We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lena Samford a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lena, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with something countless entrepreneurs have had to figure out on the fly – how have you dealt with the rise of remote work?

I work exclusively remotely – some for clients in Missouri, some from all over the country. Since it’s a job that never really turns off, and I have access to all of the time, it’s had many benefits and pitfalls. Like many other remote workers, I can pack up in my van and work from the mountain tops in Colorado to my hometown in the Bootheel of Missouri, and literally anywhere in between. It’s been great to have my laptop and gear and not need a lot of the overhead of paperwork that makes the traditional company. But because this job CAN always be ‘on’ doesn’t mean it has to be. The expectation of people who work freelance and remotely is that we are always available and moving faster than the typical 8-5 work. Because I had no one telling me when to call it a day, I overworked myself and had trouble drawing the lines between working and living. I’ve found that creating processes and expectations for remote work allows me to turn it ‘off’ and actually feel free from work instead of being guilty that I’m not working.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Lena Samford. I am a Missouri native (from Steele, Missouri). Instead of the traditional approach to a job, I’ve pieced together many different skills through the tireless exploration of finding a career that fits me. I went to undergrad at Mizzou, not knowing what path I wanted to take. Still, I took on social media management jobs for clothing brands, which led me to grow my social platforms, eventually getting noticed by local businesses. I started taking on their accounts and growing my social media management business. Since I also have a love for photography and videography, I’ve been able to create and manage content that helps brands grow. And most recently, I have been able to use all of my skills collectively to support someone local to Columbia whose business healed my PTSD/CPTSD, and I’m proud to help others genuinely feel free through that work. While I am still doing social media work, my focus is to help businesses by capturing content through photo/video services and helping them to create processes for showing up in authentic ways online. I am most proud of my drive to continue to learn since it helps me to help my clients stay competitive in their market and allows me to continually shift my offerings based on what the client needs. My work is always a labor of love preceded by planning and care.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Starting my own business from a side hustle, working remotely, solo, and putting all I had into my work to make it successful severely impacted my mental health. From the outside looking in, many people thought I had it all together when I felt like I had no clue what I was doing. Not having the stability of a paycheck while going through the pandemic was a big risk that I took. During my first year full-time working for myself, I was barely scraping by – if at all. I was building important relationships, but it took time, and I took on a lot of extra projects that, in the end, blurred my focus and stretched me too thin. Being constantly pushed to create when you’re in a pressure cooker is difficult. I also leaned into the hustle culture and thought everything I spent time doing should be monetized.

My metaphorical smoke alarms were going off, and I just ignored them. I think this is something many other creatives struggle with. I got very close to giving up and realized that something had to change. I took control of my mental health, putting it above my work. I found that by giving myself six months to step off of social media personally, dive into my creative work for the sake of creating, reevaluate, and refocus (even though it was still tough financially), I not only felt happier but had a clearer vision of what I wanted for myself work-wise and felt more creative daily because of it.

I created the expectations for myself and my work so I had the power to change them. I chose not to give up and learned to pivot instead of spinning my wheels and wondering why I was burned out. Because I pushed through such a hard time and kept my business running, I can now find new solutions, new paths, and stronger, supportive relationships (in my work and personal life) because I live in integrity. My work has only gotten stronger, and there is only going up from there!

My advice to any creatives is to listen to your gut, give yourself time to create for the sake of creating, and never take your work too seriously – this will allow you to thrive in the present and consciously build yourself up for your future success.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Most of my clients have come through referrals or demonstrations of my work. I’ve been able to make good impressions on the people I work with because I make sure I show up authentically, set expectations from the beginning, and am transparent when plans have to change, which helps everyone involved to be happy with the outcomes.

Contact Info:

• Website: lenasamford.com
• Instagram: @lenasamford
• Youtube: @lenasamford

Image Credits
food image (@glennscafe), beer image (@twaincomo), cocktail (@vaultcolumbia), maternity (taracapri917), family (@halesyaaahhh)