Amplifying Diverse Voices with Anna DeShawn

Get "Liberate Your Business" by Becky Mollenkamp at https://liberateyourbusiness.com/NOTE: Feminist Founders is a listener-funded podcast. Your contributions enable me to continue bringing you these important conversations. To support the mission, sign up for a paid Substack subscription at https://feministfounders.substack.com/ -----Anna DeShawn (pronouns: anything respectful), is an Ambie award-winning podcast producer and host. She is a Chicago-born social entrepreneur who builds streaming platforms which center & celebrate BIPOC & QTPOC creatives. Media has always been her passion and in 2009 she turned that passion into a reality when she founded E3 Radio, an online radio station playing Queer music & reporting on Queer news with an intersectional lens. Most recently, she co-founded The Qube, a podcast production company and curated platform to discover the best music & podcasts by BIPOC & QTPOC creatives. Anna is an award-winning podcaster determined to ride media into its next era by utilizing digital media streams to tell the stories and play the music that deserves to be heard.  Website | TikTok | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Discussed in this episode:Anna’s relationship with feminismThe journey of building E3 Radio from side hustle to full-time gigHow Anna continues to honor Black women of history in her workWhy Anna avoided calling out queerness in the beginning of E3How all of Anna’s intersecting identities affect how she shows up in the world and in her workNavigating the early days of licensing music and being ahead of the technological curveBreaking barriers as a Black woman in the podcasting spaceWhat kept Anna going in the early days of speaking into the voidTreating every episode or project like it’s “the” episode or project that gets a “yes”The virality of sitting-on-the-toilet videosThe importance of relationships in funding, and generally in growing a business — and why every high school should teach networkingNever giving up and continually putting yourself out there as the key to growth and successLearning to pitch for fundingMaking financial preparations for leaving corporate and starting her businessWhy Anna’s mantra is “have the confidence of a mediocre white man”Adjusting revenue models based on market demands to create sustainabilityLearning to be fluid with what a business can be, and thinking before acting on new ideasThe problem of podcast search engines and how those marketing failures are excluding so many diverse voices from the spaceAnna’s mission to change podcast discoverability for marginalized audiences Resources mentioned:Rustin on NetflixTechRise and YouTube channelFifth Star FundsChicago Independent Media AllianceBlack HIV in the South podcastSecond Sunday podcast“Profit First” by Michael Michalowicz“The Big Leap” by Gay Hendricks Urban One study on flagging of Black culture podcastsAffinity Community Services Learn more about accountability coaching with host Becky Mollenkamp at https://beckymollenkamp.com A full transcript of this interview is available at FeministFoundersPodcast.com