EP. 11 / Shannan Monson on growing 6-figure and 7-figure businesses (with no childcare at first!) and how you can too and on smashING gender stereotypes
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Growing up in the Mormon faith, Shannan Monson was encouraged to become a wife, a mother, and a homemaker. After having her first child, with her husband in medical school, Shannan decided that just wasn’t her path, she went on to create multiple 6- and 7-figure online businesses (with no childcare at first!), harnessing the power of social media while it was still in its infancy in order to sell products and grow her business.
She’s telling me all about what it’s like to smash gender stereotypes and expectations being from a conservative upbringing, to becoming an entrepreneur in what she calls the “side hustle economy” and now she’s launched NuuWork - a platform for remote and flexible jobs. Shannan is also sharing her 3 biggest pieces of advice for fellow small business owners, her thoughts on how we can raise our children (especially our daughters) to see new opportunities, and her tips for managing time as an entrepreneur mom. Plus we talk about how video is everything - and how you can harness short-from video and social media in your marketing strategy to grow your business. We even have a nice healthy debate about what’s the most important: consistency, creativity or both?
LISTEN BELOW! And don’t forget to ‘follow’ and leave a rating & review!
In this conversation with Shannan you will learn:
How to grow your business to 6 or 7 figures
How being successful made her worry about whether her marriage would suffer and how she communicated with her husband as she went from stay-at-home mother to breadwinner
What to delegate out in your business and home
How to ask for help in your home from your spouse, husband, partner or other family (so you’re not spending hours and hours doing dishes or laundry and find a still full to-do list )
TAKEAWAYS FROM SHANNAN:
Shannan Monson’s 3 pieces of advice for entrepreneurs and small business owners:
Be willing to put in the repetitions to make your idea successful - BE CONSISTENT!
Be resilient!
No one’s a unicorn—everyone’s got their own unique sauce to share
Her key to work/life balance:
“Choose to do the things that fill you up and work will always be there. I believe deeply that work can be something you're excited to wake up for… That's why I've had so much fulfillment in my career—I love my work. And I think that reminder that each day's a gift and to create that life that you want. Maybe you want to work around the clock doing something you love, maybe you want to work 3 hours a week. It looks so different for everybody and I think that the best thing you can do for yourself is to determine what balance looks like.”
What it takes in 2022 to market your business and grow your brand on social media:
15 to 60 second videos put out every single day
Focus on storytelling
Create really interesting hooks or surprising elements to your videos—don’t just educate
Delight, inspire, make people laugh
If you want more help growing your business with content - host Kim makes top-ranked podcasts & award-winning video! Contact her here and sign up for her video and on-camera newsletter here.
On the corporate world and why flex work and remote work is here to stay and growing (and why she launched NuuWork flexible jobs platform)
Shannan says, “I feel like we as a generation have realized that the corporate ladder is a lie. We don't want it. We're already finding work in the flex economy. There's just not really a great platform for us to connect.”
On figuring out where your time is best spent as an entrepreneur:
“I recommend spending as much time as possible in revenue generating opportunities. So, if you are a small business owner and you have 6 hours to work today and you can choose between doing admin, doing sales, doing marketing, doing client work… spend as much time as possible going to get the next dollar. Because what that's going to do is it's gonna give you more resources to be able to delegate off the admin stuff that you don't want to do.”
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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Shannan Monson (00:02):
To be honest. I don't think you have to be more creative. I think you have to be more consistent.
Kim Rittberg (00:06):
Serial entrepreneur and educator, Shannan Monson, who has built seven figure businesses, talks about breaking out of religious and cultural expectations, the side hustle economy self-promotion and growing beyond her wildest expectations and how you can too
Kim Rittberg (00:23):
Leave your lanyard and swipe card at the door. Welcome to mom's exit interview, a podcast for moms seeking fulfillment and contentment outside the traditional nine to five, whether you're considering taking the leave or you're already midair. This podcast is for you. You'll meet moms for consultants. Entrepreneurs stay at home moms with side hustles and part-time workers across various industries and levels. Plus every episode will have experts with tips so you can turn your inspiration into action. I'm Kim Rittberg. I was a Netflix executive and former head of video at us weekly, and I'm a mom of two. I quit the corporate world and I've never looked back, but I'm still on this journey. So join me. We don't need a boss to give us permission or a promotion to lead the lives we want
Kim Rittberg (01:17):
First. Thank you so much for listening. I'm always appreciative, but right now, this podcast mom's exit interview just got ranked on Apple's charts for careers. We ranked in the top 20 of that category, which is, um, totally amazing. Completely mind blowing, to be honest. Um, I did drink a little bit of champagne to celebrate, but it's because of all of you, it means the show is resonating and I've been getting your notes and comments about how much you're learning from the show and how much you're appreciating hearing people's stories. So thank you. Thank you for listening. And please keep spreading the word. We'll be reading comments and reviews later in the show. And if you haven't, please, don't forget to follow the show and leave a review and a five star rating. We also added a newsletter with tips, so it sends out easy tips and easy takeaways from the show.
Kim Rittberg (02:06):
And you can sign out. It's linked out in the show notes today. We're talking with incredibly successful serial entrepreneur, Shannan Monson. She is a viral storyteller and a community growth expert. Her story is fascinating. She became a wildly successful female entrepreneur, despite being raised in a conservative religious environment. She was one of the early people to take advantage of social media for digital community building. Shannan's built multiple seven figure businesses all while raising her two kids. Her latest venture is Newark, a flexible jobs platform. I know you'll be excited about that because so many of you responded to the episodes on part-time in the gray area. You'll hear from Shannan, how exactly she started a six figure business from her home with a baby in no childcare, and eventually turned it into a seven figure business. We have a small but nice debate about what you need to stand out in your business online. Shannan shares, why she refused to do housework when she started her business, how she got her busy husband to spec to do specific tasks, to help the household and how to grow your business, including what you need to be delegating out. All right, let's go.
Kim Rittberg (03:11):
Can you tell me a little bit about your upbringing?
Shannan Monson (03:14):
Yeah. You know, I think something that is really interesting, I was raised in the south and in a very conservative, very religious environment. So not just within my own home, but around me, there were very traditional gender roles and forest. You know, the only women that I knew that worked were the women who were substitute teachers or teachers at the school or bus drivers. Um, I never saw a woman in a quote unquote like career path, um, climbing the corporate ladder or being out and being ambitious. And additionally, it was really ingrained in me that a woman's place was in the home and to have child bare children and raised children from a very young age were not told we can do it and we're not given the same opportunities and we're not encouraged in the same way. Then it's, it's an uphill battle. And I just have so much respect for women that have said, Hey, actually I am so much more than the box you put me in
Kim Rittberg (04:14):
And, and you grew up Mormon, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I think, I think what's interesting also is like your personal story is interesting because we're gonna go into that right now. But I do think it's relatable to a lot of people because no matter your religion, your upbringing, there are messages we get consciously or unconsciously from our parents, from society of like, you know, there's a lot of talk around, like, don't say the first thing you say to someone's daughter, don't say like, don't you look pretty or, oh, you look so cute. Like, why not say like, Hey, what sports you into? Or, oh, I hear you're really into magic. You know, just those messages that like seem so small, but they become the messages that are a part of that person's makeup. So anyway, I love all to say. I think that the messages you were receiving are very relatable to people across yeah. Different backgrounds and religions and areas.
Shannan Monson (05:00):
Every single one of us as a woman has. I mean, we grew up reading Cosmo covers talking about women's weight and that was directly correlated to how much value they had.
Kim Rittberg (05:09):
I had two older brothers and I was definitely like a kid in school who like called out and was very vocal. And I, it wasn't until I was older that I realized that I was sort of raised in a sort of gender neutral way in terms of personality. Yeah. I was not immune to the like weight issues, but I do think a hundred percent of my parents didn't say I wasn't getting those messages of like, you're a girl be nice. You're a girl. Raise your hand. I mean, you shouldn't call on class regardless, but I wasn't being scolded for that because I was a girl. And I think I'm really happy about that. But anyway, your reason in this community where you're expected to be a homemaker, you go to college, what do you study in college? How do you end up not being, uh, a wife and a homemaker, which by the way is totally fine if you choose to do that, but how do you end up not being a wife and a homemaker and following that path, what was your, what was your journey?
Shannan Monson (05:58):
Um, I played sports in high school and all, all throughout my life. And that was a big part of my learning and actually refining the fact that I had natural leadership abilities. And, um, it, it was my first opportunity to kinda like see the world outside of the world that I lived in, you know, like every single Sunday was consumed by church at my house. Um, it was, it was a very big part of our, of our culture and sports was kind of my, um, the way that I saw a little bit of the outside world, for example, my father-in-law worked at, um, BYU as a educator and he was on the board and all the things. And he told me one time about a conversation where they refused to give a woman a raise because she didn't need it to support her family, but the man did.
Shannan Monson (06:45):
So like, this is the kind like being, it was like going back in time. And I think that was something that I had one teacher who was a female who wasn't married, who had a career, um, who just really like spoke so much life into each of us. So I chose a D degree in dietetics and became a dietician and to put it in perspective, I think of my graduating class, I think only two of the women, um, in my graduating class was all, all, all women. I think only two of them had have jobs and we moved to Washington DC. And I saw all of these women who were still within the Mormon faith, but had jobs in politics. And they were working on Capitol hill and they were also mothers. It was like for the first time in my life, I saw that that was an option.
Shannan Monson (07:30):
And that was really the beginning of my journey into, I dunno, I'll call it feminism <laugh> and you know, I think what's so, really powerful about that is it reminds me how those little, how much of an impact we have on the people around us. So like growing up, I didn't see those examples. I didn't know as possible. I didn't see it as an opportunity in college. It wasn't what was modeled for me. And then the minute I moved into this community where all of a sudden it was the norm for women to have jobs and to have kids and careers, all of a sudden it was like my mind had been opened and then expanded, which is one of the reasons, obviously, if you can't tell it was a very sheltered thing, lived in a very small world, but it gives me so much hope for the world that we can create the future we can create for our daughters, for our sons for a better future and more equitable, um, experiences truly.
Kim Rittberg (08:27):
Okay. So, so you're in DC. So how do you start building your business with your dietetics degree as your husband's in medical school?
Shannan Monson (08:33):
So I think an interesting point to note is that I never really even saw my business as a business, but just so funny, I'd like filed as an LLC. I had paying clients and I still was like, oh, I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm not a business owner. It's just like this little thing that I do on the side. And looking back, I really did myself a huge disservice. And I think about all of the, you know, the people or women listening to this that might feel that same way. Like it, you, they never ever get to a point where you're like, oh, I'm legit. Now it doesn't happen. I promise you it doesn't happen. And so I think that one of the things that I really wish looking back, which I know is not the question you asked, but if I could give advice to myself back then was to really just own it for what it was.
Shannan Monson (09:14):
Um, because I was always trying to just make enough to get by. So my husband started medical school. We moved to a small town. I had one baby. I was pregnant with the next, um, my daughter was born in week two of his medical school. So all of a sudden I kind of found myself in a place where loans were not going to cover life as a family of four <laugh>. Um, we had to eat <laugh>, we needed groceries. And I had this skill that I knew how to do as a dietician. And I'd worked in gyms and writing bug articles for SEO and random things like we discussed. And, um, I thought, okay, well, I, I know how to help people eat better and I can get paid for this and I'll just try it out. So I literally did things like sent emails on Yahoo list serves, which really dates me, um, to say, you know, like to like mom groups, like, Hey, I've got free consults this week.
Shannan Monson (10:10):
If anybody's interested. Like that is how my business started. People just replying doing free consults with me. And then me saying it costs, you know, this, I think it was like $300 a month, or I don't even, honestly, I don't even remember. Um, but that's really how it started as a nutrition coaching practice. But because I didn't have a brick and mortar, I didn't hire employees. What feels like a very normal business model. Now at the time it was Skype. Right. I was setting up a WordPress website because Squarespace didn't exist. So it felt very much like a pretend business and side hustle. Um, that obviously now it just is very clear to see it was just pretty creative <laugh>
Kim Rittberg (10:52):
Yeah. Like that's
Shannan Monson (10:54):
What was
Kim Rittberg (10:54):
Available. I think super resourceful. Cuz I also think that nowadays the barrier to entry is lower. So it's more crowded because really almost anyone can start a square space or Wix or whatever website you attach a credit card connector. It's like not that hard to start a business nowadays, but I think back then you had to really want it. You did have to want it. I had a jewelry business back then and it was like, I had to barter with a friend. Yes. To make me this website. I was selling in like Bloomingdale's, but my website was, was whatever I could get it to be. Cuz I don't, I didn't know how to make a website. I had to barter with a friend who was so amazing and kind and, and help me. But it was really, really hard back then. So I think you were so resourceful. And so you were doing, were you doing meal plans? Like you weren't giving people the food, you are coaching them on how to be healthier.
Shannan Monson (11:40):
Yeah. It's so interesting that you say that if you don't mind me keep going off on tangents because the buried entry entry is the lowest it's ever been. And in fact, I remember a few years ago as an international women's day event, when the founder of blue mercury, the makeup company was talking about how, when she started her company and starting a direct to consumer website was like unheard of. And I think she said it cost, it was either 10,000 or a hundred thousand dollars. Like it was a like ginormous amount of money just to build the website. And I think sometimes now we hear, oh, the barrier to entry is so low. It's so easy. It's so overcrowded. But that's exactly how I felt then. So then the blogging world was taking off and everybody had a blog and all these stay at home like food bloggers were making like quote unquote, all this money.
Shannan Monson (12:23):
Um, and I felt like Instagram, what is so funny is Instagram. Influencer is not even a term yet. And at the time I was like, oh, I missed it. I got on the app too late, which is absolutely hilarious. I mean that, it was 10 years ago. Like this is really, really funny now, but I think that it's so easy for us to say, oh, it's crowded. It's, it's harder to break in now cuz everybody's doing it. But I actually would push back and say, no, it's the easiest it's ever been. We are still like decades ahead. Or like you were, if you were starting a business on the internet today, you are decades ahead of the curve. Like you're not behind you. Didn't miss it.
Kim Rittberg (13:00):
But don't you think, by the way I love this. This is like a real debate. But don't you think though, then people and businesses really have to be more creative to stand out cuz yes. I think that you're not, no one's too late. No one's too late, but it is more crowded because you can start an online business much easier than you could five or 10 years ago. But I do don't you think you have to work a little harder with your marketing to stand out because everyone who does have a business is on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn or something like that.
Shannan Monson (13:27):
To be honest, I don't think you have to be more creative. I think you have to be more consistent. So the amount of people who start pages or start podcasts and then quit after 10 posts or 10 episodes or 15 episodes. Um, I, I don't, I look back at my marketing. I did, then it wasn't good. It's cringe, it's cringe. I still cringe. And anything that I made, then it wasn't more creative and I didn't necessarily stand out from what all the other bloggers were doing at the same time. But what I did was I kept going. So I think that if you're in a position right now where this is something you want, you really like, you have to be hungry for it. You can't just say, oh it's easy. I can start it. And um, like expect nobody to listen to. You expect nobody to read your blog. Nobody blog probably was like, now I'm more going back in time. Except nobody listened to your podcast. Nobody
Kim Rittberg (14:14):
What? You're listen to your gram phone recordings. No, one's gonna turn the radio on <laugh>
Shannan Monson (14:19):
Yeah, no, but really I think when you have that perspective, like, I don't know anybody that's been in business or like been doing this for longer than a year that didn't make it, like you're going to have that breaking point where all of a sudden you understand where you uniquely fit in the marketplace and how you stand out. Whether it's being really extremely creative or really relatable or you know, whatever your unique sauce is. But I think most people quit before they find that.
Kim Rittberg (14:47):
And I think, I, I think what you're saying is so sharp and insightful cuz so I had a 15 year community career like made it grinded, like went to an Ivy league school, like worked super hard and not just one, usually like two jobs. Like I'd be a producer during the week and then my jewelry business on the weekends. And then at a different time, I was a producer during the week for national news. And then on the weekend I was O on air reporting. So I wanted to see if I liked that like so much grinding and I loved it. I loved it. Like I had no, I wasn't like, oh, I'm so tired. I was like, I'm so rejuvenated. But even like, I feel imposter syndrome, like you start your company. Same thing. It took a couple really great friends slash colleagues to be like, get that LLC.
Kim Rittberg (15:27):
It's gonna protect you. It's gonna help you with taxes. And I was like, you know what? You're right. And I, I knew I'm like, I'm not a freelancer. I'm leaving my career. Like at an executive level. I'm definitely not a freelancer. So I did do the LLC and I did all that. But to your point, you're right. Like I started this podcast and I was like, Ugh, I don't know if listening, you know what? A lot of people are listening. <laugh> people are listening, but you're right. I did it. And I, I think you're right about having that attitude that do it because you wanna do it because you believe in it. And I had this great conversation with my brother before I did the podcast. I'm an all or nothing type of person. If I'm gonna do it, it's gonna be good. It's gonna be quality.
Kim Rittberg (16:04):
I'm going to finish off whatever season, whether it's 12 episodes or a weekly podcast for two years, like I will never quit. So I really was careful about that. I have two kids. I'm like, I don't wanna overboard myself. I'm like, I'm gonna pick a time where I can clear some client work off of my schedule to launch this podcast. But I believe in it. And even if no one listens, I am proud of it. I'm proud of the message. I'm proud of the women we're interviewing. And the experts are also giving these amazing tips and I'm like, people are gonna learn from the show. And I did it honestly for myself. And I was like, Ugh, if 20 people listen and like a lot of people are listening
Kim Rittberg (16:37):
A really important update as I'm listening back to this interview, since Shannan and I recorded this interview, this very podcast mom's exit interview ranked an apple podcast, top 20 podcast for careers, which is completely mind blowing and I'm super excited and it goes straight to the point that Shannan and I were just talking about, about making things you believe in staying consistent and staying focused. Okay. Let's get back to the conversation with Shannan.
Kim Rittberg (17:05):
So anyway, it's to your point of do it because you believe in it, be consistent and like grow your community. And I think that what you also said is like related to, I think networking, like when you started out originally, you did that pounding the pavement. And I think a lot of times people are now starting a digital business and they're like, I'm gonna start my digital business. And then I'm just gonna like find all these customers online. Don't do not sleep on your neighbors. Do not forget that your neighbors and your cousins and your friends and your friends, they know you, they know you as a person. They know your voice, they know your personality, they know you're trustworthy. So I think there's that other element of people feel that the digital world is so vast and endless and yay. There's all these customers like, don't forget that you have a huge network of probably in person people. And if you don't, you should be doing in person networking in addition to online networking. So I don't know that that's one of the things that I find,
Shannan Monson (17:53):
You know? Yeah. It really makes me think of this. Like we put these really unreasonable expectations on ourselves. So I always think back to, you know, I started like the very beginning of my career as a personal trainer, before I became a dietician and graduated college. Um, I started personal training at 18. And if I could, I would spend the entire day trying to talk to like as many people as possible individually. Like I would walk up to people while they were on their treadmills in the middle of their workouts. If you wanna be humbled, try trying to sell to somebody in the middle of a workout. Like it is not a fun game, but it's, it was, you know, the way the business worked. And if you wanted to get clients, that's how you did it. And if you didn't get clients, you didn't get paid.
Shannan Monson (18:30):
Right. And I remember one of the first times I decided to teach a class in the gym. I taught a nutrition class and I set up a like, you know, I did this like whole thing where it was like fun and interactive. And I had 20 people come. And I remember, I was like, oh my God, I made it. I can talk to 20 people at one time. Like this is mind blowing. And I think what's so fascinating is if you put most people in a room of a hundred people, they would shake, they would be nervous. They would be anxious about public speaking and talking to all these people. And like, what if I mess it up? Because they understand the, um, the stakes, like how many people are listening and yet you did the same thing on an Instagram story or live, or a TikTok or a podcast. And you're like, oh, there's only a hundred people listening.
Kim Rittberg (19:15):
Oh my God. Like what? Mm-hmm <affirmative> mm-hmm, <affirmative> what this great Instagram coach, um, car who's also on the show. She said once. And it, you know, I think it's, it's tricky cuz like you have over a hundred thousand followers and this Instagram coach has 50,000 followers. So it's like, oh it's easy to say for them. Like, well that's how they got there. Right. That's how they got there. Right. But I loved her perspective. She said, well, if you showed up at an event and that, and 20 people or 50 people came and they were truly interested in what you're talking about, wouldn't you be psyched? I'm like, yes, I would be actually you think about these authors really well known authors travel the country to do these book signings. Some of these book signings honestly have 10 people there. Some not 50 people there, but in Instagram you're like, Ugh, 50 people, Ugh.
Kim Rittberg (19:58):
Oh my God, that's not that many. It's like, that's 50 people listening to you thinking you're an expert. Like I don't know. I think so much of today and the comparison culture is, well, number one, if you have a business, you don't, depending on what you're selling, you may or may not need those tens of thousands of people. You might need five clients a year, maybe one client a year. Yeah. Maybe 20 clients a year, maybe a hundred clients a year. It's just like, I think is that element of like, I don't have a big follower following and I have a great business. So it's like, I'm like as long as it's it's going well and being consistent, I'm building it. I don't know. I think that it's, it's important to not just chase the numbers because a lot of people do have that in their mind. And the truth is I've worked with, I have a realtor I've worked with, with, you know, hundreds of thousand followers. ONAC, he's amazing. And we focus on saying, how are we getting those clients in the door? Yeah. How are we, how are we landing more homes? Because you can, you can have, you know, millions of followers or hundreds of thousand followers. And if they're not buying yourself, then it's kind of a time waster. It's kind of an expensive hobby.
Shannan Monson (20:52):
Well, it is a hundred percent, but also just giving yourself permission to like start small or also like let it be small. Like my first six figure business, I had less than 10,000 followers. My first seven figure business. I had less than 25,000 followers. Right. And I think when you think about that, like obviously the internet is incredible and there's millions of people in the world, but why can't something be successful if you get to do it on your own terms, you get to log in and log off. When you want to, you get to do the kind of work that you L love to do and that fills you up. Like why can't that be a success? And I think that that's where we, as a culture need to really define like, what is, you know, what is success?
Kim Rittberg (21:30):
That is my soapbox. Like for this podcast. I it's, it's like, I, I like to say it's helping moms thrive without the nine to five. And it's a rejiggering of our brains of thriving is whatever you want. Like if you only wanna work 10 hours a week, you wanna get more time with your kids, but you still wanna have a job and you're doing that. Then you're thriving. Or if you wanna earn as much money as possible and work as many hours as possible and still be a loving, caring mom do it, but not just grind up some corporate ladder because like that's what someone told you to do. Cuz you went to X college and you studied Y like just figure out what you want and what you need outta life and pursue that. So anyway, that is my soap box. And now you mentioned your first six figure business and then your first seven figure business. And I'm gonna ask you about those. So what was your first six figure business? Like how did you go from, Hey I'm, I'm approaching sweaty people on a treadmill and telling them to train with me to then you found some dietician to dietetic clients. You were advising people on, on wellness and nutrition. How'd you go from sort of canvasing your local area, finding clients to growing a six-figure business.
Shannan Monson (22:33):
It was actually Instagram that really, um, helped it go from, I would say point a to point B. Uh, so I realized I had something here. I was in the early, you know, beginning years of my husband's medical school. And I was now making enough with nutrition, coaching over Skype to pay the bills. And I started to want more, you know, I started to be like, Ooh, like what if I could afford a couch?
Kim Rittberg (22:56):
Ooh, I need to know what kinda couch
Shannan Monson (22:58):
West El couch. Like what if I could afford a west Elm couch, right? Like what if we could afford to go to Disney world? Like what if I don't have to wait eight years for my husband to, to have a job for us to have financial security. And so, um, I saw a lot of people making a lot of money on Instagram selling other people's products. So again, I'm like was very involved in
Kim Rittberg (23:19):
MLM. Are you talking like MLM?
Kim Rittberg (23:21):
Shannan is referring to women involved in multi-level marketing, direct sales of products and services and MLM encourages existing sales people to bring in new recruits
Shannan Monson (23:31):
In the Mormon community. So like lots of essential oil, uh, um, MLM, MLM companies. And I was like, wow, these people are making a lot of money on Instagram selling somebody else's pro product. And my takeaway from that was, well then why can't I make a lot of money selling my own products
Kim Rittberg (23:48):
While Shannan was doing health coaching and training. She started creating meal plans that recommended what clients should make at home. Anything she didn't know like how to do the visual design. She just went on YouTube and learned.
Shannan Monson (23:59):
I made an Instagram account, a separate Instagram account, the nutrition simply handle. And I, um, put the meal plan up and I so tried to sell it. And I had zero sales cuz I had zero followers and I hadn't done anything here. And I was like, okay, lesson learned <laugh>. And so I started putting out free nutrition content. So what I would do is every single day, whatever I would talk about on the phone with my clients, I would just take a picture of my food and write it in the caption. Like it was a text message to my clients. My clients started following and they were like, oh this is, you know, such great free additional stuff that I wasn't offering them before. Um, I started collaborating with other food bloggers and doing like takeovers on their pages. I got my first maybe like, I don't know, a thousand, 2000 followers. I sold the meal plans again and I made $2,000 in about 48 hours, which was like the most life changing money I could had ever even could even fathom. Like that was like multiple months of rent at the time. Um, it was enough money for me to say whatever I do next, it looks like this.
Kim Rittberg (25:07):
So what Shannan sold online was a PDF meal plan from her Instagram handle nutrition simply it was six weeks of breakfast, lunch and dinners with recipes and grocery lists, the meal plan PDF sold for less than a hundred dollars each.
Shannan Monson (25:22):
But that was the moment where I realized that I could sell products. Cause I, up until that point I'd been a service provider. I got paid for my time. So I only got paid if I was on the phone, coaching a client. And I remember doing it in like random places. Like I would take my kids to the Y M C a for an hour. So I could talk to clients on the phone and have free childcare. Like I remember one time I was at the zoo with my kids and I like, let them look, walk around inside the reptil while I like outside to a 30 minute consult, like I was doing really scrappy stuff because I couldn't afford childcare. And I think that just opened up a whole world to me of, I can create things from my brain, right? Like knowledge based products and um, sell them to people online and make enough to make a full time income without ever leaving my house without ever getting on a phone call with somebody
Kim Rittberg (26:13):
Shannan and her family moved from DC to Augusta, Georgia. And she didn't have her face to face clients, but she continued to grow her social media and kept learning all she could from free courses online and YouTube.
Kim Rittberg (26:27):
So then how did you go from six figures to seven figures? Cuz I feel like saying I made a million dollars in my business. People are like, wow. So how did that happen?
Shannan Monson (26:35):
Yeah, I would say that that was both the easiest and hardest thing that I ever did. So, um, it took, you know, many years I built nutrition simply into a full nutrition, wellness practice. I opened a brick and mortar studio. We hosted popup dinners. We had food products, um, multiple meal plans. We did wellness events. Like I really built nutrition simply into my dream nutrition practice.
Kim Rittberg (27:02):
Shannan had to move back to DC because her husband matched there for medical residency. She had to shutter the brick and mortar location, but people began asking her how she grew a successful business. So she began consulting, helping others grow their own businesses.
Shannan Monson (27:19):
So from the financial monetary standpoint, it was really just a matter of figuring out the business model. And I've gotten this advice from mentors a lot. And I remember it used to drive me nuts <laugh> they would say it's all about the model. And I was like, what does that even mean? Like old white man. Tell me what you mean. <laugh>
Kim Rittberg (27:35):
I don’t know what that scale, scale and scale scale does mean how do I do it?
Shannan Monson (27:40):
But each business model has a cap in kind of an average. And if you start a business, you are likely to get like that average of whatever that business model looks like. So when the model for a seven figure consulting business was opened up to me, somebody showed me like, here's the blueprint, here's what it looked like. I was like, oh, okay, cool. Done. And I actually went from six to seven figures in a period of about 45 days. The thing that was shocking to me and I still feel, um, so passionate about, I remember waking up in the middle of the night. So my husband's in his first year of residency and I just hit my first a hundred thousand dollars month, which is like, you know, you've got a team and people you're paying for and all these things, but like that was like a moment that I'd never even seen numbers that large in my entire life.
Shannan Monson (28:26):
And um, I woke up in the middle of the night sweating and um, my heart was racing and my palms were shaking and I couldn't breathe and I didn't know what was happening. And I woke my husband up. I was like, I'm not okay, something's going on? He was like, you're having a panic attack, which I never had a panic attack before. And I, we had this exchange where I said to him, you know, I'm afraid if I make more money than you, that you're gonna leave me. And he, like, I remember his shoulders dropping and like his whole body visibly just kind of like exhaling. And he said, I'm afraid if you make more money than me, you won't need me. And that was like a moment where we both cried and hugged and you know, and we realized how really truly effed up our gender roles were in this, you know, um, society that we'd grown up in where it was a man's role to provide and a woman's role to be at home. And the more we went farther and farther from that, we just didn't even understand our own purposes. Like why would he love me if I'm not just having his babies? And why would I love him if he wasn't paying for my life? And like, that is like you think about that. It's like, obviously we didn't, I didn't marry him for money. Like he wouldn't worth me. My <laugh>,
Kim Rittberg (29:38):
I married him very long term payoff. If you, you marry a doctor
Shannan Monson (29:41):
Very long term payoff, very long term payoff. Um, and I think that that is something that I realize that so many of us as women are limiting ourselves. And I'm not saying that we're putting it on ourselves. I think society puts us, puts it on us, but because we can't even fathom what the next level would look like, we don't chase it or ask questions or um, go after it. And I do think that was a very real, you know, I remember we bought our first home shortly after that a couple months after I took, you know, some of those, those profits and put our first down payment on our first home. And I remember sitting at the giant Oak table, um, with my lawyer, the closing attorney, my realtor, all these men and my husband wasn't there. I didn't know he needed to be there.
Shannan Monson (30:31):
So I call him from the ho you know, I'm like, obviously naively, I had no idea what I was doing. Nobody told me he was supposed to be there. So I call him, I'm like, you gotta come over from the hospital. They need you to sign paperwork and I'm sitting there. And I remember one of the men saying, um, you're poor husband. Like he must be getting abused at home was I think the exact words that he said. And I remember just sitting there in that moment and I took it, I just took it. And I that's like one of my biggest regrets that I didn't speak up. And my husband didn't say anything either. He was like deeply uncomfortable. Like we are here signing paperwork to buy a house. And I remember going home and crying and thinking about how I was literally writing the check that paid for every single other person in the room to be there at that table.
Shannan Monson (31:15):
Right? Like they're all getting a percentage of the check that I'm writing and you know, the bank and all the things. Right. But they're only there because of me in my career. And that was one of those moments where I really realized that the world is probably never going to see me the way that they see my husband. And if you put the same limitations on yourself that everybody else does, you are so massively under, um, undercutting your own potential. Like I think women have so much creative energy, so much leadership ability. Like you have so much to bring to the table that other people will probably never realize. And that sucks. And I hate that for us. I hope it's different for our daughters, but taking off that pressure of like, I don't need your validation to be successful. I don't need you to be comfortable with my success. I'm not emasculating anybody else. Like my success doesn't take away from anybody else's and your insecurity is your problem.
Kim Rittberg (32:16):
Did you walk around the table and give the middle finger to each and every person who judged you and was so rude
Shannan Monson (32:21):
So much. I was like, you know, it's really, it's funny though, cuz I think we all think like we'll speak up in the moment and I think that's one of the reasons I've like spoken so much about speaking up and defending yourself, cuz I've gotten better about saying, why do you feel comfortable saying that to me? Why do you think that's appropriate? Help me understand what you meant by that. Like all of those phrases I've put in my back pocket because unfortunately it has happened so much. And again, that's a, you know, we are in, in the very south, like Augustas the very south <laugh>. Um, but I think that's just such a like valuable story for anybody that is feeling, um, like people don't get them, they don't take them seriously. They don't, uh, understand your business. Like nobody needs to understand your business. Like your dollars are real, whether they get it or not.
Kim Rittberg (33:09):
And I also think the world is changing a, a little, not a, a lot, but like in some ways, like I think our generation of peers of men see more women as business owners see more women as peers, lawyers, doctors, it's like I've had <laugh> we had like a home renovation thing and like this middle aged white man, the, the tone he used of me was so condescending the entire time. And I was like, what do I need to do to make this project run smoothly, to not be so rude to this person that it undermines the, the thing. And then I'm just gonna like hate this person for the rest of my life. But like, <laugh> just so I was just so offended and I'm like, this person thinks I'm like this silly little woman who's did it on like actually you don't know me at all.
Kim Rittberg (33:56):
I've actually had this like really amazing career and I'm very capable. And actually this is my money. <laugh> I'm spending my money. Um, but it was really, really obnoxious. And this one time I was ahead of video us weekly. I had built the us weekly video unit from zero people and a dirty little conference room to like a live studio with celebrities coming in and out like, I don't know, like 20 hours of live video each week, a 17 person team. And I was running it all while pumping twice a day for my newborn. It was great. Like it was awesome. And I wrote up this like three page, um, feedback for a vendor of, of a tech product that we were using. I'm like, here's the feedback of how we think that if you could improve your product, it would serve us better on the video side.
Kim Rittberg (34:38):
And I swear to God, I had a 30 minute meeting with this person and then they looked at me and they said, what is your role? I was like, I'm the boss dot, dot.you moron. I didn't say that. But I was like, I'm the boss. I literally printed up a three page sheet of feedback. Like, do you think I'm someone's secretary? Like this makes no sense. We just had a 30 minute meeting. I'm obviously well versed in this. It was very offensive. And I'm just like, you know what? There are always gonna be people who are stupid and rude and small minded and condescending towards women. And I would like to say just because hair is shiny, don't underestimate me. <laugh>
Shannan Monson (35:12):
My consulting business was a seven figure business. And I used what I learned in building digital products to teach other people how to create digital products. So my specialty was online courses, eBooks memberships, like digital products, just teaching other people how I'd done that. So I ended up teaching a lot of brick and mortar businesses or blogger or like sponsorship based businesses, how to make their own own digital product. Um, and then from there, I've really like I've been consulting on growing community, growing digital communities and building digital communities. I've built three different digital communities to the first like hundred thousand, both in the motherhood space, entrepreneurship space, my personal brand. Um, currently I'm doing it with a skincare brands. So like really the thing that I realized that I was uniquely good at wasn't necessarily making the products or selling the products. It was bringing the people together. And that's what I get really, really excited about and telling stories and helping people connect over stories
Kim Rittberg (36:10):
That is so inspirational. I'm so impressed with all the things you have done. And I love what you said about test and pivot, cuz so much of people are so many people say, oh, niche down only offer three products, but you're right. And in the same as like when I was at us weekly or Netflix or pop sugar it's test and pivot, see what you're doing, try to do it well, make, make every product as good as you can, but then get the feedback at the data point, do people like it? Are they responding? And then the ones that are not doing well are gonna like wither and fall off the tree. And then the beautiful fruit it's like, you know those, I have a peach tree in my yard, the good fruit that are worthy of all the energy are gonna grow beautifully. And then the other little wilted ones are gonna fall on the ground and be eaten by squirrels.
Kim Rittberg (36:50):
Um, I'm gonna interrupt to say that actually no peaches ended up growing on my peach tree and I hope that's not a metaphor for my business.
Shannan Monson (36:59):
That was really a sweet metaphor. We do something called a kill analysis, which I'm sure you've done with products in your business, which is basically deciding whether you're going to kill it or keep it based on the data points. So I'm actually a firm believer that if you are, have a strong product, there's no reason each product can't stand alone as a seven figure product. So my first seven figure business was just one product. I only had one product that I built a seven figures. And I think a lot of times in the small business space, if you're starting out as a solo entrepreneur, you it's really easy to get distracted doing like 10, 12 different things. So I think there's a really big difference between having a lot of products and testing a lot of products,
Kim Rittberg (37:39):
Shannan's been a hugely successful entrepreneur. So I asked her for her top three tips for business owners.
Shannan Monson (37:46):
I would say my top tip is to do a lot of repetitions. So whatever it is that you want to do get as many data points as you can. So say you wanna start a podcast or you want to launch a new product. I think the biggest mistake people make is they drop one episode and then they they're like, oh, nobody followed. Nobody hit subscribe. Or they announce a product one time and Nope, nobody bought it. So I think my best tip for entrepreneurs is don't make any decisions until you have at least a hundred reps. If every single person who tried to sell a product online or tried to become a content creator online, put out a hundred pieces of content before they decided, oh, that I don't have what it takes, this isn't for me, they would have so much data to be able to say, okay, these are the three data points that performed really well. What are the common themes? What are the topics that we're talking about? What's the format? What, why did these three work in the other a hundred? Didn't I think most people do themselves, a disservice by stopping too early. So I would say that my top tip would be to just put in the reps,
Kim Rittberg (38:53):
I'm looking out for you all. So I got even more tips from Shannan.
Shannan Monson (38:58):
I would say a big tip is just resiliency and being willing to fail, fail 99 times. If you're gonna put in a hundred reps being willing to fail 99 of those and keep getting back up. You know, I think the best thing I ever did was keep writing my blog that nobody was reading and keep, you know, I, I think people, you see the end result, but you don't see, nobody would know if you hadn't listened to this podcast that I've made 67 products cuz only seven of 'em really worked. Right. And I think that that resiliency and the ability to separate the failure from the person is one of the most powerful skills you can learn to just say, okay, that didn't work. Let's take objectively. Why, what worked, what didn't and separate. Like I am not a failure because it failed. You know what I think that the third tip that I would give is that nobody's a unicorn.
Shannan Monson (39:55):
I think we have this idea that somebody's just really talented or they were really special. They have this unique sauce because usually when they go to a point where they're successful, we've seen them refine their unique sauce so much that it is really sparkly and beautiful. They put in their 10,000 hundred thousand reps. Right. But I think that realizing that there is not a special dust that was sprinkled on seven people and they're the ones that have what it takes. Every single person has what it takes. I truly believe that. And if you want it deeply enough, the people who've done it before. You are not better than you, they just started and they didn't stop until they figured it out. And I think realizing that and kind of taking the maybe morality or like special sauce out of it and just appreciating that if there is a thing you want to do, there is a way to figure out how to do it, I think is so inspiring.
Kim Rittberg (40:52):
Um, what has been the hardest part of your, your journey from, you know, non homemaker to million dollar business owner? Like what's been the hardest part,
Shannan Monson (41:03):
Probably the hardest thing about life for a lot of people is not growing into the expectation of who your parents wanted you to be or who your family thought that you were and accepting, embracing the person you are versus the one they wanted you to be. And, um, I would say that's probably like still the hardest. I still feel a little bit sad that I can't bring my parents that great joy they wanted of having the, the daughter they wanted and instead they got <laugh> instead they got me me. Um, and I think when you think about that from like, uh, relationships too, you know, being an entrepreneur, being a public figure, it's a lot of toll on your personal relationships and it takes a lot of strength to, um, you know, go through failures publicly and to share so much of your as not just a, you know, entrepreneur, but a personal brand to share so much of your life publicly. Um, I think the biggest part is just staying true to yourself, regardless of who other people want you to be.
Kim Rittberg (42:05):
What do you recommend as people are balancing? Like where do I spend my work time? Where do I spend my home time? My children time, my childcare, my, my housework. How do you, how do you figure out, how do you figure that calculation out?
Shannan Monson (42:19):
Okay. So I love this. I have a very simple answer. I recommend spending as much time as possible in revenue generating opportunities. So if you are a small business owner and you have six hours to work today and you could choose between doing admin, doing sales, doing marketing, doing client work, spend as much of time as possible going to get the next dollar. Right. Because what that's going to do is it's gonna give you more resources to be able to delegate all of the admin stuff that you don't wanna do. I look at my home life, we run our home like a business and I look at my life like a business. I it's just all systems. Right? So what, where can you put drops in the bucket coins in the bucket? That's gonna have the biggest payoff. So if you're sitting at home, where is your time better or sitting?
Shannan Monson (43:03):
None of us are sitting, we're running around that crazy about home. Is your time better? Spent sitting down having one on one time with a kid or doing the dishes in the sink? Like when the early days of my business, my house was filthy. And I remember like people in my family being embarrassed for me. And in hindsight, I'm like, no, I stuck to my guns then. And I am, I did now. It wasn't the best use of my time. So it just didn't get done. And that's okay. So I always come back to, um, is it something that I can delegate, delete or automate? So ion, I understand if you're just starting a business, you might not have money to pay somebody else to do it. Right. But you might be able to just delete it, just let it go. Right. Just change, whatever it is or automate it.
Shannan Monson (43:42):
There are so many incredible free apps and systems. Now that will make your life so much easier. Like, I even remember one of the things when my husband and I were having this like kind of push and pull with his career being first and mind being secondary. And I was like, I just need some help for you. And, and he was saying, you know, I'm at the hospital all day long. Like there's nothing I can do. And I remember saying you eat lunch every day. You can whip out your phone and order GDES on ICAR. And he was like, you're right. I absolutely can. And I can respond to emails and doing things like that. So I think looking at who are the partners in your life that are invested in your future, whether it is a spouse or a parent or a child, right? Like my children are partners in this family. They are responsible for emptying dishwashers, folding clothes, clothes, like clothes. Like they are equally vested in our family's success. And so looking at who are the people in your life that even without paying, you can start to delegate some of these tasks
Kim Rittberg (44:34):
Going from that one-on-one consulting model, which a lot of people are doing. And then shifting it to one to many is the way to do that is online courses. Like, is that the way, like you have to figure out a way to, to focus on what can you sell and then start bringing people in and then start doing courses or group coaching. Like, are those the two options? Pretty much.
Shannan Monson (44:52):
I used to think. Yes, but I would say no. I think especially today in 2022, there are infinite ways to make money with a scalable business model. The first question is, is the product scalable. And I think if you can answer yes to that, then you can do whatever you want. So definitely like what I, you know, my bread and butter that I've always known of like membership models and online courses and digital downloads a hundred percent. Those are scalable products, but everything has scalability. So let's say you create a physical product where I've got sweatshirt launch launching here in a few, uh, months. That is something that I know exactly how much it costs to produce each sweatshirt. Exactly how much it costs for a fulfillment center to ship them. And there's almost infinite capability of how many sweatshirts I can send out. Right.
Shannan Monson (45:40):
And now I physically will not be doing more work each time I sell more sweatshirts. Right. That has scalability. So I think if you're wanting to switch from a one to one model to something with scalability, you have to be able to find somebody to either do the service for you, right? Like an agency model, there's a hundred million dollar agencies, but the agency owner is not the account manager for E every single account. So I think really what I come back to is what is the product you'd get excited about making over and over and over again, I'm an educator. I love teaching. So it's important to me that the products I create either have an educational component or all of our marketing is education, right? So like the new work model we're building, it's a subscription service model. Essentially. I will not be delivering the service, but what I get to do every single day is help the marketing team educate and tell stories. So I think really looking at what is the business that aligns to your skillset, and then from there, what is a model that has scalable potential? Have somebody else already done it check, have they already hit the revenue number that you wanna hit check and then getting either as close to that person or that model as possible to find out how you can replicate it. None of us are recreating the wheel.
Kim Rittberg (47:02):
I'm so excited for you. And we're gonna, we're gonna shout it out. I'm gonna buy that, the sweatshirt that the eCommerce you're selling, and I'm gonna shout it out about new work. I'm really honestly really excited about the company. Oh, I'll I'll for sure. Wear a shirt that says Nope. And everyone who offends me, I'll be like point to my chest and say, Nope, <laugh> oh, wait, Mike,
Kim Rittberg (47:25):
As we wrap up the conversation, here are some points I wanted to revisit from Shannan. As you build your business, take it seriously. Do not think of it. As a hobby spend as much time as possible in revenue generating opportunities.
Kim Rittberg (47:38):
She says there is no special sauce for people to be successful. You can, if you want it enough and are consistent. And I also want us to let you know about Shannan's new venture, which sounds so cool. It's called new work. New work, check it out at newwork.com. They believe the nine to five is dead, which obviously I agree with <laugh> mom's exit interview is helping you thrive without the nine to five new work calls itself. The hiring site for people who don't want real jobs, <laugh> it focuses on project based work in tech and new and emerging services, catering to the exponentially expanding field of e-commerce businesses who need support on everything from social media to lead generation. So make sure to check that out. And if you wanna check out Shannan, you could check her out on TikTok, Instagram, or her website, shannanmonson.com, which will be linked out in the show notes, keep those notes and feedback coming. I love hearing from you all. This is a note from listener, eh, w NYC the content here is so informative, genuinely helpful with tangible tips I can put to use immediately. I RL. Oh, I love, love hearing that. Thank you so much for your note, and now in our real mom moment, this awesome tidbit is from Lauren Lieberman of Lila photo based in Florida.
Lauren Lieberman (48:59):
My recent win is a transition that I really am loving and in right now, because it's post COVID period, that everyone is trying to find what's next. That feels good. And I've been in business now as an agency for 16 years, and my husband has been an attorney for 25 plus years. And we've made the decision now to work together because the business is growing in big, beautiful ways. And it's bigger than I can do on my own and with my team. And now we're working together. And the, the, the beautiful moment is like us working side by side and learning each other's styles and building systems. And I think the big aha moment when he was like, I knew you always had all these details and things going on, but I had absolutely no idea how much goes into every little thing of what you do. And it was just like that beautiful, sweet moment that I just wanted to bottle up where it was an appreciation, not from clients, not from anyone else of just like how the business has grown into what it is and excited for what it will be come now that we're working together.
Kim Rittberg (50:09):
Thank you so much for listening. We wanna hear from you tell us what topics you want us to cover and what questions you have for upcoming shows and experts. We will read everyone and we will use them. You can find us everywhere, go to mom's exit interview.com, scroll down to find the contact button, or you can DM me on Instagram at Kim Rittberg, or you can leave your feedback right inside your review in the podcast app. Please follow the show in apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen and leave review in a five star rating. And don't forget to share it with people who will find it valuable. It's truly meant to be a resource. And this is mom's exit interview. I'm your host and executive producer, Kim Berg. The show is produced by Henry street media. John Hallit is our editor and Aliza. Friedlander is our producer and publicist.