Build Boundaries That Help You Thrive with Amber Lee Sears

Welcome to True Grit and Grace, a podcast designed to empower you to claim your resilience and thrive through life's challenges. I am Amberly Lago, a mindset coach, fitness expert and bestselling author. Each week, I'll dive deep with the world's brightest thought leaders and elite performers to share tangible tools and practical advice to inspire you to keep your eyes on the prize and forge ahead. So get ready to conquer your fears, heal any trauma, lead with your heart, and elevate your life with grit and grace. Hi and welcome. I'm Amberly, and I'm here with you on the True Grit and Grace Podcast. And I'm so excited and honored. I have such a treat for y'all today. I have Amber Sears here with us. And first of all, it— I think it's pretty miraculous that you're even here with us because you just had a baby, a beautiful baby boy, Wilder. I had the honor of meeting you when I was on your podcast, Soul Powered Podcast. So if y'all don't know Amber Sears yet, her podcast is amazing. Head on over to her podcast and listen to her podcast. But also, you probably already know her. I actually knew her before I got to know her. I didn't even realize it, but I had seen her on YouTube. She blows up all over YouTube with her husband. On Instagram, you can find her Amberly Sears. So we kind of have a similar name, but hers is Amberly Sears on Instagram. And thank you so much for being here, Amber. It's so good to see you.

I am so grateful. Thank you so much for having me, Amberly. You know, it's like, as much as it's intense to have a baby, I'm also just— this is my favorite thing, like this, doing this purpose-driven work that I know you and I are both here to do. Like, this lights me up. So I'm so excited to be here.

Oh, thank you. I got goosebumps, girl, because I was just like, oh my gosh, she just had a baby. I don't know if she's going to be able to, to, to meet with me today. And then I was like, well, shoot, I just got hit by a car a week and a half ago. And for us to show up when you just had a baby— I just got hit by a car with my daughter when I was riding my, my little Razor in a crosswalk. Oh my goodness. And I was like, you know what? It just shows that we are both so passionate about what we do.

Yeah.

And plus I was just really excited about seeing you and getting, you know, I have a lot of questions for you too, because you have this company. I mean, you're the CEO of Epic Self. And before COVID you were doing a lot of retreats and you do one-on-one coaching, but traveling a lot. And you really help people get clear on their business, get clarity, but stay grounded and do what they love and do it passionately. I want to just share with the audience a little bit about how you got into that because we have a lot in common.

Yeah.

You were a dancer and you lived with a lot of pain. And I feel like that really, you have transformed that pain into purpose. And now you share so much of what you do with so many people and help them find joy. And so can you share a little bit about just what you were doing and what led you to do what you do today and with Epic Self?

Yeah, sure. So yeah, I always say my journey started with dance, just like you. Dance was my heart. You know, my parents put me in ballet when I was 3, and it was a lifelong love affair with dance. And I went on to get my degree in dance performance and choreography, went on to dance professionally in San Francisco as a contemporary modern dancer for about 8 years before moving out of the country. And along that journey, as I know you have experienced, you know, I had so many acute and chronic injuries from my dance training. That were just, you know, everything from Achilles tendonitis when I was really young and I was on pointe shoes for the first time as a ballet dancer. I had stress fractures in L4, L5 at age 13 from all the backbending I was doing. Like, I was a great dancer, but I didn't have great training in terms of like how to properly align my bones and activate my muscles to actually support what I was doing.

Well, also, when you were dancing, because when I was dancing and I grew up, you know, dancing and an athlete, We were taught to push through the pain. And basically, I was taught to really kind of ignore my body and not listen to the pain. And no matter what, you just keep going, which gave me a lot of grit and that served me well. But you can only— suck it up only lasts so long. Like, you can't keep sucking it up, as you learned.

Oh yeah.

Was it the same for you?

It was. You know, I had physical therapists telling me when I was dealing with the point Achilles tendonitis from trying to do pointe work at such a young age, they put me on pointe at like age 12, 13, which is not ideal for your development of your feet. But anyway, that's what they do in the ballet world. So I was doing that, but I remember working with a physical therapist and I could hardly walk at school. And he's like, Amber, you won't be able to walk if you continue. And I was so obsessed with like, I have to be this ballerina, I have to do, and I want to be the best dancer. And so it was like, I was willing to do whatever it took. If that meant I was hobbling around my school, barely walking, at least I could do pointe, you know? And so anyway, I had to like go of that dream a long time ago that I wasn't to be doing pointe work as a ballet dancer. But so there was a lot of that along the journey where I had to release— my body forced me to stop and slow down, stop pushing so hard. And I feel like this is like the universal lesson that I keep learning in my life is like, stop pushing so hard. Because—

Girl, me too. And I'm like, did I get hit by a car again?

Right, right.

Universe really trying to teach me? I really asked myself that question because this was the third time. I've been like knocked flat on my ass by a car. Like, wow, is this a lesson? Like, I, I know I— that's the lesson I've learned too. And that's one, and one of the reasons I was so excited to have you on, because I'm like, girl, I need to hear it from you. I need to hear what you've learned too.

Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, so like at a young age I was like, okay, well, my body, I need to figure out a way to be basically to have a better maintenance program. So if I am going to do this level of dance training and I want to dance at this level, I need to really take care of my body. Injury prevention-wise, so age 18-19, I went to college in San Francisco at San Francisco State for their dance program, and I was introduced to Pilates. Now Pilates mat was what we were initially doing, and some foam roller work. And in two weeks, the back pain I had since I was 13 completely vanished. And I was like, "What is this?" Because I had been to chiropractors, physical therapists, like everybody that I knew was like alternative holistic, you know, to help me with my injuries, and nothing got to the actual root of the problem, which was I had major muscle imbalances and major bony alignment issues. Choose from all of my years of training improperly. So so sure enough, I get on the Pilates you know mat for two weeks. My back pain vanishes. I feel so much better. And I'm like, what is this method? I'm so obsessed. I have to figure out basically how I need to learn this system of movement and technique so that I can use it in my own dance training, but also so I can teach it and give it back because I knew so many dancers who were so broken in so many ways. And I also knew a lot of people in a lot of pain, back pain, you know. And so the more I learned about Pilates, learned about alignment and muscle proper. muscle balance and structure and stuff like that. And fascia. Once I started learning about all this, I was like, wow, everybody, a lot of people are in chronic pain. They don't even realize they're really carrying a lot of chronic pain. But most people aren't very aware, or they have like chronic injuries or acute injuries from training, some sort of athletic work.

You made me sit up taller just now.

Yeah, right. I'm gonna check my alignment. For sure, for sure. And so I became so hyper-aware of my own body, you know, just through that work. And I went on to study in the Ron Fletcher Program of Study, which is one of the most rigorous programs in the Pilates technique. And I did all the apparatus training. So reformer, Cadillac, all the cool stuff on the floor. And then also the mat work. So I went on to teach that. And so that's what I did outside of my dance, professional dance world. Because I wasn't making a lot of money doing that. Go figure, unfortunately. And so I was making my money on the side teaching Pilates. And I always had a private client base in San Francisco. So I was teaching one-on-one private classes, like a personal trainer. And I was also doing group classes and workshops. And I knew that I wanted to— What year was this? This was back in like 2007, 2008. So this was like the tail end of college for me. I graduated in '07. So I got through my Pilates training and then was teaching around that time. After that point though, I was like really burned out. I'd been dancing many years. I wanted to dance in San Francisco, but I was really, I really hit my wall of overwork and wanted to travel. So I decided I was going to go travel. I sold everything and I went to Australia on a one-way ticket. And I decided I was going to teach and dance my way around Australia. And this was like a— Wow. Trip, terrifying, but also the most exhilarating thing I've ever done. And I really just wanted to like, I wanted to take this work outside of San Francisco. And I'm like, I love San Francisco. It's great. And I can always come back, but I want to teach this around the world. My dream is to have a location-independent lifestyle where I can travel a lot. And so the only way I can really do that is if I try and I might fail miserably, but at least I want to try and go out there and see if I can teach. So I ended up getting a teaching gig in Melbourne, Australia at a studio for a couple of weeks that turned into a couple of months. And I ended up like just traveling around Australia and teaching, workshops and all this stuff. I didn't know that Australians were like really eager for American-trained Pilates instructors because we actually have more vigorous training than they do. So they really wanted to learn from us. So I was like, and I was young, I mean, I was 22, 23, and 24, just like traveling around. And I ended up going back to San Francisco after about a year, was really kind of ungrounded, decided to go back home and get back into teaching in San Francisco. So I did that for another several years and then decided to move to Costa Rica. Now this is a massive shift in my business because I had this incredible client base I've been working with for years. I was teaching at UCSF. I was teaching back care classes to like the UCSF staff and students. And I was really excited about that work 'cause I felt very purpose-driven. I'm like, I'm helping people with this stuff I love. So I get to like do what I love and I'm also really helping people. And that was really, I feel like everything we learn in our life is so we can give it back to someone else and we can give it forward. And so all the pain that I experienced as a dancer and all the pain that, you know, Yeah, experienced in my life. I was like, let's, let's turn this knowledge into giving and helping other people with that. And so then I decided I was gonna move to Costa Rica because I fell in love with the country. I was invited to teach at a—

Everybody says that. I can't tell you how many friends that I have that are like, I went to Costa Rica and I end up— 2 guests that I've had on the show actually live in Costa Rica because they went there for vacation and never— they're like, I'm moving here. I love it here.

That's it. That's it. So, so I was invited to teach at this festival called Envision Festival, which is like a music, yoga, dance festival. It's great. It's right in the jungle on the beach. And it was really young at the time, only like 3 years old. And I got invited down there to teach for 2 weeks. And at that point, I was so over city living. I was really looking for an escape from San Francisco on a subconscious level, even though I loved my work. It was like I was in this hustle and grind that was going nowhere. It was— I was a rat in a wheel, just Running and running and running with no real way out that I could see because I wanted to dance and dance was in the city. It wasn't in like some small jungle town in Costa Rica. It was like, if I wanted to dance, I had to be in San Francisco. So I really had to give up that dream in order to move to Costa Rica. But my heart was like, Amber, you're missing nature. Like you've been in a concrete jungle for 8 years. This is like, I went to Costa Rica and realized how much my body and my soul was missing nature.

I'm right there with you now. Like I just got home from a trip and I've been packing stuff up and getting rid of stuff. I'm like, honey, we're moving. I know you're in Texas. And I'm like, we're moving back to Texas. He's like, it's not that easy. I'm like, do you want me to get a plane ticket? I'll just buy one right now. It can't be that hard.

Come on.

I love it. I totally, I get that. And I'm just, I love what you said. But I had to try. You never know until you try. And that's what you did. And you ended up in Costa Rica.

Yeah, it was the biggest, scariest jump I've ever taken, the biggest risk I've ever taken. I moved to a country where I didn't know the language and I opened up a wellness center. So I did that for the first year I was down there. I ran like a basically a wellness studio where I had classes and workshops and retreats and trainings happening, uh, year, you know, month to month.

So did you buy like a studio or rent a studio?

I rented a studio because I really, I didn't, first of all, I knew like, I'm like, I gotta test I moved to this beautiful town called Manuel Antonio, right on the Pacific Coast. It's a very seasonal town though. And this is what ultimately had me close the doors of the studio space is that it's so seasonal that literally 90% of the businesses close during their low season, which is like the rainy season because no tourists are there. Not even the locals stay there. So it's a very, I didn't realize how severe the seasonality was. Like, I just, I was like, oh, like there'll be people there. Like, cause I'm coming from San Francisco where people are very disciplined and very dedicated to their Pilates and yoga practice. And they show up every day at 6:00 AM. I mean, you know, it's like totally different in Costa Rica, completely. Everybody lives pura vida. Like nobody, nobody's like dedicated to their practice every day. Nobody's, you know, just like a totally different culture. So anyway, I open up the doors and I'm very naive going into this, but I also want, I needed to experience, I needed to learn this stuff. You know, I wouldn't have figured it out had I not taken the big jump, but I moved down there. I basically wanted to rent because I knew buying would be a big investment. Didn't have the money for that also, but I also really just wanted to to test out my idea. And I'm like, if I lose a lot of money doing that, okay, at least I lost it on something that really mattered to me that I could really learn from. And so that first year I realized how seasonal it was. And though I had great classes and I had retreats and I had teacher trainings and I had people from all over the world coming to these experiences, during low season, literally nobody came in for weeks at a time. And I'm just—

For weeks at a time?

Burning rent. Oh yeah. Yeah. And my overhead was like $4K at the time. So I'm sitting there just burning money, you know, sitting in the studio, like nobody walking by, nobody coming in. So I decided, okay, this is stupid. Like I need to close the studio doors. And so what I decided to do was take all my retreats and trainings and just take them to retreat centers in the area. Because there's tons of them, like thousands of retreat centers in Costa Rica. I was like, let me just, I'll produce them at these retreat centers. And then I don't need to manage the retreat center or the studio, which frees me up. Yeah. From the responsibility and also from the tethering to the town because that's what I was trying to escape in San Francisco is I felt very tethered there. Like I couldn't travel. I had to, I had my clients there and they existed there and they didn't, you know, so though I was trying to get people into the online space a little bit, this was like Skype was just a thing back when I started doing this. So like I remember doing this, my first training session on Skype and being like, this is so cool. And I saw the potential of it, but nobody was really jumping on the bandwagon for like online fitness yet. It was like a brand new thing.

And now back then was there social media? Media like there is now? Because I mean, I remember when I first started my Instagram, it was basically to stalk my older daughter and see what she was up to, right? And I didn't even really get into social media until about 3 and a half years ago.

Yeah.

So was there social media when you— like, how were you getting the word out for the retreats?

Yeah, Facebook and Instagram were happening at that time. And I remember I was on Facebook when it first came out, Twitter when it first came out, because my—

and what year was that? I don't even know.

That's a really, that's a really good question. I was trying to think because I remember, because I started Epic Self, the blog, um, which it started as a blog, health and wellness blog. And this was like, oh man, this was back in college. I was like 2006, 2007.

Wow.

This is when I started blogging.

You were already way ahead of like, you know, some people like me. I didn't even own a computer until I decided to write my book. I wrote it by hand. And then, I mean, seriously, technology is really new for me because I lived on the dance floor.

Yeah.

On the gym floor. And I was with, you know, one-on-one clients and ran a business that way. So I didn't even own a computer. And I remember when I had my motorcycle accident 10 years ago, one of my clients was like, you should get on Facebook. That way you can just tell people what's going on with your recovery instead of having to make phone calls. And I'm like, nah, I don't want that. I don't know what Facebook is. I don't even want— no, that's not for me. I'm not into that. And now here I am, like living on social media a lot of times. So that's why I'm like, how long ago was Facebook? So I mean, I'm just amazed with you. For people that are listening and they're like trying to figure out their way with what to do with the business here, you were like, well, okay, I'm gonna go open this business. That didn't work. Well, what can work? And and all the while you're doing this, you're what I love is that you're constantly checking in with yourself and asking yourself, what do I? love? What makes me happy? What is— yes, what's my passion? Yeah.

And you were a big part. Yeah.

And you're like tailoring your business to what you really love to do. And I think that's how we ultimately find our success is because if it's not something we love doing, it's going to be really hard to do it. I won't stick to it. If I don't love it, I won't stick to it.

1000%. And because like, you know, you and I have such a backstory of like what we've been through to get to the place where we are when we're teaching other people these skills. Like for me, it means everything for me to be able to give back in this way because of the things I've been through and the things that I've learned along the path. So I was so passionate about, you know, with Epic Self, I started that as a health and wellness blog just to share my like joy for raw foods and Ayurveda and, you know, Pilates and yoga and the things I was learning about. Because I was just learning so much at this time and so excited about it. I just wanted to share it. And my boyfriend at the time was like, you should start a blog, Amber, because you could probably make a little side money doing that through ads, you know, and he had a pretty successful blog. So he showed me the ropes of like how to set that up. And then I just ran with it. And there wasn't a lot of health and wellness blogs online yet at that time. It was like a new world. The blogosphere was like a new space. So I feel like I got in on good timing on that. But it was so interesting because I had such a unique lifestyle. Like I was dancing, but then I had this whole tech world I lived in, right? San Francisco's tech hub of the world. Like, you know, so it was so interesting because they are so far ahead of the rest of the country. So I was sitting there and I'm sitting next to these like you know, kids who just sold their app for $5 million at a coffee shop, right? And they're talking to me about their investors and this. I'm like, this is such a bizarre world, right, that I was living in. So I got this blend of tech. And so interestingly enough, like, that's what I do a lot of now is I help business owners or new or established business owners build out their online space, like their online world, their websites, their offers, their teacher trainings, like whatever it is that they can dream up. I'm doing that with them in the online space because I learned so much tech from my own journey. of like, how do I build a website? Okay. So I don't know code, nor do I want to know code to build, to like code my website. So how do I figure this out? Right?

Yeah.

So I had to like, and because I never went to business school, I, and nor did I have interest in going to business school. I was like, I'm just going to figure this out and I'm going to stumble and fail my way through this a lot. And I failed a lot. And I didn't hire coaches until I was like 6, 7 years into running my business. So I didn't have any mentors in that space. I was like, I'm just going to figure this out on my own, which Which is not necessarily what I'd recommend nowadays. Like, don't do that to yourself. I wasted a lot of time and money not hiring people, let me tell you, to help me. But anyway, to get back to like the story, after I decided to close the studio and run my retreats and trainings at different retreat centers, that really freed me up to actually start doing a lot more online work. So online health and wellness coaching alongside my retreats and trainings. But then like after that first year in Costa Rica, I started getting approached by other health and wellness entrepreneurs. Other personal trainers, Pilates instructors. They're like, "How did you build this business? I have to know how you did this. Like what you got. You're in Costa Rica. You have this amazing lifestyle. You run retreats, which is what I want to do. How are you doing this? Teach me." And I was like, "Huh, okay, universe. I never thought I would ever be a business coach. That was never my intention. My intention was to go help people transform, heal, and awaken with all of my other work. Right? All those things I taught. It was not to teach business." At all, but hey, if people are actually really wanting this, I can definitely give them skill set. But I just I need to figure out a way to teach it in a way that's like for everybody and kind of systemize what I'm doing to some extent so I can teach it. And so that's what I started doing in my teacher trainings. So I had like 30-day yoga things, and I started teaching just this this business curriculum basically that I put together based on my experience to the students alongside taking one-on-one business coaching clients. And so that just shifted everything. And I was able to—

Now you're making a bigger impact because you're teaching other people how to go and run businesses like you. So it's just getting— you're spreading the good and it's just, you're making a much bigger impact. And the timing of it all is amazing because everybody's been doing everything online.

Well, and this is what was so interesting is like, I moved back to the US about maybe 2 years ago now is my final big move back. Once I met JP, I was like, okay, my life is in Costa Rica. His life is in the US. Well, what are we going to do here? We've got to figure a way to make this work. And so once we were engaged to be married, I had to make a big decision about leaving Costa Rica, which was really hard. I'd been there for 7 years. My whole life was there, my business, all my friends. And it was really a big thing for me to leave. So I decided, okay, I'm gonna go.

But JP, I mean, he's pretty irresistible.

Well, and yeah, for me, like, there was, there was no question that he was the one for me and I had to make it work. It was just so clear to me. And if that meant I sacrificed living in the jungle for a little bit until we can figure out a way to kind of do half and half or have like a vacation home down there or whatever, like, it was worth it to me to make that jump. And so, because I still was producing retreats in Costa Rica, so I could still go back down a couple every couple months and run retreats. retreats, but I just wasn't living there anymore.

And you know what? As soon as you get your retreats back up, I am coming to your retreat. I am not kidding, because I've seen all that you do online. Like, I've seen your beautiful website, and I look at what you— and I'm like, I want to do that. I want to go down there. And so whenever you're gonna do the next one, I'm like, I am— sign me up. I want to be there. It sounds amazing.

Yeah, I would love to have you. And, you know, retreats are my heart. They're my favorite thing. I love business coaching, it's fulfilling, don't get me wrong, because I love helping leaders help other people. Because again, like you said, the ripple effect is so much larger. And I think that's what I realized is like, I could actually train teachers and that will make a much larger impact than just me teaching my students.

Yeah.

And so that became like my next level of purpose. But in that, I still, my favorite thing in the world is being on retreat with people, taking them through the jungle on adventures and like watching people transform over a 5-7 day period, because there's so much you can actually witness and experience in that amount of time. When you're with a small intimate group of people, you know, you guys are all training, you're eating well, you're going on adventures, you're doing, you know, deep self-love work and empowerment work. Like, it's incredible to see what can happen.

And, and, you know, I just got back from— I'm, I'm a part of a mastermind. And I love that you shared earlier that, you know, didn't have a coach right away and you wouldn't really recommend that. I think it's really important to invest in yourself and get a coach and hire some. Yes, you can do it on your own, but if you have a coach or somebody that can take you from point A to point B faster, why wouldn't you do that? And then I invested in being a part of a mastermind because I wanted to be with other entrepreneurs and get advice and have that support and, and have some coaching through it.

Oh yeah.

And we actually, that's why I was in Vegas Vegas for a couple of days. And just you saying, seeing the transformation of that intimate group. I thought I was going to Vegas to, you know, learn more business skills. And I had to do, you know, we were doing a presentation in front of the group. And I'm like, oh my gosh, what am I going to teach all these billionaire? They were like billionaire entrepreneurs. And then me. And I'm like, I'm going to teach these successful entrepreneur or something? I'm like, okay, let me see. Well, it was unbelievable just that when you said transformation in that small group, we need that connection and that support and that love. It was more than just a business, a time to learn about business. It was like mind, body, spirit. I didn't know I need, my body needed to be with, because it's the first time I've been around. There's a group of 8 of us. It's the first time I've been around anyone since COVID besides my husband and my daughter.

Oh yeah.

It was like, so I can imagine a retreat like you hold where you're doing real transformational work. You would have to like leave there feeling like a million bucks. And that's why I'm like, sign me up. I want to do that. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think, you know, more than ever now with COVID and everything, we need human connection. It's a human need for sure, without a doubt. And I think this has actually proven it this year. It's proven how— what happens when people don't have human connection. Depression, anxiety, you know, anxiety, suicide rates, everything just goes way up. Health issues.

Yeah.

Because we need humans in our lives. And I think in general, these retreats offer a really unbelievable opportunity to be with like-minded, like-hearted people from all around the world, different cultures, different races, you know, and you learn so much through each other's reflections. You learn so much about, you know, and you open your mind to new things. And it's just, yeah. So for me, that's my heart. And it was like so heartbreaking to not be able to run retreats this year with COVID and everything. And I look forward to getting back to it, but it's also kind of like, well, who knows when things will be ever normal again in the way of travel and borders and policies and stuff. So I'm just being patient even though it's hard. So, so yeah, that's, you know, my, my deepest passion and purpose is very much helping people nowadays take all that holistic health work that I've done for the last decade and really integrate that into business coaching too, so that people are learning business skills and techniques, but they're also learning how to do this with grace, without burnout, without overwhelm, and without running themselves into the ground health-wise. Because how many entrepreneurs do you and I know? Myself, I was one of them for many years.

Oh, I've been right there with you.

Yeah, right? Where it's just so easy to overwork and run yourself into the ground and hit burnout so much. And even if you're really purpose-driven, I think it's actually harder when you are purpose-driven because— and you're heart-centered because you're so passionate about what you're doing. It's hard to stop.

If it— for sure, that is me all the way. Like, if I, if I didn't have, um, a family, if I didn't have a, you know, husband and a kid that's constantly knocking on my office door like, Mom, Mom, Mom, I need a snack, Mom, then I would probably work 24/7 because I am so passionate about it. But it is— it, it can— I think because you and I grew up a lot alike with the dancing and we're very like driven and, you know, we've got the grit. For me, it is harder to give myself the grace and rest and recover. What do you do to prevent burnout, or what are some of the things that you tell your clients to do to prevent burnout?

Yeah. Great question. And this is something I've had to experiment with it with myself because I know myself so well. I think, I think this is the beauty of the entrepreneur journey though too, is that you learn so much about your internal and external patterns and you really realize, wow, okay, I'm, I'm really just doing this to myself. I'm causing so much suffering in my life. So what I had to do, because luckily I am really disciplined, so if I give myself a structure, I can really hold to it. So that's one thing I definitely am appreciative about my background. It helped me be very disciplined. But so what I had to do was, because I was like you, I could work 15, 18, 20-hour days, no problem, and get up and do it all over again. And yeah, I'd hit burnout, but I would just consistently do this. So what I decided to do was reduce down the days I was working and to really structure my day out in blocks. So I'd seen this one amazing woman speak at a conference that really hit me. And she was talking about this like vacation, what happens when you're in vacation mode. Mode right before you go on vacation, you're somehow able to do like twice as much work in 2 days to prepare for your vacation so you can have a whole week off. Right. And she realized this with herself and she was working 100-hour weeks at the time as an entrepreneur. And so she decided, I'm going to play this experiment and I'm going to force myself to only work 4 days a week. So take 3 days off fully and only work 6-hour days with, of those 4, like the 4 days would only be 6-hour days. And she did this experiment and the beautiful thing, and I actually did this too, is what happens when you do that is you force yourself to be extremely efficient with the time you have. If you only have 6 hours, 4 days a week to get your work done, you're going to figure out really quick what moves the needle forward and what's most efficient use of your time, right? You're going to start to delegate other things, the things that you shouldn't be wasting your time on. You're going to start delegating that. You're going to start hiring on team members to take those things off. So I decided that I was going to— and at the time I already had a VA, so that was great, but I decided to bring on more team members. to delegate more tasks to. Because at the time, I was doing a lot of my— I was doing all my social media, like all DMing and commenting. I was just doing all my social media engagement.

And that takes hours. That takes hours and hours and hours. And, and it— that can— sometimes you're going, okay, I've just spent 2 hours on social media, but did that move the needle?

Right, right. And it's really like a long-term, long-term long-term relationship that you're building with your community. So it takes a lot of time every day to build that rapport. And then ultimately that may lead to someone wanting to come on a retreat 6 months from now, but like, you don't know. So you're building rapport through your content creation. It's like, there's so much. So I decided to bring on more team members. I decided to cut my hours back because at the time I was working 7 days a week. So I was like, okay, weekends off, first thing. Now that was so hard for me because of course, I really passionate about what I do. So like, what do I do with my time off now? Like, it was very weird. I have to sit in these weird emotions of like, what comes up when I don't have anything to do? Because I also equated a lot of my value to how much I got done. So without that, I was, you know, kind of, I had to figure out what to do with myself, which was cool. It was a cool thing. So what I, what I learned over time and what this woman was sharing is that, you know, when you give yourself a time constraint, you figure out how to be really efficient. So then I decided, okay, my day, when I have those 4 days of work, let me chunk up those, those days. So I've got, you know, morning self-care practice, let's say an hour and a half going to the gym, taking care of myself, meditation, juice, breakfast, whatever, morning practice, then I work for 2-3 hour blocks.

I like how you say practice, morning practice, because I like that. Because it's practicing, it doesn't have to be perfect. It's practice and it's progress, not perfection, I like to say. Totally do that in the morning. You have like your morning ritual that you And I look at your story. I love watching your stories. I learn a lot on Instagram too from your stories, by the way. I love it. Actually, I was eating dinner last night and I'm like, oof, this isn't very healthy. But I just got home and I was like, ugh, Amber would not eat this. Like, I thought to myself, I swear, I was like, Amber wouldn't eat this. I need to eat more like what Amber would eat. Because I see some of the food you share that you eat and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So you have that practice in the morning, and then you have time blocks of what do you do next? Yeah.

So I have, you know, a 2 or 3 hour block. I love to create content in the morning when my mind's really fresh and after I've been working out in my body, because I always feel so much more intuitively tapped into my creative self when I've been in my body. Just hands down, I feel more grounded, centered, aligned after I've moved. So I do that movement first, then I'll get creative. So all my creative content that has to get done for the day, whether that's emails, that's podcast recordings, that's writing for Instagram and Facebook, because I write all my own content. And, you know, that's a huge passion of mine. Ever since I was a blogger, you know, way back in the day, I love writing. And I loved Instagram initially, because I'm like, oh, this is like Insta blogging. It's way shorter. I only have this much space to fill out. But yeah, I love writing. And I had no idea that so much of my work would be writing. You know, I think back to when I was like, oh, I want to start a business. I write every single day. I had no idea it would include so much writing. But I love it.

There's a lot of writing. And I think it is important that you do have to block out For me, I usually do that first thing in the morning because it's the only time of day that I'm not interrupted by husband, kids, phone, nothing, you know? And so, I mean, except for when I'm recording and I'm like yelling down the hall, hey, I'm recording, don't come in, try to keep it down, you know? So I try to do that. Do you think that your time blocks are going to change a little bit now that you have Wild?

Yeah, big time. You know, and this is, again, I'm in such a weird gray zone right now where I'm like, how is my business going to look on the other side of this? Because, you know, I would typically, like I said, work 6-hour days. I'd do like 2 or 3-hour time block in the morning and then I'd have a lunch break for an hour and a half or so. And then I'd go back to work coaching my clients in the afternoon for a couple hours. Then I closed my computer by 6. That was another thing. It was like, close the computer, don't touch anything related to your box after 6:00 PM. Like that was a hard no.

That's really good.

Yeah.

You know, I think that's really smart. You said it's a hard no. Like you set up those boundaries and that's what I'm learning. And I was like, okay, sometimes I would be, you know, emailing at 10 o'clock at night or on a Sunday or whatever. And I'm like, that's really good. Close the computer by 6:00. Done. That's Yeah.

And also I have to have really strong boundaries with social media because social media can be, as you know, you can just get sucked in for hours.

Oh my gosh.

And it's so easy to consume a lot of content. And especially when you're a content creator, you have to be, I think, very boundaried with what you're doing online because 1 hour could turn into 5 hours very quickly.

Yeah.

You check your phone, you see like how much time you're racking up on these apps. It's terrifying because it's, it's a lot.

Oh my gosh, it is terrifying. And so what do you do? Because one thing I noticed is you're, you're very You're very engaged on Instagram. You know, you do really well at getting back to people and responding to people. How many hours a day do you spend on social media? And that including the time that it takes to write the caption, would you say on average? And do you post every day?

I, I, you know, I used to post every day. I've definitely cut back simply because life has taken over with— yeah, this year was so busy with this business coaching clients. I had, you know, 13 clients at a time. It was a lot to manage. So I would be, you know, when it's really busy like that, I'm really busy with clients. I'm maybe posting three four times a week, but my standard is my my ideal is once a day. I love once a day.

But yeah, but I did. I used to do that when I first started Instagram, but now it's like no, like three times a week, four times a week.

Yeah, yeah. And you know, I honestly feel the most intimacy with my audience through the Instagram stories because that's where I get to chat with them face to face. And you know, we do little polls and I ask them questions, and like that's where I really engage. engage much more so than on my actual posts. But yeah, I just feel like there's a much more intimate connection through the DMs. You know, I get tons of DMs a day. And so it's like that conversation to me feels so much more real than just like leaving a comment on someone's post, right?

Yeah.

So it's like, that's really fun for me. So the days I don't post on my actual main feed, I'll do a lot of stories. So I typically do 10 stories a day or so. Like that's not like a hard set number. It's just kind of what it turns out to be, but I'm sharing my life. I'm like business tips, I'm sharing, you know, my, my food, I'm sharing my baby, like, just, I'm sharing life, because I also think it's really important that we embody what we preach. And if we are going to help other people in this way, we need to also showcase like, hey, we actually do live this lifestyle too.

You know, I think that's important. I think it's important to show up authentically like that. You know, I've had my husband say, like, there was one time I had put in my story that I was recording the podcast because they were, you know, like, it was like the gardeners were here and it was really loud. And so I was in my closet recording and you could see the coats in the background and, and, you know, the shelves. And it's like, yeah, I just finished recording this podcast. I'm in my closet. And my husband was like, why are you sharing that? That does not look professional. And I was like, but it, it's me. Like, it's real. That's real life. And I, you know, if maybe other people see this, they'll know that, hey, if she's recording in her podcast, I could do that too. I could start my own podcast. And that's what I'm here to do is just show people that they can do whatever their heart's desire, you know, heart desires that they can do. And so I love that you do, you know, show up. And you know what, y'all, you have to go check out her dancing 9 months pregnant. That video went viral. That one went freaking viral. Yeah, I think my favorite YouTube video— I'm not like a big YouTuber at all, but I know you and JP really are. And I mean, I don't know, is he like the biggest YouTuber out there, your husband?

He's, you know, um, there are people with way larger followings than JP. He, he just crossed his million subscriber mark, which was a huge achievement after 7 years of creating content for YouTube. So he's high up the there. But there are people who have, like, I think tens of millions. And there's like, I think the top 4 YouTubers is pretty, pretty insane what's possible.

Well, he, he's like, I'm not a big YouTuber. And I have been over and over and over sent videos of you and him, or just him by himself. And so I actually knew your face and heard your voice from YouTube before I even got to know Oh, awesome. And my favorite YouTube video is actually the Tesla one. That makes me—

Yeah, I remember you sharing that.

Every time I hear it. So y'all gotta check that out. Yeah, it's hilarious. It's good that you guys do not the same thing, but that you both are in kind of similar— like, he's got his YouTube and Instagram, and so he understands that world because—

Very much so.

I mean, you know, my husband is Like yeah, yeah. Clueless about it. Like he's like, "What are you doing? What is that for?" You know. Yeah.

But he did get it. It's such a blessing.

It is because y'all can understand each other. But what are the the boundaries you set with yourself with social media? That's what I want to know because I need to learn that. Yeah.

So so basically, you know, I give myself a half hour to write content. So typically a written post takes me about a half hour, and then I'll post it onto onto all the platforms. Platforms. I also backlog a lot of photos. So throughout my week, I'm either shooting photos or I've had a photo shoot with a professional photographer. So I have a backlog of dozens of photos I can use. That's really key is to get ahead of yourself in terms of videos and content or videos and picture content so that when it comes to writing a post, all you have to do is pull up a picture and get inspired and write something for that day. So for the last several months before I went through this whole pregnancy and was sharing my whole pregnancy journey, I had a very systematic and specific way in which I organized my social media calendar. So what I was intentionally talking about every day was very specific based on my business, right? Very clear themes I was teaching, I was talking about every day. But also to get back to like my time limit with it, it was like, okay, half hour for content creation. When I go to post it, I'll probably do about 15 minutes of actual engagement on old posts posts or on other people's content that I love. So the app gets to realize like, hey, Amber's engaging as a normal user. She's engaging with her old content. She's engaging with new people. That actually gets my visibility higher before I post something. So then I post it and then I'll engage for like the 20 minutes afterward. So in total, I'd say an hour and a half total of engagement. And then I also have my team members who are constantly engaging on my content too. So I have a VA who is a social media manager for me and she will go in and comment and DM and help me basically get back to people. Because if I have hundreds of comments, hundreds of DMs, there's no way I can get back to everybody on my own. So I'm in there definitely doing as much as I can, but I have very specific, you know, hard boundaries around how much time I'm spending. And then I delegate the rest to a team.

Because I just— That was hard for me. Okay, well, first I was like, I've got to— I can't keep up with everything. I'm I was traveling all over the place at conferences where I would basically be on this stage from another stage to another stage and then the book signing and stuff. And I wouldn't even have a chance to look at my phone, much less post and comment and do all that. And I remember hiring someone to help me.

Yes.

And I started having people say, that doesn't sound like a comment that that you would say. And I was like, okay, that's not, I can't do that. So I had somebody for like one day, one day.

Oh wow, just one day?

One day. And I was like getting people commenting saying, that doesn't sound like the comment that Amberly would usually say. Like they knew it wasn't me. And I was like, I can't, I can't do that. So now I'm just like, I have help.

Yes. Getting—

if I'm like, it was at the mastermind, I had help with my assistant who would go through and I said, can you go through my direct messages and see if there's anything I need to say, take a screenshot of it and send it to me?

Perfect.

So I can answer it back myself. So there's always a way to kind of— because you can't just not, you know, get back to people, especially with direct messages, because direct messages— I booked my TEDx Talk through a direct message.

I have books so much.

There's you can miss things, and so I had her go through it, which was hard for me to delegate. It was like oh, it's like letting go and letting trusting someone to do that for you. But you can't grow unless you delegate things out, or you will get burnt out.

Yeah, and social media can be a full-time job 24/7 if you allow it to be. It can, and I know so many influencers who have massive. followings, over a million or whatever, and they spend hours a day in their DMs because that's where 90% of their business comes from. And that's my case too with Instagram and Facebook. The vast majority of my business comes through those engagements, those conversations, that person commenting on my salad, asking for where they can find more recipes. I'm like, okay, cool, go check out my blog. That's how people find you and start talking to you. And that's how you build intimacy with your audience in the digital world. There's no other way to do it, right? So I'll do the same thing with my VAs. She'll do simple comments back like, thank you. Awesome. You know, like simple stuff, stuff where like someone's asking me a lot of like something more in depth that only I would be able to answer. She'll flag those for me and then I'll go in there and give really thorough responses. I'll even do video messages. I'll do audio messages. Like if it's someone who is really asking something that I feel excited about sharing, you know, and commenting back and giving answers to, like, great. So that's all monitored by, by her. And I'm so grateful for that because she flags the people that I really should be talking to because there's also a lot of noise.

Amazing.

got to be able to weed through it.

There is, there's a lot. And I could spend— I mean, I've spent hours on one platform, on Instagram alone. I could spend hours and still not be caught up.

Right.

But I'm glad you're sharing this because, you know, you look at some people, you know, people that I've worked with, you know, I would be at a conference speaking with Lewis Howes and Jay Shetty, and I'd be like, they just post And this is when I was brand new.

Like, oh gosh, yeah, they got mega teams doing it.

And they've got a huge team. And then there was just me. And I was like, I was back at the hotel trying to come up with a post and write the content. And I knew I was going to be back on stage. And this was my shot. And it was like, I would see them walk with their media team, you know, they had their agent with them, their video person, their everybody with them. And then there was me. And it's been a learning experience. And to kind of delegate and hire out. And I'm in the process of doing that now.

That's awesome. Yeah. And you deserve that support, you know, for you to be able to take your brand to the next level with graphics and audiograms and like all the really cool stuff that looks really beautiful and professional on these social platforms. Like, you know, JP, he's got a full-time videographer. He's got 2 full-time assistants. He has all that because that's required for him to stay in his core genius. So he can sit there and write content all day and perform and act and shoot videos. But he needs that team that can do everything He's one of the most master delegators I've ever seen in my life. Because he's just like, nope. And he— oh yeah. And like all the detailed stuff, he's like, that's going to someone else. So he can just literally sit, he can write, he can perform his videos and he can perform on stage and that's it. Everybody else takes care of everything else for him.

As it should be. Right.

Because that's why he's so good at what he does. Because he's a master of like boundaries. This is like, you know, 20 minutes a day to answer messages. That's it. Text messages, right? Or because, you know, he'll get thousands of text messages in a day. So then it's like, okay, or DMs. So he got rid of checking his DMs years ago.

Really?

He doesn't even check DMs. He doesn't even check comments. Like, he doesn't, he doesn't even engage because he can't.

Well, you know, you get to that point. I remember at first I was getting tons of messages on Facebook. And it got to the point where I was like, there is absolutely— there is really, as hard as I try, there's just not enough time in the day for me to answer those. So yeah, people get to know, oh, she's not going to answer me on Facebook.

Exactly.

That's not my hub. That's not where I hang out. And if they really need to get a hold of me, my email's right there. Email Right. You know, and so people learn, I think we teach people.

That's it.

Where they can reach us, how they can get to us. And I think it's also important to have like, kind of like a gatekeeper who can weed out the noise, like you said earlier.

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

Because it can be overwhelming.

Yeah. Yeah. And I think boundaries is the number one thing I've had to learn as an entrepreneur is how to honor my time, space, and energy, so that I have time for my self-care and my health and I have time for JP and I have time for now our new baby and I have time for— so like the restructuring, it's constant restructuring of my, my own workday structure, my business structure so that I'd bring on team members that are going to take something off my plate. Right. For a while I had an office business manager who helped me manage my team. Right. I'm no longer working with her, but I, you know, that was a really great period of time where I had a lot of just all I had to do was coach and create content. And that's my favorite place to be.

Yes.

Yes. Because that's the fun stuff. That's where you really shine, right? You shine on stage, you shine as a coach. Like, you know, as now, you know, I'm sure many other things, podcasting host and everything. It's like that you need to stay in that place. And that's what I'm always working towards is how— let me just reevaluate every month. What can I do different that's more efficient, more effective? And also, how can I delegate Yeah. And how can I communicate better to my team? These are constant things I'm reevaluating because it's going to consistently change, especially because as a heart-driven, soul-powered entrepreneur, you want to stay in your passion zone. That's where your genius is. So if you consistently do all the other things like manage your website and do all your finances, and those things you have to do initially when you're a sole proprietor, when you're a solo entrepreneur, you have to wear all the hats. But at some point, hiring someone to do those things for you, my gosh, it just saves you so much time and energy so you can focus on what actually fulfill— is fulfilling and also brings in income.

Yes, exactly. And that is, I think, such a great time of year right now to really think about those things. Totally.

How can you evaluate?

Yeah, reevaluate. And I think something that really helps that is to get really clear on what your purpose is. What is your mission? What are your intentions?

Yeah.

And getting super focused on it when you're clear and what your boundaries are. And that's something that I tend to learn over and over and over about boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. And I, I feel like when I say, okay, I'm really gonna set some boundaries, that's when the universe will send me so many lessons on how to really make sure I'm setting those boundaries extra clear.

Right.

Yeah, like, we're gonna just make sure you got that lesson. Let's teach you. How do you help someone get clear? Like, when they really like, well, I'm not sure what I want to do? Are there certain, like, little guidelines that you walk them through to help them get some clarity?

Yeah, you know, for me, it's a lot of, first of all, identifying what excites you most, what's most fulfilling, what's most rewarding to you out of the work that you've been doing, right? So I work with people who are 10 years deep in, you know, teaching yoga and running retreats, and then people who are brand new, who are like, oh, I think I want to be a health coach, but I, I have not done it yet. And I'm passionate about health and wellness. But I don't know if this is really— if I really want to do coaching. And so for people who are brand new, I think you've got to try a couple paths, like within the same sphere, right? So if you're doing— if you're a health coach, for example, or you want to do health coaching, you want to do something related to health, and you're thinking, I think I want to do coaching, cool, let's walk that path for a little bit, and then decide if this resonates or not. I think we learn through action. And I think sitting back and being like, let me just meditate on it for like 3 years and then figure out like That does not work.

That does not work ever.

You have to, you have to learn by getting your feet wet and jumping in and just seeing like, wow, because I didn't know, you know, for, for me and my journey, I, I jumped into teaching Pilates and I knew I was gonna be passionate about it, but I didn't know how I was going to teach it in a way that really worked for my lifestyle ideals. Right. So I saw what was happening in San Francisco with my other colleagues. They were working 8-hour days, you know, 8 clients a day, day, 7 days a week, barely making their rent. And I'm like, this lifestyle is not sustainable. There's no way I'm going to run like a rat in a wheel doing this for the rest of my life.

I was the same. I had the same thing. And I thought the same thing. Well, it was the same thing with dance though, too. For me, I was like, I want to retire from dancing, being a professional dancer by 25. Because I saw the dancers that were like 30. And they were bitter and they were in pain and they were struggling because they weren't getting jobs that the 18-year-olds were getting. And I was like, that's not going to be sustainable. I don't want, I want to finish strong. And it was the same way for training too. I was like, I know that once I get older, I am, it's sustainable in my 20s, 30s to like get through doing 12, sometimes 14 clients in one day, one-on-one training. But that's not, I don't want to do that. So I was already like, I'm always thinking, what can I do You know, ahead of time, what can I plan? Because I was the same way, like, no, that's not sustainable.

Right? It's like, how— so how can I bridge— how can I marry my passions and the things that I feel really rewarded doing, fulfilling and rewarding? So you have to identify what those things are first and foremost, you have to know what those things are. So that might take experimenting with a couple different things. Like, at first I thought it was Pilates, maybe it was— then I found yoga. And I was like, oh, yoga is really cool. How can I weave yoga into my Pilates practice with my Pilates clients? Then I found holistic plant-based nutrition. Ooh, love I love this too. How can I weave this into health coaching? How can I do all of these things in a retreat in Costa Rica? Right? So it was like, as I picked up tools, I was like, oh, these are all really cool. But how do I make them work in a business? So it's like, so I'm first identifying the things I'm really passionate about, the things that have changed my life forever, and the things that I want to give back to other people, right? Because that feels fulfilling and rewarding to me to be able to give back and help people, serve people. Ultimately, that's my highest calling is to serve people with my knowledge, whatever that is. And so I, so then I go, okay, how can I then create a business where it's the best of all worlds? I get to help people. I get to do what I love and I get to have the lifestyle that I want and make the income that I want. How do I make all that happen? That was like my big question. And so when I'm working with people, it's helping them identify what lights your heart up more than anything in the world, because to be an entrepreneur, you have to love what you do. There is, you can chase money, but it's going to be very empty at the end of that road. Very, very empty. empty because your heart's not in it. And it's going to be really hard because every day you'll wake up and be like, why am I doing this besides just making a paycheck?

Yeah.

Your heart has to be in it for you to last. I strongly believe so. With that being said, it has to be fulfilling. It has to be rewarding. So what is that thing? And then once you identify that, how does that meet the needs of the market? You know, where do people need you? For me, it was people were in back pain. People had major injuries and stuff that I could help them with. Right. With, with my Pilates technique specifically, I said, well, I see how I can help people with this. Cool. So let me build a business that helps people with this passion. So it's where those 2 come together that you've really found your, your happy place. And so, but a lot then I still had to figure out, well, if I teach this, cool, I like teaching this, but I don't like the model that I— the business model I have, which was working 8-hour days, you know, 7 days a week and making very little money as a one-on-one trainer. So then it became, how do I do this on a grander level with retreats, teacher training programs, online programs? How do I scale this? Because this is currently not scalable at all. There's only so many hours in the day and there's only so much money I can charge per hour for my skillset. So I was really tapped or capped, let's say, at that current income level. So anyway, that's kind of my approach when it comes to helping people get clear. And then it's just the fun part is getting creative about What are those things you want to create? A lot of people want to create retreats, online programs. They want that location-independent lifestyle. If you want that, you want an online business, that means don't waste your time doing anything else. So if someone's like, oh, I'm a yoga teacher and I really want to travel the world and teach, but I'm teaching at 5 studios in Chicago right now and I have all this private client base in Chicago, and I'm like, we're going to need to start transitioning you into the online world and you're going to have to be okay with letting go of these in-person classes and these in-person and, you know, these people that live here, because ultimately your dream is something different. So you got to be able to let go of that too. And a lot of people don't want to let go of that security.

So yeah, it is a lot about letting go. I mean, look, I've been certified through NSCA for, for training. You know, I've been a trainer for 23 years. Yeah. And this is the first year that I didn't do all of my CEUs to continue my education. And Yeah. I only have a handful of clients. I mean, I've been, I've been certified for so many years and I always go to the conferences and continue the education. And I know there's a lot of trainers that don't do that, but I always did that. And this is the first year that I'm like, I really don't have time to do that. That's not really what I'm doing anymore. But to let that certification go has been like, oh my gosh, that's hard to let go, but you got to let it go for That's not what I really do anymore. But I will say that when COVID, you know, I still see people. I train out of a physical therapy facility and I would still see people one-on-one, just people that I've had for 20-something years that I love. They're like family and I still train them. And the first week COVID hit, I immediately shifted to Zoom. I was like— Yes.

Awesome.

Okay. You want to keep this up? We'll figure it out. We'll just do it on Zoom. I won't get to see you in person, but we'll do it on Zoom. So I'm always about like, okay, didn't work this way. Let's see how we can make it work and see. And it doesn't work for some people. You know, you have to figure, kind of figure, figure things out. Yeah, it's constantly changing. And I think that's part of being, you know, you help a lot of people to be more clear, more resilient, and really believe in themselves more. And I think part of being resilient is being able to be flexible and allow yourself to be creative in, in all that you do.

Yeah, I think the, the ability to adapt and persevere and, and flow and, and trust, right? So there's so many little pieces in there, but trust is huge, right? Trusting yourself and trusting the universe, trusting the greater plan at play, is that whatever is meant to happen is going to be in your best interest, right? If you, if you believe that wholeheartedly and you believe that you're— everything's figureoutable and you're able to overcome and figure out, you know, the opportunities in any challenging situation. Like with COVID my gosh, like this year was the most profitable year for my business and for JP's business in the last decade. And it happened during a world global pandemic crisis where most people lost their livelihoods. And of course we're extremely grateful, but we were also already in the online world. We were already making our money online. So things shifted shifted really radically into the online space this year. And so those who of us who were set up in that space already, it worked out beautifully for, for many of us. Others, of course, I know it's been extremely challenging. And my heart goes out to all business owners who are massively struggling right now, because it's a horrible, horrible scenario for many business owners. And but that's why I'm so passionate about helping people actually transition online because I needed—

Yes, I am too. I remember right when COVID hit, I had a friend that was like, well, no, I don't really— I said, you need to get a website up and sell your stuff online. And she says, well, we don't really do that. And I said, well, you need to do it. Yeah, we might wait it out. And I said, why are you waiting? You need to do something now. She's got a small boutique that has been able to stay open because she went online and started selling stuff online, started doing— I was like, you need to do lives on Facebook and auction stuff. Like, you know, whatever you can do. I love it. Yes, to stay open. Another friend of mine who's a colleague who's a trainer goes, oh, I'm just gonna wait until the gym opens back up. And I said, yes, why are you not doing— seeing your clients on Zoom?

Right?

You need to be doing things online, like right now, you know, don't wait. Yes.

No, I remember hearing that initially with the first like lockdown. Everyone's like, oh, I'm just gonna wait. I'm like, well, we don't know what will happen. And, and that's a big It's a big risk to take big time. And I know a lot of people who are still on unemployment who are still collecting checks and they're still just sitting there.

Sitting waiting.

Waiting for the moment that their business can open up again or they can have their job back again. And I'm just like, we've been in this 9 months now. Like that's 9 or I think 9 months. Well, I've been pregnant. I was pregnant for 9 months. It's gotta be 9 months. So I'm like, this has been a long time. But also, you know, I think that some people are just, they don't have the entrepreneurial drive. And entrepreneurs are, I think, very unique individuals, right? They're able to— they're really excited about the idea of being their own boss, about like, you know, being really creative, leading, speaking. They are innovators. They're very driven. They believe in themselves. Even if they don't believe in themselves, they believe in the work that they're doing. And they really want to get it out to the world. And they're very driven people. And they—

And I want to just say that again, what you just said. Even if they don't believe in themselves, they believe in the work that they're doing. That's powerful. Because there's a lot of times that I don't believe in myself. And I'm like, I'm scared or nervous or I've got major, you know, like who am I imposter syndrome.

Yeah.

But then I think about, but no, wait a minute. I know this, what I'm doing right now, it has changed my life. It's changed this person's life. I know it will work, it would be selfish of me not to share it. And that is how I continue to step forward. And that, that's how I just had enough courage to get in front of these entrepreneurs a couple of days ago, these builders, and share my message of, you know, I don't even have a college education. And but that is that entrepreneurial spirit. It's like, you're right.

Totally. So I love what you just I think it's like, it's that inner warrior that gets activated. And I think everyone has it. This is, this is the thing. I think a lot of people think that they don't have that drive or that they couldn't find that. I think that everyone has it inside of them. It's just whether they want to tap into it or not, whether they want to like really put themselves out there. Because I really think that most people who are doing heart-centered, soul-powered entrepreneur work, like they, they realize this is part of their soul's mission in this life. It's a big purpose from their soul, the soul level. And that if they don't do do it, they're going to suffer. Like for me, if I didn't do this, I would suffer immensely because, and I've tried to do this, I've tried to work for other people. You know, when I was younger, I tried to do other things and it was just, my soul is constantly screaming at me, you are meant for more. Why are you doing this? Why are you working at a wine bar in San Francisco when you don't drink? You don't care about this. You're writing blogs on the back of the menus at the restaurant. Like you are meant to be doing so much more. And I knew that just because because I was tapped in enough, I think, to my soul and my heart at the time to really listen. And to have the courage to listen, I think, is the hard part. The courage to take action on what you know to be true. And I'm sure there's a lot of people listening right now who are like, oh man, I just, I have this dream or this vision for this thing I want to do, but I just, you know, they keep holding themselves back. XYZ reasons like, oh, the safety and security of this job, the paycheck, you know, it's like all these things. But I guess my main point in this and my main message to you all listening is like, if you dare to follow your heart, you can't lose. You can't lose, but you will always be fulfilled. You will always be rewarded. You will always be passionate about life. And I think we— I think it's a damn shame to waste life on things that we're not passionate and super fulfilled by. And, you know, just settling for something because it feels safe instead of really risking and taking a chance on your heart, on your potential, and doing the thing that you're so excited about doing the thing that you love, the thing that's fulfilling. So I love to ignite that spark in people. You know, if they think that they're not an entrepreneur, they think that they couldn't follow their dreams in whatever capacity that looks like— some people will never be entrepreneurs, that's cool, they have other dreams, great, follow those dreams, follow that, that heart wherever that is, wherever the heart is taking you. But in general, I think the heart's the key.

Oh, I do too. And I really think that, you know, when you follow your heart and you're passionate about something and you do have that warrior spirit and you want to be of service, I think that things start to really fall into place. I mean, you work hard, but the right people come along. You know, I just had somebody, one of my friends who is amazing. She's actually the first guest on this podcast, Dr. Erin.

Oh, cool.

She reached out and she's like, how do you keep meeting these incredible people? And I And I'm like, I don't know. Our paths cross and I get to meet these incredible people. But I think that kind of happens. I had somebody share, my friend Shannon just shared, Gus drives my bus. And Gus stands for God, Universe, and Spirit. Oh, I love it. I let Gus drive the bus. And I was like, I think that, yeah, when you're tapped into yourself and, you know, you let Gus drive the bus, the right people come along.

I couldn't agree more.

Yeah. And, and I'm so grateful that, that you came along. When we, when we start talking, I feel like I could talk to you all day. And I had all these other questions too that I was going to ask you. Um, sure. But I know you've got a brand new baby, and I just feel so grateful that you took the time to, to talk with us and share all that you do, especially around your boundaries and your work ethics and how to get clarity. That means so much.

Of course.

I mean, and you guys go check her out and listen to her podcast and tell us where— I mean, it'll be in the show notes if you're listening to this and you're, you know, out for a jog or whatever you're doing. And it'll be in the show notes, all her social media handles, her website, will be in the show notes. And a way— I know you're not doing retreats now, but I am signing up for your retreat because I am definitely going to meet you in person. I, I feel like we've known each other forever, but we've never actually met in person. Yeah. Where's the best place for people to find you?

epicself.com. That's my primary home base online for all of my health and wellness online programs, retreats, all that fun stuff. Business coaching is amberleesears.com. On Instagram, my handle is Amberly Sears. And also on Facebook, it's Amberly Sears. So you guys can find me there. And I'm most engaged with my community through my DMs on Instagram. So if you guys want to have a full-on conversation with me, that's the go-to place for that sort of thing. Email, I don't really pay attention to. So the DMs are where my conversations are.

Okay, awesome. And if you're listening to this, screenshot your favorite part and put it in your social media and tag me, Amberly Lago Motivation, and Amberly Sears, and let us know that you heard it, or send her a DM DM and tell her you heard this episode and what your favorite part of the show was. And again, you can find those handles for her Instagram and, and shoot her over a DM in the show notes. And thank you so much for being on the show and sharing wisdom. And y'all gotta check out JP too.

He cracks me up.

Yeah. Um, but thank you for being Thank you for having me. And hopefully I'll be living over in Texas with you soon.

Yeah, just let me know when you're cruising over. We can definitely hang out.

Thanks so much for having me.

Sounds good. Thank you.

Thanks so much for joining us this week on True Grit and Grace Podcast. If you like it, please rate it or share it with your friends. That would help too. If you're not yet on the newsletter list, come over to AmberlyLago.com and jump on it. While you're there, you can grab a free downloadable gratitude journal, and you might just want to check out my book or even check out my monthly motivational membership. Thanks again for tuning in, and we'll see you next week.

Bye.