We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachael Larson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rachael, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
In 3rd grade my parents divorced and my mom moved my sister and I from our home in Las Vegas NV, to Sioux Falls SD. As you can imagine, being a women of color raised by a single mother in the Midwest came with its share of hurdles. I have no connection with the African American side of my family, so as I began to mature and explore who I was, this presented its own set of identity challenges. As a result of my upbringing, I started to question my emotions and self worth early on in adolescence. My teenage years were a mix of high and lows within my family and socially. Although I made life long great friends and had a supportive, loving extended family, I was always struggling with a feeling of being an outsider. This feeling would eventually manifest in different ways in my interpersonal relationships, which resulted in periods of deep depression. Eventually in my 20’s I was blessed by a daughter that inspired me to become a better more reliable person, not only for her, but for myself. I started to explore the depths of my psyche that were once a source of pain, and realized my deep capacity for creativity and empathy. This exploration led me to intuitive practices like astrology and meditation and allowed me to learn about the inter workings of my personality objectively. The more I gained perspective and understanding for myself, the more I was able to reflect on my life and all I had been through. I started to gain confidence for who I was and how far I had come. I realized the validation I once craved from others only ever needed to come from myself and I began to look for more ways to exercise self love and respect. The more trust I gained for myself and my ability to come out of the unknown on top, the more I was able to tap into my creative abilities. I have since been able to accomplish large scale creative productions, move across the country, achieve professional success, maintain healthy relationships and raise a well adjusted, creative, beautiful daughter. I now walk into any room and challenging situation with the confidence of an experienced, deeply happy individual. I have a faith in myself, god and the universe that cannot be easily shake. That said I do not make the mistake of thinking there will never be a scenario that scares me, in fact I welcome the shift in perspective. I do however walk in the faith that life isn’t about never being scared face obstacles, it’s about doing it anyway. I’ve have learned to do it afraid, and I am better for it.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
In my early adult life I modeled with several small stores in the local Midwest market consistently. I eventually decided to take the relationships I had cultivated to the next level professionally utilizing my talents for styling and connecting people. I approached one of the local event halls and together we came up with a plan to organize an annual fashion show that we would curate and style with the vendors and boutiques in our city. These events eventually grew into full scale productions with immersive art installations, musicians and branded extensive marketing campaigns used for social media. This once small passion project grew into a creative agency that offered a curated approach to events. My romantic relationship and ambitions would eventually call me out of the safety of my beloved home in small Sioux Falls SD. Once I was ready to branch out, I used my years of creative management experience in the event and fashion industry to create a portfolio and started applying to jobs in the Seattle market. I eventually landed a Project Coordinating position with the international interior design firm, RH, my greatest professional achievement yet.
My current role with RH entails Project Management on the front and backend for large scale interior design projects. I organize all facets of and timing and help ensure our projects come together on time and on budget. I am on site at time of delivery to ensure the design comes together according to the designers vision and truly get to experience the full magic of design. Execution has always been one of my strong suits and is truly one of my favorite parts of my job. I have even been able to challenge myself and act as primary designer on a 200k+ project. This spring I will be able to see the full scale of my hard work come to fruition as I prepare for my first install where I’ll act as designer, as well as coordinator. I still have much to learn on the design front, especially on the technical side. I come from a non traditional background where I did not earn a degree in design, this will always be my biggest area of opportunity. I have worked extremely hard for years to get where I am, and for that, I am very proud. I am lucky enough to be surrounded by experienced, wildly talented mentors who continue to challenge and help me learn everyday.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Resilience – don’t be afraid to be told no, have a bad show, or screw up a design, words don’t teach mistakes do!
Learning to Sew – this was pivotal in my journey for fashion and design, learning to think about the way things are put together opened up a whole new part of my creative mind and made me look at the world as a whole differently
Astrology – this gave me objectivity for myself and others and helped me find the beauty in the timing of life as well as learn to understand people.
YouTube!! There are so many insane FREE resources online for anyone who is willing to invest time in learning. That and books, all the books. Find a subject you find interesting ( a persons birth chart or a garment to take a part) and do a case study. Don’t stop till you get the juices flowing and before you know it you’ll be thinking differently entirely.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
Yes! Always! Community is everything and the bigger your network is the more opportunities you’ll have.
I’d love for anyone to get ahold of me on Instagram – IG @Rachydoesit
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Rachydoesit
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@tocaboba-u1p?si=nufgYqZRMK6jaZ3L
Image Credits
Ohm Kittipong
Johnny Theophilus
Brooke Hamilton-Nichols
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
