September 23, 2024 • 49 mins
Elevate Your Brand: Shaunda Head's Expert Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs
Unlock the power of strategic branding with Shaunda Head, founder of SHH Creative LLC. In this eye-opening episode of We Pivot Podcast, discover expert strategies to elevate your brand and grow your business:
- Transform your brand identity beyond logos and websites
- Leverage your unique voice to attract ideal clients
- Use authenticity to stand out in the digital noise
- Master the art of storytelling for genuine connections
- Apply color psychology and social media strategies for success
Shaunda shares her journey from creative professional to brand strategist, offering actionable advice for entrepreneurs, especially women over 40. Learn how to craft a compelling brand message that resonates with your audience and drives business growth. Don't miss this opportunity to revolutionize your branding approach and take your small business to new heights!
Connect with Shaunda Head
Interested in learning more about brand strategy? Check out these resources from Shaunda Head:
- Free Workshop on Story Marketing: Brand Magic Academy
- Client Attraction Guidebook: Identify and attract your perfect-fit clients with a strategic brand message. Get the guide
- Book a Free Consultation: Schedule your call
Ready to Take the Next Step?
If you're looking to elevate your digital presence with a new website or explore digital marketing strategies for your business, reach out to us:
📧 Email: tona@haywoodsbs.com
Special Offer for Listeners: Mention that you found us through the podcast when you email, and you'll receive a discount on your next service!
Thank you for listening to today's episode! Don't forget to subscribe for more expert insights on digital marketing for women entrepreneurs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tona (00:02):
The We Pivot podcast is for you if you're a woman who
has recently pivoted intoentrepreneurship.
You'll find digital marketingtips, trends and strategies to
help grow your business intoday's digital world.
Join Tona and Al Haywood as wehave fun breaking down all
things digital marketing, so sitback, relax and enjoy the show.
(00:25):
Hello everyone and welcome backto the we Pivot podcast.
Today we have a guest, and hername is Shaunda Head.
She is a dope, different brandstrategist and messaging expert
who helps women use their ownunique voice to brand their
(00:48):
differences so they can be seenand heard.
Her superpower is teachingwomen how to express themselves
in their brand so they can sendout the bat signal to their
perfect fit clients.
Shaunda has over 20 years ofexperience, including digital
marketing, brand building,copywriting and communications,
(01:10):
and has been featured by suchplatforms as Essence, magazine,
time, Sirrus XM, create andCultivate and Motherly.
I am so glad that she is here.
Welcome, shonda.
Shaunda (01:24):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I'm happy to be here.
Tona (01:27):
Yes, I am happy too, and just to let you know, the one
thing that Shaunda I can attestdoes very well is copywriting,
because her emails always getsme clicking, always, always gets
(01:51):
me clicking, always.
Thank you, you're so welcome.
So is it possible if you couldshare your journey into branding
and marketing and what inspiredyou to start SHH Creative LLC?
Shaunda (02:00):
Yeah, so I've always been a creative.
I consider myself a lover ofall things creative.
So I grew up really as anartist painting, drawing, also
writing, of course and so I wentto school for graphic design
Actually, back then they calledit graphic communications but I
went to undergrad for graphicdesign, did some internships and
(02:24):
then went straight into gradschool because I really and
truly thought I was going towork for like Pixar and I really
wanted to make like Toy Storytype movies.
I wanted to go computeranimation, but once I got there
I used kind of my portfolio toget in and so I went into the
design side and so I studiedbroadcast design and motion
graphics.
So that means because a lot ofpeople like, well, what is that?
(02:47):
I learned editing, so a lot ofpost-production.
But I also was learning how todo animation for television.
So when you watch the news,they call them lower thirds,
where you see like the captionsand the graphics at the bottom.
When you watch NBA games, thelogo animates in.
All that kind of stuff was whatI was studying.
So I came out of school andstarted working.
(03:10):
I was really always the onlydesigner on these huge teams of
marketers and strategists.
I've also been in businessdevelopment departments, so I
was always the one creative.
But what that did allow me todo was allow me to learn more
outside, and it allowed me tolearn what these larger
(03:30):
companies were doing in terms ofbranding and marketing, because
everything that I knew was morethe freelance route.
I started freelancing when I was18, did my first logo for my
mom's hairdresser for $50.
And that started a very long,illustrious career of $50 logos,
club flyers, you know for, likewhen it was Black Knight, they
(03:53):
used to hit me up for those clubflyers for $50, annual reports,
like all kinds of print designstuff.
And then in 2017, I decidedI've been freelancing for for
since I was 18 at that point andI have kind of all this
knowledge that I've learned incorporate, but I really was not
allowed to kind of use my fullpotential in corporate.
(04:14):
It's kind of like, here's thebox that you came in for.
Now we're going to tell you todo work that you were not hired
for.
You got to do that too.
The vision kept getting fartherand farther away.
So in 2017, I quit my job.
At that time, I was working atan engineering firm doing
marketing and the businessdevelopment, writing RFPs, so
(04:36):
like winning them all the money,I think, at last count.
When I walked out the door, wewere at $9 million that we had
secured in less than a year, andso that's why they wanted me to
keep doing those RFPs.
And I was like no, I came herefor the website, I came here to
fix all this other stuff thatyou guys need help with.
So anyway, long story short, Ileft there and really put my
(05:02):
whole focus into doing the workthat I had been doing, but doing
it for the clients that Ireally wanted to work with,
which, for me, were women, smallbusinesses owned by women.
I had a lot of friends who werelike C-suite and I'm like you
have so much Like let's start abusiness, I'll do your brand and
all these things, and they'relike it's so hard, it's so hard.
(05:22):
And then I realized that I wasprivy to a lot of conversations
that other were not in the roomfor, and so I was looking at my
peers and seeing how all theirnetworking and I'm like none of
my friends are privy to thisinformation, so let me be the
one that gives it to them, andthat's kind of how.
(05:43):
Since then, that's just how I'vekind of just been marketing
myself is I'm speaking to womenwho own small businesses.
I just actually learned in thepast year all of my clients have
been the age of 40 and up, andI'll be 42 in two months.
So I was like, wait a minute.
(06:03):
All of my clients are women intheir forties and I'm like this
is exactly why I did this.
I wanted to speak to women whowere like me, who had skillset
and had talent, and if theyneeded some resources to help
them start their business,market their business, I wanted
to be that resource and Iliterally just looked a couple
of weeks ago and was like, oh,my goodness, everybody is me
(06:32):
Like for real, for real thistime, yeah, but that's how I got
here.
I was supposed to be a graphicdesigner.
I really had an itching to getinto marketing.
I was very intimidated by that.
I'll say that because whenpeople place you in a box, you
kind of say, yeah, this is mylabel, this is who I'm supposed
to be, and so I always thoughtof myself as an artist, and so I
was not able to view myself asthe strategist or having all the
(06:53):
data or being able to do allthese things.
So what I did was I took a lotof courses Once I quit my job.
I had a lot of free time, I tooka lot of courses.
I was on everybody's freewebinar.
I was.
I found a coach who was in themarketing space because I had a
business coach at that time butI found someone who was really,
really dialed into the marketingspace and digital marketing and
(07:16):
all the data and the KPIs andall those things that I wanted
to learn, and so I just like gotup under her wing, like teach
me everything.
And that's where I've been kindof ever since.
I love the craft and I love theway I do it.
I think I do it in a way that'sdifferent and, because of my
(07:37):
background, is very eclectic,and then you slap some strategy
on top of that.
So that's how I got here.
Tona (07:45):
Wow, I mean that is amazing, and I know, with the
digital marketing, you actuallycame out of your job just pretty
much a year after I came out,because I came out 2016 and you
came out 2017.
So trying to find resources wasvery difficult back then
(08:07):
because it was almost like therewasn't really a name for it.
The digital marketing that termwasn't really dialed in just
yet, and so you were doingdifferent things, like you
might've been starting aFacebook page and you have that
piece.
You might have started todabble in email marketing.
You've heard about SEO, but youkind of was like, ooh, that's
(08:32):
too much for me.
So you know, but you didn'treally have someone to really
explain what digital marketingwas, because most people didn't
really know at the time, so itseemed like it took time.
So you finding somebody thatcan actually help point you in
the right direction with digitalmarketing and give you the
(08:53):
knowledge that you needed that'sreally, really important and
it's important to get that quickand not wrong.
Shaunda (08:59):
Yes, oh, my goodness, so many people are out here
really trying to do work insilos, you know, and they think
that actually I don't know whatthey think, but I just hear from
so many people trying to dothis alone, and even if it's
just as simple as having a fewbesties, you know, people that
you know are doing kind ofsimilar work that you can reach
(09:19):
out to from time to time, justto even just spill your gut to
somebody who understands fromtime to time, just to even just
spill your gut to somebody whounderstands.
But that was so helpful to me,just having at least I at least
had the knowledge like, ok, Ineed to learn some things
because I don't know, I havebeen building web designs and
all these kinds of things.
I had a website for years, butI was not actually operating my
(09:40):
business online.
That was an entirely differentballgame.
Oh, and so I was like I reallyneed to learn the craft for
myself.
And then, as I was doing that, Iwas like, oh no, this is almost
like the missing piece foreveryone, and so it's not just
me.
So I really wanted to make sureI could learn the craft and do
(10:00):
what I needed to do for myself.
But then I wanted to make sureI could kind of distill the
information into how I couldhelp everyone who needed the
resources, who are around me,who were just not privy to those
kinds of conversations.
But I love how you called itthat it's exactly right.
Digital marketing did not existin that terminology.
No, not at all.
Not at all.
Tona (10:21):
Girl the crazy thing.
Listen to this.
I was talking to a cousin ofmine who's actually in school at
Indiana University, about tograduate, and she's taking
classes that kind of have to dowith digital marketing.
But when she was telling me thetype of stuff that she was
doing, I was like that don'tsound stuff that she was doing.
Shaunda (10:49):
I was like that don't sound.
No, that ain't it.
So it's, you're so right, likemy nephew graduated with a
marketing degree and it's likethey still are not.
They're teaching the marketingand marketing fundamentals and
principles and things like that,and then they have to leave
there and go get a job wherethey can learn on the job, and
even on the job they're stilllearning kind of brick and
mortar marketing.
They're not learning onlinebusiness, you know, and I don't
(11:09):
know if they think onlinebusiness is going to go away or
something.
But now we're here, guys, it'sa whole different and that's
what's so hard for a lot ofpeople coming out of corporate
is learning Like this is a wholedifferent beast.
Like these growing pains aresomething serious.
Yeah, it's a whole differentbeast.
These growing pains aresomething serious.
Yeah, it's a whole differentballgame.
Tona (11:26):
And I guess that's the thing that was hard for us as
well coming out, Because myhusband he does the web design,
that's what he specializes in.
Shaunda (11:38):
Oh, you're the perfect team.
Tona (11:41):
Yeah, when we were coming out, I tell you, they had
programs in Chicago when we wereliving in Chicago to help
businesses start Right, butevery time we would try to go to
a place that actuallyspecialized in what we did, we
couldn't find anybody.
It was either coding or food,and it was like there was
(12:03):
nothing in between.
Yes, when you talk web design,they're like what's that?
I don't know what that is, Idon't understand.
So you couldn't really bepointed in the right direction
to mentors and people like that.
So you have a lot of growingpains.
You just try to learn as you go, because there are not many
(12:23):
people in what you're doing orwhat you're trying to do.
Shaunda (12:27):
Yeah, it's definitely hard.
So it's literally exactly whatyou said.
If anyone can come acrossanyone who is like in their lane
not even in their lane, butjust in the online industry,
because there's a lot of skillsthat are like transferable once
you're running a business onlineor you're coaching online or
what have you, even ine-commerce.
But the sooner you can startlearning from someone else and
(12:50):
start networking, getting thesedifferent communities, the
better.
And I know sometimes it's hardto talk to people about because
a lot of times that meansthere's going to be like money
involved and if you're juststarting you don't really have a
lot of resources like that.
But any way that you can, I'lltell you, when I found my coach,
she had like a free trial.
She had a free trial on hermembership.
(13:11):
I got in that membership.
I think it was like two weeks,like something like 14 days, and
after that it was $49.
I remember because I had thefirst $49.
I did not know where the second$49 was going to come from.
But when I tell you that firstmonth, every course that was in
her membership I'm talking about, I was studying like I was back
in school and so I did havethat next payment when it came
(13:33):
back around.
But that's literally how youhave to start.
Sometimes you know you startfor free and then, when you can
afford it, you move forward.
But definitely that's the bestthing you can do is to really
start as soon as possible, thatis so true.
Tona (13:48):
Oh girl, that was good.
I still got some otherquestions.
So why do you think having astrong brand identity is
essential for businesses today?
And basically, what I see a lotof businesses doing a lot of
times is, either they're focusedon okay, I want a brand, but I
(14:12):
want the brand to just be all myfavorite colors on my website
and put it together.
That just works for me.
Al (14:21):
That's my favorite color, that's what I'm going to be in
when I take my photos, thosecolors that's going to go with
the website.
Tona (14:28):
you know all that, so explain to me why it's having a
strong brand and what does itmean to have a strong brand.
Shaunda (14:38):
Oh my gosh, I'm sorry I'm having flashbacks.
I just had a session with aclient, like last week, talking
about these brand colors.
They came in the door withthese brand colors.
Let me be clear, but a lot ofpeople think that your brand is,
you know, like your logo onyour website that is not your
logo on your website are assetsfor your brand and they really
(14:59):
support what your brand is.
And so I think it was JeffBezos who said this, or some
other like older white man, I'msure but who said that your
brand is perception of you whenyou're not in the room, of you
and your company.
So it's almost like whatexperience that you're leaving
with your target audience?
What experience are you leavingwith your customers?
(15:20):
What will they say about youwhen you're not in the room?
And so, when we think about itin those terms, there's a lot of
stuff that goes into that.
Yes, some of that is your logo,some of that is your website.
It's also your content, yourcopywriting, your marketing
funnels, your social media, thetop of your funnels.
So if you have any podcasts,anything like that.
(15:41):
So for me, your brand is anentire system, and the reason
why I think of it that way isbecause at the center of your
system to me it's just myphilosophy, but at the center of
your system is your brandmessage.
If your brand message is lockedin and if you built a brand
system around that message, thenat any point when someone
(16:02):
enters your ecosystem, they willget what you're trying to give.
If it's not built in that way,they might come to your social
media and then say, hey, let meclick the link in bio and then
get to your website and then belike, oh wait, no, this is not.
This person's coming acrossdifferently over here, and we
call those things frictionpoints in marketing, right?
(16:22):
So every time there's a newstep in your funnel, you've got
a point where some people aregoing to fall out the funnel
right there.
So what are you going to doabout it?
If you build a brand systemthat is really working in
alignment, all on one accord,then you have to worry less
about those kinds of things.
So to me, your brand and yourbrand identity it gets to be
(16:44):
really strong when it is basedon a strong brand message, and
that also means that you have tobe really clear about who
you're talking to in yourmessage too, because the message
can't be clear.
If, like, if it ain't clear,then it ain't.
That ain't your brand message,right?
So for me, that's what a strongbrand identity is, and it's
really necessary at this timebecause what we know is that,
(17:07):
you know, during COVID, internettraffic doubled.
It probably has tripled by now,and now we're now recording
this in 2024.
As of 2023, like in our onlineindustry, they're saying that
income and revenue has gone down, like 30 to 50% for some people
.
So that means there's a lotmore competition.
(17:29):
There's a lot more, you know,there are more people looking,
but that also means you caneasily get lost in the sea.
So you really have to find away to stand out and to make
your brand stronger, morememorable, just so that your
brand identity can go a littlehigher and higher, because just
of everyone and everything thatyou're competing against and
(17:52):
when I say, I am one of thosepeople who says there is no
competition or whatever thephrase is, but I truly believe
it's really about you.
And when we get intoentrepreneurship, we hear a lot
about ideal client, dream client, this ideal client, avatar,
that.
But when you are kind of likethis ideal client avatar, that.
(18:14):
But when you are kind of likestepping into your brand fully
yourself or as much as you'rewilling to bring to the table.
My belief is you're actuallyable to kind of cut through the
noise even faster, like even astraighter line.
It's like you make a beeline tothe people who resonate with
exactly that.
So that's where I'm alwayscoming from with everything.
For me, that's how you build astrong brand identity.
(18:35):
You really anchor your brandand your message in you and your
thoughts and your values and inthe work that you are, kind of
like, best suited to do.
And then you put that messageout there, you build a brand
around it and you turn on thebat signal so that you can call
in the people who resonate withthat message and who resonate
(18:57):
with the person that you'reshowing up as.
Tona (18:59):
That makes sense.
That makes a lot of sense.
But I guess most times becausethere's so much coming at us and
we're looking at everybodyelse's brand and how beautiful
it is and how they're comingthrough, that we want to emulate
that instead of coming throughas ourself.
And that's the part that's hard, because we have to remove the
(19:22):
distractions of the others, ofeveryone else.
Yes, competitive, you're noteven a competitive nature of
that.
Wanting that comparison andwanting to be well there is just
beautiful and how they comeacross, how they talk, how they
do their emails, how they dothis, this, this and this and
they want to be that and thenthemselves they get lost in that
(19:47):
, in trying to come up withtheir brand their brand message
and 100.
Shaunda (19:52):
That's what happens.
I like to tell people stop,stop copying them people,
because it's so many.
Sometimes it's like your coachor the guru that you follow and
you want to be like them, so youemulate them.
But it works for them becausethey're them.
It also works for them becausethey at the finish line already
right, you haven't built up tothat.
And then sometimes you'relooking at your peers and you're
(20:14):
thinking, well, why didn't Ithink of that?
Or I wanted to do that.
Now she's done that, so I can'tdo it, and all these things,
and it's very normal, it's kindof the first thing that happens.
So I'm always knock on peoplelike okay, come on, like get
your head out, come on, put yourblinders on.
You know, I know you'rethinking this.
I know it because we all do it,we've all done it, we're all
(20:37):
going to do it.
We always have to all bringourselves back.
Let's bring it back, becauseI'm just here to kind of bring
you back, because there arethings that are inherent in you
that will work for you and onceyou key in on those things, it's
like everything changes andthen people are going to be
looking at you like trying to dowhat you do, you know.
But oh yeah, it's one of theharder parts, and it also
(21:00):
happens very early on, and sothat's also what makes it hard,
because we get stuck in thatplace.
I like to think of it likepeople might be even three years
into their business before theyeven realize that's what
they've been doing.
All along.
They've been trying to show upas someone else and do as
someone else, and then it's likeOK, now that I can acknowledge
(21:20):
that about what I've been doing,let's start fresh and let's
kind of figure out me.
I like to think of it as themessage that I'm here for, like
what is?
It's almost like what is yourpurpose?
What is the message that youare here to bring forth?
What is that?
Let's start there and let'sbuild.
Tona (21:39):
Yes, I agree.
I mean that I think that's thebest way to do it.
Sometimes, like when, whenyou're starting out, you have an
idea of what you're doing andwhat you think that you want to
do, but just kind of how yousaid earlier, you found out that
most of your clients were womenand they were in their 40s and
(22:00):
you were pretty much tailoringyour offerings to those women
and sometimes it's a full circlemoment For us.
We realized that we also workwith a lot of women and women
businesses and things like that.
So it's almost like, however,we started with our website, it
(22:23):
was like oh, this doesn't workbecause the people that we tend
to work with tend to be women.
So it's almost like you'remessaging and things have to
change based off of what are youreally doing and who are you
really affecting.
You know.
Shaunda (22:38):
Yeah, but isn't it cool how that happens?
Because it's like we alwayshave this real time data that we
can use to make things evenbetter or to make our work even
better or resonate more, and weliterally get it from.
It's a cycle, right.
We get it from our clients, andthe more clients that we have
that come in then, the more datathat we have that we can then
(22:59):
use to make our brand resonateeven better for more people like
that.
Tona (23:04):
So yeah, I love it, yes, I mean that is great.
So what do you feel are thefirst steps that entrepreneurs
business owners, should takewhen they're starting to build
their brand?
Shaunda (23:17):
it's always going to come back to your message.
Figure out what your brandmessage is and get that nailed
in and so, but in that samebreath, to me that also means
figuring out your targetaudience.
I teach something that I callthe message mastery equation,
and it's very, very simple.
It's literally the way that youcan master your message is to
(23:39):
say the right thing to the rightperson at the right time.
I have to have my ideal client.
I have to laser this on them inorder to create the message
first, right, so for me, they gohand in hand.
If you figure out who yourtarget audience is, then you can
create the message first.
Right, so for me, they go handin hand.
If you figure out who yourtarget audience is, then you can
create the message that theyneed to.
A big part of that is youreally have to nail it to
(24:03):
whatever stage the journey,right, and so that's also
something that a lot of peopleskip, and not on purpose.
But I just people just don'trealize that's the difference
between down your message or not.
Pick what you have to say,which is basically the work that
you do, the service you provide, the transformation that you
can make happen.
(24:23):
None of that matters.
If you're saying it to them andthey can't use it right, they
can follow you.
They can hit that follow button, they can subscribe, you can
nurture them.
But if you're just starting out,you have to get money right.
You have to sell some things andthe selling has to work in
order for you to start having abusiness and then you can start
having the email list and youcan buy all the things that you
(24:45):
need.
So that means that when thatmessage hits that person, they
need to be in the right spacefor that message.
So these are kind of the thingsthat we think about when we
talk about building out yourbrand message.
But to me, that's the firstthing, because you don't even
need a website to sell.
You just need to have a message.
You need to be able tocommunicate your value to
(25:06):
someone who needs what you have.
That's what you need to be ableto do, and once you're able to
do that, you can take thatknowledge and that message and
use that to then create all thethings in your website and stuff
like that.
So, to answer your question,first thing for me is to get
that brand message together,which means that you got to have
to focus on your ideal client.
(25:27):
In order to get that done,focus on what they need.
Tona (25:31):
Yeah, I agree.
I think that that makes perfectsense as well.
Just focus on that brandmessage and if you find that,
that maybe if you find that thebrand message is not working
because sometimes I feel like wehave who we think our target
audience is, but then we findout who it is who it actually is
(25:53):
so just allow yourself grace inthat figuring out process,
absolutely, because it's not akind yeah, it's not a concrete
thing, but a lot of times atleast, what I find is people
want to get it perfect beforethey put it out there, and I'm
like, no, you don't know if itworks until you put it out there
.
Shaunda (26:12):
You got to put it out there, you got to see what.
No, you don't know if it worksuntil you put it out there.
You got to put it out there,you got to see what the people
say.
And then you keep tweaking anddo it.
But most people want to let meget it in my paper first, right?
Or they want to have thesession and let me make sure
this is, and are we sure?
And is it going to work?
Nobody knows if it that's a guyright.
(26:36):
All of this is one giantexperiment, but we use the data
in order to help us to be moresuccessful, to help us to put
you know like our best footforward.
But absolutely, once it goesout there, that doesn't mean
it's never changing, but thatmeans you've now started, and so
we need a hand clap for you,because a lot of people don't
start because they get stuckright there.
Tona (26:51):
You know what I'm saying.
Stuck and scared, stuck andscared, to put it out.
Shaunda (26:57):
Yeah, and you have to put it out in order for it to
start working.
You have to.
That's the only way you getthat feedback.
That's true.
Tona (27:05):
That's so true.
Shaunda (27:06):
Yeah.
Tona (27:07):
That's good.
How do you feel that brandingevolved with digital marketing,
and what challenges andopportunities does this present?
Shaunda (27:17):
So for me, again, like, I think that your brand is an
entire system.
So what I mean is that theysupport each other, right?
So, like your marketingsupports your brand, that's kind
of why you want them to be onone accord.
What I do love about digitalmarketing is it has given us the
tools and I know I keep sayingdata, but it's literally changes
(27:39):
the game.
Like I'm an expert in amembership group, in a
membership community, and one ofthe ladies had a question about
and she listed all these things.
She said, well, nothing'sworked.
And I said, well, tell us thenumbers.
We need to know the numbers,because it may not even be that
it didn't work.
It may just be that you didn'thave enough traffic to your page
yet, so we don't know if it'sworked or not.
(28:00):
Because you know conversionrate.
The standard is only 1% to 3%.
Right, people don't know thesethings.
That's what I love aboutdigital marketing is that it
gives us all these numbers andit's data.
It.
It gives us all these numbersand it's data.
It's like we can have.
Like we can tell you whatsuccess looks like, right, we
can tell you how to forge thatpathway.
This is literally the reasonwhy we're doing all these things
.
(28:21):
Going back to that conversationabout the brands and the colors
there is sales and marketingpsychology behind these things.
If you're using the color red,you gotta know what you're
getting yourself into.
You know what I'm saying.
You got to know what thingsmean.
Colors we actually know thatcolors mean certain things to
our brain, so advertisers andmarketers use that in marketing.
(28:45):
These are things that really, Ithink before digital marketing,
the common man maybe did nothave much access to.
Now we have access to thesethings.
We marketers, you know, we'velearned this kind of psychology
stuff and we use it in our workso that we can really create the
impact that we want to create,so that we can make sure the
(29:05):
people we want to hear thismessage will hear this message.
So I kind of love that aspect ofdigital marketing because it
allows me to basicallyexperiment with the brand and
then go back and look at thenumbers, check the funnels, look
at the conversion rates, theclick rates, look at the email
marketing and see I canliterally see at what part in
(29:26):
the funnel did things go left?
Now we can go back and we cantweak that, we can shore up that
loophole, all those kinds ofthings.
Now we can go back and we cantweak that, we can shore up that
loophole, all those kinds ofthings.
So for me, that's where thedigital part of digital
marketing is really successfulin building brands and of course
, you know, we can't leave out.
Like social media, it's here tostay and it is driving
(29:47):
everything.
Now the algorithm driveseverything, but that also means
that it's pretty much allscience, so we can then take
these kind of context clues andset our brand up for success.
So for me, digital marketing isreally a great way to support
your brand and to support youand your brand platform and get
(30:07):
you so that people can see you.
And because it is digitalmarketing, it's a lot easier now
for, like, the common person tojust learn some techniques and
move forward in that way,whereas I think kind of like
those foundational marketingprinciples you know, like that
we learned in college, is kindof like a broader, more vague
(30:28):
thing that you can really onlyuse if you're working for some
of these like global companies.
Tona (30:35):
I agree with that.
Yeah, I think that's true.
And the thing that you saidabout the numbers, I think
that's the thing that mostpeople miss and because, no, yes
, girl, I can't tell you howmany people that we tried to do
like websites for you want yourGoogle Analytics connect?
I don't care about that, youwant us to do?
No, I don't care about that.
You want us to do no, I don'tcare about that.
(30:55):
It's like, well, that'sactually important because if
you don't know the informationand I think this has to do with
I was a science teacher biology,botany, zoology, environmental
science so doing labs andexperiments, that's my jam.
So the numbers and seeing howthey and it's all experiments,
(31:18):
right, so it's like, man, if Itest this email and see how much
is my open rate or myclick-through rate, if I do it
this way, if I change this out,what's going to happen?
Even with social media, I'mdetermined to still get more
views or reach on posts on mybusiness page.
(31:40):
Let's see what can I do, howcan I change it up?
But most times people don'tknow the information beforehand,
right?
So they don't know that what isa good click-through rate, what
is a good open rate?
Because they may have, let'ssay, 40%, and they're like, oh
my God, it's terrible.
Shaunda (31:58):
But they don't know what the average is.
Tona (32:02):
So you know, knowing that other information or you can't
say well, my website or thisisn't working, well, you're not
getting enough traffic to yoursite to begin with.
What can we do to get moretraffic there, so you have more
views, so that you can have morepool to choose from to actually
(32:26):
get a conversion?
So it's all Tell the peopleGirl, tell the people, it's all.
Shaunda (32:32):
I don't know what they think we over here doing Like I
don't know what they think wedoing.
Tona (32:37):
Girl like one of our podcasts is called Pretty Logos
or Pretty Pictures.
It's not going to get youclicks to your website, so it's
like there's it's not how theygoing to get you clicks to your
website.
Shaunda (32:48):
So it's like there's it's not how how they going to
get there to see.
It says how they going to getthere.
Everybody misses that,everybody, and you know what it
is.
And it's just a part of thegame, because there are some
careers and some things that youdo that people think, oh, I
could do that If I just had alittle time, an extra Saturday,
then I can build a website, or Ican do, and not saying that you
can't, because there are a lotof people who are good with
(33:11):
their hands, you know, are ableto do these things.
But at least take it from us,you know, like look up some of
the techniques and thestrategies that we put forth
things like that, because, yes,you can DIY it, but you at least
want to have some guidance.
You at least want to knowthere's always intention behind
these things.
So there's reasoning.
When we are branding, when weare building logos and websites,
(33:33):
there are reasons why we have acertain number of pages.
There are reasons why you'reopting bottom.
It needs to be at the top.
There are reasons why we usethis color or that color,
reasons why you need the GoogleAnalytics For me.
I'm a funnel builder.
I am.
Yes, I love that you have awebsite, but I would love for
your sales page to be in afunnel builder, because those
(33:56):
analytics are different.
Like we can actually break downand set up the order form.
Make it a two step instead of aone step.
Now we can do abandoned carts.
There's so many differentthings that we can do, and even
if you don't need a professionalto do it for you, at least know
enough to be like okay, I'mDIYing this, let me go.
(34:16):
Let me see what Heywood gotgoing on that maybe I can kind
of look into.
Let me listen to some podcaststhat can help me on this route.
Let me see what Shaunda gotgoing on.
Let Help me on this route.
Let me see what Shaunda gotgoing on.
Let me see if she got like aPDF or something I can download.
You know, take the tips, becauseall of this stuff comes from.
I mean, you're a scienceteacher, for God's sakes, or you
(34:37):
were.
So it's like imagine you take ascience teacher and you put her
in this environment.
Can you imagine the kind ofknowledge that you have that you
can now use to help peopleexcel in their marketing efforts
.
As scientists like, come on,you know what I mean.
But there are all these thingsthat look, we do a lot, guys, we
(34:58):
do, and not to like to, I'll beout here tooting horns.
But there's psychology thatgoes into these things.
There's science that goes intothese things.
All the data and all that kindof stuff.
You know, all this stuff meanssomething.
So when you're building yoursites, your sales pages, your
funnels, your email marketing,you know everything has an
(35:19):
intention behind it.
So if you're building thesethings on your own and you don't
have an intention behind itjust yet, or a strategy, just
take a step.
Figure that out first, becausewe aren't just throwing these
things out here willy nilly.
There's always a reason why.
Tona (35:34):
Yes, that is one of the hardest things to get across to
people and I think when you areable to look at it with the
science behind it, it actuallytakes the emotion out of it,
because now you're not feelinglike, oh, I'm a failure because
(35:55):
this, I didn't do this rightbecause of this, so I need to
just forget it all.
It's like you can look atthings in a better situation.
You know, and then it just itmakes you just continue to want
to keep testing and keep tryingto see you know what will work
and then, once you know, use thenumbers to help you grow
(36:18):
Numbers are always there.
Shaunda (36:20):
Yeah, people.
Just you know you don't knowwhat you don't know you know.
So I'd never feel like afailure or anything like that.
You know, you just need somemore information, you know, to
make a new decision, that's it.
Tona (36:33):
And that's true.
That's all you need.
And I think, too, what you saidbefore when you have a person
like yourself, who you've beenin the corporate game you've
seen, you've worked withmarketing in the corporate game
You've seen, you've worked withmarketing, then you had someone
who was an actual mentor in thedigital marketing space.
(36:53):
You have years worth ofknowledge that you were able to
gain.
So if somebody knows that, takeadvantage of it, reach out, get
help, get the mentorship, getwhatever you need from that
person so that you don't have tostruggle as long as some other
people have had to do priordigital marketing, even being a
(37:14):
thing yeah, that everybody knew.
Shaunda (37:17):
Yeah, and now, especially, you know we are.
Well, some people say we're ina recession, some people say
we're not.
You know it, it's, it's up inthe air, something's definitely
going on, and so you really wantto kind of be on, whatever it
is that you can control, becausea lot of external things you
cannot control.
(37:38):
So, listen, these things arethings that are already
inherently, you know, inside ofyou.
You know you just need toreally focus and and be be
intentional.
That's really the main thingI'm always like going on and
about is being intentional aboutthe work that you're doing.
So, yeah, excellent, excellentpoint.
I think this is the time whereyou know we kind of have to see
(37:59):
what everybody's made of, and sothis, that means that if I'm
sitting here saying thatactually just looks like going
more, leaning more into you,then it's like sign me up, I can
do that, I can lean more intome.
You know, I can try See whathappens.
Tona (38:17):
Yeah, so when it comes to branding, can you discuss the
role of storytelling when you'retrying to impact your specific
target audience?
Is that a really importantpiece of it.
Shaunda (38:42):
You don't need anybody else's opinion or anything.
All you need to know is exactlywhat you know.
I talk to a lot of people whoare like, well, I don't have a
story because they weren't likehomeless on the street, or, you
know, they don't have like aTyler Perry story or Oprah story
, and I'm like, what matters isthat is yours, because people
(39:04):
aren't scrolling Instagramlooking for the trauma.
You know scrolling Instagramlooking for something that
sounds like them, or their momor their dad or their sister or
their brother or their boyfriendor their girlfriend or their
partner, whomever.
They are looking for somethingfamiliar, and that's another
thing.
That's also hard when you'recoming out of corporate, because
(39:25):
that was not the case, and soI'm always like OK, nix the code
switching, talk about yourself.
I understand privacy for sure.
That means, though, that let'spick some stuff that we don't
mind talking about.
Let's pick some littleanecdotes.
And notice, too if you payattention to a lot of the big
(39:47):
gurus, you will hear them tellthe same stories over and over
and over again, and that is amessaging tactic.
That means they have realized,or they've honed in on the like
three to five stories that theywant to tell, but also the
stories that probably get themthe most traction, make the most
(40:08):
impact with their targetaudience.
So why can't you do the same?
That is literally a thing.
When we sit down and we domessaging work, we pick out
those stories right.
And then I have people that sayoh, I'm so bored, are you
supposed to get bored?
I'm saying the same thing allthe time.
I'm like if you were notrepeating yourself, you would
not have a message.
You should be repeatingyourself, because what we do is
(40:31):
we assume that everybody ishearing us.
When 5% of people, 5% of youraudience, is hearing you on a
good day, that means every timeyou get on there you should be
saying the same thing and allownew people to come across you.
And so I like to say pick somestories or even topics.
(40:51):
I call it your starting lineup,but it's like three to five
either content, topics orstories that you can always lean
into.
If you're on a podcast, ifyou're doing a keynote, if you
are doing your email, whateverit may be, you know, if you pay
attention, you're going to hearthe same stories from your
favorite people over, andprobably every time you hear it
(41:15):
you get sucked in again, eventhough you already know what
happens, like oh my God, shewent to the bank, the money
wasn't there, she had to wait onthe manager to come out.
You know, you know the story andyou're going listen again too.
It's a good story.
It does what they want it to do, but it's also true to them, so
it's not really like a gimmickything.
(41:36):
So I love story marketingbecause you can you pull from
yourself, you can always rehashyour speech.
You know, I have a freeworkshop right now where I kind
of talk about how to use storiesin your content, how to create
your own story bank so that youcan figure out what your stories
are and figure out how toconnect them to the thing that
(41:58):
you're selling or what have you.
And it's pretty popular because, again, anybody can use it.
I have a lot of people who cometo me who are like e-commerce
people and they're like well, Ican't use that because I do too,
girl, they're like I can't usethat.
I have a restaurant like wedon't tell stories about the
(42:18):
food.
I'm like are you, do you notknow?
People have comfort food.
People will go and order achicken pie because my granny
used to make it, and when I'msick.
I need like there are storiesabout everything and if you just
pay attention to that, what doyou think commercials are?
They're all stories Like.
Yes, you can use storymarketing in your content.
(42:39):
I like to say that storiesbuild relationships and
relationships build businesses.
Right.
So once someone is like intoyour story, they want to follow,
even if they ain't ready to buyyet.
They want to know what you gotgoing on.
Just because they like you, letthem like you, it's okay.
Tona (42:56):
That's a thing actually in getting business Don't like
trust.
Shaunda (43:01):
Exactly, exactly, and we're seeing where you need way
more of that right now.
So, again, it all comes back toyou.
Pull out them stories.
People are not as open as theyused to be.
It actually has to be even moreso right now.
So that means you can only dothe things that are really going
to help you to stand out, thatare actually intrinsically you.
(43:23):
That's the only way that you'regoing to start to kind of stand
out from everyone else, Causewe're all doing similar stuff,
let's face it, but we all havedifferent people who are
attached to us, with meaningthat you and I might do the same
thing, but there are peoplethat are attached to you and
what you're doing and you are acatalyst for them.
The same way, there are peoplethat are attached to me, and so
(43:46):
these are things, though, thatyou never know upfront.
That means that you just haveto get out there, start talking,
start putting your message outthere, start telling your
stories right, and there will beimpact that happens that you
won't even know about becauseit's not for you.
You were just a catalyst tostart it.
You've stepped out on faith,right.
(44:08):
You've answered the call.
You're being obedient.
You're doing what you've beencalled to do.
And now Shaunda, who wasscrolling and caught your email,
now has like, oh, I thought ofsomething, now I start, I get
started and now I'm the catalystfor someone else.
You know what I mean.
So, but the thing is, we wantto know ahead of time what's
(44:30):
going to happen, how many peopleare going to be impacted, how
much am I going to sell?
You know what I mean.
That's not how it works.
That's not how it works.
Tona (44:38):
No, it's not.
That's really good.
Now, since we're getting to theclose of this podcast, I want
you to give the people onenugget that you want to leave
them with at the end of thispodcast, because we had a lot of
good stuff.
I can tell you that A lot ofgood stuff, a lot of stuff.
Shaunda (45:04):
A lot of stuff, a lot of stuff, but if you were to
leave with one, okay.
So my main point I think that Iwould want people to leave with
is when you're building yourbrand, at whatever stage you're
in in the journey, it's all ofus can stand to put some more of
ourselves into our brand, and Ithink that could actually solve
(45:24):
a lot of problems that we maybe having or think that right.
So my biggest thing is there'salways room for you and your
brand.
If you're sitting down lookingat your stuff and you've been
copying so-and-so and you'retrying to figure out why it
didn't work for me but it workedfor her, take her out of it.
If you've been working forthree years, five years, and
(45:48):
it's cool but it's not what youthought it was going to be, at
this point maybe it's time tolean more into you in some area
and it's scary, I think, forpeople because it feels like
you're being put on the choppingblock to be judged and all
these things.
But when you're really steppinginto what you've been put here
(46:09):
to do, part of that is going torequire literally require you to
step into it.
So it's literally going torequire you to lean into who you
are, because that is the personthat you're going to have to be
in order to make these thingscome to pass.
And I think that's alwayssomething we wrestle with,
(46:32):
because some days you don't wantto be on camera.
People don't believe me when Isay that the thing is, I'm so
keyed in on what I'm here to seethat when the light come on or
the camera come on, all I got todo is open my mouth and talk
and be, and I'm comfortabledoing that, right, right.
So that's that's why none ofthis, you know, bothers me, but
(46:55):
because I don't have any energy,but I need to be by myself and
get all my energy back and tolike break away and be alone.
But I don't have any problemsshowing up when it's time to
talk about the message, becauseit literally is like
intrinsically me and I am 100%sure about it.
So find that thing for you.
(47:18):
When you find that thing, stuffis not as hard as it was before
, I promise you.
I'm not saying it's allhunky-dory, because running a
business pulls the challenge andstretch you, but when you find
a thing that you are here to door the message that you are here
to get out into the world, evenif it's just for that season,
(47:39):
everything gets easier.
You literally just have to turnon the mic and talk, turn on
the camera and talk, that's it.
Tona (47:46):
Right, that's it.
Well, thank you so much, shonda, for all your words of wisdom
in this podcast, especiallydealing with brand strategy.
I will have your information inthe description so that people
can go and find you, especiallythat story workshop that you
(48:10):
said that you have.
You're gonna have to send methat one so that I can make sure
, and it's free.
I have that in there becausethat that sounds like a real
good one that I'm gonna have tocheck that one out I'll get you
the link okay, I'll get the, butthank you so much for being a
part of our podcast today and,who knows, we may have you back
(48:36):
soon to talk about somethingelse.
Shaunda (48:39):
Ooh, I'd love to come back, yeah, oh, don't get me
started on it.
You'll never get rid of me ifyou get me up here talking about
some numbers.
Tona (48:49):
I think that might be a fun one though.
So yeah, so yes.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Shaunda (48:56):
Thank you for having me .
Al (48:58):
We're so excited that you tuned in to the latest episode
of the we Pivot podcast.
Thank you for joining us Now,whether this is your first time
or not, please make sure tosubscribe and share with a
friend who can also use somedigital marketing guidance as
well.
Until next time.
The We Pivot podcast is for you if you're a woman who
has recently pivoted intoentrepreneurship.
You'll find digital marketingtips, trends and strategies to
help grow your business intoday's digital world.
Join Tona and Al Haywood as wehave fun breaking down all
things digital marketing, so sitback, relax and enjoy the show.
(00:25):
Hello everyone and welcome backto the we Pivot podcast.
Today we have a guest, and hername is Shaunda Head.
She is a dope, different brandstrategist and messaging expert
who helps women use their ownunique voice to brand their
(00:48):
differences so they can be seenand heard.
Her superpower is teachingwomen how to express themselves
in their brand so they can sendout the bat signal to their
perfect fit clients.
Shaunda has over 20 years ofexperience, including digital
marketing, brand building,copywriting and communications,
(01:10):
and has been featured by suchplatforms as Essence, magazine,
time, Sirrus XM, create andCultivate and Motherly.
I am so glad that she is here.
Welcome, shonda.
Shaunda (01:24):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
I'm happy to be here.
Tona (01:27):
Yes, I am happy too, and just to let you know, the one
thing that Shaunda I can attestdoes very well is copywriting,
because her emails always getsme clicking, always, always gets
(01:51):
me clicking, always.
Thank you, you're so welcome.
So is it possible if you couldshare your journey into branding
and marketing and what inspiredyou to start SHH Creative LLC?
Shaunda (02:00):
Yeah, so I've always been a creative.
I consider myself a lover ofall things creative.
So I grew up really as anartist painting, drawing, also
writing, of course and so I wentto school for graphic design
Actually, back then they calledit graphic communications but I
went to undergrad for graphicdesign, did some internships and
(02:24):
then went straight into gradschool because I really and
truly thought I was going towork for like Pixar and I really
wanted to make like Toy Storytype movies.
I wanted to go computeranimation, but once I got there
I used kind of my portfolio toget in and so I went into the
design side and so I studiedbroadcast design and motion
graphics.
So that means because a lot ofpeople like, well, what is that?
(02:47):
I learned editing, so a lot ofpost-production.
But I also was learning how todo animation for television.
So when you watch the news,they call them lower thirds,
where you see like the captionsand the graphics at the bottom.
When you watch NBA games, thelogo animates in.
All that kind of stuff was whatI was studying.
So I came out of school andstarted working.
(03:10):
I was really always the onlydesigner on these huge teams of
marketers and strategists.
I've also been in businessdevelopment departments, so I
was always the one creative.
But what that did allow me todo was allow me to learn more
outside, and it allowed me tolearn what these larger
(03:30):
companies were doing in terms ofbranding and marketing, because
everything that I knew was morethe freelance route.
I started freelancing when I was18, did my first logo for my
mom's hairdresser for $50.
And that started a very long,illustrious career of $50 logos,
club flyers, you know for, likewhen it was Black Knight, they
(03:53):
used to hit me up for those clubflyers for $50, annual reports,
like all kinds of print designstuff.
And then in 2017, I decidedI've been freelancing for for
since I was 18 at that point andI have kind of all this
knowledge that I've learned incorporate, but I really was not
allowed to kind of use my fullpotential in corporate.
(04:14):
It's kind of like, here's thebox that you came in for.
Now we're going to tell you todo work that you were not hired
for.
You got to do that too.
The vision kept getting fartherand farther away.
So in 2017, I quit my job.
At that time, I was working atan engineering firm doing
marketing and the businessdevelopment, writing RFPs, so
(04:36):
like winning them all the money,I think, at last count.
When I walked out the door, wewere at $9 million that we had
secured in less than a year, andso that's why they wanted me to
keep doing those RFPs.
And I was like no, I came herefor the website, I came here to
fix all this other stuff thatyou guys need help with.
So anyway, long story short, Ileft there and really put my
(05:02):
whole focus into doing the workthat I had been doing, but doing
it for the clients that Ireally wanted to work with,
which, for me, were women, smallbusinesses owned by women.
I had a lot of friends who werelike C-suite and I'm like you
have so much Like let's start abusiness, I'll do your brand and
all these things, and they'relike it's so hard, it's so hard.
(05:22):
And then I realized that I wasprivy to a lot of conversations
that other were not in the roomfor, and so I was looking at my
peers and seeing how all theirnetworking and I'm like none of
my friends are privy to thisinformation, so let me be the
one that gives it to them, andthat's kind of how.
(05:43):
Since then, that's just how I'vekind of just been marketing
myself is I'm speaking to womenwho own small businesses.
I just actually learned in thepast year all of my clients have
been the age of 40 and up, andI'll be 42 in two months.
So I was like, wait a minute.
(06:03):
All of my clients are women intheir forties and I'm like this
is exactly why I did this.
I wanted to speak to women whowere like me, who had skillset
and had talent, and if theyneeded some resources to help
them start their business,market their business, I wanted
to be that resource and Iliterally just looked a couple
of weeks ago and was like, oh,my goodness, everybody is me
(06:32):
Like for real, for real thistime, yeah, but that's how I got
here.
I was supposed to be a graphicdesigner.
I really had an itching to getinto marketing.
I was very intimidated by that.
I'll say that because whenpeople place you in a box, you
kind of say, yeah, this is mylabel, this is who I'm supposed
to be, and so I always thoughtof myself as an artist, and so I
was not able to view myself asthe strategist or having all the
(06:53):
data or being able to do allthese things.
So what I did was I took a lotof courses Once I quit my job.
I had a lot of free time, I tooka lot of courses.
I was on everybody's freewebinar.
I was.
I found a coach who was in themarketing space because I had a
business coach at that time butI found someone who was really,
really dialed into the marketingspace and digital marketing and
(07:16):
all the data and the KPIs andall those things that I wanted
to learn, and so I just like gotup under her wing, like teach
me everything.
And that's where I've been kindof ever since.
I love the craft and I love theway I do it.
I think I do it in a way that'sdifferent and, because of my
(07:37):
background, is very eclectic,and then you slap some strategy
on top of that.
So that's how I got here.
Tona (07:45):
Wow, I mean that is amazing, and I know, with the
digital marketing, you actuallycame out of your job just pretty
much a year after I came out,because I came out 2016 and you
came out 2017.
So trying to find resources wasvery difficult back then
(08:07):
because it was almost like therewasn't really a name for it.
The digital marketing that termwasn't really dialed in just
yet, and so you were doingdifferent things, like you
might've been starting aFacebook page and you have that
piece.
You might have started todabble in email marketing.
You've heard about SEO, but youkind of was like, ooh, that's
(08:32):
too much for me.
So you know, but you didn'treally have someone to really
explain what digital marketingwas, because most people didn't
really know at the time, so itseemed like it took time.
So you finding somebody thatcan actually help point you in
the right direction with digitalmarketing and give you the
(08:53):
knowledge that you needed that'sreally, really important and
it's important to get that quickand not wrong.
Shaunda (08:59):
Yes, oh, my goodness, so many people are out here
really trying to do work insilos, you know, and they think
that actually I don't know whatthey think, but I just hear from
so many people trying to dothis alone, and even if it's
just as simple as having a fewbesties, you know, people that
you know are doing kind ofsimilar work that you can reach
(09:19):
out to from time to time, justto even just spill your gut to
somebody who understands fromtime to time, just to even just
spill your gut to somebody whounderstands.
But that was so helpful to me,just having at least I at least
had the knowledge like, ok, Ineed to learn some things
because I don't know, I havebeen building web designs and
all these kinds of things.
I had a website for years, butI was not actually operating my
(09:40):
business online.
That was an entirely differentballgame.
Oh, and so I was like I reallyneed to learn the craft for
myself.
And then, as I was doing that, Iwas like, oh no, this is almost
like the missing piece foreveryone, and so it's not just
me.
So I really wanted to make sureI could learn the craft and do
(10:00):
what I needed to do for myself.
But then I wanted to make sureI could kind of distill the
information into how I couldhelp everyone who needed the
resources, who are around me,who were just not privy to those
kinds of conversations.
But I love how you called itthat it's exactly right.
Digital marketing did not existin that terminology.
No, not at all.
Not at all.
Tona (10:21):
Girl the crazy thing.
Listen to this.
I was talking to a cousin ofmine who's actually in school at
Indiana University, about tograduate, and she's taking
classes that kind of have to dowith digital marketing.
But when she was telling me thetype of stuff that she was
doing, I was like that don'tsound stuff that she was doing.
Shaunda (10:49):
I was like that don't sound.
No, that ain't it.
So it's, you're so right, likemy nephew graduated with a
marketing degree and it's likethey still are not.
They're teaching the marketingand marketing fundamentals and
principles and things like that,and then they have to leave
there and go get a job wherethey can learn on the job, and
even on the job they're stilllearning kind of brick and
mortar marketing.
They're not learning onlinebusiness, you know, and I don't
(11:09):
know if they think onlinebusiness is going to go away or
something.
But now we're here, guys, it'sa whole different and that's
what's so hard for a lot ofpeople coming out of corporate
is learning Like this is a wholedifferent beast.
Like these growing pains aresomething serious.
Yeah, it's a whole differentbeast.
These growing pains aresomething serious.
Yeah, it's a whole differentballgame.
Tona (11:26):
And I guess that's the thing that was hard for us as
well coming out, Because myhusband he does the web design,
that's what he specializes in.
Shaunda (11:38):
Oh, you're the perfect team.
Tona (11:41):
Yeah, when we were coming out, I tell you, they had
programs in Chicago when we wereliving in Chicago to help
businesses start Right, butevery time we would try to go to
a place that actuallyspecialized in what we did, we
couldn't find anybody.
It was either coding or food,and it was like there was
(12:03):
nothing in between.
Yes, when you talk web design,they're like what's that?
I don't know what that is, Idon't understand.
So you couldn't really bepointed in the right direction
to mentors and people like that.
So you have a lot of growingpains.
You just try to learn as you go, because there are not many
(12:23):
people in what you're doing orwhat you're trying to do.
Shaunda (12:27):
Yeah, it's definitely hard.
So it's literally exactly whatyou said.
If anyone can come acrossanyone who is like in their lane
not even in their lane, butjust in the online industry,
because there's a lot of skillsthat are like transferable once
you're running a business onlineor you're coaching online or
what have you, even ine-commerce.
But the sooner you can startlearning from someone else and
(12:50):
start networking, getting thesedifferent communities, the
better.
And I know sometimes it's hardto talk to people about because
a lot of times that meansthere's going to be like money
involved and if you're juststarting you don't really have a
lot of resources like that.
But any way that you can, I'lltell you, when I found my coach,
she had like a free trial.
She had a free trial on hermembership.
(13:11):
I got in that membership.
I think it was like two weeks,like something like 14 days, and
after that it was $49.
I remember because I had thefirst $49.
I did not know where the second$49 was going to come from.
But when I tell you that firstmonth, every course that was in
her membership I'm talking about, I was studying like I was back
in school and so I did havethat next payment when it came
(13:33):
back around.
But that's literally how youhave to start.
Sometimes you know you startfor free and then, when you can
afford it, you move forward.
But definitely that's the bestthing you can do is to really
start as soon as possible, thatis so true.
Tona (13:48):
Oh girl, that was good.
I still got some otherquestions.
So why do you think having astrong brand identity is
essential for businesses today?
And basically, what I see a lotof businesses doing a lot of
times is, either they're focusedon okay, I want a brand, but I
(14:12):
want the brand to just be all myfavorite colors on my website
and put it together.
That just works for me.
Al (14:21):
That's my favorite color, that's what I'm going to be in
when I take my photos, thosecolors that's going to go with
the website.
Tona (14:28):
you know all that, so explain to me why it's having a
strong brand and what does itmean to have a strong brand.
Shaunda (14:38):
Oh my gosh, I'm sorry I'm having flashbacks.
I just had a session with aclient, like last week, talking
about these brand colors.
They came in the door withthese brand colors.
Let me be clear, but a lot ofpeople think that your brand is,
you know, like your logo onyour website that is not your
logo on your website are assetsfor your brand and they really
(14:59):
support what your brand is.
And so I think it was JeffBezos who said this, or some
other like older white man, I'msure but who said that your
brand is perception of you whenyou're not in the room, of you
and your company.
So it's almost like whatexperience that you're leaving
with your target audience?
What experience are you leavingwith your customers?
(15:20):
What will they say about youwhen you're not in the room?
And so, when we think about itin those terms, there's a lot of
stuff that goes into that.
Yes, some of that is your logo,some of that is your website.
It's also your content, yourcopywriting, your marketing
funnels, your social media, thetop of your funnels.
So if you have any podcasts,anything like that.
(15:41):
So for me, your brand is anentire system, and the reason
why I think of it that way isbecause at the center of your
system to me it's just myphilosophy, but at the center of
your system is your brandmessage.
If your brand message is lockedin and if you built a brand
system around that message, thenat any point when someone
(16:02):
enters your ecosystem, they willget what you're trying to give.
If it's not built in that way,they might come to your social
media and then say, hey, let meclick the link in bio and then
get to your website and then belike, oh wait, no, this is not.
This person's coming acrossdifferently over here, and we
call those things frictionpoints in marketing, right?
(16:22):
So every time there's a newstep in your funnel, you've got
a point where some people aregoing to fall out the funnel
right there.
So what are you going to doabout it?
If you build a brand systemthat is really working in
alignment, all on one accord,then you have to worry less
about those kinds of things.
So to me, your brand and yourbrand identity it gets to be
(16:44):
really strong when it is basedon a strong brand message, and
that also means that you have tobe really clear about who
you're talking to in yourmessage too, because the message
can't be clear.
If, like, if it ain't clear,then it ain't.
That ain't your brand message,right?
So for me, that's what a strongbrand identity is, and it's
really necessary at this timebecause what we know is that,
(17:07):
you know, during COVID, internettraffic doubled.
It probably has tripled by now,and now we're now recording
this in 2024.
As of 2023, like in our onlineindustry, they're saying that
income and revenue has gone down, like 30 to 50% for some people
.
So that means there's a lotmore competition.
(17:29):
There's a lot more, you know,there are more people looking,
but that also means you caneasily get lost in the sea.
So you really have to find away to stand out and to make
your brand stronger, morememorable, just so that your
brand identity can go a littlehigher and higher, because just
of everyone and everything thatyou're competing against and
(17:52):
when I say, I am one of thosepeople who says there is no
competition or whatever thephrase is, but I truly believe
it's really about you.
And when we get intoentrepreneurship, we hear a lot
about ideal client, dream client, this ideal client, avatar,
that.
But when you are kind of likethis ideal client avatar, that.
(18:14):
But when you are kind of likestepping into your brand fully
yourself or as much as you'rewilling to bring to the table.
My belief is you're actuallyable to kind of cut through the
noise even faster, like even astraighter line.
It's like you make a beeline tothe people who resonate with
exactly that.
So that's where I'm alwayscoming from with everything.
For me, that's how you build astrong brand identity.
(18:35):
You really anchor your brandand your message in you and your
thoughts and your values and inthe work that you are, kind of
like, best suited to do.
And then you put that messageout there, you build a brand
around it and you turn on thebat signal so that you can call
in the people who resonate withthat message and who resonate
(18:57):
with the person that you'reshowing up as.
Tona (18:59):
That makes sense.
That makes a lot of sense.
But I guess most times becausethere's so much coming at us and
we're looking at everybodyelse's brand and how beautiful
it is and how they're comingthrough, that we want to emulate
that instead of coming throughas ourself.
And that's the part that's hard, because we have to remove the
(19:22):
distractions of the others, ofeveryone else.
Yes, competitive, you're noteven a competitive nature of
that.
Wanting that comparison andwanting to be well there is just
beautiful and how they comeacross, how they talk, how they
do their emails, how they dothis, this, this and this and
they want to be that and thenthemselves they get lost in that
(19:47):
, in trying to come up withtheir brand their brand message
and 100.
Shaunda (19:52):
That's what happens.
I like to tell people stop,stop copying them people,
because it's so many.
Sometimes it's like your coachor the guru that you follow and
you want to be like them, so youemulate them.
But it works for them becausethey're them.
It also works for them becausethey at the finish line already
right, you haven't built up tothat.
And then sometimes you'relooking at your peers and you're
(20:14):
thinking, well, why didn't Ithink of that?
Or I wanted to do that.
Now she's done that, so I can'tdo it, and all these things,
and it's very normal, it's kindof the first thing that happens.
So I'm always knock on peoplelike okay, come on, like get
your head out, come on, put yourblinders on.
You know, I know you'rethinking this.
I know it because we all do it,we've all done it, we're all
(20:37):
going to do it.
We always have to all bringourselves back.
Let's bring it back, becauseI'm just here to kind of bring
you back, because there arethings that are inherent in you
that will work for you and onceyou key in on those things, it's
like everything changes andthen people are going to be
looking at you like trying to dowhat you do, you know.
But oh yeah, it's one of theharder parts, and it also
(21:00):
happens very early on, and sothat's also what makes it hard,
because we get stuck in thatplace.
I like to think of it likepeople might be even three years
into their business before theyeven realize that's what
they've been doing.
All along.
They've been trying to show upas someone else and do as
someone else, and then it's likeOK, now that I can acknowledge
(21:20):
that about what I've been doing,let's start fresh and let's
kind of figure out me.
I like to think of it as themessage that I'm here for, like
what is?
It's almost like what is yourpurpose?
What is the message that youare here to bring forth?
What is that?
Let's start there and let'sbuild.
Tona (21:39):
Yes, I agree.
I mean that I think that's thebest way to do it.
Sometimes, like when, whenyou're starting out, you have an
idea of what you're doing andwhat you think that you want to
do, but just kind of how yousaid earlier, you found out that
most of your clients were womenand they were in their 40s and
(22:00):
you were pretty much tailoringyour offerings to those women
and sometimes it's a full circlemoment For us.
We realized that we also workwith a lot of women and women
businesses and things like that.
So it's almost like, however,we started with our website, it
(22:23):
was like oh, this doesn't workbecause the people that we tend
to work with tend to be women.
So it's almost like you'remessaging and things have to
change based off of what are youreally doing and who are you
really affecting.
You know.
Shaunda (22:38):
Yeah, but isn't it cool how that happens?
Because it's like we alwayshave this real time data that we
can use to make things evenbetter or to make our work even
better or resonate more, and weliterally get it from.
It's a cycle, right.
We get it from our clients, andthe more clients that we have
that come in then, the more datathat we have that we can then
(22:59):
use to make our brand resonateeven better for more people like
that.
Tona (23:04):
So yeah, I love it, yes, I mean that is great.
So what do you feel are thefirst steps that entrepreneurs
business owners, should takewhen they're starting to build
their brand?
Shaunda (23:17):
it's always going to come back to your message.
Figure out what your brandmessage is and get that nailed
in and so, but in that samebreath, to me that also means
figuring out your targetaudience.
I teach something that I callthe message mastery equation,
and it's very, very simple.
It's literally the way that youcan master your message is to
(23:39):
say the right thing to the rightperson at the right time.
I have to have my ideal client.
I have to laser this on them inorder to create the message
first, right, so for me, they gohand in hand.
If you figure out who yourtarget audience is, then you can
create the message first.
Right, so for me, they go handin hand.
If you figure out who yourtarget audience is, then you can
create the message that theyneed to.
A big part of that is youreally have to nail it to
(24:03):
whatever stage the journey,right, and so that's also
something that a lot of peopleskip, and not on purpose.
But I just people just don'trealize that's the difference
between down your message or not.
Pick what you have to say,which is basically the work that
you do, the service you provide, the transformation that you
can make happen.
(24:23):
None of that matters.
If you're saying it to them andthey can't use it right, they
can follow you.
They can hit that follow button, they can subscribe, you can
nurture them.
But if you're just starting out,you have to get money right.
You have to sell some things andthe selling has to work in
order for you to start having abusiness and then you can start
having the email list and youcan buy all the things that you
(24:45):
need.
So that means that when thatmessage hits that person, they
need to be in the right spacefor that message.
So these are kind of the thingsthat we think about when we
talk about building out yourbrand message.
But to me, that's the firstthing, because you don't even
need a website to sell.
You just need to have a message.
You need to be able tocommunicate your value to
(25:06):
someone who needs what you have.
That's what you need to be ableto do, and once you're able to
do that, you can take thatknowledge and that message and
use that to then create all thethings in your website and stuff
like that.
So, to answer your question,first thing for me is to get
that brand message together,which means that you got to have
to focus on your ideal client.
(25:27):
In order to get that done,focus on what they need.
Tona (25:31):
Yeah, I agree.
I think that that makes perfectsense as well.
Just focus on that brandmessage and if you find that,
that maybe if you find that thebrand message is not working
because sometimes I feel like wehave who we think our target
audience is, but then we findout who it is who it actually is
(25:53):
so just allow yourself grace inthat figuring out process,
absolutely, because it's not akind yeah, it's not a concrete
thing, but a lot of times atleast, what I find is people
want to get it perfect beforethey put it out there, and I'm
like, no, you don't know if itworks until you put it out there
.
Shaunda (26:12):
You got to put it out there, you got to see what.
No, you don't know if it worksuntil you put it out there.
You got to put it out there,you got to see what the people
say.
And then you keep tweaking anddo it.
But most people want to let meget it in my paper first, right?
Or they want to have thesession and let me make sure
this is, and are we sure?
And is it going to work?
Nobody knows if it that's a guyright.
(26:36):
All of this is one giantexperiment, but we use the data
in order to help us to be moresuccessful, to help us to put
you know like our best footforward.
But absolutely, once it goesout there, that doesn't mean
it's never changing, but thatmeans you've now started, and so
we need a hand clap for you,because a lot of people don't
start because they get stuckright there.
Tona (26:51):
You know what I'm saying.
Stuck and scared, stuck andscared, to put it out.
Shaunda (26:57):
Yeah, and you have to put it out in order for it to
start working.
You have to.
That's the only way you getthat feedback.
That's true.
Tona (27:05):
That's so true.
Shaunda (27:06):
Yeah.
Tona (27:07):
That's good.
How do you feel that brandingevolved with digital marketing,
and what challenges andopportunities does this present?
Shaunda (27:17):
So for me, again, like, I think that your brand is an
entire system.
So what I mean is that theysupport each other, right?
So, like your marketingsupports your brand, that's kind
of why you want them to be onone accord.
What I do love about digitalmarketing is it has given us the
tools and I know I keep sayingdata, but it's literally changes
(27:39):
the game.
Like I'm an expert in amembership group, in a
membership community, and one ofthe ladies had a question about
and she listed all these things.
She said, well, nothing'sworked.
And I said, well, tell us thenumbers.
We need to know the numbers,because it may not even be that
it didn't work.
It may just be that you didn'thave enough traffic to your page
yet, so we don't know if it'sworked or not.
(28:00):
Because you know conversionrate.
The standard is only 1% to 3%.
Right, people don't know thesethings.
That's what I love aboutdigital marketing is that it
gives us all these numbers andit's data.
It.
It gives us all these numbersand it's data.
It's like we can have.
Like we can tell you whatsuccess looks like, right, we
can tell you how to forge thatpathway.
This is literally the reasonwhy we're doing all these things
.
(28:21):
Going back to that conversationabout the brands and the colors
there is sales and marketingpsychology behind these things.
If you're using the color red,you gotta know what you're
getting yourself into.
You know what I'm saying.
You got to know what thingsmean.
Colors we actually know thatcolors mean certain things to
our brain, so advertisers andmarketers use that in marketing.
(28:45):
These are things that really, Ithink before digital marketing,
the common man maybe did nothave much access to.
Now we have access to thesethings.
We marketers, you know, we'velearned this kind of psychology
stuff and we use it in our workso that we can really create the
impact that we want to create,so that we can make sure the
(29:05):
people we want to hear thismessage will hear this message.
So I kind of love that aspect ofdigital marketing because it
allows me to basicallyexperiment with the brand and
then go back and look at thenumbers, check the funnels, look
at the conversion rates, theclick rates, look at the email
marketing and see I canliterally see at what part in
(29:26):
the funnel did things go left?
Now we can go back and we cantweak that, we can shore up that
loophole, all those kinds ofthings.
Now we can go back and we cantweak that, we can shore up that
loophole, all those kinds ofthings.
So for me, that's where thedigital part of digital
marketing is really successfulin building brands and of course
, you know, we can't leave out.
Like social media, it's here tostay and it is driving
(29:47):
everything.
Now the algorithm driveseverything, but that also means
that it's pretty much allscience, so we can then take
these kind of context clues andset our brand up for success.
So for me, digital marketing isreally a great way to support
your brand and to support youand your brand platform and get
(30:07):
you so that people can see you.
And because it is digitalmarketing, it's a lot easier now
for, like, the common person tojust learn some techniques and
move forward in that way,whereas I think kind of like
those foundational marketingprinciples you know, like that
we learned in college, is kindof like a broader, more vague
(30:28):
thing that you can really onlyuse if you're working for some
of these like global companies.
Tona (30:35):
I agree with that.
Yeah, I think that's true.
And the thing that you saidabout the numbers, I think
that's the thing that mostpeople miss and because, no, yes
, girl, I can't tell you howmany people that we tried to do
like websites for you want yourGoogle Analytics connect?
I don't care about that, youwant us to do?
No, I don't care about that.
You want us to do no, I don'tcare about that.
(30:55):
It's like, well, that'sactually important because if
you don't know the informationand I think this has to do with
I was a science teacher biology,botany, zoology, environmental
science so doing labs andexperiments, that's my jam.
So the numbers and seeing howthey and it's all experiments,
(31:18):
right, so it's like, man, if Itest this email and see how much
is my open rate or myclick-through rate, if I do it
this way, if I change this out,what's going to happen?
Even with social media, I'mdetermined to still get more
views or reach on posts on mybusiness page.
(31:40):
Let's see what can I do, howcan I change it up?
But most times people don'tknow the information beforehand,
right?
So they don't know that what isa good click-through rate, what
is a good open rate?
Because they may have, let'ssay, 40%, and they're like, oh
my God, it's terrible.
Shaunda (31:58):
But they don't know what the average is.
Tona (32:02):
So you know, knowing that other information or you can't
say well, my website or thisisn't working, well, you're not
getting enough traffic to yoursite to begin with.
What can we do to get moretraffic there, so you have more
views, so that you can have morepool to choose from to actually
(32:26):
get a conversion?
So it's all Tell the peopleGirl, tell the people, it's all.
Shaunda (32:32):
I don't know what they think we over here doing Like I
don't know what they think wedoing.
Tona (32:37):
Girl like one of our podcasts is called Pretty Logos
or Pretty Pictures.
It's not going to get youclicks to your website, so it's
like there's it's not how theygoing to get you clicks to your
website.
Shaunda (32:48):
So it's like there's it's not how how they going to
get there to see.
It says how they going to getthere.
Everybody misses that,everybody, and you know what it
is.
And it's just a part of thegame, because there are some
careers and some things that youdo that people think, oh, I
could do that If I just had alittle time, an extra Saturday,
then I can build a website, or Ican do, and not saying that you
can't, because there are a lotof people who are good with
(33:11):
their hands, you know, are ableto do these things.
But at least take it from us,you know, like look up some of
the techniques and thestrategies that we put forth
things like that, because, yes,you can DIY it, but you at least
want to have some guidance.
You at least want to knowthere's always intention behind
these things.
So there's reasoning.
When we are branding, when weare building logos and websites,
(33:33):
there are reasons why we have acertain number of pages.
There are reasons why you'reopting bottom.
It needs to be at the top.
There are reasons why we usethis color or that color,
reasons why you need the GoogleAnalytics For me.
I'm a funnel builder.
I am.
Yes, I love that you have awebsite, but I would love for
your sales page to be in afunnel builder, because those
(33:56):
analytics are different.
Like we can actually break downand set up the order form.
Make it a two step instead of aone step.
Now we can do abandoned carts.
There's so many differentthings that we can do, and even
if you don't need a professionalto do it for you, at least know
enough to be like okay, I'mDIYing this, let me go.
(34:16):
Let me see what Heywood gotgoing on that maybe I can kind
of look into.
Let me listen to some podcaststhat can help me on this route.
Let me see what Shaunda gotgoing on.
Let Help me on this route.
Let me see what Shaunda gotgoing on.
Let me see if she got like aPDF or something I can download.
You know, take the tips, becauseall of this stuff comes from.
I mean, you're a scienceteacher, for God's sakes, or you
(34:37):
were.
So it's like imagine you take ascience teacher and you put her
in this environment.
Can you imagine the kind ofknowledge that you have that you
can now use to help peopleexcel in their marketing efforts
.
As scientists like, come on,you know what I mean.
But there are all these thingsthat look, we do a lot, guys, we
(34:58):
do, and not to like to, I'll beout here tooting horns.
But there's psychology thatgoes into these things.
There's science that goes intothese things.
All the data and all that kindof stuff.
You know, all this stuff meanssomething.
So when you're building yoursites, your sales pages, your
funnels, your email marketing,you know everything has an
(35:19):
intention behind it.
So if you're building thesethings on your own and you don't
have an intention behind itjust yet, or a strategy, just
take a step.
Figure that out first, becausewe aren't just throwing these
things out here willy nilly.
There's always a reason why.
Tona (35:34):
Yes, that is one of the hardest things to get across to
people and I think when you areable to look at it with the
science behind it, it actuallytakes the emotion out of it,
because now you're not feelinglike, oh, I'm a failure because
(35:55):
this, I didn't do this rightbecause of this, so I need to
just forget it all.
It's like you can look atthings in a better situation.
You know, and then it just itmakes you just continue to want
to keep testing and keep tryingto see you know what will work
and then, once you know, use thenumbers to help you grow
(36:18):
Numbers are always there.
Shaunda (36:20):
Yeah, people.
Just you know you don't knowwhat you don't know you know.
So I'd never feel like afailure or anything like that.
You know, you just need somemore information, you know, to
make a new decision, that's it.
Tona (36:33):
And that's true.
That's all you need.
And I think, too, what you saidbefore when you have a person
like yourself, who you've beenin the corporate game you've
seen, you've worked withmarketing in the corporate game
You've seen, you've worked withmarketing, then you had someone
who was an actual mentor in thedigital marketing space.
(36:53):
You have years worth ofknowledge that you were able to
gain.
So if somebody knows that, takeadvantage of it, reach out, get
help, get the mentorship, getwhatever you need from that
person so that you don't have tostruggle as long as some other
people have had to do priordigital marketing, even being a
(37:14):
thing yeah, that everybody knew.
Shaunda (37:17):
Yeah, and now, especially, you know we are.
Well, some people say we're ina recession, some people say
we're not.
You know it, it's, it's up inthe air, something's definitely
going on, and so you really wantto kind of be on, whatever it
is that you can control, becausea lot of external things you
cannot control.
(37:38):
So, listen, these things arethings that are already
inherently, you know, inside ofyou.
You know you just need toreally focus and and be be
intentional.
That's really the main thingI'm always like going on and
about is being intentional aboutthe work that you're doing.
So, yeah, excellent, excellentpoint.
I think this is the time whereyou know we kind of have to see
(37:59):
what everybody's made of, and sothis, that means that if I'm
sitting here saying thatactually just looks like going
more, leaning more into you,then it's like sign me up, I can
do that, I can lean more intome.
You know, I can try See whathappens.
Tona (38:17):
Yeah, so when it comes to branding, can you discuss the
role of storytelling when you'retrying to impact your specific
target audience?
Is that a really importantpiece of it.
Shaunda (38:42):
You don't need anybody else's opinion or anything.
All you need to know is exactlywhat you know.
I talk to a lot of people whoare like, well, I don't have a
story because they weren't likehomeless on the street, or, you
know, they don't have like aTyler Perry story or Oprah story
, and I'm like, what matters isthat is yours, because people
(39:04):
aren't scrolling Instagramlooking for the trauma.
You know scrolling Instagramlooking for something that
sounds like them, or their momor their dad or their sister or
their brother or their boyfriendor their girlfriend or their
partner, whomever.
They are looking for somethingfamiliar, and that's another
thing.
That's also hard when you'recoming out of corporate, because
(39:25):
that was not the case, and soI'm always like OK, nix the code
switching, talk about yourself.
I understand privacy for sure.
That means, though, that let'spick some stuff that we don't
mind talking about.
Let's pick some littleanecdotes.
And notice, too if you payattention to a lot of the big
(39:47):
gurus, you will hear them tellthe same stories over and over
and over again, and that is amessaging tactic.
That means they have realized,or they've honed in on the like
three to five stories that theywant to tell, but also the
stories that probably get themthe most traction, make the most
(40:08):
impact with their targetaudience.
So why can't you do the same?
That is literally a thing.
When we sit down and we domessaging work, we pick out
those stories right.
And then I have people that sayoh, I'm so bored, are you
supposed to get bored?
I'm saying the same thing allthe time.
I'm like if you were notrepeating yourself, you would
not have a message.
You should be repeatingyourself, because what we do is
(40:31):
we assume that everybody ishearing us.
When 5% of people, 5% of youraudience, is hearing you on a
good day, that means every timeyou get on there you should be
saying the same thing and allownew people to come across you.
And so I like to say pick somestories or even topics.
(40:51):
I call it your starting lineup,but it's like three to five
either content, topics orstories that you can always lean
into.
If you're on a podcast, ifyou're doing a keynote, if you
are doing your email, whateverit may be, you know, if you pay
attention, you're going to hearthe same stories from your
favorite people over, andprobably every time you hear it
(41:15):
you get sucked in again, eventhough you already know what
happens, like oh my God, shewent to the bank, the money
wasn't there, she had to wait onthe manager to come out.
You know, you know the story andyou're going listen again too.
It's a good story.
It does what they want it to do, but it's also true to them, so
it's not really like a gimmickything.
(41:36):
So I love story marketingbecause you can you pull from
yourself, you can always rehashyour speech.
You know, I have a freeworkshop right now where I kind
of talk about how to use storiesin your content, how to create
your own story bank so that youcan figure out what your stories
are and figure out how toconnect them to the thing that
(41:58):
you're selling or what have you.
And it's pretty popular because, again, anybody can use it.
I have a lot of people who cometo me who are like e-commerce
people and they're like well, Ican't use that because I do too,
girl, they're like I can't usethat.
I have a restaurant like wedon't tell stories about the
(42:18):
food.
I'm like are you, do you notknow?
People have comfort food.
People will go and order achicken pie because my granny
used to make it, and when I'msick.
I need like there are storiesabout everything and if you just
pay attention to that, what doyou think commercials are?
They're all stories Like.
Yes, you can use storymarketing in your content.
(42:39):
I like to say that storiesbuild relationships and
relationships build businesses.
Right.
So once someone is like intoyour story, they want to follow,
even if they ain't ready to buyyet.
They want to know what you gotgoing on.
Just because they like you, letthem like you, it's okay.
Tona (42:56):
That's a thing actually in getting business Don't like
trust.
Shaunda (43:01):
Exactly, exactly, and we're seeing where you need way
more of that right now.
So, again, it all comes back toyou.
Pull out them stories.
People are not as open as theyused to be.
It actually has to be even moreso right now.
So that means you can only dothe things that are really going
to help you to stand out, thatare actually intrinsically you.
(43:23):
That's the only way that you'regoing to start to kind of stand
out from everyone else, Causewe're all doing similar stuff,
let's face it, but we all havedifferent people who are
attached to us, with meaningthat you and I might do the same
thing, but there are peoplethat are attached to you and
what you're doing and you are acatalyst for them.
The same way, there are peoplethat are attached to me, and so
(43:46):
these are things, though, thatyou never know upfront.
That means that you just haveto get out there, start talking,
start putting your message outthere, start telling your
stories right, and there will beimpact that happens that you
won't even know about becauseit's not for you.
You were just a catalyst tostart it.
You've stepped out on faith,right.
(44:08):
You've answered the call.
You're being obedient.
You're doing what you've beencalled to do.
And now Shaunda, who wasscrolling and caught your email,
now has like, oh, I thought ofsomething, now I start, I get
started and now I'm the catalystfor someone else.
You know what I mean.
So, but the thing is, we wantto know ahead of time what's
(44:30):
going to happen, how many peopleare going to be impacted, how
much am I going to sell?
You know what I mean.
That's not how it works.
That's not how it works.
Tona (44:38):
No, it's not.
That's really good.
Now, since we're getting to theclose of this podcast, I want
you to give the people onenugget that you want to leave
them with at the end of thispodcast, because we had a lot of
good stuff.
I can tell you that A lot ofgood stuff, a lot of stuff.
Shaunda (45:04):
A lot of stuff, a lot of stuff, but if you were to
leave with one, okay.
So my main point I think that Iwould want people to leave with
is when you're building yourbrand, at whatever stage you're
in in the journey, it's all ofus can stand to put some more of
ourselves into our brand, and Ithink that could actually solve
(45:24):
a lot of problems that we maybe having or think that right.
So my biggest thing is there'salways room for you and your
brand.
If you're sitting down lookingat your stuff and you've been
copying so-and-so and you'retrying to figure out why it
didn't work for me but it workedfor her, take her out of it.
If you've been working forthree years, five years, and
(45:48):
it's cool but it's not what youthought it was going to be, at
this point maybe it's time tolean more into you in some area
and it's scary, I think, forpeople because it feels like
you're being put on the choppingblock to be judged and all
these things.
But when you're really steppinginto what you've been put here
(46:09):
to do, part of that is going torequire literally require you to
step into it.
So it's literally going torequire you to lean into who you
are, because that is the personthat you're going to have to be
in order to make these thingscome to pass.
And I think that's alwayssomething we wrestle with,
(46:32):
because some days you don't wantto be on camera.
People don't believe me when Isay that the thing is, I'm so
keyed in on what I'm here to seethat when the light come on or
the camera come on, all I got todo is open my mouth and talk
and be, and I'm comfortabledoing that, right, right.
So that's that's why none ofthis, you know, bothers me, but
(46:55):
because I don't have any energy,but I need to be by myself and
get all my energy back and tolike break away and be alone.
But I don't have any problemsshowing up when it's time to
talk about the message, becauseit literally is like
intrinsically me and I am 100%sure about it.
So find that thing for you.
(47:18):
When you find that thing, stuffis not as hard as it was before
, I promise you.
I'm not saying it's allhunky-dory, because running a
business pulls the challenge andstretch you, but when you find
a thing that you are here to door the message that you are here
to get out into the world, evenif it's just for that season,
(47:39):
everything gets easier.
You literally just have to turnon the mic and talk, turn on
the camera and talk, that's it.
Tona (47:46):
Right, that's it.
Well, thank you so much, shonda, for all your words of wisdom
in this podcast, especiallydealing with brand strategy.
I will have your information inthe description so that people
can go and find you, especiallythat story workshop that you
(48:10):
said that you have.
You're gonna have to send methat one so that I can make sure
, and it's free.
I have that in there becausethat that sounds like a real
good one that I'm gonna have tocheck that one out I'll get you
the link okay, I'll get the, butthank you so much for being a
part of our podcast today and,who knows, we may have you back
(48:36):
soon to talk about somethingelse.
Shaunda (48:39):
Ooh, I'd love to come back, yeah, oh, don't get me
started on it.
You'll never get rid of me ifyou get me up here talking about
some numbers.
Tona (48:49):
I think that might be a fun one though.
So yeah, so yes.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
Shaunda (48:56):
Thank you for having me .
Al (48:58):
We're so excited that you tuned in to the latest episode
of the we Pivot podcast.
Thank you for joining us Now,whether this is your first time
or not, please make sure tosubscribe and share with a
friend who can also use somedigital marketing guidance as
well.
Until next time.
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