THUNDER BAY — She calls herself a Gen X mom, wife, writer and adventurer, and she's now also well on her way to becoming a motivational speaker.
Samantha Plavins believes courage can be a key to a more satisfying life.
"Whether it's a stressful career or, you know, a relationship that's killing you, it's having that courage to make the change, and then it's really just all about tenacity. There's always going to be roadblocks. I've had hundreds of them...If it matters that deeply to you and you're feeling called to it, then you're not going to let anything stop you,"
The Thunder Bay woman will participate this weekend in the finale of North America's largest inspirational speaking competition.
She's not allowed to say too much about what she intends to say during the event at CBC's Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.
But it might be reasonable to guess that her remarks will relate somehow to the dramatic turn that her life took after 2019 when she went for a very long walk.
"I left my home, family and business behind for a 33-day, 800-kilometre-long pilgrimage on Spain's famed Camino de Santiago. With my life compressed down to a 28-litre backpack, I set out to ask the question 'Who am I really?' I returned with an inner awareness I'd never felt before," she writes on the website where she promotes She Walks the Walk, her new business that includes leading women on walking adventures in places around the world.
For 16 years, Plavins worked in a family-owned financial services company, leading a team of advisors who helped clients save for the future.
"We were working in insurance and investment, the company my father started, and I felt a great joy to be working with him, but it was challenging for me personally," she explained in an interview this week.
"I kind of felt like a square peg in a round hole, and I went on a walk to search my soul...and came to the conclusion that I really could not keep going just for the sake of, you know, trying to be 'the succession plan.' "
Six months later, she and her dad sold the company.
"I had an idea of what I wanted to do" next, she said. "Specifically, I knew that I wanted to help other women, like me, maybe women who are feeling like they're just, you know, hamsters on a treadmill. No time for themselves, burned out, wearing all the roles and the hats. I wanted to help those women and I wanted to do it in a way that felt authentic to me, which was through hiking and adventure."
Shortly after Plavins launched the business, the pandemic struck, but she managed to overcome the obstacles.
"We're going gangbusters now...I'm a small business getting the word out, and I'm still working through a lot of the challenges that women have in being able to take a chunk of time out of their lives. But those who have gone on these adventures have had significant impacts in their lives. I had one client tell me she walked so far that she walked her way back into loving her career, which is profound."
The walking trips that she offers are a natural followup to something she's been doing for years in far-flung corners of the world.
"I guess the principle that ties them all together is that, it's a little bit off the beaten path. It's not your typical 'let's go to Italy.' I'm looking to give people a real cultural experience as well."
The newer part of Plavins' personal journey is inspirational speaking.
She said she's always been interested in speaking, but didn't get many opportunities in her previous career in a highly-regulated industry.
Last April, she entered the Speaker Slam competition, an event described by the company that organizes it as a launchpad for professional public speakers.
On Saturday, Plavins will compete against 13 other finalists for the title of Inspirational Speaker of the Year.
She's been working with a speaker coach.
"Five minutes is not a long time to take a stage and tell a story that's succinct and compelling...I've just been refining, refining, working on the story that I'm going to share. I think it's going to have a profound message and that's ultimately my goal, to have other people feel seen by what I'm going to share, because I'm sure I'm not the only one."
All speakers in the competition must adhere to the theme of the event, which is "joy."
"The temperature of the world right now is that, these are challenging times, and it is really hard to embrace joy when there's a lot of pain going on in the world," Plavins said.
Her fellow contestants are mostly from Canada and the U.S. and include a diverse group of lawyers, coaches, entrepreneurs, musicians and others.
"It's a grand showcase of exceptional storytelling and inspirational speaking," said event spokesperson Dan Shaikh. "The finalists' stories embody triumph, resilience, and the power of the human spirit."
