We were lucky to catch up with Sarah Mickens recently and have shared our conversation below.
Sarah, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.
Where I got my confidence and self-esteem is actually something I think about all the time! I can point to a pivotal year in my late 20’s when it all came together for me, but I also know that as a kid I was pretty hard-headed. Growing up I was the ‘determined’, ‘she’ll be a lawyer one day’ kid. You know the type – where you use backhanded compliments because you’re not allowed to tell a child they’re a menace to their face. So that started the all-too-familiar cycle of feeling like I couldn’t be too much, but knowing deep down I wanted more out of life. I lived like that all through high school, college, and into my adult life which spilled into my business life.
This really came to a head for me when I got diagnosed with ADHD and started talk therapy. I was 27 at the time, running a successful business, but killing myself in the process all while feeling like I wasn’t good enough the whole time. Through therapy and one of my good friends who is now a business and life coach, I realized it was okay to give myself permission to be proud of my accomplishments. It was okay to talk about them, to raise my prices in business, and to run my business my way. That’s because no one actually knows what they’re doing – we’re all making it up as we go! So now, 3 years later, I’ve been practicing trusting myself and my intuition to make the decisions I want to make and trust myself.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
Hi! I’m Sarah, a videographer in Raleigh, NC. I’ve been filming weddings, promotional films, and brand videos for the past decade and love what I do! Anything (okay, almost anything) video related, I’m there. I got started in college filming weddings with some friends who owned a well known wedding video brand at the time. The funny part of this story is that they thought I was a photographer because of my wardrobe at the time, so when they asked me to help them out on a shoot they were surprised when I told them I’d never held a professional camera before. They still needed the help, but my skillset was better suited for moving gear. Over the years they eventually put a camera in my hands and showed me the ropes then set me off on my own! Looking back, not everyone is lucky enough to have a mentor like that so now I try to be that person for our local filmmaking community. I have an education side to my brand where I share how I got to where I am today and that can be found on the education page of my website!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Looking back I can pinpoint my love for marketing and web design as a huge catalyst for my success. In the early 2010s I would build websites for local small businesses and help them with basic marketing strategy and SEO. It was just something I was really interested in and freelanced in through college. Once I launched my videography business, I was able to get that side of things set up really easily. Knowing what I know now about business, that’s usually the biggest obstacle for business owners, but for me it was the easiest part. Another thing I attribute to my journey is having ADHD. It’s a blessing and a curse, but the ability to hyper focus on my interests are truly a superpower. Another aspect of that is the ability to learn quickly and deeply. Anything I needed to learn, I did.
Learning how to learn is the most important skill you can develop. I tell any business owner they need to learn how to research and learn whatever is relevant to their business. No one’s out here helping us, we don’t have a boss, we don’t have mentors on call 24/7 – your success us dependent on your ability to learn what you need to learn.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
At the moment I’m re-learning marketing. If you knew anything about marketing from 2010-2020, you know nothing now – ha! It’s all changed and not for the better. Reaching your target audience is increasingly more difficult so that’s what I’m working on now in my free time.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.goldandsage.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/goldandsage_sarah
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/goldandsageweddings
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9qeOeu92ANKHkyUyoJraxA
- Other: Commercial Video: www.thrivefilm.co
Image Credits
Gold + Sage
