Conversations with Rachel Jackson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Jackson.

Hi Rachel, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story begins in an unexpected corner of the early internet.

At twenty years old—during the height of the late-2000s digital gold rush, when ambitious kids were teaching themselves to code in coffee shops and every idea felt like it could become the next .com giant—I was thrown straight into the deep end with a fast-moving startup called foodpeople.com. I had no formal tech training, but I had curiosity and a willingness to figure things out on the fly. Those early days were wild, messy, and exhilarating. I was learning coding at midnight, debugging at dawn, and absorbing everything I could about building a company online. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that chaotic immersion would become the foundation for every creative career pivot that followed.

After the startup world, I moved into hospitality and country club management. I loved people, experiences, and the energy of service—but when I went through a divorce, something in me shifted. I looked at my daughter and knew I didn’t want to watch her grow up through daycare windows. I wanted to build a life where I could work, create, and still be present with her.

The turning point came when my best friend asked me to paint a collection for her nursery. I shared the finished pieces on social media, and almost immediately it gained traction. Commissions poured in overnight. Suddenly, I had a full-time art career. I grew into galleries, shows, and festivals. Just in one year I painted nearly 400 pieces. It was beautiful, intense, and exhausting. Eventually, I hit burnout—but burnout also became a doorway.

I moved into theatre design, then dipped into the film industry, and soon found my stride in music festival deco, where I flourished working with the Tomorrow World team. Being thrown into a Belgian production crew at that scale opened my world again. I learned rapidly, built massive installations, and took that knowledge back into my own studio practice. I even started a nonprofit supporting school theatre departments—helping students learn technical design, building skills, and turning donated materials into creative resources. It connected me deeply to my community and reignited a love for education, creativity, and problem-solving.

Over the years, I had always helped friends with branding, logos, and websites—it was second nature. But during this chapter, I realized it was more than a side skill. It was a career waiting for me to embrace it. I was coming full circle, back to the digital world I had entered at twenty, but now with the artistic and experiential lens I’d gained along the way.

I began with small local businesses and quickly grew into the role of Creative and Marketing Director for Lemongrass Farms, an all-natural bug repellent brand rooted in sustainability. I fell in love—with the mission, the people, the product, the heart behind it. Together we launched nationwide, built a community, and even won 2nd Place for Best New Brand at Nielsen IQ. It reminded me why I love building brands: not just the visuals, but the purpose behind them.

After taking time off to welcome my daughter, I knew that stepping back into my career had to be intentional. I wasn’t interested in returning to the industry the way I had left it—I wanted alignment, ease, and partners who worked with the same level of clarity and vision.

That’s when I met Elizabeth Archangeli. Our connection was immediate, both personally and creatively, and as a team we built Realm Open Air Living—a luxury rattan design house redefining the architectural threshold between indoors and outdoors. Launching Realm sharpened my vision and reaffirmed the kind of work I wanted to build my future around: high-end, intentional, design-forward, and rooted in craftsmanship and strategy.

Through Elizabeth I met Sebastian Cardenas and Jorge Guerrero with Trennder. Sebastian was running the exact strategic framework I had spent years trying to get clients to adopt—clean systems, data-driven execution, and a long-game approach to brand infrastructure. Jorge, on the other hand, mirrored my design sensibilities and operational instincts so precisely that collaborating with him felt effortless. The three of us quickly realized that we spoke the same creative and technical language. We could begin and finish projects seamlessly, and the workflow between us became something rare: fluid, intuitive, and genuinely enjoyable.

With Sebastian and Jorge, the path became unmistakably clear. Our strengths not only complemented one another—they expanded what was possible. And from that alignment, Forged Creative Collective was born.

A full-service branding, marketing, and operations agency built for high-end, design-driven brands, Forged Creative Collective exists to craft systems, visuals, and strategies that move with precision and beauty. Together, we deliver the kind of work that feels inevitable—because it’s built from deep alignment, shared values, and the ease of a team that truly works as one.

Today, I work with entrepreneurs, designers, and founders to build, launch, and scale brands from the ground up. My work blends artistry, strategy, and psychology. I approach every client collaboratively—letting their ideas shine while using real data, research, and systems to turn vision into real-world growth. I’m not just building businesses; I’m equipping owners with the knowledge and confidence to grow into the leaders they want to be.

For me, this isn’t just a career. It’s a lifestyle rooted in storytelling, innovation, and connection. My passion lives in helping people bring something original and meaningful into the world—something that stands apart from the conveyor-belt sameness of modern commerce.

I’ve lived through reinventions, pivots, and rebuilding seasons, and every chapter has taught me that creativity is not a job title. It’s a way of moving through the world. And everything I build today traces back to that twenty-year-old in the height of the .com era, teaching herself to code and daring to believe she could figure it out.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It hasn’t been a smooth road, but it has been meaningful. Being a single mom while building my career has been the defining challenge of my life—but I never had to choose between the two. I built my career around my children, and that choice became the catalyst for my success.

Along the way, there were real walls and blocks. I had seasons where I had to rebuild my career from scratch after major life changes. There were financial pressures, limited support systems, and moments where the instability of entrepreneurship felt overwhelming. I dealt with burnout, starting over, and working in environments where my creativity or leadership wasn’t fully recognized or supported. I had to learn how to navigate clients, contracts, and entire industries.

But every block became a pivot point. Every setback forced refinement. And every challenge clarified what mattered most. My children were never an obstacle—they were the blueprint. Prioritizing them made me intentional, strategic, adaptive, and deeply grounded in my purpose. They are the reason I show up the way I do, and the reason I’ve been able to create a career and life rooted in strength, creativity, and presence.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m the founder of Forged Creative Collective, a branding, marketing, and operations agency built for high-end, design-driven brands. I specialize in taking a business—from its identity to its systems—to a fully expressed, functional, and scalable version of itself. My work sits at the intersection of creative direction and operational clarity, and I’m known for being able to walk into a chaotic or undefined environment and immediately bring structure, strategy, and elevated design to it.

I’ve spent my career building brands from the ground up, refining their voice, visuals, and infrastructure so they can grow with intention. On the design side, I focus on brand identity, storytelling, and high-end aesthetic development. On the operations side, I build systems, workflows, and client experiences that feel seamless and human, not mechanical. I think that’s part of what sets me apart—my left brain and right brain work together. I can create the vision and the system that sustains it.

Professionally, I’m proud of the partnerships I’ve built—especially Realm Open Air Living. I helped build that brand from the ground up, and it embodies everything I love: intentional design, storytelling, and creating something timeless.

But truly, what sets me apart is that I don’t just build brands—I build ecosystems. I’m able to see the long-game vision and the micro details at the same time. I can move a project from concept to completion with elegance and clarity, and I care deeply about the people behind every brand. My work is as relational as it is creative.

Everything I do is rooted in intention, craftsmanship, and the belief that both people and brands deserve to be fully expressed.

In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I think the next 5–10 years are going to redefine the entire creative and branding world, and honestly—I’m excited for it. I’ve never been someone who moves forward in fear of what could happen. I look for the opportunities inside the chaos. And right now, with humans and AI working together, the potential feels limitless.

We’re entering a era where creativity becomes the true differentiator. AI will handle more of the technical heavy lifting, which means the value of a creative mind—the ability to synthesize ideas, feel culture, understand people, and build meaning—will only increase. Strategy, storytelling, intentional design, and emotional intelligence are going to matter more than ever.

I see boutique agencies like mine thriving because we can be adaptive. We can evolve faster. We can integrate technology without losing the humanity that makes great branding work. Brands will expect more holistic partners: not just designers or marketers, but people who can build ecosystems, systems, experiences, and identities that live across platforms and feel cohesive.

The biggest shift? Creativity will stop being confined to a single lane. Operations, branding, systems, design, and AI will become a unified practice. And the people who can move seamlessly between those worlds—who aren’t afraid to innovate—are going to lead the industry forward.

Personally, I don’t feel limited by what’s coming. I’m only as limited as my creativity, which means the sky isn’t even the limit anymore.

Pricing:

• Quote Based

Contact Info:

• Website: https://forgedcreativecollective.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realmopenairliving/
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-jackson-829431148/
• Other: https://lemongrassfarms.com