We were lucky to catch up with Shanell Penn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Shanell, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

I use to help my mom with making meat trays for her birthday parties when I was about 10 or 11. Then the summer of 2021 some friends came to visit from Cincinnati and I decided to make a charcuterie board for them! I had no idea what I was doing but I did the board and they loved it! So my friend Danielle began to make a video saying that I ship and contact me for all your charcuterie needs, etc. I looked at her and said oh no I don’t lol. After that video, I received my first order to ship a charcuterie board to Cincinnati! So at that moment I said ok, wow I might be on to something. Then a fellow charcuterie creator on Instagram encouraged me to start my own charcuterie page and try doing workshops! So I did my first Workshop in my home in 2022 and since I’ve done several and now have a partnership with 2 wineries, so I’m able to do my workshops at 2 locations.

I felt I could succeed once I discovered that people really liked my work and enjoyed coming to my workshops. It made me want to learn more and do more so that I could reach even more people and I also wanted to see where I could take doing charcuterie. I’ve been an educator for 16 years now so being able to use that with my workshops and teach others how to create charcuterie boards has been such a reward!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a god fearing woman, mother, An educator, a creative, charcuterer, daughter, sister, and friend. I got into this business with just wanting to create something my friends and family would love and enjoy while visiting. I never knew it would grow to what it has today and it really makes me feel so blessed, grateful and happy!

I provide Charcuterie for any occasion, big or small from charcuterie snacks and mini boxes, to grand Charcuterie Grazing tables for bigger events and celebrations. I offer Charcuterie Workshops where I teach you how to create your owm charcuterie board! I’ve also added a Charcuterie Mobile Grazing Cart to my business where you can rent my cart and I provide Charcuterie to go!
You chose your items and I create a
charcuterie snack for you.

The problems I solve for my clients are that when wanting to provide food or appetizers for your guest, I have that covered for you, and once the set up is complete, you have a whole talking piece for your guest that they’ll absolutely love. I get so excited seeing reactions to my work, it fills my heart with so much joy!

I’m most proud of my drive and relentlessness. I’ve always been a very driven person and if I say I’m going to do something, I always complete the task no matter how long it takes. I’m proud of where my business is going and how far I’ve come in 3 years. I smile knowing this all started with just doing something I love to do which is entertain and make people happy! I
also extremely proud of how much my daughter has found a love in charcuterie and wanting to be an entrepreneur also. Setting a positive example for her has always been my top priority so her finding a love in what I do makes me very happy.

I want people to know that my work comes from the heart and I truly enjoy and put a lot of thought and effort into creating charcuterie and my brand. No board is the same and I take my clients input and create something that they’ll enjoy and their guest, family, friends will enjoy as well and I take great pride in that.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

I’ll share how I got on Fox 8 news for the first time, which helped so many people see me and get to know my business. I sent Stefani Schafer a dm on Instagram on a Thursday. I didn’t get a response so I said I’ll wait and send another message and maybe even email her. That Sunday I went to the restaurant Fareinheit downtown and Stefani and her family walk in! I took a deep breath and told my brother I just sent her a dm about Charcuterie and now she’s here I think I should say something. He said get up! Lol. So I went over and introduced myself and told her I sent her a dm she apologized and said she doesn’t know how to check them and has her daughter help her check them lol. I told her about my business and gave her my card she loved it and told me she loves Charcuterie and that she would email me. That Tuesday she emailed me and I went on the show shortly after to talk about my business, and displayed football Charcuterie ideas for football season. Since I’ve been on fox 8 news 2x and New Day cleveland 3x. I love everyone at Fox 8 there all so nice and always have the kindest words. I’m so appreciative of all the love and support they’ve shown myself and my business

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my audience on social media by just posting my work as much as possible and making sure your pictures really show your work in a beautiful way. Even if I don’t have the best videos lol I just make sure I post because if not, people won’t see your work or get to know what you do. I’ve learned that people are very visual and if they see something they like there more likely to inquire about it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sharcuteriebyshanell.com
• Instagram: @sharcuteriebyshanell
• Facebook: SharcuteriebyShanell
• Other: Tik Tok SharcuteriebyShanell

Image Credits

@dricolamar