Rachel Martino is a Quitter

Member Name: Rachel Martino

Occupation: Full-time Fashion Blogger and Video Content Creator

Job She Quit: Assistant Manager of Global Social Media at Estée Lauder’s Origins

Rachel Martino joined Fohr Card’s Quitter’s Club in August when she left her job at Estee Lauder’s Origins brand to double down on her own growing reach as a fashion and beauty influencer. It was a big step that has already paid off with campaigns with Lacoste, Victoria’s Secret, H&M and many more brands. And it all started with a YouTube channel that brought together her love for France and beauty tips.

The Beauty Bug: “I first started liking makeup when I was doing theater in school, and then I did a lot of stage makeup classes. And just to see the way it could transform the way you look, the way you feel, I just loved it. I literally used to sleep with a Benefit catalog under my pillow.”

French Connection: “Watching French YouTubers was the easiest way to learn French because I love watching the content. After I watched a ton of videos, I said to myself, ‘Maybe I’ll make a French video.’ There were no other Americans making videos in French, because French people love to know about American fashion and style and beauty, but a lot of them obviously don’t have the best English, so it was a great way for them to have the best of both worlds.”

College Life: “I was studying full-time as a double major in French and English. I had my YouTube channels. I also sold a little bit of Avon on the side, and I worked at a cosmetic store. And that’s always been my personality.”

Welcome To New York: “At the beginning, I didn’t have the job at Estée, so I was working part-time at Small Girls PR as kind of an intern, and I was also working part-time at a fashion start-up called Fashism. I worked those two jobs part-time, really scraping the bottom of the barrel for a couple of months, and then I started at Estée Lauder in September 2012. It was the perfect job. I was a community manager for a big beauty brand, and my three years there were great. It was never going to be my job forever, but I learned so much that even applies to what I do now.”

The Quit Decision: “There were six of us bloggers on a yacht in Bermuda and Hawkins PR hand-selected us using Fohr Card. Everybody else on the trip was a full-time blogger, and they were like, ‘Why? Why don’t you want to do it?’ They showed me what their lifestyle is like, and I really like having that support of other really successful, really great bloggers. I think that totally made me turn the switch. I had been looking for this dream job forever, and then I was like, ‘Shit, I already have it.’”

Big Changes: “It was definitely one of the hardest decisions that I’ve ever made, because who says no to a great job that you actually love with benefits, with a good salary, in Manhattan, overlooking the park? But I’ve never been happier. I love making my own schedule. I get to do a lot of the things that I was either too exhausted or that I couldn’t do during the day. After a long day at work, I didn’t want to go to 10 events during the week. I do a lot of that now and just have time to really invest in the blog.”

Finding The Right Lens: “I felt like I couldn’t compete with the other New York bloggers, the big-scale fashion bloggers. When I looked at them they were so beautiful and tall and skinny and they had all these beautiful photos, and I didn’t even know where to begin. But Danielle Bernstein said, ‘I think you’ll be surprised when you see a photo of yourself from a professional photographer.’ And once I saw the photos, I remember seeing myself in a new light and being so excited. I was just, ‘Okay, I get it. I can do this. I know I can.’”

Fashion Breakdown: “I like to keep it simple, but I love bright colors, which obviously is different than a lot of New York bloggers. I love prints. I love patterns. I like to have a lot of fun with my outfits, but still always be wearable, always relatable. I never want to have an outfit that people might think, ‘I couldn’t pull that off.’”

Business Time: “I think most bloggers are more focused on the creative side, and of course I love making outfits, I love taking photos. But really, for me, I love the business aspect. I love doing the contracts, negotiating, talking about what brands’ ideas are for the campaign,what are their objectives, and really trying to hit and deliver on all of those points.”

What's Next: “I love going back to France whenever I can. I’m going back at the end of the month to do a big project with one of the biggest department stores in France. I’m really excited about that, and it’s the lifestyle that I want: travel, freelance, everything.”