Samantha C. Prestidge

Business should be simple. And fun. Hey Reader I’m a simple gal. I don’t like diner menus with five pages of options.I don’t like new cars with screens that need a tutorial just to change the radio station.I don’t like birthday parties where my kids get a pile of toys that’ll break by Tuesday.And I really don’t like when Christmas decor, gifts, and sales get shoved in my face before Halloween has even happened. We live in a world of more, more, more and go, go, go. And I get it; anything that...

Business should be simple. And fun. Hey Reader When we start working with new clients, I usually see two types: Type one says, “Sam, I trust you. I don't have time to interview Just give me someone.”Cool. I love that level of trust (and honestly, understanding people and knowing who can really execute is one of my superpowers. 🤩) Then there’s type two: the clients who want to interview the VAs themselves before committing.Totally fine. In fact, I encourage it! (It reduces buyer's remorse and...

Business should be simple. And fun. In the past 30 days, I’ve heard: “I’ve had hiring a VA on my list for over a year and just didn’t know where to start.” “Having someone help me sounds awesome, but what would they even do?” “I feel like I need to apologize to my assistant because I have so much to give them but not sure where to start.” And then, on the flip side, here’s the chorus from social media ads 🙄: “A VA can do low-value work while you do everything else.” “Hiring a VA is your...

Business should be simple. And fun. Last year, I worked with a business that was trying to sort out its management team, new processes, and some badly needed admin help. The owner brought in someone senior to help set direction and build strategy… but instead of leading the big picture, they got pulled into the weeds every single day. Scheduling issues.Customer complaints.Little SOPs for one-off problems. They felt like they were needed in every fire. But what actually happened?The real...

Lead Well. Work Simply. Scale Smart. My husband and I don’t argue about chores. We’ve got lanes. He does the laundry. (Because if I do it, it’s guaranteed to sit in the basket for two weeks. I know my weaknesses.) I do the dishes. He’s on yard duty (because I’m not picking up dog 💩 and he’s actually got a green thumb). I handle the floors (because, honestly 90% of the crumbs come from me and the kids anyway) It’s not about keeping score. It’s about knowing who owns what. So when something...

Lead Well. Work Simply. Scale Smart. Sometimes the thing that makes us lose our sanity in business isn’t the workload. It’s the comparison. For high performers, resentment doesn’t usually show up in dramatic ways. We don’t actually want to quit the business or burn it all down. (Okay, maybe there are days where I’ve thought, “Forget it, I’ll scrap everything and start over.”) But most of the time, resentment is quieter. It’s that subtle frustration where you start to resent the business… and...

Lead Well. Work Simply. Scale Smart. I used to resent my kids. Not because I didn’t love being their mom, but because I felt like they were holding me back from my business. Networking breakfasts? Off the table because of daycare drop-offs. Evening happy hours? Impossible with dinner, bath time, and bedtime routines that left me too drained to be productive. I’d catch myself envying the business owners who didn’t have those constraints, who seemed free to hustle at all hours. Over time,...

Lead Well. Work Simply. Scale Smart. Last week, I tried to get a window quote. Instead of looking at the windows, the salesperson insisted I sit through a 60–90 minute pitch before we could even look at the windows. When I asked if we could walk through the house and issues first, he flat-out refused. I get the importance of a sales process. But a rigid pitch-first, serve-later approach doesn’t build trust—it builds resistance. That’s why my own sales strategy leans on transparency and...

Lead Well. Work Simply. Scale Smart. “Let me know what you need help with.” “I’m here to support you.” “Call me anytime.” …crickets. Days later, I’m thinking, Why didn’t you call me? Then comes the follow-up conversation: Next time, talk to me before you get to this point. And finally, the part I wish I could tattoo on every team member’s brain: You didn’t have to figure this problem out on your own. These aren’t lines I pulled from a leadership book. They’re things I’ve actually said — more...

Lead Well. Work Simply. Scale Smart. There have been moments in my business where I questioned every single person on my team—why are they even here? There have been moments where I wanted to burn it all down—and I’ll admit, some of my dumb decisions probably sparked fires that didn’t need to be there. But in those moments, when I finally stepped back and took a real look at what was happening, I realized that I was actually the problem in most of the cases. I was the pyromaniac that had to...