Influencer Rachel Schwab Shares Her Top Selfcare, Wellness, and Beauty Tips
One way to feel beautiful is to put on an outfit that you love and makes you feel SO good. There is nothing like putting on a pretty outfit and walking around all day feeling beautiful in it. The power of clothes is a mighty tool that you can always use to your advantage.
Every day, write down one thing about yourself that is beautiful (and pick something new every day)! Whether it is your hair or your fingernails or anything in-between — taking the time to recognize something beautiful about yourself will make you feel just that!
Smile. There is nothing more beautiful and more powerful than a smile!
At times it feels like wellness or elevating one’s well-being, is diametrically opposed to high achievement and high performance in one’s career. The stress, mental energy, long hours, lack of restful sleep and preoccupation that result from a high-achievement life seem to directly inhibit wellness. And yet, in order to sustain the creativity, flexibility, mental acuity and resilience that are necessary for high performance, wellness and wellbeing of the mind, body and soul are also mandatory. So how do we achieve both? This is the question I’m hoping to answer through conversations with high-achieving leaders and influencers who are practicing their own philosophies about how to maintain their wellbeing.
As a part of our series about “Social Media Influencers Share Their Top Self Care, Wellness, and Beauty Tips, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rachel Schwab, the creator behind @justbecauseitspretty.
Rachel Schwab is a recent college graduate from The University of Michigan and is now working full-time as a recruiter in NYC. However, her true passion is creating content for her pretty lifestyle account: @justbecauseitspretty. Rachel has a passion for fashion, anything pink, and everything lace (basically all pretty little things!). She is a creative, social butterfly who has an eye for the prettiest details in life — just check out her account & you will understand. Rachel works as a recruiter by day, and an influencer at night to create everything #justbecause it’s pretty. You can find her on Instagram, Pinterest, and occasionally Tik Tok.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you share with us the backstory of how you came upon this career path and to where you are today?
After graduating college, I always knew that I wanted to move to NYC and work in the “people side” of business, which is how I ended up in my current full-time position. That is how I came upon my “official” career path. Switching gears for a moment, in-between my graduation and starting my full-time job, I had extra time on my hands & felt like it was the perfect time to do something creative. I have always had an interest in Instagram as I love how visual the platform is. Of course, I have a personal account, but I wanted to create a place when I could share all of the pretty things in life. With that, @justbecauseitspretty was created. Fun fact — I actually wanted this to be an account about loungewear at first because that is all that we were wearing at the start of the pandemic. I ended up with the name @justbecauseitspretty simply because the other usernames I wanted were taken, which I think was meant to be! I started using the hashtag #justbecause & the rest was history. I have fallen in love with doing work for my account!
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
This one is easy — my mom! In addition to the fact that she “gave me” my love for everything pretty in life, I would not be where I am with @justbecauseitspretty today without her. My favorite example of how fabulous and instrumental she is to my success was when I was running my “12 Days of Pretty Presents” over the holidays (12 days of giveaways). This involved SO much shipping and organization. Our entire living room looked like a very well-organized assembly line during these giveaways, thanks to her. She laid out each day’s pretty present, labeled each gift, packaged them all up (in a pretty way, of course), went out to ship them daily, and so much more. This is just one small thing that she has helped me with… I couldn’t be more grateful for her!
Can you share a story with us about the most humorous mistake you made when you were first starting? What lesson or take-away did you learn from that?
I love this question. There have been a bunch of these — but the most embarrassing to me is when I make a typo in my content, which occasionally still happens. I had an in-feed post up for DAYS where I was just missing entire words in the first line of my caption. Luckily, I caught it, but I wonder how many people saw it and A. didn’t realize or B. didn’t say anything! The sentence really was gibberish — not just a word misspelling or a grammar mistake.
As an influencer, you have been blessed with great success in a career path that many have attempted, but eventually gave up on. In fact perhaps most people who tried to follow a career path like yours did not succeed. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path but know that their dreams might be dashed?
I think about this a lot. My advice here is: if you are passionate about it and you truly love doing the work, you will make it happen, no doubt. Nothing about this is easy — rather, it is extremely hard, which many people cannot see behind all of the smiling photos. You have to be willing and ready always to go the extra mile. One thing to caution is that you cannot get caught up in your likes, followers, or anything like that. That does NOT define who you are, and never, ever let that get you down. Simply focus on building your community, doing what you love, sharing value, and the rest will follow!
Can you share with our readers some of your strategies you’ve used to build an engaged, loyal, and large online community?
Everyone has different strategies here, but what I have seen the most success with are two things. One, engage with your community. Answer their DMs, know their names, and know about them. There is more to an engaged community than just people following your account — it is about the relationships that are created. Two, when you work with different brands, never do it simply for the money. You will lose your community’s trust in a split second if you are promoting a product that you dislike or have never even tried. When you begin working with brands, think about your community before yourself: would your followers benefit from this partnership or collaboration?
Ok thank you for all that. Now let’s shift to the main focus of our interview. In my work, I focus on how one can thrive and care for oneself in three areas: body, mind, and heart.
You are a busy person with a demanding schedule, can you share with our readers two self care routines, practices or treatments that help your body thrive? (Kindly share a story or an example for each.)
My favorite self-care practice is indulgent, but it couldn’t be more worth it: getting massages. I have “tech neck,” aka my neck has chronic pain from working on my computer and phone all day. Getting deep-tissue massages relieves this tension while also giving me a set time to relax and unwind. I love how I cannot use my phone during this time and can really focus on my thoughts and how I feel. This self-care practice always makes me feel brand new and ready to take on my next challenge.
Another self-care practice that I incorporate into my routine is taking care of my skin. My favorite part of my day is washing my face morning and night. It feels so good to do something for me as a way to start and end my day always. I never miss a day and make sure to prioritize this in my schedule. Also, having “pretty” skin makes me feel more confident and helps me thrive daily. It is the little things that you do for yourself that make such a big difference!
Can you share with us two routines that you use to help your mind or heart to thrive? (Kindly share a story or example for each.)
My favorite routine that I picked up during quarantine to help my mind thrive is using my 6 Minute Diary. This journal has prompts for morning and night, focusing on gratitude, goals, reflection, and more. I write in the journal first thing in the morning to set myself up for success for the day and then at night before bed to reflect and prioritize for the next day. This journal allows me to refocus and take a step back, which can often be difficult to do.
Another routine that really helps me thrive is moving my body. I typically love to take dance and exercise classes, but that has shifted during the quarantine. Having to adjust, I have fallen in love with low-impact exercise that shifts my mindset for the rest of the day. I have been doing Melissa Wood Health’s workouts, and they are short but mighty. I typically take a break in my afternoon, roll out my mat, and get moving as a way to refocus for the rest of the day ahead of me. Let me tell you — that feeling after completing these flows is just incredible.
Can you share 3 ideas that anyone can use “to feel beautiful”? (Please share a story or example for each.)
- One way to feel beautiful is to put on an outfit that you love and makes you feel SO good. There is nothing like putting on a pretty outfit and walking around all day feeling beautiful in it. The power of clothes is a mighty tool that you can always use to your advantage.
- Every day, write down one thing about yourself that is beautiful (and pick something new every day)! Whether it is your hair or your fingernails or anything in-between — taking the time to recognize something beautiful about yourself will make you feel just that!
- Smile. There is nothing more beautiful and more powerful than a smile!
Is there a particular resource, a practitioner, expert, book, or podcast that made a significant impact on you and helped you to thrive? Can you share a story about that with us?
I took the Yale Science of Wellbeing Course on Coursera and truly believe it made me happier. It taught me valuable skills that truly were basic, yet are often overlooked in life. Being happy is such an instrumental skill, yet is never taught! I couldn’t recommend this more to anyone looking to refocus on what happiness truly looks like for themself.
Do you have a story about the strangest, most bizarre or funniest wellness treatment that you’ve ever experienced?
As I mentioned before, I have terrible neck pain, so I always am willing to try any and all potential solutions. For a period in time, I was getting my neck and back SCRAPPED. “Getting scrapped” basically is when someone takes a tool and scrapes the knots out of your back. My back was continually bruised — but it did work really well! I would love to get it done again!
As an influencer, you are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger.
This is something that I always think about, especially as my account grows. I would like to bring a movement to the table that there truly is no standard of “pretty.” Think about it, what makes someone pretty? Who defines that? Rather, we are ALL pretty in our unique ways! If more women could feel confident in their own beauty, in their own bodies, in their own skin, this would make the world such a “prettier” place to be!
We are very blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world with whom you’d like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this. :-)
This question couldn’t be easier — Danielle Bernstein 100%. I am so impressed daily with the work that she does and how she transformed the influencer landscape. I would love to pick her brain about all things influencing, Instagram, fashion, and life itself! What she has done is just incredible and I would be honored to meet her. (Despite the fact that I feel like I am already her friend from following her page! …the power of social media!)
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
Instagram! @justbecauseitspretty …please DM me to say hi! I’m SO excited to share all of my pretty things with you! xoxo
Thank you for these fantastic insights. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
About The Interviewer: Growing up in Canada, Edward Sylvan was an unlikely candidate to make a mark on the high-powered film industry based in Hollywood. But as CEO of Sycamore Entertainment Group Inc, (SEGI) Sylvan is among a select group of less than ten Black executives who have founded, own and control a publicly traded company. Now, deeply involved in the movie business, he is providing opportunities for people of color.
In 2020, he was appointed president of the Monaco International Film Festival, and was encouraged to take the festival in a new digital direction.
Raised in Toronto, he attended York University where he studied Economics and Political Science, then went to work in finance on Bay Street, (the city’s equivalent of Wall Street). After years of handling equities trading, film tax credits, options trading and mergers and acquisitions for the film, mining and technology industries, in 2008 he decided to reorient his career fully towards the entertainment business.
With the aim of helping Los Angeles filmmakers of color who were struggling to understand how to raise capital, Sylvan wanted to provide them with ways to finance their creative endeavors.
At Sycamore Entertainment he specializes in print and advertising financing, marketing, acquisition and worldwide distribution of quality feature-length motion pictures, and is concerned with acquiring, producing and promoting films about equality, diversity and other thought provoking subject matter which will also include nonviolent storytelling.
Also in 2020, Sylvan launched SEGI TV, a free OTT streaming network built on the pillars of equality, sustainability and community which is scheduled to reach 100 million U.S household televisions and 200 million mobile devices across Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Samsung Smart TV and others.
As Executive Producer he currently has several projects in production including The Trials of Eroy Brown, a story about the prison system and how it operated in Texas, based on the best-selling book, as well as a documentary called The Making of Roll Bounce, about the 2005 coming of age film which starred rapper Bow Wow and portrays roller skating culture in 1970’s Chicago.
He sits on the Board of Directors of Uplay Canada, (United Public Leadership Academy for Youth), which prepares youth to be citizen leaders and provides opportunities for Canadian high school basketball players to advance to Division 1 schools as well as the NBA.
A former competitive go kart racer with Checkered Flag Racing Ltd, he also enjoys traveling to exotic locales. Sylvan resides in Vancouver and has two adult daughters.
Sylvan has been featured in Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times and has been seen on Fox Business News, CBS and NBC. Sycamore Entertainment Group Inc is headquartered in Seattle, with offices in Los Angeles and Vancouver.
