We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Justin Shoman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Justin below.

Justin, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

When I first started offering consulting services, I had no business name. My first client was a public media station. I’ve always been passionate about music and public media so I wanted something reflective of that. Meanwhile, the business works exclusively with organizations focused on social good, primarily, social enterprise and nonprofit organizations. And Social Resonance was born. In the time since the business was initially founded, a German Sociologist, Hartmut Rosa, published his theory of Social Resonance. It’s a beast of a book. In short, the theory of social resonance addresses the human desire for “resonant” relationships and examines the social factors that promote or potentially prohibit humans from forming these relationships. I love this! It’s perfectly in line with my vision for the company.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Social Resonance was born in 2011. I was always drawn to advocacy for environmental and social justice but I floundered for a long time before finding a “career.” I spent most of my twenties slinging drinks before graduate school. The business was born out of necessity the year I graduated. I finished school with a fresh stack of debt and no solid job prospects. I was volunteering in a few places around town and started offering fundraising services (for a very meager fee) to those organizations. One of them took me up on it!

Since then, I’ve spent the last 12 years working on fundraising, marketing, and communications campaigns for nonprofit organizations. Most of that time, I was working full time and taking a few independent gigs on the side. With that experience, I quit my job and poured all of my efforts into fully (re)launching the business last year.

One of the things that I believe sets Social Resonance apart from others in this space is that we’re really focused on the structural issues that impede organizations from having effective fundraising and communications programs. I think a lot of people think of this field as copywriting, social media, and maybe some data analysis. To be clear, we do all of that. But to be really effective, organizations need to evaluate the structures that are holding them back, think a lot more about their long-term sustainability, and prioritize a more human-centered approach to this work.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Starting your own business is a long journey into your own self-worth. I drastically underestimated this and frankly, I became very depressed. I was privileged to lead staff at large organizations for years before relaunching the business. I had hordes of colleagues and every decision I made was met with immediate feedback—good or bad—from those colleagues and the public we were communicating with. When I stepped away from that last job, and that immediate network, my confidence really crumbled. The business was slow and financially I felt like I was hanging on by a thread. I was actively convincing myself it was time to give up. I didn’t have any inspiration to work on building or promoting Social Resonance. I stopped writing. I pulled everything off of social media. I found myself on a really dark path. I also realized how many issues related to my emotional and mental health, I had put on the shelf while I was “busy with work.”

It took a while to see it, but this was a blessing. I had a single client to sustain me, meanwhile, the business went dark for months. This gave me the time to finally prioritize myself. I found a terrific therapist and we worked through a lot, including my relationship with work. I realized how much I let my career dictate my identity and I started practicing firmer boundaries. Eventually, I found renewed focus and felt more confident about the business. Shortly thereafter, I solidified a long-term contract with a former client, solidified new clients, and there’s been no looking back.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Tim Ferris’ Ted Talks were instrumental in launching Social Resonance I was terrified. I had no financial capital to put into the business when I started and only enough savings to sustain me for about 2-3 months. A close friend recommended his Ted Talk on defining your fears instead of your goals. The whole thing is grounded in stoic philosophy and I probably watched it a half dozen times. I did all of the exercises he outlines and it’s a practice I come back to frequently when the great unknown of running your own business feels too overwhelming.

Contact Info:

• Website: socialresonance.group
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinrshoman/

Image Credits
Merne Judson