Meet Coach Shay Samuels

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Coach Shay Samuels. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Coach Shay below.

Coach Shay, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?

I get my strong work ethic from my mother, Lisa Wallace. My mother was a General Manager for K.F.C in my hometown. I remember sitting at home pregnant at the age of 16 years old. My mother kept all of her employee uniforms in the basement of our home. After sitting for days doing nothing, I decided to go downstairs and put one of the uniforms on so that I can begin working at her restaurant. When I walked into the restaurant she was so surprised to see me standing there with one of the uniforms on. She immediately asked me, “What are you doing?”, in which I responded, “I’m ready to work.” From there my mother taught me everything I needed to know about customer service and hospitality.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

My hands double in a couple of arenas in this business industry. I have been known primarily as a recording artist from the years 2014 until present. I started my career as a recording artist after deciding that I wanted to go professional with my singing career. I really wasn’t sure how to get started as a recording artist, but I pursued it anyway.

I remember asking some colleagues who were already in the industry how to get started, and none of them wanted to guide me in the right direction. Once I started pursuing, I realized that it was a lot harder than I anticipated. Ironically, I didn’t even have a Facebook at the time I was trying to get started. People would ask me where they could find me in order to book my services, and I would completely say “just call me like the old times.” But the days of making phone calls were so far away from that era.

I suffered multiple rejections at the start of my music career. I did not allow the rejections to stop me though. I use them as a propeller to push me into my purpose. Every time someone told me no, they essentially were giving me the reasons why they could not book me for their events, or have me on a radio show. I eventually started gathering up the “no”, and began my journey to building a successful recording career. To date, I have won multiple U.S. Music Awards, (1) International Music Award, I am a noted author of a journal entitled “7-day Journal I’m Purposed To.” I am a TV personality, as well as a radio personality. I believe if I had settled for the rejections, I would not be in the rooms I currently sit in.

In the year 2020, we were hit globally with what everyone knows as, the global pandemic. I was laid off from a company that I had been working for for over 5 years. Within that time period I was instrumental and earning the company over $100,000 in revenue. Once the pandemic was introduced to the world, the company utilized that opportunity to downsize. I knew that it would be difficult for me to trust a corporate entity after suffering that loss. After my layoff I quickly closed the company’s laptop, and opened my Apple laptop, and begin starting what I call the most exciting moments of my life. My company Let’s Talk Business Consulting, Strategy, & Coaching Group, LLC derived out of that very loss.

Since opening my company, we have helped hundreds of companies, small business owners, and individuals identify with their purpose, as well as provide personal development and career development in hopes for a better future.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

The skill sets that I currently use are the ones specified in the beginning of this article. My mother taught me the skill set of hospitality, providing excellent customer service, and the art of being personable with everyone I meet..

My encouragement to anyone that is just starting their business, or beginning to operate within their purpose is to continue pursuing what you know you’ve been called to do. Distractions are inevitable, and rejections will always come in the form of negativity. But if you take that and use it to your benefits you will overcome any obstacle that presents itself.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

I take a break! I go for a walk, I close my eyes for a second and think, or I just turn on a good show that I like to watch. Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed I know that it’s because I’ve taken on too much. I didn’t always know that, but when I realized it I started to act on it.

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