toth shop trends: october 2025

steph nagl
Oct 11
4 min read

hey there, it’s steph, grabbing the mic for october’s trends edition because it’s my birthday month! mark your calendars for october 28th, in case you haven’t already.

this will be the third birthday i’ve celebrated with the toth shop team, so in honor of that, i’m taking the number three and running with it. for trends this month, can i ask you a question? more specifically, can i ask you three questions – questions that i hope inspire and impact how you approach these last three months of the year.

thanks for being on this journey, tothys.

xx,

steph

ONE: who’s with you at mile 19?

many years (and a couple of kids) ago, october meant more than my birthday. it usually meant a fall marathon – aka the best time of year to run 26.2 miles. one epic year, the two events collided & i ran the marine corps marathon in washington d.c. on my 26th birthday. it’s still one of my favorite birthdays ever.

this year, i’m running the kansas city marathon on october 18th, my first marathon starting line since that magical day in d.c. six years ago. it’s been a training season unlike any other, and it reinforced in me what i’ve always known about mile 19 – it’s the hardest mile. doesn’t matter if it’s flat or hilly. sunny or rainy. mile 19 is hard.

you’re so close to the finish line but still so, so far.

you’re in pain.

you’re in that weird exhausted-not-exhausted state.

usually, mile 19 is when i tell myself i will never, ever do this again. (spoiler alert: i do it again).

the only way to get through mile 19, in my experience, is to first, dig deep. you need grit to get through it – there’s no way around it. but then, you also need to take a look around. because it’s the people running & cheering alongside you that will ultimately get you through this tortuous mile.

it’s the same when we come across mile 19s in life & business, too. who we have running alongside us makes all the difference.

so, who’s hitting the pavement with you at mile 19?

TWO: how do you bill yourself?

last year, toth shop founder & ceo meg seitz said to me: “i know you bill yourself as a copywriter, but you’re much more than that. own it.”

she wasn’t talking about “bill” as in an invoice; she was talking about how i present myself to the world. how i show up. how i plant my flag.

so, this past year, i’ve tried to do just that. it’s easy to get caught up in the “title” game of life & business (and that is relevant a lot of the time), but i encourage you to think beyond your title.

think: what are the unique values you bring to every project, every conversation, and every space that you enter?

when you figure that out and own it, then trust me, you can make the whole place shimmer. ✨

THREE: what’s your creative process?

if you’re reading this right now, your life and your work would benefit from your creativity.

here’s my proof: on paper, my husband should be less creative than me. he’s an accountant by trade and works in the finance department for a small insurance company. he spends a lot of time in excel. but, i would also argue that he’s one of the most creative people i know. he figured out how to produce a year-end report down a staff accountant & during a cfo transition. he macgyvered a furnace fix in the middle of the night in the middle of winter using plastic tubing and a bucket. he is, according to our 3 & 5 year old, “the best at bedtime stories.”

yep, that’s right. my kids think their father the accountant tells better stories than their mother – who is a LITERAL storyteller. (if you ever need messaging around two rolly pollys named ollie & yoshi who get into trouble & battle dinosaurs, i know a guy).

it all comes down to knowing yourself as a creative (because no matter who you are, you are a creative) and knowing your process for tapping into that place inside where all your amazing ideas come from.

so, how do you get your creative juices flowing?

(+ three small challenges)

in lieu of birthday gifts, please answer the above questions & take on these steph-imposed challenges:

run or walk a mile outside.
read “the summer day” by mary oliver (yes, even though it’s october).
be kind. the world really needs it. but never be so kind that you forget to be clever.