We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sophie Sadler a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sophie, 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?
Experiencing integrity, and doing that you say you will do, is something that I never fully got to experience at previous job. Bosses would always fall short of their promises and eventually I grew tired of not feeling appreciated and being under-compensated for my work. I knew that in order for me to experience the full value of my work, and when I wanted to be away from work, I had to become my own boss, find my own clients and follow through on my own promises to myself.
Sophie, 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 grew up in Germany’s oldest city Trier, known for its Roman landmarks and good wine! When I was 20 years old, I made the bold decision to move to America by myself. I soon started missing my family a lot, and while I try to make it home twice a year, I felt like I had a hole in my heart.
While in college, I started working in a very non-creative space with lots of structure. There were many instances in which I felt bullied because of my different cultural background. I was ultimately so unhappy that I left. I needed some time away to try to find my true passion. Eventually, I started my blog ‘dirndl kitchen’ as a way to connect to my German culture, cooking and baking German foods that just helped me feel good and at home. Little did I know that I would connect with so many other Germany and German food loving people, and that this blog would end up becoming my full time career 6 years later.
I feel fortunate to have gone through the many growth pains to get here because otherwise I don’t know that it would have been so clear to me that I needed to be right where I am at now.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think it’s essential for our society to embrace those that are different and have different viewpoints, backgrounds and ideas than theirs. Since moving from Germany to the middle of the United States especially, it’s almost frightening to me how many people appear to feel stuck in their path, when I grew up much differently. Coming from a family of serial entrepreneurs, I have little doubt that anything is possible, as long as you put your desire, energy and focus on it. In that same manner, I don’t think we can begin to understand what our world would look like if we empowered those around us to bring out the best in them. The thing about art is, we don’t all need to love what someone is doing, and that is okay. But our world is so much richer and better for being the melting pot of different ideas that it is. It’s easy to think that success means someone loses and someone wins. I think the more one person can win, the more we can all win. And so appreciating the creative energies from those around us is so, so valuable. It’s something we can all learn, be inspired by and grow.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
There is so much that goes on in the background to make the creative process happen and flow. I feel like the biggest struggle I face is that often being productive and being creative don’t go well together for me. I tend to stress myself out about things I need to be doing when at the same time, I lack the inspiration to do those same things. On other days, those things feel almost effortless and I feel confirmed that I am where I need to be. When people think about food blogging, they think I stand in the kitchen all day, take a quick picture and post it to Instagram. In reality, the whole process takes so much planning and time, milking of creative juices, learning photography, editing of pictures, more editing of video, researching, learning to write in a way, so Google doesn’t hate me, … and let’s not forget about pitching to brands, so I can pay bills as well. So that little instagram post you saw, that was a whole days (if not 2) worth of work. Luckily I love doing what I do, or else I wouldn’t do it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dirndlkitchen.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dirndl_kitchen/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dirndlkitchen/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@dirndl_kitchen
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dirndl_kitchen Email Newsletter: https://dirndlkitchen.com/subscribe-to-my-blog/
Image Credits
Sophie Sadler, Denise Jambor