Choosing to be supported AF

Part five of the series: landing in a business (and life) that feels incredibly good

Aug 23, 2025

Hi! This is the final post in a 5-part series where I share the real, sometimes messy, behind-the-scenes story of how I’ve built my creative businesses.

Catch up here:
→ Part 1: The Winging-It Creative
→ Part 2: The Smart Newbie
→ Part 3: The Burnt-Out Founder
→ Part 4: The Back-In-Business Mama

I almost left you hanging!

If you’ve been following along with the series, you might have noticed a pause between Part 4 and now. Six weeks, to be exact!

It wasn’t an accident, I promise. July was my intentional sabbatical: a chance to step back, reset, and reconnect to my ideas (and motivation tbh!) In the spirit of transparency, I almost didn’t return to finish this Substack series at all. But, when I reflected on jumping back into this space, I knew that what I most wanted to leave you with was a theme that has kept circling around the back of my head: support.

Not support as in “you can’t grow your business without this.”

Support as in: what if you chose help simply because you wanted to? Because being held feels better than carrying it all alone?

This is the concept I want to leave you with: to reflect on what support would feel like for you in this season. Not what you should need or what other people say you must have in order to (insert a version of success). But what would feel the most nourishing, easeful, and aligned and good to you right now in this season?

A period of upheaval

Part four of this series wrapped up with all of the intentional changes I’ve made in my business since becoming a mom. 2024 (and much of 2025) has been a season of massive shifts:

Releasing what no longer fits my capacity (goodbye, design studio)
Leaps of faith into the full-time coaching world (thank goodness, more joy than ever before)
Finding my rhythms with how I like to create, give value, and connect (hello podcast, hello Substack!)

All of these changes were in the name of more presence: the ability to be fully in mom-mode with my son and be fully in work mode with my clients, without feeling the tug of guilt to spend more time in the other world.

And, it feels really fucking good. I truly cannot imagine anything in my business looking different right now. My offers are exactly what I want them to be: spacious, intimate, high-touch, impactful, room to scale. My marketing feels fun. I get genuinely excited to sit down at my desk on a Monday morning because the first task on my calendar is always to check in inside of Telegram with my clients — and every single one of them fits on my ‘kindred clients’ list.

After a season of change, immeasurable shifts to my body, mind, spirit, capacity, values, and priorities, I feel like I’ve landed.

The only thing sitting on my desires list is simply: more. More clients. More humans to help make more money doing the work they love. Thank you, more please!

But THE WHOLE POINT is to share what has helped me land here, so it can help you, too.

Let’s dig into the Support. With a capital “S.” ↓↓↓

My business supports my life. My life supports my business. I choose to be supported in both. Here’s how!

The non-negotiable resources and systems in this season of life and business:

01 – Childcare: Support To Actually Get Shit Done
My son just started daycare last week, three days per week from about 8:30 am–4:30 pm. Previously, we had babysitters come to our home for 3-hour windows adjacent to his midday nap, so my husband and I could work uninterrupted from approximately 12 pm–5:30 pm a few days each week.

There is truly no way that my business could have “bounced back” as quickly as it did post-maternity leave without this ability to have focused, uninterrupted(ish) work hours. Even though it took me awhile to get over the mindset wobbles around hiring childcare (my business is flexible! I should be able to fit my work into naps and evenings, right?), allowing myself to receive help and releasing the need to be physically present with my kid 100% of the time has saved my business, my creativity, and my sanity.

02 – Sunday Resets: Support For Efficiency
As a general rule, I don’t work on the weekends. You won’t see me posting to my grid. I’m not inside of Telegram with my mentorship clients. It’s decompress time and family time. HOWEVER, I’ve started implementing Sunday Resets, where I leave our house and go to a coffee shop for a couple of hours (somewhere cute, vibey, and distraction-free), I get myself a coffee and a treat, and I plan for the week ahead. This includes two tasks:

Time-blocking my calendar for the first half of the week.
Planning (not writing or creating) my Instagram posts and emails/Substack for the week ahead.

These resets have become a game-changer in supporting my mental energy going into Monday morning because I start my week with a plan already in motion. Plus, I really look forward to the 2 hours to myself with a croissant and iced coffee on a Sunday afternoon! It makes content planning and calendar management feel like a treat, not a chore.

03 – Morning Rituals: Support For My Introverted Soul
Most weekdays, I set my alarm for 5:15 am to sneak downstairs, make myself a coffee, and sit on the couch for about an hour before my toddler, husband, and dog wake up. This time is sacred for me. I’ve learned that I’m a much better wife, mother, and human when I’ve spent time connecting to my own thoughts before having to interact with anyone else.

My current morning rituals look like: short EFT tapping or meditation, quick pen-to-paper journalling practice, my free-writing content practice, and that’s it.

Now to be SO CRYSTAL CLEAR, I’m not advocating for the toxic 42-step morning routine that muuuuuust happen at 5:00 am or you’re a terrible business owner and destined to be deeply unproductive forever. If I had my choice, I would absolutely be doing these rituals at a more respectable hour of the day. But, my current reality (early bird toddler!) means that in order to have time alone, I’m getting up at the crack of dawn. So it is. Worth it.

04 – Mentorship & Memberships: Support For Expansion
I’ve gone through seasons of having all kinds of help in my business: an incredible VA, subcontractors for design, courses, coaching, SEO, systems, you name it. And in this season where there’s nothing to fix but always room for more expansion, my criteria for business support look like:

What will keep me creative?
What will keep me accountable?
What will keep me thinking bigger?
What will keep me moving forward toward my vision?

This looks like investing in mentorship and memberships to stay connected to humans whose values I align with, who I can learn from, and who can keep the needle moving forward with me.

05 – Evlo & Acupuncture: Support For Physical Wellness
These are so specific, but as someone whose mood is absolutely impacted by physical wellness (maybe that’s literally everyone?), I prioritize choosing supports for my body. Right now, this is: acupuncture (to calm anxiety and support fertility), and Evlo (my all-time favourite strength training program that fits into the calendar with ease and can be done at home).

06 – Weekly Routine: Support For Our Household & Partnership
My husband and I are both creatures of habit, and we definitely thrive with a predictable schedule, especially in this phase of life where our energy is always needed for our toddler. We regularly check in with one another to make sure:

We each have time for workouts.
We know who is responsible for regular chores like groceries or meals.
Which of us is caring for our son on non-childcare days.
We understand each other’s hopes for the weekend.

This looks like a monthly (or even more frequent) laptops-out planning session, where we talk through our calendars and make tweaks to the routine so that we both know what to expect and everyone’s desires are being met, as much as possible in this demanding parenting season.

07 – Time Off: Support For Longevity & Creativity
After many years of trying to force “consistency is everything” and inevitably hitting burnout and a forced break, I’ve started building time off into my schedule. This looks like: Sabbaticals from marketing. Spending July and most of December in “chill” mode: minimal work, maximum unplugged time. Zero shame or guilt about the above.

For more context, I posted about this on Instagram here and did a deep-dive recap of Chill July on my latest podcast episode!

A moment for you: journal prompts

If reading through these support systems stirs something for you, too, a nod of recognition (“yes, I need that!!”), or maybe resistance to exploring where you need support (“ugh, I should be able to do this”)…

… Here are a few prompts to help you reflect:

Where in my business (or life) do I feel most held right now?
Where do I feel stretched too thin, wishing someone or something could carry part of the load?
If support could feel effortless and nourishing (not guilty or transactional), what would that look like for me in this season?
What’s one place I’m ready to let myself be supported, even if it feels a little scary to receive?

This is the work of the Supported CEO archetype. (Remember archetypes 1, 2, 3, and 4?)

Our Supported CEO is not hustling to prove she can do it all. She’s not running her business on fumes. She knows she’s the visionary, and that her job is to build the systems, routines, and rhythms that allow her to be both supported and expanded.

The Supported CEO doesn’t confuse doing everything herself with being capable.
She chooses aligned support as a strategy. She builds her life and business in a way that lets her show up fully in both.

Where support can begin

If this is the season where you’re ready to name the kind of support you want, and actually let yourself receive it, I’d love to have that conversation with you.

That’s exactly what the Heart Hour is for: a 3-day immersion to get crystal clear on what you need, where you’re headed, and the kind of support that will carry you there.

You can check out the brand-new page (!!) and book your Heart Hour here.

With love,
Samara

Après Heart Hour messages: clarity, clear direction, and a booking from a literal dream client!!

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