ORLANDO, Fla. – For Afro-Latina podcaster Carla Wilmaris, a life change was needed.
“It was literally an idea,” Wilmaris said, recalling the day five years ago when she decided to start a podcast.
The idea was the easy part. How to do it was a whole other problem.
“I was trying to find people to teach me and to help me on how to do podcasting, how to get it onto iTunes, Spotify, how to edit. You know, the engineering part of it. I don’t know how to do any of that. What equipment do I need? What microphones do I need? And no one was willing to really help me for less than giving up my firstborn,” Wilmaris said.
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The young, single mom decided she would have to figure it out herself. The process was challenging. After eight months of research, Wilmaris was ready. A good friend decided to join her on this digital journey and launched their first podcast from her daughter’s former playroom. It wasn’t a fancy set up, but it would be the building blocks for something bigger.
In a short eight weeks, the podcast ratings soared to the top 100 on the podcast charts along with mega celeb Oprah.
“I’m like, ‘Wow, the power of podcasting was real.’ And I realized it quickly and I quit my corporate job. I already saved about a year and that’s when I quit. I’m done. And I went all into podcasting,” Wilmaris said with a smile on her face.
Wilmaris went through her fair share of ups and downs building her newfound passion into a business.
While processing all the challenges along the way, the podcaster decided to open up and be completely vulnerable to her audience. Sharing her personal story of struggle and moments of triumph in the episodes led to over one million downloads and over $100,000 in ad revenue and sponsorships.
“I started getting messages, ‘How do I start a podcast? Can you help me? Can you help me?’ And at that time, there wasn’t anyone in the space that looked like me, sounded like me had the same tone of voice. They didn’t relate to me,” Wilmaris said.
So, one year after her first podcast, Idea to Launch Academy came to life. Wilmaris decided to test the waters.
“I launched my first cohort of people for five weeks, and it sold out within 72 hours. Wow. It was like $400 at the time, and people just bought it and I was like, ‘Oh my god.’ So we launched 10 podcasts in 30 days,” Wilmaris said .
Many of those podcasts are still up and running today.
To date, her academy has helped over 700 podcasts from people of color launch successfully and bring in profit. Wilmaris even has her own podcast titled “Pivot with Purpose” where she continues to show her audience the ups and downs in life and reminds listeners it’s OK and that they’re never alone.
The initial challenge of starting a podcast soon became an idea for a business.
“That was what I was focusing on, helping people that looked like me, sounded like me, and just didn’t have this huge budget to start a podcast and simplifying it,” Wilmaris said. “A lot of people have changed their lives. Just I mean, this changed my life. I was an accountant. I quit within eight months.”
Wilmaris, now a successful entrepreneur, wants others to know if you have a dream or a story to tell, tell it.
“If anyone at any point needs help to get their voice out there, just know you have a story to tell. And there’s someone out there that wants to hear it. There’s- we always think that no one’s gonna want to hear what I have to say. They will, whether it’s a podcast, a book, whatever it may be,” Wilmaris said.
Not only has her business been a huge success, it’s opened other doors along the way. Wilmaris had previously had a dream to be in radio. She auditioned for an on air spot for a radio host and was denied. When approached about being a host for FLY 1031, Wilmaris was skeptical at first worried corporate politics wouldn’t allow her to be her true self that she worked so hard to define in her podcasting career.
Something told her to give it a shot. She’s now living out another dream as the weekday morning cohost for the morning show. The host says that everyone at FLY1031 has been amazing. Loving what you do for a living is a huge part of success and what Wilmaris firmly believes.
Looking back at the tiny playroom, Wilmaris said she reflects on her journey in the world of podcasting. Her journey brings a smile to her face.
“It makes me feel like I did something. It makes me feel like I probably making my daddy proud,” she said.
Wilmaris said that tiny playroom is also a motivator.
“This is a very male-dominated industry, period. So first is men and then (there) are white men on top of that. So to see women of color here, you don’t see as much. So podcasting really gives us a voice for us to speak on how we feel — really let people know who we are. And then on top of that we can find our tribe and find other women that are like us,” she said.
You can listen to every episode of Florida’s Fourth Estate in the media player below: