Canvas Rebel Interview
I had the privilege of being interviewed by Canvas Rebel a few weeks ago and the interview has been published!
Here’s a short preview:
““We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Andrea Webb a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Andrea, thanks for joining us today. How’s you first get into your field – what was your first job in this field?
I got my first job in the field by, quite literally, making it up. Bruce Lee said, “To hell with circumstances, I create opportunities.” and I had scribbled those words onto a worn, old sticky note in my journal. I was in my twenties and starting over nearly from scratch after a rather intense divorce. I had two toddlers, no college education, very little ‘formal’ work experience and more determination than was probably wise. I needed a way to make money in order to support myself and survive the ‘brave new world’ I had thrown myself into, and I also needed a way to care for and tend to my sons – which I felt impossibly fierce about. I had more obstacles than options, and so I started creating. I had some skill and many years’ experience working with plants and herbs – it’s what I knew and had some confidence in sharing. I started the first sketch of my current business during naps and after bed, staying up all night designing labels, creating formulas and marketing on Facebook and then spending the day hours caring for my kids and dealing with meeting our daily needs.
I created a small line of organic herbal salves that I sold tin by tin to friends and neighbors. I blended a variety of herbal teas and offered samples. It was very slow going, but the work fed me in a way I’d never experienced before. Pushing past exhaustion, I decided I could probably teach some of these more basic skills and I set up my first workshop – “Salve Making 101”. We met in an old barn after bedtime and I had served warm, homemade scones. I made a batch of salves in front of the generous and curious group that attended, carefully explaining each step which I also outlined in a small booklet of printed notes folks could take home. That night I made over $500- and with it I bought my Life. It was so much more than just the grocery, gas and bill money I badly needed; it was Confidence, Hope and Freedom. I had never been that happy or felt that Alive. I called my mom and told her I was going to be ok. After a rather long life of surviving, I found what I wanted to do forever. I wanted to start a school that helped people develop kindly working relationships with their local herb folk.
It’s been an arduous path, but in January of 2023 I was able to make the leap and open my private practice full time and start that little school. I am terribly happy and pressed to the ground with gratitude to have been able to create the first step that’s lead me here, now.
Read the rest HERE: Meet Andrea Webb - CanvasRebel Magazine