[00:00:00] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Well, hello. Hello, all my beautiful friends out there in podcast Land. It is me again, it's Kelly Wynn, your host for the Made Remarkable Podcast where we meet with remarkable people doing remarkable things to inspire you to live your remarkable life. Yeah, it's a whole lot of remarkable, remarkable means, worth mentioning, something unusual and exciting.

just something beyond the norm of our every day, and really hoping that that's what this podcast does for you. It brings that energy, that juice to your life and inspires you to dream big. What is that big, audacious dream that you're holding back on? That's why I'm creating this podcast. That's why I have the whole made remarkable brand.

[00:00:47] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It's so important to me. To be able to spread this message and to be able to talk to people who have done really amazing things, building their business from the ground up and impacting the lives of others. So that's the part that's important, is how what we do makes a difference to the other people that we serve. and so I'm diving deep every week, every month with you here on the podcast to figure out what it is that is the flip the switch that flips in your business, in your life to set you on your remarkable path. I'm really excited about the fact that I've launched the Remarkable League finally after two years of hemming and hying and thinking about it, and now here I am.

I've done it. jumped right into doing something for me. That's really remarkable. And I hope for those who have joined going to be more than remarkable, it's gonna be liberating and give them the freedom that they need to build the most amazing, aligned, profitable businesses. And I am just I beyond words, I'm over the moon excited because I've had some.

[00:02:06] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Incredible women sign up for this program. The doors close for applications for this round, for this first cohort on Friday, March 24th, so it's not too late for you to get in and change your future to get the information you need to stop spinning your wheels, get clarity and move forward with building a business that actually works and makes good money because otherwise, why are you in business isn't the whole point, is to have that financial independence and freedom. Well, I'm here for it and I would love to be able to serve you because it lights me up if you don't believe me, just get on a call with me. We'll have a little chat and.

See, I am incredibly passionate about what I do. Anyhow, if you're listening to this after the 24th, don't worry. We're gonna open the remarkable league again, and in the fall I will have a entry level program for those who have not launched their business yet, but they want to know all the ins and out and build a solid foundation.

[00:03:11] Kellee Wynne Conrad: That program is coming. It'll be ready for you in September, and I cannot wait. But for those of you who have already started a. And you're interested in what the Remarkable League can offer you, just go to made remarkable.com/league and learn about it and apply.

And if. We are past the date of the 24th. Then add your name to the wait list. We'll be opening up again this summer. All right, now let's move on to our guest for today, which I'm really excited I I squeezed in some time for a conversation with Sarah Campbell. Now in the art world, many of you probably don't know Sarah Campbell, but if you've been on Netflix and you love those kinds of creative challenges, then you will know she was on.

[00:03:58] Kellee Wynne Conrad: The big flower fight. Yeah. I know Sarah from way back in my early art days joining up with the Rising Tide Society in Annapolis. She is a luxury floral designer, but more important than that, she's an educator and a coach and a mentor to thousands of business owners. Across the world, and especially in the United States, she really has made a difference in so many people's lives on how they build their luxury floral design business, especially for the wedding industry.

It's been so fascinating to follow her journey and see how she's built something that's truly remark. Quite mind blowing, and I've turned to her many times in the past to get advice and to work on collaborative projects, and I just was so thrilled to be able to finally catch up with her again.

[00:04:52] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It's been a couple of years and having this conversation was loads of fun. She is a very generous, very fun, very bubbly. You're gonna enjoy this conversation on many different levels besides the fact that Sarah's just a really enjoyable person to listen to. She's also got some great advice for you as you're building your business.

When we're building a creative business, the foundation of it is very similar for everyone. And what I want you to listen for is the mistake Sarah made the first time she made an offer. For teaching Floral, and we're gonna have a conversation about that in the podcast. So I want you to tune in and see what was the mistake she made and how she corrected it, and then how you can apply that to your own business.

[00:05:37] Kellee Wynne Conrad: And speaking of Rising Tide Society, next week we have Natalie Frank, who was the founder of it. Yeah, I went to old school here and found some of my early. Entrepreneur friends and brought them on the podcast. You're gonna enjoy this episode and next week, so do not miss it. Listen to the whole thing. And then do me a favor, please tell Sarah what you thought about it.

Chime in. Jump into in. Find her at intrigue design on Instagram and say, hi. You heard her on the Made Remarkable Podcast, and I would love it if you would share this because the more people who know about it, the more remarkable lives we can change. Okay, thank you so much. And now without further ado, Sarah Campbell.

[00:06:22] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Well hello Sarah. I'm so excited to finally meet up with you. I know we've been trying to make this work and for everyone who's listening, Sarah and I go way back to our early Annapolis days of doing Rising Tide. When Rising tide was new and now they're a force to be reckoned with. So Sarah, what are you up to right now?

[00:06:42] Sarah Campbell: Right now at the moment, Yeah. At the moment I happened to be in Houston, Texas. We are on tour. This is our national tour.

We're touring from January through March, from coast to coast. So we started in Atlanta. . We went down to Miami. We're in Houston now. Next week we're in Dallas, followed by Los Angeles, followed by Phoenix, and then back on home towards Richmond, Virginia.

[00:07:10] Kellee Wynne Conrad: There you go. Full circle. So I introduced you, you know, florist.

I have mostly artists who are following, but my. Encouragement and my hope is that all creatives, all people who are like thinking outside of the box are joining us for this podcast. So that's one of the reasons why I thought it was so fun to bring you on and show how you've built this really remarkable business.

[00:07:33] Kellee Wynne Conrad: What are you teaching when you do this tour? This intrigue across America?

[00:07:38] Sarah Campbell: Oh, we are teaching luxury floral design. as well. So luxury flow design's, a hands-on design class where we're creating these over the top pieces. Centerpieces that are eight, nine feet in the air, Floral installations just make your jaw drop and beautiful bouquets.

But in addition to that, we're teaching a Social Media masterclass. And that's really where the money is made. You know, the floral class is the most popular, the most questions, most people wanna be in it, but it's those people that show up on the business track that really make an impact.

[00:08:13] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Look, I took this right off your website. It's not the people who are the best at what they do that find success. It's the people who have fine tuned their marketing that find success because they know how to talk best about what they do. And it's like, I saw that and I'm like, I screen captured it to save it, to remind me, , sure you should be good at what you do, but oh my goodness, if you are good at what you do and you can't talk about it.

[00:08:38] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Your social media course, you teach that live right before you go for two whole days of floral design. Now, I was watching your Instagram account and those who took the social media, they put up their phones, they started recording everything they were doing, and you were like, see, they got it. They know what to do now. .

[00:09:00] Sarah Campbell: It was so great. So the focus of that social media course is literally, so I, I do a private mentoring just for marketing and social media and I took the mentorship program and I see the success like great when I spend a month with someone and I thought, can I like pair that down and give everyone a look into.

this in one day. So first time I taught the class in Atlanta, I didn't even know if it was gonna work, but I created the course, created the booklet, a workbook, and it worked so . So for the first day everyone leaves with a 12 month written social media strategy. . Now, that's not the only thing they're ever gonna post on social media, right?

[00:09:50] Sarah Campbell: But when you have an organized strategy, then you can do whatever else you wanna do, and you don't have to think about it. It's already done for you, right? You can just capture post, capture, post, and then schedule it out. or a capture schedule post, if that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, I know.

[00:10:10] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Yeah. And have it like one of those things that you don't have to think about, but it's more than just sharing images or videos.

[00:10:18] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It's really having a strategy behind it and knowing who you're talking to, how you're talking to them, and having that confidence to show up, which I think these amazing in-person events give you that kind of experience to be able to see like exactly how it's done and and feel good about yourself to do it.

[00:10:37] Sarah Campbell: They really do. In fact, this tour was supposed to be only open to Florists, but we have photographers, videographers, we have other creatives coming and joining us on the road, which is really exciting. .

[00:10:48] Kellee Wynne Conrad: That's Wonderful. Yeah. It's obviously social media is your thing. You've got almost 200,000 followers on Instagram. Have you jumped into TikTok or any of that?

[00:10:58] Sarah Campbell: Oh yes. And I just wanna be clear, my social media numbers change all the time, You might look next week and I've got 176,000 and then the following week and I've got 225,000. It fluctuates all, all the time. That might have been our exaggeration of the fluctuation, but it jumps all the time.

So we've been at 200,000 multiple times. We've been below 200,000. Yeah. Oh.

[00:11:22] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It's kind of finicky, but it is you showing up consistently that makes that difference.

[00:11:28] Sarah Campbell: So, you asked, if we were on TikTok. Yes, we did jump into TikTok. TikTok is difficult, but it's difficult, like reels are difficult, so it's just a lot harder than it was years ago when all we had to do was have a pretty feed.

[00:11:40] Sarah Campbell: We're artists, we can do that in our sleep, right. . But if you look at my feeds now, they're not pretty, they're unorganized. They're a little chaotic. But this is a way that social media has changed, right? So being perfectly pretty and polished is no longer what is getting the eye's that we wanna sell to.

[00:11:57] Sarah Campbell: So yes, I'm on TikTok,

[00:11:58] Kellee Wynne Conrad: But video is key.

[00:12:00] Sarah Campbell: Video is key. And the nice thing now is that video is transferable between platforms. There's so many people teaching out there, or even. Doing out there that you can't post the same content on each platform, but guys, Kellee. Done is always better than perfect.

[00:12:19] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Right. Just do it.

[00:12:21] Sarah Campbell: Just do it. So I just take the same content and we parlay it into another platform. So we do it on YouTube shorts. We do it on Pinterest, we do it on, yep. On TikTok and we do it on Instagram, which is usually where it starts.

[00:12:36] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Yep, exactly. You focus on something and then you upload it natively into the other. Apps and you just say, if it goes, it goes. If it works, it works. It's great having some sort of content just to be able to put it out there. And I noticed like what you were teaching in the social media was just keep recording yourself and then eventually you're gonna be able to chop that up into to really good, little bite sized pieces. But sometimes that's all it takes is just turn the camera on. Right?

[00:13:06] Sarah Campbell: Turn it on. Yeah, yeah. Just turn it on just making it down the stairs this morning. . . So, so one of the other things I think this is important to say too, that we talk about during this class is that it's okay if you don't wanna be in the face of your business.

[00:13:21] Sarah Campbell: I think for so long, even myself would've said, your face has to be out there. But the social media world is changing as it keeps to change. And now I'm seeing more and more. If you don't wanna be the face, it's okay, but if you're not the face, you need to have a brand focus.

Yeah. And you can do the same thing with a brand focus as you can by putting your face out there, because a lot of us, Kellee, we're shy. You're like me. We have this internal shyness and we record shy, we re, we record scared, we record terrified of the camera. Right.

[00:13:51] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It's so much easier when it's our art that we showcase, whether it's flowers or paintings or whatever.

[00:13:56] Kellee Wynne Conrad: But it's nice, having that brand and and just making it personal Yeah. Is really gonna make that connection with the customer. Yes. Sarah, let's go way back though and how you ended up where you're at here.

[00:14:09] Sarah Campbell: By trade. I'm a luxury wedding florist. But you can call me anything. You can call me florist. You can call me floral designer. You can call me floral artist. You can even call me a wedding planner, even though I'm not , but people call me all sorts of things. In our industry, everyone says, oh, don't call yourself a florist.

[00:14:26] Sarah Campbell: You are better than a florist. I am not. We're the same. We are playing with flowers, you know, a florist. Designs flowers. I design flowers. I consider myself a florist. . Yes.

[00:14:39] Kellee Wynne Conrad: And it's just a matter of where you focus your energy and you decided to go into the luxury market. What does that mean? I know that there's so many different ways that we can build our business and in every industry there's so many ways, but.

[00:14:51] Kellee Wynne Conrad: a luxury floral designer. Now, if anyone looks at her Instagram feed, you'll know exactly what that means. The moment you look, we're not talking about little bouquets, we're talking about like grand installations. And as a floral painter, it's really exciting for me.

[00:15:06] Sarah Campbell: that's an interesting question because once people started asking like, what does luxury florist mean?

What's the difference? and I had to sit back and look at it. I'm like, what is it different? I know it's different. I can see the difference, but what is it in words? A luxury florist is creating experiences, creating environments, building the set that those memories are gonna be built on. We create environments that people remember for generations.

[00:15:36] Sarah Campbell: That's impactful. Yeah, and it is not that you can't have great memories if you don't spend millions of dollars on your wedding. You can have great memories, but I'm setting memories that look like this fairytale. I know, and it can, like you do not have to have millions of dollars to have a fairytale wedding, but in order to do what I.

[00:15:59] Sarah Campbell: It just takes millions of dollars to do that. . . All right. Thousands of dollars. Yes.

[00:16:05] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Well, we know there's a level of luxury for everyone at different levels, and for some people, I'm just as happy shopping in target for my clothes as I would be at Louis Vuitton or whatever. We all have our different levels and there's a need at every level.

[00:16:20] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Yes. And so making a decision that luxury. Florals is what you wanted to do because you're talented at it and you have the vision for it. By all means, go for it. Do it. There's enough that I believe the world is bountiful, so you just keep going for it. But to be clear,

[00:16:37] Sarah Campbell: I shop at Target, not Louis Vuitton.

[00:16:39] Sarah Campbell: Yeah. I'm not the ones with the millions I am the paid labor. I am the help, and I am teaching other designers to essentially be the paid labor and help for this. And I do make a good living doing it, but I am not. Yeah, .

[00:16:56] Kellee Wynne Conrad: All right, so we're not all Sarah Blakely yet, but not yet. Not yet. But we can admire her for what she's accomplished with nothing, and I do really look up to her for that.

[00:17:08] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Her and like Barbara Corcoran, it's like amazing stories of starting from nothing and then building an empire and I'm always excited about. Kinds of remarkable stories, which is why I've really transitioned the podcast to feature women who are doing remarkable things. And I think what you're doing is incredibly remarkable.

[00:17:25] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Before I hit record on this podcast, so you were saying you had to make a decision. I'd love to have you explain this journey, you started these in-person. Workshops where people come and you provide all these gorgeous flowers, they learn how to, to do these giant installations.

[00:17:44] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It's really quite remarkable, literally. Then we have the whole Covid story. So take us through that journey and what you decided now, where your focus is and why.

[00:17:54] Sarah Campbell: Well, the very first time I decided I wanted to teach a class, cause people were asking, do you teach classes? And I really didn't, but then I decided, you know what, let's give it a shot.

Let's teach a class. So I hosted a floral class. You were come in, learn to make a bouquet. I think maybe, I think it was a bring your own bottle of wine, make a bouquet. And, I posted, I was really excited and I sold zero seats. Then no one bought my class. Wow. So, I went back and I thought,

Well, other people teach classes. What is wrong with me? Why can't I sell classes? And I started looking at my audience. I don't sell little bouquets. I was trying to sell something, but I've never even talked to my audience about, my audience is watching me do large scale center pieces. They're watching me create floral walls.

This is what I was sharing on social media. So then I decided I'll host another class and I host it in my little tiny studio. It wasn't tiny actually. It was a pretty good studio. My studio in Annapolis, Maryland. Yeah,

[00:18:58] Kellee Wynne Conrad: I've been to that studio,

[00:19:01] Sarah Campbell: and I decided I was gonna do a two day wedding workshop.

It was called Two Days With Intrigue. Uhhuh , Natalie Frank was our first photographer for two days with intrigue. Yep. And at a higher price point. So instead of a $49 workshop learning to make one bouquet, I hosted a $1,500 workshop where you would learn to make a floral wall, a large scale centerpiece, bridal bouquet table escaping floral chandelier, and you would learn all these things.

[00:19:33] Kellee Wynne Conrad: This was, this had to. eight, nine years ago. Yeah, around 2015. Yeah.

Yeah, because we worked a little bit at that time,

[00:19:42] Sarah Campbell: So I went from zero peoples buying to a sold out class.

[00:19:47] Kellee Wynne Conrad: I love it. And people flew in for it. ,

[00:19:50] Sarah Campbell: yes. Those people from all over the country. I thought I might be hitting zero people again, which is why I held it at my studio.

[00:19:58] Sarah Campbell: So I had no financial impact. And I asked my friend, Natalie Frank, if she could come photograph it. Natalie, I didn't pay you, you didn't even ask me for money. And I, we never even talked about it, but maybe one day I should send you a check. So, thanks Natalie ,

[00:20:11] Kellee Wynne Conrad: She's done amazing things herself.

[00:20:15] Sarah Campbell: But as industry creatives, and we were doing weddings together, you just help each other, you work together, you do things for each other. So that was really wonderful. And then we decided, we'll host another one, another one, and then that parlayed into hosting a conference. And, that conference really helped to put me on the map.

[00:20:36] Sarah Campbell: I don't teach at these conferences. We host an annual, luxury floral design conference where I don't teach. I bring in this beautifully eclectic, diverse group of designers and florist and event planners, and they all come together for three. Immersive hands-on design days You design and you then get transported into these intrigued style experiences while learning from people that you never would've connected with in your average wow.  Business. And it's really amazing. We sell out every year. In fact, our last seller was 34 minutes.

[00:21:12] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Wow. When was that? That was this fall, right?

[00:21:15] Sarah Campbell: That was this fall. It was in November. In fact, we had been traveling with this conference, but we decided with Covid we were gonna return home. Honestly, to cut budget because it takes a lot to fly all of our team out.

[00:21:28] Sarah Campbell: Put everyone up. It takes a lot. This was the best conference we've ever hosted because I was able to give it more focus and move budget from all this travel to move budget into the caliber of educators we were bringing in and the flowers that we were able to, to bring in. So we on the spot, went after the conference, was incredible. The food was incredible. The town was incredible. We decided we were hosting in the same exact location next year, ,

[00:21:56] Kellee Wynne Conrad: yay. Which is?

[00:21:58] Sarah Campbell: Tidewater Inn in Easton, Maryland. Little tiny postage stamp town. Yes. That is just the perfect space for us.

[00:22:05] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Okay, I'm gonna have to get notes on that because I'm planning on hosting a conference in the future. Probably won't be this year, but it will probably be next year.

[00:22:14] Sarah Campbell: Tidewater Inn is exceptional,

[00:22:16] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Yeah. Easton's an adorable place too. Yeah. Just right next, right next to Indianapolis. So easy to get to. Wow. It's so exciting too how that all comes together. The point that I wanna go back to, for everyone listening. She tried something, it didn't work. She thought about why it didn't work, and the connection is what you've been talking about, what you're presenting, what you're showing all the time. If your offer isn't congruent with that, it might fall flat. It probably will fall flat if your customer isn't primed for that.

[00:22:48] Kellee Wynne Conrad: And I've actually made that mistake many times before. And then when. Show up and you're like, okay, so instead of a $50 product, it's now $1,500, but it's exactly what I've been doing and what people follow me for. And then you sell out like that and then it's turned into this whole other part of your business.

[00:23:08] Kellee Wynne Conrad: So it's getting that kind of clarity and of course you were able to figure that out on your own. And sometimes people, turn to coaches or mentors in order to get that kind of like clarity of what to do next. But I love that you figured. , the importance of where your message had already been and who your ideal client already was.

[00:23:27] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Then it's turned into this huge thing where you get to travel around and teach. You do the conferences, you do the teaching, and then Covid happened. Oh my. And not only does teaching end, but also the wedding industry shut down completely.

[00:23:42] Sarah Campbell: So Kellee, I legitimately lost 100% of my income in a matter of weeks.

[00:23:48] Sarah Campbell: And I wanna tell you, like right away, I'm like, okay, I know what I'm gonna do. That's not the case. It took me three months in. You can't see Jordan, she's a across right now. But her and I. She's my, right hand. She was on, Netflix's Big Flower fight with me. We kind of just cocooned for a couple months, like we did some work, but I can't tell you what we did for two or three months.

[00:24:09] Sarah Campbell: Mm-hmm. , I know we were moving, but it was like we were shuffling. We didn't have a direction. I'm looking at my bank account, thank goodness I'm a saver. Yeah. Right. And. and I'm like, okay, how long will this last? And then one day we just decided we were gonna do something different. I looked at the money in my bank account and I'm like, okay.

I'm like, I've got enough to really invest into creating something new and giving it my all and hopefully it's gonna work. So we created the most beautiful and intricate. Large scale floral course that we've ever done. So the reason I only taught large scale design in person is because there's so many layers to it.

[00:24:58] Sarah Campbell: You really have to see and understand it takes a while to break down. But we took the better part of 2020 and we produced this course. in fact, even into 2021, we produced a course and. it sold so well. In fact, I think we sold about $150,000 in this course Sales, our very first time we mentioned it.

[00:25:22] Sarah Campbell: Right. I'm not surprised. Yeah. And then we've continued to sell, I think we've have close to 200 people who have taken this course now and. It's just been it's been incredible too, and to watch people grow from this. I'm teaching something that was not available online, right? You couldn't go online.

[00:25:44] Sarah Campbell: You couldn't even go to YouTube and say, I want to learn to make a 20 foot floral installation that starts at the ground and reaches up the wall and grows onto the ceiling. , you just can't do that. Because it's really hard and it costs a lot of money. to Yeah, produce these and I was producing them for without people.

No one was getting married in front of this. Nobody was paying for this, like I was paying for this,

[00:26:11] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Right, in order to create the course, in 2020, we all had to rethink how we do business. That's where the Virtual Art Summit came out.

I have an annual big, huge collaborative. Summit online with other artists, and that started because of 2020, and I was like, gotta serve the people. Gotta find a way to show up and serve the people. If we can't get together, then we've gotta find a way to do it.

[00:26:34] Sarah Campbell: You gotta find a way. Yes. That was my 2020 story. And then when we moved beyond 2020. Oh, well we did have the Netflix debut that also happened in 2020.

[00:26:43] Sarah Campbell: Oh yes. By the way, I know I mentioned this. Oh my goodness. You were on a really fabulous, really fun to watch Netflix show. The big flower fight. Yes. A lot of fun.

[00:26:58] Sarah Campbell: And so that's all happening behind the scenes. You filmed that though before 2020 happened. Yes, we filmed that in 2019. Just in time. Yeah, we filmed it in 2019. It actually launched May 18th, 2020. The downside was we couldn't celebrate with everyone. just so you know, I have, because we are in our rental house here in Houston.

[00:27:20] Sarah Campbell: I have my team coming up and down the stairs, guys, you're okay. We're real people here. Jordan's here, Tyler and Randy, who I told you about, Kelly. Oh yeah. . Tyler and Randy are my students that I started working with in 2021. They launched their business in 2020. They're students that I mentor. Actually I'm not their mentor anymore. Anymore. Yeah. My mentoring program is six months and I work with them through this mentoring program and they are incredible, incredible.

[00:27:50] Kellee Wynne Conrad: I have a right hand help too. And you can't live without them,

[00:27:54] Sarah Campbell: Yeah, so the big flower fight came out the downside was that we couldn't celebrate, we couldn't gather with everyone and really enjoy, like we were on tv, we were on Netflix, however the upside was everybody was at home and everybody was watching.

[00:28:11] Kellee Wynne Conrad: I know I binged it immediately. You know, .

[00:28:15] Sarah Campbell: So that was a really fun experience, I think that kind of helped shake us out of our funk that we were in and maybe a little bit of depression. We were in because every, all our plans, like we were set up, our 2020 was gonna be incredible. Not only were we on this national tour, we had a television show that was coming out. We had already built this wonderful, engaging audience. And the weddings like I was gonna make some money. Uh, but that didn't happen.

[00:28:50] Kellee Wynne Conrad: A lot of people struggled through that, but the businesses that pivoted, the businesses that got innovative are the ones that stuck around. And you did that by serving people through video?

[00:29:00] Sarah Campbell: Yes. So now we're at this place where we can be in person. We're traveling, we're teaching. This is our first official tour since 2020. We've also done something a little bit different with our virtual course. So I love the virtual course. I love to see the success that people have had. Our course is called The Big Dreams. Floral installation masterclass, big name, but it's a big chorus. Yeah. And as much as I love seeing everyone learn there and we have people signing up on a regular basis to take this course as they continue to learn.

[00:29:32] Sarah Campbell: I wanted to do something to get people offline and in person. Mm-hmm. , I also didn't wanna sell to them again, so they already invested in this course, and the course isn't cheap. It's a $3,000 course. So sell them something else. So what we did is we have these opportunities around the country to do design work, for editorial purposes.

And I had been doing these for years to promote my own business, promote myself as a luxury wedding florist.

[00:30:02] Kellee Wynne Conrad: We even got to do one together. Back in like, I think 2016, I got to Oh yes. Cause I did the big floral backdrop.

[00:30:10] Sarah Campbell: Yes, I remember that. It was so beautiful. So yeah, it was very, very similar to that. I've been doing these things and I decided seeing how I was gonna take a step back from weddings to focus on mentoring and education. , I wanted to make sure these opportunities were still used. So the students that come through the virtual course at Big Dreams, virtual Installation Master course, when they complete the course, they are given the opportunity to join us live and in person, and they get to lead these designs.

[00:30:44] Sarah Campbell: So they work with me. They work with me and we treat it like a real wedding. We treat it like you start with inspiration. You build a recipe, you write a production plan. Because what we can't teach in the virtual course is that real experience of things going wrong, people not working faster, people working too fast, making a mess, need to clean it up.

[00:31:08] Sarah Campbell: Like those things need to be taught as well. So everyone that takes a virtual course has an opportunity for this hybrid version where they get to come out and join us. We just did one in Dallas. We did one in Philadelphia, we did one in Miami. There's no cost. There's no cost right now.

[00:31:25] Sarah Campbell: I think more than likely in 24 and beyond, there'll be a cost, but right now there's no cost for that. And we have, we test our ideas, so we start somewhere with these things. Right? Um,

[00:31:36] Sarah Campbell: and then in June of this year, uh, we have an opportunity. We're going out to Paris with students from that course to design in pairs at this beautiful show.

[00:31:48] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It's, I mean, I'm jealous. It's. It's so wonderful to be able to share these opportunities.

I should just go so I can sketch all the flowers, take pictures, and then paint some big floral paintings. Wouldn't that be so much fun?

[00:32:02] Sarah Campbell: That'd be a lot of fun. .

[00:32:04] Kellee Wynne Conrad: We'll see. I'm gonna put it on my radar now. Like that's the dream.

[00:32:08] Kellee Wynne Conrad: At least get to one of your events. So I could do that would be really, See, you have to think outside of the box. Look at how many ways you've thought outside of the box that you can connect people and work with people and give them amazing opportunities. Where are you now? Like you did the florals for the weddings, and then you started this whole teaching online and in person, and now you're at a pivotal point of making decisions, and I think it's really important to mention why.

[00:32:39] Kellee Wynne Conrad: you have to let some things go in order to allow other things to grow.

[00:32:44] Sarah Campbell: Oh, Kellee, this is such a good question. It's such a good focus, I had, this year, this is where it really started to, to build up, I had, this year, it was 2018, we did the biggest national tour we'd ever done.

[00:32:55] Sarah Campbell: We had 42 states, 84 workshops across the country in one year. And doing weddings at the same time. I was exhausted. We then decided these were so exhausted we were gonna take off three months, and then Netflix called, and then we went and filmed a television show with Netflix over in Europe. And then, and then, and then I was burning myself out. I was exhausted, I was burning my team out. They were exhausted. And I realized things had to change and I had to make a decision. Something had to go, like something had to give. Weddings is where I make money. I make ridiculously good money in weddings.

[00:33:35] Sarah Campbell: I either had to give up weddings or I had to give up courses and workshops and classes, and it really weighed on me. This might make me sound so superficial, but I was balancing out. Do I love the emotional impact that I get when I am able to see how I've been making.

[00:33:58] Sarah Campbell: A change in people's businesses and helping them elevate to this level that they're creating a legacy for themselves, a legacy for generations within their family. This is really something. Yeah. Or is it more important to me that I have the money because I make. Significantly larger income from weddings than I do from education and teaching and traveling.

[00:34:23] Sarah Campbell: And that took me a little bit. I waited on that for a while. I did make the choice and to focus on education. , but I also missed the money. Just to be clear, I do miss

[00:34:34] Sarah Campbell: the money. Oh, the money's gonna come with the education . You just filled that the right way because impacting millions is so much more important than a few, you know, you know the, it feels so good.

It feels incredible to see how my designers, it started from nothing. I started from nothing. I was a teenage mom without a direction dropped outta high school I had nothing. and what we've built has been incredible. And then working with others that started from nothing, working with. a refugee that came over from other countries and helping them build right from the ground up even when their English isn't perfect. Working with divorcees that ended up with nothing. Working with couples that just got fired and have to figure something out. In floral design, you can start with nothing, right? and build.

[00:35:27] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It's the same thing with art. It's the same thing with most creative businesses. You can start with something. Yes. And you can build from there. And that's one of the reasons why I'm going into education, to help people build their businesses. Because like you said, it's the legacy. It's not just them right there, but when they master it and they know how to build a business and have income for their family, that goes on to their children and their children's children.

[00:35:52] Kellee Wynne Conrad: And it does become a legacy. It becomes something. . That knowledge, that skill, that empowerment really gets passed down. It changes the lives of everything. Even my kids and your kids too say, oh, look at what mom was able to do. I can do it too. It's like really transformative. It's remarkable. Let's just go right in on my own brand words there, but it is remarkable, which is why I love talking about this.

[00:36:19] Kellee Wynne Conrad: I love seeing that transformation as well. And when you have to make a choice, for me, . You know, teaching art has been great, but teaching how to do the business is like even more amazing. And that's what your opportunity is to change people's lives.

[00:36:35] Sarah Campbell: Kellee, do you know that I have this goal in my life?

[00:36:37] Sarah Campbell: You're gonna appreciate this. What? I wanna be a painter. Ah, well, there you go. I bought paint and I have a blank canvas that hangs on my wall. I don't know when I'm going to. , but that blank canvas is there to remind me that that's what I want to do. Yeah. So this is off topic with your I, but I feel like you need to help.

[00:36:59] Sarah Campbell: I'll come and help encourage you. I'll be like, let's do it Sarah. Let me show you how to just throw the paint around and not be scared of the canvas. . I'm terrified.

[00:37:09] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Well, A lot of my education and teaching art is to help people just get into the play. So that they stop thinking about the end results and then suddenly they're like, oh, that worked.

[00:37:18] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It's so much more fun that way. . So one of the things I love to ask my podcast guest is what is your big audacious dream? Now, you said you wanted to paint, but I know that there's gotta be something really big. I believe that you keep going with this business of teaching, you're gonna make the same kind of money.

[00:37:35] Kellee Wynne Conrad: It just has to build to that. What else? What else are you like? What's that big audacious dream?

[00:37:42] Sarah Campbell: Oh, your timing could not be more perfect. Kellee . There are two things that I'm going to do in. , what year are we? 2023. What's good thing I'm gonna do one is I'm gonna start a dress line. So I already have an apron line and I wear pretty dresses all the time.

[00:37:59] Sarah Campbell: And everyone says, where do you get your dress? And I point 'em in this direction. I point 'em in that direction. I send 'em to Target, . I don't know how I'm gonna do it. We just decided this week, but I'm gonna start a dress line and I love it. We're gonna start a brand, so I'm gonna do that this year. Oh my goodness. And then, we've already worked on this, and we're gonna film our first official pilot, for a new show. are you producing it yourself

[00:38:26] Sarah Campbell: or is this We are producing it, yes. So one of the things I've learned in working with production companies within the television world is they'll work with you.

[00:38:36] Sarah Campbell: For quite a long time where you're doing the creative process and you're working them to build things out and refine them, but they have no skin in the game. So they can all of a sudden one day be like, you know what, we're gonna go in a different direction and cut you right out of it. .

[00:38:49] Sarah Campbell: Yeah. And, and that's okay. That's how their business runs. But I know I don't quit. Things get difficult. They get messy. I don't give up. So you and I already produced. I already produced content. I already produced 30 minute episodes of floral education and classes that are both entertaining and educational. We can produce a television show.

[00:39:15] Sarah Campbell: It's the basic outlines been already been scripted. It is not reality. It is also not acting. It's more of documentary. . Mm-hmm. , um, That is what we're doing. Whether I can sell it or not, don't know yet. I don't even know how to sell a television show. If anyone knows how to sell a television show, I would love to hear from you.

[00:39:33] Sarah Campbell: Or if you know a mentor that I can connect with that will help me figure out how to sell this, that'd be great. But I am going invest in it. We are gonna produce the pilot and keep my fingers crossed. I'm gonna hustle and I'm gonna sell a television show this year.

[00:39:48] Kellee Wynne Conrad: That is a big, audacious dream. That is amazing.

[00:39:53] Kellee Wynne Conrad: I love it. Look, you have opportunities to film what you're doing on the go. There's so much. I love that. Are you gonna be telling other people's stories?

[00:40:02] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Nope. Not ready to share yet. .

[00:40:04] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Okay, that's good. But everyone, come find Sarah and help her get this produced, this published, bought by, like, go back to Netflix, see if Netflix will do it.

[00:40:16] Sarah Campbell: it will be flower focused. It will be entertaining, it will be awe inspiring, and it will be covering a topic that millions of people travel for every single year, all over the. , but I've never heard anyone talk about this topic. Ooh. Okay.

[00:40:33] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Now everyone has to go and follow Intrigued Design so that you can find out what this big audacious dream is all about.

[00:40:42] Kellee Wynne Conrad: and the dresses. I didn't realize you sold those aprons. They're so cute. I'm so buying one. I am so ready for it. Again, anyone who's listening who says, I've always wanted to do this, Sarah's the person to be following intrigue designs, intrigue teaches. Correct? Yes, and And you can start by learning online, but I think your conferences is the way to go.

[00:41:05] Kellee Wynne Conrad: I think it's time for us to be doing more connection and more in person, more hands on, more experiences out of. I think that's what we're really all about moving forward. And I think that's gonna be a big shift after everything. We went through 20 20, 20 21, and I know we're not completely pandemic free, we're now just an endemic and we have to live with it.

[00:41:27] Kellee Wynne Conrad: But it's time, it's time for us to get together, create relationships, and and network, and come up with brand new, out of the box wild ideas. So, Thank you so much, Sarah, for joining me and for sharing this story, and I hope everyone is like, their wheels are turning. Like what is possible?

[00:41:48] Kellee Wynne Conrad: Anything's possible when you just keep going and you don't quit. Right? Absolutely.

[00:41:52] Sarah Campbell: Just don't quit . Just don't quit. Don't quit.

Kellee Wynne Conrad: Thank you, Sarah.

Sarah Campbell: Thank you.

If you'd like to listen to or learn more about the podcast visit https://www.maderemarkable.com/blog  for our show notes and links to the main players.