Sugi Makes Friends

Allison Sugahara

Hi, I'm Sugi! I'm an entrepreneur, community builder + connector, and full-blown creative who has always had a knack for making friends. I also genuinely enjoy it. Whether it's through swapping stories, sharing experiences, or collaborating on a vision, I've learned so much from the people I've been able to connect with. Come hang out with me as I get deep, share some laughs, and make new friends with people I met on the internet!

  1. 23/09/2022

    Maybe She's Born With It; Maybe It's Internalized Oppression! with Toya Gavin

    We're back with another episode of Sugi Makes Friends! I'm still soaking up the rays in sunny Palm Springs as we figure out where to travel to next. Today, I talk a little bit more about the BIPOC collective my friend Verita and I have been trying to start, a story about The Little Mermaid, and I hang out with my new friend, Toya Gavin. Toya is freaking awesome. A lawyer by trade, she worked for several years as a city government attorney, a prosecutor, and a solo practitioner before becoming a consultant, coach, and founder of Woke Up Worthy, a life coaching brand for women of color (WOC). Toya's approach to coaching WOC is unique in that she does not ignore or bypass the effects of internalized oppression on their achievement. It makes WOC devalue who they are and what they know. It compromises their ability to show up, be vulnerable, and ask for help. It makes them believe that they must figure out ways to "do better" when they are already doing the best they can. Toya has helped her clients set and achieve goals, build businesses, and reset their trajectories both personally and professionally using this approach.  In this episode, we dive into burnout and what ultimately led her to her current career path, the differences between internalized oppression and limiting beliefs, and we swap stories about finding community in predominantly white spaces. This episode was very therapeutic for me personally, and I can't thank Toya enough for just showing up and being herself. If you're someone who identifies as a WOC, you may feel the same type of feels.  Connect with Toya on Instagram + LinkedIn. If you'd like to work with Toya, check out her website: https://wokeupworthy.com/ Thank you so much for tuning in! If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe and leave a review. Connect with me, Sugi, on Instagram + TikTok.

    56 min
  2. 28/07/2022

    Let's Get Down to Canna-Business with Verita Nathalie

    Hi, friends! I'm back after a short one-week break and I'm feeling refreshed and ready to introduce you to a new friend. My next guest is Verita Nathalie aka the Fairy Brand Mother.  Verita is a Brand + Marketing Strategist for ambitious, intuitive BIPOC visionaries. Using her 4B Framework, Human Design & signature branding method (Check Your G.Y.R.L. Facts), she guides creatives to articulate the correlation between their lived experiences & professional skills to monetize with ease. She’s also known for honing other skills such as event & wedding planning, graphic design, and lifestyle content creation. I've had the pleasure of getting to know Verita professionally having worked on a few projects together. We share a lot of the same values in business and have recently decided to create a BIPOC+ Creatives and Professionals Collective. We're in the very beginning stages, but if you're interested in growing with us, please see more information below.  In this episode, we talk about Verita's experiences within the luxury event planning + cannabis wedding space, marijuana education and destigmatization as professionals, and the ins and outs of Human Design. If you've ever been curious about weed, this is definitely the episode for you! Connect with Verita on Instagram + TikTok. Verita's favorite follows: @lizzyjeff + @rachel.symington For more BIPOC+ Collective info, please email me at allison@polygonmarket.com with subject line: BIPOC Collective.  Thank you so much for tuning in! If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe and leave a review. Connect with me, Sugi, on Instagram + TikTok.

    48 min
  3. 29/06/2022

    Creating Space For The Happy And The Sad with Arielle Estoria

    What a f*cking way to end the month, and what a f*cking time to be a woman in the United States of America (or literally anyone who isn't a cishet white man)... The release of this episode is interestingly timely because the day we recorded was only hours after the horrific domestic terrorist attack at a supermarket in a predominantly Black neighborhood in Buffalo, NY. While many of us are experiencing so much sadness + grief, I hope you're also making space for the good. More importantly, I hope you're staying informed, vigilant, and plugged into your community. I, personally, have been trying to be more mindful of who I am serving and where I'm putting my time, energy, and money.  Before diving into this episode with my awesome guest, I share some of my thoughts about SCOTUS' recent overturning of Roe v Wade. Respectfully, if you'd like to skip this part, head to minute 2:51. And now onto my next guest, Arielle Estoria.  Arielle is a Spoken Word Poet, gifted Writer and Author, captivating and authentic Emcee, Speaker, Model and Actor.  Through various aspects of storytelling, Arielle creates environments and spaces where audiences have permission to be vulnerable and seen. Her motto, "Words not for the ears but for the soul" stems from her dedication to remind anyone who encounters her and her work that words are meant to be felt and experienced not just heard. With a specific heart in empowering, encouraging and making space for audiences of women to feel at home in their own bodies. I met Arielle through our mutual friend, co-founder of The Rising Tide Society, Natalie Franke. I am so grateful for the intro, because, as you know, connecting with other creatives + creators who prioritize community gets me SO JUICED. In this episode, Arielle and I discuss the unconventional life of a content creator, detaching from social media when it's legit your job, and creating space to let in the exciting + uncomfy feelings. I hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did recording it.  Connect with Arielle on Instagram + TikTok. Arielle's favorite small business follows right now: @rachel_allene + @sotelaco Episode Resources: Video Clip via @therecount Vote Save America The Meteor Progressive Shopper Thank you so much for tuning in! If you enjoy this podcast, please subscribe and leave a review. Connect with me, Sugi, on Instagram + TikTok.

    47 min

Información

Hi, I'm Sugi! I'm an entrepreneur, community builder + connector, and full-blown creative who has always had a knack for making friends. I also genuinely enjoy it. Whether it's through swapping stories, sharing experiences, or collaborating on a vision, I've learned so much from the people I've been able to connect with. Come hang out with me as I get deep, share some laughs, and make new friends with people I met on the internet!