Flourish with Sarah, Apex, NC (2026)

09/01/2026

Going LIVE today at 2:15 PM ET inside the Flourish Facebook group for a team Flourish Reselling 101 discussion! 🎉

If you’ve ever thought about starting a full time resale business, a side hustle or adding another revenue stream alongside your current business, come join me.

I’ll be covering the basics, including:

- The best platforms to sell on

- What kinds of items sell well

- How to research sold comps and sell-through rates

- Where to source inventory

- How much money you really need to get started

- Shipping basics and supplies

- Tools that can save you time

- Beginner mistakes to avoid

- How to know if reselling is actually a good fit for you

I’ll be sharing what I’ve learned from building reselling into a full time income stream alongside my consulting business and answering your questions live.

You do NOT need to already be a reseller to join us. This one is truly Reselling 101, so if you’re curious and just want to understand how it all works, come hang out with me.

I’ll be live at 2:15 PM ET today inside the Flourish Facebook group. See you there! ❤️

08/28/2026

This week, I had the honor of opening the Next Level Maker Conference in Grapevine, Texas, with my keynote, “Maker to Merchant”

This was the largest in-person audience I’ve spoken to, and it was an incredible opportunity to share a message that has become central to the work I do with makers and creative business owners. Having my children there to watch me step onto that stage and share the work I’ve spent so many years building made the experience even more meaningful.

One of the most powerful forces shaping our businesses is the story we tell ourselves about who we are, what we’re capable of and what is possible for us. Those stories influence how we price our work, how confidently we market ourselves, whether we allow ourselves to be visible and whether we truly step into the role of business owner.

Being a maker and being a merchant aren’t opposing identities. Building a flourishing creative business requires both: the creativity to make something meaningful and the confidence, strategy and willingness to bring it into the world.

I’m incredibly grateful to the Next Level Maker team for inviting me to share this message and to everyone who listened, introduced themselves and shared how the presentation connected with them. It was an experience I won’t soon forget. 🥰

08/24/2026

Here is something I wish more small business owners understood: a disappointing result is information…. but… It is not a verdict.

A product didn’t sell. That’s information. A launch fell flat. Information. A reel got low views. Information. Website traffic dropped. Information. Someone said no. Information.

None of those things automatically mean your product isn’t good enough, you’re bad at business, nobody wants what you make, the market is too saturated or you should give up. But our brains are really good at turning results into stories, and once we create the story, we often start behaving from it.

One bad launch makes us nervous about promoting the next one. Low engagement makes us post less. A slow month makes us panic and start discounting everything. One person questioning our price suddenly has us wondering whether we should lower it.

Then the behavior we changed because of the result begins creating more results, and eventually we’ve built a whole pile of “evidence” supporting a conclusion we made way too early.

This is why I think one of the most important skills you can develop as a business owner is learning how to separate data from identity.

Your business is going to give you information every single day. Look at it. Learn from it. Adjust what needs adjusting. Test something different. But don’t hand every disappointing number the authority to tell you who you are or what you’re capable of building.

That is a LOT of power to give a spreadsheet. 😝

08/24/2026

The phrase “arts and crafts” is something that sounds so innocent but can actually influence the way creative adults think about their businesses.

When most of us were kids, arts and crafts meant summer camp, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, construction paper and peeling dried glue off your hands. Creativity was encouraged because it was fun. It was an outlet, a hobby, something fun to do in art class or over school breaks.

What most of us did NOT grow up hearing was that creativity could become a serious source of income. That you could build wealth with it, support your family with it, employ people, become financially independent or build a company around the things you knew how to make.

I think that matters more than we realize because a lot of incredibly talented adults started businesses while still carrying a childhood definition of what creative work was worth. Then we wonder why makers struggle to charge enough, apologize for their prices or feel uncomfortable calling themselves business owners.

The problem isn’t the craft. The problem is the small story our culture attached to it.

Handmade products aren’t inherently worth less because there’s a mass-produced version at Target. Creative work isn’t less legitimate because you happen to enjoy doing it. And selling something you made with your own hands doesn’t make it “just a little craft business.”

Sometimes growing a business isn’t about learning one more strategy. Sometimes we have to question the definition we’ve been carrying around for 30 years.

This is one of the conversations I’ll be bringing to the Next Level Maker Conference next week, and I am looking forward to helping the audience learn how to finally “flip the script” and step into the reality of what they do with pride. ❤️

08/21/2026

One week from now… well, technically six days from now 😝… I’ll be standing on a stage in Grapevine, Texas at the Next Level Maker Conference sharing a talk I’ve been working on for months called Maker to Merchant: Time to Flip the Script.

The funny thing is, although I teach business strategy every day, this talk isn’t really about Etsy, SEO, social media, algorithms or marketing. It’s about something I think comes before all of that: the story you believe about what you’re building.

I’ve worked with thousands of makers and creative business owners over the years, and I’ve watched incredibly talented people spend years treating their businesses like hobbies while desperately wanting them to create business-level income. They invest in equipment, open the Etsy shop, build the website, take classes, learn SEO, make beautiful products and try every marketing strategy someone tells them they need to try.

But underneath all of that can still be this quiet little story running in the background: “There are already so many people doing this…. It’s just something I make…. I’m nobody special…. Do people really want to buy this stuff? I can’t charge these kinds of prices…. Who am I to call myself a business owner?..”

Those thoughts may seem harmless, but how you define your business changes the way you behave inside of it. It affects how you price, how confidently you talk about what you do, how consistently you market and even which opportunities you believe are meant for you.

That’s really what I want to talk about next Thursday. Not to become less of a maker, but how to finally let the business owner stand equally beside it.

I can’t think of a better room of people to have that conversation with, and I’m getting more excited by the day. Texas, here I come.

08/18/2026

Good energy isn’t meant to be hoarded.

Tell someone when you love their work. Leave the kind comment. Share their post. Recommend their business. Celebrate the win. Remind them what they’re capable of on the days they’ve forgotten.

Supporting someone else never takes a single thing away from you… and sometimes the encouragement you give so freely is exactly what helps someone keep going. 🫶🏻✨

08/17/2026

Heads up Flourishers! I’ll be LIVE in the Flourish group TODAY at 2:30pm ET sharing my Flourish Forecast: Fall/Winter 2026 Trend Report! 🍂✨

I’ve spent the past 6 weeks researching the patterns I’m seeing across retail, fashion, home, color, pattern, aesthetics and consumer trends, and pulling it all together to help you know what to make, design, source, curate, list and promote for the upcoming selling season.

There is SO much happening right now, and I have a ton to share, so grab your coffee, something to take notes with and come join me!

See you this afternoon! 🥰

07/29/2026

If you sell physical products, whether you make them, source them, curate them, or resell them, now is the time to start thinking about the season ahead.

Every year I spend countless hours studying what’s happening across the retail world and with consumer buying trends to help identify what’s gaining momentum before the busy holiday season begins.

On Monday, August 17, I’ll be sharing my Fall/Winter 2026 Flourish Forecast Trend Report live with members of our Flourish community.

We’ll explore: Trending color palettes, Popular aesthetics and design styles, Prints, patterns, and textures, Holiday and seasonal themes, Product development ideas, Materials to source and of course Vintage and resale trends 🙌🏼

📅 Monday, August 17 🕝 2:30 PM ET

This training is included with your Flourish Membership, where makers, artists, vintage sellers, and other product based business owners come together to learn, grow, and support one another.

I’m excited to share and brainstorm with everyone! 🧡

07/24/2026

Flourish members: join us LIVE today at 3:00 PM EST!

I’ll be chatting with Lyric Montgomery Kinard, artist, author, educator, and founder of The Academy for Virtual Teaching

Lyric will be sharing:

The Three-Step Promotional Video: Create Effective, Easy, Efficient Videos That Attract Customers and Boost Sales

Many creative business owners know video can help customers connect with their products and brands, but actually creating those videos can feel overwhelming.

What should you say? What should you film? Do you need special equipment? How much editing is required? And how do you create something that feels authentic rather than overly polished or salesy?

Lyric will share a simple, practical system for creating effective promotional videos using your smartphone... without adding hours of extra work to your week.

📅 Today, July 24
⏰ 3:00 PM ET

This event will take place on Zoom privately inside the Flourish Community and is available to Flourish members. Members can find the Live link inside our private Facebook group.

Not a member yet? You can learn more about joining Flourish here: https://sarahsewell.substack.com/subscribe

07/13/2026

USPS Updates 📣

If you ship with USPS (which I know many of you do), here’s a heads-up…

As of July 12, USPS rolled out several shipping changes that could increase costs for many Etsy, eBay, Shopify, and other ecommerce sellers.

Here are the biggest changes:

• USPS is now rounding every package dimension up to the next whole inch when calculating shipping. So if your box measures 10.1”, it’s now treated as 11”. Even small fractions of an inch can increase your shipping cost.

• The dimensional weight formula has changed which means lightweight but bulky packages may now be billed at a higher shipping weight than before. If you sell things like wreaths, signs, pillows, baskets, large framed art, home décor etc.. this one deserves your attention.

• USPS also introduced new HazMat rules, including a $50 non-compliance fee if hazardous materials aren’t declared correctly. This isn’t just for obvious chemicals… think perfumes, nail polish, aerosols, some adhesives, and products containing lithium batteries. Even reusing a shipping box with an old hazardous materials label still attached could create problems. 😳

A few things I’d recommend this week:

✔ Re-measure the boxes you use most often. A slightly smaller box may now save more than it used to.

✔ If you haven’t reviewed your shipping profiles in a while, now is a great time. Make sure your shipping prices still make sense.

✔ Double-check your packaging if you ship larger, lightweight items. Those are the sellers most likely to notice these changes.

✔ And if you reuse boxes (I know many of us do!), make sure every old shipping label and hazardous materials marking is completely removed before sending it back out.

Shipping has become one of those areas where tiny details can quietly eat away at your profit margins. Spending 30 minutes reviewing your packaging this week could save you hundreds of dollars over the next year. 🙌🏼

Flourish with Sarah

09/01/2026

08/28/2026

08/24/2026

08/24/2026

08/21/2026

08/18/2026

08/17/2026

07/29/2026

07/24/2026

07/13/2026

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