Meet my amazing cousin, Rebekah!!! A really fun thing about having such a huge extended family is that I have such a great network of smart, driven and most importantly, kind girl cousins. Rebekah and I are the same age and have so much in common… most of all, we both LOVE journalism, communications and marketing. Bekah owns her own marketing business, RHN Creative Studios. Be sure to check out her site!
Tell us a little about yourself and your career
I’m a wife, mother and marketer. I have a degree in Communication with emphases in journalism and visual media. I love every aspect of communication, from writing to designing, I don’t even mind the public speaking part. I worked outside of my degree for four years in the healthcare industry and I loved that because I learned a lot from the people that I worked with. Now that I’m focusing on content marketing, I enjoy working with other women who are trying to build businesses while being moms. I run my own content marketing business, RHN Creative Studios. I mainly do writing for other business owners, but I also provide social media, editing and design services.
I also have a few other side gigs; I’m a network marketer, and love using social media to build my business and get to know other women and help them to feel beautiful inside and out. Then, my husband and I have a men’s novelty t-shirt business, where I am in charge of marketing and operations. Finally, I love photography, and in my spare time, a word which I’m using very liberally, I like to take senior and couple portraits. I have never been the type of person who is amazing at one thing, but I like to think I’m pretty good at a couple of things, so I let my interests and passions drive my career.
How does your community of women you surround yourself with support you?
I have a few close business friends, we each run our own creative businesses and I love that we are there to bounce ideas off of and call on for support. One thing that I’ve learned as an entrepreneur is that is very lonely. I don’t work at a huge agency where I can bounce ideas off of my co-workers, so I use those amazing friends to pitch my ideas to. We’ve helped each other with pricing questions, naming our businesses, encouraged each other when things get tough. I LOVE that I can call or text them and they get where I’m coming from. They understand what it’s like to try and run a business all by yourself. They understand what it’s like to be a mom running a business, which is such an incredibly hard juggling act. But at the end of the day, I just am glad to be able to turn to them and know that someone has my back and someone can help me see the light at the end of the tunnel. I can’t emphasize how important having good friends who understand your situation is. It’s a necessity, especially for entrepreneurs.
How do you make your many at-home jobs work, while still focusing on your family?
This is a tough question. I think a common misconception with working moms, is that you have to always have a perfect work to life balance, and I don’t think that’s actually possible. Some days I’m more focused on my businesses and some days I don’t have a moment to sit at my computer until my kids are asleep. Life has seasons and so does motherhood and working. However, in order to try and keep my life somewhat balanced, I stick to a pretty strict schedule. Time blocking is my best friend. I know what I need to be doing almost every hour of the day. I have prioritized things like working out, cleaning my house and setting aside time to work. I stick to that schedule so that I can fit everything in. Once work is “over” I close my office door and spend time with my husband and kids. However, there are days that throw me off my schedule and I have had to learn how to be flexible and still be productive. To really answer your question, I would say, I’ve learned to prioritize and I don’t let unimportant things outweigh what’s most important to me.
What do you wish you could go back and tell your younger self re: your career aspirations?
I seriously regret not taking graphic design courses in college. This is by far my biggest regret because I love to design, but I don’t feel like I’m the best at it. I actually was going to minor in graphic design but I signed up for one class and dropped it on the first day because I was intimidated. I got scared and ran away and I still regret it almost six years later. I know that I would be much more valuable – or would see myself as more valuable – if I was confident in my design skills. As an entrepreneur, when you’re pricing out your services, you really are declaring your worth in that field. I wish I felt that I was worth more in graphic design. One thing I am glad that I understood when I was younger, was that you have to do what you love and what you are passionate about. I’m so glad I developed the skills I did because being able to write and manage social media accounts for a living makes me happy.
What is your career-related mantra?
I don’t have a mantra of any kind! I wish that I did, but I’ve never thought about one before!
