Life & Work with Jade Shebelski

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jade Shebelski.

Hi Jade, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a social media manager and content creator, and this whole thing fell into my lap.

Ten years ago, when Instagram was still for iPhones only, and Facebook had just recently graduated from college to “What’s On Your Mind” for all, I was styling vintage items like magazines and putting them through the Sierra filter onto Instagram to market my side hustle vintage business.

I would post pictures of sneak peeks and market set-ups and sell out my tent at different street fairs in Chicago each weekend. Business owners would come up to me on the final days of the markets and ask me how I was doing that, and I would say “Instagram” then, I would meet with them to teach them my method. The business owners would start implementing the technique and ask me how much I would charge.

At that time, being a social media manager wasn’t an actual job, so I came up with a number. Those business owners referred me to others, and here we are ten years later; social media managers are content creators are an integral part of a business’s marketing team.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The path of entrepreneurship is a path of twists and turns. I’ve started telling new entrepreneurs that when you start your business, you are also unknowingly signing up for a roller coaster of personal development.

Again when I started, social media managers and content creators were unheard of, and there were only a few platforms to market. Fast forward to today, there are so many shiny objects of media that business owners feel like they need to be creating content for all of them. One of my struggles is getting people to understand that more money will come if we focus on two and do them well.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
We live in an environment where the potential to be algorithmically told what we like instead of telling an algorithm what we like exists. To jump on the bandwagon and follow trends because it’s what your “competition” is doing when you don’t even know the statistics on if it’s working for your “competition.” What sets me apart from other social media managers is that I’ve been around long enough to see many trends. I’ve been here since Instagram was for iPhones only and had four filters; remember those days? I know and understand that trends will come and go, what was “popular” yesterday will be irrelevant in two days, and that the key to doing this whole digital marketing and social media thing well is to build a personal relationship, to talk to the customers you already have in your following, this is the foundation to create an organic social media strategy.

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
I am grateful to have a terrific support system and cheerleaders. I also have been blessed to have two key mentors.

I grew up in a union family and had zero ideas about how to do this whole entrepreneur thing when I decided that was the path I was about to embark on. Fortunately, I have an uncle who has been an entrepreneur. He has been very open to listening and helping me work through to grow my business into what has progressed and is morphing into.

My mindset coach, Laura Noel, has also been so integral in helping me overcome the mindset blocks that come along with Entrepreneurship. No one tells you that when you embark on this journey of working for yourself, you get personal development thrown in as a bonus. When you achieve new levels in your business, you also meet new levels of who you are. Limiting beliefs and Imposter Syndrome can begin to present themselves, which is where I’m grateful to have these two in my corner. Without the business mentoring and the mindset shifting, I’m not sure where I would be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mavenandmusemedia.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/mavenmusemedia 

Image Credits
Ashley Courter Photography