Rachel Rusnak

Backstory:
I was certain that when I "grew up" I wanted to be an attorney. The career seemed to encompass all things dear to me - analytical thought and strategy through research and communications in hopes of helping others, but my path changed. After obtaining an internship with a leading public and media relations firm my senior year of college, I knew my future held more than legal documents, briefs and litigation hearings, so I decided to incorporate coursework from business, marketing, journalism, technology and education into my English Literature and Speech Communications studies and, as a result, discovered new interests and passions.

Overall, I am a curious person. Learning and discovering new information is a vital part of my life (which might explain why I am taking Post-Baccalaureate courses in Finance and PHP programming "for fun"), but even more so, finding out how these practices, systems and strategies can benefit others and their objectives.

There are times in which I get strange looks from people when I explain that I don’t consider my work “work” in the traditional sense. It is part of who I am. It’s a passion. When I wake in the morning, my mind is spinning with the excitement of new ideas, the best way to execute them, and, ultimately, how they will directly benefit whomever I am working with. Helping people make their business better is what I live for.

Background:
Although I've had the opportunity to work in a variety of industries - hospitality/entertainment, lifestyle products/services and the non-profit sector, in both agency and in-house settings - real estate has been my focus over the past six years. Serving in a variety of capacities, the majority of my focus resides in traditional, search engine and strategic new media marketing with companies ranging from local, independent brokerages to a network of international real estate conglomerates to independent consulting. It's been a wonderful journey thus far...

Prior to joining 7DS Associates, I served as Marketing Communications Manager for Luxury Portfolio Fine Property Collection, the luxury face of Leading Real Estate Companies of The World, a global real estate network comprised of over 600 firms, 5,000 offices and 150,000 sales associates in the United States and 35 countries abroad. I enjoy wearing a variety of hats, so this position was a perfect fit. I was involved with corporate communications, marketing, public relations, social media and business planning initiatives - both internally and in working with member brokerages.

Currently, as part of 7DS Associates , I handle client based project management, market research, internal marketing initiatives and strategic consulting engagements. The beauty in being a partner at 7DS? I am able to assist clients with various aspects of their business - from building out pro-formas to developing marketing strategies to analyzing business models...not to mention I work with two brilliant gentlemen – Rob Hahn and Jeff Corbett.

For more information about my background, please feel free to visit my LinkedIn profile or send me an email at rachel (at) squaredr (dot) com.