We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Katherine Babcock. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Katherine below.
Katherine, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
I have always been interested in creative pursuits. Even as a child, I was more interested in arts and crafts than anything else. After a severe back injury ended my short stint as a paramedic, I became a mixed media artist for 25 years. My pivot into soapmaking began as something I wasn’t expecting – I was thrilled to create mixed media art and was deeply immersed in that world. I loved everything about it and wasn’t looking to change careers.
Becoming a soapmaker was not on my radar, but after my daughter lost her job at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, it seemed like a natural progression. However, being able to formulate and create soap and skincare concoctions is entirely different than anything I have done in the mixed media world. I was used to sloshing on paint and adding things whenever it felt right – not dealing with specific measurements and carefully timed infusions. I started from scratch and did a lot of research. I created some really “interesting” mixtures at the beginning – I shake my head when I think of the flops I had when I first started. My calculations were off. I added things that should never be added to or didn’t mix with other ingredients. I burned A LOT of soap. My timing was off in general. I was confused and concerned because others made it look easy, but I struggled. I kept working at it, tweaking recipes and keeping a journal to track my progress. Successful items started piling up, and I was running out of room, which worked out because my friends and neighbors slowly seemed glad to receive my offerings instead of politely accepting my creations.
Once I felt I had conquered the basics of soapmaking and accumulated a few tried-and-true recipes for lotions, scrubs, and bath bombs, I figured out that was just the beginning. A world of learning how to create labels, precisely what has to go on skincare labels, awaited me. I was lost as I learned this complicated process. There are entire books dedicated to how to write label ingredients! More research and asking many questions finally got me to where I needed to be. I still don’t love that part of the job, but I am proud to say I can do it.
Katherine, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
“Mom, I lost my job!” That’s how it all began. My daughter lost her job at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, She called me, distraught at her plight, and I invited her over to create soap. I had purchased the equipment to make soap several years prior but quickly found I wasn’t crazy about the process. I wanted to reclaim the area of my kitchen that the supplies and equipment were taking up and thought my daughter could help me while we enjoyed some unexpected time together. We spent four days laughing, cutting up, and creating more soap and skincare products than we could gift to our neighbors, friends, and family. We had so many items we ran out of people to give them to! That’s when my daughter had a lightbulb moment. “Mom, we’ve had so much fun doing this, and we’re good at it – we should start a business!” I thought it was a brilliant idea! My daughter went home to tie up some loose ends, and I began creating business cards and setting up an LLC. She returned a few days later; I thought to catch up on our progress. HA! She had chickened out and gotten a job. I didn’t realize it then, but this left me with a decision that would change my life. Would I throw out all the hard work I had done over the last couple of days, returning to my life as a mixed media artist, or would I jump into this new passion…alone? I decided to jump in with both feet and never look back. I have been proud of that decision and sometimes thought I should have been locked up. But isn’t that the caveat all business owners feel sometimes?
I am a woman in the prime of my life who was just diagnosed with cancer – multiple myeloma. I had never even heard of it before being diagnosed. I was a paramedic years ago when I sustained a serious back injury that prevented me from returning to work. I’ve dealt with severe chronic pain since then, so I am used to health issues, but this new diagnosis is different I raised three children independently, having been divorced since the mid-90s. My oldest son was hit by a semi-truck a few years ago, breaking almost every bone in his body and suffering a traumatic brain injury. He was in a coma for nineteen days. We were on the phone when he and my daughter-in-law were hit. I have been his only caretaker since the accident, and it’s taught me more about compassion and miracles than anything else ever could. He’s miraculously recovered, far surpassing any healthcare professional’s predictions. He now lives on his own and drives – unbelievable progress for someone who could not have been closer to death the day he was helicoptered to the trauma hospital. I use this example as motivation to keep going on the hard days or the days I am overwhelmed. It illustrates how hard work and determination can change the course of your life.
Sargent Bubbles is named after our dog, that passed away. My daughter came up with the name. We create handmade soaps, lotions, scrubs, bath bombs, and lip balms. Everything is handmade by me. All of our products are all-natural and locally sourced, when possible. Sargent Bubbles was incorporated in September 2020. We sell on Amazon Handmade, Etsy, and our website. Our products are for anyone with skin! I am most proud of our ability to make custom creations – we can change colors or fragrances to match our customers’ wishes and create things to help with specific skin issues. All it takes is a free consultation for us to get started on your dream creation! I think our attention to detail and excellent customer service set us apart from our competitors. I want our clientele to know they can come to us with a problem and we will commit to solving it. For example, we have a customer who consistently comes to us to make realistic food for her mentally challenged daughter. Even though Sargent Bubbles does not specialize in realistic food soaps, I love seeing how close I can get to the real thing. Hearing about the joy my creations bring to this lady’s daughter is one of the best parts of my job. I put a lot of pressure on myself to create something above the customer’s expectations – and it thrills me when I succeed!
I may not do something that changes the course of humanity, but I am able to make people smell good and look and feel great with my creations. I make people happy. That’s incredibly fulfilling.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative artist is the ability to make people happy. I love knowing that I can improve someone’s day with my wackiness. That’s why I cover my boxes in stickers when I ship and include little gifts in my packages. Sure, it eats into my profits a little, but my customers comment on that stuff repeatedly. I’ve gotten so many messages thanking me for doing those little extras – and they don’t cost that much or take much time. It makes me happy to make my customers happy. That is also why I make sure I clearly understand what the customer wants and expects before I embark on their custom creation. I want to make sure I underpromise and over-deliver. There are so many choices in the skincare industry – you walk down a grocery store aisle and have sixty soaps to choose from. Those are great, but they are full of nasty chemicals, and not one is specifically designed to work for YOU. I can quickly solve that problem. I love hearing how my creation was the perfect gift or exactly what the customer had been looking for. What’s better than using your skills to create happiness? Top that off with insanely good customer service, and you really have something that will bring people back repeatedly. Making people look and feel good is a bonus!
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The goal driving my creative journey is straightforward: happiness for the customer and me. You spend so much of your life at work that you’d better do something you enjoy. If you hate your job, I believe you are cheating yourself. Why spend so many hours and so much energy doing something you dislike? There are so many different things you can do to support yourself. You have more options than at any other time in history. Why be stagnant and robotic because you aren’t filling your tank? If your tank is full, you make a better you and can contribute more to society. Working at an unfulfilling job only depletes your tank. I don’t care what you find fulfilling – do it. I can stretch my limitations and create things I never imagined when making something a customer requests.
When brainstorming a new line, I can go wild creatively. My creative passion fills my tank and makes me a better person. Making others happy makes me happy. Don’t get me wrong – I sometimes have to create things I’m not fond of or wouldn’t choose to create. There are days I must refund money to a customer for something out of my control in pursuit of excellent customer service. But these things are rare. When you focus on continuous learning and doing your best, you don’t sweat those little inconveniences because that’s not what it’s about. My mission is to focus on the big picture rather than the little problems all business owners must face. I strive to focus on whether I did my best and whether my customer received my creation with the love I infused. When that happens, I’m living my best creative life and continuing successfully on my journey. The money comes – but I need to focus on something else. Concentrating on creating and spreading happiness is my jam.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.SargentBubbles.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sargentbubbles/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SargentBubbles/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sargent-bubbles-00660a1b7/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/sargent_bubbles
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/QueenKatherine
Image Credits
Katherine Babcock