‘Still Life’ in Motion
Name
Rebecca Pacheco
Age
42
Location
Boston
Occupation
Writer, Yoga & Meditation Teacher, Speaker, Wellness Content Creator
Education
University of Richmond, BA, English Literature
Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living
By Rebecca Pacheco
(Harper Wave, 2021)
Writers write. Right?
When did you go solo and why?
I’ve gone solo twice. The first time was by accident—strictly yoga oriented—and not sustainable. The second time was strategic, multi-disciplinary, and about a decade ago. The financial crisis of 2009 was an inciting event, but I also started to see—since it was the heyday of blogging and I had a popular one at the time—that I could create a career that previously didn’t exist, which intersected with several industries I enjoyed. It was also how I became a published author.
Describe a typical day.
It starts with black tea and ends with herbal, usually peppermint. Everything in between is subject to change.
What’s the best project you’ve ever had?
I’m proudest of my first book because it represented the culmination of a lifelong dream. Collaborative projects are less grueling and can also be hugely rewarding. I wrapped a really exciting one before the pandemic started, for which I was the talent, writer, and co-producer. I don’t think I’m at liberty to say more because the brand is rightfully protective of products in development and the most technologically innovative with which I’ve worked. Joining forces with a large company that allows me to synthesize my specific combination of skills, is a lot of fun. You’re still a “soloist” but with greater bandwidth to create something new and special and reach a bigger audience. Creating the online yoga center for Runner’s World and DVDs for them and Women’s Health were other standout projects.
What’s the hardest conversation you’ve ever had with a client?
This wasn’t the hardest conversation nor was I solo at the time, but it was dramatic and professionally formative. I was working at a magazine and in charge of a launch event for a new car. Car companies have their portfolios, they upgrade annually, but they don’t come out with brand new models that often, so this was a big deal. It goes without saying that the car needed to be the star of the party. This requisite drastically limits the spaces where you can host a cool party and display a car indoors, but we found a venue that was new and buzzy. I’d sent the elevator specs to the car contact. We did a walk-through. I stood in the freight elevator with her.
“Yes, this will work,” she said.
I’m at a Red Sox game the night before the party and get a phone call. The car doesn’t fit. The guest list is about 400 people. We have less than 24 hours to relocate the event, communicate to guests, not obliterate our relationship with the hotel, and preserve the most valuable advertising relationship the magazine had at the time.
We moved the party to an alley next to the swanky hotel, zhushed it up with some last-minute plants, lights, and pipe and drape, and prayed to the weather gods. In all likelihood, the only reason we didn’t get shutdown by the city was because the mayor was at the party. I will never forget those 24 hours, beginning with that initial phone call from the client.
Is there a psychology to soloing well?
There is absolutely a psychology to it. For me it’s a voice in your head that sounds a lot like Tim Gunn on Project Runway saying, “Make it work!” And, thankfully, I’m in the business of managing free-floating anxiety. This doesn’t mean I don’t suffer from it—it means I have acquired skills and tricks for managing it. I meditate daily. I realize that things rarely feel the way you expect of the way they look from the outside.
How do you know when to say ‘no’ to a project?
Full disclosure: I start with no. It’s usually a no. I’m in a field where there’s a lot of New Agey, new-fangled advice about not just saying yes but being a yes. This is the death knell of a solo business, especially for women because we are too often conditioned to people please. Your resources—time, energy, mindshare, money—they are limited. You have to say no to the projects that do not maximize your strengths or are not the right fit. If no amount of money will excite you, if you’re being brought in to save a sinking ship and that does not excite you, if it does not align with your brand, if it erodes some other aspect of the business, your family life, or your mental or physical health. In my experience, we learn these things the hard way, but once we learn, it’s revolutionary.
“I start with no. It’s usually a no. I’m in a field where there’s a lot of New Agey, new-fangled advice about not just saying yes but being a yes. This is the death knell of a solo business, especially for women because we are too often conditioned to people please.”
Your solo life wouldn’t run without these three tools:
I drink tea with the same vigor as people fueled by coffee (English or Irish Breakfast, absolutely not Earl Grey). I write on my laptop, but what I can’t live without are beautiful journals for notes, ideas, lists, quotes I want to remember, snippets of conversations I overhear, titles I want to use someday, articles I want to write, or naming studies for myself or a client. Names, in particular, come to me when I am not at a computer, so I take a journal everywhere. And good pens. I have a couple models I’ll accept. Everything else is trash.
Best work habit?
I’m not precious. I like feedback. If something isn’t great, it’s gone.
Worst work habit?
Social media. I just need to look up this one thing…
Who else in your life is a soloist?
It’s funny, it was close to a majority of my closest friends for a while: designers, bloggers, consultants, producers, yoga teachers, writers, freelance journos. But there’s an element of risk that is less palatable when you have a family. Many friends and collaborators shifted back to corporate work when they had families. My soloist friends now are mostly writers or yoga teachers, but no one else is a writer and yoga teachers (among other things).
Is your family supportive of your solo life?
Yes. My parents are retired, but they were in the restaurant business. They very much understand the hustle. Growing up, I never saw 9-to-5, so I think I was predisposed to working on my own and having an unconventional path. My husband (Dan Fitzgerald, co-founder and co-owner, Heartbreak Hill Running Company) is self-employed, though hardly a soloist. His brand has four brick-and-mortar locations (three in Boston, one in Chicago) and many incredible employees. But he understands the nature of being a team of one and is my biggest champion.
“Covid-19 has changed everything, but even before quarantine and still now, I am keenly aware that being self-employed allows me to parent in a unique way for which I am grateful.”
Who is your biggest professional inspiration? Who are your mentors?
My boss at Boston magazine, Dawn Curtis Hanley, was an exceptional mentor (and guiding Zen master during the car-party debacle). Brian McGrory of the Boston Globe has offered insightful and generous professional advice over the years. My biggest inspirations are writers, creatives, and superheroes of activism and social justice.
What do you do for health insurance?
Pray. (Kidding). I buy mine and my daughter’s through Health Connector.
Where do you do your best work?
It was my home office at my pristine glass desk. Then, I became a mother. Nothing was pristine anymore and nowhere at home was safe. Next, it was The Wing, but the pandemic happened. So, I’m reassessing. It may need to be my car in the driveway soon.
What’s the one thing about your life today that you most treasure that you wouldn’t have if you weren’t soloing?
The flexibility to be a very present parent to my four-year old daughter. COVID-19 has changed everything, but even before quarantine and still now, I am keenly aware that being self-employed allows me to parent in a unique way for which I am grateful.
How do you think about time off?
I think about it.
Ever miss the stability of a staff job?
All the time.
What keeps you up at night?
It’s a real amalgam of terrors. It starts with being past deadline on the rewrites for my next book and then cascades into the pandemic, climate crisis, developing financial crisis, upcoming election, how cops can shoot a sleeping EMT in her own home and face no consequences, fatal health conditions I probably have but don’t know yet (we are all doctors at 4am), financial planning, my website, storage and organization shortcomings in tech, family memorabilia, and seasonal closets (we are all Mari Kondo at 4am), book deadline, climate crisis, election … also sometimes Indian food keeps me up at night, but I love it.
What advice would you give your 22-year-old self?
Stop waiting for permission.
► Learn more about Rebecca Pacheco on her website. To order a copy of first book, Do Your Om Thing: Bending Yoga Tradition to Fit Your Modern Life, or her latest, Still Life: The Myths and Magic of Mindful Living, visit the Solo Book Club.
