In this episode of the Show Up, Real podcast, Catalina Del Carmen talks about why using your voice isn’t optional—it’s how impact actually happens.

She breaks down the ripple effect of sharing your story, why overthinking keeps people stuck, and how your lived experience is already enough to help someone else. This conversation is a reminder that impact doesn’t come from perfection or polish—it comes from showing up and sharing what you know, even while you’re still figuring it out.

If your wisdom is sitting in drafts, this episode is your nudge to hit publish.

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Catalina Del Carmen

Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to Show Up, Real podcast. I hope you are having a good week. I’m so happy you’re back.

All right, y’all. So today I am going to get right into the episode. I really just turned on my notes app and started sharing a ton of my own thoughts, and it turned into this giant… I don’t know, many paragraphs of just like everything I have to say on this topic. I had ChatGPT help me turn it into an outline, and I’m so excited about it because it really did clean it up a lot.

There’s a lot of points I want to make here and remind you of. So today’s podcast is all about the impact of your voice. And I wanted to do an episode about this because so many of us don’t realize the impact that we make in people’s lives. Like we literally can’t measure it.

And it’s important to realize that because we get very in our heads about what we put out, and if we’re putting this out right, or if this content… should I do this or say this or should it be podcasts? Should it be YouTube? Should it be like all these things?

And I wanted to kind of get at a ground level and remind you of the importance and the impact of your voice. And I want to make one, two, three main points here that are going to help you really create a sense of urgency when it comes to you going out there and creating content, helping people in their life, in their business, in their career—depending on what you do or what your goals are.

You have a lot of value, clearly. And on today’s episode, I really want to light a fire under you to stop the BS and just go out there and do what you got to do and simplify this process. So that’s kind of what I wanted to start with.

You know, I’ve been thinking a lot about women and leadership roles and the state of the world, and how there’s so much evil in this world. And I’ve been really disturbed by the Epstein files, and I don’t know how many of you have actually dug through them. If you choose to dig through it, I would do so with a lot of caution because it is extremely disturbing—probably the most disturbing things that I have read ever in my life. Like it is incredibly… ugh. So I would do so with caution.

But I do think it’s important that we understand that there are people who are really, really trying to make all of us just shut the fuck up and listen, shut the fuck up and obey. There would be such little fight if women just behaved, if women just shut up. That is what they want and that’s never been more clear.

And by they, I mean the patriarchy. I mean a lot of men. There are some great men out there. I’ve been married—I’m going on 12 years this weekend actually—so I’m not saying like it’s all men, but like it is very worrisome. And I’m not here to fear monger, but I am here to be a hundred with you. And there’s a lot of work that needs to happen.

And one thought I have a lot—something I think about a lot—is how much men need good leaders and good men to step up as leaders. And there are many out there, but how there really is a lot of men suffering. And that’s why a lot of men, they don’t have anywhere… they don’t go to therapy. They don’t do these things that are good for them. They don’t heal their shit. They don’t… there’s a… they need motherfucking help because they’re ruining this world. And I think about it a lot.

And I also think about my nephews and my sons, and the world they’re growing up in, and how I want to be—like who I want to be to them, right?

And while I think about all this, I think about how important it is for girls, for women, for us ambitious, educated, high-achieving women, how important it is for us to use our voice—to be visible, to talk to people, to talk to girls, to share our opinions.

I think we’re lucky to live in a time where we get to do that very easily, but I just think about it all the time because I think about teenagers right now. I think about pre-teens right now—like kids, girls, right? And I think about: how do we mold them? What do we tell them to prepare themselves for the world that they’re getting into? And how can we empower them so that they know their voice is to be used and they know that they have so much more power than they think?

And while I think about this, I think about my clients and I think about myself. I think about how important it is to keep growing and to push the next level of growth. Obviously healing and rest and taking care of yourself—those are incredibly important things and they’re going to be a part of this growth. But this episode really isn’t about that.

It is about us really using our voice for good and really understanding the impact that we can have, and understanding the influence that we do have. Because if you’re listening to this podcast, it probably means you’re a leader in your family, in your community, in your work, in probably many places. And more than ever, that leadership needs to be exercised.

That’s really the point of this episode. I want you to really understand the impact of your voice and how it can actually change this world. And I also want to give you some tools to make it less complicated, right? To make it less complicated, to make it simpler.

So let’s get into today’s episode.

All right. So the first thing I want to make clear is that your impact—right, your voice, the things you say, anytime you create a piece of content—your impact is a domino effect that you will never fully see. That you will never fully see.

The reality is that one person you help influences their circle, who influences their circle. We think that we’re just creating content and sharing whatever online and blah, blah, blah. But the reality is anytime we can actually create content that is honest and real and our point of view and really shares what we know to be true about this world and about our work, anytime we do that, it has the weight to not only influence one person, but an entire community.

And it’s something that you cannot measure. You can’t measure the ripple effect of your work.

When I think about all of the messages, the DMs, the emails, the comments, the people coming up to me who have told me, “My God, you changed my life,” or “Your podcast changed my life,” and “I loved your podcast,” and “I really needed to hear this,” or on Instagram, “I really needed to hear this. I’ve been stuck between blah, blah, blah,” right?

Like I’ve gotten hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of messages and comments and all the things. And what is so easy to kind of just breeze by—or what’s so easy to just shut it off and act like it’s not a big deal—are these comments. But the reality is when I think about the most impactful pieces of advice or wisdom or coaching that I have ever gotten, when I think about the most impactful things—words, sentences, whatever—that have impacted my life, it usually is something extremely simple.

I remember reading… my God, what is the name of the book? The Giant Within. Is that the name of the book? I’m gonna pull it up right now. You might hear me typing.

There’s a book by Tony Robbins. It’s like an old book. The Giant Within. I think it’s called The Giant Within. Let me pull it up. Awaken the Giant Within. It is an old book. I think it was published in… I don’t know. It had to have been like the 90s or maybe even the late 80s. This book—1991—this book was really the first kind of… no, it wasn’t the first personal development book I read, but it was a significant one. And I was really, I was pretty young. I was in… it was definitely before kids, somewhere in my early 20s, maybe mid 20s.

And one phrase, one topic that he talked about in that book that will never leave me, that I always go back to, is: if you want momentum, you have to make more decisions. You have to be making decisions all the time. Like if you want momentum to happen in your life, you have to get used to making decisions quickly, making decisions often, and not making decisions something that wrecks you or makes you so nervous and anxious and all the things.

It’s just one little phrase—one little phrase within that book—that has stuck with me forever, that I have passed on, in my own words, to other people, right?

And I think about the things that my clients have repeated back to me that has really changed their perspective. There’s an Instagram Live I did in 2021 that I called Have the Audacity. That was the name of the Instagram Live, and I think I turned it into a podcast as well so you could look it up.

But it was an Instagram Live that I recorded right after I sold my first $6,000 coaching package. And I remember my brain just… I remember I was just so proud of myself for having the audacity to charge that much, to say the number out loud on a sales call. Like I was so proud of myself.

I took that—like right after that sales call—I went to my Instagram and I did a live. And I remember I cried on the live because I just got emotional because I spent so much time in my career just playing small and not saying what I actually had to say.

And it felt like one of the first times I had the full fucking audacity to like, you know what? I do have the audacity to do this, to charge this. And I felt so empowered.

And so many people have referenced that live to me and said like, “That one really, really hit home for me. Like I really needed to hear that.”

And when I think about all of the comments that people have made to me and the love that I’ve gotten, and then I also think about all of the people and mentors and authors and coaches who have influenced me, I realize very quickly that the influence that I have made in this world I will never ever ever comprehend. Like I just could not comprehend.

Because that type of impact—it could be given, could be passed on so quickly. And some people won’t even tell you the impact that you’ve had on them, and you won’t hear it until years later down the road, maybe even after you pass.

So I say this because it is so important for you to realize that it’s not about saying the right thing the perfect way. It’s not about doing this right or making it this format or my marketing needs to be this or marketing. What I want for you is to be a living, breathing example of your leadership, your stories, and yourself. Like I want you to own all of it. Own your failures, own your wins, own all of it. Own your past, own your present, and then show up as the leader you are in every scenario.

Whether you’re at home, whether you’re at a family party, whether you’re recording a podcast, whether you’re making an Instagram post, whether you’re writing an email, whether you’re signing up to be a speaker at someplace—whatever you’re doing.

Whatever you’re doing, you have to remember that this can only be measured so much. And it is worth using your voice so that someone gets the value of that and that could be passed on.

All right, the second point I wanna make is to stop complicating the path to impact. We’re very good at over complicating the path to having the impact that we want.

And the problem is, I mean, there’s a handful, but a couple of them are paralysis by analysis, right? Like is it YouTube or podcasts or Instagram or Substack or LinkedIn or which one should I do?

You can get so caught up in these details or waiting for the right strategy or the perfect map or the ideal approach, or creating content for three weeks in a row and then being all on top of the world and then not getting the results you want, so then you give up. Then you hold back for another month, maybe two.

We have to lessen the barriers. We have to lessen the barriers of entry into the impact we want to make in this world. And this goes at every level, at every single level, because as you grow in your business, there are going to be even more levels where you’re more seen and more visible.

You cannot let the guides, the strategies, the options be the thing that stops you from actually doing the work. Lessen the barriers. Stop putting so many filters in front of what you want to say.

It’s like standing… it’s like having a megaphone and standing in an open field, right? You have a megaphone in your hand and your audience is all around you and you have something to say. Right?

Your audience is all around you asking themselves questions, trying to get answers to what you have the solution for. But then you’re standing in the middle of that field and all you’re doing is spending time figuring out which way the wind is blowing so that you could talk the perfect way. So the circumstance is perfect so that everyone hears, so that it’s not too windy, so that the wind doesn’t get into the microphone and make it kind of sound bad, right?

It’s like there are so many circumstances that could get in the way, and instead of saying what you have to say, you’re trying to get it right. No. Because the message won’t get out.

Lessen the barriers. Take out the filters. What is the easiest, quickest, most impactful way to get this from my head and into the world? And then can I create a process out of that? Can I just make this one little format that I do?

What if I just do the same fucking type of Instagram reel every single time? Excuse my language. I get so passionate.

But it’s like, stop putting so many barriers to get your voice out. The more you test and learn and actually figure out what works, then you will figure out a system that makes sense, that works, that people engage with.

But if you’re one of those people that gets stuck with like a zillion drafts and you’re not putting it out, it is time to stop. It is time to stop. You’re over complicating the journey. You’re over complicating the work. Just put your voice into the world.

What’s the easiest way to do that? And can I do that for two whole weeks without letting my brain mess it up?

This is why I’m so inspired by activists. And I always see activists as such leaders. Because the reality is that a lot of you—your work is so important to this world and to your community. And it is life-changing work if you think about it. If you really think about it like that.

And it’s like, if you decided that what you have to say, what you know to be true, your expertise—if you decided, “If everybody knew what I knew, they would be better off. They would have a happier life. They would have more money. They would have more peace”—like when you decide that that is worth saying what you have to say, when you decide that your wisdom alone can change the effing world, you’ll stop caring so effing much about all the little details.

And you’ll go out there and you’ll start repeating this, create a system that works for you, that you could edit and mold, one foot in front of the other.

So stop trying to micromanage all these little… like the perfect circumstance to make the perfect content because that’s not going to fucking come. It’s not going to come. It’s not going to.

So stop over complicating it.

All right, point number three: the world needs your voice now. It needs your voice now.

When I think about this week—this past week, I should say—Bad Bunny performed at the halftime show. It was culturally such an incredible event. I think for… no, I think, I know for the Latino community, it was so validating and so special because it was like for the first time in American history, it felt like America was seeing the beauty of our culture and seeing the goodness of our culture.

And Bad Bunny did such an incredible job adding so many details to this performance that just made so many Latinos, Latinas… people cry and feel so validated and dance and brought so much joy. It was so beautiful.

And for me, it was also a reminder of how important it is for us to be using our voice, to share our goodness, to share our wisdom with the world. Because your wisdom is so specific to your lived experience, and it can’t be replicated.

So sharing that wisdom from your point of view, having the audacity to say, “Here’s what I know to be true in this world about…” whatever—it has never been more important.

Someone is waiting for your specific perspective to feel less alone in this world, to feel like it’s possible for them, to feel like someone understands them. And this is why authenticity is so important to me, because when you show up authentically, even when you’re stuttering and scared, when you show up authentically, you almost always give permission for someone else to.

Your stories, your wins, your failures, all of it—it is exactly what makes you special and it’s exactly what people need to hear.

Like it’s a crazy world right now. I mean always, but kind of right now… it’s not crazy. And right now we need leaders to step up. Good-hearted leaders to step the fuck up.

And I say this from a place of: we need you to step up. And stepping up also comes with giving yourself radical compassion, radical love. It comes with that too. So I’m not just saying like go out there, do what you gotta do, no.

I’m saying go out there and be the leader—be the leader—by sharing your wisdom, sharing your goodness with the world. And then also, also by taking care of yourself like you never have before, like loving yourself like no other woman in your lineage ever had the opportunity to.

So many of my clients are the first in their families and in their friend groups to do a lot. And what my ask is that you share that wisdom, that you help the next person behind you. People need help. We need leaders, mentors more than ever.

Be willing to get it wrong. Be willing to figure it out publicly. But your lived experiences, your stories—that is exactly what is the competitive advantage. That is what makes you unique.

And what I want for you is for you to practice that over and over and over and over and over again. Share the realities of what it looks like to grow, to prioritize your growth. Now you don’t have to put all your drama out there, but you know what I mean.

So here are three questions that I want you to ask yourself, journal on them, okay? Write these three questions down. Let the answers flow. These are not to be captions or emails. Ask these questions to yourself and answer them for yourself with zero intention to post.

And the point of these are to really get a fire under you, to remind yourself why you freaking started this in the first place and why it means anything to you, and how to make it simpler for yourself.

So here are the three questions.

Number one: what is the point of all this? You answer that question for yourself. And by “all this,” I mean your goals, your business… right? Like what’s the point of all this work you’re doing on yourself? What is the point of all this?

That’s question number one.

Question number two: what do I actually have to say? Just let your brain write it out, type it out. Don’t try to write it nicely or delete—just brain dump it.

And then question number three: how can I simplify getting this out into the world? What barriers can I remove?

I hope that this podcast episode put a little fire under you. I hope it is what you needed to hear. And I hope you go out there and fucking share your wisdom. And stop waiting to know the direction and stop waiting to solidify this or solidify that. Like go out there and help people. People need help right now. They need your perspective right now.

Someone’s life will change because you decided to speak up. Your impact grows in so many ways you will never ever see. Don’t do it for the likes. Do it for all the impact that you won’t see.

Trusting that when you share wisdom, when you do the work and effort to share your wisdom and put good into this world, it will come back to you. It will come back to you in dollars. It will come back to you in karma. It’ll come back to you in clients. It’ll come back to you in opportunities. It will come back to you. I know that to be completely true.

The more value that you put into the world, you will get back in some shape or form. But if you aren’t putting out the value, if it’s stuck in your drafts, well then your blessings are probably stuck in drafts too. That was good. That was so good actually.

Right? If all the wisdom, the goodness that you have to share with the world, if it’s stuck in your drafts, then so are your results. That’s so good.

All right, y’all. I hope you needed to hear this. I hope that this put a little fire under you. It would mean the world to me if you let me know if this podcast was at all helpful to you, served you in any way, shape, or form. If you could DM me on Instagram @catdelcarmen, that would be amazing, just because I need all the love I can get.

No, I’m just like… I really want—well, I’m gonna be starting to do some events this year, which I’m really excited about. But I just would love to hear from those of you who either are new listeners or have been here forever. Let me know if this helped.

I appreciate you. I will see you next week. I send you a big hug. I will talk to you later. Bye.