Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sarah Spiegle. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

My parents have been married for 40 years this July!

Growing up, I was the oldest of 4 kids and often wondered (and was asked by others) how my parents built our family unit to be so close-knit, and I never truly knew how to answer.

I think that they really love each other, which in turn caused them to want to put in the necessary hard work for their relationship to succeed and even more so, when they started having kids.

We’ve definitely had our struggles as a family, don’t get me wrong, but at the end of the day, we all truly love each other and want the best for each other.

I think some meaningful things they each have instilled in me, that have impacted my life as an adult, are the following:

Dad:
Financial Stability, Provider, Caretaker. These are words that come to my mind when I think about how he has impacted my life. My dad was the youngest of 5 siblings with a single mom. He had to grow up at an early age and felt a sense of responsibility to help take the place of his Father’s (missing) shoes. He always told us, “I grew up in poverty, and I never wanted my future family to grow up that same way” So he worked hard in school, to create a path for himself (and his future family) so he didn’t have to repeat any of those cycles. This was shown by him helping us at early ages to open up savings accounts, so we could understand the importance of finances and being responsible with our money. He has always cared for us in ways that we might have taken for granted like always having a roof over our head, never going hungry and being a sounding board whenever it came to any type of financial questions or decisions (jobs, cars, houses, etc)

Mom:
Relational, Health + Wellness, Outdoors. These are words that come to my mind when I think about how she has impacted my life. My mom grew up in a family that was very active. They would often take road trips to go downhill skiing & camping, they all were runners & loved water spots. Since that was such a huge part of her upbringing, it only seemed right that she would do that with her future family. Growing up, my mom also taught aerobics classes at the local YMCA, I remember going with her to classes and being around “fitness” activities from a young age — this has played into my life now and how I really enjoy going to the gym. She also was the mom that packed our lunches with whole wheat bread, salads, skim milk, fruit leathers or putting grape nuts on top of ice cream… I hated it as a kid, but now I am so thankful for the foundation of nutrition and love that I enjoy veggies + salads as an adult.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

In my day-to-day life, I am an Event Planner at a local non-profit in south Minneapolis called Urban Ventures.

I’ve always been someone who doesn’t like to sit still, loves trying unique experiences, and has always created lists of the new up-and-coming restaurants or bars in the area (and beyond). I was the person that colleagues, friends, and family members would come to with their specific questions:

“What’s a family-friendly spot to bring my kids this weekend”
“I want to take my wife out to dinner in downtown St. Paul, where should I go?”
“What brewery has the best dog-friendly patio?”
“What are the best vegan-friendly spots in the Minneapolis area?”

I would always reference my many lists and then get back to them with a slew of ideas to pick from. One day at work, my colleagues and I were having lunch together on a Monday and they asked me, “Okay… so what did Girl About Town do this weekend?” And that was kind of it…

From then on, it became a joke that I was “Girl About Town” because I was always doing something or telling people to try out new experiences that I had recently tried. The name just stuck and instead of keeping my list to myself, I thought it’d be better to have a more public place where I could keep a record of all the spots I visited, that way people could reference that first and if they still had questions, they could ask me.

I officially started my IG account (@girl.abouttown) in 2020, perfect timing, I know! But I was unofficially doing this for 10+ years prior. Now it’s been a few years and it’s been so fun! I’ve had a chance to meet a lot of sweet people, try more experiences, eat at new food/drink spots & just get to share stories with people.

My account is different from others because I don’t play to the IG algorithms. My posts are normally longer because I have done research to share with people who follow me. I give historical background and information to almost every post that I do. I take time to share some information that most people might not have the energy to do for themselves, so I do it for them!

I love to highlight local, small businesses or places that are run by women or BIPOC individuals. Giving time and space to different groups of people or businesses that some others might have never heard of before.

@girl.abouttown I’m just a girl living in a town. My goal is to learn, share, inspire, support + create new experiences for you!

How did you build your audience on social media?

I am still working on building my audience.

I don’t necessarily like or identify with the term “influencer” but people would probably categorize me as a “micro-influencer”. I am a ‘small fry’ compared to others out there, but that is okay with me!

To me, that means that I have people that follow me who truly want to learn about what I am sharing with them. It means that I can read all the DM’s that I get, respond to people and give personalized ideas and recommendations. It also means that I have smaller companies reach out to me, because they might be too intimidated to reach out to the big wig influencers!

Starting out, this was a side hobby (as I have a full-time job) and this has just been something to do for fun. But a way that I was able to start growing my following was partnering with other local brands/IG accounts. Back in the day, doing the “takeovers” of accounts was more popular, now people “collaborate” on posts and it achieves the same type of outcome.

I was lucky enough to partner with a local IG account from the very beginning and became a volunteer social media manager. I went out to interview local companies, neighbors & business owners to learn their stories and share about them. I was able to cross-post on my @Girl.AboutTown page, which then lent itself to more exposure for myself.

From there, more local business owners or companies started to learn about my personal account and I was able to start relationships with some of them, outside of the volunteer social media work I was doing.

So although this is still a side hobby, I have been able to grow it to where I sometimes bring in monetary funds and/or get to enjoy fun experiences for myself… and others… because I normally invite family/friends to join me on my #GATGigs!

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think one of the most rewarding aspects is getting to put myself out there and learn more about the ‘hidden gems’ in Minneapolis (and beyond) Whether it’s learning about cool businesses, experiences, products or meeting the cool people behind all of them.

I think it’s important to be able to place the faces and stories in front of others.

I tend to do interviews and then lots of backend research to really learn about what I am sharing. My posts tend to be longer, but that’s okay with me.

I share the stories behind the products, the people who make them & the reasons why they started a business, or why they chose a certain name… all the things you might ask yourself or want to know, I do the research so that my followers don’t have to!

I’m proud of the connections that I’ve made over the years, the different #GATGigs that I’ve been asked to be a part of, and the collaborations that have happened.

To me it’s all about relationships, whatever type you can create.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hihello.me/p/c22e8668-d71b-45d6-bb8e-8338277732b1
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/girl.abouttown