Episodes
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Episode 2: Beyond the Boardroom – Erik Blachford on Adventure, Change, and Resilience
In this episode, I sit down with Erik Blachford—early Expedia founder and CEO, board member, advisor and investor to talk about navigating change, taking risks, and getting outside your comfort zone.
Erik shares stories from the early days of building Expedia, his passion for building ventures and outdoor adventures, and his passion for helping leaders and the moment he got a quiet nudge to make a pivot in his career that changed everything.
One of my favorite takeaways? “Have all the plans you want—but know they’re written in sand. Don’t get upset when the tide comes in.”
If you’re in a season of uncertainty, this conversation is a reminder to stay curious, stay connected, and be patient with the process, especially in difficult times.
Erik Blachford has led companies through M&A, sat on public and venture-backed boards like Zillow, Peloton, Hipcamp and Glassdoor, and invested in startups across travel, marketplaces, and consumer tech and helps leaders, early-stage founders, think through go-to-market, scale, and staying focused under pressure.
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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The book is here! 🎉 In this special episode of All Who Wander, journalist Kavita Varma White interviews Anne to share the story behind the book launch of All Who Wander: A Guide for Finding Your Path in Seasons of Change and what it really means to choose adventure, especially when life feels uncertain.
Whether you’re starting out, starting over, or somewhere in the messy middle, this is your invitation to choose adventure over fear.
🎧 Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.
📖 Grab your copy of All Who Wander on Amazon or Barnes & Noble online.#AllWhoWanderBook #ChooseAdventure #PodcastLaunch #NewEpisode
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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Missing episodes?
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Four-time Emmy® Award-winning host Mickela Mallozzi, creator of Bare Feet with Mickela Mallozzi shares how dancing with locals around the world became a powerful way to build community, celebrate culture, and connect across borders. Season 7 of her PBS series premiered on May 1, 2025, and continues to explore the beauty of diversity, the importance of equity, and the power of inclusion through dance . You won’t want to miss this inspiring conversation.
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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Follow @reidontravel
Robert Reid on LinkedIn
In this episode #36, Robert shares insightful stories from his extensive travel career, including quirky adventures like counting mustaches in Russia and playing the clarinet in St. Lucia. The discussion dives deep into the evolution of his career, his unexpected return to Oklahoma to support family, and the how his is natural curiosity and calculated risks have led him to incredible destinations and a sense of place around the world. Robert also reflects on the lessons learned about navigating career transitions, maintaining work-life balance, and importance of pursuing creative projects. The conversation emphasizes the value of passion, the joy of travel as play, and the importance of staying open to new ideas and experiences.
02:29 Robert's Current Day Job and Life in Portland
03:45 Journey Through Robert's Career
06:56 Transition to Video and National Geographic
08:16 Return to Oklahoma and PBS Role
11:33 Navigating Career and Personal Life
16:29 Taking Calculated Risks
20:18 The Challenges of Being a Travel Writer
21:55 The Importance of Shared Experiences
22:41 Robert's Advice to His Younger Self
23:31 The Mustache Ticker Experiment
24:34 Travel as Play and Creativity
28:53 One of Robert's Favorite Travel Moments
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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Jacqueline Tanzella talks about her launch into freelance work as a brand marketer and her journey to living as an expat in Paris and Tuscany today. She shares the importance of female friendships, listening to our instincts, knowing when we are off balance, and following the "shiny things" that bring us light and joy.
Links: Jacqueline Tanzella on LinkedIn.
Pastry chef, workshops and corporate retreats. ATE THREE
@Jacqattack on Instagram.
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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Krista shares her extensive career journey, from her early days as an Internet travel analyst, to her current role supporting travel tech startups and as an advisor at Boston Venture Studio. We talk about the importance of starting any new venture is to understand what problem you are solving, the important of having a team with a shared vision, and how the pandemic changed her perspective on travel and being rooted in one place and importance of her work friendships, and community on Martha's Vineyard.
Find Krista on LinkedIn
@Kpappas on Instagram
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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Anne throws it back to a conversation with Dan Fine, her first boss! Hear how Dan navigated his way as an AD Man, to Internet trailblazer, to entrepreneur, and now retired, philanthropist and documentary producer, and the lessons he has learned along the way.
Links:
Dan Fine on LinkedIn
UWARF.org
War Tails Documentary Film link coming soon. Read about the recent screening it in the Edmonds Times
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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In this episode Anne talks with Megan Cunningham, the CEO and founder of Magnet Media, a New York City-based creative studio. Megan is an author, producer, director, and media executive and has worked at PBS, HBO, and MTV. Anne and Megan talk about the important role storytelling plays in creating a more empathetic and just world, she believes in the power of building a strong community, the challenges and joys of juggling entrepreneurship and family, and why exercise and sleep are important tools in her self-care toolkit. Cunningham emphasizes the importance of developing a diverse network of women from different backgrounds and the value of reaching out to connect during periods of change, loneliness, and transition and a recent family trip to Japan and what she loved about that trip.
Shortcuts:
04:39 Megan's Journey: from film to entrepreneurship
08:48 The role of creativity and community in personal growth
12:16 Megan's entrepreneurial journey
17:31 Balancing work, family, and self care
22:57 The Importance of community and connection
26:37 Travel Stories: Her recent trip to Japan with her family
Links:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/megancunningham/
https://www.magnetmediafilms.com
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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In 1992, Andy grabbed his bike and headed to Burgundy, France in search of riding his bike and drinking great wine, and Duvine was born. How Andy Levine, the founder and CEO of Duvine Cycling and Adventure Company, found his way from a trip from Boston to Burgundy with his bike in 1992, hitchhiking across the Swiss Alps, to creating a 30 year old business helping travelers experience, local culture while being healthy and enjoying great food and wine in stunning locations. Andy and his team design and lead luxury bike trips to the world's most amazing places.
This is Andy's Story.
Learn more about Duvine + book a trip.
Follow Duvine on Instagram
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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Chef Bobby Moore, new Chef Proprietor of Bis on Main in Bellevue, Washington talks about how he found his way in #cheflife, the importance of loving his family and friends well, and the recent leap he made to leave the legacy he built at Barking Frog at Willows Lodge, an award-winning hotel and restaurant in the heart of Woodinville Wine Country 30 minutes outside of Seattle, to own his own restaurant. Bobby shares when he knew it was time to make the big, scary leap to leave the place he built and people he loved working with for more than 20 years to fulfill his dream of owning his own restaurant and the big lessons he has learned along the way.
He and his wife Michelle also recently became empty nesters and he talks about this season of their family life, what he has learned, how his passion for creativity fuels his work, and the grit and hustle that it takes to navigate #cheflife.
Visit his restaurant Bis on Main on old Main Street in Bellevue, WA.
Bis on Main on Instagram
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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Like this podcast? I would LOVE your support! Please subscribe, leave us a review to tell me what episode you liked and why and don't forget to share this show with another podcast-loving friend!
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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How Heather Greenwood Davis found her way from growing up in Toronto to a successful career as a travel journalist, the epic year-long, round-the-world trip she took with her husband and two boys that took them to 29 countries across 6 continents, and why she believes travel is a pathway to understanding ourselves, each other, and the world around us.
Heather shares why she left her job as an attorney to pursue her passion and a successful career in travel journalismThe epic year-long trip she took with her husband and two boys that changed everythingWhy family travel is so important to her, what empty nest life is like now, and how she is building her next season of adventureThe advice she has for moms about making room for yourself and the things you are passionate aboutListen through to the end as Heather shares an exciting new project in the works!Follow Heather and her travels:
@byheathergd
https://heathergreenwooddavis.com/
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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How Jason Mesnick, former Bachelor (Season 13) found his way through the many seasons of his career to real estate. He shares why it is important to trust your gut, stay curious in every job you do, seek out wisdom from others, and keep exploring to find work you love. He also shares the life lessons he learned from his time on the show.
Jason is also a family man and tells the back story of finding the love of his life Molly on The Bachelor, their real estate business together, and how his best job is dad to his two kids Ty, who is a college freshman, and Riley who is 10.
Jason also reflects fondly on his days backpacking through Europe and his passion for travel.
This is Jason's story.
Follow Jason on Instagram
MDG Real Estate on Instagram
MDGResidential.com
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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How Traci Schneider, mom, entrepreneur, and autism support advocate found her way from Green Bay to Seattle with her husband John Schneider, the GM of the Seattle Seahawks, raising two boys and founding Ben's Fund, a non-profit that offers financial support and guidance to children and young adults in Washington state who have autism. Ben's Fund was named after their son Ben who was diagnosed with autism at age 3 and has raised $5M for families to date. Her latest venture is helping Ben launch into entrepreneurship with his new business, Small Ego Art.
Applications for families open December 2023: Learn more about Ben's Fund here.
Explore and purchase one-of-a-kind works from Ben at Small Ego Art
Key takeaways from this episode:
- Traci shares what it was like raising two boys one with autism, juggling John's intense job in the NFL as the general manager of the Seattle Seahawks, and how they prioritized intentional family time and connection with their community.
- Traci talks about their nonprofit organization, Ben's Fund, which they started in 2012 after Ben was diagnosed with autism at age 3. Ben's Fund provides financial support and a sense of community for families who have a child diagnosed with autism.
-Hear about her latest venture launching Ben into entrepreneurship with his business, Small Ego Art.
And finally, what she wants other moms to know about giving ourselves grace, patience, and to never stop being a strong advocate for your child.
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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How Kavita found her way from a small town in Oklahoma, to her role leading a team of writers and editors producing daily digital parenting content for NBC's TODAY Show website. After crisscrossing the country from Delaware to Florida to Washington state, they are now living the empty nest Midwest life in Columbus, Ohio, and Kavita has a lot of life lessons to share.
About Kavita Varma-White
Kavita Varma-White is a Senior Editor for TODAY.com, where she assists leading a team of writers and editors in creating daily digital parenting content for NBC's TODAY Show. An industry veteran for more than 25 years, Kavita has been a reporter and editor for numerous print publications, including The News Journal in Delaware, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the South Florida Business Journal, Miami Metro magazine and Seattle magazine, as well as digital sites such as Red Tricycle and MSNBC.com. She has degrees from Oberlin College and Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Kavita and her husband, Brian, have two kids ages 24 and 21. After criss-crossing the country from Delaware to Florida to Washington state, they are now living the empty nest Midwest life in Columbus, Ohio.
Follow Kavita on Instagram and X.
You can find Kavita's articles for TODAY.com here as well as at TODAY.com/parents.
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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In 2022, Richard Bangs was named one of the hundred great explorers of the last 100 years. This is the story of how Richard found his way as a river guide in the Grand Canyon, to navigating the wild rivers in Ethiopia in 1973, to co-founding Sobek Expeditions (Now MT Sobek), taking countless business leaders, actors, and prominent figures on adventures around the world. Richard is always at the forefront of what is new and next in travel and technology and he is also one of the founding executive members of Expedia, travel storytelling app Steller, author of more than 20 books, director and producer of many films and TV shows including IMAX film mystery of the Nile and the PBS television series, Richard bangs Adventures with Purpose.
MT Sobek https://www.mtsobek.com/
His new book: The Art of Living Dangerously: True Stories from a Life on the Edge (out November 7, 2023
In 1973, Richard Bangs founded Sobek Expeditions, the original and now the largest adventure travel company in the world, with over a million clients guided since its beginning. But this is not just a story of an unusual company, one that profoundly transformed the way we travel and experience the world. It presents true stories, both perilous and awe-inspiring, from the full array of adventure travel: trekking, climbing, sailing, diving, adventure cruising, kayaking, back-country skiing, mountaineering, biking, cultural immersions, canyoneering, and more. Sobek pioneered scores of adventures, from trekking in the Himalayas, to cruising the Galapagos and Antarctica, to first descents of some eighty rivers around the world. The author personally led thirty-five first river descents, capsizing on six continents (a unique, albeit dubious, distinction), and organized and led the first trips into North Korea, Libya, Yemen, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, New Guinea, Iran, and even China back in 1978. Sobek clients have included Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Mick Jagger, Barry Diller, and Daryl Hannah. It is the shadow company behind National Geographic Adventures, New York Times Active Journeys, and Smithsonian Expeditions. This book traces fifty years of adventure travel and how it has evolved through times of war and peace, terrorism, the rise of the internet, the pandemic, and the first virtual expeditions.
Stellar App: https://steller.co/
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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How Lahaina-based Robert "Bully" Kotter found his way from growing up in Hawaii to starting his surf business, offering free surf lessons to families and homeless youth during the pandemic. He and his wife Ashley narrowly escaped the fires, losing his home and business, and then dedicated himself to helping kids heal in the ocean. This is the first part of a two-part series featuring the new Uncle Bully's Surf Skool film, benefiting Maui.
In this episode you will learn:
How this powerful and important film can help with Maui’s healing and recovery.Growing up in Hawaii, how Bully started his surf lesson businessDuring the pandemic, he started offering free lessons to locals and inviting the homeless youth to come learn how to surf and do school.Bully shares how surfing is much more than a sport, but a way of life.How he and his wife Ashley narrowly escaped the firesThe important lesson he wants us to know and how we can make an impact on our local communities.What it was like making this film and the important message about moving forward, being together, and respecting what we have - each other and the ocean.The work he is doing now to help kids heal from trauma in the ocean.Links to give back to Maui:
Donate: Maui Strong Fund
Uncle Bully's Go Fund Me
https://www.gofundme.com/f/uncle-bully-and-ohanaLahaina Ohana Venmo: https://www.instagram.com/lahaina_ohana_venmo/?hl=en
For booking surf lessons or surf safaris - https://www.bullyssurfschool.com/our-services/For purchasing Bully's Ohana Surf School merchandise (including the limited edition 96761/Lahaina Built red hats and shirts - the net proceeds go directly to Lahaina families displaced by the fire) - https://www.bullyssurfschool.com/shop/
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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How Leah found her way from college in Hawaii to the sets of LOST and other films, to a full-time career producing videos and short impact films. Her latest project, Uncle Bully's Surf Skool premiered at the Hawaiian International Film Festival and aims to aid in supporting Maui's recovery.
What the role of an impact producer is, and the challenges and joys of this passion workHow a chance meeting working on a boat during college on Oahu connected her with film industry professionals and landed her a job helping out in a variety of roles on LOST, Baywatch, and other prominent movies filmed in Hawaii. We talk about her and her husband Todd's latest project - Uncle Bully's Surf Skool which premiered at the Hawaiian International Film Festival this month. How a surf lesson with Bully with friends during the pandemic put them together What it was like making this film and how after the August 8 fires, they decided to go back and reshoot the ending of the movie to help make a greater impact for these kids and Maui.
In this episode you will learn:
Links to donate:
To Maui Strong Fund: https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/strengthening/maui-strong-fund
To donate to the film and community support program: https://www.inflatablefilm.com/bullysurf/
Film Impact Initiative will include: a massive community screening tour across the US, the creation of educational materials and core-standard curriculum guides, worldwide film festival tour, promotion on airline in-flight platforms, broadcast television events with fundraisers, and more
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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How Ciaran Blumenfeld found her way as a mom of 4 and storyteller in many chapters of her career as a creative multi-prenuer, travel writer, social media marketer + tech startup founder, and now author and is now in hot pursuit to share stories and write as many books as she can.
Growing up, Ciaran's dad was one of the "Mad Men" of advertising and watching him run his own agency was the catalyst for taking her own entrepreneurial path.Her early love for writing and comedy and how she met her husband at John Hopkins University at a comedy improv troupe.Why Ciaran says it is important to do the things that we're most afraid of and that light us up and why she wishes she would have trusted herself more and dove head into her passion for being a writer sooner.She is now a published author under the pen name Ciara Blume and her first series is called the Lit Lovers Series, a 5 book romantic comedy fiction series featuring the stories of a group of friends in Washington state.She's also the co-host of the new Time to Talk Travel podcast, which will include a new travel guide and activity book series coming out soon.She talks about an epic press trip to a small island in Mexico, camping under the stars with her family, surrounded by thousands of whales during migration season.And finally, she discovered in a genealogy search that travel and exploring is actually in her genes.Learn more about Ciaran at her website: https://ciaranblumenfeld.com
Get tools to guide your next chapter: Subscribe to Anne's Choose Adventure Letter for book launch updates and free downloadable resources from All Who Wander.
Keep the Conversation Going
We’d love to hear how this podcast episode inspired you. Share your favorite quotes, moments of clarity, or what you’re choosing next. Use the hashtag #AllWhoWanderPodcast #ChooseAdventure and tag @hiptravelmama on social media so we can celebrate your journey with you. Here’s to choosing adventure together!
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