Life and Work with Nicole Queen and Monica Traverzo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Queen and Monica Traverzo.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Nicole and Monica. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I (Nicole Queen) used to create videos on YouTube about Islam from the perspective of being a convert, a native Texan who used to be a Christian. I used to get a pretty good response and knew that people enjoyed listening to those discussions so I approached my good friend Monica, who is also a convert to Islam, about making a video with me. She wasn’t too keen on being in front of the camera so we put that on hold. One day, Monica called me up and said: “Nicole, we both love podcasts why don’t we make a podcast?” Neither of us had experience podcasting so we got busy at the University of Google and learned everything we could about the world of podcasts. We knew we wanted to create a show with high-quality audio standards, high-quality content that would also be entertaining and that we wanted to eventually create a brand that would make women like us feel proud and confident in their identity as Muslim women in America. Thus, Salam Girl Podcast was born and we have been nurturing this little baby of ours since November of 2018. We are the top podcast for Muslim women and grow our brand daily.

Great, 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?
Creating a brand like this is never easy and takes way more effort than we realized. Between Monica and myself, we have six children, she has four and I have two. We are soccer Moms, PTA Moms, I also run a wedding photography business and am constantly busy with that so we have a lot more on our plates than just this podcast. We do our best to time manage and work consistently using a schedule of batch recording the weekly episodes and utilizing apps that help us maintain a very strong social media platform. We work together using each other’s strengths to keep our guests organized, get sponsors, and create new content. It’s a daily effort and not easy because everything we do is in house, the editing and producing is all done by Nicole, and Monica handles all of the administration and organization of guests, sponsors, social media management. We are a 2 woman crew and our advice to others is to keep plugging away, work hard, and don’t think that if it doesn’t blow up right away that it’s a failure. Keep going, and stay consistent. We have never missed posting a weekly episode, and that includes many many late nights and sick kids. If you’re passionate about doing this, then go for it but don’t do it for the wrong reasons and don’t expect others to light your way. Learn your craft and create your own brand, don’t just copy what others are doing because you think it looks fun. Be intentional about anything that you’re doing.

Please tell us about Salam Girl Podcast.
As a brand, Salam Girl empowers Muslim women to take control of their own identity. We encourage women to engage in that side hustle they have kept on the back burner. We promote other #muslimgirlbosses on the show and love sharing their success stories with our audience. We want Muslim women to see that there are women just like them in board rooms, hospitals, on stages and in directors chairs. We want young Muslim girls to aim high when choosing careers and to know that they have a place in any field whether it’s the arts, media, medicine, law the list goes on and on and we have professionals in every industry on the show telling them how they got there. What sets our podcast apart from others is our consistency of maintaining a very attractive brand that maintains a very high very positive energy and that we do this consistently. Our audio recording quality is top-notch, we engage and created a website where women can subscribe and learn more and become guests on the show. We have a community for them to share their issues and struggles and reach out to each other for support on Facebook groups called #salamsquad. We have the same quality branding across all of our platforms and we want our audience to feel proud of who they are and what that brand represents for them.

There’s a wealth of academic research that suggests that a lack of mentors and networking opportunities for women has materially affected the number of women in leadership roles. Smart organizations and industry leaders are working to change this, but in the meantime, do you have any advice for finding a mentor and building a network?
We are constantly watching fellow podcasters who are the top of the game because we want to make sure that we are matching with success. I want to follow the leaders in this industry so we are constantly learning new podcasting tactics, learning what innovative content we should be creating and we enjoy staying in contact with our podcasting peers and boosting each other. We say yes to as much as we can, and hope to get our name out there and help this brand grow because the more this brand grows, the more visible Muslim successful women will be and that is important to us. Don’t be afraid to ask someone successful for advice.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.salamgirl.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Instagram: @salamgirlpodcast
• Facebook: facebook.com/groups/salamsquad/
• Twitter: @salamgirlcast

Image Credit:
All Photos by @queensimagephotography and donut photo by @robinhoodphotoofficial

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