Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Gilliam.
Rachel, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I started my career in 2013 as an email marketing specialist at a global agency working with industry-leading brands like Starbucks and Delsey Luggage. At the age of 20, I was influencing and recommending strategic enhancements for email programs that had an international reach. I grew and learned so much about email marketing early on in my career and made a path for myself in the digital marketing space.
After a couple of years as a specialist right here in Dallas, TX, I packed up my life and moved to Indianapolis, Indiana to be closer to my then boyfriend who I later married. I transitioned away from agency life and settled into a client-side position as an email marketing manager where I was able to create change and advance the email program to places it had never been before with more revenue and increased efficiencies that attracted more sales and marketing buy-in to what we were doing.
I lived in Indiana from 2015-2018 and life was beautiful but also messy and chaotic. My husband was diagnosed with a grade 4 spinal glioblastoma in March 2017 and passed away in September 2018.
It’s his love and encouragement that I still keep with me and his drive and passion for life that has motivated me to be the best version of me that I can be — both in marketing and in life.
While he was sick, I was able to maintain my full-time job, but there was also something that sparked inside of me that realized I want to do my own thing, set my own hours, and make my own rules with clients that I choose. I craved flexibility and autonomy while continuing to pursue a career that I loved which is why I launched my own Boutique Digital Marketing Agency specializing in email marketing and strategy for small businesses and entrepreneurs.
I currently full-time work at The Richards Group as a Relationship Marketing Manager — a position and company I could have only dreamed about — while also managing my own clients in their email initiatives.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Absolutely not and I’m grateful for that. I’ve faced many personal setbacks as well as ceilings that I felt like I would never break in my professional life.
In 2013, I was diagnosed with a bone marrow disease called aplastic anemia that causes your bone marrow to not produce new blood cells. I was tired all of the time and felt like my body was failing me at the age of 20.
In 2014, I went through several rounds of chemotherapy, blood and platelet transfusions and a bone marrow transplant on my path towards healing.
In 2016, I had a mental breakdown causing me to go back on anxiety medication due to the stress and demand of my job and being a part of a toxic work environment.
In 2017, my husband was diagnosed with a grade 4 spinal glioblastoma (spinal tumor) that left him paralyzed from the waist down. It spread like wildfire throughout his central nervous system no matter how many treatments we tried.
In 2018, my husband passed away to cancer after the tumor had eventually spread to his brain.
There was a lot of beauty mixed into the pain though. I married the most amazing man to walk the earth and got to spend six years of my life loving him and being loved by him. That love motivates me in everything that I do and I would not be where I am today had I not met him and felt his constant encouragement when I wanted to give up.
What do you do? What do you specialize in?
I prefer the term Email Queen, but ultimately, I work as an email marketing manager for small businesses and entrepreneurs and also consult for corporations. My bread and butter is email marketing and either providing strategy and tools for your team to succeed or rolling up my sleeves and implementing optimizations based on key findings on your behalf.
At the end of the day, we help our clients stand out in the inbox. Some of the projects we thrive on our email marketing audits — what’s currently working, what’s not?, email marketing and content calendars — helping you streamline your communication with a message that is timely and relevant, automation consulting within various email service providers, and email workshops and strategy sessions for you and your team.
I’m most proud of the clients that we get to work with. We are a tiny but mighty team that works with primarily female clients who are making space for themselves in every corner of the internet. I get a lot of joy from being a part of the phenomenal work that they are doing and the ways that this has stretched me into a better marketer.
What is “success” or “successful” for you?
Success for me is less about numbers and more about how I feel at the end of the day. I focus on two things: 1. Identifying the things in my life and business that are either bringing me joy or sucking the life out of me and 2. Analyzing how much time I spend in those 2 buckets.
To me, I know I’m in a good rhythm and making smart business decisions with the clients I take on and the projects that I’m wrapped up in if, at the end of the day, I feel proud of the work that I’m doing and I feel energized. I do a life and business audit at the end of each month.
What projects did I work on, who did I spend time with, which clients did I talk to the most? From there, I analyze when I felt the most like myself (happy, full of energy) and when I felt the least like myself (agitated, lethargic). When there’s not a good balance of joy, I pivot.
Knowing when to pivot and taking action is how I define success.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://rachelsymonegilliam.com/services
- Email: hello@rachelsymone.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/rachelsymonegilliam
Image Credit:
Jess Henderson, Hunter Sky Cook
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