The Power of Connection: A Sisterhood of Female Podcasters and Business Leaders

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Embark on a transformative adventure with the effervescent Caterina Rando, a trailblazer who's redefining the entrepreneurial landscape for women. As I, Julie Marty Pearson, sit across from this dynamo, we delve into Caterina's roots and her ascent to becoming a revered business coach and podcaster. Caterina's zeal for fostering community among female entrepreneurs shines as brightly as her business acumen, proving that success is sweeter shared.
In the realm of podcasting, we discuss how we've both uncovered a powerful medium that goes beyond mere business—it’s the creation of lasting bonds and personal connections. For those craving the magic of face-to-face connection, we discuss Women's Mastermind Cruises, where female entrepreneurs come together in a floating think-tank of inspiration and support. It's a testament to the power of in-person retreats that elevate business relationships to familial bonds, ensuring that we're not just building enterprises, but lifelines of empowerment and a sisterhood of success.
In this episode, we will discuss:

·        The Long and Winding Entrepreneurial Journey

·        Uplifting Others Through Podcasting

·        How Determination is a Skill

·        Having Business Friends Who Lift You UP!

Learn more about the AMP UP Mastermind Cruise for Women Podcasters, Speakers, and Business Leaders. You can use my code JMP for a $200 discount. Have questions about the cruise? Book a one-on-one with Caterina HERE. 

Caterina Rando is a woman on a mission to uplift the lives of women every where through thrive entrepreneurship. She is an author, sought-after speaker, podcaster, and business transformation coach who passionately serves women leaders and entrepreneurs. Her over twenty-five years of educating and empowering, makers her truly masterful at providing a ton of value to her clients. Caterina specializes in authentic selling, embracing speaking to build influence, how to bliss in your business, and all about thriving women’s retreats. Find out more about Caterina on her Website, and follow her on social –

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(01:05):
I can't wait for you to hearthis conversation, learn more
about Katarina and talk allabout her business journey, her
podcasting journey and her workwith women, where she is the
ultimate networker, creatingamazing summits and retreats
every year for women to learnand grow together.

(01:31):
Welcome to another episode ofPodcaster Story.
Now I am your host, julie MartyPearson, podcaster and coach
for new and aspiring podcasters,and I'm so excited today a
brand new interview with anentrepreneur, a coach and a
podcaster, herself one of my newfriends.

(01:52):
I'm so excited to have KatarinaRando with me today.
Hello, katarina, thank you forbeing here.
Hi, julie, so happy to be withyou.
Yeah, I'm so excited.
Katarina is another woman whoI've been introduced through
fellow entrepreneurs and friends, and that is the power of
networking right there.

(02:13):
If you don't have a community,you build it.
That's right and that, I wouldsay, is one of your specialties.
Anytime anyone has mentionedyou or told me about you, she is
the community person, thenetworking queen.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Thank you.
You know, julie, like you Iwork from home.
I talk to gals all over, theywork from home.
You know we work by ourselveswith our computers and it's
really important that we infusecommunity, even when it's
virtual, in our lives so wedon't feel by ourselves all the
time.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
Absolutely.
I have learned that too, as anentrepreneur.
It can be very lonely isolatingall of those things.
So before we get into yourpodcasting journey, let's talk a
little bit about your journeyas a businesswoman.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Tell my listeners a little bit about you what your
business is and how you gotstarted.
I'm second generation American.
My grandparents came throughEllis Island, and I say that
because of that immigrantentrepreneurial spirit.
My one grandfather was ashoemaker.
My other grandfather had agrocery store.

(03:24):
Grandfather was a shoemaker, myother grandfather had a grocery
store.
My parents were the first intheir families to go to college
and they had regular J-O-Bs.
My dad was an engineer and mymom was a schoolteacher, but
they also had entrepreneurialventures on the side, I think as
a result of being the childrenof entrepreneurial parents.
And so when I was growing up Isaw my parents go to work, but

(03:48):
then I saw them doing theirthing on the side too.
And my mom had an Italiannovelty business.
She made shirts for all theItalian clubs around the country
.
They said you know, theluckiest people have a root in
the boot or all of that things,and the luckiest people marry

(04:08):
Italians.
And so I saw her having so muchfun with her side biz business.
She made chocolate chips,Italiano, with a touch of
Galliano, Like she was alwaysdoing something entrepreneurial.
And so I saw that tryingbusinesses is fun too.
I wasn't afraid of it.
And then my first business wasmy sister opened a cafe and then

(04:31):
she left and I ran the cafe andI loved the business part of it
.
I love the people, I lovedconnecting.
But I really didn't like thefood part of it you know,
chopping all day.
So one day this lady came in mycafe and she thanked me for
some business advice I had givenher, and her gratitude

(04:52):
literally touched my heart.
I felt a hang of bliss in mychest and I said you know what?
This is pretty cool.
So I sold my cafe and I had acoach who thought I would make a
good business coach, and then Istarted this business.
But really I was shy andself-conscious and so now I'm

(05:15):
much more dynamic, or at leastconfident on some days, Julie.
But you know, the great thingabout having your own business
is, whatever you need to work on, it will show up in your
business for you to work on.
So true.

Speaker 1 (05:29):
I love that.
I love that your family hasthis history of entrepreneurial
ship and passion for doing newthings and trying new things and
helping people.
I too, come from a family wheresmall businesses existed.
My parents, when I was born, myparents had a furniture store,
marty's Furniture.

(05:50):
We were pretty well known herein Bakersfield.
There still are some peoplewhen they hear my last name
they're like hey, are yourelated to Phil Marty?
I'm like, yeah, he's my dadbecause he did all the
commercials on TV and radio.
So I get that.
But it's funny becauseunfortunately that business did
not last and they had to closewhen I was a kid and that was

(06:13):
very hard for my family and theywent through a lot of financial
struggles after that.
And so years ago, when Idecided to start my own coaching
business, my mom was always oh,I don't want you to do that
because she's so weary of it,and along the way proved to her
it's okay, it's different.
But what I love with yourparents, you really got the
spirit of it's okay to try newthings, it's okay to change your

(06:34):
mind and do something different, and I love that inspiration
for you.

Speaker 2 (06:39):
My dad used to say that my mom had a scheme of the
week.
That's what he used to call it Ascheme of the week, and as I
talk to all my gals and myclients, I call it brilliant
idea syndrome.
Like, we get all these brilliantideas right, and the challenge
is that you can have all thesebrilliant ideas, and of course

(07:00):
they're going to come and youcan even write them down and
capture them.
Ideas, and of course they'regoing to come and you can even
write them down and capture them.
You just can't do them all atonce and sometimes you know, the
thing that we've been doing,julie rinse and repeat over and
over and over that's not asexciting as the new thing.
You know, like, I have thisThrive at Sales program 12 weeks

(07:21):
, I've taught it probably 20times.
Okay, it's an awesome program,but it's certainly not as
exciting as the next retreatthat I'm brewing up, you know.
And so we have to find thatbalance between the new exciting
thing, our goal that we'resuper passionate about, but also
what are those things that you,you know work, that bring the

(07:45):
revenue in the door, that arestill providing massive value to
you while you're getting thenew exciting thing up and
running.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
That's so important, I think, because especially if
we've done something and welaunch and it doesn't work, then
we get discouraged.
That doesn't mean there wasn'tgood content there.
You've got to keep going andonce you have it, you can keep
it moving, but you still want tothen try what's next.
What's my new thing?
And that's kind of a balance wehave to have as entrepreneurs
of doing what we know works andkeeping that going, because you

(08:16):
know we all need money coming in, but we're still testing and
growing and changing andevolving.
And I think that's so importantgrowing and changing and
evolving and I think that's soimportant.
So I think that's maybe a goodsegue into podcasting.
At what point did you maybe getthe bug for podcasting or say,
hey, that would be a goodaddition to my business?

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Let me say this you know, one of the things about
being in business for many years, as I have, is that it's a
circuitous route.
What I mean by that is thefirst several years I probably
didn't know too much about whatI was doing, and then you start
to try things and figure out.
You know what you like and whatI always loved is giving speech
, building influence with peopleright away, and then, hopefully

(08:58):
, if you're doing it right,you're coming home with clients
and, of course, now we don'teven have to leave our house to
go give a speech, which is soexciting.
You know, I mean, during thepandemic there was days I was
doing three speeches in one day.
Wow, very exciting, right Indifferent parts of the country,
all from my dining room, andthat's the excitement of what
business brings us now.
And the other thing and ofcourse, as you know, technology

(09:20):
has developed.
We can all have an amazingpodcast studio in our house very
inexpensively.
And I realized that I used topublish books, I used to publish
a magazine.
That's fine, the print word isfine, but I like the spoken word
, I like the speaking part, andso when podcasting came around,

(09:43):
it seemed like a natural fit forme, because I realized I
preferred speaking over writing,and I want people to feel the
energy.
You know, it's not just aboutthe education of what we're
talking about.
It's about the inspiration andthe motivation and the positive

(10:04):
enthusiasm and energy we giveour audience, and so that's part
of the reason why I love to dopodcasting.

Speaker 1 (10:11):
Yeah, it's the connection you don't realize I
was.
I think that's been the shockfor me because obviously I
realized what I was going to say, people were going to hear it
and so it's putting somethingout into the world.
But you don't realize, intelling your story and sharing
other people's stories, you findconnection with people who
you've never met before, andthat's powerful.

Speaker 2 (10:32):
I was in another city a few months ago.
I was in a lady's room before aspeech and this lady comes up
to me and she says are youKaterina Rando?
I said yeah.
She said I listened to yourpodcast.
That was so exciting and it'shappened a few times and the
beautiful thing about that isthat people feel like they

(10:55):
really know you.
You know, I mean I'd never mether before, but she felt like
she really knew me, and that'spart of what podcasting does is
it gives us.
We really are building arelationship in some ways and of
course I know it's not a realrelationship in other ways.
You know, like all the ladieson that show the View, they're

(11:16):
all my BFFs but they don't knowI exist, like that.
But at the same time, hopefully, what I'm doing with my podcast
and I know you're doing withyour podcast, julie is we're
making a contribution to people,we're positively impacting
people and hopefully, if we'redoing it right, we're uplifting
their life experience, and sothat brings me great joy and

(11:40):
pride that I get to do that.

Speaker 1 (11:43):
That's so important.
You know you're doing it forthe right reasons.
I mean, we all know doing it asa part of our business.
Obviously we want the positiveimpact on our business, whatever
that may be Listeners, clients,followers.
From what happened with me,that's the point.
We're putting it out foreverybody who might need to find
it, might need to hear it, evenif I never meet them, ever knew

(12:18):
they'd listen.
There's that feeling of bysharing what I've gone through,
it's going to help somebody elseand I think that's why
podcasting is powerful inbusiness, because you, as a
seasoned businesswoman, can saythis is what I do and I know
what works because of these 10examples and for you, that's the
power in your podcasting andhelping people learn about
business through your experienceyes, my experience and my

(12:38):
clients' experience too, becausepart of the cool thing about
serving women for so long isthat I've met so many cool women
and we also get to see what'sworked for them and their
journeys as well.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Right, one thing I want to say, julie, if I may
back to something you mentionedearlier about you know, when we
get discouraged, I do want tosay that one of the things
hopefully podcasting supportssupports is helping.
I'll speak about women inbusiness helping us to not stay

(13:11):
discouraged.
I really feel thatdetermination is a skill we
don't talk about enough, becausethere is disappointment du jour
, there's distress du jour,there's deflation du jour some
days, and wouldn't it be greatif we could take all that and we
could turn it intodetermination.
And it sounds perhapsimpossible, but we can do it

(13:35):
when we put our intention ondoing it and we really set that
as part of our plan to staydetermined, and so that's one of
the things that podcastinghelps with.
We can listen to a podcast thatwe know will uplift us and get
us back on track.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
Absolutely, and I think that I love the power of
podcasting.
You can see it in so many waysand maybe that comes for you
listening to you know a podcastabout pop culture and laughing
about something they've said.
Or listening to you know apodcast about pop culture and
laughing about something they'vesaid.
Or listening to you knowKatarina's about business.
It's what I've been missing inmy sales process.
You know, whatever it is, it'sthat connection.

(14:17):
Even if you didn't realize youneeded it, you get a boost in
that determination that you'retalking about.
So one of the ways that you notonly work with your clients but
connect women in business is bydoing events, by doing retreats
.
Yes, so can you talk a littlebit about how that played a role
in your business?

(14:37):
Yes, and, like I said, Julie.

Speaker 2 (14:39):
I love the virtual situation.
However, nothing beats being ina room of like-hearted,
like-minded women on a missionjust like you making friends,
connecting, sharing ideas,having fun together, sharing
resources.
And last year I took some galson a cruise retreat and the

(15:05):
theme of the cruise retreat washow to thrive with women's
retreats.
So it was a retreat about howto do retreats.
We had a great time, we hadeducation sessions and
excursions and activities.
And then one afternoon I saidto the gals I said hey, my
friends, why don't you come tomy suite?
Cause I always get a mini suiteon the cruises.

(15:26):
And in the afternoon we'll havemastermind, we'll have some
mocktails and we'll mastermindMocktails and mastermind.
So we were supposed to be therefor 90 minutes and we ended up
being there for seven and a halfhours.
Oh my gosh.
They had so much to talk about.
They wanted to ask each other'sopinions.

(15:48):
They wanted to say what do youdo for this?
What solution are you usingover here?
What do you think about this?
We had room service for dinner.
We didn't go out.
They were blissing.
And at the end of the week, me,I worked on all this stuff and I
said what part did you like themost, and that was the part
that they liked the most.

(16:08):
Not all my fancy swag or myfancy activities or all the
stuff I thought was thebrilliant education.
No, that's the part they likedthe most, and so, that said, to
me this is a needed solution forgiving women an opportunity to
get together, make friends,share ideas, share resources,

(16:31):
and that's why I created AMP Up,which is our mastermind cruise
for women podcasters, speakersand business leaders.
That we'll be doing April of2025.
And, as you know, we've alreadygot the party moving.
We've got a lot of gals comingalready, because women love to
get together and they will makefriends, they'll create

(16:53):
connection, they'll maybe getclients, they'll book each other
on each other's podcasts andthey'll uplift each other's
lives and everyone's going toget off the ship more uplifted
than when they got on.
And that's also part of thegoal, because we do need to fill
our cup and we need helpfilling our cup.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
So true, I have realized in the last few months
there's nothing like thein-person connection.
I've been Zooming andconferencing and retreating with
people online for you know, thelast five years, but when I
went to my first in-personpodcast conference in January,
there was nothing like it.
I kept saying there was thisweird feeling.
I'm walking around this hoteland I keep seeing people I know,

(17:34):
but then I don't really knowthem because I've never met them
in person before.
But just that connection, theenergy.
You know, the first day I wentto it was an all women in she
podcasts, female podcaster,non-binary podcaster
organization.
It was a room filled with womenpodcasters being spoken to by
women podcasters and it was justthe energy of being in that

(17:57):
collective place of learning andsharing and growing.
So I can imagine in yourexample of being on a cruise in
a room together.
They were all just vibing,blissing, as you say, together.

Speaker 2 (18:12):
Yeah, and this is what we see, and I've done a lot
of cruise retreats and Julie,because nobody can come late,
nobody can leave early, they'reall stuck together because
mostly, you know, it's coupleson cruise ships.
So there's not a lot ofsocializing other than with your
people, and also for women it'svery safe.
Socializing other than withyour people, and also for women
it's very safe.

(18:33):
Cruising is very safe and thatis a consideration when you're
going, especially for a lot ofwomen traveling alone.
And so I have had many gals sayto me they did more business on
the ship than if they were homewith their computer, and it's
very transformational for theparticipants.

Speaker 1 (18:55):
It's so funny.
I was just talking on a recentinterview I did for the podcast
with a friend of mine, clarissa,who is a coach and artist.
Her and I went to our doctoralprogram together, which had a
unique version where it wasn'tonline classes, it wasn't
nightly classes.
We had one weekend a monthwhere we all were at the school
Most of us lived in other citiesand that whole weekend it was

(19:17):
all school and learning andsocial and together.
And we say that we would havenever gotten through that
program if it hadn't been thatformat, because we developed a
bond and a family, a tribe, andI think it's.
This is so much what femaleentrepreneurs of whatever you do
need a community.

Speaker 2 (19:35):
You need to find your place, yes, and because it's a
place where you contribute andyou know you give and you
receive Right and that keeps usgoing.
It really keeps us goingbecause there are many
challenges that we will run intoand sometimes we need a gal

(19:56):
who's going to be a girlfriendand say look, sweetheart, you
got this.
Or don't forget who you are.
You know, I remember one day Iwas depresso about something and
one of my gal pals said to meshe said you're Katerina Rando.
And just the way she said it,you know, she was like saying
you're badass, you're awesome.

(20:18):
I didn't feel that way, julie,in that moment, but just the
reminder was very impactful andwe need business girlfriends to
lift us up.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
Absolutely, and I know a few people who went on
the cruise that you did earlierthis year and they all raved
about it.
So this new cruise that I'mhappy to say I will be going on
in April of 2025.
Can you talk a little bit aboutso it's a week-long cruise.
What are the type of thingsyou're planning, what kind of

(20:51):
activities, so people get asense of what they would be
doing?

Speaker 2 (20:54):
Sure, Okay, it's round trip San Francisco and
we're on a princess cruise ship,the Ruby Princess, and we're
going north to Astoria, oregon,seattle, washington and
Vancouver, british Columbia.
There will be three port daysand there'll be three sea days,
and on the sea days we'll have alot of our masterminding time

(21:18):
and we'll have some funactivities also I always like to
host a private afternoon teawith fascinators.
We'll do a really also femininefun thing, which will be an
accessory and jewelry exchangewhere everybody brings stuff
that they love, never wear andnow they realize it's time to

(21:41):
share.
But the idea is that successfulwomen make decisions quickly
and when jewelry and accessoriesare involved, it's a good way
to have them practice makingdecisions quickly.
And then you know what's so fun, julie, after that is to walk
around the ship and see galslooking great in some item that

(22:05):
you brought for the activity.
We'll also do some group Zoomkaraoke, where we'll get in
small groups and we'll singkaraoke together, which is great
for connecting and teambuilding.
And then we'll do lots ofmasterminding, which are
different roundtables whereyou'll sit with an expert.
She'll facilitate and then talka little bit about some super

(22:30):
tips and then everyone will askquestions and share ideas for
about half an hour and thenyou'll go to another table that
interests you and go to anothertable that interests you with
other hot topics, and again forpodcasting, for speaking to grow
your business and for overallbusiness success.

(22:51):
So we might be talking aboutstrategy, we might be talking
about doing your own retreats orrunning your own group programs
or, like you and I were talkingabout before this, how to use
YouTube to significantly growyour downloads or how to use
Pinterest to grow your downloads, or all these some more techno
topics, some more personaldevelopment topics and some more

(23:14):
overall business topics.

Speaker 1 (23:17):
Sounds amazing.
I'm so excited.
I wish it was happening thisyear, but I love that because
you are going to have lead upevents and it's going to be a
group of women that's going toreally get to know each other
well before we all get on theship together.

Speaker 2 (23:29):
Yeah, our plan is that actually, starting in July,
we're going to have athree-week masterclass series on
thriving with women's retreats,which is also applicable for
events.
In August, we have our ShiroSpeaker Summit, which is virtual
, all about using speaking toget clients.
Grow your list, grow yourbusiness.

(23:50):
November, we'll have a one-daystrategy day, which will be
called Expand your Fempirethat's what my podcast is called
.
And then in January, februaryand March of next year, we're
going to have monthly gatheringsso virtual, so the women can
get to know each other before weget on the ship together.
So by the time you get on theship, you're going to already be

(24:10):
friends with all these gals.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
That's amazing.
I love that because I thinkthat's so important Sometimes,
especially if you're going tosomething you don't know anyone
going to it, that can make youhold back or not maybe
participate.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
So it's like we're all going to get on there, feel
like we're old friends and wereuniting 10 years later yes,
and let me say this If somebodywants to come but they don't
have a roommate, no problem,because I'm really good at
matchmaking roommates.
Okay, absolutely, we'll do that.
And then some gals might wantto get their own cabin.
That's fine too, and the cabinsare really affordable.

(24:44):
We've priced this event reallyaffordably, julie, because this
is the first one, and I'm hopingthat we are going to have so
much fun.
We're going to want to keepcoming back every year, so this
is really this is the one tocome to, if you're giving it any
consideration.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
What I love about it because you are starting so far
ahead, not only because for thepre-events, but it also gives
all of us all that time to bepaying on it.
We have to show up and havethis huge cost because we want
to go next month.

Speaker 2 (25:14):
I'm giving women 10 months 12 months to pay for
their program and then thecabins.
Actually, when we're recordingthis, the cabins are on sale
right now through the end ofnext month, so that will also
allow people through nextJanuary to make the investment
for that as well.
That's great.

Speaker 1 (25:35):
So many amazing options.
Katarina, thank you so much forbeing here.
I'm so happy that we are nowconnected and know each other
and I get to participate in allof your amazing events, and I
appreciate you sharing some ofyour journey here, hopefully
inspiring some other women thatyou can do it, no matter where
you're starting.

(25:55):
Please check out Katarina'spodcast Expand your Fempire I
love that word and we will haveall the deets.
We'll have the link to theamp-up cruise that we've been
talking about in the show notesso you can read more details,
learn a little bit more about it.
Please feel free to reach outto myself or to Katarina on

(26:18):
Facebook If you have questionsand want to ask more details
about this event.
Hopefully, everyone will signup because we just the more the
merrier, and I'm so lookingforward to it.
But I really just enjoyed thistime to connect with you and get
to know you better and hear alittle bit more about your
journey.

Speaker 2 (26:37):
Thank you, julie, thank you so much, and I look
forward to being with you on theship.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Thank you so much for listening to this episode.
It means so much to me to haveyou here.
Make sure you don't miss anynew episodes of the podcast.
Hit, subscribe wherever you arelistening right now and new
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.
If you enjoyed this episode,please share it with friends and
family, and make sure to leavea rating and review wherever you

(27:12):
are listening.
That will help the podcast togrow.
Come on over to Instagram atpodcastyourstorynow to keep up
with me and the podcast so thatyou can be ready to podcast your
story now.
Thank you,