It doesn’t happen every day that a speaker begins their TedX presentation with the story of how they went to jail. But Will Samson does exactly that, using his impactful story to inspire, uplift and encourage others to create a life they’re proud to live. 

Will Samson is on a moonshot mission to disrupt the self-help industry and possibly alter the human operating system. He is a transformational mindset and change coach who guides tech companies, C-Suite executives, and entrepreneurs to amazing levels of growth. 

Will is the brains behind the T3 ecosystem, a collection of hackers, thinkers, activists, and dreamers who are sprouting new ideas, stories, and products based on the idea of interdependence. His story of rebooting his life was told to the TEDx audience in 2021. When he is not germinating the next wave of thought, he is a master home chef and a Spartan racer.
Will’s T3 model creates lasting change in his clients through transitions, transformation, and thriving. By focusing on a transformation of their core identity, Will teaches his clients to evolve into new people, able to overcome complex challenges and cast aside the limitations of their past.

An incredible origin story
Will isn’t shy about the metamorphosis he himself had to undergo. It began when he was arrested for driving under the influence and had to spend several weeks in jail. As he admits, most people become surly and search for ways to blame others – but he didn’t do that. Will spent his time genuinely reflecting on the actions that got him there and came to terms with his need for change. 

In the courtroom standing in front of a judge, Will looked around to see a community of people who had shown up just to support him. The judge marveled at the amount of people present for the hearing, telling him that he’s a lucky man – and not to waste his second chance! 

Will went into recovery from his addiction with the troubling belief that he was alone. Ashamed and unable to fully accept himself, he was surprised to discover a group of people who welcomed him with open arms. This is when Will began researching the power of community for recovery, improving mental health and becoming the best version of yourself. 

Change begins with transformation

Change and transformation may seem like synonyms, but they can be fundamentally different. We can change our habits and revert right back when things get difficult! Instead, Will Samson chooses to focus on transformational coaching. 

By encouraging his clients to reinvent themselves, he helps them transform their lives from the inside out. In the early stages of coaching, Will helps them discover the parts of their identity that are holding them back and should be discarded – and the parts of themselves they should be leaning into. Will Samson helps people develop new identities based on the type of people and leaders they want to be. 

This can serve us in our own businesses. What aspects of your identity are serving you as you build your brand? Which parts of you are not? Will is here to help you lay it out on the table and build a life you’re excited to live.

Build your ultimate life team

Will Samson is in the business of teaching us that we can’t do it alone. He likes to say that it is “his mission to make interdependence cool.” In the process of his recovery, he designed a “life team” – a support system to help him along the way. 

Will now educates and inspires others to form their own life team. He recommends looking at your life as if it is a company and considering yourself the CEO of your own story. Who do you need in your corner to keep things running smoothly? 

This begins with fully knowing your strengths. Will coaches his clients through an intimate process of self-discovery to help them understand their role in their life, and the roles they should effectively fill. What are you great at – and what do you struggle with? What can you outsource to make your life better? Who can you collaborate with so that you bring out the best in one another? 

Will coaches his clients to create a life team, and he is also in the process of developing a Life Teams app. His mantra is simple – We’re supposed to rely on one another and build each other up. 

Quotes

“I’ve been trying to practice vulnerability, honesty, courage…and nothing’s going to do that like standing up in front of the audience giving a TedX talk and telling them about the time I went to jail.”

“My life purpose is to make interdependence cool.”

“I had burned down a lot of things around me. I had done a lot of the things that people with substance abuse disorder do. I had damaged my relationships, damaged my business, and there were dark things happening. I decided to enter the process of recovery. I always assumed that to address substance abuse, I’d have to do it on my own. What happened instead was that there were groups of people who said, ‘Let us love you until you can love yourself.’ Everything I do today is to repay the grace I received!”

“From the moment we wake up until we go to sleep at night, there’s a group of people keeping our world going…we just don’t remember to focus on them.”

“We need ways of remedying this toxic independence.”

“We celebrate these individual serial entrepreneurs, the Musks and the Bransons. But Richard Branson is a great example of what we’re talking about here. When Richard Branson was 23 years old he went bankrupt. His mom mortgaged her home to keep Virgin Record store in east London afloat! Now we all know the story of Richard Branson, this amazing self-made billionaire…because he ‘authored his own life’. But even these great success stories have stories of interdependence.”

“A lot of entrepreneurs are not the people who want to build to a massive scale to sell to Google or Facebook. They just want to solve a problem. The idea of the T3 ecosystem was born… What we’re hoping to do is to launch companies that can focus on social good and share administrative services.”

“Start with the question, what did I learn from that interaction? What did I miss?”

“We’re awash in self-help books and we’re awash in depression because we’re not sure how to create change in our life. Change is fleeting, but transformation means taking on a whole new identity.”

Links mentioned in this episode:

Podcast Resources

Visit Will Samson’s website and learn more about his methodology at www.willsamson.com 

Follow Will on facebook for encouragement and words of wisdom at https://www.facebook.com/willsamsonchangecoach 

Connect with Will Samson on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/willsamsonchangecoach/ 

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