We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Curtis & Corinna Kelley. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Curtis & Corinna below.
Hi Curtis & Corinna, thanks for joining us today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
We are both military veterans with a background of mentoring and helping people. After military retirement, we wanted to continue to meet and help people not only within our community but across the country as well. We started The Culture Marauders Podcast in 2019 and evolved into The Culture Marauders LLC in 2020. The title is a combination of “Culture” which is what we explore every episode and “Marauders” which means to take or loot and is also a tribute to A Tribe Called Quest’s classic LP “Midnight Marauders”. The premise of our show is to maraud on all culture with the intent to enlighten and entertain.
We found that during the pandemic, many people and businesses were turning to podcasting as a way to create and deliver content. This included small businesses, independent creators, and corporations. We decided to take the lessons learned from our podcast journey to teach how to host their own. We also started producing podcast for those that just want to speak and “drop the mic” while we take care of the rest, producing a quality show at an affordable rate. We believe that everyone has a story to tell and we at the Culture Marauders LLC are committed to helping you tell that story.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
A good friend of ours, Knolan Lee of Beerlosophy Podcast, started before we did. I (Curtis) had always toyed with the idea of starting one but never knew how to get started and honestly didn’t believe anyone would care about what I had to say. Corinna bought me my first mic, Ol’ Bessie, and after the first episode on Sept 19, 2019, I was hooked. As a service, we provide affordable and fun podcast training for those looking to start their own show or to learn something new. We also provide podcast service solutions for those that don’t particularly enjoy the production and editing process of the show. We provide service at every point of the pre/post production, recording and editing process and produce a quality show for your listeners/viewers.
What we’re most proud of are the relationships and connections we’ve developed with so many outstanding creators and businesses in the Tampa/Clearwater/St Pete area and beyond. We’ve had the privilege to host podcasting workshops for Girl Scouts of West Central Florida, Womens Veterans Alliance, and presenting our business at the Florida Synapse Summit. We’re also proud to be a veteran and minority owned business that is ethical in operation and puts the creator first. Getting behind the mic and speaking can be intimidating but we offer a fun experience that will help anyone find their voice.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is just that…allowing yourself to be creative. While in the military, you can only operate within the confines of what is allowed. Since we’ve separated and retired, it’s been a creative boom with ideas flowing constantly. Those ideas have translated to the expansion of our business model but to also helping other creators find resources and networking opportunities to help their business grow and thrive.
How did you build your audience on social media?
We’re still a work in progress but our brand is about people, learning about our difference, and what makes us unique. We are authentic in our social media approach and share a small bit of our personal life with our followers. It’s important to develop a parasocial relationship in order to build a social media presence. The parasocial relationship is a one sided relationship that a media user engages in with a media persona. We don’t hunt for followers or buy them. We want our followers to genuinely like what we’re doing and support our growth organically. It may not lead to astronomical follower numbers but our followers know why they support us. Our advice is to be authentic because people can tell a fake and when that happens your credibility is gone. Also always keep learning. The landscape of podcasting is so vast and to think we have all the answers is false. We are constantly looking for new ways to produce content for not only our shows but our clients.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theculturemarauders.com
- Instagram: @the_culture_marauders
- Facebook: @theculturemarauders
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/the-culture-marauders-llc-7aa6891a8
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLjO_h7wXvkM53g8-tqygogi5WfoH3hMdx