Name: Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff
Age: 38
Location: Los Angeles, Calif.
Education: B.A. in English Literature, Phi Beta Kappa, University of California Santa Barbara; M.A. in Journalism, University of Southern California in Los Angeles
Job Title: Founder and CEO, EcoStiletto.com
What She Does: Rachel oversees the creation of content for EcoStiletto.com, an online magazine devoted to green-minded fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. She wears many different hats as the producer of the site, doing everything from writing copy to meeting with potential investors. She also goes on location to film segments for Extra, Hollywood Green, and EcoStilettoTV, and organizes promotions like eco-friendly shoe giveaways to readers.
How She Got Her Gig: Rachel started her career as a magazine editor. After her second child was born, she set up shop in her home and started her own public relations firm, Sugar PR. “I was representing nonprofits dealing with social and environmental issues, and I realized how important women, as a buying force, could be in driving change. After all, the 82 million moms in this country represent $2.1 trillion dollars spent each year—about 15 percent of our country’s economy. Women make 85 percent of household buying decisions. If we decided to go green, we could shift the whole economy,” says Rachel. In July 2008, she launched EcoStiletto.com with 1,000 subscribers. Today the site boasts 20,000 readers.
Jill of All Trades: Rachel soon learned that running an online magazine takes a lot of specialized skill and hard work. “I realized that without funding, I’d need to bare-bones the whole operation,” she says. “That meant learning how to do my own coding, search engine optimization, online marketing strategies—the works! But learning all these new skills was really fun, and I now feel like I know my business from the inside out.”
Eco-Passion: The road to success hasn’t been smooth sailing. “There was a point, when [another project] was shutting down, when I thought I could go back to just doing PR,” says Rachel. “But the idea of turning my back on writing and producing this content, of removing myself from what I think is one of the most exciting conversations this country—this world—has ever had, was physically painful. I just couldn’t shut the door on everything I’d learned, and everything that I still wanted to learn. I think you know you’re doing the right thing when you simply can’t do anything else.”
This Job’s for You if: You are highly organized. “I am organized to a fault,” she says. It’s also important to love to write, be tech-savvy, and be passionate about learning. “I just plain love learning about this stuff,” says Rachel. “When I find out about a new great designer who’s working in recycled materials, or a standby hair-care line that’s just decided to eliminate all chemicals from its formulas, I get so stoked! I love being in a place where I get to learn about this stuff first, and tell people about it, and have other people get excited too.”
