Your Sparkly Brand

Time for a check-in!

In this episode of Your Sparkly Brand, we are sharing our latest Business Revelations. (No, not the FLDS kind!) We’ve both been making some big changes in our businesses lately and wanted to catch you up. Meg shares how investing in a business coach has inspired a new direction in her business. And Lauren spills the tea on how she is building her copywriting agency.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

0:40 Lauren’s sparkly moment of the week.

1:00 Meg’s sparkly moment. 

1:40 Some business updates and revelations

2:05 Meg’s decision to work with a business coach and set long-term goals.

4:50 How to find the right coach for you.

7:10 Quick tips Meg has learned from her new coach that you can implement too. Email autoresponders and calculating your SEO score.

10:15 Lauren’s business “revelation.”

11:45 Becoming an agency owner and getting to hire copywriters.

13:00 SIDEBAR: Recession talk = scarcity mindset

14:20 Sharing the abundance and paying people well.

15:10 How Lauren hires sub-contractors.

16:40 Getting over the mental block of having a team — and owning it.

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, it would mean so much to us if you left a review. Reviews will help this podcast grow so we can make the world a little more Sparkly!

LET’S CONNECT

Is there a topic you’d like us to cover in an upcoming episode? Are you a business owner who wants to join us on the podcast to share your story? Send us an email at [email protected] to get in touch. 

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram

What season of business are you in? 

Take a listen to this episode to find out! 

We’re talking about the four seasons of business and the challenges that come during each one. Get ready for lots of planting and farming metaphors… Join us as we discuss the mental, emotional, and financial ups and downs of running a business.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

0:40 Lauren’s sparkly moment of the week.

1:40 Meg’s sparkly moment. 

2:00 Let’s get into the different seasons of business. 

3:00 The seasons of business don’t last for a specific amount of time. 

4:05 Don’t forget that as a female entrepreneur — you’ve also got a monthly cycle that can impact your business. To discover more check out episode 17 of Your Sparkly Brand where we chat with cycle syncing expert Renae Fieck. Listen on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/4IS5k3wwm15NfR3gmSTpH2?si=126f50da7cef446c

4:30 Springtime in your business. 

5:40 Enjoy the fresh energy and creative spark that comes during Spring.

6:15 The season of “Summer” in your business.

7:10 Feeling stuck in a season.

8:30 What to do during your busy time. 

10:15 How to embrace “Winter” in your business. 

11:00 Business is cyclical!

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, it would mean so much to us if you left a review. Reviews will help this podcast grow so we can make the world a little more Sparkly!

LET’S CONNECT

Is there a topic you’d like us to cover in an upcoming episode? Are you a business owner who wants to join us on the podcast to share your story? Send us an email at [email protected] to get in touch. 

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram

Ready for more cold emailing tips? We got you! 

In this special two-part episode of Your Sparkly Brand, we’re sharing the tips, tactics, and strategies we use for cold emailing.  Make sure you listen to episode #35 before hitting play on this one. In part one, we share tons of tips for setting yourself up for cold emailing success. In this episode, we’re going over what to write in your cold email. We share a formula you can follow plus what to say in your cold email follow-ups.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

0:30 Meg’s sparkly moment of the week.

1:00 Lauren’s sparkly moment of the week.

1:20 Make sure you listen to last week’s episode #35 first! This is part two of our cold emailing series and we’re jumping right back in.

1:40 Always send to a specific person.

2:45 Subject lines are the most important part of a cold email.

3:45 You must personalize your cold emails — otherwise, you’re wasting your time.

4:25 Make it about them, not you.

5:20 Offer free advice or something useful to prove your worth.

6:00 The 5-step formula for an effective cold email. See an example here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1f3vK9W20Qa0zDD9QBcwx_m7fBxVk-TKZ/view?usp=sharing

10:30 Follow-ups are key! Most people won’t respond to your first email.

11:50 What to say in your cold email follow-ups.

12:20 Cold emailing is a great way to get your business and name in front of potential clients.

13:10 Cold emailing builds confidence!

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, it would mean so much to us if you left a review. Reviews will help this podcast grow so we can make the world a little more Sparkly!

LET’S CONNECT

Is there a topic you’d like us to cover in an upcoming episode? Are you a business owner who wants to join us on the podcast to share your story? Send us an email at [email protected] to get in touch. 

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram

What’s the best way to find high-paying clients when you’re just starting out? Cold emailing! When done correctly, you’ll land in your ideal client’s inbox and show them how your services can help solve their problems.

In this special two-part episode of Your Sparkly Brand, we’re sharing the tips, tactics, and strategies we use for cold emailing. Part one focuses on setting yourself up for cold emailing success. We’ll help you get in the right mindset, batch your work, and share some of our favorite tools. Come back next week for part two where we’ll cover what to write in your email and how to master the follow-up. 

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

0:45 Meg’s sparkly moment of the week.

1:25 Lauren’s sparkly moment of the week. Check out Dubsado: dubsado.com/?c=tassi

2:50 Cold emailing doesn’t have to be scary! It’s one of the best ways to find high-paying clients when you’re new to freelancing.

4:20 Make sure you have a professional presence and a niche before you start cold emailing.

6:00 Think of cold emailing like planting seeds.

6:50 Mastering the mental game of cold emailing.

8:50 Time management, batching, and focused productivity when it comes to cold emailing.

9:50 Must-have tools to make cold emailing easier and more effective.

13:20 Tips for guessing email addresses. 

14:20 Remember, cold emailing is a numbers game!

15:20 Make sure you’ve “warmed” up your email address before sending emails to potential clients.

16:30 Where to find clients to cold email. 

19:00 We’ve got lots more to say about cold emailing. Stay tuned for part two!

LINKS WE MENTIONED

Dubsado for proposals, contracts, & invoices: dubsado.com/?c=tassi

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, it would mean so much to us if you left a review. Reviews will help this podcast grow so we can make the world a little more Sparkly!

LET’S CONNECT

Is there a topic you’d like us to cover in an upcoming episode? Are you a business owner who wants to join us on the podcast to share your story? Send us an email at [email protected] to get in touch. 

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram

Allison “Sugi” Sugahara joins us for this episode of Your Sparkly Brand! She shares the story of how she built her marketing agency and how she is stepping into the role of true creator. We also discuss how to manage social media marketing on your own terms and allowing your role in your business to shift.

For over a decade, Allison has obsessively honed her expertise in branding, design, and content strategy, helping creatives and business owners confidently showcase their passions through thoughtful digital marketing. Declared a “culture creator” by her comrades, she is devoted to empowering individuals to cultivate their purpose + creativity by intuitively charging their own path. Allison thrives in high-level visualization and loves pouring into her communities through sharing knowledge + experiences and making genuine connections. She has worked with a wide range of brands, from small local businesses to startups, all the way to corporate companies as significant as Disney. Her mission is to continue to create space for purpose-driven entrepreneurs to expand + prosper simply by doing what they love and being who they are.

How to connect with Allison...

Website: www.polygonmarket.com

IG (business): www.instagram.com/polygonmarket 

IG (personal): www.instagram.com/suginofilter 

TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@suginofilter 

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

00:30 Allison “Sugi” Sugahara!

1:40 Meg’s sparkly moment of the week. 

2:00 Lauren’s sparkly moment.

2:30 Allison’s sparkly moments. 

3:15 Allison’s business building journey.

4:30 What it’s like working with your partner.

7:20 How to make marketing more sustainable and realistic.

9:25 Why you need to show up authentically on Instagram and TikTok.

11:15 The biggest mistakes entrepreneurs are making on social media.

14:20 Allowing yourself to change roles in your business. 

16:50 Getting into NFTs…

16:55 Finding inspiration in small content creators.

19:00 Sugi’s favorite tools.

20:10 Advice for new entrepreneurs.

21:25 Sugi’s upcoming projects.

23:10 Where to find Sugi online…

Polygon Market Website: www.polygonmarket.com

Polygon IG: www.instagram.com/polygonmarket

Sugi’s IG: www.instagram.com/suginofilter 

Sugi’s TikTok: https://tiktok.com/@suginofilter 

Are you subscribed to the pod? If not, what are you waiting for!?! Subscribe now so you never miss an episode.

LET’S CONNECT

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram

How much should you charge for your products? Should you raise your hourly rate? What’s a good price for an online course?

In this episode of Your Sparkly Brand, we’re answering these pricing questions and more. Talking about money and pricing can feel awkward A.F. But it doesn’t have to! Understanding how your prices indicate value to your clients and customers is the first step to charging what you’re worth. 

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

0:40 Meg’s sparkly moment of the week.

2:35 Lauren’s sparkly moment of the week.

4:00 It’s ok if talking about money and pricing makes you uncomfortable!

5:05 Only YOU can set your prices.

6:00 Price reflects value to your customers.

7:25 Women tend to undercharge.

8:15 Your prices aren’t set in stone.

8:50 Pricing for service providers.

9:20 Avoid charging for your time, instead create packages.

12:00 Pricing digital products and courses.

13:45 How to set prices for physical products.

15:00 Now go raise your prices!

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, it would mean so much to us if you left a review. Reviews will help this podcast grow so we can make the world a little more Sparkly!

LET’S CONNECT

Is there a topic you’d like us to cover in an upcoming episode? Are you a business owner who wants to join us on the podcast to share your story? Send us an email at [email protected] to get in touch. 

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram

We’re so excited to have Carrie Severson join us for this episode of Your Sparkly Brand. She’s sharing her wisdom on overcoming burnout, embracing rejection, writing a book, and protecting your energy. Listen to Carrie’s story of how she found her own way and started a book publishing business. 

Carrie Severson is an author and the Chief Executive Officer of the Unapologetic Voice House, a hybrid book publishing business. She has been in the storytelling industry for nearly twenty-five years. She started the Unapologetic Voice House in 2019 after spending years pitching literary agents in the hopes of being published traditionally. All her rejection letters from literary agents came down to the same thing. They all loved the work. They all compared the work to well-known authors. But because she didn’t have a big enough platform, agents always passed on her. Carrie used that pivot in life and launched a company that could help women just like her―unapologetic in their stories without massive following.

How to connect with Carrie...

Carrie’s Website: unapologeticallyenough.com

Unapologetic Voice House Website: theunapologeticvoicehouse.com

Social: Facebook Instagram TikTok

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

00:35 Meet Carrie Severson!

1:40 Lauren’s sparkly moment of the week.

1:55 Meg’s sparkly moment. 

2:15 Carrie’s sparkly moment.

2:50 Carrie shares the story of how she built her business.

6:50 How to handle rejection and use it for growth

7:55 What does Unapologetic mean?

10:25 Overcoming burnout and embracing your masculine and feminine energies.

12:10 Advice for entrepreneurs experiencing burnout right now…

16:10 All about the book: Unapologetically Enough

17:05 How to start writing a book.

18:15 Marketing and branding in book publishing.

20:10 Managing social media and work when you’re empathic.

22:40 Advice for entrepreneurs just starting out.

24:25 What’s next for Carrie.

25:25 Find Carrie online: Website Facebook Instagram TikTok

LINKS WE MENTIONED

Grab a copy of Carrie’s book Unapologetically Enough here: https://unapologeticallyenough.com/

Are you subscribed to the pod? If not, what are you waiting for!?! Subscribe now so you never miss an episode.

LET’S CONNECT

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram

Do your eyes glaze over when you hear the term SEO? Do you KNOW you should be doing more to increase your search engine ranking on Google, but just don’t understand how it works? 

Say goodbye to feeling stressed and overwhelmed about SEO! In this short and sweet episode of Your Sparkly Brand, we’re sharing a few simple ways you can optimize your website for Google. You don’t need to hire an expensive SEO agency or pray nightly to the search engine gods. Take matters into your own hands with just a little bit of SEO knowledge and a few keywords.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

0:35 Meg’s sparkly moment of the week. DIY BRAND KIT 

1:45 Lauren’s sparkly moment of the week. 

2:35 SEO aka Search Engine Optimization.

3:30 SEO is complex and always changing, but here are some simple tips you can use right now even if you’re not an expert.

4:50 Long-tail keywords are your BFF. Find them before you start writing! 

6:30 Our favorite SEO keyword tools.

8:30 Remember the most important thing is to write for the reader first.

9:10 Don’t keyword stuff. 

10:10 Make sure your headline captures attention and includes the SEO keyword.

10:50 Use the keyword in H1 and H2 headers to signal to Google your page provides valuable info for the keyword.

12:30 Formatting and lots of white space will keep the reader on your page longer.

13:15 Title tags simplified.

14:25 Meta descriptions made easy.

15:25 Include SEO keywords in the file names and alt text of images.

LINKS WE MENTIONED

DIY BRAND KIT - https://stan.store/megangersch/diybrandkit

“I’m Having Fun” by Sacha Robotti ft. Alex Hooper: https://open.spotify.com/track/0JZTab914MRq8HhiGhnPvj?si=b605d0acad86451b

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, it would mean so much to us if you left a review. Reviews will help this podcast grow so we can make the world a little more Sparkly!

LET’S CONNECT

Is there a topic you’d like us to cover in an upcoming episode? Are you a business owner who wants to join us on the podcast to share your story? Send us an email at [email protected] to get in touch. 

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram

How you spend the first hour or two of your morning sets the tone for your entire day!

In this episode of Your Sparkly Brand, we’re sharing our current morning routines and discussing some common morning routine activities. If you’re ready to set yourself up for a happy, healthy, and productive day — give a listen to this episode and makeover your morning routine.

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

1:15 Netflix documentary recommendation — White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch 

2:20 Meg’s sparkly moment of the week.

2:50 Lauren’s sparkly moment of the week.

3:30 Why you need a morning routine

4:45 Meg shares her morning routine.

7:05 Lauren’s current morning routine.

9:50 “Create before you consume” mindset.

11:00 Don’t check your email first thing in the morning.

12:35 Some people recommended catching up on news in the morning.

13:30 Wake up earlier.

14:40 Eat breakfast.

15:30 “Eat the frog.” Tackle the hardest thing on your to-do list first. (Or don’t!)

16:55 Morning pages from The Artist’s Way.

Did you enjoy this episode? If so, it would mean so much to us if you left a review. Reviews will help this podcast grow so we can make the world a little more Sparkly!

LET’S CONNECT

Is there a topic you’d like us to cover in an upcoming episode? Are you a business owner who wants to join us on the podcast to share your story? Send us an email at [email protected] to get in touch. 

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram

Chynna Benton joins us for this episode of Your Sparkly Brand to talk all about virtual assistants. How do you know if you’re ready to hire a VA? Where can you find a good VA? What tasks can you delegate to a virtual assistant? Listen now for the answers to these questions and so much more!

Chynna Benton is the head honcho at Byte Bodega. She works with millennials who are ready to start a thriving virtual assistant business so they can work from anywhere in the world. Chynna helps her students learn the skills they need to be a successful VA and book clients with more confidence. She’s spent years working as a VA + OBM for seven-figure business owners who’ve been featured in Forbes, FitFabfun, CNN, and more. Now, she’s on a mission to help other awesome people do the same. When Chynna’s not building online businesses, you can find her perfecting her sourdough bread recipe.

How to connect with Chynna...

Website:​​ bytebodega.com

Social: Instagram Facebook Pinterest

TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES

00:40 Meet Chynna Benton!

1:35 Meg’s sparkly moment of the week.

2:00 Lauren’s sparkly moment of the week.

2:50 Chynna’s sparkly moment of the week.

3:55 How Chynna left the wedding industry and started her own business…

6:50 How do you know when you’re ready to hire a virtual assistant?

8:00 Advice on how to delegate and hand over tasks to a VA.

10:20 The best way to give information and processes to your VA.

12:30 What you need to know to hire the right virtual assistant for your business. 

15:45 Where to find the best virtual assistants.

17:10 How do you start freelancing as a virtual assistant?

20:35 A big turning point in Chynna’s business.

22:10 How branding has impacted Chynna’s business.

24:00 Chynna’s favorite tools and systems.

26:45 Advice to future entrepreneurs.

31:25 Find Chynna online: Website Instagram Pinterest

LINKS WE MENTIONED

Dubsado for Proposals, Invoices, and Project Management

Are you subscribed to the pod? If not, what are you waiting for!?! Subscribe now so you never miss an episode.

LET’S CONNECT

Find Lauren at laurentassiagency.com or on Instagram

Connect with Megan at megangersch.com, on TikTok, and Instagram