240. From Doing Business the “Right Way” to Creating What Actually Feels Aligned

Samantha Hawley (: 00:06

Welcome to Beyond Awareness. Last year, there was a shift happening in my business that I don't think I talked about anywhere, maybe a little bit in my newsletter, but honestly, I kept a lot of it to myself and my twin sister. But now I want to open up because I feel like I'm on the other side. So last year, I honestly feel like it was maybe

the middle to end of last year. And I started to feel like the shift was that I loved the work that I was doing, which was mainly private coaching, know, helping women navigate high stress so that they can feel more regulated in their bodies and in their emotions so that they can show up present for those that they love.

And I love that work. I love one-on-one capacity to really go deep with people and know how they are showing up in their lives and what they want one-on-one. At this time, a group program was wrapping up and I was feeling resistance to relaunching it. And I remember asking the members inside, I think there was like eight members inside. No, maybe not, maybe six.

Whatever the case, there were active members. And I reached out to each one, one on one, and I asked them, hey, are you planning on renewing? Or do you feel like this has been supportive for you so far? And I was just kind of mapping out a plan for if I did do another round, if I didn't do another round. Ultimately, my heart wasn't in it, and I think I was trying to convince myself to do it. Partially,

and maybe mostly out of fear, like for financial reasons. In the back of my head, was like, financially, I need to. I need to do a group program as well because it would be, it's just like another source of income. Why would I not do it? Like that sort of energy behind it. And I had recently closed down Emotionally Empowered. If you remember, Emotionally Empowered was a,

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group membership. was an ongoing community where I offered journal prompts and I did live journal coaching, that sort of thing. And I closed that down rather abruptly, I might add, because I fell out of love with it again. I just felt like things were shifting. Things that I started my business with were not only misaligned with how I was feeling, but I think I started my

current business with how my last business was successful. And my last business was Beachbody, which was very successful and I'm very proud of it and I loved it. that was a big part of that was accountability groups in one way, shape or form, whether it be for the women that were trying to become healthier or team challenges to grow a team. And so I started doing groups because of that.

And because a lot of other businesses said that you should have a group program. But I wasn't loving it anymore. So I closed that down and I thought if I also closed down this other group program, it felt like failure. And it felt like I was letting others down because first of all, one person did say that she was ready to sign up for another six months. So there was that, that I was leaving on the table.

And it felt like if I didn't have a group program, I wasn't serving a population who didn't need one-on-one support. Because let's be honest, not everyone needs one-on-one support, or they don't have the budget for one-on-one support. So I felt like I should have an offer for them, because I'm a helper. I love helping people. I also felt like I was going to shoot myself in the foot to only rely my business on one-on-one. That felt...

pretty scary. And so even though that one member did say she wanted to renew for another six months, I ultimately chose not to renew it and to only keep my private clients, which was a hard decision. I was mulling over that for months, but when I did, it felt like a relief. And that was my decision and my kind of like wink from the universe to

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go all in on what I had already been feeling inside, which was stop launching. Like if I don't have a group program, I don't need to promote the crap out of a new program. I don't need to promote nonstop about the next thing. And so I stopped launching. I did focus on writing newsletters, which I loved. I focused on hosting workshops inside other people's communities and a few of my own. Again, love that.

And then during one of my journal entries, I had a revelation that for most of my life, I've always done what was expected. Now there were a few shockers, especially to my parents, like the tongue ring. I got a tongue ring my sophomore year of college. I think that was a dark time for me. I'm very close with my twin sister.

and she went to the same college as me and she left during term three. I think that was the same time that I got my tongue ring. I remember she was there for it. Anyways, tongue ring, that happened. And like maybe a couple other decisions, but for the most part, I was like the quote unquote good girl and I've done what other people thought I should do because I wanted to. I wanted to make the quote unquote right decision.

I remember going to school and deciding to major in business because I thought it's what you should do. Not should, but it was a safe option. I didn't know what I wanted to do. And so I was like, might as well major in business. Why not? You can do a lot of things. It was just kind of like a murky decision. I didn't know what I wanted. I didn't even really ask myself, I don't think, or allow myself the flexibility to explore.

My sister, on the contrary, decided to major in science or not like microbiology, something cool. Looking back, I'm like, who would do that? Like, obviously a lot of people do. But I'm like, that's a passion. That's hope in the future of like that you're going to get a job. I think she wanted to be a vet, which she didn't pursue that. But I'm like, that's something that you're excited about. Anyways, I also decided to stay in my relationship, my college relationship.

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that turned into a marriage. And I remember questioning it that I've talked about before, but I questioned it when I was like 26, 27 after college, but I stayed. And there's so many reasons. I mean, there's probably the fear of being alone, but I remember thinking it's what you do. At 26, you should be with the person you're going to marry. I don't know if that's normal to think about, but that's one of the reasons where I was like, nope, I'm going to make it work.

Another thing is I built my online businesses like everyone else told me to. Like I mentioned earlier, I was launching because everyone else told me to. I had a group program because everyone else did and it was successful and I was just looking at everybody else. I never stopped to think, how do I want to run it? And I did have one business coach that asked me that early on and I had no idea how to answer that.

It's almost, it was that feeling of you don't know what you don't know. So I didn't know that I could do it differently. And even if I did, I just didn't know what I would even do. I had no idea where to start. was like, almost like when you spend so much of your life focusing on other people, whether that be people pleasing or trying to get a business up and off the ground, that's all you know.

And so it's truly a 180 shift to think for yourself, to think outside the box, to not look to the side, to not swipe on Instagram and think, what is that person doing? I should do that. that's a great idea, which they are great ideas and it is working for them. And I should say it worked for me. All of that got me to a certain point.

until it didn't. Business school, I got my MBA and it got me to working at General Electric, which was amazing, quite the experience. I was able to travel to China, South Korea and Japan twice, once completely on my own. I would never take those experiences back, send them back. So that quote unquote worked for me. I loved those.

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experiences, my relationship while I'm divorced now and a single mom. I have Griffin, I have my son from that. And not only that, I've learned so much about myself. While I am divorced, and I don't think I ever blame the divorce on my ex, I take full accountability. I could have spoken up so much more in that relationship, but I didn't because it wasn't the person who

I am today. I've learned so much and I love that. And then my businesses, I was super successful in my eyes in Beachbody. I made so many great friends. It was incredible until it wasn't, right? And so with all of those things, and I'm sure other areas of my life too, I felt like I stayed stuck at that point, like once it stopped working, trying to make those ways work.

Even my merit, trying to make that work, trying to make Beachbody work, and even trying to make my current business work with those group programs. And I kept trying when other people who were doing similar things, I saw them moving forward, or they were still excelling. They were doing it. And I kept thinking, what's wrong with me? Why am I not able to do it? Or what's missing?

That's it. I kept thinking, what is missing? And I kept searching for that missing piece, the shiny object. And it was like, I just need to start the newsletter. That's the missing piece. Or I just need to do this one real, Instagram reel. That's the missing piece. You know, it was always something. And truly, I had so many aha moments and that time to think,

for myself when I got off of social media. And this is not the episode about my social media hiatus, but I do just want to point out that it's so hard to think for yourself when not only are you constantly getting bombarded with ideas and thoughts and all the things when you're scrolling on social media.

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while you're doing the act of it. But then at least for me, those things stuck with me. I would be going to bed at night, hours after I had been scrolling. Okay, maybe not, maybe I was recently scrolling. But you know, I would be doing dishes and I hadn't scrolled in a while. And I was thinking about the post that I saw from somebody else about a parenting tip. Or I was thinking about, I should do this, I should be recording me doing the dishes.

because then I could put this text on this reel. Or, you know, I was constantly distracted in my brain because of social media. And, you know, at the time I used to think it was inspiring, it was helping me. But then, again, a whole other episode about social media, being off and having time to myself, a large chunk of time to myself, I was like, what if I didn't?

do this in my business? Or what if I did do that in my business? What if I completely got rid of this? Nobody else is doing that, but like, could I? But should I? Like, what? That seems like barbaric to me, but like, what? Would it bring me joy? It started opening up those questions for me of, this is my idea. I don't think anyone else is doing it. Honestly, I don't know because I'm so far removed from other people.

and their businesses, but if I did, what would that ripple effect be? What could I charge for it or not charge for it? What would I deduct? Would it bring me joy? Would it bring me more peace, more presence? All of those things. It just started like opening me up to the whole concept of what can I create for me? Whereas before I was like, you don't know what you don't know.

I was starting to figure that out for myself, not because I was looking at other people and what they were doing. So all of that was happening. And I recognized that I was also starting to shift all of those beliefs and actions by doing other things like closing down the programs that weren't feeling aligned. So I did.

Samantha Hawley (: 14:31

take that action, I closed that down, the group program, that didn't feel right, so I closed it down. I did take those actions, but it still didn't seem like it was working out fully. I had more joy in my life, for sure, especially just having more time for myself. I loved not launching, I loved writing, I loved more time for myself, but my business wasn't thriving in the way that I imagined. It didn't thrive in the way that I felt like.

It would, and I also felt like subconsciously I was still playing it safe. So I prompted myself in my journal. What if I allowed myself to do the most illogical thing? Illogical. What would I do differently? And I really was like, let me shake things up. What would I do completely different? And to be honest, the first thing that

always came to my mind no matter when anyone was like, what could you do? If you could create anything, what would you want your day to look like? And every single time, my vision is nothing. Nothing. I want to wake up on my own time. I want to have breakfast with my son. I want to have a calm day.

I want to, sure I want to help people throughout the day on my own time, all this stuff, right? But anyways, once I worked through that, and they're always like, that's burnout. know, once you get through burnout, then something will pop up. But I had, it was such a cool experience because once I asked that question of what if I allowed myself to do the most illogical thing, I did have that sense of my days would be mine, they would be free.

And then I pictured a room full of women and we were just connecting. I wasn't launching a course. I wasn't pitching my services to these women. And I wasn't even writing newsletters. I was creating a space for others to show up. And it wasn't all the time. It wasn't like a group container. It was like a couple nights a month.

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And it was after hours, like once everyone else got out of work or like one afternoon. And this space was for them to be seen. It was for them to connect, for them to grow and for them to turn off. And for me too, I didn't feel in this vision and journaling through it, I didn't feel like the leader. I felt like the facilitator, but also very much a peer.

which was really cool. And also in this group space, we were working through subconscious beliefs in the same breath as discussing ADHD and like ADHD symptoms and our next new hire and love is blind. And it was just like authentic. wasn't like networking events that I've been to in the past where literally I should pull up my phone. I'm gonna, I have my phone right here.

Let's see how quickly I can do this. I'm pulling up my phone. I am searching, hi, I'm Sam. And seeing what comes up because I've been to networking events where I am driving up to it and I'm writing in the phone, hi, I'm Sam. I'm a clarity coach who helps women leave work at work so that they can be present at home.

So nervous of how to introduce myself or what to pitch that I write it in my notes. Nothing came up So I'm not gonna spend time doing that but This what I was envisioning was like everyone was off. They didn't have their like on hats If that makes sense, but all of this was just so refreshing and it felt rebellious Almost and I think it's because I knew that nothing like this exists out there

not just the connection piece, but I wanted more out of it that I'll get to in a second. And it definitely doesn't exist in my little neck of the woods of Batavia, New York, where I don't have to travel 45 minutes to a networking event. And so what I did was I tested it out purely to see if there was something there. If people locally craved this as much as I did. And it was a fear because

Samantha Hawley (: 19:16

Again, my business was all online from 2013, which was when I started my Beachbody business. I built my business from 2013 up until basically all of 2025 online. And so was like, all the fears of no one's going to want to sign up locally. There's not going to be enough people to sign up all these things. But when I invited women to a dinner, just to chat.

and they were all business owners, established business owners. It was so cathartic and people stayed later than the actual event was. And the feedback I got was incredible. And so then I officially decided to launch it. I call it the Leaders Table and it became a membership. And the first night where everybody had the opportunity to sign up, that night people were saying out loud, someone said, this was everything that I wanted it to be.

And that just gave me the biggest smile when I heard it. Someone else said, I'm leaving with two new clients, which I was like, that's amazing. I'm loving that for you. I think I love it so much because I'm just like the connector. I'm bringing people together. And she got the clients, loving that. I guess I did as well because I got them as members, but we all win. that's the energy I'm stepping into. Another person said, so excited.

It was a night I didn't know I needed in so many ways. Loving this. It just feels so much more aligned. And then for some more stats, because I'm an analytics nerd, we had eight founding members within the first 13 hours. We have 11 founding members after the first week. One aspect to it is the networking group dinner, which is kind of what I talked about already. Then we have a group chat, and that's for like...

sharing stuff like cross promotion and whatnot. But the group chat so far is so much more active than I anticipated. We are sharing wins about how someone spoke up and held a boundary to her client. We are supporting one another because someone talked about imposter syndrome. So we're all stepping in. We are making sales and referrals for one another. And it's not because anyone has pitched their services, literally not once.

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Has anyone said, this is what I do and this is how much it costs? Like, bye from me. It's because we know the woman behind the business. Even after just one in-person event. Like, we're connecting with the person and that's how all of this is happening. It's just incredible to see. And along with the dinners and the group chats, there's also a member spotlight. I'm hosting the first one.

This week, actually, when this airs, it'll be afterwards. But I'm doing live coaching. And the member spotlights is just where one member each month gets to feature her business as an experience. So it's not like a site tour or a presentation. It's like, just show us what you love to do. So like the next month, we have Ashley's for Ashley from Ashley's Cleaning Service. She's going to just talk to us about spring cleaning.

And then we have Megan Vincent from Vincent Chiropractic talking to us about nervous system regulation and how chiropractic care can help. And just naturally from experiencing it, you're going to want to learn more about the services or you know someone who's interested in that. So there's that and it's always hosted at a local member's venue that is local just for visibility. I don't have a local venue besides my tiny little office.

So we're hosting it at Cheryl's in Albion, which is she has an art studio and tattoo shop. So we're hosting it there. So super amazing for visibility for everybody. And then there's also one monthly virtual belief breakthrough call. So that's where all these big emotions and situations and decisions that come up throughout the networking event mostly, but also the group chat.

once a month, you can actually work through that via my strategic journaling. And that's virtual. And I really wanted that to be a part of it because that is my expertise and specialty is helping you get to the other side, not just connect with women about it, but then do something about it. So I feel like I found something that lights me up and it truly serves other women that I get excited about.

Samantha Hawley (: 23:59

Again, I get excited to post about it and talk about it. And it complements the work I do with my private clients. Private clients still is like my favorite work. I love that one-on-one depth. And if you are interested in one-on-one, still I'm available. I'm here for you. I've currently three open spots. And if you are local to Batavia, New York or the surrounding area willing to travel in,

then you are more than welcome to learn about the leaders table. And I'll share some links for both of those in the show notes. But overall, I think that we should all think a little more illogically every now and then because it was that one prompt and thought train that led me to that vision and led me to this offer that truly has felt easy. I think one reason that it's been so successful is because

It's felt fun and easy and I've been detached from the outcome the whole time. I had no goal of the number of people that I wanted to sign up. I had no income goal from how many people that I want to sign up. Whereas with previous group launches, I was like, ooh, I would love five people so I could make X amount of dollars. And with this, it's been just truly from the heart. And it's been something I'm so passionate about.

I want to end with asking you, is something illogical that you could do in your life or in your business? And if something fear-based pops up, like, my gosh, I could never do that, what's the worst-case scenario if you actually did it, if you actually went for it? All right, I'll leave you with that. I suggest going for it. Thank you so much for being here, and I will see you next week.