About Owner Shawndra Russell
Shawndra’s passion and purpose is to help uplift and empower women entrepreneurs. As a serial entrepreneur, she currently serves as owner of Mad Genius Studios, co-owner of HarmonyAVL+media, which designs and installs custom audio, visual, and lighting systems, and co-leader of InvestHER Asheville. She’s also the host of the Legacy Project and co-host of the Women in Trades podcast and the new Asheville Design District podcast.
Shawndra moved to Asheville in the fall of 2014 in part to be able to write about this amazing area of the country and all of the talented, innovative, and inspiring entrepreneurs that keep Asheville weird and wonderful. She’s been a full-time writer and brand consultant for 20 years and has helped many small businesses start, grow, or explode their digital presences including the 2nd-most booked food tour in the world in 2018.
Shawndra aspires that her businesses become B Corps with the lofty aspiration to advocate that all businesses become B Corps, aka businesses committed to supporting social and environmental issues. Eventually, we’d love to have a nonprofit arm that focuses on awarding seed money to startups, giving out grants and scholarships to young entrepreneurs and career-changers, and hosting fundraisers for important causes.
About Mad Genius Studios
The idea was inspired by one of Shawndra’s dear friends buying her a Daffy Duck “Mad Genius” coffee mug, and she loved the phrase so much that it sparked her to purchase MadGeniusStudios.com. A few weeks later, after a 4-Day sprint where she brainstormed non-stop about what she wanted Mad Genius Studios to stand for and what impact it could make in the world, she landed on the fact that the greatest asset any human has is their big, beautiful brain because we are ALL mad geniuses--we just need the time, space, and inspiration to let it out!
The Asheville location of Mad Genius Studios was opened to provide a space for female entrepreneurs to learn, grow and thrive. We also aim to collaborate with amazing women entrepreneurs to offer microevents related to business, self-care, and unleash your creativity. If you have a special skill, expertise, activity or workshop you would like to offer to our growing community, please reach out as this space is all about collaboration.
The gigantic vision for Mad Genius Studios is to open creative destinations all over the world where people can do startup sprints, work on their masterpieces, connect with their teams, and curate cool pop-up events that feature local creatives. And since Shawndra has spent the past 20 years working with brands to build their communities, she also want to continue that important work and support other creatives and entrepreneurs who want to make a bigger impact. Sometimes that work involves doing a brand assessment, writing new copy that actually captures your true brand voice and mission, creating a quarterly strategy, or producing or publishing work by other creatives.