Meet Maria Sampalis

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maria Sampalis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with maria below.

Maria, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?

Confidence comes from within. I believe that the obstacles we face and failure we overcome makes us successful over time. I am usually hard on myself. I set high expectations and goals. I plan out goals 1 week, 1 month 1 year and 5 years. Reaching each goal I gain confidence. Self esteem comes from myself. I can delay gratification which I feel is important in business to continue to focus on the journey. I don’t need validation from others to justify my goals. When you don’t compare yourself to others then don’t feel bad. The only competition is in the mirror. Am I being the best version of what I can be? I focus on the hard things so I am prepared for whatever is thrown my way. You wanna be a CEO than get in a room with people that are doing more than you compete up stop competing down. See if you can match the same intellect, strategic thinking, reading the room, handling conflict and rejection. I have become confident in my decisions because of all the rejection, it can only go up from there.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I am an optometrist. I always wanted to have my own practice. I got it afters years of hard work and determination. I always did things a little differently and didn’t follow the crowd. Thinking outside the box has really helped me over the years. I excelled quickly in my business balancing an office and a young family. It was my passion my calling it was easy to do it. Many would ask how do you do all this, if the why is so strong the how is easy!
Gaining confidence I wanted more from my career. I started an online platform 10 years ago and it has grown to over 70k eye care professionals, providing articles, podcasts, industry influence and so many ways to give back to the profession and empower young optometrists and females in the industry. I would talk about topics that people would talk about behind closed doors, but bringing the hot topics to light was fulfilling to make a change. It was never about financial reward, or recognition- I would have never written 500 articles and did over 150 podcasts if it was especially when no one was supporting me at the beginning. I had so many obstacles just become I was growing quickly. I wasn’t like anyone else I had to walk a lone many times, but looking back I am very grateful for those people that blocked me, made things difficult so I could work harder, do more and gain the confidence and perseverance to continue to grow my vision. I would write down all the negative comments, rejections and things that didn’t go my way – looking at the list every day and using it as motivation. The more you face your fears then less they become fears. Today my journey has reached its destination and I wonder what else is out there for me? I can only imagine what I can accomplish! Never thought I would be where I am today, without a mentor, without a sponsor but I was willing to challenge how things were and do things my way. Hopefully, I inspired, empowered and made a difference to others a long the way. That is a true measure of success.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Resilience- open mindset to shift and keep learning. Using failure and rejection as a motivator. not a lot of people use it that way.

Work ethic – I always say I not the smartest but I will out work you. The harder I work the more ready I am for opportunities when they come. I am not afraid to do the work to get the results no one else cares about. There is no end line, it is a journey.

Vision- You have to have a vision and pursue it even when others think your idea is no good. I can look at something a lot different than what others can view it. Seeing it for what can be and betting on myself to make it happen! The more experiences you get the more you can see the vision. Example— I won’t buy a practice for sale 1 hour away but I would always go take a look gain experience. The same can be said about new skills or business; emerse yourself to become an expert. It only takes 30 minutes a day every day to become an expert in something. most people quit.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

Fostered independence instilled a work ethic and taught integrity, encouraging to make our own decisions and stand up for ourselves. We always had support and felt empowered.
I say pick your hard, I did the hard stuff now so I don’t have to do it later.
I like self employment not because of money but because of freedom. It is all about freedom. I work hard over achieve to have the freedom to walk away from a situation very easily now, that I didn’t have in the past.

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