a conversation with layla palmer
Written by Jamilla Philson
All images courtesy of Layla Palmer
Layla Palmer, an all around creative, is a current senior at Emerson College who recently launched a new podcast series called Heart to Hustle. The podcast revolves around career advice and tips for Gen-Z, women, and creatives. Layla is the host, producer, audio editor, as well as the creator of this new series. Discover how creative individuals turn their hustle into thriving careers as we catch up with her in this exclusive interview!
Q1: Tell us about your background and your love of storytelling/podcasting!
A: I grew up in Philadelphia, and I was always really creative as a kid. I did ballet for a really long time. I was also into theater, public speaking, and choir. So in high school, I continued on that creative path. And then all of a sudden, my sophomore year, I discovered podcasts. I basically binged the first season of Serial while I was on a long drive with my family over Thanksgiving. After that I was like“ Oh, my gosh, this is so cool.”
I started something really random with one of my friends where we just talked about what was going on in our friend group. It was really dumb. But we put it on SoundCloud and nothing ever came of it. It was just a fun thing we did at lunch. Then kind of just fizzled out and didn't go anywhere until I was a senior in high school.
It was the fall of 2020 and none of my clubs were running because of COVID. I felt a little bit bored during this time. So I asked myself“ why don't I try and pick up podcasting again?” By that point, my love and experience had grown even more within those two years. I wanted to try and take it more seriously this time. I made a show called Hollywood Hero and that was my first official series that I did. I really fell in love with podcasting during that project. I did that from the fall of my senior year of high school up until the spring of my freshman year in college. So it was a good year and a half of doing that series and then I put it to bed, but I kept doing other podcasts and stuff to grow and learn even more.
Q2: What inspired and compelled you to start Heart to Hustle?
A: It started as a project [for] a class I was taking this past fall; I knew that I was going to launch a new series. I didn't know what it was going to be, but I knew this was my opportunity to build my portfolio a little bit more. I have an internship with a state agency and I am doing podcast stuff there, but it is very different. I wanted to have a lot of fun with this but also take it seriously beyond the end of that semester. I didn’t know going into the class that Heart to Hustle is what I wanted to do, but as soon as I started researching and figuring out what type of show I wanted, it just started to fall into place. [As] a senior in college I was constantly trying to figure out what job I’m going to have after I graduate and I felt like a lot of people our age are in that position. There are career podcasts out there right now, but they're all white men in suits who have five degrees and huge resumes. I felt like none of this was relatable to me. I go to art school and I just kind of want to be a creative. So I thought,“ how can I create something for Gen-Z or even people looking to make career pivots?” So that is all that Heart to Hustle is.
Q3: Who has been your favorite person you’ve had on the podcast or plan to have in the future?
A: I think my favorite would probably be this episode [that] isn't out yet. I interviewed my professor, my French professor. He came to Boston from Paris when he was 18 to go to school at Berklee because he's a musician. Being a French professor is essentially his side gig. He is also a full time professor at Berklee teaching jazz and music improv. I interviewed him about that and the whole experience of being a musician, but also having and balancing this other life. I learned from him that it is [all] about being creative and telling a story through art. I think that interview has been my favorite because he’s very French, so he is very descriptive and uses a lot more imagery. He has a way with words. That's definitely one of my favorite interviews that I've done, but it's not out yet.
As far as episodes that are out, I think [I’d say] my first episode that I did, because I interviewed my sister's childhood friend, and I got to pick her brain about all of the million careers that she's had in creative industries, and also got to talk about her journey with her breast cancer diagnosis. [The diagnosis] really put her career on hold. This was the first time I actually got a chance to sit down with her and talk to her about her experience, so it was special for me.
Q4: Who has been your favorite person you’ve had on the podcast or plan to have in the future?
A: Oh, that's so tough. My dream guest appearance is honestly Misty Copeland. I'm a former ballerina and growing up being a black ballerina, like Misty Copeland, I really looked up to her. In general, I would love to talk to her because she's somebody that I know I could really relate to and who would understand me. She is also such a creative person and she has this entrepreneurial side of her, but she is also a beautiful dancer. So I would love to interview her.
Q5: What is the best piece of career advice you’ve learned from a guest?
A: I think the best career advice has probably been to take risks. Just having the courage to take a leap in something that can eventually lead to something really good. In my second episode, the person that I interviewed said that she's always going to make bad decisions in life; we all make bad decisions and we learn from them. Their lessons have a purpose. She said that why would you only make good decisions knowing it's going to have a good outcome when you could maybe once in a while make a decision that you're unsure about that could lead to something really amazing. So I think that has been really good because for me, and for creative people in general, to have the courage to take a risk and take a leap, whether it's launching this project or being an entrepreneur. Those are really heavy risks to take and risks that a lot of people are stressed about or worried about. But I think that piece of advice is to just take the leap and make those tough decisions that you're unsure about because the possibility of them becoming something really great is there. Take risks even when it feels wrong.
Q6: How do you hope your content resonates with your audience?
A: I'm hoping that it will empower people. I'm 21 and I'm about to graduate from school.I very much have been in the situations that I think my listeners are in. My listeners could be high school seniors trying to figure out what college major to pick, someone trying to figure out what they want to do with their life, someone who is thinking of transferring schools or changing majors, or someone who wants to start their own business and needs the extra push to get there. I think I just want to empower students and give, especially Gen Z, a space where they feel safe to ask questions that they might not be able to ask in certain workspaces.
Especially with a work life balance, I think that it's super important to prioritize your self care, your well being, and your happiness equally or more than you prioritize your job. If you go through your life with passion and purpose and [have] an end goal in mind, I think that's more important than getting Employee of the Month. I hope that Heart to Hustle will empower people and inspire them to follow their dreams, and to not listen to all the people and all the companies who are saying Gen Z workers are horrible and [won’t]hire them. Gen Z just puts their foot down and they know what they want. They want more purpose in life than to just sit in a cubicle until they retire. I think I just want to empower people to speak up and use their voice and to have the direction of where they want to take their life and have the courage to get there.
“Gen Z just puts their foot down and they know what they want. They want more purpose in life than to just sit in a cubicle until they retire. I think I just want to empower people to speak up and use their voice and to have the direction of where they want to take their life and have the courage to get there.”
Q7: How has creating and hosting this podcast helped you grow in a personal and professional sense?
It's been so fun. I’m in a position where I am actually starting to see my career take off in a sense, and I’m extremely proud of the things that I’m creating on a daily basis. Everything that I produce and everything that I make, I notice it getting better and better and better every single day. I think Heart to Hustle really inspired me to push even further in my creativity. I think for a while I lost the passion for audio storytelling, because it started off as a hobby and a passion project.
Then, I got this internship at the state agency, which is amazing and I'm super lucky and grateful to have that, but it became work, it became a job. And then I do it all again the next week. It's not for me. It’s really important for me to have this job because of the developmental progress it has offered me but I think having something creative for me is really important too. It is my work life balance; I love working, but I also love podcasting on my own. That is where my real purpose comes in. It’s very full circle now, my senior year of high school when I was launching Hollywood Hero, I had that joy and whimsy to do it, especially having it be my first time, except now I have more tools to make it even more successful. Being in school for the past three years, I have been building up to this and been asking myself,“ How do I market this podcast? How do I make content that's engaging? How do I sustain success in everything I've learned in my experience at Emerson?” This feels like my final project in my career at Emerson that I’m planning to take beyond my time here and after graduation. It feels like the pinnacle of my time here as a student. So it just feels super rewarding and very heartwarming.
Q8: How do you think your podcast will grow and evolve after you have graduated?
I think something that will definitely help grow the podcast is having more resources, such as my time, as well as not being in school anymore, which will allow me to just be creative and put all of my eggs into my creativity basket. I think it will allow me to be a bit more creative in my variety of production. I hope to add in some new segments or have more time to do interesting guest outreach. I want to make sure that I’m having guests on the show that my audience really enjoys and resonates with. I also think it will give me more time to interact with my audience beyond just them listening via social media. This will allow me to get actual feedback from my audience and still be able to serve them.
Q9: If you could give an incoming college freshman career advice + podcasting/storytelling advice, what would it be?
A: It would be to figure out what is important to you. For some people, what's important to them is to just be creative and have that be a therapeutic outlet, or for others what's really important to them is having an impact on somebody. I would say figure out what that is, and figure out what you as a creator are offering that others aren't. What is something that's setting yourself apart?
Whether it’s a podcast, social media series, short film, TV Show, or blog, whatever is and figure out whatever you are offering your audience and what your competitors aren’t. Build off of that and capitalize on that. Because what your value is compared to other projects in that realm is what people are going to remember. Also knowing your audience. Knowing your audience is so important: know who they are, how to market to them, and how to actually speak to them in a way that is digestible, so that they feel as if they are retaining something.
Q10: What is next for the future of Heart to Hustle?
A: Well, it's so new, but I think Heart to Hustle, but I am looking to soon launch a new segment called, or a bonus special edition episode, called the Hustle Hotline. This would be for listeners of the podcast who have career questions or a personal question they would like to get answered. They can send in a voicemail and I will answer and give personalized advice as someone who's gone through it. I've gone through applying for internships, getting denied from jobs, getting interviews, quitting jobs, as well as trying to balance having a creative outlet in addition to having a job. I’m hoping to launch this segment as a once in a while bonus episode so that people can get personalized advice from me and also get to know me as the host a little bit more. I try really hard to put as much of my personality into my episodes as I can, but at the end of the day, I do want to spotlight my guests. They are the experts, they are the people who have the creative and really interesting stories I found really interesting and that I want to share with my audience. So I do try to spotlight them more than myself, but I think Hustle Hotline will give me an opportunity to have some more of that one on one interaction that I was talking about earlier. I want to have more of that interaction with my audience and something that they can really take away.
where you can find heart to hustle:
Listening Links: https://tr.ee/faTnNEzIht
Official Podcast Website: HeartHustleMedia.com
Hustle Hotline Voicemail Submission Link: https://www.speakpipe.com/Hustle_Hotline
