S2 Ep4: Mariana Santos | Chicas Poderosas

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:


Lead together



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