149 Sage Polaris
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Monica: Welcome to the Revelation Project podcast. I'm Monica Rogers, and this podcast is intended to disrupt the trance of unworthiness and to guide women to remember and reveal the truth of who we are. We say that life is a revelation project and what gets revealed gets healed. Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Revelation Project podcast.

Today I'm back with Sage Polaris, whom I love. She is just a woman who is filled with integrity and she is also playful, creative, and makes her own business roles. Sage is basically like a copywriter to the stars. She has written high converting copy for more than 350 clients. It's actually copy that helps those clients earn millions of dollars.

And she also helps personal brands and service providers sell more of their service or their offer by shifting the words on their website. So you wouldn't think copy is so important, except it is. And today we're gonna be talking about how to bring more of the feminine to our business and to our lives by implementing more structure where in systems where it's needed so that we can flow with more of the feminine in between.

She's worked with Crisette, Michelle, James Wedmore, Rick Mulready, Amber McCue. Basically she helps the internet famous people that we all look up to use special words on their website, but it's nothing we can't do. She also is somebody who inspired me to take. Multiple days off originally and then months off.

And then this past summer, four months off from my business. And not only did I not lose any profit, I actually became more profitable. So how does that even happen? Well, we're about to find out and actually stay tuned because Sage also has a special offer for us later in this episode so that we can begin implementing some of her very smart templates and strategies in our business.

Um, and while I understand that not everyone is listening as an entrepreneur, I do think. Particular episode and a couple more to come are very valuable as we talk about bringing more structure to our business and or our lives so that we can have more time, so that we can have more creativity, so that we can have more energy.

So please join me in welcoming Sage Polaris. Hi Sage. Hey, I'm 

Sage: so excited to be here. Thank you for the beautiful introduction as always. 

Monica: Yay. So here I am Sage, after four months off and you inspired it, so, Oh, take a bow. I 

Sage: will. And look, I love hearing stories like this. You are not the first to come to me to say that you have taken some time off in your business because of something that I.

Monica: Yeah, I mean, so this might be the best place to start is how you ended up figuring out that you could even take time off. And at what point too, this is a second question, but I really also want to put it out there. When did you decide, like when was the moment you were like, I'm actually an entrepreneur?

Like were you in a nine to five and did you leave a nine to five and start working and then kind of work your way into having your business really nurture you? Yeah. 

Sage: Okay. So I started my business from 10 years deep into this, and initially I figured out that, you know, I loved online writing, so I was doing a little bit of travel blogging while working a nine to five job during the day, and I was installing art for museums.

So my life was. Pretty amazing already. And alongside that, I also started doing some local journalism for people in my neighborhood and getting to know the stories of people here and things really shifted a couple of different reasons why. First, while working at the museums, I loved working with all these incredible artists.

Tekashi me is someone that I got to install his show. And then I was working at one particular museum though, cause I would bounce from one to the next. And in between installing shows, I would be able to travel different places. That being said, there was one particular museum I was working for and I heard, I had actually applied to work there full time.

And I heard within earshot while walking down the hallway from someone, they said it was a man. And he said I would never hire a woman. So yes, that moment. Made me realize that the potential growth in that particular male dominated industry was going to be hard. And so at that time, I was making the most 36,000 a year annual salary, and I just knew that I was meant for more.

And so I decided that I wanted to make the shift to becoming an entrepreneur. And I found the online marketing world by chance, really. Like I read a book, The Well-Fed Writer by Peter Bowerman, and it opened me up to the fact that like I could connect people online and build these relationships with people, and creating that business wouldn't be that hard.

So that was. I put in my two weeks notice where I was working at the time. I quit my job because I just knew that I could do this. Like I had this weird confidence, like I can just make this happen. And so I quit my job. I started writing for people's websites initially and started this business. And I think there's something that happens when you start your business.

Like you'll give anything for it to work in the beginning. And I think that's totally a valid evolution that we go through. And I remember there was one particular time where I was supposed to be on vacation with my family and I brought my laptop to work on a project. And I remember my husband, I could feel the disappointment.

He didn't say anything, but I could feel it. 

Monica: Mm-hmm. 

Sage: And that's when it started for me to realize. . Okay. I actually want to be more present with my family. I did not create this business to go hide in a hotel room and continue writing. I wanna be more present with my family. And that was the beginning of me starting to take time off.

And realizing, like a new rule for me was like, Okay, every vacation, no laptops allowed. 

Monica: Mm-hmm.

Sage: Go on vacation without your laptop. And it's this thing like you can become your own worst boss once you start your business and a slippery slope that's easy to fall down. But then I started like, okay, if I'm gonna take time off, no more laptops on vacation, what else can I do?

And it was like, let me do fun Fridays. Let me just take one Friday to go galvant around LA where I live, and that evolved over time. And now for the seventh year in a row, I take four months off every year. So I have an incredible system around it, which we can talk more about, but that's where I'm at at this point.

Monica: I love too that you started small, right? With like fun Fridays. I remember doing that a few years ago. I just just declared one year. Like the year of, Yes. Mm. And I just started noticing how often the no would come up in me and then just switch it to Yes. Just to kind of see what would happen when I did that.

It. Saying yes to fun, saying yes to spontaneity, saying yes to travel. But so it wasn't like yes to more work. It was very specifically the thing that I felt was missing in my life, which was more pleasure, you know, and, and more space. But if you had told me a couple of years ago even that I would be able to take almost four months off, I would've never believed it.

And it's only by incrementally developing these systems to put them in place and then starting to trust that I could lean in to those systems that I actually did it, you know? And I'm feeling so proud of myself and so fulfilled. It's truly one of the biggest revelations I've had through doing this this summer is just how.

Depleted I was without really realizing it, even though I've been doing what I love. 

Sage: Mm-hmm. 

Monica: there's still been this side of me that has been longing for. The space to just be, It took me a good month to even understand what that meant for my nervous system to understand it. 

Sage: Yeah, I love that. And you know, it's part of it when I take my time off too, there's a buffer that you go through where you go from being very involved in your business to having to unwind that.

And so I totally get what you're talking about. And it's a condition that, you know, you can condition to yourself over time, but you have to be gentle as you do this and look like I, some of those weeks that I take off in my business, I have every intention of taking time off, but I'm too excited and I wanna work on something and I'll break my own rule and that's okay too.

I think the important thing here for anybody who wants to potentially take time off either in their business or from their job, is to set the intention now, and it's funny because as we're recording this, it's like September. It's kind of like the new year. If you have kids for moms , we get to start again cuz they've all gone back to school.

And so you can decide now from whenever you're listening to this all the way for the next 12 months, decide now. Set the intention of how much time you wanna take off and. The beautiful thing, like your birthdays, you know, if you live in Canada, STA holidays, we call 'em government holidays here in the us.

Like all of those things, when you set the intention in advance, you're more likely to take it off. But if you don't look at the 12 months now and really sit down and say, When am I gonna take time off? Then you may not actually do it. And I'm curious, Monica, how did you formulate your plan? Cuz I know you're just coming off of going to incredible places like Scotland and Peru.

Like how did you map that out for yourself? 

Monica: Well, getting a calendar out was exactly what I did. It was having a visual calendar. I got a. I actually got one of those desk calendars, , so that I could really see each month. And what I started doing was incrementally last year, so let's not talk about this year quite yet, but last year what I started doing was taking Mondays and Tuesdays as my writing days because I've been writing on a, or working on a book project.

And what I recognized was I could do a three day work week and that I could actually focus all of what I needed to get done within a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday timeframe. Mm-hmm. . And so incrementally, I started to really gradually understand, oh, this is possible. I can map this out. And even just the Monday, Tuesdays, I thought at first, you know, I would have to check emails or I would have to do this, or I would have to do that, but honestly I would just.

Set that intention and then start communicating it. And obviously part of this is having a virtual assistant or having somebody in place that could field inquiries or kind of let people know. It wasn't necessarily that my VA was saying, uh, she's taking Mondays and Tuesdays for writing. But what she did say was these were, my calendar was available Wednesday through Friday to for bookings and Yep.

And over time I actually started feeling really comfortable telling people that I was taking Monday and Tuesday. It kind of became a bragging right. You know, like to take Monday and Tuesday to write that. I actually started to honor that there was a part of myself that needed that kind of time in order to work on that creative aspect of what I'm doing.

Mm-hmm. . 

Sage: That's so beautiful. 

Monica: So then, you know, I think starting with last year, I took July and August and you know, the first time you do something, it felt very foreign. It almost again took me all of July to just even get into the idea that I didn't have to do any one thing each day. And so allowing kind of that space to inform my days and allowing myself to kind of get back into the rhythm of what did I feel like doing, what did I want to do, what brought me pleasure?

It was so foreign to me. And yet, by the end of August last year, I was totally into it. I was completely lit up and I was definitely clear a year in advance that I was gonna do it this year. In fact, this year I planned July and August and it just so happened that the opportunity of a Peru trip came up at the beginning of June.

And so I just added that on. And then the opportunity to go to Scotland came kind of, I would say mid-July that would take me, Like I knew it would take the first couple weeks in September, and I just said, yes, you know? And I'm like, You can't see my face right now. But I was like, you know, kind of like nail biting, like, Yeah, I'm gonna do it.

I'm just gonna tack it on. And so that's what I did. And so here we are. What is it today? September 16th, and I'm, I was back to work as of yesterday. 

Sage: It's so amazing. And you know, I feel like for me each year does look a little bit different than I take the time off. So there's a loose plan and there's definitely days that are marked off in advance.

And so initially I had gone to my project manager, I was like, I think I wanna take more time off. I was thinking like every other week, and I came up with this terrible, terrible plan, , and she was like, No, sage, what you need to do is just take the last week of every month off. Mm-hmm. . And then that way, like everybody on the team knows what's happening and when.

And then you can take one month off for the year. And sometimes I even break that one month into two week increments as well. And then it accumulates to having. That four months off. But for me, I love being able to sit down at my desk, get really excited about doing the work, and I love being away from my desk, like both feelings.

My friend Lana calls it life cation. 

Monica: Oh, I love that. 

Sage: That is the feeling. Yeah, totally. Like both are equally exciting and fun to do. So it's really helped though to have, for me, like a system around it to be like, okay, this is the loose plan. 

Monica: Mm-hmm. 

Sage: uh, and of course I can make it whatever I want in the end, but it's been really fun to experience.

The excitement in both areas of my life.

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Yeah. Well, and I would love to hear more about what that provides, like in terms of how it actually benefits your business. You know what I'm saying? I think there's this false idea that taking time off somehow means that you're gonna get behind. Mm-hmm. and. I've found that it's actually the opposite, and I wondered if you can relate to that.

Sage: Yeah, a hundred percent. You know, the productivity for me is a big part of it, like, What it provides for me is like a moment to look at my calendar. Like I get so proud when I'm like, there's no meetings, like I have no meetings this week. It is all what I wanna do. And so being able to go on adventures with my family or go on adventures by myself, those things really fill me up.

And I found that having that space to, for example, go to Pacific Palisades, Secret Beach that I love so much that most people don't know about. Like my best ideas come there and it's not always business related. Sometimes it's like things that I wanna do for fun and places I wanna go, and hobbies I wanna have, and all of those things like having space to really just dream and be and put my head in the creative clouds then informs making my work that much better when I do come back to my desk because then I'm thinking outside of my typical environment and I, for me at least, like changing my environment, makes me way more creative, fun, loving, excited.

New ways of thinking, like just all of it opens up for me and in fact, like not just taking time by myself, but even like I take my clients on VIP days. I just came back from Palm Springs or we might go to Temecula. They're both like two hours away from me. Again, that change of environment just opens me and them up to having so much more creativity and I feel like it has helped my business growth stepping away as much as being in has helped my business growth.

Monica: Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Tell me, for example, you were saying earlier about. You were able to actually also influence your husband to rearrange his work week? It's interesting because I think about our listeners and listening to this episode today, and everybody might be in a little bit of a different place, but my goal in kind of having this conversation is to really bring what I'm calling more of the feminine flow into our lives and into our business because everybody is exhausted and overwhelmed and burnt out and kind of still wearing the hustle badge, the grind culture.

That somehow there's that badge of busy that I think over time undermines our wellbeing. It undermines our health. It undermine. Our families, and I think it just adds to that fracturing. I'm really, really wanting to have us all look through different lenses and see new possibilities for our lives that we haven't seen in the past.

And I loved that you kind of brought this to your husband's attention as well, because as a parent, you guys are parenting two young kids. It kind of really spoke to me because the same thing happened in our house where Austin now. Works from home. And that wasn't the case before. Like in kind of creating a new outlook or looking through a new perspective, I think he was able to see that there was more opportunity available for him and his business working from home rather than going into the office five days a week.

Sage: Yeah. It's such a powerful thing to talk about and like we, So I wanna tell a story about my husband and then I'll get into like what has most recently happened. So when we've had our first kiddo, I was nursing my son and I was just like, So many things happening at once, trying to care for this new child.

Also, trying to talk to the doctors and get all the information that I needed about that, and trying to clean the dishes and get to an appointment and do all this stuff. I just remember this moment where I completely lost it. Like I could not hold it together. And I was like an inch from my husband's face, bless him, and I was just unhinged and I was so upset and I couldn't handle all of it.

Like the hormones, the everything that was happening and. I just remember looking at him and he stayed completely calm and he looked at me and he was like, Just do one thing at a time. And I was like, Oh my gosh, he is not my visionary partner. . Like he doesn't get it. He has no idea. And that was totally fine.

Like releasing him from that role of being my visionary partner was so major for me cuz I was like, he doesn't have to be, There's lots of other people who are, you know, my peers, my clients, like all these other people, we're all visionary partners. He doesn't have to be that too. And so, cuz I remember early on in my business, I was trying to convince him to be an entrepreneur too, and he was like, Nah, I'm good.

Like I like. Office. I like going into it. I like all those things. But something shifted in, you know, during the pandemic where he started to understand that I was holding space for so much alongside raising kids and the business. And I told him like, I need you home at least one day. A week. And so it was a small change, but it made a world of difference to have him home on Wednesdays so that I can go do whatever I please and I'm like you.

I do a three day work week as well. And so just like all of these, understanding our roles and releasing him from expectations. Something though like opened up in him and he saw, he was like, Okay, she needs this support. I will provide that for her by staying home one day a week. And it's beautiful. Now he goes into the office four days a week and is home with me one day.

So, Things have changed over time in our relationship and I'm really grateful that he can provide that. And just watching him go pick up the kids that day, it makes me so happy. Like he gets extra time with them. And so it's become this beautiful thing. But it definitely happened over time. It wasn't like, Things shifted overnight and just acknowledging our relationship and our roles has really helped me.

Monica: Yeah, and I, I also saw some emotion there, right? As, as you went kind of back into that moment and I was thinking, Yeah, it's those moments where you realize sometimes how different it is. And I'm not sure if that's a male female thing or if it's just the way that we're designed, especially thinking of you nursing a baby, all of what you're holding, right.

And then like thinking about, you know, just that comment of like, just do it one thing at a time. It's like as I'm nursing the baby and trying to eat, or whatever it is that we have to do at any given moment to just respond to life. Yeah, and I think that it's so true that we, I mean, I of course done episodes on, you know, the invisible workload of women and how it just is so foreign sometimes to our partners for them to really, truly understand.

But with these incremental changes too, I mean, I. The same thing is true for me, like having him here instead of watching him leave at 7:00 AM and come home at 7:00 PM at night. It's like all of the little ways that we get to interact during the day or that he gets to have, develop a relationship with the kids or pick them up or whatever the thing is, it's just, it feels like much more of a healthy balance and much more of a related way of just being in our lives together versus kind of just that massive gap during the week, Monday through Friday, seven to seven.

And just recognizing over time, and I think this was true for so many about covid, was how much we can actually get done in a focused amount of time. I don't know about you, but for me, when I'm inspired, I am just like on fire and I can get so much done in a very short period of time, and I think that.

Taking more time off that I've noticed that creative energy and that inspiration actually rise. And just like you said, when you go to that beach, like there's a way that sometimes the creative ideas just kind of start stirring or percolating in me, and then I don't realize it, but like when I sit down, suddenly I have clarity and I have vision for what I want to create.

Where if I were kind of head down, kind of continuing to do all of the things all day, there just wouldn't be that space to nourish myself, I think, and to have different interactions that actually inform my work. 

Sage: Yeah, I mean, I would challenge everyone listening to say like, You're creating more by doing.

I really do think that's true. And so as I've acknowledged that, I think part of it is releasing the guilt. If you're sitting there at the beach, but you're feeling guilty about all the things you should be doing, , that's natural. But learning to release that guilt is important. And I, the only thing I could say is like the more you practice it, the easier it gets of taking time off.

It's almost like a muscle you have to flex over time and eventually you'll be more comfortable in taking that time off. 

Monica: Go more into that if you don't mind. You know, I think the guilt is a product of conditioning. Mm-hmm. , and I think there's over here shaking my head because. It's such a thing. I mean, when we do take time, I mean, why would we spend it shitting on ourselves about all of what we should be doing?

It's just giving our, like, placing value on that space, on that undoing nothing. I mean, we're, we are, you know, continually, I think placing value in the wrong places. Mm. 

Sage: Yeah, I could see that. You know, and I think there's a couple things. One, I'm reminded of, my friend and I, we had decided to send each other messages and pay ourselves for every time, like, just mentally assign a dollar amount for every time we did things that were for ourselves, right?

Mm-hmm. , like, so there's ways to work through that mental game that happens for sure. So just doing fun things like, I went to the botanical gardens today and I'm paying myself $10,000 for that

so you can shift that value, right? Like you can decide how you wanna assign it. It's, you know, we get to write this, it's our, um, movie, so to speak. Like, we're writing the script for our own lives. And so I think like playing games with it can be fun. 

Monica: Mm-hmm. 

Sage: Because then it changes how you view all of it.

But I think it's also easy to say like, Where is my value? Is my value, Like what do I value the most? The reason I created this business was so that I could have more time with my family, particularly I think back to this summer, and the school was asking me if my son wanted to be in extended school year, and I said, No, thank you.

I'm happy to unschool him, which is something that I learned from Cyra Saddi. She's an incredible unschooling teacher. And I spent the month with him doing life skills instead of him going to a class, which I didn't think would be as beneficial to him. And I remember there was one day in particular, we were standing on the corner across from my house and all the kids were getting out of the school.

That had taken the extended, uh, school year and we were out there selling lemonade to them cuz he was really fascinated by money and he wanted to know how to like, make money. And I was like, Great, let's go sell some lemonade. 

Monica: Oh, I love that. And to the schoolmates who were coming out of school, that is priceless

Sage: It was one of those moments, right, where it's like the two worlds intersected and I was like, This is just great . 

Monica: That is so brilliant. And yeah, actually one of the last episodes that I just ran was for the summer series, was a Listener choice with Akila Richards, who also talks about unschooling. And I think that's also such a, a valid point.

There's ways that I think we can interact with our kids in creative ways that are also these teaching moments and just giving ourselves the space to. to do those types of things with our kids is so powerful and empowering for them too. So what a cool thing. And to have his mom teach him about money, because I also wanna put an emphasis on this conversation around money and value.

Sage: Mm-hmm.

Monica: because I don't know how you were raised Sage, but I was raised in a household where money wasn't really talked about with the girls in the family. It was kind of the men's business. And what became really ironic is that I, you know, have really come to be known as an earner in, in my, in my family as the entrepreneur, you know?

And so it's just fascinating to me because I think a lot of women can relate to that. And I also think there's just another. Challenge. I think sometimes when it comes to thinking about your business, taking care of you in this way versus you continually the other way around, caring for your business and becoming what you said, which is like your worst boss imaginable, right?

That you couldn't have even dreamed up a boss that treated you as poorly as you. We can tend to treat ourselves when we have our own company. 

Sage: It's a whole thing. And I think back to that story that I shared earlier about working at the museum and how much I was making there a year and how now my business I can make more than I made in a year and a month.

Like that just blows my mind to think about. And it also in that moment, something in me, I felt bigger than one man's bias. I really did in that moment. And it made me realize like, Yes, I want women to have the potential to take this time off and to figure out what that means for them, but I also want them to have the potential to outearn every man in their life,

And I say that , and I say that not because it's a competition, but I want women to have choices. Just like what you were talking about in your household, like when we allow for women to hold finance, The incredible impact they have. There's research from the United Nations of how it improves not just that woman's life but everyone around her.

So it's funny cuz I'm like, I want them to outearn every man potentially, but actually that money goes back right back into their circle. So it's, it's for everyone. But when women hold financial wealth, they do better things with it than men tend to do. And that's, you know, that's a generalized statement of course.

But I can imagine it, and I imagine it would be really beautiful to watch women step into that role in that way. And it's something that happened in my household. You know, my mother was an entrepreneur since the seventies, and then now in my current household, you know, I outearn my husband and it's really.

It changes the dynamic of things and I want women to feel what that might be like. 

Monica: I think it's just deeply empowering, like you said. And I also love what you pointed to with respect to how women tend to give back. Mm-hmm. . I think that there's a deep sensitivity that we have to making financial contributions when we do have money to things that can have an impact, uh, in socioeconomic ways that I, I think of all of the ways that I know women who contribute to.

Social causes that are, I think gaining a tremendous amount of momentum because as more women kind of come into these realizations and revelations about earning and earning potential, they understand that they can make a bigger impact. 

Sage: Yeah, it's so beautiful to see, and you know, supporting your family members as well, like letting them move forward in their education if that's what they want and all of those things.

Or educating them yourself with the time and the resources that you have. It's just such a powerful place to be and to be able to watch the ripple effect of that in your community is just, It's what I'm here for. 

Monica: It's what I'm here for. So, So now let's jump into the structure. What I would call kind of the, you are always the voice of setting up systems and processes, because that's a big part I think, of how female entrepreneurs can actually start to experience their business taking care of them.

Like, and so I'll just say that and, and leave that to you. 

Sage: Yeah, totally. So early on in my business as service provider, so I was working with private clients, I noticed that, you know, a lot of my peers, I would see them say like, I feel so burnt out from my private client work. I'm just gonna go like, launch a course instead, because they thought that would solve all of their problems and I wish it had.

I do, but there's challenges that come with having a course based business too that require things from you. And so what I realized early on, and I definitely did try to like launch a course, not really cuz I was trying to run away from my private client work, but more so like I love the idea of the potential to grow my business.

And what I learned though from that is cuz I tried to launch it, I got maybe like four sales and two of 'em were affiliates. So I owed money and I was like, okay. What do I need to do here? I looked at my business again and I was like, Well, my private client work is really like a profit sweet spot for me that I know does really well.

So why don't I invest into that instead of investing in trying to launch all these other new revenue streams. So that's like year two in my business. I hired a project manager and I created these beautiful systems around supporting my clients so that to this day I don't feel burnt out by working with private clients.

I love it because I have the systems in place and I think as entrepreneurs we tend to skip that. We go straight from like stage one, Okay, I'm gonna serve some private clients straight to like stage three, let me go do these courses. But in between that is stage two where you can really build in the support, like you were saying earlier, Monica, having a va, but also having processes so that everyone understands how things happen and win, and it makes your clients feel.

Even more loved and supported because essentially instead of them having a project manage you, it's the other way around and it just has been incredible to feel so loved up on my. Buy my business because I have these systems in place that allow me to take all this time off, allow me to do the things that I wanna do.

And when I do show up, like everybody's really clear what's happening and when there's no second guessing. And a lot of people work with me as a mentor because they see my systems. They're like, Yep, I want that . 

Monica: Mm-hmm. . And so give us an example of one of the systems. If you can, 

Sage: Oh yeah, I love talking about this.

So when a client signs on with me, as soon as I see their payment, they get intake forms from me. So the work starts immediately, but along with the email that sends them their intake forms, I make them a video and it's a personalized video. And I use a tool called Bomb Bomb, which I love so much. And it walks them through the intake process.

And then the complete timeline for our project is in that email too. So it's a waterfall based project management system where you work on stage one and then stage two and then stage three. But all of that is clear right from the beginning versus a, A lot of copywriters I know, and no judgment if this is you, but they'll send, you know, the first draft of their copy for their client and then hope that and pray that the client doesn't get back to them right away because they have to go work on something else and they're busy with something else.

So they kind of depend on their client's. Creating the timeline for them. But in this scenario, I create the whole timeline of the project so that I can make sure every aspect is covered and everybody knows when what is happening. So that's a perfect example of a system in place that I love. 

Monica: Well, and you're the expert, so.

Sage: Mm-hmm. 

Monica: That's the other thing that I love about what you're talking about, is that usually when we're hired because of our expertise, it's like antithetical to think that our client is gonna lead us. Right? Like it's to take that next step and let them know like, here's how this is gonna work, and here's the system and give them a context.

For how are we gonna work together? It becomes this designed alliance that then has a flow to it. And there's that. You've created this structure that then allows for the flow to happen kind of in between those very structured milestones or the waterfall as you were talking about. 

Sage: Yeah, exactly. And another thing that I love is I have templates in my business.

So anytime I go to write copy, I never write from scratch. I have a whole library of templates that I can tap into. And again, it's exactly what you're saying. There's this structure of the template, but then there's the flow of the client and their personality and their brand that I'm weaving into what I'm writing.

But these things are, they seem like small choices to make, but they're how I save so much time in my business. They're how I have so much fun doing the work that I do. 

Monica: And why does every entrepreneur need. Copy . 

Sage: I love this question. So it's the words that help you sell more on your, whatever your offer is, your website, whatever you have going on.

And so that messaging is how people remember you and it's how they share more about you to your friends, so you know, or your network or whatever it is. So words are essential for making sales, basically. And so that's why people. When they start to tap into powerful messaging, it naturally attracts the sales and the clients.

And it's the best feeling because it also helps people to discern if they're right or wrong for you. Not everyone is necessarily meant to work with you. Mm-hmm. , but if you help them make that decision, it's so powerful because then when you're working together, it's like a total dream. Every person that is in your community, you're just like, I get to play with this person

And that's what good copy does. 

Monica: Yes. And you have a couple of different options for entrepreneurs. You can either write the copy for them or basically you have a way to actually guide them in becoming really great at writing their own copy. Correct. 

Sage: Yeah, exactly. So I have my copy template membership, and it is incredible because you can come in, I'll teach you like the foundational.

Understanding you need to write copy, which is called the Color Coded Copy System. And it will change everything in the way that you look at how you market yourself, because you'll understand the four buyer types that are in your world and how to appeal to them because you may not know it now, but a lot of times when people attempt to write copy and they don't understand the buyer's psychology behind it, they think that they're writing copies.

Sometimes that's like what would appeal to them or it might appeal to their audience, but this is like taking the guesswork out of it. You understand how the four buyers think and how to specifically write for them. It's so fun and it's, it's a fun process. I teach it through the Simpsons . You too. Which is just like, I chose that show because it's mainstream and.

Also this like Simpson's policy for writing copy. It helps you to understand that this show has been on for more than two decades. And why? Yeah, like because they have these relatable characters. So it's a really fun process to go through. 

Monica: Okay, So it's what I'm also hearing is that it's fun. It's actually fun to learn how to do this.

And you've created it to be fun. 

Sage: Oh yeah. Like inside my membership, I haven't told you about this actually. There's a playlist of music I make people get up and dance and they like earn points for dancing in their office before they write their coffee . 

Monica: Oh my God, I love this. Well, and when I think about, so I wanna kind of just zoom out here for a minute and create some more context because I think that we can also tend.

To, I guess, ignore how much or, or maybe just skip over how much copy we're actually required to write as entrepreneurs. You know, when I think about copy for social media, copy for nurture sequences for emails, copy for websites, copy for, or, I mean there's for, for courses, there's just a way that I think once you understand, like you said, kind of the four buyer types, and if you are an entrepreneur out there that says, I can't afford to hire a copywriter for me every time I actually wanna learn how to do it on my own, it seems to me that you would then have an invaluable skill for the rest of your life as an entrepreneur.

Sage: Yeah. You know, the process that I teach, I tell people, this will make you money for decades to come. And I'm not being facetious, like I've been doing this for a decade. . Okay. 

Monica: And talk to me about, cuz I know a lot of people out there are like, they hate to be marketed too, right? Like we're all, we all can't stand it anymore.

But other thing that I love about you is that when you talk about sales, what I also hear is relationship. And so there's a way that. Tend to write copy and to encourage your clients to write copy that is very much in their voice and relatable so that it doesn't feel canned, so that it doesn't feel like it's, you know, kind of coming from some other place.

Right? Like, I want it to sound like me. I want to continue to be authentic in my marketing. Yeah. 

Sage: And I really find. I attract people who specifically want their voice to sound like them. And I also feel like when it comes to marketing practices, I think a big part of how they're able to do that is to understand that behind your screen as a human being, like I know we call them leads in marketing.

I know we have all these terms, but to understand the human behind all of this and that you're connecting with people's hearts and all of those things, people really love that aspect of doing their writing cuz they're like, Oh, all I have to do is tell stories about my life. And people will relate to that.

And so those stories are irreplaceable. You. One unique person in this world, and we all have a story to tell. And a lot of people, they'll tell me like, Yeah, but is my story really important? And I'm like, Yeah, I call BS on that. Of course, your story is important. Of course. Someone needs to hear specifically what you're going through, how you're relating to the world, See it through your lens in your eyes, because that's the thing that they're gonna remember about you.

And so I love encouraging people to tell simple stories. Like even if I write an email and it's like one week off with Sage, and I'll send an email and that'll be one of my most open emails because people just wanna know what I'm up to, what I've been creating in the world. And so that part is really fun to see when people really step into more of themselves.

Because often they come from like the corporate buttoned up world and they think. Their language has to be super dry and it's all just about like details of, you know, credentials and all of those things. I'm like, no, no, no. Let's take, give you permission to take all of that away, strip all that away and tell us more about who you are as a human being and say it in a conversational way.

They get so excited. They're just like, it's a breath of relief. They're just like, Yeah, okay. So that part for me is so fun. To see them pull the facade off and to be who they really are with their business and their writing. Ugh. It's the best feeling. 

Monica: Well, and I'm making up that you don't just teach entrepreneurs how to write copy, that actually you're also modeling how they place value on themselves, how they package their offering, how they launch it into the world, what.

Maybe components or systems they need in place in order to make their launch a success or their, you know, deliver their product successfully. Is that true? 

Sage: Yeah, a hundred percent. And one of the things that I haven't seen in any other copy template membership that I've seen out there is I customize the templates based on your stage and business.

So earlier we were talking about like if you're at that first stage where you're still serving private clients or you're maybe launching group programs at the second stage or in courses at the third stage, the first 15 pages of my template is all about strategy and like where you're at in your business.

So I can meet them specifically at what they are doing because my only. Reticent like thing about talking about systems is sometimes as marketers we think we need a big fancy funnel to sell, but that in your early stage in business means you're hiding behind a funnel and it's not always effective because you haven't tested things enough.

So I literally teach people, instead of selling from a sales page, for example, that takes money and time to design. You can instead sell from a Google doc and I show them examples of how I've sold from a Google doc so that you can prove that particular idea or business revenue stream or whatever it is.

So that. Then you're not. It's removing the barriers from people being able to have success and make money online. And so it gets me really excited because I don't know other people who teach that, that it's usually when you go to someone to teach you marketing or funnels or copy or all of those things, they'll teach you one way.

They're like, There's one way to get to the result that you want. I mean, come on. I love them for. and there's multiple ways to get to where you wanna be in your business. And so I like to speak to and be more inclusive of all the different types of business models and that are out there because I'll tell you, like people who come through the membership, one woman, she's got a million dollar Facebook ads agency and she didn't have an email list for a very long time.

Like she built it off lead, uh, like referrals and using ads. Those were her main thing. Versus somebody else who might have a really great email list that's really strong or wants to start an email list. All of those things, I want everyone to feel included when they, when they're thinking about growing their business and not feeling like there's only one size fits all to business growth.

Monica: Do you ever get anybody in the membership who. Is still working a nine to five, but kind of thinking about dipping their toe into the entrepreneurial world. 

Sage: Oh yeah, we do. We do, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. And it's beautiful to see because they often have like their business idea and they are using their time outside of their job to then write everything.

And the whole point of the membership is like for you to be able to. At least 15 to 20 hours off of your writing because you're never starting from scratch. And so for them, like they have the side hustle, they wanna grow it. And I've seen them in fact like leave their nine to five and be able to work full time in their, what started as a side hustle and became their business.

So it's really beautiful. 

Monica: Oh my God, yes. I love that. Well, and I see you light up, like when , when we talk about these things, and I know that you've also got a couple of side hustles yourself that you've been working on that aren't necessarily money motivated. They're actually motivated to really help lift and support women in kind of bridging this gap that we have in terms.

Wages earned. And I, and I wondered if you could talk about that for a minute. Yeah. 

Sage: So part of my business I decided was to give pro bono hours to communities that I believe in. And so I will choose them. And one of the communities that I love supporting is the known Madness Travel Tribe is my friend Avita Tur Robinson.

And she is doing incredible things to help black and brown travelers be recognized as people who are worth investing in, in terms of brands. So she just finished an incredible event in New York, New Jersey, where she's bringing all these travelers together and helping them see different parts of the world.

And so communities like that, I love getting involved and being able to give, you know, the time that I do have to them and. Every year I look at new, a new group of companies that I wanna support, and I'll reach out to them and I'll offer my time. Shaka Senghor is another, He wrote a book called Writing My Wrongs, and we've been talking about me supporting the marketing efforts around his newest book.

So these companies, And these people behind the companies that I really believe in, I love being able to spend time supporting them. 

Monica: Well, and there you go too, back to having that kind of time to actually have the time. What a beautiful thing. To be able to scout out other projects and initiatives that truly inspire you and then to be able to donate some of your hours.

I mean, who has that kind of time? Well, you do, right? Like you've created a system that actually gives you all of this time and I mean, I'm more and more realizing that it's like we have such a, we're kind of like stuck in this time grid that really just it. It's like where I'm putting a lot of my attention lately is on this.

What is creating more timelessness? Where can I step out of time? Mm. There's, That's what it felt like being in Scotland and being in Peru was recognizing that. I was so present and I was so available that I encountered magic kind of everywhere I went. And I thought, how can I bring this back with me? You know, how can I stop being enslaved by time?

And yet I've already kind of flipped that by making some of these changes, these incremental changes in my life. But now I, it's like it gives me a taste, such a taste that I now want to do it more and I wanna help other women do it more, which actually inspired this series, really. And when I look back at who's the one that inspired me to even begin thinking this way, it was you.

Sage: Oh, I love being able to receive these stories and you know, you're talking about bringing that magic back with you, even just sharing the story. Right. I feel like you are bringing that magic back to all of us. Like we can all tap into those feelings that you had as you share it with us. But I get emails all the time, people writing me and saying like, I went to Greece for the summer.

I took my kids with me, like I'm taking the summer off for my own projects. Ugh. I just get so excited and it lights me up like no other. 

Monica: Yeah, and that really is something that you have as a, as a genuine goal, is to help women kind of reimagine how they. Can live in their lives and come alive in their business and allow their business to kind of come to life in a way that also sustains and supports them.

Mm-hmm. . Yeah. So just beautiful, beautiful work. I'm just, I'm so in awe of what you've done. Sage, just really like, I'm personally so grateful because had I, not , I don't even remember at this point where it was, I just remember kind of like snapping my neck kind of after hearing you say I take four months off a year and just being like, you know, like the thing on the record, you know, that was just like, what?

Stop. What is happening? What did you just say? How Right. And then just starting to really understand that I could do that too. I can do that too. I want, That is what I think is what came up for me. Like I want what she's having, you know? 

Sage: Oh, I love that. And I always, I love the term like vibrational vicinity from Abraham Hicks.

Yeah. Like if it's in your circle, it's also meant for you and just what you said. Like I'll have what she's having. So I feel like too, the more stories I hear about people taking off, it just, Creates this again, ripple effect of like, okay, this is possible for even more. And I just love that It's the simplicity of it.

I say it and boom, women are like, Oh, right, I can do that. . 

Monica: Right? I can do that. And so for our listeners, hear that vibrational vicinity, you are in it. So whether you are in a nine to five, not even thinking yet about your business idea, but maybe this is gonna start percolating it, or you are an already seasoned entrepreneur who would love to save 15 to 20 hours every time you sit down to write content.

This is your episode. You're in the vibrational vicinity to create more space for more time to yourself, to train your business, how to sustain you, how to support you, and really like sky's the limit for anything else we wanna create. Yep. 

Sage: A hundred percent. And I love it so much. I'm like, Join the club everyone.

Monica: Yes. Join the club and you actually can. So this might be a great place for you to tell them about where they can learn more about the membership. Oh 

Sage: yes. Thank you so much. I'm really excited to share this with everyone. So it's the copy Sales booster is the name of my membership, and I need to sit down and see.

I think we've had around 150 people come through and be a part of the membership. It's an incredible community. Like Monica was saying, if you are a service provider, a course creator, if you're in the e-com world or you're starting to think about your business idea, you can come in there and you, for Monica's audience, Only I have a special link and a code so you can apply for a two week trial.

It's $7, that's it to come into the membership and if you use code revelation, uh, When you go to sage players.com/monica, then put that code in, come join us, come see what it's like to be in that space regularly. It's $147 a month, so to be able to get started for $7, I'm so excited to be able to do this.

It's my first time to offer this, and I'm like, What better way than to invite everyone who's here and to. People from Monica's world and my world just feel so special. And what you'll get essentially is two copy templates a month, a hot seat call with me, and we have a co-working session that's so fun.

Like we literally put on music and dance sometimes, like I was mentioning earlier. And you can learn the basics of the color coded copy system and start to apply it to whatever it is you're writing in your business. And we will support you in making those sales that you know you want more of. 

Monica: And guess what?

I'm in it . I'm doing it. Yeah. Because this is something that is also very, just the idea is really compelling for me and it's time, you know, like I'm starting to get back into. From taking this kind of time just being inspired, I have these ideas that I wanna share about some additional coaching circles, and so being able to add to my mailing list, be able to increase the podcast audience, like all of this is possible through your program.

So I'm super excited and I would love for all of my listeners to join me because what could be more fun than doing a program together? So I look forward to seeing everybody there. And Sage, thank you for just making the time today for doing what you do, for inspiring me at such a deep level. I mean, you've really changed my life and I just appreciate you so much.

So thank. 

Sage: My absolute pleasure, and I'm also equally grateful to you because this is the first time I've been able to make this work that I'm doing this accessible, and it's something that's really important to me. I wanna be able to help women particularly remove barriers. We have a few lucky men in our group, but particularly women.

I'm looking at you like, this is my opportunity that. Prayed for for so long in my business to be able to reach women in this way. So thank you for allowing me to be a part of your circle. 

Monica: Amazing. And for our listeners, we'll be sure to put all of these links in the show notes. And until next time, more to be revealed.

We hope you enjoyed this episode. For more information, please visit us@jointherevelation.com. And be sure to download our free gift, subscribe to our mailing list, or leave us a review on iTunes. We thank you for your generous listening and as always, more to be revealed.