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And I'm trying to be strict about go to bed at bedtime, like when I put them down not to do work because otherwise I get all revved up into work and I'm up so excited and I'm up until midnight doing work and then I'm like, "Ooh, now I'm up at, you know, 5:00, 6:00 a.m." >> Hello Blue Jays and welcome to The Nest, stories about life after Manor College. I'm your host, Kelly Peiffer, Vice President of Marketing Communications and this is the best part of my day. My

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hope is that this podcast will encourage, inform, and inspire you, making you feel like at Manor College you belong here always. Before we get to today's guest, it is time for a segment of the show we like to call Did You Know? Where we will share a fun fact about Manor College that you may or may not know. Did you know that Manor College will feature a new EMT certification program on campus this fall? On July 28th, Manor College and VMAC Emergency Medical Services based out in Langhorne, signed an agreement to create a program.

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This hybrid program will allow students to study at their own pace while working towards national and state certification in EMT. Shane Wheeler, the CEO of VMAC, said that the organization wanted to work with a college that understood the value of an EMS education and was willing to create a pathway for working professionals. He said that Manor shares our commitment to accessibility, community service, and helping students build upon the experience they already have. That shared vision made Manor an

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ideal partner. For more information on this partnership and if you are interested in learning more about how to become an EMT and get certified, visit Manor website at www.manor.edu. Today's episode is sponsored by the Manor College bird feed. Did you know that some Manor College students struggle with food insecurities? Manor College is proud to be an official PA Hunger Free Campus. Our Bird Feed Food Pantry provides a vital lifeline offering non-perishable food and toiletry items to those in need, but we

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can't do it without you. Your donations of canned goods, dry goods, or financial contributions help us stock the shelves and ensure no one on our campus goes hungry. Help us prepare for the upcoming semester and learn that you can help today by visiting manor.edu/birdfeed. That's manor.edu/birdfeed. Today's guest hailing from right here in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania and an alumni of the Academy of the New Church, our guest arrived at Manor College with some big goals. To say she got involved on

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campus would be an understatement, but during her time at Manor, she didn't just join clubs, she practically ran student life. She was highly involved in 10 different organizations including serving as president of the Student Senate, two honor societies, Model UN, Passion for Fashion, and so much more. After graduating in 2015 with her associate's degree in business management, she transferred to Temple University to earn her bachelor's degree in business. Today, she brings that same high-energy

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leadership to her most important roles yet as a dedicated stay-at-home mom and a successful self-employed founder and brand developer. Please give a warm welcome to one of my favorite Manor College alumni, Sarah Gilbert. Hi Sarah. >> Hi, thanks for having me. >> Thanks so much for being with us today. So Sarah, start us off by sharing like how did you first learn about Manor and why did you choose to ultimately attend? >> Yeah. Um I'm pretty sure my mom was the first one that told me about Manor. I um

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graduated from high school and then I took a gap year, so a year off from college or from high school school before I decided to go to college. Um and honestly, I think I was a little like not even sure I wanted to go to college. Like high school just wasn't really my jam. Um, I had started my own muffin baking business, so I was really enjoying being entrepreneurial, having my own business. And I guess I uh was doing okay with it, but it was just like out of my home kitchen and it kind of felt like I got

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to a point where I was like, I need more customers, but I really don't know how to get more customers. Um, it felt like I just kind of reached as far as I could get without knowing some business knowledge and that was what kind of spurred me to go to Manor. Again, I think my mom like kind of seeing me being like, what do I do next? Like she both my parents, well, my mom does not have business experience. My dad actually had his own business a while ago, but like not in baking and marketing and stuff like that. So,

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I guess she encouraged me to go back because she really was like, I don't know, you go to go to college and figure it out. So, um, that's really why I chose um Manor and it was close to home, so I the original plan was I was going to continue my business while going to Manor. >> Oh, that's awesome. I I remember now the muffin business. I kind of forgot about that, but I remember we us doing a story about you possibly about the gap year cuz that was frankly a kind of groundbreaking. I mean, this is

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over over 10 years ago. That was really cool to have a student who not only took a gap year, but did it to run a company themselves. I remember your muffins had really unique like they were healthy muffins, right? Or something. Really unique flavors. Very cool. Yeah, and I love obviously, um, I always love it when a mom or a parent recommends Manor. We hear that so often. So often it's uh family, it's moms, aunts, sisters, particularly women are encouraging their their, you know, their family members to go to college and

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recommending Manor. I think it's the small family atmosphere that they're drawn to and they know that their child will be successful in that kind of atmosphere cuz it feels like home. So, love hearing that. Thank you, Mrs. Clymer. That's wonderful. So, Sarah, when you came to Manor, um you wasted no time getting fully involved. What was like the drive to get you motivated and like, you know what? I'm leaning in. I'm doing college full tilt. What was kind of like your motivation to have that perspective on

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your time in college? >> Honestly, I think it was like my high school and just the culture at my high school. It was very like you played three sports a year, like year-round sports, and you were involved in all the activities, and it was mostly I think because we didn't have enough students for you only to play one sport. It was like for us to have year-round sports, we needed all of the students, all the girls to play year-round sports. And I think I felt that still at Manor. It was

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like, if we want to have these clubs, we need people to be involved in them all. So, I just joined all of them so that there were people involved in the clubs. >> Yeah. >> Um I will say my planner is like very motivating, too, of like keeping track of things, and I just loved having like the full schedule and like checking off things and just getting stuff done. It's just very fun to me. Um to-do lists are my jam, so. >> Spoken like a true type A person right there. Yes. Um I remember your planner. Oh my gosh,

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Sarah, this is bringing me back. So, for our listeners and viewers, Sarah um was an intern of mine in the marketing team. So, I got to know Sarah and work very closely with her during her time cuz she added internship to her her things to do, and I now remember your planner and it being very meticulous and and the checking off. Um and it was a paper planner, right? It wasn't like a Google calendar or anything. It was like a paper. >> Yeah, multiple times. Yeah, I still use paper. Multiple times I've tried

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different I've tried Google, I've tried like apps on my phone, they just don't work for me. I mean like I guess if I had to, but it just doesn't click. I just need to be able to see it all like laid out. Um yeah. >> That's good. That's a good like pro tip right there. Write it out and the satisfaction of like crossing it out or whatever, you know, a check is very satisfying. I do agree with that. >> And I think writing it down is part of what sticks it in my brain. Cuz I'm not

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If I just like hear something, I definitely do not process it. It has to be like I need to read it um for me to process it. So I think also just knowing the way my brain works, like some people are auditory learners or visual, um I'm definitely not auditory and I have to see it. >> Yeah. Yep, I'm the same way. That's great. That's so cool. So kind of take us through like what was your Manor experience like on the academic side of the house? Obviously, you were very social and involved in a lot of

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activities, but like what about your your degree? You were studying before business and then how do you feel like you were prepared to transfer to a much larger institution, still studying business, but how did it kind of prepare you for that? >> Um so I first I'll say I started out as business administration and I actually talked to Elena, one of my Well, she was a year above me, but she was business management and when I heard that I was like, "Oh, you know what? Actually, business management kind of sounds more

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like what I would be interested in rather than the business admin." It was very slight differences, but um I made that change before transferring. And then when I transferred, I actually decided to uh major in marketing. Um and I'd say that it was a tough transition. I actually wrote a blog about it. That was something else that I did um just to like help other transfer students because there's so many things like um you take your classes, but then the other school's like, "No, you have to

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take that class here." Like I a couple transfer, but it's really a tricky like um transferring. Like I ended up losing a lot of credits just because the other school wanted me to take their class. Um so I wrote a whole blog about that and um but I think that like having that foundation of being involved really helped when I went to a bigger college cuz I knew like well I was already at this other college and I did all of the things. So I think I had more confidence going into the next school as a transfer

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student. Like going in as like a junior is tough too because I was put in a room with like a in the dorm with a freshman which is like I feel like in college there's like 2-year difference is a huge difference and I was already a little older to begin with cuz I had taken that gap year. So like that was a little tricky of like you know, I was over 21 and she was under 21 and it was just like a just a big difference. >> Yeah, socially different. >> Yeah, exactly. Like she was great and we you know, got

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along well and stuff but going in it was kind of hard to make friends but having that confidence from Manor I think helped. Um I got involved with like there was like a school newspaper and some articles for that and that was just a nice way to meet people without like I don't know, just I had the confidence to to get involved at a bigger school where I might not have otherwise. >> Yeah, you kind of have to go in like I don't know anybody. I'm older. I'm coming in while everyone else is already

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and coming in halfway through a 4-year experience here. So a little having a little confidence in your back pocket certainly I think would be needed to feel comfortable and then kind of you know, you're not at Manor anymore. You're not like in the comfort of a place that you were really comfortable at. >> Yeah. >> Um so that's that's good to hear that you you felt prepared it sounds like but maybe still a little unsure. >> Yeah. And like they you know, going into

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juniors like all the juniors already had friends or whatever but like the freshman the ones who were making friends with like having team-building exercises and stuff and yeah, it was just a weird dynamic transferring. >> Yeah, it is a weird dynamic, you know, and um you were a student at the time where Manor we didn't offer 4-year degrees yet. We offered them in 2018, and we've seen, you know, a big reason why we started offering them was because we heard from students so many times for so many years, like,

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"Please offer bachelor degrees so I don't have to transfer so I could just stay at Manor cuz I, you know, I started foundation here and then I have to leave." So, um luckily now for students they can just stay here and they can get business management here. They can get We have marketing. We're actually starting a new degree this year called digital marketing, and it's a hybrid degree. You can offer it um you can earn it either online or in person with hybrid classes. So, we're

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definitely seeing more and more students every year graduate with a bachelor's degree, which has been really exciting for us. >> Yeah, I really wish Manor had four um like 4-year bachelor degrees when I was there because >> Yeah. >> I feel like I was just getting going and like I mean, I honestly, I even though I transferred, I still kept coming back to Manor like to see people and to work and like >> Yeah. >> Yeah, it would have been so much better if I could have just stayed.

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>> I know. I know. Um but we're so grateful that you were able to come back and it was really We see that a lot of our alumni they still certainly feel an attachment here to Manor, which is really special. It's something that we definitely don't take for granted. So, kind of talk us through what things you've done in your career um and kind of what it's been like applying a business and a marketing degree to your career and kind of where your passions have fallen uh

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with your career-wise. >> Yeah. So, um when I Well, I guess even before I graduated, because I had taken that gap year, my boyfriend at the time um ended up going overseas to play professional basketball. And while he was over there, uh there were a few years where we weren't married yet, so I would just visit and then come back. So, I was doing um I guess finishing up my Uh I think I was interning with you a bit still, um babysitting, doing all the things. And then um once we got married,

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then I went full-time overseas with him. Um different European countries every year, so um I was never in like one place to have like a normal full-time job. And then in the summer times, too, we would come back to the States. Um so I was really just doing my own thing for years. I mean, still I am, but um so I don't even remember all the things I've tried. I did um I guess I started doing freelancing digital marketing, so I love that degree you guys are offering now, cuz that's really nice.

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Um I did that for a while. Um then I was doing some fitness coaching. Um I don't remember what else. Lots of things. Um a lot of stuff has been like I would say regardless of what the topic of the business was, it was always like using social media to reach people and um to grow my business, things like that. From and then I guess later too, I was doing stuff like for Instagram, like growing Instagram accounts, but like with real followers, not like nowadays they do >> Bots. >> all that stuff. So um I was helping some

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people with that. I was trying to do some like business coaching stuff with like people that don't understand social media, trying to teach them about that stuff. >> Mhm. >> Um I feel like you probably remember more of what I've done. >> I mean, it sounds like everything that you've done, I would say can be categorized in like helping people brand themselves, regardless if it's a coaching role or social media or marketing or fitness, whatever. But like you're teaching people why branding's

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important and then how to apply that branding to then market yourself, market your product, market your business. Um that's what I cuz I know like you've but you've had to keep trying different and I think it's really inspiring that you've tried so many different business avenues because of the like you're being a supportive girlfriend, a supportive wife. Like, you know, your husband, he's kind of got the job where like you just can't have a normal 9-5. You have to be

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flexible. Um and I think that's really telling, frankly, to like you and your relationship with him and really supportive and like super sweet. Um because like it's hard to put your career on hold. It's hard to really not take that role of like, "Oh, I'm cuz like you're super entrepreneurial, you're very motivated. You're obviously very type A. Like, you would thrive in a classic 9-5 environment. Um but like you value your relationship with him more and that's I think really cool to

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see that kind of live out. Um but I so out of all the roles that you've had so far, has there been like a favorite or like any one that stood out that's like, "Oh, that one, you know, if I could go back to that or maybe keep keep doing that. That one was really fun. I I'm really passionate about that one." >> Yeah, so I um most recently, I guess, I realized like over like time and time again, it was like I would create this business and yeah, I loved the branding part, coming up with the business idea,

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um like the initial startup, kind of like the hard part I feel like of the business, like the tons of work in the beginning part. >> Right. >> But I loved that part and I think that over time it was like I would start a business and then as soon as it was like set up and it was time to like find clients, I was kind of like next thing, you know? >> Mhm. >> And I kind of started to realize this pattern of starting a business and then moving on to the next thing and I'd

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start a business, move on to the next thing. So, um most recently what I did and what I think is probably my favorite thing so far is I had a print on demand business. And it was um baking puns on apparel. So, um like don't go baking my heart, but I would make the little design and put it on a shirt and then I had a it's print on demand, so I didn't have any inventory, but um I had a supplier that would print it for me and ship it directly to the customers and I just got to make the designs and I loved the

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design part. Um So, I worked on that and because I loved it so much, I did actually grow it for like 6 months, which for me, that's a long time like to stick to something. I was like, "Wow, look at me go, you know?" Um but then after the 6 months, I was um pregnant with my second child and kind of like, "Okay, I've been doing this for a while." And it was starting to feel a little like, "Uh." And I knew like having her and then having two, I was like, "I haven't had two before,

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obviously, so not sure how that's going to go." And I was feeling like, "Okay, I'm about done with this." But it actually had done very well. So, I didn't want to just have it like die off and have nothing happen with it. And you know, there were I had a lot of customers that really liked the designs and products and I spent a lot of time building it and um all the things. So, I um I think I went to ChatGPT and was like, "Can I sell this?" Because you hear about these million-dollar

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businesses selling for, you know, however much money and millions of dollars. But I was like, "This is not a million-dollar business. This is like I mean, maybe eventually someone grows it, but like you know, this is just my little part-time thing I was doing. Literally, it was during nap times and after my son went to bed um that I would work on it uh while we were in Luxembourg. Um and just using digital marketing and um So, it took like 6 months, I think, to sell it, but I found somebody online

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that um I used a website called Flippa. You put your website with like your um stats and everything and then um yeah, it took 6 months. Honestly, I got a lot of messages of like spammy people that I honestly kind of stopped reading the messages cuz I was like, "Whatever." Yeah. But then 6 months later, I got like someone actually made an offer and I was like, "Wait. Like, you're serious. You actually have money." That was kind of like, "What?" That was

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just in June that that happened. So then we like transferred over. He actually wants me to continue making designs for him, which is my favorite part. I was like, absolutely. Plus that's even better for, you know, working during nap time and trying to build a business. Um so I'm going to continue designing for him. And then I was like, well, that's only two designs a month. Like I still have, you know, I feel like I want a little bit more going on than just that. So >> Yeah. >> I was thinking about maybe doing graphic

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design, um like print on demand designs for other people, but >> Mhm. >> I don't have like Photoshop and Illustrator experience. So >> Mhm. >> a lot of people like on Upwork, I made an Upwork profile. They were like, for the requirements, they want you to know Photoshop and Illustrator. I just use Canva. Um and I kind of was like, you know what? Why am I trying to like struggling here to find clients? I'll just build my own business again and sell it again. So um

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that's where I'm at is I'm working on building a second business now, print on demand again. And um I'm going to list it on Flippa and see if someone buys it. And I think this time, because I'm realizing like I just love that initial branding phase >> Mhm. >> the designs and like putting it on Shopify for somebody to purchase. I think I'm just going to do that. I'm not even going to bother finding customers, necessarily selling the product, and I'll just hand it off as soon as it's

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all branded and set up. And the next person can run with it um and handle like Facebook ads, which I just >> Mhm. >> challenging to me. I've never really done all of those. So >> Mhm. >> Um but I'm really excited about it and um and I'm, you know, if one doesn't sell, I'll just keep building them. And if, you know, if two out of the three sell or one out of the three, like I'm still just having fun and hopefully make something with it and uh we'll see how

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it how it goes. So >> Yeah, I love that. Little nap time projects. I mean, that's really cool. Um wow, I love that. Thank you for sharing all of that. So, how how has it been balancing like being a stay-at-home mom and like that's your focus, but then also like being self-employed and like having some boundaries between the two? How has that been? >> Um I will say that I have a lot of help with my mom and my husband both help me out a lot with the kids. Um but also just like

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when the kids are awake, I make sure I do stuff that I can do while they're awake. Or like when they're asleep, I only like I'd sit on my computer and do work because that's something that my son obviously wants to help me type um every time I open the computer. So, working is definitely like nap time is when I get work done. Um I tried to kind of coordinate both of their naps at the same time because um my son is old enough, he's 3 and 1/2 now. So, he's a little more flexible on

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when he takes his nap. So, I try to do it whenever she's taking her nap. Um so that I get that down time. Um and I'm trying to be strict about go to bed at bed time like when I put them down not to do work because otherwise I get all revved up into work and I'm up so excited that I'm up until midnight doing work and then I'm like, "Ooh, now I'm up at, you know, 5:00 6:00 a.m." So >> Yeah. >> I need a lot of sleep, too. So >> Yeah. >> But it's so cool to hear that. Like I

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think it's important for moms particularly whether you're stay-at-home or you're working or you're part-time like to do something that fuels you in a different way cuz obviously like kids are fulfilling but also draining, you know? So, like having something that's a creative outlet, something that is really not involved the kids, something that's like just for mom to do. Whether that's a workout, whether that's a creative project or you know, craft or something. That's

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really cool to hear that you're still finding ways to do that. That's awesome. >> Yeah. >> So, Sarah, what advice would you give to college students today um about how to make the most of their college experience? What's your top piece of advice? >> Uh obviously get involved. That's like a Yeah. Um so get involved and also like don't be afraid to try things. Um and you know, try things both in college and also when you graduate. Um cuz I just kept trying things and trying things and

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I mean I graduated Manor in 2015, I think. Um after I transferred I graduated in like 2018 and maybe 2019, something like that. But it's like been years where um I've just been trying trying different things and I was starting to get a little discouraged because it's like I just keep doing these things and then they like don't take off, but really I give up before I give them a chance to take off and um I feel like I finally found something that like I'm really excited about and

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that will actually work with my lifestyle of moving and having kids and like um I guess also finding out your strengths. Um like knowing that I need a planner and I'm a visual learner, not auditory and um knowing that okay, I like the startup phase of a business and like I feel like so many times I was like, how do I like I love being entrepreneurial or like coming up with ideas? Like how can I make money off of that? How can I get paid to do that? And one, I feel like ChatGPT makes it a lot

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easier now to like figure out like you can just talk to it and figure out like what your >> Mhm. >> strengths are and how you can use those professionally or whatever, but um yeah. Uh >> Yeah. I mean getting involved is a great advice for obviously college students, but also like trying trying new things is scary. You know, um but it's important. That's what college is for. If you mess up, we are here to help you pick yourself up and figure it out. Um it's a great time to do that and

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that's frankly like a safe space. So I love hearing that. What's like um a favorite like Manor memory that you have? Cuz I know you were super involved and um Manor was definitely a special place for you. Do you have a favorite memory? It doesn't have to be like super meaningful, but just like a fun memory that stands out or um a student activity trip or something kind of fun on that. >> Um honestly, it seems so like mundane, but I think just hanging out in Ali's office.

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Um that was just like the go-to spot and uh like between classes, you got to use her bathroom rather than like the student bathrooms. We got like private bathroom. Um and just like getting to eat eat your snacks and uh talk and like she was just always such a good listening ear um to talk through everything and then often it turned into like also planning our next event or like and I just loved that um community and atmosphere of like we're having downtime, but like we're still being productive and like having

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good conversations and stuff. Um Like that and like I loved some of the student senate presentations that we did. Um just feeling like we're making a difference on campus and um like that these like really legit people around campus actually like came and listened to us for this presentation of like look we're the students, but they actually were listening to what we want to change around campus. So um that was really cool, too. >> Yeah. I definitely hanging out in Ali's office.  Ali Mootz, our Dean of

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Students. She um used to be the Director of Student Engagement. Maybe I don't know if she was that when you were here possibly. Um so she has a different office now. Doesn't have a private bathroom anymore in it, but um it was definitely a highlight for a lot of people and cuz also it was downtime, but like you also got stuff done. So you type A people really enjoy that. Um but yeah, you know, Manor is such a special place for so many because it just creates this environment of home and safe and family um and it's really

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really special for a lot of people for all those reasons and also the people that are here, the people that make it special because it's like your home away from home, Your friends, your aunts, you know, your cousins kind of like we're all a big family. So that's really cool. Um well Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today. It has been such a fun kind of trip down memory lane to hang out with you and to hear how you're you're just crushing it as a mom and as a wife, but also still finding time to

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explore your passions. And I just love hearing that for you and wishing you nothing but the best and thank you for living out the Manor College mission. You know, our goal is to educate students to serve society effectively and compassionately and you're doing that. You're doing that with your children. You're doing that with your business people you interact with. It's really cool to see you thrive and just wishing you nothing but the best. >> Yeah, thank you so much. Thanks for

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having me. >> Thank you for tuning in today. If you like what you heard, listen and subscribe on Spotify or YouTube. Stay up-to-date with all new episodes by following Manor College on Instagram at Manor College. And that's a wrap on another episode of The Nest, stories about life after Manor College. Remember Blue Jays, you belong here, always.