3 Things We Dive Into In This Episode:
How to let go of control and lean into more self-love when photographing yourself.
The steps Sami and I created to help you find purpose in your career.
Sami’s experience on how photos and videos can capture your true essence and how to lean in to it.
📘Resources
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📌Episode Highlights
[05:39] Sami The Photographer
Sami is a business coach, brand designer, and photographer for small women-owned businesses in the health and wellness space.
She came up with her business name, Her Inner Wisdom, while helping a client choose a brand name.
Her Inner Wisdom encourages people to listen to and honor their body and intuition.
Sami has suffered from chronic pain and endometriosis since she was a child. She believes honoring her body is an essential part of her healing process.
Sami: “If you're working in a place that you don't want to work, you're spending time every day in a place that you want to be spending time in, your body listens to that and hears that and says: ‘oh, I can't trust you.’ And it will create these different points of tension in your body.” - Click Here To Tweet This
[10:59] Understanding Your Purpose
I met Sami at an entrepreneur seminar, where we discussed communicating the why behind her company.
Future generations should not have to deal with body shaming, body hatred, or obsession with body shapes.
It’s normal to question your purpose in life.
When you focus on your calling, it helps you get through difficult times and communicate your vision.
The things we are most afraid to share have the most long-term impact and frequently lead to your purpose.
[20:20] Be Vulnerable
Being vulnerable allows you to inspire and connect with people.
Vulnerability will come in waves; you will find ways to share your story.
Our mission connects with our personal story.
While authenticity and vulnerability are important, we must also be intentional.
[26:14] Anchored to Your Purpose
Your life purpose doesn't have to be rooted in your job. You can find it in your connections with others.
Your purpose can go beyond your company's mission and vision.
[29:34] Let Go of Some Control
We frequently judge ourselves in photographs.
We deserve to have images that capture our essence and self-image.
Photos should show how much you are enjoying the moment.
You deserve to let go of control and be true to yourself.
Sami: “You don't have to change anything about yourself to be worthy of capturing you and your truest essence and your joy.” - Click Here To Tweet This
[41:15] On Photos and Videos
Videos capture core moments in life.
Accept and celebrate your body when you take a photo — even if it initially feels awkward.
Allow yourself to truly be seen.
Don’t deny yourself the opportunity to be witnessed by and connected with others.
[46:12] Healing Your Self Image Through Photos
Your environment and history influence how you perceive and accept your body.
Healing through self-photography takes time.
Exposing yourself to people of various shapes, sizes, and orientations will benefit you and your growth.
Caitie: "Our brains are constantly exposed to very similar body shapes, sizes, types, and we do need to rewire our brains to understand that there are so many ways to be a beautiful human." - Click Here To Tweet This
[49:00] Sami’s Routine
Sami likes to start her day with some sunshine and end the day by taking a deep breath of fresh air.
Sami also incorporates taking care of her gut into her routines.
Set aside some time for yourself where and when you can in your day.
[53:34] This Week’s Processing Prompt
Ask yourself: Is there something you feel vulnerable discussing? How does it relate to your life purpose?
Start and end your day by taking a short walk outside.
Take photos to celebrate and accept yourself and your self image.
Ask the people you love what part/s of you they love.
Send love to your body.
About Sami
Sami Hobbs is a business coach, brand photographer and brand designer based in Sarasota, Florida. In February 2019, she left the corporate world in search of community, connection, and sense of purpose. Soon after, she founded Her Inner Wisdom to help heart-centered healers cultivate clarity in their brand & business, build unwavering confidence in themselves, and ultimately, to lead an unstoppable business rooted in their own intuitive wisdom.
Visit Her Inner Wisdom website and its Instagram for holistic business mentorship.
Connect with Sami: Website | Email | Instagram
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Whole, Full, & Alive is a podcast exploring the art and science of falling in love with your life, with your story, and with who you truly are — underneath your titles, your resume, your relationship status, and your bank account. Who is your authentic self? Discover, behold, and love your self image.
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Transcript
Sami Hobbs: If you're just rushing through life, if you're not establishing boundaries with people, if you're doing things that you don't want to do, if you're working in a place that you don't want to work, you're spending time everyday in a place that you want to be spending time in, your body listens to that, and hears that, and says, “Oh, I can't trust you.” And it will create these different points of tension in your body.
Caitie Corradino: Welcome to Whole, Full, and Alive. A podcast exploring the art and science of falling in love with your life, with your story, and with who you truly are underneath your titles, your resume, your relationship status, and your bank account. I'm Caitie Corradino, a registered dietician nutritionist, certified fitness and yoga instructor, eating disorder recovery coach, Reiki healer, and founder of Full Soul Nutrition.
But underneath my titles and resume, I’m a big fan of kitchen dance breaks, early mornings, all things topped with truffles, world-traveling, and serendipity. I'm here to share no-bullshit stories and actionable tools to help you feel unshakably worthy. You have everything you need within you to feel whole, full, and alive. Right here, right now. Let's get into it. Hey, welcome back to another episode of Whole, Full, and Alive.
On today's episode, I have another lovely, lovely guest. Her name is Sami Hobbs. She is a photographer and a holistic business coach that is based in Sarasota, Florida. Sami is the second photographer that I have interviewed on this show so far, and I realized that I'm actually having a series of female photographers on the show. There's going to be two more coming up pretty soon.
I'm so excited about this series of female photographers that I'm interviewing, because I want to talk more about helping you heal your relationship with photos of yourself. It's a really sticky thing, and it's something that I noticed a lot of my clients tiptoe around, and it's something that I personally tiptoed around for a really long time.
Because, like healing your relationship with food and healing your relationship with your body, iIn general, healing your relationship with photos of yourself is something that's very nuanced and muddy, and multi-layered, and complex. And it's exhausting sometimes, to explore things like that. It's exhausting to touch the things that are multi-layered and complex.
But even though photos can seem like such a superficial thing, it can be so healing and meaningful to have a better relationship with photos of yourself, to not have to worry about photos of yourself, to not have to stress about the idea of taking photos, especially, if you're a female entrepreneur. But if you're a human in any kind of setting, living any kind of life, it would be nice, right?
To not have to stress about photos of yourself and to allow beautiful memories and your essence and your energy to just be captured through photographs, without it being such a big deal, and that is the major thing that Sami and I are talking about on today's episode. Just this element of letting go of control when it comes to having photos of yourself taken, that's a really big piece of what we're talking about today.
Also, before we get into that, we talk a little bit about defining your “Why,” behind what you do, because Sami is a holistic business coach. So she tells us a little bit more about how she kind of came to be where she is today. She's a very young, female entrepreneur– very young, full-time entrepreneur, and it's very cool. And so, she's going to tell a little bit more about her story with that.
Then, at the end, we're going to talk a little bit more about some simple and tangible wellness practices that you can do to refresh and reset your brain during the day, at the end of the day. This episode definitely has a lot of nuances to it; a few different things that we talked about, but primarily this photos thing, and Sami is the second photographer that I have on the show, so far.
It's really exciting to have this series of female photographers and kind of start digging into the different layers of healing your relationship with photos of yourself, because, again, it's not something that we can heal in one conversation, in one way, with a few bulleted things. It's a complex conversation. So I'm excited that we're keeping it going on today's episode. And without any further ado, let's get into my conversation with Sami Hobbs.
It's Wednesday, October 19, 9 a.m. here in Denver. It's 11 a.m. in Florida, where my guest, Sami Hobbs, is joining me from, today. Sami, thank you so much for being here today.
Sami: Thank you, Caitie. I am so excited to be joining your podcast. Thank you for having me.
Caitie: This is the second time you're joining the podcast, fun fact, because the first time, our audio went absolutely haywire, and so we're doing take two. And this is just one of those moments where we're just trusting that our second conversation was the one that was meant to be published.
Sami: Oh, I love that. Absolutely. Absolutely. And we have– I mean, we just have so many great ideas for what we want to chat about today. I'm so excited to flow with you.
Caitie: Yes. So Sami, please tell everyone, who are you? And before you tell everyone what you do, please tell them who you are.
Sami: Hi, so my name is Sami Hobbs. I am a business coach, brand designer, photographer for small women-owned businesses in the health and wellness space. Through heart-centered brand discovery, photography, and coaching, I help entrepreneurs uncover their deepest essence, create their dream brand, and build a healthful relationship with their business.
I'm located in Sarasota, Florida, and I'm just so passionate about what I do. I've been in this space for several years. I can't wait to walk through what that journey has been like and the lessons that I've carried through into my business, which is called Her Inner Wisdom.
Caitie: What makes you, who you are? How do people know when they're in your energy? What are a few things that are like, intangibly, sort of unique to you as a human? And then also, tell us why your brand, your business is called Her Inner Wisdom.
Sami: Great questions. So I'll address the second one, first. I rebranded from not really having a business name. I didn't have a business name for the first, I'm gonna say, two years that I owned a business. I had Sami Hobbs, LLC, and then, I created Her Inner Wisdom. This name actually came from brand discovery that I was leading, a client, Sara Ball, through. And we had created a list of names that she was interested in pursuing.
She was going through a rebrand at that time, and I had just generated Her Inner Wisdom, kind of came out of nowhere, came out of my intuition, shared that with her. She did not end up going with that brand name, and it sort of struck this– it created the seed in my brain that was like, “Oh, this kind of feels like me. This feels like me, and it describes my journey to this point.”
Because I entered entrepreneurship, because something in me, my wisdom, my intuition, knew that the corporate world and the hustle-and-bustle, and that grind was not meant for me. I was so deeply unhappy when I was in that space, and my nervous system was so dysregulated when I was in the corporate world, and so, there was there was this knowing,
I was like, “Oh, Her Inner Wisdom certainly describes this journey of like coming into myself and discovering how to listen and honor my body, how to listen and honor my intuition.” And it also really was a name rooted in my own health journey, because I've been navigating chronic pain, endometriosis, and chronic pelvic floor conditions from a very young age.
Part of the healing journey is learning how to honor your body, how to create boundaries with yourself and with other people, and the situations that are not supporting you, especially, because stress and tension tends to sit in our pelvic bowl, it sits in our bodies in different places.
If you're just rushing through life, if you're not establishing boundaries with people, if you're doing things that you don't want to do, if you're working in a place that you don't want to work, you're spending time everyday in a place that you want to be spending time in, your body listens to that and hears that and says, “Oh, I can't trust you.” And it will create these different points of tension in your body.
So Her Inner Wisdom kind of came from that full journey, like learning how to listen to myself. So the first question– I love this question, by the way, because I do ask this, and when it comes to my brand clients– my brand design clients and my coaching clients in the business world, I will ask them like, “You know what? What is your magic? What is your medicine?What makes you truly different?”
Because often, it feels like there are so many people doing the same things as us. There are tons of nutritionists, tons of dietitians, tons of business coaches, but each of us have our own secret sauce, we each have this truest essence that really deserves to shine, and it will bring in your dream community, your dream clients, or dream friends.
In terms of my medicine, my magic– gosh. I really to strive to bring a lot of comfort and authenticity into any space that I'm sharing with a client or with friends, with my community. I think that a huge part of my work is by embracing my own goofiness and my own edges and my own story. I invite others to do the same. That's been really present in my photography work because I had my own journey with my body, with my disordered eating, and body dysmorphia.
I was able to bring those lessons into my work, and really, like, truly, deeply hold space for people, and really sit with them, and demonstrate how to how to sit with those emotions. And so, I think it's through that authenticity, through embracing my own self, that I've been able to show others how to do the same.
Caitie: Thank you so much for sharing that. I want to validate that your energy is comfort. Like you, you are a very comforting person. You are kind of like a blanket, like– I feel that way about you. It's something that is unique to you. That is the thing that kind of makes you who you are.
I love what you're saying about how so many people who have this desire to become an entrepreneur or start their own side hustle or just their own creative venture, tend to think, “Well, so many other people are doing this, so why would I do this?” That is, I think, the number one block that I hear. And keeping that in mind, that every single person does bring their own unique energy and essence to the thing that they're doing, that's how you move past that.