions am I trying to answer?
• 13:00
  So, for example, if I am...
• 13:04
  wanting to answer questions about massive weight loss, surgery, surgery, body contouring after somebody has lost a lot of weight.
• 13:13
  Well, that's a procedure that not all surgeons do.
• 13:16
  And if they do, maybe they don't do it that well.
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  So I reverse engineer it from what am I talking about?
• 13:22
  And who are the experts in that topic, in that subject?
• 13:27
  It does have a lot to do with the Rolodex of just
• 13:35
  And my favorite is my listeners tell me, hey, listen, check out this guy.
• 13:42
  Hey, check out this guy.
• 13:44
  He did my surgery.
• 13:45
  And for me, my hidden gems that I find are recommendations from my listeners who listen to the show, did their research, found a surgeon, had a great experience.
• 13:57
  And then they send me a message that check out my doctor.
• 14:01
  And some those are some of the best.
• 14:04
  recommendations I get from my listeners.
• 14:07
  October 3rd is going to be a very, very fun day for all three of us here on the mic.
• 14:13
  Brittany, you've been unusually quiet during this conversation.
• 14:18
  So I want you to walk through our day at the Health Museum.
• 14:23
  It is Illuminate.
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  It's the content creator experience.
• 14:26
  Mavi is going to be joining us for a panel discussion on camera confidence, etc., etc.
• 14:33
  So why don't you talk about Illuminate?
• 14:36
  I am so happy that Mavi's joining us.
• 14:38
  Illuminate is, well, as we call it, it's a content creator experience.
• 14:43
  And I'm excited because we've come together to do this together because your expertise and mine complement each other.
• 14:52
  So you being in,
• 14:54
  such a podcasting expert and me being a social media expert, because those two worlds, like they just mesh and they belong together.
• 15:02
  And this experience is going to be really for people that are genuinely passionate about their content that they're creating, like deeply passionate, like shed a tear because you love what you do so much kind of thing.
• 15:16
  These are the kind of people that are going to be in that room that really want to make a big impact.
• 15:20
  And
• 15:20
  And when we when we come together in person, it's just unique.
• 15:23
  It's not the same.
• 15:24
  Like, yes, it's great that we have technology to keep us all in person, all in contact, excuse me.
• 15:29
  We need that because we're all over the country and all over the world as creators, as independent people.
• 15:33
  But, you know, when you come together in person, it's different.
• 15:36
  And you and I have talked about this, Freddie, like you're saying with Mavi talking on a panel and things like that.
• 15:41
  You know, you go to these events.
• 15:43
  We've all been to events and conferences and things like that.
• 15:47
  And sometimes it's cold, bottom line.
• 15:49
  Sometimes it's just not a warm, fuzzy feeling whenever you go to these things.
• 15:53
  And it's maybe corporate-y feeling.
• 15:55
  And that's just not what Illuminate is.
• 15:57
  It's going to be warm and fuzzy.
• 15:58
  You might shed a tear.
• 15:59
  You're definitely going to laugh.
• 16:00
  But you're going to get to actually like up close and personal interact with each other, network, questions and answers, workshops, that kind of a thing.
• 16:09
  And I just think that it's going to provide really relationships too.
• 16:13
  meeting people that you can collaborate with, that you can work with.
• 16:16
  And that right there is, you know, priceless.
• 16:20
  And one of the things that I enjoy about, about getting to know you, Brittany, and then getting to know you in the brief time that we have known each other.
• 16:31
  Of course, Mavi, you were on one of my friends, Dr. Sturm's podcasts, beauty unveiled, and we produce her show as well as, is that, um,
• 16:42
  It is so collaborative and we...
• 16:49
  Somebody who is in the plastic surgery field can learn from somebody that is working in the chemical field, can learn from somebody who has a true crime podcast, who can learn from somebody who's hosting a food show.
• 17:02
  Because at the end of the day, a podcast is all about connecting somebody with a story that they need to hear at that time that they press play and listen all the way through.
• 17:12
  I love podcasting.
• 17:14
  I think podcasting opens together.
• 17:17
  so many doors.
• 17:18
  And besides the listeners getting what they need from the episodes that we make for them, it's also the connections that you make as a host with the people that you interview.
• 17:33
  And these are connections that are amazing.
• 17:37
  I have one of my shows that I produce.
• 17:39
  She has shocked me in just how much growth
• 17:46
  personally in her business, in her community.
• 17:50
  She launched a jewelry line.
• 17:52
  Now she's writing a textbook.
• 17:54
  She made a fashion line.
• 17:56
  She made jewelry for surgeons and it just grew from her podcast.
• 18:01
  That's one of the low key, most underrated things about having a show, because when you think about monetizing, you think YouTube AdSense or finding a sponsor through the broken CPM model.
• 18:14
  And there are things that you can do, other things that you can do that'll help you monetize your show in a much better way than just relying on third party ads for some national chain restaurant that has nothing to do with your show.
• 18:28
  So some of the stuff that we're going to talk about at Illuminate, both from a social media standpoint, from a podcast standpoint, again, Mavi Rodriguez, host of Big Butts No Lies, is going to be one of our guest panelists.
• 18:40
  We're going to have Victoria Meyer, who is host of The Chemical Show, who has monetized her podcast by...
• 18:46
  charging guests, which is such a hot take.
• 18:50
  And just, it's an unusual way to monetize shows, monetize podcasts.
• 18:57
  And I'm here for it because I love a good outlier story.
• 19:01
  People that work in the production space like me have certain precious opinions about it.
• 19:07
  And I'm like...
• 19:08
  What happens between consenting adults happens between consenting adults.
• 19:13
  And if it works for both parties, then it works for both parties.
• 19:17
  And so Victoria is going to be unpacking some of that.
• 19:20
  We're going to have Frank Raciopi, founder of the Earworthy Newsletter, and he is a podcast journalist for Forbes magazine as well.
• 19:30
  So we're going to put the link in the show description below.
• 19:32
  to join us for Illuminate October 3rd at the Health Museum here in Houston, Texas.
• 19:39
  Brittany, founder of Fun Love Media, host of The Middle Mix for Middies, for Zillennials, for Gen X, for Millennials, and of course, the one and only Mavi Rodriguez, host of Big Butts, Big Butts, No Lies.
• 19:55
  And thank you both so much for coming by your mic.
• 19:57
  Thank you for having me.
• 19:58
  Can't wait to see you at Illuminate.
• 20:00
  Thanks, Freddie.