Conversations with the Inspiring Sarah Sewell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Sewell.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Sarah. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I started in sales when I was very young. I would like to say I was born a salesperson. When I was 8 years old, I would make bracelets and rings and sell them door to door in my neighborhood. At 13, I was leading fundraisers in my school. At 16, I was “upseller of the month” in a convenient store and finally by the time I turned 18, I was selling automobiles at my local Chevrolet dealership. In fact, I was one of the first “women car salespeople” in my area. It was a tough gig, to say the least…. but I thoroughly enjoyed seeing my name at the top of the sales board month after month while the older gentlemen tried to give excuse after excuse why I “a girl” was selling
more than they were. Now, I wasn’t your “typical” salesperson… I didn’t play silly games… I didn’t lie… and I certainly wasn’t aggressive… I simply enjoyed people. I always have had JOY in being around and talking to others. To me, sales were the easiest job in the world… just simply listen to what others want and needs are and then do what I could to help them to achieve it.

In 1998, the internet really started to gain momentum; I started working in Internet Sales Management in the car industry then moved on into the RV industry. It was my job to obtain leads from the internet usually from email or contact forms, connect with them, profile the lead, and then make arrangements for them to come to the dealership to see the units in person. I realized quickly that standing out in the sun for 6-8 hours a day wasn’t really for me, I dabbled in other sales areas like telemarketing, recruiting, advertising, marketing and finally landed in big box retail sales management. I followed that career path for a couple years and then in the fall of 2008 while 4 months pregnant with my son Liam I found out that the store I managed “Linens N Things” was going out of business. Not just my store… the entire company. The country was headed into a horrible recession. I couldn’t believe that such a large company could just fall like that and all I could think about was what could I do? I was visably pregnant, who would hire me now?

I was engaged during that time and even though planning a wedding on a budget isn’t unheard of; being on unemployment meant I didn’t have one at all. I found out that making my own wedding décor, favors etc. would be the only way to get them. I started making place cards from river rocks, table numbers from paper, and decor from lace and doilies I had to lay around. Friends and family saw my creations and would oooh and ahhh over them always ending with a “you know you could sell those”. This is usually what gets many Etsy sellers started… a craft and a friends suggestion to sell it.

I wasn’t a stranger to selling online. I had sold many things on eBay over the years as well as Craigslist when getting rid of home items. I also had the experience of internet sales in the automobile industry, so I wasn’t frightened at all opening an online shop. But selling crafts online… I just wasn’t sure it would actually work or be a profitable business venture. I mean who would pay me for something I did so naturally? It just seemed a bit absurd at the time. Little did I know, the decision to do so would change my life.

I started selling on Etsy in its infancy. I opened a shop in 2008 called “Stones by Sarah”. I sold mainly place card stones and guest book stones for weddings. I realized quickly however that naming my shop Stones by Sarah was boxing me in as I eventually wanted to offer other items that weren’t rocks. Lesson #1 do NOT box yourself in!

In 2009, I rebranded with a new name that allowed room for me to add more things that would speak to my target audience. My business took off, with my background in sales and marketing I was able to bypass by competition and became ranked as a top seller in the wedding category.

By June of 2014, my business was voted #1 in the US for wedding favors and #3 in the world through the Wedding Expert Awards. I had made just over $650,000 in sales on Etsy alone and was able to retire my husband (well, I made him a stay at home dad which isn’t technically retiring him…). I had moved my family from a small 2 bedroom condo to a large 4-bedroom three level home with a beautiful basement studio in the North Georgia area. Life was good at first but I was losing my passion and started feeling depressed. I have felt my business became more like a factory pushing orders out and left and right, I had no more creative juju and my work was no longer enjoyable. I didn’t want to let my family down but knew I had to make some kind of change soon.

Throughout my time selling, I had helped out many friends and family members by teaching them all about Etsy and selling their crafts on various online platforms. I would help them set up their shops, teach them how to take photos, and coach them on all things social media. My enthusiasm for showing others how to quit their day jobs to turn their passions into a prosperous career was growing. I realized that as much as I had enjoyed earning income selling my creations I was now more passionate about teaching others how they could do the same. I was spending more time telling everyone I met how they could start their own business then I was on creating new products for my own business. It was apparent where my true desire was. I wanted to teach. I wanted to be a coach, a consultant, a mentor to those that didn’t have a clue how to set up shop or sell online. I wanted to be a catalyst in someone else’s dream coming true and a pioneer in educating others about online commerce.

December of 2014 after speaking with my family, I decided to take the leap. I closed my handmade business to open my coaching business. It was a gamble and I was so scared but being one who is pretty spiritual I decided to put trust in the Universe knowing that following a new path of doing good work, and helping others would lead to more success in my life. When the new year started, I got to work creating a coaching business. I started a group community on Facebook and got started doing what I could to teach as many as I could to grow their hobbies into thriving businesses.

Since then, I have created and manage multiple online communities full of artisans, craftspeople, creatives, and designers. My main community on Facebook, Artisan Indie has just under 60,000 members currently and my private membership community, Flourish, where I teach sellers every week to take their businesses to the next level, has just over 2500 active subscribers. I now work with thousands of creative clients helping them to build their own handmade empires. I also speak at various events throughout the year educating other entrepreneurs about commerce and selling their crafts online. The next box to check off my list is to create an online marketplace where shoppers can go to get quality artisan goods, where they can shop small and buy locally to support their own communities economy. I dream of one day speaking on the TED stage to advocate for the handmade commerce industry and small business. This has all been an amazing journey and I am grateful for the ride.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has not. Lots of struggles and failures. I have learned though that those are the times you learn the most. It is a bittersweet thing, failure… but without it, you wouldn’t know what success is. You couldn’t understand what sweet tastes like without knowing the sour bit of something bitter. Right?

I have learned the biggest thing that can ever be in your way, is yourself. Your mind does a great job of trying to take you out of success. It is programmed to keep you safe, to keep you from avoiding risks. So that little voice in your head that tells you, “Nope you can’t do that” or “how about we just stay here in this little box where we are safe” that is seriously your biggest critic. It’s YOU! If you can practice speaking a bit more gently to yourself, giving yourself grace, not taking yourself so seriously, learning to feel more confident in yourself just as you are, failures and all then you will be one step closer to reaching the summit!

Sure, you will have others along the way that will try to tell you all the reasons why you won’t succeed, but they don’t really matter… what matters is that voice in your head that reminds you what they said over and over and over until you start to believe it. Believe in yourself, believe in your own abilities to create your own reality. You CAN create any life you choose! Just do it… and when you stumble… and you will stumble… appreciate that you are in a place where you can stumble! That you are making things happen. That you are learning and growing. Belief in yourself is what will take you to the top. If you don’t believe in yourself, work on that first. Invest in you, you have to have your own back before anyone else will. You have to believe in yourself before anyone else will. You have to believe in your business before you can expect to get anyone else to. It all starts with you.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into Artisan Indie story. Tell us more about the business.
My primary mission is to teach artisans and craftspeople how to grow their hobby into a business. I do this by teaching makers how to sell and market themselves in an online environment. This allows their business to flourish and reach a global market.

In the near future, I hope to provide a unique way for merchants and customers to connect over handcrafted items and support-local ideology. In the meantime, my mission is to educate craft businesses to create and optimize their online shops to generate interest, engagement and increase small business sales that are the lifeblood of any economy.

I am most proud of my Flourish membership group. They show up, work hard and make it happen. I can cheerlead and guide all day but in the end, my community does what it takes to make a change in their lives and their families lives.

There are other many other business consulting groups out there but what I think sets our community apart from the others, is our focus on mindset above anything else. Before you can build your brand, you have to build yourself. You have to have a positive mindset and believe that you can make things happen. You have to take personal responsibility for your own life. Making excuses, blaming others or being negative will not bring you success, even if you think you are doing everything else right. We teach our members in Flourish to think positive, take responsibility and have a growth mindset. We teach them to celebrate with others and support each other along the way.

Do you have any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general? What has worked well for you?
Word of mouth. Asking others what’s worked for them or who has been a great influence in their lives is the best way to find someone new to listen to. Also, I listen to a lot of Podcasts and TED talks, so that has helped me learn about new thought leaders and entrepreneurs who I might be interested in learning from.

In our Flourish community, we have over 40 industry experts, coaches, and mentors with a variety of backgrounds and expertise and personalities. We bring in leaders from all areas of commerce to come to be mentors and advisors to our group members. The key for us is having mentors who have been there, people that know what it is like building a business from nothing, while at home, taking care of kids or living on a fixed income.

To me, it’s about finding not only someone who resonates with you but someone who truly understands what you are going through, one who can connect with your story and can show you the best way to navigate from where you currently are.

Pricing:

• Flourish Craft Community Membership is $19.95 a month
• Etsy Shop Critique is $99.95
• One on One Coaching is $195 an hour

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artisanindie.com or www.flourishatartisanindie.com to join Flourish
• Email: hello@artisanindie.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/artisanindie
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/artisanindie
• Other: www.pinterest.com/artisanindie

Image Credit:
Brandi Inman of Barefeet Imagery

Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.