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Rachel Zeilic

Rachel Zeilic is a triple threat: she's an entrepreneur, an exec. at Who What Wear, and modern day maven. Rachel is one of the most down-to-earth and level headed ladies in the social media space—she approaches everything with a unique POV, can-do attitude, and a smile. She's a pro at creating engaging content as well as helping guide brands on how to maximize their marketing dollars digitally. Rachel gave us a sneak peek at her (yet to launch) venture, Augie, where she will be tackling all of those keep-you-up-at-night questions moms have and pairing it with legit, honest advice from like-minded moms and experts.

Rachel Zeilic - The Particulars
Rachel Zeilic - The Particulars

MELISSA: Tell me a little about yourself and your background? Describe your roles in both ‘Who What Wear’ and Augie?   
RACHEL: I have been with ‘Who What Wear’ for 3 and a half years now. I love it because of the variety of what I get to work on there. It is the first digital fashion magazine, it started 14 years ago when Vogue did not even have a website. It changed the industry and really democratized style. Who What Wear is a publication I have always respected so much and have grown up with. I joined three and a half years to essentially run an in-house influencer marketing agency. Under the Who What Wear umbrella we run influencer campaigns from brands ranging from Walmart to Gucci and everything in between – mostly in fashion and beauty but we sometimes dabble in different categories. I am launching Augie and will be live in a couple of months. The biggest challenge with me being a new mom was balancing work and home life. There is constant learning when you are a new mother, and I felt that there was not a central place for me to learn in a succinct manner from trusted experts. I used to borrow info from a podcast, from articles and then search on google to gain knowledge all to piece it all together. I decided to start Augie to be an education platform – it will be your one-stop shop to do streamlined learning on any given topic from experts. 

The biggest challenge with me being a new mom was balancing work and home life. There is constant learning when you are a new mother, and I felt that there was not a central place for me to learn in a succinct manner from trusted experts.

Rachel Zeilic - The Particulars

MELISSA: That is awesome. There is so much information out there, so it is great that you are condensing and streamlining it. 
RACHEL: I have been working on it for a year in addition to working a full-time job and being a mother of a toddler. As a high achiever, I would have thought it would have been done quicker, but we are in a pandemic, so I am giving myself some grace. 
MELISSA: There is so much social content and influencers out there nowadays. What are your general guidelines at Who What Wear? What is your advice for what brands or influencers should focus on? 
RACHEL: It all starts by defining your KPI’s what are you trying to achieve. I think this goes for every marketing activity, but It is really important with influencer marketing because people see influencers as a silver bullet where you’ll see tons of revenue from one post – one and done. But it truly does not work like that. Each influencer will hit different goals for you. At Who What Wear we have such a big platform ourselves that sometimes our most successful campaigns are working with micro-influencers – who have really engaged audiences. We’ve seen a lot of great work with micro-influencers because they are amazing storytellers and have really great content, that we will then repost on our account. Content creation could be your goal, conversions could also be the other. Sometimes the influencers who convert the most may not have the aesthetic that matches your brand. It is all about being honest about your KPI’s and how they rank with your business objectives. We look for influencers that are a good brand match – they naturally and authentically talk about specific brands or products. We then look into their audience demographics – we first check that their followers are real and not fake, we also look into the location of their followers, the age, gender split, engagement rate and also look at the sentiment of the engagement on their profile. We always chose influencers that we’ve had a good experience with working with them in the past, or that their management is going to be easy to work with. 

My style changed a lot because my lifestyle has changed – being a mom, and also the places that I work. 

Rachel Zeilic - The Particulars
Rachel Zeilic - The Particulars

MELISSA: So many things go into it that I don’t think many people think about how thought-out brand partnerships are. Australians have such a specific style – do you find that your style has changed now that you are living in LA?
RACHEL: I don’t think my style changed so much from moving. I owned a clothing label that I started in Australia that I brought over here. I still had this brand for the first 4-5 years that I lived here. That aesthetic stayed very Australian – I think this dominated fashion. In Australia, our brand called ‘Stylestalker’ was really successful off the bat because it filled the gap of high-street, which was non existent at the time and then we had amazing Australian designers, but they were really expensive. We filled the gap that was in the middle of that, and since then that category specifically has been dominated by Australian brands. Australia really nailed that category. My style changed a lot because my lifestyle has changed – being a mom, and also the places that I work. 
MELISSA: Your style is some mix between super feminine and sporty? Is that your signature combo? 
RACHEL: It is so dependent on the life phase that I am in. When I was in an office every day I leaned into the feminine look. When I was at Revolve, I was wearing my own stuff, but it was so casual – you could go to work in a crop-top there. Now that I am at home, I wear more casual clothes – I am still in my pajamas because it is just one of those days. Today it is all about coordinated sets – neutral colors, everything really soothing that is easy. I love a good earring and a good lipstick now that we are always on zoom. 
MELISSA: Love that! What are your daily particulars? What do you always put on? 
RACHEL: I always put on a matching pair of sweats or knitted sweater sets. If I have meetings or if I am on zoom – I will pop in a nice chunky earring it is a nice statement. I sometimes put on lipstick or a necklace also. I like to keep it pretty minimal. 
MELISSA: Lipstick makes all the difference. Thanks so much for your time. I hope to meet you in person one day!!