Meet Shanteria Echols | Entreprenuer & Influencer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Shanteria Echols and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Shanteria, have there been any changes in how you think about work-life balance?
Over time my work life balance has changed drastically over time! As young entrepreneur juggling college, managing my e-commerce cosmetics business, working outside of my business and managing my social media platforms has been an abundance of work. With the hard work and promoting for myself and my brand has gained me exposure to more clientele and new connections with great businesses and awesome customers. As I continue to grow and make achievements each day, my work load also expands each day. In the beginning of starting my business I only had a few responsibilities and a lighter work-load since I was new to physically running a business. A couple of responsibilities managing TheRealShann Cosmetics requires me to keep track of inventory, gather all materials to ship out orders, create and purchase graphics for the social platform to keep customers and potential customers in tuned. That’s just to name a few. Additionally, I am a full-time student and a Business Major at Georgia State University with a 2-year degree. I have in person class lectures during the week and a bundle of homework due at the end of every week. While going to school and taking care of my assignments, on the weekends I work a second job. I enjoy flexing my skills and obtaining extra streams of income because it gives me an opportunity to learn new things while meeting people to expand my brand. On top of schooling and working I host and participate in pop-up shops which also keeps me busy. Lastly, my personal Instagram platform has grown over time as well and I have to make sure I keep it up to date by being active. I promote for brands/businesses, prepare for photoshoots, and take photos and videos with products from brands/businesses.

With everything I have going on in my life the big question is, how do I handle it all. There was no handbook to show me how to balance all of my activities. When each task and opportunity came to me I didn’t turn it down or not take on it. I took the task and opportunity to just do it without worrying about the what ifs. As I have grown into an adult one of my top skills would be multi-tasking. Balance and multi-tasking goes hand in hand, if you can multi-task you can balance. Although it is hard work to handle multiple things at once you have to be disciplined and strong minded to stay afloat. To be truthful, managing a business, being a full-time college student, working and doing extra activities keeps me extremely busy. It is also tiring and there is no room for free time or idleness. Everyday I wake up there is always something for me to do or accomplish. I love everything that I do and I wouldn’t give it up for anything. Sometimes I feel overwhelmed and exhausted because of how much I have to do but I am thankful to have an abundance of work-load and things to keep me going. Being a hard worker has been instilled in me growing up as a child because my family believe that you must work for what you want. As a young entrepreneur woman I know what I want for myself in life and that is to be well-rounded and exceptional in everything I do.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I am mostly excited and proud that I have started a brand and as I continue to grow while learning different things has made an impact on my ambition and drive to be a well-rounded entrepreneur. Being hard-driven and motivated by struggles has got me where I am today in business. Building an empire, a brand, and a business will never be easy especially if you want the real deal. I overcome the hardships by praying and staying true to myself by never giving up and pushing myself to keep going even when things get hard. The lessons I have learned along way has been discipline and it’s okay to have down time and not everything will be perfect how you plan things to go. I want the world to know that TheRealShann and TheRealShann Cosmetics is built on uniqueness and creativity and everyone is welcome to become of the brand.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I want to shoutout my mom for always being there to support me with everything I do. She pushes me to keep going and teach me to not let my doubts get in the way of me striving. In 2019 she started her own virtual assistant business called, “Luxe Business Solutions” outside of her Fulton County job of 17 years. She demonstrates in her own personal life of what it means to be well-rounded, hard working, dedicated and driven. My mom is the best person ever, I thank God for her and her lovely personality. It amazes me how I see other people gravitate to her just off of her energy. She is always a helping hand to anybody that comes across her. My mom is truly a blessing.

Website: http://therealshanncosmetics.com

Instagram: @therealshann.co

Twitter: @therealshannco

Other: https://linktr.ee/therealshann_

Image Credits
@Putsomeflavonit : Photographer