Community Highlights: Meet Shaleigh Rae of RAEdiant

Today we’d like to introduce you to Shaleigh Rae.

Hi Shaleigh, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I was blessed to know I wanted to be a midwife during my freshman year of high school. I was also blessed with my parents helping me graduate early. This happened mostly because they could afford for me to take college courses in place of my high school classes (ex. I took ENG101 and ENG102 instead of a full year of senior English). This helped me graduate high school a semester earlier than my peers and allowed me to be finished my prerequisites for the nursing program by the age of 19. I completed my Associate’s and Bachelor’s at the same time through the community college’s concurrent enrollment program. I graduated from Glendale Community College and Northern Arizona University in December of 2017.

From there, I passed my board exam and started working in the hospital as a postpartum nurse in April 2018. Within my three years in the hospital, I worked in Postpartum, Nursery, L&D, and Antepartum. At the beginning of 2021, I began to realize I was experiencing symptoms of burnout. This was most likely due to working during the pandemic in an extremely understaffed hospital, coupled with my own personal struggles outside of work. I did what every professional recommended to save my passion for nursing— I switched job settings. In June of 2021, I began my aesthetic nursing career in Scottsdale, AZ. It was during this slower-paced job that I was able to rediscover my passion for writing and create my own business: RAEdiant, LLC. I still work as a nurse, I’m actually returning to a nightshift L&D position once my maternity leave is up, but I also do freelance writing and design work whenever the opportunity presents itself. My most notable recent projects have been building and rebuilding a few websites and writing copy for a fast-growing company within the state!

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Hindsight, the years have flown by, but if you asked me during nursing school or my first few years in the hospital I would have to disagree. When you’re in the thick of it, with anything, it seems rocky, complicated, and never-ending. In reality, my career life has been fairly smooth. I owe that to my parents for setting me up for success; what they did was invaluable for me to start a stable career by the age of 21. I think the biggest struggle is that I’ve had a dream of being a midwife since I was a teenager, but I’m not a midwife yet.

I’ve become less motivated to complete my Master’s degree and midwifery training the more I learned what a midwife’s schedule looks like. I also realized that as an L&D nurse, I have an opportunity to do nearly everything the midwife can do— short of delivering the baby (although, sometimes you get to catch a baby that’s ready to be born before anyone else is ready for them!), but when I’m done with work, my work is done! Midwives don’t get that pleasure, and that’s a huge factor for me as a single mom. I enjoy freelance work and getting to figuratively scratch my entrepreneurial itch is great!

Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about RAEdiant, LLC?
The name of my business is a play on the word “radiant” using my last name “Rae”. The word “radiant” means to send out light, and that’s exactly what I wanted my business to do; add more light into the world via my own creativity and passion! I created RAEdiant, LLC with the goal of utilizing my background in nursing and research to write health-related articles and content for major websites. I have done some of that, but the bulk of my work is on topics that have little to nothing to do with health! My favorite projects are website builds, as I’m doing both things I enjoy— writing and designing. Regardless of the project, I enjoy working with the client to discover their aesthetic vision and overall goals so I can ensure my writing and design work helps them meet, and even exceed them.

The fact that I’m a nurse and mother is what sets me apart from many other freelancers in this arena. I’ve learned to prioritize, work hard, and get things done right for the first time in my entire life. Those principles extend into my business and are what make me feel pride when I reflect on my progress as a business owner. I went to nursing school, not business school, but I’ve still managed to create a business that thrives on authentic working relationships. My mission at RAEdiant, LLC is to treat everyone how I’d like to be treated— respected and accepted, so that others may begin to shine their light into the world as well.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
My advice for anyone wanting to enter the freelance space is to start it while you’re working a full-time job. There is so much being financially secure can provide for your freelance business, and the skills you develop while learning how to manage your creative works on top of an already-busy life are priceless.

Contact Info:

• Website: RAEdiantllc.com
• Instagram: @RAEdiant.LLC