Ask Rachel Anything | Part Two

I am so excited to continue the “ask Rachel” series! I’ve had a lot of questions come in, so I decided to break the answers up into different parts. If you have a question that hasn’t been answered yet, feel free to comment and I’ll get to it!

“If you’d have to pick a person you’d trade lives with, who would it be?”

This question is so hard and I still don’t feel like I have a good answer. I think the reason that I would want to trade lives with someone would be to get their perspective on life. So, I’d love to trade lives with my husband to see what it’s like to do the work he does and what it’s like to live with me/be married to me. If there was a celebrity or famous person I would want to switch lives with, it would probably be Ayesha Curry (wife to Steph Curry), ‘cause duh.

“How do you know which designs your customers will like?”

One thing I love to teach my coaching clients is how to survey your audience when creating designs. Now, you don’t want to give too much away, but I have asked for opinions/advice on my Instagram stories about designs. I post a picture or video and ask for feedback. Now there’s the poll for Instagram stories, so it makes it easier! This way you are able to include your audience in the design making process, but then also learn more about your audience. Once you do that a couple times, you will be able to understand their likes and serve them better with less surveying.

“How do you find the right types of mugs without breaking the bank just for testing the product?”

I have done a lot of trial and error with my products and have found a couple suppliers who I love and trust! My list of favorite suppliers can be found in my Product Shop Guru’s Guide to Success.

“How do you stick to a schedule with working from home?”

Now that I have an infant, sticking to a schedule is more important but also more difficult. We are still figuring it out, but you can read a little bit about our routine here. Before baby came, I had a pretty good routine. I thrive on routine and love having a schedule for my day. This comes naturally for me, but it doesn’t for others. My best advice for sticking to a schedule is block scheduling. This is done by making a list of what you need to get done that day. Then you block them out for specific times of day. For example: emails: 9-9:30, blogging 9:30-11, break 11-11:15, etc. When the time comes for the next item, switch to it. This makes you stay ultra focused on one thing at a time!

“How has your standing desk worked out?”

I love my standing desk! It’s been even more useful after baby came. In fact, I am currently standing with him strapped in the ergo while I work. He will only nap if he’s on me, so the standing desk has been amazing. And I don’t end the day feeling extremely lazy and sedentary.

“What is your absolute favorite way to unwind? Also, how do you “end” your workday since you work at home?”

My favorite way to unwind is with a glass of red wine on the back patio or going for a late afternoon walk. I try to have “office hours” and stick to them. But depending on the week, I will either stop working when my husband gets home or I will stop when a specific task is completed. There is always more work I could be doing, so I either pick a time to stop or pick a specific task to finish and once it’s completed, I “shut off.”

“What is your favorite adult beverage?”

Margaritas, champagne, red wine, mojitos. Do I have to pick just one?? Okay, if I had to pick one I would say red wine.

“What keeps you motivated?”

I get asked this question all the time and I never quite know how to answer it. I am naturally a motivated and driven person. I love the work I do and I wake up everyday WANTING to work. So, I think the biggest contributor to my motivation is the fact that I absolutely love what I do. If I was doing work that I wasn’t 110% invested in, I know wouldn’t be as motivated. The downside to my motivated and driven personality is that I am extremely hard on myself. If I have a list of 10 things to do and I only get 9 completed, the day feels like a failure. So although I am motivated, I am also self-deprecating :)

“How do you make time to post and get serious?”

I was born to have deep connection with others. I crave it. I live for it. I want the honest and the real. And I know what it’s like to scroll through Instagram and look at other feeds and feel like an outsider, failure, and not enough. And I NEVER want anyone to come across my feed and my images and feel the same way. So, I’ve made it my mission to make everyone feel like they have a place and that they aren’t alone in what they’re facing. I don’t have a perfect life and I never want anyone to feel that I do. Strategically speaking, I try to have about two posts a week that talk about deeper things than coffee and product sale codes.