Katie Sampayo Interview Transcript
Nancy Rush:
Welcome Katie. We're super excited to have you here. And I'm very, very excited to talk to you about your topic about identity coming before income, but jump in, let me read your bio so everybody knows how awesome you are.
Katie is the founder of Thrive Life and Business Coaching for Entrepreneurs and owner of Thrive Fitness Adventure and Transformational Retreats. She's a certified personal trainer, 200-hour Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga instructor and number one bestselling author of "Eat to Thrive, the Anti-Diet Cookbook" and former host of "Eat Right, Live Well" on ABC. You're not an overachiever at all, are you?
Katie Sampayo:
Not at all. <Laugh>
Nancy Rush:
Katie helps high achievers and entrepreneurs who feel burnt out or disconnected redesign their lives and businesses with clarity, joy and intention using her proven Seven Pillar Life Redesign System. Since 2018, she's been traveling the world full time, running her businesses from the beach and living a life of adventure, purpose and deep transformation. I think that's so cool. And your longer bio, you talk about how you do things in your bikini on the beach. That's super fun.
Katie Sampayo:
Oh, yeah. That's what's happening tomorrow. So hopefully there's no Wi-Fi issues. That's the only caveat to living the beach lifestyle.
Nancy Rush:
Well, hopefully it'll all be good. Well, super excited to have you here. And so I'd love to kind of kick things off by talking about this topic that you came up with about "It starts with you, why identity comes before income." Do you want to just take a couple of minutes and kind of explain that concept and what it means?
Katie Sampayo:
Yeah, essentially what I've seen as the biggest bottleneck to people's success, being a coach for 10 years, is the people that I've worked with - they've been really, really focused on getting the strategy right. So they've done a lot of business coaching programs. They've studied funnels. They're working on how to nail the best TikTok strategy. "Is my messaging working?" You know, they're focusing on the external mechanisms, which there is absolutely a time - like we all get to learn that as entrepreneurs. It's super important to understand those things, know those things.
And my belief system is that that's only 20 percent of what's going to make you a successful business owner.
Nancy Rush:
Interesting. 20 percent.
Katie Sampayo:
Because when I look at my trajectory from making nothing as a newbie entrepreneur to now having a seven figure coaching company, the strategy has pretty much stayed exactly the same as far as the way that I generate leads and all of that. What's shifted the most is who I've become in my leadership to be able to lead the company, lead people effectively so that I can grow and scale and do it in a way where I'm actually enjoying the process of that versus I'm resentful because I'm neglecting my personal life, I'm neglecting my relationships, I'm neglecting taking care of myself every single day. I'm neglecting having fun because I'm just working 24/7.
And a lot of entrepreneurs - we become entrepreneurs because we want freedom. That's a common theme between every single person that says, "I want to be an entrepreneur. I want to leave my nine to five job. I want to go do this." And I've also seen that a lot of people, they make that switch over and they end up working way more than they ever would in a nine to five. And that's where that resentment comes in again. And then we start to self-sabotage because this little voice comes up, "Is it really worth it?" Because I started this and then they're also on top of it, probably not seeing the money in their bank account that they would really like, or it's not consistent. It's like it happens one month and then there's a couple of months where you're like, "What happened? I don't understand. I'm running the same strategy again and again and again, but for some reason this month it's not hitting."
Well, you're probably not operating from that high level identity in those months. And it's not the words that you're saying that aren't correct. It's that the way you're leading those conversations through your marketing, through discussing with potential clients, the way that you're putting yourself out there in the world you're showing up isn't landing.
And this is the stuff that most business coaches kind of give general information on like mindset and "get your mindset right," but what I specialize in is really this specific part deep and I focus on this way more than strategy because I saw in the marketplace that it was missing. There's an over - there's so much - there's so much that you can go on YouTube and learn how to make a funnel. There's so much information on how to create a great social media hook and a great video and how to edit it using AI. And again, all that stuff's great.
But if you're not where you want to be but you feel like you're doing all the things right, that's when it's not an external conversation anymore. That's probably some micro one percent shifts that need to happen, but what's really going to launch that trajectory is moving into "Okay, I'm the common denominator here in all these things that I've tried and all these coaches I've paid for and invested in and programs, and for some reason these other people out there are really successful doing the same thing, getting the same coaching." So point the finger right back at yourself and be like, "Well okay, got it. So what - it's not the external mechanism anymore. I'm doing everything that these people are doing. What needs to shift inside of me?"
So that's what I wanted to talk about today, because I feel like there's not enough conversations that go deep into this. And it's why there's so many entrepreneurs who are destined for success, who have so much knowledge, so many skill sets, so much passion, and they're not helping the amount of people that they could help and as a result they're not making the kind of income that's actually going to give them freedom in their life. And they're getting frustrated and resentful and then that's like this downward spiral where it's very challenging to create anything at a high vibrational frequency from frustration, from disappointment.
So it's like self-sabotage all over again. And then you're pushing and forcing and "masculining." And I'm very masculine energy dominated in the fact - and I say that in a way of like, I like strategy. I like having a structure. I like having a schedule. I'm not one of these coaches that's like, "Just go manifest and wish something to happen." So it's really a blend of the two. You know, that's my - I don't think it's one way completely. I don't think it's one way completely. I think there's an 80/20 approach and really like when you see the people making seven figures, eight figures, nine figures a year, the way they did that is because they've become a person who is confidently able to lead their life in a certain way.
Leadership traits that you're actually studying at a higher level versus "I'm not really focused on learning another marketing strategy." You know, like it's like, "Okay, cool. I could do like an evergreen funnel with a webinar. I'm going to study that right now and master that skill set." What's going to make it successful is how I lead it. That's it.
Nancy Rush:
Yeah. I think it's fascinating that you gave that statistic that it's like strategy is really only 20 percent, because I think most people have it reversed. They think that strategy is 80 percent of the equation and the personal is probably even 10 or less.
And the thing about it is, too, is that I've seen this through my own work with my clients, too, is that sometimes what I'd also say is not just that they can't achieve the success that they want - those limitations that are within are what's holding them back. But I also see it with people who have created success in terms of they already have a seven figure business, but they're drowning and they're unhappy. They feel unfulfilled and they feel no joy at all, you know, coming to work, so to speak, every single day.
And so I think that even that, too, even though they have the monetary success, I also think that they're not happy internally. And so that, like you said, we've got to turn the lens around to really focus on, okay, well, if I'm the common denominator, then what maybe is something that's affecting it from the perspective of what aspects of myself do I need to work on?
So I'm curious, you know, thinking of this, too, is that it's easy to say that self-reflection is required but for somebody who's really like pushing hard, what suggestions would you have for them to really step into this rather than just sort of giving it lip service, you know what I'm saying?
Katie Sampayo:
Oh yeah. Stop trying to do it by yourself. This has been like the biggest thing that I've been talking about all month. For some reason the high achiever thinks that they should be in a certain place by now, so there's like this guilt and shame around asking for support and thinking, "Well, I should know enough. I've read enough personal development books. I've hired enough coaches. I put enough time and energy into this thing. I should just be able to launch and have it be successful. I should just be able to journal some more, meditate some more, and figure this thing out."
I want to be super clear. This kind of work is not possible to be done by yourself because what happens is you only can see as far as you can see. You only know what you know. You are not able to see your blind spots. It's like you're driving in the car. This is real. Like we drive in the car, we look in the little side view mirrors, right? The rear view mirror. We swear there's nobody there. "I look, I swear there's nobody there." And then you go to turn and you hit somebody, you hit a pedestrian, you hit a biker. Someone's in your blind spot.
And for some reason, people think because they've studied the gurus and they've listened to Gandhi and Joe Dispenza and like whatever, "A few times you've done ayahuasca once, whooptie freaking do." Like, you know, "I just got to go there," you know, like you figured it all out. And it's like, yo, if you're not where you want to be, you haven't.
And real growth comes from this mindset of, "No, I get to always be in a learning state where I'm open to receiving." Even the highest level leaders on the planet, they have people supporting them all the time. I have three coaches myself, and I teach this stuff for a living.
Nancy Rush:
Yeah.
Katie Sampayo:
It's because I get in my own way and I don't know I'm doing it. You know, there it is. I don't know I'm doing it. And to have that neutral third party who specialized in helping understand like, "Okay, here's this destructive pattern that I've seen now again and again and again that you haven't connected the dots with." It's easier for that person on the outside because we're not emotionally connected to be able to help bridge that gap and to do it a hundred times faster than we could ever do by ourselves.
So it's also just super smart to lean in and get the support if you don't want to wait another 20, 30, 50, maybe never years to finally start having the experience in life that you want to have. Experience - not just talk about like you said - not just money. No, no, no, no. The whole shebang, right?
So that's like the biggest thing is people think for some reason that they can go deep into their subconscious brain just by journaling a bunch by themselves. It's like, no, no, no, no. It happens in the relationship. It happens in the conversation. It happens in the community that all of a sudden in real life situations where things are exposed and that's when your aha moments happen.
There's a difference between an aha moment and a breakthrough. People don't understand that. They're hopping on coaching calls, they're listening to all these people, they're listening to me right now, "I'm having all these aha moments. Got it." Still haven't had your breakthrough, right? There's a difference.
Breakthrough is integration, which means that the aha moment has shifted a decision making process so that there can be a different result on the other side. Now you have a breakthrough. Now you have different results. Now your life has shifted.
So for anybody here, don't get confused. Just because you've gotten a lot of awareness and aha moments does not mean that your life is about to change and the breakthrough is happening. What you choose to do with that information is what allows the breakthrough to happen. We all get scared. And that's when having that support system is so essential because it's scary to actually shift the way that you make decisions when you haven't done it a certain way before. I mean, it's normal for everybody. We can say we embrace change all we want. You embrace change in your comfort zone, let's be real, until your threshold of comfort is challenged, which is where the big breakthroughs happen, where you're literally going to be like, "I would never normally make a decision like this, so I'm going to do it."
It makes it so much easier when you have somebody by your side who's like, "I got you."
Nancy Rush:
I think that makes total sense. And I see it too, in my work that, you know, a lot of times I think people think that A, they shouldn't have to ask for help or support or B, they feel like that's an investment they can make down the road. It's like, "I need the business to make money first, and then I'll get my coaching." But the truth is, it's actually the opposite.
I was just having a call with my business mentor last night, and she brought my attention to something that I was completely not aware of. And I'm relatively a self-aware person, but it was not in my awareness of what I was doing and this pattern that I was embodying. And I was like, "Oh, my gosh."
And that's the thing, too, that I think is that it isn't like a one and done. It isn't like you become self-aware and all. It's like, for me, it feels like this continual process. There's always something new to become more aware of or patterns to break or whatever. So yeah, I just love that you brought this into the field, essentially saying that it's not really optional. You really, really do need support. Even if you think you don't, you do.
Katie Sampayo:
Oh, one hundred percent. It's just smart. Like you look at every single successful person, right? And they have a team around them. They are not doing that by themselves to get to the Super Bowl. You know, like, no, they have the nutritionist. They have the physical therapist. They have the five different coaches. They have one that's just working on mindset with them. Right. Like they have the whole thing so that they can be exceptional.
So if you have a goal to be exceptional and not just live an average life, you get to do exceptional things. And it sounds like, duh, yet there's so many people that really aren't connecting that dot. And what I find is they're not willing to do it.
So back to your point about self-sabotage, this is where I think people do self-sabotage themselves is that there's a part of them that knows support is necessary, it's needed for them to get to where they really want to be, but then they - I mean I've had it happen with clients of mine where they will talk themselves out of it and they'll justify why they don't need it and then they turn around and they're frustrated because they either don't have the success or even if success isn't the issue, they don't have the lifestyle, the joy, the freedom, the abundance that they're seeking, and they're miserable.
And it's like, "Oh gosh," you know, having that other perspective can make such a massive difference. I mean, truly, I think it's life-changing. And here's a quick way to move through it. Ask yourself, "Am I showing up and making decisions as my dream client?"
Nancy Rush:
Mm-hmm.
Katie Sampayo:
That's just like the easiest way to get out of your own way because then that's also where imposter syndrome creeps in because if you're not, I guarantee it's costing you money.
Nancy Rush:
Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah.
Katie Sampayo:
Because there's a disconnect that there's actually a misalignment happening here where you're expecting your clients to make decisions fast, invest, do what's best for them, get out of their own way. And if you're not willing to step up to the plate and make those same decisions, hello. Again, you might be saying all the right things on those sales calls or in those social media videos, but there's a misalignment that is sitting underneath the surface. It's an energetic block.
Nancy Rush:
Well, and so I think to that point, you know, everything has a vibration to it. And so you could be doing the most perfect marketing campaign. And if there is this misalignment that you're talking about, if that's present, it creeps through. I mean, people can, even if they're not even consciously aware of it, they're constantly reading whomever it is that they're listening to or they're reading their marketing materials. And it's like, if you're not walking your talk, if you're not fully genuine and being who you are authentically, it bleeds through.
And so I think that's one of the things that people don't really address is the energetics of everything. It's like that's why there's a million and one fantastic strategies out there for TikTok or social media or email campaigns or whatever. But at the end of the day, it's the person, I think, that makes the huge difference in terms of whether somebody wants to work with you or not.
Katie Sampayo:
Oh, one hundred percent. Right. And, you know, like for me, I can just - if I'm going to be the most basic title for what I do, I'm a life coach. Okay, there's millions, I bet millions of life coaches on the planet. Right. Like the only thing that makes me different is my personality, my mindset, my leadership, which are also dictated from my belief systems, which are dictated from my past experiences, which is what makes every single person on the planet unique. And people are connected to you more than anything.
Like I think people hire people, not just because they think that you can solve the problem, but because there's this connection there. And like you either have it - there's been so many people that I can help and the vibe was off. So I wasn't the best fit to coach them. And I've said this on many - like I'm super in integrity when I'm speaking with someone about an enrollment and I've said no many times to people where I'm just like, "You know, I know that I can support you and I don't believe my style, my community, the way that I lead would be the best fit."
Nancy Rush:
Yeah. And I think that that's extremely important to say because it speaks of such high integrity. And it also speaks to being in service rather than just sort of like bringing the client on for the income. And so I think that, you know, by prioritizing what's the best fit for them, A, it ensures that you aren't bringing people into your programs, into your work that are misaligned, but also you're really looking out for them, I think too, because I've had the same thing where there's certain people have approached me and I'm like, "I don't think I'm the best fit for you. And let me recommend some other options," right?
Katie Sampayo:
Yeah. Yeah. And at the beginning of our careers, a lot of the time, we don't even understand what's meant for us, what's not. It's just like dating, right? In the beginning, you're like, you're dating every flavor because you're like, "What do I want? What am I going to -" and that's okay and that's normal, you know. And once you start to figure those things out it takes courage to be in integrity with that. It takes leading from an abundance mindset which doesn't just happen because you think "I want to be abundant." It's learning how to actually embody that and have the courage to say no when things - you know, I remember at the beginning I had a coach tell me "Just say yes to everything. Say yes to everything." Well of course I did, right, because I've been listening to the coach.
And I never tell my clients that now, you know, because I, yes, I learned a lot and I was extremely fatigued. Yes. And I got into a couple of situations with some clients where it was just a battle. You know, it got nasty. You know, it was just like, "Whoa." Like I know for sure there's certain types of situations that I won't coach into anymore, even though technically I could. I'm like, "That's the therapist role. I can do it and it's not healthy for me because then that energy is then bleeding into my other conversations with other clients, it's bleeding into my relationship at home."
There's so many dots, everything's so connected and that's what I really emphasize in my approach and I teach. It's not like your job's over here and your personal life's over there and I have a complete - I had a breakdown of my life this week just to be like totally open here where my family is falling apart like my dad's going through a horrible divorce. This was found out five days ago. I have little siblings involved, little half siblings that are less than 10 years old. My dad is crashing, you know.
And can I tell you, it has affected my week. Oh, bad. Thinking that it wouldn't. Right. So I led a training last week and I was not in my best self. My identity was off. My energy was off. And I ended that training exhausted. And that's how, you know, and I usually don't end trainings exhausted. And I was like, "Whoa." And guess what? Here's my evidence. No conversion.
Nancy Rush:
Yeah.
Katie Sampayo:
Results speak for itself. And I knew it, like I knew it, like I knew it. And I took a step back and I was like, "Wow, this is affecting me more than I thought. I get to acknowledge my breakdown." So what I did was I went right back into my community. I made a [voice message]. I sent it out and I said, "I messed up. You did not get the best version of me. And I tried to force that because I had a job to do," quote unquote, "training to lead," you know, forcing it and guess what? I didn't get the result anyways, because I wasn't - it wasn't the moment for that.
This is where like we all make mistakes. I don't care how long you've been, but it's how you recover. It's how fast do you acknowledge the breakdown and your leadership is then what determines the next move that you make to clean up your messes because we all have messes to clean up for sure. We're not perfect. And the goal isn't to be perfect and lead every training perfect and to have every social media - no, we're human. We have stuff going on.
Okay. You know, like the breakthroughs that I think that are so important for everybody is it's a skill set and it takes a certain identity, a certain mindset to be able to create that awareness quickly, acknowledgement, not going to self beat up, not going to the drama of, "Oh man, I messed up, everyone hates me now, blah, blah, blah." And to just get back on the horse and shift.
Nancy Rush:
I love that you were immediately accountable for the fact that you realized you didn't show up as your best. And to me, that's the mark of a true leader is somebody who is accountable for their actions. And then you, like you said, you didn't spend all this time in like remorse and regret and self-criticism about it. You're like, "Okay, I have this. How do I show up? Okay. What's the right action to take," which you did. And then it and I can feel it energetically, just put it all, everything back into alignment. So I think that's a beautiful thing because like you said, life happens. I mean, we are, we have our moments. We're human beings for sure.
Katie Sampayo:
Every week, right? It's like every week something happens that we're not planning on happening that could disrupt - that not could, that will disrupt the flow. And like, that is the resilience that we're building. So that, and that's the confidence that we're building. That's the identity that we're really building. That's the freedom that we're building is that everything could crumble in the world and you would still be able to show up and have a great experience.
Nancy Rush:
Yes. Yeah. I think what we're really talking about here is in my terminology I call it personal mastery, right? So you're mastering the mental field, you're mastering the emotional field and you're getting yourself so aligned that even when the bumps happen because they always do, that when those bumps happen that they aren't totally knocking you off course and then it's just a simple matter of course correcting like what you did that now you're back into alignment and it's a blip instead of a big old roadblock, right?
Katie Sampayo:
Yeah. And just for me to reemphasize what I said at the beginning of this call, I didn't get through that by myself. I actually called my coach up at 11 a.m. because we finished late, who was on the call. And I said, "Listen, I know that training didn't go great. Give it to me." And she coached me for 20 minutes straight. My coach coached me because I give her permission to do that. And she's excellent. And I already knew it. But having that other person clarify some things with me again, speed.
Nancy Rush:
Yeah. Yeah.
Katie Sampayo:
Boom. Right back in it. Twenty minutes later, made this just from my heart [voice recording], just like, "Okay, let me just say what I want to say. I'm clear now. Great." And team, here you go. Text it out to everybody. Here's the email copy. ChatGPT done. Got it all out. And there wasn't this expectation to sell what I was trying to sell. It was more just, "I get to be a stand for anybody else who's going through a moment like this right now and have this," because wow, once I got that support from my coach, it made such a difference in the rest of my day, you know. Boom.
But again, I also had the awareness, but the breakthrough really happened from the conversation to go deeper into it. And I started crying to her and breaking down. I hadn't talked to anybody about it yet. She had no idea. She's like, "How long has this been going on?" I was like, "Just the past couple of days." She's like, "Oh, no, no, this makes so much sense." And she's like, "Yeah, I'm upset. I'm angry at the situation." And she's like, "Yeah, you showed up angry last night." And I was like, "I know."
We think that we can compartmentalize things and that's just not how it works.
Nancy Rush:
No, it definitely doesn't work. And I have been guilty of this too, where, you know, I've had some big things that have happened in the last year and a half with my dad and stuff. And I definitely tried to compartmentalize and just sort of like shut all my feelings down about it, but it bled through. I mean, it came out in either in working with clients or even just my own relationships and stuff. And I was like, "That's not going to work."
And so same thing, I went back to my mentor and I was like, "Okay, need some support here, need some clarification, some clarity around like how was the best way to navigate this situation?" Because the thing is that I find is that when - especially I do, I do want to point this out though, that I think it's really important to make sure that you're aligned with the person that's coaching you and that they themselves are walking their talk and that they are - because there's plenty of coaches out there and I've hired a number of them, and they weren't what I thought they were. And that was perhaps the biggest letdown from there, but it also brought me back into, "I need to have greater discernment and understanding, like, is this person truly what they say they are? And the second there's a non-alignment, that means that I need to move on to something different," right?
But my point is that without that support, I would not have navigated everything that I've been through in the last year and a half. And things would have been so much harder. And the other part of it too, is I don't know if you experienced this, but for me, it took a long time for me to master the inner critic, you know, that judge and jury that sort of lives inside because I would set such a high bar for myself and want to create, right. And then the second it wasn't happening or there was a bump in the road, then the inner critic just showed up large and in charge. And it was like, "Oh."
Now it's not the case. I don't let the inner critic drive the car anymore. The inner critic is hogtied and blindfolded in the trunk of a car with a padlock on it. But I'm curious for you, have you had that experience too? Because you strike me as somebody who would do the same thing, set pretty high bars for yourself.
Katie Sampayo:
Oh, yeah. I mean, I've had the whole perfectionist thing, like wanting everything to be perfect. Something I'm really proud of myself though for, I've always been a risk taker. And I think that is a success trait, point blank. I've made some decisions that have absolutely not worked out. I've made some investments that have absolutely not worked out. And I'm so proud of myself that I haven't let myself live in that story around it and that inner critic around it for years.
There's no way I'm - I'm turning 34 in a month - that I'd be in the position that I'm in right now, super grateful. Everything could stop right now, I'm grateful. And a lot of it is because, and this is what I help people do, and this is the main thing I feel like I'm really great at doing with people is to keep it going. Keep it moving. Like stuff happens, keep it moving.
You've got to be a risk taker to live an exceptional life. It's just the only way. It's why I go surfing every single day. It's like my embodiment of it, right? Like I'm out there in a wave, risking hurting myself, blah, blah, blah. You can name all the things that could happen. It's extremely uncomfortable sometimes. I do it because it's a constant practice is why I live a nomadic life. This is why I've been traveling for eight years living in different countries all over the world where I do not speak the language. I have no idea where anything is. Even going grocery shopping can be difficult. And I do it on purpose so that I'm in the work of "Okay, I always get to be in an expansive state."
And it's not like slowing down and getting comfortable is necessarily a problem or anything. It's just, "Wow, how am I going to lead the company the way I want to lead the company, lead my clients the way I want to lead my clients if I'm just doing what everybody else is doing in life?" No, I want to live. It just actually just makes me happy, you know, to do these things that I have these little wins and constantly challenging my belief systems around what's possible and implanting myself into the environments where I can do that on a regular basis. You know, that's when you really skyrocket, when it's just built into the way you live your life in these little ways. Not like "I got to go off a cliff every day," you know, or something like that, which I take clients - we do stuff like that at our retreats that are built into our programs, because for some of them, they've never done something like that before. And it's super scary. And I'm like, "This is your -"
Nancy Rush:
I love that. And, you know, I think it's such a great point that you're bringing up, too, is that so many of us do operate from fear. And even if we tell ourselves we're not, we are fear driven. And so I'm curious, you know, not many of us can go live a nomadic lifestyle and surf every day. That sounds amazing. But I am land bound. There's no surfing near me. So for somebody who has a little bit more of a - I don't know, smaller lifestyle, so to speak, what would you recommend to help them bring in more courage to let go of the fear and to really step into that greater version of themselves?
Katie Sampayo:
Yeah, that's going to happen anywhere. So we give our clients stretch goals every single week. And some examples of what that looks like is if somebody is working on confidence, a stretch goal that I'll give them is to go talk to 10 new people that you randomly meet out and introduce yourself, because they would never do that. They would never talk to people that they don't know or go give them a hug. We had some guy, he put on our coaching program, he put a "Free Hugs" - he made it into a t-shirt. He went out to the grocery store. He said, "I got 30 hugs." Because he is - yeah.
Nancy Rush:
Yeah.
Katie Sampayo:
And it was so uncomfortable because he's not - he's working on putting - he's a voiceover actor. And he's working on putting himself out there and being seen. So it can happen anywhere. You just think of something that you're resisting. If one of my biggest breakthroughs was I had a coach tell me, "Okay, Katie, what you get to do stretch goal is you get to enroll a group of people into a dance party in the next 24 hours and record it and send it over for proof." And I was like, "What?"
And this is when I'm living in Costa Rica, right? I can make up every excuse. "I'm in the middle of nowhere. I'm in the jungle. There's no one around." Well, what did I do that night? I went to CrossFit. I went to a CrossFit class and it was the first time I ever went to this studio. And I remember just waiting to the last possible second to do this thing. And I was like, "Man, I don't want to. Man, these people think I'm weird. I've never met them before." And I just never will forget this. And I said, and I just went and I said, "Listen, guys, here's what I want to do. I got a song. I want to play the song. And I want you guys to just let loose for a second and dance with me and roll with it. And let's see what happens. And I know I might sound crazy and you don't even know who I am, but are you open to doing it?" And they were like, "Okay."
And then we did it. And it was the first time I met any of those people. And they said, "This is so much fun. Can we do this every single time before we start the class? Who are you? Do you want to go out to dinner with us later tonight?" All these new friends instead of everyone making fun of me, they were excited and it completely shifted the whole energy of the class and allowed me to make friends that I wouldn't have made that fast, you know. And this is like the - this is how simple it can be, you know. Something like that, something that is like "Why would I?" It's not - it doesn't - it's not supposed to make sense. It's not, you know, like it's those are the moments where - this last little funny story.
So I'm just leading my retreat in Costa Rica, right? Because I've done this stuff for so long now, it's easier. That's what happens. I'm dancing with my clients because now I've actually integrated into our programs where we dance at the beginning of every call. Part of it now. And I used to be so shy and so introverted and blah, blah, blah. So I'm dancing at our retreat in Costa Rica and my underwear breaks. <Laugh>
Nancy Rush:
I was just trying to process that for a second.
Katie Sampayo:
It is hilarious. I am dancing and my underwear breaks. I don't know how your underwear breaks, but somehow my underwear snaps and falls all the way down. And I look down and I'm like, "No." And all my clients are like, "Is that what I think?" I picked up that thong and I started whipping it around in the air. <Laugh> My clients will not forget it. It literally was the first - they're like, "The way you handled that! Oh my god, I would have crawled into a shell and never come out and you just created this incredible moment for us where we were laughing and we were -"
And it's like, yeah, that's my - that's the way - that's from doing all those little dances and all these stretch things to get me to a place where I could fall flat on my face on a stage of a million people. And I would be able to lead that.
Nancy Rush:
Yeah, exactly. And you don't let it knock you out, which I've had moments. I remember the first time I ever spoke, it knocked me out when I fell flat on my face and I was so embarrassed and I couldn't speak. I actually lost my voice. I couldn't speak. I was so petrified. To go from that 10 years ago to this? You know, it's like, I know this work works. I know it. Like, my gosh, the evidence is clear as day, you know? And anybody can do it. Anybody can do it.
It reminds me of my daughter competed in the Miss Wyoming USA pageant last year. She did win, which was pretty exciting. But as the contestants were coming across the stage, there was one of those pits in the middle that they do the lights and stuff. Well, she tripped and she fell in the pit, right smack in the middle of the pageant competition. And this girl, she stood up, she goes, "I'm okay." And she climbed back up on stage and proceeded off. But what was so awesome about this, like you, is it's like when you have that ability to just be yourself and just let whatever - whereas I know some people, like even myself in the past, if something would go wrong on like a Zoom call or something, I'd get all worked up about it. And it's like, no, you just relax into it. Life happens, right?
Katie Sampayo:
It's so much more fun that way. And you create - it's like, those are the memories that you don't forget. Like those are the moments. The moments are when you break down and then like, what happened? How do you handle it? And that's the ones that you're laughing at for years later. You're like, "That's what really brought the community together." Like everyone said, "That was my favorite moments from the retreat." I'm like, "My underwear falling off." I'm like, "Everything we did, that was it." And it's just because it wasn't part of the plan actually.
Nancy Rush:
Well, and you did model such beautiful behavior too, because you were like, "Well, that happened." And then, you know, then you made it right. And I think that's such a great leadership quality is to just like, "Yep, it happened. I'm picking it up and we're rolling with it." And then to infuse some levity, some joyfulness and laughter into it even better.
Katie Sampayo:
Yeah. I'm going to laugh about that for the rest of my life. And I know they will too. I guarantee no one will forget. Like never. It's a funny, it's a really funny story, but, but yeah, so like, these are the things when I'm talking about, "Okay, it's more about your leadership than your strategy" to sum this up. Right. Like, yeah, so many real examples of that in real time.
Nancy Rush:
I think so too. And I do think that people are being called into a higher version of leadership. You know, the old way of doing it definitely doesn't feel as good anymore. And so, like I said, you know, bringing some laughter into things, bringing in some, you know, "Let's just go with the flow" rather than get all worked up about everything needing to be a certain specific way or to execute the perfect marketing strategy. Because again, energetically, you're communicating something on a whole different level to people, which I think they resonate with.
Katie Sampayo:
Yep. One hundred percent. I love that. I love it.
Nancy Rush:
Well, do you have any like last minute kind of guidance or like your one thing that you would advise people? You're like, "If you do nothing else besides coaching, obviously, but anything else?"
Katie Sampayo:
I mean, I think it'd be great for me to give everyone the activity of going through a stretch goal. Like think of a stretch goal for yourself, something that makes zero logical sense, something that absolutely goes against the thing that you would normally do. And it just gets to be fun. It gets to be joyful. It gets to be light. And it gets to be something that starts to shift your belief systems about who you are and what you're capable of.
And that's really like, I want to leave everybody with an action, this action to take, because don't just listen to me or all the other people who are going to speak. Everyone here gets to be very intentional with, "Okay, how do I get to actually apply what I just heard so that this doesn't become another free thing that you sign up for that's loaded with great information that does not actually change your life." What's going to change your life is after every single one of these sessions to just be like, "Okay, what's my implementation? What's my action that I get to take?"
And I'm sure if you're struggling with that, you can reach out to Nancy. You can reach out to me. You can reach out to whoever is talking. And more than happy to help you understand what that really means and looks like. But the biggest thing is don't overthink it. It's not about getting it right. It's just about, "Okay, what gets to be the next step?"
Nancy Rush:
I think that's so great that you're bringing that into it because it's easy for people to consume amazing content like this and then be like, "Here today, gone tomorrow," versus taking something actionable from it and then actually implementing it because that taking action part is so important. Because for me, that says "I'm committing to myself. I'm committing to myself over and over again for my own personal growth, for the business, for whatever." And that, to me, it also goes hand in hand with the courage to take the action, right? Rather than just sort of being like, "Well, not for me."
Katie Sampayo:
Yeah. That was cool stories from Katie, but I'm not doing it. If you even know what to do, just do the dancing thing that I said. Very simple. Steal my thing. Go do it. I don't own it, you know. And just try it on and then all of a sudden if you're someone who's working on courage, if you're someone who's working on confidence, if you're someone who's wanting to up level their life or create expansion, you're actually doing it. Yeah. That's how it works.
Nancy Rush:
I love it. I love it. I love it. Well, we could keep chatting for another 30 minutes, I'm sure, on everything. But I would love to give you the opportunity to talk about your free gift because it's a really great one. So if you wouldn't mind.
Katie Sampayo:
So really what I help people do is to be able to create aligned actions so that their lives do change. What does that look like for you? What's your individual action plan based off of what your core values are in your life and in your business? And what's that roadmap? So you don't get stuck in confusion of, "Well, what do I do next? How do I put this stuff together that Katie said, where do I focus? There's so many things on my to-do list," right?
So that's why I'm offering an Aligned Life Blueprint call, which we sit down with you for about 30 to 45 minutes with me or one of my coaches on my team. We have four incredible coaches in my company that fully support Thrive Life. They're incredible. They're amazing. They're all entrepreneurs who have been successful and are in high levels of leadership. And we are that person for you, especially if you've not really experienced that kind of support before, who can literally 10X your results in a 30 to 45 minute conversation, because we know how to move through the weeds, move through the belief system super quickly, identify blind spots, laser focus, because I also like to move fast, and to just get you guys moving forward because most people have already been waiting way too long to live the life that they want.
So we're not here to waste time. This is a thousand dollar value. Our clients do invest a thousand dollars per session actually to have these kinds of calls with us. And I'd love to offer this community, only the first 10 people who book that call, the opportunity to actually have that kind of support.
Nancy Rush:
That's amazing. Oh, my gosh. What an incredible gift. So I'm sure that would be amazing to have somebody just kind of do that little mini analysis and be like, "Here you go. Here's some data points for you."
Katie Sampayo:
It's life changing. It's life changing. And we're committed to the breakthrough, not just the aha moment. And that's what we're going to coach you into.
Nancy Rush:
That's amazing. Well, we're doing something somewhat similar, but we're going to be kicking it off by offering a two to three hour immersion where we're going to be taking people, not really a typical training, but taking them through what we call the Seven Core Pillars for a Soul Aligned Business. And part of it is also mapping their personal blueprint, helping them identify blind spots, but also really kind of looking at their business from more of a strategic, insightful perspective. Not so much the mechanics of "This is a, you need to do this in terms of X strategy," but where the things that are limiting or blocking or holding them back in some way from either realizing the success that they want, or they already have the success. But like we talked about, they're not happy. They don't feel fulfilled.
And so we'll be doing that first immersion. And then there'll be an invitation to come into a one-on-one call so we can more specifically dial it in for everybody. And so that's what we're offering. So -
Katie Sampayo:
I love it. Very aligned.
Nancy Rush:
Yes, very, very, very, very on topic for what we've been discussing today. Well, this has been fantastic, Katie. Thank you so much for taking the time and sharing all your amazing, awesome stories. I'm never going to forget the underwear story.
Katie Sampayo:
<Laugh> Probably the first time you've heard that on an interview.
Nancy Rush:
Most definitely. But I love it because you've brought all this great humor into everything because it's like, you know, we all take stuff so seriously sometimes. And so it's like, "Yep, this happened. So -"
Katie Sampayo:
Exactly. Thank you. I've enjoyed this so much and I'm so excited for everybody here to watch all of our other experts and get all the juiciness out of what you've put together.
Nancy Rush:
Thank you. Yeah, it's been great. Thank you.
