We recently connected with Sarah Grosse – Pearce and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I started out face painting my daughter and her friends. Soon I was face painting the whole neighborhood every day. My health did not allow me to work a full-time job at the time so I thought I’d see if the small local amusement park would let me face paint their customers and they did. As soon as my health was better I went back into the corporate world. Many years later I decided to do face painting a side job while I was a full-time student. This time was different because the lovely internet was a thing and I could see what others were doing. I realized I was an awful painter, but with some practice I became pretty good in no time. The face painting really took off and soon I found myself trying to help my clients with other needs. For instance, someone asked me to dress up as a princess while I painted. This was not my thing, so I offered to bring along my friend as a princess and created a routine for her and bought the costume and supplies. I found myself with multiple costumes, and several people I was subcontracting out for services I pieces together. I had been asked for bounce houses so many times I couldn’t count it, so when I stumbled upon a small local business with event insurance I knew exactly what to do. I approached them and asked if I could market their product. A year of doing this type of work on the side I decided to stop college for a year and see where I could take this little business of mine. 1 year later I never looked back. I know specialize in corporate events and hire close to a hundred subcontractors each year that I know well. I specialize in finding amazing and reliable talent, and I also still love to face paint and do airbrush tattoos. I can’t imagine not doing this anymore.

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 am an event planner, talent booking agent, rental and event service company, and I am an artist. I specialize in corporate events, all night Safe and Sober graduation parties, and school events, but I also do birthday parties, community events, fundraisers, market branding for expos, weddings, and everything in between.

I love when a client tells me what they need or have in mind, or event just let me know what type of event they are planning and I can give them an array of options and advice. I know most of the local venues, artists, entertainers, and I know what has been popular, and I am constantly thinking up new services to offer and bring to life. Sometimes my clients know what they want and I just make sure they get good talent and reliable service, but the events I get to help plan and execute will always be my favorite.

Some of the things I offer my clients are rentals such as tents, tables, linens, large inflatables and games such as obstacle courses, mechanical bulls, services such as photo booths, DJ’s, casino, up-lighting, catering, activity tables/areas, petting zoos, reptile shows, or artists such as face painters, caricature artists, balloon twisters, airbrush tattoos or clothing, and entertainers such as magicians, hypnotists, stilt walkers, circus performers, aerial, mimes, fortune tellers, dancers, bubble shows, children’s entertainers, etc. I can also stage areas to fit certain themes such as 1920’s era, carnival, Portlandia, VIP Red Carpet, western, etc.

One of my favorite services is my Airbrush Tattoo Parlor where I set up a scene you might see in a tattoo shop that includes a tattoo bed, a neon light that says PNW Airbrush Tattoo Parlor, a 6′ retractable banner with 100’s of tattoos options that look like real tattoos, and a decorative selfie station for people to take a picture of themself sporting their very real looking tattoos. These tattoos last several days to a week and are waterproof. I am sure I have many more impressive things to offer, but I love to do these tattoos and absolutely loved designing this service.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

The pandemic was a very terrible time in my life. I was in process of buying one of my largest companies I had been subcontracting for a year, as well as managing the business for the owner during that time. The sale of the business finalized 2 weeks before the pandemic hit and we had to close the doors. All of my working capital went to paying the very high insurance, the warehouse rent, the business loan, and keeping enough employees at the warehouse working so they did not quit. I found creative ways to keep income coming in such as safe distancing services and backyard rentals. Face painting and large corporate events were off limits. After a year and a half of operating like this and no sign of when the threat of covid would pass I was forced with the decision to take another business loan or close the doors and sell the equipment. I chose to close the business and auction off my casino equipment, large inflatables, photo booths and DJ equipment, bounce houses, etc. My business partner had also died during that time, in the warehouse no less, and I had lost my several other family members in that time period, and had some major health issues. To say it was the most stressful or hardest time in my life would be an understatement.

As soon as I made my decision I put everything in motion and started reaching out to my community. I made agreements with other companies that I admired and respected, and started organizing all of my contacts and their inventory. I went back to subcontracting most of my rentals like I did in the beginning. Without having to manage employees, maintenance, routing trucks, hiring and training, etc. I was able to focus more on what I was offering which was a whole lot more! I am happy to say that this business model is much more easier and less stressful, and I am able to maintain more business. In the end, there was light, and it all worked out.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

One misconception about professional artists is that they charge too much. A few people were born so talented they may not have to practice, but that is not usually the case. You get professional artist and entertainers because they have set aside enough time to practice and learn their craft. There are countless hours put into it to create that service. Most people are not aware that most artists and entertainers carry liability insurance, and that juggling clubs and balloons cost quite a bit of money. For example, I have at least $1000 invested in my face paint kit that I take to each job. Artists are practicing, cleaning, refilling their kit before every job, and each job requires them to load everything up and travel there and back. How do you charge for 1 hour of work when you have that many hours required to be a professional at the craft? The fee is based on what it would take to maintain a living after all of these costs are subtracted.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://pnwiconicevents.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PNWIconicEvents
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@pnwiconicevents
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/pnw-iconic-events-portland?utm_campaign=www_business_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)