Marketing with Joy: How to Grow Your Business Without the Stress

In a world where marketing often feels like an exhausting grind, Shannon Hernandez brings a refreshing perspective: Marketing should be joyful, sustainable, and aligned with who you are. In the latest episode of The Amanda Kaufman Show, Shannon shares her wisdom on ditching the hustle mentality and embracing an approach to business that actually fuels you, rather than drains you.

Why Joy Should Be at the Core of Your Business

Many entrepreneurs start their businesses with passion but quickly find themselves overwhelmed by burnout, distractions, and the pressure to do everything at once. Shannon emphasizes that the key to long-term success is focusing on what truly brings you energy and fulfillment rather than chasing strategies that feel misaligned.

Her mantra? "If it ain’t joyful, we ain’t doing that sh*t." It’s a bold statement, but one that resonates deeply with those who have spent too much time forcing themselves into marketing tactics that feel unnatural.

The Power of Focus: One Offer, One Platform, One Email List

One of Shannon’s biggest game-changing strategies is simplicity. Instead of spreading yourself thin trying to be everywhere, she recommends entrepreneurs focus on:

• One primary social media platform where you engage deeply with your audience.

• One core offer that you refine and sell consistently.

• One email list that you nurture and grow—because unlike social media, your email list is an asset you own.

This focused approach eliminates distractions and creates more impact with less effort—a win-win for both your energy and your revenue.

Authentic Connection Over Sales Pitches

Shannon has a unique approach to building relationships: she values genuine human connection over transactional networking. Instead of sending cold pitches, she reaches out with one simple question:

👉 "Tell me what’s joyful in your world."

This shifts the conversation from sales-driven to relationship-driven, which not only feels better but also leads to stronger, more aligned connections. Shannon shares that in the two years she’s used this method, she has only had three negative reactions out of thousands—a powerful reminder that most people appreciate sincerity over sales tactics.

Struggle is Normal, But Don’t Attach It to Your Worth

One of the most profound moments in the episode was when Shannon said:

👉 "If you struggle, that is normal. But if you make that struggle into a story about your worth, that’s where you need to draw the line."

Entrepreneurship comes with its fair share of ups and downs. But instead of letting setbacks define you, Shannon encourages business owners to treat their marketing and messaging as an experiment—one where failures are simply lessons, not personal reflections of worth.

How to Step into a Joyful Business Revolution

As we step into 2025, Shannon predicts that the most successful business owners will be those who: ✅ Prioritize joy over hustle. ✅ Own their audience with email instead of relying solely on social media. ✅ Take a stand and build a brand with confidence. ✅ Trust the process and embrace marketing as an experiment rather than a pass/fail test.

Listen to the Full Episode Now!

This conversation is packed with golden nuggets on marketing, messaging, and building a business that actually feels good. If you’re ready to ditch the stress and grow your business with joy, don’t miss this episode!

🌟 Want more insights? Drop a comment below—what’s one thing you’re doing to bring more joy into your business this year?

Chapters List

• 00:00 Introduction to Joy in Business

• 02:28 The Importance of Delegation

• 05:05 Building Relationships as Currency

• 08:01 Embracing Authenticity in Coaching

• 11:57 Navigating the Coaching Landscape

• 14:32 The Value of Small Audiences

• 17:30 Final Thoughts and Resources

Full Transcript:

M. Shannon Hernandez (00:00)

when we attach our worth to the outcome, that's where the problem gets all mingled up.

Amanda Kaufman (00:26)

Well, hey, hey, and welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show. I am so excited because we're gonna be talking today with Shannon Hernandez, who is a newer friend of mine. I've been getting more active in local networking, which ironically brought me to a online-based networking community. I couldn't help it. But I met Shannon through Facebook. We got to know each other a little bit there. And I have to tell you that when I really like somebody,

I stock them heavily and I've been watching Shannon over the past several months. This woman is so down to earth and let me give you a little bit of her resume. She's a messaging and marketing strategist and she's the founder of the Joyful Business Revolution, which gives me goosebumps all the way up to my cheeks to share because boy, if you don't have joy like in building a business, go get a J-O-B, you know, like if you've got to tolerate making money, that sucks. Like let's bring some joy. I love this.

She's passionate about helping mission-driven business owners achieve sustainable, joyful growth. She specializes in organic marketing, and let me just say, she's dang good at it. I've been watching her and her moves. And she loves building aligned audiences, fostering meaningful connections, and driving profits with purpose. I'm gonna ask her about this because I know that Shannon is also, she puts diversity and inclusion right at the front and center of what she does, and I know that that...

is also something that I had in mind when I was leaving corporate America as a youngish mother and wanting to do something really different that is really aligned. so she is an advocate for marginalized communities. And I saw a post recently that I'm going to ask you about in a second, Shannon, about how you provide scholarships. So I really want to hear about that.

She's been on CBS, ABC, Fox, and NBC, and she has over 25 years of award-winning expertise, and she's just outstanding and amazing. Shannon, welcome to the show.

M. Shannon Hernandez (02:24)

I'm so excited to be here! I've been stalking you too, so we'll just be the stalkers.

Amanda Kaufman (02:29)

I think it's like the 2025 way of saying I like you is that you're following somebody else's posts really closely.

M. Shannon Hernandez (02:38)

Well, I'll tell you how I tell people I like them, because I think I did it to you. I go into their DMs and say, I really like you. Do you want to be real friends? Because I need more like real... Can I cuss here? I need more real friend energy here.

Amanda Kaufman (02:42)

Mm-hmm.

Totally, totally, yes. And we're like an occasional F-bomb shop. So if it's great for punctuation, we do it. So Shannon, I mean, I really did appreciate that because I think you're probably like a lot of business owners where you get a ton of inbound messages and they're not genuine. They're not coming from a really genuine place. You can just feel, I call it sales breath. You can feel that sales breath energy.

M. Shannon Hernandez (02:59)

Okay.

Amanda Kaufman (03:20)

And I could tell right away when you reached out, it's like, no, this girl plays a long game. Like she's happy to make relationships and see where they go. And it was refreshing. It was really awesome. Yeah.

M. Shannon Hernandez (03:30)

my God,

thank you. On that note, I was so sick of people that I thought were people and they were people, but on the other side of like accepting the friend request or the connection request, it was like the pitch, right? The proverbial pitch that I drafted two years ago before anyone, if you friend me and do not send me a message or you connect with me on LinkedIn and do not send me a message, you're going to get a response from me. And yes, it is from me.

but the response is gonna say, I value human relationships. So please introduce yourself and tell me what's joyful in your world. And Amanda, in all the years I've been doing this and all the messages, it's been two years and lots of messages, I've had three people be complete fucking assholes to me and messenger. And they said, well, I think that you are getting ready to pitch me because you asked me what was joyful in my world. No.

Amanda Kaufman (04:27)

my

gosh.

M. Shannon Hernandez (04:28)

No, they

were caught red-handed and instead of just like backing away or reflecting on it or whatever and you know what? I just blocked them then because that's not the energy I want anyway.

Amanda Kaufman (04:39)

Yeah, and I have to imagine like you have thousands and thousands of followers. So for the number to be three, I think that's really heartening for a business owner to hear who's maybe working up the nerve to build their personal brand and have their personal brand presence because like the price you pay for being visible and being seen is that you are going to get contact from like everyone because they're going to be like, you clearly have something to sell, which means you have something to buy because you have a business.

It

is a price, but I mean, I think that's so wonderful that out of the thousands, it's three. It's three. And I think that that ties out with my belief basically that most people are good. People do their best with the information that they have. And even those three, I'd hazard to guess that they were just shocked.

M. Shannon Hernandez (05:28)

Well they were shocked, but they were shocked and an asshole, is double whammy.

Amanda Kaufman (05:33)

And what a blessing too that they told you who they were right away. Like, boy, you know, that just saves you so much energy.

M. Shannon Hernandez (05:37)

And

I'm like, I'm thinking to myself, you just made my job so easy, thank you.

Amanda Kaufman (05:43)

Yeah, exactly. Like we don't have to nurture that. That's fine. We're done. So, Sean, talk to me a little bit about your choice, your decision to pursue like marketing. Why this? Why do you love this?

M. Shannon Hernandez (05:57)

Well, I used to be a teacher in Spanish Harlem. So I taught those crazy eighth graders that looked nothing like me. I was the minority in the classroom. And what I know worked for them, which is the theory I left with 13 years ago was enrolling them into their own story. Right? What is their story? What do they want? And listen, sometimes we got to detach from what people want. Cause these kids wanted some crazy bogus things.

Amanda Kaufman (06:15)

Mmm.

M. Shannon Hernandez (06:24)

right? They are living on the streets. Seriously, they whatever. I just learned to accept that whatever they wanted, ethically, I was going to enroll them into the story of how to get it. All right. And so that was the best playground for marketing in my life, honestly, because the best marketers and y'all, if you're listening to this, you are going to be a

Amanda Kaufman (06:40)

Mm.

M. Shannon Hernandez (06:48)

if you want clients. So I'm just gonna break it down for you right now. You can call it a different word, you can wrap it in a different boat, you're gonna have to learn to share your story and share your message and share your mission and enroll people. But anyway, the best marketing that I tell my clients they can be is be 100 % themselves, know where you stand, take a damn stance, let the haters hate and go for the gold of the people who are in line with your mission.

Amanda Kaufman (07:17)

It's so good.

M. Shannon Hernandez (07:17)

And I

learned that from standing for 15 years in front of 90 students a day. I taught 90 students a day. Trying to figure out how I was gonna leave a classroom alive and come back the next day with the energy to teaching.

Amanda Kaufman (07:36)

Yeah, that's a super difficult environment and, you know, such a powerful story, especially when people think about how to use their own story. think what's really cool about your telling of your story here is that it was really about the activation of the story in the students. And I think that that's a really powerful distinction that anybody listening could write down. Put in your notebook. Tell the story that your audience

needs to be a part of. Like that's the story that matters. And I think a lot of anxiety of telling what your story is, you do have to do that. But I think a lot of people get this anxiety that, and I know what this is me too, that they're not impressive enough. Like they don't have enough drama in their story to make it worthy. And when you realize that it's actually about...

their story and you're telling your pieces and bits to help them step into their own, that's pretty powerful thing. So Shannon, we're at the beginning of 2025 and I just feel compelled to ask, what do you see or predict for this coming year? We've seen already TikTok shut down and started back up in 15 hours. There's a ton of disruption, AI, all the things. I'm so curious, what's your take? What do you think is going to...

be defining about 2025.

M. Shannon Hernandez (08:56)

Well, my first take is I'm gonna treat this year, which has started off with a bang of a shit show, pretty much like every other year in business, I'm going to focus.

Amanda Kaufman (09:08)

Mmmmm

M. Shannon Hernandez (09:09)

All right,

and I say this as an ADHD entrepreneur, a neurodivergent business owner, the owner of a brand that's a million dollars a year with no ads, how did I get there? Focus, focus. And if you don't know what to focus on, it's okay. That's why there's people like me and Amanda and other good-hearted people that are gonna help you focus.

Amanda Kaufman (09:34)

Mm.

M. Shannon Hernandez (09:34)

For this year specifically, I have put myself on a podcast tour. So here I am. All right. I have, thank you for helping make my dream come true, Amanda. I have refined how I'm going to run my business. I'm in the early stages of moving away from a very capitalistic quarterly mindset into a more seasonal, natural rhythm approach. I don't expect this is gonna take

Amanda Kaufman (09:40)

Hello.

M. Shannon Hernandez (10:05)

It's not going to be like done this year, but it's going to be a practice like yoga, right? It's going to be a practice that I just remember. Okay, right now we're in winter and winter is about resting, reflecting and restoring energy so we can hit the road running again. All right. So that's pretty cool. And the other thing I think that will help people with their own business this year,

Amanda Kaufman (10:23)

See you there.

M. Shannon Hernandez (10:31)

is to lean into the fact that you have 52,000 stories and you can no longer stand back and say, have nothing to say. And if you are in that situation, please reach out to me.

Amanda Kaufman (10:46)

Yeah, seriously. actually, and I think people are really ready to hear that. I recently launched my membership community, the First 5 Club, which is based on like, let's do what's necessary for attracting and converting those very first five clients or your very next five clients if you want to do it a lot faster than you did in the past.

M. Shannon Hernandez (10:46)

because you're sitting on a goldmine.

Amanda Kaufman (11:06)

as a very special bonus for the early adopters, the really early birds in that launch, I offered almost kind of off the cuff, I was like, let's do a story extraction workshop as a bonus. And people were like, so there. And we went for a good two and a half hours and it was like wildly popular for people to show up to that. And I was like, well, think 2025 is gonna be the year of finding your voice and finding like your expression of that.

you know, what else I'm seeing is there's this prolific, the proliferation of content. Like there's just so much content out there. So for you to really differentiate, I totally agree. Now in your experience, you've worked with a lot of people and focus is like the key theme for you this year. If you were speaking to somebody who's starting their business or they're ready to have the best year they've ever had,

What should they be avoiding? know, like, what are those distractors that tend to steal focus away?

M. Shannon Hernandez (12:05)

Okay, so first I'm gonna answer what they absolutely should not be avoiding and then we'll talk about all the other things, right? So number one, to focus in my world means one primary social media platform with an email list. That's it. That is the focus. That's what we teach. That's what I've done for years. It's how we build out their marketing strategy. So everything that's not that is a distraction.

Amanda Kaufman (12:12)

Okay.

M. Shannon Hernandez (12:30)

All right, so my primary platform for 2025 is LinkedIn and of course email. I mean, if you all have watched any of the shit show, go down around TikTok here, TikTok not, X's here, blah, blah. Get your damn email list started now. I did this from day one, even though I didn't know what it meant. But I had a coach who said, you need an email list?

Amanda Kaufman (12:54)

Mm-hmm.

M. Shannon Hernandez (12:59)

and you need to own your data. I didn't even know what that meant, but I was like, well, this is why I hired this person. She knows way more than I do. I am ever so grateful that has happened. All right. The other thing I would say, especially for our creative neurodivergent listeners, pick the one offer you want to sell and focus on selling that offer. Do not get distracted like I did for seven years when I got bored.

Amanda Kaufman (13:23)

Hmm.

M. Shannon Hernandez (13:29)

I created a new offer. For seven years, I wasted time creating new, creating new, gotta market it, do this, do this, do that. That adrenaline was so addictive to my ADHD brain. But when I finally said enough is enough, I'm leading with a one offer, which I have led with now for seven years, and it's good. And the way I'm gonna experiment is I'm gonna go get some damn hobbies and passion projects.

I'm gonna take an art class. I'm gonna learn to bake sourdough bread. I'm getting back to fiction and let the marketing work for you. So anything that's not, determine your offer and sell it on one platform with email is a distraction.

Amanda Kaufman (14:13)

Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I love it, I love it. And I think like, especially in the early days, you know, it makes sense to test that offer. But like, once you have something that's viable, once you've figured it out, like that's when you double down, unless there's something that's like fundamentally wrong with, you know, the delivery method or something like that. But even then, once you find the thing that works, like I love that, you know, do make sure that you follow through on that.

M. Shannon Hernandez (14:13)

answer the question?

Amanda Kaufman (14:41)

So good. So, Shannon, like as you see people, you know, succeeding more in the marketplace, what are you seeing really win these days if people are like trying to choose that direction? They're trying to choose like, what is that one offer? Cause you know, that can be so scary to select. And that's one of the things we're doing in the first five club is just like identifying, we call it the problem of appropriate magnitude, but essentially it's your niche and the key.

problem or challenge that your solution is solving. So what would be your biggest tip or advice to somebody who feels like they have a lot of different things they could give? How do they hone in on what they should give?

M. Shannon Hernandez (15:21)

Well, the number one thing and the reason I rebranded to such a bold name as Joyful Business Revolution is because none of us have time to be doing shit that ain't joyful. That is our mantra here. If it ain't joyful, we ain't doing that shit. I open every speech with it. I say it in every podcast, every client recites it. All right, so what do I mean by that? And you won't know until you test. I agree with that, right? But I built a...

a robust one-on-one practice right out of the gate. And I had so many one-on-ones, I hated it by the time I was in it. And I didn't make myself wrong for that. But I knew that my energy, the teacher, the love to train and facilitate, that is not one-on-one, me saying the same thing 15 times a day to each person that I have to talk to, right? So eventually,

Amanda Kaufman (16:13)

Mm-hmm.

M. Shannon Hernandez (16:16)

We did a blended model because what did I do? I was burnt out on one-on-ones. What did I do? What my coach told me to, which I would not recommend, burn that down and go build the group. Well, then I felt disconnected from what they were doing. Like, how can I help if I'm in a group? So what I eventually found is I needed a hybrid model where I have some one-on-one, but way more group. And it was a process of

Amanda Kaufman (16:36)

Mm-hmm.

M. Shannon Hernandez (16:43)

elimination and testing and all of that. But to your question, there are a million ways I could offer our JoyFueled Business Growth Program. The way that I offer it is a way that brings me joy. And to me, it leaves me with energy at the end of the day to go do the other things that I want to be doing in my life.

Amanda Kaufman (17:05)

That's super, I love that.

M. Shannon Hernandez (17:06)

So

that's important. And I would ask you, Amanda, and maybe you already do this, I would have them really rate like, okay, is talking to people two times a month in a membership, a hundred people on your screen, does that feel joyful to you? Is that gonna give you energy or take energy? Or one-on-one or whatever. I would have them go through and rate that because it's the piece that nobody's talking about.

Any way we build the right.

Amanda Kaufman (17:33)

Well, yeah, mean, we for sure

do pay attention to Joy because we do like high performance coaching in our group programs. And that's a really big core tenant is we believe in bringing the Joy. Here's my curious question. What's your take on struggle? Because when you do something new,

It almost always sucks in the beginning, you know, because maybe the quality isn't what you imagined it was gonna be. It probably cost a heck of a lot more than you thought it was gonna cost. It probably took a heck of a lot more time than you thought it was going to take. And what I noticed is especially among like newer entrepreneurs or people that are struggling with like breaking through to what they would like to joyfully achieve at their next level, often it's their emotional regulation around.

that struggle. So how do you guide people through that while at the same time prioritizing joy?

M. Shannon Hernandez (18:28)

Well, one of the things before we take any clients is we make sure everyone understands your marketing and your messaging is one big experiment. We are gonna play, we're gonna get curious, we're gonna screw shit up, we're gonna blow stuff up, some stuff is gonna work and some not, and are you okay with that process?

Amanda Kaufman (18:40)

Mmm.

Mm-hmm.

M. Shannon Hernandez (18:53)

If they say yes, great. Now we're talking about how do they handle struggle. Okay, now we are gonna all struggle y'all. Everyone's gonna struggle. Even those of us who have been in this for a while, we try new things. It don't always work. They flop, all right. But emotional regulation in general, it's huge. And it's especially huge for

service providers who, and I was here before and sometimes I go back there, but when we attach our worth to the outcome, that's where the problem gets all mingled up.

And then we're in this, I'm not good enough, imposter syndrome, nobody wants to hear from me, blah, blah, blah, right? So the trick, if you will, is to understand one,

You are an employee of your business and you're gonna try things and test things out. And if you struggle, that is normal. And if you make that struggle into a story, that is where you need to draw the line. And that's what happens, right? Is we make the struggle into a story about our worth or worthiness.

and then we're in this downward spiral trying to like be visible. That's really hard to do.

Amanda Kaufman (20:18)

It's

so true and I have observed the very, very same thing. Shannon, I've loved our time together, but alas, we are at the end. What is the best way for people to follow you and get more joy in their marketing?

M. Shannon Hernandez (20:34)

Gosh, two ways. One, come follow me over on LinkedIn. That's where I'm going to be hanging out this year. Shannon Hernandez on LinkedIn. And two, if you DM me on LinkedIn with the word Amanda, I'm going to send you a special resource that will make your marketing not such a struggle for you.

Amanda Kaufman (20:56)

that thank you, that's very generous. so yes, listener, we can find those links and the link to Shannon's website in the show notes. And don't forget to subscribe so you don't miss another episode of the show. And please take a moment to leave a review, an honest review. And honestly, Shannon deserves a five.

It's just my opinion, you gotta leave your own opinion. But if you do that, that actually makes the show easier for others to find and to decide to spend time with us. And you know, I'm sure that you've got some friends that are possibly at a crossroads with their marketing, they're wanting to choose more joy, or like we say around here, we wanna not suck at what we're doing. And so go ahead and share this episode directly with one of those friends, know, send it to them in the DM or the messenger or the text.

and we will see you on an episode upcoming. Thanks so much, Shannon.

M. Shannon Hernandez (21:46)

Thank you, adios.