Small business owners I admire, each answering the same few questions in their own words.
Your business has systems for your tasks, your clients, and your money. It also has one that rarely makes the list: your own nervous system, and this system often impacts how well all the others work.
I’ve been exploring that idea in conversation with Tami Schweber of The Knowing Well. I first met Tami years ago when I interviewed her for her sales and marketing talent. Since then, I’ve watched her go from employee to running her own business, and then make a brave pivot from marketing consulting to following her passion as a somatic coach and practitioner. Through body-based practices, she helps people slow down, listen to what their body already knows, and get to know their nervous system. She offers 1:1 sessions and group experiences.
Along the way, she became my business buddy. We’ve held each other accountable and traded services: I’ve helped with the backend setup for her events, and she has supported me with somatic coaching and sessions. When she began her somatic work, I could see a shift in her. She brings a calm, mindful approach to how she designs her sessions and workshops and how she supports her clients. Tami truly embodies her practice. If you get the chance to do a session with her, it’s worth it.
Our conversations keep returning to how a business owner’s nervous system intersects with the operations and backend of a small business, and how each shapes the other. This is something we are exploring together; stay tuned.
Let’s learn a little more about Tami.
What's the most "you" thing about how you run your business, something only you would do quite this way?
I try to run my somatic coaching practice l with the same intentionality and care I bring to my clients.
As a solopreneur, my business is really an extension of me. It holds my choices, my values, my creativity, and my why. So I let it move at a human pace. I don't rush people, and I try not to rush myself either.
I only use words I can truly stand behind. If something doesn't feel right in my body, I let it go, even if it sounded lovely on paper.
So much of my work is about helping people reclaim their sense of choice. It would feel out of step to then pressure anyone into working with me. Instead, I trust people to know what they need and to choose it in their own time.
What's a tool, habit, or ritual that has nothing to do with "business" but is essential to how you run yours?
My own somatic practice.
Before I can hold space for anyone else, I need to come back to myself first. I see this as a responsibility to my own growth, and just as much, a responsibility to the people I work with.
I only offer my clients practices and tools I've experienced myself. Before I share anything, I want to know how it feels in my body. That way, when I guide someone through a practice, I'm offering something I truly know rather than something I've only read about.
I can only meet my clients as deeply as I'm willing to meet myself.
What's a compliment or piece of feedback you got that you still think about to this day?
Every piece of feedback I've received has stayed with me in some way. But one I return to often came from a client who said she had moved from trying to even remember what the word "somatic" means to feeling beautifully aware of her entire being, not just her thoughts.
I love that so much. So many of us live mostly in our heads and we think our way through everything. Somatic work invites us to come back into the whole of who we are.
What this client said also reminds me that you don't need any experience to begin. Just a little curiosity, and a willingness to listen to your body.
What does your business give back to the people or place around it, beyond what people pay for?
I see this work as a reclamation of what it means to be human. To feel, to sense, to be in a body that's alive and connected to the world around us.
In times like these, so much pulls us away from ourselves. We move fast, we live on screens, and we're constantly asked to override what we feel. Somatic work invites us back to our breath, our senses, and our connection to nature and to each other. It reminds us that following our heart is our birthright.
When one person remembers their humanity, it ripples out. And that's what I hope my work gives back.
Stay connected…
Join Tami's thoughtfully curated newsletter for somatic insights, gentle inspiration, and occasional offers, all designed to support your journey.
Subscribe here: theknowingwell.ca/newsletter
