Rachel Zorel - Leap Of Faith: Building A Small Award-Winning Agency in the Big NYC Market

Rachel Zorel shows that a big risk, a leap of faith, and a slow build are all it takes to scale not just her business, but her professional career and personal life, too.

Rachel is the Founder and Creative Director of the multidisciplinary design and branding agency 7 Layer Studio. In this episode she shares the story of taking a pivotal career shift from freelancing solo to taking on a team of creatives and building an award-winning brand agency.

We discuss:

• Getting her feet wet first as an in-house designer then deciding to start her own business
• Her humble beginnings as a solopreneur and how she learned the whole infrastructure of running her own company
• Knowing what she didn’t know in order to elevate her professionalism little by little
• Her transition from being a solopreneur to building a team to cater to more clients while allowing her to grow her personal life also
• How she decided on who to hire first
• Hiring local vs. hiring virtual
• Why she likes catering to SME clients and how she goes about vetting prospects
• Marketing through social media, word of mouth, and email to promote the agency and get new clients
• Making the studio more human by featuring the team on social media
• Taking pride in providing design services that are at par with the standards maintained by larger New York City agencies
• The biggest challenges she’s had to face in the last five years in growing her business
• Being intentional about work-life balance as a full-time mom of four
• Her Rapid Fire 10 round of questions reveals her secret talent and her manifesto about the potential that tomorrow brings

Mentioned in this episode:

7 Layer Studio: https://www.7layerstudio.com

7 Layer Studio Instagram: https://www.instagram.co/7layerstudio/

SOMa AMEN Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1568313443493100/

To connect with Rachel, head on over to her channels:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rzorel/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachelzorel

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode of the podcast, head on over to the following links for more of my work and some valuable resources to get you started on your own branding initiatives. Until the next episode!

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The Brand Design Masters Podcast is targeted to entrepreneurs, designers, creative professionals, and anyone interested in brand strategy, business planning, graphic design, personal branding, trends and marketing.

Philip VanDusen is the owner of Verhaal Brand Design, a brand strategy and design agency based in New Jersey. Philip is a highly accomplished creative executive and expert in brand strategy, graphic design, marketing and creative management. Philip provides design, branding, marketing, career and business advice to creative professionals, entrepreneurs and companies on how to build successful brands for themselves and for the clients and customers they serve.