How to Find the Story Behind a Hard-to-Sell Product with Shawn Teasley

How to Find the Story Behind a Hard-to-Sell Product with Shawn Teasley

Most marketing advice assumes you already have something exciting to sell. Shawn Teasley is a marketing and social media strategist and the founder of Social Tonic, and some of her most interesting projects are the ones nobody would call flashy. One of her clients sells energy efficient building products, the kind of thing that lives behind the drywall where no one ever sees it. No drone footage, no sexy interior reveal. And that's exactly where the story is. We talked about how she finds it. The owner retrofitted a 1970s house with the same principles he sells, because of his two daughters and what he believes about the energy future. That's not a product feature. That's a reason. What Shawn does well is pull that reason out of people and put it where customers can feel it. That same instinct runs through the rest of the conversation. We got into being witnessed, the idea that people open up when they feel genuinely seen, and how that shapes everything from a single client relationship to a team spread across three countries. We talked about asking better questions, the difference between collecting LinkedIn connections and actually nurturing a relationship, and why bringing your personal self into your work isn't unprofessional. It's the whole point. In this episode: * Why the most unglamorous products often have the best stories * How to find the reason behind what someone sells, not just the features * What it means to make a client feel witnessed, and why it changes the work * The line between collecting LinkedIn connections and building real relationships * How asking better questions surfaces the story that actually sells * Why your personal life belongs in your business more than you think Chapters: 01:16 The Importance of Strategic Marketing for Startups 02:16 Exploring Authenticity in Business 05:14 The Role of AI in Marketing 08:02 Creative Storytelling in Marketing 11:12 Travel and Personal Growth 14:16 Cultural Connections and Team Dynamics 21:04 The Intersection of Personal and Professional Life 29:11 Ideal Clients and Networking Strategies 33:50 Understanding the Mind-Body Connection Connect with Shawn Teasley: Website: https://socialtonic.us/ [https://socialtonic.us/] LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnteasley/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnteasley/] BIZ: https://www.linkedin.com/company/socialtonic/ [https://www.linkedin.com/company/socialtonic/]  Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ [https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/] LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/] FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman [https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman] Website: https://lesliesilverman.com [https://lesliesilverman.com] Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com [https://hive180.com]

How to Plan Events That Help People Show Up as Themselves with Vivian Butler

In this episode I sat down with Vivian Butler, a licensed therapist turned event planner and founder of Vivian Butler Events. We started with how a counselor ends up running an events business, but it kept circling back to something bigger: what it actually takes to build a room where people feel safe enough to be themselves. Vivian's path didn't follow a plan. She moved through restaurants, social work, ropes courses, and experiential psychology before she realized events had been the thread running through all of it. She isn't just handling logistics. She's paying attention to how people feel, and whether they can drop the persona long enough to connect. We got into the loneliness most gatherings quietly produce, where you can be surrounded by people and still feel alone, and what it takes to design against it. We also got honest about the parts of entrepreneurship nobody romanticizes. Pushing past your comfort zone every day. Learning that when you sell a service, you are the product. Trusting that a no is just clearing space for a more aligned yes. Underneath all of it is a simple idea about permission. The way Vivian sees it, her real job is to build a room where people can stop performing and just be themselves. A couple keeping their wedding theirs instead of everyone else's. Coworkers dropping their titles for an afternoon. In this episode: * Why a therapist's lens changes what an event can do for people in the room * The difference between an event that looks polished and one where people feel safe to be themselves * What the loneliness epidemic has to do with how we gather, at work and everywhere else * The daily discomfort of running a solo business, and why Vivian signs up for it anyway * How "you are the product" reframes the way you sell a service Connect with Vivian Butler: LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianabutler/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/vivianabutler/] FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vivianbutlerevents [https://www.facebook.com/Vivianbutlerevents] IG: https://www.instagram.com/vivianbutlerevents/ [https://www.instagram.com/vivianbutlerevents/] Website: https://www.vivianbutlerevents.com/ [https://www.vivianbutlerevents.com/] Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ [https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/] LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/] FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman [https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman] Website: https://lesliesilverman.com [https://lesliesilverman.com] Chapters: 02:45 Transition from Counseling to Event Planning 05:38 Embracing the Solopreneur Journey 08:39 The Importance of Authenticity in Business 11:26 Understanding Your 'Why' 14:08 Creating Meaningful Connections at Events 17:10 The Loneliness Epidemic and Authentic Connection 20:00 Unique Approach to Event Planning 22:59 The Value of Hiring an Event Planner

How to Use Generosity as a Business Mantra with Janne Robinson

I met Janne Robinson years before this podcast existed. Then, back when I joined the first cohort of her year-long program, Your Truth Is Your Medicine, I was rebuilding myself after a codependent marriage, and she was the first person who truly gave me permission to be who I am. Janne is a poet, author, facilitator, and keynote speaker, and she has built a business by refusing to narrow herself down to one thing. Her anchor isn't a niche or a funnel. It's purpose. She treats every offer she makes as a 50-50 conversation between what excites her and what her audience actually wants, and she's at peace when the answer is no. There's a thread Janne keeps coming back to around generosity, what she calls sharing the cow. It started at an archaeological site in Sedona and runs through everything from the scholarships she gives away to a whale trip a CEO gifted her, the one she's now turning into a retreat for other people. We talk about what it actually looks like to run a business that way, and why being public carries a real cost she chooses to pay anyway. In this episode: * Why purpose works as a filter for what to build next * What it looks like to run a business as a multi-passionate person vs forcing yourself into one lane * How Janne handles criticism and the cost of putting your real self in public * Why your own story, not a tidied-up version of it, is the actual work Connect with Janne Robinson: Find Janne's first book This is for the Women Who Don't Give a Fuck here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945796413 [https://www.amazon.com/dp/1945796413] Find Janne's second book There's cobwebs on her Vagina here: https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Cobwebs-Her-Vagina-Collection/dp/1734042109 [https://www.amazon.com/Theres-Cobwebs-Her-Vagina-Collection/dp/1734042109] Book a consultation to do purpose work 1-1 with Janne here: https://hello.dubsado.com/public/form/view/646333e19b539e6b47ed9138 [https://hello.dubsado.com/public/form/view/646333e19b539e6b47ed9138] For Organizations (Speaking, Executive Coaching, Culture Repair and Enhancement Work): https://jannerobinson.com/organizations [https://jannerobinson.com/organizations] Swim with the Humpback Whales Retreat (2027): https://janne-robinson.mykajabi.com/2027-retreat [https://janne-robinson.mykajabi.com/2027-retreat] Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ [https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/] LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/] Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com [https://hive180.com] Chapters: 01:49 Janne's Methodology and Impact 02:42 Personal Life and Creative Endeavors 02:48 Generosity and Boundaries in Community Living 38:53 Cultural Wisdom and the Power of Prayer 42:00 The Healing Power of Whales and Nature 45:50 Reconnecting with Community and Personal Joy 49:27 The Courage to Share Your Truth in Writing 52:46 Coaching and Retreat Opportunities

How to Build a Business That Runs Without You with Jessica Millhiser

In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Jessica Millhiser, the founder of J.Mills Consulting and an operations strategist who helps service-based entrepreneurs build businesses that are clear, organized, and intentional. Jessica's work sits at the intersection of structure and intuition, and that combination is rare. We talked about what it actually takes to build a business you can step away from. Jessica took nine weeks off last year and her business grew 34%. That number tells you something, but the conversation underneath it tells you more. It's about how you design a business in the first place, what you stop chasing, and what you let yourself want. Jessica wants to bring hospitality back to the forefront of how entrepreneurs run their businesses. Not hospitality as an industry, but as a posture. The way you treat people. The way your back-end operations show up as front-end client experience. She also opens up about a single intuitive decision she made years ago that changed the entire shape of her life. It's one of those moments in a conversation that you don't see coming. In this episode: * Why slowing down is the actual prerequisite for sustainable growth * What it means to bring hospitality back into a service-based business * How operational clarity creates space for you to step away from your business * The difference between time-for-money pricing and value-based pricing, and how to make the shift * Why your ideal client is probably not you, and what that means for what you charge Connect with Jessica Millhiser: Website: https://www.jmillsconsulting.com/ [https://www.jmillsconsulting.com/] Operations Audit (Free Resource): https://www.jmillsconsulting.com/operations-health-check [https://www.jmillsconsulting.com/operations-health-check] LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamillhiser/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicamillhiser/] Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ [https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/] LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/] FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman [https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman] Website: https://lesliesilverman.com [https://lesliesilverman.com] Branding Agency: https://hive180.com [https://hive180.com] Chapters: 00:49 Strategies for Building Intentional Businesses 01:06 Introduction to Jessica Millhiser's Work 04:02 The Importance of Intentionality in Business 07:00 Defining Success on Your Own Terms 09:57 Client Journey and Strategic Planning 13:09 Systems and Operations in Business 16:01 Bringing Hospitality into Business 18:44 Navigating Client Relationships and Pricing 21:53 The Shift from Time to Value-Based Pricing 24:52 Trusting Intuition in Business Decisions 27:49 Personal Stories and Life Lessons 30:44 Conclusion and Resources

How to Reconnect to Your Inner Child Through Creativity with Kelly O'Connell

In this episode of A Category of One, I sat down with Kelly O'Connell, founder of the brand studio Kind & Funny, to talk about creativity, self-expression, and what it looks like to stay connected to the version of yourself that existed before the world started shaping you. Kelly is one of those people who walks into a room and gives everyone else permission to take up more space. She runs a brand studio. She paints over fashion ads. She hosts a monthly Self-Expression Club. She wears a tutu in public sometimes. And underneath all of it is a real practice of meeting herself where she is, of treating creativity as a way home rather than a performance. We talked about how fashion became her daily check-in with who she is, why we don't see other people in our industry as competition, and what changed when she started building a business around being a human first. We also went into her ADHD diagnosis, what she's learned about shame and self-acceptance, and why parts work has been a quiet game-changer. This one moves between the playful and the tender. Kelly is luminous, and the conversation reflects it. In this episode: * Why self-expression starts with asking "how do I want to feel today" * The shift from scarcity to abundance with peers in your industry * What an inner child has to do with how you show up at work * ADHD, shame, and the practice of not doing it alone * How parts work creates more grace and more room * Building a business that sustains you as a human Connect with Kelly O’Connell: Website: https://www.kindandfunny.com/ [https://www.kindandfunny.com/] IG: https://www.instagram.com/bekindandfunny/ [https://www.instagram.com/bekindandfunny/] Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG: https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/ [https://www.instagram.com/lesliesilverman/] LI: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-silverman-hive180/] FB:  https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman [https://www.facebook.com/leslie.a.silverman] Website: https://lesliesilverman.com [https://lesliesilverman.com] Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com [https://hive180.com] Chapters: 00:49 The Kind and Funny Brand Shop: Empowering Women-Owned Businesses 01:09 Introduction to Kelly O'Connell and Her Vision 01:33 The Art of Self-Expression 04:17 Fashion as a Personal Brand 07:16 The Power of Community and Collaboration 09:53 Embracing Authenticity and Individuality 12:49 The Self-Expression Club Experience 15:39 Creativity Beyond Boundaries 18:41 Navigating the Entrepreneurial Journey 21:36 Understanding ADHD and Self-Care 24:17 Vulnerability and Connection 27:07 The Journey of Self-Discovery