Meet Sarah Coleman of Colorado Springs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Coleman.

Hi Sarah, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I grew up going to Auctions and antique stores looking for Victorian pieces with my parents. Fast forward to my adult life, My Husband, David and I own D Coleman Photography and shot weddings full time for 18 years until the pandemic. I had always enjoyed vintage as my fun hobby/side gig for some extra cash. Once we were confronted with losing our main income with wedding photography, we quickly dove in head first and pivoted into reselling vintage as a full time job as a team @Junk_Drunk_Mantiques and I are vintage enthusiasts with a passion for all things antique – 1980’s – I have an eye for kitsch and all midcentury pretties! I have been a full time reseller since 2020 and have live sales on my YouTube channel and have sold vintage for 11 years now! I got my start with Instagram vintage selling by posts and in 2014 created a huge successful network which helped many people grow their small vintage businesses for over 8 years. I now hold weekly sales on my YouTube channel on Wednesday and Sunday Nights at 6pm mountain time. I am finding time to post some “shop with me” and haul videos as I can. I don’t love making content, but I sure do love my job! My favorite part is researching the history of my items and sharing the provenance with my buyers!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I feel like anything worth doing can be scary and difficult. I learned so much from working for AT&T for years in my young adulthood and then transferred my knowledge to my self employment with our photography business and of course, applied my small biz knowledge to vintage and went all in with the love of curating and resale.
I started my crafting biz in 2012 that led to this vintage journey out of mourning, sadness, and deep depression with some very personal hardships that I faced from childhood on into circa 2009-2014. Healing from C-PTSD has been a process, and will ever continue, I’ve come a long way.
I’ve learned to love and embrace what makes me different and brings me joy and how to incorporate that into paying the bills. Lesson learned? Place your mental health first, from that, all good things will flow. Starting my crafting biz from a place of pain that evolved into something beautiful that has paid the bills and been very rewarding! Smooth or easy? No, it has had it’s challenges, like any self-employment does, but if you apply your work ethic and go all in, certainly worth it! Keeping inventory stocked is my biggest challenge currently, which is a wonderful problem to have in this business!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
After selling these items as a hobby and then a full-time jobby, its been a journey that started in 2012 with me upcycling old brooches into jewelry and art pieces. I became a bit of a vintage “purist” after learning more about jewelry and no longer used it in my pieces deconstructed, but decided to sell the vintage pieces as they have been found.
What sets me apart? Silly Quirkiness, Genuine Care for my customers as human beings, Community built through our chat and FB group. We are “jack of all trades” sellers and appreciate all styles from cottage core to Midcentury Modern, if we can ship it, we will sell it, early 1900’s thru 1980’s! I personally cannot nail down one era as my fave style, so I have an eclectic eye and home!

We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
For me, the true definition of success isn’t traditional.
It’s having the free time to enjoy your life, the financial freedom to enjoy your passions and hobbies, a meaningful partner with the same life goals and mindset, decorating your space with what brings you absolute personal joy. Most importantly, NOT going along with the crowd, and paying it forward being a good human and steward of our environment and doing your best to bring good energy to situations. My life motto is by Ram Dass; “We are all just walking each other home.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/TheTravelingButtonSarah?utm_source=linktree_admin_share
• Instagram: http://Instagram.com/the_traveling_button
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/540376568241430/?ref=share_group_link
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thetravelingbuttonvintage
• Other: https://www.ebay.com/usr/thetravelingbuttonjunkdrunkmantiques

Image Credits
D Coleman Photography