In Louisa May Alcott’s book Little Women, the protagonist, Josephine March, states, “I could have been a great many things.”
For those who have read the book you know that Jo March was actually a great many things — she just didn’t give herself credit. Many of us can relate to feeling as if we ‘could have been a great many things’ without giving ourselves credit for all that we have been, all that we are, and all that we have the potential of being. Sarah Harding has spent over 15 years helping others, especially moms, recognize their potential and manage their time in order to achieve their goals.
Sarah has been ‘many a great things’ — from a piano performance major to a psychologist, to a doula and breastfeeding educator to a nutrition counselor and residential treatment facilitator for at-risk youth to a Marine Corps wife and corporate project manager to an entrepreneur and successful business owner to a natural minded, homeschooling mom. Just to name a few. Sarah’s professional and personal experiences are wide. From an outsider’s point of view one could easily assume (and many have) that Sarah’s had it easy — that she probably came from money or had opportunities handed to her or that she sacrificed time with her children for a successful career — but those assumptions couldn’t be further from the truth.
As a latch-key kid, raising her younger sibling in a single-parent, very eccentric and chaotic home, Sarah grew up in “[…] frozen fish bowl, no electricity, below-poverty-level poverty.” But these experiences at a young age helped shape Sarah into who she is today. Sarah shared, “I look at every struggle as an opportunity and I’m not afraid of it. So, I’ve done a lot of things.” Without the fear of failure and being willing to take chances, Sarah jumped into life and hit the ground running. She worked hard and reaped the benefits: she had a doctorate and multiple degrees and certifications; she was a wife and mother; she was an online professor for colleges and wrote for magazines like Psychology Today and Live Strong Health; she managed each of their family’s homes as they moved with the military; she homeschooled her girls; and she created a simple system that not only allowed her to be a successful stay-at-home-entrepreneurial-mom but also a mom who helped other moms. In Sarah’s words, “I used to think I had it all — until I didn’t.”
After her third pregnancy, Sarah developed a debilitating chronic illness while her then-husband traveled for work — leaving her to solo parent their three children. For years Sarah had been helping moms in her community successfully manage their time so they could ‘do it all’ — and now, she could barely get out of bed. “In that moment, all I felt was cheated and angry.” So, in typical Sarah fashion, she decided to do something about her situation; however, she couldn’t have known how that seemingly easy decision would change everything!
Sarah shares, “I did the only thing I knew to do…I put my head down and created a solution.” Sarah wrote her feelings down in the form of a blog called Crunchy Super Mom. Her first entry was ‘So, You Want to be a Super Mom?’ “[…] it was an emotional article. It was like — you say you want this but you’re not willing to do this — speaking to moms that were basically looking at me like, ‘Oh she must not be spending time with her kids because she makes everything from scratch, she home schools, she cloth diapers and breast feeds, she baby wears, she has a clean home, and there’s just no way that she’s spending time with her kids too.’ But that wasn’t true. So, I wrote out a step by step list of things that outlined: if you want this, this is what you have to do. It was meant to be kind of a joke — an outlet. Well… I had over 1,000 subscribers within the first 24 hours of listing the blog and I really didn’t know what I was doing.”
Moms from all over began asking Sarah questions about everything: from how she managed life with a chronic illness to meal plans to holistic health to entrepreneurship to how to create a plan that fit their personal situations. Sarah’s blog quickly turned into a business where she created mini courses in addition to working closely with others to create custom plans. Sarah explained how supporting others also helped her, “Slowly but surely I pieced together a simple, sustainable action plan that allowed me to reclaim my time, focus, and energy. As time went on, my body started to heal and I emerged stronger in mind, body, and spirit.”
Crunchy Super Mom provided an avenue for Sarah to share her knowledge and experience gained from working as a counselor for women at a holistic health coaching program. She shared, “While working there I had access to all this mind-blowing research and I started writing for different health outlets talking about it — marrying science and evidence — what some people call natural wellness remedies.” It was a good fit. Years before meeting the owner of the program, Sarah was told that, because of some health issues, she wouldn’t be able to have children. In response, Sarah began her life-long studies about the correlation between illness, disease, environmental toxins, and food and diet. Sarah began detoxing and eating healthier; basically practicing what she was preaching. She shares, “When I got pregnant it was a huge shock!” Today, Sarah has three beautiful daughters who have inherited their mother’s entrepreneurial spirit — they run their own successful slime business via social media.
Crunchy Super Mom remains a successful health and wellness platform; however, as the years progressed Sarah noticed that more and more women were asking for her time management systems. With her world once again shifting — this time with divorce — Sarah rebranded Crunchy Super Mom to Sarah Harding Co. where she focuses more on time management and entrepreneurship. She explained, “We were married for 14 years and I don’t want to erase that […] so I just rebranded. In January I created a new program called The Social Selling Society. It’s all about using social media to grow your business. I teach: how to test your business ideas; how to develop what your audience is going to look like; how to speak to them; and how to create your foundation — website, blog, content etc. After sixteen years of entrepreneurship — I feel I’ve come full circle in a way. This program is what I would have needed to get to where I am at today — obviously I’m here — so now I’m teaching women — starting from the beginning.”
There are many things in Sarah’s life that seem to have come full circle — by design. If we go back in time to 2014 we’d find Sarah on a road trip that would bring her to Midway through Gaurdsman Pass. “I thought, oh this is a great little Utopia, but gosh I would not like to go through the mountain to get to my town.” She laughed as she recalled, “At that time I didn’t know there was another way to get to Midway.” A few years later while speaking in Salt Lake City, Sarah made a wrong turn in Park City and ended up once again in Midway. When Sarah knew she was getting divorced she came back to Utah specifically to find a place to raise her girls. She shared, “I moved into an apartment in South Jordan with plans to eventually buy a house there. My realtor told me about a home for sale with a really great kitchen, but it was in a town called Heber and I was like — that’s in the middle of nowhere!” Sarah decided to check it out anyway and, as fate — or divine intervention — would have it, her GPS stopped working and Sarah ended up in Midway again! “I was like it’s that stinking town — what is this place — I called her and said, ‘I don’t care what the house looks like I want to buy it.’” Sarah and her girls have been her for two years now and Sarah shared, “I just feel like I was meant to be here for my girls and I haven’t been disappointed at all. […] There are a lot of small business owners, a lot of entrepreneurs, and so I felt right at home.”
Once settled in — Sarah didn’t sit still at all — she immediately began to reach out to others in the community and make connections. She explained, “I feel that I’ve been gifted with the ability to serve. I see chaos and I can turn it into calm and peace for other people. After I observe you personally — I can look at your life and I can listen to your struggles and I can put it down on paper in an organized fashion and then give you ways to adopt that as your lifestyle. I have no idea where that comes from. It’s probably a combination of God, education and just life.” Sarah also has a natural knack for connecting people. She says, “I’ve been called a super-connector. It’s hard to put into words, but when I meet someone new and they’re describing something to me, I’m like ‘Oh, I’ve met someone that you need to meet.’ It’s like having a rolodex in my brain.”
While married, Sarah and her girls moved all over, she shared, “[…] setting down roots and finding community has been difficult. But I’m committed to living here and contributing to what makes this valley so great. I feel like my girls and I have finally found our community.” Sarah has aspirations to open a physical business here in Wasatch County, but in the mean time she’s happy meeting and connecting with others. “I’m not sure if people realize how big our small business-slash-online-digital entrepreneur circle is here. It’s impressive for a small rural town.” Sarah hosts events at her home and organizes community outings every quarter. Her goal? For us as community members to not only connect but learn that we too, can build the life we want for ourselves and our families in the nooks and crannies of everyday living; becoming ‘the great many things’ we are destined to be.
I see chaos and I can turn it into calm and peace for other people.
Instagram: @thesarahharding
Facebook: Simple Systems with Sarah Harding
