292: Winning a Signal Award: The Power of Visibility, Community, and Consistency

292: Winning a Signal Award: The Power of Visibility, Community, and Consistent Hard Work

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Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: [00:00:00] We won a Signal Award! We won a Signal Award! We won a Signal Award! The Grad School Femtoring Podcast won a Signal Award! I can't wait to share the details behind how, I'm saying we, because it's not just me, even though I'm a one person show. It's not just me. It represents so much more than me, but in any case, in this episode, I'm going to be talking about the power of visibility, community, and consistent hard work, and what I believe were.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: The key factors that helped me to win this prestigious podcasting award. Now tune in so that you can hear all the details and so you can get an update on what's been going on with me and why this recognition is so meaningful to me.

[00:01:00] Welcome to the top global ranked and award nominated grad school femtoring podcast. The place for first gen BIPOCs to listen in on conversations about grad school, And growth. In this podcast, you'll learn about all things higher education, personal development, and sustainable productivity. This is Dr.

Yvette Martinez Vu, and I will be serving as your femtor, providing you with tips and tricks and everything else you need to know to successfully navigate grad school and beyond. For over 14 years, I've been empowering first gen students of color along their personal and professional journeys. And I'm really excited to support you too.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Welcome back everyone to another episode of the Grad School Femtoring Podcast.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: This is your host, Doctora Yvette. I [00:02:00] am recording an impromptu show. I love batching my episodes, and I do this all the time for my guest shows. But every now and again you might find me recording episodes the day before I release it. So. Right on the spot because of wanting to share updates or because of needing to share a timely message.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And that's, what's coming up for me right now. It's that this week on Wednesday, October 30th, I woke up to the wonderful news that my podcast, the Grad School Femtoring Podcast, had won a Signal Award in the category of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. For those of you that don't know what the Signal Awards are, it is a set of awards that recognizes Excellence, innovation, authenticity in [00:03:00] podcasting.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So it really is one of the top awards that you can get in podcasting. They have an entire committee that reviews. the folks who submit and there are thousands of votes that get submitted so that you can get selected as a winner. There are different types of categories and depending on the category, if there aren't enough votes, no one wins.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And if there are, More than enough votes, multiple people will win in that category. So you can win in a gold, silver, or bronze recognition. And my podcast was a winner in the silver category, which I'm actually quite excited about because I actually mentioned this in my Instagram stories. For those of y'all that are.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Following me there, you will recall that I mentioned that I am a silver girl. I [00:04:00] absolutely love silver. Silver is really meaningful and symbolic to me because of ties to the moon, ties to my astrology chart, ties to There's something about silver that I've always been really, really drawn to that you don't.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: really see me wearing gold. I don't really I don't know. There's something about silver that draws me in a lot. So to win a silver award, it was even more meaningful. It just added that extra touch. Even more than a gold award, I think I'd be. I'd be just as excited. But you know, of course, symbolically silver is more meaningful to me in that way.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So yes we won an award and let me give some context because one of the things that I wanted to say today is that I do think that there are different things that helped me to get this award. Of course. Most [00:05:00] importantly, that consistent hard work of putting out an episode every single week for the last five years without pause.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: That's one thing. Also, I've put in the work to try to improve my show every year from being more intentional about the topics and the guests and the type of people that I want to amplify and the topics that I think need to be heard by my audience members, even down to working on improving my skill set to improve the audio quality.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: But beyond the consistent hard work, I can tell you this, if you consistently work hard, that does not guarantee success and that does not guarantee recognition. You need to do more than that. You need to be visible and you need to tap into community. And so those are some of the things that I [00:06:00] wanted to mention.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And the reason I'm also really, really excited about winning this award. I don't think it hit me until I talked to a couple of my entrepreneur friends who mentioned hold up, hold up, Yvette, like. You getting this award puts you in line with other high profile creators, industry leaders, and even celebrities.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: People like Oprah and Katie Couric and Jay Shetty and all these other big name people have won this award and are affiliated with this award in some way, shape or form. And so for an Independent podcaster. a small grassroots solo run podcaster to win this type of award. It puts me in the same arena as these [00:07:00] other influential figures, which speaks volumes to how important it is for more of us to see ourselves represented in these spaces.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Because as you know, in all kinds of industries and all these like award ceremonies, guess what? The representation is never there. That just continues to be true. Even if you go, go to the signal awards, check out all the winners. You will see predominantly a certain type of person that's there. You look into open up your podcasting player.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: If you go to Apple podcasts, if you go to Spotify. What are the top podcasts? It's always a certain type of person, primarily white, primarily straight, primarily wealthy, or middle class, primarily able bodied, primarily, , you name it, like all the privileges, primarily folks who are at multiple sites [00:08:00] of privilege, and it's, it's not as common to see folks who.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: are a person of color, who are women, who are disabled, who are neurodivergent, who are mamas, who, and there's so many things beyond. I have, I hold my own sites of privilege too. So even beyond that, like, I want to see the representation that even I don't hold. I want to see more queer Thought leaders. I want to see more non binary thought leaders.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I want to see more Indigenous folks. I want to see more Black folks. I want to see more, like, all kinds of representation in these spaces. And so for me it feels like an honor and it definitely provides that extrinsic validation that, I'm doing the right thing in amplifying the people and the messages that I amplify on this podcast.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And it feels really good. , I have to be honest. I did not [00:09:00] think I was going to get it. And let me tell you why I wasn't even going to apply to submit to be considered for this award. I didn't think that it was possible. I thought to myself, no, like, how can I compare myself to all these other podcasters who have teams, who have sponsors, who have, , editors who have a lot more resources than I do.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: How can me an independent podcaster compare to that? How can I put myself, in line with these other folks who, again, like I said, have a lot more resources than me. There's no way, but because of the encouragement of someone else who believed in my show, and also because of the support of having access to a network, I'm part of a predominantly women of color network [00:10:00] called Atabey and Co.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: They were formerly called the Boundless Audio Network. And I'm also, Part of a women of color podcasters community. So it's because of this community, because of people that believed in me, and also because of the network helping to subsidize the costs, because this is the other thing that really annoys me about awards.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: These types of big name awards is that you have to pay to play. What does this mean? You have to pay to even be considered, to apply to be considered. For a nomination. How ridiculous is that? And for me to think, well, there's not a good chance for me to get it. And also why am I going to, , pay hundreds of dollars for something where I don't have a chance to get it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Those are the reasons that discouraged me from applying, but then in having community support and having folks believe in me and having a network to subsidize that costs for me, all of that set me [00:11:00] up to even apply. Open myself up to this opportunity. So I want to mention that. I also want to go back to the beginning of this year, and I want to talk about the importance of setting intentions and the importance of manifestation.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: At the beginning of this year, I felt this intuition that All right, I am going into my third year in business. I've planted so many seeds and I just feel like 2024 is going to be big. I just feel like 2024 is going to be the year that a lot is going to happen for me. And by a lot I meant I could feel that intrinsically, internally, I was already there.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I was already, I had made a shift where feeling like I'm at the right place at the right time. I have the skill set. I am ready for what comes next. I was already mentally there, but I just needed To be there [00:12:00] extrinsically, to have that external again, validation, affirmation. And I felt like this was the year that that was going to happen.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And so I set my word of the year to the word Florecer. Florecer means to flourish in Spanish. And again, thinking about that metaphor of planting seeds, I just knew this was the year that a lot of those seeds were going to bloom. And it's been true. Not only did I get this prestigious podcasting award this year.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: But also this year I got my coaching certification. This year I published my book is grad school for me with UC press. This year I launched a LinkedIn learning course. This I'm trying to think of all the things I did this year. There's other things that have come up for me this year. This year I've had the most speaking engagements I've ever had [00:13:00] before.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So there's been a lot of really great things that have flourished this year. And it was all because I set that intention, I visualized it. And with that vision, I started to take action. So how did, Oh, those are the other two things that came up this year. This year, I became part of a podcasting network.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: This year, I also became part of a speaker's bureau. So I really took the time. More seriously with my speaking, not just as doing it on the side here and there, but really treating myself and behaving like a professional speaker. And in doing so, and in, , doing the work that it takes to prepare, having other people treat me that way too, and reaching out to me.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: For keynotes, reaching out to me to deliver high impact workshops. So in any case, that's one thing that I wanted to mention is that this didn't come out of nowhere. [00:14:00] And I know a lot of people say this, that there's no such thing as an overnight success and there's also no such thing. As a one person achievement behind any achievement are multiple people who have supported that person.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So in my case, having that support of the podcasting network, having the support of the women of color podcasters, community, having the support of someone who. nudged me to apply. Having the support of my business coach who has believed in me and has continued to encourage me to apply for the things that I'm scared to apply for.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Having friends, having family, and by family I mean like my partner who is super duper supportive of me and has never once doubted me. I've always doubted myself since I met him and he's never been surprised with everything that I've achieved because he's just like, I already knew like he, I don't even know for him.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: This is like no big deal. Cause you know, there's so much more for me [00:15:00] even beyond this. So in any case, there's that. I also want to mention that I do think that consistency makes a difference. And when I say consistency, I don't mean doing things exactly the same way all the time. I just mean not giving up on something that you truly believe in.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I have believed in the podcast. Since I got started in 2019, the podcast was the seed that came before I even started a business. The mission of firmly believing in the importance of accessible knowledge and demystifying higher education. Now it's beyond that. It's not just demystifying higher education.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: It's really demystifying higher education, career development, and personal development. It's a whole shebang for first-gen BIPOCs so that you all. Can pursue the career and lives that you [00:16:00] deserve. That is what continues to be the mission. It continues to ground me. It continues to motivate and inspire me to keep going.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And that's what helps me to keep doing this every single freaking week without pause. And it's just me. I don't have an editor. I don't have someone helping me on the side. Every week I'm recording. Every week I'm editing and producing. Every week I'm reviewing the transcript. Every week I'm working on the little video snippet to share on social media.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Every week I'm emailing guests to let them know ahead of time that their episode is going to come out. Every week I'm preparing interview questions. It's just It's a lot, you know, it's like I've mentioned this before, it's at least six hours of work every week that right now is unpaid. And that's okay.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: If there are sponsors in the future, which I'm sure there will be great. At the very least, it can offset the costs that are involved in [00:17:00] podcasting because there are a lot of podcasting related fees. And it is an expensive hobby for folks who don't find ways to monetize it, but I keep doing it despite how much time, despite how much it costs me because of that mission.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And that's not going away, at least not anytime soon. So , consistency, not giving up when you believe in something that has been incredibly important for me to help me to show up every single week, no matter the obstacles that come up. And then of course, just to go back to what I mentioned earlier, consistency isn't enough.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You need to be visible. I'm reminded of visibility because this week I also was a co facilitator for a structured networking event through Embrace Change NYC. I got invited to co facilitate. It was an event for women of color professionals. We had [00:18:00] 99 people in the audience and it was a really great event.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: We got to break people out into breakout rooms. We gave them some guiding questions. So that folks can meet each other across industries. And we brought them back and we talked about the importance of visibility. And we even offered them some networking tips. So visibility is important because you can't just do silent work.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Folks need to see what you're doing. Visibility isn't even important in terms of getting the recognition of what you're doing. It's also important so that people can see what's possible for them. I've received so many messages from people that say that it inspires them just to see someone that looks like them or that sounds like them doing what I do and asking for advice on how they too can do that for themselves.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So , it's important for you to show up and to be visible. For multiple reasons , [00:19:00] for building your community, for building your network, for letting people know what you have to offer for, as my business coach mentions, creating your own career insurance. Cause if anything happens to you and your job, if you have a network, if you have community, if you have visibility, Then you can tap into that and then you'll be able to more quickly bounce back into the next thing that comes up for you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So please, please, please don't just put in the work, make sure that you're reaching out to people, make sure that you're sharing. And I get that even me sharing about this award. It does feel a little bit weird because it feels a little bit like bragging. And I'm reminded by others who tell me, no, it's okay to show up.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: It's okay to let people know what you're doing. And I've had people say like, I'm so happy for you. And also I'm so happy for our community. Again, when I got that LinkedIn learning course [00:20:00] published, someone said something along those lines and left it as a comment saying, trying to remember what the comment was that this person said, like, just to have someone like me have a LinkedIn learning course is great for the communities because we need more representation in those spaces.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Now What do I wanna, because I feel like I'm getting close to wrapping up, like in terms of lessons learned and what I want to leave you with. One thing that comes to mind is to. Please don't be the one to say no to yourself.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Please don't be the one to hold yourself back from applying to opportunities. I remember when I applied for the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Research Fellowship and I had applied shortly after getting rejected for the McNair program and I applied thinking there's no way I'm going to get it. But I applied anyway, and I [00:21:00] got it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I remember when I applied in grad school for the Ford fellowship and everybody around me telling me that the odds were really slim and that most people don't get it the first time around. And I worked really hard on my applications, then had a baby. And just submitted what I had days after giving birth and lo and behold, I got it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And so this, continues to be a trend of me not thinking I'm going to get something, but doing it anyway. That's what I hope that you will do too. That even during the times that you don't feel Like you can do it. You don't feel like it's going to happen for you. Try anyway and see where that gets you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Another thing I want to mention is just that I want you to put yourself out there. I want you to [00:22:00] share your gifts with the world. We all need each other. We really, really do. I feel so , incredibly privileged and blessed and grateful that I'm now at a point in my career and my life where I have so many people that I'm regularly connecting with from so many different phases of my life.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: In fact, this week alone, I had a meeting with someone who I hadn't talked to in, who knows, 15 to 20 years. We met when I was 17. We met when I was a baby, like freshman year of college. And it was amazing. This person started listening to my podcast, so found me through my podcast and enjoyed it so much that they reached out to me to [00:23:00] reconnect and we reconnected and it was as if no time had passed.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: We both kept telling each other we sounded the same, we look the same, we do not look the same, trust me. But it was, Such a blessing to have my podcast be the thing that helped me to reconnect with an old friend. And the same is true for whatever is the thing that you put out there, whether it's your writing, whether it's Podcasting, whether it's your organizing work, whether it's your research, whether it's whatever that thing is, your art, you have something to offer.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: You have strengths, you have, , what some people call as like your area of genius. You have an ikigai, you have a thing that. That [00:24:00] makes you, you, that you can bring in and offer it to the world in a way where you can help others and also help yourself, because for me, I have the podcast and the podcast, just as much as I use it as an avenue to amplify the voices and the messages that I think are important for my listeners.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: It's also a way for me to connect with people. It's also a way for me. To find new clients and form new relationships. And so it gives me a lot back as well. And I want you to experience that for yourself of what can happen for you. When you start to put your offerings, your ofrendas out into the world, you'll see that it starts to come back slowly, but surely to you.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So. That's my episode for this week. Next time you'll hear from me, I'll get back to my other topics, grad admissions, [00:25:00] productivity tips, and guest episodes, but I just wanted to honor this moment and yeah, let y'all know how it's been going. This, fall has been very, very busy for me. I'm grateful that I have work.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: And at the same time, I'm, just trying to survive. I know that we are days away from an election. And I know that sometimes I'm not as loud about these things. I do want everybody to vote. And I do want all of y'all to not vote for. Man, that's going to destroy us. So I don't speak a lot this, a lot about this publicly because I get so overcome with emotion.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I have such strong feelings and a lot of mixed feelings, and I'm still thinking about genocide and I'm still thinking about world events and I'm still thinking about climate change. And there's so many things that pop up for me that I can't not, I can't not think about one without thinking about the [00:26:00] other.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: So. I have intentionally kind of slowed down and I haven't been as active on social media because I've been feeling a lot of sensitivity. I've been feeling a lot of anxiety. And also when I feel this way, it manifests in being more symptomatic. So I'm just like trying to survive, trying to manage my symptoms, trying to do my best and trying to focus on my offerings.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Like what are the things that I can do to help make this world a little bit better? And hopefully we will all survive and get through the other side of this election cycle as we have in years past and and little by little keep fighting for what is important to us. So anyway, I hope that this message, I hope that me mentioning this award, I hope that these reminders Help you to hold on to some hope because at the end of the day, I [00:27:00] really think that a lot of us need that even this week too.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I'm not a baseball fan. I'm not really into sports. I personally don't understand. I don't think I will ever truly understand people's obsession with sports. So please forgive me if you're a really big sports fan. I just don't get it. I wasn't Raised that way. It's not a thing for me. I don't get it, but that doesn't mean that I cannot fully support my friends who feel this joy.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: I do. I 100 percent support my friends, especially those from L. A. who are celebrating the Dodgers and the World Championship. It is incredibly exciting. Again, even though I didn't watch the game, even though it's not a thing for me. It makes me so happy to see other people happy. So find the things that bring you joy.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Find the things that keep you feeling hopeful and hold on to that because we need it. Okay. We need you to be okay so that we can [00:28:00] keep fighting this fight and doing the work that matters to us. That's it for this episode. And as always, I will talk to you all next time. Bye.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: Thanks so much for joining me in the Grad School Femtoring Podcast. If you like what you heard, here are four ways you can support the show. The first is to make sure you're subscribed and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. If you email me a screenshot, I'll send you a surprise freebie. The second way is to get your copy of my free Grad School Femtoring Resource Kit.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: which includes essential information to prepare for and navigate grad school. You can access it at the link in today's show notes. The third way to support my show is to follow me on social media. You can find me on Instagram with the handle at grad school, femtoring and on LinkedIn by searching my name.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu: The last way to show your love is to order a copy of is [00:29:00] grad school for me. My graduate school admissions book for first gen BIPOCs. Thanks again for listening and until next time.