Today, we’d like to introduce you to Sara Davis.
Hi Sara, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today.
Though originally from Wyoming, I have bounced around the US (and Canada) quite a lot. In the process of earning my degrees, I’ve lived in Arizona, Montana, Alberta, Iowa, and New York. I finally moved to Jacksonville in 2020 to join UNF as an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. It was a weird time to start a new job in a new city, and I spent the first year here without feeling very connected to my job or community because I taught completely on Zoom. Then, in December of 2021, I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 34.
As I’m sure you can imagine, that experience completely changed the course of my life. I went through intense chemo, a double mastectomy, radiation, six more months of oral chemo, and am now on an immunotherapy agent called Verzenio for two years, have had my ovaries removed, and will be on a hormone suppressant for 5-10 years. It hasn’t been fun, but it did end up leading me to finding “my people” in Jacksonville through a dragon boat team for breast cancer survivors. I was aimlessly scrolling the Meetup app one day, looking for something to do, and found a team coached by my now dear friend, Bekah Alenduff.
This experience literally brought me back to life. I spent a lot of time on the water when I was growing up, but had lost that side of myself through all of the moves and the general business of life. But the second I dipped my paddle in the water again, I knew I was home. As I gained my strength and became more involved with the organization, I started to help out with some marketing materials and merchandise design.
This quickly turned into a passion project, and my little Etsy shop was born: PGB Trading Company, named after my mother, who passed away suddenly while I was in treatment. I realized that I had found a relatively untapped market and have grown my business into a small print-on-demand shop specializing in dragon boat and outrigger canoe apparel. This, in turn, opened all kinds of doors for me – I’ve designed team gear for paddling crews in various places across the US (and Canada), which has been a great way to network as an entrepreneur but also as a paddler.
When Bekah and her business, Get Outdoors Fitness, started her outrigger canoe (Nalu Uliuli) and dragon boat club (the Duval Dragons), I offered to similarly help with promotion, recruitment, and design, and that has also been an incredible opportunity for me. Bekah (along with several other local paddlers) is an incredible athlete and has strong connections to the paddling community in Florida and nationwide. Not only have I grown as a paddler, but I’ve also enhanced my business connections, which have supported me through this next stage of my life. Soon, our team for breast cancer survivors, the First Coast Dragons, will be launching from the Arlington Marina, and I couldn’t be more excited.
I still have my full-time “day job” at UNF, and I love my campus community, students, and colleagues. But after going through cancer treatment, I felt like I needed to spend more time doing things that bring me joy. Cultivating real friendships, creating beautiful things, and getting to experience the beauty of the outdoors every day brings me so much joy. I’m grateful that I am a part of this community and have the opportunity to give back to it.
We all face challenges, but would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Aside from my general health struggles, there have been a lot of lessons learned in my entrepreneurial endeavors. There’s a big difference between making fun t-shirt designs and running a successful apparel business, and it’s taken some time to learn the ropes. Securing capital to create and maintain inventory has been the largest struggle.
One of my primary motivations for starting this “side hustle” was to supplement my income and recover from the debt that I accrued during treatment. If I stopped to think before jumping in, I might not have chosen retail sales as my safety net. However, I have the support of friends and family who purchase products from my store (even if they don’t do any kind of paddling), who have recruited me to create designs and keep sharing my social media posts.
I’m still a “small fish” in a huge ocean of online retailers, so the learning process isn’t finished. But I’ve come to appreciate even incremental progress as a success. It can be a little like paddling against the wind at times; you might not feel as if you’re moving and may even feel like you’re moving backwards. But the winds can change just around the corner, and that hope keeps me going.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I think the thing that I appreciate most about myself is my ability to persevere through tough situations. I’m not sure how, but I’ve cultivated a mental toughness that has inspired me to not give up, even when the future has been very dark. My motto through treatment (and life) is, “The only way out is through.”
That mantra kept me going through chemo, through my first DONNA marathon in February of 2024, and even through my financial struggles in the aftermath of treatment. That’s not to say that I don’t have my moments of self-pity or sadness, but I let myself have those moments and then turn to what’s next.
Risk-taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
My first reaction to “risk-taking” is that I am risk-averse to fault. But that’s not entirely true. Throughout my adult life, I’ve had to go through several large life changes and challenges that required me to take action based purely on the faith that things will work out.
That faith has sometimes been unfounded, but every misstep has led me to where I am today, and I don’t think I would change a thing. I often think of the Hermann Hesse quote, “In all beginnings dwells a magic force. For guarding us and helping us to live.” Embracing the unknown can be frightening, but you’ll never take flight if you’re unprepared to fall.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.pgbtradingcompany.etsy.com, https://www.gofundme.com/manage/saras-breast-cancer-support-fund
- Instagram: @sarasaurusrex87, @pgbtradingco
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556654820572
- Other: getoutdoorsfitness.net
