Blog | Sam Vander Wielen LLC - DIY Legal Templates

How to Protect Your Privacy While Growing an Online Business

August 4, 2026

How to Protect Your Privacy While Growing an Online Business A few years ago, I posted a sunset photo from my backyard on Instagram. Nothing dramatic, just a pretty sky and a caption about how lucky I felt to live...

Sam Vander Wielen smiling and wearing a blue denim shirt. Text overlay reading “I Declared a Gap Year. Then I Turned It Into a Full-Time Job. [Summer Read-Aloud]"

I Declared a Gap Year. Then I Turned It Into a Full-Time Job. [Summer Read-Aloud]

August 3, 2026

Listen on Apple | Spotify | YouTube Listen Now: What happens when you give yourself an entire year off and can’t actually take it? That’s the question I’m sitting with in this week’s essay. I declared 2026 my entrepreneurial gap...

Sam Vander Wielen sitting on the beach and smiling. Text overlay reading "What I Do When I Hit a Breaking Point in Business"

What I Do When I Hit a Breaking Point in Business (and What’s Coming in August)

July 28, 2026

What I Do When I Hit a Breaking Point in Business I popped up out of the wave, skidding across the shell-filled sand on my tush. Gasping for air, I wiped the salty water away from my eyes and realized...

Sam Vander Wielen sitting, smiling and holding a microphone. Text overlay reading "How I Stopped Letting the Algorithm Decide What I Like"

How I Stopped Letting the Algorithm Decide What I Like [Summer Read-Aloud]

July 27, 2026

Listen on Apple | Spotify | YouTube Listen Now: I recently stood in a long line for pancakes I wasn’t even sure I wanted. And it made me realize how much of what I consume, eat, buy, watch, isn’t actually...

Sam Vander Wielen sitting indoors and smiling. Text overlay reads "What to Do in a Slow Season in Business"

What to Do in a Slow Season in Business (Without Freaking Out)

July 21, 2026

What to Do in a Slow Season in Business The year was 2012. I’d just graduated from law school and taken the Bar Exam, yet I wasn’t in a courtroom screaming “OBJECTION!” I was unemployed and crying into my iced...

Sam Vander Wielen sitting on the beach and smiling. Text overlay reading "15 Habits that Rebuilt Me After I Lost Everything"

15 Habits that Rebuilt Me After I Lost Everything [Summer Read-Aloud]

July 20, 2026

Listen on Apple | Spotify | YouTube Listen Now: One of the strange gifts of your life completely burning to the ground is the fertile soil it leaves behind for you to begin again. That’s where I found myself after...

The Week I Almost Quit My Business (And Why I Didn’t)

July 14, 2026

The Week I Almost Quit My Business A few weeks ago, I was ready to quit. Maybe I wouldn’t have actually gone through with it. I think a few people who love me would have talked me out of it....

Sam Vander Wielen sitting indoors and writing in a notebook. Text reads: More Memories of Other People's Lives Than Our Own

More Memories of Other People’s Lives Than Our Own [Summer Read-Aloud]

July 13, 2026

Listen on Apple | Spotify | YouTube Listen Now: Nobody talks about what actually happens after you put your phone down. Everyone’s obsessed with the getting off social media part — deleting the apps, doing the digital detox, bragging about...