100 Episodes In: An Interview by Lucia Matuonto
At just 18 years old, Sonia Marta has accomplished what many aspiring communicators spend decades working toward. She is the author of multiple books, host of The SMARTA Podcast, and an emerging voice in leadership, personal branding, and youth empowerment.
What began as a simple suggestion from author and podcast host Lucia Matuonto quickly evolved into a platform that has now reached its milestone 100th episode, featuring conversations with some of the world’s most respected leaders, bestselling authors, entrepreneurs, and changemakers, reaching +1,500,000 impressions.
Along the way, Sonia has interviewed guests including Guy Kawasaki, Ron Kaufman, Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Sonia McDonald, Brad Burton, Bob Burg, Barry Posner, Jason Graystone and many more, transforming each conversation into a lesson in leadership, resilience, curiosity, and personal growth.
In this special interview celebrating 100 episodes of The SMARTA Podcast, Lucia Matuonto, founder of WorldAuthors.Org and host of The Relatable Voice Podcast, sits down with the young podcaster she inspired years ago to reflect on the journey, the lessons learned, and the exciting mission that lies ahead.
Sometimes all it takes is one conversation to change the direction of a life. This is one of those stories.
1. What’s the story behind The SMARTA Podcast?
The story starts at 13. That was the year I published two books, and it’s also the year I ended up on your podcast The Relatable Voice. You are the one who taught me how to start my own show. Your advice was simple: make an account, and just start recording your day-to-day. So that’s exactly what I did.
Within a month, I had my very first episode. Voice over artists offered to professionally read an extract of my story for free, and that happened right around the same time I was visiting schools and universities, talking to students about the importance of reading, my own journey, and what it was like to publish books so young.
Very quickly, I realized I was running out of “my story” to tell. But I loved it. I loved watching students’ eyes light up the moment they realized age wasn’t holding them back anymore. More than 10 children are now published authors after interacting with me, or discovering my books. That experience also had me questioning the traditional path of going to university to get qualified to begin working towards your dream. And with that came a flood of new questions: how do I run a business? How do I find my voice? How do I actually build a successful life?
So I did what I’ve always done. I went to my mother with the challenge. Just like when I was figuring out how to publish my first book, she turned it back on me: “Go find the answers yourself, straight from the leaders you look up to. They wrote the books you love, so they are the best to chat with” That one discussion became the seed for the podcast.
2. What are some of the key episodes you’d like to mention, and why?
If there’s one thing 100 episodes taught me, it’s to do it imperfectly. Take action as long as you know your direction, the destination was never the point. The journey is what teaches you to lead yourself intrinsically before you can lead anyone else. Martial arts professor and author John Terry said that the only moment that matters is now, because yesterday is history and tomorrow is mystery. That’s stayed with me.
My first seventeen episodes were audio-only, including conversations with some of my favorite guests ever, like Kevin Gaskell and Andrew Bryant. At some point I decided video was the way to build real connection, and that shift opened the door to some of the most meaningful conversations I’ve had.
**Anne-Laure Le Cunff** is someone I followed long before she ever came on the show. I knew her journey, her values, her work, so by the time we spoke, it didn’t feel like meeting a stranger, it felt like continuing a relationship I’d already started as a fan.
**Ron Kaufman** carries some of the best energy I’ve ever encountered on the podcast. He’s a customer experience guru who taught me that, conscious of it or not, we lead others before we ever learn to lead ourselves. Meeting him in person later, at an event he hosted in Romania, sitting beside him, talking with him, being introduced to people he admired, that’s one of the experiences that will always fuel me.
**Sonia McDonald**, from Australia, gave me one of the most refreshingly honest, no-nonsense conversations I’ve had. Every answer she gave had substance behind it, and she remains one of the guests who challenged me most as an interviewer.
And then there’s **Guy Kawasaki**, someone I knew before I even knew what a podcast was, because my mother raised me on his books and his values. I always assumed he’d be a guest I might reach after 500 episodes, if I was lucky. The fact that I was bold enough to ask him before I’d even hit 100, and that he said yes, still humbles me. The feedback he gave me afterward, his punctuality, the respect he showed me, and then seeing him share the episode on LinkedIn to his nearly three million followers, that’s one of the proudest moments of my career.
The podcast opens doors I never thought of!
3. And what can you share about the episode #100 and plans for future episodes?
I am so excited about it, and I invite your readers to tune in to the episode 100, as it flips the format entirely on its head. For the first time, the questions come directly from my listeners. This shift reflects a question I’ve asked myself since day one: what value can I actually bring to the people I meet?
Every ten-twenty episodes, I make it a habit to introduce something new. For this milestone, I handed the mic over to the audience to ask Andrew Bryant exactly what they wanted to know. Reaching this point has taught me more than a degree ever could. It took two years to reach episode 50, and just six months to hit 100, representing over 500 hours of deep dives with top-tier leaders. Now, as I prepare to move to Dublin for university, my focus is strictly on scaling the brand and bringing the podcast in-person.
4. For all the 18-year-olds listening, what’s one core message that repeats across every conversation you’ve had?
Fail fast, and fail so often and so thoroughly that success becomes impossible to avoid. Stay a lifelong learner. Stay curious. And trust that everything is going to be okay.
UK’s #1 motivational speaker, Brad Burton powerfully told me to take advantage of being young and being naive, use it to reach out to the people you think are too big, too important, too far out of reach. You’ll be surprised how many successful people want to help the next generation, especially when they see someone who hasn’t just studied the mindset of success, but is already living it.
There’s a line from John Maxwell I keep coming back to: “successful people do daily what unsuccessful people do rarely, or not at all.” John Terry told me to put that on my wall. Then write underneath it: what am I going to do today to be a successful person? He said: “Don’t go to bed until you’ve done it. Hold yourself accountable, be honest with yourself, because the only person you’re ever really lying to is you. Did you do the work today, or didn’t you?”
5. What are you going to study at university, and what’s next for you, including how people can connect and work with you?
I’m heading to Ireland to study Media and Communications, the obvious next step. It covers a areas of everything I’m interested in: podcasting, cinematography, editing, a bit of graphic design, essentially everything I’ve already been practicing through my podcast, and exactly the toolkit I need for the industries I care about: luxury travel, lifestyle, fashion, education, and leadership.
Looking back, the biggest impact of these 100 episodes wasn’t the content, it was the leadership. A hundred hours spent engaging, practicing, and speaking directly with some of the top leaders across every industry I’m passionate about taught me more than any classroom could. So many guests told me the same thing: look inward, because the knowledge is already there. That lesson is exactly why I’m now setting out on a new mission, to inspire 100,000 teens and build the largest community for teens working toward the life they actually want.
Alongside that, I’ll start offering this summer three services: personal branding, life coaching and working with companies for sponsorships and partnerships to enhance brand visibility. I already worked with companies and with some young people that reached out to me, and I am happy to say that my suggestions and advices are the ones that made a difference. So I feel prepared to engage with like-minded young people willing to grow professionally. All details will be available on my website www.soniamarta.com, and of course I am happy to connect on any social media platform.