Rachel Carrasco built her marketing company for reasons tied to her core values: bringing the best of her experiences to help brands advance their business while lifting women up to reach their highest potential. We chatted with the young Filipino entrepreneur to learn more about her company, how she uses her business to empower women in the workplace, and what does the idea of valuing experiences over things mean to her
Rachel Carrasco wears many hats. Aside from being the founder of Rache, an experiential marketing firm specialising in thoughtful brand storytelling, she’s also passionate about women succeeding in leadership roles and has supported charity work to promote gender equality throughout the years.
“I had faced bias at work in a majority-female workplace before starting my own company. After all those unpleasant experiences, I promised myself that one day, if I ever lead a team, I will do my best to provide them with the opportunities and support they need to win at life and their career, regardless of their gender,” said Carrasco.
Through building Rache, Carrasco has been able to tap into her true desires, connecting her passion for marketing with the purpose of making a positive impact on others. A woman of many interests and quick to spot a new opportunity, she’s now also the mastermind behind two gourmet food brands, Baken and Rio.
On turning her love for food into successful side ventures, she said: “Doing what you love makes a job less of a job and that is what matters to me the most. The recognition and money are just plusses."
Read on to learn about Carrasco’s entrepreneurial journey and the biggest lessons she has learned along the way.
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I leaped early on to follow my passion
Just like any young girl my age then, I was simply trying to forge a path of my own. I took my first marketing job at 18 at a friend’s events company. This was the time I really fortified my love for the industry and knew that this was where I was meant to be. I genuinely wanted to experience life and do something different, so I decided to quit my studies and move to Singapore from The Philippines.
From office politics to entrepreneur: “Life goes on and you move onto better things”
When I moved to Singapore, I started on a different path from marketing. I worked for a bank as an executive assistant to a managing director, and the job was challenging because I had to deal with office politics.
Among the EAs, there was this invisible hierarchical system, which was dependent on who your boss is within the organisation. I also noticed that there was an unspoken expectation of how EAs were meant to present themselves and work. The other EAs would phone my boss about the way I dressed, saying I drew too much attention while walking in the office halls, and I would also get nit-picked on things like missing certain details in my work.
When I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I was passed over for a promotion unfairly. I had a good performance rating but my boss’ recommendation never went through because the senior management rejected it—including those female colleagues who worked at the bank for a longer time.
So whenever I’m asked if I’ve encountered discrimination issues with men, my answer is always a no. Because in all honesty, my experience has been that there is a larger bias within the female gender itself.
I decided to quit and return to my passion in marketing, moving to LVMH where I become the brand manager for their prestigious champagne houses, including Dom Perignon, Krug and Ruinart. A couple of years down the line, I joined Kimberly Clark and managed their baby care brands to gain more hands-on experience in the marketing field, before eventually launching my company, Rache, in 2017.
