Serial multitasker. This should be Rachel Hunt’s official title, which has followed her through iterations of her marketing, communications and event planning career since graduating from Case Western Reserve University with a degree in art history and English.
Hunt has gotten paid to run social media accounts (“I would have said, ‘You’re crazy,’ if you told me I’d be doing this 15 years ago”); she was a contributing food editor at Cleveland Scene; she helps run volunteer radio shows on WRUW called Live from Cleveland and Guilty Pleasures, a longtime gig she fell into in 2010 while a student.
She has managed bookings for Grog Shop, repped as an account manager at a local boutique marketing firm and curated vendors and content for Asian-fusion Night Market events.
———
RELATED: HOW WE WORK CLE
Akron's Nomadic Doc Takes a New Type of House Call: How CLE Works
A Cleveland-Based Brand Manager Finds A Different Path to Work-Life Balance: How CLE Works
———
She now manages all things marketing and beyond at Grog Shop as one of the venue’s scant full-time employees. Oh, and she DJs at weddings, hosts trivia and bartends. Variety brings experience and perspective to her day job. “I’ve always been like this, honestly,” Hunt says. “Since I was in high school, I’ve always had, like, three jobs, and I do like the variety.”
What events?
Concertgoers disappeared overnight during the pandemic while Hunt was in a full-time marketing role at the Grog Shop. At the time, she didn’t know if the industry she loved would tank. She moved to a boutique marketing studio full-time, a hybrid environment. She reported to the office for three days and worked from home for two. In some ways, it was like continuing education. “I gained more skills, learning how to run ads and submit ad plans to clients,” Hunt says. In other ways, all of her newfound event-planning and marketing know-how applied to the work, regardless of the client’s business: pharma, financial, nonprofit. Meanwhile, Hunt was still hosting radio shows, weddings were coming back for her DJ talent, and she’d occasionally work at clubs to help with bookings.
Back on stage
After about 18 months beginning in January 2021, Hunt was asked to return to Grog Shop full time. She jumped in with mostly office hours, on site daily. “I like working from home, but the reality is, people still call us to buy tickets over the phone, and people still leave their credit cards at the bar,” Hunt says. These days, Hunt DJs about 10 weddings every year, bartends one evening per week and is on air at WRUW weekly; “people keep asking me to do cool stuff, and I like to be a part of those things, so I say yes,” she laughs. Hunt says side hustles were a must in the past; that’s not the case now. “It just makes me happy, and it makes other people happy.”
For more updates about Cleveland, sign up for our Cleveland Magazine Daily newsletter, delivered to your inbox six times a week.
Cleveland Magazine is also available in print, publishing 12 times a year with immersive features, helpful guides and beautiful photography and design.
