Stepping Fully Into Your Genius Zone with Rachel Huff

You're an expert at one thing that you know the market needs, but you’re feeling tugged to do something else—something that just might be in your genius zone. Do you go for it? Communication maven turned agency matchmaker Rachel Huff did—and she shares her experience.

We discuss:

The challenges of starting a new business on the cusp of a global pandemic (with two tiny children and no day care).

Generating the courage to pivot from what you’re very good at to your genius zone.

The importance of building a new pipeline after a pivot—and allowing enough time for it to jell.

Giving yourself permission to lean into your genius—even when other “experts” try to change your mind. 

Why creating and sharing your point of view is so critical for soloists.

LINKS

Rachel Huff | Website | LinkedIn | Rosie’s Place  

Rochelle Moulton Email List | LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

GUEST BIO

Rachel Huff, President and Founder of Victoire & Co, sits at the intersection of great companies and great agencies. Her passion lies in building brand-agency partnerships that drive long-term success.

With a keen understanding of clients’ communications and business needs and a network of trusted agency connections, she specializes in guiding companies toward their best agency fit.

Rachel previously led business development and agency marketing at Weber Shandwick and 360PR+ and has consulted for agencies of all sizes, drawing from a decade on the account side developing integrated communications campaigns for brands including John Hancock, Verizon, Ocean Spray, DraftKings, CVS and Life is Good.

Rachel extends her professional expertise through her nonprofit involvement. She serves on both the Board of Directors and the Marketing & Development Committee for Rosie’s Place, the nation’s first women’s shelter and a sanctuary for poor and homeless women.

BOOK A STRATEGY CALL WITH ROCHELLE

RESOURCES FOR SOLOISTS

10 Ways To Grow Revenue As A Soloist (Without Working More Hours): most of us have been conditioned to work more when we want to grow revenue—but what if we just worked differently?

The Soloist Women community: a place to connect with like-minded women (and join a channel dedicated to your revenue level).

The Authority Code: How to Position, Monetize and Sell Your Expertise: equal parts bible, blueprint and bushido. How to think like, become—and remain—an authority.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 - 00:28

Rachel Huff: When I started off on my own, I actually always did have this idea in mind of being an agency search consultant and that that was somewhere that I wanted to get 1 day in like 5 years or so. But I was so used to doing certain work and I was, I just sort of had, I don't want to say pigeon-holed myself, but maybe. And I think, I just think it's really important. It's something that I learned. And I think this was part of my making that pivot was just because somebody didn't listen to your expertise in

00:28 - 00:34

Rachel Huff: the past, or just because somebody didn't necessarily empower you to be an expert on something, it doesn't make it true.

00:39 - 01:07

Rochelle Moulton: Hello, hello. Welcome to Soloist Women, where we're all about turning your expertise into wealth and impact. I'm Rochelle Moulton, and today I'm here with Rachel Huff, who serves as a matchmaker for brands and agencies through her firm Victoire & Company. And her background includes over a decade inside an agency developing integrated communication campaigns for brands like John Hancock, Verizon, Ocean Spray, and CVS. Rachel, welcome.

01:08 - 01:10

Rachel Huff: Thank you so much for having

01:10 - 01:38

Rochelle Moulton: me, Rochelle. Well, 1 of the reasons that I asked you to join me is that you started your business right smack dab at the beginning of a pandemic with 2 tiny children. But, but I'm also planning on picking your brain for an idea or 2 on PR and thought leadership for soloists. So let's dive in. I guess let's start with what made you decide to start your business. Maybe you could set the stage for your first few days and weeks as a soloist.

01:39 - 02:09

Rachel Huff: Absolutely. Yeah, as you alluded, I spent my really whole career in agencies working on communications campaigns and my last few years in the agency world, I had transitioned into a business development and marketing role. So I was really responsible for helping the agency that I was working at to bring in and onboard their new clients. And I had this idea that had been sort of percolating, you know, I had kind of always had it in the back of my mind about going out on my own and continuing to do that work, which I really did enjoy

02:09 - 02:36

Rachel Huff: that work, but to continue doing that for a number of different agency clients. So either agencies who were smaller size, who didn't necessarily have their own dedicated business development person or, you know, sometimes midsize or even larger agencies who just needed a little bit of outside perspective and help to really help those agencies with their marketing and growing their business. So that was really what the idea was when I went out on my own in March 2020. I had set the ball in motion.

02:37 - 02:40

Rochelle Moulton: Let's stop there for just a second. March 2020.

02:41 - 03:14

Rachel Huff: Yeah, I had really good timing. Impeccable. I had kind of like set this ball in motion already to leave this, you know, the so-called real job and start my own consultancy. But yeah, then this little thing called COVID happened, worldwide pandemic. And yeah, my 2 kids were at the time 6 months old and 3 years old. And suddenly we no longer had full-time childcare for them. So yeah, this vision that I had for launching my own consultancy, it definitely was a little different from what I had initially anticipated. But I did pretty quickly start to take

03:14 - 03:29

Rachel Huff: on new clients and work. It just for that first year, really a little more than a year, it really was my workday consisted of really nap time and nighttime after the kids went to bed. So yeah, a little different from how I thought it would have gone.

03:30 - 03:38

Rochelle Moulton: So given that and you're trying to squeeze this in between nap times, how long did it take you to hit your first 100, 000?

03:39 - 04:09

Rachel Huff: So that first year was, like I said, it was like part-time, part-time, right? And then it took me about a year to really officially then I said, you know, I'm really committed to doing this. My, my kids were now in full time childcare. So I established my LLC. I launched Victoire and co in 2021, you know, officially now had my own business and felt a little more real. And then really in that second year, it took me, it took me that second year to hit a 100 K Mark. And it was interesting because even then I

04:09 - 04:30

Rachel Huff: was still part time. I still wasn't working full time. And I had this, I guess I had a moment of shock when I was crunching the numbers after 2 years in business and I realized I had made as much money working part time and doing this for myself as I had made in a full time salary job before that. So that was really exciting for me. So yeah, yeah.

04:31 - 04:41

Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, that transition. I mean, that moment when you really realize, oh, I can make money at this. And when you realize that you can make more and work less.

04:42 - 04:44

Rachel Huff: It's wonderful. It's freeing.

04:44 - 04:56

Rochelle Moulton: Exactly. So what's your viewpoint on hiring employees or contractors inside your firm? Like, do you have a point of view about that or have you kind of moved off employees, no employees?

04:56 - 05:25

Rachel Huff: Yeah, I've had some subcontractors on like project basis, but it's really interesting because I have a friend who owns her own agency. And I feel like every time I talk to her, she's like, just wait by the next time we talk, you're going to have your own employees are going to start growing soon. I'm always like, oh, no, no, no, thank you. That's actually I really enjoyed listening to your podcast and how some of your guests are like, no, I know that I'm a soloist. I'm fine with that. I'm cool with this. So that's really how

05:25 - 05:45

Rachel Huff: I feel. I mean, I never say never, but for me, it is very freeing not having the responsibility of mentoring people, coaching people that need to really always keep them busy, you know, make sure I can deliver a paycheck to them. It's really I really like having accountability to myself and only myself. That's part of why I'm doing this.

05:45 - 06:09

Rochelle Moulton: Yeah. And isn't it funny how the outside world just puts that expectation on us? Oh, you're going to get employees. You're going to be fabulous. It's like, well, I'm already fabulous. It's kind of your response, right? I love working this way. But yeah, it takes a little getting used to, to being counter the prevailing quote unquote wisdom, right, of starting your own business.

06:09 - 06:23

Rachel Huff: Yes. But yes, I've been very happy being a soloist. I loved working on big teams. I used to work on big teams. I used to mentor people and manage people, but I'm pretty happy working on my own and I still get to work with great people, just not within my own business.

06:23 - 06:35

Rochelle Moulton: Yes, exactly. So how did you land on your current specialty where you're basically matchmaking brands with agencies, agencies with brands? How did you get there?

06:35 - 07:03

Rachel Huff: I sort of took this parallel path. So when I started, I was really focused on consulting for agencies. And then I would get requests from time to time for people I had worked with in the past who are now in-house and needed help with running a search because you know They they were now in-house and needed help getting an agency and didn't even know how that process necessarily worked so I it started as me just sort of helping a few folks and then had a number of these searches under my belt and continued down that path.

07:03 - 07:34

Rachel Huff: So I had these parallel paths where I was doing the agency consulting and then helping companies run their agency searches. And I really just enjoyed that work so much. I don't know if I wanna say so much more, but I felt like that's really where my expertise, like I could really shine in my expertise and take all of my knowledge from having been agency side and bring that to in-house teams and helping them find the right agency partners for whatever their needs were. So I did make the decision at the end of last year, so the

07:34 - 08:01

Rachel Huff: end of 2022, to pivot with my consultancy and really double down there. I just felt like I, it almost was a little bit like the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, where I just was like doing the same work over and over. I've been doing it for so long with the agency, you know, the agency side work. And I knew how to do it. I was really good at it. I was helping people with it. But I was just running into the same things over and over. And I really am enjoying this new avenue for my business.

08:02 - 08:13

Rochelle Moulton: Well, it's I don't want to put words on your in your mouth, but it almost sounds like you went from your zone of excellence to your zone of genius, like that there is a line that you crossed. Somehow.

08:13 - 08:40

Rachel Huff: Yes, completely. That's exactly right. It's my zone of genius. And then it's also, it's work that just really energizes me. And it's very intentional. And I've really enjoyed doing that. And I think 1 of the challenges that I found, I'll be, I'll be transparent about this. 1 of the challenges that I found in making that transition was that the agency work that I was doing was either in some cases retainer based work or a lot of recurring project work where I do a project for a client and then it would lead to another project and then

08:40 - 09:09

Rachel Huff: it would lead to another project. So it was a lot of that. This work isn't necessarily like that because if I run a search for a company to help them find a external marketing or communications partner. I set them up with a great agency, and then in some cases they're done with me. Obviously bigger companies have a number of agencies that they work with, so I have done some recurring searches for companies, But it is definitely a different model. And so, and it requires like a really pretty steady pipeline and a constant pipeline. So the first

09:09 - 09:26

Rachel Huff: half of 2023 was a bit slow for me as a result of making that pivot. And I just spent a lot of time marketing myself, networking, really putting myself out there and it's definitely been paying off. I would say the second half of this year has been, I quickly ramped up and it's been very busy

09:26 - 09:55

Rochelle Moulton: again. Well, it's funny you mentioned pipeline because that's the first thing I was thinking when you said, oh yeah, I have a client once, right. And then we're done until they need another search. And hopefully, if you've done your work, well, they don't need another search. Yeah, for quite a while. Yeah. So how long did it take you to really get traction? I mean, I know you said 6 months, like, what was that like? Because what you did is you faced the fear that a lot of us have when we do a pivot. Yeah. There's still

09:55 - 10:07

Rochelle Moulton: people that you know, but the way that you work is changing and the way that you market and sell yourself is changing and the way you set up your pipeline is changing. So I just, I would love you to walk us through a little bit of that.

10:07 - 10:32

Rachel Huff: Yeah, that's true. You know, it's funny because when I first started out on my own in again, March, 2020, I had a friend and a mentor who had said to me, you know, really prepare yourself. It's going to be like 6 months for you to ramp up. It's going to take a while for you to really get to a place where you have the steady stream of work. And I think part of it honestly might've been the fact that I, like I said, I only had so much time in the day that I could work. But

10:32 - 11:02

Rachel Huff: I think part of it was also that I did, I do have a really pretty incredible network and pretty large network. I think part of that is just the nature of the agency world. You have fantastic, people don't stay in agencies or in any specific agency for very long. So a lot of wonderful people who I worked with either as my colleagues or as past clients had ended up in a lot of really interesting places. So I was fortunate to get a really steady stream of work from the very beginning and kind of thought that was

11:02 - 11:32

Rachel Huff: going to be like continue for eternity. But it's funny because it then ended up happening, right? When I finally made this pivot at the beginning of this year, those first 6 months of the year were pretty quiet. And that was a little scary. But I think what was interesting about it was it's not like I was sitting there twiddling my thumbs I was working a lot and I think this is something that happens a lot as soloists we do a lot of unpaid work marketing ourselves networking And obviously we have to factor that in when we're

11:32 - 12:00

Rachel Huff: thinking about our time. But I felt like there were a few months there where I was like, I'm working so hard, I have nothing to show for it. Like I don't have a paycheck that you have when you're in a salary position, that's like constant regular paycheck. But I just kept at it and I had a lot of meaningful conversations. I think part of it You know, the economy has been kind of tougher just weird the past year or so No people a lot of stops and starts right people who were excited to work with me

12:00 - 12:13

Rachel Huff: and then oh, sorry Like our budget isn't approved Not sure not sure if we're going to make an agency change and we need your help with that or not. But it all ended up, you know, a lot of great work has come. As a result, it just, you know, I just had to be patient, but it has paid off.

12:13 - 12:47

Rochelle Moulton: I think you're being modest because, yeah, you had to be patient, but you were also working your system. And I love how you describe the agency world where people are constantly moving, but you stayed in touch with them. Not everybody does. I think that's, that's this key. And when you start a business like ours, if you've got this existing network of people, and I mean network in the best possible way, right? People you actually know and where you appreciate each other. It's an asset that you take into the business. And I think it helps you get

12:47 - 12:50

Rochelle Moulton: off the ground a lot faster than if you didn't have that.

12:50 - 13:20

Rachel Huff: Absolutely, yeah. A lot of the people who I've worked with, again, as a client, as a colleague, bosses of mine, people who reported to me, I feel like when we do interact with each other, even if it's been 10 years, we just immediately have that connection and trust, like inherent trust in the way that we work. So I've had a lot of people, a lot of my clients, pretty much most of my clients have been former, people I've worked with in some capacity in a past life and just like inherently trust the quality of the work

13:20 - 13:23

Rachel Huff: that I do because they are part of that network.

13:24 - 13:46

Rochelle Moulton: Yeah, that reputation value from actual experience with you is huge. You know, when We talked offline, you had mentioned a scenario, and I'm trying to remember if it was before you made the pivot into what we might