We were lucky to catch up with Paula Sima Mulamula recently and have shared our conversation below.

Paula Sima, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

Oh my God this is one hell of a story.

How did the idea of podcasting start, gosh! Believe it or not, Yes it was covid-19 but it was really an email to an ex that i sent and then i went on Twitter to talk about the email i just sent… I was literally just shit talking & bitching my feelings away about the email i just sent lol.

So a friend of mine who is now my manager, Angela apparently follows me on twitter and i had no idea, I didn’t even know she was on Twitter or even knew what my Twitter page was Came up to me at one of the drinking session we were having & this was during lock-down and was like “I think you should start a podcast!” and I was like “why do you think that?” cause I’ve always wanted to have one, even a year before I did have prior ideas of starting a sex podcast with some other girlfriends but we we only went through with it halfway and never finalized it and since then I never thought about it so i want to hear why you think i should and she tells me… well, I saw your twitter and you have a lot to say so I think a podcast would be a great platform for you. And at that moment it clicked, i needed something to keep me busy and she was right so i asked what you think i should call it and she was like you be talking a lot of shit so why not “Talk Shit With P” And right there and then it made sense and Talk Shit With P was born.

The next morning I woke up so early & even showered then dived into planning mode like okay we got the name but there’s more to do… I started messaging my creative friends to come up with a logo and research to make sure the name is available.

My favorite part was amazon shopping to order a desk for my room so that I can build an office. And If we being honest when i was researching Mic’s i started getting frustrated cause what the f*ck do I know about Mic’s and podcasting?? So I just bought the cheapest one, ‘I was like you know what; Just a cheap one will do for now hence am just starting and shall upgrade in the future’. then the weird part, as I was thinking about podcasting so was my instagram lol all the ads on my Instagram page were all about ‘free courses on how to start your podcast’ blah blah blah so of course i took advantage and I applied for them free courses, took down notes, joined podcasting groups… shout out to Buzzsprout which was the first group I joined it and it connected me to podfest (a community i am truly proud being a part of) and literary I was just consuming as much free knowledge as I could get about this new world that i was about to venture into while I await the desk and the microphone… I didn’t even have a laptop lol

Then in the midst of all that I knew in order for me to follow through the next step was telling that one person who’s going to hold me accountable So I called my little brother Alvin who’s also my best friend and among my number 1 supporter, so i shared my plan with him and he did not disappoint, he said, ‘okay You got to do this for real not just a story’, and i was like “that’s the plan, I am going to do this for real… i have ordered the stuff and taken some classes, and joined some groups now just waiting to record’. So of course he asks me “when’s the date?”, i told him May right cause i wanted to start perfect which is just another way of procrastinating lol and I even gave him a date and he was like if I don’t see an episode by this date I’m coming for you I was like I’ll be ready You won’t even need to come for me & he didn’t cause i ended up premiering my podcast a month before the date i actually gave him lol

But then, my biggest worries started hunting me in my head… worries like what am I going to talk about. who am I going to bring, will they want to come?, What do I have to offer?, What do I have to say that would make people want to listen to me? It was very stressful thinking about content for my show especially when you hear people talk about niching down when i don’t want to niche down… all i knew was that i just wanted to create a safe space to have all sorts of conversations with all sorts of people while creating mental health awareness.

Recording was easy and fun lol its hitting publish which was scary especially that 1st episode which was emotional, deep and real cause i shared all my shit in it like open book but the responses i got from it was the right push i needed and its been great ever since lol getting guests became easy, having the conversations i want to became easy and it has just made me more unapologetically me which am loving.

Paula Sima, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

So i am Paula, Tanzania born, and raised by the world. i am a risk taker and have traveled around quite a bit hence my Love for traveling.
I am curious about people & culture and a student of life.

I am the host of Talk Shit With P and the reason why its called talkshitwithp is because I talk a lot of shit but my shit eventually makes sense not just shit talk for the sake of talking shit lol and I wanted to call my podcast that, is so you can resonate with the person I am and also it’s easier to have people come on my show and just talk shit like I mean doesn’t it make you want to come and talk shit with me at this point lol but my podcast is all about living your authentic self through owning your Your truth and sharing your story as well as creating mental health awareness to the world.

For those who don’t know me, I suffer with depression and I am a mental health advocate. I like to have those conversations that people don’t want to & I like talking about any and everything cause i like learning, arguing and disagreeing with people but respectfully. I want my mind challenged. And that’s why i am so passionate about Podcasting cause it allows me to do that and also gets me more creative and more empowering.

I’ve grown so much from being a Podcaster and that’s one thing I am so proud of… everything i have done & learnt in the 2 years of this journey, It’s been a new and exciting world, one that I love so much. So if you ever want to talk shit or have me and talk shit with me on your platform or collaborate in anyways then I’m your guy, hit me up. lol

How did you build your audience on social media?

To be honest I can’t say built yet cause I am still building but what does or has worked for me is community and engagement.

What i mean by that is; i started finding the right communities to follow, i cleaned my timeline with all the bullshit followers or bolts and nonsense that i didn’t want to see and replaced it with following people i want to learn from or see their content and joined their communities or communities that resonated with my purpose and vibe.

I started showing love to the right communities and also engaging in those communities that I wanted to be a part of. See I’m not looking to just build an audience on my social media for them likes and followers because I want the right audience and not just anybody no disrespect but i don’t want followers just for followers; i mean if you’re not really listening to my podcast, sharing, supporting or engaging with me in any form then I don’t want you as an audience I’d rather have a small amount of number but it’s engaging and it’s part of the community i am building so I really don’t care much about followers and I think that has also helped because I’m not so concentrated on number and please don’t get me wrong, trust me, YES! I want that 10k followers and likes but I also want the right 10k followers.

It took me a while to take out the number of followers and likes and to concentrate more on what’s important which is;
Who am i supporting?
Who am i building up?
Who am i engaging with?
What communities am i serving?

That way I can pour more into that, and doing that brought me the right audience who are helping me build this community of mine. So for anybody out there who is trying to build their audience and this is for those who are looking for the right audience because if you are selling something then you want an audience that’s going to buy your shit or support in one way or the other then you want the right audience not just numbers so concentrate on community; join communities that resonate with you, communities that you want to resonate with because those communities are going to be your number one supporter and through there you find more audience that resonate with your purpose and come to your social media and engage.

Engagement is as important, when your audience sees you showing interest to them, they easily become supporters. People underestimate the lack of that, people think I just go on post and share my shit and that’s it but there’s more to it and engagement is a huge plus in increasing your audience… Engagement is key!!

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

So I will say this what helped me build up my reputation within my Podcasting Community (i wont call it market, cause its far from that) lol is really as simple as Positive Energy and being supportive.

To be honest for a small girl I have lots of energy and I’m such a positive light like yes I’m not saying I can’t be negative, no! I do have my negative days but I don’t bring them out like when I have my negative days I shut myself and deal with them by myself but throughout my page, or when you meet me on my page am always this light, like I’m forever smiling and just being positive and supportive so that helped build my reputation like In May of this year I went to a podcasting conference called Podtfest (by the way if you reading this and are in podcasting or thinking about starting one join the podfest community on Facebook and you wont regret it, they have another conference coming up in Jan 26th-29th 2023 in Orlando FL, hit me up for details) and i connected with so many people some for the very 1st time and some we had already connected virtually but the biggest compliment i got from different people there was how my presence was such a bright light with such positive energy and that made me so happy cause that’s what I want people to feel when around me.

I want to be good energy and a f*cking supportive person, you know I’m constantly preaching about being supportive and spreading positive vibes and energy so if I’m not bringing that then I wouldn’t be the person I am in my community with the reputation I have (you cant talk the talk and not walk it) lol so I think having the right energy and being a positive light and a supportive person is the way because people always tend to think that support means you have to buy their things which isn’t necessary that, we know life is hard & things get messy so if you can’t buy the stuff, you can still share it, like it, promote it for them etc. all that is free because your followers and mine are not the same which means we don’t have the same people so when you share that shit they might see it and be my customers and the only reason they became my customers or they came to my page is because you shared it so that’s support right there… There are so many different ways of supporting them than just buying somebody’s item and people forget that so I’m known for doing that. I’m known for being a positive light with high energy and for being supportive I’ll support to the end of the world for my people (whether I know you personally or don’t) if I come across something that I believe in or I like even if at that time I can’t afford it I’m going to share it, I’m going to like it and I’m going to tell people about it. I’m constantly connecting people because I want to see everybody grow so having that my mindset has helped build my reputation within this community… Be a supportive positive light & energy matters.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.talkshitwithp.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkshitwithp
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkShitWithP
• Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/paula-sima-mulamula-51845874
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TalkShitWithP
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/ESsYMng6dxY
• Other: Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/Tswp Buymeacoffee – https://www.buymeacoffee.com/talkshitwithp Merchandise – www.talkshitwithp.shop

Image Credits
Hindu, Cleta, Wendy, Alvin, Xsy