A reflection on building Nature Talks Back™ with purpose at its core—where empathy, collaboration, and mission guide every decision to give animals and nature a voice through meaningful apparel and partnerships.
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I'd revisit a day when my body could take me anywhere freely. We rarely appreciate ordinary freedoms until they're gone the smallest moments matter most.
Sandy Gilbreath-Iehle · In Her Own Words
Her Story
About Sandy
Sandy Gilbreath-Iehle is a seasoned leader and entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience leading teams, developing leaders, building strong performance cultures, and managing complex retail operations. Her career includes leadership roles with Starbucks and Wawa as well as multi-unit management, giving her extensive experience in operations, customer experience, team development, and people-centered leadership.
Today, Sandy is the Founder and CEO of Nature Talks Back™, a mission-driven outdoor apparel and creative brand built to give animals and nature a voice. She created the company around a simple belief: the product is the vehicle, not the mission. Through original apparel, independent artist collaborations, storytelling, and conservation-focused partnerships, Nature Talks Back™ aims to create meaningful connections between people and the natural world while helping amplify the voices of animals, wild places, and the people working to protect them.
Nature Talks Back™ is a Proud Partner of Leave No Trace, supporting responsible outdoor stewardship and helping bring conservation principles to new audiences through creative products and storytelling. Sandy is also developing collaborations with independent artists and exploring educational and creative partnerships designed to expand the brand's impact beyond apparel.
Her approach to entrepreneurship is rooted in the same philosophy that guided her leadership career: empathy, listening, trust, accountability, and treating people as individuals. She is the creator of the THRIVE Leadership Model, a practical framework built around Trust, Hire, Recognize, Invest, Value, and Encourage—with empathy serving as the North Star.
Whether she is developing leaders or building Nature Talks Back™, Sandy's goal remains remarkably consistent: use business as a way to connect people, elevate voices, and create positive change.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Sandy
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute much of my success to the people and experiences that have shaped me, along with a willingness to listen, learn, and keep moving forward through difficult seasons. One of the most influential people in my journey was Robert Graham, who helped me transition out of rehab and taught me leadership grounded in empathy and respect. My education and career experiences—from earning a basketball scholarship to becoming a certified personal trainer and spending more than 25 years leading teams—taught me perseverance, discipline, accountability, and the importance of treating people as individuals. Those lessons continue to guide how I lead today and ultimately gave me the courage to build Nature Talks Back™ around something much larger than a product: giving animals and nature a voice.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Surround yourself with amazing people and treat them like part of the team, not a number. Lead with empathy, listen to them, and be honest—even when the conversation is difficult. When people know they are valued and respected, you earn their trust and buy-in, and that is what creates a true team environment. Some of the greatest successes in my career came from the people around me, not from anything I accomplished alone.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Go for it, and don't wait until everything feels perfect before you begin. Be willing to ask questions, listen to people who know more than you, and surround yourself with people who believe in what you're building but aren't afraid to tell you the truth. Lead with empathy, stay open to learning, and don't be afraid to change direction when something isn't working. Most importantly, believe in your vision while remembering that you don't have to build it alone.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges is standing out in a crowded marketplace where consumers are surrounded by products and constant marketing. I also think that creates one of the greatest opportunities. People increasingly want to understand the story, purpose, and people behind what they support. For Nature Talks Back™, that means building something that goes beyond apparel—bringing together independent artists, conservation organizations, education, storytelling, and a community of people who care about animals and the natural world. I believe businesses that create genuine connection and stay true to their purpose have an incredible opportunity to make an impact.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Empathy, trust, integrity, and service are at the center of both my work and my personal life. Growing up with deaf grandparents and learning sign language taught me very early that listening is about much more than simply hearing someone—it is about making the effort to truly understand them. That lesson has stayed with me throughout my life and leadership career. I believe in giving back, supporting veterans, protecting nature, and using whatever platform I have to make a positive difference. Above all, I try to lead and live by treating people with empathy, respect, and kindness.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Sandy
The Product Is the Vehicle, Not the Mission: Building a Business Around Something Bigger
How Purpose, People, and Empathy Drive Mission-Driven Entrepreneurship
For more than 25 years, I led teams in retail. I managed businesses, developed leaders, worked through difficult situations, celebrated wins, made mistakes, and learned more from the people around me than I ever could have learned from a textbook.
One lesson followed me through all of it: people need a reason to care.
You can give someone a task. You can give them a title. You can measure their performance. But if you want someone to truly become part of a team, they need to understand why their contribution matters.
That lesson eventually became one of the foundations of Nature Talks Back™, the company I founded with a simple mission: to give animals and nature a voice.
The Product Is the Vehicle
Nature Talks Back™ sells apparel, but I have never wanted to build just another apparel company.
There are already plenty of T-shirts in the world.
What interested me was what could be carried on them.
A message. A conversation. An artist's interpretation of the natural world. A reminder to respect wildlife. A reason for someone to think differently about the places we share with animals.
That is why I often say, "The product is the vehicle, not the mission."
The shirt gives us a way to carry the message. The mission is what gives the shirt a reason to exist.
That distinction has influenced almost every decision I have made while building the company.
Build Around People
My leadership philosophy has always centered on empathy.
Long before I became an entrepreneur, I learned that the people working beside me were never numbers on a schedule or names on a payroll. They were individuals with different strengths, challenges, ambitions, learning styles, and lives outside of work.
When people know they are valued and respected, something changes. Trust develops. People speak up. They take ownership. They begin looking out for one another.
You stop managing a collection of employees and start building a team.
I believe entrepreneurship works the same way.
As Nature Talks Back™ grows, I want the artists, creators, partners, customers, and organizations connected to it to feel like they are participating in something rather than simply transacting with a company.
Collaboration Is Part of the Mission
One of the most exciting parts of building Nature Talks Back™ has been realizing that the mission becomes stronger when other people are invited into it.
Rather than trying to create everything ourselves, we are collaborating with independent artists and giving them opportunities to bring their own perspectives to the brand.
Nature Talks Back™ is also a Proud Partner of Leave No Trace, supporting responsible outdoor stewardship and finding creative ways to introduce conservation principles to new audiences.
Those relationships matter to me because I don't believe a mission-driven company should be built around one person's voice.
If the goal is to give animals and nature a voice, we should be willing to listen to many human voices along the way.
Purpose Doesn't Replace Business
Having a mission does not mean ignoring the realities of running a company.
A business still has to make good decisions. It has to understand its customers, control costs, create products people actually want, and eventually generate enough revenue to sustain itself.
Purpose isn't a substitute for sound business strategy.
But purpose can help determine which opportunities are worth pursuing and which ones aren't.
When you know what you stand for, saying no becomes easier.
I don't want every possible collaboration. I want the right collaborations.
I don't want to create products simply because we can. I want them to make sense for the larger story we're telling.
Growth matters, but what we become while growing matters too.
Empathy Is Still My North Star
The interesting thing about becoming an entrepreneur after decades of leadership is realizing how much of the old journey comes with you.
I created the THRIVE Leadership Model around six principles: Trust, Hire, Recognize, Invest, Value, and Encourage-with empathy serving as the North Star.
Those ideas weren't created in a boardroom. They came from years of working alongside people, making mistakes, watching people grow, and learning what happens when leaders actually listen.
Today, I'm applying many of those same principles to entrepreneurship.
- Trust people.
- Recognize what they bring to the table.
- Invest in relationships.
- Value different voices.
- Encourage people to contribute ideas you might never have considered yourself.
- And above all, lead with empathy.
What Do You Want to Leave Behind?
Entrepreneurs spend a lot of time talking about growth.
More customers. More revenue. More followers. More products. More reach.
Those things matter. I want Nature Talks Back™ to grow too.
But I think there's another question worth asking:
What will exist because your business existed?
For Nature Talks Back™, I hope the answer becomes much bigger than apparel.
I hope independent artists were given opportunities because we existed. I hope conservation organizations reached people they might not otherwise have reached. I hope someone saw an animal differently, respected a trail a little more, protected a wild place, or started a conversation because of something we created.
And I hope the people who help build this company always know they mattered to it.
I don't want Nature Talks Back™ to be remembered simply for what we sold. I want it to be remembered for what we stood for, who we helped, and whether we made people care a little more about the natural world around them.
The product is the vehicle.
The mission is the reason we keep moving.
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