Rachel Squire

I attribute my success to a lot of things, and honestly, luck is a big part of it. I feel like everyone who's successful has that component. There's been lots of hard work, especially the first couple of years when I was definitely working every night and on weekends. But also, the connections and the mentorship have been huge. I have a couple of mentors, and without them, I would never have had the courage to try it. I wouldn't have known where to start. They're people that I still talk to on a regular basis, some of them almost daily. One of the best pieces of advice I got was from a mentor who had started his own agency about 10 years ago. I worked at that agency, which is what inspired this whole thing. I asked him, "how do you know when it's time to do it, when it's time to pull the trigger?" And he said, "there's never a good time, and there's never a bad time. If you feel like it's a good time and you want to do it, you just gotta do it. It's always gonna be scary, and it's always gonna be a risk. So, as long as you're ready to take on the risk, then you just gotta just do it. It's never gonna be safe, you know?" And that has been really helpful. I keep telling myself that all the time.

The best career advice I ever received came from one of my mentors who had started his own agency about 15 years ago. I worked at that agency, which is what inspired me to start my own. I asked him, how do you know when it's time to do it? How do you know it's the right time to pull the trigger? And he said, there's never a good time, and there's never a bad time. If you feel like it's a good time and you want to do it, you just gotta do it. It's always gonna be scary, and it's always gonna be a risk. So, as long as you're ready to take on the risk, then you just gotta just do it. It's never gonna be safe. That advice has been really helpful, and I keep telling myself that all the time. The other piece of advice that really resonates with me is don't be afraid to brag and talk about yourself. Celebrate your accomplishments. Men do it constantly, and women should do it too. We should celebrate each other and celebrate each other's accomplishments.

I would say a few things. First, if someone's trying to get into that space where they're more respected in their field, connections are super, super important. I'm not a huge fan of intentional networking and going out of my comfort zone to meet people, or at least I used to hate it, but I am now. I feel like the more connected you are, the more opportunities it opens, and that is priceless. The other piece of advice is this: don't be afraid to brag and talk about yourself. Celebrate your accomplishments. Men do it constantly, so women should do it too. We should celebrate each other. We should celebrate each other's accomplishments. It's important to recognize how far you've come and not just move on to the next goal without acknowledging what you've already achieved.

The biggest challenge for me has been operating as a female in a male-dominated industry. Marketing has a lot more female representation in general, but it's still not even. Marketing actually has a lot of male leaders, but women practicing, which drives me crazy because it feels like there's a ceiling at a certain point. Most of the people in leadership positions are men. There's such a bias. They'll ask questions like, "how can we be sure we're going to be prioritized if your kid has a sick day?" That's such an inappropriate question. It drives me crazy. There's definitely sexism that happens. If you are too assertive, then you're seen as cocky, and if you're not assertive enough, you're seen as timid, and there's just no winning. So, you just gotta keep going. It's impossible to do, but you basically just have to not care what people think. Despite these challenges, I believe there are tremendous opportunities for women to lead and build successful businesses in this space.

I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately, because it translates to how we run our business. Running business with integrity is really important to me. You have to be fully present when you're working. I can't always say that I am, like right now, I'm watching my daughter who's at home sick, but the idea is when we do work, we deliver excellent work, and that pays off professionally. At the same time, we should be fully present when we're home with family. We want to be fully present when we're volunteering, or when we're coaching soccer, or playing in the rec league or whatever it looks like for each of us. It's about giving your all to whatever you're doing at any given time, and I think that reflects in your work, and I think people notice. It really benefits you in all aspects. Family is incredibly important to me, and I have a heart for middle schoolers, so I volunteer with a lot of after-school programs. I think everybody should be volunteering to whatever fits their current place in life. Lastly, my husband's really supportive about making sure that at least a couple of times a month, I get to go out with my girlfriends and have brunch or go to dinner or catch a movie. For me, that's really important because it just gives me a time to just have fun and enjoy whatever moment I'm in.