Voices of Influence: The Podcast with Criss Madrigal

If you’re over 45 and quietly wondering whether it’s too late to become someone new, I want to save you some time: reinvention was never the hard part. Clarity is. I know because I did it. At 44, I walked away from a 20-year corporate career — three degrees, a six-figure income, all the boxes checked — to rebuild my life on my own terms. And the thing that finally moved me wasn’t a bigger goal or...

You’ve tried all the things. You’ve hired the coaches. You’ve tweaked the plans. And still — nothing changes. What if the block isn’t in your business or at all? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Carol Mortarotti — revenue expansion strategist, former professional tennis player, and one of the very few women who worked on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Carol’s path to this work...

What happens when you have the career, the success, the life that looks right on the outside, but you’re standing on your balcony watching fireworks and feel completely numb inside? That was Laura Peoples’ wake-up call. And it changed everything. In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Laura Peoples, the Love Coach and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment...

What if your money isn’t actually the problem — it’s the system you don’t have around it? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Lisa Marie Robinson — the Sassy Wealth Queen, Fractional CFO, and money mentor — and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment . Lisa works with women entrepreneurs who are making the money but not mastering it. She helps them stop...

What if everything you’ve been through — the symptoms no one explained, the years of holding it all together, the career pivot you never planned — was actually preparing you to help someone else? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Amy Benjamin Moore — menopause coaching specialist, author, and recently retired teacher of 31 years — and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influen...

What if the opportunity in front of you right now — the one you’ve been overthinking — is actually a portal to a version of yourself you haven’t yet met? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Rosaly Didonna — soul-aligned coach, speaker, and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment . Rosaly helps women align with their truest self, their soul self, so they...

What does it look like to rebuild your life when everything you thought you knew about yourself has been dismantled? In this Speaker Spotlight, I sit down with Maria Lloyd — licensed marriage and family therapist of 24+ years, certified coach, and one of our featured voices at Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment . Maria specializes in helping women heal from narcissistic abuse and compl...

We’re halfway through 2026. Pause for a second. Take a breath. And ask yourself honestly — are you still aligned with the goals, the vision, the desires you set in January? Are you moving in the direction of the life you actually want? Or have the months quietly slipped by and those dreams have found their way to the back burner? If you started the year strong — with a word of the year, a vision b...

In this Top 50 Voices of Influence Speaker Series, Criss Madrigal sits down with Thyra Newby, bestselling author, speaker, transformational life coach, and board-certified clinical hypnotherapist, for a powerful conversation on breaking generational patterns, releasing the roles we were placed in, and using our voice as a path to healing, visibility, and legacy. Thyra shares how saying yes to shar...

In this Top 50 Voices of Influence Speaker Spotlight, I had the honor of introducing Anita Karadalian-Girgis, one of our keynote speakers for Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment , happening June 15–19, 2026 . Anita is a somatic mindset coach who helps women come back into their bodies, expand their nervous system capacity, and reconnect with the version of themselves who is ready to liv...

In this episode of Voices of Influence , I sat down with Shannon Hernandez, one of our speakers for Top 50 Voices of Influence: Women in Alignment , for a conversation that moved through health, self-advocacy, functional medicine, and the deeper reason our voices matter. Shannon is a nurse practitioner based in Carlsbad, New Mexico, and she is currently building a virtual functional medicine pract...

What happens when you stop waiting to feel ready… and choose yourself anyway? In this episode of Voices of Influence , Criss Madrigal sits down with Joyce Ayers, Divorce Strategist , for a real, unfiltered conversation about alignment, identity, and the courage it takes to use your voice—especially when it feels uncomfortable. This isn’t a conversation about having it all figured out. It’s about w...

This first episode of Voices of Influence inside Substack marks more than the launch of a podcast, it represents a shift. A shift in how we connect, how we build, and a shift in how we choose to be seen. In this opening conversation, I share the intention behind this space, the evolution of my work, and what it means to move from building alone into collaboration in community. This is the beginnin...

There was something powerful about this kickoff. It was the transition of The Collaboration Room into Substack, and it signaled something deeper. This is not simply a shift in platform. It is a shift in how we connect, how we collaborate, and how we expand our voices—together. This moment represents the beginning of a new way of being in community. A way that is intentional. A way that is aligned....

This message came through in real time, and I chose not to wait to share it. What I spoke about on a global stage last week didn’t feel complete until it was brought into a space like this—because legacy is not built on stages alone. It is built in rooms. In the video above, I share a deeper truth that shifted everything for me: standing out is often the very thing that keeps us disconnected from...