← This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil
This Is Woman's Work with Nicole Kalil
How To Be An Influencer with Rachel Levin | 290
00:23:45
With over 100 million views per month, Rachel Levin, the powerhouse behind RCLBeauty101, shares how she built a massive digital presence while staying true to herself. From content creation to personal branding, she breaks down what it really means to be an influencer today—and how authenticity is the key to lasting impact.
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- [00:00]
Nicole Khalil
Let's talk about the first thing most of us put on our bodies every day. Our underwear. For most of my life, that experience has sucked. Pinching, pulling, executing a covert thong extraction like I'm in some sort of weird spy movie, and bras that either lock me in like Fort Knox or leave me feeling completely unsupported as somebody with bigger boobs. Most of the supportive bras look like I raided my grandmother's lingerie drawer. Then I found skims. So specifically the Fits Everybody Collection. And listen, this stuff is next level. It fits like second skin, smooths in all the right places. And somehow the Fits Everybody Scoop Bralette manages to be both supportive and comfortable. No underwire, no ugly 8 inch straps. Just soft fabric that makes me forget I'm even wearing it. If you haven't tried skims yet, take this as your sign. Shop Skims Fits Everybody collection@skims.com and in SKIMS stores. Available from Extra Extra Small 24X. After you placed your order, be sure to let them know that I sent you. Select Podcast in the survey and be sure to select my show in the drop down menu that follows. I am Nicole Khalil and you are listening to the this is womanswork podcast. We're together. We we're redefining what it means, what it looks and feels like to be doing woman's work in the world today. And I'll be honest that I never thought we'd do an episode about being an influencer. But the reality is that over 75% of influencers who are monetizing their content are women. And many, many women, including myself, are being influenced by them. From the products we purchase, to the styles we wear, to the trends we follow, to the catchphrases we say. I can try to deny it as much as I want, but influencing has always been and is definitely now, one way to be doing woman's work. We throw around the term influencer a lot, but what does it even mean anymore? It's not just about filters and hashtags. It's about impact. Real influence isn't just viral content or follower counts, though you certainly need to have an engaged follower in order to influence them. But my point is that influencing is evolving, and it's also leading. And for many, it's finding ways to stay true to yourself while being seen on the world's largest digital stages. Let's face it, this kind of influence requires constant attention and possibly reinvention as platforms change almost as fast as interests do. To truly lead in multiple spaces Whether that's in beauty, entrepreneurship, or even music and pop culture, it demands more than just good lighting. It's about purpose and passion. Staying relevant while evolving and remaining true to yourself, your brand, and your mission. That's the real challenge. If you've ever wondered how somebody with over 100 million views in a month manages to stay authentic and create meaningful work across so many industries, well, you're about to find out. Rachel Levin is the powerhouse behind RCL Beauty 101 and is actively redefining what it means to be a triple threat as a digital creator, musician and entrepreneur. With over 14 million YouTube subscribers, over 4 million Instagram followers, and 1.4 million TikTok followers, and a rapidly growing music career, Rachel is at the forefront of a new wave of influencers who are shaping trends and setting new standards across multiple industries. Her debut single, Myself and her latest release, idwabf, are extensions of the positive, empowering messages that have been at the heart of her content from the very beginning. So, Rachel, thank you for being our guest, and I'm going to ask you all the things about what it takes and all the amazing successes that you've had in your different ventures. But I'm also all about keeping things real. So I want to start by asking about some of the hard parts. What's hard about the work that you do that people on the outside don't often see or they forget about when they're trying to build something big themselves?
- [04:19]
Rachel Levin
I think for sure, the biggest thing that you need to learn to become okay with when doing influencer work is that there's going to be people that are going to show up having the worst day ever with the goal of making sure you join them in having the worst day ever. So it's kind of making sure to stay yourself, not personalize anything, be very aware that anything anyone says has more to do with them than to do with you unless you've directly done something to them. So just keeping that in your mind the entire time as you're doing what you're doing is probably the biggest hurdle.
- [05:03]
Nicole Khalil
From the outside looking in, I'm like, I don't know how you all do it, because people are nasty. And I am so glad you made that point that that says so much more about them than it does about you. But when you're doing something big, when you're doing something important, when you're doing something worthwhile, there are bound to be people who hate it, right? So let me ask, how did this all start? If you look back, what are some of the best things you've done to put yourself in such a big opportunity to influence.
- [05:35]
Rachel Levin
So when I started, it wasn't really with the goal of being an influencer, because at the time that I began, there wasn't influencers yet. It was weird to be posting on the Internet, But I personally didn't have friends in high school, so my friends were people that created content that I was like, oh, wow, I really vibe with these people. And I would watch them to the point of doing makeup tutorials in the mirror every morning when I was getting ready for school. And I was like, okay, now I'm going to apply this eyeshadow to my outer V. But not on camera, just in the mirror. And I was like, well, maybe I should just try filming it on camera, because just seems like it'd be a fun thing to do, you know? So I recorded it, and the first video ended up getting 457 views. And I was like, oh, my goodness. Yeah, I mean, I think starting without a goal of necessarily growing, I think did help me create the most authentic content that I could. Because I think if I was going in at very, very, very first with the goal of growing, it might have psyched me out from continuing to post. But I think because I was able to really find my true style. Granted, my true style evolved so much over the past 15 years. It wasn't like my first video is as good as my most recent video. Like, of course not. If the Simpsons never posted until they figured out their exact art style, it would never exist. The first episode of the Simpsons was really weird looking, and now it's the Simpsons. So it's more. I think the more important thing is to start posting without having the perfectionism stop you from doing it so that you can kind of find your style as you continue. And I think that was like the biggest, most important thing for me was that I learned to become comfortable on camera without necessarily the fear of too many people seeing and judging it. And I think that helped me become confident as an influencer over time because I was able to really take time to figure out how I wanted to create content before there was too many opinions involved.
- [07:54]
Nicole Khalil
Yeah, so lots of good points in there. First, you know, jumping in before you're quote unquote ready. Right. And letting go of perfectionism and just going for it. I also think, you know, you mentioned growing and evolving. That's what we do as humans, right? We should get better over time. And I have to imagine it hasn't always been, you know, positive growth. In one direction. There's gotta be some moments of going forward and going backward. Especially if you think about, you know, having a video where 400 people saw it and then, you know, you have videos where 40 million people see it. Like, does that ever become a mind fuck for you? Like, do you, like, catch yourself? How do you hold on to your authenticity with all of that?
- [08:39]
Rachel Levin
I think because it was such a long process, there was never a time where it was like, I got 400 views and then I got 40 million. It was like a crawl. It was like a. I started here. And then over time, each video, not each video, did a little bit better. But, you know, the highs became higher in terms of views. The lows were still just as low. But there wasn't necessarily a quick, like, oh my gosh, this video went viral. It was like, okay, I have a thousand views now I have 5,000 views now I have 10,000 views, now I have 20,000. And then like a build up to the 40 millions. So I haven't personally been mindfucked through that, but I could see how it would be a mind fuck if it was like a. A cliff where it just randomly happened at once. And I was like, oh, my gosh, this is. This is so impossible to process. Granted. It's like, I don't know if I ever really fully processed. Was definitely more gradual, which made it easier to bite, I guess.
- [09:41]
Nicole Khalil
Yeah, no, that actually makes perfect sense. And I think maybe your answer helped me think about. I think maybe the mind fuck happens more to. For the observer, right? Because we often, when we see people, when we see influencers, we don't see them across the whole journey. Right. We see them at a highlight moment. And we sometimes think that it happens that way, right? Where you go from 400 to 40 million overnight. And what you're saying, I think is most people's experience, it's. That it's much more of a journey than it is a moment. So why do you think that your content, your products, your music resonates with people so much?
- [10:23]
Rachel Levin
I think because I kind of took off the mask of trying to force perfection. I think there I'll show my struggles, whether they're big or small. And I won't alienate anybody for going through what they're going through, because I'm also going through it. And I think having the experience of going through things together as opposed to like the viewer feeling like they're alone in that has definitely helped. Just being myself and trying to stop the image of perfection has definitely helped Me stay authentic. And I guess I don't know if the word is likable, but I think it's helped people connect with me as an individual more and also bringing them along for all the journeys of what I'm experiencing. Like if I'm experiencing grief, for example, like they're seeing all five stages of that within me. It's not necessarily a secret. I mean, there are things that I keep to myself. Obviously, if I would get negatively affected by somebody tearing that part of me down, I won't share it with the Internet. I'll only share the things that I'm like fully confident in myself with. But I'll take people along for the journey of whatever it is. It could just be my day to day. It could be my journey and trying to get better at drinking water. And like, we'll try to do that together. And I think that's the biggest thing is like allowing the mask to come down.
- [11:54]
Nicole Khalil
You know, it's interesting, you know, so my focus is on confidence. And I've done a lot of research around it. And one of the more surprising pieces of information I found is that perfectionism actually separates us from people. It creates distance in our relationships. And with people, it's authenticity and vulnerability that attracts people and draws them in. And I think that that's really what you're saying is that you show up as you and that attracts and draws people in versus trying to be some polished, perfect version and only sharing all the good parts. Now you said this and it was gonna be one of my questions about keeping some things private, and I think you answered that beautifully. But you talk and you sing about your journey within your romantic relationships. Why do you feel that's important to share? And then in that regard, how do you decide what to share and what to keep private?
- [12:53]
Rachel Levin
I think my main thing is I'll share it if it's only affects me. So I would never share an experience of mine if someone else's name goes under the bus with it. Because it's just not my place to only allow a platform for my perspective of a situation if it harms another person. Even if a guy I dated was not very nice, you know, I wouldn't ever share who that is. But if it affects only me by sharing this information, then I'll share it. And if it affects somebody else, then I won't.
- [13:30]
Nicole Khalil
Good rule of thumb.
- [13:31]
Rachel Levin
But yeah, I mean, I'll. With the music, I'll kind of just do whatever feels the most authentic to me in that moment. It'll be Whatever I feel the most secure in sharing, I will share. But I will always set boundaries for sharing things that I'm not ready to hear criticism of.
- [13:54]
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- [14:55]
Nicole Khalil
Your recent single is about not needing a boyfriend and I know that this is an important message for you that you often try to share with young women the you know, loving yourself versus seeking and needing love from somebody else. Why is that message so important both for you and for you think young women to hear?
- [15:20]
Rachel Levin
Well, I think the main point that I was trying to get across, although it may seem like an anti love song, like a oh my goodness, I don't want a man in my life, it's more like a I don't need that because I am surrounded by so much positive platonic love. So I think it's just a shift in a need for a romantic love. Granted, a good romantic love is wonderful, but a bad romantic love you should just not not do if there's an opportunity to not do it. And I don't want people to get sucked into a bunch of bad relationships because they're like oh I need love. But I just wanted to remind people you have it. You can get love in so many places and it'll be just as fulfilling as a romantic relationship. You could go volunteer and help a child. You could have, you could talk to your mom, you could hang out with your best friends and like it's just as fulfilling of a type of love as like a romantic love. So there's no need to accept less than you deserve in a romantic relationship because you feel like, oh I'll I need love. I have so much love to Give and no one to give it to. It's like you do have someone to give it to. You have it and you've had it all along. And I just wanted to refocus that and let people be aware. You can show you can give all the love that you have just to a different person. And I just wanted to redirect the love.
- [16:37]
Nicole Khalil
Yeah. And not having a romantic partner at any point in your life is. Doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you or even to your point that there is something necessarily missing, that there's so much love around us and within us, and yet society kind of puts that pressure on us. I think a lot that we need that one person to choose us and to want us in order to feel valuable and worthy. So I could not be more excited that you're spreading that message, especially for young women in the world today. Okay, so you have Arlo Cosmetics, which is a huge success. Vegan cruelty free cosmetics. You've got your music career, you've obviously got a digital presence. How do you balance it all?
- [17:25]
Rachel Levin
It's definitely very hard to balance it all. So I've kind of been doing what sounds the most exciting in that moment, but just making sure to still do a little bit of it all every single day, but allow the passions to flow into. I might have a week where I have no song ideas or anything like that. And I also might have a week where I'm only doing music. I mean, I'm always doing everything in the background, but they won't all necessarily be done with the same level of passion every single day. And I've just accepted that that's okay. I've tried to talk to my therapist about it. Like, how can I balance these better? She's like, here's the thing. You could try doing like Monday, do this, Tuesday do this. But you have adhd. And I just would rather follow the passions.
- [18:11]
Nicole Khalil
Okay, I'm going to get into some more like tactical logistical questions. Obviously, you have a massive follower base. How much time do you spend on digital content and do you have a team of people that support you?
- [18:27]
Rachel Levin
It's not like an hour by hour experience. It's kind of like it's always in my mind, like there's no moment from the time I wake up to the time I go to sleep where I'm not producing some sort of content or thinking about some sort of content. I'm obviously trying to leave space to like have moments for myself. But I also think I love creating digital content. So it's like it's a hobby that I get to do for a living. So it's. It doesn't feel like a negative experience that I'm always thinking about it. I do not have a team because so much of my content is in real time with Snapchat. It's not like I could hire somebody to post everything for me, especially because I would not want to lose little nuances of how I write things. I'd be worried that I would lose parts of myself within that if I was having somebody else do it for me. But when I was doing a lot of YouTube videos, I had teams to help with the areas that I didn't like. So, like, I love editing, but maybe I didn't like adding and syncing the audio. So I would hire, I would outsource that. I would love making the videos, but I would hate putting away the lights and setting up the lights. So I'd hire a light person. So whatever areas remove the fun of an experience. That's when I'll bring somebody else in. With Snapchat, there's no things that are not fun. So currently, since that's not my main priority, I don't have anybody. But there's nothing wrong with having somebody for things that make it not as positive experience.
- [19:58]
Nicole Khalil
Yeah. Okay, so I have to imagine you get pitches and outreach and asks all day, every day. How do you decide besides your own brand, how do you decide who to collaborate with, who to partner with, who to work with and who not to?
- [20:17]
Rachel Levin
I think I generally try my best to stay away from things that have had a big controversy in the past that I would now be attached to by accident, maybe whether or not I agree with what they did and what they said. If you're in the same space as that brand or that person, you are now possibly aligning with their views by accident, publicly. So I kind of try to stay away from anything that has had a big controversy. And in terms of, like, things that I would want to work with, it would be more. Would I use this in my day to day life? Like, there'll be no experiences that I'll have if I. If I don't like a product, I'm not going to promote it. So there are a lot of instances where I do say yes to doing a deal before I try the product. Not like, yes, but like a, let me see. And the brand's like, excited, but then I use the product, I'm like, ooh, you know what? Like, truthfully, this doesn't really align with how I go about my day and it doesn't necessarily work but I can't say that to the brand so I just say, oh, it doesn't make sense for me but I'll be open minded with everything. Like there's no brand that I would necessarily immediately say no to unless it was like maybe too sexual. Like I don't know if as much as like yes, go female pleasure. I don't know if I would like to post that on my own platforms just because I, I don't do that type of content. But yeah, I think in terms of things as long I'm pretty open to most things as long as it wouldn't necessarily go against. Yeah, like you said, my personal brand.
- [21:53]
Nicole Khalil
Yep. Yeah, and I'm glad you said that too because there are people who will go way down the sexual sexuality, women's pleasure. And I think we'd argue that there needs to be people doing that. But you've got to know for yourself what works, what doesn't, what you feel comfortable and as you said before, confident in and what you don't. And having that be your deciding factor and your barometer for what makes sense, I think is super important. My last question is when you're exploring and chasing a passion in another area, you're new at it, right. And you probably don't know what you're doing all that much. How do you navigate? Because I think a lot of women struggle with the early phases of things than not having anything figured out, the not knowing what you're doing, the making a ton of mistakes. How do you navigate that stage when you're new to something and you're figuring it out and you don't know what you're doing yet.
- [22:51]
Rachel Levin
I think the figuring out stage and the being completely unaware of what you should and shouldn't be doing, while it is tricky to be as motivated with as you keep watching it fail, I think it's the most exciting thing when you're doing something that you have no idea what you're doing. And like I, I love doing things where I am scared to do it because of the failure because it's what a beautiful thing that we get to try things and fail and continue to try it. So I think you just have to do it. Like you just have to start and as much as you're going to want to be like, oh well, if I just got this or if I just got the newer phone for the good quality or if I just got this better product for whatever, you don't need all of that. You never need to start at 100%, you could start at 5% and you'll work your way up to 100%. So I think it's more just. Just do it like, you will never be ready. I swear. I promise. You will never be ready. And you will always psych yourself out and you'll always be scared when you first started and you'll always fail. And that's magical because you get to continue after you fail and you get to get back up and learn with each failure. And I don't actually think it's ever a failure as long as you're learning. I know you might feel like you've wasted time and like it didn't work, but it did work, actually, because it took you one step closer to the thing that you want.
- [24:20]
Nicole Khalil
Very well said. Couldn't agree more. And yeah, it feels icky when you're in it, but we have the opportunity to see it however we want to see it. And one great way to see it is opportunity, a lesson, growth, you know, getting you one step closer to what it is that you really want. All so important. Rachel, thank you for your time today and for influencing in such a positive and productive way. If you're looking to find and follow Rachel, go to RCL Beauty 101 on Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok, and we'll put the link to her newest single, IDWABF in show notes. Rachel, thank you so much. And let me close us out by reminding you that you don't need to have a million followers to influence. Influence is about the impact you make on the people around you, whether that's one person or 1 million. It's how you lead, it's how you show up, and it's how you stay true to yourself while doing it. And while not everybody needs or is going to be an influencer, there's something bold and courageous about those who step into that space, space with authenticity, and use their platform to inspire, empower, and evolve. Because isn't that what influence is all about? So dream big dreams, chase big goals, and influence in whatever way feels true for you. And if you choose to step into the spotlight, do it with intention, purpose, and lots of heart, because all of that is woman's work.