E7 Product Development + Thriving as a Multipassionate with Monica Grohne ✍️🧚

Pollen: For Creative Entrepreneurs with Diana Davis

Be bold and embrace every aspect of yourself. Turn your multi passions from something daunting into a source of empowerment in your creative entrepreneurship journey!

In this episode of The Pollen Podcast, I bring on Monica Grohne, founder and CEO of Marea - and a Libra Sun, Cancer Moon, and Scorpio Rising - to talk about being multi-passionate, and how to utilize it as a creative entrepreneur. We also dive deep into adding a personal touch to your branding and showing up as genuine as possible on social media. Listen as we share how to empower others by empowering yourself through your brand!

Listen to this episode to learn how to use your multiple passions to the fullest!

Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here.

🔥Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:

1. Discover how to hone your multiple passions into a singular project you enjoy.
2. Understand the importance of personal branding, especially when selling a product.
3. Learn to leverage multiple social media platforms for support, building your brand, and reaching out to communities.

📘Resources

• Achieve the life, career, and clients you’ve always wanted (and fully deserve!). Sign up for Diana’s Camp Clarity Course now!
• Access other courses from the Diana Davis Creative
• Marea Wellness
• The Illusion of Money: Why Chasing Money Is Stopping You from Receiving It by Kyle Cease
• Supermaker: Crafting Business on Your Own Terms by Jaime Schmidt
• Do Cool Sh*t: Quit Your Day Job, Start Your Own Business, and Live Happily Ever After by Miki Agarwal
• Connect with me: Website | LinkedIn | Instagram

🎧Episode Highlights [10:13] Introducing Monica

• Monica always knew she wanted to be an entrepreneur, but it wasn’t until she started working in-house at an e-commerce brand that she became truly passionate about it.

• Finding a community on Twitter and creating a product for women, while diving deep into e-commerce, showed Monica that she could be passionate about multiple things at once.

Monica: “When I came to you, I [was] like, ‘I always feel like I'm cheating on one [business] and I don't know how to balance both.’ And I've learned it's just about seasons, and there are seasons for both. I can be both and.”

• Younger Monica was adventurous and creative. She was interested in magazines, media, and fashion, and would come up with her own product catalogs.

[23:33] Learning to Pitch Brand Deals

• Monica’s first foray into marketing was marketing herself as an athlete. She didn’t know how to pitch herself at first.
• With her experience and connections in the industry, Monica landed a digital content manager position, which, although low-paying, allowed her to grow as an entrepreneur.
• Fascinated by the brand-side of things, Monica decided she wanted to create a brand with her own product.

[34:45] Monica and Marea

• Marea is a menstrual wellness company that offers a drinkable multivitamin that provides all of the essential micronutrients that are necessary for hormone balance.
• At 26, Monica realized she didn’t know much about her menstrual cycle and that she had premenstrual dysphoric disorder. She realized how important this kind of information is and wondered why no one else knew or talked about it.
• Monica considered becoming a health coach, but her passion for product and marketing led her to create Marea.

[41:01] Producing a Product

• It was important to Monica that her product was a scientifically-backed supplement, so she sought out expert advice.

Monica: “Guess what, yes, someone might steal your idea, but if you don't go out and look for people to support you, and to put it out there, and to see what people think, you'll probably never start.”

• Market validity is important. Your product needs to be needed by people.
• Find the right partners and manufacturers to help things take off. Find the right facility to create the finished product.
• Having a physical product is different from businesses like coaching. Cash flow plays a big part.

[52:00] Being the Branding of Marea

• Monica saw the biggest growth on TikTok. She attributes this to its virality and how content doesn’t need to be as polished as it would be on Instagram.
• Understand the importance of personal branding. Marea doesn’t necessarily require Monica to show her face, but people resonated with her story and the idea behind the brand.

[53:01] Monica: “What makes us different, and why people trust us as a brand, is because I had the same problem that they have. And the reason the solution exists isn't because some man thought it up and knew it could make money; it’s because it solved my problem. And so I'm doing a disservice by trying to hide behind my brand and not showcase that.”

• At first, Monica was afraid of coming off as too salesy but ultimately shifted her mindset to helping women out by sharing what she learned about how nutrition plays a huge role in our lives.
• Our time and energy are limited so Monica prices her goods at a value where her energy and time are at an equal exchange.

[58:53] Diversifying Your Social Media Platforms

• Share with openness and vulnerability. It doesn’t have to be the right answer; just hope it can help someone else.
• Twitter is 180 characters of stream of consciousness. If something’s interesting or you think others will find it interesting, just tweet it.
• Monica finds that redirecting people to explanations on YouTube instead of answering the same questions again and again is more intuitive.
• Gauge what type of person you are and choose your platform from there. If you’re into written word, try Twitter or LinkedIn.

About the Guest

Monica Grohne lives in Jackson, Wyoming, where her marketing experience began as an outdoor athlete. Prior to launching Marea, she was a marketing director in the DTC e-commerce space and has worked with tens of e-commerce brands to help them grow authentic, engaged communities of customers. She launched Marea in 2020 and is so excited to help free women from PMS and period symptoms with the support of nutrition.

Connect with Monica: Instagram │ Website │TikTok │ LinkedIn

Enjoyed this Podcast on Being Multi-passionate?

Turn your multi passions from something daunting into empowerment in your creative entrepreneurship journey!

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