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Katie Mares
Katie Mares is a master’s-educated executive coach, TEDx speaker, and #1 bestselling author of CustomHER Experience and Five Steps to a Five Star Experience. She works with corporate clients including Toyota, Celebrity Cruises, and Honda, helping leaders close the gap between strategy and execution. She is the founder of NOW Rising, a women’s coaching community, and co-founder of DriveHer, launching September 2026.
Connect with Katie here…
Stop Negotiating With Your Future Self — Katie Mares
- Contributed By: Katie Mares
Tell us a little something about your business...
I work at the intersection of executive performance, mindset, and human experience. For two decades I’ve helped organizations — from Toyota and Celebrity Cruises to automotive groups across North America — close the gap between the strategy they have and the results they’re actually getting. That gap is almost never a process problem. It’s a mindset problem. I’m also the founder of NOW Rising, a women’s coaching and community platform built on the belief that every woman deserves support at a price point that doesn’t require her to choose between growth and groceries. And I’m the co-founder of DriveHer, launching September 2026 — a platform designed to close the information gap women face when buying a car. Everything I build traces back to one core belief: you get what you tolerate. In business. In leadership. In life.
When was your lightbulb moment?
Mine came the hard way. I had to rebuild my career from zero, as a domestic abuse survivor I walked away with nothing— no outside funding, no safety net, raising children, starting over. What I discovered in that process was that the biggest obstacle wasn’t strategy or resources. It was the deal I had been making with a smaller version of myself. The moment I stopped negotiating with my future self and started becoming her, everything changed. That experience is the origin of my coaching philosophy, the reason I founded NOW Rising, and the reason I believe the comeback is the greatest credential a leader can carry.
What are your three words of advice?
The only moment you can impact your future from is this precious moment called NOW.
In every moment, you have a choice — to see your world through the eyes of fear or through the eyes of love.
When you see your world through fear — anxiety, overwhelm, self-doubt, anger, blame — your behaviors echo that fear. The choices you make keep you stuck, and you find yourself negotiating with your future self instead of becoming her.
But there is another option.
When you see your world through love — compassion, connectedness, joy, peace, ease — the ability to choose differently, for a different outcome, becomes possible.When you change the way you see things, the things you see change. When you stop negotiating with fear and start choosing love, you can make NOW non-negotiable.
Three words of advice...
Now. Is. Non-Negotiable.
Katie Mares is a master’s-educated executive coach, TEDx speaker, and #1 bestselling author of CustomHER Experience and Five Steps to a Five Star Experience. She works with corporate clients including Toyota, Celebrity Cruises, and Honda, helping leaders close the gap between strategy and execution. She is the founder of NOW Rising, a women’s coaching community, and co-founder of DriveHer, launching September 2026.
Connect with Katie here…
“May your legacy create a footprint of success for the next person who steps into your shoes”
