E238: Ways to Build Our Inner Authority and Fully Embody Conscious Leadership with Amanda Hunter

E238:with Amanda Hunter

Amanda Hunter is an embodied feminine leadership coach who ditched the 9-5 to follow her soul’s purpose where she gets to infuse pleasure and play with being of-service.

Blending woo with science, Amanda supports soulful entrepreneurs in cultivating their inner authority to become the leader of themselves first, and see their businesses expand as a result. She thrives on seeing women stepping into their power, playing bigger and taking up more space as they come to reside their true essence…

Valerie LaVigne: Welcome back to the Women's Empowerment Podcast. I am so excited to have Amanda Hunter on the show today. Amanda, thank you so much for joining us All the Way from Australia, which is very far from here. So both of us are. Ready for either bed or ready to get outta bed. Exactly. But it's so, yeah. It's so great to have you. So welcome to the show.

Amanda Hunter: Thank you so much for having me. And I think you've hit the nail on the head. It's opposite ends of the day for us, but I love that we're able to really connect and just share our stories and share what we're all about and be able to share that with your community as well, even though we're on opposite ends of the world.

VL: Yeah, it's pretty cool actually when you think about it, and it makes me think of also how. You know, people in the, the fields that we're in and the work that we do, we do things like this sometimes to get our message across or to share with others or to, you know, elevate or have elevated conversations.

We, we go out of our comfort zones. We connect with new people. This is the first time we're kind of connecting together in real time. And not just through email or dm. So it's all very exciting and. I know for myself, I, I was a little bit nervous. I, I was like, I've never recorded a podcast at seven in the morning.

Does my voice work at that time? It does. Definitely. Thank you. So that might sound a little different, but. But like I said, I'm excited to be here and I'm excited that we're connected in this way because a lot of what you share and a lot of what you educate on, and you know how I've kind of seen you on Instagram and and socials, is you show up and as this beautiful, incredible leader of light, of embodiment, of authenticity.

And it's quite empowering to see you because you'd not only speak. What you do and share what you do, but you, you live that as well. So I'm really excited to talk to you today about all of that, all the leadership and all the things. So can you tell us just a little bit about yourself and maybe how you got into this, I don't know if it's a niche or a topic or why you love it so much?

[02:45] Amanda’s Journey

AH: Yeah. There's so many different talking points around there, and I suppose starting how I actually got into this journey. I worked in a completely different field. I actually came from construction management, so completely different corporate. I was a contract administrator, and really it was something that I kind of fell into.

It was just something that I thought was the path that I was meant to follow. But when I actually had my kids and returning back to work, I think it's one of those sort of pivotal moments in life. You think, is this what I'm meant to be doing? Is this what lights me up? And the answer was no. But it took me a while to actually realize that.

And it's, it's just one of those things of when you actually start doing like that inner work and you start doing that soul work, you have that realization of where you wanna be, where you wanna go, but. When you are new to it all and you're not trusting your intuition, you tend to just dull it down. You think, no, no, no.

This is what society tells me to do. This is where I should be going with it all. And so that's what you do. And so I continued along that path quite some time and it wasn't until I actually started having some health issues that that was really the wake up call for me. And so when I finally got through all of that and had that dark night of the soul that so many people talk about, I just thought, you know what?

Life is too short. I can't do this. I can't go back to it. And it was time to really sort of like look inward and think, well what? What is it that lights me up? What do I love doing? And I've always been someone who is inspired by business and creating and wanting to actually build something that is my own rather than just following along.

But when I started my entrepreneur journey, I was just a baby entrepreneur. I didn't know what I was doing. And so I've had a few different iterations of my business to get me to the point where I am now. Funnily enough, I actually started in health coaching, which I believe is where you started as well, or where, where your qualifications came from.

And I think that's where so many people do sort of like enter the coaching space. They go, okay, well, What's my background? What have I done? And for me it was a health, and that's why I went into health coaching. It's, that's sort of just opening the door. And so once the door was open, I just sort of, my eyes were wide open too.

Like all the possibilities that are out there and what can I do with this? And I think this is where we start to see just, there is so much potential. There is so much out there in the world that we can do. But when we've come from like the corporate background, we've worked in a traditional nine to five, that's what we're being taught is available to us.

And so when I then sort of started doing my health coaching business, I thought, this is amazing. But where I really love working is more around that spirituality piece. I love the lifestyle, I love the life coaching aspect of it as well. And so that's then what I went into next. So that was like iteration too of my business.

And from there, it's just as you start to. Work further in this, and the more that you do it, you really start to hone into what it is that lights you up. And that is just so much of doing that inner work. It's about finding out who you are, what it is, what it is that you really love, and having the confidence to really step into that, not do the shoulds, not do what other people think you should be doing or others are telling you that you should be doing, but instead just like following your, your truth, following your essence.

But it takes time to get there. And so this is really, and I think your question was about like what does, what does leadership mean to you? And this is so much about what leadership is. It's about getting really comfortable with who you are, finding out what it is that you stand for, becoming that inner leader first.

So then you could then see that move outwardly in your business and. So I suppose that was just what really lit me up, what excited me, and I thought, look, if this is what I'm doing, I want to help others do exactly the same thing.

VL: That's so lovely. And when you say it with your accent, it's even more beautiful.

But in all seriousness, I can definitely relate to that feeling of you're feeling like you're kind of wandering because you're not really sure where you're going. There's so much information out there, which one feels right for me? Or how do I define leadership for myself? And you kind of go through life unconsciously, and it's most of the time, Not our own faults, it's just we're going through the motions.

We don't stop to think about what that means or how we wanna show up. We don't stop to think about ourselves cuz we're constantly responding or reacting to things. So I'm so glad that you know, as, as much as you had that dark night of the soul, I think that's the universe's way to say, Hey, stop. Slow it down.

Take a moment and realize that this is not the path that we said we, we were gonna put you on. And you know, it obviously brought you to where you are now, which is in this incredible coaching world and helping all these people. So, you know, it's good and it's bad.

[07:40] Listening and Responding to Life’s Whispers

AH: Definitely. And, and you're so right there as well about the universe.

We get these little whispers and. If we don't listen to them, they turn into this scream, and it's quite often that's when everything falls over. So let's just use health, for example. Say you've got these little twinges, you're like, I should slow down, but no, no, no, no, no. I need to keep my exercise routine.

I'm gonna keep pushing myself. I'm gonna work through the pain because that's what we're told to do. Work through the pain. Instead of actually then listening to our body, we are just continually pushing and pushing and pushing until our body turns around and goes, nah, that's it. I'm gonna set you out for a week.

You're gonna be lying down flat on your back. You're not gonna be doing anything. But it's about listening. Listening to the little whispers before they turn into those screams, and just stop us in our tracks.

VL: Oh my goodness. I'm so glad you said that, because it's very true. And not just for health, but in our businesses, in our relationships, in all areas of our lives.

[08:32] The Power of Mindset in Business and Leadership

So let's maybe shift gears and talk a little bit more about the mindset, because I feel like. We're always looking outwards as to what I should do, where I should start, how do I do this? But a lot of what you're saying is really touching in on our internal relationship and how we're thinking. And so look, can we like take a step into the mind?

What are some of the things, if we're someone who is. Newly navigating this space and wanting to understand our true selves and our authenticity and kind of become more conscious as leaders. What are some things that we can do or say to ourselves or how can we get into that? In our mindset.

AH: There's so many different moving parts to this, and I think something that shows up so often for people who are really new to business or new to mindset and things like that is this idea of comparison.

It is so easy to look outside of us and think that's what they're doing, that's working for them. I need to do the same and. It's great to get inspiration from people. It's great to get a lay of the land and see what's happening around the place, what's working, what's not working. But when that starts to then cross over from just market research, if you wanna call it that, into fullon comparison.

Then that's sending that down with Spiral. So that's one of the things that we need to really sort of conscious of when we are building our business or just in life in general, really, when we are looking at other people is to not compare. We don't see what's going on for them. We see the highlight reel of what's working, what they're wanting to show on Instagram or social media.

We don't see what's actually happening behind the scenes. And let me tell you, it's, it's not gonna be all sunshine and roses. It is. They're gonna be having hard parts that they're working through that they don't necessarily want to air for everyone to see. And just as a side note on that one, I mean, if I'm working through something as well, I'm not one to go and share exactly what's happening in the moment.

I will work through it myself, I will sit with it, I will integrate it, and I will share the lessons. So it's very, very different to sort of coming at it from like a dear diary entry of, Hey, this is going wrong for me. The world is caving in. But coming back to the mindset, There are so many different avenues to it.

There's lots of different practices that you can do as well, but it's really about coming back into yourself. It's about not looking at others and finding some practices that are gonna be really beneficial, beneficial for you. So for example, some people love journaling. I dabble in a little bit of journaling.

It's not my go-to, but it's something when I need to really work through what's in my mind. I find it a great way to get out what's in my mind onto paper. There are some other things that you can do. I mean, meditation and mindfulness are beautiful ones as well. There are, and I'm sure you are across all of these as well, like breath work and there's so many different things that you can do.

But what I'd really recommend is incorporating, say one or two that you can really use as your anchors when you are wanting to ground yourself, wanting to get in the zone, wanting to just come back to you rather than looking outward beyond yourself.

VL: Yes, absolutely. And I also have dabbled in kind of all of those things.

And I think trying, one, seeing how it works. If it's great, keep it going. If it doesn't, try something new. And I will add one piece to that, and it's do that practice at the beginning of your day before you start looking at other people's work or before, even if you're not doing the r and d, if you're just.

Going on Instagram or on TikTok, it could be very overwhelming. And that's kind of what the app has meant to do, is to overwhelm us and suck us in. And so if we can set ourselves up with that foundation before going into the social media and all these things, it makes a huge difference in how you act or react on those sites.

It's what you're saying is so true. I know so many people who. Keep telling me they want to start a business, but they just don't do it. And all the things that are holding them back is like, it's not perfect. And I'm like, well, perfection is just another form of procrastination. My business is not perfect even today.

But it's true. Nobody shares those things with you. And even if they do, they're again, they're sharing the lesson, which is like, oh wow, that's so wise. But I didn't get there today. I got there because I had to go through a little blood, sweat and tears and nobody sees that part of it. Yeah. No one sees that.

You've just spent an hour trying to figure out why you deleted all of your email contacts. What happened to me one time? Oh my God. Oh no, I know. Like recently. Oh, oh no. Yeah, so we,

[13:17] Perfectly Imperfect

AH: I mean, having a business is such a learning, like a, a learning group. It's part of your evolution. It's part of your growth.

It's part of learning. I mean, having a business is the biggest personal development journey you are ever going to go on. Mm-hmm. Like you said, you don't wake up on day one and go, I know how to do this. You look at the journey of someone who's been doing this. Years and you can see the progression. It's actually amazing to go back, find someone that you absolutely love and inspires you find their social media.

Scroll back a couple of years and you'll see that they're just like you. They just started. That was it. They put themselves out there just one foot in front of the next. They didn't care if it was perfect. So mean. Hey, let me tell you, some of my worst or best performing reels are actually the ones that I did in a couple of minutes.

I stuffed them up and then I've just gone really well. I thought, ah, whatever. It's not perfect. It's done a job.

VL: Oh, I love that. Yeah, it's true. I've done that where I scroll down to other people's posts and I'm like, oh yeah, I used to do that, or, oh wow. Look how imperfect that is. I feel way better. But it's true because even for myself, even with this podcast, I had no idea what I was doing.

I had no clue what I was doing, and we are. Exponentially growing as a podcast and it's incredible to see. Like I remember celebrating my first 2000 downloads. I remember being so excited. I was like, oh my god, 2000 downloads. That's so crazy. It seemed like so much. And this year we hit over a hundred thousand downloads and that is just.

Like, but it's incredible. But people have said, who have kind of binged the, the podcast and have listened from the beginning and kind of go through. They say, Val, you can hear in your voice, you can hear the growth, you can hear the, the evolution as you say. So it's so exciting. It's, it's exciting for yourself to look back at what you've done and also to see your own mentors and the, the, the other people that you look up to.

So, yeah, I mean, I think we also just take things really seriously and we have to enjoy the process as we go. It's part of our growth. It's part of that development, my friend says Having a business or being an entrepreneur is a personal development with a paycheck. I was like, yeah, that's totally true.

AH: Definitely. And it's often not the paycheck in the beginning either. I mean, that's part of your learning. If you look at, say, a, a traditional nine to five, you're gonna get paid for your time. Every hour you, you sit on the seat, you're gonna get paid. But as an entrepreneur, those first months, years, whatever it takes.

Sometimes you're not getting paid your worth. And I think this is such a, a hit for, for so many people when they do start their business, they're thinking, hang on, I am so much better than this, and yet I'm getting paid nothing. And so they just tap out, which is really sad to see because I know that if they stuck with it and they did that mindset work, they did that inner work to really build their self-belief, then they wouldn't worry about that.

They'd be focused on the end goal, the impact they're gonna create, the people they're gonna help and just know that it is a long game because it is.

[16:13] Creating Safety in Business

VL: Mm-hmm. It's tough, right? Because I understand. I mean, we need money to live our lives and for myself, I have, as a manifesting generator, as you can relate, I have a lot of different projects.

I have a lot of different things that I, I love and I do, and so I teach Pilates and I own a Pilate studio. And I also do my health coaching business. And so I have these two things, and for a long time, the one really helped the other. The one was how I was kind of funding the other, but it allowed me to have that sense of grounding and security so that I could keep going.

Whereas I don't know, if I didn't have the two things together, I don't know if I would be able to continue the podcast to continue all these other projects that I have. Because I gotta put food on the table, right? Yeah. But I love it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. But but there is that opportunity to do this in alignment with something else.

So, yeah, I mean, it's true. You just wanna say, hold on, just, just a little more, but obviously you can't. Tell them exactly how much time and Yeah, exactly.

AH: And I mean, you've, you're spot on there. It's about that creating safety. And if we don't have that sense of safety, our nervous system is just all outta whack.

We're feeling stressed, we're feeling anxious, and that comes across in our work as well. And there's nothing worse than when you are showing up for your clients or you're trying to attract those clients in, and you're coming from this place of scarcity and you're coming from this mindset that's just.

All over the place, they can feel it. And so therefore it's then almost undoing all of that good work that you've gone and done in creating your business. So I get it. It's tough. It really is tough, and this keeps coming back to why it's so important to really do that mindset work, do that inner work, and make sure that you are building that belief and you are become, being really grounded in your confidence and knowing who you are so that you can go ahead and, and build that business even with all those perceived setbacks that you might be experiencing.

VL: mm-hmm and really coming back to what you're doing, why you're doing it, and just it again, it is such a self-belief for sure. Yeah. The amount of times I just need someone in my ear to be like, it's okay. We all go through this. Yeah. So definitely I would also recommend investing in a coach even early on.

And for me, I didn't have the means to do that, and so I, I found one or two people that I knew that I could binge their podcast or I could read their books or I could take their courses. So I might not have been working with them one-on-one, but I found ways to. You know, learned everything I could from their own journey through all these different platforms.

And so that was it. That was a huge part for me. And then continuing that was community and finding other people who do what you do or who do similar things. I can't tell you, I have a lot of friends who are not in the entrepreneurial world and it's hard to. It's not hard to open up to them, but it's hard to, for them to understand what I'm going through because they're like, just get a job.

You get benefits and you know, it's not that simple. And that's not really the quote unquote advice that I was looking for or the space that I want it to be held for me. And no, they're not necessarily doing the same mindset work. And so having that. Community, having a coach. Those are some really amazing resources, but also things to invest in when you're in those beginning stages or even now.

You're still, when you're still hanging on and you're still going through it definitely. Mm-hmm.

[20:08] The Journey is Life-Long

AH: And I mean, we don't stop doing the work. I mean, the personal development work is, it's a, it's a lifelong journey. I remember back early on again, baby entrepreneur, I was thinking, oh yes, I've done the course.

I've sat down, I've done the Weeklong Entrepreneurial Personal Development Journey course, and I thought that was it. I'm done. But you haven't, you've just opened the door. There is more and more to unravel and the thing that comes up for you once is gonna come up again, but it's gonna come up in a slightly different version.

It's always going to be there. And so I like yourself. I a hundred percent agree on having a coach. It's someone that I've had, I've had quite a few different coaches throughout my time as well, and being able to go back to them and, oh, Just speak to them and get that clarity and that reassurance, and I'm not going crazy, am I?

And then you have, have your session and off you go again. And you are straight outta the gates and off you go. And you're amazing. You're feeling a hundred percent and just wanting to take on the world again. It's just the best feeling in the world.

VL: Mm-hmm. It's so nice to have someone in your corner too, because like we were talking about, a lot of people just don't see what you're going through and they get it because they've done it.

Yeah. So many times people are like, oh, wow, you're doing such amazing things. I'm like, am I though? Because I feel tired. I'm so tired. Yeah. And I'm just like, and this is my nudge, my wink from the universe as they slow down. Just take a break. You're doing good things. You need to rest. It's okay. We've talked about the mindset. We've talked about surrounding ourselves with really good people.

[21:38] Ways to Build Our Inner Authority and Fully Embody Conscious Leadership

What are some other ways or perhaps some other practices that we could start doing that really helps us build our inner authority and fully embody that conscious leadership?

AH: Hmm. Yeah. So there's two things that I really love to do and they kind of melt together.

One of them is around. Catching yourself with any thoughts or stories or beliefs that come up. And something that I really love to do is if I have this thought that comes up and it doesn't seem quite right, I say, is that really true? So is that really true or is that simply just a story that I'm telling myself in the moment?

And what I then do is I then go looking for evidence of it. So evidence to either support it or disprove it. Because if we think about everything in life, every experience that we have is simply our perception. It's not necessarily the real truth of what's happened. It is our truth. So everything is through this lens that we've applied and the lenses that we create based on our entire life experience.

So what's happened to us as a child through to now, that creates the lens for which we see everything in the world. So if we come back to the question, it's really about pausing and going, is that true or not? And so once we then discover the truth or the the mistruth of it, then that allows us to really take action based on that.

Another thing that I really love to do is to be able to interrupt and change my patterns or change my behaviors moment to moment. And this takes quite a bit of practice in doing so. And it really comes from the idea of metacognition, which is around becoming aware of your unconscious self. So it's about thinking about your thinking.

And the, the three steps to do this are really about uncovering it, observing it, and then changing it. So it's about becoming aware of what it is that you're doing or what it is that you are thinking, and then doing a bit of self-reflection. So having a look at the behaviors or having a look at the thoughts, or having a look at what is surrounding that particular thing that we've uncovered, and then it's about interrupting it.

So it's about self-correcting from moment to moment. And the more you do this, the better you get at it. The first time you do it, you're like, oh my God, how can I do that? This is icky. This doesn't feel right. But the more that you practice it can actually integrate it into. Your life, it starts to prune away those old circuits.

It starts to reprogram the new ones, and you can make sort of changes really, really rapidly in what you're doing. And I just think that's so, so important to be able to do that. In terms of like your growth, it's just, it's phenomenal once you start to master that. Mm-hmm.

VL: I'm thinking of how I do this all the time, and I just sort of talk to myself.

And at first you're like, I'm a crazy person, but it actually really works. And I, I really believe that it's rooted in that mindfulness because you have to be able to recognize it, bring awareness to what's happening, and then, like you said, interrupt it. So, yeah. I, I love that. I love how you've explained it.

We talk a lot about. How habits are formed in our minds. And I talk a lot about the neuroscience and the neuro circuits, and a lot of these changes can be made through mindful practices, through meditation, through just taking a moment to pause. It's almost not doing something, but instead slowing down, taking a step.

I have a, a sticker here. I was tidying up my desk before this and I. Looked at the sticker and it says Slow and steady, but at first, because it's very early in the morning, I read it as slow two Steady, and I was like, oh wow, that's so cool. And now I'm reading it again. I'm like, oh, that's not what this sticker says.

Anyway, but I like the slow two steady because it reminds us that. You know, we need a starting point. We need to then move from that starting point, and that's when we start to build this momentum. And in this entrepreneurial journey and in even in just life, we're going forward, we're going backwards, we're going fast, we're going slow.

Mm-hmm. But if we just recalibrate slow to steady, I think that's a lovely practice that we can do what you shared. So thank you. I feel like I have homework today to do with

[25:51] Slow to Steady

AH: Perfect. Like handing out the homework. Well you mentioned there about the slow to steady. It reminds me of something that I always say and it just came up one day and looking back and I thought, oh, that's quite profound.

But at the time it didn't seem quite right because it was quite early on in my entrepreneurial journey. It was the slowdown to speed up and I thought, Here I am trying to do all the things. I'm trying to tackle the to-do list. I'm just a hundred percent running into what it is that I think I need to do.

But it's not getting any of the results. And so I thought, you know what? I need to slow down to go fast to speed up. And when I actually did that, when I stopped and I paused and I was able to just sort of zoom out and take in the full picture of what it is that I was trying to achieve, how I wanted to feel, what I wanted the other people to feel, and, and really got a bird side view on what, what was going on.

It then allowed me to sort of really pull back in and go, you know what? I don't need to be doing all of those things. I know what it is that I'm trying to achieve, how I'm gonna create that impact, what my true vision is, and now I can sort of smooth at a slower pace towards it because that's actually gonna achieve the outcome, rather just running at a frantic speed and doing all of the things that I need to do.

And it's something that we're kind of taught and is ingrained and We are told to do in sort of like patriarchal society is that we just do, do, do. We don't be, and this is just such a, a big thing that I've been getting into lately, the whole feminine embodiment and really dropping into my feminine.

And it's so much about being present in the moment and the difference that has made not only in my life, but in my business is just profound and I feel so much better for it too.

VL: I'm so glad, I'm so glad that you have gone through this journey and can share these things as you grow and as you continue to move through it.

And yeah, we are ingrained to to do, do, do. And go, go, go. And, Not just be, which is such an incredible thing. And I always think of, you know, we're human beings, not human doings, but we don't take enough time to to be. And the other thing that it reminded me of is what you said just a little bit earlier, which was, The reflection piece to it.

How can we reflect on what's working, what's not working, what we love, what we don't love. If we don't slow down for a moment and ask ourselves like, did I love this process? Do I want a podcast? Do I want to do these things? Am I excited about sharing this through a course or a book or, you know what I mean?

And, and it's, it's so simple to just. Reflect on what we loved, what we didn't, and find that gratitude for how far we've come. And then it's easy to get stuck with, again, circling back to the comparison and all the other things that come with personal development. Yeah, absolutely. You have shared so much amazingness.

I would Is there, is there something that hasn't been said? We have a little bit more of the podcast, but I just wanna make sure that you've shared everything that you feel. Excited about. So take it the moment to reflect if you need.

AH: Yeah, I'm gonna pause and sit with that, and that's sort of one of my favorite things at the moment.

[28:51] Sitting with the Stories

Well, not at the moment, but something that I've really been conscious of doing is just sitting with things. And I used to, when someone would ask me something, one of the stories, again, this are the stories and limiting beliefs that we have. One of the stories that I would tell myself is that I'm not smart enough because I'm not jumping back with a response.

And we are all different. Everyone has different ways of processing information and what I've come to be really comfortable in with mine is sitting with things. And so I feel comfortable saying to people now, like, I just need to sit with that. I'll come back to you. I'm not gonna give you just the response off the top of my head, because this actually means something to me.

I wanna actually take the time, just sit with it. Allow it to sort of, where do I feel it in my body? What feels good? Really just mull it over and then come back to someone with a response. And so that probably wasn't what I wanted to add, but it was just something that came up in that moment and I thought it was just, yeah, it's an important story to share because do what feels good for you.

Don't listen to anyone else and just beep, pause, reflect, and your like intuitively, your answers will come to you.

VL: I love that. Okay. Thank you. How can we find you? How can we follow you? How can we support your business?

AH: Yeah, so the best way to find me, as on Instagram, that's where I like to hang out and build my community, which is @iam_amandahunter

you can work with me. I am opening up spaces for one-on-one private coaching at the moment. So that is something that is available and I would love to share a really incredible free gift that I've created as well. And this is something that is, Amazing at changing up your energy. So this is for entrepreneurs before they start work for the day.

So again, this is before you actually sit down and do any of your stuff before you consume, before you create any of that, it allows you to really sort of drop into your body, step into that like sacred c e o, embody your leadership and really get activated to bring forth all of your energy and all of your power that you've created.

So that's also available on my website and I'll get you to pop the links in the show notes.

[31:05] Rapid Fire

VL:We have, we have one more segment to the show. It's called the Rapid Fire Round. I'm gonna ask you four questions. Are you ready?

AH: I'm ready.

VL: Question number one is, what are you currently reading, or what is your favorite book?

AH: Oh, I am rereading a book by Dr. Joe Dispenza. He's one of my favorite authors, and it is called oh, isn't that terrible? Becoming Supernatural (affiliate)

VL: Question number two is, what does empowerment mean to you?

AH: Mm. Empowerment is about standing in your truth. It's, and I'm sort of sitting here as we're talking.

I've got my shoulders pulled back. It's about my head high. It's not allowing anyone else to take away from my true essence. It's about just being all of me. Yeah, it's about being me. That's what it is.

VL: Oh, that's so lovely. Yeah. What is unapologetically? Unapologetically, yes. I feel like people need more of this permission or to give themselves that permission.

Yeah. Question number three is what is your longest standing habit?

AH: Oh my longest standing habit, I would say. And I know you're gonna like this one. Pilates, it's, I've been doing Pilates for about 18 years now. Gives away my age, doesn't it?

VL: Oh, wow. That's so exciting. Yeah, I love Pilates. Do you do map Pilates and do you do reformer Pilates?

AH: I am doing reformer at the moment. I have done map before and I've also done the, the private sessions with all the different apparatus as well. That's probably my favorite, but at the moment I'm just doing reformer.

VL: Amazing. I love reformer. Okay. And then the last question is, what are you currently working toward?

AH: Oh, can I have some context around that? Is that anything in particular?

VL: Anything at all can be personal, it can be professional, it can be you're going to bed in a few minutes

AH: after, after that. No. So what I'm working towards at the moment is actually moving overseas, and this has been something that has been a, a dream for our family is.

We're very big on experience. It's one of my highest values. So some of my values are, or highest values are experience, adventure, family, and this one kind of ties it all together. It's about taking the family overseas and being able to learn through life rather than through books. So yeah, the next, the thing that I'm working towards is moving overseas and it looks like Bali, hopefully this year.

VL: Oh my goodness. That's huge and very exciting. Yeah. I'm so happy for you, Amanda. Thank you so much for taking the time to share space with me and to sit and share this wisdom that you have. I feel like this is such a valuable conversation for people to not only listen to one time, but to revisit For sure.

And I, I wanna recognize you and acknowledge you for. All the incredible things that you're doing and again, how you live, what you share, and how you embody what you teach. And I think that's such a, a powerful leader is someone who shows up and does what they say and not just do as I say, and not, or do as I, yeah, do as I say, not what I do or whatever that saying is.

You really do walk the talk. So that's incredible. And again, I'm just so grateful that we were able to connect today.

AH: Thank you so much. I'm receiving that with much love and I'm reflecting the same back to you. You are certainly someone who does embody everything that they talk about, and you are an incredible lady yourself.

Thank you so much for having me on the show.

Podcast Host

Valerie LaVigne

Valerie is the creator and founder of Valerie LaVigne Life and the Women's Empowerment Show. She helps busy and empowered women create healthy habits so that they can become the best version of themselves and transform their lives. Learn more about Valerie here!