Sarah Waylett

About Sarah Waylett

Hi, I\'m Sarah! I am obsessed with Resilience and Innovation—especially when it comes to creating change through new product and service development, employee and customer experience, and the power of culture, community, and learning. Throughout my career, I\'ve led white space initiatives and built motivated, high-performing teams to bring innovative ideas to life through deep research, design thinking, and agile experimentation, followed by immersive learning experiences that support meaningful adoption and transformation.I’m also a recovering perfectionist and serial burnout-overachiever, which is why I created Dreamgarten. In my 20+ years as an innovation evangelist, I’ve experienced firsthand how burnout and chronic stress limit our creativity, diminish our capacity for meaningful work, and keep us from bringing our most courageous ideas into the world.I see myself in so many high-achieving people who show up every day driven by a nervous system stuck in fight, flight, or freeze due to long-term exposure to stress and trauma. They’re caught in the overwork–burnout cycle, often without having language for what’s happening.That was my story for years. From school through my professional life, I would push myself until I burned out, take time off to recover, and then jump right back in. Eventually, I began to explore new ways of healing through breathwork, yoga, dance, and somatic movement—tools that helped me regulate my nervous system and reconnect with my creative center.These practices changed everything. I started to let go of perfectionism and create space for a life rooted in intention, curiosity, and impact. And as I changed personally, my work changed too. I began building resilience-based practices into how I led innovation—and the results were powerful.That’s where Dreamgarten was born: at the intersection of personal healing and professional reinvention. I believe that when we prioritize resilience-based practices, we open the door to more sustainable innovation, greater impact, and a new way of working.Today, I bring that perspective into both professional and academic spaces. I’m a frequent guest lecturer in undergraduate and graduate programs, where I speak on leadership, innovation, resilience, and burnout recovery—connecting real-world experience to emerging research.Looking for a dynamic speaker or facilitator for your classroom, leadership event, or conference? Let’s connect!

Experience

1. Creator & Founder

   Dreamgarten

   Jun 2021 — Present · US

   WELCOME TO DREAMGARTEN, A NEW WAY OF WORKING Where together, we cultivate fertile ground for innovation to take root and thrive.We offer Keynote and Speaking experiences as well as Workshops and Courses rooted in resilience and innovation best practices so individuals and organizations can tap into real tools to create a culture of innovation that fosters adaptability, ignites creativity, and drives sustainable growth in an ever-changing world.We are the creators of the Inextricable Link Framework™ where we believe that Innovation and Resilience are a cyclical relationship, and you cannot have one without the other (at least not sustainably). Therefore, our work focuses on:• Accelerating Innovation through culture change and innovation process• Cultivating Resilience through wellbeing, burnout prevention and nervous system regulationOur unique working sessions are thoughtfully designed to engage Leaders and their teams to think and act differently, leading to impactful changes across the organization.

Education

• American University - Kogod School of Business

  MBA, Management of Global Information Technology

• University of Tampa

  BS, International Business