About · Rachael DePatie
The senior marketing lead you need right now – with the specialists already lined up.
Brought in by real estate developers, established small business owners, and startup founders – when marketing has to do more than tell a story, it has to move the number at the end. Knowing which one comes first is the job.
A decade in the work
Some of that work has gone on to win industry recognition – Haven by Park Ridge Homes was a finalist in 10 categories across 3 awards platforms, taking two wins at the 2020 Georgie Awards, including the Grand HAVAN for Best Residential Community: Multi-Family. I wrote the submissions. What matters most to me, though, is whether the work actually sold, served, and made a difference.
I'm not loud, but I speak when it matters. What I want is simple: marketing that pays for itself, brands people actually trust, and results that don't ask the operator, the founder, the developer, or their customer to settle.
Real estate
Developer brands, project sub-brands, launch campaigns, presentation centres, Realtor outreach, and the contact database and follow-up systems that sit underneath them.
Small business
Brand strategy and identity, websites, collateral, local SEO, paid media, and the senior marketing leadership local-business owners bring in once the business is too big to keep running on instinct alone.
Startup
Positioning, launches, founder-led announcements, investor-ready decks, and the lightweight automation that lets a sharp, lean team move at the speed the opportunity actually rewards.
Grant's Law
When I was young, my family experienced a loss that led to the creation of Grant's Law in BC. It shaped how I think about responsibility, clarity, and trust. I carry that into my work by being careful with promises, precise with information, and focused on outcomes that protect people, not just metrics.
How I got here
From park attendant at thirteen to the launch plan – the long way around.
I started working when I was thirteen – my first job was as a park attendant at Dinotown in Bridal Falls. I've had an entrepreneurial spirit since I can remember, and I've always been a storyteller: creating elaborate worlds and games during play time, building something out of nothing, inviting people into the narrative. That instinct to create, organise, and sell an experience has never left me.
When I turned eighteen I moved out to Deep Cove in North Vancouver for school – but life had other plans. I moved back home to support my family through my mom's cancer journey. A few years later, I tested the waters with post-secondary again through the Applied Business Technology program. It gave me the foothold I needed to land at Corix and step into a white-collar career for the first time.
I started part-time at Park Ridge Homes while studying marketing and quickly found myself coordinating trades, reviewing budgets, tracking sales revenue, and solving real-world operational problems – the kind every small business and startup eventually runs into, just with framing crews and floorplans instead of fulfilment and product specs.
That ground-level operator's lens is what I bring to every client now – whether it's a local business sizing up its first proper brand system, a startup wiring its first launch, or a real estate team launching inside a tightly regulated environment. I've stood in the dust and drywall, I've also sat across the table from founders and owners doing the same kind of work in their own industries. Same instinct: understand how the thing actually gets built before you market it.
The work runs through me, with a vetted network of senior specialists brought in by discipline – photography, 3D rendering, copywriting, production, paid media, web development. People I have personally worked with and trust to ship. You hire one principal. You get the curated team behind every line item.
Before going independent
Agency seat, then a full client roster of my own.
At Fifth Avenue Real Estate Marketing, I led project marketing across a portfolio of launches – building end-to-end strategies that brought in qualified leads, improved sales performance, and tightened the product offering itself. The same playbook – positioning, new-lead generation, follow-up, and the reporting underneath – now runs through RDCD for a wider client roster: local businesses, startups, and real estate teams across BC.
Off the clock
Walks, records, and the long read on housing policy.
Outside of work, I find inspiration in music, DJing, art, nature, macroeconomics, housing policy, and long walks (where ideas often strike). I consult on business and various forms of design for upcoming brands. I'm an advocate for women's health and endometriosis research. I'm currently working toward my Real Estate Trading Services License and plan to complete a Bachelor of Business in marketing when the time is right.
Where I work
Remote-first, BC-focused.
I work remotely with clients anywhere, but my focus – in order – is:
- Fraser Valley, BC
- Lower Mainland / Greater Vancouver, BC
- Vancouver – City, West, North & East, BC
- Sidney to Victoria, BC
- Sunshine Coast, BC
- Okanagan & Shuswap, BC
Work together
Two ways to start – whichever fits how you think.
If you already know roughly what you need, the scope builder is the fastest path to a tailored quote – pick the categories that fit, name your timeline, get a structured proposal back. If you'd rather describe what's stuck and let me ask the questions, the contact form goes straight to my inbox.
Either way, the next step is a 30-minute call to confirm fit, timeline, and whether the work belongs on a project, retainer, or on-call senior engagement – scoped anywhere from a single tactic to the full marketing engine, depending on what the quarter actually needs.
Experience
Where I've been the past decade.
Principal & Creative Director
Rachael DePatie Consulting & Design
2020 – Current
Project Campaign Specialist
Fifth Avenue Real Estate Marketing
Past
Marketing Manager
MLA Canada
Past
Marketing & Customer Relations Manager
Park Ridge Homes
Past
Administrative Assistant
Park Ridge Homes
Past
Administrative Assistant
Corix / Iconix (formerly Corix Group of Companies)
Past
Grocery Clerk
Rosedale Grocery, Rosedale, BC
Earlier
Bakery Clerk
Westview Bakery, West Vancouver, BC
Earlier
Dishwasher
Old Settler Pub, Harrison Hot Springs, BC
Earlier
Housekeeper
The Bungalow Motel, Harrison Hot Springs, BC
Earlier
Park Attendant
Dinotown, Bridal Falls, BC
Earlier
The full project list covers what was actually shipped along the way.
What I value
Six values the work runs on.
What clients actually hire is a small set of values held consistently across every engagement. Expand any card below for what each one looks like in practice.
Building the answer with what's in the room. Existing playbooks, fast iteration, and the willingness to design a path when none exists – the move BC operators rely on when a launch window is tight and the manual hasn't been written yet.
The capacity to keep shipping when the work gets hard – regulated markets, a shifting sales pace, a competitor moving on your corner. Setbacks absorbed without losing momentum, results delivered consistently, not just when conditions are easy.
The belief that opportunity is wide enough for everyone who serves it well, and that lifting the clients and senior specialists around me strengthens what I'm building rather than threatening it. Not toxic positivity – no sugarcoating, no confidence pasted over problems I haven't earned the right to be confident about. Abundance is the discipline of acting from possibility while confronting reality clearly.
One name on the work and one name on the outcome. The senior lead doesn't hand off to a junior the moment the contract is signed, doesn't disappear behind a project manager, and doesn't let the number at the end become someone else's problem. If it shipped late or underperformed, it's mine to explain – and mine to fix.
Care for the people, the place, and the brand after I'm gone. Documented systems instead of tribal knowledge, decisions made for the next operator as much as the current one, and a bias toward work that strengthens the community the business actually sits in – local economies, regulated markets, and Sunshine Coast conservancy and stewardship-led clients included.
The senior network is built deliberately, not by default: across disciplines, lived experiences, and the people too often left off the call sheet. Equity in who gets the brief, who gets paid what the work is worth, and who gets to grow inside an engagement. Inclusion shows up in the work itself – accessible web builds, copy that doesn't quietly exclude, imagery that reflects the actual market – not just on a values page.