“If it ain't joyful, I ain't doing that shit.”

–M. Shannon Hernandez

I’m talking to M. Shannon Hernandez, author of Practical Joy: Simple Tools to Cultivate More Joy Every Day and founder of Joyful Business Revolution. She opens with her mantra: If it ain’t joyful, I ain’t doing that shit,” and we dive in from there.

Shannon explains the difference between joy and happiness this way: Joy is an inside job, while happiness comes from things on the outside. Joy is living in alignment with our core values. And you can plan for joy.

Shannon shows us how to weave joy into our marketing — and the shift that happens when you stop thinking about marketing and start thinking about messaging.

We talk about:

Planning your day based around your 3-4 top values and how your future self drives joy
Cultivating joy every day, no matter what’s going on — with examples — and working through the non-joyful parts to get to joy
The difference between marketing and messaging, and bringing joy to the messaging of your business
Finding your messaging pillars
Why making time to connect with people is essential
Using AI — how to show up as you, how to use AI to streamline not make things busier

ABOUT SHANNON

When consultants, strategists, speakers, and trainers know their work has outgrown their message, and they need messaging that reflects its depth and converts without compromise, they call M. Shannon Hernandez. Shannon is the strategist behind the Profit-Driven Messaging Ecosystem™ and a fierce advocate for protecting voice and authority in an AI-driven world.

LINKS

DOABLE CHANGES

At the end of every episode, we share three doable changes, so you can take what you've heard and put it into action. Change comes from action.

Doable changes are things that you can add into your life, one at a time to make micro shifts and really create a ripple effect that will create a big change over time. Choose one that really piques your interest and roll with it.

Here are three Doable Changes from this conversation:

PLAN FROM YOUR VALUES. Identify your top 3–4 values. Each morning for a week, identify what you will do each day to live each value. Notice how it changes the way you approach your day. What things easily fit in? What things feel challenging? What things fit if you shift the way you think?
IDENTIFY YOUR MESSAGING PILLARS. What are the three things you talk about in your messaging? Start by looking at what you are already talking about. Think about what your future self wants to be doing — what are three things important to that work? What things already bring joy or spark real connection with people? Work with these pillars or anchors to streamline your messaging on your website, in emails, in podcasts or blogs, in talks and workshops.
REACH OUT TO OTHERS. Connecting with others is essential to your business success. Do it as a joyful thing. Do it as a real human looking to connect with someone else. If you are bringing networking energy or a checklist of numbers energy to it, try leading with a different gesture, with connection, with real curiosity or interest.