41: A candid talk about race and diversity, building a successful baking business, the power of networking, and much more! w/ Randi Smith
RANDI SMITH
Helloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m Shayna and I’m so freaking stoked you’re here because on today’s episode we have the lovely Randi Smith, a wedding cake designer and business coach — Randi is an island girl who is passionate about celebrating life's big moments. She’s obsessed with my family, lipsticks, and chai tea lattes. When she’s not working with her wonderful clients, you can catch her watching reruns of A Different World. I do want to warn you all that we had someeeee technical difficulties with internet connections and headphones, which resulted in me asking Randi to repeat herself a lot and she was a frreaking champ about it — hopefully it isn’t too disruptive but this episode is worth bearing with it — On this episode of the Montana Diaries Podcast, we discussed race and diversity in the wedding industry and how wedding professionals can respectfully build inclusivity into their portfolios, how Randi built her business, and how she’s helping other wedding pros become as profitable as she is. This is a must listen!
40: Business with purpose: serving the multicultural community w/ Destini French
DESTINI FRENCH
Helloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m Shayna and I’m so freaking stoked you’re here because today we have one of the most talented hair and makeup artists and my dear friend DESTNI, the owner of Cultured Roots in Bozeman, Montana. Destini serves the multicultural community in Montana and she has an incredible vision for how she intends to serve through her services and through textured hair education — this is a must listen, seriously.
39: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome w/ Small Business Strategist Melissa Koehler
MELISSA KOEHLER
Helloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m Shayna and I’m so freaking stoked you’re here because on today’s episode we have the incredible Melissa Koehler, a Small Business Strategist who is passionate about helping women build a business they can be proud of! On this episode of the MD Podcast, we dive deeeepppp into what it takes to build businesses as a creative woman, imposter syndrome, shifting careers, and much more.
38: Create the community you need w/ the founder of GirlGetAfterIt Cassidy Wendell!
CASSIDY WENDELL
Helloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m your host Shayna and I’m so freaking stoked you’re here because today we have Cassidy Wendell, the Bozeman Montana based founder of GirlGetAfterIt. Cass is a powerhouse of an entrepreneur and I couldn’t believe all of the wisdom she brought to this episode of the pod — I got so much out of her story of grief and finding community and figuring out how to run the successful business she has today. She indulged my curiosities and I’m so grateful because I legitimately learned so much from her and I know you will too — there are a tonnnn of tangible tips on top of all of the inspiring stories and encouragement. Cassidy is incredible.
37: Live a life filled with grace, passion & purpose w/ Geomyra Pollard
GEOMYRA POLLARD
Helloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m Shayna and I’m so freaking stoked you’re here because on today’s episode we have the lovely Geomyra Pollard, an incredible wedding planner turned business coach who is all about serving creatives, professionals & working parents who are ready to live a life filled with grace, passion & purpose! Geomyra is incredible and I know you’ll get so much from her story of juggling marriage, parenthood, building a business, navigating grief, and living with a chronic illness.
36: Becoming a successful traveling elopement photographer w/ Emily Kidd
EMILY KIDD PHOTO
Helloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m Shayna and I’m so freaking stoked you’re here because on today’s episode we have the lovely Emily Kidd, one of my absolute favorite elopement photographers and the host of a podcast serving elopement photographers, The Road Created — Emily has such a heart for serving other business owners, she’s an amazing business woman, and she truly captures her couples perfectly on their adventures. In this episode of the Montana Diaries Podcast, we discuss building a sustainable business, SEO, Pinterest, and navigating social media marketing.
35: DEEP dive with expert social media marketer Katie Love
KATIE LOVE
Helloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m Shayna and I’m so freaking stoked you’re here because today we have an incredible guest, Katie Love! Katie is an expert social media strategist. She’s helped numerous businesses turn followers into real sales and leads. Katie has a decade of social media experience under her belt! She loves creating engaging content and branding for each of her clients.
Katie worked for TV stations across the country and as a news reporter, she learned to brand herself through social media. Now, she loves telling business owners' stories with engaging content, video and graphics. We had an incredible conversation about her journey from news caster to social media strategist.
34: Behind the scenes of creating a coworking community for women w/ Amanda M. Diehl
Helloooo and welcome back to the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m Shayna and I’m so freaking stoked you’re here because today we have an incredible entrepreneur with us today, Amanda Diehl, the owner/operator of Sky Oro in Bozeman, MT. Sky Oro is a gorgeoussss co-working space for women that I personally go to every time I’m passing through Bozeman, MT because the photography/videography side of the business has me traveling quite often. Here’s how their website sums up Sky Oro: “An activated community of badasses who are brave enough to be vulnerable and bold enough to help each other get to the top in their lives.” How cool is that!? Side note, friends, I have this future vision of a creative space/content creation space/rentable studio mixed with a coworking space, so I freaking attacked Amanda with all of my questions when I first met her in person and she was gracious enough to move the conversation to the pod. So welcome to my selfish business coaching sesh, ha! Let’s get right into it.
33: Whole-heartedness and diving in head first w/ Devin from Backcountry Bohemians
DEVIN LARSON: Diving in head first in EVERYTHING she does, money mindset and business growth, launching an incredible FIELD GUIDE, and much more!!
32: Experimenting and taking creative risks in 2022
Experimenting and taking creative risks in 2022
31: Online marketing for creative business in 2022
Online marketing for creative business in 2022
30: ALL about how I handle MONEY in my business!
ALL about how I handle MONEY in my business!
29: Creating a personal brand that grows with you w/ Rachel Traxler
RACHEL TRAXLER: On her business journey, developing a personal brand that grew with her business + life, bringing her husband on board, and much more!
28: Making Montana Diaries: My photo/video business story!
Making Montana Diaires: My photo/video business story!
27: Deep dive with destination wedding photographer Grace Troutman!
Meet Grace Troutman:
"My name is Grace Troutman and I'm a Midwest based destination wedding photographer and business educator. I started my business about 6.5 years ago and have traveled to places including Iceland, Ireland, Hawaii, Colorado, California, and Washington to shoot sessions and weddings. I lived in California when I was first starting my business, but Iowa called us home and I was determined to live a life of travel while still being close to family and friends. If I'm not out shooting with my team or teaching other creatives, you can find me hanging out with my husband or playing with my two year old daughter, Pfeiffer. I'm an enneagram 2w3 so that says a lot about me!"
26: 5 steps to systemizing your content strategy!
5 steps to systemizing your content strategy! We’re talking alllll about batching, friend.
25: What does it REALLY take to run multiple businesses? w/ Zoelle Devlin
On today’s episode we have the lovely Zoelle Devlin, the Missoula, Montana entrepreneur behind Love Dot and Love Zoelle. Zoelle has a beautiful eye for design, mind for business, and heart for serving — all of which serve her in her two businesses that she’s sharing about on this episode. Everyyyy purpose-driven creative entrepreneur will have something to gain from this conversation.
24 Personal Branding for Creative Business w/ Salima Omwenga
Salima Omwenga is a personal brand strategist and the founder of UFlourish, a platform where driven workforce professionals and entrepreneurs can learn how to develop a strong personal brand that will unlock new career and business opportunities all while living a life they love. She believes anyone that has a gift, talent, skill, or area of expertise can benefit from being intentional about developing a personal brand.
23 Nicola Dixon on failure and hiding out to pivoting and abundance
On episode 23, I’m joined by my dear friend Nicola Dixon. Nicola is an INCREDIBLE photographer — like, how of this world talented. She’s also a launch strategist and coach who helps photographers enter the digital product space. She gets so freaking vulnerable on this episode of the Montana Diaries Podcast — we go wayyyy back in her business journey and she is so kind to open up about failure, financial trauma, mindset, and her eventual successful pivot into the photo world. This episode is a must listen.
22: Selling a hand made creative product w/ Hannah Lorenzen
On episode 22 of the Montana Diaries Podcast, I’m chatting with Hannah Lorenzen, the Missoula-based owner of Han-MadeWithLove — she makes stunning clay jewelry and it’s so freaking unique, you guys, unlike anything I’ve ever seen. I hired Hannah to design pieces to go in my welcome boxes for my wedding and elopement clients and I am absolutely blown away by the care she put into each design. I knew I had to get her on the pod to tell you about her process. If you’ve been wanting to sell a creative product but you’re not sure where to start, this is a great episode with a heart-centered approach from Hannah...but, yeah, I mostly just want to hype this woman up so that you go freaking check her out. Make your dollars mean something this holiday season — shop local, shop small.