Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Maria Mallory. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Maria, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had started sooner?

Honestly, the timing was perfect. It felt like I needed my 20’s to really hone in on the skills I could then apply to my life and work now. I went back to graduate school to get my master’s degree in marketing, began managing social media professionally for the businesses I was working for, and was able to attend lots of travel conferences for work that gave me new perspectives and connections that built up my confidence.

From there, I realized my own potential and knew I could succeed with these “tools in my toolkit” and it felt really empowering to begin creating content with my own voice, instead of spending my precious time and energy building brands that never had my best interest at heart. Now, I can utilize my creativity for my own gain, which is so much more fulfilling.

A bonus is that I’m allowing myself to take up space in a world that shuns women for embodying their wildest, weirdest, loudest selves. I’ve stopped dimming my light in order to be more digestible.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Hey y’all, I’m Maria and I’m a content creator based in Cincinnati, Ohio!

About a year ago, I gave myself the permission I needed to use my voice and put myself on social media more on my personal page, @mariathewild. Creating content has fueled my fire to show up as a positive light in the world. It’s incredibly rewarding to know that I’m making an impact – inspiring others to go out and explore more of Cincinnati and am really putting our hidden gem of a city on the map.

I’ve always loved being an entertainer, whether it was a childhood musical performance, hula-hoop dancing in college at festivals and events, presenting to classrooms about travel, singing with my kindergarten class while teaching them English in Taiwan, or creating videos about Cincinnati and my love of travel as a means of storytelling and educating. It seems to be what I’m on this Earth to do.

I’ve also traveled to around 40 countries and I love being able to incorporate my travel tips in my content, hopefully to empower others to discover new parts of the world they may have felt too afraid to visit. As a solo female traveler, I recognize how life-changing taking that first step into the unknown can be, and how it completely flips your worldview upside-down. I’m all about embracing necessary changes in order to level up and be a better human.

My mission is to live my life as authentically as I can – a wild woman in this wild world.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Oh man I’ve pivoted so many times already and I’m only 31! I think life is about embracing the pivot and not being afraid of the changes that are necessary to your growth. One in particular was when I realized corporate life wasn’t for me. I was working for a university in my city, making $37,000 a year and couldn’t get anywhere past that point no matter how hard I tried. Higher education does NOT favor the small people doing the most at the university, and it really bothered me that I put in so much effort but the people at the top reaped all the benefits. I brought in tons more international students while working in admissions….but I didn’t get rewarded, you know?

After 2 years in that role I decided that what I was building within that structure wasn’t worth the trade-off for the rest of my career. So I quit, and by opening myself up to new possibilities, I found the next great stepping stone in my career directly after.

Life leads you in the direction you need to go, you just have to be open to moving with it.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I aim to make my local environment a better place with the work I’m doing. To me, there is still so much we can do in Cincinnati to modernize it as much as the beautiful places I’ve traveled to, like some of my favorite cities (Istanbul, Tokyo, Munich, Taipei, etc.) so being on the ground and supporting local businesses, artists, events, and attractions inevitably will help us to thrive and grow into a more inclusive and exciting place to live.

I also want to be my own boss, and have full creative control over my projects, so that will definitely be the goal moving forward. I’ve never really done well being told what to do! I prefer to walk my own path. To allow all of my past experiences to culminate into my own business or travel and tours company would feel so divinely aligned.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariathewild/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@mariathewild