We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sam Hirschmann. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sam below.
Sam, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.
Doing. You just got to get yourself to do it. Then sit back and see how you actually can do it and you are worthy of sharing your gift(s) to the world. It’s definitely a muscle that needs to be worked and won’t be strengthened until you do it. I think so many of us sit on our gifts we have to offer the world because we’re paralyzed by the fear of what others will think and the classic thoughts of “who am I” and “who will care.” I was bogged down with those same thoughts and it wasn’t until the pandemic came, where I quite literally thought the world was ending, that I finally made myself DO the things I had the most imposter syndrome about because I felt I didn’t have time to live with so much fear. For me, one of my imposter syndromes was about showing up on Instagram and sharing my inner thoughts and perspectives I had learned from acting school and Breathwork training. I’ll never forget the first time I posted, I cried tears of relief and tears of fear (still terrified that people would be thinking “who does Sam think she is.”) It wasn’t until I finally ripped the bandaid off and shared, that I realized it wasn’t at all as bad and scary as I thought – and most importantly, that people actually appreciated me showing up and sharing. Ultimately, you just have to do it and once you prove to yourself that it’s not so scary and you can do it, the imposter syndrome fades away.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Ever since I left my job in finance I’ve had my hands in a lot of different things: acting, pilates, energy healing, Breathwork, social media, coaching, and the most current – writing a children’s book. Stepping back and looking at all of these pursuits, I’ve noticed the through line to them all is a passion for inspiring others to feel comfortable in their skin and reigniting a joy in being themselves. Currently I’m most excited about my newest endeavor which is my children’s book, Sam Says: You Are Born to Shine. The book just came out this February so the journey of it is just beginning! I never had intended on writing a children’s book, but back in 2022 I felt this strong pull that the message of never dimming your light in fear of what others may think, which I had been speaking about to my community on Instagram, needed to be told to children too. The premise of the book is a girl, Sam, who starts at a new school where her classmates make fun of her for her colorful clothes and vivacious dance moves at recess. As she never lets her inner light dim, Sam eventually shows her classmates that the joy you exude when you’re unapologetically yourself is contagious to everyone around you. My hope was for young readers (and the parents!) to remember the power of expressing their true selves and what a real gift it is to the world to be you. Currently Sam Says: You Are Born to Shine is available on Mascot.com, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.
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?
The top three things I believe have helped me on my journey is the art of surrendering, following your curiosities, and owning your unique gifts. The art of surrendering has been a huge gift throughout my journey. If you haven’t read Michael Singer’s book,The Surrender Experiment, it’s a must! In the fast paced world we live in with so much social media, it’s easy to feel pressure to do things that are not necessarily aligned with your authentic self. I find that social media and all the information on the internet can cause a frenzy of comparison and feelings of panic that we need to be doing what everyone else is doing to achieve “success” – instead of surrendering to our hearts desires, following what rings true to ourselves, and seeing where that will take us. Following your curiosities goes hand in hand with surrender. When we surrender we can more easily follow our hearts by listening to what it’s curious about it, which usually takes us to the gold. Rumi said it best with, ” Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you astray.” I’ve found when I followed my curiosities it always took me to a beautiful place. For example, when I followed my curiosity of learning about Breathwork. I had no idea why I was getting lead down that path or where it was going to take me, but I knew I must sign up for a weekend workshop because Breathwork kept circling my orbit of curiosity. Low and behold Breathwork ended up opening so many doors for me in my career and personal life that weren’t necessarily Breathwork related. Lastly, owning your unique gifts came to me in a major way while I was in acting school. There I learned the power of being yourself and knowing that each and everyone of us has specific gifts to offer the world which shouldn’t be over looked or dimmed down. I believe a lot of the time we either try to be like everyone else, which blocks us sharing our unique gifts, or we shove off our unique gifts thinking they aren’t that special. When we own our unique gifts it’s so much easier to walk in the world with confidence and follow your dreams and creations.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
The biggest area of growth this past year in my life was caused by my pregnancy. Back in February of 2023 I found out that I was pregnant and shortly after I got diagnosed with a horrible condition called Hyperemesis Gravidarum. Hyperemesis Gravidarum is a condition in pregnancy that causes extreme nausea, vomiting, dehydration, and weight loss (it’s absolutely awful!). It rocked me to my core and forced me to put a halt on everything in my life. It was really hard for me to take that drastic of a pause in the beginning. I had all of these feelings arising of falling behind, being forgotten, and loosing the momentum I had been building up the past year. However, once I realized there was no way but through the pause, I learned a lot and grew big time in that space. I grew in my capacity to really prioritize what is important in my life. Not having the energy or health to be saying yes to a million things, I learned how to say no and no to things the kept me from saying “yes” to things that filled me up.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://samhirschmann.com
- Instagram: @sam.moooves
- Other: Book/Author Website: https://samsaysbooks.com
Image Credits
Kiara Gomez Glad Bak
