If you’ve ever Googled “SEO podcast” hoping to find someone who would just explain things plainly, there’s a chance you found us. That’s exactly how Shannon found Duo on Air, and it’s how she ended up with a full rebrand and a new website for her podcast.
Shannon started her podcast to hold herself accountable while she decluttered her own home. Her friends were all dealing with the same mess, so she started documenting it, and thousands of people showed up because she let them into the real thing, not a polished version of it.
Shannon has so much goodness to share about building a personal brand in this episode!
What we chat about in this episode:
- When did you first realize you were building a personal brand? Was it intentional from the start, or did it emerge organically?
- How do you stay authentic when there’s so much pressure to perform for the algorithm?
- What do most people underestimate about growing an audience around a personal brand?
- Many brand builders are afraid to give too much away. What would you say to them?
- What’s something about building a personal brand that nobody really talks about?
She Started the Podcast for Herself
Shannon is a decluttering educator, and she’ll be the first to tell you she didn’t start with a business plan. She started with a house that needed to be cleared out and friends who said, “Document this, because we need to do it, too!”
So she did. She showed up authentically, even in the mess, and thousands of people followed along because of it. Her Instagram account went viral nine months in, the podcast took off, and it turned into her full-time career.
She also has a book coming out with Penguin Random House, and we can’t wait to read it!
How to Share Yourself Online Without Oversharing
Being the face of a brand is a little weird. It’s important to have boundaries about what that means personally versus professionally.
Shannon is really glad she created a separate Instagram account for her podcast. She doesn’t share her children on the public page, but she also has a private personal account just for friends and family.
She decided ahead of time what her boundaries are — not only about her kids, but also about how much she shares of her life. She wants to be relatable and share pieces of herself to connect with others and build community, while being respectful to the people in our lives and to our own privacy.
This balance was intentional from the very beginning of her business.
Staying Authentic When the Algorithm Wants You to Perform
Part of this is just natural—it feels weird and awkward to not be yourself. The more you know yourself, the easier it is to be authentic because it just flows out of you. When you know what you believe and what you stand for, you can’t hide that.
A lot of times, when people are maybe putting on a facade or trying to act a certain way on the internet, it comes from not really knowing what they personally believe and stand for.
What helped Shannon is not listening to and watching Reels of people in her niche. She didn’t want to start analyzing what they were doing or to let it influence her content based on what was working for other people.
She’s just staying in her lane and doing her own thing! It’s important to just do what is true and natural to you because that’s the personal brand that will grow.
What Everyone Gets Wrong About Growing an Audience
Everyone underestimates consistency, even though we all know that’s the answer.
Shannon posted Reel after Reel for nine months before anything broke through. Reel 300-something went viral, bringing in 180,000 followers. That’s the number people see.
What they don’t see is the 299 before it, where she was studying her hooks, fixing her lighting, and figuring out how to move people somewhere useful instead of just collecting views.
Consistency is important, but there’s also a level of dedication to continually get better at what you’re doing.
Gatekeeping Is the Fastest Way to Lose Trust
Can we be honest? Sometimes we worry that we give away too much. We have so much free content between our podcast, blog, newsletters, webinars, and freebies. You really could learn SEO and branding without paying us a dime!
But all that free stuff is what actually encouraged Shannon to work with us. Shannon told us she wouldn’t have trusted us as much if we hadn’t given away such great free information first. And that means something to us, because it’s exactly why we do it.
People aren’t necessarily hiring you for brand new information. A lot of times, people hire you because they know the answer but just can’t or don’t want to do it, or they want all the answers in one place.
You can share all the information you’re also giving to your private clients, so your clients get it all in one place, it’s more organized, and it’s specific to them. And all that is super valuable!
Shannon believes free information actually draws more people to you and that people will not trust you if you gatekeep.
The Hardest and Most Rewarding Parts of Building a Personal Brand
The hardest part about building a personal brand is knowing exactly what you want to say and why. This comes back to knowing who you are and what you stand for, and not letting anything else influence that. Your people will find you. But they can only find you if you’re actually there to be found.
The most rewarding part is the people that you get to connect with and form relationships with. Some people would say those connections aren’t real, and we disagree. It’s so fun to meet and interact with people who are sharing your journey.
Building a Personal Brand Is About Being Real
A personal brand isn’t built on a perfectly curated aesthetic. It’s built on knowing what you stand for, showing up before it pays off, and giving freely. The audience will grow and follow, but only if you give them something real to relate to.
If branding is the missing piece of building your personal brand, explore our packages! We love helping people elevate their brand to a level they can be truly proud of.
More About Shannon!
Shannon Leyko is the host of the top-charting podcast, Paring Down, and helps her social media audience of over 700,000 followers make room for what matters through decluttering. Using her degree in psychology, she offers a deeper understanding of why we accumulate excess and tools to alter our thinking and behavior.
Shannon is a former Miss New York in the Miss America Organization, a professional vocalist, and reality television development producer. She lives with her Coast Guard husband and three kids in Kodiak, Alaska.
Shannon’s links:
- Listen to The Paring Down Podcast
- Follow her on Instagram: @shannonleyko
- Subscribe to The L.E.S.S. Express
- “What’s Your Decluttering Type” Quiz
Listen to Shannon’s Interview!
Apple Podcasts | Spotify
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Abbey Oslin and Courtney Petersen are Minnesota-based marketing experts with over 20+ years of combined experience working with big brands. They are educators and co-founders of Duo Collective; a boutique organic marketing agency specializing in SEO, branding, and custom websites for women-led small businesses and creative entrepreneurs.
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