Hello visitor! My name is Samantha Sparkes and I am a Prosperity Coach for Self-employed professional women

I started my coaching journey in 2008 when I qualified as life coach. My early work was with women in corporates who were talented and had high potential, yet were still held back by emotional load, self-doubt, overwhelm, burnout and the pressure to manage everything perfectly. We worked on resilience, emotional intelligence, communication, and navigating complex workplace politics.

Over time, something consistent started to appear. No matter how strong or capable these women were, almost all of them were quietly struggling with their finances. Not because they were reckless or irresponsible, but because money touched every vulnerable part of their lives: identity, fear, past messages about security, caregiving roles and the pressure to hold a family together while building a career.

I realised I had a natural affinity for the topic. What felt obvious and manageable for me felt overwhelming and shame-filled for many of the women I supported. So I started doing financial coaching informally, and the conversations were always emotional and honest. The successes were exhilarating, and it's true that when a woman changes, her family is transformed.

In 2021, when I moved to Knysna in the Garden Route, the pattern became even clearer. I met many self-employed women - estate agents, finance professionals, healthcare professionals, creatives, wellness practitioners, and small service business owners, who were doing meaningful work yet living with seasonal income, financial pressure, and low self-worth. On the surface, they looked capable and successful. Underneath they were worried and often ashamed of how chaotic money felt.

I ran a workshop for women entrepreneurs on money management and built up my coaching practice with self-employed women on the Garden Route and beyond. I also developed an extensive psychology of money assessment, and 45 self-employed women completed it by the end of 2025. I interviewed a number of the respondents in-depth. Out of this work, four consistent behavioural and emotional patterns emerged. I wanted a language that captured what I was seeing with compassion, without labelling these women as flawed or irresponsible.

Many money personality frameworks were written for a world of male risk-taking, competition and carelessness. They did not speak to the lived experience of South African women who are often the steady one in their families, carrying children, extended families, clients, households, and businesses. They are educated, resourceful, informed, yet still feel paralysed by money. This has a foundation of emotion, history, old messages and money baggage.

The Money Strain Patterns grew from this work. Pleasing, Hustling, Avoiding, and Scrambling are not identities. They are simply the ways self-employed women try to cope when money feels uncertain or overwhelming. They offer a shared language that does not talk down to you and does not put you in a box. They simply say: when you are under strain, this is what happens.

My tools, workbooks and coaching framework are designed specifically for a subset of South African women who earn their own income, work extremely hard, and carry a lot. You do not want to be bored, lectured, or shamed. You do not have time to read a 500-page finance book. You need clear, compassionate, practical support that respects your intelligence and your workload.

Every product I will create (and I have just got started) is shaped by real conversations and real challenges I hear week after week: irregular income, pricing fear, money avoidance, overspending on the wrong things, difficulty enforcing boundaries, the pressure to overwork to feel safe, and the loneliness of carrying a business without a supporting structure. Each product is then tested by women in the same situation you are. I rely on feedback to make improvements and additions.

This work is also deeply personal across generations. My daughter is an occupational therapist who has studied the challenges women in her profession face in private practice. We talk about how capable, caring professionals can feel overwhelmed by the business and financial side of their work. So when I design a tool or workbook, or refine my coaching framework I'm thinking of my own history, the women I have listened to, my daughter and her peers and all the South African women who hold up entire families and communities.

To support this work formally, I hold a Masters degree in Industrial Psychology from Wits University, and completed a twelve-month Financial Coaching programme through the University of the Free State. My background brings together the emotional, behavioural and practical sides of money. I understand both the psychology of financial stress and the structure needed to build steadier, more confident habits.

My aim is simple: To offer women like you a place where money finally feels understandable, calm, respectful, and doable - without shame, judgement or overwhelm.