Rachel Tipograph on Building MikMak

Rachel Tipograph considered herself amongst the digerati since the moment she became an eBay power user at 13. Forbes listed Rachel as one of its “30 under 30 Who Are Changing The World,” Marie Claire named her one of “The 50 Most Influential Women in America,” Fast Company named her one of “The Most Creative People in Business,” AdAge named her one of “The Most Creative People of The Year,” Adweek named her one of “The Young Influentials Shaping Business and Culture,” Entrepreneur named her one of the “50 Most Daring Entrepreneurs,” Goldman Sachs named her one of “The 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs,” Business Insider named her one of “New York Tech’s Coolest People”, Refinery29 named her one of its “Rising Female Tech Stars,” The Wrap named her one of “The 11 Change Agents Disrupting Hollywood,” and LinkedIn named her one of its “Next Wave: Top Professionals 35 & Under.”

After being the Global Director of Digital and Social Media at Gap where she oversaw strategy, implementation and measurement, Rachel traveled the world solo and then founded MikMak, the enterprise marketing eCommerce platform that helps brands better understand consumers by connecting digital investments to online retailer insights.

In this episode, we discuss what life was like For Rachel as a kid (5:16), her family’s relationship with Modell’s (6:12), her parents’ lessons on entrepreneurship (7:23), if there was a downside to having her parents work so hard and be so passionate about what they did (10:16), what she did as a kid and what she was like (12:45), why she was initially against IPO-ing (14:24), what it was like for her to come out of the closet to her friends and family (15:17), how she classifies her identity (17:17), if she was always a leader (18:27), how she thinks about leadership from a hiring and development standpoint (19:13), how she maintains a company where people are healthy with themselves, healthy with their organization, healthy with their team, and healthy with their customers (24:45), the values she looks for in people that will align with her organization (30:14), when it is appropriate to say “I” and focus on yourself as opposed to the team (34:14), if there are ever moments where she needs to step into and embrace ego (40:06), the biggest takeaways she’s gotten from therapy and executive coaching (41:20), what it was like for her to be innovative at a big company (GAP) when she was 24 years ole (45:03), if she’s able to take what she learned at GAP and apply it to MikMak or if she has to use new muscles now (50:43), what she says to people who are “young” for their job (52:46), why she enjoys public speaking (55:22), her advice to people who are forced into working remotely for the first time (58:43), what she does intentionally to make sure she’s taking care of herself (1:00:06), and what MikMak does (1:02:21).

You can follow MikMak on Instagram @mikmaktv. Additionally, you can follow her on any social media platform @racheltipograph. You can also check out the company on LinkedIn here as well as Rachel’s personal LinkedIn here.

Thanks so much to Rachel for coming on the podcast!

I wrote a book called “Shift Your Mind” that was released in October of 2020, and you can order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Additionally, I have launched a company called Strong Skills, and I encourage you to check out our new website https://www.strongskills.co/. If you liked this episode and/or any others, please follow me on Twitter: @brianlevenson or Instagram: @Intentional_Performers.

Thanks for listening.

-Brian