POV when "side hustle" meets "day job"

Is it a problem? Or is it passion?

I’ve been inching toward this day for a while now. And wondering how I would handle it.

My biggest guiding principle is authenticity. So I know that’s got to guide the whole thing.

I’ve been slowly making the decision that for the right clients, I want to pull out the double barrels of my main hustle, Honor Code Creative (HCC), and this side hustle, Hey Mrs. Solomon.

At HCC, for 7+ years we’ve been helping brands define who they are and tell their stories. Either from their beginning or from a key turning point. I work with my friend and partner Susanne, whom I’ve known since our days at Rue La La, well over a decade ago (almost 2!).

I started Hey Mrs. Solomon largely by accident, as a testing ground to explore social media for client work, as an outlet for my long standing interest in style, as an accountability diary of sorts, a place to work on things like judgement, and ultimately as a place for the kind of conversations I longed for: where grownups could share ideas and ahas around style and arriving (hi midlife), authentically, and with the idea that style can be learned and discovered in an atmosphere of experimentation and kindness.

I started Hey Mrs. Solomon as a testing ground to explore social media for client work, and ultimately as a place for the kind of conversations I longed for in an atmosphere of experimentation and kindness.

I’ve been honored to see it grow, fueled by readers like you. I’ve been comforted to discover that the more real I can be, the more you’ve been here. I’ve held that realness to account on a daily basis in everything from the painful stories I’ve shared because they’re important and might help someone else, to the (very specific!) way I use links and (very minimally!) accept gifts.

The Risk

Because of this growth, and while I never set out with this intention, I’ve had a sense that there could be a reason for clients to be clients of both, HMS and HCC. I’ve been looking hard at this and asking myself, what’s the risk of letting there be crossover in these two things?

Around this same time, Susanne and I got together to look at HCC and our intentions for the business after 7+ years and now with 90+ freelancers in our crew. Ultimately what we came to at this time is that we want to be VERY specific about who we work with.

We developed some hard lines and areas where we know we can make the most impact. But we also decided to treat as equally important the character of the people and brands we partner with. (We’re both in our “life is short” era.)

I say this because I think the biggest risk would be that I feel compelled to sugarcoat feedback on a brand because they’re an HCC client. But I’ve realized that wouldn’t be the case. Because a) we aren’t taking on HCC clients whose product/offering we don’t deeply believe in. (Instead we’ve deeply expanded our verticals, working with more mission-focused organizations and for professional services clients too.) and b) we’re looking closely at the leaders we work with, and only working with those who genuinely want feedback and want to grow and change.

The Reward

I don’t imagine you’re going to see much of this crossover, but when you do, I think it’ll be good for everyone.

For clients, obviously, they’re getting our HCC help and added HMS exposure. For me as a human deep in her career, I get the satisfaction of deeply knowing these brands and working more of my creative muscles, putting all my passions into play.

For readers, you’re getting a view into people and things we’ve REALLY done our due diligence around. Which we know matters deeply to you. 

And also, OF COURSE, I will be identifying when I’m doing dual work on something. Transparency helps to many things. Turn all the lights on!

Meet the Three

I thought it would make sense now to share the first 3 businesses I’m working with in this way.

(1) Riand28. Two female founders, Monica, a gastroenterologist, and Keda, a fashion buyer she met at their kids’ school. You’ve seen me in my Stevie shirt and Cleo Satin Trousers (above) — and get ready to see me in my Sasha dress (currently in Boston where I’ll be soon). This 5 minute mini-doc is the reason behind the name of this dress, and it gives you a window into the kind of women the founders are. (My friend

Irene Kim (김애린)

wears them; that says a lot.)

These little Fleur du Mal boxers (better look here) are the first thing I bought (myself, BTW!) using my newfound CAKE cards.

(2) CAKE. Speaking of

Irene Kim (김애린)

, you probably also saw her recent post on CAKE. I am working with them too. But before you get all “oh this is one of those dudes trying to take our money” things (thank you

Totally Recommend

for prying our collective eyes open), I do want to add some real, personal color. The origins of CAKE are two of the original founders of Rue La La whom I’ve known since 2008. (Holy sh*t, 2008!) And look, everyone’s trying to make money (including me), otherwise it would be a hobby not a business. But I came to Ben Fischman and Ted McNamara back when I was a newly single mom with a 3 year old adopted from Korea, living in Boston where people asked me, as I ran errands with my son, if “your husband is Chinese.” I had to stay in Boston (I didn’t want to separate Jack from his dad). But I loved fashion. I had left careers in the law and in PR, and I had zero traditional marketing/advertising experience and I was scared about a million things. In my interview with Ben, I blurted out: “If I get this job I have to leave at 5 on the dot to get my son in daycare because I’m a single mom.” This was at the height of startups and all the work-til-midnight insanity they entailed. And he said, “Not only will you be able to leave at 5, but if we’re in a meeting together and it’s 5 I’ll tell you to go.”

In my interview, I blurted out: “If I get this job I have to leave at 5 on the dot to get my son in daycare because I’m a single mom.” This was at the height of startup insanity. And he said, “Not only will you be able to leave , but if we’re in a meeting together and it’s 5 I’ll tell you to go.”

Look, over the years we’ve passionately disagreed (he loves that) and no one’s perfect (certainly not me), but this was a seminal person and moment in my life. Ben’s been a huge supporter of Honor Code, using us plenty of times, and he introduced me to Dave and Estelle, CAKE’s co-founders, recommending they talk to me about brand work. We had many, many conversations before working together. I grew to understand that this was real, of real value, and a real chance to change the existing shopping model. They were connecting brands with great shoppers and negotiating with them to give those shoppers CAKE cash (real money to spend) vs. paying tons of fees to Meta to throw advertising against a wall. It’s a membership model, that’s where their money is made, but the shopper likely recoups that fee on first purchase. It’s very much in the wheelhouse of these folks I know from way back when, founders of the first flash sale experience in the US, people who know retail and get genuine joy from breaking business as usual.

One of the first pieces of feedback I gave CAKE is that it’s not clear how it works! You don’t really “get” the magic until you try it and then you totally do. I’m going to be working on that. I’m also going to be showing you firsthand how I shop with it. More to come.

In the meantime, I get a limited number of member invites to use (they’re being careful about this because it’s what they agreed on with the brands) and share with you.

You can put me as Sponsor: heymrssolomon — and this is the link to use.

(2) Pamela Zamore. We met Pam years ago, and Susanne and I fell in LOVE with her work. She had once been in ad world, long ago, but it was so clear she was an artist with a vision doing something so special. (Susanne is especially hard to please and even she was obsessed.) This was probably the first client where we really dropped our budget requirements because we just loved what she was doing so much. Honestly we took a gamble that she would be good to work with (yes — lovely) because we were that in awe of her jewelry and thought we could make an impact. She had gotten her start by walking into Barneys and getting the jewelry department to place an order. Yeah, that doesn’t happen. By the time we met she was selling on Moda too. We came in to give her a brand DNA, galvanize her voice and storytelling, rewrite her site, do a leveled up photo shoot and site assets (she took it from there and now handles; she always had the vision) and later to revamp social, build out an editorial calendar, and name collections. I am excited to wear her and tell her stories whenever and wherever I can. (This was one of the first pieces I got, back when we started! And this is a collection I helped name and have been dreaming about ever since.)

This ring is currently on my Pamela Zamore wish list

And, as if I needed an excuse …

Can I just say thank you for being here? This is a really kind, really special place because of you, exceeding anything I could have imagined when I started. A place I really look forward to coming to every single day. Thank you for that.

XOXO,

Rachel