The Self Made Life Podcast

What if you're not grieving wrong? What if nobody ever told you the truth about grief?

This week I'm joined by Ashley Quenneville, a certified grief coach, end-of-life doula, and the founder of Tranquil Waters. Ashley spent eight years trying to have a baby while losing seven people she loved. Then she lost her grandmother, her best friend, in hospice. That peaceful goodbye changed everything about how she saw death, and it became the reason she does this work.

We talk about:

• What an end-of-life doula actually does (before, during, and after a death)
• Why a death plan works a lot like a birth plan
• Grief that has nothing to do with death: divorce, job loss, friendships, custody
• Why the "stages of grief" don't go in a straight line
• Why dark humour belongs in hard moments
• Postpartum depression, matrescence, and the missing village
• Why time doesn't heal, but it does help you process

If you've ever laughed at the wrong moment or wondered who you even are anymore, this one's for you.

Connect with Ashley: Instagram @tranquilwaterstransition Join Navigating the Waves: her 8-week virtual grief support group (DM her on Instagram)

If you're struggling: In Canada, call or text 9-8-8 for the Suicide Crisis Helpline. For perinatal mental health support, Postpartum Support International: 1-800-944-4773. If you're in immediate danger, call 911.

If your website looks fine but isn't converting, the problem probably started long before launch day.

Ashley Wyatt, founder of Monarch Design Co., breaks down the order of operations for building a brand that books: brand strategy and identity, then messaging and copy, then the website. She explains why skipping steps leads to expensive redos, why copy has to come before design, and how to phase the investment if doing it all at once isn't realistic.

In this episode:

• Why the website is the last step, not the first
• The house metaphor: strategy is the foundation, copy is the framing, the website is the house
• What happens inside the brand visioning process (and why clients who resist it end up loving it)
• Why messaging is the most underestimated step for conversion
• Professional copy vs. AI-informed copy built from your strategy
• Foundational SEO and brand photography at the website stage
• How to phase your investment without skipping steps

🎧 Share this one with a friend who's about to build a website. It might save them from a very expensive mistake.

Book a discovery call: themonarchdesign.co/contact Instagram: @monarchdesignco

Mentioned in this episode:

• Laura, @copybylaura (Monarch's messaging and positioning copywriter) and our podcast episode together 
• SEO episode 

Elyse Berendson is back on the show, and she's in the middle of another pivot. We talk about starting over at 38, her new It Girl quiz, why women still feel uncomfortable talking about money, and how to build a business and brand that fits who you actually are instead of copying someone else's strategy.

Connect with Elyse: @elyseberendson | stan.store/elyseberendson
Connect with Ashley: themonarchdesign.co | @monarchdesignco

• 01:07 — Boss or Bust: a clarity download on a walk, and potty training wins
• 03:58 — Who is Elyse today? Starting over, shedding old identities, and her final solo retreat
• 07:35 — The It Girl quiz and why your strategy isn't supposed to look like hers
• 09:21 — The yapping trend (and why not every business needs it)
• 10:07 — What starting over looks like, practically and personally
• 15:11 — Why she relaunched her mastermind and opened the Money Honey Room
• 18:17 — Having the confidence of Chad, and writing emails like a man would
• 21:43 — The pattern she sees in 275+ women when it comes to money
• 24:50 — Why the breadwinner conversation still needs to happen out loud
• 27:13 — AI, human connection, and why she'll never outsource herself to a chatbot
• 31:47 — Her new framework: identity, brand, business, visibility
• 35:25 — Theme days, energy spurts, and "body before brain"
• 39:21 — Rapid Fire This or That
• 41:02 — What does self made mean to you?
  
  
  

I recently sat down with my business coach Kelsey Kerslake on her show, The Aligned Business Podcast, and I'm resharing it here because it's honest in a way I don't always get to be.

We talk about rebuilding Monarch Design Co. after two babies, a job loss, and a fixer-upper renovation all hit at once and what it took to go from "98% not profitable" to booking out months in advance. I also open up about how I use an AI coach called Soul to work through the moments that don't fit neatly into a Tuesday coaching call: sick kid weeks, soccer field meltdowns, pricing conversations, the whole mess of running a business and a household at the same time.

The doors to The Art of Becoming, the program built around Sol, are open right now. Keep listening, I share exactly what it is and how to join partway through.

Join The Art of Becoming here!
Connect with Kelsey on IG 

Connect with Ashley 
www.themonarchdesign.co
@monarchdesignco

You don't need to detox. Your liver's already handling it.

This week I'm talking with Dr. Liz Dalglish, a naturopathic doctor and gut health specialist practicing in Barrie (Rooted and Blue Haven Wellness) about what's actually behind chronic bloating and constipation, why so much of the wellness advice online is garbage, and why letting go of "doing it perfectly" might be the most useful health advice you get all year. We also talk motherhood, running a practice with a five-month-old at home, and what self made really means when you can't do it all alone.

Follow Dr. Liz: @dr.liz.nd
https://lizdalglish.com/

Most people know a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. What most people don't know is that it has to completely dissolve first.

Ashley Wyatt, founder of Monarch Design Co., uses this metaphor to explain the "mush stage" — the messy middle where established service providers feel like they've outgrown their brand but haven't figured out what's next. She breaks down why that discomfort is a sign something is working, not a sign you're doing something wrong, and why the fix isn't a fast rebrand but finding the blueprint that was already there.

🦋 themonarchdesign.co/contact 
IG: @monarchdesignco

You did the SEO audit. You filled in the meta descriptions. You felt good about it. And then not much changed.

I want to clear up the biggest misconception about SEO today, because I think it's why so many service providers put in the work and feel like nothing happened.

We talk about:

• The two layers of SEO, foundational and ongoing, and why most people stop at the first one
• Why Google trusts the business that's actively showing up over the one with a beautiful, untouched website
• What AI search means for your content strategy right now
• Whether blogging still works (spoiler: it's not dead, it's the long game)
• The four things that actually make SEO content work
• The simplest way to start if you've been avoiding this

🎧 Listen, send this to the business owner friend who keeps saying they'll start blogging and never does, and come find me on Instagram @monarchdesignco or online at www.themonarchdesign.co .

Ready to get your website actually working for you?

I've known Heidi for years, long before either of us were running the businesses we actually have today. We met building handmade businesses, lost touch a little, and reconnected once we were both deep in the world of creative entrepreneurship. Since then we've collaborated in both directions: she's brought me in for branding, I've brought her in for Shopify development. Most recently we worked together on a project for Libs Elliott, where I built the brand and Heidi turned it into one of the most detailed websites she's ever created.

Heidi's the founder of Endswell Studio, and her origin story is one of my favorites. She built one Shopify website for a friend, went to bed, and woke up to 22 requests to build more. She wasn't trying to start a business. She just said yes to the next thing, and then the next.

In this episode, we get into:

• Why Heidi's "accidental" business start is actually a pretty common entrepreneurial story
• What she'd tell her younger self about trusting her gut over doing what's expected
• Why we've never once felt competitive with each other, even working in overlapping spaces
• How a website functions as a 24/7 team member for product-based businesses specifically — automations, customer forms, and hosted courses included
• Real, unfiltered conversation about parenting through business ownership, including built-in village support, flexible hours, and knowing your own limits
• Heidi's most underrated business investment (it's cheap, it's easy, and most people skip it)

This one's for you if you've ever wondered whether working alongside someone in your industry means competing with them. Spoiler: it doesn't have to.

🎧 Find Heidi on Instagram @workswithendswell or at endswellstudio.com, and come hang out with me @monarchdesignco.

That quiet feeling where your brand still "works," but you don't reach for it the way you used to? That's what this episode is about.

I'm walking through five signs you've outgrown your brand, before it ever gets to the point of embarrassment. This is for service providers who are booked, respected, and doing great work, and still feel a strange friction they can't name.

Inside this episode:

• The hesitation test: what it means when you pause before sending someone to your site
• Why mismatched touchpoints (Instagram, website, proposals, email) quietly cost you trust
• What happens when you raise your prices but your brand still reads like three years ago
• The difference between needing a refresh and needing a full rebrand
• My own experience stepping into more of myself after two babies and a postpartum fog

Come find me on Instagram @monarchdesignco or over at themonarchdesign.co

What if AI doesn't replace you, but forces you to become more you? That's the question at the center of this conversation with Kelsey Kerslake, CEO of The Align Business and creator of Sol, an AI coaching tool.

Kelsey scaled a coaching business past seven figures, then had to step back from most of it after a rare immunodeficiency diagnosis. We talk about the grief of losing an identity built around a business, how she started using AI as a coach and emotional outlet during her hardest health season, and what it actually means to build something that doesn't rely on you having consistent energy every single day.

Inside this episode:

• Using AI as a processing tool, not just a task manager
• The identity shift of stepping away from a business at its peak
• What Sol is, and how it's built differently than a general chatbot
• Why creative point of view becomes more valuable, not less, as AI advances
• Designing a business model around energy you don't always have

🎧 Listen now and find Kelsey on Instagram @kelseykerslake, or check out https://thealignedbusiness.com/become