Elsie Escobar: Podcasting now is in a position to really, really grow from where it is but we need to really focus outside of what we've already been doing. For me, the Spanish-speaking market is really, really important. Also, highlighting and advocating for women's voices particularly women of color is for me like front and center. That's a huge, huge, huge thing for me.
Jennifer Tracy: Hey guys, welcome back to the show. This is MILF podcast; the show where we talk about motherhood, entrepreneurship, sexuality and everything in between. I'm Jennifer Tracy; your host and welcome back. I can't believe we're sailing through mid-January. Let's see, I am in New York this week, New York City; greatest city in the world. I said that and then I was like wow, but that leaves out Paris, London, and a million other cities that are really amazing. New York is really magical. I really, really love New York. I'm so grateful to spend time there even though it's freezing. Happy to be back in LA. Have to say as much as I can complain about LA. I do love my town. I love it. I really do love it.
Jennifer Tracy: Speaking of LA, this week one of the companies that I'm highlighting is called Loom. If you're in LA and you are a woman or you identify as a woman this is something you should definitely check out. They are offering us a discount code of MILF 20. Loom is like a community for women. They have classes. I'm just going to read this description. Loom is a definitive LA based health destination for periods, pregnancy, sex fertility, menopause and pregnancy related experiences including miscarriage and abortion and parenting within the first year. We teach body literacy through classes, support groups and events at our mid-city location in Los Angeles and have a selection of talks with experts available to stream on demand.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. You can use that discount code online or to go into a class and their website is, thisisloom.com. Yeah. Please head on over there, check out what they have to offer and use the code MILF 20 at checkout to get a discount. It's a really incredible and just also tool around on their website and see who they are because these women are really bad ass. That's loom. Then the other company that I'm highlighting is called soulku, S-O-U-L-K-U. Their website is soulku.com. Again, all of this is on my website, milfpodcast.com, so if you're driving and you don't have time to write it down or you can't remember, which, I can never remember someone will tell me something and I'll say, "Oh, I'm going to remember that."
Jennifer Tracy: I just can't remember like names; names of movies, names of books, websites. It's all there for you in the show notes. This company is really fascinating because it's built by women and what it is, its gemstones. Okay. Then have meaning and healing capabilities and they're made into jewelry and they're made ... Here, it says, "I always end up doing this because they say it better than I do. Their mama made was love and they're made in homes by moms." Okay. It says on the card, "I'm like I'm looking at these earrings are black Onyx earrings alleviate stress and worry and anchors strength mama made with love by and then it's signed by the woman that made it infused with love song and prayer handcrafted by moms in Asheville, North Carolina."
Jennifer Tracy: They are offering us a 15% discount code of MILF 15 if you go on their website; they have all kinds of necklaces and earrings. It's such a beautiful gift and they're very affordable. And I just loved talking with these women on the phone when I told them I wanted to give them some free advertising and tell the world about their amazing company. Go check them out. soulku.com. Today's guest is Elsie Escobar. I have been trying to nail this woman down for an interview for over a year. I've chased her and chased her and I finally got her and she had to do it while she was in a mall while her child was in a class. Well, she did it anyway and she did it so well and she's a podcaster, she's brilliant and she ... We had so much fun in this conversation.
Jennifer Tracy: Elsie has an incredible background. She started out as an actor and she actually studied at the Denver Center Theater. Which I'm from Denver, so we talked about that for a little bit and then she fell into ... She's became a yoga teacher and the way that she started podcasting is so great and she tells the story on this episode and then now, I mean she like the podcasting queen. This woman started something called She podcasts. She's inspired thousands of female podcasters; male and female but she inspires me and she works for Libsyn which is the leading podcast host and distribution network. She's a mom and a wife and she's just bad-ass.
Jennifer Tracy: Please enjoy this conversation. We had a lot of fun. We laughed a lot. She is funny and she's just whip smart. Enjoy my conversation with Elsie Escobar. Hi, Elsie.
Elsie Escobar: Hi.
Jennifer Tracy: Thanks so much for being on the show.
Elsie Escobar: You are so welcome.
Jennifer Tracy: This has been such a long time coming. I am such a fan of yours.
Elsie Escobar: I know. Oh my gosh. Oh, give me a break.
Jennifer Tracy: All right. Yes, I am. I am.
Elsie Escobar: You're so kind.
Jennifer Tracy: Seriously, I mean like what you have done for women in podcasting is kind of unparalleled. It is. It's true. I mean, gosh there's so many things. There's so many questions I want to ask you, but can we talk about the event that you just had?
Elsie Escobar: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Let's talk about that. Okay. All right. It was an August. No, September. October. October. It's okay.
Elsie Escobar: Oh my God. I don't even know. It's like; I was talking about, like what? What? It was in October. It was early October. I'll have to look at my phone to make sure that that was the case. Yes. It was at early October. Okay. It was an event that I co-attended. I don't even want to say co-created because my partner is really ... She did it all. She's the one that did it. She did all the things, she got everything together. She ran with it. Right? I was kicking and screaming to do it. Let me tell you the story in terms of the Kickstarter campaign. One of the reasons that she decided to do a Kickstarter for this event and was a women's podcasting event. People, our people, our community in the Facebook group had always been asking for somebody to do this event, right? To do like, oh my gosh, it would be so great if you hear that all the time.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh my God, it would be so great if we just did this right. You're like, oh that is you're talking about tens of thousands of dollars but sure we'll just throw it together.
Elsie Escobar: Right. No. The other thing is when usually that happens and then all of a sudden, it's like, "okay guys, we did it. Here it is." Everybody's like, "Oh that's so nice" and nobody comes. Just was like you all are going to have to put up. You know what I mean? If you want this to happen you have to put up. We had a goal of $25,000 and it was really scary. I'm always so scared dude. Just to put something like that out was like you're just so scared. Yeah. It's going to do anything. Then every time some money came in we're like, "Oh my God, yay. We were so excited." Then it just kept growing and growing and growing. I was like what the ... so we ended up funding it like 200% so we made 50,000 with that Kickstarter. That was like what? That's insane.
Elsie Escobar: That's what it was to me to seeing the community be excited about it and thinking like ... And everybody was going, we did it. That just filled me with chills like that it was this collective desire for this to happen, right? Just went along with it. I obviously am supporting all of the things but I said to her, "This is not my zone of genius. I'm not an event planner. I don't like parties." I'm just not that person like I don't care what color the napkins are. That's the stuff like it just, no, not at all. She loves it. She just loves it to death. This like really gave her like everything and I just go, you go do that, you go do that.
Elsie Escobar: Then I came in whenever something was like a little where I felt to me everything is about mission and vision and values. That's me. I am all about the bigger picture. Anytime I saw anything that was a slightly like I don't know if that's the word. And that's not feeling like it's on mission, that's when I would come in like I would just do that kind of stuff. She did all of the other things. We ended up like having it be, I think that third largest podcasting conference in the United States out of the gate.
Jennifer Tracy: That's amazing. Oh my god.
Elsie Escobar: Which is crazy.
Jennifer Tracy: That's incredible. On your first try.
Elsie Escobar: On our first try. Oh my god.
Jennifer Tracy: You're so cool. Congratulations. Very, very cool.
Elsie Escobar: Thank you so much.
Jennifer Tracy: I have really had wanted to go with Sarah, my producer but we just couldn't make it happen. The next one we're definitely coming no matter what.
Elsie Escobar: I'm still processing. I haven't posted anything online about it because it really is quite ... I don't think I've ever gone through anything like that before. I'm still processing it. I did spend like a month and a half and I'm still like, "Hmm."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Because it was big.
Elsie Escobar: Because it was big. I think it was big in, not necessarily even just the ... It was a big conference, but big as in like ... I think this is the biggest thing we've ever done.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Impactful. It was impactful.
Elsie Escobar: Impactful. Yes, impactful. Also, I think the other thing was the responsibility that you have to so many people who are also investing. It's not cheap to attend conferences even if it's a free conference. If you are attending it maybe even locally, maybe that could like save you some money or something. But you're still spending money on food. You're still spending money on transportation. There is a level of investment and the majority ... Obviously women and a lot of these women are moms, as most of us are like the center of the universe for our families. Whenever we leave, it's like the orbit is a skew. All right. There's a lot of deal making that has to happen for everybody's families, for all of us to go.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. It's a huge negotiation. How did you get into podcasting originally?
Elsie Escobar: Oh my gosh. I got into podcasting because I needed a creative outlet in a way. Imagine this; I was working in as an actor in Hollywood and their girl, oh my God, I have a theater background and that's my thing. Theater, theater, theater was what I loved. I got my MFA and he's doing all that stuff. Then I made a life choice. I had my choice of going to LA or New York of course when I graduated because I was in Denver, Colorado, going to school there and I had my choice. Everything was laid out for me. I was one of those very lucky people who were picked up very early. I had management and I had agents and all of that stuff before even moving in both coasts. I was just like, hmm. I'm going to choose LA cause my family's in LA. I was in a relationship at that time that took me to LA.
Elsie Escobar: I was like; I'll just do that instead of going to New York which is where I actually wanted to go. I was not skilled for that. I think everybody needs to go to grad school like every human. It was the most incredible growing experience, but ... And as an artist, it was phenomenal. I would do that over and over and over again. It was just the best part of my life. Then moving to LA was something that grad school didn't teach me which were you now have to do the business of it. I wasn't taught the business of it and I resisted the business of it because I'm an artist for gosh, it's thought. I'm like I already did all this stuff. You should hire me because I'm amazing versus me trying to like be the hot Latina, you know what I mean?
Elsie Escobar: Nobody ever put me in a box like that when I was in school. That was hard. It really made me sad and it was possibly I was the most depressed I've ever been in my life. I was like-
Jennifer Tracy: You were what, 24.
Elsie Escobar: 27. I got there when I was 27 but still I think I was too young.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. They hold up.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. I was twice young. I was really depressed. Sleeping till noon because I was waiting tables still 2:30 in the morning and doing all that stuff and all the crap, right? All the things I decided to stop and I started teaching yoga because that's the other aspect, right? You're either waiting tables who are teaching yoga.
Jennifer Tracy: It's true, it's true.
Elsie Escobar: I mean that's the only thing I can do for sanity's sake. In the process I received an iPod, one of those fifth generations with the little clip video thing on it.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, okay. Right.
Elsie Escobar: Right. At that time, I think that this was the key. At that time I didn't have any of my music digitized. Because I didn't have any of my music digitized I had this device that played music and I couldn't hear anything. I don't know what I was going to listen to. I went inside iTunes and iTunes 4.9 had just come out and just had added podcasts. I was like what the heck are these things? They were like five podcasts. I'm just kidding. I mean it was really small number of things that were in there.
Jennifer Tracy: Maybe a couple hundred.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. I was like, "Oh cool". My brain exploded because I thought I downloaded an anatomy course from a university there from a university like Harvard University had this computer one on one class. I was super illiterate when it came to computers. I've also felt a little bit of shame around that. I thought, "Oh my gosh, I can learn this computer stuff in my ears and nobody knows." Then as I was listening to that computer one-on-one class, there was a segment from another podcast called the typical PC user and his voice would really cool. I was like, what is that? Who is this dude? He has a podcast too, oh I'll listen to that. I started to listen to him and he became my podcasting guru yoda person. He helped me get myself set up because he had said like, "if you have any questions, email me."
Elsie Escobar: He was, do that stuff. I was like, "okay, I'll email him." We became friends and I kind of entered the scene that way and was obsessed with any independent podcasts. I didn't have any dreams or desires to be the next NPR person but I conceived a show in my head and I thought this is the perfect way for me to do express myself creatively and do the, not acting stuff. I was always used to being doing stuff.
Jennifer Tracy: Express yourself and put that out there.
Elsie Escobar: Express. Yeah. I thought this is great. It's just my voice. I think that I really did that because I was very ... Hollywood is so visually stimulating for everybody and everybody's so ... Like I just felt so not seen because people were putting me in a specific thing like I was the hot Latina chick. The end. I didn't even fit that role because I happen to have green eyes. That went along off with everybody in you to furry to be the lead. I always heard that and it was like I was so upset that I had no control over any of that style and I thought, "okay, getting behind the mic." Well remove the way that I look and people will actually listen to what I have to say. Imagine that.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Well and it's so gratifying because it's like you can really use your mind in a way that because I had a very similar trajectory to you. I graduated from college. I didn't get my MFA. I applied to that program in Denver. I didn't get in. I'm from Denver. I love Denver.
Elsie Escobar: Oh, you are. You took National Theater Conservatory.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. It's incredible. I wish I could have gotten in. It's one of the best. It's one of the top five in the country. I can't, I can't believe you did it.
Elsie Escobar: Well, dude, it's gone. It's gone.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, it's gone. Is it gone?
Elsie Escobar: It's gone. I was so sad. My heart is absolutely broken. I literally cried for almost a week
Jennifer Tracy: They didn't have funding or what.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. They didn't have funding because it was like nobody paid for that. It was chartered by Congress. It was chartered by Congress. That was the only MFA program in the nation chartered by Congress and they didn't have the funding and none of us paid. They paid us.
Jennifer Tracy: I mean, I grew up going to all those shows in that space.
Elsie Escobar: At the Denver Center.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, yeah.
Elsie Escobar: Oh my God. The Denver Center is my heart.
Jennifer Tracy: I grew up going to those and as a little girl in those seats, that's where I decided like I want to do that. I started taking acting as a child.
Elsie Escobar: Oh my god. Are you kidding me, that's so great.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. I still get it. I can smell that theater. I remember. Anyway, that's so interesting that we share that connection about where I came. Similarly, I was 23 I was like a day 23, moved out here and I had been acting professionally since I was a kid in Denver. Just small market stuff. I was a little bit hot headed about it and I had such a similar thing. I mean, I'm almost six feet tall, blonde, green eyes also. They just were like Hmm well, you're too tall and like too tall. I would name off all these other tall actresses.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. It's just; I couldn't fit in a box for them. I couldn't fit in a box. It was so frustrating. I got work commercially which was fine and it paid my bills but it wasn't gratifying in that way of like doing theater. I ended up going to this amazing improv theater which is now closed. I did improv and sketch comedy for 11 years and it didn't pay me a dime. But it was so much more gratifying than auditioning, auditioning, auditioning, auditioning. I just either like the sex pot girlfriend or it was just so not me. I mean, I can play that but it's like, God.
Elsie Escobar: I know. See that's what it was. It's like I just kept thinking I'm like, "I can play that but it's like there's so many other layers to this then this." You know what I mean?
Jennifer Tracy: I think back then too, there weren't as many women's roles. Now it's a little better. It's still dominated by men's roles, but ... And, yeah for a woman of color or a Latino woman. I mean, my good friend and my neighbor is Japanese-American and she's a very successful actress and she has always said, she's like, "I will not read if it's in the breakdown that they want an Asian woman." She's like; I won't go out for it deliberately. She only goes out for roles that do not specify that. She works all the time.
Elsie Escobar: I love that. That's the other thing, I absolutely that I like, not like ... Let's pretend I'm going back, let's pretend like I'm going to go back. Oh my God, I have so much more like confident.
Jennifer Tracy: I knew right. Because we knew then what we know now.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. To be able to put myself out there in this wave and with the podcast and all this stuff. Anyway, there's so many things that I would have taught myself about me then but I didn't know how to stand up for myself. When the times that I did stand up for myself, my managers and my agents would literally come back and say like-
Jennifer Tracy: You can't do that.
Elsie Escobar: You can't do that yet. Or like you need to take whatever you can get if you have zero power and I was like, what? I never told anybody the movies that I did the stuff that I did because I was not proud of it. I was like, "yeah I did that."
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. It just for me the same. Yeah. I totally get it. What was your first podcast?
Elsie Escobar: That I did?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Elsie Escobar: Elsie's Yoga Class is what it's called. I decided to test out the tech first. I had to figure out how to do it before I did my show. I'm using quotation marks right now because I had a concept that I wanted to do, like all of these ... It was kind of like one of those site like morning radio shows with all these segments and transitions and we're going to talk about all this stuff. Anyway, that was what I thought I was going to do. I needed to figure out how to do it first because I was like, "I don't know how to do any of this stuff." In order for me to do it, I was working full time as a yoga teacher. I was teaching about 13 public classes at that time, plus my privates.
Jennifer Tracy: That's a lot. Oh my god.
Elsie Escobar: It's a lot. Yeah. I didn't have any extra time to do all the learning. I thought, okay what can I do that will help me record, edit, upload, like do all the things I'm supposed to do without adding too much to my workload? I thought; Oh, I'm just going to record my yoga classes because I'm doing 13 of them every week.
Jennifer Tracy: Repurposing.
Elsie Escobar: Repurposing totally. I have had people, my students at that time would always come up to me and go like, "we really want to take you with us. We were going to go to the vacation, it would be so great." I was like, "I thought offhand I could record a class and give it to you guys." Then I thought, "Well, I'll just do this podcasting thing and people can download it." It was just like a test. That was in July 2006, so that was like the woman who was doing the yoga classes on podcasts.
Jennifer Tracy: Right, right, right.
Elsie Escobar: There were no other people doing this. There was yoga, it was something called yoga peeps I think, or something like that where it was like interviews with yogi people. There was like a dude like Dave, somebody who also had classes like I did. There was this other dude I'm doing yoga, amazing. Who was a video dude? He was like; Chaz was doing video classes, a 20-minute video classes. I was the first female yoga teacher that was doing audio classes at that time. I got a lot of recognition given the space. Now mind do remember, this is like five people. It was like, "Oh it's the yoga girl." I was known as a yoga girl and iTunes at that time gave me a lot of features because again, I was the yoga girl so I was always there.
Elsie Escobar: That's how I started. It really took off. People started to know me in the podcasting community. Yes, also in the yoga community. I remember I was going to learn from my teacher and I would go to conferences or like those big trainings that they have. Yoga trainings in different States and all that stuff then I would go and I would be checking in talking and they'll go, "Oh, are you Elsie?" I was like, "Ooh, it's me." I was recognized like in the United States just with my voice. That was freaky and weird. I think it's just obviously that community was very small. The yoga teachers at that time were yoga students that were listening to podcast too. At that time that wasn't really a thing. Now it's a so much more thing. That was my first.
Jennifer Tracy: How long did you do that podcast for?
Elsie Escobar: I did it till 2013,
Jennifer Tracy: Oh wow, long time.
Elsie Escobar: Yes. I also only published a little bit over a hundred episodes because I was doing like a weekly thing and then my life changed and then I like left LA and moved somewhere else ... And so, I didn't have any public clouds. The whole premise was me recording my public classes. Then I didn't have any public classes. Then it was like, "Oh, what am I going to do?" I just dropped it. Then I had to build on it. Then it just became crazy and then I got pregnant and so they're all went.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Well that's what happens when we get pregnant.
Elsie Escobar: Yes, yes, yes.
Jennifer Tracy: End scene.
Elsie Escobar: End scene. Exactly.
Jennifer Tracy: New scene.
Elsie Escobar: New scene. Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: You got pregnant and you have two children.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: They're how old now?
Elsie Escobar: They are just turned eight and just turned 11. Yes. They're babies.
Jennifer Tracy: It's so fun. My guys 10, it's a wild ride. You got pregnant and then did that precipitate the ... Oh, was that the impetus for the move out of LA?
Elsie Escobar: No. Actually, the move from LA was just I was over at all and I was leading a very ... Like I was really in transition. I wasn't really in toxic relationship at that time, I have been in a long time and I just was really ready to let it go. I'm in the process of exiting. I mean it was very dramatic. It was very dramatic time. I hooked. I didn't hook up cause that's not what it was because it was online. I started to converse and like have a relationship with my now partner online. Because we never met each other and things aligned themselves where I ended up doing a show after not being on stage for almost a decade. One of my directors that I went to grad school with, he calls me up literally and was like, "Hey you want to be in this show? We started in a couple of weeks." I was like, "A what? Sure." I went to Arizona and then I ended up moving to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and I just picked up and left and a sight unseen thing.
Elsie Escobar: Followed my heart and ended up with a lovely life with the family and children.
Jennifer Tracy: That you had your children after that.
Elsie Escobar: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: Or before you moved. Okay.
Elsie Escobar: No. After that, after that. Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Got it. Wow. I love that. You're now in North Carolina?
Elsie Escobar: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: You are in North Carolina.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: I love North Carolina. My mom's from Asheville.
Elsie Escobar: That's where I live-ish. That's where I live-ish. Yes. I know because it's like we come into and that's where I am right now, in Asheville as you're saying.
Jennifer Tracy: It's so great. Great. Okay. From there, so you have kids and did that become your sole focus? Were you working after the kids were born? Were you podcasting at all?
Elsie Escobar: I tried; I tried to podcast but alas I was podcasting as yoga podcasting and that I felt like that is in itself very energetically. I felt that I needed to really respect the people who are listening and I had to be really on, you can't fake that man. You just can't fake any of that stuff. Podcasting is so hard to fake, I'm telling you.
Jennifer Tracy: It's so true. True.
Elsie Escobar: Oh my god. Even if it's your voice it's like, oh my God I can't do it. I can't be like; yeah, everybody sit up tall clothes. I was dying. I was dying so there's no way I could've done that. It would have been lie. Eventually I stopped just because I was exhausted as I'll get out. Interestingly enough, I had a job but when I moved there like a job. This was my very, very, very, very first job, job. I was at that job, job like nine to five. I had my baby girl and I know this is going to sound horrible but I had my baby girl and as I was in my maternity leave I was laid off.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah, dude. It sucked. Alas though, that was the first time I've ever been able to get unemployment because I actually had a job, job.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, yes, yes.
Elsie Escobar: That was cool. I didn't know that. Looking back, I was just thinking about that when I was ... We were coming into town today and I was like, "I was really lucky because I got an opportunity to get unemployment while I was just being a mom for the very first time." I didn't have to go back to work. I mean because I was getting a check and not to say that that was ... I mean obviously it was not a lot at all but it kept us to in a point where it was all right. It was old, it was just barely okay. I was with my baby the entire time and it would have been crazy for me to have to go back to work. She was a handful. It was really hard. Really hard. Yeah. I essentially stopped doing everything. I stopped doing everything during that time. I could not. She demanded that from me as a mom.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. My son was like that too. Yeah. It's exhausting and it's just nothing can communicate to anybody how exhausting and depleting it is until they experience it. It's crazy. Then you had your second.
Elsie Escobar: Yes.
Jennifer Tracy: At what point did you pick up and say, "Hey I want to create something,"
Elsie Escobar: I want to do something back again. Yes. I've always been. It's weird because I've never really self-identity ... I mean I am a mom and I am a mom through and through but I've never self-identified as mom and I've always been like not that's not what leads. I think my family leads for sure. The decisions we make at home are all based around our collective family. Me being present as a mother is, I mean I am the son everything revolves around me. I am in there, but I don't lead with that as who I am as a person. That's just not what it is. I've always had my own thing. I've always been incredibly independent and all that stuff. There did come a point there while I was having my babies there that I was getting really feeling incredibly. I don't even know what the word is I don't think it was ... Maybe it is depressed, but it wasn't depressed in the-
Jennifer Tracy: Restless
Elsie Escobar: It could be restless. I'm not even sure but I was really negative and I think that the description isn't necessarily like clinical depression. Because it's not like I couldn't get out of bed kind of stuff and I was like having these dark thoughts, like it wasn't that. It was like a feeling of like, "Oh my God, I'm going to go nuts if I don't have space. I need to get out of here". I just wanted to punch things like get off of me. Don't suck on my boobs anymore. I just was like, "Ohhh."
Jennifer Tracy: I think I need a tee shirt that says, "Get off of me. Don't suck on my boobs anymore."
Elsie Escobar: I'm serious.
Jennifer Tracy: I know, I know.
Elsie Escobar: My body was responding in this way and I thought I need some creative. I've never not been creatively me putting things out. I'm always been an innovator. I've always been a creative person. I've always been enthusiastic about new stuff. I always am getting all of those things that have been part of my DNA. I see patterns, I see the way things work and I'm like, "Oh my God, that's going to be amazing." I'm constantly like doing that kind of stuff. I'm a tester, I'm a tinker and this is in technology as much as it is in self-help type stuff like knowing yourself deeply and all that. I realize like I need to get out. I need to get out. I started to teach slightly more yoga classes.
Elsie Escobar: I reached out to the job that laid me off and I was like, "you guys do you have space. What's up you all? I'm ready to come back if it's available and I have thoughts." Because I had been, because I can't stop, because it's podcasting related stuff. I was like; I just can't stop myself. The medium really in spa ... Like it really inspires me. I saw so many things that could be done better. I came in with this attitude and at that ... And my boss who is now still my boss, she was just like, "let's do it." I was like, "okay." I just went in into it, right? I started to create things and that's where I've been just constantly creating stuff is my thing.
Jennifer Tracy: That's so amazing. When did you start, She Podcast?
Elsie Escobar: She Podcast came in 2014. I think I stopped my Elsie's Yoga Class ... I stopped in 2013 but in truth I think it stopped before that as well. I mean, that was the last episode that I put out was a Thanksgiving episode that year. I think I put out maybe two episodes that one year and maybe three the year before. It had been dead for a while. In that same year, in 2013 I did finally push to get a show for Libsyn which is the company that I work for. I finally was like, "we need to have a podcast and I need to do it. I'm going to be the one." What will it take for me to be consistent in I outlined the schedule that I knew that I could commit to?
Elsie Escobar: That was that and it was working and so I was like, "okay, I have a show, it's steady. This is great. I can manage it. Awesome." Then 2014 came around and Jess and I had ... Jessica actually that year, at the beginning of that year started to do a show that was about ... She was doing, lady business radio. Then she also felt like that she couldn't talk to any other woman podcasters out there. Because the other Facebook groups were all full of guys who didn't understand what the heck anybody was saying and they were just to mansplaining. Sometimes we just wanted like a really easy question. What Mic, should I get? Just give me the mic instead of telling me all things about what they all do and everything because we don't know and we don't care. She created this Facebook group and in the conversations in the Facebook group the women were going, why isn't there a show about podcasting for women?
Elsie Escobar: We were like, "Oh, let's do it. Let's do it." We ended up like hooking up that way. Then, because we created the show, we ... Well it was her group but then we decided to change the group's name to She Podcasts. That's where I came from.
Jennifer Tracy: That's so awesome. I don't even know I didn't look before I should have ... I don't know how many thousands of members there are. There's like a lot.
Elsie Escobar: 14,000 plus.
Jennifer Tracy: That's incredible.
Elsie Escobar: It's insane.
Jennifer Tracy: It's amazing.
Elsie Escobar: Jessica just sent me a text yesterday of I guess she put a post-up on November 20th which was like yesterday and she put a post-up and she said that ... On Facebook she took a screenshot and she sent it to me. She was thanking people because we had 5,000 women in 2015, so in 2015 we had 5,000 women. In 2019, we have over 14,000. That's crazy.
Jennifer Tracy: Sounds like incredible growth. That's amazing. Well, it just shows you how much it's needed.
Elsie Escobar: Oh my God. Yeah. Oh my God. Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Then the conference and how that will continue to grow. That's so exciting. Now you've been doing the show with Libsyn for how long?
Elsie Escobar: That show is since 2013 so it's been a while.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, 2013, right.
Elsie Escobar: 2013 is when I did the feed and the feed has grown exponentially as well. I am just really, really like shocked at its size right now because it's a podcast about podcasting that's like over usually around 90 minutes of like-
Jennifer Tracy: Podcast talk.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. Even I fall asleep. Sorry, Rob my co-host. Usually he's talking and I'm like ... For those of you who cannot see me, I am moving away from the microphone and closing my eyes. Especially when we talk about like really like stats and things and not to say that that's an interesting, but it's very info ... It's like information like, oh my god. People love it. People really love info. It's not liked a fun, fun, fun, and I'm like the perky one that comes in and occasionally like stops the monotony.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. Then Jess and I had been podcasting since 2014 so it's been a very consistent voice. I've been a very consistent voice in two separate shows for that long which is a long time.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. That's incredible. What's on the table for you? What's 2020 look like for you?
Elsie Escobar: Oh gosh, 2020 is more; I think that my thing right now is the globalization of podcasting is really big on my plate. I would say like Spanish speaking, I have another show that I launched that I wasn't ready to launch really. I just launched it. I was like, "might as well do it." I've only gotten two episodes out. It's just like, I'll fix it. I'll do it when I'm ready. It's a Spanish speaking show about podcasting because I can't stop myself but because it really I feel is needed and we are very US centric obviously. I mean the US tends to be puts itself like everything is centered around how that works I feel that podcasting now is in a position to really, really grow from where it is. But we need to really focus outside of what we've already been doing. For me, the Spanish speaking market is really, really important. Also highlighting and advocating for women's voices particularly women of color is for me like front and center. That's a huge, huge, huge thing for me.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. That's exciting. Well, congratulations on that.
Elsie Escobar: Thank you. Thank you.
Jennifer Tracy: What do you think about when you hear the word love?
Elsie Escobar: Oh gosh. That it's really not what you think because ... Yeah. I think our society has as put love to be like that thing. With all the fairy tales where it's like you find the Prince charming and because of that narrative that our little girls are fed. I think constantly over and over and all these stories that are what we grow up with. We want to have whatever this Prince is right. Once you do that, everything is going to be taken care of and taking the seat of princess and princess says usually need to be saved in some way. I think that I really internalized that for myself and thought that love was having that somebody come and save me in this fashion which is why I made the choices that I did when I was younger.
Elsie Escobar: I didn't necessarily have agency enough to say like, "You know what? This isn't really working out because I had made that decision." That's what I'm saying in terms of love that it's not ... I want to break that pattern for my girls as well and also to help them understand that. Yeah. Love is incredible. I love my partner right now to death. He is an incredible human being. He's so sweet and smart and solid and all of these wonderful things and he's made me feels, I've never felt before but it's still really hard. It's very, very hard. Sometimes you just hate them. You just like get out of my face. They don't want to see you. Don't talk to me that way. Just all the stuff.
Jennifer Tracy: Stop sucking on my boobs, stop sucking on my boobs.
Elsie Escobar: I know like all of the things were just like I don't ... This is, "Ahhhhh", right. That's what it brings to me. It's a lot more than what we generally talk about is love is multilayered in so many different ways that just can. Yeah.
Jennifer Tracy: It's so true. I mean, it's so true and I think that is something that I bought into and my parents fed that to me as well which it was ... And part of their generation. I mean, my parents are in their seventies now, so it was like you grow up you marry a good man and everything just is easy and you bake pies and like, wait, what? No. That's not my reality at all. Or anyone I know by the way.
Elsie Escobar: I mean, there are some people you know that do have like, there's a few people who are like ... That can do that stuff and like they like ... But I know for me; callie crap, I'm exhausted. You don't want to talk to another let alone a guy. That's what I keep thinking, I'm like, ugghh.
Jennifer Tracy: It's really it is.
Elsie Escobar: I still love him and do all the things but it's not like, yeah. No.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. It looks really different than those Disney movies or the romantic comedies from the 80s and all that.
Elsie Escobar: Right. All the romantic comedy. Yes. All of that stuff. Yes. I want them to not think that that's a thing. I'd like them to make a choice to fall in love with somebody and to make a really strong choice to say like, "you know what? I'm willing to work on this." Instead of, "Ooh, it's everything's going to be to feed to you fine"
Jennifer Tracy: Yes. Right. State their boundaries and talk about their disappointments or like you said, you were in your youth unable to say, "Hey, this isn't working" because you thought, "well, I've got to just make it work."
Elsie Escobar: Right.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah.
Elsie Escobar: Absolutely.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. If you could live anywhere in the world other than where you're living now, where would you live?
Elsie Escobar: Probably Barcelona or like the Catalonia region. All that area over there has a lot of magic that I feel like I've only visited once. But I fell in love with the entire feel of that area and I just feel the magic and I want to discover it and just be there. I don't know, I just would love to like live in a monastery up in those mountains somewhere and like-
Jennifer Tracy: I think that's every mother's dream at some point.
Elsie Escobar: I know right.
Jennifer Tracy: It's like just like, "oh my god, I just want to live in a monastery where there's no talking."
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. Oh my god.
Jennifer Tracy: I just wear the same thing every day and just I'm quiet I can think.
Elsie Escobar: Somebody else kind of tells you what to do and you don't have to like do that. You just do all the things and then ... But anyway. Yeah. That's my dream and I would love to do ... I'm still planning on, I'm like one day, "I will be like an old hermit lady up in the monastery."
Jennifer Tracy: I love it. I love it. Elsie, how do you define serenity?
Elsie Escobar: Oh my God. I think privacy or aloneness. Yeah. I think that that's what it is. I don't even know anymore because there's so many things that I'm thinking in my head from moment to moment. Then I don't know what it's like to not have a slight panic attack.
Jennifer Tracy: 24/7.
Elsie Escobar: 24/7.
Jennifer Tracy: I so relate to that.
Elsie Escobar: My God. I could be like super calm and just be like, "Oh, this is beautiful. Oh my God, I have that thing I have to do" and then, ohhh.
Jennifer Tracy: Totally. Okay. Lightning round of questions. Okay. Fireside or Oceanside. What is fireside mean? Like by a fire.
Elsie Escobar: Oh, by a fire. I'm like, "see, I don't even know what that is." Maybe Oceanside likes looking at the ocean. Yeah. Open. Yeah. I think that that's what I would do.
Jennifer Tracy: What's your favorite junk food?
Elsie Escobar: Pizza. Is that junk food.
Jennifer Tracy: Sure. It's whatever you define as junk food. I heard a woman on here and she said kale chips.
Elsie Escobar: No. That's not even fair for her.
Jennifer Tracy: Yes, she did. For her, that's her version.
Elsie Escobar: That's her junk food. Yeah. I think you know what? I guess pizza but still, I mean I have that all not all the time but I just really love pizza.
Jennifer Tracy: When you have kids, it becomes a staple. Oh my God. Pizza is good. It's just so easy. Do you like theme parks?
Elsie Escobar: I like theme parks but I like to leave when I'm ready to go. My parents were always like the ... Because this was a huge thing. Every time it was for my birthday, we would go to a theme park as a family. That was a present. We would get up like at 7:00 AM or whatever and drive because the theme bars in LA because that's what our like way every year. You have to drive. Then we would get there as soon as it opened and we would leave as soon as it closed the entire day. The whole day.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh, my god. Oh, that sounds like a torture.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. It was torturous. They've always been like; we're going to suck this dry, right. This is what I thought it was.
Jennifer Tracy: I love that we're going to suck this dry.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. It was like crazy. Anyway, so that's how I experienced theme parks and yes it was fantastic and fun. I just realized and I'm only telling you this because I just ... Okay. When we went to LA, there was podcast movement in LA and that podcast movement in LA also gave us discounts to go to ... Because it was an Anaheim. They gave us discounts to go to Disneyland and Jess and I decided to do it and we invited my mom and dad because they live in LA. So they came over and so on one of our days, Jess and I like my BF app now, I might like ... We're like middle aged women dragging my parents and we're like, let's go to Disneyland.
Elsie Escobar: We totally did it. It was hilarious because I was at ... We were like the kids and with my mom and dad like it was so fun but there came a point and it was so funny. I just was out. I was out of it. I was like, lights out and I was getting ready to go. I don't know where we were in the circle of going around. I was done. I was like, where's the exit? My mom and dad and Jas; they were all commiserating together they're like, "I think she's done like what's wrong with her?" Yeah. My mom's like; she's been like that all her life and always done and kind of stuff. I was like, "Oh my God." She's seeing me as I was and I felt I was the 13-year-old child going like I'm done. I'm done, kind of go. Yes. Theme parks but I have to leave when I want.
Jennifer Tracy: You have a limit. You have a limit.
Elsie Escobar: I have a limit; yes, totally.
Jennifer Tracy: Daytime sex or nighttime sex?
Elsie Escobar: At this point, daytime although that does not ever happen. Only because-
Jennifer Tracy: You're tired.
Elsie Escobar: Exactly. Who is going to stay up? Dude, I have to put an alarm clock on my phone because I have to wait for my kids to be asleep. I put an alarm clock on my phone to wake me up, go lay. Now my hubby's calling it cookies. All of a sudden, I look at my phone and I get a cookie emoji and I'm like, "Oh crap." It's the signal. He's like cookies tonight. I'm like, how about tomorrow night? I need two days of just my mind.
Jennifer Tracy: Prep, you need prep.
Elsie Escobar: I need prep. I need like cookie prep. I have to like be going, "okay, I have to like psych myself up." I mean, it's still wonderful and amazing when it happens. It's not like that's bad. It's just the, "Oh my God, I'm so excited." Then I'm tired. Then afterwards I'm all wound up. Then I'm like, yeah let's go.
Jennifer Tracy: Same. Same, they go to their back to sleep. They're like, "urkkk." I'm like, "well, no, no, no, not now let's do something. Let's talk. Let's watch a movie. Let's play a board game." Yeah. I have not play but maybe I don't know. I don't know.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. I'm like, "Oh, wake, wake" Yeah. Everybody's out. I'm like, "I don't know what to do with myself and therefore I'm tired for like two days afterwards." My dream would be morning or an escape in the middle of the afternoon. That way I could still sleep in and sleep at night. That's not our life. No. Where am I going to go over here?
Jennifer Tracy: That to have to be scheduled.
Elsie Escobar: That has to be scheduled. Correct.
Jennifer Tracy: At this moment. I mean as the kids get older, I think that will change or when they're out of the house. I don't know. I don't know.
Elsie Escobar: I don't know either.
Jennifer Tracy: Now I'm single so I don't even know what I'm talking about because I'm just totally single.
Elsie Escobar: How does this happen now? I don't even know what would happen. Look, so let's say there's nothing to do and it's like we're just hanging out. I don't even know what to play like the game to play anymore. I don't know how to be all flirtatious and stuff because now it's just like cookies, cookies. Okay. Here naked. It's like there's no-
Jennifer Tracy: Stop sucking on my boobs. I'm just going to keep calling back to that because I love it so much. Okay. Next question. Shower or bathtub.?
Elsie Escobar: Shower. I'm not a bathtub girl.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. You don't have time.
Elsie Escobar: Right. Also, why? I don't get it. I honestly don't and I know there's people who really love baths and that's their thing. But I'm like, why do I want to be like in this little place in hanging and I like the wire on me. Like I could stand there and like have the water run on me. I think it's the feeling of the running water that makes me excited. I just don't understand tubs.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. I had a guest on the show and she said, "ehhhh, showers. I don't want to sit in my own filth."
Elsie Escobar: That's what I'm thinking too. Why would I sit there?
Jennifer Tracy: I never thought that way before. Its like, "oh, it's true."
Elsie Escobar: Where do I go with that? Anyway. Yeah. I tried. I haven't thought of that.
Jennifer Tracy: Did you know the phrase, "don't throw the baby out with the bath water." Came from in the olden days when they had to heat up the water on the stove for the bath and like in the kingdom in England or France or wherever. They would heat up one bath and the royalty would take the bath. The King would take the bath and then the queen and then they would go down the hierarchy and then the servants would get in the bath, like the same bath tub of water.
Elsie Escobar: Oh my God.
Jennifer Tracy: Then like the servant's baby would be taking a bath and then it would be time to ... Like that's the lowest ranking, right? Servants, babies for the last person to bathe in filthy water. You're not even really bathing, but okay. It was like the water was so filthy. It was like; don't throw the baby out with the bath water because you can't see it because it's so disgusting.
Elsie Escobar: I don't even know to say about that. Thank you so much for that. Because now I'm like-
Jennifer Tracy: That's where that comes from. I was like that is so horrifying.
Elsie Escobar: That is horrifying. Yeah. No.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. Okay. Next question. Scale of one to 10, how good are you at making lasagna?
Elsie Escobar: I don't know. Maybe a five. I think I've done lasagna's maybe twice in my life.
Jennifer Tracy: That's awesome.
Elsie Escobar: It's been a while and I didn't mess it up so that's why I'm saying a five. Saying a five because I've done it twice. It sucks
Jennifer Tracy: I don't know. I think that deserves a solid six.
Elsie Escobar: Okay whatever.
Jennifer Tracy: It didn't suck and you made it and you didn't mess it up..
Elsie Escobar: I didn't suck. I have not done it again. I have not touched it. It's been years. Mind you, I'm almost 50 so twice in 50 years.
Jennifer Tracy: That's pretty good. That's more than most. I've never made it. I love lasagna. It's one of my favorite things.
Elsie Escobar: I love lasagna as well.
Jennifer Tracy: I want to learn how to make it. What's your biggest pet peeve?
Elsie Escobar: Oh my God. I have so many.
Jennifer Tracy: Just pick one.
Elsie Escobar: One pet peeve. Holy crap. Well, it has to do I think with podcasting related because that's all I really think about often. Actually, you know what? Let me just give you a little ... I hate it when people ask a question and you give them a solution to the problem and then they ask the question again to everybody else.
Jennifer Tracy: Oh God. Yes. Yeah.
Elsie Escobar: Until they get the answer they want, I guess.
Jennifer Tracy: That's what they wanted. It's like, yeah why are you even asking.
Elsie Escobar: Yeah. That's been a theme that has run through I think both in podcasting as well as in my yoga clients and things. I see that in repetition over and over again. Yeah. It actually is what made me quit teaching yoga is, it was that.
Jennifer Tracy: interesting.
Elsie Escobar: Because I was like really pissed off.
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. I believe it. Superpower choice, invisibility, ability to fly or super strength.
Elsie Escobar: I would either be invisible, but I think I already have that superpower. I might pick flying.
Jennifer Tracy: Okay. Would you rather have a cat tail or cat ears?
Elsie Escobar: I think ears because they're so much cuter. Then the tail, where would I put it in my pants?
Jennifer Tracy: Yeah. True, true.
Elsie Escobar: I would have to have holes and everything. Yeah. No way. I will have ears because somebody will always be pulling my tail and I cannot ... I would not be able to handle that. I'll be punching people and I'd be violent. Yes. Correct. No tail.
Jennifer Tracy: What was the name of your first pet?
Elsie Escobar: Oki.
Jennifer Tracy: What was the name of the street you grew up on?
Elsie Escobar: Guantanamo.
Jennifer Tracy: Your porn name is Oki Guantanamo.
Elsie Escobar: That's pretty amazing.
Jennifer Tracy: I think so too.
Elsie Escobar: Wow. Look at that. I would be like I'm aware of that.
Jennifer Tracy: I want to watch that in narrative.
Elsie Escobar: I know. I want to watch her to.
Jennifer Tracy: What is she conquering? I think she's a superhero for sure.
Elsie Escobar: I know. Oh my God. Yeah. She'll come in and out and you won't even know what happened to your body. You'd be like, "What? Stop sucking on my boob."
Jennifer Tracy: Stop sucking on my boobs. God damn it. Elsie, you're a treasure. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Elsie Escobar: Oh, thank you. Thank you.
Jennifer Tracy: Thanks so much for listening, guys. I really hope you enjoyed my conversation with Elsie. Please remember to check out soulku.com and use the code MILF15 and thisisloom.com and use the code MILF20 upon checking out for your discounts and join me next week when I have Laura McGregor on the show. Laura is the founder of hopescarves.org which was the give initiative for December last month, and she's just remarkable cancer survivor, currently battling cancer again, and just an inspirational human being. I'm so lucky that I got to have her on the show and hope you guys have a wonderful week and I'll talk to you next week. Bye.