The Power of Being Seen: Personal Branding, Podcasting & the Pivot That Changed Everything with Jessica Burgio

If you have ever felt the pull to pivot, if you're craving more alignment in your life or in business, or if you're sitting on a message that you know the world needs to hear, this episode is for you. Today's guest is somebody who's walked through reinvention again and again and brought her community along with her. I'm sitting down with Jessica Burgio, wellness and business mentor, top rated podcast host, and founder of the Unscripted Network. In this episode we dive into how to build a bold personal brand. Even when you're scared to be seen, the mindset shifts required to evolve your identity and pivot with power. What most people get wrong about podcasting and visibility, the real reason personal branding is a non negotiable in 2025, and the rituals, mentors and moments that help Jess transform her life and business from the inside out. Plus, you'll hear the full circle moment of how this podcast was actually born inside one of Jess's programs. So get ready for some behind the scenes magic and let's go ahead and get into this Episod foreign. This is Busy Getting Better the podcast for women who are committed to prioritizing their own personal growth. I'm your host, Madison J. A mindset and money coach, a first generation wealth builder and a woman on a mission to help you master your finances and live your best life. Money is not all we are covering though because in order to live your best life you have to become your best self. So we are diving deep into all things personal development and bringing you the mindset shifts, money, tips and inspiration. You need to go out there, be bold and build the life you can't stop daydreaming about. It's time to get busy babe. Busy Getting better. Yeah. I am so excited to introduce today's guest because Jess has been someone that has been in my life for the last couple of years and I've been watching you on the Internet and honestly I just love your unapologetic approach to pivoting, to confidence, to alignment. I know that this is something my audience is going to eat up. And for everybody that is listening to this episode, I am having a fabulous conversation today with Jess Virgil. She is a badass woman. You need to go follow her. She is a wellness and business mentor, she's a speaker and she is the host of a top rated podcast called the Unscripted Podcast that you should definitely check out. She spent over 25 years in the beauty and wellness industry and she is now on a mission to help Women build bold personal brands and grow aligned income streams, which we love here, and show up confidently as the face of their business. She's also the founder of Creative House out in San Diego. So all of my content creators out in the San Diego area, you got to go check this out. And she also leads. This is a new offer of yours, which I'm so excited about, the Unscripted Network, which is a mentorship space for female podcasters who are ready to get visible and own their voice. The reason I love this offer for you, Jess, is because you were part of my very first entrance into the podcasting world. So this feels like a really full circle moment to have you on the show and have you on Busy Getting Better, because this podcast was birthed inside of a program that you offered. So back in 2023, I went through a live podcast training with Jess, where she really helped me understand what it takes to build a podcast and all of the mental hurdles and the systems hurdles and everything that goes into actually showing up and being seen. And when I was prepping for this podcast, I realized I actually launched my podcast one year ago, almost to the day of us able to have this conversation. I just feel like it is such divine timing to have you on the show, and I'm so excited to have you here. Jess, welcome to Busy Getting Better.

Oh, my gosh, I am so proud of you. I am so proud to be here. I think that is just ironic and also iconic that it's a year later. I. I think you mentioned that when we were chatting of just like full circle moment, and it actually, I was like, oh, that's cute. What is she talking about? I have helped so many people start their podcast that I didn't realize the time span that had gone on, gone by, how we even met originally, and then how we come into each other's world through the podcast course. And then different rooms we get to be in. Things I've seen you speak at and the way that you're showing up on social media now and the evolution of watching you pivot, it's such a juicy, beautiful little family we get to have here in the podcast space. So whoever's listening, I'm. If you're listening to Madison show, you're in the right space.

Thank you so much. Yeah, I was just like a lost little soul. I remember leaving the Powerhouse Women event in 2023, and that was like, the first time I was like, wait, this is gonna. I don't know if this comes off weird, but just normal people have podcasts like, it was such an eye opening conversation for me to have there. And then you came into my life and it was like, hey, let me take you through this, Jo journey of starting the podcast. And I remember just feeling so grateful for that space because you just don't know what you don't know. But also there's such a level of self confidence I think that you need to be able to embody as you're stepping into the podcasting world, because it is lonely, it's raw, it's real, it's authentic. It's you just yapping. Podcasting for me was like, I'm really just gonna let people into my brain and like, let them hear all of these crazy thoughts and the way that I speak about things and what my opinion is on certain topics. And you have to be like, ready to be seen in a new way to let people into your mind and let people into your world. And so it's like starting a podcast just sounds so, like, tactical, but it's not. There's so much mindset behind it and there's so much like rebuilding, like, who you are and how you want to show up and what you want to talk about. And I just love that that is what you help with. Like, there was so much strategy and tactical, but it's also like, come on, girl. Like, come on, get out there. Your message needs to be heard and you just bring so much of that, I don't know, power of letting people show up authentically into your whole brand. And I just think it's so needed. And I just, I wouldn't be here without that little kick in the butt of go out there and do this and let your message be heard. And here's all the steps that you need to do and like, let me know how I can help you. So I just think that that's a really cool space. And so now, a year and a half later from when I went through that program, to know that you're now really leaning into this, like, mentorship space around podcasting. I just was like, it makes so much sense. I know that everybody in there is going to be just so benefiting from your years of experience in this space.

Well, I'm sure anybody listening is like, but wait, like, when years in the beauty industry, how did she end up now mentoring people in the podcast space? I know you wanted to dive into that. I didn't think I'd end up here. I didn't think I ended up helping people with podcasts. And I actually fought it for a little while because I didn't want to be niche down to be known as a girl who helps people with their podcasts. As if that's a bad thing. It's like back to my own old mentality in the beauty industry of I'm quote unquote, just a hairdresser. I think for a lot of people who maybe felt like the career they chose wasn't some o on a pedestal, the three things your parents said you could be right, doctor, teacher, lawyer, you know, the things that were like your status quo of being acceptable. I think I'm a little bit older than some of your audience. You know, when I went to beauty school right out of high school, my mom was like, I'm not paying for that. That's not real school. I was like, no, it's literally a trade school. Mom. This is, It's. It was $8,000. You want me to go to a four year college? It's like six figures to go to a four year college. Like, I'll be making six figures before most of my friends get through their first year of drinking beer and, you know, failing all their classes. And at the time, she couldn't see it. So anyways, I did something against the grain then. So it's not a wonder that, you know, while I was in the midst of having the best year of my career in the beauty industry, I decided to pivot. But it came from a pain point. It came from a pain point because my life had changed and the season of my life was different. At the time, I had an 8 year old. When I started my career, I had no problem working nine to nine, taking clients on the weekends, doing all the things we all do when we have the time and the space. But often different seasons of our life will change the priorities that we have. And so while a brick and mortar space was fine for the longest time, and in fact I loved it, it made me feel very grounded. I have pretty gnarly adhd, so being stuck in one, unable to do anything else like a work from home, I always thought would be so cool. I was so jealous of people who had blackberries. If any of you know that was the first phone that you could like do email on. Yeah, she's vintage. But now I'm like, oh, I had it all wrong. I was jealous of the wrong thing. I was jealous that I could work from anywhere. But yet at the same time now I'm like, God, I wish I could just shut the phone off and not work from anywhere. It's so funny. Perspective Right. I share a lot of that on my podcast because I think having been around this long, I'm 44, and having had two major careers, like, I can see both sides. And so I'm always the person who's gonna help you look in the mirror and see, like, are you really ready for a pivot or are you just bored? Are you just not applying yourself to what you currently could be doing to make it better? Have you outgrown the space that you're in? I think the answer for me was yes to some of those. But also I had that little urge that you probably felt when you were sitting at Powerhouse Women of like, holy shit, there's so much out there. Am I living up to my fullest potential? Like, you almost see what is possible for yourself when maybe you were too busy to see the potential for where you could be. It wasn't that you didn't think you had potential or that you weren't interested in other things. It was, you were so busy doing the thing that you set out to do and maybe even doing it really well that you didn't give yourself any space to think bigger and. Or maybe that season of life didn't allow for it, right, to like, pull back on the income or to work less or to work in a different environment or whatever that looks like. So for me, again, Kai was eight, nine years old. I was starting to miss a lot of stuff that he was getting to do after school and on the weekends because I worked late and I worked most weekends. And so that pain point, which it often takes to get us out of our comfort zone, started to become stronger. And I was like, okay. I lifted my head up from, you know, the multiple six figure business I had created that was literally on autopilot. And I was like, what else can she do? Where can we go? And at the time, I had one foot in the wellness space and still, you know, I was obviously the beauty industry. But I had been running fitness camps for Strong Fitness magazine with my mentor, Lori Harder, and her husband actually started a mastermind called Fast Foundations. And I had been going to her big events over the last couple of years. So really kind of getting into personal development, understanding what it looked like to go internally versus, like just the external validation of the money and what it looked like to be successful and really questioning, like, what is my five year plan? Cause I didn't have one. I was just in the moment doing the thing, I guess, surviving. I didn't think anything was wrong with it at the time, but it really Made me look at, like, who I was as a person. And obviously, like, in your late 20s, you start to kind of sometimes reflect on, am I actually doing what I want to be doing or what I was conditioned to believe I was supposed to do? Because I got married at 25, and I bought the house that I couldn't afford, and I worked nine to nine, and I grinded for, like, three and a half years just to keep the mortgage paid. And I Woke up in 2008 and was like, this is not it. You are not my person. What am I doing? And I blew my whole Life up at 27. And so shortly after, I had these opportunities with Lori and her husband started the Mastermind. And I was like, if nothing changes, nothing changes. I know that these people know stuff that I don't know. They know people that I don't know. What would it look like if I decided to do something online? I have no idea where to start, but I know that these people, right? It's always the who, not the how. These people know more than I do over here, so maybe I should go hang out with them. It looks like I have to pay them to work with them, so maybe I should pay them. And so I remember reaching out to both Lori and Chris separately and saying, hey, this is where I'm at. I don't have anything online. What, should I join your mastermind? What is a mastermind? I thought masterminds were just for people who, like, worked in corporate. I didn't know. And they were like, listen, we didn't really know what masterminds were all about either until we started getting into them. And they've changed our lives. You get into a room with a bunch of people who want to grow, who want to expand, and they'll start to see your potential. You see theirs, you can see, see that all these things start to happen. I could give you a list of things that could happen if you joined a mastermind. No guarantees, right? And I was like, I've never invested in something that I didn't really know what the clear ROI was going to be. So, like, think hairdresser. I go to a haircutting class, I learned how to do X haircut. I go to a color class, I learned how to do color, right? I knew what the transaction was going to be. Client came in, they wanted a haircut, they left with said haircut. My life was very clear on, like, transformations, if you will. This is the price, yes or no. You get the service, you leave. Whereas a mastermind, it's A crapshoot. How much are you going to show up? What are they actually going to teach and provide? Is a mastermind actually the right room? Should you actually have had maybe just a coach instead? Should I have maybe just taken a course? Should I maybe have seen what online was all about before I went all in and spent eight grand on a mastermind? I had no clue I was going.

To get out of it.

All the things. But at the time I trusted them and I trusted that they would at least lead me to the next right step. I swiped the credit card for, I think it was like 7,500 bucks. And I had this full body, like, fuck yeah, we're doing it. And it was that moment that the confidence started to build that you talk about. I had had so much confidence in my previous career. I really was a fool. I thought I would just make this lateral move and like life would be the same over here in this new online space. But once again, I was wrong. And it was in that six month container that I had my dream salon space fall on my lap at the time. Before that, I had not owned my own brick and mortar. I had been a partner in a smaller space, but it wasn't like mine. I hadn't created any kind of community within the industry because I was too busy working. I hadn't really taken social media seriously because again, too busy working. So I was like, we gotta do things different shit. I don't know how to do any of this stuff. Like, okay, they sent us home and the challenge was to create something. I'm like, I want to create a community within the beauty industry, bringing us together. That's not a class, that's more like this mastermind style. Maybe I'll bring some speakers, maybe I'll do this. So I tried, I tried things on and I created this, this community called the Beauty Insider Brunches. And they were amazing. And then six months after Covid happened, so my dream salon, my awesome community, the timing, but I was so grateful that I had at least a six month jump on what was the demise of a lot of people in my industry's careers. Like they had nothing else. We didn't know when we were going to be able to open again. We didn't know what was going on with the industry at the time. Gavin Newsom was telling us we could work on the sidewalk. I mean, I work between two restaurants. You think I'm a cut hair and what. So it was like the wildest times, but I was like, I'm so prepared. I Had wanted to start a freaking podcast for, like, two years. I had a microphone that was collecting dust because I had watched Lori go. I had watched Chris, I had watched Lindsay Schwartz, all these people in my kind of ecosystem start their podcast. And I was like, I don't have a clear message. I'm not really selling anything yet. I don't know who I am in this space. I don't know all these things, right, that we feel like we need to have so much certainty and clarity around. But I have an empty salon. I'm pissed off that we're closed. I feel like I need to give a voice to the industry right now. So I kind of knew that I wouldn't always want to talk to the beauty industry, but I was like, start with where you're at. Have these beauty insider brunches. I had made some merch for them. The shirt said, beauty inspires beauty. So I made some more shirts. I made some little journals. I made some coffee mugs. I made a few other things. And I launched the podcast, and I started really raw. And I started like somebody who was very green, who thought she knew how to interview somebody. And I just watched some of my YouTube videos last night with my kid, and he's like, you don't even look the same. I don't. I look like a completely different person. Awkward, a little bit weird, talking too fast, saying, and, like, every other word. But we started, and I recorded 25 episodes live in my studio with terrible audio. He was. He even said, you don't even have a mic on mom. Like, it was so bad. But I just knew that if I didn't get started, I would never start. The first several episodes are terrible. But I ended up having my mentor, Chris Harder, on the podcast. And during that time, when we were closed, I said to him, I really loved your program. You should create some sort of, like, coaching certification or something. I don't know what I suggested. And he's like, well, we're not going to do that. He's like, but we actually implemented support coaches in the rounds, the round after you. And we have an upcoming round coming. Would you like to be a support coach inside the group? And I was like, wow. My first opportunity to become a coach in a space that I felt very unqualified to be. I'm gonna be your little mentor coach. Like Chris Harder wants me to mentor people in his group. It was, like, the wildest idea to me, but yet I'd been in their ecosystem and world for so long. I'd gone through the program. I was the exact right person to actually help the past version of me in the group. But, you know, sometimes we can't see that when we're in it because we don't have full confidence yet. But it takes the action of doing the thing to create the confidence sometimes. And even just one person believing in you a little bit more than you don't believe in yourself, that's like one of my favorite Jen Gottlieb quotes, which I think she stole it from Steve Jobs. Like, we just need to believe in ourselves a little bit more than we don't to start to show up and to make some changes. And so this all led to me creating a coaching business and working for them and then creating my six figure stylist program, which I launched and was basically to crickets because I wasn't showing up on social media. I had no following and nobody knew me as that person. And so I was like, wow, you can't be the best kept secret because no one will know you have something to offer and that you can help them if you don't talk about it and you don't share it. Really had to, like, stretch myself out of my comfort zone and start showing up. Not just on the podcast, but I had to market every episode. I had to talk about it. I had to share that I was doing it. I couldn't just post it on Apple and hope that people were going to find it, because they weren't. I'll tell you, the YouTube views were like one me. But even so, like, all of that taught me so much about who I am and how I want to serve women. I think I was able to do that for so long behind the chair, I didn't realize how much I was helping with their confidence level by the conversations they were. We were having. Yes, their hair, of course, and makeup. But it was so much about who they got to share with in the safe space. You know, when you're with your hairdresser, like, you just will tell them anything. They can have a client for the first time. And I literally know everything.

So it's like a trauma dump. It really is a therapy session.

I got good, you know, about 10 years in learning how to redirect those conversations into a more productive way because often I would leave very drained later finding out I was a projector and that I can't hold all that energy without putting it somewhere or getting like, refueled somewhere else. But all the while, I was training to be a great interviewer because I practiced my communication skills. And I was able to ask really good questions. And so we often can pull from experience that we have in order to do the things that we want to do. And so that's where, you know, this journey with podcasting and creating what I have now has not happened by accident. But, you know, it's been such an amazing journey. And you said something at the end of my intro there about being seen. And it's so wild because people think kept saying that to me. You helped me feel seen. You helped me feel like this, that whatever. And so we're doing a full rebrand. You guys are hearing it first. The podcast is actually name is going to be seen. That's my whole brand identity is now all about helping you feel seen and heard right through podcasting. And while I used to love helping people start their damn podcast, that was my original course for for podcasters. I now know that the people I want to work with can chatgpt their way to starting. They need strategy to keep them in the game and to actually show up and create really good content, not just start. I need you to be past start. I work now. Women who have started or who are just on the brink of starting, who either want to come into our management agency and help us start for you and with you, you don't need a course to walk through. I'll hold your hand. We'll get you launched within 30 days. And then you come into the community, which is the unscripted network community for female podcasters to stay in momentum. Because like you said, it can get very lonely when I sit here and record for hours at a time. I'm literally staring at the little screen by myself, thinking, like, at one point in your life, you were jealous of people who could work alone and from home. And now I'm like, God, someone turned the music up. Where are there other people in here? Where are the. Where are the hairdressers? Where's the crazy girl with her head shaved?

You know, be careful what you ask for.

Listen, I tell you. And so now, after about six years in the online space, I have re incorporated. I have a physical space now called Creative House. You mentioned that. And it's like my mixed use space. I have my own, like, creative playground where I have two salon chairs. I do see clients here once a week. And then I have monthly events that I host called the Entrepreneur Success series, where I bring community to me here we have guest speakers, and then I also have a photographer who rents space in here at times, so I get to watch her create we do some branding opportunities for our clients with VIP packages for cover art if they need that, or branding photo shoots. So I kind of did create what I wish existed, when all the while, a lot of coaches and different people over the time was like, you got.

To let go of this.

You got to get rid of that. You can't post that. You do your workouts because you don't sell that. And so now it's taken me, like I said, guys, six years to figure out how to incorporate all the things I love into one business that feels like I'm actually showing up as the version of me that was very long winded. But you can get there if you have the ability to give yourself that time to find out who you really are and what you really want to be showing up online, sharing authentically. Because a lot of people will say, like, when I used to teach social media classes, I don't want to share these private parts of me. And I'm like, you shouldn't. If that's not what you're comfortable sharing, share the stuff that feels good for you. And as you evolve, you'll get more comfortable sharing other things because you know it can help somebody.

Wow. You said one million and one fabulous things in there. I think the, like, the importance of surrounding yourself with people that are doing the things that you want to do and can help shift the way that you see yourself is so key and so important because you kind of get in, like, your own echo chamber. And this goes for no matter what. If you're in corporate, if you're already in entrepreneurship, like, you get in your own, like, mind, and you have to be able to shift out of that. And I think a really powerful way to do that is by, yeah, just changing who you're around, taking that leap, investing in yourself, starting before you're ready. I think you said something in there just around, you know, having the confidence to start. I have no idea where I heard this years ago, but it really stuck with me, is that courage comes before confidence, and you need to have the courage to start. And then once you actually start doing those activities, that's how you build confidence. You can't have confidence in something that you haven't done before, but you can have the courage to start. And like you said, like, with the podcasting, with all of this stuff, like, the intense. Right. The way I viewed the first year of Busy Getting Better was not to be the number one podcast. It was to get started. It was to build the reps. It was to get comfortable being seen and articulating stories that I wanted to tell. And, you know, it's been a really great place to collaborate and network with different people and open up different kinds of conversations. It's like. And then you elevate and then you figure out what you like and you don't like. And I feel like that's a perfect, you know, example of your evolution of your business of starting with the people at the beginners, which, by the way, glad I snagged a spot in that beginner course. Right. Because it got. It helped me get started. And then there is so much elevation. And speaking of someone who's, you know, now, one year into podcasting, we passed the 21 episodes, so we're officially in the 1% or anyone that doesn't know. Your 21st episode officially puts you in the 1% of podcasters because there's not a lot of longevity. Like, it feels like a really saturated market, but there's not a lot of people that stick with it because it is a lot of upkeep, and there is just. There's so much to it. So I think that I love the evolution for you. And you said. You said in there so many times, just about becoming a different person of version of yourself. And I actually screenshotted a quote that you shared to your story recently. I wanted to share it here because I feel like this is, like, perfect of what we're talking about. And it said, business is a strange game. It demands everything from you. Your time, your focus, your sanity, and promises nothing in return. You chase goals that move every time you get close. There is no rulebook, no finish line, just problems to solve and versions of yourself to outgrow. Some days you will feel like a genius. Other days you feel like a fraud. But you keep showing up, not because it's easy, but because something in you refuses to quit. That's the real game. Not building the business, but becoming the person who can. And I was just like, like, oh, gosh, so good. And so I feel like my question to you on the back end of that is, like, what has been the biggest internal identity shift that you've had to go through from being in the beauty space, being in, you know, the wellness space, to now shifting into. I guess that was still entrepreneurial at heart, but, like, really this new chapter of podcasting and personal branding, Because I'm sure there was a lot of similarities, but I would just love to hear from you, like, what was. What was the internal identity shift that you've had to go through to really become this version of you that's stepping into this space and owning, owning this industry.

Well, it was just that, an identity shift of letting one identity go so that you could reintroduce yourself as the version of you that you were stepping into and becoming. And that's hard to do when you're programmed and you have done something for so long is to say that you do something different. It feels so awkward and weird. And that's where people start to use that word, imposter syndrome. And like, you're not an imposter. Even if you haven't actually started your podcast yet and you want to say you're a podcaster because you're going to start your podcast, you, you can literally claim that title. You can say you're a speaker if you only ever speak into a microphone. Right. We can identify with whatever title we want in any capacity. We know that now. Right. But at the end of the day, I think I grieved a past version of who I was because I didn't necessarily want to let her go. But I knew that in order to get where I wanted to go, or so I thought, I had to let something go. And so actually believing that I had to give up hair fully was what I believed. And when I, quote, unquote, cute, quit about two years ago fully and gave my full clientele away, I was down to like two days a week, three days maybe. I stepped all into the podcasting space and that's where I was like, what can I create around this thing that I love doing this long form media? Can I create a management agency? Can I help other people? Can I really help people feel seen and heard through the podcast space? Can I get them out of their own way? So maybe if the tech is scaring them or they don't have clarity on what they're going to talk about, can I feel like this would be something that would fulfill me? And so I had to start with me first. Yes, I knew I could help other people and yes, it would be a great product or service to provide, but like, did I want to embody this now? And it felt very much like I went from one box to another box. And so I fought it for the longest time and I think that was good. But also I think it was very brave of me, like you said, that courage had to come first because I had to let go of something that was working. I had to be open to receiving something else. I knew it was going to be hard, and that's why I think I dragged my feet for so long. Then being able to reintroduce it into my business and life again because it was something that was so much a part of me that I loved, right? Creating, doing hair, having an opportunity to connect with my clients in person like I did. Nothing compares. Nothing. The beauty industry is one of the best places to work. It is so amazing. If you make it work like anything, if you toe dip into something or if you half ask something or you don't give it your full attention, it's not going to give you the results that you want. It's not going to feel like you thought it was going to feel even like reading that quote, listening to you read that back. I almost didn't reshare that because part of it felt a little bit negative. But it's the truth. And even if I look at it and didn't know anything that I know now and I go all the way back to where I started before, that was all true for that business then as well. And there was something that Chris Harder said when he was like promoting this mastermind that really spoke to me was he said, this is for all of you. Accidental entrepreneurs. That was one of the titles that called to me. I was like, I am an accidental entrepreneur. At the time I went into the beauty industry with clarity around wanting freedom, but also clarity of the thing I wanted to do, not the business I wanted to run. I went in as an employee, I was an assistant for a year and a half. Then I was an employee for another salon when I started off in commission. And then finally one day when it wasn't working out and I had some hiccups with that space, I had to go out on my own. So overnight I became a true entrepreneur where this was my business and I was fully responsible for every single part of it. I think I had to learn from mistakes as I went. I didn't have a mentor in the business space. I knew how to do the service, but I didn't know how to run the back end of my business. No systems, no money, language around what to do, none of it. So it was like the school hard knocks for me and learning a lot of painful financial lessons like buying a house I couldn't really afford and then having to do a short sale and having that, you know, eff me on the back for quite a few years before I paid off the debt. So when I tell you that I've been through a journey with it, it's that identity shift where I had to let that go to step into Where I wanted to go and to start to see myself as this version of somebody who was responsible with money, who could create systems in their life and business, who could live by a schedule, who could sit in a chair for more than an hour and actually work and create content. I had to reprogram myself through a variety of different ways to be able to show up as this consistent version to get the results that I was craving.

Okay, when you say rewire, are there any specific like, like rituals, modalities, things that you've done that have worked really well for you in order to shift that? We talk a lot about shifting our identity and changing the way that we think and view ourselves. And I'm always just so interested what has worked for other people because it sounds cool, I'll just be a new person then. Right? But how do you actually put that into practice? So I would love to hear what has worked for you.

Well, so back in the day I had a therapist that I kept just like on even when things were quote, unquote great, just talk therapy. I did that for many years and it was good. It was, after a while just felt like every two weeks I was catching up with a girlfriend on like things, you know. And so while we talked about doing things like EMD and other like deeper therapeutic things, we never got to it. So I finally let that go. I moved into the journaling space and I started just going inward doing my own work. I started with prompted journals that would help me dig up some. I don't want to talk about that. I would flip to a page that I did want to write about. And so I created a journal practice against my will. And then that went on for a couple of years. But also just reprogramming different people have been a. Marissa Pier has been a good one on YouTube, of course. Joe Dispenza is a huge one I listen to still on the daily then. I've had a few mentors in my life who were podcast friends who have meditations that I listen to, listened to. I was in a six month spiritual mastermind a couple years ago with a actual person that I mentored and was a coach to Inside Chris's program. Her name is Megan Weir. She runs a couple of amazing programs. She's done the utmost work to become like trauma informed and to hold a lot of space like this. So we did a lot of personal one to one work that was a really challenging six months for me because there was a lot in her business that I admired. And so I think in my Mind, when I joined the six month container, I'm using air quotes, I kind of thought I'd get to pick her brain for business. And while I did, it was like the second call in and we started to do some of the shadow work and the deep stuff. And I remember messaging her on this, I'm like, I think I joined the wrong group. I really just wanna know how you edit your podcast. And she was like, no, you don't. She's like, you didn't join a business mastermind. Don't try to cute quit on this. I was like, shit, you're right. So we ended up doing a week in Costa Rica. And that's when, you know, I had gotten into breath work a couple years prior to that. And that had been instrumental in my separation from my son's dad and releasing a lot of that anger so that I could then move on and process. But I think I fell in love with it so much, I thought I wanted to teach it and I wanted to facilitate it. And so I went through this like 14 week program with our friends that are in Arizona. The healing. And that was amazing to learn about the body and what your breath actually can do. I got into all those modalities and I just started doing them for myself. I went down Aaron Claire Jones's 13 week human design course. I studied the Enneagram. I learned more about myself and the people around me, my partner, my kid, what their human designs were, what their Enneagrams were. And so when you start to understand yourself better, you start to understand other people better. You're less bothered, you're less irritated, things just flow a little bit better because one you see, start to stop taking everything personal and realize that you are personally responsible for how you want to show up every day. And when you flip the like, blame game of like, well, I can't do this because of that, it's like, well, no, who do I need to hire me? The thing, who do I need to get around? What room do I need to be in? What do I need to stop doing in order to, you know, stop having the same patterns on repeat that are keeping me stuck. Once I kind of empowered myself with the realization that maybe today I just need to go sit in the sauna and listen to Joe Dispenza and I'm gonna be fine.

Fine.

Maybe I just need to fucking walk around the block without my phone for 30 minutes. You know, there are these simple things that I started noticing that worked for me. And we all have different things that work for Us. And so I can't give you a one size fits all prescription. But I will tell you that movement is my medicine. It is my breath, work and eating healthy, making sure I'm hydrated, having really amazing conversations with other people like this a couple times a week, having connection time with my friends who are also entrepreneurs that get it where we can just share space. We can either vent or ideate, play stupid idea time, play, let's pretend to quit for a day. Like all the things we need to do in order to like stay in the game. So there's a lot of different modalities and I teach that with a lot of my one to one clients who feel frustrated or stuck. Man, I should just go back to what I, what I was good at. You know, I've worked with lawyers, I've worked with people who are far more successful, I guess on paper than I ever considered myself. But it all comes down to the same thing. The belief that you could do the thing you want to do or move into the space you want to or use your expertise from an experience, whether that be a traumatic one or a heartfelt one or just maybe a transformational type 1 to then wanting to help somebody who is in need of that same transformation. Right. Because you've lived it, you now can speak about it. Even if you've only done it once or have gone through that thing one time, you are now equipped to help somebody else if you decide that's what you want to do.

I love that. I feel like this continues to boil back down to just surrounding yourself with people that see you, see the vision and can challenge you to think differently or think bigger. And I feel like it's so needed. Right. Because otherwise again, you just kind of get stuck in your own own, your own way of thinking. I think what you said in there too is like worship and business building. It's such a personal development journey. I feel like we say that all the time. The more that you learn about yourself, it's so empowering because exactly what you said when you realize, oh well, I'm responding this way because this. When I learned that I was manifesting generator, I'm a 6:2, I'm like, oh my God, the way my life just makes so much sense and it just, it gave me so much, you know, whatever. If people, you're into these things. I'm such a Leo. I'm a triple. I have got, you know, triple fire. I've got all of this stuff. It's just like this is me and it makes so much sense. You learn about yourself, but you also learn about other people and how they react to things. And you really start to recognize. And I think this work is so needed, especially when you are putting yourself on a platform like social media, like Instagram, like TikTok, like podcasting, because you're not always going to be everybody's cup of tea. You're not. Everybody's not going to agree with everything that you're saying, and nor should they. Like, you're not opening your up to be agreed with on every. In every capacity. But you do have to recognize that if you do trigger somebody, if you do upset somebody, if somebody does respond in a way, you've got to learn how to not make that mean anything about you. You've got to learn how to recognize that, hey, everybody's just on their own journey. They're learning about themselves, they're learning about the world, they're learning about money. Like, they're learning about all of these really complex topics at their own pace. And that might not necessarily be where you're at. And I think that is a really integral part into, again, putting yourself on a platform and letting yourself be seen in a big way. And I think we're in such an interesting time where social media is a lot. Social media is everything. It's the baseline of any business model. That is, if you don't have social media and you run a business, it's kind of weird, right? I know there are people that definitely navigate without it, but we are kind of in the era of personal branding like you. You really do need to be able to have a personal brand. Even the way that companies have now shifted their marketing tactics away from company approach to individuals. When we look at how people are marketing, everybody wants the founder story, Everybody wants to know what is the person behind this and what are they stand for and do I align with that away from just the product? And I think that that's a really cool pivot because it's putting a lot more, I don't know, accountability on the people behind the businesses. And we, we as a society get to really use our money to back what we believe in. And I think that that's really cool and really powerful. I just love the shift. And I think there's really a need, right? I even think when I was in the corporate world, the talk of personal brand was so important. Even within the walls of your company, like, how are you seen? What are people saying about you when you're not in the room? How do you make people feel when you leave a conversation, are they lit up? Are they drained? There's so much to building a personal brand. I know that this is a really big part of what you help with. I know a lot of people, obviously we talked about this. Women specifically, really struggle with being seen with putting their voice online and letting themselves become their own brand or maybe seeing themselves as a personal brand and a really integral part to their business. And so I would love to hear from you. How do you define personal branding and what advice would you give to somebody that either is starting a personal brand or feels stuck in their personal brand, or how should they be looking at their personal brand in 2025 for their business or for life or for their career? For anything?

Well, first of all, well said on everything that you just like, followed up with, because so much of that is so true and I think we don't get to talk about it enough. But I believe that, yeah, if you have any sort of business, right, if you're listening to this podcast, you probably have some sort of a business. You know how important personal branding is, is. I can look back all the way in my 25 year career and remember times where I did a terrible job on someone's hair. Like a terrible job. But because of the connection that we had, quote, unquote, we weren't calling it a personal brand, but who I was. They gave me a second chance or they would come back or they had the courage to say, hey, I didn't really like this. Can you fix it? We don't often get that opportunity because everyone's on to the next thing. There's something better. There's someone showing up louder on social media who's like, well, I got you. I'll take care of that. Or I can do it better than her.

Her.

It's this whole look at me game. And while a lot of us don't want to play the game, we can uniquely show up as ourselves in the confidence of what we have to offer and just totally be authentic. Sometimes that feels hard to do again when you're new. And so what I would say to somebody who is like, just developing a personal brand or creating a personal brand, or just finally, like, opening up their eyes to the fact that they need to build one for themselves no matter what their business is. Try things on for size. If you don't quite know what you stand for or who you are in this season, try things on for size. Talk about things that are important to you online. Bring up conversations, even if they're not necessarily the Monetization pillar in your said business or the business you want to start. Let people see the real you, because something you say will trigger them to be like, hey, so I know you do this, but could you help me with that? Or they'll start to conversate with you. And social media is a place where we're meant to get social and we're supposed to engage with one another. And so, like that opportunity that I had with Chris several years ago to become a, like, coach inside there, I wasn't out filling out coaching applications. I wasn't speaking on social media saying, hey, guys, who wants to hire me as a coach ready to coach you? Someone saw something in me based off of how I was showing up, which was, quote, unquote, my personal brand. He saw the podcast, got started. Here's a girl who took action. She came into my thing, she did the things, she's doing all the things like, boom, boom, boom. She's representative of who I want in this community. So there came the opportunity. But if I hadn't been showing up, if I hadn't taken action and been scared and started the podcast, I would not been gifted that opportunities. And who knows where my coaching business would have gone, right? Who knows if I would have started it. But that opportunity gave me a chance to see inside so many other people's businesses of. And this is where take what you need, leave what you don't. What worked? What was working for them, how were they showing up? In a way that was like something I was attracted to. I learned quickly that I was attracted to things that made me feel inspired, you know, aspirational content, aspirational women, people who were doing things I quote, unquote, wanted to do. When I started to feel like, I don't know, jealous of something, I was like, oh, you must be interested in that. Why are you jealous that she's doing that thing and you're not? You know, so that always led me to get more curious about what I wanted to be represented as. And so that brand origin story of who were you and then what happened to make you want to have some sort of pit of it? And you guys, you caught that in my earlier messaging, right? I shared with you my backstory. So that is kind of my quote, unquote, brand story. I built authority with you guys by sharing where I came from, who I once was, and what had to happen in order for me to make a shift in a change. That was your invitation to kind of find that for yourself. Oh, I went through something too. Maybe I could. And so when people start to see your themselves in your story, they connect with you. Madison said, you don't have to be everybody's cup of tea, and I'm certainly not. And that's why when the podcast started off as a Beauty inspires beauty podcast, after around episode, episode 40, I started to feel out of alignment with only speaking to the beauty industry. And even though that title wasn't, quote unquote, only for the beauty industry, I felt like I needed to shift and I needed to move my personal brand again. Air quotes. Into a different space that would allow for me to feel more authentic. And hence we came up with the word unscripted. Because I kept saying to my manager, I want this to feel more unscripted. And she was like, you've said unscripted six times in this conversation. Maybe that should be your podcast name. And I was like, that goes against every SEO thing. No one's Googling how to be unscripted. No one's staying up at night how to figure out how to be unscripted. But I went with it anyways because it felt truly aligned for me. And same with this new pivot into calling the podcast scene like it is truly who I am and how I'm evolving. And that's the coolest thing, is how many times have you changed the bio on your Instagram, right? Think about that as your personal brand evolution. That's who you once were, what you were interested. Maybe you were like, mom, dog, wine lover, beach this, right? And then you're like, shit, I have a business. Nobody cares about that. Let me, like, I help people do X. And then it becomes like, I own this space. Like, you move into different iterations of what you're claiming. And the personal brand journey can be such an expansive thing if you allow it versus looking at it as like, another thing you have to do now. You know, my partner's in corporate, and it's funny because he talks about his own brand now, too, in a way that what, like you said, what are people saying when you're not in the room? How do people interpret who you are? And that brand is going to carry over when he. If he ever wants to move or do something different, or when he retires and maybe wants. Wants to start speaking or doing different things, People are going to be able to say how he left them feeling versus what he was known for doing in the business. Yeah. In 2025, it's all about exploration. If you don't already have a personal brand, if you feel like There's a new version of you that wants to emerge with some things, share with your audience what you're growing through or going through if you're all of a sudden interested in something new. Like, I've reintroduced wellness back into my business, partnering with somebody I want to mentor with who has pivoted businesses. And I've aligned with her and her business and her business model. And now I'm sharing wellness products again as part of. And while that might seem cringe to some people, and I did a whole podcast episode on it, if you guys want to listen to it, I had to embody that like this is really what I already do. I already use all these kind of products. I want to be aligned with a company that has these type of mentors in the company, this kind of partnerships, like all of that. So why would I not re introduce it to my business? And so while what I do might not make sense for somebody else, you guys got to fight, figure out what it is for you that's going to make sense for you to really feel rooted in how your shoes showing up. So it's easy to show up.

I think there's a saying like you are your niche where you, every little piece of your business gets to or your life gets to be a part of your personal brand. The parts that you want to share, right? So health and wellness is so integral into how you operate on a day to day basis. Of course your people that follow you and have already built that like know and trust, like they want to know those things about you anyway. It doesn't have to be that serious, right. I feel like I can talk money but like this podcast is not just about money. This podcast is about personal development. It's about becoming, becoming the best version of yourself and leaning into all areas of your life so that you can build a life that you're obsessed with. That is who I'm at, who I am. I want to help you with the pillar of money and mindset, right. It doesn't have to be so dialed in. And I think there's two other things that I want to recap on and one of them is just that really reiterating the fact that your brand is not necessarily what you always say. It's how you make people feel. And I like that's what people remember about you. People remember how you made them feel after a conversation and in a situation, that's the stuff that's going to carry. Emotions are so strong. Wrong. Knowledge is just fleeting. We just lose it. Right? We hear the same things a hundred times, but just like, how do you want to make people feel right? Do you want to make them feel empowered and like their life is possible? Do you want to like, those are the things that I really lean into when I think about my brand. Of course, there's the colors and the fonts and the messaging and the copy. But it's ultimately what I want people to remember me for. Somebody that made them feel financially confident and their dreams were possible. And I think when you're trying to figure out that piece of it, if you're at the beginning or if you're pivoting your personal brand, that's something that you've got to really think about because that's, that's really important. And I think the other thing is being okay with the pivot. I just talked about this recently, but a challenge of mine transparently in entrepreneurship is not hiding behind perfectionism and thinking that I have to have the perfect answer. And what is that perfect brand and messaging and what are my offers and have that all figured out before I show it with the world. And that, unfortunately, is just not what entrepreneurship's about. That's not what personal branding is about. And so I have pivoted so many times. My handle, I pivoted my bio, I pivoted my branding content, colors. Like, it's just been an evolution. And I think people need to recognize that that is part of the journey. You cannot escape that. You're always going to have to evolve and you're always going to have to pivot. And I think if there's one major lesson I've learned over this last year, being an entrepreneurship full time, it's that clarity comes from taking action. You're not going to feel clear before you do it. Like, I have a million and one ideas that pop in my head, but until I actually start executing on that, trying to bring it into the work world, you're not actually going to know how it feels and if you're going to like it and if you're not going to like it and just think, you've got to be okay with playing in public and like not making it so serious and just trying to have fun with all of the changes. And it is a journey for you to learn all of these things about yourself. And we should really be viewing it as that because I know it's like the most cliche saying, but the joy is in the journey. Right when we get to the destination, I don't know what the destination is. Your deathbed, like that's the final, that's the final, final step in this whole life that we are living. And so, I don't know, I just think having more fun with it, not being so serious and really just reflecting on how do you want to make people feel and then, and then leading from there, I think is like a really fun thing to, to just hold on to when you're incorporating personal branding into your life and into your business.

Yeah, I think what was eye opening for me was when we launched the management company and people were really excited to start their podcast with us. And they'd come and they'd be ready, okay, I want to start my podcast. I want to start it forever. And then we'd sit down and figure out they didn't even actually have a business. So I was like, what are you driving traffic to? I was looking at a podcast as a part of the ecosystem of your business, right? Like your top of funnel of building that value and that know, like and trust within a potential community that you wanted to build or grow. And it was in these conversations that I had to realize that I had to help people with their personal brand. And stepping into that space of you don't have to have it all figured out, you don't have to have that offer. Like you said, you don't have to have clarity on your transformation, nor do you have to be anybody's guru. You can literally just get on and talk about things that get you excited. So we would create pillars within the podcast of like, do you want to educate? Do you want to entertain? Do you want to be known for being funny? Do. What is it that would get you excited to turn the microphone on every single week to record or once a month and record four or five episodes. And so when we dove into those things, it often wasn't what maybe even their business was. And so that's when I was like, like, wow, this podcast management, like agency veil is kind of allowing me to still coach and teach. And so my role in the, in the company was strategy and my partners was operations. And so it was pulling apart all of the pieces of their life, their business, what they wanted to be known for. And kind of really creating that, like mad lib is what I would basically give them on their, on their podcast log. Like, who are you speaking to, in what tone or texture? You could literally talk about confidence and share it with 50 different Personas. Right. You could talk about the woman who wants to be seen. You could talk to the man who's been playing safe in corporate, like, you could talk about pod or confidence on so many different levels. And then do you want to educate them? Do you want to build authority? You can take one concept and spin it in 500 different ways rather than trying to recreate the wheel and come up with a different concept every week for content, slim it down, make it a little bit more simple. Talk about the things that light you up. If it's just the conversation between you and your friends, share that. Like, just get started talking, and you will find yourself along the journey like she's talking about. And the joy is in that, the frustrations in it, the anger, all of it, all of the emotions. It's just like every day normally is, right? You're driving down the road, someone cuts you off. All of a sudden, you're having a good day. Now you just had a. You're having a bad day, you know, and that's how I think entrepreneurship is best summed up. But if you're in corporate, you know, that's the same way. I listen to my partner have calls. He'll get off the conversation with his boss, and he's like, that guy, you know, and, you know, then he'll have a call with somebody else, and they. He'll be like, oh, my God, I had the best day ever. So I watch him ride the roller coasters. The grass is never greener. It's where do you want to be and where do you want to plant the seeds so that you can bear the fru later? Because we all know that day one of podcasting is not going to put you on the Billboard charts. No one from Barstool Sports is giving you a contract like they did call her daddy. Maybe if you talk about your sex life, they will, but I don't think that's what we're here for. So you know what I'm saying? But it all depends on what and how do you want to show up? And so it's funny, because I've had this new wave of confidence come where I feel like what I've done has been great so far, right? We're almost at like, 350 episodes, but I'm like, you're still playing a little small. You're still trying to not be too polarizing. Sometimes I have a pretty. But I don't always go there. I don't always really say everything that I'm thinking because I'm like, whoa, nobody wants to hear that. I don't want to get canceled at the end of the day. Sometimes I just don't give an F. And so I think I have to now birth this version of me that is fully seen in hopes that it allows somebody else to feel seen. And again, I know it's not going to be for everybody. I'm actually going to kick off a new podcast series. I don't know if it's going to be a private podcast, but one of my friends, she is in Canada and she comes from, you know, a different community. We're very diverse. And she was like, I feel like I need to be the voice to bring this out into the world. She asked me, I had the honor of being asked as her quote, unquote, white friend to do this podcast with her. We joke about it, and it's funny because I'm like, you know, I. I'm going to be the one that can't say whatever I want, and you're going to get to say whatever you want. And she's like, I know. I'm like, this is going to be crazy. We're going to have to give some, like, prerequisite where I literally had a whole monologue with myself in the car yesterday where I'm going to have to preface each episode and say, if I say something that triggers you or that's not politically correct, please teach me something. Because from kindergarten through college, I. I was not given a class on how this type of person likes to be represented or how I should speak about this or, you know, we don't know what we don't know. So I'm like, am I ready to put myself out there in a way that allows for there to be criticism and potentially misunderstanding of God knows what? And she was like, let's do this. I'm like, I'm scared shitless. But I am down to, like, partner with you and create this conversation that needs to be had. Because on one hand, I can tell she wants to do it, and that's like a calling for her in her personal development and journey and. And brand. But she doesn't wanna do it alone. I love that she feels safe enough with me to be able to allow me to be part of these conversations. And so, again, I would have never had that opportunity or been asked to be a part of something that might be so groundbreaking that it makes me so uncomfortable to even tickle around talking about right now that I can see such a big vision for us. But I would've never been in this situation to be sharing that with you guys right now or to have an opportunity to potentially have a podcast that crosses lines like that six years ago, I'd have been like, hell, no, I'm not touching that with a 10 foot foot pole, you know, to where now I'm like, I feel like I can fully be seen and I'm okay if people don't like me. I'm okay if I'm misunderstood. And so wherever you guys are in your journey and you're listening to this show, you will find financial freedom and you will find a feeling of freedom when you can step into who you truly are. And often we don't know who that is until we start down the path of saying, well, where does this lead me? And like Madison said, you will probably change your mind mind 10 times. You will have ideas, whether you're a manifesting generator or projector like me. Like, we will have ideas if you are entrepreneurial and you're creative and you have a mind that just likes to wander and daydream. Often a lot of us have been put in boxes where we haven't been allowed to daydream and think about what's possible. It comes with the price, though, because sometimes you will have some ideas that like, take you so far left that you're like, where did I just go? What did I spend money on? What did I do? Oh, my God. Okay, reel it back in. And that's why staying in community with people, that's why I created the unscripted network, because I was like, okay, I've been in every fricking room possible. I've been in one day masterminds that have cost me five, five grand. I've been in six month containers that cost 20. I've been in like, all the things and I'm like, what is the one thing I wish existed for a past version of me? I just want to be in a room where we all have one through line. And so for me, the podcasting was the baseline foundation of These people are all entrepreneurial, give or take, but they have a podcast and we all struggle with the same thing, right? Like staying connected in a. In a space where we sometimes be alone, end up alone. And how can we connect with each other to grow each other's shows, have more thoughtful conversations with people who can get the conversation out. It's really tough to have a conversation in an interview with someone who's not been interviewed much. They don't land the plane very well. Sometimes they don't actually get to their point. There's like, there's a lot of stuff that goes on. There's nothing like podcasting with a podcaster or someone who like talks a lot because you get to the juice and you get some value out of it. And so I hope you guys got some value today. I hope my story was a bit inspiring and challenges you to kind of look at your personal brand and how you're showing up a little differently.

I love that. I have no doubt that they will let everybody know in inside of your network if they're listening to this and are like, okay, I hear you. Maybe I've started my podcast. I'm ready to ramp it up a level. I'm ready to be seen. Maybe I feel lonely speaking into the void of a microphone in my office by myself and I want to be able to be surrounded like, where can people learn more about this? How are they going to know if it's for them? How do you want them to find you and be able to tap into this? Because I think it is such a beautiful thing and there's not a lot of this type of space that's created. And so I just, I would love to be able to lead anyone to that community if it's something that they feel call to. So you give us a little insight to you real quick.

Absolutely. So the unscripted podcast is a place where you can go and deep dive with me on to all sorts of topic topics with personal development and business strategy. But the unscripted network is available. If you just click in the show links, show notes, there'll be a link down there for you guys. I'll give it to her to share with you. I'm Giving you guys 50% off if you want to join the podcast community. If you have a podcast or if you're about to launch your podcast, there's a lot of resources that will help you take things to the next level. I have a handful of people in in there that actually have done over a hundred episodes but then paused air quotes again, or cute quit or didn't know the direction they wanted to take their show. So they're on like a hiatus. I feel like it's for people who want to stay in momentum in the podcast space, but also be connected to other people who are really showing up and building community in their own worlds as well. Um, and then yeah, at Jessica Burgio on Instagram is a good place to just send me a DM if you have any questions or a voice note. I love a good. A good voice note in there.

Amazing. I love it. Okay, and last two questions I always wrap up wrap up with tell us a book that we need to read. Next.

Oh, well, I'm rereading the Mountain is you. That is a game changer. Especially if you're playing small and you are actually working on this personal brand thing that we're talking about. It will kind of point the finger back at how you can start showing up and and take responsibility for how you're getting in your own way.

I love that I wrote that one years ago, but I'll probably need to circle back. I'm in a new chapter. And then, last question, what is one area of your life that you are busy getting better at right now?

Well, it's always my health and wellness because I always like to keep on top of that as I get older. There's always new ways that I'm finding my body doesn't respond like it used to. So really getting my protein in and really trying to pay attention to the things I'm ingesting. Not just like food wise, but also like social wise and like the propaganda I'm letting go into my brain, whether it's a show or anything, just really protecting that energy so that I show up as my best self and and do cool things like this with people like you.

I love that. Jess, thank you so much for being here today. I feel like this was so such a needed conversation and I just love your perspective on all of these topics. So thank you for taking the time to be here. And again, just loving the iconicness of this one year chapter of you getting to be here on the show. So thank you so much. And if you guys are listening to this, if you took anything away from it, please send me or Jessica a DM. Let her know how it's landed, hop in her DMs, send her a voice note. And if you are out there looking for some help with your podcast, this is the girl that you should go and chat with. So thank you guys so much for listening and I will see you guys on the next episode.