BIPOC Creators: Amplifying Embraced Cultural Diversity Through A Strong Podcast Community With Maribel Quezada Smith

Wish you were one of those influencers with raving fans who binge on your every word, consume all your content, buy everything you have to sell, and demand even more. Then stay tuned while Authority magazine columnist and buzzfeed contributor Tracy Hazard shares strategies, tips and tactics from top videocasters, podcasters, authors and social influencers on creating that bingeable factor. Now let's join Tracy as she explores how to rise above all the digital noise with the Binge factor.

Hey everyone. Welcome to the Binge Factor. I'm Tracy Hazzard and today we have a very different podcast. Yes, it's different. We have the host of differente, Mirabel Quezada Smith, and she is a TV documentary and podcast producer, as well as a production consultant and coach with over 15 years of expertise developing meaningful content. Her TV credits include producing on shows for Discovery, Family of Networks, Netflix, Oxygen, and A and E. She's currently the producer and co producer of the popular golf podcast Birdies Not BS and also hosts her own seasonal podcast, Different Day, where she shares her journey as Mexican immigrant woman living in the United States who loves hip hop and cumbia. She co founded the BIPOC Podcast Creators Group in order to help amplify the voices and stories of people with color. And that's why I'm excited to bring her because it is a Hispanic Heritage Month starting today and we wanted to bring some more exposure. We've done this before where we had different people who have multilingual podcasts or where they drop into by their bilingual or multilingual of themselves and they drop into different languages. They're really interesting to market, right? Because you're marketing to two markets at the same time. And this is why I am so glad to bring Maribel on today because it just is such an interesting dynamic to not only be yourself, be able to do that, which is amazing. Part about podcasting, right, that you can have your viewpoint and you can bring it out there. But she has a very concerted way that she's gone about building this podcast and I want you to hear that. Plus she has to do some unusual things to market it to get her message out to the two different communities that she's speaking to. So let's hear from Mary Belle Cazada Smith. And let's hear about a podcast that's Differente.

Differente. I mean, I have trouble saying it, but it's such a great name and it is different, right? Your show is different and I love that you've adopted a bilingual method on it which just fits everything that you're doing. What made you decide to start the show?

Marika? So differente came from the idea of just literally being different. Growing up in the United States, always feeling like I was different. And ironically, I was talking to a couple family members, and I was thinking, what should we call it? What should my podcast be called? Because I'm trying to think of something unique. It has to be something different.

Isn't that an agonizing choice for everybody anyway?

Yeah, right, exactly. But I specifically remember saying to my niece, I need something that's a little bit different. And she goes, differente. Literally, the meaning of different in Spanish. Right. I love it.

Well, great idea. But what made you want to start a podcast in general?

Well, actually, I used to write a blog, So I had a blog for a few years, and my friends would always say, I love your writing, I love your storytelling, and I like reading it, but sometimes I don't really feel like reading. Maybe you should put this in audio version. And that's all they would say, audio version. So I had done a podcast many years before that. Actually, in 2008, I did my first podcast.

Oh, you were really early adopter.

Yeah, but I didn't stick with it, which happens to a lot of people. I did not stick with podcasting. I'm actually a video producer by trade, so I. I was more into the video world. And then when my friends started telling me that they loved hearing my stories or they loved reading my stories, but they wanted to maybe listen to them, that's when the idea of taking it into podcast format came about. And then also it was a moment for me to kind of take pause and explore some of the topics that I hadn't really gotten into yet. I wasn't really talking about cultural issues or my identity or the complexities of living life between two or more cultures, which is literally the premise of differente. And in my blog, I was kind of keeping it a little bit more casual. So I thought this is a great opportunity to kind of get deeper and talk to other people as well as just sharing my story.

It's such a fantastic reason to start, and you already had a little bit of experience in it, so you weren't too daunted. You know, that the thing is, is, like, imagine as a video producer, like, there's way more equipment, way more complication. This seemed actually kind of simple in the end of the day to do a podcast.

That's so funny that you say that it seemed simple, because it did. At the beginning. I was like, oh, this should be easy, like, but it's not audio. I don't know why I had that idea because at the end of the day, I knew nothing about audio production. I know a lot about video production. But back then in 2018, when I launched Different Day, I didn't know much about audio. So when I actually started doing the research as to how to launch a podcast and actually started doing the work, that's when I realized, oh, this is not as simple as it seems. It is simple to start, it's not simple to continue, and it's definitely not simple to keep a show going for a long time.

Right. It isn't simple. And, you know, you think because we have more experience in different areas, we sometimes really get overwhelmed with the perfectionism side of things.

Right.

Did that happen to you?

Oh, my God, so much. I actually. I have an episode that talks about that a little bit. I'm just such a perfectionist. It's part of my A type personality, and I'm trying really hard to be better at that and kind of like let go of that side of me. But I come from media and I come from the TV world, and there's just very little room for mistakes in television, at least the way that I was trained. So when you're used to that, and I grew up in a household that was also kind of. There was very little room for mistake. So I grown up that way. And I think that you bring it into your creation process sometimes, and it makes it really hard to put out content in a meaningful way or in a natural way sometimes. So I'm trying to kind of shed that a little bit. I think the reason I get caught up in it is because being a producer, sometimes I feel like people are going to look from the outside and say, she's a producer in the spectrum. Yeah, like, she's a producer and she's not perfectly putting out amazing content. And that's where I get caught up. But at the end of the day, it really doesn't matter. And most people don't think about it. Like, the most important part about creating a podcast is having something important to share or having a story to share and being able to relate to other people when you're telling the story.

You know, that's one of the things that I think I want to highlight about your show that I think is really, really good. You. In some ways, each episode has its own theme. Even if you've got a guest on, where a lot of people have a guest on, and they let it lead.

And then they're the theme.

And they're the theme. Right. Like at the end of the day. But you don't. You seem to have, like, a point of conversation that you want to have with the guests that you're having on, and you drive the conversation there, which I think is really powerful because we're not getting the whole picture of that guest on there, but we are certainly getting their viewpoint on something, and that's unique and unusual. We don't see that on a lot of shows or we don't hear that on a lot of shows. And I think it's really serving your show well. And personally for me, that's your binge factor, because maybe not your guest, because I don't know that I would come across your guests in my everyday life, but. Cause you have so many guests that have such diverse cultural backgrounds. And while I hope that I touch as many cultural backgrounds, I definitely don't have that perspective that you do where you can find them. So I don't hear them on every show, but to get this one perspective out of it makes me want to follow that person and find out more about them, because you gave me just enough of something really interesting. And that is actually a really good strategy. I think the guests who like our serial guesting on a bunch of shows and then come on and basically tell the same story and tell everything, you know, they're not serving themselves well. If they kept it like you're already leading them to. To having just like, hey, on this show, I'm only going to give this perspective of me. I think people might be more intrigued to find out more, and it actually might be serving your guests better.

Yeah, you know, I appreciate that. Thank you. That's a huge compliment, first of all. So I appreciate that. I'm going to, like, let that soak in. Good. But the reason why I decided to do it that way, well, there are several reasons. First of all, if you ever listen to my very first episode, so I call it 101, you will hear me talk about how I have a lot of uneducated and unresearched opinions, but I don't share those out loud or in public with people. I try to keep those to myself or I try to, like, only have conversations with people in presence of other folks and not in a podcast setting. And that's really important to me. Like, I don't want to just spew information that has been regurgitated or assumed or stereotyped, and it's stuff that we already heard from somebody else and make Assumptions. I want to speak from experience. That's really important to me, and I want my guests to also speak from experience. So the reason why the episodes are driven by a topic and not by the guests specifically is because we want to explore specific topics that they have maybe had experiences with. So we're speaking from our personal journeys, our personal experiences of certain things that are going on in society or certain topics. We're not just saying, well, you know, I think that Chinese food could use a little bit of. I don't know anything about Chinese food to that. I mean, yes, I know enough about what it tastes like, but in reality, do I really know about Chinese food? No. So that's just to give you a bad example of what I'm trying to avoid. I'm trying to avoid just speaking from knowing nothing, which I think is a problem in media in general.

Yeah, it's not just in podcasting. It's in media in general. Yes, I would agree with you. We hear a lot of opinions on people who shouldn't be talking about those things. But you have some perspectives. You have actually created an online resource community for black, indigenous, and people of color in podcasting, which I think is fantastic, because there's not enough.

Right.

There's not enough diverse perspectives all over the place. And it's something that I think is underserved. So why did you decide to start this group? Cause, I mean, you've got a great show going on. You could be doing this on your own. You didn't need to support other podcasters, but you chose to.

No, no. I mean, that's actually a really good segue. Thank you for that. Because that idea of I don't need to support other people is what really started brewing inside of me. I come from being of this mindset that there's not enough room for more than one, maybe two, when you're a person of color or, quote, a minority living in the United States, for some reason, we are raised to believe that there's only room for one or two at the seat, at the table, or at the top in leadership. And so when you grow up with that scarcity mentality, you really think that you have to fight for everything that you get, and you think that you have to put other people down or not really put other people on or bring other people with you because they might take whatever might be yours, which is a ridiculous way to think, but we do. A lot of us do think that way and come from that mentality.

So do a lot of women, I have to say. As a woman who's older than you, but, you know, having been in the corporate world before, there's a lot of that there. There is a lot of that there. And so, yeah, I can feel that perspective, that it is a sort of like, oh, I gotta get the only spot that's available, the next girl. Right. You know, before the next girl gets to it or whatever. That is so good for you for recognizing that and saying, you know, this isn't maybe how I want to be.

And that's part of the reason why I wanted to create this organization along with my co founder, Tangia Rene Estrada, because we're both of the mindset that, okay, so we came from that scarcity mentality, that's fine, let's leave that behind. Like, we're done with that. We are now seeing more doors opening, but the truth is that not enough are opening and we need to do something about it. So we created the organization as a beginning step for a community. So it started like a community, just to give resources and opportunities to people, just giving people more insight into podcasting beyond the one on one. So you have a lot of folks who start podcasting, like I said earlier, but not a lot who stay. So how do we keep them in the game? That's what we're all about. So bipoc podcast creators is about, like, that next level, making sure that we are building and amplifying these voices of people of color and actually fighting for that transparency in the industry, making it more diverse, more transparent and more inclusive.

Well, great for you. I'm so glad you're doing that. I think it's much needed in the marketplace and in the industry in general. We need a lot more voices that are different. Right?

We do.

And so I'm going to have you.

Saying it correctly, Tracy, by the end of this. Don't worry.

I know I'm still blowing it, right? I know Spanish was not my thing in school, which is crazy because I live in California. It should have been what I studied. Instead, I took French because that just sounded like I wanted to run away to Paris and be Madeline or something when I was younger. And that was a mistake because I've never used it one day in my life. But I could have been using Spanish. So I'm so encouraging my daughters to take Spanish, it's not even funny. So, like, we're changing that in my life. But yeah, so, you know, one of the things that I want to touch on is this idea of sometimes you do need to have your opinion. You have to Put that out. You've done a couple of solo episodes. I noticed one recently was that a concerted decision to say, hey, I got to just talk about this. So in this particular episode that I listened to, you were talking about your mission for immigration and other things, and you were just talking about what's going on there, and it was a nice insight into you. But are you going to do more of those solos going forward, or do they still make you feel maybe a little uncomfortable?

Yes, they still make me feel a little bit uncomfortable, but I have learned to embrace that. I've learned to embrace feeling uncomfortable about certain things and still doing them. The main thing that I want to do with differente is continue to explore the complexities of living life between two or more cultures and celebrate that. So in doing that, I do believe that I have to share my story. I have to share my own journey in coming up in the United States as an immigrant, even in coming up in Mexico, like growing up in Mexico too. That also sheds light into my experience as well. But at the same time, like, everything in life has different perspectives. So Differente is also about bringing in other voices that can help me explore some of these topics. You know, there's an episode called Rich White Lady Decisions, and I don't know if you had a chance to listen to that, but if you listen to it, the title can be a little bit like, oh, of for some folks. But when we talked about it, it's all about how I admire how a lot of rich white ladies make badass decisions about things in life and they don't second guess themselves. And I want to be more like that. I want to be able to make those decisions. But what's holding me back from making those decisions? A lot of preconceived notions, society, a lot of things that I've learned growing up. So we talk about that in the episode. And it's culturally relevant. It's also relevant to life. But it comes from an experience perspective. We actually have those experiences. It's not just me talking about something again, that I don't really know anything about.

So it sounds to me like you're still more comfortable in that co space where you can have it be in a conversation, which is one of your strengths on the show. I mean, your interviews are not like interviews. They're like conversation. And that's what's really beautiful about them, about when you listen to the show, you just feel like you're part of this conversation. And in such a. They're chatty in such A good way. Like, I hate to use that word cause it sounds negative, but it's in such a good way that it's chatty. Because your major guests so comfortable that they literally will drop into Spanish or they're, you know, like that stuff will happen naturally in the conversation. They're not holding it back as though I'm on camera, I'm on a microphone. Right. They're not holding back with you. And that's a really great way. And I think it comes from really this approach that you're taking. So really wonderful. And so let's talk about a couple of process things in podcasting because, you know, it's the binge factor and we got to talk about those things because people want to know, how do you do this? So your show is well produced and so we want to get to some things about how it happens. Right. So you talked about having this topic direction to things. So tell me, how do you get these guests? And then when you get them, did you go out and seek them because they fit the topic or did you meet them, research them if you didn't already know them and. And then develop the topic that you want to talk with them about? Like, how did that beginning sort of production process go?

That's a great question. So I actually started season one was kind of more guest driven and I was exploring what I was really trying to do. Season one was a learning journey, to be honest. We had some great conversations, though. I had people on there like Roy Wood Jr. Comedian. And that was my goal. I'm glad that you said that earlier because my goal was to have something in there that was different from what you would hear anywhere else from that person. So I'm glad that I was able to achieve that. But in how I do it now is I start with topic. I'm definitely a topic driven show. So I always start with, okay, what do I want to talk about and why? Like, why does this matter to my audience? Why is this going to help us further the conversation about living life between two or more cultures? And then from just meeting people or doing research online, I start to figure out who I should talk to about those topics. And a lot of the time it ends up being someone that I happen to know. But sometimes it's someone that I've never really met or I've never really had a conversation with. So those are a little bit challenging.

Seeking them out because the topic interests you to have a conversation at and they're the right person for it. I think that's a really good approach, rather than, well, let's see if we can develop a topic out of this. You know, like, that's harder to do. Right.

Really hard. It's really hard to keep somebody's attention, especially when we're competing with so much out there. It's really hard to keep somebody's attention when you don't have a reason to drive the conversation. Yeah, absolutely. I hear a lot of shows like that. Like, I'll listen to them just to kind of do research and figure out what's going on out there, and there's a lot of that.

So listeners come in next. You mentioned your listeners as being important to you. And how we increase our listeners is like, every podcaster's goal and. And how we get engagement from them. So we encourage engagement among that. Are you seeing a lot of engagement? And we hear a lot in that sort of bipoc community that there aren't many listeners in the cultural genres, as there aren't a lot of podcasters. So there aren't a lot of listeners either. Are you finding that. Are you finding just, like, a growth in the listener pace?

No, that's absolutely false. There actually is a significant amount of listenership when it comes to bicultural folks or multicultural folks, Latinx folks, people living between two or more cultures. There are a lot. There was actually a recent study done in conjunction with Edison Research that was published a couple months ago, and it was about the Latino audience and the growth, and it's just, like, completely exploded in podcasting. So that is kind of a misconception. There is definitely an audience and a segment for that. It's just that I think mainstream media, again, doesn't really talk about it. They don't really highlight these shows. I'm literally working on a blog post about bilingual podcasts out there, and I will say this. There aren't that many. No, there aren't. You.

You know, Tom and I were just talking about this, so. Tom Hazard, my partner, and I were just talking about this because we want it. Our process here at Potatoes, you know, which is our core production company, is to have blog posts that go along with the podcast. And so it hasn't really fit the bilingual community because it's hard to start that up. It's like starting up a whole company all over again when we're in the midst of such growth in the company we are, because we'd have to start a whole staff focused on the translation Right. Into whatever language we chose to tackle. You know, Spanish seems the most obvious that we should do but it's hard because how do we have the quality control? How do we check that? So from a production standpoint, like, it's part of what I see as a challenge on the production side, but that doesn't mean that it shouldn't be supported out there and that there shouldn't be a way to increase and encourage that when there's such a growth in listeners, it makes more sense. And so there are not enough shows that are doing that. And I just actually got someone today who came across my desk who it has a bilingual show in Czechoslovakian, Czech and English.

Right.

And I was like, I mean, I can't even imagine how we would approach that from a blog post. It's like a whole nother keyboard. Like you have a whole nother Alphabet to deal with. Right. It's not the same. So doesn't mean you shouldn't do it.

No, absolutely. And you know what, Tracy? We had a great conversation about that at Podcast Movement a few weeks ago. I was on a panel about the movement to podcast in Spanish, and there were a lot of questions about, okay, but what if we want to do bilingual? So not just everything in Spanish or not everything in English, let's do both. How hard is that? Is that possible? Is there an audience for that? And yes, obviously my show is like that. There are a few other shows like that, and there is an audience for that, because research shows, if you watch this research presentation that a lot of Latinos or a lot of people living in the United States that identify with the Latino community or Latinx speak both languages and they consume media in both languages. But there's a connection that develops when somebody else can also go in into Spanish or into English. And if you feel comfortable doing both, there's a deeper connection that you can build with your audience that way. So it's not just about translating. It's also about the connection, like the cultural similarities and the context.

Is that how you decide sometimes to put some episodes in Spanish and some not? As you really feel like this topic is better suited? And I think it would attract listeners for this language first?

Yes, absolutely. That's how I decide. And if you listen to some of these episodes, you'll notice, like, for example, cuando conociel racismo. That episode, I made it in Spanish because I wanted to make sure that the community, the Spanish speaking community, could understand what racism was like in the United States.

So that was my international community. You wanted to.

International, but also people living in the United States who don't necessarily consume media in English all the time or who prefer to consume it in Spanish. So, yes, I make conscious decisions about what language I'm going to do it in based on the topic or the guest as well, but mostly based on the topic.

Wonderful. Really, really interesting way to approach it. And I think that it's probably really serving your listener base. So I can see that you're on a pace for growth. But, you know, what about that engagement side? Are you finding that there is actually a lot more engagement in the communities that are communicating back with you and saying, hey, I love the show, or hey, I'd like to talk about this?

Yes. So, you know what's funny is that every time that I felt like throwing in the towel.

Someone has found a way to my inbox to tell me how much they love the show and how much it makes their day and how much they've learned and how it's really change their perspective on this or that or how they feel like they have been heard. That's another thing.

I think the universe is telling you something.

But Tracy, you know, this is a longevity game. Like, it is hard out here for an independent podcaster. And I, even though I'm a producer and I'm producing other shows for other people, I'm consulting on other shows, I'm doing video, I'm doing other things. So it's hard to make the time to produce a show that is so important to me because it's so dear to my heart, but it's not making me any money. So the engagement is definitely there. I think that the challenge is definitely in search. For example, the listening devices or the listening platforms are not set up for bilingual content. There's nothing out there that really helps you find bilingual content. And that's the struggle out there that I'm dealing with. There's a lack of search optimization for that kind of stuff. They just don't.

There's a lack of search optimization in general in podcasting. It's not as good as it should be, and I can imagine that you're hurt even more by it. So, like, I can see how that would work against you.

I feel like that would really help creators, especially bilingual creators, if they started to build a better infrastructure for multilinguals. It would be really cool to see what that could do to the audience base or to just these independent shows who have been around for a while. Because like I said before, I'm working on a post about bilingual podcasts, English, Spanish, and I can't find them. And I know there have to Be more than five out there. But I am struggling right now, and it's because the search engines are not set up for that.

Yeah, that's so, so true.

It is.

It's hard. Some ways they've, like, tried to whitewash it. Like, I don't know how else to say that. Like, that's a great. Yeah, I mean, it's pretty accurate, right? So, yeah. So the last thing I want to talk, I usually talk about in this sort of production segment that we do here is really talk about monetization. So this is the thing is, like, not a lot of podcasters are all independent. We're not making a lot of money off of our shows. Like, how is it going for you? Do you feel like there's alternative monetization options for you? Are there some that we should consider that are completely out of the norm of advertising and sponsors that actually fit better to the BIPOC community?

Oh, what a question.

I know, just let me load it up for you.

I was going to talk about membership. So for the BIPOC community, or just the multicultural community in general, the audience, I think could really embrace a monetization of doing it, like, be a membership. So that's something that I'm starting to explore for other shows and I might explore for differente. I'm not sure I'm ready for that yet, because again, adds another layer of work. But when you're struggling to deal with sponsorships or to attract sponsors, because maybe the numbers are not quite there yet, but your listener base is there. There's loyalty. If you build loyalty, I think that you can really monetize when it comes to membership. So having people pay $10 a month, $5 a month to get bonus content. Don't go the route of making your transcripts behind a paywall. That is something that I think is very much frowned upon and should be frowned upon. I actually found some podcasts today as I was doing research that are putting their transcripts behind a paywall. So it's kind of like part of their bonus content. I think that's horrible because it goes against everything we talk. Yeah, it is.

You saw me cringe when that happened, right?

Yeah, because we're talking about accessibility here, and you're literally denying access to people who actually cannot hear, you know, people who need to read these transcripts. So you're actually hurting yourself and your brand by doing that. So when I talk about monetization in our community specifically, we do talk a lot about memberships. Like, how can you use that loyalty and Promote that loyal fan base to become members and support the show that way so that you can at least maybe not get rich off of it, but so that you can at least cover your cause and continue to make content and then grow from there into a show that might be sponsored.

Right, right. That makes sense. I mean, you know, this is the thing. So many podcasters get in a hurry. And as you put it before, this is a long game, really long game for some of us. Right. And when it's a long game, we really have to be sure that we're making some of the right choices. And if you. I always think if you monetize soon, it ends up making a mistake. And what ends up happening is you quit your show because it didn't work out and it's just a timing thing instead. And so that community can really tell you what's going to make the most effective for me to sell. So building that community first makes sense.

And survey them. I mean, we're doing a survey on one of the shows that I produce, Birdie's not bs. And we're going to be doing a survey of our membership to see if that's something that people would go into. Like, would they be willing to support us through membership and get bonus content, special access, different levels of things that we can offer to them. There are so many different things that you can offer besides just creating another RSS feed that's private. You can also look at, like, how can I leverage my social media? Like, maybe I can have some lives that are just for close friends, and those people that are paying into the membership are inside the close friends community and they're the only ones that can watch these lives. How can we do maybe in person events once people start coming out again and things start to be safe again? How can we leverage that with our community? So don't just think about virtual or podcasting as part of the bonus content. Also consider other avenues that your members could benefit from.

Yeah, that's a really great idea. Thank you for sharing that with us. I want to make sure that this is doing something for you at the end of the day. So what have you seen that podcasting has done to grow you, your authority, your business, your mission?

Well, podcasting has done a lot for me. It's definitely introduced me to a lot of fantastic people. And that's one main thing that I have to thank podcasting for, because I've made some amazing friendships. And that's how I met my co founder for five podcast creators. But also it's directed me in a new way as a business person. I mean, I come, like I said before, I come from the television world documentary. I've been in video for a long time. I'm actually now going more into podcasting. I've been producing more podcasts and consulting on podcasts. So my business is now I'm producing, consulting, and coaching podcasters how to level up and how to make sure that their content is above the rest, how to stop that scrolling, how to get people to actually listen and tune in, how to get people to actually become loyal listeners through meaningful content. So I'm doing that for both podcasters and people who create video content online, and that's how I'm focusing my efforts. And it's been going really well. But I definitely say that podcasting has opened up that avenue that I didn't know was possible, and it's opened up new opportunities. And I'm so thankful for the. Just for the exposure and the lessons that I've learned so far as a podcast creator, as a producer, as a host, as the many things that we.

All are for those many hats that we keep wearing. Right. What did you find the most challenging part about podcasting for you?

Personally, I think finding my voice was the most challenging part. As someone who was literally making a living and still does by asking questions like being the other person, the person behind the camera, I was the one interviewing people, someone who was used to doing that. I had to then come to terms with being the one leading the conversation and being on the microphone and putting myself out there. And that was difficult. That was challenging in a good way, in a beautiful way. And you'll hear that on my show, like on differente, you'll hear the transition from season one into season two is how my voice has evolved. But my hands would sweat when I would sit down to record on season one. I mean, the first, like 10 episodes, probably my hands would sweat and no one would be there. It would just be me and someone who I couldn't even see because I was using back then. I was just using audio, couldn't see the person. So it's just crazy, right? And like I said, you know, you come from this world where I've interviewed tons of people and important people and celebrities and. But for some reason, I would just get super nervous because it was me. I was then literally putting my voice on the line.

Well, it doesn't come across that way on the show, I can tell you that. So it may have been behind the scenes, but it does not show you cannot hear that in the show at all. So good for you to put yourself out there. I love that you mentioned something that I want to touch on. And, like, I don't normally get onto, like, any kind of controversial subjects, but I really love to understand some more about it because I think that there's a. I don't know. I get the sense, from what I heard on a few episodes I was like, that I feel the same way as a woman in business. And you talk about something called code switching. Would you tell our audience a little bit about what that is? And let's have a little discussion.

Oh, girl. How much time do you have? Because that's a long.

It is a long topic.

I know there's literally a show called Code Switch dedicated to just that because it is so expansive. But just to give you an example. So code switching is when you are. Usually it happens with people of color and when you are a certain person. Like myself, for example, I use myself. So I'm a Mexican immigrant living in the United States. There are certain things about my authenticity and who I am as a person, including my hair being curly, that are not always accepted by society like mainstream society and mainstream society being primarily white society. So when we go into the world, we sometimes, especially if we're going into corporate or places where they are dominated by white folks, we do feel like we have to switch into someone who's a little bit more palatable to mainstream society, someone who fits in a little bit better, who doesn't stick out. That's a big thing. Growing up, I remember I would always feel like I need to make sure that I'm, like, fitting in. I don't want to stick out. And so that's. Code switching is feeling like you have to be someone other than yourself for people to accept you and for you to be able to succeed in life.

Everyone out there. This is why I asked her to talk about this, because I wanted you to hear the high level of topics and the seriousness of what these are, what these mean. And, yeah, you can have an opinion on that, but the beauty of what is. And I'm going to try it again and make sure I get it right this time, different day. Did I do it better that time? All right, way better. Way better. Got it. See, I'm working on it. And that what Different Day has to offer and what Maribel here is offering to you is this opportunity to get an understanding of what that sounds like, what that feels like, what that looks like, and have a chatty, uncomfortable, like, you Know, an intimate conversation. That's what I mean by when I use that word, chatty. I mean it's like an intimate conversation. Two friends talking about this and you're getting an insight into that because these subjects are something that we all need to hear, no matter whether or not we see it on our daily basis. But I guarantee you, when I heard that episode, I was sitting back thinking, oh, my gosh, I do that. I used to do that in the corporate world. But it's a male, female dynamic.

Right.

But I was the only woman amongst a lot of men all the time in my career, so I understand what that felt like. So that gave me the sense of deep understanding. Oh, I feel that that's an awful way. I hated it every day of my corporate life. How do you live your entire life like that? Now I have empathy and understanding for what's going on and that shifts perspectives. So that's what the power of what you're doing on your show. I just wanted to bring that up as we wrap up here because that power matters and that's why the diverse voices out there matter so much.

Thank you, Tracy. That was so beautiful and I really appreciate you saying that because that's my whole mission with differente is to build empathy, to have conversations that actually open up further conversations. And by the way, I really do. I try to be very intentional about keeping them short also. So you won't be spending your whole day Joe Rogan style on my podcast.

No, you really won't. But it's still in depth enough. Like, that's what I want to point out. Like you still get really deep insight. It's not like it's surface gloss, so. And that's so important. So, Maribel, thank you so much for bringing your podcast into the world and thank you for being such a champion for diverse voices everywhere.

Thank you, Tracy. Thank you for having me.

I told you it was going to be different, right?

I told you it was going to.

Be different than anything else that we've talked about recently. And she made some really calculated decisions and how she wanted to approach it. She wanted to approach it with the two different languages and have episodes that were all in, each with a little bit of drop in and crossover, which is a really interesting model to go after. And she did that with purpose. But she's really created a place where she can be herself. But it's not totally an opinion show because you're learning from others experience as well. So you're getting a shared community experience which adds validity to your opinions to your viewpoints on the world, Right? When you can share that with a community, who says that resonates with me or that's not my story. Here's mine. And now we can find common ground. That's why this podcast is so critically important, and that's why the BIPOC community is so critically important that we help raise the voices as a podcasting community of the diverse voices that are out there everywhere. And bipoc is just one aspect of that because there are lots of other communities around there that are trying to raise awareness. There are groups that are raising awareness for women's voices as well, and I champion as much as I can here. So if you are one of those in a community that isn't quite getting the exposure that you deserve, please reach out to the Binge Factor, go to the bingefactor.com apply to be on the show, let us know why you're different, just like Mirabel did, and that way I can be sure to make sure that we're doing our job here at the Binge Factor of making sure to expose as many different voices around the world as we absolutely can. So thanks everyone for listening. Be sure to reach out. Be sure to find everything. Go straight to the blog post for this episode@thebingefactor.com, and so you can check out differente and see what Mirabel Quezada Smith is doing so you can check out all the past episodes and see what ones you might have missed and how to connect with those podcast hosts and find their shows. So thanks everyone for listening. I'm Tracey Hazzard and I'll be back next time with another different podcast.

You've been listening to, the the Binge Factor Podcast. For more information on podcasting and videocasting success tips and tactics, please go to thebingefactor.com and be sure to listen to our other show for podcasters called Feed you'd brand. If you'd like to be interviewed on this show as well as featured in Tracy's column, please go to thebingefactor.com guest and apply.

Sam.