When Shannon McShane first came to Point Park, she was not positive about a future career but wanted a fun experience as a Sport, Arts, and Entertainment Management (SAEM) major.
Almost four years later, she has employed skills learned in school, which not only led her to a healthier lifestyle but to create her own fitness show on a YouTube channel.
“Being able to do YouTube helps me, instead of making fifteen second Instagram videos, [I’m] able to really go in depth and help more people at one time, and I like being able to do that,” McShane said when discussing how she started up her channel that provides instructional workouts and advice while also selling and raising awareness to Advocare health products.
McShane grew up in Munhall, Pennsylvania. She worked at a Fitness 19, a local gym, and participated in cheerleading throughout high school. In a way, McShane says that cheerleading kept her away from starting a journey with physical fitness earlier because she was used to always being at practice and staying in shape through cheer, which changed when she entered college.
Like other young adults, McShane had no idea where she wanted to attend college or what she wanted to major in. She chose Point Park after researching and going on tours at several other schools. “I remember my mom saying that Point Park was the only school where I didn’t complain the entire tour.”
Point Park provided McShane with the fun experience she hoped for, as well as giving her numerous leadership opportunities and experiences pertaining to fitness. Her first internship was with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds where she handled marketing, sponsorships, and promotions. “Shannon was very professional and a hard worker who was dedicated to pursuing her passion,” Steven Tanzilli, the Chair of Department Management and one of McShane’s teachers, said.
McShane then became involved with Thrill Mill, an incubator for start-up companies. When McShane first jumped on board with the company, she started with business development and helped with the start-up companies. She then discovered that Thrill Mill was involved with the Thrival Innovation and Music Festival. “I realized it was perfect for SAEM, so I got way more involved with that, and I was able to help plan that throughout the summer.”
Fittsburgh was another company that McShane was able to work with through SAEM, and she says that it happened to be her favorite position to work in. “I loved being able to connect with local companies, and I was able to make a lot of really good relationships in Pittsburgh throughout that.”
With Fittsburgh, McShane helped coordinate different events throughout the Pittsburgh area and establish partnerships with companies such as Lulu Lemon. During her work with there, McShane was able to connect with Lulu Lemon even further and currently works at the store in Shadyside. She also acted as the job shadow advisor for two Point Park students as they did their shadowing with Fittsburgh. “I loved working under Shannon, she was very professional but very laid back,” Cortnee Deyarmin, a freshman SAEM major, said. “My experience with her was a very positive one, I feel like I learned quite a bit.”
Being an Orientation Leader for Point Park also helped McShane with her leadership skills and gave her a chance to benefit new students. She recalled the long hours during orientation days, 8 a.m. to midnight, and then another 8 hours the following day. However, McShane encourages students to consider the opportunity as it provided a great experience and helped her make new friends. “All of us orientation leaders had different interests and schedules, it was great growing closer to people I didn’t originally know well.”
Derek Brough, a fellow Orientation Leader and SAEM major, shared similar feelings as McShane. “Being able to work with McShane is inspirational, she gets that motivation behind you and knows exactly what she’s doing, and she’s able to work with the group and motivate everybody.”
McShane’s actions through SAEM have led her to fitness and to help her discover her main future goals- to have her own manageable Advocare business, help others with their health goals, and help her team make extra income.
A personal experience with Advocare is what helped McShane decide to sell it. She became involved with the company two years ago as a way to lose weight from freshman year. She began with their program, the 24-Day Challenge, and after losing a few pounds, McShane decided to become a distributor so she could help other people do the same thing. There are four different product lines for Advocare- trim, well, active, and performance elite- that each have different products and goals incorporated in them.
Along with selling Advocare, McShane uses her YouTube and her website, as ways to help other individuals plan and follow workout routines, watch fitness related videos, and read articles pertaining to fitness written by McShane. “My ultimate goal for my YouTube channel is to help people, but also tie it back into Advocare and be able to build my own brand that way.” McShane said.
There were certain obstacles McShane had to face to make it to the position she is in right now. Career-wise, McShane was once at a point where she thought she had everything figured out near graduation. Circumstances arose where a promised job offer fell through, and she ended up having to look for a new one. “I had to overcome being able to change, and that would be advice I would have to people going through college now,” McShane said.
Currently, McShane is selling Advocare, working at Buzz Honey in Digital Marketing, and as an Educator at Lulu Lemon. “Life will definitely throw some things at you that you aren’t expecting, but you work through it and things come together the way it should.”