I’m Evolving (What’s Next for Me + My Business)

So I don’t know if it’s just me, but 2025 feels like a transformational year. Tell me if this sounds anything like you. You are still showing up online and in your business, you’re still running your business trying to at least, but deep down you can feel that something is shifting and it’s not just your strategy or the latest algorithm change that is the problem.

It’s that you are shifting, you are changing. You want to keep growing your business, I know that, or otherwise you wouldn’t be here listening, but not at the cost of your energy, your identity, or living your actual life. You want a business that expands with you. That evolves around you, not one that boxes you in.

What do you do when you feel yourself evolving as a person, as a business owner, while your business or the trajectory you thought your business was going to go down still reflects a past version of you? What about when you’re grieving like I am or healing like I am, or simply just changing, like I also am and you’re not sure what the next version of you, let alone your business looks like, yet.

In today’s episode, I’m bringing you into this messy, meaningful season of my life and my business, um, where I’m learning to rebuild both from the inside out. This is gonna be a kind of raw, vulnerable, behind the scenes episode because I’ll be sharing what I’m letting go of in this season. What I’m slowly moving toward and how I’m making space for creativity, wellness, taking better care of myself and real alignment in my life, even though I don’t have a crystal clear plan. I think that’s like the most important part of today’s episode.

If you’ve ever felt like you are shifting, but you’re not quite sure into what this one goes out to, you.

So I don’t have a perfectly articulate way of telling you this of what I’m about to tell you today, but all I can tell you if we were to sit down for coffee is that I feel like I’m in the midst of a really big shift. Or maybe even a better way to put it is like I want to be in the midst of a really big shift because you know, the truth is I’m really comfortable in my business, which is both a good and a bad thing, right? I’ve, I’ve had my legal templates business since 2017. It’s been successful pretty much the whole time. I mean, it’s gotten a lot bigger over the years, but like, it, it went pretty well from the start. I was fortunate in that respect, and I know what to do in my business. I know what to do in marketing. I know what levers to pull, as I always say.

I think what’s gotten weird for me lately is that I don’t necessarily want to pull them. And that’s been the first time that that’s really ever happened. You know, part of it I think could be getting comfortable in your business, like you get to this point where it’s a little easy, or it’s just like you’re used to the, the information, the stuff you teach, the stuff you talk about, and like maybe it gets a little bit boring. But I also was chatting with a friend earlier today about the fact that like. You can also tell when there are big shifts in like the industry or in social media, in the algorithms and all these things, and you’re like, oh, this stuff like didn’t use to bother me like I used to roll with this and I used to change my, myself and my, the way I presented my information online. Like it was no problem and it was fun and it was a challenge. And now when these things happen, I’m like, Ugh, I don’t want to do that. Especially like with all the stuff coming in about AI and everybody’s like using all this like bombastic language like, if you don’t use AI, you’re dead and your business is dead and all this. I’m like, I just don’t want to like, I want, I like writing my own stuff. Like I feel very much like an old lady right now who’s kind of like seeing all this new stuff come in and I’m just like, I just don’t want to do that. Like I wanna live like a quieter, simple life and I just am sick of it. I don’t know. I’m sick of a lot of like the keeping upness of our industry.

But I also know that after doing this for so long and talking about the same thing, I’m not the same person as when I started my business. I’ve also learned a lot. I’ve also personally been through a lot and changed a lot. And so, you know, since I started my business, I’ve lost both of my parents. I’ve had brain surgery, like I’ve traveled to like a million countries. I’ve met so many interesting people. I’ve tried lots of different marketing things that haven’t worked. I’ve tried other things that have, you know, I’ve spoken on stages now. I’ve been on big podcasts, like I’ve done different things. And I came into online business with like an expertise and it was like, here’s my one thing, this is what I can teach you. I was a lawyer. That’s that. And like that makes sense to me.

But what happens when you become a more evolved person? I never want other people to feel like they’re in a box, because I never expect that from other people. And so I think a bit of me is like, why don’t I give that same permission to myself? You know? Vanessa Lau talks about this all the time, about like not being so niched down that you can’t talk about other things and like she doesn’t ever wanna be in a box again. And I’m like, you don’t have to be in a box. Like I wanna learn all these different things from you. And I’m like, why don’t I apply that to myself, right?

There’s this part of me that wants to expand and be different and talk about other things related to online business, marketing, maybe even some life stuff. Like what? It’s like navigating grief while building your business. And I think having these thoughts even just at least be present, has just caused me to start looking at things differently and maybe feel a little differently about how I’m approaching business like it caused me to want to slow down and to be a little quieter.

I’ve definitely noticed so many, I don’t know, like side effects I guess, of especially the last few years like there being so much growth and that taking so much out of me in terms of, uh, a lot of output, right? It’s like I have a very outward job, like a lot of creation and being on and getting feedback from people all the time. People expecting answers from you. That has just caused me to feel like wanting to go inwards and wanting to be quieter and wanting to step away a little.

It’s also caused me to want to develop myself outside of work. I think especially came up for me when my parents died, when I realized like, oh, I really poured myself into my business for a long time. I. And that’s okay because when you start your business, I do think there’s a very natural and helpful, uh, hustle period. I think it’s kind of required, you know, in a way, and like you don’t have to hustle so badly that you burn out, i’m not saying that, but like there’s a time when you focus on your business when you have that luxury in life and that’s all you kind of have going on. But then like life happens and whether it’s that, you’re grieving or you have a child or you move or you like have a new job demand or something like this. Like there’s all kinds of things, but something in life tends to happen that makes you be like, oh, I can’t, I can’t just have this all be about the business anymore because I have this tendency in my life to push and push and push and always be so focused on this like one thing. But the one thing, whenever you get it, like whatever the thing is that you achieve, it doesn’t tend to be the resolution or the like salve that you expected it to be and so that has pushed me over the years to be like, my business is just my business and that’s okay. I can love it and I love what I do and I love my customers and all of that.

I just want to be more developed as a person. So what has that looked like for me so far this summer? Well, two fun things that I haven’t talked about at all. Nobody, nobody other than my friends knows about this. For one, I signed up for an art grief therapy class, which has been really cool. It’s actually one of my customers runs it. Um, I wrote an email to my list, you know, mentioned a bit about my grief and like how processing my grief kind of relates to my complicated relationship with social media. Because once you’ve been through so much grief, you, I don’t know, on the one hand you’re super lonely and on the other you can then like look to social.

I think to fill in a lot of that loneliness, uh, that I, I certainly feel after losing my parents. I wrote this email about it, and actually one of my customers responded and said, Hey, do you know I’m a grief therapist? And by the way, I, I’m doing like this art class this summer. Just for grieving people. And I was like, wait, that sounds awesome. I don’t wanna say too much about it in the sense that it’s a, it’s a small group of us who are all grieving, and so it’s very private. But, I will say like personally, it’s just been a, it’s been helpful. It’s also been helpful in showing me like how much I struggle with being so like, literal and maybe like tapping in, tapping deeper into my grief. Um, I’m somebody who talks about, pretty openly my grief. And I am very vocal about the fact of like, how much I miss my dad and how much I miss my mom and how painful it is still, you know, it’s only been two and three years, but I think that the class is teaching me that there’s like, there’s still these like inaccessible parts of grief that perhaps could be keeping me stuck in ways that, uh, in like the other areas of my life that we’re going to talk about or are talking about today.

So I’m doing that and then I also. Signed up for a writing class, a creative nonfiction writing class at UCLA, their like online program. That’s super interesting because it’s pushing me to create content that’s not to be consumed. So I’m really trying to get myself out of this habit of like every single thing I create has to be productive for one and two has to be done through the lens of like, how is this going to be perceived? Will people like this? How do I produce this in a way that makes it more likable, searchable, uh, consumable, you know, whatever. Like, I wanna get out of that. I just want to be a better writer and I want to be, I wanna learn how to be a better writer outside of the arena of just like the online business world. So I signed up for that. And then in the same vein, I’m kind of doing a bunch of different, like writing things just for fun. Like, I’m in Terry Trespicio’s New Rule Studio where they have these like gateless method classes where you kind of free write and don’t give feedback. It’s a whole, it’s a whole thing. It’s awesome. So I’m doing things like that, like I’m trying to do certain things on substack just for fun. All of that.

I’m also taking this time to face some of my addictions, to be honest, like social media and productivity are my addictions. You know, my mom was heavily addicted to more of the traditional substances and that was very difficult to grow up with. And I think I’ve also, I’ve always like sat on my high horse being like, I don’t have an addictive personality. I don’t do any of these things that my mom did that were so horrible and had like such a horrible impact on my life. And then I look at my phone and I’m like, Hmm, not so fast.

You know, maybe it doesn’t have the same like social cachet as some of the addictions that my mom had, but like if you would replace the word like drugs for the way that I talk about, being on social or obsessively checking different things, whether it’s social and messages and email and slack and, um, podcast downloads and YouTube numbers and revenue and all these things. Like, it’s just a very, it’s a very checkable industry that we’re in. And so I’m also taking this time to really face like, and be honest with myself that not only am I addicted to it and like addicted to being productive and like useful all the time and all of that. But like who am I? If one of those things slows down or stops or whatever, you know, if I’m not producing things to be consumed, who am I anymore? I don’t know.

At the same time though, I need my business and my business’s income, and I am saying all these things with like a giant asterisk on all of it, that I also really love what I do, like I love my business, I love the individual things that I get to do. Some of it I think is just like being bored or frustrated with like, the way that you would do certain things, not like the business in general or being a business owner or selling legal templates. Like, I still love what I do and I still need it. Like, there also is just like a practical element where it’s like, I need an income, I have a family and I need income.

I have a mortgage. Right? So there’s, there’s this tension there between being like, this thing isn’t working for me and yet I need it. So what do I do?

So, you know, I have a pretty evergreen business. I talk about this often, but everything in my business is set up to kind of run off of like this evergreen funnel. I have a fantastic team, so like I am extremely privileged to have people who are helping to implement and pick up the slack and pick up the pieces and respond to people and do things that, you know, I wouldn’t be doing anyway, even if I was working a hundred hours a week. That’s not, it’s not the best use of my time in the business, right?

And I’m present for like what I need to be present for in the business. I’m kind of like, what are the tasks in my business that not only require me and like no one else can do it, but what are the tasks in my business that actually move the needle forward so that these are good uses of my time. Like whether you’re busy or you’re burnt out or whatever else, like I think it’s a really good thing to step back and say, what do I absolutely have to be present for and what is getting me to move the needle?

You know, for me, I would think about creating like my email newsletter every week, Sam’s Sidebar, which if you don’t get it, obviously you should click the link in the show notes and get my weekly email. But you know, I think that that’s a crucial puzzle piece to my business that needs me and also that’s really important to moving the needle, creating this podcast or the YouTube episodes, like in videos those are all the most crucial things. But also the things that obviously need me. We can’t, I don’t want to, I don’t wanna use AI to regenerate me. One, me is more than enough for most people.

At the same time, you know, I am still struggling with this idea of like, can I branch out beyond my niche? Right? Like maybe you went down a path of like talking about kind of like one thing, or even like one angle. Like I know a lot of people reach out to me and say like, here’s an example, like when keto was hot, and they’re like, I wanna talk about more things than just keto diets. You know, like, I wanna talk about other things related to health and wellness. So I think that this is really common where it’s like people then start to be like, I just wanna expand and I want to talk about other things. And so I just wrote my book. My book just came out on April 15th and it really resonated with people. And then I spoke at Kit at their conference, Craft and Commerce in Boise.

My keynote was about authenticity and vulnerability. I just did a whole episode a few weeks ago breaking down like my time there and, and what I all found out behind the scenes, so definitely go check that out. But I talked about vulnerability and authenticity in my keynote and then in my workshop I taught about email marketing and these are topics are resonating with other people.

So like there’s all this muck in my head in terms of like, who wants to hear this from me? I don’t really have, I don’t think I’m really doing anything that interesting related to this stuff. Like what do I have to offer? You know, all the same stories that we probably all do at some point or another. And you know, it was hard to ignore and hard to deny between the book and talking at Craft and Commerce that these things weren’t. You know, resonated with people so people were really liking it and I want to keep talking about it. I wanna write another book. All of that kind of stuff. So, I don’t know, I’m just sort of floating around in this like weird space that I, at least is weird to me between quote unquote, having to run my business on the one hand really liking my business and a lot of what I get to do, and obviously the people I get to work with and the customers I get to serve and wanting to evolve beyond it, but not knowing how to do that or what that really means and what it looks like.

It’s brought up tension. These different feelings have brought up so many different things for me that I probably haven’t felt in a very long time, like. For example, like the fear of falling behind, right? So if I stopped talking about only what my niche was or if I stopped doing the one thing that’s like worked for me in the past, what if at all of you guys just go to somebody else? What if everybody forgets about me? What if it muddies the waters and people don’t think of me for the legal stuff anymore? What if I lose my relevance because I I don’t know. I started talking about lots of different things and you only wanted me for this, like one thing, right?

I also personally have a lot of guilt for needing and wanting this kind of space. Like I, I think about just feeling like really weak of like what the heck’s wrong with you that you need like time off or like your business is successful, why can’t you just be happy with it the way it is? Um, I feel badly that the people on my team are, you know, that I wouldn’t be able to essentially do it without them. And that, and what they must think about me for, for needing this kind of space and like how they probably think I’m weak and these are all stories. Like no one’s said this to me. No one in my team has been like, Ugh, what’s wrong with you? Right? And I mean, maybe they’ve thought it in their head, but no one said it to me.

And so these are all things that. Are just stories in my own mind that definitely come from, you know, this like childhood place and this, as I always say to my therapist, this like, need to be on the treadmill all the time, the life treadmill all the time, and just like running, running, running, but not really knowing what exactly you’re running from.

But you’re just really comfortable running because you’ve always been running your whole life, you’ve had to run. And so it’s really uncomfortable when someone tells you, like, by the way, you don’t need to run anymore. Like, you don’t even need to walk. You can like get off the treadmill.

I also noticed that what’s come up for me is a bit of grief over like the past versions of myself and even my business. Like I remember, you know, when I started my online business in 2016, I, it was, it was the heart of the girl boss era. And I have to say it was really fun. Like it was really, really fun. Like that hustle period where I lived, breathed, ate, died, all things online, entrepreneurship and hashtag girl boss and like hustle, hustle, hustle.

I was working out of WeWork in Philly where I was living, where I’m from, uh, originally and like just I remember being surrounded by a lot of people who were like really new to online business. And it was just this very, it felt like a one giant startup. Like it was just like a very exciting time period. And you know, I don’t wanna call it naive, but like, just a simpler time in my life that that was the only thing I had to focus on. I. Like I didn’t have surgery yet. My dad didn’t get leukemia yet. I didn’t start taking care of him. No COVID, mom didn’t get killed, like none of that stuff and I just look back on it and I’m like, dang, that was nice and it was fun to be so new at something, like everything was so new and so exciting and I had to figure everything out. And if I was to toot my own mindset horn for one minute, it, it’s just that I really enjoy like the challenge and like having to figure things out or not knowing things, things changing doesn’t typically bother me and I don’t get like hyper excited when they go great because I’m like, it’s all just like part of the experiment.

So all that to say like that time period was very fun for me. I don’t know. There’s something like kind of sweet and innocent too about, you didn’t make as much money, but like my expenses were really low. I didn’t have anybody working for me, which obviously is a huge con. But on the same token, I didn’t feel like I owed anybody anything and I didn’t have to worry about anybody being disappointed in me. But it was a very lonely time because no one was there working with me. Um, but I also just didn’t have the demand for it, right? Like it was easy to do things myself. ’cause there weren’t that many things to do. I do believe it’s important to do everything yourself or like know a little bit about every piece of your business before you hand it off. And so like, I’m glad I had that time period and I kind of grieve over it of like i’m never going to be that beginner in that kind of business again, especially in that time period. And then there was like this part after me, even like once it was up and running that was just super ambitious and like hustled and would’ve done anything to build the business.

And even when I can look at that past version of myself and be like, Ooh, probably not the best, like she needed to chill out. I can also be like, oh, I respect, I respect that hustle.

Reflecting on all these things. It’s helped me to realize that there’s a lot more to me than being a business owner, than being a founder, CEO, whatever. It’s not that I’m not ambitious anymore, it’s just that I’m more ambitious about living my life Then, just building my business, like my business is part of my life and I’m also ambitious about building my business, but I also wanna build other things, like I wanna build experiences and connection and travel, and I just also wanna build quiet. It’s just like everything is not about growing my numbers all of the time.

I just honestly wanted to share these thoughts with you today. Uh, like I said, I don’t have a nice, neat bow to tie this all up with. I do have a couple of like takeaways that I wanna leave you with that maybe will resonate with you, but it’s hard not knowing exactly what my path will look like because I’ve spent the first several years of my business like knowing exactly what it would look like or knowing how to make the path, like how to carve out that path.

And it’s kind of like I’ve reached this point in the path where I’m like, Ooh, I don’t know what it looks like from here. Part of me is really excited about that. Part of me is scared. I’m a believer in like having, like I think it’s good for you to have your dream and, and think about what you want to do in the future. At the same time, I would love for you to remain open to the fact that things could unfold in a different way than what you can anticipate. So like I would sit here and tell you that I would love for me what I do in this industry to evolve more into a way of like a Mel Robbins, um, kind of like Glennon Doyle type by what I mean by that is like, I love that she gets to talk about lots of different things. I love that she gets to write and talk for a living. It’s what I like to do. So I think about that. I think about how she connects with her audience on a deeper level, like a more vulnerable and authentic level, because she shares a bit about her story, which is also up my alley, and I have done so like I tend to think of it that way while also trying to remain open that like maybe my path will be also really different or it’ll be a different thing than what I anticipate.

If I had to boil this down to four takeaways that you could integrate, maybe something you’d want to journal on or just noodle on while you’re on a walk or something, I would leave you with this.

One is that you don’t need clarity 24 7. Like I know you want it, but you really don’t need it. Like it’s okay to not know where something’s going. I was talking about this a little bit at Craft and Commerce with Pat Flynn, and I was telling him how I was feeling and he was saying like, it’s really important to listen to these urges, like these little passions that I’m having about, like I feel called to go talk about these other things because if you don’t, it’s not only real missed opportunity, but you’re going to feel very frustrated in your content that you are creating.

Now on the flip side, you could take this too far and it’s like if tomorrow you’re into needle pointing and on Saturday you’re into like mini horses, I don’t think that means like we need to start going down all of these paths. I think when it’s like these big, big things that kind of relate to what you know, that are just like a step or two outside of what you talk about, I think it’s great.

The second thing is that I’m always going to encourage you to develop yourself outside of your business. Do things that you don’t, you know, share and all of that. That’s our third thing actually, is to keep some things to yourself. Like do things that aren’t for consumption, that aren’t for feedback, that aren’t for sharing or share things and well, like without abandon and being like, I don’t care what everybody thinks about me doing, you know, my new, uh, mini horse hobby. I don’t care about it. I’m sharing, sharing it ’cause it’s fun. Like, ’cause I wanna do it, like, do some things for fun, not through, always through the lens of like, how is this gonna be per perceived? How will this perform? Do people like this? Is this in my niche? Like. No, you gotta do some stuff for fun.

The fourth thing is that your business doesn’t need to be static. I think even if it’s successful, even if you’ve maybe built up a little something so far that’s going okay, but it’s not enough for you, it’s not giving you that seatbelt click, then it’s also okay to change. It’s also okay to evolve. And I guess I’m also here to show you an example of like you think that building your online business is about like climbing this gigantic mountain and you’re gonna get to this incredible peak and hilltop and it’s gonna have an incredible view and a sunset, and then it’s all over from there.

But no, it’s like you get to the peak and you’re like, oh crap. There’s another mountain on the other side of it with an even bigger peak. That’s how online business has been for me. It’s been a series of hills and valleys of like peaking and then coming back down or having to figure it out new rough terrain to another big peak, and I really don’t think you’d want it any other way. I think that life would be really boring if it wasn’t that way.

So that’s that. I really have no idea whether this was any good or helpful or resonates, but I guess in taking my own advice, not that I don’t care what you think, but I just felt like I really needed to share this and get this off my chest and have this conversation and as we’ll talk about in the next episode, that’s really why I started this podcast. I wanted to have deeper, fuller, real conversations with you that you can’t do in a 45 second reel.

And so that’s why we’re all here. If you’ve listened and this resonates or you have feedback or you just wanna like share something that came up for you, I would love to hear from you.

My inbox is always open, especially this summer. The absolute best place to, to find me is in my inbox. You, you can always email me at sam@samvanderwielen.com. Um, you could send me a DM technically on Instagram, but I’m going to be off of it for most of the summer. Uh, we’ll still be posting content that I’ve already created and planned, but I won’t be checking things. So the best way to get in touch with me. Is definitely by email and making sure that you get Sam’s Sidebar, my weekly newsletter that over 48,000 of your online business peers get every single week in their inbox. Um, because you can always not only read that, but, and catch up with me, but also you can reply to that and I, I read and reply to those, so that’s the best way for you to keep in touch KIT this summer. Um, and in addition to the podcast, obviously come here every single week. So with that, I can’t wait to hear from you. If you liked this episode, text it to a friend, share it wherever you feel comfortable. I so appreciate you listening to On Your Terms®.

I will see you next week for our 250th episode. It’s a super special episode next week because we’re not only celebrating, but I’m answering all of your top questions about podcasting, my strategy behind it, why I started it, what I had totally wrong about it, what big mistakes I’ve made, and really what the future of this podcast looks like for me.

Alright, with that, I’ll chat with you next week.

Thanks so much for listening to the On Your Terms® podcast. Make sure to follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen to podcasts. You can also check out all of our podcast episodes, show notes, links, and more at samvanderwielen.com/podcast. You can learn more about legally protecting your business and take my free legal workshop, Five Steps To Legally Protect and Grow Your Online Business at Samvanderwielen.com and to stay connected and follow along, follow me on Instagram at samvanderwielen and send me a DM to say hi.