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. In this episode of A Category of One, I sit down with Shawn Teasley, a marketing and social media strategist and the founder of Social Tonic, to talk about the work that doesn't look glamorous on the surface. 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 big interior reveal. And that's exactly where the story is. We get into 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 feature. That's a reason. What Shawn does well is pull that reason out of people and put it where customers can feel it. The conversation keeps opening up from there. We talk about being witnessed and why people share more when they feel genuinely seen, the difference between collecting LinkedIn connections and actually nurturing them, and why your personal life belongs in your business more than most people think. If you sell something that's hard to make exciting, or you've built a big LinkedIn network and aren't sure how to turn it into relationships, you'll find a lot here. Connect with Shawn Teasley: Website: https://socialtonic.us/ LI:   / shawnteasley   BIZ:   / socialtonic   Connect with Leslie Silverman: IG:   / lesliesilverman   LI:   / leslie-silverman-hive180   FB:   / leslie.a.silverman   Website: https://lesliesilverman.com Hive180 Branding Agency: https://hive180.com