Rebecca Saunders is serial entrepreneur and a Business &Â Mentor for ambitious regional women wanting to do life and business unapologetically on their terms.
She helps regional female business owners like you turn your uniqueness into a super power, celebrate your successes and create your dream life and business by design.
As founder of Australia's Regional Business Women's Network The Champagne Lounge she has helped hundreds of regional business women combat the feelings of isolation and loneliness by providing a safe space and judgement free zone that connects, supports and celebrates them.
She's a bubbly extrovert, a podcast host and hair-free alopecian. She's a fur mumma to her two Mini Aussie Shepherd's Bailey and Marmite and lives in wine country in regional NSW, Australia.
Find Rebecca online at rebeccasaunders.com or on Instagram @therebeccasaunders
You may have noticed that I do things a little differently...
I built my first business to sponsor myself to stay in the country I dreamed of living in.
At 22, I packed a small bag and booked a one-way ticket to Sydney with my laptop and just $500. It was here that I founded my first video production company and signed global networking behemoth, LinkedIn as my first client!
Fast forward a decade and the team now operates worldwide across Australia, New Zealand, UK and the USA.
It's been a pinch myself moment to know that I've grown a thriving global production company.
When Covid hit in 2020, overnight we had 100% of our production clients cancel. My revenue hit zero and I told my staff that I'd need to close the business for good.
After a week of sleepless nights tossing and turning, I just knew failure wasn’t an option.
I called my team back in and we set to work on transforming the business.
A decade of positioning and a ton of video experience saw us skyrocket into helping hundreds of business owners go virtual, and dozens of large corporates live stream.
Ironically, 2020 became my biggest year in business and I hit the 7 figure mark for the first time!
In a truly incredible coming of age tale, the pandemic turned out not to be purely just a professional success for me - and after 25 years wearing a wig I decided that I was ready to reveal myself to the world, live an authentic life and lean into her own uniqueness!
Learning to love myself and use my uniqueness as a super power has been game changing for me, my business and the way I show up for my clients.
In 2022, I sold the studio part of my business and personally moved to country NSW.
Being in a new country town swiftly made me realise that I couldn't be alone in "having BIG dreams, a ton of energy and craving for connection with like minded women" and so I decided to do something about it.
I launched The Champagne Lounge as a safe space for regional business women to connect, support and celebrate without fear of judgement.
For its members, this virtual community is a sounding board for feedback, a place to chat with like-minded women and a safe space to share both wins and failures in confidence.Â
In today’s mental health epidemic, The Champagne Lounge has become a life line for many and is taking location out of the equation of success.
It’s winning formula has been its virtual meetups, with members encouraged to join them when they can, for as long as they can and how they can, with members loving “no pressure or expectation” and describing it as “A safe space to feel seen, heard and supported” and “Everything you want in your Business BFF!”
I'm beyond grateful that I now yet to spend my time living my best life, working with clients I loves and inspiring others to make their own uniqueness their superpower and their dreams a reality.
Rebecca x
PS. I'm also a movie producer!
In 2017, David Fairhurst came to me and said “Becca, I've written a feature film and I wondered if you'd like to produce it". My first production company Deli Agency wouldn't have existed without David's continued support and skills, so my answer was an undoubtable yes.
Quite frankly the entrepreneur in me thought “how hard can it be – let's make a movie!" Turns out it's a lot of work!
Reaching Distance is about a cynical man with a photographic memory who follows his sister's killer onto a bus and soon finds the lines between past and present have blurred.