Courage Is Launching Your Own Podcast

Gisel Martin

I truly enjoy being a mother. The immense love I now have because of motherhood is indescribable.

But, after having three kids in five years I felt as if I had lost myself. Has it happened to you?

I lost myself in the daily tasks of feeding, cleaning, working, driving to doctors appointments or activities, going to work, spending less time with my husband and less time connecting with ME.

I started noticing high stress, high anxiety, and a lot of frustration in my life. The worst part was that my husband and kids, my family and friends were the ones receiving the negative consequences of my situation.

After I stopped breastfeeding my youngest kid, I decided to put in the work to get my life and body back.

I started reading books, joined a self-love challenge, watched videos, read articles and blogs, added yoga and meditation to my life and listened to podcasts.

Through podcasts, I was able to re-discover myself.

I enjoyed listening to people tell their own stories, because when you hear someone tell their story in their own words and in their own voice something very empowering happens. I transitioned from binge-watching Netflix to binge listening to podcasts on my phone.

My journey of self-discovery led me to join a women’s group where I really connected to myself. I connected to my soul.

I dug deep inside me and I found out that what I want to do is work in the business world. I figured out that I have the talent and the skills to help people with their visions, help them organize their business operations. I made it my mission to help as many people as I can.

It’s scary to put myself out there. I don’t know how and I don’t know when, but at one point between my college graduation and my three kids, I lost my confidence and self-worth. Or maybe my lack of self-worth had always been there, but it became more prevalent as I unraveled myself through my self-discovery journey.

Fear had been living with me for years, like an infestation that I couldn’t get rid of. I decided I didn’t want to be fearless, but I wanted to embrace my fears. For me, embracing my fears means to acknowledge them and accept that I have fears, but do the very thing that I’m afraid of doing.

In September of 2017, I launched my website as a Business Strategist and every day I’ve been afraid of what will come next. It’s a fear of failure mixed with a fear of success sprinkled with a desire to help others. After working with a few clients, I thought to myself, “How can I reach more people who want to start a business but don’t know where to start?”

The answer was very clear:
Launch a podcast.

I had no idea where to begin. I went through a period of internal struggle. One day I would feel unstoppable and the next I would feel limited. I watched YouTube videos on how to record a podcast, I listened to podcasts on how to launch a podcast, and I read articles and blogs with reviews on which platforms were the best.

After a few months of going back and forth in my head, I created a social media post about my new podcast and announced that I would launch it on May 1, 2018.

I stared at that post for a few days before I actually uploaded it. I was VERY afraid to put myself out there. But once I hit the "upload" button, my fear disappeared and excitement started to set in.

I immediately received positive feedback from family, friends, and followers. The encouraging comments made me feel happy, but then new fears kicked in.

How was I supposed to launch a podcast if I had no equipment and no experience recording? What if I can’t deliver an episode on May 1st as promised on my social media announcement? After a lot of meditation and a lot of self-teaching, I published an episode on May 1st.

My podcast, Relate + Elevate, is about conversations on cultural identity and entrepreneurship. Once a month my 10-year-old daughter joins me to talk about the kid entrepreneur perspective.

My mission is to provide access and resources to visionaries, side hustlers, small business owners, and entrepreneurs. From marketing strategies, legal documents, strategic planning and creating business plans, we discuss it all.

I love working with small business owners, that’s one of the reasons why I overcame my fear and launched my podcast. It’s important for me to get all of these wonderful entrepreneurial stories out there. I want to show others that it doesn’t take much to start your own business. 

I really believe that we should do whatever we can to empower ourselves to then empower our community and together as a community we can rise up.

I am very grateful to all of my supporters and listeners. I still embrace my fear of failure and fear of putting myself out there every time I click record on my laptop and every single time I publish a new episode, but I can honestly say that I couldn’t have launched a podcast without my fears.