Margo is joined by award-winning PR strategist, community builder, and host of the Small Business PR Podcast, Gloria Chou. Known for disrupting traditional PR by helping creatives, founders, and small business owners land top-tier media using AI tools instead of big budgets or insider connections. In this episode, Gloria joins Margo to unpack how PR now fuels AI search visibility, why press and podcasts act as modern trust signals, and how artists, makers, and small brands can use accessible tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity to pitch with clarity, credibility, and relevance.

Margo and Gloria discuss:

• Why visibility—not talent—is often the biggest hurdle for creatives
• Reframing PR as relevance-driven storytelling (not self-promotion)
• Gloria's CPR Method: Credibility, Point of View, Relevance
• How cold pitching works—even without contacts or PR experience
• Using AI tools to research angles and draft pitches in minutes
• Press & podcasts as critical trust signals in AI-driven search
• The shift from traditional SEO to AI shopping and discovery
• Mindset shifts to overcome imposter syndrome and "not newsworthy" thinking

Connect with Gloria:

Website: www.gloriachoupr.com

Instagram: @gloriachoupr

YouTube: @smallbusinesspr

LinkedIn: in/gloriaychou

Connect with Margo:

• Website: www.windowsillchats.com
• Instagram: @windowsillchats
• www.patreon.com/inthewindowsill
• https://www.yourtantaustudio.com/thefoundry

Margo is joined by Ashley Lohr, an artist, educator, and community builder based in Petersburg, Alaska—a small fishing island town where she has taught art for nearly two decades. Working across painting and enamel jewelry, Ashley has built a creative life rooted in place, curiosity, and long-term commitment. From sustaining robust school art programs to teaching workshops far beyond the classroom, her path is a testament to what can unfold when artists design lives that support both their work and their values.

Ashley shares how moving to Alaska at 23 shaped her identity as both a teacher and artist, how she continues to grow her own practice alongside full-time teaching, and what she learned from intentionally stepping away during a self-created sabbatical.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Moving to Petersburg, Alaska for a teaching job—and how place can deeply shape creative alignment
• Teaching art in ways that feel authentic, expansive, and student-centered
• How Ashley builds, sustains, and evolves art programs within a school setting
• Maintaining a personal art practice alongside full-time teaching and family life
• Taking a self-designed sabbatical and what it revealed about community, creativity, and pace
• Teaching outside the classroom: workshops, travel, and non-gallery ways to share work
• Finding and proposing workshop opportunities—locally and farther afield
• Trusting a slow, steady creative path and allowing your work to change over time

Connect with Ashley:

• Website: https://ashleylohrart.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ashleylohrart

Connect with Margo:

• Website: www.windowsillchats.com
• Instagram: @windowsillchats
• www.patreon.com/inthewindowsill
• https://www.yourtantaustudio.com/thefoundry

Margo is joined by Jill Labieniec, an illustrator, designer, and endlessly curious maker living on Vashon Island in the heart of the Pacific Northwest. Working primarily with watercolor, Jill's whimsical illustrations and patterns have found homes on everything from fabrics and home goods to books, stationery, and editorial projects. Alongside her illustration practice, she has a deep love for working with her hands—sewing dresses, making shoes, and shaping clay—guided by a belief that art should help people create spaces where they can rest, daydream, and grow.

In this episode Jill reflects on her winding creative path—from a homeschooled childhood centered on making, through art school and freelance work, to building a creative career that prioritizes curiosity, balance, and day-to-day happiness over rigid labels or prestige.

In this conversation, we discuss:

• Jill's creative beginnings and how family life and early making shaped her career
• Moving through art school, freelance work, and product-focused creative paths
• What it really means to build a sustainable creative career over time
• Letting go of fancy titles and external validation in favor of daily fulfillment
• Balancing freelancing, creative freedom, and personal happiness
• Jill's thoughtful, intuitive approach to social media and sharing work online
• Working both digitally and analog—and the joy of seeing art come to life on physical objects, especially ceramics
• Embracing curiosity, trusting the creative process, and tuning out the noise

Connect with Jill:

• Website: https://www.jill-labieniec.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jill.labieniec/
  
  

Connect with Margo:

• Website: www.windowsillchats.com
• Instagram: @windowsillchats
• www.patreon.com/inthewindowsill
• https://www.yourtantaustudio.com/thefoundry