We recently connected with Breanna Turmon and have shared our conversation below.
Breanna, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What was it like going from idea to execution? Can you share some of the backstory and some of the major steps or milestones?
The process of producing “Women Who Shine” took several years. It started out as me going to church one Sunday morning and hearing the pastors message, I was inspired to plan a brunch for women to attend and connect with other women. I wanted women to have a space to become inspired and network with other like minded individuals. After months of planning the event, I produced the first annual brunch in 2017 and it was a success. It led to other events and ideas which then turned into a movement. The pandemic hit and I wanted to find a way to stay connected with my community so I began live interviews every Wednesday called “Women Shine Wednesdays” and it became a way to connect virtually with women entrepreneurs, allowing them to share their story with people on Instagram live.
I had to figure out a way to make this into something bigger than just going live on instagram, how can I make a difference in my community? How can I allow women to be seen and share their stories? I’ve always thought about hosting a podcast/show but was too worried about how many people were already doing it.
But with the encouragement of a friend and mentor. it led me to producing a podcast show called “Women Who Shine” airing on Google, Apple & Spotify for the first two seasons. I didn’t know the first thing about doing a podcast, it took hours finding out how to set it up and tons of research. However the vision took years to figure out what my true purpose was and that was helping and motivating women in the community. I wanted people to know that ALL women can shine no matter what skin tone, background, ethnicity.
Breanna, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am most proud of building my brand “Women Who Shine” which offers women from all over a platform to share their story and be recognized for their contribution in the community.
I started off hosting brunches and quickly realized I wanted to create a space an overall space for women to feel safe and share their stories. In the height of the pandemic, I began doing instagram lives with different women entrepreneurs every Wednesday, “Women Shine Wednesdays” became a staple for me and I looked forward to highlighting women in different industries and allowing them to share their story and success tips.
Shortly after, I realized I needed to expand my platform and create a bigger audience all over the world instead of just instagram. So I started the Women Who Shine Podcast with my friend Princess, who helped me bring the vision to life. We were able to get over 100 downloads in our first season and brought on some amazing women who were able to share their stories and more!
Creating the Women Who Shine Brand has been a long time coming and I am not done yet. I’ve had to take a step back from building it for personal reasons but I am excited to re launch and bring more women in.
My brand is not just about hosting events and a podcast, it’s a movement for Women all over the world! You can shine no matter your situation or the color of your skin. I want women all over the world to know their beauty is not determined on how they look. We all shine in our own way and it’s time to let the world know that WOMEN SHINE!
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I started with a company called Project Recap TV that allowed me to create events for artists in the community and I offered advertising and marketing to artists in my community who needed help getting their name out there.
After many years, I started to get burned out and found myself wanting to cater more to us, WOMEN. So I switched avenues and got more into hosting women brunches and I started the brand Women Who Shine and created a “Women Shine Wednesday” series for women to share their story every Wednesday..
Although Project Recap TV will always be my first born, I am very excited about birthing my second baby “Women Who Shine”.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I built my audience through instagram lives and Facebook. Both platforms played a major part in my success and building my audience organically.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.womenshinewednesday.com/
- Instagram: womenshinewednesday
- Youtube: womenshinewednesdays
Image Credits
Gabriel Loft Photography