Creative Business Speaker
Speaking & Workshops
Honest, engaging conversations about building a creative business and forging your own path.
Lessons from more than a decade of building a product-based brand from the ground up.
Storytelling & Branding
Real Stories From Building a Creative Business
Susan Hazel Rich is a designer, illustrator and the founder of Hazelmade. In 2014, she left a corporate graphic design career to build a product-based brand rooted in storytelling, craftsmanship and meaningful connection.
Through her speaking engagements and workshops, Susan shares the honest realities of building a creative business. Her talks explore the challenges of entrepreneurship, the importance of storytelling in branding and the lessons learned from forging a non-traditional career path.
Blending personal experiences with practical insights, Susan’s presentations encourage audiences to rethink success, embrace uncertainty and build businesses that reflect their values.
Who It's For
Ideal Audiences
Susan's presentations resonate most with audiences navigating creative careers and entrepreneurial paths. Her candid and engaging approach offers practical motivation for a friendly push to the next level.
Women Entrepreneurs
Find validation and assurance from Susan's perspective.
Artists & Creatives
Lean to balance the practical side with the creative side.
Emerging Business Owners
Hear from someone who's been where you are now.
Product-Based Brands
Gain a perspective from someone with years of experience.
Speaking Style
A Grounded and Honest Approach
Forging your own path can feel isolating. Susan speaks openly about the lessons she learned while building Hazelmade and the challenges that shaped her journey.
Rather than presenting a polished success story, she offers a transparent look at the realities of entrepreneurship. Her presentations combine storytelling with practical advice, creating a space where audiences feel inspired, energized and supported in their own journeys.
“We’re told our lives are supposed to follow an upward trajectory. But building something meaningful rarely follows a straight path.”
Susan Hazel Rich
Practical Insights for Creative Businesses
With more than 20 years of experience in branding and entrepreneurship and a product line carried in over 600 independent retailers, Susan shares practical insights with audiences navigating creative careers.
Storytelling & Branding
Find Your People
Learn how Susan built a narrative experience around her brand and leveraged storytelling to do more than sell products. Learn how to stand apart from a sea of competitors through meaningful connections and relationship building.
Retail Environments & Display Design
Make Your Space Work for You
Through interactive workshops or roundtable formats, Susan shares practical and proven tools, backed by consumer-behavior research, to let products shine at pop-up markets or in brick-and-mortar stores.
Building a Product-Based Business
Learn from Someone Who's Done the Work
Strategies and guidance to navigate the early years of building a product-based business. Susan unpacks the complex world of wholesale from establishing and maintaining buyer relationships to expanding your reach and generating leads that will last.
Signature Talk
The Failure Cushion™
We’re often told success should follow a clear upward path. In reality, building a creative career rarely looks that way.
In this talk, Susan shares the lessons she learned while building Hazelmade, including the pivots, setbacks and failures that ultimately shaped her business. Through honest storytelling and practical insights, she encourages audiences to embrace uncertainty and redefine what success looks like in their own journey.
- Entrepreneurs
- Artists
- Young Professionals
- Students Emerging Into the Workforce
- 45-Minute Keynote Presentation
- 15-Minute Audience Activity (optional)
- Conversation and Connection Driven
- Kent State University, School of Visual Communication Design, 2019-2025
- Flourish Women in Finance, 2023
- The Diamond Experience, University of Akron, 2024-2025
Notes From My Clients
As an artist, entrepreneur, and business-owner, Susan’s many talents shine through in these sessions
“We have worked with Susan and Hazelmade since 2022. Each session just gets better and better. As part of our graduate-level professional development program, Susan speaks on the topic of Celebrating Achievements which is often ignored. The idea of self-celebrating can be difficult and Susan has a great ability to enhance this thinking and bring it to the forefront for all participants. As an artist, entrepreneur, and business-owner, Susan’s many talents shine through in these sessions and with our partnership. We’re excited to continue working with her and Hazelmade and create even more opportunities for our students at UA.”
- Jeff Klemm, M.Ed.
Senior Director, Professional Development & Strategic Engagement, The University of Akron
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