So many of my Courage Driven Latinas clients are loving the Visibility Challenge we’re working through right now, but that doesn’t mean that it’s been easy for them. In fact, a few fears have come up, and were preventing them from posting their content. It turns out they were afraid of being seen as conceited. 

This makes sense, especially for our community. We were always being told to worry about what other people will say and what other people will think of us. Being too visible has always been framed as a negative in our lives, but what if I told you that posting your content was one positive you could do for our community? 

This week’s episode is about what to do when you want to create content, but don’t want to come off as conceited. My clients are afraid that posting on social media automatically means that they’re being too cringe or conceited. But that will never be the case if your content is in service to your audience. And this week, I’m going to show you how to embody the mindset that will help you enjoy creating content and sharing it with the world!

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Podcast production for this episode was provided by CCST, an Afro-Latina-owned boutique podcast production and copywriting studio. 

Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello. Hello, friends. Welcome back to this week’s episode of Chingona Revolution podcast. First, before we dive into today’s topic, I just [00:01:00] want to say that if you are having a difficult time with what’s been going on in the news, I’m recording this on January 29th and over the last. A week or so, actually more than a week.

There have been many attacks on our community as well as allies of the community, and ICE is seeming to double down on their raids and they’re still. Abducting people from the street, stopping people without cause, and it is very, very frustrating. There have been many times this week in which I have not felt like showing up. I don’t even wanna open social media because my feed is completely full of news about ice and the things that they’re doing and videos that have been captured.

So I just wanna say to you that if you have been feeling really heavy. And angry. Your anger and your heaviness makes sense, and it’s [00:02:00] so valid and there’s nothing wrong with you. And I really hope that you’re doing everything that you can to take care of yourself. And if that means getting off of social media, getting off of the news, do what you need to do, take to take care of yourself.

But if you feel like, damn, I have a lot of feelings right now, congratulations. It means that you are a human that has a lot of integrity and cares about others, and especially if you are in a place of privilege, that means that you are being considerate of other people who may not have that same privilege as you.

And unfortunately, that’s not everybody in the world right now. AndI don’t mean to focus on others. I more wanna focuson our community and. How it is that we can be here to support one another. just, I think it was like two days ago, I saw a funny video of a dog and I was cracking up and I was like, damn, I really needed that.

And I think in times of when we’re feeling anger and when we’re feeling stressed, we almost [00:03:00] don’t allow ourselves to feel joy. And what I want you to know is that. Take the time that you need, feel the feelings that you feel, but also allow yourself to experience joy. Allow yourself to hug your family.

Allow yourself to play with your child or your niece or your nephew, or your cat or your dog, and allow yourself to feel that joy. Because what this administration wants is to make us feel afraid and to have us shut down and just. Give up and feel defeated. And one of the best ways that we get to fight back is through being joyful through.

Being influential through being the most successful version of ourselves through being the best neighbor that we can be to one another. So I just wanted to say that because my heart has felt really heavy. It’s been hard for me to create lately, but I’m also reminded that through things like social media and through creation, we get to connect with [00:04:00] one another and support one another.

And I’m seeing. So many of my clients have come together. One client was hosting a Zoom call to guide people through how to call their senators, and everybody just called their senators about the bill that, was looking to be passed as of tomorrow by the tennis episode airs. That will have been the previous week, but the calls seem to be working and this is such a beautiful.

Beautiful thing, right where our voices are being heard and there is power in community, and there is power in in movement, and that is the power of social media. So while it can be something that we might need to take breaks from, sometimes it’s still really, really powerful and chances are, it’s how you and I got connected.

And today’s episode is all about how to get over the fear of wanting, not wanting to come off as conceited or cringe. And how, if you have that fear that you don’t wanna come off [00:05:00] as conceited or cringe, that’s actually a really, really good thing. And that means that you’re not trying to build. An ego brand or you’re not trying to do something just because you’re like full of yourself.

It means that you are being invited to service led visibility. It means that you want to show up in a way that is going to be impactful and give back, and that’s exactly what we have seen this week with all of the posts that have supported people on in calling their senators. So that ICE does not get another penny, so that our tax dollars do not go to ice funding when we did not approve of this.

And one of the most common things that I hear from my clients and from women that I know are looking to create content is that they don’t wanna come off as cringe. They also don’t want to come off as conceited. And when I hear this, I don’t feel sad. I’m like, oh, that’s actually a really good thing. [00:06:00] And it’s because this fear is actually a sign of integrity.

It means you’re not just looking. To go be full of yourself. It means that you want to show up in a way that is looking to serve

And this fear makes sense from a cultural perspective, especially if you grow up hearing what are they going to think? What are they going to say about us or about our family, or about you.

So we’ve constantly been conditioned to be this humble version of ourselves. And now if you have this desire to post on social media and build your personal brand, which is something I’ve been talking about recently, especially because I’ve been doing these personal brand intensives that have been so fun and so impactful.

But personally, I’ve just seen how building my personal brand transformed my life. It was the birth of my business. The door that opened so many other doors, so many other opportunities, like being on the front page of the New York Times, interviewing Louis Ancy. None of that would’ve [00:07:00] happened if I would’ve never shown up on social media, but I had that exact same fear.

As I’m describing right now, which is I don’t wanna be full of myself. I don’t wanna self-promote, I don’t wanna just talk about me, and I just felt so icky doing that. So I don’t want you to think, oh, I was just naturally born doing this. This is not the case. I had all the fears and I’ve shared on the podcast before that it took me two years just to get.

Started with a food blog. Mind you, that’s a food blog. That wasn’t even my face in it. It was literally just the food that I was creating, and I was already pretty much baking and cooking every single night. All I needed to do was start to document it, and it still took me two years. So I get it. I totally get it.

But now at this point, I’ve learned what works, what doesn’t work. I’ve created frameworks, and that’s what I hope to help you with today in this podcast episode.My goal is to support you with going from, I don’t wanna be conceited and cringe to understanding that when you get to create content, you don’t have to [00:08:00] be conceited or cringe.

All you have to do is be in service. For many Latinas, visibility historically equaled risk, punishment, or judgment. And a lot of times this trauma maybe didn’t even come from us, but if you just think about maybe your mom’s life or your grandmother’s life, and now research shows us. That trauma can be passed down through three generations.

So let’s say that your grandmother said something where she was outspoken or maybe just expressed her opinion and maybe she experienced direct punishment from that, maybe either through a spouse or through her, her father, or maybe. I mean, my mom told me when she was in school, they would still get hit by the teacher, so maybe there was like actual punishment for speaking out.

And just culturally, there has been this whole thing of being humble and being quiet and being agreeable is what is safe and what is expected of us women, especially if you come from a [00:09:00] Latino background. So whenever you are posting content, what’s happening is that your body’s not necessarily thinking, this is cringe. It’s thinking this is unsafe because it is unfamiliar to you. And the way that we overcome this fear of showing up and letting ourselves be seen is when we realize that the reason that we wanna show up and the reason that we want to post content is not because we are being conceited. It is because we have something that we wanna share with others that is worth sharing. [00:10:00] [00:11:00] [00:12:00] And let me describe the difference between an ego brand energy versus service led brand energy. So an ego brand energy looks something like this. The questions you’d be asking yourself are, how do I get more likes? How do I go viral? What will make people impressed by me? As well as focusing very much on metrics and, oh man, I posted this one thing.

Did somebody book a call? Oh, now I did this reel. Did it get more [00:13:00] likes than that other person? Almost comparing yourself and really what I call attached to action inside of my program. Everybody in my program knows, knows this, but that’s almost like the energy of how can I take something from others and that energy does not feel good and that’s not where I think you want to be.

My strategy around. Creating a brand is a service led personal brand, and the way that you identify that is by asking yourself the question, what does somebody need to hear today? Or What would have helped me five years ago? Or how can I give without needing anything in return? And that’s what we call detached action in my program. Because when your content is rooted in service and in giving, it stops being about you. It stops being about, oh my gosh, do I look okay on camera? Does this sound good? And it really starts to be more about what you’re contributing and what you’re giving to others. And if you’re [00:14:00] listening to this podcast, then I know for a fact.

You have a desire of giving back. Maybe you’re working this job that looks very successful and from the outside looking in, you kind of have it all, but maybe inside you feel like something is missing. And usually when that is happening, it’s because what you are missing is you are missing meaning and service.

And a lot of times that gap can be filled. Through creating content, through sharing your life’s journey, through sharing the things that you have learned along the way through building that bridge, that knowledge bridge, right? So maybe you were the first in your family to do all these different things.

Why not go and share how you did that with others? Why does it have to stop at your family? I think about one of my clients who creates content around Alzheimer’s. And educational content that supports other caregivers. And had she not started showing up on social media, sharing her and her father’s journey, she wouldn’t be impacting the thousands of [00:15:00] people that now follow her. And now she’s been invited on the news, not once, but twice, to talk about all Alzheimer’s.

And she’s a woman of color, she’s Latina. So she gets to talk to our community where typically our community feels a lot of shame around. Diagnoses and they don’t really openly talk about it, but yet you have my client who’s making so many people feel seen and heard. And that wasn’t from the perspective of, oh, I wanna take from these people.

No, it was, how can I help others? And we just had a call about a couple of days ago and I asked her why she started to create content and she says, well. When I found out about my dad’s diagnosis, I felt so alone and I felt so lost, and I didn’t want other people to feel that way as well. And that is the perfect description of having a service led personal brand, a personal brand that supports others advancement. So let me give you an exercise that you can use immediately as you [00:16:00] think about creating a piece of content. Before you post, I want you to ask yourself, who am I serving with this? What would feel generous to share today? And can I release the outcome and just give, in other words, don’t worry about, oh, this better.

Get a thousand likes, a hundred likes, two shares. Can you just create it for the sake of giving? 

 When you create with the intention of giving, you are never cringe. You are actually in integrity and in service. I hope this episode is resonating with you, and if I can just share. Part of my journey. When I got started on TikTok and I started creating content, it was all I, I didn’t even realize I was doing this. I didn’t have a name for this at the time, but I was doing the service led personal brand. I was creating content for the sake of educating others for the sake of helping.

TikTok ended up launching this program called. Learn on TikTok. And then I joined the program, so I had now I was [00:17:00] like, okay, now I have to create up to 40 videos while I’m in this program. So it really got me into the momentum of educating and teaching and helping. I did things like books that changed my life and they were very, the videos did really well, and it’s because I came from this energy of how can I give.

And then as time went on and my coaching business grew and I went into some coaching programs and some of the techniques that I learned were about selling pretty directly in my, in my content, and I wanna say like 2024 and part of 2025, I really started focusing. On sales content, which then took me out of this service led content creation and personal branding.

And it took me to that energy of like, oh, I’m trying to get, I’m trying to get sales. And I noticed a huge difference and a huge dip in my sales. And even just like in my energy and in my content, my [00:18:00] accounts stopped growing. And obviously the people who listen to this podcast, thank you so much for coming back every week.

But it wasn’t like I was growing my TikTok account, growing my Instagram account, and that was the big thing. So I’ve been on both sides of this. I’ve been on the side where I started off really leading with service, and then I went to the side of expecting results. And really focusing on metrics and that’s when things fell flat.

And I’m not telling you not to have goals and that you shouldn’t try to grow, but the intention should always be looking to give rather than to take, because with all you’re doing is trying to take, then you’re going to post a video, and when you don’t get what you want, you’re going to feel defeated and then you’re going to feel unmotivated and you are going to stop.

Posting versus when you are leading with service, you are so much more resilient. It feels so good to create the content. And I have had to go through, it’s almost like a pendulum. I was on one side and [00:19:00] then I went to the other extreme, and now I feel like I’m coming back to the service side and finding my middle ground here.

So as somebody that has gone through both sides of this personal branding style, I can tell you that the way to go. Is the service led one, you will feel a lot more in alignment. You will feel in service, you will feel impactful. You will feel like you are fulfilling your purpose and you will gain so many opportunities that you didn’t even know or a possibility. So if this podcast episode resonates with you and you would like my support with building your personal brand first I recommend that you do my completely free resource. It is the Manifest Your Marca. It’s a personal branding experience to help you identify. You a personal brand, and if you’ve already done that and you’re like, okay, Erica, I’m ready, 2026 is the year that I’m going to build my service-based personal brand, then I invite you to join me with my personal [00:20:00] branding intensives.

I only have two spots left, and I’ve gotta tell you, I had two of them yesterday and I had two of them today. Every intensive was a little different and everyone was freaking incredible. I did one with a former client who was already inside of courage driven Latina, and we mapped out her content for the entire year, and this is, I cannot wait for you all to see her content.

It is so, so good. Another client who, just joined Courage driven Latina and ended up adding on the personal branding intensive. She created her first ever Instagram post today. We also created a few posts ideas for her in the future and created a system that was really easy for her. And then I’ve got another client that I met with and we, her particular type of content is actually like writing and blogging.

So what we did is we came up with blog articles that she can write and blog posts as well as using threads. And it’s just such a fun [00:21:00] experience because we really, it isn’t, it’s one of those meetings that we roll up our sleeves and get the work done. You don’t leave just with. Ideas you leave with tangible steps, what to do within the next 24 hours, what to do within the next week as well as within the next month.

So if you are interested in this, I only have two more spots, and then I will stop selling this because I’m gonna be transitioning to something else. So if you wanted to work with me and you want to work with me one-on-one, this is the opportunity that you wanna take advantage of. Okay, y’all, I hope this podcast episode resonated with you.

If so. Send me a DM on Instagram. I love to hear whenever podcast episodes resonate with you. You can find me at the Ika Cruz. That’s Erica with a K, as well as the Chin at Revolution Instagram page. All right, I’ll see you all next week. Bye. [00:22:00]