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

Sarah, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Was there an experience or lesson you learned at a previous job that’s benefited your career afterwards?

When I was in college, I spent my summers doing door-to-door sales. We worked 80 hour weeks selling educational books and online programs to families in their homes! That job taught me to take my job seriously, but not to take myself too seriously. When you’re a sweaty college student randomly showing up at people’s houses selling books…you simply cannot care what people think about you. There is so much power in approaching your business or creative craft with humor and humility! This has been perfectly applicable to making silly songs and videos. I’m not at all surprised when I get hate comments from people who don’t like what I do. I’m an almost 30 year old woman aggressively rapping about worms. It’s simply not everyone’s cup of tea.

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?

I make silly songs and videos – usually about random stories involving animals, food, complimenting strangers in coffee shops – anything wholesome!

My creative career started when I posted a video of me rapping to a slug on my rug in 2020. It went viral on TikTok, and I started creating and posting all these short, goofy songs to my platform. I had written songs (both normal and goofy ones) prior to the slug video, but that was my first time publicly putting one out there.

I think what sets me apart from others is my commitment to clean, wholesome, uplifting content. I want everything I create to be family-friendly. Even though I’m not fully a “children’s artist”, a lot of kids tend to love my songs! I also believe every adult has an inner child that just wants to go play. There is so much music and content out there that is negative, hateful, or vulgar – I want to create things that make people go, “Wow, I feel better and lighter after watching this.”

The bulk of my time is spent writing “mini songs” and creating short form videos for social media, making full versions of songs and releasing them to Spotify, Apple, etc., and writing a book about not taking yourself too seriously! I plan to publish the book this fall of 2023.

Something I love to do that a lot of creators don’t is partnering with brands! As long as I genuinely love the product, I think it’s such a fun challenge to make a song about things like watch bands, shaving cream, or allergy medicine! I also have a background in sales and studied advertising in college, so it’s totally a comfort zone for me.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I started building my audience on social media by posting completely RANDOM videos to TikTok. Either doing random goofy trends on TikTok, or finding slightly weird or amusing videos in my camera roll and posting those. I actually posted 190 videos before the slug one that first went viral.

For those just starting to build your social media presence, my advice is get the monkey off your back. So many things become easier when you simply start. It’s okay if you don’t even know your niche yet – you can figure it out along the way. It sounds cliche, but legitimately just have FUN with it! Throw spaghetti at a wall – create different styles of videos until you find something that feels authentic to you. And then keep doing that.

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

The best thing we can do to support artists and creatives is give them specific feedback and encouragement. All positive or constructive feedback is great – but it really goes a long way when someone says “Wow, when you rhymed pancake rookie with handmade cookie? My heart leapt out of my chest.” Or something like that.

Contact Info:

• Website: sarahmaddack.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahmadbell/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCphDP2Bly1v8UBCvvQadvCg
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@sarahmadbell?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc