We were lucky to catch up with Sam Nguyen recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sam thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
Curiosity, creativity, and community are at the core of our studio values and the key reason for the establishment of our physical studio space in late 2024. Our mission is to make glass art more accessible to more people by cultivating an accessible and welcoming space aimed at sparking curiosity and creativity for our patrons.
When Say it With Glass started, it was because the owner enjoyed so deeply the creative experience of making with others.
A lifelong artist-tinkerer and local public educator, gathering folks and facilitating fun was her meaning-maker, and so she decided to launch a pop-up stained glass class to bring the art form to more interested folks. The class, dubbed, the “Sip n Solder”, leveraged the gathering places in her community to host one-afternoon workshops that introduced modern stained glass techniques in a laid back, inclusive environment. Little did she know, that like herself, the community craved more (and boy is there lots to explore in the field of glass art) and so the business continued to expand. In the ends of it’s first year of operation, Say it With Glass had introduced over 500 creatives of all ages and abilities to glass art and in addition to classes, now offers custom design services, repairs, stained glass supplies, and creative experiences and camps for both adults and youth.
As you can imagine, glass art is a bit of a niche area requiring specialized tools and materials, and as is the case in any new learning, it can be overwhelming without a guide. When the owner first started exploring glass arts (after her spouse broke a kitchen window no less) she initially struggled to find inclusive support, but discovered many incredible artists worldwide sharing techniques online, and increasingly became determined to design a local community hub supporting local artists, hobbyists, and the generally curious. Since opening, it has found a variety of ways to engage folks from social classes, to deep-dives, and even our version of a “glassy gym membership”, where members can work in the space and receive support on a passion project with flexible hours and expert advice. As an artist, the owner knows the creativity flows with connection, and opportunity for play…so she built a playground…and everyone’s invited.
As the business grows into its new 2,300 sq ft studio space, it continues to embody its mission by living the work- making community connections, and unapologetically inviting the public to share our love for glass…and the many ways to have fun with it.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
Say it With Glass really began one afternoon when Sam’s husband whacked a mosquito in their kitchen leaving in its wake, a giant broken circle. In true adult ADHDer fashion, Sam started learning what it would take to not only fix the window herself, but make it better than before. Little did she know, this “window of opportunity” was gearing up not only to become something truly beautiful, but the potential for a whole a glassy movement!
Sam is an educator by degree, life-long artist and tinkerer and she is now focused on connecting with her community through art. In addition to leading classes in stained glass construction and glass fusing, she also designs custom works for homes and loves sharing a vision with clients and bringing a part of their story to each piece. Lately, restorations have been an area of creative and technical growth. The connections her clients have to their pieces push her to problem solve in new ways, and she is honored to assist as she repairs a beloved gift, fix a devastating “oops”, and even bringing to life again, memories of crafters long past through these restorations.
We get a lot of stories in the studio. Stories are powerful, and all of Sam’s work is grounded in bringing stories to life through glass. We hear a lot about relatives who made beautiful things, and folks eager to tap into a creative side that they swear up and down they don’t have, and our business name, Say it With Glass, is actually a call to the stories art brings and the artistic expression we support, in whatever form it may take for our patrons.
Sam is very much a process artist, and actually struggled to make art initially. At least, not art that they were proud of. Like many artists, she explored a variety of different mediums, and glass work was transformative for her because it required a level of release of control (glass can be brittle and do what it wants at times) she had not experienced before. As a “baby artist” still she struggles to fill notebooks, agonizes over getting it “just right” and quite honestly, still struggles still with managing the millions of ideas in her head and how to translate them. Later in adulthood, she was diagnosed with ADHD, and realized that the artistic battle she had been battling with was because she was working against the grain her brain wanted to go. She discovered visual-spatial learning differences that required physical manipulation and extra time to process. She needed time to tinker, wonder, and tinker some more. She needed to PLAY with her art. The more she did it, the better she felt. It felt good too, to share the real struggle with other people, and it felt good to “play” together as we figured it out. Eventually, something beautiful always came out of it.
Career wise, Sam is most proud of the community she is cultivating and the bravery it took to launch this business venture at all. It was/is a steep learning curve, but the enormous reception from the community is a reminder every day empowering the work of building something that did not exist in this form before. She hopes to “retire” as a local public educator to accelerate the business in the next year as she is still a full-time public educator (yes, white-knuckling two pretty much full-time jobs).
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
I attribute our growth to a few things:
Strategic community connections- leveraging existing local organizations (local chamber of commerce, business leadership groups, local arts and community organizations) for networking, advertising, and collaboration as been critical for us. With little money for marketing and being low on time, I have really had to make connections count. I quickly learned that there are lots of ways to get your message out there and find new clients, collaborators, and colleagues through the local infrastructure that was available to me. I also don’t see these connections as just clients, but in the local business sector I found a robust group of young professionals in whom I recognized the same drive I had and from whom I have learned a tremendous amount. Many of them were from different fields, but from each of them I was able to quickly learn new things at light-speed and connect me with more folks who may be interested. A lot of our growth this year is directly tied to networking connections I was able to achieve through the above channels. Not to sound cliche as it is a part of our mission, but we really are community centered and I take each connection seriously.
High-quality client experiences- Not to toot my own horn, but initially folks kept coming out for our class because it was awesome! We had repeat folks who brought their friends, told their coworkers, and shared their experience and I am a firm believer that if you continue to put out high-quality product/experiences that is the most important thing. We continue to leverage the word of mouth marketing that has driven our growth and as my business grows, I am keenly aware that I can’t do it all as we grow, and as a result, am tapping into other talented individuals who have now become a part of my staff. In a world where there are tons of ways to spend ones time, and hard earned dollars it is critical that we stand out as a high-quality, high-value experience for folks. In order to do this, it is a MUST to invest in your folks (I am a living wage employer) who believe in what we do, and I am now working on how to support my staff in ways where they feel their skills valued and see themselves as a key part of the team.
Multiple Access Points and Revenue Streams- Our revenue stream is actually kind of hilarious, but the only way we were going to get off the ground (without a loan by the way) was to have lots of ways for folks to engage with us. Classes/camps are still our biggest revenue stream (within this sector too we have many price points to engage with us), but as folks wanted to continue their glasswork, we quickly added a membership (Open Studio) and started selling glass supplies (an ever growing area since local shops are few and far between). When we moved to our large space, we also started serving as an artsy event space for networking, glassy parties (bachelorettes, work groups, etc.), in addition to creating custom works for home and restoring pieces for the community.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
This past year has not been easy. It has been incredibly rewarding, but. man…like most business owners I have my highs and lows and sometimes wonder if I am crazy for doing this. What I can say though, is that I have never lived more authentically in my life, and the level of pride I have for my work and personal growth is at a level that never experienced.
I work 14 hour+ days 7 days a week, work two jobs, try to be an attentive spouse and parent to two kids and some days it feels like too much for sure. At the same time, I for the first time, feel like I am watching the fruits of my labor grow at an exponential rate, and am not just “working” but I am building something new, and there is real pride (especially as an artist) of putting something out into the world that was not there before. I am building something that sustains me, and others and honestly it keeps me going.
I have more days that I’ve had to “push through” than I would like to count, I’ve been so tired I just wanted to cry, I’ve skipped meals, I’ve missed important family events, and sometimes I worry about what the future will hold with how the current economic landscape is playing out…but what I also have is an incredible community support system, a mission I care about, and dare I say a killer sense of humor which seems to kick in whenever I need it most.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sayitwithglassdesigns.com
- Instagram: @sayitwithglass
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559657624509
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-nguyen-62456b9a/
