Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with Shannon Kleinjans, where we chat all about how to be authentic and show up as yourself through your social media marketing.
For over 30 years Shannon has been helping business owners create their specific brand voice, and achieve their marketing goals. She helps businesses to take the fear out of social media marketing, get visible and create meaningful connections with the clients and customers that they want to serve.
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- Shannon's experience of leaving her 9-5 job to open her business
- How to overcome the fears of showing up as yourself in your business
- How to deal with negative comments and curate your feed
Please do give Shannon a follow, and let us know what you took away from this episode, we would love to see what you thought of it!
LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE
Connect with Shannon on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn
Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter
Transcript
Teresa: Hello and a super warm welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. I'm laughing because I know today's episode is going to be awesome because I have the most beautiful, wonderful guest ever. She is one of my most favorite humans in the whole wide world. And the, the little story is that I met her at social media marketing world.
In fact, she is probably the person in my world, in my membership who I have known the longest, even though she's not in the country and she's over in Arizona, but I met her at Social Media Marketing World years ago. And from there, from that connection, we stayed in each other's world and then she joined my membership and all of that sort of good stuff.
And she's been in there ever since. So I'm so grateful for. Welcome to the podcast. The very beautiful Shannon. Shannon. How are you doing?
Shannon: Hi, Teresa. Thanks so much for having me. I'm. This is a bucket list thing for me for years, actually. And I've never been on a podcast before. So just diving right in.
Teresa: Well, that is lovely. And you should have asked, like, I'd have had you years back, Shannon.
Shannon: No, I had just. Yeah. I should. That's the thing. Should ask for what you want. Right. But thank you so much for having me. You're also one of my favorite people. I love that.
Teresa: I have had, I've known Shannon for years and years and years, and I'm interested to talk about lots of different things with her.
Not only what she does as her day job, but also her transition into running her own business and coming up with her brand, which is super unique and awesome. But before we do all that, Shannon, please tell us what you do and how you got to do what you do.
Shannon: So hi, I'm Shannon. I have a boutique social media and marketing business where I focus mostly on local, smaller to medium sized service based businesses.
And I help them get online because social media is scary when you don't know what you're doing. So I like to try and help take the fear out of social media marketing for them. So I've been in marketing for really for about a million years. I, started in the prehistoric days. Now back like when, my space was all the rage and talking to people.
I, I worked in the dental field and would I happen to have the gift of gab with my patients and happen to just Transfer that over and with share all their like answer their dental questions and stuff like that. So, it kind of started there. Yeah, I don't know. I've been just been doing it for a while. I ended up working with an entertainment center locally that I convinced them.
Somehow to let me do their social media marketing and be their person. They had an agency, which was great. They were doing their Facebook. And I said, well, let me do the Instagram and show you what I can do. And it took just a couple of months. And then I was running all of the social media for the entertainment center.
Teresa: Wow. That's amazing. Big. No. So good. So a few years back, cause Shannon, as she said, she worked for the entertainment center and she did like, you did a bit of this on the side, didn't you? But obviously you had a full time job, so it wasn't easy.
Shannon: That's true. That's true. So the funny story, the entertainment center is what sent me into social media marketing world when I met you.
So that took a couple of years of convincing, but they were great and very supportive. But yeah. So I was doing this. I mean, I love it. It's obviously you don't keep doing it for decades and not love it. But as I got to know people that, Oh, let me, let me pick your brain. Can I take you out for coffee or happy hour and let me pick your brain.
And I love doing that. That was fine. But I was like, Hmm. I don't really have the time for this, but you know, maybe I could help more people if I did it on, you know, as a business. So, so then I, I started it kind of on the side and then after COVID we had, well, during COVID that was, I ended up actually being super busy with the entertainment center, trying to keep, keep their presence alive and going.
Cause nobody was going there. It was shut down, but we had, I had some stuff going on and I just, my dad got ill and not with COVID, but that doesn't matter. But my dad got ill and passed away and. I just had a really hard time just going back into work and being in an office.
And I just, you know, how you just kind of like, Oh, I need something needs to change. So I left the entertainment center and thought I'd just roll with this. And it's been almost two years. It's been just two years, actually.
Teresa: That is crazy. Two years. That doesn't feel like. It doesn't, it doesn't. It feels like you've been doing it for ages, but.
Shannon: Yeah, it's, yeah, it's kind of weird. Time is crazy. But yeah, it, I mean, because I've been doing it so long, I guess it feels like I've been doing it for a while, you know. On my own, but I love it. It's, it was a scary, that was kind of my goal for a while too, while I was at the entertainment center to eventually, I think, and I, yes, I know on our coaching calls and all of that, I had that on, on my list of, these are my goals and I'm going to, I'm going to leave my nine to five and it just didn't happen how I was planning it.
I thought I'll have all of my ducks in a row. Everything will be ready and organized and instead. I just went, yeah, I'm just gonna do it. So, that was the best decision though, I think, that I've made.
Teresa: And, and do you know what? I think sometimes those are the decisions you have to make, because if you, if anyone spends too long thinking about this, and trying to make it the perfect setup, trying to make it at the perfect time, trying to wait until you've built so much, the chances are you'll never do it.
So actually I think to just kind of go now or never and just jump into it and do it. How did it feel like the first few weeks of you giving that up and thinking now I've got to find clients?
Shannon: So, yeah, that was, that was kind of a trip. I, I was, I had one client at the time and they were great and I, you know, had them for a little bit where I was working with them on, you know, is my side gig.
So I had one going in and I was like “I can do this.”, I very lucky in the fact that I have a very supportive husband who's like, go and do it. And I was like, I'll just try it for a month. He's like, you need to try it for longer than that because I, you know, I wasn't going to give myself very much. I'm just going to give myself a quick out, you know.
Teresa: A month is not long enough by any stretch of the imagination.
Shannon: But yeah, he was like, try it at least three, six, at least just try it. And yeah, it just started. I mean, it wasn't, it wasn't like overnight, Oh, now I'm booked. I mean, it's, it was definitely some trial and error. There was, you know, I learned about what kind of clients that I work best with, that I can help.
You know, which is kind of where I've fallen more into the service based and also nonprofit is a thing that I find that I'm kind of getting into as well. That's working. So yeah. So I mean, it was just like a lot of trial and error of like finding what niche I want to be. And I wouldn't say I'm super niche down, but you know, and it's always evolving.
Teresa: What was, what was the most terrifying bit of starting your own business?
Shannon: You know, there's so, there's so many and, and, you know, I like terrifying, but yeah, I do love terrifying. So, oh, there were a few things that were really scary. You know, of course there's the, you know, I need to, I need to bring in an income.
That's, that's one thing, but I think honestly, the scariest thing was, and I. I mean, I knew I could do this, but I don't think I really like knew I could do this if that makes any sense. It's that imposter syndrome. Oh, my gosh. What if I think I can do this and I'm actually fooling myself. And if, well, if I am, I'm still rolling with it.
So it's that, that imposter syndrome is. That imposter syndrome is they can tell you make it that's awful. Yeah, no, I mean, obviously it's, I'm not, we're not just flying in this blind. You know, we. We put in the time and we spend the money on the education and staying updated and, and all of that. So, I mean, it's definitely well earned, but remembering that, and just, you know, that, that worst critic is that voice in, in, at least for me, it's that voice in my head, that's like “Oh, what are you doing?”.
But yeah, kind of showing her up, I'm, I'm, well, I kind of, I kind of like showing her that. You're still here.
Teresa: Good. Good. Yeah. You're wrong. I can do this. So one of the things I think you've done. Yes, yes. That's like a, that's like a common theme in our world. It's like we often talk about, you know, if someone thinks we can't or someone said something, we're all like, yeah, we can. And if that, if that's the thing that drives us, then let's go with it.
Like, I'm cool with that. If whatever motivates you, let's just do it. So one of the things I love. And I want to know whether this was intentional, whether this was accidental and you stumbled across it. But one of the best things about your business is your branding and your brand tone. And this isn't why you're here to talk today, but I do want to touch upon it because tell us your, what's the word I'm trying to think about the inspiration for your brand name.
Shannon: So when I was setting this up of the people on my team at the entertainment center is also a graphic designer. So I had asked his help to help me come up with a logo and I thought, Oh, I need business cards. You can't have a business without business cards.
So I had one small ideas. I know. I know. We learn. So, yes. So, so I'd asked for his help to help me create a logo. I knew what the name was going to be. I, but I had no idea what kind of logo I wanted to do, but having been on a team with this gentleman for, Oh, it, I mean, for several years, you know, you get to know your coworkers.
And I didn't even throw some of these things at him. I was like, Oh, I like garden gnomes and I like the color Tiffany blue. And he came back with this logo and this whole set of logos that had a skull in them. And because he knows me so well, I love horror movies. I love Halloween. It's been a thing. My family, both growing up with my dad, Halloween was our jam.
We loved watching just awful, awful, scary movies. Or like, like the worst acting. Yeah, like the worst they were, the better.
Teresa: I'd say, do you know what, I think I could get on board with the worst scary movies. Because they're not actually scary, are they? Whereas like, I am, and Shannon knows this, this is the one and only thing, we are so similar in so many ways, but this is the one and only thing that divides us, like, separate, because I do not like scary stuff.
I am the biggest baby ever. So like, really poorly acted, terrible effects, scary movie, I probably would be alright with, but like, genuine scary movies, like, not for me.
Shannon: Oh, and I love those too, I love a good ghost story, I love… classics. I've got a Frankenstein behind me and on my wall. I mean, I just love them.
My dad's favorite was attack of the killer tomatoes. So if you want, like, super, super sweet, oh, it's awful. So it's like hilarious. One of our favorites, which I was going to share with you later is American Werewolf in London, which is kind of spurred my, one of the reasons I'm really excited. England, kind of go to the slaughtered lamb.
It's terrible, but it's so funny. Anyway. Yeah.
Teresa: The tomato one just sounds too much like, you know, I'm not sure that like I could even get on board with that.
Shannon: Oh yeah, the original fly, like the old, old one, it's just so cheesy. They're fantastic. Some Vincent price stuff is wonderful. Yeah. Anyway, yeah, I could go on for days probably about just all the cheesy horror movies I'll send you a list.
Yeah, but so yeah, so and I loved it.
Teresa: Okay. Thanks. I won't watch them.
Shannon: Yeah, so I love I love all the scary movies. I love Halloween. I've always got You know, there's always something spooky ash or I, you know, Ouija board ish or whatever. And it just on my desk. And so anyway, so he came up with this, take a short story and make it really, really long.
Sorry. He, he came up with this logo.
He came up with this logo for me and, and I was like, Oh. Yeah. Why can't I, I mean, nobody does. I don't see a lot of that. Not nobody, I don't see a lot of people with skulls in their, in their logo, but, you know, unless they're very dark. Yeah. And yeah, and which I'm not, I'm not like dark spooky. Yeah. I don't know.
It's weird and twisty. It's weird and it's a fun, yeah. Dark and twisty, but hang on. I'm, but I'm not. I love it. Yeah. In a fun way. It's all good. What could go wrong?
Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. You make scary fun. Exactly. Exactly.
Shannon: And scary is fun. That's why we go on a
Teresa: One of the things that is awesome about brands. Well, no, it's fine. Yeah, no, I get that. I get that. But one of the things that I love is in your social media, so not in your social media, you do that as well, but in your emails that you send.
So Shannon and I often have this conversation about, well, I have this conversation with everybody about the consistency of sending emails and Shannon kind of fell off the email wagon. So she had to. go back to her email list and go, Oh, I'm still here. I'm still alive. And like, so the fact that your headline on this, your, your email that you sent out was, I didn't choose the ghost life.
The ghost life chose me. And then it said, whoops, did I ghost you? So like, I love the fact that that is so on brand. And then this one that's just come out is spooky IG mistakes that you might be making and how to vanquish them. And then your spooky slip ups and you talk about like different types of slip ups.
And it's got, do not enter one, two, Freddy's coming for you, posting and ghosting, like, I just love that. Like. And I don't think you see it as this, I don't think, I'm about to say I love the confidence in just showing up as you, I don't think you see it as confidence, I don't know, no I do know you, I don't think you're doing it because you're like, I'm uber confident in myself, but I just love how Authentic that is and how on brand that is and how very naturally appears to come to you to show up in that way.
Shannon: Well, thank you. Thanks. It's, it's kind of fun getting back into writing the emails took that first one. I spent a whole Sunday with that's Sundays here, football's on TV all day long, just game after game. And it's, so it's just playing in the background and yeah, so it was, and I just, the whole entire day.
And I spent way too much time on that, which we've talked about, definitely spent way too much time on that. But to get back in the groove of it, because it literally was years that these people signed up for my email list. Thank you so much. By the way, if you're out there listening and you signed up for my email list.
Thanks for hanging in there for the, all those years . I am back now.
Teresa: Waiting. It was worth the wait.
Shannon: I could've done the poltergeist thing. I'm back. But yeah, it, I mean, and that was really scary. Not in the fun way. It was scary to, to come up with that kind of definitely overthinking every little bit and getting out of being consistent.
It's, it's hard to get back in, but it's so important. And I mean, and it's getting easier to the more that I write them. And I mean, you just kind of, it's like, oh, I don't have time and, oh, it took me a whole day to write it. I don't want to write another one that took a whole day. Just, yeah. You just got to remember that.
Yeah.
Teresa: The more you do it.
Shannon: Done is better than perfect.
Teresa: The quicker it gets.
Shannon: So it's, there's going to be typos.
Teresa: Exactly.
Shannon: Yeah. There's gonna be typos. I'm probably going to misspell something.
Teresa: And that's how we know it's real.
Shannon: What's that?
Teresa: That's how we know it's real. If there's typos, if you misspell something, if it's not perfect, that's how we know when a bot hasn't written it and you've written it, Shannon.
So that's the main thing.
Shannon: Now I do love AI. I like it for getting some ideas and helping, you know, generate some thought, Oh, that's kind of a cool direction to go in. And I didn't think of that or whatever, but Oh yeah, no, not the. Yeah. Have you noticed, like, I can tell on.
Teresa: Like, the just straight up write an email.
Shannon: Yeah, I can tell on some social media posts when they've, like, they're, they're embracing AI.
That's great. But it's like, that is a hundred percent chat GPT just wrote that entire thing. They have like a format almost. Yeah. Yeah.
Teresa: Yeah. Not ideal. So. Let's talk about what you're here to talk about. You do social media and you're very good at it, Shannon. You've done it for a long time, so you know exactly what you're doing, even though sometimes you doubt yourself, which we all do.
But one thing that you've seen coming up a lot is, and actually, like, I think the world is, social media has so many good and bad points. And as a business, Sometimes we feel like it's a, you know, a necessary evil that we have to have it. And sometimes I don't love going on and just looking at social media because of some of the negativity, some of the outright just horrific stuff that's on there.
Our prime minister, I don't know whether you've seen this Shannon, but you will be as horrified as I am. Our prime minister has just gone out and had, no, the point of recording this has just gone out and basically publicly said men are men and women are women and basically there's nothing else. Yeah, that's the right face, Shannon.
Like it was just horrific. And I was tempted for a second because I saw this speech shared by someone else and I was tempted for a second to go onto Twitter and have a look. And I thought, do you know what? I'm not even going to go there because, and it's not even called Twitter anymore, but I'm not going to go there because I know I'm going to get both sides of that.
And I'm really not going to like seeing the side that agrees with him, which honestly, I'm in shock. I can't actually believe, but anyway, we're not here to talk about our ridiculous prime minister. So one thing that comes up and I think worries a lot of businesses is that negative impact that people saying things, them showing up and being authentic and going, this is who I am.
Hello. Do you like my stuff? So what kind of experience have you had with that in terms of what kind of things have you seen in terms of that negativity?
Shannon: Oh yeah. So we have a, we have a lot of that over here too. You may have. May have heard lots of lots of internet drama, just And from all of, I mean, all sides and yeah, all topics, no one can agree on anything.
I, gosh, I've seen, I, I also try really hard to avoid the political banter or the religious banter. Not because I just, I don't want to get upset. I don't want to get caught up into it. And sometimes I catch myself, Oh, I'm going to respond back. Reel it back in, but there's also, you know, there are things that, you know, you do have to take a stand on sometimes there was, and when you're worried about, Oh, well, I'm in it.
Am I going to turn away potential clients? Because I'm going to be vocal that I support the LGBTQ + community. Am I going to lose followers because I, you know, I am this religion or that religion where I. Yeah. I, I don't care what religion somebody is. I don't let that affect me. It's how they are as a human that, you know, that I choose to say, yeah, you can, you know, let's be a part of each other's world or not, but worrying about that with your brand.
You know, when it's your brand, it's sometimes you have to take a stand and whether it's a political thing or whether it's just your personality. I, I have been asked actually a few times and fairly recently, you know, aren't you worried one of one of the things, that we do, I don't do it so much on my.
Actually social, social media, the name of the business, that's okay, but it's more on my personal, but I do have, I, I do have most of that public because I'm, I'm not afraid to show who I am and it's okay if people have their private and they don't want to share that, that's okay too, I'm not saying. You know, just how you have to do it.
This is just where, what works for me and my brand and my life. So one of, one of the things on there is our family, both my family, like my father and you know what's coming, my whole family. It's always just been kind of a running joke. The middle finger, there's a lot of pictures with a big cheesy smile and the middle fingers.
And it's not a, it's not a thing of like, you know, F you, you know, to somebody, it's just a funny, silly thing we do together. And when I met my husband, it turns out he and his sisters did, did the same thing. And I've been doing that, you know, flipping through our wedding album and there's a picture that they snuck in.
Cause it was back in the days when you had to develop your pictures. And there they are. I mean, it, it was like, oh, this is good. Yeah. And it's just kind of become a thing, not become a thing. And so, because I'm, I'm public with that and, and I make it very clear, we're not negative People were, you know, we're not telling everybody where to go.
It's just a silly, fun thing. And I have had people like, aren't you worried that you're going to turn people away? You know, people don't like the horror stuff. People don't like the scary things. People definitely don't like the middle finger. And that's okay. They don't have to like it. That's all right. I, you know, and I, I support that and you know, don't like it.
It's okay. I'm not the person for them if, if they don't like that, if they don't like my person's personality, that's okay. I'm not for everyone. And that's, that's taken a while to get to that point, but, but it is what it is. You can't please everybody all the time, but there are those people that do dig it and, and they think it's fun and.
Silly and they know that it's coming from a place of just. You know, silliness and humor and good times.
Teresa: Yeah. And just being fun. And I think, like you said, that's the key thing. I think people are so scared to be themselves online because they are terrified of what people are going to think or how they're going to be or.
And, and like you said that some people who are not okay with it would be like, well, you're going to turn people off or people are not going to want to be your customers. And it's a case of, you know, I've just said that our prime minister is an absolute idiot. You know, there are some people who might listen to this.
You think, well, I think you're wrong. And if that then makes them decide that I'm not for them, that's okay. I'm not saying I'm right. And they're wrong. I'm saying that's my opinion. And I don't often pass opinions on stuff like that. But I just thought his stance was so strong and his stance against mine.
But I think in truth, what's going to happen in, in my business, obviously I am the face of my business. You are the face of your business, even though. You are offering a service, you know, you're providing a service to them. And actually who you are as a person doesn't necessarily mean how good you're going to be at managing their social media, but they've got to get on with you and you've got to get on with them.
And I think the fear in not showing up as holy yourself. And yes, of course, there are things that you want to hold back, like, I swear, and Shannon knows this because she's in my world, like, I have a bit of a body mate that I can't help myself, but I don't do it on the podcast, just out of politeness and just so I don't have to mark the explicit thing.
But like, And I know that some people like Shannon used to listen with her daughter in the car. So like, you know, I get it. Like there are, there are certainly ways I show up where I'm not as absolute genuine as you'd get me hanging around my house or whatever. However, I don't hide that. I just choose not to do it on the podcast, if you come into my world, and if you're in the club or the exec club, you will hear me swear, because I do swear. But I think the fear of, of not wanting to show up as ourselves actually means that you can end up working with people that you don't like, and they don't like you, and it, the whole thing just be a disaster.
Shannon: Absolutely. And, and then you're not comfortable and they're not comfortable in that, you know, if that, and one thing too, for them to remember is because that's my personality and that's how I show up on my socials. When I'm managing and creating content for them. It, that's, I'm doing that in their voice, not my voice.
So that's one thing that, you know, though, you know, if they know me, then they know that I'm also good at switching voices and I sound like a ventriloquist now, but I'm able, you know, we're able to shift gears, but it's, you know, but if they're so afraid of like, oh, well. Because she's got a skull painted on her middle finger.
I do.
But, you know, because she, you know, because she does this or she likes these things, then she's going to be awful at what she does. Well, I don't need to prove myself to anyone. I don't need to explain. I don't owe anybody an explanation of who I am. You know, I just show up and do the best that we can do, but yeah, being.
I mean, there's some topics like the LGBTQ thing, politics, all of that, like, you know, there's, if it's important to you, if it's an, and something where people are being hurt. You know, yeah, you have to take a stand on that, but you don't have to take a stand on every single topic and you don't have to have a heated debate with everybody.
You can still be kind and understanding in dealing with that, but yeah, yeah. We have some idiots on our staff too, but yeah.
Teresa: Yeah. And I think. Well, there is, unfortunately, as there always is, but I think that's the key thing, isn't it? Like, you don't have to. No one's saying that you have to show everybody every part of your life and every opinion you have on everything.
That's not the case. The case is, like, if it's important to you and you feel strongly about it, then don't be afraid to go on and show it or, you know, have a conversation about it or talk about it, you know, because if, so let's be honest, if someone does not agree, If someone agrees with Rishi Sunak, our Prime Minister, I'm not sure that they are right in my world.
You know, because I, I think people should be allowed to be who they want to be and not have the government basically say, no, you're either this or you're this and that's it. And basically say you're not welcome here. Like it just. Yeah. I don't want, I don't, that is not in my world. Like I would not like to hang out with those people.
They wouldn't be my mates. Like if they were the people that went, no, I agree with him. So I think it's about saying not necessarily about stirring the pot. It's not about like you wouldn't, would you actively encourage your, your clients to talk about politics and religion and stuff like that?
Shannon: Definitely not. I, I wouldn't. So I, I do have some clients that they're, they're the thing, they're, they're, you know, nonprofit, they're raising money for charities and stuff like that. And there is some religious aspects in there, but it's all about kindness and love and doing kind things for other people, for example.
But if it's. Is so that in that kind of aspect. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, definitely. That's obviously that's part of their brand. That's their whole reason for being there. But it's not that it's our way or the highway. They're very welcoming. It's not, there's only one way to think. It's just more about kindness and love.
And, and they are still very inclusive, but so that's the exception to, to what I'm about to say, which is, no, I don't recommend that my clients talk about, they, they don't need to be talking about, you know, it doesn't matter what gender somebody identifies as. You know, if they're going to, you know, need to get their pool cleans or, you know, that, yeah.
But letting them know, you know, maybe letting, having a little bit of that flavor on there of letting them know, for example, you know, Hey, you know, we don't care what gender you are.
I'm just using that as the example, you know, you know, you be you, that's cool. It does let people know because the, these are folks that are, they've been shamed and they're, you know, for just existing and that's awful and letting them know, Hey. You're welcome here is also a good thing too. So there's, it's kind of that slippery slope. Yeah.
Teresa: Yeah. Yeah. It is. It's hard to kind of be in the conversation and not be in the conversation. Like you said, it's, it's the, you know. Showing that we're accepting as a company and especially if you are a company, if you're a person at the end of the day, it's your business and you can effectively put what the hell you want on your social media.
You can show up exactly as you want. You can talk about whatever it is you want to talk about. That is entirely up to you. As a person, as a business, you know, I used to have some of the clients I had when I did social media, people was like an estate agent, a law firm, a manufacturer. And it's like those people, they're a company, they're not going to wade in on the big hard topics.
They're just going to step back out of them and talk about their stuff. What would you say to someone who was afraid of showing up as themselves on their social media or was nervous about people commenting or saying something negatively to them on their social media when they dare to.
Shannon: Yeah. Well, and that's, that's a real thing.
That's a real fear. And, and I went through that when I started, when I started this and started kind of being myself, it's, it is scary because at first, when you first get those negative responses of, you know, Hey, you know, that flipping the bird is a bit much. I actually just had that comment just the other day, you know.
Like, you know, yeah, she, me. Oh, wow. And, but that's okay. It's okay that that's not for her, but it, it took me a while to get to where I can be like, that's, no, that's cool. You know, here's how you unfollow me. You know, I'll show you how to do that. But like, at first it's scary because we take it personally.
Like even if you are, even as a brand. Like, you know, take the personal part of it aside, just showing up as a brand and you're, you know, you're behind a logo and you're behind, you know, it's not even your name. It's just, you know, your brand name. You still take it personally like, Oh no, they, you know, they said that about me.
Well, there's so many things like first, the first thing is don't take it personally. People get behind a keyboard and they sometimes just lose all sense of self control and, you know, forget the manner, say things that they would never say to your face and half the, honestly, half the time they're probably drunk, right?
I mean, getting drunk and playing on Facebook, you know, that's what they're doing. No, go to bed.
Teresa: Sounds like you've been there, Shannon. Sounds like you've done that.
Shannon: No, I mean, yeah. You know, why not have a bottle of wine and get behind the keyboard? What could go wrong?
Teresa: Just not on the client's account.
Shannon: Very careful. So that first thing is just, you know, you take it personally. My kid just actually started a, a business, recently and is not, yeah, and you would think that, you know, a teenager, super social media, Facebook is not, you know, teenagers aren't really on that. So, but Morgan understands that.
You know, Facebook for our town, because that business is very local as well. you know, Facebook's where, where the business needs to be. And so Morgan received some not really negative comments, but just some snarky, a little snarky, and you know, I knew exactly what Morgan was feeling. Just that, Oh, what I'm going to tell him off, you know, no, no, just.
You know, take a deep breath and, you know, take a look at the whole picture and, you know, maybe try and realize where they're coming from. You can always smooth it over, but taking it personally is, is really the, or not taking it personally is really the first step. And then, you know, once you realize it's not about you, you can you can kind of manipulate the conversation a little bit better.
Teresa: And also knowing, I guess, when to give up, as in, like, you know, this person has a different opinion to me. This person doesn't agree with what I do or how I do it. This person is not for me. And at those points, just block, just block. See you later. Goodbye.
You don't need them in your world at all.
Shannon: Yeah, absolutely.
Teresa: But for, for every. I would say for every one person that is doing that, there's probably a hundred others that are loving what you do, are needing you to do what you do, that you are becoming an inspiration to them, you're showing up for them.
you know, and they are looking for someone like you to, to look to and to be inspired by. And, you know, so thinking about who needs to see me show up today, so that gives them permission to show up. And we need more of that. We need more people being authentic and real and comfortable in going, this is who I am.
This is what I offer. If it's for you, awesome. If not, No worries.
Shannon: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And yes, ignoring it too. Like you said, that's always a good, you can, you can unfollow, you can, you don't have to be Facebook friends with everybody. Yeah. Absolutely.
Teresa: Yeah. The other thing I would say as well is you don't have to see all the content you see.
So I mute a lot of people. Okay. So like even people that I know and love, right? They could be people who are friends, but their businesses are so close to mine, or their content triggers me, or like, whatever it might be, I mute them. And it's not that I don't like them, and I don't, you know, think they're a nice person when I see them, but their content is triggering me every time I see it.
So don't do that. Like, Go through and hide those people the same as you don't have to, you know, they don't have to look at your content. You don't have to look at theirs either. So if they're triggering you, even if their friend mute them rather than like unfollow. 'cause then they might see that. But like if you mute them, you won't see their stuff and then you can start to curate.
I mean, my feed Shannon is pretty much gardening homestead, dogs. I get a lot of dogs.
Shannon: Dogs are good. I mean, who doesn't love dogs, but like, I mean. We should all have a feed just of dogs.
Teresa: Exactly. With dogs. I think we should. I think, and that is like, that's the trick. If you want to go viral, dogs.
Shannon: 100%. Yes. Especially my grand dogs. Those are…
Teresa: That's our one take point.
Shannon: Those are great dogs. Yeah. Really. My grand dogs. Yeah.
Teresa: They are brilliant.
Shannon: Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I love it. Then you don't compare yourself when you… You know, you, you kind of stop comparing yourself and worrying about no, oh, well, they posted this.
I was going to post that. No, I won't. And then you don't post anything. Me.
Teresa: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So just don't, just don't look at it. Do post things. So Shannon, it's been an absolute joy to have you on, as I knew it would. You really are one of the most awesome humans. Where can people come and follow you and sign up to your emails, which are awesome.
Where can they come and find you, Shannon?
Shannon: Oh, thank you so much. So you can find me on Facebook and on Instagram. I'm also on LinkedIn, just. It's actually social. It's just there. All of my stuff is right there, whether it's Facebook, Instagram, or LinkedIn. And thank you so much for having me on this podcast.
I know, I am sure I've told you this on driving the kids to school back when I had to do that. I'm no longer needing to do that. So that's kind of nice, but it was getting all caught up on your podcast back in the beginning when I had missed like a few. And just. Found it. We listen to your podcast all the time, driving to school for years, years, every Monday podcast Monday. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me here.
Teresa: I love it. Thank you. Shannon. Well, I hope you're going to play this to Morgan and go, Hey, you know, that podcast we used to listen to I'm on it.
Shannon: Morgan is Morgan knows Morgan is actually got the dogs in the other room so that they don't come out and bark because they will. They want to be on the blast humans only this.
Teresa: Well, we know all about that, don't we, Shannon, dogs? Dogs, dogs, dogs drive us crazy. Shannon, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure to have you on.
Shannon: Thank you so much, Teresa. Have a wonderful day.
Teresa: So thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the podcast. Please do go follow Shannon.
She is honestly, and I don't just say this, she is one of my absolute favorite people and I know you'll love her as much as I do. Please do go give her a follow. Please share this and tag us both in. We will make sure everything's up in the show notes and it'll be on my socials. We would love to see what you thought of it.
And I will see you next week for another interview until then have an awesome week.
