We had the good fortune of connecting with Rachel Walker and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Rachel, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Happy By Rachel was specifically birthed out of the hardship of losing our previous business. We had a home decor+art business from 2016-2022 in which we lost our facebook page….we lost 400K followers over night! We used it for everything so losing it was detrimental to our business. Through that process of losing our business, it created in me a desire to get back to the basics and do what had always been a passion for me, creating art and designing products. I wanted to simplify my life and shred the things that didn’t bring me joy. I could have easily called our new business Rachel Walker Designs or something generic, but I really wanted to manifest and claim over my life a happiness….so I called it Happy By Rachel. After experiencing such a hard season, I wanted to be intentional about focusing on the things that brought LIFE to me. Our goal is to make art based products that make people happy!

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I think there is an element to our art that is colorful and bright and people tend to be drawn to that. All of the artwork is original hand painted artwork which makes it unique….I then use that artwork to tell a story with each design. I’m most proud of getting to do this everyday for a living. I go to bed looking forward to the next day and truly enjoy using my gift. I couldn’t say that for a long time. I would dread getting up and didn’t feel like I was in “my lane”. It’s the most validating full circle moment when I can use my talents to create and design products that customers love enough to purchase and then reorder. I’m proud of Happy By Rachel because of the pain it was birthed from. Looking at where we were to where we are today makes me proud! It gave me a new beginning and a second chance.

My journey with art has been a long one with many twists and turns. I started out painting on old windows 15 years ago…which then led to expanding into hand painted signs, which then led to being an artist for a leading gift manufacturer, which then led to opening our own home decor + art +furniture business, which then ultimately led us to getting back to our roots and starting Happy By Rachel.

Most of our journey has been easy with the exception of
losing/closing our previous business. The challenges we faced felt monumental and were life altering. We overcame the challenges by learning to pivot and do things that were out of our comfort zone. I took a job temporarily at a school so we would have insurance until Happy got on it’s feet. Sometimes the greatest challenges you face simplify your life and end up leading you to where you need to be. At the time, it felt like our life was crumbling but it allowed us the opportunity at a second chance.

Our story is special to us because it has so much meaning and hardship. Those mountaintops seem that much more enjoyable after experiencing the valleys. It shows that we are resilient and we have grit! We are real people just wanting to support our family by working hard and doing what we love. And hopefully if our story can help someone, then it was all worth it. I hope our story brings hope to those who feel hopeless. I don’t want people to see our success and think it has all been easy and without those hardships. I hope it encourages people to not give up!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
One of my favorite places to eat is the OK Cafe. I would definitely grab lunch or dinner there. We would explore the West Paces Ferry area….I love looking at those beautiful houses and daydreaming! We would also at some point have lunch at The Chastain. It’s always a “go to” of mine…mainly because of the atmosphere and the firepit. It’s nice to enjoy a glass of wine oustide. We may also drop by Ponce City Market and shop. Grab coffee at a local coffee shop and walk around.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
If it weren’t for the support from my mom, we wouldn’t be where we are today. She helped us get back on our feet and allowed us to use her garage as our working space. She has always been our biggest cheerleader and wanting to help us succeed in any way possible, even if that meant sacrificing her space or her time.

Website: https://WWW.HAPPYBYRACHEL.COM

Instagram: HAPPYBYRACHEL

Image Credits
Kristin Faye Photography (the image of me standing at the door, Chad holding the chicken, and our couple photo)

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