WELCOME TO WHAT'S NEXT.
Waking Sun is a boutique customer experience (CX) consultancy that helps businesses reach their next performance horizon.
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Let's Seize the Day.
RACHEL (HARRIS-RUSSELL) WYTKO
Waking Sun Founder & Owner
I believe change is essential to fulfillment and purpose – in business and in life.
No story is a story without it. No leader remains a success by shunning it. I’m hired specifically to spark it, hone it, and realize the high-performance possibilities that bound beyond it.
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A natural builder, championing change is my core expertise. I bring over 20 years of experience in understanding customer needs, designing digital product roadmaps, executing strategic marketing plans, and repositioning brands to win target audiences and catapult growth.
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I founded Waking Sun to deliver my professional passions and expertise more directly in customer-centered innovation, stand-out branding, and measurable market impact.
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Let’s connect and pursue a new possible together.
SERVICES
Waking Sun empowers clients to strategically shape and execute a path to 10X results through customer experience insights, innovations, and strategies for market growth.
RESEARCH & INSIGHTS
Illuminate New Discoveries
Waking Sun Research & Insights consulting services discover new, actionable opportunities to enhance performance and impact.
Surveys
Interviews
Focus Groups
Secondary Research
Data Analysis
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BRAND STRATEGY
Energize New Perspectives.
Waking Sun Brand Strategy consulting services design the authentic, distinctive, and relevant promise you make to your markets.
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Brand Health Analysis
Brand Positioning
Brand Voice
Creative Identity
Market Launch
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE DESIGN
Light New Journeys.
Waking Sun Customer Experience Strategy consulting services create compelling, seamless experiences that earn trust and loyalty.
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Journey Mapping
Experience Analysis
User Research
Experience Design
Experience Testing
DIGITAL PRODUCT STRATEGY
Fuel New Triumphs.
Waking Sun Product Strategy consulting services develop customer-inspired product visions and roadmaps to win markets.
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Product Performance Analysis
Product Vision
Product Capability Roadmap
Product Management Operations
Product Positioning & Go-to-Market
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MARKETING STRATEGY
Intensify New Growth.
Waking Sun Marketing Strategy consulting services optimize conversion ROI while building long-term love for your brand.
Marketing Performance Analysis
Marketing Communications & Content
Marketing Channel Strategy
Marketing Operations Design
Marketing Campaign Development
CHANGE MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATIONS
Warm New Hearts & Minds.
Waking Sun Change Management & Communications consulting services inspire alignment and advocacy to realize success.
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Strategic Planning Governance
Stakeholder Analysis
Communications Strategy
Change Management Strategy
Training Development & Facilitation
PROJECT PORTFOLIO
Relentlessly Pursue a New Possible
DIGITAL PRODUCT INNOVATION
Initiated and led a $10 million, elite partnership with #1 Search company to build a machine-learning recommendation engine improving performance 150% above status-quo.
STRATEGIC BUSINESS ACQUISITION
Led innovation task force to identify and implement professional services company's first-ever purchase of a digital company for $20 million.
COMPANY REBRAND & MARKET LAUNCH
Led rebrand and launch of $1B company - with inhouse resources only. Eighty percent of customers claimed new brand campaign improved their perception of the company and its differentiators.
DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGY
Designed and implemented digital marketing strategy for portfolio of B2B and B2C ecommerce brands, improving lead generation by 120% and reducing the CPA by 70% in 6 months.
OPERATING MODEL REDESIGN
Activated new internal operating model to optimize enterprise resource allocation, aligning 80+ leaders across global and continent teams, redesigning org structure, and instituting new performance management framework globally.
VOICE OF CUSTOMER PROGRAM
Conducted research to elevate performance, evaluate competitive alternatives, examine customer needs, test assumptions, and uncover new markets. Established inaugural VOC program spanning 30K customer & employee surveys, sales win/loss analysis, and market focus groups.
TOPLINE REVENUE GENERATION
Led design and execution of $240M global topline recovery strategy from industry crises. Launched new CX product capabilities and marketing programs, including digital search features generating a 20% CTR (vs. 3% baseline), and $453M in digital marketing bookings.
DATA & ANALYTICS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT
Oversaw Data Science and Analytics product portfolio and Agile scrum teams. Gained an 8 to 1 improvement on sourcing channel ROI through Customer Journey Analytics product, and a $241M ROI in one year through Rate Visualizer product.
WAKING SUN ADVANTAGE
PASSION
Waking Sun is a labor of my love for innovation. Because I truly enjoy what I do, there is no pushy pitch to buy my services. There is only pride and passion for seeing new opportunities and making a real impact.
PRAGMATISM
While I am a big believer in "no pain, no gain," Waking Sun's solutions pursue change one realistic step at a time. I meet my clients where they are and innovate with pragmatism and partnership toward an even brighter future.
PERSPECTIVE
Real change demands fresh perspectives. I bring over 20 years of cross-industry, cross-functional experience as a management consultant, industry leader, and entrepreneur to fuel innovation forward.
TESTIMONIALS
When we partner, you will not only see that glimmering dot of possibility on your horizon. You will feel the rise of new awareness, new perspective, and new success as we power exponential progress toward it.
CORE VALUES
AUTHENTICITY
The "golden rule" guides my transparent, direct, and reliable work style. In every engagement my personal definition of success is not only to deliver results. I pursue a legacy of meaningful impact by building client partnerships rooted in genuine understanding, care, and connection.
COURAGE
The Waking Sun exists to help businesses reach beyond their current perspectives, constraints, and barriers to achieve success. Not one to shy away from a challenge, I am unafraid to appropriately push boundaries to reach new possibilities and advance a path to a new, brighter future.
PURPOSE-DRIVEN GRIT
Mastering change builds character needed to lead beyond today with the power tomorrow demands. I don't expect it to be easy. I expect to find a way to move mountains all the same. My intrinsic wiring and learned experiences manifest in a fun-loving and unrelenting grit required to deliver big.
WAKING SUN ORIGIN STORY
Waking Sun was named after an inspired idea, captured - raw - from budding potential.
When he was only three, my oldest son wrote a story about a little turtle on a mission. It read:
"The turtle crawled along the sandy beach. He was determined, under the yawning sun."
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When he showed me this illustrated gem, I was completely taken, particularly with the "yawning sun." Was it possible for a three year old to have intended the juxtaposition between the sun's fatigue and the turtle's determination? Was the sun's yawn a harbinger to the turtle's yet untold but inevitable success in light of his sturdy determination? Was it a phrase he'd heard and held to from a book his grandparents read to him? Was it simply prodigy in action?
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No matter its source, the genius of imagination, the dots it can forge into remarkable novelty when free to create, remain my core inspiration.
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The Waking Sun stands for endless opportunities brimming within each new day.
It is built on the belief that possibilities are truly boundless for the bold.
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