Emily Merrell  00:00

Hey, my name is Emily Merrell. I’m a taco loving people connector, and I’m obsessed with playing the name game and all things networking. I’m the founder of second degree society, a female focused networking community, as well as a business coach for female business owners, passionate about bringing their business to the next level with the help of events, community and connections. I crave deep conversations and am continuously curious to see what makes people tick, and I’m invested in uncovering their stories with some life lessons along the way. This podcast is aimed to inspire and educate as you tackle your busy day. So join the conversation and tune in for the second degree podcast. Okay, guys, I’m your host, Emily, and today I am so excited, like I’m like, giddy excited, which is problematic, because when I get giddy, I say a lot of bad jokes, and so buckle up. I have Shannon Matson, stop right now, bring out your phone. Follow her on Instagram. You’re going to just fall in love. But she is an online business strategist. She is the founder of the social bungalow, and you know, just because she’s crazy like that, she also created bungalow coffee because you need a caffeine to help for all the good ideas you come up with. So, Shannon, welcome to my show. Ah,

 

Shannon Matson  01:19

Emily, thanks for having me. I’m so excited to be here and like, anytime you and I talk, we could just talk and talk and talk and talk. So I can’t wait to see what unearths today.

 

Emily Merrell  01:29

I know, and I’m one of those horrible people, and I know Shannon’s one of those planning and people, where I don’t give people notes beforehand, so you don’t know what’s gonna happen on today’s show.

 

Shannon Matson  01:40

I don’t, but I’m excited.

 

Emily Merrell  01:43

You’re like, oh God, here we go with it. Well before we dive in too far, I have to share before I met you like on camera, I this was, I think, in January, I listened to you on another podcast, and I remember just like gleaning so many cool little little tidbits about your past and who you were, and then I had the fortune, like, the good fortune to meet you in person, which I don’t know about you. Once you meet someone in person, you’re like, Okay, I’m gonna get your number and you’re gonna be a ride and die forever. So it was so cool to be able to, like, see you as this person that was, like, untouchable on a podcast, to then, like, meet a person in reality and stars, they’re just like us, right?

 

Shannon Matson  02:26

It’s funny, you say that because I I need to find a better word for it, but I feel like I’m very underwhelming to meet in person. And I don’t mean that in a bad way. I mean like, I’m just so chill and normal and want to Kiki and hang out and be besties that people expect some and maybe it’s just like how we interpret online followings and, you know, success metrics, and then we assume people are a certain way. But I’ve had it said to me most times, I was a bit nervous. I didn’t know how you would be. Or I have clients tell me, Oh, I told somebody I was with you, and their number one question was, what she like in person. And so there’s this disconnect of what people assume on the internet and then how you actually are, I suppose. And I hear that a lot of times, people are like, Oh, you’re I was expecting something else, but I don’t know. You’re super chill. And I’m like, thanks. I

 

Emily Merrell  03:10

think, well, and let me paint this picture, because most of you won’t be able to see Shannon’s beautiful face all done up in front of us. She always looks like a 10 and so no, but in a covid era where most of us are like six and a half, I’m looking, you know, if at best with things like it’s, it’s, it’s refreshing. It’s refreshing to see someone really like own their appearance, and it’s inspiring too, especially in this day and age where I feel like people can take their appearance to this like fake level, where, like, their lips and their eyes and everything is like injected and changed, and you have just this natural beauty that you seem to enhance with, like actually doing your hair and putting on really good mascara. And for those that don’t know, so I’ll share a little personal story, and then we’ll dive into learning from this fantastic human and just learning your story, but I’ve been following Shannon with the social bungalow for three years now. Hilary Hartley presented at our Ready Set coach cohort, and she was talking about brand building, and she showed your brand and to the point about like being intimidating, you’re wearing suits in it. You’re wearing, kind of like what a power woman looks like, or what I what I envisioned. The only thing missing was, like the Land Rover. Like, I need a Land Rover to be drove, driving away, and so I’m now, you know, more actively in your world and whatnot. So it’s been, it’s been interesting to see that, see that journey of sorts. But I do think that it is I appreciate the fact that while you have like a beautiful imagery and beautiful branding, that you are a real person, and you can keep that, you can keep being a real person. Because I think this online industry can, can, can destroy so many individuals, so.

 

Shannon Matson  04:59

True, and that’s really interesting feedback. Also like the to put a bow on our first two conversations here, between the difference of meeting me in person and then what you interpreted from the brand with the suits and the iterations of branding, because I started with a very pink and because the company name being the social bungalow, conjures forth in like a swinging egg chair, everybody matcha and an egg chair and a, you know, Monstera plant, and it’s pink, and it’s kind of got that girly energy. And so I started there with my first brand designer, not really knowing exactly what I wanted, and then I quickly outgrew it, and we rebranded and kept some of that jungle feel, but it was still feeling juvenile. And I wanted something that felt, you know, high energy, high Lux. I was demanding a more premium price point, and I was going very deep, and I wanted that to be shown. And I feel I swung the pendulum too far with what I then did to the brand, which is, yeah, which was, we made the main positioning sophisticated, and we titled The main product the sophisticated CEO suite, helping you to elevate to CEO. We raised, you know, the just the overall acumen, the suits and the the terminology, etc. And while that’s been great, and I don’t want to, every single phase has happened and been purposeful and really given me so much in its phase of juiced it, I’ve milked it. I’ve been grateful for it. But now that I’m here, six years into the business, I’m literally going through a rebrand again, and hopefully for the final time, and I’m finding a way to balance the relatability and the like. We’re just people out here doing really good freaking work and making a difference, and also being humans. And there’s so much stuff that goes into business ownership as well as we can command higher price points, we can facilitate insane transformations. And I want to show that there’s aspiration, but there’s also relatability, and all are welcome. And kind of get back to the root of the reason why I named it the social bungalow is because bungalow represents home. And I want this to be like a social house in a safe space, a third space for you to social. There’s the duality of like social media being a huge asset, and then home being like your go to source house of how. And I just think this, the power suit, was a little like jumping the shark. So anyways, yeah, Notes from the Field? Well, I

 

Emily Merrell  07:09

think that’s that definitely was a vibe for a while too. Like, if you looked at creating cultivate, that was kind of like what their branding was. And I feel like the power suit, the full powered pink suit, or, like, any color suit, but a woman wearing it was so sophisticated at the time, so you were definitely in the right place at the right time. And I do think you’re right in terms of this evolution of self, of like, what is the next iteration of the social bungalow? But before we go even too far into like, what is the next iteration, let’s start at the beginning. Like, okay, how the fuck did you become the social bug below? And I’m cursing right out of the gates y’all because Shannon is six years into business, and she has accomplished what most people dream of in their lifetime. So who were you before you became this public figure? Oh, wow,

 

Shannon Matson  08:00

that was the way you said that. I’m going to write that down and put that on a sticky note on my mirror. Thank you. Okay, so where do we start? I started, let’s go back and I’ll go quickly. I started thinking I was going to be an actress. That’s what I wanted to do with my life. And so I went to acting school. I did the LA, the LA drive from Vegas. I almost moved there. There’s lots of stuff happening in that era. And while I did do some fun and interesting, super small fry gigs, it just, of course, isn’t paying the bill much like the age old adage of like the struggling waitress who’s also going trying to get her big break. But it was just from Vegas and working day jobs. And so while I was doing that, I had a family friends who had a agency looking for a social media manager, and this is back in the day of Twitter and Facebook and blogging like MySpace was just on the outs, and those were the big three. And said, Hey, you’re good at social media as just a young person in the world. Do you want to come in and work for me and I’ll train you up? And I was like, Heck, yeah, I could use a better day job. So I went there, and slowly but surely, marketing took over, acting as I went. And it was that company for a couple years, and then another company for a couple years, and I was just learning on the job. And they would a lot of times on the dime of the company, which I’m really grateful for, sent me to get certifications and different little things that I would do. So I just learned and grew and learned and grew. And I got to the point of VP of Marketing for a publishing company, and then I left there and worked for a fitness franchise and was their National Director of Sales and Marketing. And that gave me some access to celebrities and a lot of travel and all that fabulous stuff. And as I was doing that, I kind of, I always had it in my head, like, How to Lose a Guy in 10 days that movie where she’s like, PR and fabulous and just gorgeous, and all those things. I had it in my mind that there was going to be this, these rooms, this access, this VIP inner circle that I would finally achieve. And that’s what I wanted, fast moving and in the PR space. And when I got to that point, I was like, oh, okay, yeah, this is, this is what it is. It’s a lot of work. A lot of egos. It’s, you know, you have an eccentric boss who you work really hard, and you run in one direction, and then at the last minute, they say, cancel everything. Run in the other direction, and you just don’t end up with this, like, you know, version that you thought. So that is when I kind of got what I wanted, and it helped me release this veil in my brain of, maybe there’s something else, maybe you could do more. And I started to think, Is it another company? Is it another role? Is it a bigger role? Is it a bigger paycheck? Is it a different state? And I’m going over all these options, and quietly but surely, and I think it was kind of just following and consuming Marie Forleo content, where it was like, you could teach this, you could do this, you could do this on your own. And so with all my marketing acumen, I started the social bungalow as your outsourced director of marketing, and I was exclusively a done for you service provider where I did the not only planning and strategizing, but the literal writing, producing, publishing of online got to the point of online businesses marketing before I started teaching instead of just doing that’s

 

Emily Merrell  11:01

insane. So when you were at the fitness place, was it like one day you woke up and you’re like, I want to start my own business, or were you kind of like building your little nest on the side and giving yourself a date that this is the day I’m going to walk out these doors for good? Yeah, I

 

Shannon Matson  11:17

was building a little nest. I didn’t know what the date was, but there was somebody who came in and got a promotion over me that I should have gotten, and she came from a different company, had a really nice resume, and was also a lawyer, and so they were very excited about that in, like, the VP role, and it was just kind of a slap in the face. There was like an audible gasp in the company. When it was announced, everybody looked at me. My face is red, and I walked I’m not a very fiery person. I’m pretty controlled and calm. But I walked out of the the doors when the meeting was done, and I called Ryan, and I was like, I’m done. I am done. That is the moment. And I had been building on the side, so I had a little something, I had a couple of clients, and I could make the jump, even though there was going to be, like, a scary financial moment, I gave it two more weeks, gave my notice, expected them to want two more weeks, but they kind of got the vibe based off the promotion. And they were like, do you want to go? And I was like, I kind of do. And so then it was that moment, and I was on,

 

Emily Merrell  12:09

I called that, and you may have read this book, the E Myth revisited, but I love this. He talks about it in this book about the entrepreneurial seizure, this moment where it’s kind of just like a full body knowing where there are certain things that you might like, like you might like that corner office, or you might like the 401, K, or the coziness and comfiness that comes with a corporate job. But then you’re just like, Oh my God, I don’t even need that anymore. I just want to, I want to bet on me, because I bet I can do better than what this was,

 

Shannon Matson  12:38

yep, yep, exactly that. And you’re like, I’m willing to take the deficit because I just know my life can be different, and it The fear goes away when that like seizure happens, and you just merge with this motivation. And sometimes you have to just ride that wave to get yourself into this new state and keep going.

 

Emily Merrell  12:56

Let’s talk about you finding these clients you had kind of the side hustle I always hate the word hustle, because hustle, hustle feels so negative for some reason, like, oh, it’s hustling the street. Er, lately, yeah, and, but it’s like you’re building something for yourself while working full time. I imagine you probably didn’t disclose it to your corporate office, right? And we’re having this. So how did you how did you find these people and like, what was the promise you were giving them?

 

Shannon Matson  13:25

I started by doing brick and mortar Mom and Pop sphere of connection. I did not start with any online business clients yet, and I didn’t even know That’s totally what I wanted until I got one. And then I was like, This is amazing, and I want a nation to that. But the discovery process was very much reaching out to my immediate contacts. Do you know anybody I’m going to be starting to do this on the side. It was reaching out to people that were then one layer out on LinkedIn or even Facebook, who had connected with throughout the years that knew me as a marketer. I even did this didn’t bear any fruit, but I even did these printed flyers that I put in this, like local magazine, they were having an event, and I had those like Shannon marketing, and you could reach out and get, you know, for your business, a free consultation, like I did contacts, I did physical mailers, and I also walked into a couple of places that I knew and sort of pitched myself and emailed, and a lot of that didn’t work. The number one thing that made a difference was people who knew, people which I know, I’m preaching to the choir on that, yeah. And so I had one. One that comes to mind is a kids resale store. Brick and mortar was a franchise. There was a local franchise in town. It’s called Kid to Kid, and she’s got this really big store, very bad marketing. And a gal that I knew from a previous job was working in corporate for them, for this franchise, she connected me with the owner. I reach out to the owner. I make my pitch. I like redid, all these what I would do if I was in charge of your social and your marketing. And then I had this physical, brick and mortar client. And then, you know, this one, this one, this one that was all just through people who knew people and recommendations, referrals. And then with, how did I get Tana again, another person who knew person? Okay, so same thing, all of them can. Came through somebody, and I got this client. Her name is Tana. She has an online fitness membership, a really big following. She’s in the full like online space and learning everything about her offer structure and her business model and the women she was impacting. And every I was like, this is where I’m supposed to be. This is the shiny corner of the internet. I’m obsessed with you, who is like you, and I started to scale into that. And from there, I would say it was on in a way, of me finding clients in the ecosystem because of niche down messaging, niche down marketing. And one really clear freebie that I just exposed to, kingdom come. And then everybody who opted in for that freebie, I asked for their Instagram. I would then go nurture them on social media. And then I would pitch a like, intensive strategy, intensive, low cost. I want to say it was maybe four, 397, 400 bucks. And from that, it would just turn into, and now here’s all the other stuff you can do, and they would say, Well, can I hire you for it? And it would turn into a client contract.

 

Emily Merrell  16:00

And so you accidentally, in a way, were creating the social bungalow without really knowing you were creating the social bungalow, like building that audience, building those those followers, or was this a completely different Instagram account, and

 

Shannon Matson  16:13

you had to start it was called the Social bungalow. Yeah, it was okay. So

 

Emily Merrell  16:17

your company was the social bungalow. And then at what moment, when you have Tana, you have this brick and mortar store, are you recognizing like, you know, I don’t know if I want to do it for them anymore.

 

Shannon Matson  16:29

Probably through the process of doing those strategy intensives, I was like, This is so much more fun, and I send you on your merry way. Obviously, we all know that feeling, and so that really, that was a big disconnect, where I was like, I’m I can help so many more people. I can make a deeper impact, and I can feel more fulfilled and not be hunched over, you know, at writing the copy and pressing publish and scaled into just done for you, strategy, which then turned into courses.

 

Emily Merrell  16:55

And I feel like the course, like the course world is, everyone wants to build a course. Everyone in their mom wants to build a course. Like, their goal is like, well, you know, I just want to go on a boat and build courses, and so, like, make money while I’m on a boat. And I was like, that’s awesome. That works for some people. The reality is, it doesn’t work for every person, but it’s clearly worked for you, and it’s and you also have some one on one components that you offer, but how? What were the bites that you took to get courses in front of people actually purchasing and then laddering up and purchasing some more. What was, Do you remember your first course? Yes, it

 

Shannon Matson  17:32

was the binge worthy bundle. I sold it for Black Friday at like $97 I made 16,000 and I was so impressed and so excited by that, because I was a lot of units sold for me at the time based on my audience size for that price point. And that was all about content creation. And a huge part of the strategies I was doing really started to niche more into content over time. First would be larger marketing campaigns. And as I realized what was most important to the online entrepreneur. It was, what am I posting on Instagram so that I’m attracting and converting? And it really turned into these Instagram content plans, plus then where you send them to Lincoln bio to detonate like a simple funnel, to really start to grow your email list and make some sales. It was just this simple, straightforward process customized to the person. And I would be constantly talking about those on stories. So as I was facilitating one, I’d be sharing it, I’d show my prep process, what we worked on, the outcome. And people were really knowing me during that year, leading up to November and Black Friday for these awesome content plans. And that was when enough demand existed for people to say, what is your content creation process? And then I distilled it down and launched that course. And then from that course, the question was, how do you, beyond content, grow even further on Instagram? And I made five figure Instagram, and because I was launching these in these really big, strategic ways, with these live events and bonuses and timelines, the question was, how do you launch? So I made live launch Academy, and it just kind of snowballed in that way, as I built for my people, and that was an awesome way to grow, because I’m building for the current customer who is going to buy the next thing. But I’m also then picking up like snow, packing onto my snowball as it goes down the mountain. I’m picking up more new people as I go, so each launch will be bigger, bigger, bigger, bigger as it kind of cascaded into each one.

 

Emily Merrell  19:16

And I like, I love the fact that you were able to, you were able to inform your decisions by what people actually wanted, versus hypothesizing that people wanted it. Yeah, no, I want this, then you could create it for them. Yeah, absolutely. So the that’s insane. I want to go back to $16,000 your first Black Friday night. $97 how did you build or what was your strategy? I love that you were saying, like talking on Instagram stories. But how did you build like, such a feral following on Instagram that they were all paying attention to buy that

 

Shannon Matson  19:50

needs to be a program as soon as humanly possible. How to build a feral following. That’s

 

Emily Merrell  19:55

Yes, you can just, you could, I’ll just do the welcome session section, and then you can, you. Even take it from there.

 

Shannon Matson  20:01

This Emily ism has brought to you, okay, growing a feral following, I would say, was very much like sharing from the trenches, because I was a marketer who knew how to do what they needed to do, but I was also doing it myself and for my clients, so I had all this data to constantly say, here’s what I’m doing today. Here’s the impact. It was very transparent. We used to call the company a fishbowl of transparency, is like one of our taglines. So if I was doing it, you would know about it, maybe even to a detriment, where be like, Hey, didn’t like that test. Don’t pursue it. But everybody would know everything. And I was doing that on Instagram. And with my email list, I would write these value bomb emails before I had the newsletter, and send those out every other week, maybe. And people knew when Shannon sent an email, it was going to have this, like, pause, take a moment. Take notes on it. It’s going to give you some steps. It’s not going to be everything was worth your time, is essentially what I was trying to build a reputation for. And then what was the other thing I was thinking we did? Oh, the Facebook group. So then back in the day when Facebook groups were on the rise, right now, they’re everybody’s kind of exhausted of them. So perhaps do this on a different community if you’re going to glean insights. But I released a Facebook group and started to get everybody from Instagram over to the Facebook group. And every week, I would go really deep with a super juicy training topic that was very commonly brought up by the audience, how to stop getting ghosted in the DMS, and how to be like the go to first and only choice coach in the online space, and things that were just so much sex appeal to them. So it was like Instagram really had the behind the scenes and all of the How to email list was this potent deep dive, and the Facebook group was this FaceTime where I was going deep. So no matter what it was that I was selling, I had this wrapped audience in a healthy way, which I with great power comes great responsibility. Took a lot of integrity in to say what is truly the next thing you all need. You’re asking me for launching. What do you really need to know about launching, and how do I teach this to you in a way that also shows you how to do the foundations of your ideal client profile and your strong messaging ecosystem, and things that aren’t going to be like fast fashion fixes that are going to set you up for so much more. So, yeah, do that

 

Emily Merrell  22:10

you’re like just, you know, just those casual things, you just go viral and build all these incredible programs. It’s amazing. Well, I do think there’s something to be said about all of the things that I’m hearing is consistency, like you were very consistent. You were always showing up. And so how do you how do you show up on days when you don’t want to show up? Or do you give yourself that grace?

 

Shannon Matson  22:33

Yeah, I don’t. I let that be, but by being pre planned, you don’t end up with as many days where you’re doing things in real time. But I know that’s easier said than done. I think one of the biggest things it is is that when you haven’t been posting, you feel disconnected from your audience, and it feels awkward to pick it back up, even after three days away. It just feels awkward. And the more that you can keep your finger on the pulse of consuming and responding to their content, so you have conversations happening and you feel like they know you see them. So even if you’re not posting and they’re not supporting it, you supporting theirs. Law of Reciprocity wise, you just feel good about it. Additionally, you finding a little way to put something on stories every day, even something documenting in the moment what you’re doing, or just a little something, something from your day that’s not promotional, but just sharing helps you see the views coming in and know that people are consuming. Know that when you post, they pay attention, no matter how light the numbers are right now, it’ll help you feel like you aren’t just this hidden troll on the Hill that nobody cares or thinks about and that you have to come back in this big, glamorous way. And that’s another thing that I get a lot of times. It’s like, okay, I’ve ghosted my audience for one week, six months, whatever it is, and what’s my comeback campaign? Like, what am I saying? What’s that email? What? How do I explain this? What stories do I give? What anecdotes? And I’m like, what if you just don’t? What if you just start posting normally? And of great, like, of course, give yourself time to plan out your content and make sure you feel good so that you can stay consistent once you return. And it doesn’t on again but this doesn’t need to be an announcement. So I mean, somebody just messaged me the other day and she said, Oh my goodness, you your live showed up in my newsfeed, and I have a couple of your courses, and I’ve followed you for a really long time, but I just kind of forgot about you. Basically, you fell out of my algorithm, but your live showed up in my newsfeed, and it was exactly what I needed to hear, and it was so aligned, and I feel like the universe brought me back to you and I want to chat. And she I’ve not, not been posting for two years. I’ve been posting, but she and I fell out because of the algorithm, and she forgot to even consumer courses. I could have been in this mock scenario not posting for that time, but she found me regardless, the moment that I went live and just shared my expertise. So it’s not as big of a deal when you take some time as you might think it is, besides the potential of momentum, and if you feel this big call to make this big announcement, don’t just get posting again. And when you find yourself falling into those old habits of disappearing, don’t feel you need to post something revolutionary. Just share something on stories, because you will feel more connected. And it doesn’t feel. Is awkward, trying to come back online. Do

 

Emily Merrell  25:02

you think that being having the acting background helps you at all for showing up on camera? Yes, yes.

 

Shannon Matson  25:09

And I am grateful, and I do I don’t look that gift horse in the mouth to know that that really helps me as far as, like, speaking and camera. And I tell you all the time like I’m introverted, and I’m fighting you’re like, No, you don’t. And I’m like, I’m acting. I am the role, because I do. I’m I get intimidated by these things. And so yes, I would say that has been one of the number one grounding skill sets. I am so grateful I came into this sort of personal brand business

 

Emily Merrell  25:38

with and I like, I love hearing and I thank you for sharing that you’re introverted, because there’s so much judgment about social media, where people are like, well, she’s so confident and so she can do it. And so knowing that, like, You’re someone, you’ve had training, you’ve been media trained, so that that’s incredible, and you know where to look. You know the lighting skills, but you’ve also practiced, and it’s like a muscle, and I imagine it gets less scary the more often that you do it, and the more often that you show up. I there’s another book that I love to reference called the alter ego effect by Todd Herman, and he talks a lot about performers where they have, rather than being Beyonce on stage, they’re Sasha Fierce, because Beyonce is like a church going Houston girl, where you can have this different persona in your business, and so like showing up on social media. What is that persona that these individuals that are like, No, I will never do this, Emily or Shannon can embody to get up there and turn the camera around, yeah, that’s

 

Shannon Matson  26:39

a great point. I mean, it doesn’t need to feel out of integrity. It’s still you, but maybe it’s just a part of your personality that you turn up a little bit louder when you show up on social. You’re not embodying this completely different person. You’re just saying, you know, right now, my tendency is I want to curl up on the couch and not talk, not spend any cognitive energy, and, you know, just consume or write. But I do need to show up, and so I’m going to take that outgoing part of me and I’m going to turn it up for a second. I might rerecord the Instagram story three times to get enough energy in it, but then I’ll post it, and I’ll know I did good that day, and I will feel it’s so crazy how much guilt we harbor ourselves when we don’t post and when we don’t do something on social media. And so I know I will just, even from a mental health perspective, make myself more proud and happier with my to do list for the day, I’ll feel more accomplished if I just take a second to breathe, to own that part of my personality, to put something valuable out, and then I can put it away. Well, to the point of putting things away when you are and you are so good, and I know you have a team or you have other members of the team, but you are in the comments. You are doing a good job in the DMS. You have fostered relationships and responded to emails. Do you have any tips or tricks, or maybe you’re you don’t, don’t do anything differently than most humans. How do you actually show up in the DMS when all you want to do is put your phone down. I do have it as a to do list item on my to do list every day, and we have click up for project management. And so when there’s a big project, or even day to day recurring stuff, it’s all in one everything space where you can go to your name, click on everything, and see it pulled in from all these different areas. But even that, I like just a little to do list, so I go and I pull out the things that I want to do for this day. I have this running note. It’s just Shannon’s to do’s and on that. And the team has visibility into it too, so they could see what I’m up to at any point in case they needed feedback. And it wasn’t as priority all that fun stuff. And on there every day is respond to DMS. And it’s towards the end of the day because I want to pray I don’t want to respond to DMS before I respond to client slacks or something more important in the email or what have you. But it, it is. It’s like my sign off for the day to respond at that point. And the problem with that is that they’ll typically respond and then I’m gonna afternoon. But it is what it is. You know, if you’re looking to close a sale, stay with the person right then and there. But yeah, I just kind of every afternoon, circle around and sunset out those conversations. And

 

Emily Merrell  29:04

I think one of the things that I’ve I love about your schedule is you’ve got this team that is working East Coast hours, so that means you’re working East Coast hours. How do you structure your day to make sure that you’re not working East Coast and West Coast hours?

 

Shannon Matson  29:18

Yeah, I would say my brain does it for me, because I just can’t cognitive, yeah, after three or 4pm and so then I’m good anyways, but yeah, so they work my 6am to 3pm essentially. And I’m not even like, up and online until eight, 7:38am depending on the day. And so I check in with them, and then I get working. But I actually love that, because my cognitive energy is highest in the morning. That’s just where I’m going to be getting my best writing, my best thoughts, everything. And I heard this on a podcast. Somebody said it was like an affirmation. Tell yourself when you’re all stressed out in a day about something, I will figure this out in the morning. I will be able to figure this out in the morning. And I’ve just started to say that to myself for like, the past. Year I’m hitting a wall. I know my cognitive energy is the highest. I know after a good night’s sleep of sleeping on this decision or this topic, it’ll be there. And even just, let’s say, figuring out the what to title your master class, you’re obsessing, obsessing, obsessing. You sleep on it. You wake up in the morning. It’s very clear. Oh, not 70% of these ideas are crap. Let me now turn into these 30% I’ll figure it out. So I jump on start doing my work as well as then anything for clients. My calls don’t start until 10am my time, and they end no later than so 2pm is the latest call time that I do. 10 to two is the only time for calls. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Mondays and Fridays no calls. Not only because on Mondays, I like to just kind of work on our business. But also, in case I choose to take a weekend vacation, Friday to Monday, I have that option, and it’s always built into my schedule. It’s never like I have to ask so and so if they’d be so kind to reschedule and all of that, if some spontaneity pops up. And yeah, so I just spend most of Tuesday through Thursday on calls, and then my mornings are focused on my own work, and then I’m off by my last call ends at three, typically from two to three. I’ll button up whatever notes I have, and then my niece will come over and we’ll swim, and we’ll walk the dogs, and I’ll just chill.

 

Emily Merrell  31:11

I think that’s so refreshing to hear because so many people, again, I’m saying so many people, myself included you. You think that to be an entrepreneur, you need to be working 24/7 and to see that balance, and to see the fact that you’ve got you know your priorities, you know what your where your strengths are, where they lie. And then also carving out that time, that personal space, time for you to be an aunt and you to swim and for you to read whatever book you’re reading. It’s so important for that recharge, so you can then show up and fill your cup for the next day and show up for your clients and be camera ready. Um, I am curious. You also seem to be camera ready a lot. I know there’s been a lot of filming happening. Is there any batching that happens with filming? Um, I

 

Shannon Matson  31:55

try to I for projects we like, if we’re doing paid ads, I batch film all those ads. I batch film things for like, if we’re going into a launch campaign and I know we’re gonna have an open CART series, we’ll pre record things, and I’ll just get it all ready to go. But I don’t typically work too far in advance when it comes to social content, more than a couple of weeks, because I end up getting such downloads from the energy of working with clients and what the feedback is from the audience, and I end up making it better when it’s not so far done in advance, I’ll have an outline, I’ll have topics, I’ll have thoughts, but then as we sit down and kind of craft the next week’s content, I’ll film it the week prior and or the day before, depending on the structure, and I’ll be so much happier with it when I get to that piece in

 

Emily Merrell  32:40

that way. Then when it’s like, six months out and you’re like, who was that person, what was she even saying? Then

 

Shannon Matson  32:45

why did I think that was the way to phrase that? Yeah, yeah, it’s

 

Emily Merrell  32:49

wild. The different versions of self when they do things well, Shannon, I have like 9 million questions for you, so this is going to be a 12 part series. Thank you for your commitment and your time. No, guys, seriously, if you want to listen to all of Shannon’s nuggets, there’s so many amazing nuggets in your private podcast that you put out. Was it daily, weekly, monthly? Well,

 

Shannon Matson  33:11

I’ve just been all over the place with these private podcasts. So I have one that is for our newsletter, and that started as an audiobook, because my newsletters are long, and it’s kind of me reading the newsletter to you, in case you prefer it on the go. But it’s also started to have its own bonus nuggets inside of it, because I can riff and expound more than I can in written form, and there’s more examples and all that fun stuff. So that’s called the goods, but it is private, so you have to come see me and opt in to be able to get the link. And then I have a short series that I’m on season two of it’s just been a pop up fund project that to our conversation about not getting too far in advance was really the answer to the call of the online space changing, getting more saturated, the clients getting more sophisticated. Our old campaign’s not working like they used to, and everybody’s saying, like, What the f is going on in the online space? So that’s what I call it. And I have this private basically, but you can get it on Spotify podcast that’s currently in season two, and episodes come out Wednesday and Friday for about a month’s time, so it’s just a short sprint. And season one is on there, if you want to binge that too. Season One is all about what’s going on in the market, why things aren’t working like they used to, and what to begin to do about it. Whereas season two is now begging the question of, okay, we’re aware we are six months in. We can’t rest on our laurels anymore. If you’ve been still experiencing declining and plateaued engagement and sales, it is time to change up your business model. Most likely, and I’m telling everybody, if you’re not currently making $250,000 annually in online business, these are the steps and the ways to start to structure your business in this market, because looking at what used to work just doesn’t work.

 

Emily Merrell  34:41

I’m actually curious. I think, first off, everyone, add that to your to do list to read and listen to and download. But I am curious from you leaving the corporate world to also you like scaling to a point where you got excited for 16,000 that was huge. And then. I’m sure you got 160,000 and then 250,000 How have you managed? And then, I promise, I will wrap this up. But I am curious, like, how does that I’m sure at the beginning, when you get 16,000 you think like, oh my god, if I get a million, then I will be this feeling. How has that evolved? Or how is that feeling evolved for you as you’ve scaled, hmm,

 

Shannon Matson  35:25

well, so we hit seven figures in basically the second year, with the courses and everything out and the coaching and the mastermind and the group programming, like there was a lot of offers, and I did it with hustle. I did it with so much stuff and very little team. And then I said, this is draining. I need a lot of team. So then I did it the next year, I hit seven figures, and I did it with a lot of team, and I had less profit. And then I said, Okay, this isn’t the smartest thing. Let me rebuild some programming. Let me lean out the team to a midpoint. And I did it again, but I did it. So every single year, I tell my clients, it’s not a question of if you will hit six or seven figures, whatever that goal is, it’s how do you want to feel in the process? What do you want your operational infrastructure to be like? What do you want your day to day life to be like? And a lot of times we don’t know, because we need to try things on for size to get there and say, Oh, not that, and yes, this and there’s, it’s a learning journey. But my main goal is always, I want to make the same, if not more, so I can make a greater impact, not only for my clients and my industry, but also for my personal net worth, because your online business is your biggest profit maximizer of any business type. So how do I continue to grow and scale this company? Grow and scale my personal net worth, and do it in a profitable and a breathable way? Is my constant quest. So it’s not so much when I get that number, I’ll feel because we’ve gotten it and we’ve maintained it, which I’m very proud of. It’s that I want to continue, continually find better efficiencies for myself and for this business as I navigate shifting markets and team and everything like that. So yeah, I was kind of a roundabout way of answering your question, but it’s more so maybe my question is, is, you know, when you go to therapy and they’re like, you’re intellectualizing your problems. Maybe my thing is not I’m fixated on how I’m gonna feel when I finally hit these markers. It’s I’m obsessed with operational efficiencies. When I get my efficiencies, what’s gonna happen to me then? But that’s more so my quest is like, how do I constantly get this profit number up, my client results up, and then I can continue to pull levers to increase that further. I

 

Emily Merrell  37:23

love that you were able to experiment and being able to scale up, scale down, and still maintain, if not, continue growing, which is amazing. Well, Shannon, thank you so much for being on today’s show. What is the best way people should plug into your world, besides the podcast through

 

Shannon Matson  37:40

Instagram, and come see me on Instagram at the social bungalow, because I can point you to the private podcasts and how to get access to the things and all the gated fun stuff. And just let me know if you come to the DMS. I heard you on Emily’s, and this is what I’d be interested in learning more about. We’ve got a huge backstop of resources that we can point you in the direction of.

 

Emily Merrell  37:58

I love it. Air traffic control. By Shannon, yes. Well, before I let you go, I have some very fast six questions for you. Okay, I know this gives her hives. Guys, the hives are breaking out in real, real time. I love it. Tell us an unknown fun fact about Shannon.

 

Shannon Matson  38:18

An unknown fun fact. We’ve talked about a lot of good stuff today, I would say, I don’t know. I can crack my back and it like, in a really wicked way, it just down my whole back,

 

Emily Merrell  38:33

see if you had, if you had pre prepared that you would not have had that quite

 

Shannon Matson  38:37

that answer. That’s like my high school party trick, or be like, cut the music just like, get down into a wide squat and rip it, yeah, and you could

 

Emily Merrell  38:46

just, I’m a really good back cracker to others, so when I see I’ll give you a nice back crack like that in French braiding where. And I’m a really good massager. So like that, people brought me into sleepovers. I was, I wasn’t a personality hire. I was like a service hire.

 

Shannon Matson  39:04

Oh my gosh, Emily’s magic hands live. Yeah, exactly. That’s,

 

Emily Merrell  39:08

that’s why I had friends, um, tell me who a dream person would be to be connected with.

 

Shannon Matson  39:15

I would love, maybe like Sarah Blakely of spank, somebody of that sort that has scaled up a company in a different industry. I find when I like, invest or get access to rooms where it’s somebody in the online space, there’s such a, I don’t know, nuanced clouding of I’m in it, you’re in it, and then we’re, like, obsessing all over all these things. But when you get out of your own industry and you talk to somebody product, brick and mortar, et cetera, and they’re like, and they’re like, Yeah, business, you do this. And you’re like, Duh, it just gives you so much more perspective and scale to then bring back into your own business and not be as obsessive in the nuance of your bubble. So probably somebody like that. I

 

Emily Merrell  39:53

think she’d love your coffee too. I can see her walking into the coffee shop. I’m going to manifest that one for you. What? Are you currently watching?

 

Shannon Matson  40:01

I’ve currently been watching Love island. They watch they release every single night, and it gives me a little something to do that I look forward to being in the drama. I’ve never watched it before, but it’s gotten such rave reviews on this season, it’s like all over Tiktok. So I started watching it, and I was like, this is long and drooling and like drama and lame, but then a couple of things happen that get really juicy, A and B. You get to know these kids, and they are so endearing and so funny. Their personalities come out, and you I end up literally sitting on my couch, or like, I’ll be washing a dish, and they’re on in the background, and I’m laughing out loud at these people and their inside jokes and everything,

 

Emily Merrell  40:40

and maybe I need to give it another chance. I literally wrote my social media post about it yesterday being like, I hated that show that was my my brain was melting, and I felt like my soul like, felt bad for everyone. I was like, What are you doing? You graduated college, and now you’re like, flaunting your your goods on television.

 

Shannon Matson  40:58

Uh huh. Well, it’s an interesting way to scale your life in a different direction, because they they’re I just saw a release of how their Instagram followings and opportunities are growing while they’re off of this, and how much this turns into brand deals. And many of them parlay this into like host jobs and their career. They become known. They become models. They become actors, whatever their dreams are in addition to their skill set. So it’s interesting to see the way that it splices.

 

Emily Merrell  41:25

Yeah, it really that could be a whole new podcast on that, seriously. Um, okay, what book are you reading?

 

Shannon Matson  41:32

I am reading, oh, I can’t remember what it’s called. It’s a fiction. It is by Riley Sager. I love all his books. If anybody likes a good thriller. He is really good at them. Um, I can’t remember what it’s called. It’s something about a lake house. There’s like, woman across the lake, something like that. One of those standard fiction thriller types,

 

Emily Merrell  41:50

middle of the night. No, the last time. Oh, the house across the lake. Literally, that’s what it’s called. Yeah,

 

Shannon Matson  41:58

I’ve read like, maybe six of his nine books, he’s great, highly recommend.

 

Emily Merrell  42:02

I’ll have to check him out. Thank you. Um, okay, what is your favorite or most used emoji?

 

Shannon Matson  42:07

My favorite emoji is the little orangutan or the little octopus. They’re so cute and they bring me joy. And so whenever the team needs to assign me something that I don’t want to do, they don’t put an accurate emoji. They put like a rang, a tang or an octopus on it, because it makes me happy when I see the task.

 

Emily Merrell  42:24

That’s amazing. I think this is the first time someone’s referenced that one. Yeah. And then my final question for you today is, what permission Do you want to give our listeners?

 

Shannon Matson  42:33

It’s very top of mind, because I’m doing this a lot with my students right now, where we’re working on their signature offers. And it is, of course, in integrity. Have it mapped? Have it be a part of your expertise that you know you can facilitate a transformation for but permission to not need to create all your curriculum, processes, workbooks, branding, and then release it, because you will get so much clarity through the process of facilitating and doing with your actual muses, of your clients. And if you want to create something new or better, something do it in a beta. You don’t have to call it that if you don’t love how that looks publicly. But know that it’s a beta. Know that you’re going to show up stronger for these people than you might in the future. It’ll be more scalable down the road. It might be lower price point right now, and you’re going to build as you go to a point that allows for you to get so much clarity in the process, and then maybe from that round go and do all that behind the scenes work. So much of online business is writing and creating and like documenting and taking your unconscious competence and trying to distill it down for somebody without your skill set. And it is hard when you have not gone to school to be a teacher, essentially, and so to figure that out for yourself and for your topic and for your people, let yourself do it unperfect, but in integrity in your first round. Amen

 

Emily Merrell  43:44

to imperfection. Well, yeah, imperfect, yeah, no, imperfect, imperfect perfection, imperfect movement, messy, messy action, messy action. That’s what it is. I turned into mush. Well, Shannon, this was amazing. Thank you so so, so, so, so much for joining us today. Thank you for having me. This is and listeners, if you love Shannon, which I know you will go follow her, slip into her DMs, and if you like today’s podcast, share it with a friend, and we’ll see you the next time on the second degree. Take care. You.