Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachel Lee. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Rachel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.
In the branding industry, people often use brand archetypes to help their clients nail down their vibe / style. While archetypes are an effective tool to quickly nail down a certain “type” of brand, I often find that these archetypes just don’t really cut it when it comes to creating an effective personal brand — since every human being is so vastly different!
One thing I love to do when I work with my clients is to help them find the DUALITY in their brand. This means that I help my clients define the two main sides of their brand that are seemingly opposite / contradict each other, but actually form a harmonious blend that results in a completely unique brand experience.
For example, my brand’s vibe is cute AND edgy. It says, “Come and play but don’t get TOO close”! Other clients I’ve worked with are a mix of elegant AND nerdy, corporate AND holistic, or techy AND natural.
I believe that identity has many layers, and that brands develop more depth when we learn to embrace the duality in our nature!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Growing up, I was the “art kid” who loved making things for people. There was nothing I enjoyed more than seeing the look on someone’s face whenever I created something custom for them — and that was the feeling that I chased throughout most of my career.
It led me to studying design in art school, and landing my dream job as a graphic designer at a local marketing company. Little did I know, I would end up feeling deeply unfulfilled at my job because it was missing a critical component that I had completely overlooked — which is having the ability to TALK to people about their challenges, and finding a creative solution in the form of design.
Being a creative problem solver myself, this sense of unfulfillment led me to explore other options outside of my work in the form of freelance projects. I honestly didn’t know what I was looking for, but knew that I wouldn’t know until I worked on different kinds of projects with different types of people.
I very quickly realized that I LOVED my freelance work a lot more than my full-time job, and made the impulsive decision to quit my job cold-turkey at the start of 2019 to start my own business — with zero business knowledge and a naive sense of hope that “being good at what I do” would somehow translate into dollars.
Needless to say, that first year of business was where I learned that I knew NOTHING about what it meant to run a business, and that I would have to learn pretty darn quickly to keep my head above water. To do that, I looked around at what everyone else was doing in my industry… and copied them.
This meant that I had semi-corporate branding, semi-formal attire, spoke about myself on my website as “we” instead of “I”, and presented myself in a way that’s completely OPPOSITE to how I really am. I completely watered down my brand for the sake of meeting this unspoken professional standard, and ended up seriously struggling to land business in the first few years.
Yes, I was able to get by… but none of the opportunities I attracted really excited me, and I just felt like I was lying to people when I marketed my brand or my services.
It wasn’t until 2022 when I reached a snapping point with my business that I decided to throw the “professional standard” out the window and started showing up in a way that felt true to ME.
I did the brave but scary thing where I scrapped my agency and built up my personal brand instead. I started showing up to calls in snapbacks and cat headphones, and decided to let the world see the unfiltered version of me — the version that I had been censoring this whole time out of fear that it would sabotage my opportunities.
Little did I know that this one change would create a seismic shift in my business where the right opportunities just started tumbling into my lap. I started attracting people I ACTUALLY vibed with, projects that I would legitimately feel proud to be a part of, and I started building a portfolio of work that I knew I could stand behind.
Not only that… every single person I’ve connected with in the following years has told me that they remembered me because I stood out. Yes, the cool brand styling helped… but ultimately, it was because I was finally brave enough to stop trying to fit in and let the world SEE who I actually am. No big agency, no fancy clothes, and no extra fluff.
Today, I help other brands go through that same transformation — to rewrite the professional standard for their brand and creatively infuse their unique 🔥✨🌶️ into the way they show up online. Whether it’s brand styling or just finding clarity on what their brand IS, I’m excited to say that I get to help people ARE different… show that to the world in a way that everyone can see!
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Thinking back on this 5 (going on 6) year journey, I wish that I understood the importance of having good systems, and how “structure” is actually critical to creating space for creativity to flow. Having recently incorporated Notion into my business as my CRM and PMS, I can’t speak for how instrumental it’s been in helping me keep my “artist brain” in check, and making it EASY for me to keep track of my multiple projects, deadlines, contacts and tasks all in one place… and freeing up my mental space to be fully present with my design work (rather than constantly having “squirrel-brain” because of the bajillion tasks I need to complete for my business).
If I had found out about Notion sooner (and its crazy capabilities to literally organize everything you have in your business), I probably would’ve operated with SO much more efficiency in the earlier years of my business as a creative entrepreneur!
Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?
When I decided to do my big rebrand in 2022 and switched from my business brand to my personal brand, I knew that I was running the risk of completely turning off my audience and scaring away the few opportunities I had lined up at the time.
I was going from semi-formal, semi-corporate, bland, vanilla-talk to graphic tees, cat headphones, neon lights, graffiti splatters and a helluva lot of “colourful” language. I knew that’s who I was, but deep down, I was scared that no one would do business with me if I let that show.
One of the biggest insecurities I had to fight through was the fact that I’ve always looked younger than I am… and that if it was already hard for me to land opportunities while “dressing myself up” and acting super-serious, then how the hell was I supposed to land clients by showing up to networking events looking like a high schooler?
It wasn’t until after I really took the time to work through these insecurities that I realized that it was actually my youthful energy that attracted people to work with me. As I talked to people, I realized that it was actually my spunky personality and edgy taste in style that got them raising their hand to hire me to work on their brand.
So when I pulled the trigger with my rebrand and showed the world who I actually am… I was anxious, but also confident that it would be well received — by the right people.
Yes, I lost some people along the way, but all the people who stuck around actually told me that they were inspired and empowered by this big step I took, and shared that they too wanted to do the same for themselves. Unknowingly, I had started a chain effect with my own unmasking, and I’m really happy to say that those conversations I’m having with people are still continuing to this day!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://racheltylee.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/racheltylee/
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/racheltylee/
- Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/racheltylee/
Image Credits
(All photos, images, designs and artwork are created by me)!