Leading H.E.R. Way Podcast

78: Trust Starts Here: Building Loyalty Through Vulnerability, Motherhood, and Storytelling w/ Shannon Griffin

• Nikisha King | Certified Life & Business Coach • Season 3 • Episode 78

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In this raw and honest episode of Leading Her Way, host Nikisha King sits down with intimate portrait photographer Shannon Griffin to unpack the unseen emotional labor behind entrepreneurship, motherhood, and earning client trust.

What happens when your business slows down… and life demands more of you?

This conversation will reshape how you think about “showing up” in business.

Shannon reveals how her journey into motherhood and her struggles with postpartum anxiety transformed not only her personal identity, but the way she builds trust with clients. Her vulnerability online became a bridge to deeper client relationships and higher-value bookings.

You’ll learn:

  • Why storytelling is the most underrated sales strategy.
  • How to share openly without oversharing.
  • How trust builds loyalty long before a client ever books.
  • The mindset shift that helped Shannon charge more without guilt.
  • How to stay grounded in seasons of life and business that don’t feel balanced.

Whether you're in a season of hustle or healing, this episode will help you embrace your truth, serve deeply, and build a brand that earns real loyalty, before the sale ever happens.

Support the show

Want to attract aligned clients with less hustle and more heart?
Follow @nkbizguru on Instagram and get access to Nikisha’s 5-Star SCALE™ Framework at her More Profit, Less Chaos masterclass.

Announcer:

Welcome to Leading Her Way with your host and business guru, Nakesha King. This podcast is the ultimate destination for women, creative entrepreneurs, who want to break free from burnout. If you are overwhelmed by client demands and feel like you're doing this all alone, you, my friend, are in the right place alone. You, my friend, are in the right place Now. Let's dive in for steps to take back your time and simplify your workflow. All right, Nikesha, take it away.

Nikisha King:

Hello, gorgeous, Welcome to Leading Her Way podcast. I am so excited today I get to speak to one of my beautiful human beings that I love immensely. Her name is Shannon Griffin and she is an intimate portrait photographer whose process is S-L-O-W. Slow Listen, she's my people Okay. So she's highly interactive and contemplative. Shannon's work is so phenomenal. In her intimate portraits we usually may hear it as boudoir, but it captures the essence of who we are as women, mothers how about our strength? And it embodies everything Shannon is, so I want to welcome you guys to my amazing guest, Shannon. Thank you for being here. I'm so in love with you. Just to welcome you guys to my amazing guest, Shannon. Thank you for being here. I'm so in love with you, just to let you know that, of all your complexities, of all your joy, and I'm so happy to have you here. So thank you for being here with me. I love you too.

Nikisha King:

So what we're going to do today is we're going to speak about being a mom, being a business owner, being a CEO and how they engage with one another.

Nikisha King:

And I know when I started this podcast, I wanted to do something where it's both business and motherhood, and then I went fully into business. But there are moments like this where it's so special, because there are a lot of people I engage with who are parents and we have children, who are young teens, adults various different lives, because just because we're CEOs doesn't mean we stop living. We have to now create some form of harmony with everything, and I truly intentionally did not use balance, because I don't believe in balance. Balance always makes you feel like 50-50. And I don't believe life is 50-50 in that format. But harmony is like having a salsa band with multiple instruments, but when they come together, OMG, the music that they create is just freaking phenomenal. That, for me, is life. Let's start here. I know life can be beautifully messy, and what does being a mother and a CEO look like for you in real life? Let the audience know they're not alone.

Shannon Griffin:

Truthfully, it's gosh if you would have had me on the podcast three years ago completely different, which is every parent right. So for me in this stage it's starting to get easier and I know a lot of it's because she's getting older. Like you know, she's getting. She's still very dependent on me, but she's three and a half, so we're getting. We're not breastfeeding anymore. Her dad can sleep with her in the bed if I need to like go out for an evening, so it is definitely getting a lot better.

Shannon Griffin:

Um, but yeah, my, my hours are pretty flexible, so if I need to pick her up early from school, if she's sick, whatever else, I can do that. So in this stage I'm learning to give myself a lot of grace, because I know my business is not where I want it to be. But I also know that the sacrifice has been for her and that has been my choice to like. I could have been a distant parent. I could have been someone who found a full time babysitter that wasn't going to work for the way that I wanted to raise her. So my feeling is the first five years of her life, I want to be able to drop everything that I'm doing to be there for her.

Shannon Griffin:

I feel like when she starts, you know, kindergarten, and just is a little bit more independent, I can start to hustle a little bit more, even though I'm never going to be like a true hustler in business. I'm just that's not my personality. But this is a sacrifice that I wanted to make and my husband knows, and we've had conversations, that financially we're fine but we're not killing it right now because both of us are taking a step back so that we can be there for her the way we want to be there. Um, so, really just allowing this to be my season and but also being like that's okay and I see where it's going to be, and really having faith and like I know that I'm going to get there. It's just I'm going to do it differently than I did before having her.

Nikisha King:

Right, it's a transformation. Once we move stages in our life, there's always a moment of something new, so we transform into what that looks like and when like you said, in the beginning it wasn't like what it is now and when that moment happened in the beginning. If you don't mind sharing that so our audience can know in the beginning of when you, if you're open to sharing about having children, let them understand that. Let them understand the phase when you found out and today you're such a different human being because you had to transform into that being and she helped you transform into that being, which is why I love having children. They transform you as a human being, which is freaking, phenomenal. We don't realize it in the moments prior, but it is hindsight. So definitely share your story about how you felt about having kids, how you felt when the kid came. I laughed because Nikisha knows how I felt and they don't have a clue.

Nikisha King:

They just hear the Shannon at three and a half, you know but help them get the idea, so they know yeah, this is normal behavior.

Announcer:

Trust me.

Nikisha King:

I experienced it in a different way, but I'll share it too. Go ahead.

Shannon Griffin:

So, um, I I did not watch children Like I knew I wasn't maternal. I knew that, um, my business was my baby, my dog was my baby, like I love my relationship. I had been married before and it was a very unhealthy marriage and now I was in a very healthy relationship and we could pick up and travel when we wanted, happy hour when we wanted, and I was just. I was 38 and thriving, and so I had just had the best year of my business, like most money was totally changed, my process had the most phenomenal clients. And then, um, the day after my 38th birthday, I found out I was pregnant. I thought I had COVID, cause I wasn't planning on being pregnant. So I was like, oh my God, I have COVID. I'm sick, cause this was 2021.

Shannon Griffin:

Um, so, yeah, I found out how to full, like I think it was numb at first, cause I was just like there's no way I'm pregnant. Like 38 wasn't planning on this ancient, like there's no way. So, um, I went through the full gamut of emotions. I went to a doctor. I was like I don't know if I'm going to move forward with this pregnancy. Let me just go see an OB and feel, see, feel it out. Just see how I feel she was phenomenal. Um, I still see her to this day, but I decided to move forward. I was like I don't know, I guess, which is like.

Announcer:

I don't know.

Shannon Griffin:

So, anyway, fully accepted it. Um, and then we were in our mastermind group at that time and I ended up talking to you guys about it and I was having just a lot of feelings. I was like what's going to happen to my business? I'm, you know I'm. I'm not going to make any money. What am I going to do during maternity leave? I don't have enough saved up.

Shannon Griffin:

And you and I had a conversation. You were like let's talk outside of this. And you were like Shannon, have you ever been homeless? I was like no, you're like, have you always figured it out? I'm like, yes, you're like would your partner let you be homeless? I'm like no, you're like, you're going to figure it out, you will be okay. Like I know it's scary, but like everyone's got you, like you, you are going to be okay, your business is not going to fail. You're going to have food on your table. You're going to have a roof over your head.

Shannon Griffin:

So I was spiraling so hard that I needed like it seems so silly to have to say that to somebody. But my mind I was spiraling and you were like it's going to be okay. Like you're going, you've made this decision to move forward. You're going to be okay and so fully embracing that. Um, but the first, yeah, I had really bad, really bad postpartum depression, really bad postpartum anxiety.

Shannon Griffin:

You and I talked a little bit in that first year. It was really dark, but I talked a lot about it. I felt like I'm not coming to my people in the internet to complain. I'm coming because I had a lot of resentment and a lot of anger that I felt like not enough people talked about how hard it really was, and so I was like I can be that voice of like it's okay to just get on here and say this is really shit right now, like this is I don't know. Did I make a bad decision? Am I going to resent this for the rest of my life? And I I wasn't seen to the other side of it and I couldn't see to the other side of it.

Shannon Griffin:

So my only release was talking about it and I actually ended up booking a couple of women because they were like not only is it you, are you open and vulnerable about it? Because you've talked about it so candidly, I know I can trust you to have a safe space for me and so I want to be able to come to you and be like this season in my life is really hard. Will you hold me through this and document this and I don't want all smiles in the pictures. I want you to to candidly document where I am right now on the season, so that I can look at it and hold space for myself and view it in a different way and that, like that's what you did for me, that's what the people closest to me is.

Shannon Griffin:

I just needed people to hold me in that space and say what you're feeling isn't bad, it's okay, but you're also going to make it through. Like that is just that's all I needed in those moments. And fully candid. Like last August I started Zoloft, I started an SSRI and I feel like I'm able to talk to you today in a positive light because of where she is now in her age and because mentally I have health and it fully saved my life.

Nikisha King:

Like fully because I was in a dark hole when you said ssri, what is that?

Shannon Griffin:

so it's uh, I don't remember the full name, but it's like any, any like um antidepressants, mood stablers. It's like zoloft, um um lexapro, any of those so you added something to help with the chemical.

Nikisha King:

Yes, the balancing out yes, Because I do understand what that is and when you get the assistance you need. There is an imbalance of the chemicals in your neuro and that you sometimes do need help so that you can, because at moments you're you're not able to find yourself.

Shannon Griffin:

That is because at moments you're you're not able to find yourself, that is, but like there would be. She's co-slept with me since she was about a year old and there were so many nights of rage and just like, yeah, I'd finally get her to sleep and I would text my husband in the other room like 40 texts in a row of like what did I do with my life? Why did I have her? This is never going to get better. And he was. He and my closest friend. Were both like it's time you talk to somebody.

Shannon Griffin:

And it was time that I talked to somebody, but my, my doctor was like yeah, yeah, it's the rage and just like the anxiety and the intrusive thoughts, like I just needed the help.

Nikisha King:

And so happy you chose to get the help. Yeah, so proud of you for that Cause. I didn't know. I knew you were spiraling but I knew I didn't believe I had the power to tell you to get help.

Shannon Griffin:

Yeah, right, right, and that's not on you, right.

Nikisha King:

Yes, right, and I'm happy you did it and you chose it, because you chose it for her. Yes, you know it always boils down to these beautiful humans. I love them to death. I mean, in the beginning they are very, very they're not challenging. It's us we have to transform, and that takes a while.

Nikisha King:

We just can't get on. You know, get on with it. But it's similar to when I had my girls the first time. It was challenging, from going from working all my life to not working. That's the transformation Feeling like you have purpose because you get up and do something every day to like. Now you got to deal with somebody who doesn't even speak to you. They just cry all day and want something from you and they just take, take, take and then you're not being refilled. Nothing's coming in, Everything's coming out.

Shannon Griffin:

It's so true.

Nikisha King:

So a lot of moms are who are listening, who are beautiful business owners in the creative space, are hearing this, and we want you to know that you're not alone. But what we want to do is speak about the things, about what each of these things have to do with one another. So, for instance, what's one thing motherhood has taught you that made you a better businesswoman, and what's one thing of being a CEO has taught you about being a better mom?

Shannon Griffin:

That's a wonderful question I've been asked, the first. The latter, like, I haven't really thought on that, so we're going to think in real time. But definitely, as far as her changing my business is, I already focused on women and mostly moms, but I feel like she's opened up such a door of my patients, of my. It's okay If you have to have your baby, like on the during the ordering session, which I was already like that but it's like I have so much space for it now and so much like that's okay If your baby's sick and we need to reschedule. Much like that's okay if your baby's sick and we need to reschedule. Like I.

Shannon Griffin:

I also feel like my process, although it was very thorough, it's even more thorough with like what more do you need? How can I help you in this, in this area of your life? How do you want this documented? What do you want the story to tell? Like, I want you to show up in your authentic self. So I'm very open with them, even if they haven't read on my blog posts of like yeah, I get it. Like I'm going through that and I'm trying to figure out my identity now as a mother, because I'm never going to be who I was before, but who am I now Like trying to figure that out? Um, and like my like, when I go to photograph families, I just like the kids, I just have so much grace and love for and gratitude of just like. No, you're not acting up, you're just being a kid, like your frontal lobe isn't formed If you need to take a stack break let's take a stack break.

Shannon Griffin:

Like I'll spend four hours with the family and like mom's not going to be stressed because it's not going to be. Like, oh my God, we have an hour. We have to get this. My kid's freaking out, no, like let them go play with some toys. I'll take some pictures of that. I'll have a cup of coffee with you and we'll come back to it. Like this is let's slow slow down, breathe. Like it's going to be all right.

Nikisha King:

I love that. Oh, my goodness, that is such that's a lot. That's like a game changer. Yeah, yeah, that's a game changer for families, for sure I love. Do you feel like you niche with families? Is that your niche?

Shannon Griffin:

I know you do. Niche is definitely boudoir, intimate portraiture definitely. But I feel like sometimes I'll get the family sessions along with that, because the mom's like, okay, you made me feel so comfortable or, yeah, I like the way that you document. You're not posing us, you're more like just letting the story unfold. Yeah, I still do family sessions.

Nikisha King:

I still have a couple a year, but it's not my main focus but I still, it's not your main focus, but it feels like it's an add-on. Yes, the intimate portrait, for sure, for sure because they do photograph a lot of moms. Yeah, that's your thing? Yeah, they intertwine with each other, which I love, and how has being a CEO right? Like what was that? Let me repeat it again One thing being a CEO has taught you that made you a better mom Probably the confidence Like there's.

Shannon Griffin:

I know I'm going to mess up, just like I do in my business, but it's like how do? How do I approach it? How do I fix it? Like the same with business. If I mess up with the client, I'm not making excuses. I'm reaching out and saying, look, I messed up, like how can I make this right? How can I do better? And it's the same with Maeve of, just I'm going to mess up. Sometimes I'm going to be a shit mom, sometimes I'm going to yell at her, sometimes I'm not going to do something right or you know. But coming back to just being like I'm sorry, mommy, messed up, like I shouldn't talk to you like that. Or I should have approached it in a different way. Here's how I'm going to make it better next time. Here's how we can make it better next time to show her that, like it's okay that we mess up. But how are we going to make?

Announcer:

it right.

Shannon Griffin:

Because I have this, I have this. I'm in this weird place with a lot of moms are like it's okay, You're doing the best, you can give yourself grace, You're a mom. And I'm like give yourself grace, but also sit in that shame for like a minute. Like, don't live in the shame, sit in it for a minute, because that's what's going to make you a better parent. Like no, I'm not doing the best that I can.

Nikisha King:

Next time.

Shannon Griffin:

How can I make this better? If she didn't ask to be here. She's her own human and, like I'm creating right now in this age, I'm creating her confidence, I'm creating how she's going to talk to herself. So how am I talking to myself, like really?

Nikisha King:

have to sit with that. I love that you said that, because the one thing in my parenting manual it's like page one is, in order for me to be a really good parent, I have to be a really good human for myself. Yes, yeah, I had to when I became a certified coach and I learned how to manage my thoughts. That is it.

Shannon Griffin:

Thoughts are everything, they every. I mean you think about people going through cancer treatments. You think about, like the way that you think is everything.

Nikisha King:

It is. So there was something you said before about even when you get upset and the way you speak. I want to give you one amazing tip that I've discovered. I want to give you one amazing tip that I've discovered when we are moms or parents and we get upset and we respond, we're not responding from the action of the other person or the child. We're responding because of the feeling we have, and the feeling we have is being driven by a thought we have, and every parent who finds themselves yelling one. The yelling is an action, but there's a feeling. The feeling might be fear and anger. And then you have to ask yourself why are you angry? People won't relate it to fear. That's the first thing I realized. But why are you angry? And when?

Nikisha King:

I always go back to it, I promise you, I want everyone to pay attention to this for the next week. I want you to implement this and I want you to pay attention when you get mad at anyone. When you get mad at anyone, like if my daughters did anything, and I get upset, the thing I'm thinking is, if they do it now, they're going to do in the future. They might lie, they might mess up. They're not thinking. If they're not thinking, someone's going to bamboozle them.

Nikisha King:

There is something I'm thinking about that's putting me in the future about the possibilities of what can happen to them, because they're not doing it right now. And when I think about the possibilities of what can happen in the future, it's not a place of positivity, it's a place of fear. My thought is something that I'm scared for my kid because if they don't get it right today, they're going to jack it up next time and it's going to put them in harm's way. And when I think that way, I am really scared. But scared is turned into anger. And then I have an action. I'm going to yell at them. I'm not going to be mindful who. I'm speaking to my tone and every parent. I want you to really pay attention to it. Look at your kid, because it was never the kid's action we're mad at. It's the thought that something's going to happen way in the future. That's not even happening and I promise you, whatever we're thinking is so not going to happen.

Nikisha King:

So not going to happen, which is what I always laugh about. I'm like, all right, nikisha, stop going to the future because that's not going to happen. Stay present. And once I do that, my daughter my youngest daughter and I she's a Leo, I'm a Virgo. We are strong. She's emotionally strong. She's powerful in her emotions, yes, and in regards to me, I'm also power. I'm very we were both strong.

Nikisha King:

So I love guiding people as becoming a certified coach. My daughter doesn't want my guidance. No, she's like we don't need to have deep conversations. I'm like we need to have deep conversations if you're going out in the world, like that's our battle, right? She doesn't like to speak as much my older one. She's a Sagittarius. Me and her like get into the mind because she lives in her mind. So I get in her mind all day, every day, and we have a good time. But what I'm learning with my youngest one? She's so emotional that my tone changes and her mood. It's like how we feed off of each other. So the other day, there was a situation where she put the lights on outside. I told her to go take it off, but she was like I took a shower already, I'm not going outside. That's the type of kids I have. She's a very interesting, beautiful human being. Like I took a shower, I'm not stepping outside again. How dare you ask me of that simpleton?

Shannon Griffin:

That is how I feel.

Nikisha King:

Yes. So I'm like hold up. I had to like catch myself, Cause I was about to say this and the way she said it is like I'm not, it was no. They felt like there was no, no, no option for me. And when you put me in that box, no matter who you are, I'm going to be like no, that doesn't work that way. So I had to find myself and go.

Nikisha King:

Okay, the fear that came up for me is this young lady don't know how to clean up. She doesn't clean up after herself, who she's going to live with in college. You're going to be like she's a slob. That is where I go. Humans, I'm telling you how I think. And I'll have to be like pull it back. And I said okay, the lesson here is you put it on all. I'm asking you to go out and take it off. Yeah, it is your responsibility that when you do something is to undo it. If you have to, there's a reason. I just want you to be mindful.

Nikisha King:

I had to bring my tone down. I had to come to my calm sense. I had to speak to her. It's hard. I had to speak to her. I'm very proud of you, oh my gosh. And even after that she could get emotional. But she was upset, but not too upset, because she found herself in my bed. I didn't think she was going to sleep with me that night. We're like a married couple, people. We're like a married couple. This is me and my daughter.

Shannon Griffin:

Yes, I thought she was going to go on her bed because she was mad at me and I found her in my bed, I was like, oh, I'm surprised, so I knew it wasn't that harsh. That is the way I measure the success of a conversation with my beautiful. I think the other thing too is, uh, not an excuse, but you have to think about, like our parents generation it was very much be seen and not heard, and like you're annoying me and I don't want you to be loud in a restaurant and you don't, we weren. You're annoying me and I don't want you to be loud in a restaurant and you don't. We weren't really allowed to be kids.

Shannon Griffin:

I don't know if you were raised that way, but like I mean, I had great parents, but it was still like you know, it was just different. And so I I catch myself with like she's too loud or she's. I'm like I feel embarrassed if we're out in public or it's one of those things where I then I have to sit with myself and I'm like she's just being a kid and it's okay and there's a balance. Of course I'm not going to let her go around and like hit people's chairs, and there's definitely a balance of teaching her how to be a human in society but also I don't want you to think too hard about the way society's judging you, so there's like that, like, yes, constant battle with that.

Nikisha King:

Yes, and what you're learning through that battle is how to experience it yourself.

Shannon Griffin:

Yes, and they say all the time you're reparenting yourself, yeah, parenting them, you're reparenting. You're gently like, yeah, it's okay, the way you're feeling is okay and you weren't a bad kid and you're okay and they're going to be okay.

Nikisha King:

And they're not bad kids, exactly, which is what I love, and I feel like to even have these conversations that you and I are having. There's a consciousness, there's an intentionality, yes, yes, that's the joy about it.

Shannon Griffin:

I have to remind myself this is so freaking hard because I'm a good mom, like that's what I keep reminding myself of. If I didn't care, I don't care, go do whatever you want to do, I don't care Exactly.

Nikisha King:

You're giving her really good values, where she gets to experience life differently and she's a Sagittarius too, by the way.

Shannon Griffin:

And I'm Aries, we're all fire signs.

Nikisha King:

I know about the Aries. My dad, oh yes, very strong, but that's where I get my strength from, yeah, yeah, so I completely get that. I love that. Oh, my goodness. Okay, let me see. There's this unspoken pressure to do it all and I would love to learn how have you redefined your success on your own terms, especially when the world tells women to either shrink or sacrifice?

Shannon Griffin:

Yeah, oh, that makes me like, like um tell me first what makes you like the sacrifice part, um, even more than the shrink part.

Shannon Griffin:

I don't know just the like we're taught, women are taught from little girls to be martyrs and to like just suck it, just hold, suck it up, like that's what a good wife does, that that's what mom does, um, and probably a lot of the feelings of why I didn't want to be a mom, so totally raising her in a different way.

Shannon Griffin:

I don't know I I feel like I've always been maybe to a bad degree, but I haven't really ever done that. I've like fought that my whole life. That's why, when I was 13, my dad and I like cause he's very traditional and Southern and like my mom is actually the breadwinner but she's still expected to cook and clean and raise the kids and stuff, so like there's. I've been battling that since I was a kid, so I don't know that's a hard one for me. I don't feel like I've I have had a sacrifice since I've had her, but like that's my choice and that's like I could have a babysitter, I could do those things, but I don't want to do those things, so I don't feel like I've had to sacrifice that much.

Nikisha King:

I don't feel like you did as well, because you get to choose, yeah.

Shannon Griffin:

Yes.

Shannon Griffin:

And I think probably a big part of that too, nikesha, is that I've never been a hustler and I've never been volume based. So I feel like if I were running my business that way, I probably would have felt like oh my God, I have to, I had to give up so much. But also I chose when she was seven months old to put her in full-time daycare, so like I get to sit down five days a week and work for eight hours a day, and so I haven't really had to sacrifice. And maybe if I wanted to be a stay at home mom, I would have felt like I have to sacrifice my time with her. But I don't feel that way because I like her being out of the house for eight to 10 hours a day, so like so when I have her, it's all encompassing. I'm not working, I'm not doing anything else. Saturdays and Sundays, I'm with her all day, so like I have that balance during the week.

Nikisha King:

But here's the thing we use this word hustle and hustle. I want you first to define it. I'm understanding the way you're explaining, yes, so define it for our audience. What does hustle mean for you and I want to share on that. Go ahead.

Shannon Griffin:

I think hustle feels to me because there's definitely seasons and I have had seasons where I have taken on more clients and stuff. But I have had seasons where I have taken on more clients and stuff. But I feel like hustle is, I have to do everything at all times and every season. And so for me, this is not, this is not my like. Work hard every day season. This is my.

Shannon Griffin:

I'm going to make enough money to pay my bills and have a little bit of savings and have time to raise her and, like I said, when she's like five or so, when she's in regular school, I feel like that's my time where I may be like you know what. Maybe I want to take on one more client a month, maybe I do want to go to more networking events or whatever that looks like. But for me hustle is like I got to do this and this and this and this and be an amazing mom and, like you said, balance is BS, like there's. If I'm giving 100% to something, then I'm going to be failing in something, like there's no balance.

Shannon Griffin:

Right now she needs me more, so my business is on the back burner and later on my business is going to need me more and not. She won't be on the back burner, but she's not going to need me as much.

Nikisha King:

I don't believe you. I don't believe you. I don't believe her needing you put your business on the back burner. I do believe you are choosing to spend time with her, be fully committed when she's away, to then give that, that, that time to your business, and I feel like that's the harmony. Yes, that is exactly it. There is no back burner. There is no one not getting you. I feel like everyone gets you. Yeah, I get they, just get my husband would be like he's.

Shannon Griffin:

Probably. He's the one that suffers the most.

Nikisha King:

He does, but that's actually another area where we have to be mindful of that. And what would that look like? That would not look like us going on vacation for the weekend and maybe partying, but that would look like a Friday night spending time when she's sleeping on the couch holding hands watching the show. Yes, or just 30 minutes of sitting at the table and chatting without talking about her.

Shannon Griffin:

Yes, and we've had really real conversations too of because he sleeps in the guest room with the dogs he has since she was a year old. So, like she and people are like he's okay with that. Like, first of all, he doesn't have a choice. Second of all, yes, because he is such a great other half of me, that's like and you know I don't like men so like for me to choose him that's a big deal and he has his faults, we all do.

Shannon Griffin:

But like we've had conversations of for him, yes, he's, he's lonely in the stage and he misses me, but he, Maeve, is our he. I am not his number one, he is not my number one, Maeve is our number one and he knows right now that that, emotionally and mentally, what I'm doing for Maeve in the season is so important to us that he's putting himself on the back burner because she is number one and that's what matters. And we love each other so much that we know we will come back to it and we do like, on the weekends we'll have when she goes to bed we'll have an hour or two together and we watch our shows and we just laugh and hang out with each other and that's enough right now.

Nikisha King:

That's what I'm saying yes, and even when we think about the word enough, what does that mean? Right, there are a million dollar people out there who feel like that's not enough. That's why people still hustle. There is never enough. So enough is not even a word that I use, because there is no such thing as enough. Yeah, Everyone knows what it is. My husband plays um, what you call it. When you do the seats and you, you walk around and you try to sit on a seat, you know um a musical chairs. You play musical beds friday through sunday.

Nikisha King:

He's just he's just in all the beds like he just moves, and because that's why my daughter friday she gets friday saturday now, but they, my daughters, used to alternate. Friday was my oldest, saturday was my youngest. My husband wishes she will not.

Shannon Griffin:

She's like no, I want mommy, because we're still at the clingy stage yeah, you're different.

Nikisha King:

You're at five the day she's like.

Shannon Griffin:

I'll sleep with you. My husband's gonna be like what?

Nikisha King:

exactly, exactly and that's just it. But I love having my partnership where it's like that, and people don't see it that way because they define that partnership differently than us yes yes, and here's the thing you can do, that that is your choice.

Shannon Griffin:

Everyone has their choice and he knows he's I, we have conversation. I'm like I tell Maeve all the time. I'm like, I'm like who do I love the most? She's like Maeve and Madeline, which is my niece, and I was like right, because I have unconditional love for you and Matt the other day we were walking in a public seat goes and me. I go, honey, no, I was like you could totally do things to lose my love. And we laugh about like he knows I choose him every day, but like Maeve is my like, that's it, that's it for me but he know, but it's a beautiful, like it's not mean, like he knows what I mean when.

Shannon Griffin:

I say that it's not hurtful. It's just like she's like and there's gonna be a season when she moves out and like you're gonna be it for me again, like that is very true, he doesn't need me right now, she needs me right now. Like that is very true, he doesn't need me right now, she needs me right now. Like that's how I feel.

Nikisha King:

I bet that statement. Some people are feeling a different feeling because their relationship and where they are Everyone is different. Just remember that everyone has different lives and we get to actually experience that and that's okay for us, what works for you, what works for me?

Shannon Griffin:

Exactly.

Nikisha King:

It doesn't need to be the same and doesn't need to look the same, which is what I love. If you could give one message to other creative moms building their dream while raising little ones, what would that little one message be Charge?

Shannon Griffin:

more. What is it Charge more?

Announcer:

Tell us more.

Shannon Griffin:

I don't care what it is. Charge more, what does that mean? Let us know. That means like, okay, cause that allows you to have more time with your little ones, right? So if you're it's, like I said a not volume based, so like if I'm charging more for my time, that means that I'm getting more time with her. No, it's, I think, really embracing it.

Shannon Griffin:

Like I said, that things are seasons, just like motherhoods. There are seasons in your business are going to be seasons and right now too, like giving yourself grace in your business, I am fully transparent and right now I'm editing for other people because my clients I'm not getting as many as I want right now. So I was like, okay, what else can I do? That's still very flexible, but that I also love, and I love editing.

Shannon Griffin:

Like I take so much pride in the fact that I charge a lot for my editing and I know that I'm one of the highest price because people can go to like editors in that charge nothing but the amount of detail. And I have people that are like you finally got my photos where I wanted, or like I'm obsessed, and that to me, like they're my clients, just like I have my other clients. So I think giving yourself grace and like if you need to do something else to make some income, that's okay. Like I for a while was so embarrassed and I didn't want to talk about it. And then I was like, why am I embarrassed? Like I'm doing what I need to do to make money for my family, that's all that matters. And it's allowing me to still not lower my prices with my boudoir clients and only take on people that I want, so that I'm not devaluing that side of my business.

Nikisha King:

So good, such a good point. I want everyone who's listening to that. When she said charge more, I want you to hear something. I don't know if you heard it, shannon, but when what she said wasn't just charge more. She's giving such high value to people she's editing for it's like you finally got my photos to where I wanted it to be. She didn't charge more and gave mediocre outcomes. Oh no.

Shannon Griffin:

And when I mentor other um artists, I'm very I talk, I'm like, yes, I talk a big game of like. I talk, I talk prices, I'm very comfortable and I want women to say numbers out loud more because we're so like, so I save the numbers and I talk a lot about the money that I make with clients and I do that. But I'm like, but I also, on the flip of that, say you better do a damn good job with your clients and, over over, deliver what you say you're going to deliver Exactly.

Nikisha King:

Yes, so good. All right, to close up, what are two or three small shifts that creative entrepreneurs or women can make to feel more grounded in both of the roles today, as a CEO and as a mom, or as an?

Shannon Griffin:

entrepreneur. That's a good one, I think. A big one that I'm working on every day that I know you'll agree with is gratitude. So, even if you have to sit down every morning because it is hard, and when you're in the really hard season like Maeve is three and a half, she is in the whine about everything and meltdown about everything phase where I'm like, oh, my God, it was just okay, it's the blue cup, I get it, you want the pink cup, like. So I like fully have to sit there and it's hard. It's hard when my business isn't where I want it and when I have a three and a half year old, but there's also so much beauty, um, and just really sitting down and going okay, even if it's the silliest thing, like I'm grateful that my car started today, right, I'm grateful that my I have safe tires and I don't have to buy new ones this week, like it can be the silliest thing. And when you sit down and look at them all you're like, okay, really is, really is okay, um.

Shannon Griffin:

Another one I'd say is I know I keep coming back to it, but embracing the seasons, because we can be so hard on ourselves and and so if I could sit here and you are my. She said, mommy, you're the best mommy in the world and you're my hero. And I was like like I am getting emotional talking about it. But like those are the moments, like you said for so long, you know you don't get it back in that first year you don't hear those words. And like the moments where she'll do something and we have a talk and she'll come back an hour later, at three she started this at three. Come back and be like mommy I'm really sorry that I did that earlier. And I'm like like there was no what my parents did of hitting me or being like you know, say you're sorry. I never do that to her because I want her to come from a place of empathy and sympathy. And like I want you to feel why mommy was upset in that moment. I want you to feel it in your body the same way I feel bad when I do it to you anyway. So like that, having that season of I could be hard on myself, but then the thing that I am sacrificing for I see that she is such a happy, developing, just like amazing, cool human being, like she's the coolest person I know. Um, and then the third is just I, I know. And then the third is just I know I fought you on it so hard before I started taking my Zoloft.

Shannon Griffin:

I'm a pessimist by nature and I know. You know that about me. Shifting that mindset of it's going to be okay and if you have to bend things a little bit to succeed, that's okay. Just like I said, right now I'm taking editing work, but that's okay and just embracing like it's it will, it will be okay. And whether or not you believe that, like I'm not a religious person, but like what's the alternative of that? Right? Like if I don't believe that, where is that going to get me? So like I have to believe that and so far it has been okay. So like I have to keep going forward with that forward motion of like it's going to be okay.

Nikisha King:

The funny thing about it when people are not spiritual, don't believe in God, they still have to believe in something in order to move forward. Yes, it's the thing, and that's my thing If you have a belief, then there is a God in your life. Yes, for sure. Sometimes people don't realize that and I'm like it's very simple. It's just because your God is not everyone else's God, because God has many names, whatever you want to name them. Yes, have a good time with it. Right, labels are just labels. Yes, how we interpret it and our definition is the power. Yeah, that's where it is. Thank you so much, shannon. Thank you for sharing your heart, thank you for sharing your mind with the audience today. Thank you for allowing them to know they're not alone when they have those thoughts.

Nikisha King:

We all had them, even when you mentioned the rage. I had it for a glimpse, and it was just a glimpse, so I can only imagine your experience. That was magnified, and when I had it, it was because I didn't get enough sleep. I knew very much. I was like there's no sleep. She looked my baby looked like a monster. I had to walk out of the house. I was like I'm like something's happening and I don't know what this is, but my hormones were totally out of whack. I know they were, and it takes a while to stabilize, and unfortunately, no one other than us, as moms, understand that. Yes, 100%.

Nikisha King:

So I'm so blessed to have you here. I'm so blessed to have you, shira. I truly, truly, truly appreciate you. You too, nikesha, all right.

Announcer:

Thank you for joining us today on Leading Her Way. We loved having you with us. Remember each action you take, no matter how small, adds up to big results. If today's episode fired you up, hit subscribe for more insights and visit our resource hub, which is linked to the show notes. There you'll find tools to streamline, organize and grow your business. Keep moving forward and we'll be right here to cheer you on next week.

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Nikisha King-Hidalgo

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