Daily Inspiration: Meet Samantha Sanders

Today we’d like to introduce you to Samantha Sanders.

Hi Samantha, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Hi! My name is Samantha Sanders. I grew up in Shelbyville, TN, and grew up rather poor. My favorite childhood memories are of riding horses, going to see some redneck racing at Duck River Speedway, and camping out in the backyard at my grandparent’s house with my cousin. I always knew I wanted to build a solid foundation for myself after watching both of my parents struggle financially my entire life.

I loved school and was presented the opportunity my Sophomore year to take a course via mail in order to graduate 1 year early due to sufficient credits and grades qualifying me to be considered as a Senior, in what would have been my Junior year. As you can imagine, I was ecstatic about this opportunity as I thought of all of the college applications this would look really great on, but the universe had other plans for me.

Just a few months after graduating, I found out I was pregnant. It was a huge shock and coming from a rather religious background, my family wasn’t exactly thrilled at the fact there the 16-year-old honors graduate, was now about to become a mother. Needless to say, the college took a backseat and I decided to get a job right away.

9 months later on March 30th, 2007 we welcomed my bright blue-eyed son, Presten to the world. I knew immediately that working a minimum wage job would never provide him the life I wanted to give him, so I decided to get a 2nd job, I was 17, working 2 jobs (one at Tractor Supply Company and one at National Pen Company-my first call center job) and raising a baby. His father, Jason, and I soon split up but remained best friends and amazing co-parents, especially given how young we were.

Fast forward, to December 4th, 2008, I had just walked into work at the call center and my phone started ringing. It was a call I never expected and would never forget. Jason had a fatal car accident that morning and I was asked to come straight to the hospital. I will never forget that day. How do I explain to my (not even 2-year-old son) that his daddy was gone? I was still a baby myself and this was an incredible amount of pain and loss to process.

After losing Jason, as well as my 11-year-old cousin to Leukemia, I decided I wanted to go into a profession to help others. I found an EMT school that was within my budget and that had hours I could attend, while also keeping both jobs. So here I was 19 years old, working 2 jobs, in school, and raising a toddler. I bought my first home, brand new at only 19 years old, my dream car. It was some of the most stressful times of my life, but I learned so much and was on my way to living and providing a much better life for myself and my son than I could have ever dreamed of. And I did it all by myself.

While in EMT school, I learned one of the things I needed to be able to do was lift the stretcher into the ambulance alone to pass my clinical. This was not easy as I weighed a solid 110lbs, so I decided to join a gym. While there, I learned about female bodybuilding divisions and was approached by now, worldwide famous bodybuilder Flex Lewis who says “hey have you ever thought about competing?” I hadn’t, but I was now!! So add bodybuilding prep to my arsenal of 2 jobs, school, momming, and now bodybuilder. Clearly, I like to stay busy! I went on to compete in my first show while all of this chaos was happening and won my class. You couldn’t tell me anything. I was on top of the world. I did decide it was a bit much for everything in my life and took time off to still workout, but not at that capacity (more on this later)

After graduating from EMT school, I decided to do this full-time and kept TSC as a part-time job. I quickly realized after about a year that I could not keep up our life on an EMT salary. I decided to go back full-time to National Pen. I was fortunate, my boss at the time was an amazing woman, Leslie Allen who has for years (and continues to be) one of the greatest mentors of my life. I owe so much of who I am today to this woman.

Leslie saw something in me, that at the time, I didn’t see in myself. I was of 20ish years old when she presented me with a HUGE project at work. I want to preface this with, I was still an agent and not in any sort of management position. She came to me and says “Sam, you have been working here for some time. I have an issue. We are losing tons of revenue on misprinted merchandise. We need to find a way to save money on these and lower our R&As. Any ideas?” This is where “Project Sam” was created. I built the company’s first-ever Quality Control team known as the “Verification Team” and we tested my process. With a small test group, it proved to be successful, so Leslie asked me to pitch this to our VP at the time, again… AS AN AGENT. I was terrified but so excited about the opportunity. The project was approved, I was promoted to supervisor, built a team of Verification Agents, and successfully saved the company $3 million dollars year over year in R&As. It was AMAZING. I decided to throw bodybuilding back in the mix this same year and was trained by Mr. Olympia winner Brandon Curry and his wife Brandy, and took 3rd that year. I was literally living my best life (or so I thought).

The success of this project opened up several new opportunities for me at National Pen. I was also given the project of building our Research & Development team and merging a sister company we purchased, into our business. I felt like I was on top of the world…. and then, of course, the happiness ended. After just a few months shy of 10 years with National Pen, the company started making cuts. Unfortunately, I was let go. The company soon sold and outsourced to Jamaica. I was devastated. I was only 27 years old and this was my entire life. I loved that job.

Losing a 10-year relationship whether personal or professional is HARD. I took on an odd end job just to build some new skills, but soon found my newfound love, Postmates. I started at Postmates Contact Center, back in a management role, making more money than ever and feeling like myself again. The culture was incredible. The office was beautiful and I LOVED my job. After about 6-9 months, I had promoted over 6 agents off my team into bigger roles, and the Director came to me and says “Sam, I think you are in the wrong spot. You’ve clearly done this before. I have a challenge for you. How would you like to help out with our Workforce Management team?” With a straight face, I looked at him and said “what’s that?” I had NO CLUE.

Come to find out our entire Workforce Management team was leaving around the same time and I was going to have 2 weeks with the current manager to learn about the role, except that, I had 2 days. I had to download manuals from online and teach myself the job, but I loved it! It definitely was a challenge, but I was ok with that. We soon partnered with a Workforce Management Software company, Tymeshift, which made this job much easier. I developed a great working relationship with this company, which little did I know, would be opening new doors for me! I was able to my dream home and things were just getting started!

After working as partners with Tymeshift for about 3 years or so, I was presented with an opportunity to be featured in a book they were writing Undefined World: Life in CX & Beyond by Elisa Reggiardo & Alexa Huth. which featured stories from real professionals in the call center life and their unconventional stories of how they landed their careers. It was such a cool experience. They then chose me to speak at a conference when, of course, Covid struck and the conference was shut down, but I still spoke at some webinars and was loving it!!

Here is where bodybuilding makes an appearance again. As you can tell, I like to be busy. With the world shut down, I was going crazy. I had decided to get back in the gym right before Covid and really work on myself., so once Covid hit, I decided to do another bodybuilding prep to keep me occupied. With the support of my boyfriend, Daniel, and my amazing coach Loni I was able to win an overall title, even though the world was shut down. Life was grand, but only for a bit. Bad news likes to find me……

Soon after, during Covid, Postmates announced they were selling to Uber, and again, my heart was broken after my 5-year relationship with Postmates, we had to part ways. This one stung a bit more because I was absolutely thriving.

My first instinct was to CALL TYMESHIFT. I contacted Elisa, that wrote the book, and David Birchmier, their CEO, and explained my dilemma. Although they typically do not hire in the United States, because of the professional relationship we had built, an exception was made and I was soon offered a spot on the Tymeshift team.

Now I work for this amazing company as a Product Operations Manager doing exactly what I have always wanted to do. I am making the most money I have ever made. I get to travel to Portugal and Serbia multiple times a year, My boss and team support and believe in me beyond belief and I still have the support of Leslie as a friend and professional mentor. My relationship with the gym is great, but no bodybuilding shows are currently planned. I realized competing is not my passion, but a healthy outlet for my stress or anxiety when I am secretly overwhelmed.

My son is soon to be 16, healthy, and doing great in school, I have an amazing boyfriend and 10 healthy animals I adore. All these heartbreaks in my professional and personal life led me here. I fully believe the universe will never give you more than you can handle. The challenges, pain, and struggles we experience are meant to plan us for the next best thing! I can’t wait to see what else is in store for me.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
All of these are mentioned In the previous story, but no. Between losing the father of my child, working 2 jobs, being in school, and raising a toddler on my own to losing jobs… it’s been far from smooth, but it brought me here today!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a Product Operations Manager for Tymeshift, a Workforce Software company, I am responsible for building all internal Enablement/Training programs and processes, collecting and analyzing feedback and data from customers, and providing professional insight to our Product Managers on new features, among other responsibilities.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
Leslie Allen is by far one of the most important people in my life.

Daniel Ryjov, my boyfriend. He’s believed in me relentlessly and supported me in both my personal and professional endeavors

Loni Pfeil -My coach. She keeps me accountable for my health and fitness, but also as a friend.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @sammy_samsters

Image Credits
Cross Beckman