Becoming an Influencer with Shanna Tyler
Last year, as we were working on building the Financial Gym brand, we worked with a number of influencers to help get the word out about the Gym. During that time, we saw the value of working with them, not only as a brand to help us build our brand, but we saw the value that could come to being an influencer.
Today I’m talking to Shanna Tyler, Life and Business Coach and founder of Self Soul Sport, about how she became an influencer, how you can become one, and how you can make money doing it.
What Are We Drinking?
Shanna — Iced Matcha Latte with Agave Syrup; Shanna buys her matcha from The Matcha Reserve
Shannon — Earl Grey Tea
Podcast Notes
Shanna is a business coach and life coach for women, and she is based in New York City. She is the founder of a community of women called Self Soul Sport, and she has a podcast of the same name.
Shanna loves matcha lattes and dancing.
After Shanna got her coaching certification, she wasn’t really talking about it and she was nervous about it. She is a Financial Gym client and Shannon told her she either needed to go all in and be a coach or get a full-time job. Shanna needed that.
Shanna started shannatyler.com two years ago as a side hustle. She is a social media influencer and she gets paid for it.
She was looking for something more meaningful that tapped into her skills, and after she took a Myers-Briggs test two years ago, she found out she is an ENFJ (extrovert, intuitive, feeler, judger). This profile is good with teaching, consulting, coaching, and social work.
Shanna went to school to be a social worker and she realized two days in that it wasn’t for her. At the same time, in 2017, she was hosting monthly events for Self Soul Sport.
Shanna decided to use #selfsoulsport, which means love self, nurture soul, and live sport. She had about 20 women in a room answering discussion questions: how do you love yourself, how do you nurture your soul, and how do you live your sport. So many women were talking about their businesses and Shanna realized that she was informally coaching them.
Shanna had her own career coach and decided to go to school for coaching. She now has the training from Institute of Life Coach Training and is getting credentialed. Shanna started her life coaching business about six months ago. Shanna started by coaching friends and people she knew on things like social media strategy.
Being an entrepreneur is not for the weak of heart. You either need to do it or not. No true entrepreneurial journey was meant to be easy.
Shanna works with women who want to build their personal brand and monetize it into a business. After women make the leap into their side hustle or entrepreneurial venture and are wondering what they did, Shanna is the person who helps them get from their mission, vision, and values to their pricing packages, to make sure they make money off of their business and not undervalue themselves.
Microinfluencer means you have fewer than 10,000 followers.
Shanna was diagnosed with major depressive disorder in 2014. She decided to create her website, shannatyler.com, because she wanted to intertwine that diagnosis with being a black woman and have a good time.
After a while, brands started reaching out to her and asked if they could send her free stuff. She hit 3,000 and 4,000 followers and her friends were questioning why she wasn’t getting paid. She thought the free stuff was payment.
Shanna realized she was a microinfluencer and brands were realizing she had a niche audience that was dedicated to her. They are more likely to buy things from her, since it feels like she is a friend.
How do you go about being an influencer?
Uplevel your content: Get strategic, know your audience and who you are talking to, be intentional in your Instagram bio, know who you want to influence. This could be finance, girl bossing, fitness, yoga, etc. The more niche you get the better. Start with what you love. Start talking about it and creating a community around it on Instagram. Post once a day and have one or two days off. Saturdays and Sundays are not the top days to post. If you are thinking about it, do it.
Professional photos: Brands like professional photos with a kickass caption. This is one that is genuine, authentic, and has a call-to-action. You need to look like you want your Instagram to be a business.
Some large influencers are making $300,000 a year.
Imposter syndrome is preventing people from doing what they want to do. Embrace who you are. Don’t compare yourself to others. Why not you? There is no such thing as the best. You are not being an imposter to anybody, but if you are going to do it, be accurate. Don’t give out wrong or bad information.
We influence people every day. When you are an influencer on social media, you get paid for it.
You only need 1,000 to 2,000 followers to become an influencer.
To increase followers, hosting in-person/community events helps, because people will post about. Have giveaways that are specific to your audience. Brands love giveaways and will usually say yes. Call-to-action is really important - have people double-tap if they agree or ask them to post about their day. Connect with people who are also looking to be influencers. It will not hurt you to help other people, even if you have the same product - you are all representing the brand differently.
To determine how much to charge, Shanna goes by $25 per 1,000 followers plus more for deliverables and other things the brand wants. It is more if the brand is a large company.
Shanna had 3,000 followers last year and now has just under 6,000. Her goal for 2019 is 10,000 followers.
Shanna has a one-word intention, which is alignment, and her goals are based on that word. For 2019, her goals are aligning with her vision of supporting entrepreneurial women through one-on-one coaching and through a group coaching program that she is planning, aligning with brand work, and aligning in her love life by sticking to her standards.
The best thing about being a brand influencer is you are talking about things that you love.
Takeaway: My biggest takeaway is to remember the value of finding side hustle opportunities and thinking about becoming an influencer is a great way to marry the things you love with the potential to make money. It is a rare and great combination to find.
Random Three Questions
What is a show that you like to binge watch?
What is a food that you hated as a kid, and do you hate it now or love it?
If you were to win a million dollars, what would you do with it?
Connect with Shanna
Website: http://www.shannatyler.com/
Free Discovery Call: https://calendly.com/shanna-tyler-llc/30min
Instagram: @shannatyler_
If you’d like to work with my team, and drop any fear or shame you have around money, I hope you’ll reach out to us at the Financial Gym. My trainers have literally seen it all, so nothing will surprise us. We don’t care how you got here, we just care about getting you where you want to go.
As many of you know, we increased our rates in 2019 for new clients, but I have instituted a 15% discount for Martinis and Your Money listeners going forward, so the new rates will not impact you. If you’re ready to align with your financial greatness, like Shanna, in 2019, head over to, or send friends to, financialgym.com to get signed up today.