How To Start and Monetize a Podcast I Alyi V I Growing Up Latina Podcast Creator
Want to start a podcast, but unsure where to start? This week we’re joined by entrepreneur and podcaster, Alyi V, who breaks down the full game on how to launch, grow, and monetize a podcast.
In this episode:
09:43 - 5 Mistakes To Avoid When Starting A Podcast
21:35 - Why You Need To Believe In Yourself Before Anyone Else Does
26:02 - Batch Recordings: Why You Need It For Your Podcast
38:13 - How To Grow Awareness For Your Podcast
47:38 - Overcoming The Mental Health Stigma In The Latino Community
Follow Our Guest:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alyiv?igsh=NWdteHVtNnpqZmJ0
Website: http://thealyivexperience.com
Subscribe to the Growing Up Latina Podcast:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/growing-up-latina/id1649338989
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Full Transcript:
What's up everybody? Welcome back to Banking on Cultura. I am your host Victoria Jenn Rodriguez and you know here on Banking on Cultura we like to talk about the vibrancy and complexity of Latino culture entrepreneurship bonchinche in between and with today's guest we're going to hit on all three components. So let's get into it. Alyi V is the founder and CEO of the Alyi V experience a full-service creative agency with experiential marketing at its core. She has worked with notable clients in media and entertainment including Little Kim, James Harden, Floyd Mayweather, RZA, Angie Martinez, Dream Doll, and the notorious Big Estate amongst many others. She started her career in broadcasting as an on-air personality at Sirius XM, Shade 45's, VIP Saturdays, and Hip Hop Nation. She has contributed to the New York Post and TMZ Live as well as she's been a red carpet on air correspondent for MTV Music Awards as well as the Tony Awards. But what I'm most excited about is her work with Growing Up Latina, which is her podcast where she essentially gives Latinas their flowers. And what I love about today's episode is it is our opportunity to give her her flowers today. So, welcome Alyi V to Banking. Thank you for having me. You're welcome.
I am so excited to have you here. That intro is everything. Girl, we giving you your flowers today. Okay. When we were prepping for today's conversation, I told you I was like reading your bio and I was like, "Yo, this chick is really badass. Like really doing amazing work in the community and also just in front of the camera and also behind the camera because there aren't many Latinas who are doing that type of work. So, thank you for doing that. Thank you for having me. So, we'd like to kick things off with what's the bochinche. So, give us give us some tea, darling. Give us some tea. What's the bochinche? What's the latest and greatest? What's the latest and greatest? Tell us. Oh, like how much tea do I want to spill right now? You want to give us all the tea? Like on a professional or personal level? Well, you know what I like to advise guests to give us? like tell us something we can't Google about you. We got stuck y'all. Um there's so much that I want to say. Uh oh god. Spit out the first thing that comes to mind. I'm dating. Okay. I'm dating. So that that feels exciting. Okay. For me and I like a boy. I like a boy. So I'm just trying to see where it goes. I never really speak on like relationships or anything like that. I always try to keep those things private, but I don't know. I'm like in this new era of like let me just explore, have fun, and it's it's going good.
So, is has your, you know, kind of philosophy around keeping things private is because you come from the entertainment business and you've seen all the things. Yeah. I mean, it's so funny like I'm not a kind of post in public type of chick in terms of like any relationships that I'm may have been a part of just because I feel like what's more important, the relationship or social media. So, I rather like cultivate the relationship behind the scenes, see where it goes. I feel like if people see me with someone on the gram is because I'm engaged and I'm like, I said yes type of energy. But, I don't know. I feel like I like to keep those two separate. So my Instagram is like really for business purposes only. Like I barely show my family. Okay. Yeah. It's like it's like weird. That's fair. That's fair. Well, listen. Banking on Cultura exclusive. Alyi is dating. She's interested in somebody. That's royalty right there. We might have her back so she could tell us the updates and all the things so we could be all in your business. Yes. Yes. Only you. Only you could be in my business. I love it. I love it.
So, one of the main reasons why I wanted you on the podcast was because of your podcast, Growing Up Latina. It it was one of the inspirations behind Banking on Cultura. Like, I studied your work. I admire your interview style. By the way, how does it feel to be like on the other side? So, so weird. Like, I'm dying to ask you questions right now. It's like I'm trying to hold myself back from like being the person that's interviewing. So, I'm like, okay. Like, nodding and smile. Nodding and smile. I just really respect and admire what you are doing in the community because it's so important and I know a lot of our listeners, a lot of our people who tune in, they are interested in starting their own podcast. So, I wanted to have someone on the show to kind of give us the behind the scenes of what it really takes. I've been in this game a year now and I know there's so much that I'm still learning. Um, so I'm going to be a student as well as I'm asking you these questions. So why don't we talk about the story behind growing up Latina? Like how it started, what inspired you to do this thing?
So first of all, I'm Puerto Rican and Dominican, right? Um, I was born in Puerto Rico. You know, I moved to New York when I was maybe in the second grade, not knowing any English. So when I came here, I only spoke Spanish, but my mom forced me to go to public school. And so I had a lot of friends that spoke English and that's how I quickly got acclimated to speaking English and just being like that Nuyorican type of chick. But my dad to this day I only communicate with him in Spanish. I fell in love with the culture. Like I always told myself there's nothing else that I would rather be than Latina. And I just had this vision one time. I I really don't know where it stemmed from. It kind of came to me in my sleep and I just said I really want to tell our stories. And for me, there's there's people there's some people that maybe don't know their purpose in life. I very fortunate have always known what I wanted to do in this industry. And I think it expanded with growing up Latina because for me it was like, okay, now I have this purpose, but like what is the legacy that I want to leave behind? And so I had to really ask myself that question. Um, and growing up Latina was just something that it it was it was a project where if, god forbid, I'm no longer here, this will always remain. And I just wanted to not tell celebrity stories, which is what I'm used to, but to tell all of our stories, like all-inclusive. This is not about the celebrity. This is about the everyday Latina woman. And so, um, that's really how I got started in in this specific project. And it was very clear to me. I wrote it down. Um, I had a publicist at the time and I gave her like like a list of projects that I was working on and I put in red growing up Latina and she was like, "Oh, what's that?" She was like, "I'm interested in that. What is that?" And I was like, "It's just this project that I really wanted to work on." And, you know, I kind of gave her exactly the vision I had for it. I even had a list of women that I would interview for it and she was like, "No, this is like gold. Like, you got to move forward with this."
So, that's really how it got started. You know, I never thought about the legacy piece for Banking on Cultura and you just kind of like planted that seed just now because you're so right. Like this will live on beyond me. So, I don't have any children. I don't know if God is going to bless me with that. But I have this platform. This is like my baby right now. So, I love that this is our legacy. We're building our legacy. I love love love. Okay. So, came to In Your Sleep, you wanted to showcase our stories. M you launched a podcast and then a couple of things happened on the journey. So, let's talk about that.
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So, I launched Growing Up Latina five years ago, five or six years ago. I want to say five years ago. Um, and I started with three interviews and I was completely funding everything myself. But this was before podcasting became a thing. And so I, you know, had a videographer, I had the camera set up and the quality for me was where I was most lacking. and the content was there. The the people I were was interviewing, they were great, but the quality, it just didn't feel right for the vision that I had for this project. And so I recorded the three episodes and I was just like, let me take a step back to take two steps forward on this project. And so that's what I did. I took a step back and I said, okay, like how do I want it to look? What do I really want this to be? What is the message? what you know because for me growing up Latina so funny what I always say is like I'm giving the perspective almost like Carrie Bradshaw because I am this New York girl telling these stories even though from Latinas from all over the world but I represent New York you know so it was something that I really just wanted to to stay true to that you know I'm I'm really from El Barrio so that's important for me to continue to embody that when I do these interviews So I just took a step back and during the time that I took a step back, I started working silently. And what did that mean? That meant copyrights, trademarks, that meant scripts. That meant pitching to guests. It it just I was just doing the groundwork silently. And throughout that process, I learned a lot, you know, because trademark, although it sounds cool and easy, sometimes you run into some situations, right? Same thing with copyrights. And then I had these videos up. So, it was like, "Okay, now I need to get an attorney." Had an attorney. There's so many things that I was learning at the time that I was like, "Oo, this like I just wanted a podcast. Like, I don't know what all this is." But, okay. Um, hold on. I want to pause here for a second cuz there's a couple of really good takeaways.
So, one is launching the podcast. You need to decide if this is something for play or if this is something that's going to be an actual business for you, a tool to build your personal brand because that will drive the investment, how serious you take it, how much work you put into it, and also the final product, right? And also whether you're going to do this as like a real business, meaning going through the trademark process, the copyrighting. What exactly? So the trademark I get, I understand that's the name, right? concept, but what are you copyrighting? The IP the IP of the show because when I came out with Growing Up Latina, like shortly after, maybe like a year later, I also saw a few influencers kind of putting out growing up Latina stuff. So, I was like, okay. So, then when I went to my attorney, I said, hey, what do I do with this? And he was just like, hey, keep those videos up because it's time stamp. Like, we know that you put this out. And then during that time I was getting the Tik Tok, the Twitter, the Facebook, which I own the original, which I was actually shocked. Like there was no before me there was no www.growinguplatina.com. So I owned that. I owned the original Tik Tok, the original Twitter handle, the Facebook, etc. Um, and so that was very important for me to start there because if I sell merch and someone has that trademark, then they can say, "No, I own this." And then I would have to be called something else. Got it. But that process in obtaining the trademark, that was like a grueling process for me. That actually almost took me out, made me cry a few times because there's so much that, you know, I don't come from a background where my family did this. I have not one person in my family who's in the entertainment industry. And so I really just the only way I learned was like by throwing myself into that to give people perspective like how much does that cost the trademark process, the copyrighting and just a clarity point on the copyrighting. You said copyrighting the IP is that like the format of the show or what exactly is the IP?
Yeah, that that's the format of the show. That's what what you see on my decks. Like when I send out decks, you know, a lot of people will take those decks, right? They'll take it and they'll make it their own. Like, okay, this is what she's doing. I'm going to do it like this and make it better. Um, and so when I when I say own the IP, you know, no one can replicate my decks. They can try, you know, and you know, we can sue. We never want to go to that level, but, you know, no one can replicate the format of the show. My ideas are very well thought out for years to come. Growing up Latina podcast is just a small part of the Growing Up Latina universe that is being built. Got it. Um, so this is not, you know, and I I think that's important to know because oftentimes when you're pursuing this, you don't see the entire staircase. You only see like the first couple steps. I saw what that entire staircase looked like. It was just about me taking the steps to get to that end goal. And so for for me, like you said, to your point, in order to like really solidify a business, you have to run it as such. So that's like having the LLC. The trademark, I mean, that can co I mean, it depends. I mean, I did my trademark through Legal Zoom and then I I solidified it with my other attorney that I actually had outside of Legal Zoom that deals with just podcasting. But that can run you about 1,500 depending on how much you're trademarking, right? Cuz you also got to trademark the merch. You got to trademark, you know, like I said, I have the website, so that's something else that actually needs to be solidified. So, it depends like what you're trademarking for, you know, because I can have Growing Up Latina podcast, but then someone can have access to my merch and sell the merch. That's when it becomes tricky. So, I I secured all trademarks so that I'm able to not only profit on my merch, but like let's say I wanted to do like a documentary, Growing Up Latina, that's also mine. So, again, I'm taking the steps. I see the steps. I'm not at that next level, but I'm securing it. Yeah. So that I can get there. Planning for the future. I love it. Okay.
So started the podcast five years ago. Yeah. Into it you decided, okay, the production value isn't it? I need to slow down, work behind the scenes, and then you decided to relaunch. Yes. So talk to us about the sacrifices that you made in order to relaunch. So I mean it was a couple things, you know, I was in the middle of planning this huge event. I had just signed a deal with Triller um on behalf of Little Kim. So, it was I was planning like um Biggie's 50th birthday party and I was working alongside with the estate and Little Kim. And you know, my entire team was like, "Hey, let's put this out Cinco de Mayo." And I was like, "No, no, no. I have this huge event coming up on May 15th. Like, I rather just slow it down. Let's put it out for the start of Hispanic Heritage Month." But during that time, like I said, you know, I was working kind of like on the low. And what that looked like was like saving my money. So, I actually did a lot of research to see like, you know, what studios cost um what like who I would need on the team. And I actually wrote that down like, okay, I need a social media coordinator. I need a brand partnership girl. I need, you know, someone I I mean, luckily, I have the connections. So, I'm able to get my own guest and then I've build it up to the fact that guests kind of reach out to me at this point, which is nice. But before that, you know, I was actually pitching out my own guests. Um I had to get decks done. So like all of that cost. So I had to look at what a season would cost me. And the way I determined that was I watched Wendy Williams and I was like, how many episodes does she have in her season because I want to run this as a TV show. And that's what I did. So I was like, okay, so she has this amount of episodes. So I just literally went on an Excel spreadsheet and I was like, all right, I'm going to do like 24 episodes for one season, which is like a lot. Yes. That's a lot of episodes, right? People don't even understand the work that goes into it. That's a lot of episodes. And then kudos to the podcast that put out like two times a week, right? Cuz I'm like, that gets expensive. And so I had to estimate everything. That included hair and makeup, outfits. All of once I got that number down pat, then I was like, okay, I know what I'm saving for.
What was that number? So we were looking at about a $50,000 show. Okay. For just 24 episodes. For just 24 episodes. at the level, right? At the level you wanted to do it at. At the level that I wanted to do it at. So, I was like, "All right." And this includes Okay, let's talk about this cuz this is good. This includes production. So, actually the producing of it all. You said your hair and makeup, you said wardrobe, social media, liquor, candles that get put on the set, the studio, actual cost of the studio, the editing, picking them up from the airport or something like that. Cuz you have to understand this was before AI came out. Like now a lot of these things can get done with AI. You can cut the cost, right? Before it wasn't that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like I truly had someone on my team that worked overseas that was like cutting out my clips, you know? I had someone reviewing my episodes even though I review it because I I'm a real student in You're the executive producer, right? So I'm like really like critiquing. I'm anal too. My be like really be and I'm like yes, yes, you have to be. And so I just I I just took down those costs. And then also like I think the biggest cost for me that I was able to like cut out since then was like wardrobe, hair and makeup. Like I was like now I'm going to have to be a Tik Tok girl and like figure out the makeup cuz I'm not spending $200 on my makeup every single time. That's ridiculous. But not only that, it's the coordination. So now you got to coordinate when they're coming to do your makeup. You got to coordinate when they're doing your hair. You got to put that into the timing of it all. Like it literally is a whole production. Yeah. Yeah. If you're doing it like at that level because when I first was thinking about Banking on Cultura followed the same philosophy. I put together like my dream budget and I was like, "Okay, this is what I want." I was putting it up towards 80 to 100K for a first season. But it had like all the bells and whistles. And then when reality hit, I was like, "Okay, what can we start moving away from this?" Um, and that's the thing, I was completely self-funded. So, like I had a team, but everybody's pay relied on how much I was getting paid off of my events, right? And that's when it became like, okay, once I like start dishing out money and then I became obsessed with it. So, like once I started, I just couldn't stop. Like people would try to get me to stop like Alyi, just slow down. I'm like, no, no, no. Like that's it. Like it's already creating buzz. I can't slow down. I have to keep going. And everybody was like, "Alyi, chill out. Like, we see you, but like you're going to go broke." And that's exactly what happened to me. And I dipped into like every type of funds you can think of. Savings account. Like I told you before, one of the biggest sacrifices I made was dipping into my 401k account. And that I mean, I cried for that. That's when it became very real. And you know, unfortunately, like I had to have really difficult conversations with my team and just kind of like tell them like, hey, you know, we're going to we're going to go all in on this and it's going to get crazy. And some people did leave me because, you know, this is people's pay, you know, and I was just like, oh well, I I got to do it. And I I did it.
People are very uh I would say uh risk averse. Yeah. and tapping into your 401k is huge. Big. So talk to us about like why you made that decision. I really believe in myself and I think that's the biggest thing. I think if you do anything that you really are passionate about, you have to have the belief that you can do it. because I felt like if I want my team to take me serious, they have to see me acting accordingly. And so when I made that decision, it was to show people like, "No, I'm dead serious about this. And I'm willing to go this extra mile and replenish the funds, but I want you guys to understand like I'm not playing with anyone's time, especially my own." And that's why I really just dipped in like that. It was the last little bit of funds that I had. Um, I felt like, you know, I'm still young, right? That I can kind of take that risk. And I felt like I could still make the money back, you know, if I hustled. I can still kind of replenish those funds. So, that was like the end goal that I had in mind, like, okay, I'm going to take out everything cuz I did. I took out everything, like everything. So, you got hit with that that tax bill. Yeah. Yeah. And and people ask me all the time, did you take out a loan against your 401k? I'm like, no, I depleted it. There was no loan against it. It was just like, "Yo, just give me everything." And they were like, "Are you sure?" I'm like, "Yeah, no, I'm sure. Run me my money." Yeah. Like everybody was, it's so funny. Everybody was like trying to talk me out of this. And I'm like, like as if like what what is the better way? Like does anybody have ideas here? Like yeah, we could reach out to sponsors and all of that, but like I need immediate money right now. So if it's not on a credit card, this is like my next thing. Either way, it's still money that I would have to replenish back. Have you been able to replenish it? Yeah. Yeah. Love that. So, I'm excited about So, it was worth it. What? No. I I would never take it back. Really? I would never take it back. So, no regrets? No. I love that. Okay. So, we replenished a 401k, we back in business. Yeah.
So, talk about the monetization of podcasting because once you decide, okay, why are you doing this? you're going to seriously pursue this as a business, you need to actually generate revenue for it to be a real business, right? Real businesses make money. Um, well, that's the goal at least. I'm not trying to like throw shade on anybody who's on the who's in the trenches right now because I know how that goes. Um, but the goal is to make money, is to scale. So, let's talk about how you've been able to monetize the podcast because I think that's a really great takeaway for folks. So, I want to be very transparent. Yes, you can monetize the podcast, but if the real question is what I put in, have I been able to see that money? No. Yes, I replenished my 401k. Yes, I'm able to pay the staff, but am I seeing profit on this right now? No. No. I actually get paid less. I haven't gotten paid off of my podcast. I'm totally fine with it as long as it keeps running for right now at least. You know what I'm saying? Like obviously the goal is to make money but there's a few ways you know for me I've because of my event planning company I've worked with so many big sponsors that I had direct access to these people but then the the companies that I didn't have direct access to I just emailed and I just literally picked up my phone and called and I'm just like hey give my little elevator pitch this is what I'm doing and that's the thing like you really that's why I'm saying the biggest thing you could do for yourself is to believe in yourself cuz when you give them that story and there's some belief in there, oh they going to buy into it and that's really what happened. I I try not to like I try to stay very uh true and nostalgic to the brand. So like Corona um you know Presidente Goya, you know those Latin companies were like the first people I reached out to before I like started kind of branching off.
And what are what are they looking for? like what should people keep in mind when they're looking to like pitch a brand to come in on the podcast? I mean, so there's a few ways that you can do it. I do a lot of my batch recording. So, because I had some immediate funds of my own that was available to me. I started batch recording and then I hold on, let's talk what batch recording is. Remember a lot of people, we know that vernacular. We understand that, but like let's break it down so people can really digest this and understand. So, what's batch recording? batch recording looks like three episodes. I record up to three episodes like maybe like once a week and then I will begin to have like I'll have my team start editing it out. But what batch recording allows you to do is to remain consistent because if you have a week-to-week podcast and you're waiting for that next week and you're like, you know, you have to do this interview now, you're rushing edits, you're rushing everything. And so what I do is I I pitch out for you know months ahead and I kind of already know like okay well May, I have this person June, I have this person. So by the time now this is the way I work. I do not wait till sponsorship funds are available to me. No I lock in the interview. I record the interview and then I give it to sponsors. So, I'll say like, "Hey, I have these five people coming up. Do you want in on this?" And I would write an email that includes like their social media numbers, my numbers, my demographics, my reach, you know, my Jessie Reyez interview went viral. So, I also include that like, "Hey, we did over 7 million views across platforms on this one interview. So, this is why you should buy into these." And so I really just put forth my value. So for me, my pitch is just making sure that I use my interviews as a selling point to be able to secure sponsorship dollars.
So your strategy is having your interviews recorded, all good to go, having your prestigious guest line up, and then pitching it and saying like, do they want to place ads during the interview? Is that okay? That's one way. Okay. The second way I do it is I review my interviews and I listen to content pieces. So for instance, if I talk about mental health, I will reach out to like a better help for an example and say, "Hey, you know, I spoke about, you know, my mom having Alzheimer's and the importance of mental health and November is Alzheimer's awareness month. How can we partner up?" I think the synergy would be amazing here and it's very true to my real experience. That way they understand like I'm not just reaching out to you because I necessarily want your money. I do. But also there's like a real messaging. Yeah. There's a real messaging behind it. So that's the other way I go about it. I listen to content. Yeah. Interesting. Interesting. And what if you are like not batching? So, you don't have every guest that you have coming up in the future, but you have a solid portfolio of guests you've had in the past. Like, how would you position that?
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So, that's a numbers game. That's a numbers game. That's when you have to start pitching your numbers. Now, and when you say numbers, what are the numbers? So, you're looking at YouTube and audio numbers, okay? But what I find is that audio numbers supersede kind of like that YouTube number. And the reason why is you can have a podcast that just runs on audio and just just run that audio on YouTube and still do solid numbers on that and make it available for people that may not have Spotify, Apple, or so on and so forth, right? But they're able to listen to it via YouTube. A good podcast that does that uh is Latina to Latina. So they're all audio-based, but they run their clips, their audio interviews on YouTube as if they're actual episodes that you actually seeing like a visual component. It's just the audio. And what it allows you to do is really double back on those numbers. So now when you go to sponsors, you say, "Hey, these are my audios and these are my actual YouTube numbers." And that's really what they look at is those numbers. What are those downloads? For me, I always say the audio is way more important than the visuals. Even though I'm like aesthetic crazy. Um, aesthetics is cool, but if those numbers don't match up, it's not that cool. Interesting. Okay. So, there's two different strategies here. It's the strategy of doing the batch recording. Yes. How how long in advance are you doing that before you pitch a sponsor? cuz 24 episodes could take like I mean unless you're doing it in two weeks which is totally possible. Yeah. Um like what is your kind of like your rule of thumb? Are you like six months out? Are you in terms of interviews? In terms of or when I'm pitching in terms of the interviews and then when you're pitching right because you got to lock in the guest first to then pitch right on that first strategy.
So, in terms of interviews, like we're in May right now. So, I'm booked up until August, but then I have like a little vacation in between then and then I'll start going again. So, now I'm booked up until August and now I'm already thinking of Hispanic Heritage Month. So, that's just to give you an idea of like the guests that would come up. So, when I start reaching out to sponsors, it's not that I'm pitching them my next 10 episodes. I'll select a few based on the actual sponsorship like okay I have this person coming up this person and I'll give them the dates like hey this this interview's coming out this date so that there's real timeline because I also like to give deadlines like I don't want you to linger this conversation like let's start really applying some deadline here like this interview's coming up June 1st what can we do and and then I start aligning the months right so if I'm looking at June now I'm looking at Puerto Rican day parade right so then I start aligning that like what can be done here, who can I reach out to where the guests make sense, but then also I can have like the, you know, still drive this mission and this this, you know, amplify that the fact that it is a Puerto Rican Day parade. Again, very true to my experience. So, a lot of people ask me like, well, how do how do you know who to reach out to? It has to be true to me. like if I don't wear it, talk about it, you know, if I'm not you and and that's the other thing like and this is even with my personal brand, people will say, "Oh, try this makeup or try like send it to me first. Let me test try it and then I'll let you know if I'm able to actually speak about it because if it doesn't work, there's no dollar amount that you can give me to fake the funk to my audience that it's going to work." No, it has to be true to me. Interesting. Interesting. Okay. I forgot what was your other question.
So the other question was um like how far in advance you're doing the recording. So you kind of gave us some input. It's like 3 to 6 months it sounds like. Um so like that's one strategy if you want to use the guest as leverage. If your show is contingent upon guests. If your show is contingent upon if your show is not contingent on guests then you go for content. Another podcast that I'm always like bragging about just cuz I love them. Earn your leisure. Yeah. I mean, this podcast, think about it, like they they're not in like the most aesthetically pleasing places. They're literally in their hotel rooms and just putting like a virtual background, but the reason why they're able to get people to like tune in is because the content piece, they're providing information. So, you have to really look at your podcast and say, "Hey, where am I trying to go with this? Am I trying to be am I trying to provide resources or am I just interviewing guests? I like to do a little bit of both. Yeah, I think with Earn Your Leisure, which is like a whole business case in itself, for sure. They are providing amazing content, but what has allowed them to blow is a they launched during the pandemic when everybody was at home tuning into podcast. Correct. But also, they had a whole bunch of celebrities who pushed the initiative and what they were working on. So they had this huge community now that is now tuning into everything that they do. So the question is what happens when you don't have that. Correct. Right. So when I don't have that, you know what I'm saying? I didn't have that. Um I was fortunate enough to already work with celebrities. Um but really what I you know I'm from the Bronx, so I was going to the barber shop and playing my podcast. I was going to the hair salon, the nail salon, and like telling them like, "No, you see that?" Yeah. I was Oh, I was I was knocking on doors like, "Hey, Jose from la bodega." Like, uh, there's like an artist out here like out there mixed. No, I was very much on that level. Like, because for me, the celebrity can post and that's great, but I'm trying to touch real Latin people, not just the celebrities. Like, is it important for me? And I I have like this like case study of this person um that I created and her name is Miguelina. And I always say, well, what would Miguelina want? Who is Miguelina? What does she do? She's like your avatar. She's like the per she is my consumer. She's Yeah. She's the person that consumes the content. She's the person that in my mind she goes to nursing school. So I already said like anything I do I'm like will Miguelina like this? Like how will Miguelina respond to it? Is Miguelina listening to this in the gym? Is she Is she listening to this on her way to work, on her lunch break? Like, who is Miguelina? Because that's my target audience. So, I kind of created this person in my mind. I love that. So, key takeaway, have your avatar and keep them in your in mind as you're creating the content.
But let's talk about distribution because I think that is huge. And before we head to distribution, monetizing podcasts, sponsorships, sponsorships. Okay. Another way I also do events events as well. So sometimes, you know, like I actually had a deal that I worked out where they wasn't 100% sold on the episode, which totally fine, but I was like, "Hey, like I really know these women. These are not women that I just interview and that's it. It's not a hit it and quit it type of thing. This is like women that I actually speak to on an everyday basis. I would love to do like a brunch or something." So, it's like you're if you're not going to give me money on the episode, you're going to give me money somehow. You know what I'm saying? And then I actually did that with Zona De Cuba. So, I did the season finale for season one as Zona De Cuba. I partnered with uh Jack Daniels and I said, "Hey, let's do this season finale where we're actually recording this as an episode." And that's what we did. So, the season one I brought about 10 women to the table and and uh yeah, like it was fully funded by them and and I was still able to use it as an episode. So, they actually got two key takeaways. They got the Instagram and socials from the 10 women that were there, but then they also got an episode out of it. Yeah. Got it. Okay. So, events. Events. So, we have events, we have sponsorship, we have merch. Yeah. We have ad placements. Absolutely. Yeah. Content. Content. Yeah. I mean, I do, you know, a lot of the money too, believe it or not, like I do make on TikTok live. Um, so I do something that's called Sala Saturdays where I go up on TikTok live and I'm literally at home in my robe at the sala just talking. Uh, I don't really have a script. I just kind of just talk and just kind of update everyone with what's going on and then like people will just buy into it. Similar to like Instagram when you buy badges. You do that from your growing up Latina page. Yeah. Okay. Maybe I should do that. Yeah, definitely. You should like just just start talking. Yeah, literally. I mean, at first I was a little intimidated cuz at first it was like 10 20 people would show up and then I'm like, I don't know about these numbers. I'm like, I don't know. But then the more you do, it's just like more people just kind of tune in, you know? And again, that's where I get like my inspiration for like next guest. Like they'll tell me like, hey, we want you to interview this person. I'm like, oh, okay. Or I'll tell them like, "Yo, reach out to this person for and they'll start crazy.
I love that. Okay, so distribution. So, somebody's just starting and they're trying to get their name out there. You gave one where you was like you literally were walking up to the salons, barber shops, etc. asking them to play. But how else can people really double down on like distribution so people can know like, "Hey, this exists. This podcast is here." Yeah. So, I'm really big on newsletters. I'm really re I mean and my team will say it like I I do not play around with newsletters like that is something that you know people can sell newsletters you know off of their contacts if you build it correctly. Um, and I find that newsletters for me is like my most effective way. And I'm able to really see the clicks, who's opening up the the email, who's and and I do it in my own voice. And I think that's also important. But I'll give them like recaps of the week, uh, the interview that's coming out, what's to come. Cuz remember, you don't have like a big subscriber list to your newsletter. I'm old school. Like I will like I'm the type of person where I'm like who do I want to listen to this? All right, go on Instagram. Okay, that's their email. Let me input it. It takes more time. And then I also DM people my episodes. Like I'm like and and that's just me. Like I don't really have a team that does that. I'm actually really crazy about social media in terms of like my team laughs at me cuz they're like we can run it, we can run. I'm like don't run my social. Hold on. So these are more plays. Okay. So, running it back, going to Instagram. A lot of people do put their contact information out there, so grab that up. I mean, the bots are doing it, so that's why I get all these random calls. I'm like, "How you got my number?" Yeah. Hello. Anyway. Yeah. Then the next play is also sharing your episodes in the DMs. Yes. Okay. And I'm very intentional, you know, I pick the best clip, excuse me, and I'll tell them like, "Hey, you know, this is something that you that you like." I don't force anyone, but I just tell them to to share if if it's something that they love.
So, Growing Up Latina does both video and audio, correct? So, when you're sending it out to people, are you telling them, "Hey, check it out on YouTube or are you telling them to check it out on audio?" On audio. On audio. Because right now sponsors, they're buying into audio more than anything. Okay. The YouTube is cool, but I run a lot of YouTube shorts and I still monetize off of my YouTube shorts. I actually make more money on my YouTube shorts and like my reels than I do on like the actual episode because no one is going to sit down and watch an hour episode. And I love everybody that I interview, but to get someone to lock in for an hour, hour and a half is hard. So, I'll run a few clips on YouTube shorts and monetize off of that. And you're able to monetize YouTube shorts because you had like a certain amount of watch hours? Yes. Okay. Okay. So, I think you have to reach like 400 watch hours. Okay. Um, so once you reach that, same thing with TikTok, I think you have to reach like a,000 um before you're actually able to go live. So, you have to get to a,000 followers. Followers. And so, that's why for me, short form content is like the best way to go when building this podcast up. Even if you do half-hour episodes, like let's let's just think about like all the clips that you can cut up from the half. What I like to call it is building social equity. Yeah, that's what you're doing in this process. Okay, so we've got several plays for distribution. Yeah, love that. All right, so I want to talk about networks. Sure. Because there's tons of podcast networks that are popping up all over the place, promising distribution, promising ad revenue. Yeah. Um, and and basically y'all, for those who don't know, there's these podcast networks where they house a whole bunch of different podcasts that and and the benefit for them is then they go out to advertising. They're like, "Hey, we have all these podcasts on our network. Give us your money and we'll place your ads across the podcast on our networks, right?" So, that's the value ad for them. And then for the podcaster, the thought is the network is so bomb that they're actually bringing in real revenue dollars and they don't have to go and hunt for sponsorship placements and and all that jazz. So, what are your thoughts on podcast networks? Do you think you should be a part of one? If so, what you should be looking out for, how should you assess? What should you be asking for? All the things.
So, I feel like podcast networks are cool. It doesn't hurt. It can only just help the situation. But I feel like if you run your podcast like it's your own network, then you're good, you know? Like that's why for me, I really watched Wendy Williams and I really just said like, how am I going to create my own TV show? So what so when these when these podcast networks look at my content is really ran as a show versus like a a podcast, so to speak. But I look at a few things. I look at other podcasts that they've made have signed in the past. I look at the content to make sure that one I'm not competing with anyone else's content, but two to make sure that the content can really live here and it's like a place where again the mission for me is just to amplify our voices. So, as long as those things are aligned, then I think we're good to go. I mean, I've had a few meetings. There's I'm not signed to a network and for various reasons. I I am really anal about giving up equity into growing up Latina because this is my baby and this is something that I've I mean blood, sweat, tears for this project. So I feel like when I team up with someone is because they can add to it something that I cannot do for myself. So I look at what can you add? What is the money looking like? What like what can you do? what what monster machine can you really give me right now that is going to expedite this entire process for me? But giving up equity is so important and and yes, you know, if you want to scale your business 10,00% you should go into partnership, but understand that not all money is good money and partnership is very is very easy to get into a partnership is very hard to get out of one. Great advice.
So let's get into the talk that talk segment where we uh you know discuss something taboo in the cultura. So you mentioned earlier your mom um suffer from Alzheimer's. So you have an actually an interesting story around why you decided to go public with that information and how your family responded to that. Can you share? Yeah. So, I I had an interview with Melii and I'm very like freestyle with my interviews in terms of like I may write the questions down, but I rarely look at them. I'm really in the moment and for some strange reason I just opened up about like my mom having Alzheimer's. It was something that I've never shared before, but I pre-record my interviews. So, I still have control of like when this interview comes out. And I just remember kind of like telling people like, "Damn, I maybe I shouldn't have said that." And everyone was like, "Why?" And I'm like, I think my family will be really upset that I just shared this. Even though it's my experience, it's still something for my mom to share. And so I took it to my family and I said, "Hey, you know, um, I just recorded an episode where I basically said, "Mommy has Alzheimer's." And people in my family were like, "No, you can't you can't put that out. Like that interview you can never see light or day." And I'm like, "Well, I can't cut that out either because if I cut that out, that's a major part of the like it won't even flow." And and then I was like, why? Like, why are why are we like keeping this a secret? I don't understand. And they were like, we don't want people to know. And I'm like, it's but it's fine. So that it was that part for me that I'm like, why are we keeping this a secret when this can essentially help someone? And this is my experience. And I went forth and released the episode. And yes, people in my family really got upset at me. It was like a huge ordeal. like why would you say that? Mhm. And I'm like I'm not saying nothing that's like crazy. I feel like just this can help someone. And what I found was that once I released it, one it was a release for me, but two um other people like my followers were kind of DMing me like, "Oh my god, we didn't know. Alyi, how's everything? You know, my mom has Alzheimer's. My dad has So" So, it was like a community of people that were there to uplift me. And I and that's when I said, you know, this is why I have these conversations on the show for this reason. Yeah. Yeah. There is this stigma that exists in the community where we don't want to talk about mental illness specifically. Why is that? They're embarrassed. I think embarrassed thing. I think people view mental illnesses as like a curse and a weakness. It's like, oh my god, that happened to our family. Oh my goodness. Let's keep it under wraps. Let's not tell nobody. Yeah. And I think it's just the stigmas that come with mental illness without people really understanding what it's about. Um, and not really taking the proactive approach and and educating themselves about what it is about. Um, and people are scared. And I think in the Latino community, we just have always been taught to keep things in the house. Like we don't we don't go outside and talk about our business. We keep it in the house. But what's so crazy is it gets out some way somehow because the are talking about it. Your next door neighbor knows about it. You know Tito at the bodega knows about it but nobody talks about it but everybody knows about it. And the thing the thing is that like you got to be real like especially in this podcast game like people really respect authenticity. So like how I cannot like me creating this facade image of myself is whack to me. That's the only word I could just like think of. It's just so whack. Like people need to understand I'm a real person. I'm going through real things. You know, I really went broke. I really struggled. I really am dealing with my mom who has Alzheimer's who literally asks me all the time, "Who are you?" You know what I'm saying? These are tough things, but like these things need to be said because I want people to know that they're not alone. Like, I'm going through it, too. And if I can still make my dreams come true and make it possible, so can you, no matter what circumstance you're in. Mhm.
What is your advice to those who who might be struggling with a parent with Alzheimer's or a mental illness, a family member, uh, but they have this shame around it. What is your advice? I found that therapy really helped me. You know, I really had to and it was actually recommended by my mom's doctor. Like she was like, "Hey, you're her caretaker. Like, you may need to like also go to therapy cuz it's really hard for caretakers." I couldn't speak to anyone in my family. I I just couldn't. It It was just, you know, when you have like just so many opinions weighing in. Yeah, they're my family. Maybe they could relate for sure, but I I found that therapy really helped me. And then also journaling. And this is something that I talk a lot about on my show. I do a lot of scripting. So, I write in the future tense. So, I already am manifesting in real time like what is already happening. And I do that a lot with my mom. So even though she's not in her best place today, she will be tomorrow because it's already what I manifested. So I find that my imagination is a better place for me than what's actually going on in reality. And I live in that because your subconscious mind can't tell the difference between what's real and what you're imagining in your mind. Yeah, I love that. I love that. Well, thank you for your vulnerability, for your transparency, uh for giving Latinas their flowers. Thank you. Um, so guys, make sure to check out um, Growing Up Latina and also the Alyi V experience, your marketing company and event planning business. What do you have coming up? Where can the people find you? Like, give them all the deets. Oh my god, I have so many things coming up. Um, I have a Puerto Rican pre-festival dinner that's coming up in June, which I'm super excited about. I also have a lot of episodes and the these next few episodes I'm about to release are like really like some powerful stuff. This is probably one of my most powerful work yet since I've started the podcast and I have a few big events that are coming up. Um Angie Martinez is one of them that I'm I'm working alongside her team to produce like her barbecue and she's been a client for mine for like a year now. So I'm excited to work with her. Very cool. Exciting. So you guys can find me at www.thealyivexperience.com or ww www.growinguplatina.com. I love that. And that's just and on Instagram growing up latina. Growing up latina uh on Instagram all over and then Alyi V. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate you. It was my pleasure to give you your flowers and now you have to come on my show. I would love to come on your show. You have to come on my show. Oh my god. I'm going to be a Boricua Latina. you have to come on my show. Absolutely. I love that. It would be my pleasure and also my honor. So, thank you so much. And thank you guys for tuning in. If you enjoyed today's episode, you know the deal. Make sure to give us your feedback, like, share, all the things. That is how we grow and that is how we move the cultura forward. So, thank you so much for joining us today and I'll see you on the next episode. Ciao. Hey guys, if you enjoyed this video, I'm pretty sure you're going to love the next one. So, make sure to click right here and tap in to the next episode.