Ep 48: Trust Series w/ Shannon Tarrant - How to Create A Standout Brand!

Are you ready to carve out a niche that not only defines but elevates your entrepreneurial journey to new heights?

You're invited to an enlightening dialogue with Shannon Tarrant, a luminary in the event industry who transformed her expertise in corporate catering into groundbreaking entrepreneurship.  As the mastermind behind Wedding Venue Map, Venue Help Desk, and the co-host of The Wedding Sassholes, Shannon doesn't just share her journey; she lays out the blueprint for conquering the challenges of starting your own venture.

In This Episode, You'll Discover:

• The Power of Specialization: Why zeroing in on a niche can be your strongest strategy in achieving market dominance.
• SWOT Analysis Simplified: A straightforward approach to utilizing SWOT analysis for business enhancement and personal growth.
• The Essence of Authenticity: How embracing your true self can revolutionize your brand and attract a loyal customer base.
  
  

Join Shannon and Nikisha on this entrepreneurial journey, and have a great time shifting your mindset.

How to Connect with Shannon Tarrant:

• www.shannontarrant.com
• On Instagram
• On Facebook
• On Podcast - The Wedding Sassholes

If today’s episode sparked a new perspective for you, don’t stop here!

Head to our resources page by Clicking Here.

You'll find exclusive FREE resources to help you streamline your business, charge what you're worth, and finally work smarter, not harder.

Let’s make 2025 your most profitable year yet!

Chapters

• 0:00 Empowering Event Professionals With Shannon Tarrant
• 14:00 Entrepreneurship Tips and Insights
• 23:03 Embracing Authenticity in Business
• 26:43 Building Trust in Entrepreneurship
• 38:15 Exclusive One-to-One Coaching Opportunity

Transcript

Nikisha: 0:00

Welcome to NK Production Leading Her Way podcast, where we see the human, evolving and resilient spirit in you. I'm your host, Nikisha, and in the trust areas, I am thrilled to welcome Shannon Tarrant, the dynamic founder of weddingvenumapcom, venuehelpdeskcom and the wedding Sass Holes podcast. And you heard that right, sass Holes. Shannon is an ordinary woman. She's an amazing human being on a mission to empower event professionals with a proven system for success. Shannon blends her go-getter spirit with invaluable expertise as a speaker, coach and entrepreneur, known for her straightforward advice and actionable tips. Shannon is here to do more than just inspire. She's here to transform your approach to business.

Nikisha: 0:50

Now, in today's episode, you'll learn about Shannon and how she decided to go from corporate catering to being an entrepreneur for three successful businesses, all while being uncomfortable and having self-doubt, and embracing her straightforward mannerism and doing things in her authentic self. This is an episode you don't want to miss, so join us as we dive into episode 48 with Shannon Tarrant. Hello everyone, welcome to Leading Her Way podcast, and today I'm excited I have Shannon Tarrant with me, who is an amazing woman in the event industry world. She has something called I think it's called venue mapping. What?

Shannon Tarrant: 2:01

do you mean?

Nikisha: 2:02

venue map. I think venue map. I'm going to let her share a little bit more about what she does, how she serves our event industry, and that's where we know each other from. But what I really fell in love with is her how can I say it? She's not her they say Jenna Sehkwa but her very much way of telling it how it is, and she doesn't do it in a negative way. She expresses it and then helps you be better in what you're doing and I think that, for me, said a lot. It spoke volumes. So, Shannon, welcome. Thank you so much for joining me on my podcast and I look forward to carrying all the things you have to say and enjoying my time with you. So, if you can introduce yourself to our community a little bit and let them know who you are, what you do and how amazing you are.

Shannon Tarrant: 2:51

I'm so excited to be here. My name is Shannon, like Nikisha said, and I have been in the wedding and event industry for the last 20 years. My entire career pretty much start to finish and transported from catering to venue management, and now I own two companies on my own. I own a local directory that's a wedding venue search engine in the Orlando area called Wedding Venue Map, and also along with that, we do a lot of coaching and consulting and working with venues across the country under our new brand, venue Help Desk. So I kind of live in the, do a lot of speaking, podcasting, have my own podcast and all kinds of exciting ways where we can help local businesses and businesses really become a powerhouse in their own market.

Nikisha: 3:39

I love that you are in the world helping your other venue colleagues and professionals in getting their venue established for events, helping them learn the trade, because you've been doing it for 20 plus years and being part of the trust series. This is where I have so much fun, because I know this didn't happen by accident. You weren't born with this in Luke Like this, is it right? You had to go through some things to get here and you had to trust yourself to get two businesses One tech, because that's how I see the search engine role, and then the one in coaching. And you came from catering. If you can, let us know a little bit of catering, what you did and what brought you to the search engine. Like how did you make this leap?

Shannon Tarrant: 4:27

Yeah, I mean I think long story short started my career in the food and beverage world in college just working in restaurants and kind of dabbled a little bit when our restaurant did some catered parties and catered events and moved into an offsite catering role first. So I worked for a local catering company. But what I love most about that job besides the food because I love food, I'm total foodie but I love being able to jump in and out of all the different venues. So as an offsite caterer you get to work in multiple spaces and multiple types and like kind of learning how to manipulate all of the areas and floor plans and getting creative with menus. So it allowed a little bit more of my creativity and then shifting from catering into managing a venue on its own. It was really just the shift of being in one place instead of jumping in all the places. But I really like the long story short is I really just got sick of working with couples getting married.

Shannon Tarrant: 5:22

Like I burned out. It was 10 years, my venue was high volume, we did 150 weddings a year, so we cranked through weddings and I just lost. I'm a systems based person, so we had systemized it all, but I just I felt like I don't know. It was rinse, wash, repeat. I just felt like nobody was really hearing it anymore. The more information became apparent, the harder it got, and I love the world of digital marketing as it had evolved through the years.

Shannon Tarrant: 5:51

You know, when I started my career, we didn't have websites, even but, years is not that long ago, guys but I fell in love with digital marketing and being able to utilize search engine optimization and website and user experience on websites and social media to really develop leads, and just found the industry was relying on me to help them a lot in our local market and so. I kind of shifted over and into that role instead.

Nikisha: 6:19

Now the shift that you had into wedding venue, matt, right, it's not a small fee. It's not like you just you know that. Like it's not that. No, it's not that, because when we go on search engines, like there's so many different search engines, there's a lot behind it. Yeah, and when you had to just transition from doing catering in one location because you went from many to one and a search engine tech, yep, what was the force behind you? Like, how did you know you were capable of that? Did you even know? Or you just had to keep proving it to yourself because you just kept doing things?

Shannon Tarrant: 6:58

It's a great question. I mean, I knew I had the knowledge to be able to do it. That wasn't the issue. But you know, which is why I loved when you asked me to be part of the trust series, because I knew I could do it, because of the trust of the community that I had already built. And so, having built a Local massive networking community within our market, knowing that I was going to shift, and I'd already built trust in them because I was always a giver and a helper and a share of Information, when I learned how to do something I geek out and be like, oh, let me show you how to do it and kind of go through.

Shannon Tarrant: 7:31

But I had already built so much trust that when I stepped into the tech role, you know, the hardest piece was making sure I had enough money behind me to be able to really build the website of my dreams, which I knew was gonna be like a 20 to 30 thousand dollar site. But it was the community who I said I'm gonna do this thing, not really sure where it's gonna go, but will you invest in it? In the first year, and we pre sold a hundred memberships when there was nothing done, nothing live, but it was all I knew. I had that behind me, and so having the trust of my community before I wanted to launch something new was Really like the push for success. I knew I could do it because they were behind me.

Nikisha: 8:11

I love that you brought that up, because in the last episode I speak about that. I speak about when we are not confident in what we do. When we don't trust ourselves, sometimes it's from external places. Sometimes, when someone doubts you or speaks negative about what you're capable of doing, that diminishes your trust. And right now you're saying you had that, yeah, we're giving, you were a giver and your community knew that, so they knew that you were about to build something. They trusted you, yeah, which then was like a like how they lend you their belief that's what it was. They practically was like lending you we believe in you, and then that helped you build. Okay, I can do this because you knew you were capable, yeah. But now you had them trusting you, investing in you, to now take it into fruition, which I think is such a valid thing. When it comes to trust, sometimes you need people who are rallying for you, and Very much. That's not always easy now and it's not.

Shannon Tarrant: 9:08

You know, I think that I One of the things is any type of whether you work for someone else or own your own business, you have to have that board of directors for yourself as a person. Not so much, you know, does my business have a CEO and a CEO and any of that. It's really that, my personal board of directors, that will support me. You know, not just yes, ma'am me, and not just say yeah, that's a great idea, like pushback, ask me questions.

Shannon Tarrant: 9:37

I mean the first 30 days of me coming up with the idea for it, that board of directors I don't even know how they put up with. I mean I was calling them all five, ten times a day, being like what about this and what do you think of this and what? Because I am a verbal, like I have to get it out of my mouth for my brain to process it and it doesn't work trying to explain it to myself. So I needed people to bounce, I didn't even. Sometimes I would say something to be like wait, I got it, I got it. Goodbye, and like, but I think I had already, you know, realized it in my career and my personal life and whatever if I ever was going to be an Entrepreneur, I needed to have that personal board of directors behind me.

Nikisha: 10:17

I love that. I love how you even frame it in that way, right, because sometimes we think our friends are that for us and I don't. I don't always agree with that, because your friends love you, yes, especially if they've been around you for years. But there's some time can be some conscious stuff when you're doing stuff that somebody's a little bit envious of you. But when it comes to your board of advisors or directors right, these are people who may be in business, know things right, and they just might have a different point of view. They don't have envy because they're totally like rooting for you and they're willing to get five, ten calls a day from you answering the question yourself, right. So it it's something that when you even say that, like, I hope the person listening got that because that was a different way of looking at it.

Shannon Tarrant: 11:05

Yeah, it really is part of that success and I had the trust in them To know that they really did have my best interest. So when they disagreed with me, I didn't get defensive. I really had the opportunity to listen. And you know, you don't realize that maybe you've been collecting these people for a long time and you don't talk to them all the time and you don't, but when you're ready to push the next thing or push to the next level in Whatever, it's time to like gather the troops.

Shannon Tarrant: 11:33

Remembering together so that you they, like you suggest, had mentioned that they really kind of help push you and lift you and build that confidence when you know you might need, you might need the reinforcement.

Nikisha: 11:46

So good, so good. Now Let me ask you this you're in the venue, you were all, and it's because you had catering. You're kind of there from the beginning. Yeah, even in doing the search engine, did you know you wanted to keep it niche to venues, or at one point where you struggling to go, no, stay niche, but you want to make it bigger, like?

Shannon Tarrant: 12:05

How did you know? Tell me? That's a great question and one of the biggest mistakes I've made within my company and I, you know I had so much support. And venue is really like where my sweet spot is, it's where my passion is, it's my knowledge base, like I know, I can move the needle really fast when it comes to venues. But my network convinced me otherwise and was like no, but vendors to and vendors to, and what about us?

Shannon Tarrant: 12:33

And at the time I was making financial decisions in terms of do I have enough money right in that space without including the vendors in the business? And I Didn't. And so I made choices. Instead of overly niching, I mean, we stayed in one space. We're only in the wedding industry. We didn't go past that piece. But, hindsight being 20 20, if I could go back today, I never would have had vendors be a part of it in any way, because we do have a vendor community and I love them to death and I support them. But we've had to create all these ancillary products and support For the vendor side of the world. Because I made that as a financial choice and I think that's one of the biggest mistakes People make when they don't have a niche is because they're afraid about losing the money. They're afraid about losing the opportunity for a sale by not niching down.

Shannon Tarrant: 13:25

And you know, eight years later I mean literally two years later, I was like, damn, I shouldn't have done that, like two years, and I was like, oh, I should have had enough faith in myself to do it with a Venue. But I think that I didn't trust my gut. I wasn't so sure at that point because I was in like brand-new launch and yeah, I mean I think looking back at it now, that's why, with venue help desk as much as I speak all over the country in every category, and it doesn't really make a difference when it comes to like who I coach and who I work with. I only work with venues because I have learned.

Nikisha: 14:00

You have learned. I was about to ask you how did you Update that mistake and that's how you did it with the venue help desk. Now you focus entirely on venues and, just for anyone listening, when she says vendors, that's people in the wedding industry, but they don't have venues, so it could be a stationer, like our company. It could be a photographer, so she opened up her search engine for them as well. But, like you said, when you do add more people to the pot, you got to not add different types of products and services. So what stretches you thin? Yeah, other words, right. I love that you shared that, because when I started out and it's a thing and what I think it comes back to trust when I started out, I didn't trust myself. Yeah, earn revenue with just niching down. Everyone was like I think there's certain things. When I started in 2009, they would speak about what's your unique selling point or, yeah, you know market or what, all these good things. And I was like I don't know. At first I didn't know and then, when I did know, I was like I just can't sell to this person, like I need a cell set. Everyone like I can't make money. And Today I'm really learning like, no, like. Right now I'm only planners right, wedding and event planners and I go back and forth with corporate and I go, I don't want to deal with corporate. No, they can bring all the money to the yard, yes, but they're so not time Respectful. Yeah, I mean one week they want you to convert a whole bunch of collateral and it's like I don't know if that stress is something I want to adopt and take on right. So when you're saying that, it makes so much sense, but I'm happy your second company, yeah, launched it. You stayed true to who you are and you're helping your venues Do what they need, like coaching them and helping them through that process of nation down who's their market and getting good with that. So thank you for that.

Nikisha: 15:45

Now a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with self-doubt and it's it's a combination. It's the first time you're doing something. Maybe your family doesn't have the history. The way you come from, you don't know about being an entrepreneur, and when we're building a business, the doubt comes from can we do it? Because in our mind, success sometimes look like making money. It's not about the infinite game of just keep going and doing things to better the other people in your life like how you've done. Yeah, because you've always been a giver and when you even started the entrepreneur journey, I you may have had self-doubt, but were there some things to help you manage that?

Shannon Tarrant: 16:34

Yeah, I mean I got a really great piece of advice in my entrepreneur journey that someone else who where the venue I used to work at the owner said to me always treat yourself like an employee of your own company. So like, take your owner hat off the 90% of the time and 10% of the time throw your CEO hat back on, but don't ever give all of yourself, if not your baby. Don't refer to it like that, it's not, it's your job, and when you take yourself out of that piece it takes. I think, especially as a business owner, it took a little bit of the pressure off when I got started when he said to me treat yourself like an employee.

Shannon Tarrant: 17:14

Would you write yourself up? Would you? Where are you failing? Can you give yourself a review once a month? Because it was just me, and so in the very start it was just me doing all of the things. So I think that advice on the early side was super helpful because it allowed me to say well, I know how to manage other people. I've been doing that, so if I can manage myself in that way, I mean literally secret to year. One success was that every month I gave myself a 30, 60, 90 review, reviewing myself in this document. That now is hysterical if you go back and read it, but I think that it was so important for me to have that philosophy in mind of so, when I was doubting myself, also going back and being like what was the plan? Are you on plan? I think that was a really important piece of it.

Nikisha: 18:15

Did you have a plan? I actually did.

Shannon Tarrant: 18:18

He also told me I needed to write a business plan and I was like, oh my God, I probably spent like a 40 to 60 hour work week writing a start to finish. I found it on it's like on score, which is like a small business support website. Score has a bang in template for a small business plan and I wrote the whole thing out and part of it were what are your goals and a SWOT analysis and analyzing all your competitors, and I did it, and so having that plan to refer back to was life changing. I still do it now. Sometimes I go back and look at it.

Nikisha: 18:58

I love that you have that. I love that you're telling everyone that, because even me I have not, and I have my COO now, so I'm definitely writing one, because I feel like a plan is direction. It's the thing when, those weeks that I don't know what to do with myself, I can go to and be like, okay, this week I need to focus on one, two and three. Yeah, right, when you did your SWOT analysis? This is my question, because when I come to a SWOT analysis, my competitor I forgot which the weakness. And there's another part.

Shannon Tarrant: 19:27

I feel like that speaks about your competitor, your strength Well, it's kind of all of it Strength, weakness, opportunities yes, and threats yeah.

Nikisha: 19:35

How did you look at your threats in regards to the? Because you're doing venue mapping like venue right? Yeah, who was your competitor? Did you have any? And then, when you did go to them, what was the threat?

Shannon Tarrant: 19:50

Yeah, I mean, I think ultimately, when it comes to analyzing that you're looking at anywhere else that someone, anyone, any other business type, that someone would spend money in your space, and so in my world it's anywhere that a wedding venue would spend marketing dollars.

Shannon Tarrant: 20:07

So is anywhere from print, national directories, were there other local directories? I mean technically social media advertising, running Google ads, facebook ads I just kind of thought. Whereas, who's anyone that someone could potentially hire? Right, like Minted is technically one of your threats as a stationer, right, that it's people who don't, although it might, they might not be targeting the same client as you. It really made me when I looked at all of the potential places that my customer could spend money instead of with me in that specific space of marketing their business, and then I just deep evaluated everyone and figured in the T of the SWAT, really figured out how to sell against it. So when I could really look at you know how we were different from social media ads and how we were different from running Google ads, and you know and why you would use us instead of that, that doing that analysis, and I know if you own a business, you're listening this you're like I don't know time for this right.

Shannon Tarrant: 21:11

Great. I mean you just said you spent a 40 hour week getting a business plan, like I know you don't. But having that and even now new threats have popped up. Yeah, I'm into my space in the last seven to eight years, like so. I think it's one of those things that, even if you just do this, what analysis you know, once every few years or once a year, it's super helpful.

Nikisha: 21:33

It is, I agree, a hundred percent, and I would definitely add score the main website in. Yeah, so thank you for sharing that. I love that. Yeah, now you have a podcast. Tell me the name of it again, I'll let you say it the podcast is the wedding sass holes. And I want to know why you call it the wedding sass holes everybody about.

Shannon Tarrant: 21:55

I have a foul mouth and I love a well-placed cuss word, and so when me and my co-host, vanessa and a grown and she owns an amazing wedding cake and desserts company here in central Florida when we started that we wanted to kind of be having these conversations and helping other business owners and sharing our path, and when we tried to come up with a name, I said you know, the most important thing like I don't want to have to filter and she said me neither, and not that she's as naughty as a speaker as I am in terms of some of the naughty words, but we get passionate and you get excited and then all of a sudden the curse word slips out. I didn't want to have to go back and edit it all and whatever, and so I said let's just pick a title that is like we're a little sassy, we're pretty inappropriate, but we just kind of tell you how it is, and so that's how the wedding sass holes came to me.

Nikisha: 22:49

So good. And when you're sharing that and think about even what you're coaching, yeah, how do you help your clients get over the doubt within themselves? How do you help them find trust on their journey of starting their business, building their business, scaling their business all the good things?

Shannon Tarrant: 23:03

Yeah, I mean I think that one of the Biggest things is to own who you are from the very start. So if you are a shy person or you are a little bit more introverted or you are, you shouldn't try to be Something that you're not. And so if, when people say to me I'm bad at sales, I'm like, well, are you bad at sales because you think you have to be used car salesman at Carla? Or Are you bad at sales because, like you just don't know how to do it, like you know what we're not bad at it, but do you just have room for growth? Or you like I don't want to do this.

Shannon Tarrant: 23:39

And so I just kind of Always suggest people own who they are from the start. Because, I mean, my mom doesn't love when I stand on a stage with a thousand people In the room and I dropped the F bomb on a stage. It is not her cute little like New England. You know she is not her favorite moment when I do it. But I think that being yourself and Not trying to pretend I mean we live in a world where people get canceled so fast when they're Not who they really are and whether it's you as a business, like you can't shout from the rooftops. We care about customer experience and then you don't provide it, like one bad review leads to 20 bad reviews and you go down for the count. So I think it's really, I really truly believe that owning who you are first and, in the business world, professional, but really just being who you are, is the most important piece to build trust.

Nikisha: 24:35

That's such a good one. I think that's coming up more and more and we hear it, but I don't know if people are getting it, because I think sometimes they're still scared to show up and sometimes I think it becomes an excuse. Yeah, there's a thing about the label introvert that I don't want. I don't like the label introvert. Extrovert, yeah, I will be, but I don't use them, so I take them out of my world. But sometimes I feel like it's used to say that's why I don't go on social media, that's why I don't market, that's why I don't do this. But sometimes I think it's not really about social media, because I don't think you show up in your business or tell anyone about your business, even if you're in a room where social media is not a part of it. Are you comfortable speaking? I feel like sometimes it's a comfort yeah label and then to fold into it because, yes, my husband, he uses that word, but Recently, when he had lost his job, he joined the leap academy and they taught him how to see his value.

Nikisha: 25:30

They taught him how to every day right, like things that you're doing as a coach, and when he did that he became more social Right, like he went out this weekend on an event. He did it Sunday. He was done with the event. He was tied in one talk to anyone. Yeah, he needed that. Yeah, he still went out. He did it on Friday and Saturday. Yeah, not out. He didn't sit in his room and go on the introvert. I'm scared. He was like I'm gonna put myself out there. But on Sunday I can give that day to me and not talk to anyone.

Shannon Tarrant: 26:00

You know, and I think you're right, it's when you're being yourself, it's not. You can have the label, but and it's one of the things I love about Vanessa, my podcast co-host, because we are the opposite end of the introvert, extrovert spectrum. Like I am as extroverted as they come yeah, I'll talk to you on an airplane. In the grocery store, I like where do you want to, where do you want to chat? And it totally fuels my battery. Yeah, and, but she has built an entire business on the back of networking. She just has to get in the car and not to you and not talk to anyone the next morning because you know it can't be the reason why you don't do it. But I think it's, it's okay to own it, but don't let it be what helps will hold you back right, exactly, that's it.

Nikisha: 26:40

Don't let it stand in your way, yeah.

Shannon Tarrant: 26:43

What you're saying is like I think one of the things that I tell people is show up where you do best. So you can say I'm an introvert and I hate networking events and I don't want to go out and do the people thing, but then so then make videos for social media, because you don't have to talk to anyone, you're just talking to them for a screen. And you know I'm really strong on email marketing, speaking on the stage, doing live video in-person hosting events. I'm not the best on social media because Sometimes I have that Hesitation of I've seen behind too many people's curtains and it's not what is cracked up to me.

Nikisha: 27:23

But exactly, exactly, exactly I, and that's just it right. Everyone has curtains up.

Shannon Tarrant: 27:32

For a hundred percent. I mean within certain aspects. Like you, you should protect certain areas of your life.

Shannon Tarrant: 27:42

And maybe some areas your personality that are like, oh, I mean, tone it down a little bit. It's okay when you're putting it out there, but I think it's just it's gotten very difficult with how many people in Many forms of business owners and things they always talk the plus, the positive, the great, and they Never talk the negative or the hard or the path to get there, which is why I love podcasts like this, because it's not all it's. It's hard work, it is and we fail a lot. I feel a lot about you, but I try a lot and I get back up and I get back into it, but I feel I try to feel fast, like my, one of my people that I love, diarrhea C.

Nikisha: 28:23

Oh, steve, steve and Bartlett like feel fast, like I want to feel, but like can I do it faster so I can actually get to the the little stuff? Because it feels slow and deadly. When you just get nervous and you try a little bit, you stop and you try a little bit, you keep feeling and it's like painful. Yeah, how about I just do it and see what happens and I feel like my podcast was that? My Instagram live? Was that right? Yeah, I wasn't even trying to feel. I was like Let me just keep doing it and changing it and doing it and changing it and I kept Transforming in a way that I was loving.

Shannon Tarrant: 28:55

But you got to show up right? People you ask me you're so good on video and you can do everything in one take. I'm like I went live every Monday for two and a half years, yeah, and it just no one was there. I did it when the time worked well for me. I didn't care about the show up because the video lived and people would go back and rewatch it. So I took out every obstacle. The obstacle when people are there is not when it's a good time for me, and I just showed up and started talking and I would go. And I did it every single Monday, every single week For a year, for two and a half years, and I'm like that's how I got good at speaking on camera. It was, it was practice In terms of doing it and it was doing it live, where I couldn't really edit myself and I had to get better at cleaning up and removing the likes and the ums and the us. You know I was forced to because it was a live video.

Nikisha: 29:46

So true, I love that practice.

Shannon Tarrant: 29:48

It wasn't. You know, it wasn't cuz I just woke up one day and said I want to do it.

Nikisha: 29:55

Trust me, we. Sometimes I don't want to do a podcast, but guess what I'm doing? Same, you know. So, in overall, it's about consistency. Yeah, no matter how it looks, it's always about just showing up and no matter how it feels uncomfortable, do it through the discomfort, right, like?

Shannon Tarrant: 30:15

that's how you can build trust with that audience that you are trying to build within your business. You know, and you can be really specific and niche down and you can have those direct conversations and I think when people hear you know I'm creating a niche, they get so specific on that one specific client avatar and you can have. You know, wedding venue map. We have seven and there's seven different types of businesses, different types of venues. They have different needs, different structures. But when we're speaking to them, when we did, I did a video last week and there's one venue email me and said they like you were talking right to me and I was like I mean, I was because you are the one avatar I was talking to that day, but the other, a city on venue or a hotel, would have found no value in that video I made.

Shannon Tarrant: 31:02

Got it that's one person. It was so specific so you can have many, you know, living in one niche. You can still have multiple customers within the niche.

Nikisha: 31:13

That's a good point. Thank you for sharing that, because sometimes we get bogged down with we have to speak to one person and it's only one type, but you could still be in a niche and I could speak to different planners. I could speak to the state planner, a catering planner, right, different, different on locales, so that's a really great point. Now what I'm gonna actually do is share any lessons Maybe up to three Okay, more entrepreneurs how to build trust in their journey of building a business, like three things you would give them advice to do that would help them take from this show and Possibly apply to their business.

Shannon Tarrant: 31:52

Okay, three things to go and apply. I'm with you, we do. We finish our podcast also. We call them swag, your three swag items to go actually do. So I would tell you to figure out this space that you feel the most comfortable in Marketing from the business standpoint. If it's email marketing because you're a great writer. If it is you know social media on video or on captions or whatever, just choose one space and really learn everything you can about that space. Invest in the education and get really good at it. And start tracking your analytics, because it's great to send a ton of email but if you're never checking to see if anyone opens it or clicks it or whatever, you're putting time and energy when it doesn't matter. So choose one marketing channel and go all in on it.

Shannon Tarrant: 32:39

Hmm get good and then maybe add the next one.

Nikisha: 32:41

But you know everything to start so good, a second one, anything.

Shannon Tarrant: 32:46

Yep, utilize your own social media, like on the personal side, and ask people how they describe you when you're not in the room. So figure out, or if someone is going to refer your business and you, any of your referral sources, your personal sources, whatever what would they say about you, your business, and gather all those words up, because when you are having that self doubt and you aren't sure how to build trust, you've already built trust with these people. They're already referring you business and they would. They will be speaking to your strong points of the reasons why they refer you or your business or whatever, and so go and ask them. You can read your reviews, which is fine because it comes with custom from customers, but ask the people who are already referring your business, your friends and family how do they describe you? And build that list because you can always go back and refer to it.

Nikisha: 33:39

So that's a good point. It's like a word bank.

Shannon Tarrant: 33:41

Yes, it's a total word bank of the. You know, when people said to me all the time that you know I send people your way because I know you'll tell them how it is, I was like I felt like that gave me freedom to lean in heavy on that Because, I mean, in the best way, my family controlled it a lot in my early 20s because I would say I was blunt with no Care for your feelings on the other side in my youth and you know, I think my mom was so great at telling me don't ever lose that, because it's a really unique feature. You just have to work on the delivery right, and it tell me I look like a stuffed sausage in that dress. You need to tell me maybe I should try on a different size. I like let's soften the blow a little bit. But I think that, like knowing that, knowing those words allowed me to lean into them and say, well, people find value in that from me, so I'm gonna go even extra.

Nikisha: 34:35

That's a good point, I like that. And third lesson oh god.

Shannon Tarrant: 34:39

Third lesson I trust your gut because you know you do. You get that feeling. You can always ask other people for advice and support and tips and things like that. But you, if you don't have trust in yourself and you self doubt all the time Like no other people, will have a hard time trusting you because you're gonna start flip-flopping and wish you washing and that does it. That's not gonna get you where you need it to be. So for other people to trust you, you have to have that, you have to work on that faith and support and trust of yourself, your choices, your decision. Believe in the things you're doing. I know it's hard, it's eat. That's easier said than done. But if you're someone who self-doubts, that's an area where you need to learn. You need to go and work on how to remove that self-doubt.

Nikisha: 35:25

Right, right, what little things you can do to start building trust myself, because I feel like it's a muscle. I don't feel like I could turn around to the big like if I had doubt today and be like Tomorrow. I'm gonna trust myself, like, yeah, I think it's a question about things you're doing or how you're doing it that makes you uncomfortable. But, like you said, consistency, yeah, keep, keep doing it. So we had one find the place that you feel comfortable emails, social media, like wherever that place is right and then go there and show up To be yourself, no matter who you are. If you are like Shannon, who loves, just like throw a curse word out there.

Nikisha: 36:04

None yet today though no, thank God, like we're good.

Shannon Tarrant: 36:08

I am trying to not be explicit today. We're fine.

Nikisha: 36:11

So far so good. But in regards to that, she's found her place. She's created that platform. She loves showing up and people love her for it, because they know to send people her way, because she's going to be honest in her delivery won't be as it used to be, but it's a little bit more pleasant, but she still delivers like you're still going to tell you the truth, you can trust her word. And then three how to start trusting yourself. Get work on yourself.

Nikisha: 36:40

Doubt, because, in all honesty, when we do not trust ourself, it doesn't only show up in our business, it's show up in our personal lives as well. We tend to think they're separate, but they're not, and when you're not trusting yourself, you really can't show up for the people you love. I don't know. People always think they can. I'm like no, because you can't give from an empty cup and when you don't trust yourself, you're usually empty and you're struggling. So, shannon, I am truly appreciative of your time and thank you so much For just being here and sharing so much and not throwing an F word here.

Shannon Tarrant: 37:18

I can't do it if necessary. It was no reason today for an explicit to be in there. So yeah, it's not about just saying it to say it, it's about using it where it makes sense for me. Yeah, standpoint exactly.

Nikisha: 37:32

Thank you so much for everything and I hope my community truly enjoy you and they let's share with them how they can find you. I'll add it to the show notes, but let me know your podcast name if you want them to find you on your Instagram or your website. Just share a little bit.

Shannon Tarrant: 37:49

Yeah, I mean I think the podcast is great for any small business because, although we come from the world of, you know wedding and Events. If you're a small business and you're like real talk in 30 minute segments, you know it's a it's a great way because you'll leave with action items from every episode. So it's called the wedding sass holes. You do have to search under explicit, because we do say naughty words and don't listen with your kids in the car. But yeah, I mean the wedding sass holes. I speak all over the country. So if you have any opportunities where you need a public speaker, you can always find out more at. Shanonterrantcom is my website and you know bringing in. I'm a super mechanical educator, meaning I give the how, not just the why, and it's really how you can go do it. And if you are anywhere in the wedding industry and you need support and need help, or if you know of a venue that needs support, you can send them our way over a venue help desk.

Nikisha: 38:41

Thank you so much. Hey, before you go, I got a golden opportunity for you. Yes, you, it's a chance that's too good to pass up. A chance to work with me one-on-one, practically for free. Imagine waving a magic wand and saying goodbye to feeling completely Overwhelmed, anxious and all those feelings that keep you stuck from selling your services. You know that feeling where you can't make decisions. You're on the hamster wheel. I know I was there, but what if I told you I can help you get rid of that feeling forever. Not only five minutes, ten minutes, but forever. Yes, to the point. We're working on your newsletter website.

Nikisha: 39:22

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