We’re looking forward to introducing you to Sarah Marie Shoulak. Check out our conversation below.
Sarah, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
With the summer storm season in full swing here in Central Florida, the daily thunderstorms make me long for the cozy vibes we’ve created at home. My fiance and I recently relocated to a spacious townhome from a cramped condo in the heart of downtown Orlando.
This change of pace, and upgraded space have given me the room to get expansive and creative again. Recently, I’ve been doubling down into the category of “old lady crafts.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m not jumping on a trendy bandwagon. I was knitting baby blankets when it was unpopular to in high school.
But this time, I’m taking my time with them. I’m enjoying the intricacies of embroidery and thread painting. I’m trying my hand at crocheting. I’m appreciating the art of mending clothes; it’s a beautiful progression of this genre I’ve always loved. Plus, it cuts down on screen time.
These hobbies aren’t loud and they’re only expensive if you’re indecisive. They’re also easy to set down and come back to, which is great for neuro-spicies like myself. Plus, any craft that includes stabbing things repeatedly is always a bit more cathartic.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
In a nutshell: I am a creative force. Although my day job is a bit standard (HR), it’s the side hustles and passions that fuel my soul. The plight of the 9 to 5’er. For years, and all through college, I made art on the side and moonlighted as an artist who just couldn’t stop creating. I feel called.
Despite my humble materials and lack of resources in a city that was new to me, I was still showcasing my work in galleries. That included Art Basel in Miami. It was a surreal experience and I was honored to participate every time every time a new show would accept me.
Typically working with recycled or repurposed materials, I loved letting my creativity find its own way: I didn’t lock myself into a niche. I just kept seeing what was around the next corner. Recycled mosaics led to recycled cosplay props. That led to SFX makeup and bodypainting.
Eventually, my dream was coming true and I was painting murals. The lessons I learned in business were applicable in the art world and vice versa. Despite spending over a decade trying to keep these identities separated, I saw that the real superpower was having both skill sets.
Along with coaching sessions for private clients, I’d share some of these revelations in an anthology titled, “Wisdom Before Me.” I was able to contribute to this book alongside my mother and great inspiration, Judy Shoulak. We each wrote a chapter with the prompt being, the advice you would give a younger version of yourself about your lessons learned.
The next event I’ll have a booth at in-person will be at the 2025 Orlando Maker Faire in November. Check them out and swing by if you’re in the area!
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who taught you the most about work?
When I think about work ethic the first person I think of is my mother. For as long as I can remember, my mother has been a hard worker. More than that, I’ve just always seen her working. She has her moments of relaxation, but they’re few and far between.
I remember her working late and even on weekends when I was a kid. Maybe some of those were golf outings as she climbed the corporate ladder, but a lot of times she was going into the office. As her career continued to take off, she would work longer hours and travel, too.
Not wanting to miss a beat, I was quick to follow in her footsteps. I’d read the same professional development books as her and try to learn lessons from her wisdom. As soon as I was old enough, I’d go in and help their team organize the files, or do little tasks to feel helpful.
This showed me value, but also commitment and how you can build trust with people by showing up and doing what you say you’re going to do. Even though I knew she was human, she still felt like a superhero to me because it felt like there wasn’t anything she couldn’t do.
Since I had a stay-at-home dad, it felt extra exciting to see my mom provide for our family thanks to her hard work and dedication. I also had two brothers, so the girl power was strong with my mom and I. We also never seemed to go through that “I hate you / you don’t understand me” teenage phase.
I knew that I wanted to be as successful as my mother. So, to me, that meant that I’d need to be working as hard as her for as long as I could.
When did you stop hiding your pain and start using it as power?
Unfortunately, that mortality caught up to my mother and when she was diagnosed with breast cancer, it was hard to feel connected to the family while I was out taking advantage of life and its opportunities in Denver for my undergraduate degree. When some may have clung closer to the family unit, I seemed to dive into the other direction, and seek solace from a bottle.
It felt easier to lean on substances to make me feel better or numb the pain. Tattoos helped that, too; finding “the pain you choose” able to take away from the kind you have to feel (grief and chronic pain).
Plus, when I was still achieving my Master’s Degree and finding success with the art world, it was easy to rationalize the lifestyle… for a while. In AA, they say that, “Your rock bottom is when you stop digging.” That’s just what I needed to do. I needed to stop having so many excuses for the things that weren’t going well in my life and I needed to find some accountability.
After kicking drinking, I quit smoking cigarettes shortly after. I felt unstoppable, the way I saw my mom growing up. But, this time, it wasn’t a naive way of thinking that someone is just strong no matter what. It was a pride in the inner strength and commitment I was capable of. Just like how my mom beat her breast cancer within a year.
When you quit drinking, your life changes. It doesn’t *poof* and turn into a fairytale where everything is perfect, but it definitely changes your close relationships, your habits, your hobbies, and so much more. In some ways, it’s complicated to navigate and takes time and a lot of grace. It makes you see what poor behaviors you have that you can’t blame on the a-a-a-alcohol anymore.
It was about five years into my sobriety that I started speaking out about the life choice and then I started Sober Betties where our mission is to unite the sober and dry-curious in a welcoming way to celebrate the choice to drink less alcohol rather than harp on all of the bad choices that came from it. Not everyone has had a traumatic experience with alcohol. Some people just want to have the same kind of networking as Happy Hours, but in sober-friendly spaces.
The response to our social group was exciting and made me feel like sharing my story and experiences wasn’t something to be ashamed of. It was something I could celebrate and be proud of. We all have things in our past that we would do differently if we could, but I want to inspire people to make positive changes before it’s too late.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
So many times, people are waiting to be told that something is bad so they should stop doing it. Sometimes, people know things are bad and just blatantly still do them. Smoking cigarettes is a perfect example. There’s no real reason for it and it’s a pretty gross habit, all things considered. However, it can give you that sweet hit of stress relief once you’re hooked, so there’s always a reason to need one – I mean to have one.
But, there can be problems brewing and starting before it’s full-blown cancer and then by the time a doctor says, “Hey, we really need you to stop, for your health,” you’ve just been doing it too long already. The damage is done.
That’s what I felt was going to happen with my alcohol consumption. It wasn’t just what I was doing once I was inebriated, it was how much I was drinking a day that concerned me, too. But, it still probably wasn’t close to some people’s levels. I’d often get told “You’re not even that bad” when I shared that I wasn’t drinking with my drinking friends. It was all about perspective.
I was done with it when I said I wanted to be done. But society is so bugged out by someone else not drinking that they’d rather shame that person back into drinking before they’d evaluate their own relationship with alcohol. It’s like it’s ok to blackout or be faded on the regular if your doctor says your liver is fine. People don’t want to stop until they have to and then it’s even harder to.
That’s one belief that I used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong. Danger isn’t sexy. It can seem like it is because you’re “getting away with something” or getting close to being bad without really doing anything wrong. That rebelliousness of being naughty. But, it’s just not worth it to me anymore. Danger may be exciting, but I no longer consider it attractive or appealing. It’s actually pretty offputting now.
It’s funny to think about how different that thinking is for me because I was quite the thrill-seeker myself. It feels like maturing to see the world from this fresh perspective and do what’s right for me. This also helps me make more pragmatic decisions about my work, my commitments, and relationships.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What are you doing today that won’t pay off for 7–10 years?
As I’ve gotten older and my chronic pain issues have quickly gotten worse, I have different goals in life. Before, I wanted a rock star lifestyle. I thought it was all about going fast, doing it all, living fully and not caring if I die young. There wasn’t anything to live for except the next adventure. Anything was worth it if you’d get a good story.
Now, I’m engaged, I see a future, and I want to see how long I can stick around after all. This changed perspective has made me flip all kinds of patterns on their heads. I’m more conscious of how much I eat, how much I work out, how much I stress – everything I just left on autopilot before. I now not only want to be involved, I want to positively impact my own life as much as possible.
While I’ve lived for decades subscribing to the idea that helping others will then help me in return, I now understand that I need to help myself first. I won’t be any good to anybody if I’m burned out, stressed out, and my auto-immune levels are all out of whack. I can do and be my best when I give myself the best treatment of all.
Even though these changes won’t change my life tomorrow, they will hopefully help me protect my body and mind from deterioration. That’s also why I chose to invest in my own memoir manifesto, where I wanted to share some of my deeper journey with the world. In 2026, I’ll be publishing a book about my life with the help of Soul Speak Press, a boutique publishing house that specializes in more “gritty” stories that are tougher reads, but show what these women have been through.
I’m honored to be included in the list of authors who have worked with them and I can’t wait to see how the finished product turns out. In my book, I’ll share stories about my near-death experiences, things that I thought would never happen to me, and things that changed me forever. In those pages, I bare my soul for the reader and encourage them to see beauty in the dark parts of their own life, too.
For me, the important part of a legacy is the lessons that you leave behind. Did they learn that lesson because of fear or inspiration? Some people have inspirational lives because they offer a warning. “Don’t do this, or you’ll end up like me.” It could be ominous. Or, your life can touch people in a way that compels them without reason. They’ll want to make changes simply because they saw that living that way was possible with you. That’s how I want to live and be remembered.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://kaluohs.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarahmarieshoulak
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahshoulak/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kaluohs
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/kaluohs
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/kaluohs
Image Credits
Fantasy Focus Photography
David Lawrence
