Meet Timiya Ray | Timiya T” Ray | Podcast Host & Creative Strategist”

We had the good fortune of connecting with Timiya Ray and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Timiya, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I am a graphic designer and small business owner before the podcast, so starting businesses was not something I was foreign to. I became an extreme consumer of podcasts during the heat of the pandemic. The Black Lives Movement was at its height, and so much was going on while we were suppose to be locked inside of our homes. All we had were our phones to express ourselves while we watched many lives fade away in results to the effects of the pandemic. My social media platforms were alway used for entertainment and social justice advocacy. It became a time where I felt like I no longer wanted to just post about things, and looked to podcasts to be the platform to really showcase what it is like to live a holistic healthy life and be a safe space for people who want to repair their lives. I created the pod in hopes of being that safe space for others and myself. My thought process with the podcast was to strategically have different types of featured guests who intimately express their ways of the world. So far we have had a stripper, sex doula, drag queens, family members, magician, etc on the pod. I want to show people that look like me how unique and different the world is outside of your environment. I see the world moving to that I called on the pod a more progressive culture. That progressive culture are more emotionally intelligent and competent beings striving for healthier ways of living in contrast to the traditional ways of life.

I would watch the pre-break up version of the Joe Budden Podcast and Drink Champs a lot and found myself studying the craft of podcasting. I am an avid nerd for learning new skills and gaining new information, so I found myself innating studying the craft of podcasting when watching the established podcasts. I was able to see how a podcast could grow organic following and reach a point where you could get a publishing deal from streaming platforms or even brand deals from companies. My ultimate goal is to build the pod from an organic following through social media and eventually monetize it to be able to create careers for other creatives and educators to further push positive narratives onto the greater community but starting within our community. Many podcasts have liberated themselves just from people wanting to hear their takes on things every week. Our podcast has shown to be unique and needed in such saturated industry, so I am thoroughly enjoying this slow grind with podding.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Most podcasts are about relationships and dating. What separates us from other pods is that we have something in every episode for someone. We talk about an array of topics every episode. We are known for the games we play on the pod. I try to introduce new and exciting things on the pod, so that there is always something fresh for listeners to get familiar with. You never really know what will happen every week. We pod inside; we pod outside. We have an R&B pod and we also have our main pod. I formatted the episodes to be based on segments: hot topics/current events, music/entertainment, and mental wellness. What those segments look like are topics that fit within those subjects but what can we do to rewrite what’s negative in those pics to be positive. So we are all learning growing together figuring out how to be better people through he topics we speak on. We also speak about tough topics such as sexual assault or poverty but in a very casual way. The challenge with what the pod is about is that many people around the world do not want to change or be open to doing the work. Everyone do not want to be progressive and that’s ok! So we do miss out on new listeners that do enjoy relationship and dating pods because that is not our target audience. I do believe this will be a slow grind to that monetization point because we do not clickbait or push out forced viral moments. We have people come on to talk about things they probably would never say publicly, so the pod does feel like something you would want to keep to yourself instead of sharing with others. We do miss out on that word of mouth marketing because of how intimate our pod commentary is. To combat with the issues we face with growing our viewership is we go outside to spread our pod. Whenever I travel I bring QR stickers with me to paint I the city I travel to. Those stickers work! Our most scanned areas is Toronto and New York.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
The podcast listeners and my pod team deserve a huge shoutout! I truly could not be able to start this and build it to be what it is without people giving a care about what I say every week. It is a lot to be able to be entertaining for 2 hours of someone’s time every week and the listeners have not shown to give up on us. My pod team were once listeners of the pod and fell in love with what they see I am doing with the pod and came aboard to help me further build it. None of us are being paid to do this. Our goal is to monetizes so that the pod pays us back. To have a group of beings consistently work towards something even week is beautiful to see, and I ma grateful for anyone who tries to help this passion project of mine.

Website: www.clubculturepodcast.com

Instagram: @clubculturepod

Twitter: @clubculturepod

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/clubculturepod

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0V23lE7YNlQo8qNHAkuY6w

Other: Tik Tok : @clubculturepodcast