Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah Jenks.
Sarah, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I struggled with food and body image my whole life and always believed that if I could just lose 20 pounds, then I would be happy. After eating an entire bag of Dove Chocolate promises on the 3rd day of my seven-day juice cleanse in my early twenties, I decided that dieting and restriction weren’t in the cards for me after 15 years of failing. And without all of my energy going towards my diet, I had mental space to focus on my life, which, turns out, was super boring. So, I got to work to make it more fun and low and behold, I stopped overeating! Food was medicating my boring, stressed out an existence, and when I got better, so did my food. I was so excited about this discovery that I quit my job in advertising in 2009 to become an emotional eating coach. My online program for emotional eaters, Live More Weigh Less now has thousands of graduates.
As part of my healing journey from food, I discovered spirituality and sacred feminine practices. And living in San Francisco gave me access to so many modalities. I learned how to connect deeply with who I am and why I’m here and began to notice how many women feel stuck in a box. There is so much cultural pressure on women to be people pleasers, to keep everyone happy and to just be content with a husband, cute house and 2 kids, which keeps so many women stuck in a cycle of guilt and frustration. I felt called back to New England where I grew up to create a space for women to gather to take a hard look at our belief systems, where we give away our power and create foundations and strategies for creating a more authentic, aligned life.
Hawthorn Farm in Medfield came into our lives in a really magical way. I had written a very detailed 5-year plan about a property I wanted to own to share this work with women. Then, two weeks later, a house that checked every single box and more was on Trulia. And it happened to be own by my high school therapist who was the first person to support me with my body image issues. She had built a gorgeous round building where she also shared sacred feminine practices, and it seemed meant to be that I would carry the torch.
Hawthorn Farm Retreat is a 23-acre farm with open fields, walking trails through the forest, a spring fed lake, the Moon Lodge where all the magic happens and our home where I live with my husband and 3 kids. I lead full moon circles that are packed with cool women, we have yoga and many guest workshops and retreats lead by some of the wisest women in the area. Everyone told me that New England didn’t have any “woo woos” and that holding Full Moon Circles was going to be a struggle. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Women are coming out in droves. We are hungry for connection. We are hungry to let our true selves out. We are hungry to remember our magic.
Has it been a smooth road?
Oh HELL no. The first workshop I ever gave on emotional eating had three people there: my boyfriend, his roommate and the girl who worked the register at the cafe I was teaching in. And I did so much promotion for that workshop! And my first online program only had 8 women sign up. Now, I have 800 women in my online Membership: Whole Woman, thousands of graduates in Live More Weigh Less and 80 women show up for my in-person Full Moon Circles at Hawthorn Farm, so just because you start small, doesn’t mean you won’t be big someday.
Also, having babies while running a business is complicated. Especially when you are the primary breadwinner like I was up until a year ago, while my husband was in residency. I was needing to make all the money, be pregnant and be the primary parent to our toddler because Jonathan was at the hospital 90 hours a week. It was A LOT. My advice is to save way ahead of time for maternity leave and make your business as simple as possible so it doesnt bring you added stress. Motherhood is stressful enough.
The biggest struggle comes with my devotion to my business being a true expression of who I am. Life would just be a lot easier if I were selling cupcakes or designing a living room. But when the work you get paid for is also your Work with a capital W, then we leave ourselves vulnerable to the journey of growth and being in true alignment and integrity. Like if I launch a program that feels “salesy” or “schemey”, I’ll get leaks in my roof or lose my id or get strep throat as little reminders from the Universe that I am on the wrong track! I’m grateful for it at the end of the day, but it’s a pain in the ass.
We’d love to hear more about Hawthorn Farm Retreat.
I help women honor and integrate all parts of themselves: Their Bodies, Their Sensuality, Their Soul and Their Work, Their Relationships. Often, we only focus on one piece of the puzzle and leave the others to die. But in a woman’s system, all ships rise. When you are in alignment with your sensuality, motherhood is easier. When you have a strong spiritual practice, workflows. If we only focus on work and ignore other parts, our work suffers. If we only focus on mothering and ignore other parts, mothering, ourselves and our children suffer.
The Sacred Feminine honors the moon and mother earth, both of which have 4 distinct energies or seasons. We also have these 4 seasons in our biology as part of our menstrual cycle. We are built to be ever changing. We are built to be multifaceted, and ignoring this truth is making us sick.
Whole Woman, my online moonly membership is space for women to explore all parts of themselves, learn how to bring more magic into their lives, uncover what it is they truly desire and are meant to do, and find the courage and strategies to be that person in their daily life.
Live More Weigh is my emotional eating course.
And Hawthorn Farm is a place to connect with women on your same path, build each other up and explore the same concepts we talk about in Whole Woman.
I am so proud to have a space for cool women who are seeking a deeper meaning in their life. Everyone says the building is so beautiful and they feel such peace here, and they leave feeling busted open and more wild, creative and free. The joy, tears, revelations, and love that happen at Hawthorn Farm is incredible. I’m truly honored to hold the space for it.
What’s the most important piece of advice you could give to a young woman just starting her career?
Have the vision. Know where you are going so you can clearly see if each action is putting you on that path.
And, run the numbers! Get clear about how much you want to make and how you are going to make it. Take into account expenses and your time. I know people who struggle after years of hustling and when I ask them to pull up their budget sheet, they don’t have one. Turns out they aren’t charging enough to make it work, or they are spending way too much money on the business that their margins are terrible. You have to roll up your sleeves and get real about money, even if it’s uncomfortable.
You’re going to care about what other’s think of you, but you have to care about YOU and your dreams MORE. Your life is yours, so you have to do what it takes to make it awesome for you.
Contact Info:
- Address: Hawthorn Farm Retreat
Medfield, MA 02052 - Website: SarahJenks.com, HawthornFarmRetreat.com, WholeWoman.Me
- Email: sjbrajtbord@gmail.com
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/sarahjenks
- Facebook: http://facebook.com/jenks.sarah
Image Credit:
Katie Lenhart, Meghan Gregory, Jenny Moloney
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