Inspiring Conversations with Shannon Briggs of Campfire Collective
Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Briggs.
Hi Shannon, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I studied Communication at the University of Memphis, where I received both my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in the field. During that time, I was waiting tables at Huey’s Restaurants to keep the bills paid. The summer in between my two years in graduate school, I emailed the Marketing Director for Huey’s asking for an internship for the summer.
She agreed, and I became Huey’s first Marketing Intern. From there, I became their first Marketing Assistant and then their first Marketing and Events Coordinator. This is where I learned most of my hands-on marketing skills and figured out what I really loved to do. I wore many hats in that role, and I had the opportunity to experiment within my job.
During this time, I started freelancing on the side, solely through word of mouth. Small business owners saw what I was doing for Huey’s social media and asked if I could help their businesses as well. For four years, I would work my day job, come home, pet the fur babies, make a cup of coffee, and get behind the computer to work on my freelance work.
There came a time when I had grown so much in my freelance work that I was working two full-time jobs. With support from friends and family and a leap of faith, little ol’ risk-averse me took a plunge into self-employment and my sole focus.
Now, over seven years later, I have grown from one solopreneur into a team of six incredibly talented and hard-working individuals. I felt it was time that the business brand grew alongside the business and that we needed a new face for what we had grown to become. Thus, Campfire Collective was born.
Since starting the business, our team has worked with over fifty small businesses and non-profits on their digital marketing, public relations, and social media. We continue to have fun every day working with our amazing clients, and each other!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
What road through entrepreneurship is completely smooth? There have certainly been struggles.
The first, biggest struggle was learning the business side of the business. I was confident in my marketing skills but had no idea how to run a business. Thanks to friends, colleagues, my former bosses, and Google, I was able to learn along the way.
Along the way, growing pains set in as well. Learning how to hire team members and manage them was another new lesson. I was honest and transparent with each hire from the start, telling them that I was new to leading others and welcomed honest feedback throughout the process from them.
Rebranding the business from Shannon Little PR/Social Media to Campfire Collective was another huge hurdle. I didn’t know the first thing about how to rebrand and what that included. Thankfully, I hired an incredible branding expert, Elizabeth Berglund, who walked me through the process from start to finish.
This has been one of my biggest lessons of all: learning where to spend my time and when to delegate. I am not a numbers person, so a bookkeeper was my first ever hire.
Recently, the biggest struggle is figuring out how to be a full-time business owner while also being a mom to a one-year-old baby. The balance is a constant struggle. Sometimes there are long work nights so I am present with my family during the day.
Sometimes, my daughter comes with me to client meetings and events. I’m learning that it’s not only okay but also valuable, to bring your whole self to your work. You don’t have to be either/or, but you can be a parent and a professional at the same time.
Read the full interview at Memphis Voyager Magazine.
