Today we’d like to introduce you to Shannon Rizzo.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I was six months old, my dad moved here from Buffalo, New York, to pursue a music career. My mom followed him here a few months later. Like many, he found the road to fame is hard and destructive and my parents divorced when I was four years old. My dad went back to New York and my mom chose to stay in Nashville. She struggled without any family support but she relied on Nashville friends and her incredible survival instincts, intuition, and tenacity. I took it hard and didn’t understand why my dad wasn’t around. It was also very hard financially for my mom; we actually lived in a car for a few days and then an apartment with no furniture for a short time as she was trying to figure it all out. She was so courageous and took any job that would improve our circumstances. As soon as she got a raise, she moved us to a better place. Over and Over. We moved constantly and I changed schools every year or so.
I had no idea that this lifestyle would be the birth of amazing insight and creativity I need to live fully in my purpose. I had to learn by observation thus have always loved meeting people.
When I was nine years old, my mom remarried and her new husband adopted me as his own. Life got better and harder at the same time. New homes, new rules, more moving around Nashville, but always to a better school and safer neighborhood.
I graduated high school early at 16 years old. I started and dropped out of college within a few months. Moving so much during my childhood trained me to believe that’s how life was supposed to be. Out of that life, I grew into a creative, problem-solving, positive adult with lots of personal emotional baggage.
I started my first company – Nashville’s first bicycle courier company – Rush Delivery, LLC in my early 20’s. It was a tough road, with long hours and unending challenges. After ten hard years of growing that company and also starting a second company, an import business, I was tired and drained. My husband got sick, we sold one company and closed the other one. Years later, after 23 years of being together, we divorced. I didn’t understand at the time that I had been creating this life. Some days I didn’t recognize it as my own. But I had and it was.
Over the next few years, I earned a degree and learned a second language. I worked in various aspects of businesses, still moving frequently, and I missed the thrill of owning my own company.
In 2017, I decided to do address the negative things and choices in my life and start to do what I truly wanted. I had continuously been in service to others and I needed to restore myself. I needed to listen to my heart. I missed her. Today I am happy and awakened, my company, Shannon Rizzo Companies, LLC and my 501(c)(3), Boundless Foundation formerly Global Girl Life, was born from a dream that women and children have access to the basic comforts and necessities needed to improve their living conditions so that they can thrive. No woman or child should feel left behind due to their socioeconomic status.
With over 20 years of entrepreneurial experience creating successful businesses in the logistics and commerce industries, I transitioned my expertise to connecting women around the world to hope and prosperity through mindset and career transformation. I realized my unique gift is in the ability to empower women to recognize their strengths and Become Boundless in mind, body, spirit and business so that they can be a powerful force for positivity and fulfill their unlimited potential.
Through Boundless, we just built our first brick and mortar school in Samarguala, La Entrada, Honduras and the doors opened May 25th, 2021. There had never been a school in this community and now 22 children are able to begin their educational journey. The entire village’s outcome will change and it has already brought so much hope and the ability for these children to learn to dream. We also serve artisans all over the world and provide microloans to budding entrepreneurs as well as courses and resources for those in need in developing countries as well. It is a well-designed ecosystem of heart-centered giving. We also provide scholarships for adult learning in our online accelerated business Level Up Academy.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
It was my biggest challenge/obstacle. I had not accepted radical responsibility for my life, I would not be where I am today.
Road was anything except smooth. I am just this year feeling the reward of understanding that I am not busy; instead I am focused. So many hardships have hit us and the pandemic actually knocked us out of the game completely. We had zero clients, no vendors, no income, no employees, nothing. I know we weren’t the only ones who faced such scary circumstances.
Being quarantined shed light on all that was going wrong and what was right. Leaning into my fears, I made big moves that cost me lots of money and hardship, but the outcome is the silver lining. I was so far out of alignment with my purpose, dealing with these hardships was the path to becoming boundless for myself, my truest most authentic self.
I sought healers, online business courses, counseling groups on zoom, life coaches, love coaches, friends, family, acquaintances, public figures, influencers, strangers, everyone. I spent tens of thousands of dollars on credit cards to find the answers. I needed to soul search and heal.
Once I leaned into what I discovered about myself and took radical responsibility for my life, everything changed. The money I spent has come back to me threefold and the amount of people we have been able to help as an extension of our work has more than quadrupled. We are the living breathing brand that is boundless. Today we have grown to eight teammates in just one year.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m Shannon Rizzo, a heart-centered social entrepreneur and founder of Boundless.
Boundless was born from a dream that women and children have access to the basic comforts and necessities needed to improve their living conditions so that they can thrive. We educate, support and nourish women and children through immersive, hands-on programs including intentional education, meal service, and practical skill-set training. We believe that education provides opportunity for growth – economic, personal and spiritual growth. One of our main priorities is to build 32 schools over the next five years for children (and adults) who do not have meaningful educational opportunities.
We have an online lifestyle magazine that encourages transformational travel, an online shop dedicated to hand-made artisan products which feature the products of over 45 families in five countries, and an education fund that builds schools and structures in developing countries.
Kindness and compassion are at the core of all we do.
We serve communities to reduce the psychological and emotional impact that lack of opportunity creates and help families to go from surviving to thriving.
When we provide one family with hope, we touch the lives of hundreds for generations to come.
What sets us apart from other nonprofits is that we listen first. We talk to the members of a community and assess their needs through their lives and words. Our mission is to provide the resources they need to become self-sufficient problem-solvers.
We are also committed to teaching business basics to entrepreneurs in the communities we serve. Through our support of artisans around the world, we have witnessed the change a successful entrepreneur can bring to her community. We have a model that can be easily replicated and one which we know results in success.
Every donation provides hope for children and their families as soon as it is received.
We also believe in partnering with other heart-led organizations to make the most of our shared resources.
Ways to get involved: Volunteer, Donate – Contribute to the Boundless Schools education fund, Shop the Boundless Marketplace for Artisan goods, become a Corporate Sponsor – Sponsor a school or supplies, and provide warm nutritious meals.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Lol, I have a sense of humor and I am extremely sensitive and approachable and scared every day of my life. I doubt myself every day. Many people who do not know me and may have a social media view of what my life is like may think my life is about glamourous travel and staying in exotic places. When you spend time one-on-one time with me, you’ll get the full story. I’m just like everyone else. I wake up every day and commit to doing the thing that scares me the most. When I fail, I laugh at myself after saying a few #cusswords.
The last few months of my life have been the scariest of all. I have fallen hard in love and I have learned to be vulnerable every day, stay true to myself, and use my voice. All of the things I coach, I practice daily.
I want to reach more people and have them feel comfortable coming and spend time with me. My favorite thing to do is to get to know other human hearts, to listen, and share what I have learned. Together I want us to change the world by designing the lives we want and live them in vivid color making an impact for good.
Pricing:
- Free Facebook Community with Live Interview resources featuring artists and new successful entrepreneurs, Becoming Boundless
- Free Online Community, Level Out W/ Shannon
- Boundless Academy- Level Up Business Accelerator Academy – Starts at $67
Contact Info:
- Email: info@shannonrizzo.com
- Website: https://www.globalgirllife.org/boundless-building-schools and https://www.shannonrizzo.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/iamshannonrizzo/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BeABoundlessBoss
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGYQfOowlPstyEHmHBSe2ig
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/…/boundless…/id1569074053
Image Credits
Amber Larkins Fitography Files Arcidus Dubon Vasquez Jesse James Levan
