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Meet Heidi Goitia of AZ Family in Central Phoenix

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Heidi Goitia.

Heidi, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m a born and bred Arizona girl! I grew up in Flagstaff and was lucky enough to get a job right out of college. In fact, I accepted the position on my graduation day. It was for an anchor position at KNAZ. I grew up there and went to NAU so it was pretty special to be doing what I wanted to do in my hometown. I did that for a little more than four years and made all sorts of mistakes along the way. That’s what makes small markets so special–they are forgiving! During that time, I became a wife and a mother to two babies. The life train was moving fast! I got to a point where I no longer wanted to miss bath time, storytime, and those special evening hours with my kids and decided it was time to step away from work spend more time with them. I left KNAZ and our family moved to Phoenix where I could more easily be a stay-at-home mom. Wow, talk about a lot of work! I was more tired staying home with two babies than I was when I worked but it was the right move and I wouldn’t trade those years for anything. When I first left, I remember being scared that I would never get back into TV. In fact, someone told me I was “committing career suicide.” I’m not going to lie, it gives me a little (ok, a lot) of satisfaction to say they were wrong.

After six years at home, and one more baby, I decided it was time to flex my journalism muscle once again. I started at KTVK as a writer for Good Morning Arizona. A short time later, I started booking and producing segments for the show and was later asked to fill in during a weekend reporter’s maternity leave. That re-kindled the on-air fire. I was later asked to fill in on GMAZ during Yetta Gibson’s maternity leave and jumped at the chance to do feature segments for that show. Now we’re co-anchors. Life is funny that way! I ended up signing a reporting contract and had a blast in the field for about 18 months. Once channel five and channel 3 merged, I was moved to the new CBS 5 morning show to do traffic. A year later, I was anchoring that show. Five years after going back to work, my career had taken a crazy trajectory and landed me in spot I wasn’t ever brave enough to even dream. I didn’t always know why I was saying yes to some of the opportunities but I know they opened up doors to get me to where I am. I will always be thankful to the people who took a chance on me.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’m not sure a smooth road exists when you’re trying to juggle motherhood and a career! I think some of the biggest struggles have been trying to balance my time and energy between my family and my job. There never seems to be enough of either. I work crazy hours so my kids sometimes get a very tired version of mom. I became a single mom about two years after I went back to work and that was rough. Around the same time, my mom was diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease and in 2018, I lost my sister. Life happens and it isn’t always pretty or pleasant, but I truly believe my job is what made it more manageable. During my divorce I was out doing all sorts of crazy things for GMAZ. I couldn’t have asked for a more wonderful distraction! Reality is always going to throw you curveballs, but having a job that forces you to take risks, have fun, and be silly…we should all be so lucky. Even now when that alarm goes off at 2:40am (and you question your life choices!) it all feels better and somehow makes perfect sense when you’re get to work and find yourself laughing with your friends and hopefully making our viewers laugh, too.

Please tell us about AZ Family.
We are Arizona’s Family and that’s more than just a name. We travel all over this state to tell stories and find those hidden nuggets of what makes Arizona special and we have a lot of fun along the way. If I had to name one thing that sets us apart, it’s that we don’t take ourselves too seriously. We know the news is hard to watch sometimes, but there’s always a way to have some fun, even if it’s at our own expense. So come laugh with/at us.

I also think we try to really make a difference to people here. If we do right by our viewers and our neighbors, we’ve done our job.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I plan to just keep doing what I’m doing, God (and maybe some Botox) willing! Personally, I just sent my oldest of to college in Tennessee and I have another one leaving in a year. No one prepares you for this part of parenting! Pray for this mama! Then it will just be me and my youngest so that will be a whole new dynamic, but a great one. I’m excited to have that time with him. I hope work includes continuing to tell good stories and showing off the people and places that make my home state so great.

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