On this week’s episode of Leader of the Pack, Duluth Pack’s CEO, Tom Sega has a Zoom conversation with Sharon McMahon of Sharon Says So – a multi-talented entrepreneur, podcaster, and social influencer. In this podcast episode, Sharon talks us through the varied ventures that she built from the ground up including a hand-dying yarn business, becoming a successful photographer, and her newest endeavor in social media influencing. Sharon has revisited her initial career from a different lens in her latest undertaking and is educating the public on the facts about law and government with her brand and account, @SharonSaysSo. This week we learn about how she has created these businesses and what drove her to become a beacon of truth with her conversations around non-partisan facts on law and government amongst other topics of interest.

Background on Sharon McMahon

Though Sharon McMahon was born and raised in Duluth, MN, she began her professional career as a teacher in high schools in Washington D.C. and Bay Area. Sharon graduated with a degree in education with a focus on government and constitutional law. For twelve years, she taught law and government to high school students in multiple states and gained a vast amount of experience in teaching law and a better understanding of how views can shift between states and regions in general. While teaching, Sharon’s entrepreneurial interests drove her to pursue a side hustle that would grow into a full-time business and be the jumping-off point for multiple ventures in her professional life.

How A Side Hustle Turned Into A Career Change

Sharon explains to Tom that she has always had an entrepreneurial spirit since she was younger and selling things door-to-door for school. While she was teaching, Sharon had created a side hustle of hand-dying yarn in her kitchen. Her success in this career shift led to her outgrowing her kitchen, then her home, and multiple warehouse spaces. This side hustle turned into the creation of Three Irish Girls, the hand-dyed yarn company. When her family moved back to her hometown of Duluth, MN, Sharon took Three Irish Girls with her. She set up her yarn-dyeing studio in Superior, WI where sales continued to flourish. Tom and Sharon connect quickly over the process of creating a high-quality product and the aspects that go into running a manufacturing facility. Starting this business from scratch, Sharon grew Three Irish Girls to the point where she was traveling around the world to do workshops and trunk shows and selling over ten thousand pounds of yarn per year online and in select retail shops. During this growth, Sharon started getting product photography done by outside photographers, but she wasn’t fully satisfied with the results needed for her to promote her brand and products the way she wanted to. Sharon had the vision of what she wanted but didn’t have the photo skills to bring her vision to life -yet. This is what led Sharon to her second enterprise in business.

Tom asks Sharon what her photography experience was prior to her starting her second venture, Three Irish Girls Photography, and she explains that she didn’t have any formal

training. She started pursuing photography and taking workshops with the initial goal of being able to take better product photography of her hand-dyed yarn capturing both studio and lifestyle imagery. To do this, Sharon created a beautiful photography studio space attached to the Three Irish Girls dyeing facilities. Sharon grew her skills through self-motivation and online courses to improve her photo skillset. This helped her to develop a unique style and that was when she started to have others reaching out to use her studio space for family photos and seeking her out for her skills as a photographer. This demand continued to increase until Sharon was faced with a choice to make between her photography business and her yarn business. Sharon sold Three Irish Girls Yarn to two employees who understood the business and pursued photography and videography full time as Three Irish Girls Photography. Sharon became one of the most in demand photographers in the Northern, Minnesota region for newborn, engagement, wedding, corporate, and family photography.

While business was flourishing in early 2020, that spring, business came to a drastic halt due to COVID-19. Tom and Sharon go on to discuss some of the challenges COVID-19 had on her business and Sharon explained that along with the struggle of Duluth’s weather not being ideal for spring outdoor shoots and people not wanting to take photos inside with masks on, her husband’s health risks were another major roadblock for her business. Sharon’s husband had a kidney transplant that put him at a much higher risk if he was exposed to COVID-19, making the close proximity of taking family photos less than ideal. While Sharon’s husband was recovering from his transplant in August of 2020, she took time off to care for him and their four kids and stumbled into her latest development, Sharon Says So.

How Sharon Says So Happened

Tom asks Sharon how she went from her varied pursuits to now being a social media influencer and podcaster that has been featured on worldwide media outlets like, Good Morning America, The Atlantic, and numerous other radio and media channels for her non-partisan facts on government law and politics. “Well I didn’t see that one coming Tom, I didn’t see any of them coming actually, but that is the fun part of the journey,” Sharon states. In September of 2020, Sharon saw a comment from a stranger on one of her friend’s Facebook posts talking about the upcoming election. This stranger had made a comment about the electoral college that was factually incorrect, something that as a teacher who taught government to high school students, Sharon knew and was properly educated on. She tells Tom that this was the lightbulb moment. Sharon realized that she could correct this individual and fight this battle of misinformation in the comments a thousand times a year or she could create a fun easy-to-follow video on the facts around the electoral college that people could refer to. So, Sharon did just that and Sharon Says So began to take shape. Tom asked Sharon how she went about her content, and she explains that after her first video people really enjoyed it and wanted more. This is how Sharon began teaching about nonpartisan, fact-based political information, education, and current events analysis in short videos that are easy to follow. At one point Sharon was asked to go on a radio station in the Twin Cities area to talk about how the election system works. After the radio show, Sharon was inundated with people reaching out. This led to her getting a larger following online and getting more requests for open and honest conversations.

“What was the primary goal of Sharon Says So?” Tom asked Sharon. Sharon tells Tom that initially, she had no game plan, but she saw that the market was there and a few months in she started teaching workshops online for more in-depth content. Tom and Sharon talk about how she makes a living off Sharon Says So. Sharon explains that there are multiple revenue streams including her monetized podcast Sharon Says So, her workshops on her website at SharonMcMahon.com, her exclusive book club where she brings in great authors for talks and gives member exclusive access to a private Instagram account, and her most recent deal which is for a writing a book! The goal of her platform first and foremost though is education. Tom asks Sharon how she is able to keep her information factual and not insert her own opinions on matters asking her how difficult it is for her to do so? Sharon explains that there are some things that she has a firm line on and doesn’t hide her opinion about those items. As a whole, though she enjoys having a discussion from both a liberal and conservative viewpoint. Sharon explains that having these discussions and not being in an echo chamber of your own opinions helps our own self-growth and is beneficial to our country – in her opinion.

Now Sharon Says So has gone on to employ five women. Sharon has also been able to raise and donate over $3.5 million dollars to organizations with the help of her 950,000 followers on Instagram, whom she calls ‘Governerds’. Listening to this week’s episode of Leader of the Pack with Tom you learn so much about Sharon McMahon and her unique story as a highly accomplished entrepreneur. If you enjoyed the podcast and would like to learn more about Sharon and Sharon Says So, you can head to www.sharonmcmahon.com or follow her on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook at @SharonSaysSo.

Thank you, Sharon, for joining us on this week’s episode of Leader of the Pack and sharing the fascinating story of how you started multiple businesses and became the social influencer you are today!