Meet Amanda Scholz

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda Scholz a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Resilience: the ability to cope with and recover from setbacks. At its most basic, I think my resilience comes from experience and most critically from my mom. I was horribly bullied in grade school and often came home sobbing not wanting to go back to school. My mom would help me through those moments the best ways she knew how. One phrase she often said was “You can do anything for an hour, anything for a day, anything for a week, anything for a month or however long. Just know there is an end date and put one foot in front of the other.” I have held this through all kinds of wild and unexpected experiences. My college degree is in technical theatre, lighting design and stage management. Things happen that you have no control over and you have to figure out how to pivot and innovate so that the show can go on. Sometimes its taking a deep breath and starting over after you hit the wrong button and deleted 4 hours worth of work. Or, in my case I was staring down a recession within my first year after graduating in a brand new city and a degree that had such promise was suddenly superfluous. 4 production companies closed that year. There were no jobs as a newbie in my field but I still had that degree to pay for along with all the other standards so I had to pivot life and discover a way to make those payments. One foot in front of the other and you learn how to adapt and that you have the ability to navigate difficult situations and potentially thrive. Those challenges led me to a place nearly 10 years later that I was able to start my own brick and mortar retail business in a tiny tourist town which was amazing…until COVID in 2020. Suddenly I was looking at several very real challenges: losing my business AND coming to terms with the fact that my rural home couldn’t support my way of life. One foot in front of the other and I’ve located an incredible community to reopen The Purple Turtle Artisan Collective that allows for more options to generate income in the event that things get tough again. There has to be a willingness to work hard. A determination to figure it out. An understanding you will fail but that failure doesn’t define your worth and each failure provides an opportunity for growth and a new potential.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My current focus is on growing my business in Port Washington, WI. The Purple Turtle Artisan Collective is a small brick and mortar that features the work of over 200 US based artists, makers and designers. My goal is to give a curated platform where their work can be seen and purchased. I am working on growing my workshop offerings as well as keeping an eye out for a larger space to grow into. I do fiber work personally which includes weaving, knitting, crocheting and felting.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Curiosity. An ability and willingness to learn. An understanding of how past, seemingly completely unrelated experiences can actually serve as a foundation for new adventures. A bonus 4th: Learn from your mistakes.

Don’t ever be afraid to ask questions or admit something that you don’t know.

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

Getting overwhelmed is a part of the journey. When this happens, I take it back to basics, check the facts and talk to my therapist. Sometimes I talk to friends and family too. This helps me put things in perspective and reset so that I can move on past or through those moments.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thepurpleturtlearts.com
• Instagram: @purpleturtlearts