03 Dec Creator Spotlight: Katrina Tioseco

The goal of creator spotlight is to showcase creators that inspire me and that I want to share their stories with you. The concept is simple, I will cover 3 aspects of their life which are: Grind, Eat and Travel!

About Katrina Tioseco, Creative Designer

Katrina and I have an interesting story. If you follow me on my Instagram, you probably saw her and I also mentioned her previously in my blog since we operate Le Brunch Squad together. I met Katrina two years ago, she had won a gift card for Boustan on MTLPromos and after a quick conversation, we decided to follow each other. From there, she messaged me about a post I shared where I was looking for people to help me out with my endeavors. A few days later, we met at L’Oeufrier DDO for our first collaboration together. Working alongside Katrina for the past two years thought me a lot, she is genuine, a go-getter with a great attention to details! She’s a great photographer as well and her Instagram feed is one of the best feed I follow!

Now, let’s fast forward to two years later, here we are again at l’Oeufrier for another collaboration but this time, I am interviewing her!

Please note that this interview was made over brunch and I am writing down what has been said. 

THE GRIND

Katrina left her day job in February 2018. Since then, she has been working as a freelancer in the creative field but also as an interior designer. If you follow her online, you can see that she’s been out and about working and collaborating with cool brands and other creatives. I wanted to know more about her inspiration and more about her grind.

Read more on why she quit her 9 to 5 here

Steve: Where do you find your daily Inspiration?

Katrina Tioseco: I usually get my daily inspiration from Pinterest and from my morning routine.

Steve: What is your morning routine?

Katrina Tioseco: I start every day by making my own matcha latte. (obviously) Then I have a small breakfast and I catch up on youtube videos while I eat my breakfast. Quite simple but it gets my creativity flowing and I am ready to work after. Starting my day that way is to relax and I don’t feel rushed.

Steve: Tell me more about a day in your life.

Katrina Tioseco: I start each day with my morning routine that I mentioned earlier. From there, I am ready to work and I usually work for the middle of the day from 10 AM to 6 PM. My day-to-day work consists of updating my website (www.katrinatioseco.com), working on my clients or backing up my pictures. During that time, I don’t allow myself to watch anything and remain focus until 6 PM.  After 6 PM, I usually spend time with my family, we have dinner together and then I watch Netflix and relax while listening to podcasts. ( The Goal Digger and The Influencer Podcast) I also have a night routine and depending on my workload, I sometimes work at night as well.

Steve: What equipments do you work with?

Katrina Tioseco:

• Olympus PEN EPL7
• MacBook Pro 2018
• Lightroom to edit photos and I use my own presets. With Lightroom CC, you can edit on your phone and computer so I work on both!
• VSCO – To play with the saturation and white balance tint, I usually add a pink tone.
• Preview –  To plan the feed!

Steve: What was your favorite collaboration?

Katrina Tioseco: The food collaborations are usually pretty cool. The coolest one was the one that we did in Brossard, for the Bacon Week! We did 4 spots in one night!

Steve: What would be the best tip you would tell someone that would love to go on and work for themselves just like you?

Katrina Tioseco: At first, do it as a side hustle because you need to learn and understand your work. It is a long process and take that time to be sure that you are good at what you do before leaving your day job.

Steve: What was your best highlight of this year so far?

Katrina Tioseco: Definitely traveling! This year I went to Europe where I did 5 destinations and I also went to California. It was quite a highlight to be able to do 2 big trips in one year.

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EAT

Katrina and I have been going to many restaurants for the past 2 years. In addition, Katrina is definitely one of the original when it comes to coffee crawling. From discovering different spot in the city for what they have to offer but also to peek at their interior design, Katrina is a foodie at heart!

Steve: What is your favorite brunch spot?

L’entre-Pots, the fusion between Quebec and The flavors of the Carribean! It was also there that we did the first Brunch Squad Meetup! (Read more about that meet-up here)

Steve: What is your go-to drink?

Katrina Tioseco: Definitely matcha latte with oat milk.

Steve: What is your favorite cuisine?

Katrina: Italian and Mexican

Steve: Let’s say you had a never-ending appetite, what would be the place you would go to eat for your perfect day in Montreal?

Katrina Tioseco:

Breakfast – L’Entrepots for their grilled cheese or eggs bene with their freshly pressed juice.

Lunch – Bistro K2 Sushi because it is the best all-you-can-eat sushi I’ve been to. In fact, I only do all-you-can-eat sushi.

Dinner – Warehouse because everything is 5$!

Dessert – Rockaberry for their pies, so good!

Steve: What place impressed you the most this year? 

Katrina: Definitely Pink Mamma in Paris. It has 5 floors and every floor had a big lineup. When you go there early, they have a daily welcoming party and I love the fact that every floor is decorated differently. They have amazing Italian food.

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TRAVEL

I went to Quebec City with Katrina once and I can tell that she is a cool travel buddy. She’s laid back and do not stress about anything. However, this year was a big year for Katrina, she went to Europe and also went into a nice road trip in California. We definitely share the same passion for traveling and I was curious to know more about her traveling habits.

Steve: What is your favorite destination?

Katrina Tioseco: Amsterdam! I went this summer and I plan to move there the day that I will be rich! In fact, Amsterdam is my favorite destination for the Summer, but for Winter, it has to be Hawaii. I went there last year and had a blast!

Steve: What are your travel essentials?

• Phone
• Headphones/ Earplugs
• Only carry on
• Memory Foam Travel Pillow

Steve: Do you have any fun travel story to share?

Katrina Tioseco: When I was in Hawaii we rented a convertible. On the last day that we had to bring it back, we were looking for a cheap gas station. On Gas Buddy, we found one that was about 15 minutes away from where we were and decided to go. In fact, according to the app, it was 20 cents cheaper than the other places so we definitely had to go. While driving there, we got stopped by the military. The place that we were going to was for the army only and definitely not a place for us. It was quite funny for us and we still asked them if we could do a fill-up there but no, they didn’t let us.

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Thank you again Katrina for your time today and I am looking forward to 2019 with you. Katrina plans to work more on her blog, being more consistent with it. In addition, she plans to do more collaboration for content creation and practice on her videography to edit future travel videos. Be on the lookout because we also plan to do more Brunch Squad Meetups!

You can follow Katrina on Instagram @katrinatioseco or head over her website www.katrinatioseco.com