Moving Forward is also available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher Radio, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
Samantha Alvarez is a digital nomad, author and sales coach. Today, Samantha will share the gift of moving forward with a holistic and relationship-approach to sales.
Successes at a glance:
Digital nomad, sales coach and business relationship coach:
Registered Nurse.
Speaks multiple languages.
Samantha’s story:
Samantha grew up in Wisconsin and got her first taste of travel at age 12 when her 7th-grade Spanish club went to Mexico. This ignited a lifelong spark to learn about different cultures and languages. Samantha ended up majoring in Spanish in college and chose nursing as her first career, seeing it as a way for her to travel. Finding herself unable to pay for nursing school, Samantha dropped out and took a job in IT as she had earned three bachelors degrees by then. After a stint in medical school in Cuba, Sam returned to the US to finally become a nurse practitioner, where she practiced for 5 years in Tuscon, AZ.
Setback failure or time when things fell apart:
Sam loved her career as a nurse practitioner. But after 5 years, she was burned out. She couldn’t get out of bed in the morning and her career consumed her life. Sam was making 6-figures and she was very respected with people deferring to her stature and judgment. However, she didn’t like who she was becoming – someone who had no time to enjoy her life and was driven purely by ego. Sam saved up her money and knew she needed to leave. Her goal was to reconnect with her humility. Not knowing what was next or what her plan would be, Sam quit her job and moved to Japan. As a polyglot, her only goal at the time was to learn Japanese.
The “aha” moment that sparked a pivot:
Sam spent 6 months in Japan and loved every minute of it. She learned the language and got immersed in the culture. However, the time was nearing when she would have to go back to the US. Only, Sam didn’t want to go back to her old life. This was not simply an extended vacation – Sam discovered a lifestyle she wanted to continue maintaining. After doing extensive research, she decided to become a digital nomad. However, as Sam reveals, it’s not always the sexy lifestyle you see on social media of sitting on a beach with a laptop while money rolls into your bank account. The reality is often a hot and sticky beach while you’re staring at your laptop for 5 hours, trying to get a WiFi signal as no money is coming in. The reality is that being a digital nomad is a lot of work – sometimes 10 hour days for 6-7 days a week. To make this lifestyle a reality, Sam works for many different companies online, doing everything from sales to coaching to freelance work; arranging her workflow so that she does not have to be in one location. This gives her the freedom to travel and make her “office” be anywhere she can get connected. Sam was in Lisbon, Portugal during our conversation at a shared workspace and getting ready to leave for Bangkok.
Knowledge bursts:
Sam’s advice for getting comfortable with sales and pricing your value:
Ignore everyone else and know this: when you are selling a service, the first sale is *not* to any potential client. The first sale is to yourself as a coach or entrepreneur. If you don’t buy into your value, no one else will. So that is your starting point.
Favorite app/website/resource or productivity hack:
Headspace: daily meditation app.
How Sam recharges when facing a roadblock or challenge:
The number one thing is meditation. Sam starts her morning with guided meditation and during this time, her phone is in airplane mode.
The second thing is to spend time in nature or outdoors to go for a walk.
Third, be genuinely aware of your needs: listen to your inner voice and honor it.
Support the Podcast:
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Advice to past self while going thru a difficult time:
When it comes to big scary decisions you can do your research and due diligence but at some point, you have to decide to just do it. In the end, it’s much scarier to make that decision than to actually execute it. Once you make that decision, “do it and let it be done.”
Parting wisdom (in a few words):
“Live your heart on fire.”
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