How did you find yourself on food stamps and what led you to where you’re at now? Can you take us on that journey?

Amanda: I got married young and soon got pregnant when I was 20 years old. We decided, when I got pregnant, that I would drop out of school and get married. We then had two more kids and our marriage was up and down.

We had known each other for a long time and when you get married at that age, you don’t really know yourself that well. My husband was an entrepreneur, and we made this big investment to a guy that we thought was trustworthy but then the 2008 burst happened and he took our money and gambled it away.

We had given him a lot of money, so we went bankrupt, foreclosure, and so forth. Our lives were in this constant money upheaval.

I then decided that I needed to go back to school to make sure that I can be financially stable, which put me in my 30s to finish my bachelor’s degree and that led me to grad school and in this process, I had a lot of self-discoveries and realized a lot of things about myself and our marriage.

I ended up leaving my 15-year marriage after having an affair and then my next relationship didn’t work out either. I struggled with relationships and sharing my needs.

I had a lot going on and because of this upheaval in money and grad school with three kids, I didn’t have enough money to make ends meet.

I soon found myself crying on the floor one night and my counselor talked me into going and applying for food stamps, which I did end up getting.

At the time, I was dealing with a lot of shame in this wealthy community where I felt like an outsider and here, I am, crying on the floor. My boyfriend had moved out of the house we were in and I was looking on Craigslist for a place to live.

I couldn’t afford anything, and my income was less than the rent of the places I was looking for. I remember thinking at the time, “Oh God, I have to do something different. What is the problem here?”

I realized that I was the common denominator, and I made a declaration in that moment. “I’m willing to do whatever it takes to have a better relationship and make more money. I am tired of this.”

I started listening to podcasts when I was riding my bike or taking my kids to school, and even washing dishes. Then I thought, “Maybe I could be a coach.”

At the same time, my department had this huge national news fallout and we had professors leaving and it was all just high stress. I thought, “I don’t want to be a professor anymore. This doesn’t look like the job that I thought it was going to be.”

I soon decided that I was going to finish my degree and take the leap of going into business when I graduated. In the first year of the leap, I hit six figures.

Through the whole process, there was a lot of fear but then excitement as well. I remember thinking, “God, I could make money helping people!” That’s amazing!

What were the big failures you came up against as you were building your business?

Amanda: First of all, I love the name of your podcast because this is something we don’t really talk about. We don’t talk about the ‘behind the business’ stuff where you fail all the time.

I’ve created entire courses that I put my heart, soul, energy, and money into that one person bought. I would have to say the big failures came when I started my business and looked at all of the coaches making seven figures. I saw people doing it, other coaches.

While that is possible, I didn’t realize that it would take time. I thought if you created the course, everyone would love it and you’d be a millionaire..but that wasn’t the case.

If you stay in the game long enough and you keep learning, you keep pivoting from the failures.

I’ve learned so much along the way within the first year of the business. My success was definitely through one-on-one coaching and personal content; it was not through online course sales.

“Daily strategic action plus time equals inevitable success.”

You need to understand what you’re good at doing and the results you can achieve. You have to overcome all of your blocks about impostor syndrome.

Entrepreneurship to me is like a spiritual journey where you learn about all of your limiting beliefs as you step into bigger versions of yourself.

“Entrepreneurship is akin to a spiritual journey where you learn about all of your limiting beliefs.”

When I first started my business, I thought, “The 3rd year is where I’ll get to seven figures.” But then I ended up falling in love, moving, and getting married.

I took some massive inward time and now my mantra is “work less, make more, have fun.” Every year, my revenues increase and I’m working way less and having more fun. And that’s a good model.

“Work less, make more, have fun.”

Part of the manifestation of easy money is letting go of the belief that you’ve got to work all the time to make money; that you have to work hard to make money.

Every person I work with comes up against this money belief, and it’s so ingrained into us.

I see them when they start making easier money. Then I see them add stuff to their calendar because they aren’t used to the ease of making that money.

They always think, “this can’t be accurate. Something is wrong.” It feels too easy.”Another thing that I don’t think people really take into account when they’re wanting to get to that seven-figure level is the journey.

It’s not just the destination because for most high achievers, once they get there, they’re going to set up the next destination higher again, so you have to remember to enjoy the journey.

You have to remember that you don’t want to never enjoy life and then after 30 years, look back and see that, yes, you have ten million in the bank but a miserable life.

Do you have any advice for people who are in the ‘hustle’ stage; is there one thing that they can start to do today to feel better about the journey?

Amanda: I’m really big on coming up with strategies that take you from point A to point Z as fast as possible. The three steps of my NFA Money Formula are: recognize, reframe, and reprogram.

The recognition part is that you first have to notice that you don’t feel good. Most people don’t even slow down enough to go think, “How am I feeling?” So, if you’re tapped into abundance, joy, and feeling good every day, you’re going to be matched with wealth consciousness.

If you’re tapped into fear, doubt and certainty, and hard work, you’re tapped into creating a reality where that keeps getting recreated. So, the only way to stop that is to recognize where you are right now by doing daily assessments.

You’ve got to start to get to know yourself and meditate, to slow yourself down so that you can even just assess. “How do I feel?” “Do I feel joy or do I feel pushed and forced and rushed?”

If you’re feeling pushed for stressed, rushed, or scared, you’re in a state of fear and it’s going to cause you to have to stay in that cycle forever, working too hard because your energy isn’t aligned with easy money coming your way.

If you have the belief that you don’t have the time to meditate or journal, and you hear yourself saying that multiple times a day, that’s what you’re creating in your reality. Everything you say is your unconscious belief system creating more of a reality because you attract what you believe.

You don’t attract what you think you want because you’ll say, “I want an easy business with six figures coming in and flowing in easily.” What you believe is that you have to work really hard for it.

So, when you are believing that you keep recreating it over and over again and people just feel stuck, they’re like “why can’t I break through the glass ceiling?”

It’s because they’ve created the glass ceiling through their belief system because they’re not willing to take the time to journal and meditate.

If you believe that you never have enough time and you hear yourself saying that all the time, that’s what you’re creating more of.It’s all perception. What you are doing is changing your habit of the way that you perceive time and presence.

Presence is the most powerful force we have. Most people live in a state of constant future projection or past fear. I always say fear is in the future expectation of awful results. You are projecting into the future.

You’re not in the present, which causes your time, the way you think about time, to change because you’re living in the present but thinking about the future.

“Fear is in the future expectation of awful results.”

The present moment is when we have the most expansive experience of time and the only way to be present is to be grateful. That’s why journaling and meditation are so powerful because they are tools that help you get into the present state of mind and they help you become more masterful of yourself, which can then master time!

To refresh, the three points and steps were recognized, reframe, and reprogram.

Regarding the reframing part, it’s like every time you notice yourself saying something such as “I never have enough time,” you want to reframe it to “I am the creator of time. I am becoming a master of my time. I am expanding my time.” In short, you want to start to do reframes of your thoughts and actions.

The only way you can do reframes is if you recognize first and notice what’s out of alignment. By reframing, you start to take action in that direction.

“The only way you can reframe your thoughts is if you first recognize and notice what’s out of alignment.”

When I was on food stamps, I started tuning my mindset in the direction of where I wanted to go. Instead of continuously wishing I wasn’t where I wanted to be, I started to focus my attention on where I wanted to be.

When you start to reframe, it’s through repetitive actions and that causes internalization, which is why you’re saying these things that takes time because it’s practice. It’s habit and it’s reconditioning your brain in a way where you’ve done it so many times that now it’s autopilot.

Do you have any specific affirmations that you would like to share with the audience? What are some reminders that people can put on their phones?

Amanda: For anyone listening, think of three power words that align with you in terms of the person that you’re evolving into and your most empowered version of yourself. I often like to have people do this either monthly or annually.

What’s your main focus for this year in terms of who you’re expanding into? Then you do three words, and you do a power modular word. “I am confident, poised, inspired,” “I am an influencer powerhouse leader,” and so on. Then you plug those into your phone.

That’s a really simple version of how to create your own that aligns with you. Feel connected to those affirmations you set.

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