Meet Sarah: the Captain of Content Marketing
This post is part of a weekly series in which we get to know Sifties.
Sarah Beldo leads a team focused on content and events and has been with Sift Science for two years. If she could time travel, she’d want to go to Paris in the 1920s to hang out with the artists and writers because it’s always seemed like a bohemian and decadent time.
Where is your favorite place to be?
Barcelona and the whole Costa Brava region. When I was in my mid-20s, I traveled there to teach English and it was truly a life changing experience — I met my husband, I met so many other people from all over the world, and I learned a lot. I love the spirit of the city with its eccentric modernist architecture, Gothic quarter, and cool bars. It has a magical feeling that reminds me a lot of San Francisco. I also really love how people eat dinner at 10:30 at night and take breaks during the middle of the day. It’s a different pace of life that I really appreciate.
What skill would you love to learn?
I’d love to be able to play all different types of instruments and sing really well. I played piano and trumpet when I was younger, but I wasn’t disciplined enough to get really good at it. Music can be such a collaborative experience, and it would be cool to be part of a band. I read that Prince played 27 different instruments on his debut album and wrote a new song every day. So basically I want to be Prince.
Where were you born?
I spent the first 18 years of my life in Menominee (population 9,000), which is in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. It’s a remote area that few people have heard of, and it’s even left off some maps as if it didn’t exist. But the residents are generally okay with that. “Yoopers” like to do all kinds of outdoor activities, like snowmobiling, ice fishing, deer hunting. Even though I have a lot of loyalty to where I grew up, I basically started plotting my escape to the big city in elementary school.
What did you want to be when you were a kid?
A cartoonist. I was really into the comics in the Sunday newspaper and would look forward to them all week long. I was obsessed with Peanuts and created my own rip-off comic strip called Bundles the Cat, which had the same plot lines as Peanuts but with a cat.
Later, I was really into the dark sense of humor of The Far Side. I had a notebook with a list of jokes about death and snakes, and I was just waiting to meet the right illustrator to bring them to life.
You’re a pretty big foodie. If you could open a restaurant, what would it be like?
I’d love to open a restaurant that has a “school” theme — all meals would be served on trays, the menu would be written on a chalkboard, and the waiters and waitresses would be wearing school uniforms. It would be called The Academy. I got this idea when I realized that my favorite part of the Harry Potter movies wasn’t the magic, but when they were just hanging out in the school and going to class. I’m not sure what kind of cuisine I’d serve, though. Maybe British roast dinners.
