Before we start, I have a little treat for you. Hola hola everyone. I am Mafe Salazar, and I am the host of the From Tourist to Local podcast. And the reason why I joined Latinas In Podcasting is because let's be real, podcasting can sometimes feel like you're just talking into the void, and I was craving that sense of community. And LIP has really delivered. Paulette has done such an amazing job of bringing us together and creating a space where we don't just exist as podcasters, but we actually connect as Latinas. What I didn't expect was just so how many incredible women I get to know and even collaborate with. It's been such a game changer to not only share my voice, but also amplify others' voices. If I were telling someone else about LIP, I'd say that is the community that you didn't know you needed, a place where you feel seen, celebrated, and most importantly supported. And that support really makes all the difference Buen día, mi gente and welcome to La Vida Más Chévere de Childfree Latinas. The only Spanglish podcast for childfree Latinas y Latines helping us liberate ourselves from the toxic cultural brainwashing we all grew up with so that we can design our best lives, instead. I'm your host and resident childfree Latina, Paulette Erato. Hey, amigues. I know the tone around here has gotten kind of dark lately. It's a reflection of the world around us as I grapple with trying to stay sane in the dumpster fire. So how about a break from the usual programming to talk about building something? Let's talk about building community. I touched on this in episode 80 when I talked about John Lewis and making good trouble, and I'm doing that very thing with my podcasting community for Latinas called, and the SEO gods love this, Latinas In Podcasting or LIP. I love the acronym LIP lip. It works on so many levels. So let's give some lip service to LIP. You just heard from one of our members in Canada that was Mafe Salazar, and you'll hear from a few more in a little bit. But first of all, what is Latinas In Podcasting? In a nutshell, it's a free community where underrepresented voices can find support. Aspiring and veteran podcasters alike can connect, collaborate, and launch their shows with confidence. That's the mission of LIP, to connect and collaborate. And it is a beautiful thing to watch and experience and something that you'll hear repeated throughout from some of our own members. Which is cool and all. But why does this need to exist? Well, we all know that diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives are under scrutiny and straight up being removed from many corporate visions. We also know for a fact that DEI adds to a company's bottom line. It makes them more money, not the other way around as Target is finding out the hard way. Before all of that started though, I could see a gap in the industry for people who look and sound like me. And this was clearly evident at my very first podcasting conference ever. Let's take a little time, travel back to March, 2022. I was just a baby podcaster with all of three or four episodes out in the ether of a show that at the time was called the Maker Muse Podcast. You remember that? It was an expensive undertaking going to this event that was in my hometown, so I didn't even have to pay for a hotel, and I was plagued by imposter syndrome. Me the gregarious, hyper extrovert who had done her own events at this same hotel, was feeling like I didn't belong there. It's not a good feeling. It's not one I'm even used to experiencing, and frankly, very little about that situation actually helped me feel like podcasting was a welcoming space. But in a full circle moment, three years later, I'm actually back at that event, but this time I'm not a little baby podcaster. I'm actually a speaker at the event on stage sharing about podcasting communities. So I figured I'd give you a little taste of what that presentation is about too. Why did I start Latinas In Podcasting? Frankly, I was tired of attending events in Los Angeles no less, that had very few brown or black faces. If we wanna be seen in this space, we need to feel safe. And in order to feel safe, we need support. So I built a table when there were too few seats at the ones that already exist. There's a hell of a lot more to it. So if you wanna hear the full story of how that first experience led to where we are today, I'm sharing it directly with my email subscribers. So jump on the link in the show notes, get on Substack to get the full tea, todo el chisme, todo el bochinche the full behind the scenes saga, that led us to where we are with Latinas In Podcasting today. I promise, it's an intriguing story that needs to be heard. And with DEI under attack all around us, it's even more important now than ever for women of color to have a space where they don't have to perform for validation. They can be who they are and still feel supported. So what is Latinas In Podcasting? Who's it for? It's for Latinas who have podcasts or work with podcasters or want to. We have hosts, virtual assistants, editors, producers, composers, or anybody who wants to be any of those things, in the community. When I first envisioned this, I thought it would appeal mostly to brand new and early career Latina podcasters passionate about starting or growing their podcast journey. I figured they'd be seeking guidance, resources, and a supportive community to help navigate podcasting production, marketing, growth, all the things. I remember being that newbie podcaster who didn't know up from down, dynamic from condenser mics and why that matters. And I knew I wasn't the only one. And while yes, that group of podcasters has shown up, we also have a whole cadre of established and even veteran podcasters who know how to podcast, but also need to either feel like they're doing it right or wanna be in community with other people who also look and sound like them, or both. So that's become LIP's mission. It's to lower the barrier of entry to the podcasting industry, to give Latinas and other underrepresented voices the right tools and support to launch their shows with confidence, and to provide culturally sensitive and culturally relevant community support. We've hit some amazing milestones in the short time that this has existed since our first little intimate meetup in LA in March of 2024. And it's grown from just that little handful of us to 125 attendees just a few short months later in October 2024 with our first Latinas In Podcasting Virtual Summit. A mailing list that started at zero is now over 240 strong and growing. One milestone that really stands out is from election season. See, the virtual summit was at the end of October to cap Hispanic Heritage Month, Latine Heritage Month, and just two weeks later we had our last presidential election. The morning after that, we hosted an open virtual space for any attendees to come through if they felt like they needed it. Over 30 women, not just from the US proper, but also from Mexico and the Caribbean, showed up. Some were in tears, some were angry, some were looking lost, but all of us needed someone to connect with to help us feel like we weren't alone. And it worked! That event grew into our weekly coworking event, and we've also added a weekly cafecito experience, which I'll tell you about in a little bit. We also now offer monthly low cost workshops and a free weekly newsletter to keep resources fresh in the community up to date on what's happening in their industry. And in all that time, we've grown from nothing, zero to 240, and growing every week. The LIP Threads account has over a thousand followers by itself, which is even more than my personal one. That's awesome. So why does it matter? Because representation is necessary. And while we don't know the exact current state of just Latina podcasters, there's no exact figures available for that specific demographic, I can tell you that the age range of our members is mid twenties to mid fifties, though most of them are over 35. And approximately 90% of the group identifies as female. Not all of them are Latinas either. We do have members outside the US like I mentioned in Mexico and the Caribbean, but also Canada, Brazil, Latvia, Portugal, and the UK just to name a few. So while we don't know the exact demographical figures for Latina podcasters, what we do have is Edison Research, which puts out a survey every year on Latino listeners. So here's what the 2024 survey showed, and I'll link this in the show notes. Female listenership is up. Latinas now account for half of the listeners in the entire Latine demographic. Social media is where they're discovering podcasts. 47% of monthly listeners over the age of 18 say they found out about a new podcast on social media, and YouTube is becoming the service of choice. You know, I'm an audio girly, but hey, I'm glad that people are consuming podcasts, period. What's really interesting is that Gen Z and Millennial podcast listeners are watching and listening together. It's a group effort, a social event. People don't just listen to them alone in their cars or while they're doing dishes anymore, they're getting together to listen or watch like it's a movie. Another interesting note, Latinos are spending most of their days with podcasts as entertainment. 78% of US Latino listeners over the age of 18 want to be entertained by podcasts first, and that's great. But let's talk about why representation in media is so damn important. Because I guarantee you that some of those listeners, aren't necessarily listening to Latina podcasts. They might even be listening to Joe Rogan and Megan Kelly. So here's a story. When I was only a little kid growing up in the eighties, diversity was not a thing. Outside of Sesame Street, the only kids of color on TV was once in a while you'd see a black child. But it was a predominantly white landscape. I mean, even the robots were white. Remember Small Wonder? Diversity meant that someone had brown hair instead of blonde hair, and a common trope in kids TV back then was the imaginary friend. Now your girl here, I never had one. Because in my little kid brain, I figured that that was something only white kids got to have because that's all I saw on tv. The only people who had imaginary friends were the white children. Therefore, it must be a white kid thing, right? It's only for white people. We all know that isn't even remotely true. Anyone can conjure up an imaginary friend, but the lack of representation in my childhood media consumption made me believe I wasn't allowed to. And that's just my story, right? That's just one example of my lived experience. Think about all the messaging we're sending kids like this every day, right now. When children don't see themselves represented in something, how can they imagine that they can do the thing too? Humans need to see and hear others like them doing a thing before they themselves can believe they can do it too. I mean, the first person to discover fire probably scared the hell out of everybody around them. Everybody probably thought that person was crazy and dangerous! But then humans learned that fire is a tool that can be mastered and now everyone uses fire. That's how it happens. We need to see women astronauts and women doctors and women bus drivers and women football players to believe that we're allowed to do that too. And "allowed" is a funny word, like we need permission. And maybe in the near future we may not be granted permission, which is all the more reason to claim that representation now. But how about I let some of the members tell you about Latinas In Podcasting themselves? Now you're going to hear from Angela who has two podcasts and a full-time job. I don't know how she finds the time, but she's awesome. My name is Angela Briones and I am the creator and host of the Gay Podcast for Everyone. As well as Thank You for Joining Me, Podcast Life Behind the Mic. And I joined Latinas In Podcasting because podcasting can get lonely, and I really wanted to connect with other podcasters so we could learn from one another. The biggest thing I've gained from this community that I didn't expect is the instant connectedness we all have with each other. Everyone wants everyone else to succeed and wants to lift each other up. It's really awesome and I think all of that is due to Paulette, she's a true leader. She's our cheerleader, and she really does lead by example. If I were telling a fellow Latina about Latinas In Podcasting, I would describe it as one of the most important parts of the podcast process, community. Thanks, Angela. What makes Latinas In Podcasting special? It's the people, plain and simple. And look, it's a tiny group, but that's both manageable and makes it easy to engage with one another. Like I mentioned, there's currently 240 or so subscribers to the email list, and about one third of those are active inside our Slack community. That's where the collaborations, the promo, the member directory, where all of that lives. And as part of their membership, which by the way is free, all the members have access to each other's knowledge, each other's resources, and each other's connections. And while we host low cost monthly educational workshops that help the podcasters on a tactical level, the real magic takes place around our two key weekly events. Those are Co-working Wednesdays and Cafecito Fridays. And I'm sure you're asking what the hell is that? Co-working is a two hour block of time to have an accountability buddy, a body double to make progress on a project. Some people use this time to create their episodes. Some are doing their taxes, and some just pop in to ask questions. We're even so lucky to have Dr. Lauren Guerra, who is one of the only 1% of Latinas in the US with a PhD. And Dr. Guerra joins us on Wednesdays to work on her book, which I can't tell you about, but I promise you are gonna wanna read it when it comes out. Here's how Dr. Guerra feels about LIP and Coworking. Hi, this is Dr. Guerra of the Gold Hoops and God Podcast. I joined Latinas In Podcasting primarily because I wanted to meet other Latina podcasters, and it's helped me so much in my podcasting journey. I've met some incredible women. I've been able to learn about some amazing resources and programs and things like that. It really is an incredible place to be. One of the things that I've gained from this community that I didn't expect is how genuinely supportive everyone is. So I am in the process of writing my first book, and the writing Wednesdays have really been instrumental for me as a space to get motivated and to meet with other Latinas. It's really amazing. And if anyone asks me about Latinas In Podcasting. I tell them, hurry and sign up. Run immediately. You don't wanna miss out. It's such an amazing group. It truly is a community. It feels like we are amigas, hermanas navigating the podcasting world together and it's really beautiful. Thanks Dr. G. I think it's awesome that she considers co-working her writing group. We're honored to fill the space, so that's how co-working works. And cafecito? Cafecito is plain and simple, a coffee break on Friday mornings. It's an hour in the morning where you can show up as you are to hear or share some chisme or bochinche, and that's gossip to you non Caribbeans, or just chill out. Here's what my podcast bestie Stephanie Graham wants you to know about that. Hey there. My name is Stephanie Graham and I run a podcast called Nosey AF, conversations about art, activism and social change. And I want to share with you my thoughts about Latinas In Podcasting. I'm a lifelong student. I love learning, I love getting perspective, and that community gives just that. There are folks who are just starting their podcasts who are thinking about starting a podcast all the way to folks who've been podcasting for many, many years. They're making a living. They have their own communities, and so it really gives a big breath of just how to be a part of podcasting and how to make the journey work for you, whether you're a hobbyist or you're really trying to make it your job. And I think one thing that I gained from the community that I didn't expect is really just friendship. You know, Paulette has this thing called Cafecito where it's like every Friday you come in there and you meet, and boy do we just kiki. Sometimes we talk about podcasting, but a lot of times you're just talking about relationships, how we're navigating. We're giving each other ideas on things that might be outside of our career, inside our podcasting journey. It could really be anything. And so I really, really, really love that. And if I was telling like you a fellow podcaster about Latinas In Podcasting, I would just describe it as, as women of color that podcast. I'm a black woman and we are just there to kick it and have fun and really make this podcasting world work for us. This is women who are really serious about podcasting. We can all find those friends that are just on our block. That do it occasionally, that dream about doing it, but it's like, no, there's people in here that are speakers. And so I really, really love that mix of hobbyists, professional folks all coming together around podcasting. It is a true, true, true community. And hey, I can even pick up a couple of Spanish words here and there. And you know what? You can beat that because we all need to know Spanish. So it is the perfect place to be. I feel so blessed to be a part of the community. I'm just so happy to be there and I hope that I get to meet you too. Thanks, Steph. Both coworking and cafecito are opportunities to connect and collaborate with other podcasters. Those are again, our driving ethos. A common thread you've heard from our members is that podcasting can be lonely. It's a solo sport for a lot of us, and you know how important community is. We covered it in episode 80. You need people to lean on for support or to celebrate with you when you score wins! And you deserve to do that with and amongst people who understand the struggle, that are in that arena too. I know collaboration over competition? What a radical concept. Here, another member, Heidy tells you about how she views a podcaster in the exact same genre as her. Hi, my name is Heidy De La Cruz. I am the host of the award-winning podcast, The American Dream, In the Eyes of Immigrants. And if I were telling a fellow Latina about Latinas In Podcasting, how would I describe it? I actually did do this recently at a business conference that I went to. I was talking to another fellow Latina podcaster. I was like, oh my gosh, you have to join Latinas In Podcasting group. It is so supportive. You found your people, Latinas, just like us, who are also podcasting. Because this industry may feel so lonely, especially with all those who are podcasting, a lot of them don't look like us. But with this community, Latinas is a sisterhood. It's a community. We uplift each other, we support one another. And I even got the chance to pretty much mentor another fellow Latina podcaster who is doing a very similar podcast as mine, and I absolutely love that. My tips and advice were going to impact her podcast for sure, because it was very similar to mine and I absolutely love that. So I love this community. That's exactly what I would tell a fellow Latina about Latinas In Podcasting and a way to get her to join. Thanks for sharing, Heidy. So why did I invite all of these women to share their stories about Latinas In Podcasting with you? Because communities like LIP are about their members. These powerful women all have voices that deserve to be heard and shared. All of their podcasts are listed in the show notes. Please check them out, give them some downloads, and leave them some five star reviews. I promise that all of their shows are exceptionally high quality and all of them are independently produced. One of the questions I get asked the most about Latinas In Podcasting is, do I have to be Latina to join? And the short answer is no. You already heard from Stephanie. The longer answer is, while Latinas In Podcasting was created to center and amplify Latina voices, we also welcome and support other underrepresented podcasters, especially women of color, bilingual creators, and those from marginalized communities. The goal of Latinas In Podcasting is to make podcasting more accessible by providing education, mentorship, and networking opportunities in a space that also feels inclusive and culturally relevant. So by focusing on visibility and empowerment, LIP helps break down industry barriers for voices that are often overlooked and ensures that diverse stories and perspectives are heard. So if that rings true for you, you are welcome here. Members also get to enjoy discounts to events, to podcasting resources like hosting plans and editing software, which is all pretty cool. But. We could also use financial support. So if you're interested in making more podcasters' dreams come true, we have various ways to support the community, financially and otherwise. Our second annual LIP virtual summit will take place this year on October 16th and 17th. Once again, closing out Hispanic Heritage Month. And our economically friendly sponsorship packages are already being scooped up by companies that recognize the power—el poder y la fuerza—of Latina voices. You could be one of them. Check out the link in the show notes and reach out to finalize your sponsorship. Now, if you're not with a company that has the metaphorical big bucks, that's okay. Independent donations are always welcome. Five bucks, 12 bucks, 50 bucks, 200. There is a PayPal link in the show notes for you. 100% of that money goes to Latinas In Podcasting. It is not my personal PayPal. It is for Latinas In Podcasting. Leave a message when you send your donation so I know how you want your name to show up on the website as a donor, because that's a privilege you will get as well. And you can just simply be anonymous if that's more your speed. But look, if the price of eggs is forcing you to keep your money in your pockets, I get it. We are all feeling that pinch. What I would love is for you to instead share this episode with someone you think needs to hear it. Maybe it's another Latina in your life who wants to feel the power of her voice. Maybe it's with an organization that wants to amplify and uplift Latina voices too. Here at Latinas In Podcasting, we are open and interested in collaborations and partnerships of all kinds, and almost nothing is too weird. Lastly, if you yourself wanna join Latinas In Podcasting, it's free and easy. Simply click our join link in the show notes, drop your best email address, and you're in! Before we end, there's one more voice I want you to hear from. Yovy Daniels is a Panamanian immigrant who hosts the Chombita Chronicles hashtag Afro Latinx, and here's what she has to say. The reason that I joined Latinas in podcast is one, because you foster community. Why I am there, because of the support, seeing the other stories and believing that everybody that can make it in their own, within their own space, within their own niche. And, just we need, we need the support. I like seeing that it's possible that every day somebody starts a podcast and they try to make it and seeking a better way how to do it. And lastly, we all need help. We need to make sure that we are not alone, all the Latina contributes in this message. Also as well, her purpose, her mission y sabe que no esta sola. Exactamente. Saben que no están solas. Gracias, Yovy. What she said there at the end was Latinas here in this group know that they are not alone. Thanks Yovy and thank you to all of our LIP members who pitched in with some audio this week. I am forever grateful for you. Once again, please check out their shows, which are linked in the episode description. And that's a burrito. Hey, mira if this episode made you feel some kind of way dígame. Dm me on Instagram or send me a text, you can do that right from your phone. If you wanna be a guest on the show and put your story out there too, check out the guest form on my website at pauletteerato.com/guest. Yep, just my name. pauletteerato.com/guest. Y no se te olvide que hay más perks when you join the newsletter. Todos estos links están en los show notes. Muchísimas gracias for your support y hasta la próxima vez, cuídate bien.