Shanee Moret interview: ow to Build and Monetize Your Personal Brand

If you're thinking why do I need a personal brand? Think of it like the ultimate job security. Even if you are a business owner. Like through the pandemic people's businesses. I saw multiple people that lost their businesses even, but their personal brand allowed them to make connections and to revamp a new business, right? Or to launch a new business entirely very successfully because of the community that support afforded them.

Building a strong personal brand can be the key to unlocking your revenue potential and building a community of people who spread the word about your business. But how do you find the time to build a personal brand while also building your business? Today we're joined by Shanae Marais, a growth strategist with over 1 million followers on LinkedIn. She's going to explain how you can do that and more. This is the Launch your Business podcast because we know starting a business is challenging, but it doesn't have to be confusing. Each week we'll give you the tactical advice and the necessary tools to scale your business without feeling burnt out. I'm Terry Rice, business development consultant and staff writer here at Entrepreneur Magazine. Let's dive in. Today's episode is brought to you by chatterboss, a company that provides entrepreneurs with top notch executive assistants so you can make more money, save time and avoid burnout. Get started today and save $50 off your first month by heading to chatterboss.com launch that's chatterboss.com backslash launch. I remember first hearing about LinkedIn back in 2008 and I got an account just to get an account, but I never took it seriously. I remember my photo was the same one that I used for my Facebook account. It was a photo of me at a bar wearing a Lil Wayne shirt. So not the best way to present myself. But I really didn't care back then. I figured LinkedIn was just for job hunters and I already had a job. So I never posted, never engaged, and never connected with anyone that I didn't know in real life. And I don't have any regrets because everything you've done or haven't done has led you to where you are right now. And right now is full of opportunities. But I do wonder how much easier it would have been to launch my business if I already had an engaged and supportive community on LinkedIn. Because I now know that being active on LinkedIn is not just about putting up posts and hoping everyone agrees with you. It's about defining your personal brand. Now, notice I didn't say building your personal brand. You already have one. It's how people view you in regards to your expertise, experience, and personality. Personal branding is how you intentionally define yourself and you curate the audience's perspective. And in many ways, it's the key to unlocking your revenue potential and building powerful partnerships. So that's why I love this topic so much. And today we're joined by Shanae Marae, a growth strategist and founder at Growth Academy. She went from being a single mom who was on public assistance to growing an online community of over 1 million followers on LinkedIn and and building a multimillion dollar business online. Today, she teaches other entrepreneurs how to build a community that helps grow their business. And one of my favorite things about Shanae is her laid back, but direct style of communication. There's no overproduced, fake Persona that she's trying to maintain. She puts all her energy into helping people grow. Today we'll discuss how to develop and share your story, build a community through your content and and generate inbound leads. Cheney, I'm glad you're here because I've been following you and your work for a While, primarily on LinkedIn, and I remember using you as an example when I was leading a workshop about LinkedIn optimization. So that's how we got connected. But I would love it if you could just introduce yourself to everyone else.

Hey, thank you so much, Terri. My name is Shanae Marae and I'm the founder of Growth Academy. And we just, we help entrepreneurs get seen online the way that they need to be to get business.

So building a personal brand is clearly part of that. And this is me maybe being somewhat jaded, but what I see often is this people try to pursue significance instead of doing significant things. Is this something that you've seen as well?

Yeah, of course. So I actually started to build my personal brand not with the intention of building a personal brand. Right. I didn't even know what a personal brand was when I started like late 2018, like three years ago. So maybe my naivete, like, was in my favor. Right. But I think, I think that it's true. And I think that they underestimate what it takes to build a quote unquote, personal brand. Right. They think it's a canva design or they think it's this or that. And your personal brand is a subjective experience. Right? It's what someone thinks or feels when they think of you. And it has so many nuances to it beyond, like a Canva template, beyond what it is that you even think it should be. That's one thing that I want to clarify is, like, you can think you're creating one type of personal brand, but it's subjective. Like, it's whatever the person experiencing your brand feels that it is. And if you're not careful, those could be completely misaligned things. Right?

Yeah. I took a class on mass communication when I was in college, when I was a freshman, so shout out to the University at Buffalo. And one thing I remember was there are two phases of communication. The first is encoding a message, and that's what the sender wants people to hear. And the second is decoding, which is how the message is received. So if you're not thinking about how people are receiving your message, it's. It opens the door for you to be misunderstood. And that's why I wish there was like a SolarCasm font on LinkedIn or other social media, because I'm sure that happens all the time. But anyways, back to you and your story. What got you started?

So I started because I received an ultimatum when my daughter was in the hospital. And so I started building my online business. I got onto LinkedIn, but I hated to cold call and cold message people. So. So that's why I started creating content. And I just gave myself 30 days. I was like, if this video thing works? Because it was just also timing. That video was like picking up on LinkedIn at the time. So that was also in my favor. But I was like, let me just try this thing. I don't like cold messaging. I hate to cold call, and I don't want to feel like I'm bothering people to do business with them. So I gave it 30 days, and I saw the results within those 30 days. And so naturally, I just doubled down on video and on content and build a personal brand as a result. That's kind of the way it went.

I want to go deeper on the way it went. But first, let's address some. We'll call it resistance that some people might have in regards to building a personal brand, because they might be thinking, look, I'm good at what I do. I used to work at this company. Now I'm starting my business and I know what I'm doing, so why do I have to jump through all these hoops to build a personal brand? So, so why do you need one, and what are the benefits of doing so?

I mean, I have a business because of one. I'm here with you because of one. Right? And I'm able to serve all of our clients because of one. So if you're thinking, why do I need A personal brand. Think of it like the ultimate job security. Even if you are a business owner, like through the pandemic people's businesses. I saw multiple people that lost their businesses even, but their personal brand allowed them to make connections and to revamp a new business. Right. Or to launch a new business entirely very successfully because of the community that supported them. If you lose your job, who do you know? Right. Who trusts you enough to give you that internal connection? Because, I mean, you could tell me your resume is amazing, but at the end of the day, the data shows that over 70% of people get a job because of a recommendation. So it's all about who knows you and who trusts you.

Yeah. And building that personal brand is a good way to be known, liked, and trusted. So I hear you there. And I mean, you mentioned a few things about building a personal brand, like, you know, canva and messaging and whatnot. Can you get real basic and get real 101 with us? How do you build a personal brand? What are the components that go into it as we're doing this?

Yeah. So, number one, it's all about understanding who you want to attract, and it's about understanding what they're struggling with. Right. It's also about understanding how you could leverage your own story to attract those people. So when I'm speaking to an entrepreneur and I share a story about sacrifice and I share a story that, you know, all of what you're sacrificing, it better be worth it in the end. I'm speaking to them emotionally, I'm using my own experiences, but because they resonate with it, they're going to be attracted to me. Right. Attracted to what I'm saying. It's going to spark their curiosity, it's going to make them come back to the content engagement and increase the chances of them becoming a client again. So personal brand is a curated experience. Right. And if people do not know you yet, I truly believe that the medium through which they can in the least amount of time is video. Right. So using video, choosing your social media platform, choose your weapon, like Immortal combat. Right. Choosing just one, you don't have to overcomplicate it. And then really leveraging your own story to attract the right people is the true science behind it. It's the nuance that's the strategy.

Okay, we're going to take a quick break here, but when we come back, Shanae and I will discuss how you can create and share your story. Let's take a quick moment here to talk about Chatterboss. Chatterboss is a company that helps entrepreneurs make more money, save time and avoid burnout by providing top notch executive assistance. And I got to tell you, I've been using the service for the past several months now and I have no idea how I got by without them before. My assistant, Megan handles everything from prepping my newsletter, designing social media posts, sending out invoices, and even finding local activities for my four kids. But here's one of the most important things. She's not just an order taker, she's also a thought partner who presents new ideas and even challenges some of my bad ones. But here's what makes Chatterboss as a company so unique. You have one assistant who can handle your entire remote team. This includes other specialists within the Chatterboss network as well as independent experts that can be found elsewhere. But either way, you have one point of contact who knows you, your business and can anticipate your needs while you're focusing on other high impact activities. Get started today and save $50 off your first month by heading to chatterboss.com or backslash launch. That's chatterboss.com backslash launch. We're back with Shanae and I want to address something you may be concerned about. You know how important it is to tell your story, but what if you have no clue how to tell it or you think it's kind of boring? Shanae is here to help with that.

You know, everyone has a story, they just, they just don't realize it sometimes. So it's about really being. And this is what we work with, right? It's about being asked the right questions. So let's say, okay, I'll use an example. There is a 45 year old woman right in growth academy. She just left a company. Well, she was laid off and she has all these marketing skills. She has 20 plus years of experience, she has this and that. She's trying to become a consultant, but she's truly passionate about health because she just has that experience and some personal things that happen. So when I'm talking with her, it's so evident what she needs to do and how she could leverage her story to get into startups for wellness programs. And it's just about, it's helping someone identify their most profitable skill set and where they fit into the puzzle, so to speak. So like her story, she could say, and she did say it's like super boring. She's not special, but she is. She has a lot of skills that people don't know. She has a lot of Experience in wellness. Right. And she has a lot of certifications in wellness. She's also very savvy with the startup community because she lives in, like, near Silicon Valley in California. Right. So she knows how they roll. And leveraging those strengths of hers, you know, has positioned her as that type of authority on LinkedIn. So it's about really, like, seeing you're like a diamond with many facets. Which facet do you choose to attract the people that could pay you the most with the least resistance? That's the true art personal brand.

And it sounds like initially, in addition to working with someone like you, maybe just reaching out to their networking, saying, hey, what about me is interesting or stands out? Like, what are some of the first things that come to your mind when you think about me? Otherwise, you could have this amazing story and you've told it several times, but you don't know how powerful it is until someone actually tells you about that. And I think sometimes there's a vulnerability involved where we don't want to admit that we got fired from Panasonic or that, you know, we went through a divorce or whatever it is. But to build a personal brand, you have to have a personality. And people can't know, like, and trust you if you don't show these parts of you that. That maybe aren't so glamorous. Because what I see sometimes from, from personal brands is just constant winning, right? Not a care in the world. You know, I got all these kids, but everything's great. I'm doing great. I'm. I'm fine. That's why sometimes I'm like, hey, my kids are actually getting on my nerves right now, and I'm sneaking a brownie in the closet to calm my nerves. Like, you just have to kind of admit these things sometimes. And I think we saw more of that starting back in 2020. But from your perspective and observation, what has changed about personal branding?

I think that, you know, authenticity is a superpower. And I think one thing that I'm seeing is that maybe in. In 2020, people followed a ton of people, right? Like, I would say 10, 25 influencers, whatever. But I would say in 2021, people are really understanding the value of their time. And, and so I think that that 20 influencer following that they would really, like, pay attention to their content is now maybe like, down to like four or five people, right? So there's bigger emotional attachment, but smaller kind of, you know, cohorts of who they follow. And for people trying to build personal brand, that could be Amazing news if you know how to do it, or really bad news if you don't know how to build that emotional connection because then all of your followers will just be superficial and they won't buy. And for me, at the end of the day, you know, you could have amazing engagement in terms of like, shares, whatever, but, you know, unless people buy and actually convert, then I would say you don't have an effective personal brand because it proves that they don't trust you enough to let go of resources for what it is that you could provide.

You make a really good point. Because I had a post on LinkedIn that went viral by my metrics. I think I got like, like 1.5 million views. So I'm like, oh, wow, this is great. But I made $0 off of it because it had nothing to do with my job. And that's when I realized, you know, you could have all these vanity metrics, you can have followers, you can have likes, comments and all this stuff. But to your point, if you're not driving business value, it's not doing much for anyone, including you. And for me, that's where personal branding needs to overlap with direct response marketing and become authority marketing, which is essentially using your authority or expertise to market yourself, but doing so in a more personal way, which can include storytelling. But you're closing the loop by actually generating revenue. Whereas some people I know, they have a bunch of followers and they're also wondering how they're going to pay their rent next month. So you want to make sure it's a good balance there between, you know, like what people see and what you're actually getting on the back end as well.

Yeah, a hundred percent. And you have to balance it. Right. So depending on what type of brand, what your title is, like, a sales leader could obviously kind of direct sell a little bit more. Right. Than let's say someone who's like a thought leader in Ayurveda but still needs sales. Right. It's a different type of experience that they have to provide. But to one point that that post that did go viral, you know, those new followers convert, right? So there, there's that intrinsic kind of like dark social value where you have to kind of, there's nuances to it, but if you just do posts like that, you'll never get conversion. So it's like you gotta balance. It's like, it's honestly like baking a piece of everyone's recipe, though it's not like a box, it's personalized because everyone's story is A little bit different and we have different prospects and different ages, they have different sensitivities and stuff like that. So you have to balance both. Is you know what I've, what I have found to be the most successful.

Your point about the recipe is so bright because I hear people say all the time, oh, I'm doing a 30 day challenge. I'm going to post every day for 30 days and their recipes to share content. Like, oh, here's an article I read. Here's another article, here's another. And I'm like, you haven't voiced your opinion or perspective or worldview or anything. You just keep on sharing stuff and that's why you haven't built your brand. But the same thing happened to me and this was in regards to in person events. When I first started getting booked to speak at conferences, I was always doing workshops. So smaller stage, smaller audience. And I was basically doing how to content. And I remember one time asking, how can I get on a bigger stage? And the organizer said they reserved those opportunities for more like thought, opinion type content. So eventually I went to one of those keynotes to see what she was talking about. And this woman got on stage and she started with a personal story, which was amazing, and it got the audience into it and she kept on weaving stories in throughout her talk. But at one point she shifted and started telling the audience's perspective and that proved that she understood them. Their challenges, their outcomes they're looking for. And that made it even more impactful. But it all started from stories. So that's, that's one thing I think people get wrong when it comes to building a personal brand. It's not just the information you share, it's how you share it. And in this case, storytelling was a big component. But what are some other common mistakes?

First of all, the biggest thing is they're inconsistent. So you can't say like your prospects, your network is really, they're important to you, you care about them and then show up whenever you feel like it. And that's really like the difference between someone who's an amateur building their personal brand and someone who I don't care if they're starting with one follower, but has a professional mindset where no matter what, I will release a post today, right? An original post, because I have a responsibility to my business and to the people that I serve, that I could serve to reach them. Right? That's a professional mindset. You do it whether you feel like it or not. There's some days that I don't feel like going live, I don't feel like doing whatever, but I do it because I care, right? So that's the first thing is that they have like, oh, I'll just do it whenever I want mindset and then they complain right when they get sales, whenever the people feel like it. And then the second thing is really, they don't have an offer. Like there's no journey. So okay, I trust you. Now what offer? What do you have for me? Like, people love to spend their money when, when they trust someone, right? That we love to go and buy something that we want. So I feel like people, even if they have no offer in the beginning, I've helped people build that offer because your community will reveal certain things and patterns over time that you could craft the perfect offer for them. And I feel like that mindset, that monetization is bad is why most people, like you said, have big personal brands but ineffective ones and they can't pay the rent.

Okay, let's pause here, but when we come back we're going to answer a very important question. How much should you share and what should you keep private? Just Get Started if you've ever looked for tips on launching a business, just get started seems to come up a lot. And while that's vaguely motivational, it does not provide any real direction. Because the next logical question for anyone would be, well, how do I get started? What specifically should I do? Well, if you're looking to quickly start a business without the confusion, risk and pressure of doing something entirely new, I've got a solution for you. It's called the Solopreneur's Fast Track, a step by step process on how to start a business using the skills you already have and actually enjoy using. So let's say your favorite part of a previous job was email marketing. You'll learn how to start a business offering other companies advice on how they can improve their email marketing. Or maybe you are really good at integrating complicated tech tools. You can help other organizations do the same thing without the need to bring on a full time hire. So the main point here is that everything you need to start a business is already within you. You don't need a cool website or fancy tools. And by completing the course, you'll also discover a simpler approach for attracting clients without using complicated funnels or cheesy sales tactics. You can finish it over a weekend and start making money in as little as 30 days. You'll gain the clarity and confidence you need to start your business and receive a one page business plan so you can immediately apply what you've learned. Get started today and receive a 20% discount by heading to Terryrice Cash. That's Terryrice Co Fast. We're back with Shanae and we just talked about how important it is to share your story. But that brings up another question. How much personal information should you share? Maybe you don't want to make videos of yourself carting a bunch of kids off to school or meeting up with friends for lunch. So where's the line? How can you build your brand but still keep some things private? Let's see what Shanae has to say.

You don't have to share your personal life to build a personal brand. Look at Gary Vee. He barely shares anything about his personal life, right? You barely see his wife, you barely see his children, versus someone like Grant Cardone where he's very open about his personal life. And those are each to each their own, their personal choices, right? But he's visible. The second thing I'd say is that you can grow a personal brand without, like, let's say even for religious reasons. Like, I've helped consult some orthodox, right? And they can't be on camera, so you can leverage video still. It just doesn't have to be a video view, right? If you're totally averse to video at all, then you could leverage text, right? You could leverage images, you could leverage articles. You could leverage just your voice in a podcast. Like, there's different curated experiences that will add up to what is your personal brand. So there are ways around it. And I hope that.

What if I don't feel comfortable doing any of that stuff? I'm like, shanae, look, there's got to be another way. I want to build my personal brand. I want to get rewarded for who I am, not just what I do. I don't be on camera. I'm not a good writer. This is like this, this worst case scenario for you, who's an expert at helping people build their personal brand. What do you do next?

Then I say, you don't want it bad enough, right? Like, I had never done a video before. I posted on LinkedIn and like, the first one, my hands are shaking. And people look at, you know, same with you, Terry. People look at us today and they're like, oh, you're so comfortable on video. Yeah. This is like thousands of videos later, right? This is just a lot of practice. And I'm still not the best. I still get nervous even before lives, even before master classes and even before some zooms and some interviews. But I show up and I do it because I want the desired result of growth. I want to be able to provide for my daughter, my family at a different level, generational wealth level, more than I'm afraid of getting on a video. Right, so. So what do you want more like your desire for change has to overcome your fear for staying the same and until that point, you'll just stay where you are.

Yeah, the truth hurts, but it is what it is. And I think about it this way. Back in the 80s, if you were starting a new brand and wanted to get exposure, but you cannot afford a billboard or a magazine or something, you were somewhat stuck. And I mean, obviously you could make it work, but it was just so much more challenging, especially if you're just starting out now. All we're saying is, hey, grab your phone, say some smart sounding stuff and post it on LinkedIn. You're good to go. And if you don't want to take that opportunity, you're just making it too hard on yourself. That said, I know some people have underlying reasons why this just does not feel right. And I want to acknowledge that. But if that is the case, you may want to bring on a partner or some resource who can effectively become the face of the brand.

Yeah, exactly. And I don't, you know, that's not my expertise with the whole like pushing and stuff. I really just help people that are ready and, you know, the certain type of thing may happen where you become ready. There were a lot of people that put their personal brand off and when the pandemic hit and they needed to reach people virtually online, it became a priority. Right. So until something, the desire for something is so important, you know, usually people just stay the same. But yeah, they're missing out on a huge opportunity.

So let's, let's pivot a bit because some people have a huge brand, but there's just something off. How can you spot people who have a phony brand, meaning the way they portray themselves is not accurate. So maybe they're not making as much money as they claim to be, or they're not mom or dad or the year. How can you spot that just based on your expertise?

You know, I spotted with the. Whether they're doing organic content is big for me. So is it just paid ads, you know, which is fine. You want to mix, you want to put gasoline on the fire. Once you figure out your organic strategy, that's completely fine. But if it's only ads and like they kind of came out of nowhere, then I do my research. You Know, you want to Google their name. You want to see like, did they just pop out of the ether or do they have, you know, some type of history? Like a lot of the people can go to Google and like, they've seen my journey on LinkedIn. This one lady said, like, you've grown up on LinkedIn, like, kind of funny, but, you know, they've seen me and so they've seen the growth and they could kind of track it on Google. But if somebody just pops out of the ether with a story and they're at the top and there's no like third party validation, and that's a little bit odd. You want to check their testimonials. You want to maybe reach out to people who provide the testimonials and who they say are the superstar students. You want to see if you could even contact their team and see if you get a response. Right. They're just, you have to do your research because if not, anything can look pretty just superficially. And don't be afraid to like, ask questions. If they get offended by asking questions, that's usually not the best sign either.

Yeah, that actually happened to me. There's this one guy who DM'd me on LinkedIn or Instagram and is like, hey, Terry, do you want to grow your brand? And I'm like, dude, who are you? And he says, go look at my profile. I've been featured in Entrepreneur magazine. So I asked, well, when specifically have you been featured? And he got offended. And I'm thinking, if you really are a ten digit millionaire, as per your profile, why are you asking me to buy a course that costs 200? There's an intellectual inconsistency there, but I want to pivot yet again. And this is something I struggle with. What is your filter on your personal brand? The way that you portray it on social media. So I'll give you an example. I go to the gym a lot and I'll post a picture or video on Instagram and I'll look for a background song to match it and I'll have a good song in mind. It might be Meek Mill or something like that, but it may be hard to find a part without profanity. So I'm like, I'm filtering these things that probably aren't a big deal, but. But you know, you have people that are following you. Your partners, sponsors. My wife's manager follows me. So, you know, you want to be authentic, but you also have bills to pay. So what's your filter like in regards to your Personal brand and the content that you share.

I do whatever is best for my prospect every single time. So if I feel like my prospect or, you know, my community may get offended by Meek Mill, I'm not going to do it. Right. And for me, it's just about providing the best experience for them digitally possible. And so, you know, if I know, like, okay, so I used for a video the other day that had background music. I know usually the age demographic of my prospects. And, you know, a lot of millennials kind of attract millennials. I work with people like 50 to 65, right. And so I think of my mom, like, what's one of my mom's favorite songs that I also love? Right? And I love Aerosmith. So I put, like, Aerosmith's Dream on, right? And it resonated with so many of people in that demographic and stuff like that. So I think it should be a song that you like. But given the option between a song that you like and it could potentially offend your prospects or make them question you or, you know, just. You don't want to do that. You want to provide the best possible experience for them, but, like, still choose a song that you love. That's how I do the trade.

I mean, Aerosmith is a pretty good trade off. And I get music in this story as a substitute for anything that may turn people off. But before I let you go, I know some people are concerned about growing their brand because of trolls or because that negative feedback that they might receive. What advice would you pass on to them?

Yeah, you know, it happens. You will lose, you know, some followers. I get criticized every day. I still get funny messages, but at the end of the day, I'm hyper focused on the people that I could serve and the lives that I could transform. And everyone else is not top priority for me. And I think that when you strategically build your personal brand, I think that that needs to be at the core. Like, you need to start with who. All right. When you know, like, who you serve, everything becomes clear.

Clarity is the precursor to confidence. So like Shanae said, use that clarity around your target audience and how you help them to confidently move forward and build your brand. And I like how she gave so many options for what moving forward even looks like. You don't hit have to share every minute detail of your personal life. And you don't have to be on camera 24 7. You just need to be visible when people search for you. You want to control the narrative so you can put your best foot forward, but you'll never get a chance of doing that if you let your thoughts and experiences stay trapped inside your head. And if you want to learn more from Shanae, I highly recommend following her on LinkedIn and checking out her Growth Academy community at UGrow Club Club. That's YouGrow Club. Thanks for joining. If you enjoyed this episode, please reach out to her, reach out to me and I'll see you next time. Apply what you've learned on today's show. You'll find the show notes and more resources at Terryrice Co Podcast Again, that's Terryrice Co Podcast and the best way to support this podcast is by subscribing, telling a friend and leaving a review. Also, you can get more tips by following me on Instagram terryrice or follow me on LinkedIn. This episode was produced by Josh Wilcox of Brooklyn Podcasting Studio and edited by Dan Lardy. Special thanks to my wife Dominique for keeping our kids relatively quiet as I recorded. Thanks again for listening. I'll see you next time.