We recently connected with Laura Stenzel and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Laura , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I have a trinity of co-passions that weave together to create a dynamic, multi-layered lifestyle. Those co-purposes are homesteading, sustainability, and collecting vintage home decor.
Collecting vintage is a life-long hobby that stems from childhood. My family instilled in me a respect for giving old items a second life and sentimentality for pieces with a story. Sustainability likewise comes from my childhood, specifically my 5th grade teacher’s fanatical passion for conservation. She brought us to the city’s waste-water treatment plant on a class field trip, which was a hilariously stinky and unusual, yet eye-opening experience for me.
Homesteading & farming was an oddball stranger in my life that came searching for me and patiently waited decades for me to embrace it. My grandparents on both sides proudly grew peas in their city plots, as a kid I played with cousins at their rural property around my uncle’s mysterious bees and vegetable beds, a school friend brought me foraging for mulberries to make jam, in my 20’s my mischievous friends forged a plan to buy a farm. It was always in the background, but I nearing 30 when it finally clicked within my core. It happened while I was pursuing a path towards social work, working in housing for previously homeless individuals. My boss there asked me to manage the compost bin. It’s crazy to say, but making dirt from food scraps changed my life. The tenants at that house taught me how to grow cucumbers and beans in the soil I made. I was suddenly on fire with curiosity and drive and went in deep. I visited every garden and farm in the area, joined every club I could. I even went back to college to get my later in life Bachelor’s degree. It was an explosive time. In summary – everything about my life purpose first came from being inspired or guided by other people. Add on the intensity and determination from me being a Scorpio that allowed me to embrace my purpose.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I started my online vintage decor shop, Second Song Homestead, to have freedom in my schedule to focus more on urban homesteading and seasonal farming. My online store is usually filled with items I would want in my own urban homestead like planter pots, picnic baskets, candlesticks, butter bells, mixing bowls – but given that I’m just outside of Boston and bustling city life, I also lean into a Modernist aesthetic too. Calling my shop a “homestead” isn’t just a gimmick – my husband and I actually live in a multi-family home that is the definition of a mini urban farm. My landlords were the first people in our city legally permitted to own chickens, and we were the second! They generously share the yard space with us & together we grow garlic, onions, greens, berries, tomatoes, native plants, and tons of herbs. I grind my own flour, can my own tomatoes, and fill the freezers with homemade food. Neighbors drop off packing materials in exchange for fresh herbs. I live just over a mile away from a family-run farm I have been fortunate to be at for 12 seasons. I love being there in the late spring & summers from seeding time through harvesting season, usually working right up until field-clearing in the autumn. In the winter, my garden shuts down and work at the farm halts just as online Holiday shopping ramps up. In colder months I focus all my energy on my vintage business (and eating well from our pantry).
Being that my life is so attuned to the natural world, I was inspired to post new vintage collections every Full Moon and New Moon as a nod to my seasonally-evolving lifestyle. Every day at Second Song is a little different, but absolutely involves chickens, fresh food, and vintage pieces that speak to my soul.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Today I would tell you that intuition, honesty with yourself, and being open-minded to creative solutions should be your foundation. I had a boss that loved the quote “skills can be taught, but quality of character comes from within the individual”. If possible, get in touch with your inner character, and then build your skills or career around that. I ignored my intuition for many years in search of what “everyone else” achieved. I loved farming but left multiple times seeking 9-5 jobs. I was lit up by a friend’s online store and sold some vintage in the early 2000’s, but abruptly stopped. I’m pretty confident that I’ve held more types jobs than most: social work, national service, retail, early childhood education, food service at a butcher shop, a coworking center for startups, etc. No matter where I worked, I felt stressed, overwhelemed, and felt like I didn’t belong. In my 40’s, I’m realizing that you can gain any skill set, but lack success if your attitude & character is a poor a match for the demands of that job’s environment. If that sounds like you, I think you need to do some soul searching and think outside the box. For me it meant taking stock and realizing that my ADHD brain needs a creative schedule. During Covid, I was laid off from a start-up company and that’s what it took to force a big change. My husband pointed out that I was at my happiest back when I was working 2 part-time jobs. A hybrid schedule and working for myself has indeed healed me. Things finally feel “right”. Are you also a weirdo needing a new vibe? Look to your most creative friends and see if they have non-conventional ideas for you or can highlight enironments you seem the most alive in. Lean into that! Just remember you might need to work on building up a healthy savings account before taking on a big change like starting a business.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
It’s too hard to highlight 1, so here’s my top 5!
1). Digging in the soil and cleaning vintage gives my hard-working hands deeply storied character. I try to hide them when taking product pictures, but sometimes they make it in a shot. Please don’t zoom in! Haha.
2). I ship exclusively in reused materials and am perpetually hungry for bubble wrap & packing paper. I’m grateful to family & friends who fill my car up with supplies when I come to visit. SOS, please send packing materials my way!
3). I find more vintage treasures than our apartment can hold; it’s an ongoing magic trick fitting it all in here….I told myself no more massive wicker baskets but they are very hard to pass up!
4). I have nightmares about algorithms. No one warned me how much time researching SEO keywords would take to make my products visible online. Note: always leave a positive review after receiving good service – it helps boost small businesses in search engines!
5) The major challenge that unites us all is finances. Income for a sole proprietor can drastically fluctuate month-by-month from cash winfall to crickets. I feel fortunate have a supportive husband in my corner with a steady job. We live simply and we have an ideal apartment situation which makes my seasonally-variable venture possible. One day we’ll want to travel more, or achieve the ultimate dream of having our own little homestead with a small plot to grow on. Unless someone donates a farm to us (a girl can dream! haha), achieving those goals will call for a different financial setup for us. I’d either need a plan to scale up my business, or make some lifestyle adjustments to make that happen. It would be a new challenge, but not an impossible one. For now, we’re just having a grand ol’ time right where we are!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://SecondSongHomestead.Etsy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/secondsongvintage/
Image Credits
Amer Koudsi
Second Song Vintage
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
