We recently connected with Katie Marie and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Katie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I hope the legacy I am building and what people might say about me after I am gone is that I chose to follow my dreams and live by what I share with others. I hope I am remembered for my positive outlook and courage to try new things. I wish to inspire other women, especially mothers, to get out of their comfort zones in order to grow. I truly believe that if you aren’t willing to take a chance on yourself because of fear, that you will have regrets thinking about the “what if’s.” I am proud of myself for pursuing a writing career that I am passionate about. Asking myself the question of why not has led to other opportunities that I could have never have imagined. With any luck, I’ll inspire others to pursue their passions as well. I’ll be remembered as a mom that said, “why not me?” Motherhood doesn’t have to be the end of a chapter. In fact, it can be the beautiful beginning to the most interesting and exciting chapter yet.

Katie, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I have always enjoyed the power of words. The power to elicit emotion within the reader by linking them together in a certain way. Like an elegant dance, there is beauty in how a sentence is arranged. But it was always just that, something I enjoyed. Writing was an elective for me, a passion, but never a career choice. If I am honest, it was a lack of confidence in my writing ability when I was younger that put me on a different path, but creativity has always come through no matter what I was doing. Once I graduated college, I purchased an event decorating business that I successfully owned and operated for six years. After getting married and deciding to start a family I sold the business to focus my attention on being a stay at home mom. I realized fairly quickly that although I loved motherhood, I missed having a creative outlet of my own. That’s when I started writing down my ideas for children’s stories. After reading so many children’s books to my son, I thought to myself, maybe I could write a series. I sat with the story ideas until after my daughter was born. At that point, I decided that in order to be the best version of myself for my children, I needed to follow my passion. A lot of times as parents, we tell our kids that they can be whatever they want if they work hard and keep trying…but what about us? I wanted to prove to my kids that no matter what age you are, you can and should work towards you goals because they are attainable. I wanted to prove to myself that I can be a great mother and live a life of intention and purpose while also reaching for my dreams. I started to ask myself why not and instead of letting the fear of failure or lack of confidence get in my way, I started taking tiny steps to self publish the series I had created.

T-Rex and Tuck Explore the Zoo was my debut children’s picture book. Writing children’s books was my catalyst for turning my passion for writing into a career. T-Rex and Tuck Explore Outer Space was my second book and I am currently working with the illustrator on book three, T-Rex and Tuck Explore the Kitchen. Shortly after publishing my first book I created my weekly blog that you can find on my website at www.authorkatiemarie.com. It is a weekly blog post sent to my subscribers every Friday about parenting, relationships as we age, books I’ve recently read, as well as updates on the latest book projects. I have found that this blog fills my cup and inspires others to find joy in the simple moments. That’s my goal in all of this, my why if you will, that I can inspire other people to follow their passion and just try. I hope to inspire children to read and leave a lasting positive impact. Which is why I end every in-person story time and book reading with my positive affirmations cheer. The kids repeat after me with actions and words, “I am brave. I am strong. I am smart. I am kind.” If I can be the spark for one child to believe in themselves or inspire one mom through my blog to let go of the guilt from not being perfect and realizing they are enough and capable of extraordinary things, than I will have succeeded.

My most recent and exciting endeavor has been the podcast I am co-hosting with my long time friend, Katie. Together we have created “Dittos in the Back.” A podcast that creates a space for women to escape, relate, and share. We cover a wide range of topics–everything from self-care, setting boundaries within adult friendships, and travel tips, to infertility and relationships. We bring two different perspectives to these topics which has been intriguing to explore. I am a married mother of two starting a writing career in my thirties and she has been successfully climbing the corporate ladder since she graduated. The most exciting aspect of this for me is the fact we are both stepping outside of our comfort zones and past the fear of what people might think in order to try things most people aren’t willing to. In order to evolve and grow, you have to be willing to try new things no matter how loud the thoughts of imposter syndrome might be.

I am most proud of my commitment to myself to keep showing up. The fact that I am able to say I have two self-published books (with more to come), a blog I have consistently written and published every week for almost two years and now a podcast is something I am truly grateful for. I hope people witness my dedication in the realm of personal development and realize how much passion I have for everything I am currently working on. You can follow my journey through all of it @authorkatiemarie as well as @dittospodcast. As I remind myself every day when I write in my gratitude journal, this is just the beginning.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Social media isn’t something I have ever thoroughly enjoyed and to be quite honest, if I didn’t have to maintain it for growing a business, I would take a break from it. However, it is absolutely necessary for growing your brand. My social media presence for my author business was start-from-scratch labor of love. I read multiple articles pertaining to branding as a children’s author. I searched for top tips as far as content creation strategies. What I will say is that I posted every day and continued doing so and slowly the followers showed up. I also realized that reels do well for me, so I tried to post more of those when I could. I lucked out because I had a reel go viral and the followers really grew from that point. The problem I run into is trying to be fully present with my family and still having the obligation of posting to social media platforms. My advice would be not to take on more than you can handle. Choose a couple to start with and do those well and then if you are able to expand, go for it. I focus my attention on Instagram and Facebook. I plan my social media based on what I have coming up in the month so that my posts can coordinate with events or releases. I try to stay a month ahead or close to it for most of my posts. My biggest piece of advice is to try to stay true to who you are and build a type of relationship with your followers so they feel like they know you. They want to know you before they decide to purchase something from you.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

I am constantly reading in order to broaden my knowledge and potential, but there are two books that I would recommend to absolutely anyone no matter what area of business you are in. At the time when I was trying to build up the courage to take the first step into my writing career, I read two books that completely changed the game for me, The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson and Atomic Habits by James Clear. I loved the idea of creating systems that work for you and taking little steps each day toward your goals. There are so many great takeaways from these books not only in business but daily life and routines as well.

Some of the other books that I have read during this transformative time of professional and personal development that I would recommend include:

The Power of One More by Ed Mylett
The One Thing by Gary Keller
Perfectly Yourself by Matthew Kelly

Contact Info:

• Website: www.authorkatiemarie.com
• Instagram: @authorkatiemarie
• Facebook: @authorkatiemarie
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/authorkatiemarie
• Youtube: @authorkatiemarie
• Other: @dittospodcast on Instagram and Facebook www.dittospodcast.com

Image Credits
Gold + Grain Photography