Reframing Reinvention: Choosing Adventure with Anne Taylor Hartzell
In this episode of Mom to MORE®, Sharon welcomes author, speaker, and entrepreneur Anne Taylor Hartzell. Creator of the Choose Adventure Mindset and author of All Who Wonder: A Guide to Finding Your Path in Seasons of Change, Anne shares how motherhood, empty nest life, and a quiet dorm room drop-off inspired her next chapter.
Anne opens up about leaving agency life to create flexibility for her family, learning to trust her intuition, reframing fear as curiosity, and taking small brave steps toward what’s next. She also shares her five-step Choose Adventure framework and encourages women to stop shrinking and start building lives with fewer regrets and more adventure.
Tune in for an inspiring conversation about motherhood, midlife, creativity, courage, and reframing that devil on our shoulder we call fear into curiosity.
[00:00] Introduction
[03:07] Leaving Agency Life to Create More Flexibility for Family
[05:41] The Reinvention Skills Motherhood Quietly Teaches You
[08:21] The Empty Nest Moment That Sparked Anne’s Next Chapter
[13:07] The Real Cost of Playing It Safe in Midlife
[15:02] Midlife Choices of Shrinking Back or Choosing Growth
[16:11] Injury, Stillness & Finally Beginning the Book
[18:52] Reframing Fear as Curiosity During Seasons of Change
[21:11] Anne’s Five-Step Choose Adventure Framework
[24:25] Why You Don’t Need to Feel Ready to Start Something New
[29:20] Creating Community, Connection & Support for Women in Midlife
Meet my guest, Anne Taylor Hartzell:
Read Anne’s book:All Who Wander: A Guide To Finding Your Path In Seasons Of Change.
Podcast: All Who Wander on Spotify, Apple or wherever you listen in.
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/hiptravelmama
Website:https://www.annetaylorhartzell.com/
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Want to interview Sharon? Connect here.
Inspired to start on your next chapter? Book a free 15 minute mentorship call here.
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Keep an eye out for episode #63 of the Mom to MORE® podcast where Sharon is joined by Kristin Price Hocker & Meghan Caponiti, Co-hosts of Finding Fabulous podcast and we dive into the process of their dual reinvention. Coming soon - you won’t want to miss it ♥
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Sharon Macey (01:00)
Welcome back to new episode of Mom to More. Have you ever come across something that was created with another purpose in mind, but realized it spoke so deeply to your soul because it's really a blueprint for reinvention? That is exactly what happened to me when I read my next guest book.
It's a bundle of inspiration all rolled up into a life masterclass on navigating seasons of change. Anne Taylor Hartzell is an author, speaker, and creator of the Choose Adventure Mindset, a five-step framework at the heart of her book, All Who Wonder, A Guide to Finding Your Path in Seasons of Change. More than 20 years ago, she left agency life to launch her own integrated marketing firm, creating the flexibility her family needed
While advising tech startups and global brands like Microsoft, SAP, Disney, Expedia, and Alaska Airlines, she also built her personal brand, Hip Travel Mama, to explore the world with her family. Her work has been featured in Travel and Leisure, local broadcast media, and on The Today Show. But of all the roles she's held, being a mom is her greatest when a quiet dorm room drop off marked the beginning of her own next chapter.
leading to her podcast, All Who Wonder, her book, and now her speaking work, where she encourages women to choose adventure over fear as they step into their what's next. Well, welcome Anne. I am so thrilled you're joining me today.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (02:32)
Hi, Sharon. Thank you so much for having me. Gosh, to hear you talk about how the book impacted you, like this is why we do the work we do, right? I'm very grateful for that. Thanks for having me.
Sharon Macey (02:39)
Exactly, exactly. And
we're gonna totally dive into that, because it was really eye-opening for me. Let's leave it at that. All right, I always like to start with your motherhood story. So how many kids do you have and where did you raise them?
Anne Taylor Hartzell (02:43)
you
I have two daughters and we raised them in the Pacific Northwest in Seattle. So, yep, that is where we started and, you know, we're having new adventures from here on out.
Sharon Macey (03:06)
I
love that. All right, so what did your personal mom journey look like? know, was stepping away from traditional agency life to be more present with your girls, was that intentional or did it evolve over time? Because you kind of were
essentially a hybrid mom before it had a name.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (03:24)
Yes, yeah, I didn't really know what that was. It's like fractional, I don't know, fractional worker. don't know what's popular now with like fractional CMO. I knew is that I worked for a big agency in technology, both my husband and I are in technology. I worked for a big agency in my early 20s and then my husband was in an investment bank and we were working very long hours. And we knew that to be the type of parents we wanted in the family hands on.
We just couldn't, you know, both be working full time. And so I decided to lead the agency life and start my freelance business about a year before our first daughter was born. And I basically kind of scaled up and down as family life demanded.
I took about nine months off with my daughter, my first daughter, and enjoyed that time, you know, pushing her around the lake in the stroller and learning how to be a new mom.
And then I joined boards while I was kind of, you know, waiting to take project work. So I literally would bring my little bassinet thing to the American marketing association meetings where I volunteered, right? Just to kind of keep my, my feet in it, but not have huge commitments in terms of timelines. And then over the years, my second daughter was born. She was preemie. And I talked about that in the book. And so it really required me to take a good amount of time off to, you know, nurture her and grow her and, and all the.
complications that come with having a preemie. And then kind of going in and out of different projects really is how I sort of juggled mom life. And then when I had worked for one company that was in the travel space,
it was when blogging were first taking off and we were whiteboarding all these personas. Cause I was really enjoying talking about, you know, how much does it cost to fly for a family of four for spring break. And I was doing a lot of that work with my client. And then I,
One of the names on the whiteboard was Hip Travel Mama. We'll talk a little bit about that later. But I filed that website, I registered it, and then shortly after I had my second daughter. And so I kind of sat on that for a little bit. But I've sort of weaved in and out of projects based on the amount of time that I had to be busy for every ⁓ season of family life. As you know, it changes throughout the years.
Sharon Macey (05:31)
Right,
just when you think you have everything set and everything is like a well oiled machine, it will change. Yeah.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (05:37)
Absolutely. There's
only one certainty and that is change.
Sharon Macey (05:41)
Yeah, remember that folks. Yeah, that's
so true. That's so true. Okay, so you are all about choosing adventure and stepping into new seasons. And as a mom, what skills did motherhood quietly or maybe not so quietly build in you that became essential to your own reinvention
skills that no corporate job could have taught you.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (06:04)
Well, I love this because I've listened to a few of your different episodes and a lot of the moms are saying the same thing, right? Patience is one that is for sure. We learn as parents because things don't go perfectly and you just have to have patience and wait. But I would say for me, as I'm looking back at my mom's journey, trusting my intuition, I think ⁓ early on as a 20 year old, we're always kind of looking to other people like, ⁓ is this the right decision I'm making or...
⁓ What are those things
I should be doing? What are other people doing? And I think being a mom really helped me tap into that intuition. We know, right? When our kids get a fever, what do you do? You put your lips to their forehead and do they have a fever? Like you don't need a thermometer or things that are happening. Yep. ⁓ I'm always like, yep, you got a fever.
Sharon Macey (06:46)
Mm-hmm.
Right. Use the inside of your wrist or your, yeah, yeah.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (06:56)
But the intuition that we have as moms, as we nurture these humans, ⁓ I think that has taught me a lot in this next chapter
following that and paying attention to it and trusting it. And I would also say flexibility and staying curious. And I talk a lot about this in the book. There is no map to be a mom. And we definitely are trying to figure it out as we go along. So it requires us to be flexible. You know, when we're when they're younger, we don't know their sleep patterns.
When they're teenagers, they make plans with friends and they change 10 times before they actually head out the door. So moms, you know what I'm talking about. ⁓ But really like being flexible and then staying curious and learning as much as you can because there isn't a guidebook to raising great humans. And you got to stay curious and learn as much as you can and learn from them and learn from others and like kind of chart your own course. So those are, I would say my biggest mom skills that I've learned.
Sharon Macey (07:52)
I've always thought that while they are growing up, I am also growing. And so I'm learning new things right alongside my children. So taking that advice to heart and really growing alongside them.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (07:55)
Thanks
Mm Yeah, our life doesn't stop when we have kids like we are growing as humans too. I can't believe if I look back at the growth over the last 20 years of have grown more into myself, which was a big surprise, I think for me.
Sharon Macey (08:21)
Yeah, that was a great thought. Thank you for that. Hey, Anne, we are going to take a quick break. And when we return, we are taking off for our next adventure with your book. So folks, don't go away.
Welcome back to my conversation with Anne Taylor Hartzell. OK, your book. Wow, a lightning bolt for me. And it wasn't just about travel and choosing adventure. For me, it was a roadmap.
for creating your next chapter. So I thank you for that.
Oftentimes when I read a book that my guest has written, I will, you know, sort of skim through it and, you know, get the idea of the book. But I started reading your book and I just kept reading it.
And I couldn't put it down. thought, OK, I'm just read every single chapter. So thank you for that. of the things I got out of your book was the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tse wrote, quote, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. What was that first real step that led you to write this book? Was it a decisive moment or just a natural evolution of your choose adventure mindset?
Anne Taylor Hartzell (10:53)
there's so much in there. Yes, it does begin with a single step. And I would say I'd had many steps in a direction of writing a book over the last 10 years when I was in the thick of parenting. And every step sort of felt like it wasn't going like I'd step and take the next step. And I was like, this isn't fitting. But I think my biggest aha moment starting the book was the dorm room dorm moment. And I talk about this.
where we dropped off our older daughter at college. I, you know, spent a whole career trying to soak up 18 summers, right, of travel adventures. And I realized this dorm room door is the start to her new adventure, but also as our family. And so I started thinking about what I want to do next. And we had started sort of the journey a year or two before that. And I talk about some personal adventures we'd had to take some, some leaps in the book. And we can talk about that a little bit later.
But really, what do I want to do with the next chapter of my career and my business? And I just started having conversations I decided and I, you know, go all or nothing. So I started having conversations with people in my personal and professional network. And that became the podcast, All Who Wander.
I decided I would do about, you know, 30 episodes and to see what common themes show up. And you know, as a writer, I am a communications person and I look for
common themes and right, you look for common patterns and behaviors and things like that to be able to create a story. And I realized there were some very common themes in what the folks that I was interviewing. And so that became the choose adventure mindset and the book. And I include some of those stories. I have 22 of those stories from the podcast in the book, because it's not just about my journey. It's about each person's journey and how they sort of chose adventure, what was right for them.
Sharon Macey (12:39)
And also choosing adventure,
It's so personal, right? It can be travel, but it could be something else within travel. I think the whole idea of choosing adventure, it's wide open. And I love sort of that umbrella that you write under. For moms listening to this,
what is the real cost?
of playing it safe, especially in the seasons of transition in our life.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (13:07)
that's so hard because a lot of us are thick in the transition right now. We're either launching kids or caring for aging parents, maybe navigating a divorce or some sort of big life change, a big move, a big job change, downsizing. I'd say the biggest cost is having regret. I think for me, it was a life of no regret. And I wouldn't say no regrets because we always have regrets. I don't want to say it's perfect, but
Sharon Macey (13:11)
Yes.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (13:33)
to think is there something that I wish I would have done that I didn't? Nicole in the book, she's a founder of Flightographer and it's a business that you can go anywhere in the world and she has photographers all around the world where can take pictures. You don't have to do selfies, right? When you're out traveling, she will bring a photographer to you. She talks about in her story, founding Flightographer, she asked herself the question, what would my 85 year old self?
want me to do in this moment. that really struck with me because right when we get to the end of our life, it's the things that we don't do, or the people we don't spend time with, that mean the most, that are most important to us. It's not, you know, not acquiring the best car, the best house, or having the fanciest label on our purse. It's really about those experiences we have with others and how we love each other.
That is what it's all about in choosing adventure is to really tap into those things that we know that we don't want to live with a life of regret.
Sharon Macey (14:34)
And I appreciate that if you are deep into...
a transitional period and again aging parents, younger kids. I think it's really more for the women who are kind of going, all right, I'm now looking at empty nest them and wondering, you know, what they're going to do themselves. So thank you for that. And you're right. I think you don't want to get to the end of your life and wonder, gee, I wonder what if I had tried fill in the blank. So that really resonates with me.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (15:02)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, absolutely.
And I think, you know, if we want to speak specifically to the midlife chapter, I see two ways of sort of, it's a choice, right? We choose, we could choose to shrink or we could choose to rise. And I see both happen where we get to midlife, you know, our friends start coming off because they were maybe our kids' friends, and then we have smaller circles and maybe we're spending more time at home. And then maybe we're like kind of comfortable at home, but we're not like reaching out and making connections with others.
Sharon Macey (15:10)
Thank
Anne Taylor Hartzell (15:34)
Or you choose to get out there and try a new sport or learn to dance like you had, you know, spend more time dancing and doing that thing. They say, you know, in the blue zones, they talk about building community and choosing to be around others and staying active is really how we live a long and healthy life. And there's a lot of science around that as well. So.
Sharon Macey (15:53)
Right, really good point. Thank you for that.
Okay, before you could teach others to choose a venture and trust themselves in that process, you, Anne, had to live it. So what obstacles or setbacks tested your resolve and how did you move through those?
Anne Taylor Hartzell (16:11)
gosh, I could unpack so many. ⁓ I mean, how long, how long do we have? I remember right before I started writing the book, I'd had many drafts of it. And then the year before we made our second move, I tripped on the stairs carrying laundry and I injured my foot. And so this is a, I promise this is going somewhere, but I am a very active person. And so it was very hard for me to.
Sharon Macey (16:14)
So many challenges, I know.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (16:37)
be able to sit still and rest. was in a boot for almost a year
But my point is that it forced me to finally sit on the couch. And I remember the day it was kind of a sunny day in Seattle and the sun was coming through. And that's a big deal. If you live in the Pacific Northwest, you live for those sunny days. and I opened up my laptop and I pulled out some of my old notes and I had written an introduction for the book. Actually, I'd had a title idea, all who wander, but over the years I just.
couldn't land on what that is or what that message, but I got a strong nudge. It's time. It's time to start writing this book because you will regret it if you don't. And now is the time. And so I started writing that day and I would say, you know, the setback of having a physical injury that forced you to be a little immobile when you're normally very active person and you're constantly on the go. It forced me to do that. And I would say for us personally, as a family, COVID was really a big changer for us. talk about in the book.
we were doing one of our, you know, walks during COVID and trying to clear our head and figure out, and Seattle was one of the first, you know, places to shut down and the last to open up. And so it was a really hard season. My husband and I were walking this and this path, and we were talking about how we wanted to have one lake life adventure before our older daughter headed off to college. But we couldn't like, well, we just can't afford it. Why would we move? We have so much equity in our house. Like we listed off all the reasons why it couldn't work.
Sharon Macey (17:54)
Thank
Anne Taylor Hartzell (17:55)
And I think this is what a lot of people do when they think about should I choose adventure. And I said, and I remember we walked across this like wet bridge and I turned to my husband and I said, why not us? Why can't we figure out a way to make it work? Maybe what we do is we sell the house and we lease for a year or two and have a lake life adventure.
about a year later, we ended up finding a house on the lake. sold our house of 17 years. It was the hardest thing I've ever done. The other house we raised our babies, but that set us on a path.
for choosing adventure. And I think there are those obstacles in the way, but being curious and staying curious and figuring out what is that next step really can help you find your way to what's next.
Sharon Macey (18:34)
That is awesome advice. Thank you for that.
what really struck me is what you said about allowing yourself that quiet to move forward.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (18:40)
Mm-hmm.
Sharon Macey (18:42)
with your book and it took an injury that said no you're not going to do your normal active self that was impetus for you to kind of say all right i'm going to jump into that
Anne Taylor Hartzell (18:43)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Sharon Macey (18:52)
so speaking of your book chapter five stopped me in my tracks it was just brilliant you are reframing fear as curiosity and that felt both practical and profound at the same time when fear shows up the what if this doesn't work fear right
to curiosity create a safer entry point into change?
Anne Taylor Hartzell (19:17)
writing this book, I think a lot of us, when we start something new, we have imposter syndrome. Like, ⁓ what do I know about what I'm doing here? Who am I to write a book? Who am I to host a podcast? There's so many podcasts out there. Who's ever going to listen to it, right? And I think getting past that imposter, that's a fear, right? That's a real fear. And I think it prevents us, right?
Sharon Macey (19:38)
Oh my God, yeah. I
had that as well. It's like, are people gonna listen? Do people care what I have to say?
100 % I know where you're coming from.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (19:45)
Yeah.
So there is a couple of books I've read and I'm, you I'm a creative person and so are you. And so the artist way by Julia Cameron was really ⁓ something that was meaningful for me before I started writing. But she talks about morning pages and just opening up your laptop or your journal in the morning and just writing whatever free flows to you. And that was really sort of the unlocking for me to start the book plus the injury to my foot. But I think that we have so much fear around the creative things that we produce because it is a vision of us, right? It's a reflection of us.
Sharon Macey (20:13)
Mm-hmm.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (20:15)
And
just like an actor or a producer or people who are putting movies out into the world, when we're creating a podcast, we're creating a book, we're creating what's next. It really is a creative process. And a lot of times it comes through us, right? It's not of us. It's like through us. And I feel like those are those quiet nudges we talked about. And so not having that imposter syndrome to sort of lean in and trust in the process that the right people and the right moments are going to show up when you're paying attention and you're taking that next step, like right now in the book.
I'm in the trust and momentum phase. So I've reframed fear as curiosity and I'm continuing to stay curious, but there's moments when I have fear. I'm like, am I really making progress? Right? And I have to keep trusting that there is a higher plan and a higher process to move through that imposter syndrome and reframe the fear as curiosity. What can I learn next? Who can I connect with next? And how do I build a crew to support me in my next chapter?
Sharon Macey (21:10)
Right, I love that. And so that leads me into walking us through your five-step framework at like a high level, beginning with create space for that nudge. And why is that first step so foundational?
Anne Taylor Hartzell (21:22)
Because I think we cannot listen to what's next for us because we think whatever everybody else is doing is not for us, it's for them. What's for us is what we're called to do. And that might look completely different than someone else. And so getting quiet, listening to that nest, there's so much noise. We're scrolling social media, we're comparing ourselves to others, we're listening to the news. The world is feeling a bit upside down right now. It's hard to tap into those inner nudges if we're not staying quiet. So that's the first. And then I can walk you through the other four steps as
there's five steps and I'm going to be including those
in this upcoming seasons of the all the wonder podcast, but there's five of them. once you've been quiet and listen to the nudge and you start to hear those voices, maybe it takes a little while. You're going to lean into your core values and figure out what are my top five core values? What are the things that drive me? They're important. So for me, two examples are.
family and adventure. Okay, those are two of my core values. So a lot of the things that I'm doing next are really focused on does this look like for our next chapter of our family and what adventures do I want to take next and what does that mean? And then reframing fear is curiosity, which we talked about is the third step. And that's all about
feeling the fear and doing it anyway.
I laugh because it's so cliche, but it is really true. I've always kind of been a high-wired anxiety person, and that has driven me a lot in my life, but it also ⁓ can get in the way, right? So I try to remind myself to choose adventure over fear. And then trust and momentum, I told you that's the fourth step in the five-step framework, which is building momentum. And that's where I'm at right now with the book. It's building momentum. You're building momentum. You're probably in this phase with mom to more.
You've laid the foundation, you've put yourself out there, and now you're just continuing to build the muscle. And anybody you know that has been successful or talks about their path to success, it's just not giving up in this phase. think that's because we don't know how long it'll last, right? And then finally, adventure crew. think the one thing that we think we can do, especially as highly capable moms who figure it out, is that we can do it alone and we can't. And I think finding other women who are on the same journey and
Sharon Macey (23:09)
Right.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (23:25)
want to lift you up ⁓ and support you is about building your adventure crew. So those are the five steps. And I've used it to write the book and to make some big changes in our personal life and choosing adventure.
Sharon Macey (23:32)
Mm-hmm.
So interesting. And then they make logical sense, you know, as you go from one place to another. And folks, I would recommend if
any of this is sparking something in you, absolutely get the book. All that information is going to be in the show notes because it is really an eye-opening read. And I feel like so much of it, you feel like you know, but it's phrased in such a way that you're like, ⁓ I got it. So that was really powerful.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (23:58)
Yeah.
you. Yeah, thank you. And I wanted this to not be another self-help book. I want it to be a guidebook. So choose your own adventure, right? The idea is that you can choose where you're at in that path and figure it out from there.
Sharon Macey (24:06)
Right. Right.
And
it's like a workbook too. I found myself filling out the blank lines as answering the questions. So there is a great quote in your book that really spoke to me. And it says, quote, if you're afraid to do it, do it now. The things we fear the most are often the things we're meant to do. I love that. What advice would you give a mom who feels called to something more, but hasn't yet prepared her runway for takeoff, to use our travel analogy.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (24:25)
Thank
Yeah.
I love all the travel themes. This is good. So that actually came from a discussion with Sharon, who's in the book. She's now an author, but we knew each other when she was doing mom blogging back in the early 2000s. And ⁓ it really resonated with me and she helped me a lot on the way in terms of learning how to like write the book and publishing and the whole process. And I would say I hear from a lot of women when I'm at book tour events that they are like, and I love the idea of choosing adventure. I just don't even know where to start.
And I would say just begin, ⁓ because not beginning is you feel that heaviness, right? That feeling lost when you're not taking action. So I would say just take that first next step and the next step and the next step. It's like exercise or learning a new skill.
once the momentum starts building, then you will see another path and then you'll see synchronicities that happen. People show up and like opportunities create themselves. They're like, I...
someone calls with a job opportunity, or you have someone that ⁓ could help you on your next path, you were stuck on something creatively. So I think just keep taking that next step in order to move through that fear and do it anyway.
Sharon Macey (25:50)
Right, and the thing that really struck me about this
especially about the taking those first baby steps is something that I talk about is that you are never going to feel fully ready, right? You're never gonna wake up one day and go, I am here. And it doesn't work that way. It's those tiny little baby
Anne Taylor Hartzell (26:02)
Mm-mm. Mm-mm.
Sharon Macey (26:09)
that build the momentum and help build the clarity. And also the beauty of taking a baby step is if it's not
the way you thought it was going to be or it doesn't seem to resonate with you, you haven't invested that much of your soul, of your time, of your money, of your bandwidth, you can pivot to another direction. But I think starting small is essential to any next chapter in life, to any adventure in life, because the next chapter is an
Anne Taylor Hartzell (26:27)
Mm-hmm.
you notice too, like there's a lot of dead ends. think that I've stopped being afraid of like hitting a dead end. just try to get there quicker and not being afraid to fail. Like I think
being afraid to fail was something I was really nervous about in this chat and with the book. But I thought if I could help one person, you've talked about this with your podcast, I have to stay focused on that. Not the numbers, not going viral, not any of that stuff. Like that doesn't matter.
It's for me. think they always say the author or the musician or the actor, they create the thing that they wish they had or what they need at the time. ⁓ And so I have to remind myself that what I'm building is for me, but it's also for others and that there's no measure of success other than me keep taking that next step. And if I hit a dead end, I hit a dead end, but I just try to get there quicker. And we know as moms, we're very efficient with our time.
Sharon Macey (27:29)
Yes, we are.
Yes, we are.
I just thought of another reframe. I'll call it the failure reframe, because so many people go, I failed at something. I like to look at it as it didn't work out the way I thought it was going to, but I learned something in that process. So even if you, I'll put this in air quotes for listeners, know, failed, not really a failure, you are just discovering something that may not.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (27:33)
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah.
Sharon Macey (27:56)
be working for you, but you have learned something about yourself in that process.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (28:00)
Yeah, and I want to share too, like I talk about this in the book, but when I started the blog, Hip Travel Mama, things were taking off. My girls were young. I love that work so much, but it became over a series of time. This was before influencers were the thing. It became a slippery slope of like trying to get likes and followers so that brands would qualify you for opportunities. And I at home, like my girls were really needing me and I was working late at night and I wasn't practicing good self care. And I still had a
part time
business I was trying to produce income for the lifestyle that we're at. So what looks shiny on the outside, you know, if you're chasing the wrong things and outside your values, you know it quickly, you can feel it in your gut. And so,
don't be afraid to take that next step, but also call it when you know this isn't in line with my values anymore. And this isn't a failure if I quit, it's a failure if I don't quit.
and I don't pivot and maybe file it away for what I learned. Because I was able to pick those things back up and carry them into this next chapter here that I would have never had. But it took a while, right? It might not happen right away.
Sharon Macey (29:03)
nothing happens right away. It is always a sequence of events. It could take,
months, years. It doesn't happen, but it will then ultimately evolve into what it should be for that. So you are indeed a hip travel mama. That is for sure. Yeah. Yeah.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (29:17)
Yeah. Do try.
Sharon Macey (29:20)
right. So since this is the Mom2More podcast, what is next for you looking at your own thousand mile journey? What step feels like your more?
Anne Taylor Hartzell (29:32)
Oh, yes. Well, I had to write it down here because I feel like this is a very, this is a very important question because you ask every guest more is really about creating a movement and choosing adventure, especially for women in midlife. I have such a heart for this time. It's so hard. And I feel like we try so hard to
Sharon Macey (29:34)
Ha
Anne Taylor Hartzell (29:55)
You say, I'm fine, I'm fine. I'm just so busy. And we kind of put it all together and we got it all together. But this season of life is a challenging one. And so my more is to invite more women to choose adventure over fear. And
getting out and speaking and connecting and collaborating with smart women like you to be able to share that message and to pull together experiences and communities where women can support each other more because
boy, the world certainly needs more moms right now because we can change the world. Because we have this nurturing just keep thinking about what has been my mom's superpower. It's been learning how to nurture and I nurtured two amazing future female leaders and now I have time to nurture myself and also bring that nurturing to other women. So that's my more, nurturing more.
Sharon Macey (30:25)
Yes.
I love that.
I love that. And also I'll point out, it's okay not to be okay, right? As women, we should be able to say, I'm in a tough situation right now or a tough season or whatever. And that we should have that ability to be brutally honest and putting our heart on the line, putting ourselves out there, because that's also when we can receive support from people in our lives that we love and that care for us.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (31:14)
Yeah. And I think that moms
we're really hard on ourselves, but we're exceptionally hard on each other. And so I think my circles have gotten to be rather small as I'm rebuilding because I want those women in my corner who will lift me up. There's a, something I put on my daughter's wall when they were doing homeschool, you know, for COVID and it said, don't shrink yourself to make others feel comfortable. And I think we need to find more moms that will lift us up and support us. And we do feel like we're in rooms with other women that say,
It's okay to not be okay, but let's choose adventure together.
Sharon Macey (31:46)
Yes. ⁓ and on that note, brilliant ending. Thank you, Anne. Where can people find you and your book online? And folks, everything is going to be in the show notes.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (31:51)
you
Great, okay, so you can find the book on Amazon or barnsandnoble.com. It's All Who Wonder, a guide to navigating your seasons of change. And if you just put my name and All Who Wonder, it'll pop right up. My podcast is All Who Wonder on anywhere you listen to podcasts. And you can find me at anntaylorhartsell.com. And on social media with my hip travel mama handle, you can find me anywhere where you'll see some of our previous adventures and my next new chapter.
And I've left it all on there because everybody needs to see the evolution of where you start and what the next chapter is.
Sharon Macey (32:30)
Fantastic. ⁓ what an inspiring conversation. Thank you for your book. Thank you for your podcast. Thank you for your wisdom. Thank you for showing other women how to forgo fear, choose curiosity, choose adventure. It all just makes so much rational sense.
And at least for me in my heart, it just makes so much like internal sense. So thank you for all of that wisdom. It's an incredible read. Your podcast is so fun to listen to and inspiring. And I thank you for your time today. It's been really terrific talking to you.
Anne Taylor Hartzell (33:08)
Thank you, Sharon. Great to be here.