People of Northwest Arkansas
The People of Northwest Arkansas is an award winning podcast celebrating the power of storytelling by providing a platform for individuals living in Northwest Arkansas to share their unique and inspiring life experiences. We believe that every person has a story worth telling, and through our podcast, we aim to amplify these voices through thoughtful interviews and engaging storytelling.
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People of Northwest Arkansas
Journey of Resilience and Advocacy: Irvin Camacho's Impact on Northwest Arkansas
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Listeners will uncover the heart of community advocacy as Irvin Camacho opens up about his dedication to his podcast, District 3, as well as immigrant rights through his work with DACA. Through scholarships and persistent advocacy, Irvin has been a beacon of hope, helping to provide financial aid and support to those in need. Hear firsthand how he’s built enduring relationships and mobilized efforts from the political arena to nonprofit initiatives, all of which have played a crucial role in shaping the vibrant community of Northwest Arkansas.
The podcast journey itself is a testament to growth and evolution—starting with rudimentary equipment and evolving into a polished production with support from KUAF for District 3 Podcast. Irvin and his team emphasize authenticity, tackling serious topics with respect and humor while shining a light on diverse personal stories. Join us as we continue to bridge cultures, celebrate achievements, and build connections through the compelling power of podcasting.
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Bilingual Podcasting in Northwest Arkansas
Speaker 1Danielle , yeah , I have a really special guest today . Yeah , his name's Edvin Camacho and he is one of the main hosts at District 3 , arkansas's first bilingual podcast . Welcome , edwin , I said it right .
Speaker 2You said it right .
Speaker 1Yay .
Speaker 2You can say Edwin , you can say Irvin , I'll say Irvin and congratulations on y'all's award .
Speaker 1Oh , thank you so much yeah .
Speaker 2The ArtCast award just happened this weekend .
Speaker 1They did , they did and you're on the board .
Speaker 2Yeah , I've been there since it started , so this is the third art cast festival that we've helped create , but the majority of the work has been done by ty , by britney and by by karen . They're the ones that actually are hands on the ground and pretty much organizing it . Oh yeah , they're well .
Speaker 1We thank you for what you do . And I finally got to meet ty in person because we connected like online . I didn't get to go last year I can't remember what came up , but danielle went and represented for us but I did go this year and we met Ty , met Brittany , karen , everyone and they really worked so hard and , from what Danielle tells me , it's just getting better every year , bigger and better and more connected , and so we really enjoyed that . And we met Elena and Miguel Miggs and we saw the table KUAF .
Speaker 3I do have to say that I knew Miguel before oh you did yes from film oh , that's right . I feel like you would know him somehow , he actually did sound on a film that I was working on , a short film a couple years ago that we did not finish what was it called ?
Speaker 1it was called the . Witch well , I asked him , did you ? And I said I know you've heard this all the time , but when you laugh , his laugh sounds like yes , we've heard that a lot from people it was like your voice doesn't sound like it , but when you laugh it's like taking me back to like a pineapple express and like he probably likes that no he did ?
Speaker 3he was smiling and laughing more . She's like fangirling over him and he's like if I close my eyes .
Speaker 1I'm standing next to seth rogan , and then he just laughs more .
Speaker 2We've had people come up to us and tell him how much they like his laugh not even from not even from the podcast . But sometimes , like when we're out and like eating or something , so they'll hear him laughing and someone be like dude , I really like your laugh he is a good laugh . He gets a lot of compliments for it yeah , we'll laugh .
Speaker 1Celebrity okay , so we want to talk about how you got into podcasting , but first we always like to ask how you came to northwest arkansas you're from here or if you moved here yeah , I moved here in 2000 I was about 10 years old , I think , back then and my parents lived in california .
Speaker 2So cool but we lived like in like a shady part of california it's called gonzalez , but it was like in a bad neighborhood . Uh , there was a lot of gangs just around my neighborhood . In general , even though my dad was like friends with them , like we didn't have , they didn't have any beef with us . My dad just didn't want me to be raised , or my sister , in an environment like that and also there was a lot of .
Speaker 2There wasn't a lot of access to higher education opportunities over there , especially when you're poor . So we just got into my dad's black Camaro and put as many things as we could and just came over here . We had a family over here and they told us about the poultry industry , how there was lot of jobs , how there wasn't much gangs . There was a lot of opportunities . So we just took that risk and arrived here like I think it was like winter because it was snowing .
Speaker 1It was the first time I ever saw snow people told me when I moved here from texas it never snows here . I'm like it has snowed every year that I've lived here it is so cold . Here it doesn't snow , those liars so you're used to warm weather , like me .
Speaker 2I'm like I was not used to the snow . I remember the first time that we got here we got at my uncle's house and , like the whole family slipped on the snow at the same time . Like it was like a tv show where like one person slipped . Someone tried to get the other person , then they slipped like we all fell and it was . It was like our introduction to snow .
Speaker 3I'm sad Welcome to Arkansas winter .
Speaker 4I'm sad you didn't have like a ring camera at that time to catch that Because now no one can get away with anything on a front porch or back .
Speaker 1So you came here when you were 10 . So you're basically like a local .
Speaker 2I think so , especially Springdale , like that's my place , like I love that place you know I moved there when I was , I think , 13 , because we first moved to Lowell and then for a few years and then we finally got a house in Springdale and I've been here ever since sixth grade .
Speaker 3That's really awesome yeah , springdale is really great , even Springdale schools . I've done a lot of work with them and I know the director of communications over there . But they the elementary one of the elementary schools in springdale has a podcast and those little girls have won so many awards at our tiger talk yes tiger talk . Yeah , so it's john tyson elementary school .
Speaker 1Oh my gosh , they were the cutest what was their little sign of tiger talk ?
Speaker 3it was a little more like like they were trying , but they were the most eloquent speech givers at the awards ceremony the other night . They really did a great job way more prepared I wish I could remember the actual awards they won for .
Speaker 1So they run and they won in three categories best school and then best youth , I can't remember . And then one of them got .
Speaker 3Community was one of them , yeah , and then one of them got best young podcaster of the year and she was so articulate Fourth through sixth graders .
Speaker 2Don Tyson is really good at just a lot of things . Yes , I've been hearing especially in their media field I've been hearing that they've been doing a lot of good jobs and taking a lot of different awards for their work .
Speaker 3Well , they have the east program in springdale , and then there's john tyson , which is the elementary school , and then there's don tyson , which is the high school and that's the don tyson school of innovation . It's like d ? Yeah , so it's . They're doing a lot of stuff and I've worked with them and just what they're doing with the media arts festival and so , really trying . I've actually been talking to the media arts festival people and being like , okay , like we need to push podcasting more , and they were like well , danielle , we're trying .
Speaker 2And I was like all right , let's do it so . Springdale high school has a podcast now too .
Speaker 3Yes , that's so cool .
Speaker 1So yeah , springdale , we grew up in .
Speaker 3Springdale
Community Organizing and DACA Assistance
Speaker 3we love . Did you do before podcasting ?
Speaker 1oh , well , this isn't my full-time , well I figured , but I wish I know , is this our full-time job ?
Speaker 2no , it's not well . I've been involved in community organizing since I was like 17 , so specifically focused on , like , immigrant rights . So I that's how I've been able to meet a lot of people and that's how I've been able to get guests for the podcast is because I've already built relationships with folks for these past like 15 years yeah so I just I did that and then when I was 24 , I ran for state rep at Springdale , which also helped me build a lot of like relationships and trust and there was a lot of good work there .
Speaker 2And but pretty much the past almost 10 years it's been non-profit work that I've been doing Work with an organization called the Bell Project , which helped incarcerated folks in Ben and Washington County . We would bail them out of jail and then help them out with resources like mental health resources , addiction resources , help them find jobs and , most importantly , get them back to court so that they can get their cases closed . So I did that for four years and then right now I work for a nonprofit called the Industrial Areas Foundation , which is the longest running interfaith organization in our country's history .
Speaker 2That focuses on just getting a bunch of leaders together in one room , building trust relationships between them and then eventually creating a community agenda of issues that we're going to advocate for while using all of our power and influence together . Yeah so that's what I've been doing for the past year .
Speaker 1That's awesome . I love helping people that have been incarcerated . I've personally just donated to Prison Fellowship , which is there's so many different organizations that work on that , and I think that's really important because I think that America , as Americans , we need to do a better job with people that are incarcerated and helping them have the resources to know what to do when they get out . Like it's not fair to not give them opportunities to come back into society and also just not to have , like that stigma like that they can , and here in arkansas we we incarcerate more people than some countries I know we have like I think we might have the highest incarceration rate in the country Really , if not the highest , it's like we're probably like number two or number three .
Speaker 1I thought Texas might be up there , but it's number one in all things . Yeah , I know .
Speaker 2But you see , there is that stigma . And that's one of the things that that experience of being four years with the nonprofit even helped me maybe use my language a little bit better than when I was using or think about housing insecure folks a little differently than what society ? Sometimes on Facebook you'll see a post that's like oh , this person is asking for money and like . And then I saw them go get like some alcohol or some stuff like .
Speaker 2There's different factors to that like right there's a reason why someone has like an addiction , all these different things and people just like to see things on a surface level , which is very unfortunate .
Speaker 1It is unfortunate , yeah , and you've also been . I've seen you've been raising money for a project to help people that are immigrants here trying to .
Speaker 2You talked about their rights and so you're working on um yeah like education , yeah , so right there's like , uh , there's a program called daca , which is deferred action for childhood arrivals okay , which was a executive order that president barack obama passed in like 2012 and that allowed undocumented youth to be able to get a work permit to stay here legally in this country , so they were finally able to get a driver's license , get a house all these different things that they couldn't get before . But that program renews every two years . You have to pay , like right now it's at 555 to do it online and 605 to do it through mail , and they and people like you'd be surprised by how many people cannot afford that I'm not surprised .
Speaker 1That sounds really high , actually some people .
Speaker 2when I tell them they're oh , they can't raise that in two years , I'm like that's a lot of money .
Speaker 1No , that's a lot of money . That's a paycheck for some people , and most people live paycheck to paycheck , and so for youth too , especially , can you ?
Speaker 3imagine . No , I cannot imagine . I'm just thinking about like I don't .
Speaker 2There a lot of adults that don't have that sitting around , let alone youth . So it's every two years . So that's why that we created this DACA scholarship four years ago , where I use all the relationships I've built within these past 15 years , like I reach out to people and say , hey , can you donate 20 , 50 ? Some people donate a thousand dollars and we've been doing this for four years and I think we've raised like maybe over 40,000 now . Wow , think we've raised like maybe over 40 000 now . Wow , that's amazing . And right now we've we're about to meet our goal for this year , even though we still have a month . We're . Our goal was ten thousand dollars and we're at nine thousand something right now that's incredible so that will go straight to helping them renew .
Speaker 3So if you're listening and you're inspired by this story yeah , please donate yeah how many scholarships are you giving out , like how many students are in this area that are needing ? Help in funding that for them .
Speaker 2So right now like , for example , we opened up the email about a month ago and I think we've had like maybe only like 30 this time that have reached out , but some of them we've already given scholarships to before . So we have put them on the side for the time being and trying to help the people that we've never helped before . So we're about to send four money orders today to people like full scholarships , and in the next few weeks we're going to try to get more people Because if we raise $10,000 , that would be close to like 18 full scholarships .
Speaker 3I was going to say that's not even covering all of the applicants .
Speaker 2My wife helps me out by looking over some of the emails and then we usually pick someone from the community just for transparency , Because when you're dealing with other people's money , you always want to be as transparent as possible . So we bring someone in from the community to monitor the emails and help us pick the people that we're going to help out . And then this December 1st we're having a DACA clinic , which is a clinic where we bring in like six of the best attorneys in the area of immigration and we help people apply , renew their DACA , renew their permit .
Speaker 2So they save thousands of dollars that they would have to pay an attorney by going to this one clinic that we do on December 1st Wow .
Speaker 3So not only they have to pay that $500 fee or $555 fee , but then they need to pay an attorney to help them through the process , $5,000 , $6,000 .
Speaker 2Good gracious , and some people are taking out loans to do that , so they're putting themselves in debt .
Speaker 3It's like the program exists to not actually be helpful .
Speaker 2And the fees went up .
Speaker 1Did I say that out loud ? Am I going to get canceled ? You're not going to get canceled .
Speaker 2It's good that you said that , because I mean fees went up . They used to be $4.95 and they went up and who knows what's going to happen . People are just concerned about what's going to happen next year .
Speaker 3So they're applying immediately just to make sure that they have more security . Yeah , oh , for sure that makes sense .
Speaker 1We commend you for being proactive and helping yeah , those that you know want to keep renewing and can't afford to , so we commend you for that thank you , I appreciate it .
Speaker 2Yeah , you have a lot of good people . It's not just me , though . Yeah , we have a good team .
Speaker 3You said that , that you have like yes made a lot of connections and relationships with people in the community and it sounds like this is not just an urban thing , but this is a community thing that you're doing , and so speaking of like community , why don't we talk a little bit about your journey into podcasting what inspired you to start district three ?
Speaker 2and so let's talk about that journey yeah , so back in 2019 , that's when I started to listen to podcast . I think I'm a big pro wrestling fan so , like , I always listen to like pro wrestling podcast . I used to have one when I was like 18 . Who's your favorite ? If I had to pick one now , I think CM Punk from WWE . All right , and I think it was because I became a fan back in the day when , like , I didn't drink alcohol . I've never really smoked either so , like , I was just super sober and this wrestler is like his character is that he's a super sober wrestler . So he became my dude and I just never stopped being a fan of his . But I had a podcast when I was like 18 . It was called Crossface Radio and it was on Block Talk Radio . I'm not sure if y'all ever heard of that .
Speaker 2That was like early days of podcasting , where you have to like call in to be on the show , like like we had a guy in , I think , like new york , who did all the controls , and then all of the co-hosts would call in and we would be on the radio talking about wrestling I'm gonna pat you in right now it was fun , but I I did that and then I stopped for a few years and in 2019 I just started getting into it was like fun podcasts that I would watch on youtube , one called the h3 podcast , which is like very .
Speaker 2It's like comedy , but it's also very like they talk about different things happening on the internet or in the world and I really liked it . I liked their interview when they did , when they interviewed like the most random people it was fun so I saw that .
Speaker 2But then the most important thing that I saw is that latinos were not having conversations on a public format on a weekly basis , talking about , like mental health , talking about just taboo stigma topics sometimes that were scared to have conversations about , or even talk about , like lgbtq issues . Yeah , all these different things , immigration , especially in long format , because when you go to the radio , like you try to have a conversation with someone , but then when you're going deep into an issue , they'll be like hold on , we have a commercial I know , come back and you're like like I was just getting into this issue , right .
Speaker 2So that need of having a place where people can have those kind of conversations , uh , was what really inspired me to do it , and I was like we I'm not really wealthy , I don't know if I can afford the equipment . So let me just start with this camera that I already have , and I was blessed that one of my friends had podcast equipment that he bought and he just didn't use it and he gave it to me .
Speaker 2That's that was nice and it was like a set , like a six hundred dollar , seven hundred dollar podcast equipment , so I just used that and we made it work . In the first 100 episodes the quality is horrible , but how did you edit them too ?
Speaker 3what did you use to edit ? I
Evolution of District 3 Podcasting
Speaker 3think , I use like raj , what is that called garage ? Don't knock it , no I won't knock it because it's .
Speaker 2No , I'm not knocking it . The podcasters today still use it you're gonna get canceled for that you are , you're gonna get canceled . For that I'm not knocking that .
Speaker 3I'm gonna cancel you for that , my husband worked on a podcast for a while and he was editing it she's a galaxy person , sexy person . That's why garage band I just I love that you've come a long way in technology but yes , when I first learned analog , but real . So I like really know old school stuff anyway I'm so sorry .
Speaker 1I don't even know really what that this generation's like analog .
Speaker 3What the is that I have no idea . Real to real , you had to lay control track and then you lay your edits one by one after the other , there was no jumping back and forth . You had to do it seamlessly , it was hard . It was really hard . So disc three All right , we're going back .
Speaker 1So , okay , I like that you look back and you can see like where you started and where you are now as far as , like , the sound quality . Okay , so you started with that , and then when did you make the jump to talk about , like , how you got to KUA , because you were telling me about that off air and so a lot .
Speaker 2The first episodes that we recorded they were recorded at a political office on like by Dixon in Fayetteville yeah we had a friend the same friend that was running for office .
Speaker 2They gave me the equipment . He also said you can use this political office during this time if you want . So we would go record every day there . And then eventually we moved to the Spanish radio station here in Springdale , the stations at the Springdale Civic Center , and we were live on the radio . So we were doing that for a while . But the only issue was that the quality of the mics and this and the software did not allow us to like record to put online .
Speaker 2Oh so what we would have to do is sometimes we would just use our phone to record the . It was a small room , so it would get it all right , but that would be how we would record the audio and put it online , which wasn't the best quality yeah so our good friend over there at kuafF , jasper Logan .
Speaker 2He reached out to us and he was like hey , we've seen the work that y'all are doing . You're very consistent , you're interviewing great people having great conversations . We'd love to host you at KUAF and we went over there . Quality rose up by like a thousand percent . Like they have full-time employees there . So sometimes when we're busy in the studio , someone will get the door and like bring our guests in and like , offer them water .
Speaker 2People are just really nice over there yeah and really helpful when they see that we're struggling with something and , honestly , it's just been a great experience . Everyone's cool over there yeah and everybody wants you to succeed and they're willing to help you in case they see something with like audio or just anything . So we're just really , we're really blessed to have that studio where we can go at any time . I have a key to get in . So so it's a big , it's a big blessing .
Speaker 1That's really cool .
Speaker 2So tell our listeners what for those that haven't listened to district three yet what they could expect if they were to tune in or check out your episodes . It ranges , because sometimes we have very serious conversations about things , but sometimes we have a only co-host episode where we're just catching up . We're talking about what we're doing , some of the things that we're going through . Sometimes it is tough conversations as well , but I think when you listen to the District 3 podcast , you're going to hear unfiltered conversations and we don't really care about repercussions of what we say in the sense that , like , sometimes we have to talk about a certain issue and we know that it's important and there's no way around it and we have to talk about it and if we upset someone then we're willing to have a conversation about it . But we know that , like , what we say is literally we're trying to be as morally good as we can be for this community and talk about things that are important to talk about , but we don't try to offend like .
Speaker 2We never try to purposely offend people .
Speaker 2That's just no , that's good that's not our energy , but we will sometimes mention politicians , sometimes we will mention people in the community that are hurtful , or we will mention how we feel about certain issues and and just be as real as we can be , and I think that's how we've been able to resonate with people , because we're very vulnerable there . Like there's times where I've spoken about things that are super personal to me and people see that and they're okay . If he's putting himself out there like that , like I want to continue listening because I want to hear real people say real things .
Speaker 2Right you know , and so that's what they can expect , and it ranges we have . Now we're trying to focus more on issues than people . Before we used to bring a person in and highlight them . But I've just been thinking how can I separate myself from a lot of different podcasts ?
Speaker 2because I feel like we're all either doing the same thing or doing things differently , and we need to find ways to like be different , right differentiate , yeah especially in a place that is growing so much with podcasts now in the past year there's so many new podcasts so many yes and it's a good thing . But it's like but what do we do to be different from each other ?
Speaker 1sure , yeah , I was listening to oh , I think it was ozarks at large . They're interviewing ty and they were talking about like have your avatar or like who your listener is like , whatever that person is like . I think they used an example . Like her name is tina and she's dating and she loves to grab um an oat milk latte and go to yoga or something like I don't know . They said something like really random . Yeah , like ty brought up , like the shetland pony podcast , like whatever it is like what would y'all say ?
Speaker 2y'all's listenership is the most like . What's the biggest demographic for y'all ?
Speaker 3yeah , I would say , women are probably yeah , women millennial women .
Speaker 1We do have a pretty high percentage of older men I would say millennial grandpa . I think , like our avatar really is millennial women that that are looking to like be entertained but also like learn something about what's going on and then just like connect with other , just issues that we're concerned about , which is a lot of it's like family stuff and working and just the modern world .
Speaker 3But yeah , I think that's like our avatar for sure , and I think that even beyond , like we don't dig as much into issues
Community-Focused Storytelling Through Podcasting
Speaker 3, as much as we're trying to tell the story of a person and that storytelling aspect , and so whatever comes up is in direct relation to that person , and I think that's something that's really unique and interesting about what we're doing , because there are so many unique and interesting people that live here in Northwest Arkansas and there's continually coming more and more people coming into the area . There's people that have grown into the area , there's people that have grown up . Here there's people that are doing really diverse here don't you ?
Speaker 1yeah , I really do I wouldn't say really diverse a lot more than eight years more diversified than it used to be for sure , and I think that , well , and I think that our community is .
Speaker 3Hopefully , people are feeling that this community can be more visible , or that they are seen more as far as like diversifying this area and not just like ethnically diverse , but economically diverse and and socially diverse , and I think that there are , I think about just even like our listeners , and we probably reach a lot of moms being moms , but at the same time , we also reach people who aren't moms and who are single , and I think trying to find people who just enjoy , or enjoy people Like one of the things that I love sharing about .
Speaker 3When I talk about my husband and I first started dating and I remember we were like driving in the car and he's like I love people and I was like I love people and I was just so excited about it and I think that is something that just resonates with me , and wanting to help get stories out with a background in documentary film and a background in wanting to share the stories of others , I think it's the bread and butter of what we're trying to do . Yeah .
Speaker 1And our avatar might change on an episode basis , because some people like aren't going to want to listen to certain episodes just because they can't relate to that , but there might be a topic that they relate to . So I think that's our avatar .
Speaker 2How do y'all like ? What do y'all look for whenever y'all are trying to find someone to interview ? That's a really great question .
Speaker 3I think I would go back to what you said earlier about building community and that's how you found your guests . A lot of the guests we've brought on are people that we've built community with , and so I think that is part of it . I think some of the people that we've reached out to as well are people that we've heard about or we've met randomly in a coffee shop .
Speaker 1Or they approach us , or they approach us yeah .
Speaker 3They want to share their story .
Speaker 1I think for me , the biggest part of who we bring on is they don't have to be . We've had celebrity guests but , um , they don't have to be . You know , we've had more . We've had like celebrity guests but also like it doesn't have to be that . I think what I look for is someone who is has a purpose and a mission in in the community and they're in just passion about what they're doing like can I ? Learn something from this person yeah and so that's what I think about . Yeah , what about you ?
Speaker 2same . I think there are people that reach out sometimes . The difficult part , though , is when people reach out and they want to talk about like themselves yeah and , but you're just .
Speaker 2I don't know if I can talk about you for like that long you know what I mean , though , right , yeah , it's like you , of course , aren't like , oh , I'm not gonna , I don't want to platform , but some people will just reach out and be like , hey , like I want to be a guest , and then I'll be like great , what do you want to talk about ? And then they're like me and you're like but like , okay , so , like , what are you doing ? Like , and they'll be like well , I'm just me , yeah , I'm like I get that , but like , but we also have a listenership .
Speaker 2Yeah , it wants to learn about things that are interesting , or people are doing interesting stuff in the community , or or good or or just issues and stuff like that . So that's why now we're shifting more to towards issues right yeah , so we'll pick , like this week we're doing black women in media so we interviewed one black woman journalist from 4029 news , KNWA and 5 News together , that's amazing .
Speaker 3Who did you interview ? I want to know .
Speaker 1Katani Gooch from 4029 News . You said her name very well , I know you did . Yeah , nice .
Speaker 2Rachel Williams from 5 News and Brianna Moore from KNWA .
Speaker 3Oh , wonderful , okay , nice .
Speaker 2I didn't know they were all friends , so then the chemistry was amazing , probably one of my favorite episodes we've ever recorded , because they're all in a group chat and they told me that all the black women journalists locally here are on a group chat together and they talk about their experiences and they talk about what's going on and and yeah , like we we focused , we brought people on , but it was an issue we were going to talk about black women in media what that experience is like the good stuff , the bad stuff and that's what we're trying to do and yeah . So now we're thinking about , like , what are some of the issues that we need to talk about ?
Speaker 1and then we think about the person yeah , then we're like , okay , who's the best person for that ? Absolutely , it's interesting to hear how different podcasters think about it and that kind of like . I did want to ask you so because now you've talked about your evolution , how you decide on guests , now you're going to issues and then you
Podcasting Evolution and Sponsorship Growth
Speaker 1decide as opposed to the flip , like the person in the issue what so if someone was trying to get into podcasting like what's something that when you started you wish you knew , that , you know now how to set up an rss feed was the biggest truth .
Speaker 2Same me too I was like how do I get my podcast on spotify ? How ?
Speaker 1do I how ? I's how I did that . I was like Googling it . Did you use Google to figure this out ? No , luckily , my , I did .
Speaker 2I gave up on it . Luckily , my co-host , former co-host Manny he was the one that figured it out and he's like I have it set up Because when you use Spotify for podcasts which is what we use use same it goes automatically to spotify . Right , yeah , but he figured out he had to go onto apple podcast , create an account , get the rss feed from the account and put it on the spotify for podcasters and then it went there , and then he did that for like three or four other ones .
Speaker 2So now , like , our podcast goes to almost every place where you can listen to podcasts . Youtube goes on there as well , automatically , but that was something that I couldn't figure out , so what I've done is to pay it forward is when people are trying to start podcasts , they'll reach out to me and they'll be like hey , I don't even know where to start , so I try to guide them yeah towards that process , especially if I see the person is like doesn't have a lot of resources now , if someone has money and they're like let me help me start a podcast .
Speaker 1It's like pay me yeah sure to do that . Yeah sure Like it's our time right . It is . I'm about giving back too , because I had a voiceover actress who had been in the industry a while when I first started out . That gave me her time . And just like a few days ago a friend of mine was like , oh , my husband wants to get into it . I'm like , of course I're going to pay me for this .
Speaker 3It's our time , that's the most valuable thing that we have . It is Brock's like when am I getting ?
Speaker 1paid .
Speaker 3Well , yes , shout out to Brock , shout out to Brock , Brock Our producer , our producer , brock Entertainment , hire entertainment , hire him for all your dj needs , number one number one , it's number one all right , I want to know how you chose the name district three like . What is the story behind that ?
Speaker 2my wife tells me I should change the name all the time , really , like she's like it's not straight to the point , like you don't get it unless you know what it is , and I'm like , well , I'm fine with that . If , right now , we've been able to , like you know , get attention on the media with our podcast and be you know on all these different media platforms , just by people not even knowing what it is like , I think we're doing a good job at like putting ourselves out there okay I'm on the edge of my seat .
Speaker 3Come on , come on district three .
Speaker 2We're in the third congressional district so when it ? Started . It was very political , our podcast yeah , okay , we were interviewing people that were running for governor , people that were running for state rep , city council , so we wanted to build a podcast around the third congressional district , which is all the way from like bella vista to fort smith okay , so it's this area yeah , but we've interviewed now people from little rock , from all over the place . We've done some like interviews with some actors from netflix as well too , so we've gone beyond , but that was .
Speaker 2We just wanted people to know that it came from here .
Speaker 1It was a .
Speaker 2Northwest Arkansas kind of thing . So that's why it's District 3 . I love that and I was , like I said , I was a fan of the H3 podcast , so like the three kind of intrigued me a little bit .
Speaker 1Yeah .
Speaker 2And I was like District 3 , we're in the third congressional district .
Speaker 1You can't change it .
Speaker 2That they know what it is . Yeah , you built a name , but it is a little complicated unless I explain it , because people are like what is this ? Like Hunger ?
Speaker 3Games , or , like I'm not gonna lie , I definitely thought of Hunger Games , but I was like what was District 3 ? What did they produce ?
Speaker 1are they the like Tinder ? Or they produce media . I think I'm in District 9 so we produce . I don't know what we produce in Centerton .
Speaker 2I think you're still in the third congressional district .
Speaker 1No , he's talking about congressional district .
Speaker 2Yeah , congressional district is all northwest .
Speaker 1Arkansas and it goes all the way to Fort Smith and the River Valley . Got it , got it , got it . That's funny . Yeah , that does make me think of Hunger Games .
Speaker 3But I know , but districts within , like Bentonville area too , and then short is D3 .
Speaker 1So d3 . So we're kind of like we have a little perfect when we do like full video episodes . They're called d3 minis . Yeah , so we're just we're trying to brand it , make it sound cool .
Speaker 2Oh my god , I love it . What is the future hold for district 3 ? What do you guys ?
Speaker 1we want to do full video really that's the goal .
Speaker 2So right now we're doing . We do these d3 minis where we're testing out the waters , we're testing out the cameras , we're testing out the audio . I've bought some audio equipment . We're gonna buy other mics and stuff . Luckily we're able to use the mics from kuaf , so we just like check them out and bring them back in . But the goal is to go full on video and my goal is to eventually open up a studio , probably in downtown springdale .
Speaker 3I would like wow that would be amazing complicated yeah , so that's kind of .
Speaker 2When it comes to podcasting , that's my goal , just to go on full on video . And we also need to work on sponsors , because I've had people ask me about sponsorships and I've been so busy that I don't follow up on it and we've left so much money on the table . So I think , after this rcast festival , I'm like , and hearing everybody talk about their sponsors , I'm like we need to we because we need you should .
Speaker 1If you ever want to sidebar on that , it's a whole you just there's no guidelines .
Speaker 2There's no guidelines online for that . It's like I think about like how much do I charge people ? You see me , and then Elena and Megs . We have way different ranges of . I was going to charge super cheap and Elena and Megs are like super cheap and Elena and Megs are like no , you got to charge this much . I'm like it's just difficult for me to get money involved in this passion project of mine .
Speaker 3Yes , but here's the thing is I think that we went to a conference last year and they talked about this , and then one of the speakers at our cast this weekend talked about this as well is , if you are seeking out sponsors , seek out those sponsors of those that you would want to support their business , those that you have a relationship with already , because they're going to want to sponsor you back and , honestly , like when we first started , we were okay , what do we ask people for ? And we , like it evolved as we went and so I think that you figure out .
Speaker 3It was really interesting , I think when we were in florida at this conference we went to and there was this one guy who was like oh . I was like , hey , do you want to like sponsor my mug that I drink out of in my podcast like and . This mug is sponsored and so it's just very interesting .
Speaker 3Yeah , people are really creative , really creative with it , and I think that there's a lot of people in this community that will want to sponsor new ways . And I , you know , from a marketing background like even just in my day-to-day job , marketing I'm like , okay , how am I going to utilize podcasts for what I'm doing in my regular job as well ?
Speaker 2And so yeah , do it , Don't let it sit on the table . Two or three years ago we had some sponsors , like when they ranged from realtors to local businesses of springdale , so we did pick like businesses that we like , trusted and cared about and stuff . But then the years afterwards , like we've had people reach out and I don't know if it was like the tax part scared me .
Speaker 2I just didn't want to deal with all like the business tax and all these different things , because I already do like a lot of like contractor work , like whenever , like I speak at the u of a for like to talk about immigration , all these different things . And my wife is like why are you like doing all these contract work ? They're like it's , our taxes are becoming much more complicated , right ? So then the business part of it . I was like it's gonna add more , but I think now I'm at a point now where I'm like I can do it .
Speaker 2I think mentally I'm there , I can do that . So we'll probably be doing a lot of that more in the future and just paying for more advertisement for like Facebook , for YouTube , so that our content can be put on other people's social media that don't follow us to build more of a bigger fan base .
Speaker 3Yeah , and utilize your team to like . Do the organizational pieces Like .
Speaker 2I call that to Danielle , I do want danielle yeah , migs did create a whole document for us way to go of , like the prices and for every little thing yeah , we just need a thought , we just need to follow up on it , yeah , he did create a whole thing but we all have our day job , so it's hard right it's tough to just do .
Speaker 2Yeah , I first of all . I hate asking people for money , just in general right right , but I think people believe in us now where , like , it's much , a much easier process that we tell , if we ask people yeah okay , we've seen how much hard work you've put into everything . Like we believe in you , and they'll give us money and we need to capitalize on that so that we can pay for advertisement , better equipment and eventually have our own studio .
Speaker 3That's the ultimate goal is and people will say no , and that no is okay . Yeah , because you learn through that . No , we have had a lot of people say no to us , and so I think that has been a good learning process of like okay , how do we need to tweak this or what do we need to offer what ? Who do we need to appeal to ? And I think one of the things I'm just giving a free tip right now is new businesses don't bother , because they're still trying to figure out , like , what their marketing budget even looks like , and so I think that they want to participate and they want to be a part of something , but it is challenging with a new business .
Speaker 3And so my one tip is ask , and the worst that people will say is no .
Speaker 1Yeah , we're like . That's why I really wanted to collaborate with you and have you on us , because I feel like we we actually , even though we're different podcasts , we have a lot of similarities we're about . This is for us , like a passion project and I know that I think you interviewed clint you guys were talking about . You're not in this for money , right it's ?
Speaker 1for community and we're like you anything that when we get a sponsor we put right back into growing the podcast and like going to conferences or however we can put back in to the community because we have , you know , day jobs as well so that's why I like district three .
Speaker 1I like what you're doing . I'm like we got to collaborate more . Um , yeah , because a lot of our we have listeners from all over northwest arkansas , but the majority of ours are a lot of like bentonville , rogers , the little fayetteville , a little bit from all over , but I know you're springdale , so I was like we need to connect more with other podcasters in the area and that's why we love our cast and what ty is doing and what you've helped with , because I love meeting other creators and I think it was randy that gave a speak with .
Speaker 1I speech with ian north as arkansas he's like keep recording keep going .
Speaker 2He's so motivational , just like really is
Community Unity in Northwest Arkansas
Speaker 2just he's the easiest guest to have on , because you ask him one question and he can go on for like we definitely need to have randy . We do yeah , yeah , I think it's like the easiest , just probably write down four questions that you're gonna have and then , for like hour . You have so much knowledge that he just goes on , and we all need to connect more often .
Speaker 3By the way , yeah , I think so , and I think one of the things that I think we jumped into it not knowing a ton about podcasting , coming from a media background and working with Brock and radio stuff yes , however , like not realizing all the podcasts that are around here and seeing more build up and grow , and I think that there there's room for everyone and I think that the best thing that we can do is grow together , help , support one another and be a part of what we're doing . I think about , like there might even be guests that are like that fit more for what you're doing , with issues where they want to talk , like I already have some people in mind that I'm like , oh , they would be really good yeah , you might have somebody reach out to you that just wants to talk about themselves and you're like hey , actually I
Speaker 2know , I know podcasts that would probably appreciate your story yeah , I do want to say like I get it , though . I get the whole like wanting to talk about everybody wants to talk about themselves , right ? Of course we all , of course , we all want people to be interested in us , so I don't see it as in like oh , this person's selfish , because , because , I don't see like that .
Speaker 2I just hope people don't take it whenever I'm saying that . It's just more like you have to know what your audience likes a hundred percent , and you also have to . You're putting in time to go into the studio , maybe taking time away from your family to do this you want to make sure that the conversation you're having with someone isn't just a conversation to like hype up their ego no you're wanting to provide good content there's an art of listenership , yeah , there is an art interviewing , and we've had people that have reached out to us that we've said no to and we've had .
Speaker 3We have to do our due diligence on what our audience is and what would be our avatar .
Speaker 1Our avatar . Yeah , I think there's a guy avatar too , it's not just a girl avatar . I think we're like 55 female think there's a guy avatar too , it's not just a girl avatar .
Speaker 2I think we're like 55% female .
Speaker 1So there's 45% .
Speaker 2Well , danielle said grandpa , so that .
Speaker 3No , I was like making a real . I was like no , cause , I was like older men , and then I was like that sounded really bad , and so then I was like grandpa's cause .
Speaker 1I thought that was making .
Speaker 3I'm the stat gal so I know I was just pulling crap out of the air . I was just being funny .
Speaker 1There have been a lot of jokes and yeah , so okay , so one last question , because we could probably have you on forever yeah but what's your favorite thing about this area , about district three , northwest ark ?
Speaker 2Yeah , northwest Arkansas , I probably would say how people come together when things happen to help each other . In Springdale , specifically in the Latino community , when a community member gets sick or there's like an unexpected death , they have this thing called a quermes and what it is . That people will get together and they'll do a sale of food and the community members will bring . Some people will get together and they'll do a sale of food and the community members , like will will bring , like some people will bring the tortilla , some people will be the drink , some people will bring the meat and like , everybody contributes in some way and they have this big sale of food and they raise thousands of dollars and give it to whoever is sick , the family of whoever passed away , and they come together so quick , they organize so fast , so things like that , things with the tornado , people came together really quick and were out there helping out in the neighborhoods .
Speaker 2In Rogers High School they had like a big I think it was Rogers Heritage High School . They had like a big headquarters for people that were helping out . So people come together and I think that part is my favorite part is the part where people feel that what people show up for one another in the most difficult times , so I'm not sure if that's what you were asking for but that's the first thing that comes to my mind .
Speaker 3We're not asking for anything specific .
Speaker 2No , I like that your answer now , if you want like a restaurant , then everybody has a different answer .
Speaker 3some people do talk about , like , the businesses . Yeah , people have talked about a favorite restaurant , some people have talked about the community and I think that I think it keeps most people talking about the community and the people that live here .
Speaker 1So I want to , I want to make this a semi bilingual episode . So ¿Cómo se dice people of Northwest
Exploring Bilingualism in Northwest Arkansas
Speaker 1Arkansas en Español ? Ve los gentes .
Speaker 2La gente , la gente , la Gente , la Gente del Noreste de Arkansas .
Speaker 1There we go . Yeah , are we officially bilingual ? Well , this counts as a bilingual episode .
Speaker 3What should I say ? Well , daniel has to say something too , or else it doesn't count .
Speaker 1Should I say that counts , that does not count .
Speaker 2It has to be a sentence though .
Speaker 1Yeah , okay , give me a sentence to say Do you know ? No .
Speaker 2I don't know Spanish what do you say I don't know any languages ? Where do you live ?
Speaker 3Where do I live ? I live in Bentonville .
Speaker 2Yo vivo en Bentonville .
Speaker 1Yo vivo en Bentonville Yo soy de Dallas y estudio español en colegio , pero no practico practicar mucho See .
Speaker 2I'm getting very rusty Time to get some more bilingual guests up in here I think it's time . I know that was good , though you did almost a paragraph . I know that's fine .
Speaker 3And .
Speaker 1I need to learn Spanish . No , no , it's rusty . You know what ? When I lived in Dallas , my Spanish was very good , but now I feel like I don't get to practice it very much anymore . I used to work in hospitality , and so there's people from all over really the world , honestly , and so I got to practice all kinds of different languages , and Dallas is really big and diverse , and so since I moved here , well , I had kids , so I've been stuck with small children for a while . No , I want to practice it more and I need to . It's on my list of things that I want to do well , when we invite y'all to our podcast , we'll do a segment where we only talk Spanish yes , good , we'll practice , give me a
Speaker 3couple months . No , I really do . I really should learn Spanish because I think , think , latin america is just an amazing part of the world and when I was in college , I took a class about latin america and studied um countries in central america and in , uh , south america and just there's just so many amazing things happening there and it just is like why am I not learning ? And my that teacher of that class would be so just especially here with me .
Speaker 2There's so many people that are bilingual , that are oh california okay , yeah yeah yeah , yeah modesto okay
Speaker 3I went to you know , what's really funny is , I went to a junior high school that was predominantly hispanic too , and I don't know spanish . Don't even get on to me about this right now , because it's terrible .
Speaker 2I have family in Modesto . I've been there before you do oh that's really cool .
Speaker 3Yeah , I went to school in Salida , so Salida is a very diverse part of Modesto . It's like on the very northern part and yeah , so I have a lot of .
Speaker 1Well okay , can I tell you I'm getting more and more embarrassed as the further I talk , it's okay , I'll change it can I tell you a funny story really quick before we end , about I was like eight and my dad took me to Zewataniejo and we were to what you said .
Speaker 2Zewataniejo did I say it right . What is that ? Is it a ? City in Mexico say it again maybe I don't know it , maybe know the town so I'm I want to go to pronouncing it correctly , but I'm like she probably isn't so we went there and did you say saint juan ? Is that what you're saying ?
Speaker 3one they want to it's z it's an xy . Oh , it's an xy I think that was .
Speaker 2I'll have to find it okay , I will too sorry , go ahead so I , I did .
Speaker 1I grew up like learning and speaking some spanish . But in Texas , when you order queso in a restaurant , you have in your mind queso is a cheese dip right . So when I went to this little restaurant- .
Speaker 3In Mexico .
Speaker 1I ordered some queso with my taco and when it came out it was just shredded cheese . Yeah . And I was like , oh , like my mind was blown , like this eight-year-old girl was like oh my god , this . I literally ordered cheese and I got cheese , but I was thinking from like dallas every restaurant yes , I was thinking tex-mex food , not real mexican cuisine , and so I was young okay , the opposite thing that happened to me you did .
Speaker 2I think I was in what's that place called when the supposedly the well close to like the KKK headquarters .
Speaker 3In Arkansas .
Speaker 1Here in Arkansas Harrison . I was in .
Speaker 2Harrison and I stopped by to this place , which I won't name the place , because they're probably still open .
Speaker 1I think I know where you're talking about .
Speaker 2There's one place mean I ordered three tacos and I was expecting mexican food because it's a mexican place . They brought me like three crunchy tacos , like taco , bell , tacos . You're like , oh , and I was like and apparently I ordered the wrong thing because , like , a bunch of other people were ordering , like , and they were getting real mexican food , but the tacos that I ordered were like a dorito shell , and I'm kidding yeah , I still ate it . And look , I love tex-mex food , like I love going to chewy's here and there oh , I love chewy's yeah like I'll go to chewy's and get the , what's it called ?
Speaker 2the chica chica , wow , wow or something boom , boom , sauce boom something chicken boom , it's a sauce and it's like a whole meal yeah like I and then get a margarita . So I love like fake mexican food just for the fake , just for the record , you can call .
Speaker 1You can call it white mexican food let me tell you what tex mex is . It's where tex meets the max . Okay , there's their own cuisine down there . It's not . I wouldn't . I respect what you're saying , but I'm just saying it is a blend of the food choices down there .
Speaker 2But yes , it is , it's not mexican food mexicans will call it fake , though , unless you're from texas .
Speaker 1If you're from texas , and it's like whatever , no , but you're right , because it's not fake mexican for sure a lot of people think that it's mexican food , but tex-ex is its own category . It's not Mexican . Yeah , if you want to go like real Mexican , go to Springdale . Yeah , Okay where .
Speaker 2Go to Taqueria , guanajuato . Go to El Chefe at the airport . Look , el Chefe . I've heard that . That's really amazing . El Chefe is the best Mexican food in the whole state .
Speaker 1Really , and they're at the Spragal Airport .
Speaker 2I'm going to go too tell our guests how they can find you listen to your podcast yeah , we're everywhere Spotify , apple Podcast , youtube , look us up on Instagram , on Facebook as well , twitter , tiktok . We're all over the place and , yeah , we upload episodes almost every Wednesday . We try to . Sometimes we'll do two episodes a week , depending on what we need to talk about , but , yeah , you can listen to it every Wednesday , and we definitely want new people that we've never met on the podcast . So if you have an important issue to talk about , please send us a message .
Speaker 1Okay .
Speaker 2And thank you all for the opportunity and congrats once again on the award .
Speaker 1Thank you . Gracias , irvin , thank you for joining us . Hey , thanks so much for listening today . If
Podcast Promotion and Gratitude
Speaker 1you please consider subscribing to the podcast so you never miss an episode . You can also follow us on Instagram at peopleofNWA . Thanks so much .
Speaker 4People of Northwest Arkansas with the two Daniels produced by me . Brock Short of Civil Republic Productions . Please rate , review and like us on any podcast platform where you listen . For more information about today's guests and the show , please check the show notes . Thanks for listening .