Samia Burton [Su-My-Ya]

When I stopped hiding from my own judgment and started sharing my truth, people were intrigued. While closing down my store at @ecom_spaces , I ran into @hellonecole . She was intrigued by my choice to “give up” & she pulled me into an impromptu interview. Her audience resonated, and the next day @byrdofparadise_ reached out. My ugly truth? I had failed, not only at the numbers, but at vetting who I was working with, at valuing myself, and disregarding my health & boundaries. In Dec 2024, I was breaking down @secontenthouse a 10 bedroom mansion mostly alone. Six figure savings gone, 401K gone, stocks cashed in, locs falling out & even passed out from dehydration. The team I’d built with for 2 years? Nowhere to be found. I dismissed the home into foreclosure and sold everything for pennies compared to what it cost me to furnish the space. I was burnt out & I was pissed. So, I did something I had never done before. I gave up. Who the hell told us to never give up?! Lies. Giving up gave me space to heal, forgive myself & work through my resentment of the outcome with full accountability for how I made these decisions. I had to understand that you are what you attract. You can’t be mad at people who take when you have no understanding of your value or boundaries on how you give. You can’t be out here building stuff for the ‘community’ that nobody asked you for! You can’t always find a problem to solve! When there’s peace ENJOY IT. Quietly, I’ve been creating @_thebankruptmillionaire and documenting van life on our vlog (YouTube) What started as road trips 3 years ago turned into a year living in the van full time as a last resort. I’ve been afforded a hybrid situation for most of this year that allows me to split my time between the van & college roommates 🤣 and I’ve never felt more free. No one owns me. Nothing owns me. And I realized no one OWES me. I say yes to the life I want & I say no to what I don’t & I have grace for the mistakes along the way. My cost of living is low, my heart is light, and I’m finally at peace with how I’ve gotten here. Check out the full article in my bio 💛 📸 @stretch.life ✍🏽 @byrdofparadise_

This is the year of who I am & not what I do. I’m a forever student. I like long walks on the beach in any weather & all the surprises that water holds. I love to skate. I’m a mom to this kid named Tre (who turns 8 tomorrow) and we live in a van named Charlie with our dog named Porkchop & we love to camp, kayak & be outside even in the cloudy weather. I loveeeeee seafood & sunsets even though I get sad when they’re over because they never seem to last long enough. Just stopped by because I turned 33 in April & didn’t have the desire to share yet. I had the ‘pics’ I could have made a post but I wasn’t ready to share my solitude just yet. I just sat with that, tied nothing to it & I accepted & understand that I’m learning to keep something for myself. Again I realized it’s because this is the year of who I am & not what I do & how that shows up for me has changed each day. Thank you to everyone who reached out on my birthday it was so beautiful to feel love while I had no words. Here are some snippets from life lately🫶🏽: 1. You realize every time I desire pics you call me like the next day? You’re Appreciated @stretch.life 📸 thank you for your magic 2. Full moon at the beach Tre found a dolphin & then it came up 🥹 3. Can I be honest? My goofy smiling pics really be better than my ‘sexy’ ones… not my kindness is hot 😂 4. I am no longer a forever beginner ya girl been skatinggggg a professional medium is what it’s giving 5. Tre wanted to show Porkchop the beach we found out he is a DOG DOG my guy was digging holes all over. Sand alllllll over @thecharlievancafe the smiles were worth it (but naw)😩 6. Tre invited his friends over for dinner he requested spaghetti. They met us at the park 7. I accidentally joined wrestling conditioning (a story for another day) and I’m down 20 pounds 8. Turned off the gps listened to my gut & ended up at a new gorgeous camp spot that was only $5 a night 9. Porkchop has changed my life I think he likes me too. 10. The little me is in complete awe of the 33 year old me. I wish I could go back and tell her I promise you it’ll work out.

Have you ever taken a real audit of your life, looked at where your energy goes, what you’re responsible for, who you show up for & who shows up for you? I did. And the truth hit hard: Somewhere along the way, I built a life that looked full but was running on empty. Not because other people asked too much of me but because I kept choosing people, contracts & scenarios that thrived off of me abandoning myself. I’d never lived a life that didn’t revolve around what I could offer. I constantly chose overachievement externally that was fueled off of deposits from my own self worth, value, my financial and spiritual health. I was recreating every version of trauma I’d ever endured disguised as success because it was familiar. I became a millionaire. And then I lost everything & I had to ask myself the hard question who & what would be there when I didn’t have anything to ‘give’. And I couldn’t fix it with more effort. Because it wasn’t about how hard I worked it was about figuring out who am I when I’m not being useful. It was about acknowledging that everyone can’t go, not just people around me but also this old version of myself that felt that she had to self sacrifice to receive love. Then one day I decided it was time to fail. I started saying no, I started saying well I guess that won’t work I started asking for help… and everything that was built on me abandoning myself fell. Friendships, businesses & even my dreams & career goals fell. Because most of them were built on me driving myself crazy to show up or prove my value & the secret is it was still never be enough… I no longer could live that life and so here I am a 33 year old bankrupt millionaire starting over in almost every area of my life & it’s the most courageous I have ever been. Sometimes the hardest things to realize is that YOU created the chaos (whether it was intentional or not) but that means you can uncreate it too. Whatever can’t survive without YOU abandoning YOU doesn’t actually deserve or value YOU. Welcome to my podcast @_thebankruptmillionaire

A gentle reminder that this lifestyle didn’t happen overnight, it didn’t come with a lot of support and it came with a lot of letting go. Transition is about trading in parts of your life for another because you’ve changed. Give yourself and others permission to grow out of things and exchange it for something else that fits better. Your joy is proof of concept, just be patient and realistic. Charlie turns 4 in May and the first 3 years were a rollercoaster. Be patient, realistic & patient if this is what you really want. Full Vlog is available on YouTube!! We are working on our next milestone of 25k Subscribers so consider this an invitation to join me, my little and Porkchop over there 🫶🏽🩵

Recently hit our 20k YouTube goal, thank you all for tuning in!!! I have been more consistent with YouTube over the past year and now I’m trying to do better with sharing clips here. If you’d be so kind to checkout my YouTube and then head to my playlists I’m sure you’ll find something that suits your fancy and whatnot 😆 This clip is from my Vlog called I am home, cutting my love after 15 years!

Come to Tennessee with me real quick 🫶🏽🚐 #tennesee #camping #vanlife #alternativeliving #tinyhome

Today I hit 20K on YouTube 🎉 thank you all so much for the love, support and encouraging comments!!! To celebrate I wanted to share something that I’ve been sitting with, ever since I started using my van to nurse me back to life I’ve wanted to find a way to share some of the things that van life gives me with you all, the moments I take in to refill my cup & carry back with me when the days don’t always feel like the “dream” I started a playlist over on YouTube that is an “organic” no ai & no automation version of this. It’s called “Relaxing Van Views & Sounds”. It’s real views & real oceans that I visit with real sound bowls played by me a real person. I mix and match different views with different oceans for days that had different vibes. Each video will be filled with the things I bring back with me from the road. I hope you enjoy them, and replay them whenever you need a little moment of peace, just like I do The first one has been uploaded to YouTube & hope you enjoy. Here’s to the next milestone! 🫶🏽

Which rig or setup to pick is a huge question only you know your situation but I’ve found a lot of people are so determined to have a specific build out that they ignore that the circumstances aren’t in their favor. I’ll be the first to say I need my home to be reliable, it’s already on wheels so it’s not too much more I can handle 😂 This post is not to discourage anyone from a specific type of build at all, it’s just a gentle reminder that there is no rush. Your comfort has to be priority so if you don’t have the time and resources to do a van build that you can rely on and not cause more issues down the line then I would recommend hiring a carpenter or company to do the build out ir simply starting with an RV. An RV or trailer doesn’t have to be your final stop. For example @breesteen lived in a trailer while she built her tiny cabin and then sold it. @sweetitskat did a pull trailer for over a year to ensure she wanted to go farther before she purchased a van and also because it took her a while to find the van that she liked and @3dnatee used her knowledge about auctions to grab a van for around 5k and she already had the background with tools she built hers herself and then found vendors to help her remodel for aesthetic on the back end. The key to alternative living is that there is no blue print it’s based off what’s in your life. What money, time, skills, resources, community and help you have! It’s like opening the kitchen cabinet and saying hmmm what can I make with these ingredients! Ps you can 🎧listen 📺 Watch or 📖 Read my work with the links in my bio! We are almost to 20K on YouTube so please subscribe and catchup!! New vlog dropping soon!

We took a family picture in our home. I don’t know if I wanna start over, I love it here. Please help yourself to my art in whatever way feels best🩵 🎧Listen 📺 Watch or 📖 Read With the link in my bio xoxo 📸 @stretch.life

Anyone can afford to write. Every dream I’ve had started as a way to write, and somewhere along the way my creativity became a distraction and then a job because capitalism constantly pushes us to monetize the things we’re good at and the things that bring us joy. Being paid is great but writing is free. Returning home to myself has really been about being brave enough to do everything I ever wanted to do without worrying about whether I can afford it. Not everyone can afford to be vulnerable, honest, real, and imperfect in public but somehow it always suited me. I can’t be so distracted by building something that already works for me that I forget to actually do it. Everything is free. Growth is what costs. Supply and demand is what costs. Validation is what costs. But doing what you want is free. Can that be enough? Maybe not everything but maybe enough? Taking a gap year allowed me to remember that before I failed on accident I had also created a million dollar business on accident. I was just trying to start a blog. I bought the van because I said it was time to write a book. Every time I decided what I wanted, I created a “plan” so I could afford to do it. Folks, that’s what you call procrastination written in trauma-filled cursive. Anyways look at me 🥹 I offer something on every platform 📺 YouTube 🎧 Audio 📖 Substack 🎉

At 33 years old, after investing everything into a business that didn’t work out, Samia (@thecharlievancafe ) made a decision: instead of letting financial hardship define her quality of life, she moved into a custom-built Ram ProMaster van and created a stable, beautiful home for herself and her son. 📸 || @brian_bear_butler

Why is it then when someone ‘helps or assists’ us we assume it’s because they’re generous or naturally helpful without realizing it simply makes sense because helping you helps them? I can’t help but to think some of that is because we can be slower to acknowledge our own value? Maybe people help you because it’s WORTH it. You hold the value. Your brand hold the value! Working with you even for free for a day is a learning opportunity for some, it’s a network they’ve been trying to access. This is not to discount those that help us but it doesn’t mean that you don’t acknowledge that it’s mutually beneficial because you are WORTH helping. It’s not a donation it’s because the investment is worth it. 🎙️: Ep.80: don’t make assumptions Visuals on YT & Audio wherever you listen to your podcasts! My community meets every Sunday at 9pm est see you there!