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Your brand is your business birthmark: it’s how you can differentiate yourself over anyone else, build deep connections with your audience, grow your community, and quickly become a credible authority figure in your space. The problem is, there’s a lot of noise saturating the market right now… and very few people are doing branding right.Enter Rhonda Swan, the CEO and Founder of the Unstoppable Branding Agency, international speaker, and bestselling author dedicated to helping her clients create “sexy” brands that are profitable, credible, and PR-worthy.
Swan has built several multi 7-figure businesses and has spent the last 12 years traveling the world full-time with her daughter and husband.
What’s most impressive about Swan is her tenacity to help women step into their power and go after their dreams. All of this started with a vision she had to raise her daughter and never put her in daycare.
As far as powerful momma’s go, Swan takes the cake. In this exclusive interview, she shares her insights on what it takes to build multiple 7-figure empires, turn your knowledge into an online business, and rise past your struggles to create a dream life you’re proud of.
Tell us about your background.
Rhonda Swan: I was born in Detroit, Michigan to a naive 19-year-old mom and an unreliable 20-year-old father who used me and my mom as decoys to steal and cover up his drug addiction and derelict ways. My turbulent childhood was peppered with moving houses, car accidents, and jail visits.
Although today I attribute a large part of my drive to my chaotic upbringing, growing up I was plagued by a deep-rooted fear that I would turn out like my father unless I maintained absolute control over every area of my life.
I channeled my insecurities into becoming a gifted athlete so I could excel and get noticed. I got a full ride scholarship to college, played for the USA Women’s National Softball Team, and competed as a bodybuilder. I was obsessed with staying in peak performance and controlling others’ perception of me.
From the outside I looked perfect, composed, and like I had it all together; but deep inside I was angry, scared, doubting myself, and struggling with an eating disorder for nearly 10 years. I yearned to feel supported and acknowledged by my parents and not have to be the “adult” making decisions all the time. It took years for me to break free from all the stories I was telling myself and realize that I was born into my circumstances for a reason: to help women struggling with self-worth step into their power.
What was your journey from corporate executive to multi seven-figure online business owner?
Swan: I used to lay in bed at night and visualize being hired by a big corporation, with a corner office and a high profile position, in search of the “American Dream” that I had been programmed to want. I didn’t know it then, but this was another thing I wanted to win so I could prove that I was worthy.
My first job post-MBA was at one of the largest Pharma corporations in the world, where I was responsible for over ½ a million in advertising and sales campaigns each quarter. I thought it was a dream come true, until one Monday morning when a meeting with my boss Jane turned my life around.
Jane was the impeccably groomed top executive that I dreamed of becoming one day. We all know this woman: her hair and nails were always done, and her bag matched her shoes perfectly.
Ten minutes into the meeting, an employee tried to quietly enter through the back. “You’re LATE,” Jane startled us as she yelled across the room.
“I’m sorry Jane, but I just returned from maternity leave and had to drop my 6-week-old baby off at daycare, it was a difficult morning.” The woman apologized, but Jane wanted nothing to do with it.
“If you want to keep your job, you’ll never be late again.”
Something inside me snapped — I realized that if I wanted to be a mother one day, I couldn’t have someone else raise my child just so I could fulfill my need for success.
That day, I made a vow to replace my income and never put my child in daycare.
Three months later, I’d left my 6-figure corporate position with a vision to build a business. I maxed out every credit card and poured $24,700 into a direct sales company where I could license and sell personal development programs and build my brand along the way.
I thought this was my ticket out.
I went hard with my vision to create a new life that would allow me to work from home and raise a child. I called 3,000 leads in those first 3 months and never made a sale. I was devastated and started to second guess my decision to leave corporate. After experiencing so much success, I didn’t expect running my own company would be so difficult.
One day, my mentor told me to stop putting dollar signs on people’s foreheads and see them as people with lives that I could help. I broke through, closed that month with $37,000, replaced my income, and retired my husband within the first year. We grossed over 1 million in sales for the next three years.
What were the biggest challenges you faced?
Swan: I’d love to say it was all sunshine and roses after that, but three years into building our company, we decided to invest all our savings into a large golf course development project and lost everything the day that my daughter was born.
At the time, we were living in a ritzy California community of high-profile people like Deepak Chopra and Frank Kern, with two Mercedes in the driveway and not enough in our bank account to buy a $5 burrito. I was heartbroken and distraught: bringing a child into this world without having worries and fear around money was everything we’d worked for.
It took this huge loss for us to realize that our bank accounts didn't make us better parents. Having nothing got us very clear on who we were and the values we held. We could have easily gone back to corporate to rebuild but instead, we stayed true to our desire to give our child the best quality of love and support.
We made the decision to sell everything and leave the USA to travel. We left with exactly $12,682.62 to our names with a vision and a vow to show the world that you don't need to have a lot of money in the bank to be good parents, make a difference, and rebuild your life.
It's been 12 years since we left San Diego, and we’ve lived in 50+ countries and 6 continents while building multiple 7-figure empires. My company, The Unstoppable Branding Agency, is my way to live out my purpose by being the best role model to my daughter and showing other women that when they unleash their voice, they can build a 6 & 7 figure legacy brand. We’ve helped companies, small business owners, executives, and CEOs develop a clear, strong, and “sexy” brand image, message, and media strategy to amplify their brand.
What advice would you give to women who are looking to grow their own successful online businesses?
Don’t try to make it as hard as I did! I grinded so hard and put pressure on myself to prove my worth, which was exhausting. There’s better ways to reach similar levels of success.
First, connect with who you are and identify what part of your past may be holding you back from greatness. Look in the mirror and tell yourself how valuable you are. If the person in the mirror doesn't agree with what you say, then work on those parts. Personal development changed who I was from the inside out.
Second, get real with your values and what truly matters to you. Your story is the foundation for your brand: so get clear on what your bigger “why” is (mine was to be a present mother for my daughter), and how you can use your gifts to make someone’s life easier.
Third, turn your knowledge into products and services you can sell. The world has changed so much and social media allows us to connect and touch others’ lives with our gifts through content. Today, you can productize your knowledge by creating a course and sell it to anyone in the world.
My mission is to show women that if they have a dream or vision, they can make it happen. You just have to create a plan, believe in yourself, and take the first step. If you’re going to create a brand, create a sexy brand, and if you’re going to be anything… be unstoppable!Unstoppable Branding Agency
Contact Info:
Name: Rhonda Swan
Email: Send Email
Organization: Unstoppable Branding Agency
Address: 219 biltmore place, panama City Beach, FL 32413
Phone: 3058512540
Website: http://UnstoppableBrandingAgency.com
Release ID: 88980785
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