We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sarah Bolton. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sarah below.

Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

Success is such an interesting word! We grow up with this idea that to be successful means you make a lot of money, you have lots of things. And certainly running a successful business oftentimes does mean that you are making money in the business is sustainable, but for me, success means so much more than just material things.

I am grateful that my business runs well and that we can pay our bills and save some money and do all the things that we need to do, but even more importantly, I am so proud of the success we have with our strong community.

Circus Arts is such a beautiful example of how a space can be inclusive and welcoming to all people. I get to watch people learn how to trust their bodies, learn how to trust each other, get stronger, become more confident, and be brave enough to perform in front of an audience. All of that trickles out into the rest of their lives in a significant way.

It makes me so happy to walk in and see a group of people laughing, learning, and growing together. When COVID hit, I had to move out of our big space, we downsized significantly, and I honestly wasn’t sure if our business would survive. But it did survive, and the only reason that I did is because we had a strong group of people who continued to believe in our mission and believe in our organization, and showed up even in those darkest moments.

So if I were to say that my business is successful, I would say yes, absolutely it is successful if you look at all the traditional metrics, but I’m even more proud of the success that we’ve had in ways that you can’t track on a spreadsheet.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I grew up watching my dad run his business and started working for him at age 11. I went on to become his marketing director and had a 20-year career doing business development. When I had the opportunity to buy my current business, I was terrified! It is a high-risk industry, and I was so afraid of failure. But if I hadn’t bought it, it would have ceased to exist, so I took the plunge. Less than 10 months later, COVID-19 hit, and my business was shut down. I thought my dream was dying as I packed up my equipment and put it in storage. I kept teaching, but on a very small scale with a lot of uncertainty. After a year-long search, I found our current space, and we have been thriving ever since! As a business owner, I have learned that being fearless is not realistic. Taking risks inherently comes with a certain level of fear. The key is to trust your instincts and sometimes do the hard, scary thing while you are afraid. Every single risk I have ever taken so far has paid off hugely. As I continue to forge a path despite challenges and fears, I grow more resilient and more empowered. Being a business owner is like therapy in action!

As a woman, I have faced a lot of discouragement around my body and my physical abilities. I’ve been told that my body is the wrong shape, the wrong size, that my movement is wrong, that I’m not strong, that I’m too strong, that I need to eat more, eat less. There are so many intense messages that women of all ages receive every single day that seek to minimize their confidence and their power. I truly believe that aerial and circus arts empower women (and men!) to embrace their bodies just as they are. We don’t discriminate based on size or fitness ability, but welcome everyone to come to our classes regardless of where they are with their movement journey. I believe that many of our students come to our classes because they want to feel strong and empowered without all of the negative messaging that is present in a lot of fitness environments. We don’t talk about weight, diets, food, etc., because we are focused on the amazing things our bodies can do regardless of how they look. I recently had a student, who has struggled with body image and not liking her body, look at a video and say, “Wow, I look so strong!” THOSE are the moments I work to create!

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I bought the business I currently own, which is an aerial arts studio. I bought it from my coach, and it came with all of the equipment, a lease, and the current list of clients. I also inherited several instructors. When I took over the business, I had to make a lot of changes to make things sustainable. I had to implement some stricter policies and actually enforce them, and honestly, it made the bad guy with several people. I lost friendships over that transition, which was incredibly painful and challenging. I also had to learn how to step up in ways that I had previously felt I couldn’t. I had to take over more advanced classes and push my own training in order to keep up. I had to educate myself on business taxes, insurance, lease negotiations, contracts, and financial forecasting. It was a huge learning curve!

When COVID hit, 10 months after I purchased the business, a whole new set of scary challenges emerged. I became focused on keeping my business alive. I often referred to the concept of a pilot light on a gas stove, keeping just enough of a fire going to allow us to start back up when the time came.

I then navigated the commercial real estate world and realized just how little power I had as a woman business owner in a world dominated and controlled by men. I rebuilt our studio in a new, big space, started to train new instructors, and grew our student base. None of it was easy! There were many dark and difficult days, but I focused on what was just in front of me and took one day at a time.

I’m grateful for the challenges I’ve had to face because they have made me (and my business) more resilient!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I often joke that I need a Gen Z employee that can run my social media! Social media is fun and I enjoy posting, but I often feel like I’m barely keeping up. I rarely post trends or fun videos, but try to post as regularly as I can. I reluctantly got a TikTok account and have often debated whether or not I want to keep it. But when we ask new folks where they hear about us, I often hear that they found us on TikTok! So I guess I’m stuck with it!

My strategy for social media is posting regularly (2-5 times a week), sharing students’ stories/posts, and using a scheduling software to make it easier to get posts up. I love Adobe Express, because I can create all kinds of marketing materials and then share content easily to Instagram and Facebook.

I would advise folks to start with one or two platforms. It can be overwhelming and feel like you need to have a presence on every single social media platform out there, but you really just need to be where your potential customers are. Create a buyer persona about your ideal customer and then find out where they are most likely to hang out online.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.highexpectationsaerialarts.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highexpectationsaerial/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfEFlzTkzmZP3u74TizrlcA

Image Credits

Sharaze Colley, Mae Swartz, Eric Swartz