Courtney Rhodes

Courtney Rhodes – Co-Founder &
Director of Marketing & Media Relations

Courtney R. Rhodes is a seasoned entrepreneur with more than 20 years of communications, brand marketing, advertising and management experience. She has a proven track record of lending her expertise to strategize in helping to build multimillion-dollar businesses and brands.

Rhodes is Co-Founder and Director of Marketing and Media Relations at C&D| The Agency and Founder of Digital CEO School.  She is responsible for managing and implementing brand marketing and communication strategies across all agency clients. This includes e-commerce, brand marketing, digital and traditional marketing, crisis management and media and public relations.

Before merging with her Co-Founder, she ran the day-to-day operations, business development, and client services for Urbanity Communications, a boutique brand marketing and communications firm. Urbanity’s niche was consulting for clients in the media, retail, food and beverage, medical, cultural arts and finance industries.

Rhodes managed brand marketing and communications for clients’ existing business with a strong focus on communication messaging, e-commerce, and online marketing to drive targeted leads and sales. She has placed over 100 million dollars in advertising dollars across radio, television, digital, social, and outdoor media.

While running Urbanity, Rhodes served as a committee member for Ford Motor Company’s Immersion Program, designed to take an intimate exploration into the lives of African-Americans as a unique consumer segment. Serving on that committee revived a deeply passionate interest. This led her to further discover the nuances and aspirations that drive purchasing behaviors throughout the African-American and multicultural consumer groups.

She realized that businesses from start-ups to Fortune 500’s should approach their messaging and marketing communications in a targeted lifestyle and behavioral-driven approach. Rhodes is committed to helping businesses and talents hone the magic in their brands by bringing different cultures, experiences, and viewpoints together.

Social responsibility and brand integrity drive her work as a seasoned marketer and communicator. Her focus centers around helping clients build, grow and protect businesses by highlighting the shared beliefs, values, and aspirations between them and the people they want to reach. Then packaging and sharing that story across multiple channels using her vast experience in e-commerce, social media and digital marketing, traditional marketing, events, and media and public relations.

Before Urbanity Communications, Rhodes spent six years at Clear Channel Communications, first as a Senior Account Executive and then General Sales Manager for radio stations and digital assets across Urban and Country genres. She also worked as an Account Executive for CBS-TV in Atlanta.

Rhodes’s early career in public and media relations strongly shaped her business acumen. She’s worked at some of America’s most cause-worthy organizations in various communication and executive support roles. These included The Development Office at Gilman School (during the School’s Centennial Campaign) in Baltimore, MD; The Business Office at Caves Valley Golf Club (during the club’s hosting of the 2002 Senior Open) in Baltimore, MD; and The President’s Office at the National Association of Colored People (NAACP) under the direction of the former NAACP president, Kweisi Mfume.

In 2017, she published and toured a ten-city national conference circuit with her first book, Make Your Mark: Personal Branding Through “On-Purpose” Living. During the tour, Rhodes presented and spoke for The Massachusetts Conference for Women (the largest women’s conference in America), The National Association of Black Journalists Convention, The Congressional Black Caucus Conference, The NAACP National Convention, and others.

As the founder of Digital CEO School, through TheBrandista.com, a personal branding and development website, she offers content, coaching, and online courses to micro-influencers and change-makers. She leads them through building authority, packaging, branding, marketing, communicating, and selling their expertise online.

Courtney serves on the Board of Trustees at Bethune-Cookman University. She is a repeat presenter for the state of South Carolina’s Victim’s Advocacy Week; a 2014- 2016 Georgia Entertainment Gala, Marketing Committee Member: and a 2014-2016 member of the National Black Arts Festival, Gala Committee. She’s a member of The Fashion Group International and ColorComm. Also, she’s an alumnus of Atlanta’s Jezebel Magazine“50 Most Beautiful,” and Atlantan Magazine “Atlanta Women of Power & Influence.”

Rhodes is a graduate of the Small Business Administration’s Women Entrepreneurs of Baltimore (WEB) entrepreneurial program and holds two professional degrees.  She has a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communications from Morgan State University and a Master of Arts in Publications Design from The University of Baltimore.

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