"The power of stories and pursuing your passion." How Donna Barba Higuera found her way from an agricultural town in central California, to a career as an optometrist and mom, to a New York Times best selling author and Newberry Medal Award winner for her middle grade and children's picture books. 

 In this episode you will learn:

• How her passion for writing and storytelling started at a very young age, and books are inspired by her history, family and grandmother.
• What led her to pursue a career in the sciences to become a doctor and how that passion for writing  and storytelling never left her.
• How committing to a writers critique group helped her stay committed to the process of writing, while she managed a full time career as an optometrist and raised her kids.
• Why a trip to Kauai with her family is meaningful to her and how a surprise Zoom call during that trip changed the course of her career and life as a writer.

About Donna Barba Higuera

Donna Barba Higuera is the New York Times best selling author of  Middle Grade and picture books that reinvent history, folklore, and or her own life experience into compelling storylines. She lives in Washington State with her husband, four kids, three dogs and a frog. Her books include Lupe Wong Won't Dance, El Cucuy Is Scared, Too!, and The Last Cuentista, and have won awards including: the Newbery medal, both Pura Belpré medal and honor, PNBA best book of the year award,  and the Sid Fleischman award for best children's humor book of the year.

Learn more about Donna and buy her books at her website, or your local independent bookstore.

Follow Donna on Instagram.

How Terry Hollimon found his way as a star high school athlete, overcoming a nearly catastrophic shoulder injury to play football at the University of Washington, to making a career out of supporting the family business, raising 4 kids, and following his passion as a dynamic and energetic host for TV, radio, podcasts and events.

In this episode you will learn: 

• Terry's family history and struggles his dad and family overcame growing up in rural NE Arkansas on a sharecroppers plantation, and how a football scholarship changed his dad's life, and the life of future generations of their family.
• How after suffering a catastrophic shoulder injury in the 9th-grade doctors told him he wouldn't play football again, and how tenacity and grit led him to a successful college career at the University of Washington with some of the top football players in the country at the time.
• The lessons he has learned as an athlete about the importance of mindset, consistency, and staying the course and how he applies this to all aspects of his life.
• The importance of a good support system and staying organized to reach your goals. 
• How Terry juggles work and family life with four kids and why being a present dad is important to him.

Follow Terry Hollimon on Instagram, and Twitter.

How former finance executive, yoga teacher, and mom of two, Gimena Mazzetti found her way from Argentina to Germany, London, meeting her husband, moving to the US, and how her busy schedule + an injury led her to yoga and her passion to help others transform their bodies and minds. 

In this episode you will learn:

- What it was like growing up in Argentina + how she supported her mom and her family at a young age

- How her job in finance at a large consulting firm led her to Germany and London, met her husband and moved to the US.

- How she knew she needed a "reset" and made the decision as a busy mom with a full-time career to press pause on her finance career. 

- How an injury led her to yoga and to ultimately practice, teach and share her passion for yoga with others

- What lessons she has learned about self-care, staying in the present moment, and the healing power of yoga to transform our bodies + our minds.

Follow Gimena on Instagram.

How travel writer Rolf Potts found his way from rural Kansas to living the #vanlife before it was a thing, working and living abroad,  becoming a travel writer, teacher, + best selling author of Vagabonding, and created a movement in independent, long-term travel.

In this episode you will learn: 

• How giving himself permission to travel, changed his life + shaped his career as a full-time traveler, travel writer,  and author
• How his first book, Vagabonding, The Uncommon Guide to Long-Term World Travel inspired millions of people around the world to take the leap to long-term travel and became Tim Ferris' first book club selection.
• What travel teaches us about life and how to seek adventure in normal life, and normal life in adventure.
• How he met his wife in the pandemic + what inspired him to write his latest book, The Vagabond's Way: 366 Meditations, Wanderlust, Discovery and the Art of Travel.

Buy Rolf's Books

Subscribe to Rolf's Deviate Podcast

Follow Rolf on Instagram

Book summaries:

The Vagabond’s Way is meant to sustain the mindset of a journey, even when one isn’t able to travel. This unique philosophical guide will compel readers to see travel as an ongoing metaphor for life itself, and to bring the lessons of travel back into the context of their home lives.

Vagabonding There’s nothing like vagabonding: taking time off from your normal life—from six weeks to four months to two years—to discover and experience the world on your own terms. In this one-of-a-kind handbook, veteran travel writer Rolf Potts explains how anyone armed with an independent spirit can achieve the dream of extended overseas travel. Now completely revised and updated, Vagabonding is an accessible and inspiring guide to:

• financing your travel time
• determining your destination
• adjusting to life on the road
• working and volunteering overseas
• handling travel adversity
• re-assimilating back into ordinary life

How Ashley Van Sant, Cross Platform Producer at CNN, found her way in the news business - from a small town TV station in Eastern Washington, to stations around the country,  to becoming a  mom, and landing her dream job at CNN in Atlanta.

In this episode you will learn:

• What it is like to have a career in the news business and how she knew at a young age she wanted to work in TV.
• Why becoming a  mom shifted her priorities and how she and her husband juggle their busy careers in breaking news with two young kids.
• The importance of getting outside your comfort zone,  being willing to put in the work, and how this philosophy led her to her dream job at CNN.
• Her favorite self-care strategies having a high-pressure job and her family's happy place in the PNW.

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How Mike Fridgen, serial entrepreneur, company builder, dad, and co-founder of Madrona Venture Labs, a startup studio based in Seattle, found his way through a career and created space for 10 epic family trips in 10 years. 

In this episode you will learn: 

• How Mike founded his first company at just 19 years old as a student at the University of Washington and has since founded, launched, sold, and advised countless startups.
• The lessons he has learned about the importance of patience and making intentional tradeoffs as a busy dad + executive
• How his passion for innovation, working with amazing people, and spending intentional moments with his family drives his passion for his work and life.
• How a simple notepad and a glass of wine with his wife one summer day turned into an epic family travel plan of 10 trips in 10 years.  (hint: just a few on the list include Africa, Japan, Australia, Peru, Vietnam and Cambodia)
• Why travel, prioritizing big adventures  and the trip planning process has become an important part of their family's DNA

Subscribe to email here:  https://mailchi.mp/hiptravelmama/allwhowanderpodcast

 Travel talk starts @ 25:15

Loved this episode?  Thank you for sharing with others + leaving me a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and share what you liked about the episode! ❤️✈️

Links from this episode:

Madrona Venture Labs

@mfridgen  on Twitter

How Whitney Cubbison, tech executive, dual American-French citizen + author of the new book "Will There Be Wine?" found her way to living and working in Paris as a tech executive, to writing her first novel, while traveling to 72 countries and counting.

In this episode you will learn: 

• How Whitney fell in love with France at an early age
• Why she decided to pack up her life and move to Paris and live full-time as an expat and became a dual American-French citizen
• How she navigated a 20+ year, high-profile tech career to becoming a full-time author
• How when faced with dating after divorce,  her real-life dating disasters in Paris led to writing  the fiction novel, "Will There Be Wine?" (and a few spoilers about what parts of the story are based loosely on her own experiences)
• Why Whitney says showing up as we are at "full volume," is important
• Her epic three-month sabbatical and passion for travel that has taken her to 72 countries and counting.

We talk about Paris and Europe throughout this episode, but the big travel talk starts @ 33:45.

Sign up for emails: https://mailchi.mp/hiptravelmama/allwhowanderpodcast

Love this episode? Leave me a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and share what you liked about the episode! ❤️✈️

Follow @whitneycubbisonwrites on Instagram

Buy  "Will There Be Wine?" on Amazon in Paperback or read for free with Kindle Unlimited. 

About the Book: Will There Be Wine? 

Austen Keller was living her dream. She landed a career-defining job which moved her and her husband to Paris. Shortly thereafter, she was divorced. This wasn’t the plan. Yet there she was—pushing 40 and starting over.

A decade after she’d last been single, Austen enters the dating scene playing by a new set of rules in a different language, culture, and lingerie standards. She experiences every type of miserable first date imaginable and lives to tell the tales of Pierre the Mansplainer, Simon the Snoozer, Emile the Over-Sharer, Guillaume of the Gym Shorts, and many more. On most dates, she struggles to get past one glass of Bordeaux without wanting to bolt. Even worse, no one chases after her when she runs. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that whoever said French men were romantic deserves a swift kick in the pants.

A rewarding and high-powered career.

Fabulous female friendships.

True love.

Austen continues to ask herself: Is “having it all” too much to ask?

A genuine and tragically hilarious novel about an ex-pat woman's journey of self-discovery through a string of disastrous dates, relationships forged in a deep cultural divide, world travels, and wine. A lot of wine.

Whitney Cubbison author page. 

How Dr. Amy Mezulis, mom of two, Co-Founder and Chief Clinical Officer at Joon Care, a teletherapy service for teens and young adults and Professor of Clinical Psychology at Seattle Pacific University found her way to a career helping teens' mental health. 

In this episode you will learn:

• How Amy discovered her passion for supporting teens' mental health
• How she created a flexible schedule to raise her two girls while juggling a demanding career as a professor
• How she got her family through a heartbreaking loss
• Why a milestone trip to Africa was so important + shares their itinerary and memories from the trip
• Strategies to help your kids, teens + young adults navigate change
• How to practice self-care, be more intentional, and trust yourself to find your next step to work + life adventures

Travel talk starts @ 36:07

Sign up + request Amy's Africa Itinerary here: https://mailchi.mp/hiptravelmama/allwhowanderpodcast

I would also so appreciate it if you would leave me a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and share what you liked about the episode! ❤️✈️

Resources discussed in this episode

Joon Care, teletherapy for teens and young adults.

Dr. Amy Mezulis on Linked In

Follow her on Twitter:

@joon_care

@amymezulis

Disclaimer; This episode also discusses topics about teen mental health. If you or a member of your family needs help right away, please call 911 or visit your local emergency room. You can also call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (988), or text the Crisis Text Line (text HELLO to 741741).

How  Sophie Vander, founder + Head Curator at Curatorial + Co based in Sydney, Australia found her way to creating her own online art gallery and art consultancy specializing in exclusive, one-of-a-kind, and limited edition works by artists and designers from across the globe. 

In this episode you will learn:

• How Sophie, an Australian native, kept her foot in the art world while raising their four girls with her husband
• Learn the aha moment that sparked the idea for her Curatorial + Co today
• How Sophie + her family of six traveled around the world, living as an ex-pat in Seattle and Singapore and what she learned
• How she made her way home to open an online store + physical gallery space in Sydney.
• How her skills as a writer and storyteller helped her curate a business around her passion to make art more accessible for art lovers to discover emerging artists.

Travel talk throughout.

Did you love this episode? Leave me a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and share what you liked about the episode! ❤️✈️

Links discussed in this episode:

Curatorial + Co, a Sydney-based online art gallery + art consultancy

Now Open: 80 William St. Woolloomooloo, Sydney Art Gallery. More details in this post.

@curitorialandco on Instagram

Sophie Vander on Linked In

Sign up for emails: https://mailchi.mp/hiptravelmama/allwhowanderpodcast

Anne taps her personal and professional network of psychologists, authors, executives, chefs, winemakers, media, public figures and entrepreneurs to get advice from those who have traveled before you to help you find your way. Grab your earbuds, subscribe, and get ready to be more intentional with your time to pursue the work + life you love, and have some adventures along the way. 

More on the blog at HipTravelMama.com

Follow Anne on Instagram @hiptravelmama

Twitter @hiptravelmama

Anne Taylor Hartzell on Linked In