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Steph sits down with marketing pro and longtime friend Shannon Hill for a conversation that starts with a five-years-overdue headshot session and spirals into everything that actually makes a portrait work: light, timing, color, and the willingness to trust the person behind the camera. They dig into how AI has pushed photography back toward the real and the authentic, why so many of us default to black blazers when color would

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What if sales was never about selling — and always about knowing yourself first?

Anna Hockett went from a broadcast journalism degree to turning down an anchor job, to closing million-dollar software deals, to Director of Sales & Account Services at Nei-Turner Media Group — home of Brava, Persona, and Chicago Style Weddings. In this episode of Unwritten, she and Steph get into the part of sales nobody puts in the training manual: the fear underneath it.

Steph opens up about why she kept her photography rates low for years — the not-good-enough story, the fear that clients would be mad at her, the comparison trap — and how resentment and burnout finally forced the change. Anna shares the boardroom moment where she asked a furious CEO the question no one else would ask, why she used a fake name on cold calls to get over the hump, and what she learned about walking away from a client who isn't the right fit.

Together they land on something bigger than sales: your biggest blocks become your building blocks. The most troubled vines make the best wine. And the validation you've been waiting for was never coming from out there anyway.

Whether you're a business owner, a creative pricing your work, or someone who flinches at the word "sales" — this one's about confidence, connection, and finally knowing what you bring to the table.

Listen to Anna's Podcast Here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-anna-angle/id1830016709

Link to Brava magazine: https://bravamagazine.com/

Topics: sales confidence, raising your prices, imposter syndrome, knowing your worth, women in business, entrepreneurship, self-worth, mindset, personal branding, storytelling, marketing.

Tags: sales confidence, how to raise your rates, knowing your worth, women in business, imposter syndrome, sales mindset, pricing your services, entrepreneur mindset, self-worth, personal branding, storytelling marketing, Brava Magazine, Persona Magazine, Madison Wisconsin business, Unwritten with Steph

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What if instead of bracing for everything to fall apart, you got obsessed with it all working out?

Recorded fresh off a camping trip in the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior, this Soulful Sunday is about the fear loop so many of us live in by the time we hit our forties — and the choice to trade it for a love loop instead. Steph gets honest about being "addicted" to things not working out, to hard work that never feels like enough, and to doubting the good the moment it arrives.

This one goes into the programming that taught us to stay small: the childhood conditioning that trained creativity and imagination right out of us, why we call our negative thoughts "realistic" and dismiss the positive ones as dreaming, and what it means to remember you are not the things that happened to you — you are your reaction to them.

With reflections on sobriety, self-trust, manifesting the life you actually want, and the simple truth that when you give love and grace to yourself, it gets mirrored right back — this is an invitation to stop running someone else's program and start writing your own.

If you needed permission to believe it could work out? Here it is.

Topics: self-love, fear vs. love, breaking the cycle, law of attraction, manifesting your dream life, mindset shift, sobriety, spiritual awakening, healing your inner child, alignment, personal transformation.

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How I became a photographer — and the question that started it all: am I worth it?

In this episode of Unwritten, I share my honest origin story: buying my first camera while pregnant, building a photography business through divorce and single motherhood, learning marketing and SEO the hard way, and finally learning to charge what I'm worth. If you've ever wanted to start a creative business but feared you weren't "enough," this one's for you.

🎟️ Join my one-day business workshop, the 4 Pillars of Success — July 30, Baraboo, WI. Four women teaching what it really takes to grow a business. Link below.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1992439066884?aff=oddtdtcreator

#WomenInBusiness #PhotographyBusiness #Unwritten #Entrepreneur #WisconsinPhotographer

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"It wasn't a failure. It was an experience."

This week on Unwritten I'm sitting down with Lacey Steffes — a self-proclaimed serial entrepreneur who's built Spa Serenity, Pause Facial Bar, Gateway Powersports, and a dirt drag series that grew from 800 people to 8,000 in about two years.

We get into what it actually takes to keep going. Why failure isn't the end of the story, it's just information. Why the people questioning what you're doing are usually the ones standing outside the ring. And why, for Lacey, the real key to success was never more structure — it was surrounding herself with people who are in the arena right alongside her.

We also talk trusting your gut, going all in, and how she turned everyday events into marketing that spreads on its own (ask her about the field trip that got a whole class Snapchatting from the track).

Lacey is one of the four women teaching at my upcoming workshop, the 4 Pillars of Success, and this conversation is a perfect taste of the real, no-fluff wisdom she brings.

Come sit in the arena with us. 🎟️ https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1992439066884?aff=oddtdtcreator

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Some of the hardest seasons of our lives are the ones that force us to root the fastest. This week on Soulful Sunday, Steph talks about the plant that grows out of solid rock — and why your toughest circumstances might be building your resilience, not breaking you.

She unpacks the difference between holding onto old stories as wounds versus using them as fuel, why fear-based thinking (and the algorithms feeding it) keep us small, and the one belief she was missing for years even while doing "all the right manifestation work." The messages you're feeding yourself — in the songs you sing, the books you pick up, the conversations you have — are telling you exactly where you are. Time to listen.

If you've been holding onto skeletons in the closet, wondering if you're "inadequately designed" for the life you want — this one's for you.

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Happy July 3rd. This morning I sat with the birds and my journal and remembered something I'd forgotten: the importance of filling my own cup first.

This episode is a real one. I get into the reality we see versus the reality we feel, and why so many of us are running a program we inherited: the same job, the same house, the same everything, because sameness feels safe. I talk about being a seeker in a world built for factory workers, about shedding layers to grow (even when it means losing what you built), and about finally understanding at 45 that I am my own safe space, and that I'm worthy of better clients, better income, and a bigger life than the program ever let me believe.

If you've been feeling the pull toward something more, this one's for you. Take a deep breath, fill your cup, and don't be afraid. The life you want is already waiting.

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The minute you register that LLC, the wolves come for the fresh meat. In this episode, Steph sits down with her bestie Shannon Hill — calling in from her morning commute — to talk about all the stuff nobody warns you about when you start a business.

They get into which tools are actually worth your money and which subscriptions to cancel, why you should always own your own domains and logins (and the GoDaddy trick to watch out for), and the tangled messes that trip up small business owners. Then the conversation turns where Unwritten always does — toward the truth underneath. Steph opens up about the fear of putting on events and not filling the seats, the "barbed wire" she pushes through just to show up, and the quiet voice that whispers you're not enough.

The reminder at the heart of it: you got up, got dressed, and actually did the damn thing. That counts for more than you think.

🎧 Featuring a love letter to CapCut, a warning about GoDaddy, Martin Short on failure, and one very brief, unauthorized Taylor Swift cover.

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