Meet Trailblazer Katie Fiore

Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Fiore.

Katie, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
It’s taken me some time to find where I need to be in life. After college, I wound up in retail managing stores. That paid the bills for over almost 17 years until I realized I needed a change so I can make more of an impact through my work. For years, I had the idea in the back of my head to share my adventures, but it was hard to balance that with the rest of life. After I got married, we wanted to start a family and find something fulfilling that I could do from home that would also be sustainable with young kids. I kept circling back to that thought of sharing my adventures and decided that the website AdventuristaAZ.com would give me the vehicle to share my travel experiences, hobbies, and important life events in a genuine and real way.

Through the blog, I hope to inspire and empower others to take action. To go places or try things they haven’t done. More importantly, I hope my experiences can help people navigate through unknown situations and address some of the realities of life. As a society, we shy away from openly discussing some of the challenges people face. If we make ourselves vulnerable and share our struggles, solutions, and successes, it benefits everyone! Whether it’s planning a trip, recovering after the loss of a loved one, infertility struggles, or fun things like gardening, I’m putting it all out there for others.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Life is not a smooth road. My biggest challenges have been the experiences that taught me the most and made me who I am today. When I was in my 20’s, I tied my self-worth too strongly to my job and others’ opinions of me. It took me some time to realize that I needed to learn who I was and confidently embrace that person before I could truly feel happy and anyone else could love me.

Then, in my mid 30’s, my little brother killed himself. His suicide rocked my entire world. Losing Paul changed my perspective, priorities, and shifted my values. I started to live more fiercely. I stopped protecting myself and made myself vulnerable to others. I stopped putting off things that I wanted to do and started to travel the world. Throughout that time, I also learned to handle grief, guilt, anger, and all of the emotions that come with losing a loved one to suicide.

Now, I’m in my late 30’s. While I’ve got so many exciting things happening with the blog, I’m going through another lesson in surrender to things I can’t control. Currently, my husband and I are facing unexplained infertility and going through the rollercoaster of the IVF process. I’ve always wanted kids, and it’s hard to have that dream in jeopardy. Infertility impacts one in eight women, but it’s rarely talked about and is a very isolating experience. By sharing my journey openly, I hope to reach and empower women who feel alone in their fertility struggles.

My advice is to learn who you are and love that person as early as possible. Establish what you want, and go for it even if it’s intimidating. Advocate for yourself and trust your gut because nobody else will fight for you as hard as you will. Make yourself vulnerable by pursuing big goals and being honest with emotions and yourself. If it’s important to you, stop putting it off. Learn to surrender and find peace when things are outside of your control instead of letting it frustrate you. If a task feels overwhelming, break it down into steps and focus on the immediate steps instead of the big picture so you keep moving forward.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about AdventuristaAZ – what should we know?
The feedback I get most often after someone reads my blog is how authentic and real my writing is. Most people who know me say they can hear my voice as they read, and they feel more empathy towards things they haven’t experienced themselves. I’m NOT one of those influencers with the perfectly filtered pictures that look like an over glamorized version of their destination. It’s important to me that I show real life and the beauty and tragedy that often go hand in hand. While you’ll be inspired by my travels, my Pinterest wins, and garden, you’ll also have a source for real talk about the not so glamorous parts of life. I’m not afraid to put a video of my sonohysterogram (including some of my weird questions to the doctor) on youtube for others to learn from! In reality, those imperfect moments are when we learn the most from each other!

We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
I think the biggest barriers for women today are that expectation of having to do it all perfectly. Companies often want women to lead the brand and put work first, but there’s also internal pressure to be great parents/wives/friends. There are not enough hours in the day to be able to do it all to perfection.

I think more realistic views of success are in order, and there need to be more conversation teaching women how to truly balance it all effectively. A woman can be an amazing leader in an organization while still only working 40 hours a week and sometimes taking a sick day to be a great mom to her kids. Those things shouldn’t be seen as a lack of commitment, but rather proper priorities.

We need women to lead at work, at home, and in their communities for the sake of future generations. They can’t do that as effectively when they are stretched thin with unrealistic expectations!

Contact Info:

• Website: AdventuristaAZ.com
• Email: katie@adventuristaaz.com
• Instagram: AdventuristaAZ
• Facebook: AdventuristaAZ
• Twitter: AdventuristaAZ
• Other: Pinterest: AdventuristaAZ YouTube: Katie Fiore

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