Episode 059
Shari Dunn
How much is your reputation actually worth? Join Alice Tang as she speaks with Shari Dunn, author of Qualified, about the “millions of dollars” sitting in your current network. Shari reveals her transition from nonprofit leadership to hitting seven-figure revenue in her second year of consulting. Learn why showing up consistently as your authentic self creates a financial backstop for your future and why Shari believes in sharing the “secrets” of success with everyone.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
"Money is your power, it's your impact... money speaks louder often than your voice, your time, your attention. Money is the opportunity for you to support the issues and the experiences that you wanna create for people way beyond your bubble."
Shari: I was shocked when I started my business. How many people from my previous work knew me and were willing to hire me and work with me. And the power of that network is what powers and still powers this business today. And so that is something that you don’t realize the value of, but it is an asset,
Shari: From a consultant perspective, which I am… when I started my consulting business five years ago, heading into year six, now, I didn’t know anything about it really. I had always thought that being a consultant or running your own business was for people who already had money. It seemed like it was something that people already had money did. It didn’t seem like something I did or regular people did.
I had two friends, Tracy Rossi and Nina Bird. I was running a nonprofit. And they’re like, you’re making so much money for this organization. You work so hard at doing that. You could do that for yourself and you can make that kind of money. And I was like, no, no, no. I don’t know how to do that. Finally I did take the plunge and, the first year, I did well, better than I had expected.
Shari: Then the second year was really the year where I made in revenue, obviously not to me directly, but in revenue, cross that, that amount. The main moral of that story is, having people who believe in you and tell you that you can use your intelligence and your ability to make money for yourself and for the things that you do was difficult for me to hear and I hadn’t really understood that was, possible.
Shari: I exercised a lot of oversight, paying attention to a lot of things. You hire people who you have a lot of faith in… but it was like, wait a minute, I need to really [be] over every single thing. I still have to be the ultimate backstop for everything. In running your own business, it can be easy to put your trust in other people who are experts, but you still do have to be the backstop. You still have to be the ultimate reviewer of everything.
Shari: For me, life is a series of practical issues and solutions. I think about things in terms of breaking them off into bite-sized pieces. Okay, what do I have to do now, now, now, now, now, as opposed to looking at the totality of something, because looking at the totality can be super overwhelming. And what ultimately kept me going and keeps me going is I really believe in and, love the work that I do.
Shari: Book publishing is a business… that is something you don’t know. At least I didn’t know until I was in it. I would say that the publishing of a book is 20% your idea and your writing, and 80% the business of books. Not really being educated in the ways of major publishing was a shock to me as far as the amount of investment and business that it is. You, the author, have to put a lot more money into the promotion of your work in your book, which is wild because you would think a large entity like a publishing house would do that.
Shari: The two hardest parts are getting an agent and getting a book deal. I got the agent because a law school friend of mine… David Ellis… shared [my proposal] with his agent and she generously offered to represent me. That is a huge hurdle because in traditional publishing, you just can’t go to the publisher directly. For regular people, you really need an agent.
The book went to auction. Many multiple people bid on it. The winner was Harper Collins. So that is a business process, assessing who has the best bid and what they’re offering. But the selling and business of the book is the marketing promotion part.
Shari: I spent the first half of my professional career, first practicing law. Then I moved to Washington, DC… then I moved to New York where I was a funder of that system. I had a network of people who knew me and they knew me at a high level, and that had a financial value that I had not thought about, I hadn’t fully understood. I spent another decade here [in Portland] cultivating a community… people who know my work, know my value, know my morals, and that is invaluable.
Shari: I do try to keep a lot of space and availability for people. I had a young man a few months back who just contacted me on LinkedIn… USC [student], and he said… would you talk to me?. I was like, I got more outta my conversation with Kevin then Kevin got outta me because then I felt re-energized. It renews in me an energy about why I am doing what I’m doing.
Shari: I did not grow up wealthy. I grew up working class. Save early. I did not do that. No one told me that… I come from a working class community where people are working, just surviving paycheck to paycheck. If you are raised in a paycheck to paycheck environment where people are just doing their best to manage each month, then you hear the words [about compound interest], but they don’t really mean anything to you ’cause they’re just not relevant to you.
Shari: I think of things more broadly like with time. I serve on a lot of boards but I also contribute time… to trying to look at systemic things. Nature among friends of the Columbia Gorge Board… which is about preserving the legacy of the Columbia Gorge for generations to come. I’m on a state board that looks at workforce and the importance of access. Even if one or two people hear that and change how they are doing things, I think that’s huge.
Attorney, news anchor, CEO, professor, thinker, agent of change, and game-show winner.
Shari Dunn is a polymath, an accomplished journalist, and a former attorney, news anchor, CEO, and university professor. Shari’s work has been cited in the Wall Street Journal, and she has written for and been quoted by TIME, The Hill, and Fast Company,among others. Shari is also a sought-after speaker. She holds a BA in philosophy from Marquette University and a JD from Northwestern Pritzker School of Law. She is an American Leadership Forum Fellow and has been awarded the prestigious Executive of the Year Award in 2018, the 2019 Women of Influence Award (Portland Business Journal), the Associated Press Award for Best Spot News, and the Wisconsin Broadcasting Association Award for Best Morning News Show.
IMPRESSIVE GROUNDBREAKER WITH SUPERB NARRATIVE SKILLS:
Shari is an innovator and thinker who helps organizations and individuals “change their thinking and their lives/organizations.” She weaves history, current learning, and disparate thought into narratives that allow listeners and readers to discover their own “a-ha” moments of understanding and change. Shari brings cross-sector experience from the law, media, education, and social enterprise to create several new “takes” on issues such as “Imposter Syndrome” and original scholarship, giving voice to what has for too long had no name,