Building Where You Are & Entering Unknown Opportunities with Katie Shorey

Описание: Hayden sits down with Katie Shorey—often playfully referred to as the “Queen of Maine”—for a wide-ranging conversation about leadership, place, growth, and choosing to build a life where your roots are.

Katie shares her journey from leaving Maine at 18, spending years in Washington, DC and San Francisco, and eventually “boomeranging” home after discovering Maine’s emerging entrepreneurial ecosystem. What began as volunteering at a startup conference became a decade-long chapter leading Startup Maine, culminating in a bittersweet but intentional passing of the torch.

Together, Hayden and Katie explore what it means to create opportunity instead of waiting for it, how narrative shapes a place’s future, and why belonging, ambition, and growth are deeply intertwined—both personally and collectively.

Main Topics Covered:
1. Leadership transition and passing the torch at Startup Maine
2. Leaving Maine, boomeranging back, and redefining opportunity at home
3. Building and growing Maine’s entrepreneurial and talent ecosystem
4. Demographics, migration, remote work, and the future of Maine’s workforce
5. Belonging, community, and intentional relationship-building
6. Physical challenge, flow state, and movement as grounding practices
7. Ambition, decision-making, and navigating the unknown around family and future planning

This conversation is ultimately about growth—of people, places, and possibilities. Katie Shorey’s story shows how ambition doesn’t have to mean leaving, how leadership can be an act of stewardship, and how entering the unknown often looks like trusting what you’ve already built enough to let it evolve.

Connect with Katie Shorey
LinkedIn:   / katelynshorey  

Connect with Hayden
Instagram: ⁠  / ⁠  
TikTok: ⁠  / entertheunknown1⁠  
X: ⁠https://x.com/EnterUnknown_HT⁠
YouTube: ⁠   / @entertheunknownwithht  
Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/6Bjw9Hp...


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