We recently connected with Sarah Hrudka Behlke and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sarah thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Whether I am speaking on behalf of my photography business, linyage or Velvet Raptor, all of my brands have always done things different than the norm. They all involve not only staying in your lane, but building your own highway.

In photography, I was never staying in the loop on trends, per se. I was not often looking to my peers but instead choosing mentors based on how they conducted business and the experiences they provided. While growing the business is the goal, it always came from the standpoint of my clients and being able to give more to the ones I have, instead of booking more and being able to show up less present.

With linyage and Velvet Raptor specifically, we have always done things in a different pace and with a different foundation than our peers. linyage was borne out of a love creating custom pieces, truly making art that happened to transpire into wedding dresses. We deeply value sustainability and eliminating single waste in the wedding industry, as well as slow-fashion, meaning we create one piece at a time. In terms of Velvet Raptor, we are truly hand-pressing each and every order ourselves in our studio, on a vintage printing press.

The process for both is often tedious, time consuming, and far from mass production. We are in our own niche in what we offer and we fully understand it is not for everyone, but those who it IS for, value and appreciate our intentional processes, material, and the value that comes with having something made with such mindfulness.

I/we have been told or suggested countless options in our journey our businesses, all of which would allow growth to happen faster. Throughout temptation and seasons of exhaustion, staying the course and coming back to the pillars of values has been what has kept me upright and allowed me to remember who the long game is in fact so important.

Sarah, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

On paper, the bulletpoint describing points are that I am a Mother, Wife, Multi-Passionate woman who is a Virgo, Type 2 Enneagram, textbook Empath, and a girl with big hair and even bigger heart for people. :) Professionally and personally it all blends together a bit, as I am a Photographer, Writer, and Co-Owner of linyage and Velvet Raptor.

My background is in photography and graphic design and when I truly reflect on it all, it was there all along. I don’t remember a time where I wasn’t closing one eye and framing something with my hands, or ripping things out of magazines to decopage a large scale poster for my bedroom wall. It’s all translated into everything I have ever done and do, even if it took me several routes to get there. Nine years ago while doing photography (amongst many other jobs for other small businesses), I co-started linyage with one of my life-long friends. linyage is a custom bridal design house and we specialize in custom, one of a kind bridal separates, derived from vintage lace. My business partner is the designer and truly a remarkable artist who has an unmatched skill. What sets our brand apart, even throughout it’s many evolutions, is that we so deeply value sustainability, intentionality and versatility. The brides that come to us want an unparalleled experience and love that they can not only get pieces that are made specifically to their measurements, that are one of a kind because of the nature of the fabric and cannot be replicated making them unique, but they can wear them again. We have always wanted to eliminate single use waste wherever we can and we’ve stayed in our lane with this one, and it’s incredible to see others who do too.

About 6 years ago, we acquired our sister company, Velvet Raptor. I was a long time intern and assistant to the previous owner Adrienne, who so thoughtfully started the company. She was a fine art film photographer and created these luxe velvet photo albums to give to her clients with their images. From there it has evolved into stationery and a vast array of custom work. When the opportunity arose for us to take over the company, we jumped at the opportunity because of the synergy. There is so much personal, custom touches to both of the brands and while they speak to different audiences sometimes, it’s been really amazing to watch them weave in and out of one another and to be able to run both together.

We often joke that there really is no quick elevator pitch, because what we do is fairly unique in it’s process. We don’t know many people hand-stitching wedding dresses on the dress form often times without in-person fittings, or hand-pressing metal dies into velvet to create details for a wedding day. They are both slow, tedious but massively rewarding ways of creating art and we just feel so grateful that we listened to our intuitions and stayed the course to make them our businesses as well.

As those brands have quickly bloomed and are ever-growing, I have shifted my Photography and content creation to the next chapter. While I still am indeed shooting, I have scaled back significantly and have been putting focus on creating an abundance of digital resources for other photographers + multi-passionate entrepreneurs to have access to. Templates, courses, you name it–all based on my experiences and several hurdles along the way. In my many years as a small business owner, creative, and multi-hyphenated person, I have been taking notes throughout the journey and ultimately, want to shorten the learning curve for others. I am the furtherst thing from a gate keeper and in any way, shape or form I can support and empower another fellow entrepreneur, especially in the creative realm, I am here to do it.

Many people in my life have been confused on what I do or have told me to pick a lane. The older I get, the proud I am that I just paved my own highway instead.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I would argue that most small businesses had to lean into the ‘power of the pivot’ during Covid, no question. It was an unprecedented time that took a different shape for everyone. Speaking specifically for linyage, our whole approachable to how we work with brides really shifted.

When we started, we were so blessed to have a handful of boutiques take us on and carry us on their racks. We were still working often directly with the brides communicating about the design process back and forth, since they are completely custom and not ‘off the rack’, but we were spittle the profits with the boutique because that is just how it works. And truthfully, the stores that took us on helped us learn SO much, gave a chance on us as a new brand, and created great exposure and connections– we’re forever grateful or them.

However when the pandemic forced everything to close, we continued to get inquiries from brides saying things like “love isn’t canceled, we’re eloping!”. This completely opened up a new way of working, which was digitally. It was similar to what we were doing already, as we’ve always made them to the measurements of the person we were creating for, but instead we had full reign and direction with that bride. We also quickly learned how much people valued our unique process, that the pieces were PACKABLE and light weight with no steaming required (ideal for eloping!) and above all, there was a focus on sustainability again. We all had time to think about how we want to make our impact in the world big and small, where we wanted to put our dollars, and purchasing more intentionally.

It simply changed the entire trajectory of our business and as we continued to prove our chops with the ability to create from afar (Lindsay is SUCH a master at her craft, it’s unreal) we garnered more trust and it opened up our ability really create for any one, anywhere.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

If I am being honest, I feel like the last 15 years have been building the armour of resilience. Heck, anyone building a business while also doing life can definitely attest to that.

While there are several, there are two benchmarks that stand out the most in this. One, being my own advocate when dealing with debilitating health issues in my 20s. The cliff notes version is I was experiencing crippling pain, fatigue and host of unexplainable symptoms. After going from doctor to doctor, with a big red binder in tow so I could be the liaison between the different providers, I got a diagnosis of Chronic Lyme disease. All of the puzzles pieces came together of I started to make sense of everything. This wreaked havoc on my body and unearthed other autoimmune issues, and I was doing so while living alone and working two jobs, growing my business and trying to find extra gigs to pay for the supplements. Oftentimes in the throes of Motherhood when I have to pull from a reserve I know is near empty, I think of that girl and remind myself of what we can do.

The other pivotal one was more recent, when I lost my Mother a year and a half ago. After not being herself and treated for pneumonia for several months, she received not one but two advanced cancer diagnosis’s. From that day to her passing was only 6 months, but was full of so many deep valleys and hardships, paired with the utmost joy and closure. We had just moved back to Eau Claire to be near family, I had a 4 and 1 year old, all three of my businesses were in the height of their busiest season, and I was absolutely adamant about being at every single appointment, taking night shifts, hosting the gatherings in our yard not knowing when would be the last. I wouldn’t change a single second of it and honestly, feel like I just barely scratched the surface for all she did for me. And yet, I would be lying if I said I’m not dealing with the repercussions of that accelerated resilience now. Yes, it gave me an unbelievably tough and high threshold, but also rehashed many of the aforementioned health issues.

I am still trying to navigate it all, trying to teach my nervous system that is not under attack, that we can feel safe and okay. It’s interesting how when you own your businesses, life continues on and you become so intertwined with them. The experiences have really cracked open a whole new level of healing and adjusting for me, because I quickly learned that we have to create businesses that are able to run so we can also tend to life, not let them run us. That is a very slippery slope for me but I know the resilience gained from it all will only allow the old people pleasing tendencies to dissipate and to set better boundaries. And in turn, everyone wins. Resilience doesn’t have to be an exhaustion badge of honor we wear. Perhaps it’s more the confidence to call the shots for the betterment of everyone, including yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sarahhrudka.com , www.linyage.com , www.velvetraptor.com
• Instagram: @hrudka and @thebrandedvault , @_linyage_ , @velvet_raptor

Image Credits
I have all the photographers names. Let me know which photos you use and I can give you the specific names to each respective photo.