Joyful Business, Aligned Marketing with M. Shannon Hernandez

What if you only marketed your business in ways that actually brought you joy? What if you could ditch the pressure to “be everywhere” and still build a thriving, values-aligned brand?

 In this episode, I’m joined by M. Shannon Hernandez—founder of the Joyful Business Revolution and messaging strategist for purpose-driven entrepreneurs. Shannon brings a refreshing, radically human approach to marketing that centers joy, energy alignment, and sustainable growth.

 We dive into why doing business your way isn’t just a nice idea—it’s a necessity. Shannon shares her signature “one platform, one email” strategy, explains how she built a business that honors seasonal rhythms, and makes a compelling case for ditching marketing “shoulds” once and for all.

 If you’re craving more simplicity, capacity, and joy in how you show up for your business… this episode is your permission slip.

Topics:

• Why joyful marketing is more effective marketing (3:50)
• Her signature “content personality” framework (and how it supports email strategy) (8:27)
• How to define your business seasons—and work with them instead of against them (14:00)
• The real story behind the “M.” in M. Shannon Hernandez (28:28)
• How partial scholarships fuel equity in her business model (24:00)

You can find M. Shannon at:

Website: joyfulbusinessrevolution.com

LinkedIn: mshannonhernandez

Mentioned in the episode:

Is Business Slow? We’ve Been There. Here’s What to Do About It. - Joyful Business Revolution

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Credits:

Intro and Outro Music: Atomic by Alex-Productions |https://onsound.eu/

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Creative Commons / Attribution 3.0 Unported License (CC BY 3.0)

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Jacki Hayes: Hey there. Welcome to, here's what I Learned. I'm Jackie Hayes, assistant strategist, unapologetic S Muddy romantic lover, Dungeons and Dragons Geek, and your no BS guy to building a business that works for you. This is the place where we swap stories, share lessons, and get real about the highs and lows of creating a life and business that actually feels good.

[00:00:28] Jacki Hayes: No cookie cutter advice here, just honest conversations about what's working, what's not, and how to rewrite the rules to fit your version of success. So grab your favorite beverage, get comfy, and let's dive in.

[00:00:47] Jacki Hayes: Alright, welcome back to another episode of Here's What I Learned Today I am talking with em, Shannon Hernandez, who is a messaging and marketing strategist and the founder of Joyful Business Revolution. Shannon and her team specialize in organic, organic marketing strategies that help clients grow aligned audiences, strengthen community connections, and use their profits for purpose.

[00:01:12] Jacki Hayes: Welcome to the show today. Thanks Jackie. It's so good to be here. So I always start off these podcasts with a question, which is, what is something you are learning about lately? 

[00:01:25] M. Shannon Hernandez: I am learning how to sketch with a black pin and no eraser. 

[00:01:31] Jacki Hayes: That is awesome. And also, so for multiple years, I participated in October.

[00:01:36] Jacki Hayes: I don't know if you've heard of it. Yep, yep. Yes. So I, I'm right there with you. I love it. It's, it's that no eraser thing that's kind of, if you're a recovering perfectionist, it's really a good exercise. 

[00:01:49] M. Shannon Hernandez: It's teaching me a lot though, because you do learn that even if you make a mistake, you can turn it into something, so that's good.

[00:01:55] M. Shannon Hernandez: Exactly. Well, and that pertains to business very, very 

[00:01:58] Jacki Hayes: well too. Absolutely. So what does it mean to you when I say doing business your way? 

[00:02:08] M. Shannon Hernandez: That's a, that's a good question. My platform as the founder of Joyful Business Revolution for 13 years has been. Find marketing that brings you joy and let the rest of that shit go.

[00:02:19] M. Shannon Hernandez: Because if it ain't joyful, we're not doing it. So our and my personal philosophy is it's gotta be fun and it's gotta bring joy. And as long as those two things happen, usually you can. Have a lot of fun with it and get results. 'cause your energy's right to begin with. Right, right. So joy, joy is my answer.

[00:02:40] M. Shannon Hernandez: That's, that's what we've built this brand on and, and really what I've built my brand on. Doing business. Your own way in marketing is personal. Right? You may like podcasts. I may like long form blog posts. It's all gonna be okay.

[00:02:58] Jacki Hayes: I love that. And it's so in contradiction to what we hear out there, which is you have to post so many times a day on Instagram and you have to set aside 20 minutes a day to engage on Instagram. And then you need to repurpose it on all the platforms. You have to use all the platforms. 'cause you gotta be everywhere.

[00:03:15] Jacki Hayes: It doesn't matter what your capacity is. It doesn't matter if it doesn't bring you joy. So where, how did you come to that like. Because it's so hard to escape what you hear out there and create something that sparks joy when it comes to marketing. 

[00:03:33] M. Shannon Hernandez: Yeah. Well, it's a long answer of how I came to it, but I've been here for about 10 years now and I can tell you what we teach is what I follow, and it may not be for everyone and that's fine, but we teach, get on one platform that you really enjoy.

[00:03:53] M. Shannon Hernandez: Use your email and that's it. Let the rest go. 'cause you can't be in all the places doing all things anyway. And if you're not growing your email list, you're letting other people control if the platform stays there, if your business stays there. Right? So we solve that issue and I just think it's really important that people understand we're in the business here of, of humans.

[00:04:18] M. Shannon Hernandez: We all are the business of being human and humans don't. Do things just to do them. We do things that we actually care about or we should be, that at least is my philosophy, right? And so that's what we teach one platform. One social platform you enjoy One email a week that you send to your, we call it an email community and let the rest go and just like go live your life and have fun and let your work speak for itself.

[00:04:46] M. Shannon Hernandez: Do good work in the world. Help people solve real problems that they have. And that's, it is very different than what is preached. How did I get there? I used to do what was preached. Shit was not joyful. Right. And I had a lot of success doing that. I'm not gonna lie, right? Like I was on Instagram, I was on Facebook, I was on LinkedIn.

[00:05:10] M. Shannon Hernandez: I was doing the live launch model when live Launch came out. And I was doing the Jeff Walker model when that, like I've been around the block a few times, right? But at the end of the day, my capacity, I did not have capacity for that. And. I didn't go into business to be a marketer. I went into business to help people with their marketing there.

[00:05:32] M. Shannon Hernandez: There's a difference, right? And even though I love it. I also wanted to live a life outside of business, which is why I built my business to begin with. 

[00:05:42] Jacki Hayes: I think there's a couple of things you said in there like, well, more than a couple of things that I wanna follow up with. First one that you mentioned was the email list, like pick a social media platform or other venue and your email list.

[00:05:56] Jacki Hayes: And I try to avoid using should when I talk about. Giving advice to folks about running a business, but the one should that I keep is have an email list. I know that there are people out there who struggle with writing, like they're more inclined to do video, or, which I am not. So I've had people, friends, colleagues say, I just struggle with an email list sending something out because I don't like to write, or I just don't know what to say.

[00:06:25] Jacki Hayes: When you are talking to your clients. If they have that resistance, what do you say? What kind of advice do you give? 

[00:06:32] M. Shannon Hernandez: Yeah. Well, one, it's normal, so let's just normalize it for everyone and not make people feel bad, which is great. That's another really great thing, right? Years ago, about nine years ago now, I came out with body work called the Content Personality Quiz.

[00:06:48] M. Shannon Hernandez: This quiz helps you understand. Within eight questions, what your content personality is. So there's written audio, visual, those are our lovely graphics people, video and then live in person. I'm live in person, so what's it mean? I will only do interviews here where I get to see people live and feel like I'm in a room in a conversation with them, right?

[00:07:14] M. Shannon Hernandez: I love to go networking. At capacity, like I gotta have the capacity, but when I build it into my schedule, I'll go and I'll shine in those spaces. Okay? So how does somebody that's live in person make email work for them? Because really email is for the written content personality at the end of the day, but yet everyone should be doing email, right?

[00:07:34] M. Shannon Hernandez: So this is not a new problem that I haven't had to solve for thousands of people around the US and Canada, which are our clients. So we call it choose your own adventure. And it's back to this joy, having fun with your marketing, choosing something that brings you joy. And for the video people, for your example, the video people, their best tactic is to get on video, do their thing, whether it's live video or recorded video or whatever.

[00:08:00] M. Shannon Hernandez: And their email should be a short thing about the video and point people to the video because their energy shines in the video. Right? And unfortunately, we don't have capabilities yet in email where you can send a video. To an inbox. It just doesn't happen. But if your podcast is important to you, you're talking about your podcast and you're sending them off to listen to it.

[00:08:23] M. Shannon Hernandez: If you're live in person like me, I often go live. On LinkedIn or in the past it was Facebook, but I've recently transitioned everything to LinkedIn. I'll, I'll mention the things and then send people to the live to feel the energy of it. So I promise there is a way for everyone to make your email marketing work for you, and if you haven't found it yet, we need to find it because your business depends on you keeping things safe and secure with email.

[00:08:54] M. Shannon Hernandez: That's all I'm gonna say, Jackie. 'cause I could be on this soapbox for five days. 

[00:09:01] Jacki Hayes: But what I love is what you're pointing out is like do the thing that where you shine. Mm-hmm. Still do that. And your email list doesn't have to be an 800 word. Email, it can literally be a little synopsis of what the video is about and a link over to the video that is, I think, so much more doable for folks that are not the written type of people.

[00:09:23] Jacki Hayes: And it gives them permission to, just like your email list doesn't have to be this huge, huge thing. It can be the thing that you love and you're just pointing people to it. 

[00:09:31] M. Shannon Hernandez: And the other thing I think people have to remember is just because you like video doesn't mean. Other people like video, so if they're never over on YouTube or wherever you're housing your videos, they're never gonna know you exist.

[00:09:44] M. Shannon Hernandez: But if they sign up for your email, they can at least read what they want, watch what they want. That's the beautiful thing about email is it's all permission based. I can get emails from you if I want, and if I get sick of your emails, I can come off and then I can come back again when I'm ready. I love it.

[00:10:01] M. Shannon Hernandez: This is why I say email marketing is my love language. 

[00:10:04] Jacki Hayes: Yeah, I love it. I absolutely love it. And I really feel like with email marketing, you are building a relationship because people actively chose. To let you into their inbox, and if they stick around, they're letting you in their inbox on a regular basis.

[00:10:18] Jacki Hayes: And I've made some of the best connections with the people who are on my email list or the people who I'm on their email list. 

[00:10:26] M. Shannon Hernandez: Yes, absolutely. And that's one thing that I think is really important that isn't shared enough. One of the things that I teach here is email is marketing, when done right is a two-way tool.

[00:10:37] M. Shannon Hernandez: It opens the conversation. So Jackie, I'm sure you've hit reply to something and the person hopefully has answered you. And when people hit reply about something you wrote, and that's just such a. A beautiful thing about email that a lot of people forget because they teach, they, they treat it as a broadcast and not a relationship builder.

[00:10:59] M. Shannon Hernandez: Right? 

[00:11:00] Jacki Hayes: Yeah, that's a great way to reframe it. I just had somebody re. Apply to my email. She and I are in a live networking group, so I already had a relationship with her, and I had mentioned something about hiking and she responded. It had nothing to do, like the, the hiking was an analogy for my offer, but she responded with this like random suggestion for a product that she thought would be helpful, but that's such a relationship thing.

[00:11:26] Jacki Hayes: It's not this transactional thing. It's like, hey. Did you know about this? It's been like life changing for me and I loved it. So yes, I love that relationship. Yeah. So the other thing that you mentioned a while back was that you built your business for the time freedom to have things, capacity out there for other things.

[00:11:45] Jacki Hayes: And a lot of the people who are listening to this podcast are the same, and I love how you reminded them that. By stepping back and only doing the things that bring them joy. It gives them the capacity to do all those other things. I think that is something they tend to forget. 

[00:12:01] M. Shannon Hernandez: Yeah, it's really about simplifying, but doing it really well.

[00:12:05] M. Shannon Hernandez: The couple of things you're gonna do, do it really well. And I would also say like I'm not immune to like the economy and the slow seasons like. Those are natural business things that I also think we should normalize talking about. 'cause we're all not built either to just do this upward trajectory, nonstop of growth it you would implode.

[00:12:28] M. Shannon Hernandez: So I think it's really important to recognize we're gonna have these times where we're in a busier season or a slower season, and not make ourselves wrong for that. But also what are we doing in the slower season? To fill our own cups. So when it's in the busy season, we aren't feeling bad about spending more time in the business.

[00:12:48] M. Shannon Hernandez: 'cause I've been in business 13 years and I have a very predictable business. But what it means is it also is predictable in its seasons of business, right? So fall is huge. I'm out speaking usually fall and spring. I'm on a speaking tour somewhere, right? Which means. In summer and winter, I'm like laying, kind of laying low, building visibility with podcasts and and things like that.

[00:13:18] M. Shannon Hernandez: Letting ideas germinate in my mind that I haven't had time to think about and looking at clouds and making snowmen, and I'm fine with it because that's why most of us went into business was to be. Able to do all the things we wanna do, not just work nonstop. At least that's why I went into business for myself.

[00:13:40] M. Shannon Hernandez: Yeah. I 

[00:13:42] Jacki Hayes: know one of the inclinations folks have is that when business is slow, they tell themselves, oh, I'm not. I'm not in enough places. How do you help your clients when they have that, those thoughts? 

[00:13:58] M. Shannon Hernandez: Well. That is wrapped up in a lot of things. Okay. In, in my opinion, and I just wrote a blog post, Jackie, on this called, when Business Is Slow, what should you be doing?

[00:14:12] M. Shannon Hernandez: So we can attach it if you want, if you have notes or whatever, there'll definitely be a link. Yes. Yeah. So I'll get the link for you. But what I wanna share is like, first of all, slow sometimes is what we've. We can only say things are slow if we also know what's fast. And part of that is just knowing the difference between fast and slow in your own business, in your own revenue growth, like those kinds of things.

[00:14:37] M. Shannon Hernandez: And knowing that that cycle is is pretty standard. Like it's normal, right? When business is slow. That's the opportunity that I can take to do some things that maybe I couldn't do in the past. Right? So when I'm in full on speaking mode and I'm speaking and people are coming in and there's clients and then we're onboarding, and then we're working with them and getting their marketing strategy and their email strategy and all that stuff, like it's a very busy season, right?

[00:15:04] M. Shannon Hernandez: I can't. I don't have the capacity, the desire, or the bandwidth to be updating my website copy or building new relationships with people. As much as I love people, I only have so much capacity at any given time, right? So what I've learned in this business is I'm going to do different things in different seasons, and I'm gonna define a slow season as maybe it looks slow on the outside, but on the inside of me and on the inside of the business, there's things happening.

[00:15:34] M. Shannon Hernandez: We're updating website copy, or I am taking time to reflect on why the thing didn't work like I thought it would work when I went to sell the thing. Right? So it's a hard question because underneath all of that, which is the logical, is the the conditioning of if it's slow, it's not working. If it's slow, I'm gonna run outta money.

[00:15:59] M. Shannon Hernandez: If it's slow, doesn't mean I'm a failure. There's a lot in that question, right? On many levels. So it's an interesting concept to really decondition yourself around fast and slow and go for, I learned this a long time ago. I go for this predictable energy level that isn't like an up. A dip, but it's just like even keel, like a, a road out in a flat country just like goes, how can I have that every day in my business regardless of what's going on?

[00:16:36] M. Shannon Hernandez: Because at the end of the day, the energy of it is actually what matters most. 

[00:16:42] Jacki Hayes: Yeah, I think we tend to forget that everything has seasons. Like no matter what, everything has seasons. And I'm a fairly active person, have done a lot of sports and sometimes some of those sports we just go all out all the time and it's like, wait a minute.

[00:16:57] Jacki Hayes: If folks were, if you were a professional athlete or in high school or whatever, you have seasons. If you're a football player, you have seasons, you play for a season, and then there's the season of building a foundation of strength or speed or things along those lines, and that's how they get better at their sport.

[00:17:14] Jacki Hayes: Why not consider it the same thing with your business? Because yeah, those slow times, that's a great time where I say to look at your systems like you're onboarding. If you keep having the same problem during that slow season. That's the time you can spend fixing that problem. You're working on the business.

[00:17:30] Jacki Hayes: Yeah. 

[00:17:31] M. Shannon Hernandez: The other thing I wanna say, 'cause this is a fun thing about seasons, I hiked the Camino de Santiago, which is a spiritual path across a few countries across Europe. But I went in October and I walked a hundred miles in 10 days, and I have a practice of hiking or walking with a question. And so the question I went in with was.

[00:17:53] M. Shannon Hernandez: How do I take this beautiful business that I've built and align it with the seasons? And for me, what I meant just because this is, I, I believe nature's our greatest teacher and man, she got a lot of shit figured out, right? I really, really do believe this. So in the northern Hemisphere, and I live in New York.

[00:18:15] M. Shannon Hernandez: I have four seasons, four very clear seasons. So for me it was how can I get this business aligned with the four very clear seasons that I'm attuned to and I live with every single year, day, year in and year out. And Jackie, I thought this question would take me like. The whole 10 days to figure out. But something beautiful happened within about three hours.

[00:18:36] M. Shannon Hernandez: 'cause there was no noise and no input and it just like sank right in. And I had the answer. And so I came back and I started thinking of my business business in terms of seasons. So we got rid of all the quarters. We don't even talk about quarters anymore. And some arbitrary, arbitrary, capitalistic thing.

[00:18:53] M. Shannon Hernandez: Anyway, that doesn't apply to most of us. Alright, so that was the first thing is, okay, now it's season. Spring season, summer season, fall. But then I started really thinking about what, what does summer mean, for example, right? What does, if it's not a slow or fast season, what the hell is it and what should actually be happening in this season?

[00:19:14] M. Shannon Hernandez: And it's opened up so many beautiful conversations. I've done a lot of content around this. People are saying. Wow. I wanna work with her. She understands that business has seasons and that I don't have to be a little robot, that that's on all the time. And so really understanding that our energy is the most important capital that we have at the end of the day, right?

[00:19:38] M. Shannon Hernandez: So it's a beautiful question of slow and fast. And I'm gonna give you the, the blog post so that you can attach it. But beyond that, I think everyone should think about their seasons of energy and their seasons of business and what they need in order to be at like peak performance when it's your high season.

[00:19:57] M. Shannon Hernandez: It makes sense to my brain. 

[00:19:59] Jacki Hayes: Yeah. It's always made sense to me as well to go with the seasons of nature and I'm, I'm in the Midwest, so we have the four distinct ones too. And I can tell you right now, in the winter, it is extremely hard for me to come up with new ideas, to have a whole bunch of energy, to want to do anything that requires innovation.

[00:20:15] Jacki Hayes: But as soon as the weather starts turning, my brain is on fire with new ideas. So why am I trying to force. The steady stream when I could take advantage of those seasons. 

[00:20:28] M. Shannon Hernandez: Absolutely. And isn't that joyful for those of us that actually wanna connect with the seasons? I mean, this was the first year that I actually kind of went into hibernation mode from December 20.

[00:20:44] M. Shannon Hernandez: Through about March now, it doesn't mean I wasn't doing anything. I have a business to run, right, and a team to pay, but it looked a lot different. I did not do any planning. I didn't even start thinking about the new year, quote unquote, until March 21st, when it actually became spring on the calendar, and I felt so rested, Jackie.

[00:21:06] M. Shannon Hernandez: I was like a new person, but. That's not really what we're inundated with. Everyone starts talking about the new year and setting your goals and hitting the ground running in October when you haven't even harvested the seeds that you've been planting and working on for the whole since spring. It makes no sense to me now that I'm like on the other side.

[00:21:27] Jacki Hayes: Yeah, I started that practice of like my intentions for the quote unquote new year. They didn't make sense to do 'em on January 1st. 'cause my brain wasn't there. But if I could, I set 'em, like talk about 'em, set 'em, let 'em percolate in my brain a little bit. But I don't put them into place until March because it, there's just no point in my brain for me to do that because it's, I'm not gonna make any traction anyway, so.

[00:21:49] Jacki Hayes: Exactly. Exactly. So one of the things that was in your bio was profit for purpose, and I would love to know more about what that means for you. 

[00:21:59] M. Shannon Hernandez: Hmm, that's a good question. So I'll tell you what it looks like now versus what it looks like when I started. 'cause I always like to tell the truth of the evolution, right?

[00:22:09] M. Shannon Hernandez: So profit for purpose. What it looks like now is every single sale that comes in through this brand, I allocate a percentage to be put aside. And that money that's put apo aside, is split into two distinct purposes, right? So 25% of the money that's put aside goes towards organizations that I think are doing amazing work in the world, and I'm able to give to those organizations with business profit.

[00:22:39] M. Shannon Hernandez: All right. 75% stay in what we call our Joy fund, and it's our scholarship fund for people who want to work with us, but they need partial scholarship help. They need to get some help. Maybe their business isn't quite at the level that they want it to be at and they can't pay full price. We offer a certain number of scholarships every year, and so it, it feels really good because I'm able to.

[00:23:07] M. Shannon Hernandez: Help people and the people who are paying for our help, we're helping other people. And then we're also helping give scholarships. So it feels like this beautiful ecosystem of, of generosity and, and give back. And also does not put me out of business. 'cause I'm like everyone else at the end of the day and I have bills to pay.

[00:23:26] Jacki Hayes: I know, I know. I love that idea of when folks do use some of their profits to help others. That means if I hire them, then I am, like you said, I am helping too. I'm curious. I have heard a lot of folks say not to give scholarships because the people who get scholarships aren't going to put in the work.

[00:23:46] Jacki Hayes: They're not gonna take it as seriously. Obviously, that is not the case in your experience. Otherwise you wouldn't still be doing scholarships. 

[00:23:54] M. Shannon Hernandez: Yeah. Well, I think maybe the clarity point there is we don't do full scholarships because I do believe paying people pay attention. I know when I pay for something versus when it's free, I make sure I'm there and doing the work.

[00:24:10] M. Shannon Hernandez: Right. I'm, that's how we're wired as human beings. So in 2024, we gave away $86,000 in partial scholarships. Right. All of those people are still with us, still doing the good work of growing their business the way that brings them, joy still reaching their people, and that feels really good, but. It was a partial scholarship, so they still have to show up and make the rest of the payment, whatever that came out to be.

[00:24:45] M. Shannon Hernandez: But also, we have a long conversation, like we screen people and we build relationships with people, right? Whether you get a scholarship or not, we're in the relationship building business, and so we make sure there's a values alignment. We make sure. You have a mission that's bigger than yourself and that you're really here to do important work in the world and that you believe in your work and that your work makes a better place, the world a better place.

[00:25:10] M. Shannon Hernandez: And so had I offered full scholarships, I may have a very different opinion. Because it's a very different energy, right? Had we just willy-nilly offered partial scholarships and anyone could join 'em? No. You have to sign a contract that says if you come out of your contract during this partial scholarship period, you have to pay back the amount of the partial scholarship you took so we can give it to somebody else.

[00:25:34] M. Shannon Hernandez: Right? So I think it's dependent upon how you're setting those agreements up and your intention about them. 

[00:25:42] Jacki Hayes: Yeah, I love all of those tips, especially for anybody who is considering doing scholarships of some sort. I think those are really great things that they can take away from this conversation.

[00:25:51] Jacki Hayes: Before we sign off, there was something we talked a little bit about. I was asking how to introduce you, and so now I'm intrigued because you said there's a good story there. So I asked if you wanted to be introduced as m Shannon or as Shannon. So what is the story behind all that? 

[00:26:06] M. Shannon Hernandez: Yeah, well there's a couple layers here.

[00:26:09] M. Shannon Hernandez: So my ma, my born name, my birth name is Mary Shannon Hernandez, but my parents always called me by my middle name. Well, growing up that created a lot of problems because, well, all the teachers of course, only print your first name, so you never know who the hell they're talking about when they call out Mary, 'cause that wasn't my name, right?

[00:26:32] M. Shannon Hernandez: So I always say, if you have children, don't call 'em by their middle name. It gives them identity crisis. Social security gets all screwed up. Your everything gets screwed up when you do this. So just call people the name that you wanna call them and make sure it's their first name. All right. Then when I left teaching, 'cause I used to be a teacher and a college professor, and I knew I was gonna go into business for myself and I knew I was going to become an author.

[00:26:57] M. Shannon Hernandez: I went and googled Shannon Hernandez, that was my name, right? And what I saw was two very different things. One, lots of women in orange jumpsuits in prison shots. I was like, whoa, I do not want to be confused with any of these people. Alright. I didn't even know the possibility of actually having that many Shannon Hernandez's because Hernandez's married name.

[00:27:26] M. Shannon Hernandez: So it doesn't really go with the Irish name. I know it doesn't. Right. But there's a lot of 'em out there and there's a lot of them in orange jumpsuits. Alright. The other thing is, when I hit the business scene 13 years ago, there was a man, he's still around, his website was Shannon j. Hernandez and he had a very popular YouTube show at the time called Hanman, the Hanman Show.

[00:27:50] M. Shannon Hernandez: And so people were constantly getting, they would just tag the wrong Shannon Hernandez. His was Shannon j Hernandez, and mine was m Shannon Hernandez. And they weren't paying attention. Um, and so I was like, forget this. I need to build a brand for myself, for my speaking career, my author career, my business career, all of it.

[00:28:12] M. Shannon Hernandez: And so I took on at that time and it has now become legal because I couldn't keep them all straight M Shannon Hernandez, and it was probably one of the best. Strategic branding moves I made that I didn't know was a good move at the time because one, everyone asks why two? It's very, people are like, yeah, she's the M something.

[00:28:35] M. Shannon Hernandez: And they're like, yeah, M Shannon. Like it just sticks. People don't forget it. 

[00:28:39] Jacki Hayes: Nope. Don't we really don't. 

[00:28:42] M. Shannon Hernandez: And side note, all those robots that like hit you up on LinkedIn now. Oh god. Yes. I know them. I know when they're a robot because their little robot thing says, hi Mdot, and I'm like, yep. I don't even have to answer to this person because it's filling in based on the first word, and their little robot brain thinks that Mdot is a name.

[00:29:08] M. Shannon Hernandez: So it's served me very well. 

[00:29:11] Jacki Hayes: Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of those robots. That's a great way of picking 'em out. I had one that was like, Hey, we're both in very into fantasy football, and I'm like. What, 

[00:29:21] M. Shannon Hernandez: you know what? This week Jackie, I answered a robot. It was the first time I was like, I'm just gonna answer this robot.

[00:29:28] M. Shannon Hernandez: I knew it was a robot and then the robot first said, hi em, I could see that you could use some help getting clients in your blah blah, blah. And that shit just pisses me off as a, a marketing messaging person. 'cause they don't know me from Adam, right? So I answered the robot and I said. I'm wondering why you think I need clients.

[00:29:49] M. Shannon Hernandez: You haven't asked one question about my business. The next day, the robot answered with the second message in the sequence that had been pre-written that had nothing to do with my answer. Oh, I'm so glad you answered download. 

[00:30:04] Jacki Hayes: There's a point at which automation just doesn't make any sense. 

[00:30:08] M. Shannon Hernandez: Yes. On that note, which we can't talk about right now, but let me just tell everyone, if you're in the business of being a thought leader and like leading people with your intellectual property and, and, and being thoughtful, please don't use AI for your messaging.

[00:30:22] M. Shannon Hernandez: 'cause that ain't thought leadership. But that Jackie, that's a whole nother canon worm. Yes. 

[00:30:28] Jacki Hayes: It's. Where can the listeners find you? Obviously LinkedIn. Where? I'm gonna guess it's m Shannon Hernandez right there on LinkedIn. Is there other places you would like to point them? 

[00:30:40] M. Shannon Hernandez: You can find me@joyfulbusinessrevolution.com.

[00:30:44] M. Shannon Hernandez: Jackie will also put the what to do if your business is slow link and we have. Such well researched, thoughtful, long form blog posts for you to dive into. So spend some time there and you can always come tell me hello over on LinkedIn. I love when people are not a robot and they actually come say hi when they connect with you.

[00:31:07] Jacki Hayes: Thanks so much for being here today. 

[00:31:09] M. Shannon Hernandez: Okay, thank you Jackie.

[00:31:15] Jacki Hayes: Thanks for hanging out with me on. Here's what I learned. If today's episode gave you an aha moment, a laugh, or something to think about, make sure you're subscribed to my email list. That's where I share even more tips, stories and behind the scenes insights to help you simplify and thrive. And remember, you get to do business and life your way.

[00:31:33] Jacki Hayes: Until next time, keep experimenting, keep simplifying, and keep learning.