Daily Inspiration: Meet Sierra Ortiz

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sierra Ortiz. 

Hi Sierra, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
It started off as a dare. I was talking to a friend about how much I love to talk to people, and they were like you should start a podcast. I was like why would I ever do that? Well, simply because it’s something new and exciting, but also because I had suppressed my voice for so long. I was worried how people would portray me, but at the end of the day, I decided it didn’t matter. What actually mattered was that I got a chance to speak up and potentially relate to someone out there who has been in the same position that I was. And just like that, Sierra Unraveled was created. 

In 2017, I graduated college with a shiny Bachelor’s degree with no idea what I wanted to do with my life. I would always tell my professors it didn’t matter how much money I would make with that degree. I only cared about making a difference and having an everlasting impact on people during my time here. Shortly, after walking across that stage to receive my diploma, I ended up pregnant with someone I had been dating for a little over a year. We were not together when I found out, but I made a choice to try and make things work regardless for the baby’s sake. The relationship was not pretty. There were many moments where I was ashamed that I allowed such awful behavior towards me to occur, and many more moments I was not proud of myself for how I reacted. However, after many chances, I decided it was just never going to work out no matter how hard I tried. I walked away when my daughter was only six months old, and I have hardly looked back since. 

Life got really complicated. How would I juggle being a stay-at-home mom, a mortgage, and a car note by myself? Not to mention, my support system is three hours away. I started praying. I needed a miracle. God is the only one who could’ve taken my situation and turned it into something miraculous. I got baptized and started analyzing myself, so I can chase who I was actually supposed to become before everything hit the fan. 

My podcast began as a place to vent but quickly turned into a place with an abundance of resources for survivors of abuse, single parents navigating life, and a place to inspire all others that feel like they don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing at the moment. I needed to take all the bad energy and make something beautiful. 

What people have taken away from a full season of 35 podcast episodes has been nothing short of amazing. My hope was to simply put out content that could help anyone that had been through similar situations; little did I know that I would be able to inspire and strengthen myself to continue the journey of blessing people through sharing my life. My goal is to continue to develop content for people to listen to that can help them better their own lives and provide hope for those who need it. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
There were indeed several obstacles when it came to creating and developing the content needed in each episode. For starters, I certainly had zero experience when it came to making a podcast so that in and of itself often made it intimidating to even start and finish my first episode. Also opening up myself to even talking about the things that caused me so much pain and trauma in my life was extremely difficult. Often times people only want to only talk about the positive moments that happen in their lives because they want to be perceived as great. I was one of those people. I just wanted to move forward with my life and keep my business to myself, but I realized that it is about helping people who may not have the courage to admit or talk about the challenging things that they have gone through. There are so many women out there that have been through similar or worse situations than my own, and I wanted to help inspire them and make them believe that they can come overcome whatever obstacles or challenges that may come their way. 

Once I got over myself and my fear of not wanting to share my story, I had to learn HOW to share my story without rambling or sounding unorganized. I am the type of person that wants to do things the right way, so the process of organizing my thoughts and content was very intense but extremely necessary. There were MANY days that I struggled with when, where, and how I should share this information with my audience who needed to hear it. The first few shows from an organizational and delivery standpoint were not where I wanted them to be, and I knew I wanted to make them better as I went on. 

Listening back to my early podcast episodes I realized I needed to add a few things to make it more polished. I was so excited and proud of myself for just putting the content out there, but I knew presentation is everything. Again, let me remind you I had no experience with podcasts at all. I didn’t know how to record, edit, or publish. I wanted to do things like add music to my segments, interview guests, and a couple of other technicalities to make it more pleasing to the ear. It was extremely hard to gather music that fit with my vision, too! Furthermore, lining up schedules with guests that wanted to speak on my show was very challenging. It meant rescheduling my life several times to make this happen, like doing interviews early in the morning and late at night. Even though this was extremely difficult and took a ton of hard work, effort, and time away from things that I liked to do, it was worth it every time a new episode went live. 

My daughter is my world and often finding the time to do the episodes while trying to take care of her is rough. But like many other successful women in this world, I had to find to a way to honor my commitment to do what I felt needed to be done to help people. My daughter even appeared in the background of a couple episodes even though that was not ideal, I wanted to prove that wearing many hats and juggling multiple things is totally possible if you really want to make it happen. 

So, to answer the question, has the road been smooth? Of course not! But would I do it all over again? In a heartbeat. The struggles and obstacles only make you better at your craft. They also make you even more proud of the end product. 

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I get to work with people all over the globe and make an impact at the same time. Sierra Unraveled is about pulling as many people together to combine musical talent and storytelling to inspire others. My show is different from other podcasts because somehow, I’ve managed to incorporate my faith, music, relatable content, educational resources/tools, and entertainment all in one. I feel like that might be pretty abnormal, but I’m just being myself. I’m also not afraid to invite any person that inspires me to my platform. Everyone has their own amazing story to tell, and I will find a way to tie it back into my show some way or another. The kind of optimism and energy my show has is what attracts people to keep coming back. It’s contagious, and that’s how pure happiness should be. 

Do you have recommendations for books, apps, blogs, etc.?
Apps I can’t live without: The Bible App, Spotify, Insight Timer, Stereo (great place to find guests) Podcast recommendations: Moments of Joy, The Doing Scary Things Podcast, Good Moms Bad Choices 

Books: there’s way too many, my podcast links a plethora of books that have helped me 

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: https://sierraunraveled.podbean.com
• Instagram: @sierraunraveledpodcast
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sierraunraveledpodcast/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOrqro-R16vkD34SiAjC62Q

Image Credits
Billy Ware
Ellie Barrett