Today I am talking with Ahyiana Angel. Ahyianais the Founder of Mayzie Media and host of the personal growth podcast Switch, Pivot or Quit. A traditionally published author and speaker, Ahyiana and her work have been featured by Apple, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Girlboss and more. Quit Playing Small is her latest highly buzzed-about book that's a must-have for morning routines.
Key points addressed were
- Ahyiana’s professional chronicle that took her from a prolific PR and jewelry design career into writing 2 books, hosting an influential podcast, and launching Podcast Production company Mayzie Media
- We also discussed Ahyiana’s advice when it comes to the particulars of book writing and publishing and the various experiences she encountered producing both of her books
TRANSCRIPTION
*Please note, this is an automated transcription please excuse any typos or errors
[00:00:00] In this episode, I speak with founder, author and podcast host Ahyiana Angel. Key Points address whereAhyiana's professional chronicle that took her from a prolific PR and jewelry design career into writing two books, hosting an influential podcast and launching a podcast production company, Mazey Media. We also discussedAhyiana's advice when it comes to the particulars of book writing and publishing and the various experiences she encountered producing both of her books. Stay tuned for my invigorating talk with Ahyiana Angel.
[00:00:37] Hi, my name is Patricia Kathleen, and this podcast series contains interviews I conduct with women. Female identified and nonbinary individuals regarding their professional stories and personal narrative. This podcast is designed to hold a space for all individuals to learn from their counterparts regardless of age status for industry. We aim to contribute to the evolving global dialog surrounding underrepresented figures in all industries across the USA and abroad. If you're enjoying this podcast, be sure to check out our subsequent series that dove deep into specific areas such as Vegan life, fasting and roundtable topics. They can be found via our Web site. Patricia Kathleen ARCOM. You can also join our newsletter. You can also subscribe to all of our series on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Pod Bean and YouTube. Thanks for listening. Now let's start the conversation.
[00:01:34] Hi, everyone, and welcome back. I'm your host, Patricia.
[00:01:37] And today, I am so excited to be sitting down with Ahyiana Angel. Ahyiana is the founder. She's a founder, a podcast or and an author. You can find out more on one of her Web sites. I'll have her bring in the other one later in the podcast at w w w dot. Switch, pivot or quit dot com. Welcome, Ahyiana.
[00:01:57] Thank you, Patricia, for having me.
[00:01:59] Absolutely. I can't wait to unpack. I know that our audience has written and we were talking off the record about a great deal of aspects of different endeavors that you've kind of climbed through recently. And I can't wait to look at that, namely your book and the process of writing that and getting it published, as well as looking at your podcast. It's got a prolific history and following, as well as your Web site, some of the core tenants in the ethos behind what you do and for everyone who's listening who might be new to the podcast. I will read a quick bio on Icona to kind of give you a platform before I ask her to kind of expand on that herself. But before I do that, a trajectory in which the line of inquiry for today's podcast will come from a road map for all of you to follow. I will first ask Ahyiana to kind of unpack her personal, professional and academic history as it relates to the work that she's doing now. We'll then dove straight into unpacking her professional chronicle. So we will look at all of her endeavors, writing the book, her website, as well as her podcasts and anything else she's involved in this kind of forming the ethos of her brand, her business, and perhaps her future endeavors will then turn to looking at goals that I own a house for the next one to three years, with all of her work spanning across all of her different activities. And then we'll wrap everything up with advice at Ahyianami. For those of you who are looking to get involved, perhaps emulate some of her career success as promised. A quick bio on Ianna. Before I start peppering her with questions, Man Angel is the founder of Mazey Media and host of Personal Growth podcast Switch, Pivot or Quit, a traditionally published author and speaker,Ahyiana and her work have been featured by Apple, Forbes, Entrepreneur, Girl, Boss and more Quit Playing Small. Is her latest hype highly buzzed about book? That's a must have for. Morning routines and we'll unpack all of that. Ianna, before we get to the book and all of the kind of exciting things you're doing. I was hoping you could draw some a stage or a background platform of your personal history, your academic history and your professional history as it leads to and pertains to what you're doing now.
[00:03:59] So that's a great question. I haven't I haven't had it posed like that.
[00:04:05] So my personal background is that I am from California, born and born and raised, and I am the oldest of four siblings, which I think plays into. I think you could say my leadership tendencies. You know, you have to become a leader early on in the household when you're the oldest. Right. And have a lot of responsibility and all of those things. So I think that's a part of that foundation has helped me to sort of navigate all the different challenges that have come our way. And not that there's been a ton. It's just life happens. Right. So my undergrad, my undergraduate degree in business administration and my concentration was marketing. But funny enough, I was one of those people. And this ties into sort of my whole growth getting to where I am now. I was one of those people who heavily consulted with my parents, namely my father, about my career choice, what I was going to do. And he obviously wanted me to do something. I was going to make any money, but also that I would be remotely interested in. So when I first initially went to college, I thought that I was going to be in a physical therapy program. I thought that that was gonna be my route that I was going to take. And then I got into my very first physics class and I was like, girl, this is not for you. This is not going to work. So science wasn't my thing. So then I said, okay, I'm gonna go to the College of Business. And I thought, OK, I see my dad. He's in that whole tech sort of I.T. space. And so I said, OK, I could do this, I can make good money. And then I got into the first class and all these zeros and ones and I was like, this does not make any sense to me. So once again, I had to switch things up and I ended up finding myself in marketing because for me it was a nice compromise between doing something that was business related, but also creative. And I just found myself feeling like this could open up a ton of different avenues for me. And I really didn't know where it was going to take me. So I ended up taking internships and marketing spaces. I had an internship at Showtime Networks through this amazing program called the T. Howard Foundation. And I also ended up getting an internship at the game show network just as I was graduating my senior year. And that's what introduced me to PR. And so when I was introduced to PR, I didn't really know what I could do with it. But I quickly realized that there were a lot of crossover with the skills that I had and the skills that were required to succeed in that field. So I ended up staying in that field and eventually making my way to New York from L.A. to New York and working at the National Basketball Association, doing sports entertainment PR. And so that was very exciting at the beginning, that the first three years. It was just like this amazing experience. It was a dream job. It was a dream company to be working for. But then eventually, this is where it comes back around. I started tapping back into how I really felt, what I really wanted to be doing and what was in like an alignment with me as a person as I was starting to get to know myself. And in the midst of that, I realized I wanted to tap into my creativity more. And so I did just that. And I started a jewelry line while I was working my nine to five. And it did really well, like our stuff. Our jewelry was worn by beyond, say, and like Lauryn Hill and some amazing people. But what that did was that introduced me to the idea of entrepreneurship and what could be possible with it. It also introduced me to other people who were doing it successfully. So eventually I got to a point where I said, you know what, I want to do something more. I feel I'm feeling I'm having this strong tug that there's more that I should be doing. I just don't know exactly what it looks like. And then that's what led me to making the transitions, because at a certain point, I felt like I had checked all the boxes. I had done everything that was expected of me. So now was time for me to start to venture into the space of what do you really want? What really feels right to you? And so that's sort of how I started coming into this journey of creating the switch, pivot or equip podcast and doing writing and doing all the other things that I do now.
[00:08:38] It's interesting because your story, you know, a lot of people think that they quit something when they're miserable or whatever, but you've got this magnificently successful career. And then you've got this magnificently successful moonlighting endeavor with the jewelry. And you still chose to kind of switch and ask to have that internal dialog about self happiness and things like that.
[00:08:57] What do you think promoted you continuing on? You know, you have two forms of success that you came into. But this is this persistent issue that you have with kind of re dialoging with yourself about what makes you happiest and things like that. Do you have an impetus that kind of caused you to continue to question or do you think it was just kind of an inborn thing?
[00:09:18] I think it was kind of an important thing, I think I'm just that type of person that's always looking for freshness. That's always. It's not that I'm not settled in spaces. It's just that I feel like I could be doing more. And it's not that perfection or, you know, really driving yourself and not really ever appreciating your accomplished accomplishments type of. I feel I could be I could be doing more. It's more along the lines of what's out there. This is a huge world with a ton of options and possibilities. And the more that I get introduced to things, the more that certain things may piqued my interest or I may feel called to a different direction. Or I may feel like I could be of service or I could really succeed in a certain space, or I start to see and learn things about myself that I didn't know before, which helps me to get interested in how I could pull more of that out. So I think it's more of an internal thing versus something that's coming from the outside in making me think that I need to, you know, switch favorite or quit.
[00:10:24] Yeah. And they talk I mean, a lot of people talk about the mystique of entrepreneurs, you know, and the spirit of entrepreneurism kind of being something that's just this hunger within or things of that nature. So it doesn't come with that. OK. So I'm curious, you switch out of both of these endeavors in the jewelry and the PR. And I'm wondering what happened. First, you have this prolific podcast. You have, you know, hundreds of episodes. And did that happen? Did you immediately develop this brand? Did you write your first book? Which Endeavor Came First?
[00:10:57] So while I was working, I was working also on my first book so I would wake up an hour earlier than I needed to get ready for work, which I hated because I'm not really a morning person. And I would work on this book. I would be writing and I'd be half asleep writing, but I had this goal to finish.
[00:11:17] So it took me about nine months of working on this book while still working in my full time job. And once I was done with the book or I felt like I was in a place that it was done. That's when I started entertaining, putting in my notice and just really taking this series in terms of trying my hand at becoming an author. And for me, it wasn't about entrepreneurship. It was more about finding my happiness. You know, I was no longer satisfied doing what I was doing day to day. It wasn't making me happy. And so I said, I need to figure out what's going to make me happy and I need to go in that direction. And I don't know what that's going to look like. There was a ton of uncertainty, but I was open to it because I also had confidence in myself. I said I can't control everything. I don't know everything that's going to come our way. Or what I do know is that I can give my best. And I know the things that I'm skilled at and I can use that to make this a better situation. So the book writing came first and then I quit the job. Then luckily, I was really, really extremely blessed to have an opportunity about four months after I quit the job to get a traditional book publishing offer. And I was completely novice to all of this. I didn't even know when I got the offer. I called my editor and I was like, is this like, good?
[00:12:40] Like, is this something I should be like doing? And she's like a yarn. Are you kidding me?
[00:12:44] So many authors that I'm working with right now who would kill to be in your position? I was like, OK, I'm happy. OK, this is good. This is good. So for me, it was a process of just taking things as they were coming and doing what I knew I needed to be doing and following sort of like that internal voice as well. Because when I first quit, I didn't know that I was going to get this publishing deal. But I remember having a conversation with my dad and I was deciding on investing in this. This editor.
[00:13:12] And it was a lot of money at the time, seeing as how I had just quit my full time job. And so I was like, you know, should I do this? And he just asked me a question. He was like, Do you believe in yourself? Do you believe in this project? And I was like, Yeah, of course I do. And he's like, didn't do it. What decision is there? If you believe in it, do it. And I was like, OK, I'm gonna do it. And that's sort of like what kicked off all all the other things falling in place. And then eventually, once I wrote the book once again, I was very, very fortunate to have the book come out a little less than a year of me starting this process. Usually it takes minimum a year for a book to be published. And so for me, it came out. I did this book tour and I was starting to realize how people were gravitating to my story and the changes that I had made in my life and the decisions that I made, because I also not only left my job and rurals, this book, I left my job, wrote this book, or got an opportunity to get it published. But I also left New York and went to London and lived there for about four months. Traveled around and had some amazing experiences, so people were like, how are you doing this? And I want to do more of what you're doing, maybe not follow the exact same path, but I'm interested in shaking up my life, basically. And that's what eventually brought me to the podcast and to switch, pivot or quit, because I realized that I was uniquely qualified to tell that story, to tap into what that looks like and to be that person to help share those stories with other people. The stories that I would have wanted to listen to when I was sitting at my desk on Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan trying to figure out what the heck am I going to do next? So that's how I got to the podcast. And this switch proved that a quick conversation, because I knew how it felt to be having these feelings. But you don't exactly know what to do with it. And then you don't know what other people are doing and your peers may not be experiencing the same thing at the same time. So then you start to feel isolated and alone in these feelings as well. So I wanted to create a conversation that let people know that they weren't, you know, going crazy.
[00:15:22] Yeah, absolutely. Really quickly, before we drop into the podcast and some of its particulars, what how did you find your editor for the first book? Did you do a search?
[00:15:30] Did you have a referral? We've had a lot of people write in. Namely, people who want me to ask authors to come on this show. Asking about locating it can be a predatory situation. Finding an editor. Finding a publisher. You know, self publishing. And we can climb into that later when we talk about your second book. But I want to get into how you personally found your first original editor and how you knew whether or not the price was fair. You talked about having this long conversation with your father about it, but how did you find that individual and how did you deduce that they were legitimate and fair?
[00:16:00] Sure. So what even brought me to an editor was when I was maybe three quarters of the way done with the book. I started querying agents and the query process can be a bit daunting and intimidating as well, because you read all this stuff that says tons of people query these agents and their query letters and all the time, and then some agents don't even accept unsolicited queries. So you also it's a combination of you having to find the right agent who represents the projects in your genre, as well as them being interested in what you're pitching. So you have to pitch them and they have to believe in you because they ultimately have to sell the project. Right. So I had gotten quite a few responses where people were interested. But I remember this one rejection. I was sitting in a hotel room in Miami at the NBA finals in the office room, basically working. And I checked my personal email and I got a rejection from this agent and he basically said, I love this story. I love where it's going. But I unfortunately, I can't take this to my editors sees me. He said, I can't take this to my editors right now as it is. That crushed me. But what I have to do is take a step back and realize, OK. So he's saying it's a good project with potential. It just needs to be cleaned up and tightened up by an editor. So that's what brought me to actually hiring my own editor, because unfortunately, publishing is very similar to the music business right now. You see all these indie artists that you picked up or labels want to pick them up? Well, it's the same thing with publishing. They want you to come to the table with a project that's pretty much ready to go, ready to hit the shelves, ready to be sold and ready to be pushed. So I had to hire my own editor and that's where the process came in and the conversation with my dad. But how much do you believe in this project? So what I did was I started doing the research about editing, what types of editing, because I didn't even know that there were different types of editors who edit for different things. Right. And so I started to realize what type of editor I needed. And then I also started to get an idea of what type of fees editors were charging. This editor that I decided to go with. She was a recommendation. A quick other little note that I think I should mention only because it was very random, but it worked out in my favor. I was at work doing some research, found this thing called office hours. I don't even know if they do it anymore, but it was where professionals lend their time and their expertize to people just simply for nothing because they want to do good. So you can sign up. And so I did that and I got in touch with this woman who was an agent. Her and I ended up becoming friendly. We met up for drinks one evening and she is what I told her everything that was going on, my process. She's the one that told me about this, Ed, that ended up going with. She told me about the Ed come to find out that Ed and I also had another mutual friend. So at this point, I felt comfortable with her that she wasn't going to, like, take my money and run or, you know, that she was a reputable person. And she was also on a higher end because she had worked at a lot of the larger publishing houses and still was working with them. So she was not just an editor who says, hey, I can edit your work for you. She was someone with a proven track record. So that's why the price point was there as well. So when I ended up hiring her, it was actually a great process and an easy process, working with her and her, giving me the feedback. We met up in person a few times. So that's nice. If you're in the same city as a person or you can meet on Zoom. But I think the main thing is you need to do your research and you need to see who else is vouching for this person, because it can be a situation where someone tells you that you're an editor, but maybe they're not qualified to edit your work. That's the other thing. Just like with an agent, you want to make sure that the editor that you choose, that they are also interested in the genre, that you write it because you don't want to get a sci fi editor and you're doing a romance novel. They may not edit the same way or see the potential or see where you're trying to go with it. So I know that that was a lot, but I really want to share the full process because there's layers to getting to where you have to actually or where you actually want to be, right?
[00:20:35] Yeah, absolutely. And no, I think it's wildly useful information. I know a ton of entrepreneurs and savvy business established people like, you know, looking at writing books. And it's an area that just keeps transforming itself and needs to be discussed before we let it go. I do want to ask you personally, did you the utility of your editor and did they indeed edit your work? Did they guide the refinement? What kind of a role did they play for you?
[00:21:01] Absolutely. So she went through and she did the editing for the words Escape Me right now, but she did the editing for this specific, like sentence structure and everything. And then she also did the editing for the continuity in the story, like I remember, for one example. Couple different places in the novel. I mentioned a cab, but then I mentioned a taxi in another place and she's like, you have to be consistent if you're going to call it a cab. Call it a cab. If you're going to call it a taxi. Call it a taxi. And those types of things I would have missed. I didn't know the importance of that. But that's the kind of attention to detail that she had. And also she in her note, she asked questions. Maybe you want to think about adding this. Maybe you want to think about fleshing this out a little bit more. It feels like there could be more to this portion to paint the picture. You know, so she was really, really thorough. She was very thorough. And I appreciated her for that. And her name is Ricky Reynolds. If anybody is thinking maybe she could be the girl for me, too. She and she's really amazing. And she's no nonsense in the sense that she's not here to be your best friend. She's here to do the best work possible. And she's serious about editing your work really well.
[00:22:16] Nice. That's a great shout out, Rakeysh. So I want to turn now I want to pivot to looking at your podcast. It sounds like it came about, you know, with the advent of your first book.
[00:22:28] I want to know, can you kind of cite a rough year or time period in which it was launched and the scope of it when it was launched, if you had a clear, concise idea or if you just wanted it to accompany your current endeavors, what was the whole motivation behind launching it and kind of the structure? Oberon's the original launch.
[00:22:46] Sure. So I launched in twenty seventeen January twenty seventeen, if I'm not mistaken. So it's been about three and a half years that I've been doing it. And when I launched, I was running a program running a platform on social media by a different name. And so I thought this could be a good continuation of those conversations via the podcast. But I also was a podcast listener, so I knew that I wanted the structure to be in such a way that. You knew what you were gonna get when you started listening to an episode, just how, you know, you ran down at the top of the show, what people can expect to listen to. That's what I liked to hear when I was listening to a podcast because was nothing more frustrating than looking at a podcast title, being 20, 30 minutes in. And they're still talking about their weekend with a all these, you know, things that don't matter to me, you know. And so I said, I want to have a very tight structure and I want people to get the most that they can get, the most goodness that they can out of these podcast episodes. So I'm not here for the fluff. I do not want the fluffy stuff at all. So for me, I knew exactly where I wanted to take the podcasts and the conversations. When I started it, I, I did have some hiccups in the beginning because it was called it had a different name and switch privative quit was just a segment. And then I realized, no, this is with this switch, pivot or quit name is really speaking to the real conversation that I want to have. The overall theme of everything. So this needs to be the name of it. So I ended up switching the name a few months in. And for me. I just wanted to create a conversation that would be beneficial to other people. And I realize that with so many people coming to me asking me about my story on my journey, people wanted to hear these types of stories. So I just knew that I had to be the person to tap into them. It wasn't like I had this, you know, extreme grand thought out marketing plan as to how I was going to use this podcast. Really, this podcast was just a channel for me to be helpful to other people.
[00:24:54] Yeah, so I and I've listened to episodes. I went back in your history to listen to some old ones and I've listened to the most recent ones. And and you do have this as you said, you've kind of created everything around the ethos. And I'm curious about the curation because you still have a lot a huge arena that you can draw from and you're still going to have to edit it down, as it were. You know, you've spoken to people about utility, about efficacy of their work schedule. You bring on women, or at least the ones I listen to where women are female, identified individuals with them. All of these different caveats as to, you know, how to increase your span and climbing in the workforce. A lot of people talk to I listen to one where you had two women on and one was advising that you start, you know, taking meetings with people and writing those those meeting notes down for yourself so that you keep them accountable. All these little tidbits that people can kind of incorporate into their wife. But I'm wondering how you curate who you bring on. I mean, how do you compose? Because you bring specialists on or people from different fields that have these really great pieces of advice for all umbrella. But how do you yourself compose that? Do you sit down on a monthly or weekly ledger? Do you let it kind of play out organically? How does that work?
[00:26:05] I actually let it play out organically. You would think that I have a much more like.
[00:26:11] Involved scheduling process or anything, but no, I think that a part of the beauty for the Switch to Quit podcast is the organic nature of it. I truly speak to people that I'm interested in hearing their story. Someone may have a great switch, private equity story, but if it doesn't move me and if I'm not interested, then unfortunately I don't want to hear from them because I don't think my audience will want to hear from them. I want to hear from people who I would have wanted to hear from or who have something to say that I think would have been useful when I was in the midst of transition. That's simply what it comes down to. That is the guiding light for the podcast. It's like so many people now are pitching to be on podcasts because they think it's a great way to market yourself and get yourself in front of other people's audience. And while it is, it has to make sense. People people who don't take any time to listen to our podcast before they pitch me, they pitch a man to me and they don't even realize I've never interviewed or spoken to a man on the podcast. Never. Never. So you could save yourself some time, you know. But what happens is people just get so caught up in the me, me, me of things that they don't think about. I'm trying to serve an audience here. I don't care about what your story is. I don't care about what your product that you're selling is. If it's not going to be beneficial for a group of people, if it's not going to be beneficial, I don't care about it. So that's really what my process looks like. I don't have some extreme process. I don't vet guests like, you know, get on the phone with them first and ask them 90 questions. No, it's about the feeling that I get. And do I think you're coming from an honest and authentic space? Do I think when I ask you questions, you're gonna give me cookie cutter answers or do I think you're gonna give me the raw answer that you didn't think about before a day before getting on this podcast interview? You know, I want people to come from a very honest and genuine and raw space so that other people can really connect with what they're saying, what they're sharing, because we're all trying to figure this life thing out.
[00:28:15] We don't have perfect answers for everything. But what we can share is our experiences. What we can share is what we've learned from our experiences. And if you're not willing to share that in an honest way, I don't want to talk to you. That's just what it comes down to.
[00:28:29] No, and it's marketing, too. You know, I always say I tell a lot of people I speak on a lot of podcasts about, you know, how how to start out podcasts and things like that, because I have so many and I say it's still the Wild West and confusing for people.
[00:28:42] You know, a podcast can take any form, it can be any length. They can do anything it wants. But the truth is, is that the true divisive line is that you have some podcasts that are truly about marketing and then you have others that are investigating something. Any number differences. And I think that some people get confused and try to go with their marketing agenda onto an investigative platform. And that's where the disparity can come up that you're talking about. And I truly agree to its podcast. For me, one of the most beautiful things about them is the transparency. It's supposed to hostile rhetoric, you know, and it's supposed to do so without having to have a degree in broadcast journalism. Anybody add up and share their story and their voice and it becomes authentic and real and some you tenuously a whole new genre of media that no one really knows what to do and how to classify it. And I love it for all of that. And so I think the marketing I feel like we just need channels for the marketing. So it kind of stays separated a little bit from the more authentic and real voice that you're talking about. Is that when you started just for people who are out there and listening about some of the logistics, how did you decide how many episodes you were going to release a week? How did you decide some of those earlier things? Did it change as you started doing? You know, if you started classing over into the hundreds mark? What episode do you know roughly are you on right now? And what's been some of the like the transformation that's happened with it?
[00:29:58] Sure. I think I'm about to 60 something right now. Two hundred and sixty something. I started off doing twice a week, so I used to do well. It was once a week and twice a week, sort of like this short timeframe. They blended together. But I started off doing weekly episodes because I at first I thought I could do like every other week. But then I quickly realized, like, why would you hold back? Go full throttle. And these are conversations that need to be heard. And if you really want to get people engaged in this conversation, you have to keep showing up for them. You can't give them too much time off. Right. So that was me trying to introduce the podcast and the conversation to people. Then I started doing this thing called Seven Minutes Sunday, because at the time I was having these musings that I really wanted to share in the podcast wasn't about me and my voice. Right. So I was from the beginning, I was interviewing people that it was very interview heavy and it wasn't about telling my stories so much so or giving my perspective so much. So when I started the seven minute Sundays is because more people wanted to hear from me and my thoughts on different things. So I started sharing those on Sundays because Sundays were the days that I dreaded the most. Right. A lot of people call the Sunday Skerries all these different things. Right. I have to go back into the week. Oh, my gosh. I don't feel like doing this. Or like, I just want Sunday to never end. Right. So I started off with that mindset of if we're talking about a switch, pivot or quit, we're talking about people who are in the midst of transition or entertaining a transition. So they may be feeling that way on a Sunday. Right. So what can I do to help serve them on a Sunday? To give them something to be motivated to go into the week or maybe shift their outlook on things or give them something to be excited about or positive about? So I started doing seven minute sundaes, did those for a while. Well over a year. And then eventually I got to a point more recently.
[00:32:00] So about two years, I would say to two and a half years I did weekly episodes without fail. And then I got to a point where I realized that especially some of my new listeners, they were having a hard time keeping up. You also have to pay attention to the landscape. Like you said, podcasting is still like the wild, wild west. You have some shows that are daily. You have some shows that are multiple times a week. You have some shows at their frequency is really, really high. Right. They have a loyal listenership. You have to pay attention to your listeners and your audience and who they are, what they have going on in their life. I realize there are a lot of working mothers in my community of listeners, and a lot of times people can't make the time to listen to a podcast like they want to. The intentions are there. The intentions are good, but sometimes they just can't make the time or now they're being torn because there's a lot of different options of things that you can listen to. And, you know, before when I first started, I feel like it wasn't as many options. Right. So now there's more options. There was more voices in the space. So they have to decide where they're going to go and how much time they're going to devote to these different podcasts. So I started to pull back and I started to do every other week for a little while because I wanted to give people time to catch up. And I wanted to give people time to actually listen. I'm not producing this stuff just to say that I produce it. I did it. I'm producing it so that it can bring value into your life. But if you don't have the time to listen to it or if you haven't had the time to catch up and I just keep producing more episodes, is it really benefiting you? So that's where I have sort of gotten to at this point. Right now I'm doing weekly episodes for like the next two month months because I'm also incorporating older episodes. I'm doing reboots so that people who haven't been listening from the beginning can tap back in to some of the great conversations that were had way early on and that are still relevant.
[00:33:51] That's very clever. And I've talked to a lot of people that have done this, the idea of kind of, you know, and they've they've edited down, they've spliced it back in. They've come back in with commentary. And it's some of my most favorite work with some of the most prolific podcasters I've spoken to, because you grow as a podcast or any way and to reflect back and say, you know, at this point and I'm not sure how you're doing yours, but this kind of editorial content and weighing in on yourself or the other previous formats is I think I love it. I do. I mean, I'd love it for someone else. You know, people ask why I'm not doing it. And I'm like that nerve wracking, you know, looking older version of me. I'm always like who is she.
[00:34:29] I know right. Ha!
[00:34:33] I love the idea and the ones that I've listened to, there's nothing better than someone going back over their older work and giving you a latter day commentary on it. It's just a beautiful thing, particularly for me, for a female voice, because the female mind has always been so reflective in my life. I wanted to ask you about. We have a lot of people who write in, and because you're such a prolific podcast and you have such a like a wonderfully bird's eye view of everything, you have this PR background and things like that, sponsorship and partnership and all of these things, again, still very undocumented. I've spoken to a lot of people who have gone. I spoke with someone who had three episodes out of a podcast and immediately was acquired and she was on her history in PR and marketing. And she just started reaching out like with this ferocity, you know, and it was just responded to by these major conglomerates is with excitement. So there are people that want to do as such and at least receive some kind of compensation or partnering with people but don't know. How did you yourself how long did it take? Did you have you reached out? You have sponsorship or partnership? If so, how long did it take you to do it? And who advised you? How did you know how to reach out to. How did you find your applicable partners? How did all of that work?
[00:35:46] So I was podcasting well over a year before I started doing hosts read ads. So there were ads running on my show, but they weren't read by me.
[00:36:00] So that it wasn't about. It wasn't until about a year. And then I started doing that and they started coming my way. Actually, I had a agency come to me and want to represent me, and I was like, OK, we could do this. And so that's where I sort of started my introduction to it. But for me, I knew that there was potential to incorporate ads and to be able to generate revenue in that way. But it wasn't a focus of mine. And I think that that was beneficial because. It didn't make me alter my content early on to please a certain audience. You know, my ah, my content was already flowing. It was already in the vein that it was going to be in. Once these people came on board. And so it's like either you like what I'm doing and you want to be a part of it or you don't. And we would never have a conversation if you don't. Right. So it's fine. So for me, it was a very natural progression. But I do think that a lot of people start podcasting because they think that it's going to be a money maker. And I think the thing you have to realize is that the average podcasts and numbers have probably changed a little bit. But the average podcasts, let's just say you're somebody who starts a podcast. Nobody knows you. You're trying to build traction with this podcast. You're probably gonna get less than 200 people listening per episode. That's normal. And so many people see some of the larger podcasters and attraction that they have and they start podcasting thinking that that's where they should be going. That's what they should be aiming to do. But what you have to realize is sometimes people that come into this space who are able to do large numbers like that, either they've already been in the space in another way, showed up on another show, whatever, they have some history. They may be already have some type of celebrity or following some type of fan fair behind them, and they're able to transfer that over. So I say don't put pressure on yourself to get advertisers from the beginning because you want to make sure that you maintain the integrity of your show before you start looping other people into the conversation. Podcasting is a very intimate experience. We all know that it's just like you and this person. It feels very one on one. So before you start bringing in an advertiser and potentially tainting that relationship, you want to make sure that the listener has a chance to get to know you first before they start getting to know all these other brands that you're potentially working with. And that's just how I feel being on the indie side. I know when you go into a space where you get acquired by a larger network or things like that, you don't have as much say. So it's about the money. It's about the dollars. What how can we do numbers? How can we get more advertisers and. Right. So those are the things that you need to be mindful of as well as well. It's like where are you showing up in the podcasting space? Yes. And yet I kind of like my I don't answer your questions.
[00:39:05] It does. No, it does. And I think there's a lot there's a lot to explore there. And, you know, you can Google it and it comes up with kind of a bland stereotypical like here's how here's what you want, pictures which want to do. But I always like to encourage people as well to really think about the tradeoff.
[00:39:18] I am very protective, creative property, you know, and also ID if you know, if you have someone if you're going with them, there is these like as you kind of mentioned, I'm not sure if it's the same thing, but there's these kind of conglomerate agent type people that, you know, if you have a certain amount of listeners or you're in a certain genre, want to attach ads. But then you have to ask yourself whether or not you identify with those ads. I like you. I'm in a huge space with female film identified, not binary individuals. There's a lot of major companies that have A.I. rhetoric for trans communities. And, you know, my podcast was inadvertently attached to that. Then I would immediately not service that community. Or so you have to be a little bit more cognizant rather than just kind of looking for getting funding. You know, I think that it's hysterical. The idea of of of making money off of it is you probably not in the right game. I'd say play like the craps tables in Vegas before asking if you're looking for money, like that's your better odds are over there.
[00:40:15] Yeah. What we didn't touch on and what I should say is that in order to in order for a typical advertiser to be interested in you like the big box guys. Right. That it may lead the B to C, people like Casper Madres, all these different people we regularly see show up in the space. Right. Those people want you to have them. They do it by cost per thousand CPM. And that means that you have to have a minimum of, let's say, two thousand, not even 1000, let's say a minimum of two thousand people listening per episode. And what did I tell you before? Sometimes it's hard for most people to get two hundred people listening, let alone two thousand. And that's not to be negative. And it's not to bring you down and shoot your dreams down. It's just to say, let's be realistic. Realistically, this is what these people are looking for, because this is industry standard, if you will, even though it's the wild, wild West and it's what makes sense for them to try and get there are a wide. So you have to be mindful of what you bring to the table and what they're looking for you to bring to the table before you start trying to enter these conversations about potential advertising sponsors, because you might be getting in over your head if you do it too early, especially.
[00:41:34] Most definitely. And there's coaches, there's all sorts of things out there now for podcasters and things which again, I encourage people that invest heavily, you know, really look at people's background as much as they're going to be looking at yours and your numbers. Quickly switch over to talking about your most recent book. Before we run out of time. Quit playing small. Yes.
[00:41:57] There for people who are watching the vodcast. It's right there. We were talking you gave me like a little bread cart before we started recording. And you talked about the cover art. So I want to start with that. What is the story behind that?
[00:42:09] So I actually went to ninety nine designs and had this cover art drawn up.
[00:42:16] What I did was I found someone who creative projects similar to what the feel was that I wanted to go for. They had a little fun. They had a little creativity. But the thing that I think people think they can do, especially self publishing, this book is self published. This is my second book is self published. But I always knew from the very beginning that when you're self publishing, you want your book to be able to sit on the shelf next to a traditionally published book. And no one can tell the difference. That's what the goal is. So I knew with my cover, I wanted it to give a certain feel. I wanted it to pop. Had you ever been in a bookstore? Most of us don't go on bookstores as much anymore. Right. But if you're walking them out and you see something and it pops out to you and then you look at the back cover. Right. I knew that it needed to pop. I knew I didn't know anything about the color combination that I wanted or anything. I just gave the designer direct. I told him told her what projects that I like that she had done. And then I told her what kind of look and feel I was going for. And I also told her what the vibe was of the book. What type of content we were delivering. You have to sort of like basically give this background or what you're looking for the designer to create because you can't just say this is the name of my book, create something. You have to give them an idea of what the feeling is that you want the reader to have when they look at the book. This book is supposed to be for your morning routine. Right. Daily inspiration for your morning routine. When you look at this, I want you to feel happy. I don't want you to feel like home. I'm going to pick up that book off my nightstand. I want you to be excited, like, oh, look at this. These big red lips, it just gives me fire and energy. Let's go for the day. Where am I gonna flip to? That's how you want to look at it. And then you also want to be conscious of with a cup with the back cover, looks like as well. What's going to make it pop? Have your picture on it. Have a great picture. A really high resolution picture this side, the spine of the book as well. When this is on a shelf and you can't see the cover, is this still going to pop out to you at least enough to where it catches your eye a little bit? So all of these things are important when you're talking about the cover of a book. You can work your hardest and put the most amazing content in your book. But if the cover does not speak to people, nobody is going to open it and you want them to open it.
[00:44:49] Yes. Absolutely, and also I love that those pieces of information. It's so true. I mean, we haven't even talked about the kind of the core aspects of the book. And we've already climbed through like a great deal of the ethos of it. You know, I can kind of get a feel for all of it. It also strikes me, as you know, you've kind of zoned in on an audience with the art alone, whether or not you intended to. It feels directed towards my people, you know, feels it towards women of a certain caliber of a professional statue. Those types of things without even reading the verbiage, you know, the colors, the art, everything that you're talking about. It does speak to all of that I want to climb into. Well, when you were writing it. Who were you writing it for? What did you keep your audience in mind? And what are they like them? Five main key points. If you were forced to boil it down or are less than five that you want people to take away from it.
[00:45:37] So when I was writing it, I was definitely writing it for my switch, pivot or quick audience on that podcast we talk about, we ask guests about their morning routine. I've talked to them before about my morning routine. We talk about staying motivated and just things that are going to make you continue to go throughout this journey. We talk about the fact that our careers, our lives are a journey. Right. So I wanted to create something that would accompany people on that journey. It didn't have to be. This is the other thing. Like you guys may have figured out about me by now. I don't like the fluff. Right. I can't stand when you're reading a book and you're like this far in. And you still haven't gotten to the meat of what they're trying to tell you. It's like, no, I just give me the goods. Like, that's all I need. So I decided I want to create. I wanted to create something that would be able to kind of like smack people in the face, sometimes, lift them up other times. Tell them grow. Get it together sometimes. Give them a little hug. Other times, you know. So all of these entries are super, super short. Like, it's very, very, like approachable in the way that it's position. And that's because I also knew that my audience was ambitious women who are out there on the go trying to get things done. Sometimes their morning routine cannot consists of an entire hour. They may have fifteen minutes. And if they can spend two of those minutes reading something from this book, getting their mind right and getting them positively pushed in the right direction, then I did my job, you know. And so when it comes to like, what do I want them to walk away from this book with? I want them to walk away encouraged. I want them to walk away inspired. I want them to walk away feeling like they can. I want them to walk away understanding that a lot of this comes from what I've learned off of my journey. So you're not alone in the things that you're experiencing or even things that you're thinking. Right. So I just want them to feel like they're a part of a community and that somebody gets what's happening with them.
[00:47:48] Yeah, that's wonderful. I love that. It's I mean, how could anyone not want that? You know, I do love the concise. I do. I get very into these, like, grabby. You know, I do like the novel as well. But I think that right now, especially for that genre, you know, getting these really quick tidbits of like empowerment and structure and just things to kind of set the intention for the day and really requestion and reorganize like you're talking about is amazing. I want to turn now really quickly to. You have so many things that you've done thus far. And so I love asking people, particularly of your candor, because I'm curious as to what the next one to three years do. You look at your life that way? Do you. Do you put it in form of format? Do you do vision boards? Do you just say forget it? I'm taking it as it comes. How do you set up your goals and what do those goals look like for you?
[00:48:37] You know, I wish I could tell you guys that I'm more of this goal oriented person that just breaks everything down and goes, what? I do write things down and I do write some goals down. And I have an awareness of what I want and where I want to go. But I don't dwell on it. I don't stress myself out about it. So for me, a lot of I have those goals and those things that I identify with. A lot of it is. I just have faith that I'm gonna be OK, that things are going to work out in my favor. I say every morning I got this from Jen and Cheryl. I say I receive all the good that life has to offer me. That is how I move. So I feel like if I'm moving in, that space is really is it is really hard for a ton of bad things to just be, you know, and I and I'm going I don't have the time to let my mind swirl and worry about what's not going right and what's not happening. It's like, let me focus on the positive. And in the back of my mind, having an idea of where I want to go with things. So for me, I want to continue to build amazing media. That's something that I know. But I'm even pivoting in the way that I'm structuring mazy media, in the way that I'm going about doing the work that I do with Mazey media. But the only way that you can pivot is if you start somewhere. I had to get started in order to see some things that I would potentially want to do different. So I'm a big person that loves I'm big on action, I should say. So I think that's why sometimes I don't get stuck on the goals in writing everything down and all this stuff because I'm too busy doing I'm doing well all the time. Somebody else is set their thought about a vision, board it, it and everything else. I'm done. And I now I figured out what works and what doesn't work. Right. So sometimes I think we can hold ourselves back and we can play small when we try and do too much planning. Right. So for me, that's one of my big goals, is expanding mazy media and really digging more into the corporate side, because I think that there's a lot of conversations that can be had over there that are not being had internally. So I'm digging way more into that now, working with corporations, a lot more to develop conversations via a podcast. And I'm also working with more original content now, working on developing a lot more original content for the mazing media platform. And when I say original content content that has come from within the company and not outside the company, somebody bringing it to us saying, hey, we want to see if you would want to, you know, help us produce the show that we're already producing. And then I'm also working on just speaking of quit playing smart, there's going to be a podcast for this. There's going to be a podcast for this with quick doses of inspiration. So I'm working on that as well. That'll come toward the end of the year. And I'm just working on obviously just trying to be the best version of myself. That's what I'm always trying to do. And I feel like as long as I'm working on being the best version of myself, nothing but goodness is going to come from that or as a result of that, absolutely good intention to the light of enlightenment.
[00:51:44] I love it. All right. So we're fine. We're wrapping up at my final question. Ask every guest, and I can always ask you, because you're your last book was based on advice. And so I'm wondering if you walked up to someone in a safe so so distance in a Gardiner Park tomorrow. And for the sake of this question, it's a female woman identified or non binary individual. And they said, listen, I'm so glad I found you. We have a friendship of a mutual friend in common. She's recommended I talk to you. I've had this prolific career and I had, you know, a side hustle that did very well as well. And I've decided that even though both of them are going swimmingly, I was going to pivot and go on into. I've started writing a book and doing these things, but I really want to just change into true answering of my happiness and kind of developed my kingdom within that. What are the top three pieces of advice you would give that individual? Knowing what you know now?
[00:52:37] That's a great question, I would say. One thing that I have learned and that I share with people at the end of the quit playing small workshops that I do. Is your greatest success, Lives behind your greatest fear.
[00:52:53] And I realize that I learned that because the things that I may have been intimidated to try or to do, those are some of the things that have made me felt feel the most proud and have given me like the most boost in my person and feeling like, wow, you're really doing something. You know, you're really making some kind of headway or making some type of difference. So I would say that. I would say. Really start to know and understand yourself, because when you know and understand yourself, it's easier for you to make decisions. It's easier for you to identify where you're going and where you want to go. Just like what we talked about before, having these goals and winding down and all of that stuff. If you don't know yourself, the goals that you identify may not be in alignment with who you are and what you're truly capable of achieving. So I would say really start to explore and get to know yourself. And then finally, I would say. Back away from the comparison game because nobody else has lived this life before you. You are the first to do it. You are uniquely in only you. So who are you comparing yourself to realistically? This person that you maybe compare yourself to or these people you don't know their background. You don't know their history. You don't know their story. You don't even know what lies ahead of them. So if you really thought about it your while you're sitting here comparing yourself to them, would you really want to change positions with them? I wouldn't I wouldn't, you know, so I think so many of us get caught up in. I want to do this or I think I want to do a version of this. And so until I was over here doing it and it looks great while they're doing it, so maybe I should try and do like them. And then when I try and do like them, I'm not getting the results that they're getting. My results don't look like their results do. I'm a failure. No, your you your results look perfect for you. You actually have nobody to compare to because there isn't another Aiyana Angel who live this life 100 years before me. And I'm comparing myself to what she did back then. No. Just doesn't exist. It's not realistic. So that's what I would share with someone who walked up to me six feet away and asked me that question.
[00:55:30] And I love your last point because it speaks so much in the face of this whole, like, competition value culture that we have, which, you know, you got to you have the best competition.
[00:55:39] Who's your next competition? Who you fighting against this idea of like. OK. So really quickly, I have your greatest success lives behind your greatest fear. Number one, which I love. I think that that one can sit on so many different planes with so many different areas of one's life.
[00:55:54] Number two, know and understand yourself.
[00:55:57] It will create fluidity between your reality and your desires. So truly knowing and understanding yourself. And number three, back away from the comparison game.
[00:56:06] Absolutely awesome. I love those so much. I know we are out of time, but I wanted to say I know you're horrifically busy and beautifully busy at the same time.
[00:56:15] So grateful that you took the time to sit down with us. You have your own thing going on your own podcast. I want everyone to attach themselves to that. Have a listen to several episodes at the very least, and check out your books really quickly. Will you give us the name of both of those?
[00:56:33] Absolutely. Thank you so much Patricia for having me. This has been a great conversation. Great. In that your questions were just so thoughtful. So thank you. Everybody can find me at Yana Angel dot com and that she's h why I a in a angel dot com. My very first book, the one that talked about early on, was a novel and it's called Preseason Love. And my second book, which I self published, is called Quit Playing Small and it's available on Amazon everywhere now. And be sure to check out the switch, pivot, a quick podcast. And if you are on Instagram, you can follow me at a Yanta Dot Angel on Instagram. I tend to hang out there. We go live sometimes and I just talk my talk and do my thing. So hang out with me.
[00:57:21] And for everyone listening. Thank you so much for giving me your time today. I really do appreciate all of you. We've been speaking with Ahyiana Angel. She's founder, podcast and author and another one of her Web sites, W WW, Dutch Switch, Pivot or quits. All of the others that she mentioned as well.
[00:57:37] Thank you for giving us your time today. And until we speak again, remember, just stay safe and always bet on yourself. Slainte.
