Entrepreneur At Heart
Our very own, Founder & CEO Leah Stoudenmire, was recently featured as an Entrepreneur on the rise! Check out the article by @upstateBizSC and the awesome video of our fearless leader telling the story of how The Rock It! Co. began.
At a young age, Leah’s father lost his sight due to cryptococcal meningitis. She had to be his eyes and learned very quickly, from him, to never give up and always persevere. With that motto in her heart, life came at her fast. Right out of college Leah jumped into the advertising world to climb the quintessential ladder of success and see what the real world was all about…always knowing that one day she would start a business of her own.
Doors began to open for Leah after only 2 years in the advertising business. She landed a job with a luxury real estate resort firm and began traveling the world to manage comprehensive marketing campaigns, sales services and events for premiere real estate developers and strategic alliances in North America. But as with every good story, things came crumbling down with the crash of the Real Estate Market in 2008, including her career.
It would’ve been easy to give up then, but as the saying goes, when one door closes, another one opens…and it did. After filing for unemployment and picking up babysitting jobs for families in the community, an opportunity to co-found a lifestyle clothing line fell in her lap. It was a huge risk, but she knew the fear of striking out wouldn’t prevent her from playing the game. She worked with manufacturers overseas and the lifestyle brand could be found online & in over 85 stores in the first year after launching. After four long years, the time came to exit the company and the biggest and best lesson she learned was to choose your partnerships wisely! Trust yourself, trust your gut and. . .NEVER SETTLE!
Life sure does have a way of teaching us and keeping us on our toes. It was after she felt she had lost it all that she decided to get into the corporate world as the event director for a leading benefits technology provider. And while she quickly learned that the corporate world wasn’t the life she wanted to live, she saw a more efficient way to produce big results in marketing and in life.
So in 2014, The Rock It! Co. was born. The initial core business was event marketing in the tech industry. After challenges presented by COVID, The Rock It! Co. is now based in Greenville SC, with a presence in Charleston SC, and has transformed into a full-service Marketing & Events Agency. With what started as an idea, Leah has persevered and gained numerous clients worldwide, has multiple employees and molded her business to become what it is today.
With Leah’s entrepreneurial spirit, learnings from failures and drive for excellence, who knows how far The Rock It! Co. will go! Be sure to follow @therockitco on this journey as we continue writing our story.
And as the great Winston Churchill once said, “Never, never, never give up.”
