116: Make Your Passion Your Online Platform from a Fitness Influencer and Entrepreneur Amanda Bucci

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Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of The Bliss Project, 3 Time Fitness World champion, fitness expert and cover model, turned self love junkie, lifestyle entrepreneur and author.

Each week I'll bring you a guest.

Or a thought that will help you bust through your fears, connect to your soul and get focused and clear. Clear so you can elevate your life, business and relationships. We don't wait until we're ready for someone to tell us we're good enough. We take what we want and we anoint ourselves. Get ready to earn, own, and unapologetically rock your happiness every single day. Are you with me? Here we go. Welcome back to the earn your happy podcast and today my guest is Amanda Bucci. She is a social media influencer, a YouTuber, a powerlifting competitor, an entrepreneur, a bikini competitor. I absolutely love this girl. She is in my mastermind that I am in with Lewis Howes and I actually get to work with her all year long, growing our business and just really stepping into the people that we want to be for the entire year in this program that we're in together. So when I started talking to her, it is like she is just this massive, enthusiastic ball of energy. And I really love hearing her story because I think that so many people can create what they want to create by just harnessing this passion that she has for life. And most of all, she uses her social media platforms to inspire and reach as many people as she can in hopes of igniting that passion in others that she has found for herself through the fitness lifestyle. And our conversation today really is all about that. If you have an interest in creating a business or a platform around something you love, we talk all about how to do it, how to know it's what you want to be doing, how to start, what are the biggest fears that come up, how to break through those blocks, how does she create boundaries with so many followers? And what are some of the biggest struggles that she sees happening and how to overcome them when you go to start an online business? So, you guys, let's get started. Amanda, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Thank you so much for coming on.

Thank you for having me. I'm so excited, too.

Absolutely. You know, something that I absolutely love about you is how real and authentic you are. And something you guys don't know is Amanda and I are actually in a mastermind together. And that's how we met. So we met through a Lewis Howes mastermind. And the more that I got to know about you, the more that I just fell in love with who you are and how you show up in the world. So if you would, I would love for you to just kind of share a little bit about your story and how you got into doing what you're doing right now.

Awesome. Yeah, thank you for that intro. Lori, I remember meeting you for the first time and just like I met you and Chris in Lewis's apartment and I just completely admire you guys. Like, you are both doing amazing things and you're just wonderful human beings. So I'm just honored to be here in general.

Aw, thank you. It's like a love fest.

It is a love fest. But anyways. Yeah, so a little bit about me. I got started doing fitness because I just wanted to look better and feel better, just kind of like anybody else. And I was introduced into the fitness industry, I suppose, doing bodybuilding competitions. So I had a friend that did one one time, and I was really into the gym, but I wasn't really able to figure out how to level up my fitness. I guess you could say I didn't really know how to break through that plateau of just kind of progressing, but eating sort of healthy, but sort of not at the same time. I was just kind of wishy washy back and forth. But I always really liked training. So I think with the competing in bikini competitions, I was like, oh, that's gonna be the thing that's gonna change me. So I had a friend that did one show and I asked her, like, I was in college at the time, so I didn't really have a whole lot of money. So I was like, hey, can you like give me your meal plan that you got from your coach? And I, I ended up just like taking that and I did like a five week little prep for my first bikini show and it was so fun. I ended up just getting the stage bug. But with the meal plan that I was on, I just like did not see it to be something sustainable. I wasn't one of those people that could get a meal plan that I didn't like and just stay fixated in that mindset that this is the only thing that's going to work. I was always just really curious and I was like, you know what? This can't be the only way to change your body. I don't like doing this. I don't like eating five foods every single day for the rest of my life. This cannot be the only way. So I ended up kind of going back to normal eating for a little while, but I ended up finding a thing called flexible dieting, which I now implement every single day into my life. But it was just like a really big mind opener to learn about nutrition more. It's essentially just like basic nutrition put into practice in terms of changing your body composition. There is a lot that you don't really. That doesn't really show up when it comes to explaining flexible dieting, because it is one of those things where you explain it to people and say you can actually essentially eat whatever you want as long as it fits within your macronutrient range that you figure out for yourself. You eat a certain amount of protein, carbs and fat every single day, and you adjust them based off of what your body composition goals are, whether it's to put on muscle or to lose body fat. But you kind of lose that also implementing healthy foods into your lifestyle type thing. And that's definitely what I did at first. I was like, I can eat MMs and my macros and pasta and all this stuff. So it was definitely like a learning experience for me in terms of figuring out the middle ground between the two extremes of nutrition. I feel like mainstream fitness is either just like, eat clean all the time, you have to do all these complicated things and avoid all of these foods, which I didn't want to do. And then on the other end of the spectrum, it's if it fits your macros, eat a bunch of donuts and pop tarts and stuff like that, as long as it fits your macros. And either extreme, I personally don't think is the healthiest. I think a middle ground to those two things is definitely the healthiest way to go about doing it. But I didn't always think that way. I always was kind of on either end of the extreme like most people, I think getting into fitness, most people kind of just are either looking for some sort of quick fix, or they're looking for some sort of simple solution to their problem of not being able to lose body fat and feel healthy and feel good about themselves. But as you and I both know, it's obviously much, much, much, much deeper than that when it comes to that. So, I mean, these are all things that I've been thinking about over my fitness journey. But again, I was competing for a while. I was doing bikini competitions, and I have done eight competitions up until this point. I've also done one powerlifting meet, which was super fun. It's just focused on squat, bench and deadlift. And you are essentially training and competing in order to get strong at those. And then you're your strongest on meet day and it's really fun. And you hit prs in the meet and it's so fun. It's just like a different way to go about focusing on fitness instead of being so like, how do I lose body fat based instead? And now it's more how do I gain strength and focus on my gym performance? So that's been really fun. I started utilizing social media to show people my progress, whether it be body fat loss for bikini competitions, putting on muscle during my off season, building strength during my powerlifting competitions. And I've since just built a community up of people that are trying to get better and trying to elevate themselves and trying to whatever your goal may be. I've been through it all. Putting on muscle, losing fat, gaining fat, gaining strength, losing strength, all of those things. I've been through it all. So I think people follow my journey and get inspired to do the same thing on their own, but kind of spin it in their way that makes sense for their life. So I was putting out all this information that I was personally doing in my fitness journey on social media, on Instagram mostly in the beginning, and people just truly connected to it just because I was just being really genuine about everything I was doing. And then I started utilizing YouTube a ton. I focused on it more so in the beginning for informational stuff. But I realized that people really connect to you via your personality and your lifestyle and relating to you on what you're doing during the day. And I think it's been really fun to show every part of my life. And it's been interesting turning into kind of a quote unquote personality and someone that people look up to all the time. And people watch my videos every day and people message me constantly and say that, like, I watch your videos every single morning. I literally wait for you to put one up. I love your life. I love what you're doing. It made me a better person. It made me change my life. It made me change the way I think about things when it comes to fitness, but also when it comes to life. So, yeah, I've been doing YouTube for a year and a half, almost two years now. And I also recently started a podcast myself as well, because I'm sure you guys, podcast listeners here, you are here to better yourself and you're here to be critical thinkers and you're here to just learn how to live your life in a better way. And I think podcast community is so like that. And I absolutely love being able to do long winded interviews, discussions, talks with other amazing human beings and other people that have a lot to share, a lot of value to bring to an audience. And then I also feel like with YouTube it's difficult for me to like spend time doing a long winded talk about something that I feel like I have so much to elaborate on. I can talk a lot. Obviously you can help from here, but yeah, so I've. That's what I've been doing as of late.

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I love that. And you guys, I. Her podcast is amazing. It gives really incredible information about just everything, life in general, but also business. And we're going to dive into that too. So I think what people don't see is how you got start. You know, you have an insane amount of followers and you're. Can we talk about. You're pretty young. Like, how old are you?

23.

23. You guys. And I feel like I'm talking to somebody my age because you have an old soul. And I just love watching the journey. So for people who are listening, how did you get started on that? Because I know it looks like all of a sudden one day you have all of these followers, but what did that really look like? Like, to get started sharing yourself and really being raw and authentic to attract these people.

Yeah, I know. I think that's a big thing when it comes to, like, people either finding me for the first time or someone who hasn't watched my entire journey and knows every single bit about my life. Someone who's just coming to my pages for the first time. They're like, wow, like, how did you get that many followers? Like, how come so many people are connected to you? And I mean, there isn't obviously just one thing that I can pinpoint and be like, this was it. This was the magical trick to get followers, I think. But one thing that's been a recurring theme that I kind of like to explain is that it's not all about getting followers. And when you're so just focused on what the follower number is, those followers, number one, aren't going to be super engaged with you. They're not going to care about what you're doing. Because there's so many different tactics that people can do and do do just to get followers. But it's not about just the follower number. It's about, like, spreading a message that people connect to, talking about things and showing people things that people want to see. People want to see like how. How what you're doing can apply to their life and how those messages and those lessons and that information can they can take and apply to their life to make it better. Obviously, there's certain technical things when it comes to social media accounts, like for Instagram, having really nice photos, having, like, they have to be like, aesthetically pleasing because Instagram is a visually based social media platform. So making sure people actually like looking at your photo so they stop to read the caption or stop to read what you're saying, or stop to click on the links that you're sharing for whatever you're doing. Stop to watch your YouTube videos. With YouTube, it's all about. I mean, at this point, YouTube is really saturated with fitness stuff. So getting people to just simply click on your video is more important than people think. So when it comes to YouTube, it's actually really interesting. Like, people really complain about quote, unquote, clickbait titles. So, like, for example, I posted up a video yesterday and I titled it Harsh Reality, but that was just kind of more of like a thing to get people to click on the video. Because, I mean, when it comes to getting people to click on things, you have to make it clever, but not like a lie. You can't just kind of like make up something that people want to watch and then have no content or no value within the video. I think just getting people to click on things is, with YouTube, it's really interesting because you kind of have to like trick people and market them a little bit. Not in like a manipulative or a bad way, but it's just like, I've noticed that when I write like Back Workout at Gold's Gym, it doesn't get as many clicks as if I write something kind of more arbitrary. And that builds curiosity. So that's a really interesting thing for YouTube. But do. When it comes to that, it's more so just the marketing aspects of your title and your thumbnail that allow people to view the content in your video. Because getting your content out there and getting followers and getting subscribers and getting likes and stuff like that, it means nothing if your content isn't valuable or people don't want to continue to watch it and continue to connect with you as a person or as a brand, as a content creator, you have to have something of value and something that people want to either watch for entertainment, watch for value to add to their own kind of life. If you're giving out informational stuff, I think that's going to be the most long term thing when it comes to sustaining your platform. On social media, especially in fitness, just providing value to people is so important. But when it comes to actually building that following, there is some marketing aspects that come into play. And I think I just personally, with my particular personal platforms like Instagram and YouTube, I think I just subconsciously did a lot of things right without even really knowing it. A few things that I've mentioned to people, I always just genuinely liked connecting. So I always commented back to people. I think I commented back to every single person that commented on my page until I had like 70,000 followers. Like every single person. Like I responded back, thank you. If someone said something nice to everybody, it was a lot. But I mean, obviously it's gotten to a point where that's not time efficient. But I just think like connecting to the people that follow you and really understanding them, understanding what they want, understanding how you can provide that to them and then kind of like utilizing the tricks and the tips, the little tiny things that make a difference when it comes to utilizing the platform and optimizing each particular platform to the best of its ability. Like there are certain things on different platforms that are there for a reason and to help you gain followers. Like there's hashtags and there's. You're able to collaborate and with Instagram stories, you're able to directly link like different kinds of people and brands and stuff like that. So obviously there's those little things. But if you don't have the foundation behind you that comes from knowing your purpose, having clarity with who your audience is and what they want, and then actually truly connecting people and listening to people and then last but not least, having fun with it and actually enjoying it and doing it, whether or not you think that it's going to be something that's going to help your business, just actually really loving the connection with people and being social. I mean, it's social media, so those few things are I think what really helped me grow.

Oh, I love that. So for people who are basically, you know, maybe looking at all of these people with online businesses and there's so much out there, I love what you just said, like really finding what lights you up instead of, oh, this is working for her or this seems like something I could make money at, what was it that you authent? Like you just woke up and said, okay, this is what I enjoy doing. So I'm going to create something out of it. How did you know?

I mean, there was a few things that I think just truly brought me on the path to finding how I know it wasn't an immediate. Like, I know that I want to help people within fitness or just help people in general. I originally went to nursing school, so I have my nursing degree. When it came to finishing and getting my RN and actually passing the exam, I was already really starting to get passionate about fitness and enjoying what I was doing there. So I wasn't really focused on passing the nclex exam because I was so focused on just building up my business and everything like that. But I think the reason that I got into nursing in general, like, when I was a freshman in high school. Sorry, a freshman in college, picking my major, stuff like that. I just wanted to help people. And I truly just have that, like, helping, nurturing type of personality where I see someone's problem and I see, like, the way that I can help them solve it, and I want to just, like, nurture them and bring them up. So when it comes to fitness, that's something that I'm obviously really passionate about, I love doing for myself. So people started asking me questions, and I just wanted to help. I wanted to teach them. I wanted to show them there is a way, There's a better way to do this. There's a more sustainable way. You don't have to starve yourself to get to where you want to be. I've heard other people's stories that they've shared with me where they were in a really dark, deep place where they had a bad relationship with food, a really negative body image. Like, constantly I'm getting these stories right, and I just want to help. Like, it just makes me really. I just, like, have this, like, strong desire to not fix those people, but to just teach them and show them that there's a better way. So when my first kind of business venture was just becoming an online coach and I started taking clients, although I wasn't. I didn't feel like I was the best and most experienced and educated person. I was like, you know what? I'm gonna be a better help to these people. I'm confident that I can be better than some of the stories that I've heard, some of the horror stories from really terrible coaches that have put bikini competitors, especially through these diets that are just not sustainable. They create bad relationships with food. They create food guilt. They create eating disorders. And I was like, you know what? I can do a better job at this. I know that I can help these people. I know that I can make a difference in their lives, so I'm going to do it. And it was really just like the true wanting to help and change those people's lives and make a bigger impact on the world. And as I've seen my social media grow, I'm like, you know what? I can make an even bigger impact with all these people following me. There's many, many people clearly listening to what I have to say on a daily basis. So I'm constantly seeing these issues still and seeing people comment things that I now think are common knowledge because I've talked about them so much. But there's still new people following me every single day and new people that are looking for those answers that I have. So it's not that they're secret. It's not that they're knowledge that's like, you can only get, like, if you buy my stuff or whatever. Like, it's. It's common knowledge for people that are educated, but there's still so many uneducated people. So I just kind of want to be that. Be that person to change the way people, especially females, especially people that are girls that are just younger or even women that are older. Any women in general and even men can be affected by this as well. People that just have poor body image and poor relationships with food, that just affects every single other aspect of your life. It makes your quality of life low. And you and I both know that when you're healthy, happy, you have a good relationship with food, a good relationship with your body, you in turn, have a better quality of life. You're happier in general. You have better relationships with other people. You just feel better overall. You're less fatigued, all of those things. So that just. That kind of. It just clearly I'm like so passionate about it. It just lights me up when I talk about it. So that's how I got. That's how I figured out my purpose, I guess.

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I love it. So a couple things that you said that were awesome is basically it's like you can ask yourself, how can I help right now? So even if you don't have what you think you need, or you're educated enough, or you're not a coach or you're not this person yet, like we're never those people, right? You're not that person until you start. And I love that you just started by what could I do right now? What content could I put out? What's interesting to me? What questions can I answer? How can I engage with this person? Make them feel awesome? That is huge. Because anyone can do that right now. Like we can all answer questions to the best of our ability. So where do you get your content? Because girl, you have to put content out every single day. And I know this is a big question that I get from a lot of people is like, how on earth do you get content every single day? Like, that is so overwhelming to think about.

What do you do? Yeah, no, I totally agree. I think I remember when I first started YouTube I was like coming up with a list of topics that I think people wanted to hear about and then I ran out of topics and I was like, what am I going to do? Like when I run out of ideas? But honestly, I make videos. I was making videos for YouTube and posting on Instagram, posting on Instagram, particularly two or three times a day for a while. I think now it's more like one or two tops. And then on YouTube this past year I did a time period where I was posting five times a week. I currently have Scaled down to three times a week just to kind of clear up my mental space. And it's still enough for me, but I never run out of topics. But there's a reason for that now, I think, because I'm constantly just asking people what they want to see. And I'm just really, really self aware of what I think I need, but also what I think my audience needs. And I just kind of, I look at comments and I listen to the things that people say to me and look at the things that people ask me. I'm actually asking people quite often, like in my email list, I'm like, please reply and see what you would like to see me talk about or something that I can kind of talk about in order to help you. And I just take those ideas that people have and things that they want to see, even if they don't really know what they want to see. I kind of just try to determine like what is going to help these people and then what has helped me in the past and just kind of like there's just so much feedback, I think when it comes to YouTube comments, when it comes to Instagram comments, there's just right now there's so much feedback for me and I just take that feedback and organize it and I just make sure to touch upon something every single day. So I just think about with Instagram posting, I guess particularly what can somebody get out of this post? Even if it's just a transformation post. I literally 10 minutes ago I just posted a transformation of my booty growth or whatever over the last three years. But I think about somebody else looking at that and they're like, wow, I can do that too. And that's how I think about it. I just think about what kind of value is this post going to provide to the person looking at it. But I guess more in terms of how to create content every single day, it does get really overwhelming. So I kind of recommend people who are first getting started to just do what they can with what they have. You can get started on YouTube with just your cell phone if you want to. You can get started using Instagram again with just your cell phone if you want to. There's the Internet also. And then, I mean, plenty of times I've looked up like how to make better YouTube videos or how to post to Instagram with better content or how to edit Instagram photos. There's just so much out there to help you that you can kind of just be proactive in figuring out. But yeah, when it comes to the Writing and the actual discussion and the valuable stuff, Listen to your audience and then when it comes to the actual creation of content, do what you can with what you have at the moment and then scale up from there. Overwhelming yourself with trying to do too many things at once is just gonna fall and crash hard on you. If you're doing absolutely nothing right now and you're like, I'm gonna start an Instagram page, post on it three times a day, and then I'm gonna make YouTube videos and do those four times a week, and then use Twitter and then just grow an email, try to do all of those things all at the same time. It's just setting a lot of unrealistic expectations for yourself, I think, personally. So set small, realistic goals. Kind of like we tell people with fitness, set those small, realistic goals like cutting out soda. And that's a small goal that you can set today and do today. And then same thing with social media, if you're trying to grow your social media, set those goals that are small that you can do literally today, literally within the next 24 hours. And then you're gonna build that confidence in yourself because you finished them and accomplished them. And once that happens, that small confidence building will grow into a big abundance of confidence that you have in terms of the feedback that you're getting from people because you're putting out valuable stuff every day.

So do you get on a calendar for your stuff? Because I know in the beginning for me it was literally just getting consistent with like, okay, I need to do a post today about something that will add value and be inspirational. So now though, that becomes a habit, right? That's kind of how we start. Like, okay, just post, like just post something today that's valuable. And that's, that's what it looks like. I think people get really overwhelmed with it when really it's like just put one post up that adds value and then once that's a habit, what's next? So do you get on, do you have a schedule set and what does that look like for you?

So, I mean, actually I did not have a schedule up until literally month and a half ago for Instagram. I don't really have a schedule. Only because when it comes to fitness Instagram, I've noticed that things that are in real time do better engagement wise. I think when it comes to like a gym selfie is great or like something that I'm doing that day, like just finished a workout kind of thing. It just does a little bit better than like pre taken photos with that, like aren't in real time. But I think having a mix of those is definitely important. Like higher quality photo shoot photos when it comes to that, having those ready. But at this point, I mean, every single time I post, I kind of just think about something and riff and like create something in terms of like the caption, like whatever I'm kind of thinking about on that day, or there's certain things I feel like I'm constantly kind of getting feedback from people at this point. So I never really had an Instagram schedule because I kind of just take what I'm thinking about that day, what someone has messaged me about, what I see people's concerns are, and then kind of like my spin on a solution to that problem when it comes to captions, I suppose. But having those scheduled posts in terms of like creating content ahead of time I think is definitely helpful to minimize overwhelmingness. Kind of the same thing if you're meal prepping. Like if you struggle to be consistent with your healthy meals, having meals prepped ahead of time definitely helps you when it comes to just being able to grab and go. It's kind of the same thing with social media and Instagram. Like if you have captions pre written, you can just grab and go and post and it just makes life a little bit easier. So planning ahead for most people definitely helps. And right now I've actually created an editorial content calendar for my emails and my YouTube videos and my podcast, which has been literally the most helpful thing ever. So I can focus on Instagram when I can. But with YouTube I have a calendar now I use Google Calendars and I have every video that I'm going to do and what content I'm going to talk about for the entire month ahead, which is so nice. It's actually been amazing having that because I can view ahead of time. Like, okay, I have a video going out on Monday and today's Thursday. That video in particular, I'm going to be doing a Deadlift tutorial. So this weekend or ahead of time, as ahead of time as I can, I'll take the video for the Deadlift tutorial. Make sure I outline what I'm going to talk about so I don't miss anything. Film the tutorial voiceover and then make sure my editor gets that. Previously I was editing my own videos up until like three months ago or so. I like every single video. Probably 200 something videos I edited by myself. But now I have someone, Yeah, I have 300 videos, four videos or something at this point. But I edited most of them by myself until recently as to where I'm just taking delegating tasks that I don't necessarily have to do so I can do more stuff for my business. But yeah, previously I would just kind of set up that schedule as to where I know what I was going to talk about, schedule it in for a particular day, make sure that I have it filmed, make sure that I have it outlined, and then edit it and then know when to schedule it. And then for YouTube, when it comes to scheduling, I think it's really important to show people that you're consistent. Because if someone's going to my YouTube channel and they like know or like they watch a video and they know that I post videos every other day, they're gonna come back to the videos and being like, Amanda's gonna post today, so I'm excited to watch your video as opposed to like, oh, maybe this person's video popped up in my subscription feed and maybe I'll click on it. I think they post every once in a while. It's a little bit different when it comes to consistently following somebody who's consistent as opposed to consistently following somebody who is kind of sporadic with their posts.

I love that. If I honestly, if I could say one thing to people, it's like, just be consistent, Just show up every day no matter how small it is. Because I think that's something that stops people is they think it has to be this mind blowing content every day. And honestly, sometimes it's just your life or your dog or your meal or.

I love your pictures of your dog. I like them every time.

Oh my God. If I'm like, oh, I just need to keep people engaged, I'll just post food in my dog. I mean it's like a winner.

It's helpful in the way that like it, it relates to people. And then like other people who have dogs, like, oh, cute dog that makes me happy, made me smile and post a picture of your food. You're like, people say like, oh wait, like I can make that too instead of eat that donut that's been sitting in my fridge or whatever, you know?

You know, it makes you human. Like what are some things that just make you human? Like, oh my God, do you actually get excited over yoga pants? That's awesome because I do too. Like just little things like that that really feed to everything that you're doing. So I know with all of this, you know, really putting yourself out there in such a major way comes with also a lot of feedback. Like Great feedback. Negative feedback. How do you not get too high on the high and not too low on the lows?

Oh, that's a really good question. I really like the way that you put that. Knock it too high on the high and too low on the lows. When it comes to getting. We'll start with the lows first and then go into the highs. When it comes to not getting too low on the lows, I think it's difficult. You have to have. What's the word I'm looking for? Like a thick head. I don't know what the word is, but either way you have.

Oh, I know what you're saying. Yeah, yeah.

You have to be really tough. Pretty much when it comes to people come. Like there's. With YouTube, thick skin.

There we go.

Thick skin.

Yeah, thick skin. Especially with YouTube, the more you grow and the more you put yourself out there, the more of a chance that there's going to be negative people that don't like you or don't care for what you're saying or don't care for what you look like. I mean, like, literally every single day on YouTube, I'm constantly getting feedback, like, your legs are too big. I don't like the way you say this. Your videos are boring and whatever. Like constantly, every day. Especially with YouTube, because people can be so anonymous where they can have no picture and then not attached to any profile. Like with Facebook or with Instagram, there's typically a profile attached to it. So it's harder to be anonymous and harder to not have that feedback pushed back at them. But, yeah, not getting too low on the lows when it comes to that. It's really just like, you have to understand that those particular people either are coming from a place of insecurity on their own, but I don't really like to think about those people too much or give them too much of my attention because that just, number one, gives them power, and then it takes away my power and my happiness from how I normally feel that day. And then if I respond back to that person or if I give in to that feeling, it just. It depowers me and it empowers them. And then number two, there is far, far, far more positive feedback. Like 95% positive feedback. Especially with YouTube, I'm constantly getting good feedback, right? So if I give power and comments back to the negative people, those really positive people that love my videos, they come to them every single day. They love commenting on my stuff. They love interacting with me. They would be so happy if I Commented back to their, to their comment just because they love my stuff so much. And then they see me commenting back to a mean person and they're like, what the hell? Why didn't I get that comment back? Because I'm so such a supporter of her. Like, you know what I mean? It just sends a bad message to those people that are really supportive. So I kind of try to think about giving those people something that I'd like to do or think about in my head. If I get a bad comment, I'm like, okay, before you respond back to that comment, back to the nice people, every single one of them. And then obviously that's impossible because there's so many of them. And then it just kind of like takes away the need to comment back to that negative person. But you do have to have things skin and you do have to be very confident in yourself. And then with that, my confidence has come from constantly challenging myself and constantly proving myself wrong or right or whatever, growing as a person, learning about myself. Having that confidence in myself is so important when it comes to not responding back to the negative and not letting it affect my day. I am human. And sometimes it does affect a little bit of my day or like my hour at least. But I try to at least give myself. If I'm really kind of feeling negative about something someone said, I'll just allow myself like a little mini temper tantrum and then try to move on with my day or explain it to it to someone who's like a loved one and just be like, hey, this kind of got to me. Like, let me just get this out really quick and then kind of move on with my day. Because you truly cannot let that stuff affect you. And if you do, you have to really reevaluate if you want to be putting yourself out there and doing that for yourself. Because it is going to come. It's not going to not come. But that does not mean that you're a bad person. It does not mean that you don't have good intentions, and it does not mean that you should not continue doing what you're doing. So when it comes to not getting too high on the highs, I think I've. I've never really had that problem. I suppose I think I've always just reminded myself that. I guess, I don't know, I don't even. I've never even had to remind myself that I'm just a normal person because I am like, I'm kind of just someone that I guess loves learning and loves being curious. And loves helping people. And then the number, it doesn't really affect the way that I view myself in terms of thinking that I'm on a pedestal above anybody because I feel like I'm just a girl with a camera and that loves putting themselves out there. And I like to talk to people and people like to listen, but that doesn't make me better than anybody else. It doesn't make me more of an. Like, more of a. I don't know. It doesn't make me, like, higher than somebody else, I suppose. Sure. It makes me potentially more of an authority figure in terms of knowledge, in terms of how to be more, like, popular, I suppose. I don't know. It just doesn't make me someone that's better than anybody else. And I constantly think about that, and I try not to let anybody feel that way. I don't like. I don't like when people say that they fangirl or that they look up to me so, so much, and they feel like that I'm better than them, and they're like, oh, my God, you have so many followers. Like, you shouldn't talk to me because I'm just a little person and I don't have anybody that follows me. And that doesn't make you a better person or a worse person. It just makes you different. Like, my job description is part of that. Like, I'm a content creator, I'm an influencer, I'm a podcaster, I'm a YouTuber. And that's like, the personality in the life that I've made for myself. And I've chosen. And just because you haven't chosen, that doesn't mean that I'm better than you. So I like to think about it in that way. And I never really let those numbers or those highs make me feel higher or above anybody.

That's awesome. And, you know, for people listening, it's a huge responsibility. And I love that you are being so responsible with your audience and just pouring love in, and especially the fact that you are so real and so raw. So I also love that you don't give those people any attention at all, because there's a. There's a quote that I love that I always use because. Same same thing here, girl. I totally feel you. It's from A Course in Miracles, and it says that a defense is just an attack back. Because technically, when you engage at all, it's like you're pouring, you know, lighter fluid into the fire. Even if it's just a defense or even if it's Just any attention because at the end of the day, that's all they want. Right? It's just like, oh, I saw this comment. So I love that. I love it. Like, pour love into the people who are begging you for help. That's so beautiful. So for you, Amanda, you have so much going on. What is something that you feel is missing in your life right now?

I mean, currently, business wise and personal wise, I guess we can talk about. Yes, business wise. I think previously I was missing that personal. What am I trying to say? I think I was missing that connection with people in terms of my personal brand previously. I feel like I was kind of allowing myself to just promote other brands and promote other people, but promote my personal brand as well. But not necessarily like my own courses or like my own things that allow me to interact with people, but also be my own career. I guess you could say when it comes to being a content creator, brands constantly want to work with you. And I was kind of losing clarity about how I wanted to continue to connect with people in terms of, I guess with my online coaching business, I was just confused if I wanted to continue doing one on one coaching or do something else. I guess I think one on one coaching was getting kind of overwhelming for me in terms of just constantly emailing back and forth with people. And then I was feeling negative and bad about the fact that those people might not have gotten their email responses before I made a Snapchat or an Instagram post. And it was just a really conflicting thing for me. So I just backed off from it for a while and allowed myself to just live off of affiliate ships and salaries from other different companies. But it kind of lost my own personal connection to my personal brand and business in terms of making an income from the things that I am providing to people as opposed to what another company is providing to people, if that makes any sense. So. So I've been working on a lot figuring out how I'm going to go about doing that. And I have a few things happening where I'm now creating those things for people. Going to start up coaching again, but it's going to be coaching in a different kind of way with different kind of people. So I'm excited about that. I haven't launched it yet, but it'll be coming out probably in a week or so. And then I'm also going to be creating one or two online courses that I think are going to, number one, really help people and number two, fill a gap within the fitness industry. So I'm partnering with My coach, and we're creating kind of like the new standard for becoming an online or just becoming a fitness coach in general. Currently, you can do NASM and you can do ACE certifications, Issa, and stuff like that, but there's kind of not really that gap filler between having those certifications and being a truly educated, powerful, efficient, helpful, a coach that just truly knows how to change a client's life. There's not really that connection with those two kinds of things. So my coach and I are actually collaborating on making an online course just for that. It's to fill that gap and it's to allow people in our kind of day and age now to become an online coach, have a really profitable business, but actually just truly change people's lives and teach people step by step how to do that. So. So I'm super, super excited about that. We're coming out with that very soon. And yeah, so those are the few things that I'm missing in my business life, but I'm working on now personally and then personal life. Previously, I was missing. I'm currently long distance with my boyfriend right now, so I'm definitely missing that in person affection and that in person relationship that I'm so excited about. But he's gonna be moving pretty soon, so we're both really excited and happy about that. We're actually gonna be moving closer to you, Lori, in Santa Monica, I think. Ah, you will love it.

Oh, my gosh.

Excited.

It's like the best little pocket because it's people from all over just in this, you know, great beach community.

Yeah, I love it. So we're excited about that. And I'm also missing an animal. I am dying to be a dog mom. Like, you have no idea. There was a. There was a time in my life, like, a few months ago that I was like, no, I don't think I'm ready. I travel a lot and I don't really have anybody to take care of a dog, so it wouldn't be fair. But now I'm like, no, I'm gonna stay home more and I'm gonna get a dog because I just want one so badly. I have all this love to give to an animal, and I just really, really want a dog. And that's what's missing. But that'll be happening this year, too.

That's awesome. So with all of those amazing things, a dog, a boyfriend, moving closer your business, and so many people who feel like they're your best friend, how do you create boundaries to protect your time with People and to protect yourself.

Yeah, no, that's. That's something that I struggle with a lot, actually creating those boundaries and saying no to people that constantly are looking for my attention, which isn't a bad thing, but it definitely is a stressor in my life. It's actually one of the things that makes me anxious, actually. Constantly having people relying on me and needing me for a ton of different things. Like, I'm kind of like have my hands dipped in a lot of different things. So that's one of those things that actually triggers my anxiety pretty badly. So I do need to create those boundaries and they're actually very, very important in keeping my sanity. But yeah, so I guess I create the boundaries by allowing people to respond to me or connect with me and me responding back only on certain platforms. Like, I respond back to people that comment to me on my social media, on Twitter mostly. And then I think a lot of people are learning that because I respond back on Twitter so much. But it's a good thing. Like, I like responding back on Twitter because I can do it on my own time. I don't have to feel like people have seen. Like I've seen what people have said and then just they look. It looks like I ignore them kind of thing. And that makes me feel sad too. So I try to respond back on Twitter. And then when it comes to like friendships and everything, I think I now truly need to just make time for people and just set out like, hey, I would love to. I want to hang out with you. I love spending time with you. Let's just do it on this time. And then. But I do have to get back to work or I am going to be working from this time to this time. I kind of have to create my schedule. When it comes to being a content creator and when it comes to being someone that's an entrepreneur and you work for yourself, you have to kind of set those boundaries with people and say, like, look, this is my job. So when you go to your job, or like you specifically have like a time period where you're working and you're trying to make an income, you have to separate that from personal time. So kind of just making a schedule that works for me and then separating that schedule, business and personal, and kind of having that all in one schedule.

Totally. What is the most fulfilling thing that you do right now?

The most fulfilling thing that I do right now I think is just, oh, it's hard to. I think podcasting right now, it's so fun. Like, I love the Long winded conversations that just truly provide value. And it's so fulfilling to network with people that I admire, like you, like yourself. And I think podcasting is the best way to make relationships with people. I do all my podcasts in person too, so I get to have that in person, face to face interaction with people that I truly look up to and admire. And not only that, I think a lot of people just really enjoy the value that is within a podcast episode because they're long winded and you don't have to stop talking about things earlier. You can elaborate on those topics that you think need more attention. I think. And that's something that I was missing with YouTube, Instagram and other social media platforms. Podcasting Instagram is so fulfilling for me right now.

I love that. I feel the same exact way about podcasting.

Yeah, I want to learn more about.

This person or this thing. Okay, so what? You get asked so many questions, and I know that you, you know, getting to know you a little bit better, it's like you really love people. Like, you want to help with the mindset of people. You want to, like, help people break through and like, become the man or the woman that they know that they already are. But what are some questions that you wish you got asked that you typically don't?

Questions that I wish I got asked that I typically don't? I think people don't necessarily always ask the right questions. I think people ask a lot about how I did what I did or how I got to where I am today or what worked for me. But people don't always ask how they can do it for them. So I think people being really specific when it comes to the questions that are going to help them actually elevate their life and actually really change, as opposed to just looking for those quick fixes, looking for those things that are gonna quickly maybe give them some insight. They're not like truly critically thinking and truly digging deeper. They're just trying to go wide, not deep. And I think people asking those deep, deep questions are something that would really change the way that I provide value and provide content and then also change the way people live their lives as well. So I think just not any particular question, but I think just people digging deeper and having those deep, deep questions as opposed to those surface level questions. Yeah.

So for people who are basically wanting to get started on an online business or just get out there and start showing who they are to maybe start thinking about an online business, what do you think it is that stops people most and what's some advice around it that you would give them?

The thing that stops people most, I think, is just the fear of not knowing what to do and then letting that fear paralyze them. So I was talking to Sterling actually the other day, and the way he explained it was that people either let fear paralyze them and allow them to just not do anything at all and just stay stuck with where they're at, or they have that fear still, because that fear is still valid. You're confused, it's scary. You don't know what to do. But the other type of person just continues to move around that fear. They take it, it's still there, but they just go around it. They look for ways to find solutions to that fear, like educating themselves more, learning more about how to get started, asking people questions, listening to podcasts, reading articles, finding blogs that really just help them. I think that there's a certain type of person that will just, like, not let that fear paralyze them. And I think taking that step and just educating yourself is going to be what's going to give you the confidence to start. For me, personally, knowing more about what I'm doing before I start, it just helps me feel more confident, but just also not letting that fear stop me from starting.

Yes, I totally agree. So I believe that people totally teach what they need the most. So what is it that you teach that you feel that you need the most?

The things that I teach that I feel I need the most right now are, I think right now I'm loving teaching about business stuff, and I'm still constantly learning more about how I can run my business better and how to be a better number one content creator, value provider, and someone that is just financially free, but doing what I love and so happy, but able to be, like, just enjoying what I do so much, where I'm not super stressed about it. So I'm loving teaching about business stuff right now as I'm learning it, because right now it's so new to me that I'm just really enjoying sharing all my new knowledge and kind of the same thing. When I first got started with fitness, I loved it so much because I was learning it. And I like that realization that you just made that people teach what they need the most because I was learning fitness and I was loving it so much, and it lit me up to teach other people as well what I was learning. But now I think I'm a little bit more educated and experienced, so it's harder for me to connect back to Those people that are just starting, I think. So I think for me, I'm just getting started with my business stuff and that's why I love it so much, because I love teaching it, because it's so enjoyable and it's so new and it's fun.

So awesome. So I love that because teaching is truly like learning twice. I love being a student and then immediately turning around and teaching what I learned. Because for some reason that's just. I feel like with a lot of online people and a lot of my girlfriends who have different businesses, it's like we want to do that to almost lock it in. Or we're so excited about it that it keeps us excited, you know?

Yeah, that's so true.

Very true. So I would love for people to be able to find you, follow you, see everything that you have going on. So what are you most excited about right now that you have going on? Where can we find you? Where can we follow you? All that good stuff.

Like I said, the podcast, I absolutely just enjoy it so, so much. And I have so many good episodes backed up that I've been able to connect with people and I'm so excited to release them all. And like I said, I have my content schedule ready to go. So the next few months are already set out for me with my podcast and there's so many fun things that I want people to listen to. So much value packed into the podcast. So check out. It's called Bucci Radio. B U C C I. It's Bucci with a B. Like Gucci, if you don't know how to say it. So Bucchie Radio. And you can find it on iTunes, SoundCloud, Google Play, and then you can also find it on amandabucci.com and then everything that I'm doing with my online courses and coaching stuff you can find there on amandabuchi.com as well. You can also follow me on YouTube, YouTube.com amandabuchifit if you're interested in learning more about me and then Instagram as well. Amandabuccifit awesome.

Thank you so much. And I just wanna acknowledge you for, number one, just showing up how you show up in the world because it truly inspires people and I feel the fact that you want to give people value and I know how hard you work and I also know how much you love it. So thank you so much for all that you do.

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me, Laurie. It was so fun to talk to you.

Absolutely. Amanda and I have one last closing question. Are you ready?

I am ready.

Okay, so if you have a really quick elevator ride with somebody, it's like 30 seconds long, and they look over at you and they say, how can I make myself happy? What do you say?

Ooh, that's a good question. How can I make myself happy? I would say to. This is a tough question. I would say that in order to make yourself happy, you have to dig deep, figure out what you're struggling with the most. Put that out to the world, to your. Whoever you're connected with, and just write it down, internalize it, figure out what that struggle is, and then be active about finding solutions to that struggle. And do things that make you confident every single day. Do something that makes you feel good every single day. Find what makes you happy, whether it be going outside in the sun, going for a walk, walking your dog, getting a dog, making a new relationship with somebody, smiling at somebody at a coffee shop, something very small that's going to light you up, even just a little bit. Those small additions to your life are going to build up over time and make you more happy.

Amen, sister. Friend. All right, you guys, if you love this episode as much as I did, make sure you share it with your friends. And until next time, earn your happy.

Bye, everyone.

Thank you guys so much for spending this time with me on the earn your happy podcast. I am so glad that you stopped by. If you could take one second to share this episode with someone you think would love it, that would be absolutely amazing and we would be forever grateful. Also, please leave us a review. If you feel so moved by going to itunes and leaving us an un honest thought, an honest comment, tell us what you think, tell us what you want to hear more of. It would really help us out on our journey to helping thousands and thousands of people. Until then, don't forget to earn your happy. Thanks again, guys.

Bye.

Bye.