6 STEPS SHONETTE BASON TOOK TO TURN HER EARLY AGE EDUCATION BUSINESS INTO A GLOBAL HAPPINESS MOVEMENT

Are you on a hamster wheel of client-chasing, never really getting anywhere? Do you dream of having a global reach and actually making a difference in the world?

Meet Shonette Bason, an early age education expert, who in just under three years, turned herself into a successful entrepreneur, speaker, and author with a six-figure business. She has started a happiness movement and it is rapidly spreading across the globe. Now, you can see in six simple steps how she did it.

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GET OFF THE HAMSTER WHEEL

Shonette Bason has always been passionate about revolutionising early age education. In 2013, her business offered primary school teachers training on how to create a positive and empowering culture in the classroom. Despite the value she provided, she was in a constant struggle.

“I am a single parent of four, and I found it hard to stay afloat financially. I’ve always been more passionate about ideas and my message than numbers and spreadsheets, which meant I had to chase clients. This chase kept me on a hamster wheel; I always had to find a new school to speak at, a new training opportunity…. It was exhausting, and I couldn’t find a way to scale my business.”

Shonette remembers coming to Fast Forward Summit, one of the world’s largest entrepreneur events, and meeting Roger Hamilton, a social entrepreneur and futurist. During the event, Shonette took the first step to get off the hamster wheel of doing everything herself in her business - from chasing clients to running the business. She immediately signed up for Roger’s Crystal Circle, a high-level mentoring group for entrepreneurs.

“I looked at Roger’s success and authenticity, and I thought, I’m going to do exactly what he tells me to!”

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TURN FAMILY INTO TEAM

As a solopreneur, you might often feel that your business can’t do without you. However, a change occurs when you begin turning your time into team and freeing yourself up. For Shonette, the Wealth Dynamics test, which is the only entrepreneur test that tells you what personal strategy you should follow to build your wealth, enabled her to see her real strengths.

“I’d been trying for so long to be the best at everything in my business, which, of course, no one can be. Discovering that I’m a Creator profile just showed me that what I love doing - creating and coming up with a bigger vision - is what I should be focusing my energy on. And I knew that I had to develop a team that could support me in the other areas!”

Shonette didn’t have to look far for her first team member.

“When I returned from London, I immediately profiled my recently retired mum, and I learned that she was a Mechanic profile - just what I needed! She became my business manager, and then, my IT savvy brother helped me to shift from my personal brand into Spread the Happiness. Profiling everybody using Wealth Dynamics makes such a difference. I can be Shonette, I can create, and I do the things I love doing. As a result, I’m in my flow and more productive.”

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TURN YOUR BUSINESS INTO A MOVEMENT

For Shonette, in order to move her business to the next level, it was important to connect to her mission and purpose.

“When Roger asked me about my bigger goals, I told him it was simply ‘to spread happiness to as many people as possible.’ He understood how important happiness is for everyone’s quality of life, and he said, ‘Well, if you want to reach the world, you’ve got to turn your company into a movement.’ That moment changed my whole life.”

Roger vividly remembers the first couple of mentoring sessions.

“When Shonette started, she was charging schools £3000 for her training, but she was struggling because of the limited budgets for which she had to compete. I explained that if she offered accreditation as well as training, the schools get status and recognition. They justify the expense as accreditation that brings in more students, and it comes from a different budget. So, she created the Spread the Happiness Campaign with each school paying £3000 for the Award as well as paying for the training. She limited the number of places available, which enforced the value of the accreditation.”

Now, Shonette sees around 50 schools competing from all over the world to get into the award scheme every 6 - 7 weeks with each school going through an application process and following Shonette’s unique curriculum to win the Happy School award.

“We train in Happy Literacy as well as Happy Reading and Writing, but what we’re really doing is injecting a massive dose of happiness into teaching. For 27 days, they share the evidence, such as photos and videos, of their efforts to Spread the Happiness in their schools. This turns into a diary of inspiration, which we monitor, and at the end, they receive an official logo, certificate, and go into the official Award group.”

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POWER OF COMMUNITY

Every school that enters the award becomes part of Shonette’s community, which now has over 120 members in the UK alone. Passionate about this inspiring shift in education, the community is her greatest ‘evangelist.’

“My community organises Permission to Be Happy events in schools across the country where I go and speak. As they are held in school halls, the number of seats are limited, and they sell out immediately; there’s so much interest. Through speaking, I encourage people to also join my training courses and the award scheme, which is where the money comes in.”

Her community also empowers Shonette to go global.

“There’s a teacher who received the award from the UK. Then, she moved to Kansas where she’s implementing Squiggle and Dough Disco and encouraging other schools to do the same. Now, her school is applying for the Award, so it will be my first official American school! Other teachers are using our training in Australia, China, Romania, and even Nigeria. Our community has gone global!”

As part of her global expansion strategy, Shonette adapted the Squiggle Whilst You Wiggle activity for the Japanese language and held a Dough Disco Day with 350 children in Japan.

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CREATE UNIQUE PRODUCTS

Shonette’s products are so successful simply because she responds to the problems of her community rather than just creating a product she fancies. Once she turned her business into the Spread the Happiness brand, her products became vital in making the movement contagious.

“I created something called Dough Disco, which is a muscle exercise for fingers with a global following. The video has half-a-million views on YouTube! Roger told me I needed my own playdough, so now we’ve got our own Disco Dough. Part of Crystal Circle is being aware of how to monetise things. Another one of Roger’s ideas was the Spread the Happiness diary, which not only sells very well but also spreads the community because it starts conversations at school meetings! Roger gives entrepreneurs insight into products that actually sell.”

A constant creator, Shonette now sells books, lesson plans, exercises, Disco Dough, and a wide range of practical products to help teachers make learning fun - with a capital F.

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HAVE A COMPELLING FUTURE VISION

Despite all her success, Shonette is determined to have an even bigger impact.

“We wanted to reach more people worldwide, but travel is expensive, so we’ve started an online school for Spread the Happiness launching in September, and we’ve also been running a charity in the UK for a year. We provide 100 food hampers to two schools every three months during the school holidays when many families don’t have any food.”

Shonette credits her success journey to the shift in her thinking, brought about by Roger and the Crystal Circle community.

“There’s never been a millionaire in my family, and no one ever considered it; they all worked really hard for a living. When I started working with Roger, it was the first time I realised I could actually earn telephone figures. We doubled turnover in the first year and tripled it in the third. I can even see the path to making a million pounds, but more importantly, I have a beautiful brand that reflects my deepest passion.”

What’s on the horizon for Shonette?