We were lucky to catch up with Marlene Uribe recently and have shared our conversation below.

Marlene, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

In a very honest matter, That’s Just My Opinion Podcast kind of started off as a joke. My boyfriend at the time had his own podcast and he always made it seem so fun. So one of my friends and I decided we’d start our own.

It was back during lockdown so all we’d do is be online and watch the news and I guess it was our way of distracting ourselves and having more control over what we’d listen to. Of course we had no idea where to even start, so we “hired” my boyfriend to be our producer and teach us the big do’s and don’ts of the podcasting world. I learned what a mixer was, how there’s different types of microphones, how to make the audio sound better, higher or lower, etc.

After only a few episodes I fell inlove with it. I’d receive feedback and feel inspired to do better, to make more episodes. I had always been a talkative person so that was easy for me. I had also been in sales and customer service my whole life so starting a conversation was never a problem either. I met so many people, talked to so many interesting souls and began to be a part of the lives of my audience. People would DM our instagram page asking “where’s this week’s episode?!” when we’d take an extra day to upload. It was invigorating. I felt like I had found my calling.

A few months in, TJMO turned into a one-person-show, which brought me to my biggest obstacle, “would I have to find someone new each week to be a guest on the show?” or “will it become a show of me talking to myself?”. The hardest part was me believing I could do it. Believing I was interesting enough to have people listen to me talking to myself week after week.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

My name is Marlene Uribe, gemini sun, 26 and I am a proud mexican-american. I was born in Chicago, IL but moved at an early age to Monterrey, Mexico. My parents were big on moving from city to city so I grew used to meeting new people everywhere we’d go. When I was about 21 years old, I ended up in Laredo, Texas after living in Los Angeles for a couple of months with family.

Once we settled down in Texas for a couple of years, I started looking into what hobbies I could take on. When podcasting was introduced to me, I felt like it mixed all of my favorite things into one. Talking to new people, learning new things and making people feel better about themselves and/or giving advice,

I was always told that for the podcast to succeed, I had to find a niche. This was a big one for me because I am so versatile and can talk about so many different things. After some time, I decided I wanted That’s Just My Opinion Podcast to be a platform for people of all walks of life. A place where others could voice their opinions, manifest their dreams into reality and share their lessons learned — to an audience that would always listen.

I feel inlove so quickly with my little but interactive TJMO community. It was almost like a dream come true. Inspiration was everywhere and even though I struggled with certain things like finding new equipment or a place to record with guests, it was my struggle, and that made it special. Soon after we started we created merch to sell and fund TJMO, it was so overwhelming to feel the love. We had different designs on dad hats, shirts with our logo on them and the cutest stickers. Even though I don’t have any for sale right now, stay tuned for winter ’22!

At one point I was even invited to attend an event in Laredo, Texas where we’d talk about the women who you admire and helped shape the person you are today. We pretty much set up in a busy food-truck park and invited people to talk to us about their “mujeres chingonas”. It was such a amazing feeling to have strangers open up to you about who inspires them on a day-to-day basis. Definitely one to remember.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

A *affordable* podcasting studio creatives could rent out to make their own episodes. I know the equipment can be expensive and not everyone can afford it. Some where like-minded people could go create and discover if it is what they want to pursue or not.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Be real, be honest, be consistent and most importantly, stay true to yourself. The right audience will gravitate towards your art if you stay consistent. It can take time, sometimes more time than we would hope for, but it will come. Depending on what your art is, there’s different apps for it. Podcasting does really well on instagram because your could share reels, stories of previews of the episodes and countdowns to when the new one airs. That’s why I opted for IG to be the main social media app of TJMO.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/tjmopodcast
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tjmopodcast/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thetjmopodcast
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tjmopodcast
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClG7_LCCJ_MIq3XHYlFKf1w

Image Credits
Fatima Pruneda, Mayela Barrera, Joshua Castillo, Marlene Uribe