It’s all about rock ‘n’ roll.
At least it was for Cindy Faith Swain when she came to California in the late 1980s.
“I came to California to be a rock ‘n’ roll star,” Faith Swain said. “Then I thought I needed some money and that it would be nice to have a real job with health benefits.”
The Philadelphia native used a friend’s connection to get a job with a temporary employment agency that helped people like herself break into the entertainment industry. Faith Swain spent the next 12 years at Warner Bros..
“I got a job as a temp and worked my way up the corporate ladder,” she said.
Faith Swain worked on expanding Warner Bros.’ intellectual property, like Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, to the worldwide community. She spent years traveling and meeting global business executives.
After parting ways with WB in 2002, she got into consulting and eventually made her way to Santa Barbara, where she started the full-service business development, branding, marketing and social media company, PlanABrand.
“I took those skill sets (I developed at WB) into my work,” said Faith Swain, who started PlanABrand about a year ago. “When social media came along I saw the power of it and its potential.”
A logo is the nonverbal visual representation of a brand when the owner is not around to tell the story, she said.
“People need to know what they do, they need to know their core competencies and explain them in a succinct way,” Faith Swain said. “PlanABrand helps you think your brand through.”
It’s important to maintain a long-term perspective and how one can use social media to reach those goals, she said.
“Just because you’re a small business, that doesn’t mean you can’t think big,” Faith Swain said. “It’s an opportunity to build and grow to what might be.”
Faith Swain recommended coming up with 10 key words that describe a business’ purpose and integrating those into each medium and platform.
“She helps you understand how to convey to people what makes you unique and what your distinctive differentiators are,” said Lois Phillips of the Association for Women in Communications’ Santa Barbara Chapter, which recently named Faith Swain its Member of the Year.
Aside from her marketing and branding career, Faith Swain has published an album In My New Uniform, and played at venues from The Hot Club of Philadelphia to The Troubadour in West Hollywood.
Although the ambitious rocker eventually resorted to “Plan B” when she came to California, Faith Swain assures her clients they won’t have to.
“I help people get Plan A right from the start,” she said.
— Noozhawk staff writer Alex Kacik can be reached at akacik@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.