She Lost a Third of Her Income. Then She Got to Work.

You don’t need to say more. You need to be felt.

You know that post you almost didn’t share? The one that felt too honest. Too quiet. Too much like you?

That’s the one that gets the DMs.

It’s not that people aren’t seeing your content. It’s that they’re not feeling YOU in it.

We’ve been told to be louder. Sharper. Always “on.” But the content that moves people? It doesn’t shout. It whispers just loud enough for the right ones to lean in.

Every time I watch my husband set crawdad traps, I think of this. He punches holes in a can of tuna, drops it in the trap, tosses it into the creek, and walks away.

No fanfare. No flashy bait. Just presence. And scent. And trust.

By morning, the crawdads are there. Not because he chased them. Because he knew exactly how to draw them in.

That’s how your best-fit clients show up, too. Not from selling harder. But from being more you.

And this week’s featured entrepreneur? She gets that.

Sarah Elkins lost a major revenue stream overnight... and didn’t panic. She climbed a mountain, listened for what was next, and built something more aligned, more sustainable, and more her.

She turned a setback into a story. A story into strategy. And strategy into magnetic, word-of-mouth business that doesn’t rely on being everywhere... just being real.

Let’s take a walk with Sarah…

Her Best Ideas Don’t Happen at a Desk

Sarah Elkins was on fire.

Not in the braggy, hashtag-hustle way. She was actually halfway up a Montana mountain, pushing her body harder than usual, legs burning, lungs protesting. The kind of fire you feel when something needs to change, but you’re not sure what.

She had just lost a third of her income. Not from poor planning. Not from slacking off. Just one sweep of a government pen that said no more state-funded soft skills training. And that was that.

For someone who had spent years coaching state agencies on communication and leadership using Gallup’s StrengthsFinder, it was more than frustrating. It was baffling. Especially since her work had actually lowered turnover and improved recruiting outcomes.

So she hiked. Hard.

And somewhere between the punishing incline and the summit, something clicked. Sarah realized her clients didn’t need more reports or proposals. They needed her to take things off their plate. They were drowning in meetings and tasks. They needed someone who could step in without training, without onboarding, and just fix what was broken.

She recorded the idea into her phone. Got home. Wrote it up. Then did something totally uncharacteristic for a woman with “activator” in her top five StrengthsFinder results.

She slept on it.

She’s the Communication Fix You Didn’t Know You Needed

Sarah works with companies that want more from their people and want to give more in return. Her focus is on real communication, not forced team-building or icebreakers that make everyone cringe.

She helps teams understand their own strengths and how those show up in conversations, decisions, conflict, and collaboration. She takes a tool like StrengthsFinder, which often gathers dust after the initial assessment, and turns it into a living, breathing part of daily culture.

She’s not reading from a script. She’s not handing over thick binders. She’s showing up in person, sitting with teams, asking better questions, and pulling out the stories that reveal what people really bring to the table.

The results are measurable. Lower turnover. Higher morale. Better communication. And people who actually like coming to work again.

Not Everyone Is Ready for Sarah. That’s Fine.

Sarah only works with organizations that genuinely care about their people. She’s not interested in checking boxes or making HR look good for a board report. If a company says they value employee development but won’t back that up with action, she’ll walk.

Her ideal clients are STEM-based companies with fewer than 400 employees. Engineering firms. Nonprofits. Mission-driven teams where good people are getting lost in bad communication patterns.

She’s especially passionate about supporting women in male-dominated industries. Too often, their stories go untold. Sarah helps them uncover the moments that shaped their path so they can be seen, heard, and considered for leadership.

She Used to Think She Was a City Girl

Sarah grew up thinking she was more desk than dirt. Then she moved to Montana. Slowly, her favorite memories started shifting. More outside. Less inside. She realized she’d always chased nature, even when she didn’t have the words for it.

Now, hiking isn’t just a habit. It is where she thinks best. It is part of her business. Her creative breakthroughs happen on a trail, usually when she’s not trying. Clients come to her for clarity. What they don’t always realize is how much of that clarity is born in the woods, not in a spreadsheet.

She doesn’t frame it as self-care. She frames it as strategy. Hiking is how she resets. How she solves. How she stays sharp.

From StrengthsFinder to Storytelling to Real Culture Change

Sarah is a Gallup-certified StrengthsFinder coach, a workplace communication expert, a keynote speaker, a podcast host, and a musician. But none of those labels really capture what she does.

What she does is this: she helps people feel seen. She helps leaders understand why someone’s frustration isn’t about attitude. It’s about misaligned strengths. She helps employees find words for the value they bring. She helps teams get honest about what’s working and what isn’t.

She teaches people to stop saying things like “I’m a team player” and start sharing stories that prove it.

Because anyone can say they’re adaptable or strategic or responsible. Sarah’s the one who will ask, “Can you show me?”

And she’ll help them figure out how.

Her Work Is the Opposite of One-Size-Fits-All

In one engagement, she might be leading workshops for small teams. In another, she might be doing one-to-one coaching with employees across different states. Sometimes she speaks at conferences, sharing the stage with top business voices. Other times, she’s sitting in a circle with a handful of people who aren’t quite sure why they’ve been called into a session, but leave feeling surprisingly heard.

Her clients come back. They refer others. They don’t just hire her once. They bring her in for years, gradually weaving her insights into hiring, onboarding, performance reviews, and even internal newsletters.

The work sticks because it’s not about theory. It’s about people.

Ready to Work with Sarah?

If you lead a team that’s smart but struggling to communicate…

If your organization is committed to growth but stuck in old habits…

If you believe that telling better stories could be the unlock…

Sarah Elkins is ready.

She’ll even take the call from the trail.

👉 https://elkinsconsulting.com