March’s podcast brings faith during crisis
Photo submitted by Olivia March
The cover page of March’s podcast available on Spotify featuring herself and the title of her podcast inspired by Matthew 17:20 in the photo. On this podcast March discusses her experiences and backstory with her faith as a Christian teenager.
May 31, 2021
.When the pandemic broke out last year, many people lost hope as the virus took root and everyone in the world was experiencing the same turmoil. However, some people like senior Olivia March were inspired to start a small podcast called “Mustard Seed Mentality,” to restore faith to folks in this new bleak world. Since April of this year, March has released a weekly podcast on Spotify to share her Christian views on news and society. Her voice spreads hope to those who are especially hit hard by these dark times.
As the pandemic became the new reality and two weeks after lockdown, social media experienced a huge spike, increasing to more than 50 percent in usage. Because of this spike in interest and everyone staying in place, people found solace in sharing and creating content to express their feelings, experience and thoughts about life. This was March’s story. She discovered the Anchor platform from a friend through TikTok which inspired her to share her story.
When asked why she wanted to start a podcast, March said, “I kind of started the podcast, because I noticed that there wasn’t a lot of like Christian podcasts that were created by people our age, for what people our age struggle with. So, I decided to create it. It’s about having faith as a teenager, and it’s about struggles that Christian teenagers go through.”
In early fall 2020, March explored making her idea of creating her podcast a reality when she discovered stories told through audio episodes. Podcasts became more popular as evidenced by Brandastic which revealed that each month, more than 100 million people listened to podcasts at a rate that continually increased monthly.
Initially, March lacked the confidence because there were so many choices available to people. It took months but she finally built up the courage gained from her friendship with a listener who believed in her stories. The social media group March was following introduced her to another Christian teenager who ran a podcast called, “Chin Up Dude.” From that point on, she had enough tools to take a leap of faith to develop her podcast. A month later, March released her first episode called, “What does mustard seed mentality mean?” through the Anchor platform, which can be found on Spotify.
Another source of inspiration that led March to fully develop her podcast was from being a part of AVID. AVID provided a strong support system for her.
“I’m in AVID at Stillwater and AVID has always been a big support system about getting your voice out there, getting what you’re passionate about out there, and telling the world about it. So I think that’s one of my biggest things that got me into it.”
As COVID-19 continued to keep people locked down in their homes, March’s podcast slowly and steadily developed. The success in the growth of a podcast depends on its steady growth rate in the first month. March released her second podcast where she invited her friend Helen Al Rabidia to be her guest speaker. This second episode allowed her to explore difficult subjects such as faith, racism, society and so forth. As her podcast grew in interest among her listeners, she decided to include more guest speakers and more topics to her programs. Currently, she plans to release a future podcast about her life from now to death as well as inviting Christian rapper Caleb Joshua to join her on the set.
Ethan Crew, a dedicated follower of March’s podcast finds comfort and a sense of belonging while listening to her episodes. “I like how she brings other people; it’s not just her talking, so she can bring other opinions on there as well. In my area, there’s not really many people that have the same opinions as me or Olivia, so it was nice to see more people like her out there to have the same opinions in our faith.”
With two episodes under her belt, March hopes to continue her journey to bring hope and to inspire people who are in need of religion and Jesus in their lives. While March is in her last year of high school, she is not letting that stop her from continuing to develop her podcast to spread her message about God. More listeners are welcome to join her every week for a new and fascinating podcast with special guests and enthralling stories about her faith.
In March’s own words, “I think one last word that I’d like to say is just, follow your dreams. If they want to do something just do it. Who cares if you get hated on, it’s your passion so just be bold about it.”
