The Swan Sit story
Early Life…
Swan’s life is rooted in humble beginnings. She immigrated from Hong Kong to Boston with her family when she was just 6 years old. As a bright-eyed kid with oversized purple glasses and a classic bowl cut hairstyle, Swan was always curious.
In a time where it wasn’t “cool” to be smart, she loved learning about science and spent a lot of time talking about things like space and the universe. Being somewhat of an outcast as a kid, Swan developed a strong sense of empathy and understood the importance of acceptance from an early age.
Swan also inherited her unrelenting work ethic from her parents, whom she watched work multiple jobs through nights and weekends. Swan would work at their dry cleaners every weekend as front-of-house. Although they never had the opportunity to attend high school themselves, they were tiger parents that knew and instilled the importance of education in Swan from an early age. Swan would make them proud by one day attending Harvard for her BA, and Columbia for her MBA.
Swan’s Corporate Years…
Graduating during the dotcom boom, Swan landed a job at Trilogy where she enjoyed a 6 figure salary right out of college, trips to Vegas and endless perks. Then, a year later, 80% of the firm’s employees were laid off during the crash.
It was her first lesson in adaptability.
Still early on in her career and trying to get a footing, she went on to more stable roles, like product management at Newell (where she launched a factory in China during SARS) and consulting at Bain. She briefly delved into entrepreneurship when she founded her own advertising agency based in emotional branding.
In 2010, she realized digital was going to change everything about how we live so she went to lead Online Strategy for Estee Lauder, growing their digital footprint from 125 sites to 450 across 50 countries and pioneering some of the early best practices in ecommerce. She leveraged that to run Global Digital for Elizabeth Arden. Using digital marketing to trojan horse social change against the monochromatic views on beauty, Swan showcased unexpected influencers like Chelsea Handler, Iris Apfel, and Gigi Gorgeous, bringing attention to the outdated norms of cosmetics. Not only did that modernize the 100-year old brand, bringing in younger consumers, it resulted in a complete financial turnaround followed by 10 quarters of growth and an acquisition by Revlon.
Swan bookended her corporate career with two key VP roles at Nike — overseeing Global Digital Marketing during the Emmy-winning “Dream Crazy” campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, and running Digital Operations, Product, Supply Chain and Service for a $2B NA ecommerce business, including the coveted SNKRS app drops. She is still known for her iconic “Digital Platform” design that powered her work in a decade of digital marketing.
Today
Marketing Maven | Creator | Speaker | Advisor
From Operating to Advising…
After being in the trenches of digital transformation, Swan realized she could impact more companies by advising and consulting. She now sits on the boards of the publicly traded companies Edgewell Personal Care and Novabay Pharmaceuticals, as well as Far Niente Winery. She also advises the VC AF Ventures and the AFAQ SPAC, as well as multiple projects and companies in Web3.
Swan the Entrepreneur & Creator
From Corporate to Creator, Swan is known to most today as the “Queen of Clubhouse,” as Forbes named her. Her journey to becoming a creator might have come as unexpected, though it certainly wasn’t accidental. Just as she saw the massive digital transformation coming in the 2000’s, she saw the social audio phenomenon coming before most. Swan is still one of the most beloved creators on the Clubhouse app with over 3.5 million followers and now creates content on a variety of digital platforms and stages worldwide.
Swan’s creator work lends itself to being the bridge between legacy brands and the emerging talent and innovation. She formed Swan Sit the LLC in 2019, and has since worked with the likes of global stars Josh Richards and Bryce Hall to bring Ani Energy to market. As CMO of Ani, Swan has the knowledge to understand the influential power that Tiktok-born creators Josh and Bryce wield, while also having the background in CPG giants that’s necessary to make Ani one of the hottest brands in the creator economy.
Swan Sit is a unique contemporary operator sitting at the intersection of corporate economics, digital transformation, and consumer attention. She is leveraging her unique breadth of experience to advise the companies and leaders of tomorrow.
Always occupying the space between influencer and industry, Swan is well-poised to remain a crucial figure in the digital revolution where both sides meet to innovate.