We’re looking forward to introducing you to Sarah Schumacher. Check out our conversation below.
Good morning Sarah, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What’s more important to you—intelligence, energy, or integrity?
This is an easy answer: integrity. In the podcast I cohost, it feels like half of our discussions boil down to a statement like this: “it goes back to your values.” The word ‘values’ is thrown around a lot in the context of a business mission statement or other stodgy exercise, but in reality, it’s deeply personal, and it comes down to integrity.
What kind of person are you, how do you show up in the world, what matters to you, what boundaries will you set? Having integrity is being the kind of person who asks (and continues) to ask yourself these questions, then chooses to live those values every day. And I do mean live… you can say you care about X all day long, but if your actions don’t match, your words are meaningless. Be the kind of person whose words match their actions.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Sarah Schumacher, and the majority of my time is spent on my business, Tiny Thunder Studio, which is a website agency I’ve been running for around 15 years and recently rebranded. The website part is almost arbitrary, because what I’m most passionate about is supporting new entrepreneurs and helping them build thriving businesses. I’m all about the strategy and partnership, and my emphasis on process design and technical automation for service providers is a differentiator in how we think about and build websites.
I’m a writer of occasional long form essays but mostly a biweekly newsletter on the intersection of art and entrepreneurship. I create mixed media paintings that I share on my personal website, and in the last year launched a podcast I cohost and produce, Founder Problems. This summary is a great illustration of the fact that I am clearly a multipotentialite, meaning I do a lot of different things and refuse to fit in a box. Many of my clients are as well, and I find the entrepreneur path is often an excellent fit for us.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
This is top of mind because I launched my rebrand August 1. My new business name is actually my nickname, which was given to me by my good friend Bil Brown, who I’ve known since I was in college. The nickname was the the result of playing bass guitar as someone who is 5′ 1″ (Bil is also the reason I started playing bass guitar in the first place).
As a fellow artist, designer, and creative he has always been incredibly encouraging around whatever I’m working on. He has a knack for putting people in places where they have opportunities to use and refine their gifts, and I think he saw many of mine before I did.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
You are enough. Which should be said to every child, because we live in a world where every person, place and thing is telling them they are not. It’s a lie.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. Is the public version of you the real you?
There is only one me. I do whatever I want, regardless of what people think about it. I write for myself, I make art for myself. I love hearing when those things speak to people (and I hope they do) but I am my own audience.
Despite how I come across when I walk into a networking event, I am an introvert who is most happy alone and would probably never leave my home/office if given the chance. I enjoy speaking or being on panels, because I love learning, educating, and discussing ideas with real-world impact, but I find those events exhausting.
I feel like it’s important to highlight this for the introvert entrepreneurs in the room. Just be you! Be different, be awkward, it’s fine. But you can bring your whole self to things, you can get better about talking about what you do, and you should, because there is no one else like you, with your unique perspective. You owe it to that next amazing connection to show up and be confident. It just takes practice.
Okay, so let’s keep going with one more question that means a lot to us: What do you understand deeply that most people don’t?
Very few things in the world are truly black and white, no one has all the answers, and no one ever will. And it’s fine. I understand it deeply, and I have never feared it.
The worst things happening in America today are due to fear, and the need of weak-minded people to feel in control (i.e. have a black and white answer for everything). Nuance matters, but it’s mostly absent from the public sphere (by design).
We will never be able to see all the threads. It doesn’t mean we should stop trying to understand, but there should be a lot more humility around the ability of any one person or group to diagnose problems or solutions. It’s a lot easier to understand this when you’re not constantly trying to defend a narrow-minded view of the world.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tinythunder.com
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahschumacher
- Other: Personal Art/Essays/Newsletter: https://smschumacher.com
Podcast: https://founderproblems.com
