The Business Stuff Nobody Warns You About With Shannon Hill

The minute you register that LLC, the wolves come for the fresh meat. In this episode, Steph sits down with her bestie Shannon Hill — calling in from her morning commute — to talk about all the stuff nobody warns you about when you start a business.

They get into which tools are actually worth your money and which subscriptions to cancel, why you should always own your own domains and logins (and the GoDaddy trick to watch out for), and the tangled messes that trip up small business owners. Then the conversation turns where Unwritten always does — toward the truth underneath. Steph opens up about the fear of putting on events and not filling the seats, the "barbed wire" she pushes through just to show up, and the quiet voice that whispers you're not enough.

The reminder at the heart of it: you got up, got dressed, and actually did the damn thing. That counts for more than you think.

🎧 Featuring a love letter to CapCut, a warning about GoDaddy, Martin Short on failure, and one very brief, unauthorized Taylor Swift cover.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I don't hey it's Stephanie. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Unwritten. Today I have one of my very besties here, Shannon Hill. Thank you for being here today. And you are in your car driving. So thank you for sharing your time with us this morning. So let's just dive into it because we are gonna be talking about business stuff today. And I've been in business for 18 years and I still struggle with a ton of shit. And you, my dear, are working on. Tell us what you're working on.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Of course, I feel like I don't know, a hundred things, right? Um you and I are working, well, you I and some other amazing women are working on a class that's coming up where we are helping small businesses. I won't get in that into that too much because I want to let you speak on it. But that kind of got us thinking a little bit today about things, just everything that comes at you when you are a business owner. It's like the minute you register that LLC, and that I'm as I'm saying this, I'm like, of course that's what happens. You you're put into a uh call, call everyone should call this person or everyone should start emailing this new business and sign up for my service.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

And so you are like put into a database.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

A database, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

And the wolves attack.

SPEAKER_01 1:26

Yes, you're fresh, you're fresh. You're fresh meat. Yeah. And I work with small business owners, I have for many years, and then obviously a lot of realtors. So I see them constantly I want I like take the bait, is what I want to say, because they don't know. Some of them, you know, you would just ignore the email and you're like, yeah, I'm not gonna give that that person time or energy. But we all want that easy button that's gonna streamline our business, do this, do that. You don't know what you don't know. Yeah. Even as even like stuff said being in business for 18 years, 20 years, whatever it is, there's always something new. So you still don't know what this new thing. Oh, will this help my business? Is this what I need? Is this the thing that's gonna make my life easier? So a lot of it's trial and error. I was thinking about it this morning, and I was thinking one thing I would tell people is may unless it's a really, really good discount, I would only do monthly subscriptions and not annual. Unless, and or and of course, unless you're in love with something. Like obviously you use Lightroom and Will forever. So if you know there may not make sense for you to subscribe. You're not yeah, like I would say you could scribe subs you could review that on an annual basis, see if there's anything out there that you're interested in, but the odds of you sticking with it for a year are are pretty high. I see, I just did this myself. I totally, totally did it and was now I'm stuck in a year of subscription, which is fine. It wasn't like a ton of money, but you subscribed to something and found I wasn't using it, and then I found something that I was already subscribing to, actually, then recently incorporated this feature that I was for this other thing, right? So now I'm like, oh, I don't need that other subscription. There goes uh you know $200 for the year or whatever. So I would say definitely subscribe subscribe to things monthly and keep the minute you become a business owner, keep a spreadsheet of your subscriptions. And every time you add one, I mean, I know, I mean, I know there's tools like if you go and if you're like, oh, I paid for that with my Apple account, I can go into my settings and I can see I'm just using Apples because that's how and I can see what I'm subscribed to and I can easily track it that way. Well, you don't always subscribe to everything the same way, right? Like if you just sign up and you use your credit card, now that's not on your list of Apple subscriptions or whatever the heck. And yeah, out of sight, out of mind, which is what they want. Yeah, I mean exactly.

SPEAKER_00 4:07

So let's let's say daily. I'm gonna go off topic here a little bit because I think it's important. What are some of the subscriptions? And I'm curious if they overlap. What are some of the subscriptions that you have found most beneficial in the last, let's say, 24 months? What's some what's your go-to apps that you use in your in your business and how you help other business owners?

SPEAKER_01 4:32

I have I will say there's some I have a love hate with, some I have a love love, but like, and you use this too, so you can speak to it. Uh Cap Cut.

SPEAKER_00 4:41

Yes, I love Cap Cut. I actually have the pro version right now, the $20 a month subscription. Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

I have a love hate. Okay. Because some of since I work with a team and we kind of have to share what like I need my team to share what they're working on, so I can easily go in, check it out, see if I need to make, you know, any edits, just review it, whatever. And obviously they can export it and I could look at it that way, but I'd rather look at it in Cap Cut so I could jump in in real time or in and that you haven't had to deal with that like headache, and it they it's not um, it's not the easiest. I yeah, I don't love that part. But as a small business owner, they're likely just uh, you know, it's just them maybe, or they're and so they don't have to collaborate with someone. The collaboration's a little hard. But otherwise, Cap Cut key the other thing is there's just certain features I don't love of CapCut. Um but they are at the top right now, they're offering everything. People probably probably will think we work for Cap Cut because we're like Cap Cut, but we don't. Yeah. They just released uh well not just, but like they have the clips where they'll take your long form video, you can put it in, get a bunch of small clips, shoot them out so that people, you know, see what you make a long form video that's like three minutes, and then you can go ahead and get 10 videos, short clip videos out of it. The other thing that they recently, I think when I say recently, I I mean I just discovered them. I'm not in there a ton because I do work with other people and they're in there more, so but I don't think this has been a feature for super long. But the talking heads videos uh with the teleprompter.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

So oh yeah, the teleprompters are huge right now. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

So that's there's so many subscriptions for for that right now. And yeah, you get, you know, my boss really likes captions AI and it does do some extra things that maybe CapCut doesn't. If you're doing talking head teleprompter videos for like I don't know, 10 a month or something, then I would say, yeah, definitely invest in that tool. If you're like, yeah, I'm just editing, I'm just doing a cup, a few a month. No, I wouldn't pay for like an extra tool on top of Capcut. I would just use Capcut. They probably have for $20 a month, they have something that you're gonna use.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's like different, there's a free version, there's a middle version that's like by like $9.99 or $10. And then there's something I wanted on the pro version recently. I'm like, I'm like, cool, I'll just do it. It's an extra $10, not a big deal.

SPEAKER_01 7:23

All right, so yeah, they have the best view, they have the best music too, which like they kind of have a little a monopoly on that, so to speak.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

I do I do like that. I can take a video, like if I there's a specific song I want or audio, I can download it off TikTok under my phone and then extract that video or extract that audio in CapCut. That's kind of cool too.

SPEAKER_01 7:48

And then I always okay to do, right?

SPEAKER_00 7:51

Yeah, like I don't know. Copy. I mean, that's what I do.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Because TikTok and CapCut, TikTok owns CapCut.

SPEAKER_00 7:58

Oh, okay. That makes sense then. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

So I think like you don't you wouldn't get in trouble for that, is what I'm trying to say.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Yeah. Okay, so uh that is one. What's another one that you use on a regular that you found to be very valuable?

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Oh no, I'm stumped because I was all invested in this uh this video editing portion. I mean Canva is a no-brainer.

SPEAKER_00 8:22

Yeah, I actually don't use Canva very much anymore now that uh I really don't because I do so many reels, and last time I knew their reels were pretty clunky. They're editing.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

They are, yeah, they are. Well, can I say you could use Canva or besides there's other parts of Canva that aren't just like social media. So even if you want to do like a menu of services or a flyer, like if you have a class coming up. So when you so if you're doing like an event and you're doing, you know, you need like an eventbrite header or things like that, what do you use?

SPEAKER_00 9:00

I do use Canva for that.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

Yep. For that kind of stuff. You're so like the social media aspect you're not, but like those other features, like a presentation or some of events, yes, yeah. Use it. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. I'm trying to think of something that I always tell people about this, and it's this little tool that when I show people, they're like, oh, I love that. And it's the silliest little thing. It's just called awesome screenshot. And it's screenshots and easily you can like circle things and put an arrow and like send it and you can record real quick. And it's like a Chrome extension.

SPEAKER_00 9:35

Oh, that's cool. I've never even heard of that.

SPEAKER_01 9:37

And whenever I show it to people, they're like, I like that so much better because I hate screenshotting on like my Mac or blah blah blah. And I'm like, yeah, this is so much quicker and simple to use.

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Awesome. What's it called one more time?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah. Well, awesome screenshot. You just said awesome. So that was funny.

SPEAKER_00 9:57

So um tell me then two apps that you have found to be a waste of your time and a waste of everybody else's. And I know I'm putting you on the spot here.

SPEAKER_01 10:09

I messaged you recently about GoDaddy. And this isn't necessarily like a tool, but these are things that I want to warn people against because that's how I found out. Someone told me. Like, I don't think you're gonna go when you're first in business and you're gonna go online, or even not first in business, and you just need and you've been in business for a long time, but for some reason you're you need another don't you want a different, another, not a different domain, but like maybe you're like, you know what? This other people keep searching this, and I'm just gonna buy that domain and point it towards myself, you know. Yeah. That GoDaddy will is known, and I think it is getting more known at this point, but known that once you search for that domain, they they'll up, they might up the price on you. Like if you look at it in the morning and then you come back, they're like, Oh, now it's now it's sought after, so let's raise the price on that.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Oh my god. And that's insane.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

I that's like icky, if right.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

That should be illegal, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:12

I know, and so I found other there's multiple. I recently came across Pork Bun, and I really like their website. They're they're funny, they kind of like quirky, and they seem straightforward. No issue, and they're the price. They had some domains on there that were like a like under two dollars for the first year, and then they went up to like 12 bucks after that. This you know, the the following years. Yeah, but I was like, if you're that's a good that's a good way to like dip your toe in, so to speak. Yeah, and I'm sure there's tons more. Like, I also know you can just sometimes get your domain with whatever whatever website provider like you're going through, like a Wix or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, they say not to do that though.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Yeah, I like to I like to own the domain, like yeah, outside of what I'm using. That also brings me to Google Workspace because I know Squarespace, and I'm sure that like there's tons of resellers for Google Workspace. I would say purchase your Google Workspace on your own outside of it, so that if you ever decide I'm not, I'm I'm leaving this company, just try to own things outside. I know the integrations, they make it easy, right? They're like, and if you just click here, then you you can set up your Google Workspace right inside of your Squarespace and da da da. But then it's like entangled, and they actually own it, they're reselling it to you. So yeah, things like that. That's what I'm trying to tell. Like, small business owners don't know that. And the reason I've learned some of it is I've had to untangle certain messes for people. Same thing with Meta and Facebook and Instagram, like set up your meta business profile, and that's a little bit of a tangled web. And people are like, oh, I'll just start my Facebook page. Always make sure you have access to it. Even if someone, even if you pay someone else or your cousin's girlfriend sets it up for you, always make sure that you are like the main primary owner, admin, whatever, to your stuff. All the time I'm running into. I don't I can't get in my Google business profile. I didn't set it up, and it yeah, it actually hurts my head.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just went through that when I redid my website. I realized that my analytics, my Google Analytics weren't set up. And yeah, that's stuff super important to make sure that you yourself can go in as the business owner. Yeah, you know, Wix isn't gonna own your business. Like you it there's a responsibility that they don't want to share with you because they won't make as much money, but there is a responsibility to do your due diligence with all these apps and building the website, or if you're hiring somebody to build your website, whatever, like to make sure that that you, the business owner, have access to everything.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

Yeah, so you can totally pay someone to set it up for you. Like everything we just went through, if they're like, oh my god, okay, you know, if you're making a list, Canva, Cap Cut, Google Business Profile, Meta Business Suite, Website, Google Analytics, like the list goes on and on. So you don't have to sit there and like painstakingly do all this, but once it's set up, you whoever you're working with, you make sure you say, I wanna be, like, I need to be, and they should take a minute to walk through and show you how to, you know, log into everything and maybe save it to like a certain folder on your bookmarks bar. That's you're not gonna find that a lot, to be honest. I I really don't see that a lot. I know I just worked with a company that like they set up someone's website and I don't know, just kind of left them in the dark after, you know, like, oh, why is that for your website? And in in the the person that set up the website knew they weren't necessarily like keeping that company on to manage the website. It was really just just a just a setup, like a you know, do the website one time and then hand it over. And I find that I'm not saying it's their job to go to do to to do a front-to-back tutorial, like that's absolutely not what I'm saying. But just like some basics of like how to log, I don't know. That's just because I'm like nice, I care.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:36

Yeah, yeah. I mean God bless you. I see that all the time. Yeah, so there's probably you probably haven't run into this much, obviously, because you, I mean, you you have worked on people's websites and things like that in the past.

SPEAKER_00 15:47

I know, that's why I'm saying God bless you. I'm saying really traumatized.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

I know I'm saying it like really quiet. So no one's like, oh, stuff does a website? No, where you get in there and you're like, what is going on? Like, why aren't you who owns this? And then and and I love the we had a disgruntled past employee. There's always a disgruntled past employee who would super helpful and gonna set this up for you, and then gave you no access, and then they get fired or they leave because they're mad, and now you don't have any access to your Facebook.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Happens all the time.

SPEAKER_00 16:28

It happens all the time. And you know, even when I talk to, I mean, even if I'm like working with somebody that they don't understand how to put things on their website, like like with photography and video, like that, you know, that that's not part of my service that I offer is making sure you know how to take your images or your videos and put them on your website.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

Right. And for and you can't do like you can't have like this library of tutorials where it's like you're a oh, your website's a wick. Here, here's my wick, because you don't even have access to all the, you know what I mean? You might so oh you have Squarespace. Well, here's my tutorial on that. Like you can't, people can seek out the information and find videos on YouTube. And I would say, yes, your photographer should not be the one like showing you how to upload photos on to your website. That's another thing. I think when people get into building their websites, they need to think really hard and long about am I going to maintain this? Like, am I maintaining this? Am I paying, like I said, that person, you know, paying you to set it up and then I'm gonna maintain it? Or am I hands-off and I'll just I'm hiring someone, they're gonna they'll they'll just be there for me when I need to update things on my site. Take a few minutes to go on YouTube and search how to upload a photo to Wix, how to upload a photo to Squarespace, like something super simple. The video is probably gonna be maybe you know three minutes long. Watch it and sit and decide like that looks terrible. Like, I don't know, I want nothing to do with it, you know, or yeah, that looks that looks good. So yeah, and then yeah, we all have to sometimes I feel like a not slow down, but like I'll investigate something until it's like beating a dead horse. Cause I want, I'm like, but I want the best, like, or I want the I don't want like buyer like buyer's remorse. And yeah, that's not always good either, because then I get kind of frozen. That's a whole other like probably psychological thing I could get into.

SPEAKER_00 18:32

That's like a Leo 80.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

It's it's an AD, yes, it's 100%. I know it. I know I know it's like stuff. Um so don't be uh a Leo with ADHD, but take time to like don't just jump on and don't be it's so funny because I want to say like don't be scared to like make that choice of what you're gonna use, but also do like a little bit of investigation and don't just jump on the first thing that someone's like trying to sell you.

SPEAKER_00 19:01

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, because you want to, yeah, yeah. A thousand percent.

SPEAKER_01 19:09

So what have you been up to?

SPEAKER_00 19:11

So, what I was working on this morning, kind of thinking about this call and and where I'm at with my business, is I'm creating events and I have three events coming up, possibly four. Okay, so fourth one is this awesome. I don't know, we've never played golf together, but I I'm in touch with a woman that I might that I might have a women's golf class outing with. Like I think it would be awesome on Lake Wisconsin. But anyways, so I'm working. I'm working on events, and I have the class coming up, the the four pillars of success, which I'm excited about with having presenters come in and talk about some of these things that we were just talking about. I also have hikes that I'm doing and a retreat in September, and I'm trying to figure out a way. So, kind of how I I described it when I was thinking about it was let's say that I have a rare Barbie in a case, right? And my job is to promote events where this where people can see this rare Barbie. And I'm not calling myself a rare Barbie, I was just you know, like what would make somebody come to an event, pay money, sit in a chair so they can experience this specific thing. And that is a challenge for me because not only am I the specific thing, my brand is the specific thing that people are sitting in seats for and spending their valuable time with, it's also me, and I have to be the one promoting it from like my like I have two, there's two people inside of me. There's like the brand, and then there's the marketing of the brand, and it's challenging.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

Yep. And I think you have to look at it just a little differently. Like that, I like looking at it from all sides. So that the side that you're looking at, I love with that, but then also to say, and it plays into it. I think it's just re like wording it differently to say what value do they walk away with.

SPEAKER_00 21:28

Right. Yes. So I have like what it what is their reasoning for sitting in the seat, right? And there is an excitement about what they're gonna learn. There is a if we're talking about like a Barbie, then there's a nostalgia factor to that, right? So they get to to relive a piece of something that they lost. And there's FOMO, like what's gonna happen if I don't go? I don't that's the three that I have. I'm sure there's more, but um, yeah, that's that's where I'm

SPEAKER_01 22:00

I think when you so when you sign up for an event to go to what are and I know it pro like obviously varies a little from event to event depending what the the topic is, but like I think overall it's what will I get out of this that's gonna save make me more efficient, save me time, make me better, help me, help me move past like you solve a problem, you're solving a problem for them. Like what is their problem? Like what is uh either holding them back? Um what's stopping whatever this if that you know if that's that that person, like they're if they're in a like a limbo right now, or the person that's not stopping and they're just like they're just doing it, they're killing it, they're going, going, going. What are you giving them then that's like gonna make them go more effectively or efficiently? So what so what so when you are signing up, what draws you to the events you sign up for?

SPEAKER_00 22:54

There's a few things usually. Um I'm gonna learn something and I'm gonna see people that maybe I haven't seen in a while. So there's a connection to others, and there's just a well, if if I push myself and I go do this, I'm I know I'm gonna feel better after. Because I'm I'm super introverted, so I have to talk myself into these types of things versus like, yay, I'm so excited. It's usually like, oh my god, why did I sign up for this? I don't want to get up and go. So I have all these like they're almost like barbed wire, right? Like, I have all these things that I'm trying to like work through to get to where I want to be with it, right? So that's tricky for me because I can see it from all these different angles of anyways, doesn't matter. At the end of the day, I'm very fearful that I am not enough to fill these seats. That's what that's what all of this is, right? Like, and even you know, we can talk about the apps too. Everything kind of boils down to this feeling like I'm not enough, so I need XYZ to feel like I need this app, I need this person, I need this, and um yeah, it's it's a very vulnerable, tricky situation that I feel I have put myself in. Because what if I don't book in the seats? What if my retreat doesn't book in? What if people don't come to the hikes? Like then then what, right? Then then I guess I am like a loser that everybody in my head thinks I am.

SPEAKER_01 24:28

So when you find yourself having uh a successful event or and success is measured differently by people. So say you get 20 people to an event and someone else gets five to their event, and they're like, Oh, I'm super happy five people showed. Like we had a really meaningful session. And I think that you do that, like you've done that, you know, depending on the event, you're like, Oh, I'm happy with like this many people because it was it was meant to be more intimate, and I wanted people to take these things away from it. So when you feel whatever that number, whatever that looks like for you, when you have number one, have you felt it? That's would be interesting for me to hear.

SPEAKER_00 25:09

Have I felt like validated?

SPEAKER_01 25:13

Yeah, or like, oh, this was successful, like, yeah, like or yeah, I mean I've had yes, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:22

Yes, I say that hesitantly because I have, but I've never really allowed myself to feel like success in it. For instance, the left hike I did, right? Like that was a full hike, and I'm super I was super pumped about it, and like I was really like vibing when I got home, and then I was like, oh man, I bet you everybody thought it was a waste of time, right? So I always have this like wah wah wah feeling, even after success, that it's that it was all in my head, and like actually everybody now hates me. So that's the barbed wire that I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Yeah, I don't have I tell my kids this because I know I don't do it and you're not doing it right now. But I tell my kids like talk to yourself like a friend. So as a friend, I would tell you what would I say to you? No, like that's not what people were feeling. You're being ridiculous. It was great. You know, I all all the positive things I would be throwing out there because, well, first of all, I went on the hike and I can speak literally from experience of being there, of being there. Why is it so hard for us to talk to ourselves like as a friend? Yeah. I don't know. It is though.

SPEAKER_00 26:35

Yeah. So yes, I've had the feelings, and actually five people that weren't on the last hike have already signed up for this next hike. So that's kind of I'm like excited about that. These are people I don't really I don't know them personally very well. So very exciting.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Well, and I obviously don't know who it is that re-signed up, but I know who is that like it's not in their backyard. There, you know, there's a there's a driving component, yeah. Time time to take to get to the hike and then time on the hike. So it's it's not like, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:09

So this is so if I can basically what I have to do to kind of see it from a different point of view is disassociate myself from the event that I'm promoting. That's where like like this relic comes in or something. Like I have to think of events as like not personal. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 27:32

Um, good luck. Yes, it totally makes sense, but like I don't think I I don't know. I don't even know. I don't know if it's possible. I'm sure you can like try, but it's still like how are you gonna whisk like how are you gonna just slap that inner voice, slap that bitch? Slap that bitch out. Yeah, I would say, and it's gonna sound fun, like you all you have to like care less, which obviously you don't care, but like you have to be like, I just have to put this out there in the universe, promote it as best as I possibly can, and the outcome is the outcome. I'm gonna put my all into it. So yeah, at the end of the day, you're not questioning. I think the main important things are you you to not question, did I do enough? What did I like, did I do these things? And you can then if you did that give it a lot. I did, but like I yes, I do feel I did all those things. Maybe not your all, because you know, you don't want to kill yourself, but like I yes, I really do feel I did all these things, and I not like a blame game. You don't want to be like, well, the weather was crappy, or well I didn't put it on here and I should have put it on here because then I would have more visibility and da da da. Like you could go, we we don't want to also just project blame elsewhere, but at the same time, like give yourself the credit, like, no, I freaking like did A, B, and C, and maybe for every event, and maybe you already have one, like have your template of things that you need to do, and then as you do them, like just do it like chat box, because then at the end you can always come back and look at it and be like, I did all that, like what else can I do? Or yeah, and they're always trust me with events, there is always other things you can do because sometimes you have to shift and maneuver to get it in front of the right people.

SPEAKER_00 29:14

Yeah, I like that idea of just like you know, because I have a lot of intuitive ideas on how to promote things, and I should just write them all down and almost what's the word I'm looking for, almost challenge myself to do them, right? Like, like if I have a list of all these things I want, I think are gonna help promote this business, write them, put them on that damn spreadsheet and just start checking them off as I do them. And I think that is that not only is a challenge for like interpersonal growth, but it's also a challenge of what can I do, right? Like where is the ceiling and and and where can I take this? And I think there's a confidence that will be built within that as well. So yeah, I think it's cool.

SPEAKER_01 30:09

And then, you know, you could always write down, I feel like this worked because I did this, or I feel like this didn't work. Maybe I'm gonna take this one off my list, like it's not worth it to do anymore, or it's it didn't really help, or whatever. So then just having those checks and balances basically.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Yeah.

unknown 30:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 30:28

But I'm gonna tell you, the you got you got up, you got dressed, you decided you wanted to do a damn event, you actually like went in and freaking started organizing it. You are talking about it, you are streamlining the process of like what's gonna happen at the event. You're reaching out to people, you're like you're sending out the newsletter, the email, the social media, the like think of all the people who are sitting there thinking, I should do this and don't do even A B like even A. So like you gotta give yourself credit for I didn't just think about this, I actually like did it. Like I actually held the event. If you go through the the process of like, I'm gonna have an event, and then you promote it to the best of your ability that you know, and and only two people show up or whatever. Yeah, you've done way more than probably 10,000 people around you or whatever number you're you know, I'm pulling a random number. So and you are and you're also are putting yourself in a vulnerable position, and that's often the first hurdle for everyone to even get over to sit to to go ahead and actually do the event.

SPEAKER_00 31:42

Right. You know what helped? I was watching uh Martin Short, the Martin Short video uh documentary on Netflix the other night, and he was just talking about how like like he kind of judges his life on how many failures he's had, and I'm paraphrasing this, but because he put himself out there. Oh, I like that and that it's not about it's it's not about the the outcome, you know, like like we learn from our failures, we find success in our failures, and and the more failures we have, it means the more we're living. And I took that, and then the next day I'm like, okay, I have this idea for this marketing class, and I'm gonna put it together, I'm gonna find the most amazing women to teach it, and we're gonna see how it goes. And if it fails, it fails. And if it doesn't, it doesn't. But the thing I've I've learned on this podcast this morning from you is that it's just like taking those steps, it's it's it's not being afraid of the failure, and I have to remind myself of that and and marketing the shit out of it and not being afraid to do so because just because it looks like failure if if people don't show up, it doesn't mean that it's a fail. And if that's it.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Yeah, it goes back, like there, you know, I think it's uh Michael Jordan and all, you know, like he got cut from a team or something. I don't know, you know, all these you'll hear these famous sports people or like a Martin Short and talk about their yeah, they would have how they have to put themselves out there and be vulnerable to get the yes, even if no's and doors are getting shut in their face and all of that. And it's yeah, it's so hard. I often find myself not wanting to do that a lot, you know. Some like I'm like, yeah, that I'm I'm good, I'll just stay over here and and that because it's exhausting, right? It's also exhausting to be rejected. It is um to put yourself out there and so I think it's more about like what can I do with the rejection? Maybe have a process for that. Like you're gonna like Shannon, how many processes could stop saying that word?

SPEAKER_00 33:56

Well, no, I mean I'm used to rejection. Rejection is fine, right? Like with photography, I've gotten over that hurdle, but but starting out, that is a very scary thing because rejection it feels like life and death.

SPEAKER_01 34:10

I I would say to someone new starting and wanting to put themselves out there and scared, to however, if they have to do it like in a physical way or just a mental way, like take that rejection and be like, I'm I've learned this from it, and like either make a mental note or you can jot down a list of notes, things you've learned from each time you were rejected. Oh, I love that. And keep one for your successes, like don't just focus on the rejection, but and then say, wouldn't that be kind of cool though? Like, I've I bet you have one from like way, way back when you first were starting out photography, that you it probably tore you up, right? Like you alive a little bit. Right. And then you if you if that was documented, let's say, and you were like, I was rejected by this person or this couple for their engagement photos, and I felt this at the time. You'd probably look back at it now and be like, oh my gosh, it was such a blessing that I was rejected from that because it ended up being this horrible. Yeah. Or it it would or or I love when I hear people say, if I was doing that, I wouldn't have gotten the opportunity to do to do this, and this other thing actually was so much better.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

So I agree. And and really, I keep thinking, I do have a song that keeps coming to mind.

SPEAKER_00 35:29

Okay, let's hear it because this will be the end. Yeah, let's do the end Shannon song. Let's hear it. Shake it off, shake it off by Taylor.

SPEAKER_01 35:38

Yeah, I don't know all the lyrics. I I know some. That's that's enough. Yeah, that that thing, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 35:47

Okay, yeah. So we are at time, and I just want to say thank you, Shannon, for spending your morning commute with us and sharing your knowledge. I look forward to talking to you again, hopefully, next week. And thank you to the audience and the listeners for tuning in. And I will put all the information in the show notes. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate you. I appreciate you.

unknown 36:13

Bye.