Episode 26 – Finding Your Voice featuring Catherine Anaya

Welcome to “The InFLOW Podcast.” I am your host, Michelle Bosch. I see a gaping hole across society, that focuses on the outer work and forgets about the inner work. And what we really need is to bridge the gap between prosperity and spirituality to live a life inflow, with inflows of light, inflows of cash, inflows of creativity, inflows of grace in our lives. Each week, join me for powerful messages and interviews that will leave you inspired and ready to step into flow in your higher work. So now, let’s go.

Michelle: Welcome to the “InFlow Podcast.” I’m your host, Michelle Bosch. I have been looking forward to today’s episode. I have an amazing Trailblazer from the media industry today with me. I remember the first time I met her at a mutual friend’s Christmas party, I was completely starstruck and so impressed, at the same time, with her warm demeanor. My guest today is Catherine Anaya. Catherine is a media personality television and radio host. She’s currently the digital TV host for MHGTV, which is my home group TV, a home style and lifestyle network. Catherine is also a digital TV host at the Social Television Network, as well as a contributing host of “The Women’s Eye radio podcast” on iTunes. She is a three-time Emmy Award-winning former television news anchor of more than 25 years, she recently got inducted into the prestigious National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Silver Circle, for more than 25 years of broadcast excellence. And also, she is a proud mother of two, and a wife. I am so, so excited to have you here. Welcome, Catherine.

Catherine: Thank you so much. I appreciate that.

Michelle: Yes, I…

Catherine: Plus I’m a mom of a teenager who just rolled his eyes at me when I asked him to get me some water.

Michelle: Hey, you’re living my future, I have an 11-year-old. So that’s gonna be in my near future soon.

Catherine: That’s what you have to look forward to.

Michelle: I know. So, let me just jump in and start asking you a few questions. Did you just wake up one day saying, “I’ll be on TV. This is what I’m gonna do with the rest of my life?” Or how did your journey start?

Catherine: Well, gosh, you know, it actually started just because of my love of writing, which I very much enjoyed doing in high school. And so when I got to college, I thought, “Well, that’s the only thing I’m really passionate about because math certainly wasn’t it.” And so I thought, well, I would pursue a future in print journalism. And I was working for the “Daily Trojan” at USC. I worked for them all four years, where I wrote for the newspaper. And it was probably my sophomore year when one of my editors just kind of floated the idea of, “Have you ever thought about television, broadcast television?” And quite honestly, I hadn’t, because when I was growing up and watching the news, there were not very many people of color doing the news.

So that was not something that I ever consciously thought would even be a possibility for me until somebody actually brought it up when I was in college. So at that point, I started doing research about the industry, and pursued an internship when I was a junior in college. And when I secured my first internship was, which was at the LA NBC station, it just snowballed from there. You know, we always like to talk about it in our business as we get bitten by the news bug, and that’s the end of that. So it just evolved from there.

Michelle: Wow, that’s amazing. So you didn’t consider it somebody, you know, kind of like whispered…maybe it’s a whispers from God through others, you know?

Catherine: Divine intervention, yes.

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Now, you mentioned that it was in a time where there were not a lot of people of color. What are some of the traits that you attribute, what are you attributing your success in an industry that is so competitive, and especially in a time when you started?

Catherine: Well, I would say probably just my tenacity and my determination for, and passion, obviously, for wanting to do it. You know, once I figured out that was what I wanted to do, there was no stopping me. And so, you know, I’ll give you an example of why that determination was so evident back then. I had applied for the journalism school my sophomore year, once I had figured out that was what I wanted to do. But because I had made the mistake of taking all my basic GE classes my freshman year, like geography and math, I had a couple of C’s, so that lowered my GPA. And you had to have a 3.5 to get into the journalism school. So even though I had a letter of recommendation from one of the journalism professors, I still did not get in. So I had to sit and think, “Okay, how am I going to pursue this without having a journalism degree?” So I decided to get my degree in communications.

And once I figured out that an internship was really the key to developing a career like this, I had gone into the library in the journalism department, which at the time posted all of the internship opportunities. And when I was in there, I remember I was looking at…scanning all of the opportunities, and the person that was running it said, “Are you a journalism student?” And I said, “No, I’m not.” And she said, “Well, then you cannot be in here. Those postings are only for journalism students.” So I was essentially kicked out. But before I was kicked out, I managed to see that job posting for KNBC. So I called the name that I saw and asked if I could interview for the job. Well, she never asked me if I was a journalism school…or a journalism student, so I never offered that I wasn’t. I went to do the interview, and I got the job, the internship. So even though I had a door or two shut on me, I made it a point to try to figure out another way.

Michelle: Yeah, being resourceful, absolutely.

Catherine: Exactly, being resourceful, I think was key for me. It’s just figuring out that maybe my path isn’t going to be the same as everybody else’s, or the conventional path. But that doesn’t mean that that’s not going to be something I can’t achieve.

Michelle: Wonderful. Now, along the lines, but segue in a little bit, as it Latina woman in the U.S., how did you grow up around money and finances, and perseverance and tenacity probably has something to do with it as well, I mean?

Catherine: Right.

Michelle: Yeah.

Catherine: Well, we were not poor, we were probably middle class when my parents were married. But they divorced when I was eight years old, and my mom decided to pursue her passion for singing and become a professional singer. Well, it’s a very long story, and maybe one day I’ll actually write a book. But she moved 12 times in six years, which meant I moved 12 times in six years. And it was very difficult. Some months we lived in a house, some months we lived in an apartment, some months it was a studio apartment, some months I didn’t have a room, I slept on the couch. So there was a lot of bouncing around and not a lot of money, which is one of the reasons why I started working the day I turned 16, because I didn’t wanna have to rely on her for the things that I wanted or felt I needed.

So, that was how we grew up. A lot of people, you know, they give USC this reputation of University of spoiled children. Well, I went there on every grant, scholarship I could possibly find, because we didn’t have the money for that. But I was resourceful again and tried to figure out how I could get it. And our family contribution was $200 a semester back then. And we had a hard enough time coming up with the $200, which sounds like nothing these days. So I worked multiple jobs when I was in college so that I could help my mom come up with the income that the family was expected to contribute. So, again, just resourcefulness and being determined to achieve the goals that I set for myself.

Michelle: And Catherine, I belong to quite a bit of investor groups and masterminds. And, you know, I always find myself one or two of two women in a group full of men. And it seems to me that making money, you know, it’s not something new for women. Like, when we want something and we’ve set out to, you know, to go for something, we go for it. We’re resourceful, we persevere. But when it comes to actually investing, which is the next step, and having their money work for them, I’m like…in such groups of investors, I’m like the only one or one of two, like I said. Do you invest yourself in either stock market, real estate, or any other businesses? Tell us a little bit about how you go about having your money work for you?

Catherine: Sure. Well, I’ll be honest with you, I have had a very terrible relationship with money because I grew up without it. And when I started working in broadcast journalism, I mean, it was a career for me, not a job. So I was looking at the career more so in what it was paying. And it didn’t become something that I really approached in terms of what is my worth, until probably six, eight years into it. But what I did was I made the mistake of putting all of the financial decisions in the hands of my husband. And what I discovered when I…when we divorced in 2007, was that that was a mistake. Because I remember when I first started working for a company in 1992, that allowed me to invest in a 401(k), he said, “We can’t do that. We can’t afford that.” I did not invest in a 401(k) until 2007. All of those years I had been working and I was not investing in 401(k) because I thought, you know, “He’s in charge of the money. If he says we can’t afford it, we can’t afford it.: So that was a really big mistake.

The other thing I had not been doing was investing in a 529 for my kid’s college. I didn’t start doing that until 2007. And the only way I figured out any of this was because I knew I was getting divorced, I was gonna have to pay spousal maintenance, I was gonna have to pay child support, because I was earning more than my ex-husband. And I went out and got myself a financial advisor. And he is still, to this day, my financial advisor. But he really educated me and he saved me, because I don’t know what I would have done because my relationship with money was so poor I didn’t know about it. I hadn’t been investing. I hadn’t been doing any of that. So he basically created a portfolio for me and taught me how to do all of that. Had it not been for him, I don’t know. I would…I suppose I would have educated myself, but I think it probably would have taken longer.

And I remember I told him at the time, I said, you know, “They’re really…you really should create a side business for yourself where you are going and educating newly divorced women. Because I bet you there are a ton of women out there like me, who put all of the decisions when it comes to money in the hands of their husband. And now they’re suddenly by themselves having to make all of them for themselves and not knowing what…I mean, I had owned five houses up to that point. And I didn’t know the first thing about buying a house.

Michelle: I see it all the time. You’re not the first one. You know, I think I’ve mentioned on a prior episode that I had a lady listen to one of the shows and she had her husband reach out to me, because they were interested in an opportunity that we had, you know, to invest in a larger multifamily complex 100 plus units. And so she was interested and she was having the initiative, but I never heard from her. I never heard her voice. I never saw her, always the decision was, the final decision maker and the person that I dealt with was always the spouse. You know, the husband. So it’s something that it is common, you see it day in and day out. Since you have your financial advisor, Catherine, what are some of your money rules now?

Catherine: Well, my money rules are that I’m constantly thinking about retirement. So, always when we’re making costly purchases or big purchases, you know, I’m always thinking about, “Do we really need this because of the retirement situation?” And of course, you know, I think I’ve sort of figured out that I don’t need a lot. That it’s more important to make sure that I’m taking care of later on when I’m, you know, not of the age where I can work anymore, and then I have enough to live comfortably. I’m not worried about money. But it’s been a tough evolution, because I think when you don’t grow up with money and you have that poor relationship with it, there’s this constant fear of not having it.

Michelle: Yeah. How do you break through to gain the confidence to be okay with that next step? Because like I said earlier, you’re like…we were not behind and making it, but in making the money work for us, definitely that’s part of my mission now, even through this podcast, is to get more people involved to…not necessarily because there’s no lack of intellectualism in women, but in simplifying, you know, the money, the finances, conversations, the language, the know-how, the opportunities out there. So…

Catherine: Yes, I think that’s important, because I think probably one of the biggest factors in me being afraid of it is just not understanding it, and not having somebody to really spell it out for me. I mean, my financial advisor up until a couple of years ago would meet with me, you know, twice a year to make a budget and make sure that I was sticking to it. I didn’t even know how to do a budget for myself up to that point.

Michelle: Yeah. I’m very grateful for you being so open, you know, and candid about it. Thank you so much. Yeah. No, I…

Catherine: Absolutely.

Michelle: Now, in contrast, what do you consider that in spite of their relationship, what do you consider is your superpower or your genius, you know? I’ve spoken about this on episode seven, you know, how important it is for women to find their uniqueness. And within the uniqueness, perhaps that superpower, something that allows them to create something new or start something new that they can monetize, and so on and so forth. What would you consider your superpower or your genius?

Catherine: Well, you know, it’s interesting that you say that, because I have a new position, as you mentioned in the introduction, host of MHGTV. Well, when I announced that a couple of weeks ago, I had a couple of people say, “Oh, I just admire your ability to keep reinventing yourself.” And I thought, “Wow, I never thought of myself in those terms of reinvention, but I guess I sort of am doing that and have been doing that.” So, I think it goes back to being tenacious, because I left news in 2015, the summer of 2015, because I wanted to spend more time with my family, specifically my teenage son. And, you know, after a couple of months, I was given an offer to go back to TV part-time, which was very exciting for me, because I was still allowed to, or able to drop off my son and pick him up. And that was the most important thing to me. That ended in November, and I thought, “Hmm,” you know, I spent a couple of months thinking, “What is my next move going to be?” Because I am not that person who won’t work. I’m just…it’s not in my DNA.

Michelle: Yeah. It’s like your work ethic doesn’t allow you not to do it.

Catherine: Yeah, and I’m not that person who will, even though my husband would pay for any anything and everything for me, if he had to, I am not that person that would want him to that’s not in my DNA. I don’t like to ask anybody for money. So, which is why I started working when I was 16, I was tired of asking my mom for money. So, I remember thinking, “What will I do?” And I think when you get older, you realize how much relationships matter. And I think the highlight for me is securing this position based on relationships, and never having to show a resume to anybody. I have not put together a resume since 2003. And I kind of like that I’m…that I’ve created a reputation for myself that I don’t have to do that.

Michelle: Absolutely. That you don’t have to do that.

Catherine: And then I could pick up the phone, and people trust me and value me enough that I can create something for myself.

Michelle: Absolutely. They trust, you know, your great body of work that you have [crosstalk 00:17:07].

Catherine: You know, that takes a long time to cultivate.

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely.

Catherine: So yeah, I guess I’m pretty proud of the fact that I can continue to reinvent myself.

Michelle: Yeah. Now, how do you think other women in a situation where they either are already successful, and they wanna keep their passion alive, and they wanna start something new, or make you know, sharp, right turn. How do you go about keeping that passion alive?

Catherine: Well, I think that you just have to figure out what new avenues you can take for continuing to do that. So, for example, what I’m doing now, this is a real estate brokerage company who decided that they wanted to create their own network. So I’m still doing all the things that I did when I was in news, I’m going out and shooting stories, I’m really writing, I’m producing, I’m in front of the camera. But it’s all digital. So it’s on Facebook, it’s on Instagram, it’s going to be on an app, it’s gonna be on a website. And that, to me is exciting, because it’s a completely different way of doing what I do. But on top of that, it’s a different subject matter. I’m not doing death and destruction anymore. Now I’m talking about, you know, all things home and lifestyle-related, which is so fun.

And I’m still able to tell… We have one series that we do, which is called “Ascending Agents,” where we highlight successful real estate agents. The bottom line is I’m still getting people stories, I’m still telling people stories, they just happen to be real estate agents. Everybody has a story. You know, that is my passion, telling people stories. So, I think it’s just really taking some time to sit and think about, “Okay, what are the most important things about what I do to create that passion in me? And how can I continue to make them relevant to, you know, what’s changing in the world?” I mean, people don’t watch TV the way they used to, so I’ve had to figure out how to keep doing it in a different way.

Michelle: Absolutely. Yeah. Now, for so many women, Catherine, being visible and using their voice does not come easy. And your professional career has been about exercising your power by being visible and using your voice. What would you say to someone, just irrespective in the industry, about the magic of possibilities when you do step into that power?

Catherine: So, for the longest time, I didn’t think I had anything to say, you know, because I do consider myself as a perpetual student, I’m always learning something. And I had never, ever considered myself an expert in anything. So it was probably about 10 years ago when I started writing magazine columns. And they were personal columns about the things that were going on in my life, serious things. Sometimes it was about raising kids, sometimes it was about being in an abusive relationship, sometimes it was about eating disorders. It was all sorts of things. And when I really kind of figured out, okay, I know how to write. Why can’t I just start using my voice to talk about things that women experience all the time, because I’m very women-oriented?

Michelle: The same here.

Catherine: You know, maybe I should just start talking about those things. Because I found that women experience a lot of the same things, but we don’t talk about them enough, and we feel like we’re alone sometimes. So that was a real sort of eye-opening thing for me, to realize that I could use my voice in a personal way. Then that evolved to creating a blog and start blogging. And then that goes into my social media. Just in the last probably six months, I’ve figured out that like on Instagram, it’s not just about posting a picture of what you did last night, people really care about authenticity. Yeah, and really identifying with what you stand for, what you’re passionate about, why you’re passionate about that, what you think about certain things. And it’s okay to have a voice without being controversial. And sometimes you may indirectly become controversial, but I try to stay away from those things. You know, just to say, you know, somebody cut me off today, or somebody cut me off while my son was learning how to drive. And people, you have to remember that there are new drivers out there that belong to somebody.

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. And everyone can connect to that whether they’re men or women.

Catherine: Right, so things like that. I’m figuring out that people just wanna connect.

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely. Now, we just recently reconnected, you know, at an awards luncheon here for women, the Arizona Foundation for women. And I know you’re incredibly active in the local community. You’re a member the Make-A-Wish Arizona Board of Directors, you are also been named the Arizona Latina Trailblazer in 2014. You’re part of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. You’ve also founded a charitable group, the Sisterhood of Super Women, you love to exercise, you’re now doing this new thing, you know, you are mother, a wife, even three times Boston marathon runner. I mean, how do you do it all? What are you doing to get inflow and get results not just in inflows of cash, but inflows of ease and grace to juggle all the balls?

Catherine: Well, first of all, we talk a lot about finding balance. And I think it is possible, but it’s never gonna be the balance of everything’s equal.

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely.

Catherine: One day, one side might be up the other side might be down. So, you know, every day, it’s gonna be a little lopsided. But, you know, obviously, your goal is to try to make it as even as possible. So I have learned how to draw the line. The line gets drawn when it comes to going to see my son’s lacrosse games. The line gets drawn where, you know, it’s being home at night with my husband. Now, that’s not to say that I can’t be flexible, but I’m just saying, like, I routinely make it a point of being able to say no to the things that aren’t a priority anymore.

Michelle: Absolutely. Setting boundaries. Yeah.

Catherine: Yes, setting the boundaries, it’s just really important to me. So, how do I fit it all in? Well, I approach my calendar when it comes to fitness like I would a doctor’s appointment. So, on Sunday, I plug in every single day, what time I’m going to work out, and I try to revolve everything around that.

Michelle: God, you make that a priority, that’s the number one priority.

Catherine: Yes, that is a priority. So I know is…

Michelle: Your body temple, yeah.

Catherine: I’m gonna get my son to school, I’m gonna go to work, I might be able to take a meeting after school. I mean, after work, if it’s within a certain timeframe, which I really only have an hour before I have to pick him up. Come home, do a little work on my computer, get that class in, that exercise class. And then, you know, come home, have dinner, spend time with my husband, go to bed. And then, you know, you sort of weave other things in there where you can. So like yesterday morning, for example, I knew that I was going to go to happy hour with the lacrosse moms. And I wasn’t gonna be able to make my 05:15 exercise class. So I got my butt up early and got in at 6 am.

Michelle: Making it happen, whatever it takes.

Catherine: But I still got my son to school on time, and I still got to work on time.

Michelle: Wonderful. Now, how do you incorporate faith and spirituality into your life to bring some grace and [inaudible 00:24:49] as well?

Catherine: Yes. So that is another way that I…another place, I should say, that I’ve created boundaries. So my husband and I, up until last year, so 2018, early 2018, have always been Chreasters. We call them Chreasters where you go to church on Christmas and Easter. And we didn’t wanna be that anymore. We wanted to make faith a priority for us. So we go to church at 5 o’clock on Saturdays. And if we’re going to go out with friends, it’s, “We will meet you at 06:30 because we have church from five to six.”

Michelle: That’s beautiful.

Catherine: That is where our boundary is. There is no excuse for us not making it to church on Saturdays at 5:00, unless I’m seeing the Make-A-Wish ball. Do you know what I mean?

Michelle: Yeah, absolutely, or someone’s getting married, that is incredibly close to you, or something like that. Yeah, absolutely.

Catherine: Right, or we are uptown for some reason, but people know if they’re gonna spend Saturday night with us, it starts at 06:30.

Michelle: Yeah, that’s beautiful. Now, three pieces of…to wrap up, three pieces of advice for women either starting out in their careers, or already successful, that you wish you would have known when you started.

Catherine: I think that mentorship is extremely important. I don’t think I had a lot of really great mentors in the beginning. And I certainly didn’t have a lot of women mentors. I didn’t start developing those female mentor relationships until probably 10 years into my career. So I think it’s really important not only to seek mentors, but really important mentors. And as a woman, you need some of those really strong women mentors, too, because, as you know, we experience things a lot differently than men.

And so we, you know, we need to know that other people have succeeded, have overcome the same challenges, and how they did it. So I think that’s really important. I also think it’s really important to take time for yourself. When I started my career, I think I was…how long was I into it? Three years into it before I got married. And then I had a child two years later. And you know, it was just boom, boom, boom, boom, I was always so driven. And I sort of, you know, I always had to just achieve everything I set out to do. And I think I went a little too fast sometimes. I didn’t take a lot of time to just sort of relax and enjoy the moment. Yes. So, you know, now that I’m older, I see that that’s really, really important. You don’t have to be everything to everyone to feel valuable. To be valuable.

Yeah. And I think it’s really important also to be self-aware of what your strengths and weaknesses are. We all have weaknesses. And if you have weaknesses that you think might be a detriment, figure out how you’re gonna make those weaknesses, strengths. Whether it’s, you know, continuing to educate yourself, getting a financial advisor because you don’t know how to deal with money. I just, I think it’s important that we continue to educate ourselves in every aspect. Even if it’s parenting, you know, how to become a better parent. We can always become a better parent. How to become a better spouse, how to become a better friend.

Michelle: Yeah. Absolutely. And yeah, and you know, the world of investing is definitely a team sport.

Catherine: It is.

Michelle: You definitely wanna have, you know, people in your team to help you through it. Now, Catherine, what’s the best way for people to reach you, to connect with you to, you know, to find out more about what you’re doing?

Catherine: Oh, I’m all over the place. So…

Michelle: Tell us.

Catherine: My website is catherineanaya.com. I’m on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn with Catherine Anaya.

Michelle: Okay.

Catherine: Did I forget anything?

Michelle: And it’s Catherine with a C, right?

Catherine: Yes, C-A-T-H-E-R-I-N-E the old fashioned way.

Michelle: Wonderful. Well, I thank you very much for this amazing golden 30 minutes and your time. You know, I definitely took notes here. I’ve learned quite a bit and I’m pretty sure that you listening right now to the show have also enjoyed just Catherine’s candor and openness to talking about money and finances and life. And thank you so much, Catherine. I really appreciate it.

Catherine: Well, thank you. Thank you very much for having me on and for being interested. I really appreciate it.

Michelle: Absolutely. Thank you so much. Anything I can do to support other women, especially here in the community, I’m all for it. Absolutely.

Catherine: Likewise.

Michelle: Thank you.

Catherine: Thank you.

I hope this episode left you feeling inspired and ready to get inflows of cash, inflows of life, and inflows of faith in your life. I welcome your reviews on iTunes. Please leave me a review and help me create an amazing community of women inflow. Thank you as always for sharing your voice by going to michellebosch.com, and joining the conversation about this show. And while you’re there, grab a copy of my “Ten Commandments to Living a Life Inflow.” You can also follow me on Facebook at Michelle Bosh, and on Instagram @michelleboschofficial. Thank you very much, and until the next one.