Danielle McDougald didn't plan on starting a business. She was home with a newborn during her husband's first deployment when a friend needed help with admin and social media in the early days of COVID, and that favor turned into The Virtual Helping Hand. Danielle talks with Svenja about building a fully remote business around military moves, the exact social media strategy she uses with clients, and the year she finally started telling her own followers what she did for work.

●      Why Danielle kept her business separate from her personal social media for three years, and what changed in 2023

●      The three content pillars she builds every client's social strategy around

●      How Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook each reward completely different posting habits

●      Why an unedited, imperfect video outperformed all of her polished content

●      The affirmation practice she used to build the confidence to call herself a business owner

Connect with Danielle:

●      Website: www.thevirtualhelpinghand.com

●      Email: [email protected]

●      Social: @virtualhelpinghand on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL

A few tools I use and recommend. Some links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

●      Flodesk (email marketing): flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES

●      HoneyBook (client management): share.honeybook.com/svenja7629354

Audio editing by Mike at Nielsen Audio Solutions (https://www.nielsenaudiosolutions.com/).

Think your brand could use some work? Take the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard and find out where you stand.

Listen: https://thismightgetcreative.riverside.com/

Gwendolyn Young built Your Virtual Admin Expert after a lupus diagnosis forced her to rethink what a sustainable business could look like. She talks with Svenja about starting from a makeshift website with zero virtual assistant experience, landing her first client six months in, and the systems that kept her operations running even through unplanned hospital stays. They get into the moment she finally hired help, what she got wrong the first time, and how her brand had to catch up to the level of work she was already delivering. It's a conversation about building a business around your life instead of the other way around.

In this episode:

• Why a lupus diagnosis became the foundation for how Gwendolyn structures her business
• The systems and scheduling automations that keep client work moving when she can't show up
• What finally pushed her to hire her first team member, and what she got wrong at first
• How her brand evolved once her marketing finally matched the caliber of her work

Connect with Gwendolyn:
Website: yourvirtualadminexpert.com
Social: @yourvirtualadminexpert (all platforms)

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL
A few tools I use and recommend. Some links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

• Flodesk (email marketing): flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES
• HoneyBook (client management): share.honeybook.com/svenja7629354

Audio editing by Mike at Nielsen Audio Solutions.

Think your brand could use some work? Take the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard and find out where you stand.

Listen: https://thismightgetcreative.riverside.com/

Stephanie Ohannesian spent four years producing events for NBC Universal without a single day off, until her body shut down and she landed in the ER. That crisis became Triage Coaching and Consulting, a burnout and stress mitigation company built on a bold idea: most of the stress patterns running your life were never yours to begin with. With a master's degree in decision-making sciences and social cognition, Stephanie breaks down the science of burnout, the warning signs we all ignore, and why building a brand is the most personal thing you will ever do.

In this episode we talk about:

• The red flags Stephanie ignored for four years, and why your body signals stress long before your brain admits it
• Inherited stress patterns: how survival responses get passed down through generations and quietly run your business decisions
• The 2:1 breathing technique that tells your nervous system you're safe before a high-stakes meeting
• How one clear sentence ("we rewire your stress circuitry") did what ten minutes of explaining never could
• Why 95 percent of buying decisions happen subconsciously, and what that means for your website and your brand
• Stephanie's two-column exercise for calling out imposter syndrome on paper

Listener offer: Stephanie is giving away her Low Road Audit, a free 90-minute session on where you stand emotionally with your brand and identity, to the first five to seven listeners who email Triage and mention This Might Get Creative.

Connect with Stephanie:

• Website: triagebalancedlife.com
• Podcast: The Raw Onion
• Instagram: triage_global
• LinkedIn: Stephanie Ohannesian

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL:

• This episode is sponsored by Flodesk. Get 25% off your first year: flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES
• Run your client pipeline with HoneyBook: https://share.honeybook.com/svenja7629354

Think your brand could use some work? Take the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard and find out where you stand.

Caroline Benefield wrote a cozy fantasy series, won best manuscript at a writing conference, and had agents asking for more. Then she realized writing was healing her, not building her career. She founded Southern Grit Digital, a marketing consultancy for women-led businesses, and leaned into the part of her brain she'd ignored for years: data and testing.

In this episode she talks about knowing when to walk away from something you're good at, and the testing strategies that pulled a $4,000 return out of a $300 ad spend.

In this episode we get into:

•       Why being good at something is not the same as wanting to build a career on it

•       How creative work can heal you without needing to be monetized

•       Turbo A/B testing: changing one element every five to seven days for the most data on the smallest budget

•       How to segment an email list for real A/B test results instead of a straight split down the middle

•       Why your identity is allowed to shift, and why grieving the old version of you helps you move forward

Connect with Caroline:

•       Website: southerngritdigital.com

•       Instagram: @southerngritdigital

•       LinkedIn: Caroline Weeks

SUPPORT THE CHANNEL

A few tools I use and recommend. Some links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

•       Flodesk (email marketing): flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES

•       HoneyBook (client management): share.honeybook.com/svenja7629354

Audio editing by Mike at Nielsen Audio Solutions.

Think your brand could use some work? Take the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard and find out where you stand.

Listen: https://thismightgetcreative.riverside.com/

Sarah Mariano built The Stretch Therapists into a global certification company while traveling the world as a digital nomad. Then she made a decision that most founders dread: she stepped back from being the face of the brand she had built from scratch. Not because things were falling apart. Because she had a bigger goal in mind.

In this episode:

•       Why stepping back as the face of your brand can feel like grief — and why Sarah says that process was worth it

•       Building a personal brand on Instagram at the right moment, and what happens when the platform shifts and your strategy has to shift with it

•       The four-year journey to paid ads: wrong coach, right coach, six months running her own campaigns, then finally hiring an agency

•       What it takes to build a team that reflects the representation you want to see in your industry

•       Why transparency with your team during the hard moments changes the company culture more than any policy ever will

•       The book that changed how Sarah thinks about scaling: 10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan

Find Sarah:

•       Instagram: @thestretchtherapists

•       LinkedIn: The Stretch Therapists

•       Website: thestretchtherapists.com

Resources mentioned:

•       10x Is Easier Than 2x by Dan Sullivan

Tools I use and recommend. These are affiliate links, so I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.
Flodesk — email marketing: https://flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES
HoneyBook — client management: https://share.honeybook.com/svenja7629354

Ready to see what your brand is actually communicating? Take the Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard.

Audio Production

Huge thanks to Mike at Nielsen Audio Solutions for editing this episode. If you have a podcast and you are doing your own editing because you cannot find someone you trust, Mike is the answer. He has been editing every episode of This Might Get Creative and the difference shows. Reach out to him at nielsenaudiosolutions.com

00:00 Sponsor Flowdesk

01:17 Meet Sarah Founder

02:56 Letting Go Clients

06:08 Instagram Face Era

10:22 Certification Model

11:35 Inclusion Mission

14:59 Hiring Growing Pains

21:32 Vision Mission Shifts

28:46 Marketing Pivot Ads

33:28 CEO Mindset 10X

39:10 Leaps Vulnerability

41:16 Wrap Up Connect

Episode 33. Dan Keller runs George J. Keller and Sons, a third-generation family roofing, siding, and windows company in Flanders, NJ. For the past three years, private equity firms have been offering family-owned roofing companies 15 times EBITDA to sell out and roll into a national conglomerate. Dan said no. We talk about what changes the day after a family company gets bought, the marketing playbook he runs down to the lead source, and where AI fits in a business that still needs a person on the roof.

What You Will Hear

•     How private equity moved from HVAC into roofing and what a 15x EBITDA buyout offer really looks like

•     What changes for employees and customers the day after a family business sells

•     The drone walks, hover reports, and project manager touch points Dan uses on every job

•     The Facebook moms group referral program (paying past clients to recommend the company)

•     Where AI is showing up in roofing offices, and where it cannot replace a human

Time Stamps

00:00 Introduction

01:10 Meet Dan Keller

02:45 Private Equity Offers

07:05 How PE Takes Over

11:19 Client Experience Changes

16:01 Tech That Stands Out

20:17 Joining The Family Business

24:45 Corporate Vs Ownership

28:07 Switching to Entrepreneurship

28:42 Owning Mistakes and Lessons

30:03 Tracking Leads That Matter

32:31 Ditching Tracking Numbers

34:15 Facebook Referrals Strategy

36:47 TV Streaming Ad Challenges

38:40 AI Search and AEO Shift

41:58 AI for Office Efficiency

44:55 Design Creativity vs AI

45:52 Jingle and Human Touch

47:47 Wrap Up and Contact Info

Connect With Dan

Website: gjkeller.com

Phone: 973-927-0963

Connect with Me

Website: lyoncreatives.com

Email: [email protected]

Instagram: lyon.creatives

LinkedIn: svenja-lyon

Audio Production

Huge thanks to Mike at Nielsen Audio Solutions for editing this episode. If you have a podcast and you are doing your own editing because you cannot find someone you trust, Mike is the answer. He has been editing every episode of This Might Get Creative and the difference shows. Reach out to him at Nielsen Audio Solutions.

In this episode, I sit down with Katie Dooley, founder of Paper Lime Creative in Edmonton, Canada, to talk about what branding really is, why a logo is the wrong place to start, and why consistency matters more than pretty design. Katie has been running her brand strategy and print studio for almost a decade, working with service-based businesses past the startup phase. We dig into the wedding photographer who built a brand for himself instead of his brides, why your branding guide should work like a standard operating procedure, and how print done well is one of the most underrated investments a business owner can make. If your brand feels inconsistent, or you are about to spend money on a new logo before doing the strategy work, this conversation will save you from a costly detour.

In this episode:

• Why a brand is every impression your business makes on every person, not just a logo
• The wedding photographer mistake: building a brand for yourself instead of your ideal client
• Why consistency beats pretty, and an ugly logo used consistently outperforms a beautiful one used inconsistently
• The flower shop story that shows what inconsistent branding does to your customer's experience
• Why branding guides are a standard operating procedure, not a creative restriction
• How to think about print as a business investment, from heavy business cards to memorable mailers
• Why local printers are worth finding and what kind of work they can take on

Connect with Katie:

• Website: paperlime.ca
• Email: [email protected]
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/katiedooley
• Instagram: @paperlimecreative

Audio production:

Huge thanks to Mike at Nielsen Audio Solutions for editing this episode. If you have a podcast and you are doing your own editing because you cannot find someone you trust, Mike is the answer. He has been editing every episode of This Might Get Creative and the difference shows. Reach out to him at Nielsen Audio Solutions.

This episode is brought to you by Flodesk. Get 25% off your first year at flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES.

Want to know if your brand is doing its job? Take the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard. Ten questions, five minutes, and you will know exactly where you stand.

Search is changing in real time, and most business owners are still optimizing for the version that doesn't exist anymore. Jacki DeVries spent 15+ years in digital marketing (including time alongside Neil Patel's team) before she pivoted her business from FireUp SEO to FireUp AIO last year. The shift came after a conversation with CTOs telling her that visibility would no longer be about rankings. It would be about whether AI platforms could understand, trust, and recommend your brand.

In this episode we talk about:

• The real difference between SEO and AIO and why your old optimization playbook is working against you
• Why AI builds a profile of your business across the entire web, not just your website
• The trust signals AI looks for (and how testimonials, FAQs, and consistent profiles are doing the heavy lifting now)
• Why one of her clients saw a 68% increase in AI recommendations after updating reviews on a single page
• How being intentional about your audience now matters more than getting massive traffic
• The FireUp framework: foundation, intent, response strategy, engagement, performance
  

Connect with Jacki:

• Website: fireup-aio.com
• LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jackidevries
• Instagram: @jldevries23
  

Want to know where your business stands in the new AI search landscape? Take Jacki's free AI Visibility Scorecard at fireup-aio.com.

This episode is brought to you by Flodesk*. Get 25% off your first year: flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES*

Think your brand could use some work? Take the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard and find out where you stand.

In this episode, I sit down with Andrea Klunder, founder of The Creative Impostor Studios, to talk about what podcasting really does for a business when it is working, and why so many shows stall out before they start delivering. Andrea has spent over a decade producing podcasts for arts organizations, cultural institutions, and changemakers, and she has watched the industry shift from "how do I start a podcast" to "is this one still working for me." We cover the pivot she sees happening with established podcasters, why brand alignment matters more than audience size, and the framework she uses to help business owners differentiate their show. If you have a podcast you are quietly losing faith in, or you are thinking about starting one, this conversation will give you a clearer picture of what to do next.

In this episode:

•       Why podcasting is one of the slowest, most effective trust-building tools in your marketing mix

•       How to tell when your podcast and the rest of your business are out of alignment

•       The five-pointed star framework Andrea uses with her clients, starting with differentiation

•       Why solo episodes matter more than you think for booking clients

•       The "100 episode ideas" exercise Andrea recommends before launching any new show

•       Andrea's story: from a brick-and-mortar yoga studio that ended in bankruptcy to running a podcast production agency

Connect with Andrea:

•       Website: thecreativeimposter.com

•       Free 30-minute podcast strategy call: bit.ly/behind-the-brand-pod

•       Private podcast (Peace, Love and Podcasting): subscribe via thecreativeimposter.com

•       LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/andreaklunder

•       Instagram: @thecreativeimpostor

Huge thanks to Mike at Nielsen Audio Solutions for editing this episode. If you have a podcast and you are doing your own editing because you cannot find someone you trust, Mike is the answer. He has been editing every episode of This Might Get Creative and the difference shows. Reach out to him at Nielsen Audio Solutions.

This episode is brought to you by Flodesk. Get 25% off your first year at flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES.

Want to know if your brand is doing its job? Take the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard. Ten questions, five minutes, and you will know exactly where you stand.

Katie Eberman went from corporate admin work to stay-at-home mom to virtual assistant to web designer, and she built every part of that path by paying attention to what she actually loved doing. Today she runs Simply by Katie, designing Squarespace sites and writing copy for women in business, specifically the helpers: therapists, coaches, mortgage brokers, real estate agents. Her whole approach comes down to one thing, your website has to reflect who you are before it can work for you.

In this episode we talk about:

•       Why most websites don't convert, and what a goal-driven site actually looks like

•       The difference between a website that looks good and one that's built around visitor intent

•       How sharing your story, including the messy parts, is what creates real connection with clients

•       Why Katie stopped writing technical blog posts and started sharing women's stories instead

•       What changed when she stopped performing in her marketing and started just being herself

•       AI, copy, and how to use both without sounding like everyone else

Connect with Katie:

•       Website: www.simplybykatie.com

•       Instagram: @simply_by_katie

•       Facebook: facebook.com/SimplybyKatie

•       LinkedIn: Katie Eberman

•       Women Who Inspire Me blog series: www.simplybykatie.com (apply at the bottom of any story post)

This episode is brought to you by Flodesk. Get 25% off your first year: flodesk.com/c/LYONCREATIVES

Want to know if your brand is doing its job? Take the free Brand Audit Scorecard at lyoncreatives.com/brand-audit-scorecard. Ten questions, five minutes, and you will know exactly where you stand.