We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sage Reeds a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sage, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?
My favorite quote ever is from Maya Angelou, and it’s three words: Teach by being. The type of legacy that I am building is one that I can be proud of while living and one that will have a beautiful impact after my transition. When I think of such a legacy, I see a woman who is authentic. A woman who is true to herself. A woman who takes care of herself and others. A woman who is aligned, godly, loving, loved, brave, powerful and most of all, a woman who taught people what they needed to learn simply because she prioritized being herself.
I really like this question because I think about my legacy a lot. I define my legacy as my story, my vibe and my impact on myself and others both in life and in death. I say in life and death because so many of us think our legacies matter most once we transition, but I’ve been realizing lately that our legacies begin and start holding weight from the day we are born. We create our legacies every minute, every hour and every day.
I’m building a legacy that isn’t just about the assets I leave behind. It’s also about the stories that people can tell about me and the memories they will have. Once I transition, my legacy will include my joy, my pain, my story, my lessons, my mistakes and other people’s memories, and one day, all of these things will be the water that someone else needs to grow.
Sage, 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?
Hello, reader! I go by Sage Reeds, and I am an author as well as the founder and chief storyteller of Sage Reeds Media (SRM). Based in Florida, SRM is a creative agency focused on the art of storytelling through copywriting, copyediting and creative direction. Serving mainly fashion, beauty and home decor brands, I use my skills to put words together that create an overall message that inspires, impacts and sells my clients’ products/services. SRM also provides education through eBooks that bring the wooosaaa back into writing for business owners who like a DIY vibe.
As a little girl and only child, I found peace in reading and writing. When people and the world became too much, I wrote in my little Lisa Frank journal. When I wanted to escape to a different environment, I read. This love of words, writing and books followed me into college in 2012 where I found myself freelance writing for a little extra coin for my school’s newspaper. I love buying whatever I want when I want it, so ya girl needed the extra money. From there, I met business owners who knew other business owners and through word of mouth, I gained clients who needed help writing for their companies. From blog posts to social media captions to magazine articles, I wrote and edited my way to where I am now. Today, I’ve niched down to only working with fashion, beauty and home decor clients, in which I’ve helped them generate more than $2 million in sales for their brands, collectively.
My favorite clients are those who are sick and tired of being sick and tired of writing. The ones who can’t stand the fact that they have dope ideas in their heads but once they are on paper, the words just don’t sound right. The ones who ain’t got time to be worried about writing a single word. I love these types of clients because I know their problem and am naturally able to solve it with a gift that literally fell from God into my lap. I tell people all the time that at SRM, we do more than just put words together, honey. We use style, love, intention and a sound strategy to create literary art for clients. This is what sets us apart.
When I look back at where I started, I am most proud of my courage. It takes guts to be consistent in any business, to pivot when things don’t work, to explore new callings and to take losses like a G. I didn’t go to business school and though I grew up around entrepreneurship, I knew nothing about running a business when I began freelancing in 2012. To see that this is the same girl who’s landed contracts with huge companies 10 years later is so dope. My journey inspires many, but above all, it inspires me. It reminds me to remain courageous, remain hungry and remain relentless.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Wow. A belief I’ve had to unlearn is the idea that work becomes enjoyable when you create a business out of doing what you love. Realizing that this is not true (for me) has been my biggest business lesson to date.
While I understand why people say it, I think there are so many things we don’t talk about when it comes to turning what you love into a business. We don’t talk about the boundaries you need to create to protect your peace and your craft. Or that eventually, if you’re not careful, doing what you love will feel like another job. Or the fact that when you’re damn good at something, you/your work will be in constant demand, and when trying to meet this demand, you can end up resenting what you once loved. Or the fact that you can no longer do what you love just for the sake of doing what you love – you now have to consider the business side of things: profit, loss, supply, demand, expansion, customer satisfaction, marketing, pivoting etc.
Believe it or not, it wasn’t until 2021 that I learned this lesson for real after realizing that for the first time in my life, writing felt like a chore. This is when I knew I had to make a change. At the time, I wrote any and everything for any and everybody, I allowed myself to be severely underpaid, I worked nonstop and neglected the people and things that mattered most to me, I said “yes” to every project, and I put all my energy into my clients and SRM, which pulled me away from writing just for me.
Looking back though, I am so so so grateful for those moments because they molded me into the boundary-having, smart working businesswoman that I am today. Getting to the point where I resented writing was the wakeup call I needed. My resentment showed me the power of being choosy with my projects and my clientele. The power of structuring my business in a way that is mutually beneficial for me and my clients. The power of boundaries. The power of rest. The power of not feeling controlled by demand. The power of taking time to create just to create and last but not least, the importance of being compensated properly.
All of these things have made my craft and business feel so much better.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
What’s most rewarding for me as a creative writer is knowing that God uses me and my craft to make life easier for those who come across my creations. Writers are artists, and the way in which we use words to free ourselves and others is godly. Without words and writers to put them together, we wouldn’t have songs, poetry, stories, movies, T.V. shows or anything that reminds people that they can make it and that they are not alone. I always say that being a creative is like being a magician. We literally create beautiful, healing and impactful things out of thin air.
It’s also rewarding to have a gift that helps people build their dreams. I mainly work with stressed small business owners whose businesses were once a dream, so it’s satisfying to help them with tasks that are overwhelming. As a business owner myself, I know how it feels to need help with things you’re not an expert in, so to see the excitement on my clients’ faces when I lift a burden and step in as the writing expert is priceless!
Contact Info:
- Website: sagereedsmedia.com
- Instagram: @sagereedsmedia
Image Credits
Photographer: Khalifa Dieye