Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Rains.
Hi Rachel, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
A little over ten years ago, I was working full-time for a locally owned healthcare facility doing physician recruitment and marketing after many years working for a Chamber of Commerce. I loved showcasing my community in my hospital position, but the culture was a little sterile. I was already doing so many side jobs for people I had met in my Chamber days, and decided that the side work was so much more impactful and rewarding than my full-time job. So in October 2016, I launched out on my own to open Marketing Maven Consulting, LLC as a solopreneur. We grew quickly to have a few team members within a year, and have steadily continued to grow and network since that time. Today, we have a total of ten team members, with 7 full-time employees spread out remotely across the state of Kansas (mostly Wichita and Kansas City) plus two college interns and a part-time bookkeeper. We work with clients all over the United States, from Idaho and Arizona to New York and Memphis and beyond.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Looking back now, the journey seems like it mostly has trended upward. But along the way, we definitely had some key learning and evolving moments. Most of those forks in the road were brought on by mistakes we had to learn from, client companies being sold, or experiments that didn’t work like we’d hoped. For the most part, though, we’ve been really fortunate to grow at a steady pace and every learning moment has made us stronger. Some of our biggest struggles were because of the growth – learning how to hire and onboard better, learning how to collaborate better, learning how to scale and departmentalize when the time came, etc. Staying humble, taking the L when we needed to, and evolving quickly has been the key to always ending up better off.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Marketing Maven Consulting LLC?
Our remote team primarily serves as an outsourced marketing department for other growing companies, a year-round contract service we call “Brand Management.” That’s quite rewarding, because we are basically coworkers and colleagues with our clients, working alongside them to accomplish goals, improve the bottom line, try new ideas, etc. We’re in the thick of it with them, and we get to go on their journey while we go on our own as well. Outside of Brand Management services, we also offer video production, website design, graphic design and branding, consulting and public speaking, and a few other a la carte projects. Our whole “thing” is that we offer transparent pricing and no bull. We are genuine, helpful humans who love what we do and want to help others achieve their goals.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
There are a few key people who have influenced me (and us) for the better. First, my former bosses at the Great Bend Chamber of Commerce. Michael Dawes and Jan Peters. Michael was a detail-oriented, journalist type who paid great attention to processes, organizing files, and how things are presented. He taught me a lot about working with clients, managing time, and presenting information in creative ways. My other boss, Jan Peters, was a fun-loving, energetic, relationship person who poured a lot of her time and energy into encouraging me, pointing out my strengths, and mentoring me on networking, sales, and project management. She gave me the space to try new ideas, to take ownership of events and goals, and helped listen when I needed to vent. She was the ultimate gal’s gal, reminding me how capable and smart I was, and giving me the confidence I needed to eventually become an entrepreneur. Today, many of the skills and professional views I learned from them shape the way I operate my own team, and I bet they have no idea just how influential they were in my life. (Maybe after this interview, I’ll make a point to tell them exactly that).
More present-day, my amazing team of rockstar talent deserves really ALL the credit. They work so hard and need zero micromanaging. They work independently, they are constantly learning and evolving, and they genuinely want to help others. They are the reason we’ve grown, and the reason we continue to be referred. Their exceptional work and professionalism at every step of the way make us easy to work with, and they are incredible examples of how work culture can and should be.
We also have some really kick-ass clients who have open minds, communicate well, collaborate creatively, and stick their necks out to refer us to other people. Those connections have meant so much to us, and they make it so fun to do what we do!
Last but not least, I have a solid group of friends who are also female leaders crushing it in their own businesses, their own industries, and their own careers. We support each other, share ideas, offer connections, and remind each other of our abilities when we need it. Those confident, capable women inspire me to be better.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.marketingmavenconsulting.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hireamaven
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/marketing-maven-consulting/
- Twitter: https://x.com/hireamaven
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVxPafP8nKV1lLRFW4Aaf2g
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@marketingmavenconsulting
