We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Samantha Caractor. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Samantha below.
Samantha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?
You should never be afraid to ask your family and friends for support in any business endeavor. Whether you feel passionate about the business, or you feel it’s a viable way to help you get on your feet financially, nine times out of ten when you ask them, they won’t support you…at first.
In my experience, I started venturing into entrepreneurship in 2017, and I personally felt that even my immediate family would not support anything I didn’t take seriously. So, I decided to wait about two weeks to see if I could successfully make a sale on my own, and I did! When I was able to present them with evidence that the opportunity I was involved in at that time was a viable business, they were on board!
This is not the case with everyone. I have had the pleasure of working with people in business from all walks of life some of whom did not have a good relationship with their families. Even business owners that had great relationships with their families found that they were hesitant about supporting their businesses and they ended up getting discouraged. Some even wanted to quit because they felt they could count on them.
One piece of advice for business owners: give yourself at least two to three years to establish your business. This amount of time will allow you to find your footing, learn as you go, and also to establish consistency in front of your audience, your family, and your friends.
Don’t get discouraged if your family or friends refuse your request for support during this period. They may change their minds at a later date. There are some people who just need to know you are serious.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?
I got started in entrepreneurship in February of 2017 as a network affiliate marketer. I found the concept of working for myself both liberating and crazy at the same time, little did I know this was just my beginning.
After about a year and a half, I started noticing that I did not feel as fulfilled as I had hoped I would. Something was just wrong…something was missing and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I knew I had soul searching to do.
In 2019, I was blessed with a women’s cruise retreat ticket by a fellow sister and I started to gain hope and faith that this event would change the game for how I approached my system and strategies in business. What I didn’t know is I would end up receiving much more than that, my prayers would be getting answered. At about 6:00 am on the second day, I got what I like to call my very first “cruise revelation”, a genuine one-on-one encounter with God who gave me fulfilling directions on what my mission is, what I had been missing and how to proceed as an entrepreneur, my answer involved stepping out on my own. To be honest I was afraid: I was still in college full time, I would have to step away from the health and wellness industry, I didn’t even know where to begin. But I had developed a relationship with God prior to all of this happening, and I knew enough to know that if God said it, He will lead me step by step.
Shortly after returning home from the retreat, I wrote my first book entitled “You’re Not Struggling, You Are Transcending!”, a few months later I released my first podcast called “Real Talk With Sam Podcast” and my first website.
In 2020, I officially got started building my own company called Sam Says Company a Christian-based brand that now provides specialized coaching services, graphic design, and writing services. A year into the pandemic, 2021, despite the COVID-19 restrictions I have been able to help women in the United States and around the world discover their true calling and destiny which in turn helps change the lives of other people for the better based on God’s Word and principles.
In my eyes, success is not the accolades or the amount of money that you earn from rendering services, that will come along the way. Success to me is impacting lives and never giving up on yourself. We are in a digital world where everyone is trying to make their mark online and it is easy to get discouraged when you see someone in the same profession as you. But understanding who you are, what sets you apart, and NEVER GIVING UP on your vision will help you in more ways than you can imagine.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
One lesson I am in the process of unlearning is this: everything has to be perfect before it’s brought before the public.
I have been carrying around this complete false belief since I was in high school. I graduated from a performing arts high school and rehearsals were just as important as breathing. Even though it is always wise to practice, it indirectly taught me that everything had to be perfect. Unfortunately, that belief spilled over into my college career as well as my business career.
This belief is false because sometimes imperfect things are what people need to see. They need to see the authentic you because the reality is life isn’t perfect, you are going to make mistakes.
Operating under the belief that everything has to be perfect before it’s done will cause what I like to call “decision brain-freeze”. When you are an entrepreneur or a business owner, this will cause procrastination and your business will experience a decline in productivity, marketing, client satisfaction, and customer retention.
My point is this: if you have created something to the best of your ability or you have a deadline and it is still not perfect to your standards, don’t beat yourself up and put it out there anyway. You never know who it will touch or what people will get out of the message through what you are creating.
How did you build your audience on social media?
My social media started as a place where I could collect and store events that happened in my life. Basically, it started off as a personal blog. I didn’t have a specific mission or purpose in mind, it was simply a way to connect with people and if I had something to share that was meaningful, I would post it. No harm in learning something new and touching someone’s life at the same time, right?
After I went into business, my social media platforms became my personal brand and testing ground for personal life and business-related content. I got a chance to see what was working and what wasn’t, how the trends and algorithm affected my content, etc. I am still building my tribe organically and I am proud of the progress of arriving close to approximately 10k friends and followers on FB and IG combined. That to me is amazing because I did it all organically and with time and a lot of changes and mistakes.
My advice to you is always to build organically, utilize all of the free resources you have available to you and always focus on building relationships with your audience. Depending on your industry and what you provide, consider FB/IG ads only if your budget allows it. Your audience is not just investing in your product or service, they are investing in the trust and rapport that you are building with them.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://iamsamhelenec.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/iamsamhelenec
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/samanthahelenec
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samcaractor1996/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/iamsamhelenec
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/user_details?userid=6H3k_eNwfl-SBnYFBff7mw