Superstar Guest Shannon Procise, Business strategist at https://shannongronich.com/

Hi, so where are we today? Today's Tuesday, right? Tuesday. Happy November 17th. Uh, for all my friends out there, This Is Us is on tonight, 9 o'clock. It's my favorite show. And okay, so I'm really excited because in life there's a lot of people— you're very beautiful, by the way. You're gonna distract me with your smile on your face. But, um, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of people that have a lot of education and they're naturally brilliant and smart. And Shannon You, you fill up like pages. Like, it's amazing how much you do. And so there's so many questions I have for you. So I want to introduce everyone to Shannon Proceise. And then tell me about your last name, because I see you have one website with your last name, one with your other name.

Yeah, I just, I just took back my, my birth name, which is Proceise, but it was Gronich before. So yes, it's Shannon.

It's a nice name. I like that. It makes me think of precise. Precisely what I'm talking about. You do so much. I guess I'm going to target in on what interests me the most, which was your events that you do, Shannon. So first of all, where are you? You are—

I live in, I live in Satellite Beach, Florida. I am about 20 minutes south of Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, Daytona Beach. You were that close?

Oh my gosh, this is exciting. Now we can meet. Yes, the shuttle last night. Did you watch the shuttle?

Yes. Yep, yep, it was beautiful.

It's amazing, isn't it, that the government now pays to have a seat on a private shuttle?

It is amazing.

It's, it's so incredible. So when did you start in business?

Oh, I have to say I started in high school. This is kind of a little funny story that I don't tell people much of, but they used to call me the keg master because I threw parties on the weekends. I kind of changed my focus from not partying so much, but yeah, I, um, at a young age I loved bringing people together. At one point I brought 3 different high schools together that had been fighting and, and was able to have them to come together and party. And when I wasn't throwing the party, I would actually rent my keg out for other people to use. So it's not something to— so I'm not so much bragging, but as I look back, I was like, wow, I was an entrepreneur then, wasn't I?

You really were. First of all, it was a healthy beer. It's healthy, so it's all hops and good stuff. Wait a second, how old are you that you actually think of buying a keg? Did you buy the keg?

No, I had— well, I was underage, so it wasn't, you know, it wasn't legal. This is candid conversations, right?

Brilliant.

Yeah, so it wasn't legal. I had somebody who would go and buy the keg, and it was, you know, my keg, and then would throw the parties and would charge for the parties.

All right, so then at that age, did you take the keg, decide how many beers you could get in the keg, how much the keg cost you, then divided by the profit you wanted to make and that's what you sold? Or was it like coming from—

Yeah, so I charged, I just charged what I looked at what the market price was, what other people were charging. I didn't really get into numbers and budgeting and how powerful they are for manifesting until probably, I don't know, 10, 15 years ago was when I was like, you know what, I gotta get this number and money thing down. So no, at that time I wasn't, I didn't come from that place. It was more of marketing. How many people can I get here? This will be fun. And, and yeah, so I love that.

That is a brilliant story. That is great. You can't really beat it. I think, I think kids do it now. And so if you're 18 and no, 21. Oh yeah. Wait, was it 18 at the day?

I was, I was like 16 at the time, 16, 17. Wow. And then as I got older, I was just like, you know, I've always been doing events. Then I got into fire walking. And so I would— I had a holistic MD that prescribed me to go to my first fire walk. And when I went there, it just completely changed my life. And so then I became a fire walk event producer and bringing in fire walk instructors. And so that was kind of my first dip into the event space. Space and kept going from there.

Okay, you're blowing me away. Firewalk, I've heard of that. I saw that on the Tony Robbins does firewalking on his documentary. I did see that. Is that similar?

It's similar as in we walk on coals. This was the teacher that I worked with mostly was a Native American. He wasn't Native American, but he brought in a more personal breakthrough type things. These were like 8-hour fire walks. We would break arrows with our throat. We would bend rebar with our throat. We would do trust falls. We'd get people up on ladders and they would have to trust everybody to catch them to fall. So it was really a personal growth exercise. We'd talk about our greatest fear. And so it was not, you know, Tony Robbins does some stuff, but this was, this was more ceremony. When we'd build the fire, we'd write on the boards things that we wanted to get rid of, things we want to change in our life.

So what, what town was this? Where was this? So satellite?

So this was in this Brevard County area. I have produced, I think, 15 or 16 different fire walks. I did one down in Jensen Beach. Somebody had some property there, Miko. So I would just find somebody here that would would allow us to use their property, and so a lot of it was here in Florida. My first firewalk was in Spokane, Washington, but my events were here in Florida.

Wow, so you are not the same old, same old, like, oh, contact Shannon, she'll do a hello party for you. No, like, you're doing crazy things like that. I mean, I've just never ever heard of them. So you do that, and then the other events that you're doing, 'cause I'm kind of blown away by, Your Rolodex. I love that you call it your Rolodex. Tell everyone what you call your Rolodex and how did that come about?

Well, that— so I have Amanda Rose Igoe, who has been my coach and mentor for a number of years. She's a 6-figure speaker trainer. And she was the one when we were coaching, she was like, oh my goodness, you have this million-dollar Rolodex. And so she's the one that kind of tagged and branded and said, you know, I can call you for anything. You know the solution. And then just the caliber of people when you're in the event space and you produce events, business conferences, whatever it is, you get to meet some really remarkable people that are out making a difference in the world. So I did get to build my Rolodex that way.

I love that. I got a little into the event industry business with MPI. So I did serve on the board. I was the director of communications and then the vice president of public relations for Southern So South Florida Meeting Professionals International, they run an amazing leadership board. It's, it's fantastic. So were you involved in any— were you involved with MPI here in Orlando, or—

No, I— most of the events that I had were events that I produced, or either I worked with a client to help them produce. So I, I never got a professional degree or associations. It's definitely something I should look into, but I found that because I've You know, I rented the— at one point I rented the top floor of the Broward County Convention Center, had 70 hours of workshops in one day, over 100 volunteers. You know, like, from producing all of these events, I got to really learn, um, because when you pay— let me just— how do I say this? Uh, when you learn— when you have to pay for things yourself, you just have a totally different way of doing it. You know, when I had to figure out how to get butts in seats on on my own. It's like I just, I learned all of these skills that, that got me into the consulting realm of it to help others.

I don't know if that's incredible.

Did I answer your question?

You did, you did, and perfect. This, so, so, so are you still in the event industry or are you now more speaking? Like, where are you falling with events?

Yeah, so I, um, I definitely still work with, um, select select clients. I have put my live events on hold, looking at some things for next year. I do a business acceleration summit. We've produced 13 of them. It's a beautiful event where we bring together experts and they come to brain tie. Then you can literally break bread with them. I bring in my million-dollar Rolodex and you get to eat with them, you get to get insights for your business. It's all around business, business growth, business acceleration. And, and so we didn't have one this year, but I did pick up a big client, an international client, and I helped them kind of manage the pivot, which was really great for the consulting piece because I got to, you know, be at the forefront of, of helping with event, you know, safety compliance and renegotiating with hotels. And what are we putting in the contracts now? Like a lot of people just sign the hotel contracts, and it's like, no, you don't have, you're like, so because I've had to pay and do it on my own, I just, I don't really consider myself a planner, more of a consultant. I don't know if that makes sense.

It does, it really actually, so you've really created the business side of this, so you're not just one piece of, okay, I'm coming in and I'm the event planner, I'm looking at the food or, you know, getting the guests, you've got, you're like the whole umbrella. To the event industry.

Yeah, I'll come in and do the event concept design, and I love working with people like you where, because what you do, and I'm so glad that you were interviewing me because, you know, how you show up at events or how you show up not even with events, like right now we're not face-to-face, so what type of wow package are you sending people? How are you standing out and getting noticed? And so what you do has been so important to my industry, and when I'm developing that concept design, it's like, how are you how are you gonna wow people with your event and how are you gonna leave those things that get them thinking about you, you know, beyond the event or beyond what they get, so.

Oh, exactly. Hey, when the industry opens up, I'll have to take you to the trade show. You'll get a kick out of it. You'll get to see all the products. Right now a lot of our suppliers are doing the kitting. So, you know, if you're having an event and it's Zoom-related, then, you know, everyone could get the box and everyone can open it together and it gets exciting. And so a lot of the suppliers have, made sure that they're— they put, you know, you can put— pick what you want out of it and it gets all packaged together, a nice gift box with a little note, you know, don't open until the event begins and it's online. And that's, that's fun. We— it is a great industry for that. And I think that's why the niche that I love selling to is the meeting and event planner industry. I think it's so cool. But you do so much more than this though, so that's what's really interesting. So that itself really takes years to learn. I mean, each part of it. So like, your knowledge is so intense on what you do, and then you're so creative with your events. So, so you had to pivot, you said. So, so what happened? What— tell me about you. So COVID hits, it's March. Were you at an event? Were you in the middle of an event taking place?

No, I, um, I had an event, uh, planned. And so, um, I did have to— in my events, I've been doing the, the hybrid for a while, so I would stream them and and do the live. So that, that piece is not, not new to me. But this event, we did go online, and a lot of our customers were really concerned about, you know, are people— are we going to have the same engagement? Because, because when you break bread with people, as you can imagine, and everybody gets a chance to share and we all pour into you, it's, it's something that's, that's beautiful. And, and so we did our Media Magic Sales and Marketing Intensive I moved it from 2 days to 1 day because I was kind of concerned, can people sit for 2 days? I realized that people need the 2 days because it's pretty, pretty jammed and maybe some breaks. But it was great. We got feedback of people feeling like it was a success to create the same energy. I did, you know, I was very fortunate to pick up a pretty big client, an event client that has, you know, that's in multimillion-dollar events globally. So I got to spend March through the end of September working with them on their pivot. So it was nice to, I mean, I still had my pieces going, but I just said, let me just get focused on this client. So I haven't planned any personal events on my end other than helping others.

I love that. I think that is so brilliant. I want to ask you a question about the secret event, the secret, right? The knock knock event.

Yes, the Secret Knock. Yep.

Have you, have you been to a Secret Knock?

Um, no, but I have a ton of friends that have been to Secret Knock, and I, um, was, um, was close with Bernie, who kind of helped him pull that together. Bernie Dorman. And it's, it's remarkable because he again brings in a million-dollar Rolodex, and, and he doesn't reveal a lot of things. A lot of things you find out when you, when you get there, and He's really remarkable. Greg has this gift of teaching people how to be kind of unstoppable, you know what I mean, and dream a little bigger. And then he's great at that community aspect. Like, people really have a chance to connect and get to know each other. And I've only heard raving things about him. And I do know Greg. Greg's an amazing human being. I love what he's doing, loves what he stands for. And he teaches one of the most important principles. I think you may have read his book, 3 Feet from Gold. He works with the Napoleon Hill Institute who wrote Think and Grow Rich. So there's a lot of really important information that he's getting out to the world.

I just love it. I just love the whole creativity of it just from the minute of how you even get an invitation and how that works. So to me it's all brilliant. I'm learning about Napoleon Hill. We have Frank Stewart in town. We have a lovely man who actually, he just graduated, I think, with the Zig Ziglar, I should be paying more attention, leadership. And he speaks and he has a Friday every, for an hour with the whole positivity. And I'm mad at myself that I never seem to be able to make it. But I was interviewing a woman yesterday, Liliana, who actually wrote a book in helping our teens to get that. 'Cause I feel like I never even heard of really or understood Napoleon Hill or any of this mindset and what you were just saying. So at 58, I feel like, wow, I'm so old. Like, what would it have done for me if I was younger? So I love that she wrote a book to kind of introduce it to our teens. But how do you introduce that to— is that part of your speaking? And did you also go to— I saw something with John Maxwell, right?

Yeah. No, I haven't. Well, I spoke at a John Maxwell event that we had here locally, was one of the key people on a panel. A few years back. And, and so for me, how I introduce it, I'm— I love— I think we should all be buying those books for our kids as graduation presents. Like, I think it's, it's that, that, that important to get some of that information out. How I introduce it is I just do like we're doing now, Think and Grow Rich, get the book. I'm also a big fan of The Science of Getting Rich. That was really the, the pivot for me to learn how to implement it in my life. I joined the Science of Getting Rich Academy a number of years ago, and I kept thinking, I have this Rolodex, I have all these pieces in place, but I still just didn't, you know, it seems like I had the car but I didn't have the key. And I, you know, it's an interesting story on that. I could probably write a book. But when I got into the Academy, it was so beautiful because it was like, okay, do this and then do this and didn't, you know, And the biggest thing I learned was the magic of our pen and paper and how we can really write into existence. And there's a certain way of doing it, writing as if it's already done. But I had so much fun in that program. I remember writing about a magazine saying, I want a magazine, my magazine's so great, people love it. And within like 3 weeks, I'm on the phone with the creator of Science to Sage magazine. And she basically says, I'll do a magazine for you if you just help me with my book and getting out there for marketing. And this woman pulled together one of the most incredible magazines in like 2 weeks. It was just— and I've done magazines before, so you probably know that they're a lot of work. There's a lot of moving pieces. You have to get sizes right and coordinate everything. In 2 weeks, this woman put together— and this was for me journaling and writing as if it was already done. There's so many stories. I could tell you story after story after story. Of how we have the power to write our future into existence. Even the client that I had during COVID like, I didn't know COVID was happening, but I was writing, you know, I have this client that pays me on time, that sees my value, and I'm really, you know, the language is I'm excited and grateful now that I have, and I'm thankful that I've manifested this in an easy and relaxed way. And so learning some of these skills of how to create, right? And how to use the power of our mind and our energy, that was really a big pivot. So everywhere I go, I talk about that 'cause I'm just really excited and it worked.

I love it. I actually think in all honesty, like innately, I have that ability and without, and I understand the writing down. I used to argue with my brother, like, you have to have goals, you have to write it down. I wish I was, pushed more when I, when I was younger. But I, I can, I can think of something and like it'll happen, or just little things like, or I'll know something. Like I used to say, I, I have a gut. How do you know? I just know. I don't know how I know, I know. And then, you know, I didn't— I never was that like, I told you so kind of person because I don't like that. But I always felt that in my heart, like, I told you so. I just know. It's like, I think if I really was to do it it probably would be very successful for me. And I love hearing about it, I just haven't sat down to really take a course. And we're very lucky though to have Frank in the community. I was thinking about him the other night saying, every community really needs someone like him that is able to teach that kind of lesson. And then he brings in people from the Zig Ziglar and it really is beautiful. So I'm going to work on it 'cause I really do believe it.

Well, and if you're already, you know, one of the other things is if you're already doing it, it's, you know, they say celebrate even the small successes. Even if the phone rings, it's like, yay, the phone rang. It may not be a client now, but it's like instead of getting to that place of, oh, they didn't buy anything, or not, not yet, it's like, oh my goodness, thank you, thank you, thank you. Like just really getting in that place. And one thing that you brought up that, that excites me about somebody like you that helps people you know, have promotional tools is if you have that ability, which it sounds like you do, to kind of see what's best, you know, and then you know all of the things that you have to offer. What, what a gift. I mean, for me, it's like I've worked with people and it's trying to figure it out, but if I have somebody that can go, hey, you want to accomplish this, we can get you this, is, is great. So that's good to hear. You should be bragging about that. I, you know, I have the ability to meet with you and kind of Obviously give them choices. I know you give people choices, but I imagine you have a strong sense for what can help them accomplish their goal.

I really do. I find though right now the hardest part for me is really like picking up the phone or cold calling or selling. Like the sell, like, yeah, if you call me, I have great creative ideas and that's why I'm really a good SCORE mentor. I am also the certified, I mentor people, so I'm good with that. But I still have self-doubt and I still have, and then when I read, honestly, when I read like what you've done and what you've put together, do you do your own website by the way?

Well, I have a team that helps me with it.

So when I look at everything that you do, then actually for the first time in a while, I was like, wow, Shannon does so much. I was almost like questioning myself because there's so much that you, accomplished that's really incredible. And I want to hear more about your marketing. So did you— have you written a book? I'm not even—

yeah, I wrote a book right here, Media Magic. And yeah, and it's radio, TV, print, and internet press to give you limitless publicity. And this goes through— I have garnered millions of publicity, as you probably saw from when I got into the event space and I didn't have a big budget. I had to figure out how to get, how to get people there. So I cracked the code on a press release that stands out above all the rest, and I kept connecting with people that were spending $5,000, $10,000 a month on marketing and not getting results. So I wrote the book just to help give people a basis so if they hire people, they at least know. And if they didn't have a budget, they could go out and and do some of it themselves.

When did you write Media Magic?

2014. I'm working on a book right now that should be, that will be out, not should, will be out this next year and it's on building a community and having an impact and creating raving fans.

Amazing, because I actually, so I don't know if I would call this a podcast, what I'm doing here, what we're doing, I don't even know what to call it, But I, I, I, but I enjoy it. So I, I, on Facebook, I look at other podcasters and I'm looking at it. I got to promote your book for them because a lot of them really nowadays anyone can come on and do what I'm doing. And, you know, Carmen created the graphics for me, which is great. But the one thing I've noticed with all of that is actually the media and the marketing, and not that I have it right, because I don't, I don't think I do. And, you know, I don't have hundreds of subscribers and all of that, but I'm just thinking your book in 2018. 2014 plays such a role right now with so many people. I mean, with COVID hit, you know, we have the podcasters, you have authors, uh, there's just so many people that are— need to market themselves. I mean, I see it all the time, e-commerce sites, you know, Etsy, they're on Etsy, and even that, they still need to have— what's, what's going to set them aside if they're selling something on Etsy except their own marketing, right? And, and, and their own name and trying to get themselves promoted. So it's a it's a confusing marketplace, isn't it?

Yeah. And that's where one of the things I start with is that it's the expert power bio. And so when you said that you, you, you were kind of comparing and not having, you know, like, I've accomplished a lot, it's because of this process. And I actually give it away for free on my website. But basically, yep, basically I help people create an expert power bio and And in the book I have like 100 of the most powerful words. And so when you go through it, you start thinking like the word created. Okay, what have I created? Okay, what have I organized? So it gives you all of these trigger words to help you start thinking about it. And I found that this process helps you stand out in the crowd. I use it for proposals. I use the bio for everything. And this is one of the things I tell people is like, if you're meeting with somebody before you meet with them, send them something and ask for theirs so that you don't have to brag about yourself. Like, that's one thing is like, I don't like to brag about myself. It just, I mean, I don't mind talking about myself. I know it's important to share what you've done, but that's significant. And when I submit it with proposals, it's like, it just makes a big difference. But the other piece is this, you know, right now with the pandemic and what's happened is people have had to pivot. It is the time to upgrade your bio. It is the time to look at what you're doing. And it is a time to really, it's this particular tool when people are evaluating and they're overwhelmed, it's like they do look at who is this person, you know, what have they done? And what I love is there's a lot of people that are probably being very humble like you, and when they go through this process and they start looking at it, they're, you know, sometimes they come up with 20 pages of answering the question and we're like, okay, how do we get this down into a few paragraphs? And it also, the other piece of COVID if somebody's depressed right now or they're looking at, you know, I don't know where to go or I don't know if I'm good enough, this bio has helped so many people that are not feeling good enough see their magnificence because they, you know, when you start answering these questions and you really get real and, and sometimes they'll say, hey, get somebody to interview you and ask you that knows you well because they'll say, hey, do you remember that? Yeah, you did this and that and and really make it a process of going through the questions because it's beautiful. One for business, getting things done, higher paid clients, but the other is just knowing how incredible you are and what you've done.

Okay, I am blown away and I'll tell you why, because I'm not picking on anyone in particular, but I do get a lot of bios and I am surprised, you know, I have Grammarly attached to my computer, right? So it picks up everything. So I'm always shocked when I take— and sometimes I'll cut and copy. So once this goes on to— it's on Facebook Live now, it goes out to YouTube. I'll try to, you know, create a bio, and if it's already done, it looks good. I just copy it onto YouTube and make sure all the links are there so that it helps everyone with their own marketing so they can be found. And I'm like, whoa, there's a lot of mistakes and a lot of errors and So really, this is a gift. Now I have a question though for you, because you have two websites, and I— so you have shannonchronick.com, and then you have shannon360.com, which is very different. I want to ask you about that. And that's where I saw— can you get the bio, get your little thing off both, your gift off both?

So the, the website that I use is actually Meet Shannon, and it self-directs to a 360 site. And so The Meet Shannon, what I found is, is that I wanted with events or here, I wanted people to be able to get access to everything all in one place, all my social media. You can text, you can chat, you can book time with me. I mean, anything you want. So I go to MeetShannon.com and it takes you to that 360 site. And one of my dear friends and mentors, and he spoke at a number of our events, Ray Perez put that together, and so that's that piece. Then I have Shannon Gronich, which is my older site, and then right now we're moving everything over to Shannon ProSize, which talks about a PR distribution where I get people on ABC, NBC, MarketWatch, AP News, and so I'm in a little bit of a transition, but those three are really, really great. The Meet Shannon is where you can find everything.

It's the coolest site. So I'm thinking, is this— is that the 360? Is that like that? Is that something that someone else would— would— is it like available for everyone? Yeah, yes.

Go to my site, you can actually— it's— there's a subscription fee. So I do, I do pay, you know, I paid the year in advance. I think I've had it a couple years. So if you go there, you can actually click and, and subscribe. I know that sometimes he bundles things, sometimes he has specials. So if, you know, if somebody wants to reach out and say, hey Shannon, can you talk to Ray? Is there anything that's, that's here? But yeah, you can go to that site and you can get one, one yourself. And what's great is that like right now, I could get on the phone and take me a couple minutes and I could do a pop-up so that when people are there, it could promote my next event, or it could, you know, if I'm somewhere speaking, it could have a download. So there's a lot of things that are really cool that it does that, that you may not have seen because I'm, I'm not doing live events at this moment.

Ray, if you're listening, or if you do listen later, killer site, because I, I saw it, I'm like, whoa, this is really unique. And then I'm thinking, there's got to be something that's available. Yeah, I did a really nice job with it. I love it. I love all your photos of yourself too. Everything looks amazing. It's just, it's pretty incredible. But if there's ever been a time day and year that's needed. It really is right now. I mean, this is a time for, for everyone to really get your information because, and you know, you know, I don't really know what I'm doing, but I wrote the book Head Down Shut Up and I put it on Kindle. And I did it because I figured it would stop my— I would stop— first I did it because I just wanted to stop being told the things that I was being told. And that I did end it. The kind of the verbal abuse ended after I published the book. Because they couldn't really— they're not gonna say it anymore. It's all out in the air. Like, you know, I've already like called them out on all the words that they said.

But, and I'm healing from it.

I'm totally fine. I'm learning that if I, if I had help, if I had someone like you, if I had a mastermind, I really— it would have gone in one ear and out the other and not have affected me as much. Because words do hurt. But I just never had any help to really help me. But with that aside, I learned how to do it myself, like the marketing of it and getting my name out there and getting some interviews. A few I paid a few dollars for, a few I didn't. And then with this show right here, the same thing, like just getting it out. But I'm not really, you know, I'm just doing a little bit that I know. I really know that there's a lot of talent out there. Oh, I've talked to so many wonderful people that have written books that I want to help them, so I really need to put them in touch with you. Because I can only do so much. But when I'm doing this Candid Conversations, there are just really a lot of wonderful people out there that, you know, just have such great ideas and they really need the help. And it may be expensive, but it's worth it at the end, right? That's where the— that's— tell me about that. So if I said to you, oh, it's going to cost me too much money, what is your answer to that?

So I personally try to have something to meet everybody. I just have this thing in my DNA. You'll see it at events. Even if somebody can't afford to go to my events, I have a volunteer program. I have a— so I, I just personally have tried to create something that meets everybody. But if somebody says, I don't have enough money, I usually try to, try to either figure out— I just start asking questions. Well, what, what can you do? What is possible? You know, could we do this? So I A lot of what I do, I do customize, but I've tried to build things to help meet people at any budget wherever they are, including a ton of free stuff. From that, from that aspect. Did that answer?

I love that.

Did that answer that?

It does. I just want to be able to promote you like, you know, you're like a gold mine. So that's amazing. And is there anything else I'm missing? I'm going to take a second to go back to your website. I love the photos of you, by the way. I love your hair. Providing masterminds and high-performance events. So is that like, if there was one thing that we would say, Business Connection Specialist, what is your elevator speech?

So I have a couple different ones, but for me is that, you know, I'm the Business Connection Specialist with the Business Acceleration Network. I help people accelerate their business, whether it be through resource sharing or finding their their next team player, I have the— we have the, the team and the network to do that. We have a Trailblazer community, and our Trailblazers are a kind of like it is, they're visionary new thought leaders, entrepreneurs that are just on a mission to make a difference. We do have realtors and things you may say it's mainstream, but each individual that joins our Trailblazers, they're, they're committed on some level to make a difference either in the planet or people's lives, and they just really show up in high— what's the word— high integrity and come from the place of people before profits, people first.

I love that. So is that like a Facebook group, or is that an actual real group where you're meeting?

And yeah, so we did meet at live events. We do have a Facebook group. We also meet virtually on Zoom. I was, before the pandemic, was charging $300 a month. Now I'm only doing $47 a month. And so I've really, you know, just trying to meet people where they are. And I've actually scholarship a few people in just because, again, I don't know, I just try to meet people where they're at because I believe that collaboration and support supporting others is, is the, is the currency. And if we're trying to do things alone, like, it's, it's slow and, and we run into challenges. And so I just know that when I've hit rock bottom, the, the few times I have, it was, it was like me kind of crawling up going, hey, I, I like surrounding myself with people that were better than me. And not better than me than, you know, like looking down at me, but just, they were a little bit farther than I was, and they kind of reached their hand down and said, okay, here we go, get back up, dust you off, you can do this again. And so I, I just have this thing of, I don't want anybody to be alone on this journey. And, and so one of the other things you asked, another thing is tonight, and, and every other Tuesday night, we do a Love Your Neighbor community. And this one is free, and this one is really beautiful. We have partnered with a family office and Family offices, if you look it up in Wikipedia, they manage the ultra-wealthy. They manage real estate, business, financial, all of their portfolios. And the manager of this family office basically gave up all of his security license, all of his financial pieces, and he started advising people. I call him a financial futurist. When he had me do his bio, I'm like, you are not a normal financial guy. He, like, he has been helping people, you know, get ready for what he has seen as this, as this economic pivot and this shift. And so in this group, the Love Your Neighbor— the website's thegreatestcommand.com, thegreatestcommand.com— we basically— he's opened up and I've opened up all kinds of resources of like how to work from home, you know, where to find grant money. We've actually helped fund over $80,000 just in our, you know, just in our group from grants and finding, finding resources for people. And, um, and one of my favorite things in the Love Your Neighbor— and we, we have, you know, he's got like a protocol, what does that mean— but also, um, the family love letter. And so the family love letters is helping people wake up that we need to prepare for when we die, and there's certain things we need to do before we die. And I used to to stay away from that, just never went to funerals, it kind of like, oh, but my dad died right when we started doing this and he didn't have things in order and I just saw how important it is and how beautiful it is. My kids now are like, Mom, it's kind of morbid that you're talking about death and I'm like, well, I want you to know this is here and this is here and having those discussions. So he also is given for free and again, I remind you, this is a free family office stuff. This is stuff that the ultra wealthy have. He's given this away for free, some of these things. So this is, this is kind of our, our give back and our, you know, community to help people navigate this pivot. It's not all business. We also deal with personal stuff too that's there. And it's, it's a beautiful, beautiful community.

That is— wow, wow, wow. So, so someone could type it into Facebook and then ask to join.

Yep, it'll just take you to a Zoom page. So if you go to thegreatestcommand.com, you register, and then you'll get all the emails that let you know when we, when we meet.

You know what, there was one thing that happened during COVID-19 that kind of made me a little nervous, and it was that a lot of different people are saying, I'm an expert at this, or social media, all these experts, and really they like watch a couple YouTube videos they've gotten a couple things and I see it and, you know, I really saw it strong and they're charging a lot of money and then I'll see them online saying, hey, I have a client and how do I do this? And I'm like, wait a second, everyone's like, wait, you're charging a client for something but you're learning? And I don't know, and maybe that's normal to me, it just seems like, you know, I have 35 years of education, experience, and wrinkles. Like, it is part of that growth of things that you learn. And so when I hear a 25, and I don't mean to be pointing at anyone, I'm obviously not pointing fingers at anyone, you, but if you're 25, how much real life experience do you have that you're gonna be able to coach someone to be a $6 million figure? Is that really even possible? Does it make sense?

Yeah, yeah. I don't know if you saw it, but Entrepreneur Magazine actually did a big article and I don't know if they called it snake skin skin, or just— and some of the people that they featured were people that were just like, they had been kind of— they, they had done things in the past that, that either shut them down or not reputable or, you know, harmed people, and now they were coming back. So there's, there's a lot of that, that happening right now. It's interesting that you say that because when I do the PowerBio, I do love working with younger people to help them stand out. But I'm really big on you've got to be— you don't want to lie. Does that make sense? Like, you've got everything you have to say needs to be true. But if they studied with somebody, we might say studied with John Maxwell. So I teach them how to leverage certain things in their bios, but I'm really big on you've got to be authentic, you've got to be real. And this is where due diligence is. So what you just brought up is due diligence is so important right now. And that's another free thing that I have, you know, it's like how to do due diligence. I worked with the Clear Business Directory, and if you go to Business Acceleration Summit— is it okay I'm sharing some of these tools?

Of course it is. Oh my gosh, I want to get it all written down for people too, so I'll rewatch it so I have all the names. I don't want to take my eyes off of you.

Yeah, so this— so basically we need to be able to— I'm just gonna just check to make sure I I'll give you the right one. We need to be able to do due diligence and ask stronger questions with people because right now it is more than ever people are really looking at, you know, they're trying to get out there, people are trying to make money and probably scams are more prevalent than ever and it's on us to do our due diligence, it's on us to do the questioning. So if you go to businessaccelerationsummit.com Clear Directory Form, and it's all scrunched together. Clear as in like clear vision, directory is a business directory, form like a form you fill out. I'm actually interviewing a former seat, former counterintelligence, and he basically gave us his due diligence process, all the forms, all the questions. It's so powerful what I learned from him of how to, you know, like from the— one of them is How do I do my due diligence on you? Like, like asking these questions. So it's really important that we start asking people and diving a little deeper just from what you said.

And I really want to bring it out because obviously working with you, you know what you're doing. So I don't want to hold you up. It's— I would love— wouldn't everyone love to have Shannon be on with SCORE? I would love to do a SCORE workshop with you. It would be amazing. And, you know, the marketing, I mean, you could pick the topic, and because everything you do would help a business owner at any stage of their life. But thank you so much for your time today. Was there anything that I missed talking to you? Because you really do have so much.

No, I just want to encourage people to support you and share what you're doing, because what a gift. I mean, I don't know all your other speakers, but I know that that you, you know, when we showed up today, you had done your due diligence, right? And so here you are, you know, really giving this information and you're supporting a community. So I invite people to really, you know, support and connect with you. And, and if you haven't sat down with somebody that's an expert in promotional products to, to, for your marketing plan, like you told me you do complimentary strategy sessions Right? Yeah, I do. So to do that, I mean, no matter what your budget is, like, to be able to sit down and work with you, you're going to give them ideas to, you know, right now we need to wow people, right now we need to stand out, right now we need to be doing some things to, you know, because there's a lot of noise, a lot of chaos, a lot of— and so I just want to leave people with the fact that please support you and schedule time with you and find out what, you know, how can they innovate— how can you innovate what they're doing to really get noticed?

Thank you. This was not pre-discussed by any way. Thank you for thinking of me. I really— I do— I— this is always, um, and it's kind of like when I mentor someone, it's actually better— it's like more for me than it is for anyone else because I learn so much and it's just so amazing and it actually takes away all the other pressures of life. So it is my gift to myself, but I just share with everyone else. Everyone else could be a fly on the wall. It's really pleasant to me. You are— you have a beautiful smile and your eyes crinkle like my daughter's eyes. I love it. Oh, I see. And you're just the person I would love to look at on stage and hear you speak because you probably smile a lot and it just makes you feel comfortable. So I am so excited. We're only like less than 2 hours away.

I live, I live on the ocean, so maybe—

I love that. I know, it's so nice. Oh yeah, I, I was, uh, I spent a little time in West Melbourne, uh, area, which was nice. But anyway, so thank you so much for your time today and your energy and your beautiful smile and all this. Like, really, you've given us golden nuggets like crazy. Wow.

My pleasure.

So everyone in the podcast world, I'm sharing this with you too because All of us need to learn how to market ourselves. All right, and thank you for the bio information. That is going to go out to— actually, I may just make like a signature with that or put that in a special section because, because you can also then use it for LinkedIn. Would that be good for your About section on LinkedIn?

Yes. Yeah. Okay, a little bit, but, but you still need the same information. And going through those questions, you can use— like, I've had people people, if they give me 20 pages, they still use bits and pieces in other stories they might tell. We found that, that it's useful in marketing and all kinds of things.

I don't even know if I've ever met anyone that actually just like has a concentration on the bio, and that is so brilliant. They do the resume, but the bio, that's like hitting the nail on the head.

It is.

That is really, and you know what, it changes every year too. I look at mine and I'm like, oh crap, I'm 58, not 56. I gotta change that. And then I'll go in, I'll change the date, but that's not enough. I haven't changed the last 2 years. So I love it. All right, thank you so much for your time, Shannon. You're amazing. You are really— wow, you made my Tuesday, November 17th, just in case anyone's asking. All right, I'm gonna end this right here. Thank you so, so much. Wow, I'm kind of blown away to be