We recently connected with Shannan McMillan-Gibbs and have shared our conversation below.

Shannan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

I learned to do what I do by being open to self-discovery.
It actually started before college.
In highschool, my dad put me in a program called the Black MBA Leaders of Tomorrow program.
At the time he was the President of the NJ Chapter, so I knew I had to produce!
There, I competed in case competitions all over the country at their annual national conferences.
They also gave the students an opportunity to win scholarships through an anonymous essay contest.
I won twice!
At that point, I knew I had a talent when it came to writing and business-related storytelling.
One year, my dad knew they needed help with their award banquet and told the lead producer I would help her.
Her name was Kirsten Poe Hill, from Noelle-Elaine Media.
It was my first time working with talent. The lead moderator was Phylicia Rashad.
My job was to get her the script and get it back to the team as well as make sure she knew all the spots she had to stand in. It was such life-changing experience, watch everyone plan behind the scenes and then execute the show as planned.
At that moment, I knew I loved production.

Kirsten knew it put a spark in my eye and continued to call me for projects she had.
I didn’t even expect to get paid, it felt like a bonus, and that’s when I knew for sure I had discovered something that I loved.
I did research on the jobs I wanted and saw that the requirements were to have a Comm degree.
I left my seat at the Rutgers business school and joined the Rutgers Comm school.
I also left working in sports and interned at my college’s TV station instead, trying to build up a production-forward resume.
That job helped me land a role as a production assistant at MTV and VH1.
There, I worked in the online original content department.
That was when it occured to me that digital was becoming just as big of a priority as their on-air shows.
Digital was becoming its own lane and boy did it move fast!

My work there nailed me a role in social media management at a celebrity-owned company and I learned how to use my creativity to develop and execute campaigns.
I used my knack for writing, storytelling, and production and turned it into a career in Marketing.
I needed every single experience as the climate for social media management started to get hot.

If I knew then, what I know now, I would have been more serious about enlisting a mentor.
I did get one eventually, but I wish I had identified someone sooner to tell me exactly what I needed to do and what was available to me.
Representation in my field has increased a lot more now and that was probably the biggest obstacle as time went on, not seeing women who looked like me when I was younger to even imagine what was possible.
I hope I can do that for the next generation.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I would describe myself as a 360 marketer with over 10 years of experience in driving successful campaigns across digital, social, experiential, and influencer.

I’ve worked on the client side, agency side, and talent side, giving me a unique view into how to connect an array of stakeholders and help companies build that bridge of cross-functional workings to tell brand stories.

I’ve done campaigns for numerous Fortune 500 companies and A-list celebrities.
I’ve done work in CPG, spirits, entertainment, fashion, and tech.
As a true creative, I’m convinced I can tell any product story after immersing myself in that respective community.

I help companies and public figures identify their story with intent and engage their audiences in new and innovative ways.
I’ve also worked with global marketing teams in France, Mexico, Ireland, Nigeria, and more.
This showed me what different cultures yearn for when it comes to products and creative and how to bring the US lens around the world.
I never thought that my work would make me so well-traveled domestically and internationally.

I got my start in marketing being a social media manager.
Learning on that track helped me take my training as a producer and become a more purposeful marketer marrying storytelling with campaign building.

What sets me apart from others is my unique upbringing. We all have stories who make us who we are.
I was raised by a politician and an educator.
I grew up volunteering on campaigns, posing for our local newspaper, and marveling at my Dad’s speeches.
I loved watching him and it helps me bring a certain flair to my work when it comes to high-profile brands and talent and how to help them build positive platforms.

Being a politician’s kid, I learned how to connect to people of all backgrounds and empathize with their needs and passions in building their community. (Now I build online communities- no surprise there)

That grounding made me not just look for sales, but for creative solves that would evoke representation, belonging, and utility for consumers.
It also reminds me that consumers are not just potential customers, they are people with needs and with that value, I always bring an ear for humanity into my work.

My mother, being an educator, was always challenging me to go to the next level in everything. She taught me that failing was never final and that I always had an opportunity to improve.

Watching her passion for the youth made me passionate about giving back to the next generation of dreamers. When opportunities like, helping Board of Education candidates get in-office to further the youth in a positive direction came about, I was able to use that life experience of being in the classroom with her.

I was able to go into those projects already knowing the plight of teachers, the needs of students, and the story those campaigns would need to touch who it needed to.
I also love mentoring aspiring creatives whenever I can and letting them know my path in life exists.

As of lately, I’ve been serving as a consultant on fast-tracked projects.
Companies have brought me in for a range of things, including new brand launches, national events with little time to prepare, and even when in crisis.
At any given moment, you can catch me creating a digital strategy, producing a run of show for an event, casting talent and influencers, or negotiating a contract.

I’m mostly proud of how much word of mouth has sustained me.
For years, I’ve gotten new opportunities based on positive experiences others had with me and of course, the results.

Clients know I’ll do the little job and the big job, anything to bring them white glove service.
They also know I’m always using that PK (politician’s kid) set of eyes and I can quickly predict the perception a piece of content could create. Because I’m always on the pulse of the people.
I know what they want, what entertains them, and what they’re saying.

The more experience I gathered on my corporate journey, the more I started to see a lot of gaps in the industry.
There is so much culture still waiting to be created.
We just need the right storytellers in place, the ones who care about building movements more than metrics.

That’s why I created Social Tastemaker, my marketing consulting company.
Marketing shouldn’t be pushy and salesy. It should be tasteful, purposeful, and thoughtful.
Influencer and talent campaigns shouldn’t look forced, it should be authentic.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Leaving the New York market was a big change for me.
My husband is a basketball coach and we started moving around a lot as his career started to take off.
I was pulled out of the place where my career started and blossomed and now had to adapt to bringing my talents to a new place.

After living in 4 different cities, we’ve been planted in Atlanta, Georgia the longest.

I always came to Atlanta for work events and even studied it as it was booming in entertainment and spirits.
I tapped into my connections, picked up local projects in the Atlanta area, and I have built a network that is even more vast than it was before.

I stopped viewing being a coach’s wife as a challenge and turned it into an opportunity to diversify.
It has made me a lot more agile, flying in for projects, taking learnings from all the travel we do for basketball games, and learning about different cities and cultures.
I’m always looking at airport media, billboard trends, and the differences in fashion and food around the country.
I didn’t give up on my passion, I just became more adaptable, and I hope to take it wherever I go, through Social Tastemaker, my consulting company.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My goal is to tell stories that haven’t been told and provide platforms and resources to creatives around the world.
Diversity is not a trend, it’s mandatory.
Without it, we’re just telling the same stories and showing the same faces over and over again.
Where’s the fun in that?
I love giving companies a new perspective on how they can reach people.
Giving an influencer an opportunity they’ve never had before, funding an initiative that deserves it, and hiring creatives that need work, is what drives me to keep doing what I do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.socialtastemaker.com
• Instagram: ShannanMG
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannymac