Today, I am joined by
Mariana Santos. She is a journalist and founder of
Chicas Poderosas, a non-profit organization that aims to empower women, journalists and the leadership of women in media. Chicas provides training to have more leadership skills, to navigate better and to come up with one's own story ideas. Also, LGBTQ+ and other minorities whose voices have been marginalized in media orgs are supported by Chicas Poderosas.
Mariana started this community in 2013 while she was an ICFJ fellow. Today she runs it full-time with her team and a board of directors and experts in the different areas of journalism, entrepreneurship, business, innovation and design thinking.
Mariana was also a JSK Knight fellow at Stanford in 2015 and a Knight International Journalism Fellow back in 2013-14 working all across Latin America in major newsrooms and with independent journalists.
I met her many moons ago at
Stanford where she organized a week-long workshop/conference evolving around entrepreneuship and innovation in journalism. Years later, she invited me to
Lisbon to talk about immersive journalism and again, she was able to bring together people from all over the world creating a save space to experiment and innovate. She says about herself that she is a "Portuguese girl who wants to change the world, and is working on it right now."
Some key takeaways:
- The drive of chicas is the magic of being together, feeling the energy of each other ... so the pandemic has been extremely challenging.
- Being a chica means believing in yourself. it is a mindset
- "We need to find role models. We should be listened to."
- "We've been very passionate about changing the reality for women."
- "I thought about quitting."
- "I wanna be there for my team, I wanna hug them."
- "My energy became my currency."
- "We want to bring more women into technology."
- Great team exercise: Try to do the tasks of your colleagues. We need to see each other as team mates and understand what we each of us are doing.
- Important question: How do you establish a culture of trust?
- To do projects, you need: talent, time, and money.
- Mariana is living in Portugal, running a business in the US that has actions in Latin America.
- i am not a business woman naturally, but i became one.
- No toxic people, no toxic environments.
Mariana's book recommendations:
Welcome to the international edition of my podcast Rath Up. I am your host Linda Rath and I interview entrepreneurs who I admire and look up to. I want to know more about their business AND .... What drives them? What inspires them? I believe you need so much more than just talent and skills to be successful in business. So, let's find out what secrets our entrepreneurs will reveal to us.
If you have any questions or want to share some thoughts, feel free to contact me via Twitter @Lynda420. I am your host Linda Rath and I am looking forward to connecting with you in my next episode.
This episode is brought to you by
Media Tech Hub Potsdam. It is one of 12 digital hubs in Germany, initiated by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Energy – and the only one with a focus on MediaTech. it encompasses a working space, an accelerator and an annual conference and i highly recommend you check it out if you want to start a business and look for networking opportunities. I am an entrepreneur myself and our startup Vragments used to be located at the media tech lab in Potsdam.
Credits:
- Produced by Linda Rath
- Photo Mariana Santos
- Photo Linda Rath by Stefan Walter for Causalux Fotos
- Podcast Cover by Nicole Koppe
- Episode Cover Art by Stephan Gensch
- Music/Jingles by Mara Niese
