On Your Terms®

I'm taking a little summer break, not just from the podcast, but from working in general. And yes, my friends are already cackling about that one, because as my friend Steve put it, he can't wait to watch me be the most productive person he knows this summer. Fair. So in this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on what a summer break actually looks like for a business owner. What I'm doing, what...

If you've ever wondered what it's actually like to attend one of the best conferences in the online business space, I'm bringing you along this week. Every June, I pack my bags for Boise, Idaho to attend Kit's Craft + Commerce Conference, and this year I recorded real-time clips along the way so it would feel like we were just hanging out in the hallway together. This is officially my fifth Craft...

“Must be nice.” It sounds harmless. Like a throwaway comment, a passing thought, something you mutter when you see someone doing something you wish you could do. But I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately, and I think that little phrase is one of the most dangerous things you can say to yourself as a business owner. Because here’s what it’s actually doing: it’s letting you off the hook. It’s a...

Everyone keeps coming up to me like they're attending my business's funeral. "How are things ?" And I'm standing there like... everything's actually great? My business keeps growing. But I get it. There's no shortage of people online saying digital products are dead, courses are dead, the whole thing is over. Here's the thing: the market has changed. A lot. And if you have a digital product or cou...

You know reels are one of the best ways to grow your business on Instagram. You've seen other people crushing it. You've probably even sat down to film one yourself, maybe more than once, and then... you just didn't post it. Or you did, and it flopped, and somewhere along the way, the whole thing started to feel way more complicated than it's worth. Here's what I actually think is happening: you'r...

Every entrepreneurship influencer on the internet has an opinion about what you should be doing. Six AM wake-ups. A content calendar mapped out six months in advance. Tracking every metric. Showing up on every platform all at once. But here's the thing — what successful founders say they do and what they actually do behind the scenes? Often very, very different. I know because I'm one of those fou...

I recently apologized to my shower handle. No, really. I turned off the water before rinsing out my conditioner, reached back to flip it on again, and instinctively said sorry to a cold, metal, completely inanimate faucet. And that moment stopped me dead in my tracks, because if I'm apologizing to shower handles, what else am I unnecessarily apologizing for in my life and business? This episode is...

You're busy. You're building. You're making a thousand decisions a day — what to post, what to buy, what to eat, what to cut. And somewhere along the way, all of that choosing started to feel like its own full-time job. Here's the thing: we've been sold this idea that more optimization equals more freedom. That if you just find the perfect system, the perfect routine, the perfect answer, you'll fi...

What if stepping back from social media was actually the thing that made it work better for your business? I'll be honest with you: my relationship with social media has been a lot. It helped me build a multi seven-figure business. Then it became my number one addiction. Then it turned into a coping mechanism I reached for every time life got hard. And then, after losing both of my parents, I basi...

Have you ever wondered why people in your audience don't think of you when they're ready to buy — even though you've been showing up, creating content, and putting offers out? Here's the hard truth: it's probably not your audience size. It's not your content. It's not even your offer. The real problem is that nobody knows what to associate your name with. And the good news? That is a very fixable...

I just got back from three days in Atlanta with some of the most impressive people in the online business space, and I am still processing all of it. We're talking New York Times bestselling authors, YouTubers with millions of subscribers, book agents and editors, SaaS founders, and high-level consultants serving Fortune 100 companies. All 40 of us crammed into rooms, hot seats, and late-night fir...

You've watched other people's launches from the sidelines. The big revenue numbers, the sold-out offers, the " We Hit Our Goal in 24 Hours " Instagram stories. You want that too. And so you try. You do all the launch things. But something's off. The sales trickle in slower than you hoped, or it's just... crickets. And you start wondering if it's your emails, your offer, your timing, or honestly, i...

Automation is great — until it makes people forget there's a real human behind your business. In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on the tool I've been quietly using to generate content ideas, boost webinar show-up rates, and collect testimonials, all while making my audience feel personally connected to me. It contributed to a $500K launch, and I'm walking you through exactly how I use...

If you've ever opened a blank document to write your newsletter and immediately closed it again, this one's for you. I've been sending my weekly newsletter, Sam's Sidebar, consistently for years, and in this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on exactly how I decide what to write every single week. Including the time I scrapped a completely finished email the morning it was supposed to go out,...

Q1 is officially in the books — so before you barrel headfirst into Q2, let's actually stop and take stock of how it went. In this episode, I'm walking you through the end-of-quarter check-in I use in my own business — one that covers both your stats and your vibes — so you can go into the next quarter with one clear focus, a simple plan, and a lot less "why does running this business feel so chao...

Sam pulls back the curtain on her biggest launch ever — $500K in revenue in just four days. She's sharing the real numbers: 11,000 webinar registrants, a 5% conversion rate, and exactly what she spent on ads to get there. But this isn't just a brag fest — Sam gets honest about what's actually behind a launch like this, why you can't just copy someone else's formula, and what entrepreneurs at every...

Everyone's talking about Substack — and maybe you're curious, a little skeptical, and 100% wondering if you actually need to add another platform to your already-full plate. (Spoiler: you don't need to. But you might want to after this.) In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on exactly how I grew my Substack, Beyond Business , to 1,000 subscribers using only organic strategies — no importi...

If you’re trying to grow your audience for your online business, you’ve probably heard advice like “build the audience first” or “you need followers before you can launch.” But what if that’s backwards? In this episode of On Your Terms®, Sam shares the real foundation of sustainable audience growth—and why focusing on followers, email list size, or social media metrics too early can actually slow...

Have you ever heard a quote at exactly the moment you needed it? Like it practically reached out and grabbed you by the shoulders? That happened to me recently when I heard this line from The Artist’s Way : "perfectionism isn’t a quest for the best… it’s a pursuit of the worst in ourselves. Oof. Holy cannoli. That one knocked me flat. In this episode, I’m sharing the simple exercise that helped me...

If you’re building a business, doing “all the right things,” and still feel exhausted even after a full night of sleep… this episode is for you. So many entrepreneurs think rest is something you earn later — after the launch, after the revenue goal, after things finally feel “stable.” And that belief keeps you stuck in a cycle of pushing, white-knuckling, and wondering why you’re burned out even t...

It’s mid-February (or honestly… March… or April… or whenever you’re listening), and if your New Year’s goals already feel like they’ve floated off into the abyss — you’re not broken. You’re just human. In this episode, I’m breaking down why January 1st is kind of a terrible time to set goals , especially if you’ve been navigating grief, uncertainty, burnout, or just… life. I’m sharing how I actual...

In this episode, you get to hear my full live training, “How To Legally Protect & Grow Your Online Business in 2026.” I’ll give you the five steps every entrepreneur needs to take. We’ll cover shifting your mindset, registering as the right business entity, protecting yourself in case of a lawsuit, getting your contracts and policies in place, and staying within your scope of practice. Whether...

There’s this moment in business where you keep thinking, okay… when does it get easier? When does the stress chill out, the money feel steadier, and you finally get to enjoy what you’re building? Here’s the sneaky truth I wish someone had told me sooner: the “someday” version of your life isn’t where the joy starts. The rise is actually the fun part. In this episode, I’m sitting down with the vers...

When it gets dark before you’ve even wrapped up work for the day, winter can feel like it shrinks your whole life. Suddenly everything feels harder, heavier, and honestly… a little bleak. And while part of you might want to hibernate until April, another part of you knows that doesn’t really work when you’re running a business and trying to live a full life. In this episode, I’m sharing how I’ve l...

Re-shooting all the videos for a product that’s generated over $8 million sounds like a straightforward business upgrade… until it isn’t. In this episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes of what it was really like to re-record every single video inside the Ultimate Bundle®. Spoiler alert: this was about way more than lighting, scripts, or batch recording. It cracked open a lot for me — about grie...