Spotlight on Rachel Qualm: Wit, Wisdom, Light, and Learning
In February, I interviewed our Founder and CEO, Katie Murphy. This month, I sat down with another one of our top brass at Jane Rae Events to discuss her journey here and all she does for us: the one and only Rachel Qualm.
Rachel is our Office Director and she does just about everything behind the scenes to make our business tick. She tracks our finances, creates our budgets, double checks everything we send to clients, and cares for us as our head of HR as well. So much of what we do at Jane Rae is showy and it’s easy to visually track our work. Rach does all the vital work behind the curtain so I could not be more excited for the opportunity to show her off. I hope you enjoy getting to know her as much as we love having her on our team.
Photo credit: Sampson House
Rebecca Onnen
What are some of your joys outside of work?
Rachel Qualm
Definitely, my family. So, my husband Alex and my daughter, Ava. My dogs, I guess, are also a joy. Sometimes a terror, but a joy. I love church. I love singing at church. But yeah, probably Alex and Ava are at the top of the list.
Photo credit: Jami Groen Photography
RO
Who do you want to be when you grow up? Who do you admire?
RQ
The first person that came to mind was my sister, Heather. She is an incredible mom and wife, and so selfless. And fun! Like, she's a fun mom, which is what I want to be. I don't want to be someone my kids don't want to be around, you know. Yeah, she's just steady and knows right and wrong and follows that, but has fun along the way. I just really look up to her and admire her.
RO
That’s so sweet!
RQ
My mom’s going to hate that I didn’t say her!
RO
But your mom raised your sister, right?
RQ
Right! So she’s crushing it!
RO
What are you proud of about you?
RQ
Okay, this is a hard one for me. Just because I want to shine light on everybody else, but honestly, as weird as it sounds, I'm proud of my humor. I think it brings people in and lightens the situation. And it makes people feel welcome. And then I'm proud of - Alex and I have gone through a lot of difficult times within growing our family, and I'm proud of my faith and the strength that I had going through those hardships.
Within Jane Rae, I had quite the journey getting to the role I'm in right now in the sense that I kind of had to figure out my role as I went. It wasn't created for me; I created the role that I'm in. So I'm proud of all the learning that I had to do to get there. It's been fun to figure out what I like along the way, you know, and what I don't like.
RO
How has your role evolved with the company and what have you learned while you're here? Because you've been here for how many years?
RQ
Seven years. So, yeah, I've been here since the beginning of kind of the second act of Jane Rae.
My role has changed so much since the beginning. I started as an extremely, extremely part-time event assistant. Basically that I was back of house, putting away inventory, organizing, all that stuff. And then I was at all the setups, all the tear downs. But very part-time. I was in maybe four hours during the week, and then just on events on weekends.
As we went, I realized there was a lot on Katie's plate, and so I was just trying to find ways, like, how can I help take things off her plate? So I took over inquiries and scheduling, took over rental clients, then someone took that over. Then I was able to take on more of the financial role, and the HR role. So now I'm - I went from event assistant, very part-time to office director, where now I’m handling all the budgeting and finances and all that kind of fun stuff and caring for our team. So, yeah. It's changed.
RO
What drew you to Jane Rae?
RQ
It wasn't the plan, I will say that. My degree is in theology and youth ministry, and then I got my master's in higher education. Nothing in the event world, nothing in the business world. My plan was to work at a Christian college in the housing side of things so it's totally different. There were no jobs available at that time in the college sphere that I could find, and so I started working at an elementary school. Not for me. Thankful for teachers. Wow.
And then this girl, Katie Murphy, emailed Alex at his job, because he was working for DJ Sieff Style at the time, and was like, “Hey, new business!” He put it out there and was like, “Hey, I think my wife would be great in this role, are you hiring?” And I had no idea he even did that. She said yeah, we're hiring. So, then I applied and got the job, but didn't plan to stay for very long. I was like, this is just my road to the next step. Seven years later, I couldn't do anything else. It's so great. Yeah, so it's a very unconventional way of getting here.
RO
What is your favorite part of your job now?
RQ
I think the finance is my favorite part now, which I never would have expected. I love seeing the numbers. I love seeing how our business is growing on that side of things. I love being able to track where we're headed, make those plans.
On the HR side, I love caring for our team. I love seeing the growth in our team and being a shoulder for people to lean on and check in with.
RO
Do you have any specific memories that sum up your experience here? Or any stories that are quintessential Jane Rae to you?
RQ
Like I said earlier, we've come so far. I feel like a lot of my really fond memories are from those beginning days when we were just trying to figure out what the heck we were doing. So a lot of the memories come from systems we tried that totally failed, or they worked for a little bit, but didn't carry along with the team.
I just remember unpacking so many vases and then trying to come up with a system where we could track what we were doing. How we were naming them was hilarious. Now we have names for vases like the Klara vase. At that point, it was like, Clear Lipped Tall Vase. What in the world does that mean? I just think that is a classic story of where we started to where we're at now.
I also think about doing every single set up and tear down. It was wild. I remember there was one weekend where I was on a Friday day of coordination, so I was there all day, then did that tear down. The next day I had the same thing. I remember getting to that second tear down, being in my house, having to leave, and looking at Alex just sobbing. I was like, I don't know if I can do this, I'm so tired. It was all so fun, but just a picture of where we were and where we're at now. I never cry now!
It was a lot of hard work getting to where we're at and I wouldn't have it any different. Like, obviously it's hard work now, I'm not going to say it's not, but it's just different because we've figured out what we're doing. In those days, it was hard work and we were still figuring it out on the fly. I'm glad we're more established now.
Photo credit: Rachel Qualm
RO
You do a lot here, and a lot of it's behind the scenes. What's something that people would be surprised to know is something that you do?
RQ
I think two things that we've implemented here on the HR side that are different than other companies would be, one, our culture walks. So, I started this two years ago. I take each team member individually on a half hour walk around downtown and just chat about life. It can be personal. It can be professional, chat about how they think the culture is going at Jane Rae, if there's anything that can be fixed to make our culture better. Those have been really meaningful times to connect with people. A lot of times it's personal stuff, which is really fun, but it's made our culture better because we're fixing issues that are important to people.
And then the second was mental breaks. That started last year and every quarter, we take an hour out of our day and do something that's not related to our job at all. We just get to take time, whether that's coloring or playing a game or taking a walk. Time to reflect on why we do what we do and that you matter as people. It's not just the business side of things, but we want to take care of you and make sure you're not in burnout mode, especially during event season when it's crazy.
RO
Your HR role is about us as people rather than presenting a face as a company, which is great.
RQ
Yeah, yeah, and I think that's something that Katie taught me. As a company we're nothing without our people. If they're happy, they're gonna do the best that they can.
RO
What is a wedding or event trend that you're excited for for 2025?
RQ
I. Love. Fabric, fabric, fabric. All the drapery. I feel like it's so elegant and whimsical and adds an element of romance in a way we haven't seen prior, at a level we haven't seen prior. Our people are draping off entire venues. It is just so romantic and fun.
Photo credit: Britany Moser
RO
Do you have a favorite pop culture wedding or one that's made an impression on you?
RQ
One that came to mind is Madison Prewett Troutt. She was on The Bachelor previously and she had an unbelievable amount of florals, like mostly white blooms. She had a clear tent for her reception, chandeliers everywhere. It was so lux, but timeless and romantic.
Photo credit: Megan Kay Photography
RO
My last question is, what is one thing that you're looking forward to in Jane Rae's future?
RQ
I am looking forward to a new building for us. This has been a great location, but Katie and I just got done making plans for what it could look like to have a new building that's designed by us. I am so excited for what it could mean for our team. Having a new building will be able to meet with more clients and help more people. Excited about the floral department in the building - oh my gosh, it's going to be so nice. Obviously we're a few years out from that, but I'm really looking forward to what that could mean. I feel like that will be the next evolution for Jane Rae.
Photo credit: Sampson House
A huge thank you to Rachel Qualm for taking the time to chat with me! Like she told me, Jane Rae is nothing without our team, and she is the proof in the pudding. Bragging about my coworkers is truly one of the highlights of my job. Thanks for joining me in celebrating them!
xoxo, Rebecca
