We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Stein recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?
My parents created a loving and encouraging environment growing up. Both of my parents worked exceptionally hard to provide for me and my two brothers. Growing up my mom worked as an ER Nurse and my father was a teacher at a school for children with extreme behavioral issues. My father worked on the family farm after coming home from his teaching job and took college courses at night. They instilled in me the importance of hard work and critical thinking along with encouraging me to chase my dreams. As I reduced my role in the traditional working world and concentrated on creating handmade soaps, body products and concrete vessels they continued to be my number one fans. They selflessly help not only with my business but also with providing my husband and I desperately needed down time by helping with our children and pitching in with the seemingly endless farm chores.
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?
Growing up, my mother as well as several other relatives were nurses. I followed in their footsteps and worked full time as a nurse for over 15 years. Over the years I had four rambunctious children and as our family grew, I began to prioritize my role as a mom by reducing my hours working as a nurse to spend more time with my children. I grew up on my family’s farm and as my children began to grow, it became more and more important to me to provide them with some of the same experiences I remembered so fondly growing up. This inspired our move to a charming 1900’s farmhouse on a little farmette that backs up to beautiful parkl and. This move coincided with the emergence of COVID19 and as the world seemed to shut down, I immersed myself in growing produce in my garden and increasing our goat herd. As I began milking the goats, I realized I didn’t know what to do with all the milk we were getting. I began experimenting with making cold processed soap as Christmas gifts for family and friends. This quickly became an obsession and an artist that I never knew was in me emerged. I began making sugar scrubs, lotions, chap-sticks and bath bombs. At first, friends and family were my only customers but over the next 3 years I have expanded to having my products in five local stores as well as selling through a webpage and Instagram. My products at this point have made it to a multitude of States as well as Sweden and the Philippines.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
The most rewarding aspect of being a creative soap maker is the opportunity to involve my family in the entire process. There are a large number of moving parts that need to all work together for the farm and business to function efficiently. Although my sons do not have a great desire to be involved in the creation of the soap itself, they are involved daily. They feed the animals, clean out animal pens, mow the pasture and can be counted on for any manual labor task I come up with. My daughters happily shape, stamp, label and package soaps. These chores may sound trivial, but the finishing work they do is tedious and often pulls the creative energy out of me. The work they do gives me time to connect with other soap makers, research new scents and brainstorm/create new products. My husband encourages me to push past my areas of comfortability in areas such as purchasing new equipment to increase my production/efficiency and expanding to new markets. He proudly brings up my products to friends and strangers alike. I can count on him to help at any and all points in the process. When traveling to shows I know the van will be carefully packed for me prior to my trip and unloaded when I return. To be able to share this business with my family is priceless.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I don’t and have never claimed to be a social media or technology expert. I began with an Instagram page. Around the same time, I built a web page through Square. I purchased our .com and linked it to Square so that a Google search brings browsers to our page. The first shop I was in, Unwined, is a local shop with great people as owners. They already had a large and established social media base and graciously shared their audience with me through re-posting my posts. As an artist, I think one of the most important factors I contributed to the growth of my social media audience was creating real and honest posts that let the creative product speak for itself. The time-lapse videos of my soap making process seem to be the most popular. As my business expanded to additional shops, a natural progression occurred in my social media presence. I also spend a large amount of time researching new techniques along with the ingredients I use to make sure that I can intelligently speak to any possible allergens or reactions. It is essential that you be a true believer of your creation if you expect others to as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: 4sparrowsfarm.com
- Instagram: @4sparrowssoaps