The Power of Mindset: A Taekwondo Champion’s Journey into Dog Rescue & Social Media Influence

At the top of this episode, Aliza shares the key takeaways and highlights from the most recent SheSpeaks community predictions survey.

Our guest this week is the multi-talented Samery Moras, a former Taekwondo Team USA athlete and passionate dog lover.  Samery shares her journey to overcome her fears and achieve success as a Taekwondo champion,  head of a dog rescue, and as a successful online social media influencer & creator. We talk with Samery about the content she creates on social media as well as how she came to start her own rescue for huskies. Samery shares insights on content creation, engagement with her followers, and her plans for future ventures, including writing a book on fear and expanding her rescue efforts. Tune in to hear Samery's inspiring story and tips from a creator working in multiple spaces to build an online presence and influence. 

Highlights: 

00:00 Predictions Survey Results from the SheSpeaks Community / 2024
08:03 How learning about huskies led to fostering & rescue. 
14:05 Facing fear vs. choosing through love - the journey to champion. 
17:45 Storytelling & Relationship with Audiences
25:16 Embrace imperfection, learn, and move forward.

To learn more about Samery visit:
https://samerymoras.com/

Follow her on social at: 
https://www.instagram.com/samerymorastkd/
https://www.instagram.com/lifewithsnowdogs/

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So anytime I realize like I'm scared of a choice, or ask myself the question, like, is this a decision I'm making based on fear or based on love? Because everything that I wanna do I wanna do in life because it's a love-based decision, because it's something that I love, that I believe in, that I really know is like calling out to me, because if I choose something to do it based over fear, I'm always gonna wonder about it, I'm always gonna, you know, like second guess myself and really not feel great about the life that I'm leading. ["happy 2024"].

Speaker 2: 0:40

Welcome back to the show and happy 2024. I hope you all had a chance to relax a little bit, maybe take some time off and be with family and friends over the holiday season. It is amazing how it just goes by in the blink of an eye and here we are in 24 and there is a lot that is on the horizon for us in the US as 2024 is here. We have a presidential election coming up later this year and we will be doing a lot more surveying of the she Speaks community, as we do all the time to get their impressions on how the year is going. One quick note before we jump into our great guest for today is we did our prediction survey. We do that every year. We do it in late December and we ask our she Speaks community to tell us what they think is gonna be happening in the new year for them. In this case it was for 2024, and I wanted to share just some tidbits from that, and we'll do another episode where we talk a little bit more about the predictions that the she Speaks community had. I did think it was really interesting and pretty consistent with every year the economy is the number one thing that is going to be on people's minds for 2024. 68% of people saying that that was the number one issue, and a number two on the list also always pretty consistently high, is healthcare and then, specifically, people's own personal health. Those tend to be the three top issues the economy, healthcare and then your own personal health.

Speaker 2: 2:22

We ask women to tell us did they think that the country's heading in a good direction? Did they think it's heading in a bad direction, or are they just unsure? And, interestingly, the best score that we had on this question was from December of 2020. At that point, 36% of women said that they did not think that the country was heading in a good direction, 24% said yes and 40% were unsure. And if you are thinking to yourself, well, those aren't very high numbers that only 24% of people say that the country's heading in the right direction. Interestingly, that's the highest that it's been since we've been asking this question since 2020. And this year we had 11% of people who said that the country was heading in the right direction. That actually is the lowest that it's been since we've asked this question since 2020. We had 51% of people say that the country is not headed in the right direction. Interestingly, that is not the highest that it's been. The highest that it's been is 58% of people said in August of 2020 that they did not think that the country was headed in the right direction. Yet if you are now questioning, well then why is it that we had the lowest level of people saying that the country is heading in the right direction this year, which was 11%, as I mentioned a few minutes ago? It's because we have a higher percentage of people saying that they are unsure, and this year we have 38% of people say that they are unsure about whether the country is heading in the right direction. So that is definitely an increase over the last couple of years that unsure number, the 38%. We will definitely be keeping an eye on these numbers and sharing more with you as we go, but wanted to give you a little bit of an insight of what people were saying was on their mind moving into 2024 and how they were feeling about the direction of the country.

Speaker 2: 4:33

Today we have a great guest for you. We have another amazing creator influencer, samarie Morris. She is a former Team USA athlete. She has a black belt in Taekwondo, but she also recently started a separate social media account for her rescue work. She has basically two separate accounts that she has built over time one for the work she has done as a Team USA athlete in Taekwondo and then a separate one related to her dog rescue work. If you are someone who is interested in potentially becoming an influencer, becoming a creator and understanding where to go to make money, how to make money, this is a great episode for you to listen to. Samarie talks about which platform is most successful for her, how frequently she posts, how she makes money on the platforms, and she also shares her amazing rescue stories. I really found my conversation with Samarie so inspiring, so with that, I'm gonna let you hear my conversation with Samarie again. Happy new year and here we go. Welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 5:49

Thank you, I'm excited to be here today and to talk to you.

Speaker 2: 5:52

Well, first of all, we have to start. We are both dog lovers. We are both involved in dog rescue. I want to talk about a little bit the love you have for Huskies for dogs, but for Huskies in particular and helping to do rescue. How did you get into this?

Speaker 1: 6:11

So it's kind of a fun story. I had two Huskies growing up. So when I was a kid and we kind of just came across them because somebody asked my sister to watch his dog while he went away on a trip for the summer, and before we had met the dog, it was this tiny, tiny husky puppy, super adorable, easy to take care of, and then the day he comes to bring the dog over he drops off this much larger husky and we're like, oh my God, what are we going to do with it?

Speaker 1: 6:40

I mean, I was pretty young at the time. I didn't know much about dog training or anything, and that dog was insane. We loved him so much but he would run away all the time. Anytime we tried to take him out on a walk he would pull us over and just always escaping. I know there were quite a few times we'd get knocks on the door at 2 AM from the police being like, hey, we found your dog. Or you're going to phone calls from the grocery store being like, hey, your dog is here visiting us, and so just all the typical husky things.

Speaker 1: 7:16

And after that my sister actually ended up giving it away to a different family just because it was more of her dog. And when I grew up I was just like I really love that dog and I really want to be a good husky owner. I think we just didn't do the right things and it's okay. We learned. So now I got my own husky puppy when I was ready. I made a big goal I wanted to be able to buy a townhouse and once I did that I'm like I'm ready, I can do this and yeah, I got my very first husky puppy and he was definitely insane in his own way, but I was just a lot more prepared for what was to come. And then, after that, I got a Samoyed. His name is Graham and he's two years old now. So my husky three and Samoyed is two, and it just taught me a lot about like the husky breed and what you have to do in order for them to be, like you know, good dogs Now. Granted, they still have their crazy side, but now, with like the structure and the exercise, they're just angelic dogs.

Speaker 1: 8:16

Having done that, it kind of led me into seeing a lot of like the husky world in rescue. Right before my wedding, I saw Facebook posts with two Huskies that were going to be used. I showed my husband and I'm like I know we're getting married very soon and then we have a honeymoon, but would you consider, you know, like saving these Huskies with me? And we talked a little bit about fostering before and he's like sure, but like how are you going to pick one? And I'm like wait, wait, wait, I can't just pick one to say Like this is both. So my first husky experience was bringing in two nine months old Huskies into my house and just having like a crazy time with them, with my dogs, learning all about like introduction introductions and just like what fostering was like. That was about two years ago and just learn more. Since then Realized I wanted to get more involved, help more, just like in a bigger aspect, and now I'm essentially running Arctic Rescue. Any tips?

Speaker 2: 9:11

for people who may be listening about how to do an introduction like that so that the dogs actually get along, because it is not a given that the dogs are going to get along out of the duck会 the deafening会 the quiet, mommyq.

Speaker 1: 9:23

Definitely not, and that's one thing that we always try and really express. To like new foster homes is you're bringing in a dog to like save its life. So when you're adopting, yes, you wanna get a friend for your dog, but when you're fostering, it's really about helping a dog that you know lost its home, that's been in an unfortunate situation, so really, truly about saving its life. If it gets along with your dog, great. But that's not, you know like why you're doing it. So what I usually remind them is like these dogs need to time to decompress. Like you've taken them from their home or from the shelter, wherever it is, you know, like a chaotic, heat environment. They're very confused as to why they're not home anymore, so they just need time to relax.

Speaker 1: 10:01

So usually what I do is I have them in like two completely separate rooms and they spend the first few days there just like, not even acknowledging my dogs, just settling in and just dealing with the fact that they're in a new place. Afterwards I'll, you know like, I'll take one of the dogs out along with my husband he should take one of my dogs and we'll just walk together. We start off like on opposite sides of the sidewalk and then you know, like once they stop paying attention to each other, we'll get a little bit closer, and what I'm looking for is neutrality being okay, being around each other and coexisting but not really caring about each other. Maybe, like the next day, we'll do a little bit more and then maybe the next day we'll let them play in the yard a little bit and just slowly creating a positive environment where they see, like all of these happy moments with this other dog, rather than a potential for a fight.

Speaker 2: 10:50

That's great advice and I appreciate that I want to get into. So you've parlayed this interest and passion you have for animal rescue, for dog rescue, into a very successful social media presence. I want to talk about that in a second. But let's take a step back. You have a whole other side to your amazing achievements. You were a former team USA member athlete for Taekwondo. You have a black belt in Taekwondo. Talk to us a little bit about how that all came about.

Speaker 1: 11:28

So I started Taekwondo as a little kid. My family owned a martial arts studio, so I kind of grew up in it. It's funny, though, because when I was a teenager, I hated Taekwondo. I was so bad at it and like one of the things that I eventually made the team USA in was in fighting and sparring, which just does not speak to my childhood personality at all, because I was just like a very scared, shy kid. Anytime you put me in the ring, I was just like, oh, this hurts, and like I would freeze, so that all kind of happened.

Speaker 1: 11:57

And then, when I was going into college, I hit a turning point where I was just like I talked to my parents and I'm like I don't think I want to do this anymore. And they're like, okay, like why don't you want to do it? And I thought about it and I realized the reason I didn't want to do it was because I was so scared of it. I didn't think I was good at it, I hated, you know like, fighting against somebody else, and I just had a lot of fear and I decided I never wanted to let fear be the reason to hold me back from a decision in life. So you know what? Let's give it my all. Let's really try and do this. And I just got involved in the best experience of my life. I started training all the time. I went to another country to train. I trained here with my sister, who was my coach, actually and I made the US team two years later.

Speaker 2: 12:46

That's amazing, that steep. Basically you know, from going to, from not liking it and being scared of it because you were scared of it, to saying I'm going to confront my fear and within two years you're making the US 18.

Speaker 1: 13:02

It was all just in the mindset, because I had been developing these skills as a child but never been able to use them because of you know, like my mind is controlling it. So, yeah, putting that work in for two years and it was a lot of mental work along with the physical it just made such a huge change. So, yes, I made the US team and then I started competing overseas for six years is traveling everywhere, just wonderful experiences, meeting new people and learning so much about different cultures, and that's kind of what got me into social media.

Speaker 2: 13:33

Yeah, well, okay, so let's talk about this social media. You mentioned this, this fear that you had, and that you were able to overcome this fear because you made the decision that you did not want to let fear rule the things that you did in your life. You mentioned mindset. Let's say there's something that you're fearing and it could be. There could be a lot of different things. How do you think about mindset as it relates to overcoming a fear you have?

Speaker 1: 14:05

Good question. So I've had to deal with this and a lot of different circumstances. So anytime I realized like I'm scared of a choice, so even deciding to, you know, take more of a leadership role in the rescue, because we had to like restructure and build a new rescue. And there were times where I'm like I don't know if I know what I'm doing. I don't really know if I'm any good at this, so maybe I'm not the right person to do it.

Speaker 1: 14:25

And I decided, you know, like every single time, just ask me or ask myself the question like, is this a decision I'm making based on fear or based on love? Because everything that I want to do, I want to do in life, because it's a love based decision, because it's something that I love, that I believe in, that I really know is like calling out to me because if I choose something to do it based over fear, I'm always going to wonder about it. I'm always going to, you know, like second guess myself and really not feel great about the life that I'm leading. So I think that question is kind of like my first starting point of being like you know what's my path and then once I decide, okay, I want to make the decision based on love. Those like here are the steps that I need to do to get there.

Speaker 2: 15:10

Wow, I mean, that is a very powerful way to think about it. When you think about these emotions, these really powerful emotions that we all have. Fear is a powerful emotion, totally. Love is also a very powerful emotion. And when you say to yourself okay, I've made a decision, that I don't want to make decisions based on fear, I instead want to make decisions based on love, that is a mindset shift.

Speaker 1: 15:36

It totally is, because it's something that you can always bounce back on to anytime you're like feeling nervous or a little bit fearful. It's something that can like rain you back and be like no, this is my decision, you know.

Speaker 2: 15:48

I love that All right. Well, let's now talk about how you have been able to parlay this interest you had, this passion you have for animal rescue and for for your dogs, into an extremely successful. You've got two separate accounts, but both successful accounts where you share. Well, I'll let you describe what do you share on your on your social accounts?

Speaker 1: 16:15

So I actually have three accounts. And, yeah, so I have life with snow dogs. That's my dog account and that's where I share a look all about Huskies and all my adventures with my dogs and some of the rescue content as well. And then, besides that, I have a Samri Morris TKD and that is my personal account where I share, you know, like motivation and travel, just like lifestyle contents. This is more about, like you know, myself in general. And then my third account is Black Belt, samri, and that's where I share a lot of like the tips techniques. I have an online course platform, so that's kind of like what it funnels into and that's just a lot more Taekwondo specific content.

Speaker 2: 16:58

It's interesting because you have these two big passion areas. You have the athletic background, which has been extraordinarily successful for you, and you've been able to take that passion and interest into and convert it into social media success on the one hand. But then you've also have this passion for dogs and dog rescue and your Huskies and you've been able to take that and parlay that into social media success. Let's talk a little bit about how you think about content, because you know there's so much content out there, there's so many accounts out there. How do you think about social media content for your accounts that you have?

Speaker 1: 17:46

So how I kind of differentiate is just realizing like yes, there's a million dog accounts, but the part that's gonna make you unique is just telling your story or your viewpoint on it. So I've tried to focus a lot on storytelling, really explaining who I was in telling my story. I think is what grew my account a lot more, because then people aren't just watching you to like learn something quick and then move on, but they start connecting with you a lot more. So I use that for my Tech Kondo accounts. And then when I started my dog accounts it was more of an experiment, like over COVID. That's when I got my dog and you know just like I wanted to say like hey, I can create an account in, or I can create a successful account in, any passion of mine. I use that same like, the same techniques, the same skills to kind of start growing that audience as well.

Speaker 2: 18:35

So when you think about how your social media kind of plays a role in your life, I know just because I've talked and we've worked with lots of different creators and influencers over the years that it is so much more work. You talked about creating a good story and the value of storytelling. It is so much harder than it actually looks right, because to create a good story it's almost like this constant process of editing the thought process of how do I really crystallize this into something that is going to be interesting and valuable for my audience. So can you talk a little bit about what goes into it? Like, how much time do you spend on content creation?

Speaker 1: 19:26

Too much time, I feel like. So I think it's like throughout the day I'll get different ideas, and so I'll add them into my like. I have little notion apps with all my notes, so I guess my ideas come from things that I'm wondering about, questions that I have, or even like while I'm looking at other people's social media posts or YouTube videos, and that way, when it's time to like make a post I mean I have a content calendar that I kind of follow as well, with themes. That way I don't like just show up and I'm like I have to do a post today. You know like let's spend these three hours figuring it out.

Speaker 2: 20:00

So, when you think about monetization of these platforms for yourself, how do you think about monetization?

Speaker 1: 20:09

So I'll start off with my Tech 1.0 account because that's kind of been like the biggest revenue that I've gotten. That's going to be based off, of course, sales. So I created so yes, I like I give a lot of free content online, but people want to buy like an actual course they can follow. So I created like a course on how to kick higher, one, on how to like learn a both staff and things like that, and then so you can either buy a course for me or you can sign up for my membership platform for access to everything and that's like a monthly recurring kind of like a revenue. So I have both of those options. And then I have a couple of products I sell as well on there.

Speaker 1: 20:49

So that's kind of how I monetize the Taekwondo content. I'll do like one off brand sponsorships, but mainly just the courses are the biggest thing for me. Youtube AdSense so like YouTube Ad monetization, I have that on as well. That's all the Taekwondo stuff. And then for my dog channel and my lifestyle, I mostly just do brand sponsorships and that's kind of like all that I've gotten into. I mean, I have like the YouTube ad revenue as well from my dog content, but mostly just those two and then, starting next year, I want to launch some kind of also just like an e-product or something to start leaning more towards that. On the dog content, reality is like it's what I do more of now. I spend most of my day with my dogs. I love creating the dog content and I love speaking to like other hefty owners.

Speaker 2: 21:40

We work with a lot of pet influencers and pet creators and I have to tell you, I have three dogs and there is no way I could get any of my dogs to do these things. It is not simple, because you're basically the dog, is the talent in some respect, or you're trying to get the dog to do certain things. What is that process like for you of trying to get your dogs to do whatever it is that you're doing? In this story?

Speaker 1: 22:11

you're telling it's funny because the other day I was watching this whole TikTok of this girl with her Aussie and they do this three minute routine where the dog is doing this dance choreography with a person. I'm looking at them because the dog is being perfect, running backwards through her legs, jumping over stuff, just to the lyrics and everything. I show my husband and I'm like all I want is for my dog to not pull me on the leash while we're walking. I'm like relaxing from them here. You know what this girl has it just doing hands in the back left.

Speaker 1: 22:48

Obviously, dogs are all talented in different ways, but with my dogs I guess it's not so much about forcing them to do something that isn't for them, but rather using the personality that they already have. My dogs I mean you see the Husky videos all over like they destroyed stuff. They're talking back to you just showcasing their personalities. I guess with my dogs, if I want them to be in a photo, I work on that a lot off screen. I work on their training a lot like sit, stay and then lean down, sit down as if I had a camera in my hand and then go back and give them a treat. Lots of off screen training. That way it's not as frustrating when I'm trying to get them to do something on purpose, but also, like I said for the reels and everything, just really showcasing their personalities and not trying to get them to be a perfect, obedient dog, but rather just it's who they are and making the story about that.

Speaker 2: 23:47

One of the things that is so inspiring to me creators and influencers are doing is they are so good at understanding their audience because they're interacting with their audience or followers all the time. Can you talk a little bit about how you think about your followers and how you want to engage with them?

Speaker 1: 24:08

Yeah. So it has to definitely be a two-sided relationship. So a lot of the times when you post people comments, you have to engage in that conversation, otherwise you're kind of training your audience to like leave a comment but guess what, the person's not going to respond to you. So next time around they might not be, as you know, like as pulled to leave a comment. So I would say, anytime somebody leaves a comment, always read it, always respond. I always like to ask people about their dogs because I mean, if they love my dog so much, I want to learn about theirs too, and they're happy to share pictures and everything. Ever since the beginning I've always just tried to make sure that it's a conversation.

Speaker 2: 24:48

And that is one of the things that I think ultimately differentiates the people who have long-term staying power with their audience is a desire to understand who they are, and they genuinely want to engage with them. That is one thing that would surprise people about being a creator and influencer.

Speaker 1: 25:16

I know everyone says like you don't have to be perfect at it to start. But honestly, like all of my content that's done well, all right, that started off doing well before I kind of expected it to or knew what I was doing Are things that I just stopped thinking about and just did it anyway and Then just learn from it. Because, like we said, there's a lot of content that goes out there. If you do one, if you post something that's not, that doesn't do great, it's okay, get back on and try the next one. Like not everything has to be perfect, you're gonna learn from it. If something totally flops, that's okay, just put it out there, see what happens. Because, funny enough, like a lot of my best performing content has been the ones I just stopped getting in my way up and just, you know, like threw it out there and Just said like okay, this is what it is and let's move on to the next one. You know.

Speaker 2: 26:08

So where do you see this going for you?

Speaker 1: 26:13

There's a lot that I want to do. So like I have lots of like five year goals and everything I really like public speaking, so Hoping to do a lot more of that, you know, just helping motivate others in different kind of areas. So, with Taekwondo, one thing that I'm working on is I really want to write a book on fear, and it comes from just like all the lessons that I learned from martial arts. So definitely want to keep, I mean write that book. I want to keep growing my, of course, platform and bringing in other martial artists to start teaching on there as well, to kind of also like help other Creators that might be smaller but know a lot about you know, their martial arts skills. So there's that part.

Speaker 1: 26:52

And then, as far as dogs, I really want to experience Experiment with other monetization areas. There's a lot of like products that I've always been like oh, I really wish that this existed to like use for my dogs or, you know, just like some little products and then lots of education and has the ownership. So I'm also working on like a short e-book on my first husky guide, just like everything that I wish I would have known when I got my puppy and what else is there for rescue? I really just want to keep growing our rescue and and it's something separate but at the same time I do a lot of it, like on my social media as well, because I want to help build that audience. But it would be amazing to eventually, you know like, be able to get a physical building and just keep growing that.

Speaker 2: 27:36

I'm so excited for you and all the possibilities that lay ahead. Sammy, if people want to follow you, where is the best place for them to do that?

Speaker 1: 27:47

I guess it depends on what they're most interested in. So I would say either if you love dogs I love huskies follow me at life with snow dogs. And if you like learning about travel and social media and whatever lifestyle things, sam Ray Morris, tkd on Instagram. And if you want to learn about Taekwondo, black belt, sam Ray.

Speaker 2: 28:08

Congratulations for all of your success. I am looking forward to continuing to watch your success as you go.

Speaker 1: 28:15

Thanks so much. It's been lovely talking to you you too.

Speaker 2: 28:19

Thank you for listening. If you're an influencer or a brand that wants to work with us, please feel free to email us at info at she speaks calm until next time.