Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Rachel Vandernick. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Rachel, thanks for joining us today. Day to day the world can seem like a tough place, but there’s also so much kindness in the world and we think talking about that kindness helps spread it and make the world a nicer, kinder place. Can you share a story of a time when someone did something really kind for you?

In the midst of the first wave of Covid-19 in March of 2020, one of my longstanding clients called me out of the blue. We had a friendly working relationship, but I had expected the call to result in (another) cancellation of service agreement given the immediate tightening of budgets that nearly every industry was seeing in response to the pandemic uncertainty. As a vendor, I was often in the first round of cuts. Instead, the company president had called me to say that she didn’t need to know my financial circumstances, but if I was experiencing hardship due to cancellations from other clients, they would be prepared to pre-pay their upcoming invoices to give me some cashflow to stay afloat. I didn’t need to explain, just submit the invoice. As a vendor or contractor, you have essentially no protections, and had few options in March 2020, to help buoy business if clients were falling off, so to have a client look out for me and my business as if it were also their own touched me deeply. I fortunately didn’t need to take them up on this, but I didn’t forget their kindness.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

We provide marketing and growth services for internet-obsessed brands. I jokingly say to clients that if you’re an online brand that helps clients look good or have fun, we want to work with you. The majority of our work falls within the beauty/retail space, and we generally provide services in SEO, paid search, paid social, and influencer. I also run a custom marketing training program designed to uplevel junior employees and take some of the skills development training off of the internal team’s workload.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Prior to 2020, the majority of my business was working with brands centered in the tourism/travel/hospitality space. By my estimates, almost 80% of my business’ revenue was in those industries. Obviously, those were the hardest hit in the pandemic, so within a few days of the first wave of lockdowns, I had to replace the majority of the business revenue with no notice.

Fortunately, my skill set is in online marketing, and there had never been a greater demand for needing to reach new consumers in an online space. I had done work in the ecom space, and had a few existing clients in online retail, but nowhere near the volume of opportunity. I pivoted our focus to be ecommerce brands, and we haven’t looked back since.

Though my heart is still in the travel industry, it was, in hindsight, a necessary change. And one that without a prompt, I probably would not have made.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

I started freelancing when I was in college. I found my first few clients off of Craig’s List and continued to grow my skillset and client list for a few years post-graduation. I worked a variety of marketing jobs; agency-side, brand-side and eventually at a startup, but nothing was ever quite right. I always wanted more autonomy, more flexibility, and more scope in a given role. Eventually, I decided that going out on my own was really a better fit for my skillset and personality than working in a role (and at a company) built by and for someone else.

I remember the feeling of commuting back to Philadelphia from NYC after my last day at the startup and emailing all of my existing clients at the time saying that I had more availability if they ever needed more support. A few took me up on it, and the business continued to grow after that.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thevandergroup.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelvandernick/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/VandernickR