Inner Views
BIO
Kristie is a Navy veteran and is marked by profound personal triumphs. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Education, a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and Book Publishing, and has spent a decade teaching. She is a strategic Learning & Development professional with 17+ years of experience across military operations, education, nonprofit leadership, and book publishing. Her work centers on coaching, instructional design, course creation, and community-based education, especially for multi-ethnic and underserved populations. As the founder and director of Mask Off Publishing, a hybrid company that helps authors evolve from idea to the bookshelf, she has led 50+ book projects from manuscript to launch, trained 10+ team members, and coached dozens of first-time authors. She has designed virtual courses, led online training, and specializes in simplifying complex ideas for learners of all backgrounds. She is also the creator of innovative literacy and writing programs, including Lights, Scripts, Literacy, a performance-based ELA curriculum that strengthens reading and writing stamina through script reading, acting, and creative expression. Kristie writes for her life – but she primarily writes for the lives of others. Her work empowers women, families, and communities to tell the truth without shame, confront trauma without fear, and build legacies rooted in purpose. She is also a public and professional speaker, delivering engaging talks at health summits, faith-based conferences, school forums, and nonprofit events, particularly on organ donation and awareness. As the Influence Women Phoenix Chapter Director, Kristie is excited to connect creatives and artists in the Phoenix, AZ area and to see the culture move toward a Biblical foundation, changing what is seen on our screens. She believes that Life matters most when you take action on the matter. Whether developing authors, educating audiences, or guiding individuals toward emotional freedom, her life reflects her core conviction: Your story doesn’t define you – how you choose to tell it does.
INNER VIEW
Kathleen Cooke: What is the one thing you’d like to share with women that God has recently taught you?
Kristie Fisher: I have recently been reminded of how to remain grateful in seasons when I am both empty and full. In 2023, I lost my husband. I never imagined I would become a widow at 41 years of age. The year prior, I spent eight months – three weeks out of each month – inside a hospital over a thousand miles away from my family, especially my four children, and without employment. We were hitting rock bottom financially, yet my gratitude and peace were overflowing. When I couldn’t see how to pull grace or peace from tragedy, the Spirit of the Most High God showed up and gave me a peace that surpassed my understanding. Now, I am being cared for and loved in ways I have never thought possible.
Kathleen: You have been through many challenges. How have you confronted forgiveness when you have been wronged and emotionally hurt?
Kristie: Matthew 6:15 says, “If you don’t not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” To have the mind of Christ is to think in alignment with what the scriptures say. I must forgive others of their sins against me if I expect my Father in Heaven to forgive me, and I could only do this through the guidance of the Holy Spirit. I remember being so angry with the way my mother-in-law treated me while my husband was hospitalized for eight months, with his dad and me at his side the entire time. I was also frustrated with how the church he grew up in handled the situation. After serving in that church for almost 17 years, I couldn’t understand how they could remain so distant. They never stepped in to physically pray over him, never came to visit, and didn’t check on my children or me directly. The pastor paid for flights back and forth to the hospital, but only spoke to me once and never showed up to pray with my husband. I couldn’t believe that people who claimed to love the Most High God showed no love. Then one day, God spoke to me: Not everyone shows their love the same way. He revealed that, just like in the military, every soldier has a role, some on the frontline, some in logistics, some in support, and each shows up where they are equipped. I realized I was the soldier assigned to care for my husband. Others loved according to their capacity, even if it didn’t look like support to me. That revelation gave me forgiveness and peace. Their actions reflect who they are, not who I am. I am responsible only for my position, not theirs.
Kathleen: In our careers and in life, we must navigate relationships. What do you look for in a relationship that enriches your life and makes a difference?
Kristie: Relationships must be proven. Even when you’re not intentionally testing a friend or partner, their responses reveal who they are. Pay attention to how they show up in times of trouble, in seasons of joy and celebration, and most importantly, during moments of change.
A true friend who desires connection will remain connected, whether near or far, through the changes you experience in life. “Iron sharpens iron” (Proverbs 27:17) reflects multiple stages in a friendship. Sometimes, you are dull and need sharpening. Other times, you are already sharp but need a task, a purpose, or an opportunity to apply your edge. A real friend recognizes your potential and partners with you to pursue what will make you useful, productive, and purposeful. They do not cut you down, dull your edge, or mold you into something unproductive. They do not destroy your character or taint your reputation.
Kathleen: What has been the most transforming thing that God delivered you from, and how has it changed your life and career?
Kristie: When the Most High God, my Father, the lover of my life, saved me from lesbianism, He knew He had to transform my mind as well. I had been invited to a church that practiced holiness, and during that journey, I went through a season of purging people and places, language, and entertainment. While I was in that place of separation and cleansing, I was introduced to Joyce Meyer’s television ministry. It was 2005, over twenty years ago, when I first learned that my battle wasn’t just about changing my outward behavior. My mind was a major part of the struggle. I had to learn how to purge mentally. I purchased Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer, and from that day forward, my life changed. I began to see how the unresolved issues from my past had shaped the decisions that led me into sexual perversion, adultery, and a lifestyle of sin. Once I received healing in my mind, my thoughts began to align with Christ. That clarity allowed me to grow in my relationship with God. There is no way to truly know Him if your mindset is still being directed by trauma, unforgiveness, learned destructive behaviors, evil influences, and old memories. A mind trapped in the past will always produce choices that reflect bondage. A renewed mind, however, produces a life that reflects freedom.
Get connected with Kristie and the Influence Women Phoenix Chapter!
Email: Phoenix@influencewomen.org
Instagram: @InfluenceWomenPhoenix
Journal
I love the Muppets “Rainbow Connection” (Kermit the Frog’s song). It’s about a searching that us “dreamers” never stop doing – pursuing the dreams and visions God’s given us. Kermit’s sweet song is about a deep yearning we have all known. We were made to be with our Creator God—and were until sin separated us. So, the yearning for our Creator and finding “that rainbow connection” to be back with Him never ceases. It’s an itch that won’t stop interrupting our lives. It is only placated through God’s grace and His son, Jesus, who redeemed us, and will return for all who believe and have accepted Him.
Dreams and visions seem even more relentless for those in the creative and artistic fields.
Artistic and creative dreams drive us, consume our lives, and keep us awake at night. But what happens when our God given visions never seem to come true? Proverbs 29:18 says it best, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, But happy is the one who keeps the La (more…)
Inner Views
Bio
Megan is an Artist Manager for Long Run Media and Management. She hails from Lancaster, PA, and has been a Nashville native for almost 4 years. Along with being an artist manager in the music industry, you can catch Megan as the host of two podcasts! The This Day Podcast and the Consider the Lilies Podcast. Both encourage individuals to go and pursue all that God has called them to do! When Megan is not working, she leads a small group, spends time with her family, or plans her next trip (her goal is to see the world).
INNER VIEW
Kathleen Cooke: You are juggling lots of work in PR and marketing of musical artists – growing their careers. What’s the one thing God has been teaching you and growing you in right now?
Megan Feveryear: God has taught me so much lately about trusting His timing, believing for the impossible, and remembering He is God. Between all those truths, I have been knocked to my knees several times, reminded of who God is and who I am not. So often in the career space, I feel like I need to be the one with the death grip of control on the wheel, and if I don’t have control, then something must be wrong. But after a recent major career shift, God has been telling me to look forward to Him without looking at everyone around me. It’s such an important concept when we genuinely think about it.
We are all in a race – the race of life. Many times, people will be running faster than us. In the music industry, I continually see artists wanting to be like this person or that person because they have more followers on social media when the truth of the matter is that having followers and a platform is great, but as you go deeper with people, you find they are just people. Their 100K followers mean nothing if, underneath the surface, they are struggling with the same thing you are struggling with. It becomes up to us to determine if we will strive and strain to keep up or fix our eyes and look toward the goal of Christ in our careers.
Kathleen: What do you wish you’d learned early in your career that you now know?
Megan: Take what people say with a grain of salt. So many people want to offer you what they believe is good advice. And some advice is wise and filled with truth. But ultimately, words can hurt if not appropriately stewarded. While working in the music industry, I have had life-giving words spoken into my story, and then I have had more hurtful words spoken to me than I could have ever imagined. I have come to understand what Proverbs 18:21 says, “our tongue has the power of life and death.” It holds more power than we truly know. I wish I had learned sooner that what people say does not have power over me. I am who I am because God has called me and commissioned me to do his work, not because someone down the road called me, but because the One who created me called me. The moment you “shake the hate” of damaging words is when you truly live in the complete freedom that Christ has set apart for you. That is the lesson I wish I had grasped sooner. It is something that I am still working always to remember. When people say words that hurt you, remember that we live in a fallen world broken thousands of years ago. As believers, we must carry the light and be the difference for others to see.
Kathleen: What do you do when it seems God is silent and you can’t connect to Him?
Megan: This is a big one for me. Even as I was writing this and thinking about participating in this project, God was particularly silent. My career was at an all-time high, and I was riding the wave of getting to know everyone I could meet. It felt like I was living my best life, but in my heart, God was so far away. I have a prayer closet in my actual closet in my home. During that season, I could not even pray in that closet because I could cut the fissure in my relationship with God like a knife. I could feel it with my entire spirit. That’s when I heard a song that broke me one night, “Better” by Pat Barrett, which says, “All the money that the world could hold, God, you are better than anything.” I knew God’s silence was partly on me. So, I started doing the next right thing. I started reading a Psalm each night, journaling my prayers, asking questions of God, and taking one step after another. One night, I went back into my prayer closet, read a Psalm of David out loud, and shouted it to God – literally yelling at God and asking, “Why He was so silent.” That night, God broke me. And the silence broke. So, when God seems silent, I find it is our time to ask Him difficult questions. He wants our “whys.” He wants our questions. Bring them to Him. Yell if you must!
Kathleen: Has there been someone in your life who has influenced you and changed the direction you were going?
Megan: High school was a pivotal time for me. I was trying to decide what I wanted to do with my life before and after college. I had two significant influences in my life. My youth pastor, Darin Parry, and a Christian artist and musician friend I looked up to named Greg Ritchie. During my high school senior year, I was an intern at my small-town church. Pastor Darin was helping me navigate decision after decision. I had registered and signed on with Liberty University to become a ministry major and a youth pastor with a women’s ministry minor when Greg Ritchie entered my life. He was a good family friend, and we had started talking about the music industry. I assisted on a few tour dates selling “merch” for the Gaither Tour and found that I loved it. So, two months before I left for college, I sent a rogue email to Greg and said, “I don’t know if this makes any sense, but I feel in my spirit that God wants me to do something in the music industry, but I can’t sing. I think He wants me to do what you do.” I got zero response. We were at an event together two weeks after that email, and he pulled me aside and talked for an hour. That was Memorial Day weekend in 2017. I changed my major from ministry to marketing, all because of a guy named Greg and seeing how he loved and lived on tour. Darin has continued to be a constant influence in my corner, reminding me often that even on my darkest days, the same God who changed my major at the last minute is the same God who has BIG things in store for me and that my future is yet to come.
Journal
“She just keeps getting out!” I heard my girlfriend’s frustration in her voice as she hung up the phone with a neighbor who had rescued her new puppy. The dog had escaped through their invisible fence and kept figuring out how to get out. It made me think about the “invisible fences” in my own life.
God’s wisdom found in His Word is our invisible fence.
Cultural worldviews and enticing selfish choices seem to draw many Christians through God’s invisible fence. Are you staying within God’s foundational boundaries? Maybe it’s time to pay attention and understand who and what is egging you on and beckoning you to disregard and defy those little shock wave warnings in your spirit. Understanding the line God draws and trusting that He has His best in mind for us when he lays down those fences through the wisdom found in His Word takes a mature Christian mindset. Our mind affects our passions and heart; our heart controls our hands, feet, and what and where we go.
It takes a willingness and discipline to be obedient.
Working in media, entertainment, music, and the arts today means working in diverse and often anti-biblical territories. Remember the story of Pinocchio, the puppet who was given life and freedom as a real boy? He was exposed to new places and cultures when he received this “real boy” freedom. He saw the lights and sounds of the distant carnival and fell into its alluring trap. We have been given much freedom as Christians, but God requires us to live within His biblically based boundaries. Just like my friend’s new puppy, we can push past the invisible boundaries set up for our protection and compromise our values as we’re drawn into what the culture promises as places of happiness and contentment – even though they are illusions created by the deceiver, the devil.
We must be mindful and understand the strategic place, territory, and influence God has placed us in and also its influence on us. Those places and territories affect our careers and lives. Austrian/American management consultant Peter Drucker says, “Culture eats strategy. Who you are is more important than what you do.” A trusting, obedient follower of God knows who they are in Jesus Christ and refuses to let the culture dictate where they will go. This is essential because knowing the Master’s voice allows us to feel God’s presence – and also the boundaries of His invisible fence when we step out of the perfect place He wants us in.
God often limits us until we mature and learn to pay attention to His voice.
When we are ready to venture further into new territory and places, God opens the way for us to move forward into new territory because He can trust us. Remember, His heart is to keep us safe and close to Him. It took the Children of Israel 40 years of wandering in the desert before they were allowed to enter the Promised Land. When we trust Him, He trusts us. He then gives us new assignments and challenges and will enable us to connect with others and new projects. We have proven to Him that we are trustworthy.
The power of the Word protects and surrounds you like an electronic collar on a dog. When you step over the line, God’s Spirit gives you a buzz, giving you notice that you are heading into the wrong places. As leaders, we are called to be spiritually sensitive and mindful, paying attention when cultural and selfish curiosity tries to pull us beyond the line. Our job is to remember who we are and God’s boundaries of protection – His wisdom, laws, and precepts. When we do, joy and freedom are bountiful, and we no longer see God as limiting our freedom but expanding it. “Apart from Him, we can do nothing.” John 15:5
Are there any areas in your life where you are ignoring the alerts from God’s Spirit and venturing into compromising spaces?
Are you willing to thrive within Biblical boundaries and where God has placed you?
