Episode 176: Chasing Creative Freedom Without Leaving Others Behind | Katya Martín | Actor & Filmmaker
What does it mean to chase your dreams and lift others as you go? Actor and filmmaker Katya Martín shares how she's navigating her career, from indie projects to starring in ABC’s Promised Land, while making room for collaboration, representation, and self-reflection. She talks about growing up between Spain and the U.S., what “power” really means to her, and why community matters just as much as talent. This episode is about building creative careers that stay human, making space for nuance, and trusting that what’s meant for you won’t miss you.
“It’s important to appreciate the moment and acknowledge what you just did. It’s so easy to rush between jobs and forget we’re in the moments we wished for.”
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Aleks Lason - podcast
Aleks Lason - 2nd podcast
Manuela Uriza - dialect coach for Promised Land
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Sara Zendia - podcast
Sasha Sagan - podcast
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
00:00 Intro: Meet Katya Martín
01:42 How Katya got started in acting and filmmaking
04:25 The power of building a creative support system
06:50 Why rejection fuels her drive
09:15 Women mentors who shaped her journey
11:00 What 8-year-old Katya dreamed of
12:30 Acting vs producing: how she balances both
14:10 First big break on ABC's Promised Land
17:00 Behind the scenes: why authentic casting matters
18:56 Cultural nuance and Spanish language accuracy on set
21:15 The case for diverse crews and storytellers
23:30 Growing up between Spain and San Diego
26:45 NYC energy vs LA sprawl
28:10 What she learned from working at Red is Dancing
30:00 Redefining power and womanhood
33:20 Owning the term “Powerful Ladies”
36:00 The weight and pride of being called a woman
39:15 Stories she wants to tell next
41:00 Katya’s take on Everything Everywhere All at Once
43:00 How powerful she feels—today and on average
44:55 What’s still on her to-do list for the year
46:00 Becoming a horse girl at 20-something
48:30 What your inner 8-year-old knows that you forgot
50:15 The creative community she’s looking to build
52:00 Where to follow Katya Martín
If you bring in a diversity in voices the stories are going to be different just because of the difference in backgrounds. And I think everyone brings such a different perspective and as women
we
move through the world in a different way.
That's Katya Martin and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Hey guys, I am Kara Duffy, a business coach and entrepreneur on a mission to help you live your most extraordinary life by showing you anything. Truly is possible. People who have mastered freedom, ease, and success, who are living their best and most ridiculous lives and are making an impact are often people you've never heard of Until now, my love language is collaborating.
There is nothing more fun than working with amazing people to make something you're proud of. Today's guest, Katya Martin, shares that passion for creating and collaborating. She's a filmmaker actor most recently on Promised Land on A, B, C, and Hulu. A producer and all around creative who's committed to telling authentic stories and giving more women a place to tell their own.
She is definitely someone I'm keeping in my circle.
Welcome to The Powerful Ladies Podcast. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's really an honor. Let's begin. Just tell everyone listening, who you are, where you are, and what you're up to.
My name is Katya Martin. I'm currently in Brooklyn, New York. And I'm an actor and filmmaker. I just got back to New York after shooting the show, promised land for a, b, c out in la followed by a feature film called Death.
And, I was connected to you through Alex Lawson. Yes. Who was so excited about how committed you are to telling female stories and having female crews. How did you and Alex meet and, where did your passion for working with fellow powerful ladies come from?
Yeah. So Alex and I met through this, women's coaching group. We did this ladies mastermind coaching group session. Back in, I think it was 2019. No, never. No, it was definitely, it was COVID. So it was like 2020, I guess it was over a year ago. That's a funny thing. So Alex is, I guess technically like a COVID friend of mine.
We've actually never met in person, even though we've known each other for about two years. But I've met her husband, in person we actually, I ended up working on a acrylics video. So he and I met in person Chris, so that I, like both of us can't wait to actually meet and give each other a physical hug.
But yeah I got into film and TV pretty young. I always like really wanted to act and make movies. And I think I realized pretty quickly, especially I moved to New York when I was 17 and went to NY here and started working and I think I. I realized pretty quickly that I didn't really have any female mentors or or like women to aspire to look up to and aspire to be.
And it took me a really long time to actually feel like I had a female support group. And so more and more I just started trying to find those women and. Reach out more, get to work with them more and just build those relationships. I think especially in film and tv, so much of what we do is so personal and like we're you work such long hours, super close to people and to be able to have a community around your creative work I think is really important.
And for me as a young woman moving to New York or myself, it was really important to, to find those other women too.
It makes me think of, often people don't associate the parallels between being a creative or an actor and being an entrepreneur. And I think it's so missed. I was listening to an episode of Smartless yesterday.
Yeah. Which has become my whenever I'm driving around and I'm having a bad day, I'm like, one episode of that. I will laugh, it'll be fine. Yeah. But they were talking about, Jason Bateman regularly speaks to that. No one understands what it's like to constantly be pitching yourself and constantly getting rejected and not having that security.
'cause he is thinking like actor to corporate life. And I'm listening. I'm like, Jason, that's what I do every day. Like you're Yeah. You, if you represent yourself, like that's what life is. Yeah.
Yeah. Totally. Totally. And like you're literally just like standing out there letting people judge you and asking them to, and then.
Nine times outta 10, it's no, that's not what we want next.
Yeah. And that's why, so I'm so appreciative when someone says yes. Yes to this podcast. Yes. To hiring me as a coach. Like whatever it is, it's like I so appreciate that. Yes. 'cause it's not just, and I'm curious if you feel the same way.
It's not just a Yes to me or my identity. It's an opportunity for me to be a contribution and, a connection. It's not. It's not just a yes it's the ability to give all these things that we have to give.
Yeah. And what you just said about, it's an opportunity like that's, it's also an opportunity to learn.
And I think, so many times, especially in, in the creative business where. I don't know if it's only in the, in like creative industries. I think it's everywhere where like it's so easy to just give the job to someone, and if you don't know people, it's hard to get that first job.
And so to have someone give you that, yes, they're also giving you the opportunity to just to learn, to have something else on your resume. To get, to prove yourself, to get, to figure out what works, what doesn't work. And that was something like, for example, Alex, I like reached out to me. It was so random.
But after we'd known each other for a while, I had quit my job here in New York and I went out to LA just for like literally a hot second to recenter myself. And it just so happened that they were doing a video out there in, in San Diego actually where I have family and she was like, oh, would you wanna do it like.
Could you do this? Even though she had, we had never worked together before. We had never worked in person, but like she trusted me with that and that, that gave me such a huge bump to then be able to go off and do other things.
Yeah. I don't know anyone that gets any job without knowing someone first.
And it's that's why I'm such a big connector. I tell people, I'm like, if they're, if I'm connected to someone, if you see it on LinkedIn or anywhere else, you can tell them, I said, you should connect. 'cause whoever asked, I'm gonna say it anyway, unless they're, there's very few people, I'd be like no, don't use my name.
But most people are good. And they are awesome. And they are like. Especially people taking the effort to be in motion. Yeah. It changes everything. Yeah.
No, for sure.
Besides Alex, who are some people or powerful ladies that have given you those opportunities that opened up huge doors for you?
Gosh. One of my. Best friend mentors older sisters is a woman named Catherine Kendall who I adore, but she's just been, she is one of the nicest, most generous people. And she's been such a, an advocate for me. Drew Dixon is another woman who has just given me so much support and love and opportunity.
DEI Wong is a very. New and powerful new friend and mentor of mine. I honestly this sounds so cliche, but like my mom is like one of the women that I just look up to so much. She just doesn't work in film at all. Like she's she's a teacher and now, or she was a teacher. She now has become a school psychologist.
She got her masters and changed careers at in, in midlife. But she. She's taught me so much about just being present and weighing through the, or like waiting through the moments of struggle and just like knowing where you're going and and being calm and grounded.
I think those are four of the like. Strongest female presence in my life as like women that I look up to.
Yeah, it, if you look back at 8-year-old, you, would you imagine that you're at where you are now? No.
I think. I think 8-year-old me didn't really have a vision of what working and I knew I, I loved movies and I knew I wanted to make them, but I had no idea what that meant.
In terms of lifestyle, I don't think I ever saw myself as producing and putting teams together and and not staying in one city for more than a couple months? Yeah. It actually, I think it was around when I was seven or eight that I did click into the idea that film was a career that people did.
We had this, it was like the first kind of DVD behind the scenes package that we had gotten. And it was, I remember so clearly it was Lord of the Rings. And I remember seeing for the first time, like someone who had whatever, had a camcorder BTS and was just filming and like you saw the director, you saw the actors, you saw like the makeup artist doing the touchups.
And that was the first time I was like, oh wait, oh, those are. Oh. I could be that. I could be that person that's a person that's doing that. So it was around that time that I was like, oh maybe that's something I could do. But I had no idea that it would mean what I'm doing now.
Yeah. When, 'cause you've been going back and forth between being in front of the camera, being behind the camera, collaboration.
How has that flow happened for you and has it been very organic, or have you been surprised at. Behind or in front of the lens which one showed up for you?
A bit of both. I think the getting into, so my first kind of focus when I was little and what I wanted was acting, was being in front of the camera, but the being behind the camera, I think came it, it flowed, I flowed pretty easily into it where I just I started writing and I started just like, when I was little, I would put little family movies together with my cousins and things like that. And then that kind of just evolved into making my first few short films. And I, when I came out to New York I was studying communications at NYU and I ended up doing a minor in like producing and entertainment business.
And so that kind of. Opened my mind even more of what actually goes into producing movies and tv. And what actually has to happen. And then I just learned on the job where like I needed money and someone needed an assistant producer for a super low budget commercial now I was like, yeah, I can.
Sure. Absolutely. And I, like I did internships for like event planning and stuff like that. And so those sorts of things helped each other out in a way. And I had, I think I've also just been really lucky to get to work with people who are just there to create and are down to bring in new people just to learn and if you can run at that pace and run it and gun it, then you're in.
Yeah. So I like, I learned a lot on the job. And it's been cool getting to go from low budget, like commercial music video to then get to act in an a, b, C show like that. They're such different worlds, but at the same time they're similar in a lot of ways when you have the right people around.
Did you have a fan girl moment for yourself when you have seen your face on the big, the A, B, C in New York? What is that
it was weird. It was, I think what was most strange about it was that it wasn't so much the seeing my face on a TV screen, it was more like the reaction of people that I didn't know, or who I haven't heard from, who had seen it.
Because, yeah, up until I, I had done other movies and TV that like I don't think many people have seen, but this was something that was just at a completely different level. And so that I think was the most surprising part of it, of oh, people other than my family circle are actually seeing this show.
That's cool. Okay. Yeah. And yeah, so that I think was the most shocking.
Yeah. It just, there's. The journey of life there keeps being moments like that. 'Cause obviously our goal and what's next change. And I think it's so magical when you have that moment where it's holy shit, like this.
I thought about it, I imagined it. I didn't think it actually happened. We're so good at. Some of us anyway of saying it's gonna happen, then just head down working. And so when you pause and look up and you're like, holy shit, that happened. Okay. Yeah, it motivates me for what's next.
Does it for you? Yeah.
I'm sorry. There's, I'm, I have, you're in New York, traffic nurse in the background. I'm sorry if you can hear that. But sorry to go back to your que Yes. That I'm one of those people too of finishing something and already being onto the next thing. And that's something that like my mom reminds me of all the time is just the, hold on for a second.
And honoring the in-between moments between your, I guess either goals or accomplishments or jobs, whatever those are have learning to sit and acknowledge them before moving on. Even if, even if you. Are on a job and you have to start the next job within two days. You can be, you can start that next job but at least carve out some sort of time or some sort of process for you to acknowledge what you just did before, just completely discarding it and moving forward.
Yeah. I had the pleasure of spending Memorial Day weekend at the Telluride Mountain of Film Fest. Oh wow. Oh, awesome. It was very cool. I had not been to a Mountain film festival before.
Telluride has a separate Telluride film Festival. Which is usually more Hollywood celebrity style. But mountain film is adventure. It started off with like ski movies, so it's like actually Sports Angle Nature Outdoors, but they really focus on social and environmental activism.
And so the movies were so interesting about, telling Native Voices as a a professional skier and what that means there's a whole amazing one about saving the Amma, the Amazon Rainforest. And there was it was so great to see the diversity of storytellers.
With that being important to you?
Like what is it about the storytelling that you think is so critical for more women voices and more women crews to be creating together?
If you bring in a diversity in voices, the stories are going to be. Different just because of the difference in backgrounds and in, lens, for lack of a better word, no pun intended.
Like I, I think everyone brings such a different perspective and as. Women we move through the world in a different way. Our experience walking down the street is different than men's. It's and mine walking down the street is different than yours and is different than an African American woman, an Asian woman.
We all experience life and. In very different ways. And so the more different voices who are coming to the table to tell stories, the more unique those stories are gonna be told. I think that's, that's the same for including people who come from different cultural backgrounds, different just different ethnicities.
It all just brings such a rich. Pallet to the project that you're working on because you have different different inputs. I think for example, a, just a small example of that in on Promised Land, my, my character comes from Mexico and in my storyline there was a lot of Spanish being spoken.
And even though me and my co-stars were all fluent in Spanish, we really wanted to make sure that the Spanish that was being spoken was from Mexico, where these parent where these characters are from. And bringing in I mean we, we were so blessed and lucky that we, the production brought in Manu Za who was our, not only our like translator and dialect coach, but also in a sense our cultural coach and those things.
Just a little phrases and things like, instead of saying, hi, how are you? The the what's up? Or like the the dude, the sing the slaying kind of thing. That's something that I've had so many people reach out to me saying like how they, they saw their family represented in that because that was familiar to them.
And, going that extra step of actually bringing in the people who can. Who can give input on that. Whereas you or I might not have that knowledge. I think that's really important in, in the storytelling and in the discussion on representation too. It's not just having someone that, looks a certain way that can fill, that can tick the box of oh, we need five women on this crew.
Okay, great. But if none of them are actually bringing what that position needs we're at the same starting place. And they're also, if they're then not able to do the job well, that also reflects badly on them. So then we're in this kind of vicious, unproductive circle cycle.
Yeah. So yeah. I think both are important and true.
Yeah. And it's. Just the authenticity of it, because it it does, even across the US if everyone's speaking English, there are times you don't understand each other because the slang is so different. It's always entertaining when you are speaking with someone else who is fluent in your language but isn't native. Or isn't from your area of language. And it's like the funniest stories to me, the lost in translation is what kills me and it's some of the, my funniest stories a ELL are from.
Living abroad and having that experience and both feeling like an idiot and like getting to laugh at Oh yeah, that makes no sense. I have no idea why we say that way.
Yeah. Yeah. No, and I love that so much. I, a lot of the stuff that I write involves people coming from different backgrounds or having those miscommunications or speaking different languages.
'Cause it like that's. I mean that, to me it resonates 'cause it's so much of how I grew up. But I think it's like that just makes us so more, so much more attuned to what's happening in the world and how different people are relating to each other.
Yeah. Did you grow up in San Diego? I know you say your family here now.
Yeah I went to, I went to high school there. My mom's from there and I, my dad is from Madrid and in Spain, so I actually, I grew up in Valencia, so I, we don't actually have any family there. I grew up in Valencia, Spain, Valencia, Spain, not Valencia, California. But and then we moved to San Diego when I was 13 and then I moved to New York.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What was that experience like for you going from Valencia to San Diego?
It was I think I was a lot more excited about it before it happened, and then it actually happened and I hated it. I at that point I knew that I wanted to work in movies and film and tv even though I was 13 and not at the age of working yet.
But to me, San Diego was very close to Hollywood, and so I had this. Very naive teenage idea in my mind that I would get there and be able to be on Disney Channel shows and just become a working actor at the age of 14 by then. And I very quickly realized that wasn't gonna be the case.
And I think it was that disappointment plus the suddenly feeling very isolated and very just not in tune culturally with with the city and with school and how in just the structure of life is set up there. I had a lot of freedom in Spain where, everyone is just running around and walking everywhere even though the parents are, at the little bar cafe and they're watching you, but you think you're wandering around on your own or there's, there's always someone in the neighborhood who's got their eye on you.
But you still think you're going to the grocery store at seven years old, all by yourself. And then to suddenly go from that to needing a car to get everywhere and yeah. I, it I wasn't very happy there. Yeah, but moving to New York, when I finally came out here, that felt like much more like home, like that city environment of being able to walk everywhere and just that, that energy and fast pace that was, that was very much more what was what I jived with.
It changes everything, i've moved a ton myself across the US in, to Europe and back, and when you have walkability, it completely changes the cultural dynamic. Yeah. You are able to make friends faster. You're able to connect with people.
When I moved from Europe to California. I was shocked that I'm like, oh, like I'll make friends at work, and I did, but they lived an hour away. I was like, the office was in Orange County, and I'm like, wait, you live in LA or you live in San Diego? Like, how are we ever supposed to hang out?
Yeah, that's traveling an hour and a half, maybe two at traffic. One way to hang out. I'm like, okay. This is so insane to me. I'm used to, we're all in the same neighborhood.
Yeah. And San Diego is a very unique piece of the American culture as well. It's definitely not the same as moving to Ohio or Virginia or somewhere else.
For better or worse. Yeah. But the car culture in the US really does take away from so much opportunity to connect.
Yeah. No I agree. I think that was one of the experiences that I had in LA this past year where. Because of the job I was doing, had my community ingrained and, I was so lucky that we all just got along from the get go and really loved each other.
And I, I had this kind of just friend group that I got to go make. TV with every single day. And then as soon as we wrapped, I was like, okay, let's all hang out. And it was like, oh, one person's in Silver Lake, someone's in Los Felix, someone's in West Hollywood, someone's in like the west side, someone's in North Hollywood.
And then it was like oh, this is what it's like. Okay. Now I understand.
Yeah. It's a little bit easier in New York.
Yeah,
for sure. I also you're part of the team, red is dancing. What is that for this?
So Red is dancing is a it's a, sorry, I'm completely blanking on the word.
A creative agency and production company that specializes in telling stories through dance. I. I'm now more of a freelancer, with them. But I was pretty much right hand to red, like here in, in New York, who's the founder of the company. The company's half in Paris, half in New York.
And I learned a lot working there. We were a super small team, so everyone wore a ton of hats, and the company culture, there was also one of. Just loving Multihyphenate. So that was also, if I had an audition or I booked a show it wasn't like a, oh no, I have to ask for time off.
It was like, yeah, I got you. Go. Go handle it, don't worry. So it was it was amazing. And I, we, while I was there we produced like, gosh, I don't even know how many videos, but a lot. I was there for three, three years. Three or four years. And we did so many videos for like dance companies like Alvin Ailey and we worked at the American Ballet Theater, but also for different organizations like the Brooklyn Museum also brands like red Bull Dance, and Credo Beauty.
So it was cool to get to just work with a lot of different clients and learn, just learn how to, tell stories through a very specific medium and also in a very short timeframe.
Powerful ladies is a contradictory statement sometimes, and it can be divisive because people make power mean something different and ladies mean something different.
So what is powerful and ladies', independent words mean to you, and does the definition or your relationship with those words change when they're put next to each other?
I, sorry, I'm like, I'm grinning because I love this question. I also, mostly because of power I've had this discussion like several times recently with, with women of all people. I listened to a lot of Brene Brown podcast episodes and I love her. But she had I think it was on her Dare to Lead podcast because she has two, but she she talked was talking about power and like the different forms of power in one of her interviews and.
It was just, it was a big like aha moment for me. And then afterwards I was like, why is this so surprising? But just how there isn't one type of power. There's power over power with Power four and I think Power two is the fourth one. But usually what we associate with power is power over.
And that is has just traditionally been the. What we associate with power. It's also a very masculine tend tendency. Of power is just to use power to dominate, to have just control over something or someone, whether it's a situation or a person or an animal or whatever. And and I just, I found it so interesting because in the discussion they were talking about how.
That, that doesn't always resonate with women or women who try to take power in a masculine way, often get rejected or called the B word or whatever. All B words. Whereas if it's a man doing it's powerful. And and I find it fascinating because I also think that women naturally tend to be.
Tend to be nurturers and that, whether that's nature or nurture, whether it's what we were taught or it's just what we're feeling, that's usually what, and we usually gravitate towards power with. So you also see a lot of female leaders. Use that in an effective way as a I'm not the, say I'll do all I am.
I'm asking us to do this together. I'm putting this in place for us all to move forward in the same direction. And so powerful to me, just, it means finding your own way of manifesting power. And ladies I use the term ladies all the time and. I, it's only been recently that I've had to pause to make sure that I haven't offended anyone with the word.
Yeah. And to me, I think a I think I just, I like the word. I like the idea of being someone or like a lady being someone who is classy and knows what she wants and and is. I don't see a lady as someone who's demure or Yeah. Unintelligent. I think it's someone who's royal and very and so I personally love that word and I use it all the time.
And so the two of them together I just am like, when I hear powerful ladies, I, I imagine a, for lack of a better term, some really badass women who also were insanely classy, but also know how to get shit done.
That's the definition that I built this off of because that's how I think about it too.
I see all the people on TikTok lately being like, we're starting a girl gang and we're gonna get jackets. And I'm like, we already have jackets. Like we need to be promoting ourselves more because what? We're here, no, but it's such an interesting thing. 'cause it, it has been controversial of like, why powerful ladies, not powerful humans.
I remember early in the podcast, someone asking if we were gonna put an X in ladies. And I was like, I don't, let's see what happens. And then I'd asked a friend of mine to be on the podcast too, as a guy. And I'm like, does it bother you that I'm inviting you to be on the Powerful Ladies podcast?
He's no, it's your podcast. Who do you like talk? If you think they're powerful, talk to 'em. I'm like, okay, thank you for giving me that freedom. I needed that.
Yeah. And it one, yes, it is your podcast, but also two, like we need to have men in the conversation too. I don't think.
I don't think anything really gets done if you're going at it with an us versus them mentality. Yeah. Ab like if it's not gonna be an open conversation and we're not gonna have you that was one my I was talking to a guy friend of mine who was going and taking his sons to all of the protests around the abortion rights.
And laws and he was like, I don't know. Is it weird for a guy to be going? I was like, no. Like you, yeah. We need men to go like this is, that's not even a question. Of course. I had a conversation with my cousin a few years ago that it, it's interesting 'cause I feel like I'm in this, in between gener generations of I have my cousins who are.
Teenagers into like very early twenties. And obviously then my parents, and I'm in this weird in-between of having not grown up with all of the, this discussion happening around diversity and gender identity and but I'm still young enough now to like. Still be in those conversations at my age and not be, not like my parents were just oh, the young people.
But my cousin at the time, they said something that just hit me where they were sharing with me. They were kind. In this in between phase of not knowing which pronouns that they wanted to go with and they said something about using the term she, her or the pronouns she, her, that felt limiting to them.
And there was something about that just made me feel so, so sad and disappointed with society in a way. Yeah. Because there's so much that I love about being a woman. I love that. That like life comes out of us that we are, like, the idea of a matriarch is just so powerful to me.
And at the same time, like there, there are a lot of things about being a woman that really annoy me and really suck. It sucks to walk down the street and have people cat call you and follow you and just think that they can do that because. They can and like violence against women and the fact that, all right, now all the conversations and fights that we're having to have over abortion rights and over the rights to control our own bodies like that infuriates me.
But at the same time, like. If I have to walk through the world dealing with that shit, you better acknowledge that I'm a woman. I'm yes, you need to call me a lady. Like I'm a human, but I also walk through the world in a very specific way that's different than a man. So I want I want that label, and I like, I wear that label proudly.
I understand that's not. For everyone and that not everyone agrees with that. But all of that, I have to say that I love the title of your podcast.
Thank you. It's also I think similar to you, I'm really proud of the lineage of powerful women that I come from. There's a, there are also.
Amazing men that I come from as well. And it's not to diminish their contribution by any means. But it really is, as you said, this is how I came into this world. This is who I get to honor and continue traditions from and to keep fighting for, like we, I think we forget sometimes that there's so many challenges that women have around the globe.
And it's easy to. Forget about it in short periods of time in the US because we do have so many options. And I do think that the Roe v Wade current conversation is changing that it was in the mid seventies that women could open their own bank account and start a business under their name.
It's what? That is not far enough away. And the women that I hang out with I can't imagine any of us having to get permission to. About money or permission for our business or permission to do anything. Yeah. Let alone permission to or to not have, a child.
So it's, there's a lot of work that we still have to do because it's not there for everyone yet. And I have to remind myself that also.
Oh yeah. No, I think, especially in the us even if we're having these challenges, like that's just the tip of the iceberg for women living elsewhere who, you know Yeah.
Can't even, don't even have access to basic healthcare, yeah. It's,
and yeah. No, and there's crossover between so many of the social causes right now. The fact that has blown my mind is that every 14 minutes, a woman in the us. Is killed by her partner with a gun. And you're like, what?
Every 14 minutes like that? Like intersects so many issues we have in the world right now. And I'm like, how is no one losing their shit about this? Except I feel like people screaming into an echo chamber. I'm like, what? Yeah. Yeah. There's just so much that we powerful ladies have to.
Change. Change. Yeah. Change. Yeah. Because,
if you look at it like, I just remember when the pandemic really started and when I was talking to some friends of mine who live in New Zealand and and they were saying that okay, they were, going through all the restrictions and all of that, but like the number one thing that the government was like.
Promoting out there. It wasn't mask mandates, it wasn't keeping away six feet, it was being kind to each other. That was the thing that ev like that it was like a whole a list of cOVID protocols and like being kind to your neighbor and acknowledging that everyone is going through a hard time right now was like top of the chart.
Yeah. Who's leading that country? A woman? Yeah. Yeah. It's just like the amount of empathy that like. I feel like we need in this country right now is a whole nother topic for another hour long.
That, that leads me to wondering, like what stories are you excited to tell and do you want to be telling?
Gosh so many. And I. I think for me, one of the most important parts of storytelling is for at its core, for it to be universal and human. I think some of the most powerful movies or TV shows, or, stories period are the ones that like I might not have anything to do with the main character.
I might not. See myself represented in them physically or ethnically or culturally, but I can still I can still be moved by them and by their story from on a human level. And I think telling stories like that, that, that shine a light on issues and on characters that. I might not have seen or might not have thought of before, but I'm suddenly completely connected with them because of the human experience like those are.
That's really what inspires me. I think there, there are so many stories of, about, people and cultures that we just don't get to see in, especially in the US market. And I think that's changing slowly. I think even shows like squid game or money heist that you know, aren't in English, period.
Like those things are, they're starting to change, but being able to tell stories about, yeah, like PE people who on paper have nothing to do with you, but you still love watching them. I think is so important. I recently saw everything everywhere, all at once with one of my creative partners and best friends, and both of us walked out of the movie theater, like completely, just like mind blown.
I don't know if you've seen it, but it's just such a Not yet. Wacky, crazy, fun movie. But also we were like the protagonist is a middle-aged Chinese woman, and it's, clearly there's a mar, it's blowing up the box office like we it's becoming more and we still have a very long way to go, but it is becoming more and more, I think normal, quote unquote, to have leading characters that aren't Yeah.
Kind of in the norm. And that that's so exciting to me. And I just wanna be able to be behind more of that. Be involved with more of that.
I love that we ask everyone on the Powerful Ladies Podcast where they put themselves on the Powerful Ladies scale. If zero is average everyday human and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you put yourself today and on average?
Oh gosh.
I'm trying to like, see now I'm like trying to define okay, what is what is the most powerful that I could possibly be? I'm like I'm not close to Oprah or Reese Witherspoon or like Shonda Rhimes yet. Yes. Is the key word. I feel like I'm still pretty, I'm like, I'll give myself like a four plus.
I I'm like. I'm not even halfway to where I wanna be. But I'm not at zero. I wanna acknowledge that for myself. 'cause I usually would not, but I'm, I've done enough to where I don't think I'm a zero, but I would say maybe like a four.
Yeah. I think this is one of my most interesting questions.
I just think, I love how people respond. It says a lot about what people are reaching for and what they acknowledge themselves for and. So many things, like I'm happy to give it all the answers away to a psychology team or an anthropology team. I think they would really,
I would be fascinated to, to see what they say about that.
Yeah, exactly. We could probably even just do a short film on just women's answers and what it all means. It's, we're approaching the halfway mark of 2022. What are you most proud of accomplishing this year and what is still on your to-do list?
I am, I'm proud of the show that that I was just on.
I am, that was the first time that I've been a series regular and on, 10 episodes and filming for almost 11 months and with the breaks in between. But, i'm, I am proud of that. I'm really proud of the community that, that we created and the story that we were telling was very really important to me.
And and I'm just I'm proud of the work that we did. What do I still, I have a lot of things that I still wanna accomplish. I just I think that was like. One of the hard things I think about this industry is how much of a like unknown and start and stop it is where I feel like I'm like a horse that's just been got to trot a little bit and got to canter a little bit.
And now I was like, I'm ready to gallop. Yeah, why is there a gate in front of me guys? Like I, I feel like I okay, let's keep going. And I'm being reigned and but I'm also just I'm shifting gears now too and I have a couple things that I'm developing and producing that I'm just shifting gears into.
So there's there's still a lot more that I wanna accomplish, but more than anything, I just wanna keep on working and getting to tell stories that i'm excited about.
When you're not working, what are you doing to have fun? Recharge yourself or just go out and be curious with?
I am like active wise, I like, I really like just staying active.
I love taking just long walks and I'm really into kickboxing and yoga. I've also recently gotten, hence the horse analogy, I've gotten really into horseback riding. Which is something that when I was little, I always really wanted to do and never just didn't have the opportunity and, i'd ridden a little bit. But a couple years ago I got to go horseback riding in Mexico and it was the first time that I ever was like on a horse kind of free range and having to figure it out on my own, and I just loved it. So this year I got into taking lessons and I've just become a horse girl at in my twenties.
That is probably something I should have done when I was eight, but I'm a horse girl now.
I always say that I feel the most proud when I'm making 8-year-old me proud
that I'm going to, I'm gonna quote you on that. I love that. Because it's true. I think when I was, eight to, to 18, pretty much.
There were so many things that I I wanted to do, but I either didn't have the maturity for it or the resources for it. And I feel like now I'm getting to do the things that I'm like, no, this is my money. I get to spend it how I want. I have I am like, I'm a freelancer. I run my own business.
I get to decide when I go on vacation and when I take the time off and and I get to Yeah. Fulfill all those 8-year-old, 8-year-old aspirations.
They're so important. That's also why I have that question, because so often there's, it's that line, and it doesn't have to be exactly eight, but there's that crossover where we have one foot in the, anything is possible and magical.
Imagination space and one foot into, oh, this is the reality of what it means to. Be in like a grownup or work exists in adulthood. Yeah. And so there's something magical there of not being afraid to blend the two together. And I think I spend so much of my time as a coach helping people reintroduce both sides to each other.
Because, every day people make things. You're like, how what made them think they could do it? Or who thought that would be a great idea. But guess what? Lavender ice cream is amazing, so thank you.
Yeah. No it's, it is so true. And that's one of the things that, even just like in acting, I feel like in acting like 1 0 1, so many teachers have, I've heard them either say or tell me you need to find your inner child.
You have to play. And I, and I'm. Know, lucky enough that's my job, and like my job is literally to run around playing and pretending that I'm a different person. But I think it, but it's true for I think any adult, like finding that, that joy in things and just that creativity, like it's one of the things that's so easily lost and to-do lists.
But it's so important to hold onto.
It really is. I can't step over what message your shirt might say, based on our podcast, women don't owe you shit. Yeah.
I, as soon as we started, I saw the saw it creeping up and I was like, oh. I'm wearing that shirt. I guess it's appropriate. I hope it's totally appropriate.
Yeah. You're subconsciously dressing for the day. It works. I totally, my, my subconscious has a way with me sometimes.
We know that the powerful is community is powerful and is resourceful and loves to collaborate. What is something that you need are looking for or are a request for?
I. Right now I just wanna meet, meet more women who are doing cool shit. Like I I'm developing and producing a couple things.
My writing and creative partner Madeline Stevenson, and I have a show that we're pitching. And I I would just love to have more conversations with more women who are creating, especially in the film and TV space. Having people that you know and get to connect with to then even if it's not now, later on down the line, be like, oh wait, like I just met this woman who's an awesome cinematographer, or, I met this incredible art designer who would be great for my friend's short film or yeah I just wanna get to meet more people.
I think especially now that COVID is not that it's over because everyone's oh, COVID is over, and it's definitely not, but I think we are starting to at least. Do more things that we did pre COVID and get to connect more. I'm really just in a, I wanna I hate the word networking, but I'm in like a community building phase.
Yes.
Yeah. Now we think it's such a bad wrap, but it's no, I just wanna make new friends and we can make new things together and it'll be great.
Exactly. Exactly. I wanna find more of my people.
Yes. That is honestly the quest that I'm always on, and that is why I selfishly made this podcast.
That's a great strategy.
I encourage you to be selfish in what you make to there's been some amazing women in the film and actors who have been on here. If there's any that you would love to be introduced to, please let me know. Thank you. Sarah Zenday in particular pops into my head.
She's a director and filmmaker and she's just amazing. She's a great human. It was so great to connect with her. And she also went to NYU 'cause that's where she met Sasha Sagan, who was on the podcast first. Oh, awesome. Yeah, so there's, I'll take out their episodes too. Yeah. Yeah. I'll send you a couple so to, to peek at Oh please.
And I might be coming through New York to do a meetup soon, so that would be fun too. Oh, cool. Oh, let me know.
I'm here at least for June and then I'm seeing what's next, but definitely let me know, please.
I will. Of course. Everyone who now would love to know more about you, support you, follow you, where can they do that?
Both you and your shows and movies?
I am mostly on Instagram at Katya Martin. I'm fairly new to Twitter. I'm figuring that one out a little bit, but I'm at Katya Double Martin on there. And the the show is called Promise Land. It's at Promise Land ABC on I think both Instagram and Twitter.
And it's also available on Hulu? It is on Hulu, yes. Okay. It's on Hulu.
Perfect. Follow all 10 episodes.
Yes. Okay. It has been such a pleasure to have you. Thank you for being a yes to me and the podcast. And just thank you for being another woman out there who is following your heart and your passions and wants to create and collaborate.
The rest of us around you. So just thank you. It makes me feel better knowing that people like you are out there.
No thank you so much for facilitating these conversations and and having me on, and having me be part of this community. Thank you.
All the links to connect with Kat in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you are listening, and leave us a rating and review. They are critical for podcast visibility. Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies, and if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram.
You can also find both myself and powerful ladies on TikTok. I'll be back next week with a brand new episode with a new, amazing guest. Until then, I hope taking on being powerful in your life, you'll be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: @katya.martin
Twitter: @katya__martin
YouTube: @Katya Martin
Website: katyamartin
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
