143. Amanda Terry Hamm | The Abundance Habit

Hello, Book Thinkers family, and welcome to our personal development podcast, Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books. During each episode, we interview one of the world's top authors, and as a listener, you can expect to discover new books, new mentors, and new resources that you can use to achieve more and live better. In today's episode, we have the pleasure of interviewing pleasure to interview Amanda Terry Hamm, author of The Abundance Habit. Amanda is a blogger, author, mother, wife, entrepreneur, artist, and has a passion for teaching people how to create an abundant life. Amanda has an incredible story from struggling in business to being homeless and then 6 months later creating a successful business and getting an apartment. Her story is truly inspiring. Amanda realized that after reading and implementing hundreds of books that there was a common thread between them. She also saw that there was a need for a practice of abundance to be more practical and applicable to people's lives. In this episode, you'll learn about Amanda's journey in writing to becoming an entrepreneur, why it all comes down to mindset, and how you can adopt the abundance habit. Now get ready to learn and enjoy this incredible conversation with Amanda Terry Hamm. Amanda, welcome to the Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books Podcast. We are so excited to get to know you and talk about your book, The Abundance Habit. In my research of you, I noticed that you were achieving a lot. You're a mother of 3, a wife, blogger, author, entrepreneur, 3rd-degree black belt in taekwondo. It may be a little more than that now. An incredible artist who deals with a little bit of anxiety. So my first question is, how in the world do you achieve all this and still maintain some kind of balance in your life?

Balance is the goal, isn't it? Really, it's just you take every day individually and see how you feel that day. Like, I don't think that balance is really real. We can't ever achieve perfect balance. So you just have to take every day by itself and see how you feel and how you're doing. But then also setting goals in those areas and giving yourself something to look forward to is really important. Because there is a lot going on. We all have a lot going on, honestly, especially after what's been going on the past few years. And there's just, there's so much that we're all trying to juggle. And so I think setting goals for yourself and giving yourself some grace is really the best option there.

I love that answer. I think like so many people, I, I, I wanted to open with that because I see so many mothers and people just generally struggling with that dichotomy of life. So, when I saw this stuff, I was like, oh, wow, this is awesome. Somebody who's actually doing all these things. That is such a cool thing. And your book is about abundance. So, my follow-up question is, why did you want to write about abundance and how do you even define that term?

I see abundance as a state of plenty. It can take place in any area of your life. You can have abundance of time, abundance of joy, abundance of creativity, and of course there's financial abundance as well. But the biggest thing about abundance is having the right mindset to accept those things into your life. So I wrote this book because everything that we want is on the other side of a mindset shift. Everything that we hope for every good thing that we are wanting to achieve in our lives is on the other side of positive mindset. And so I've seen all of these other books, amazing books by Jack Canfield, by Napoleon Hill, by, you know, Tony Robbins, all of these masters who have so much information to give and they have so much wisdom in their books, but their books are like humongous. And I love to read, but it's even overwhelming for me. And so Whenever I would talk to friends and colleagues, even our, our team and our students, I would get a lot of blank stares anytime I mentioned these huge books, and they're like, yeah, yeah, I intend to read that. I'm gonna read that one day. And I was like, what, what would happen if I could take all of that amazing information and condense it way down into something much smaller? And just give everybody the first step. Like, once you get started, once you take that first step, you almost can't help but keep going. So if I can just give them something that is much easier to digest and much easier to get started, I think it's gonna be a lot more beneficial to those people who really do wanna get started in mindset training and mindset shifts and achieving abundance in their lives.

Yeah, I love that, Amanda. You just mentioned Napoleon Hill, and Napoleon Hill has a quote. It says, action is the real measure of intelligence. So, from my perspective, it's not really about reading a 500-page book. It's about implementing at least one thing from the book that you've read. That's intelligence that creates progress, that creates the mindset shift that you're highlighting in your definition of abundance. And so, I'm curious, Was action something that you were thinking about as you were writing this book? 120 daily habits and exercises, right? So was action at the forefront of that for you?

Absolutely. Nothing's going to happen unless we take actionable steps. And that's one thing that a lot of people, whenever they hear things like manifestation and law of attraction, I've seen a lot of people kind of turn themselves off to that because they think that it's some kind of mystical thing that happens in the universe and with all the energies. And I don't know a lot about quantum physics. I don't know a lot about the energies of the universe, but I know that manifestation is really about taking something that's in your mind and making it real. Manifestation, I believe, comes from the Latin to put something in your hand. So if you can take the mindset shift and turn it into something that is actually happening in your life, you're going to be way ahead of where you want to be or where you were before. So my goal here was to take each type of abundance and give actionable steps that people can take every single day to reach the level of abundance that they're looking for.

I love that answer. Your book outlines the 4-step system, which is Oh, I hope I don't screw this up. Say it, see it, write it, and do it. And I think that's such a powerful thing because somebody like me can't remember to do hundreds of different things because I think a lot of these books can be super confusing and you get super overwhelmed. So I love that you're like, hey, I want to condense this down. And not only did you condense it down into, you know, a couple hundred pages, but you also condense down this thing of manifestation into a very simple simple to understand, I guess, tool. Like, it's because it's just, it's really awesome. So I appreciate you putting some thought and time into doing that. Now, I want to ask, like, did you always— you say you've been a reader, but have you always thought you were going to be an author? Is that something you grew up wanting to be, or is this something that's just come around, like, recently?

I've always been a writer. I've always written stories and I have a blog that I've been working on for a couple of years, and it was always kind of a passion project. It wasn't something that I really expected to publish, but just the past couple of years I started realizing, I, you know, I have some things to say that I really would like to share with people that I think could really help other, other women, other entrepreneurs, other people who are looking for more in, in their lives. And especially with everything going on in the world today, it's like there's so many things that we want to see change, and we want to see become more positive. And I started writing this book as kind of just— I was originally going to make it a blog post, and the more I wrote on it, the more I realized this is actually— this could be a book. And I think It could really help people. So that's when I decided to go ahead and put it out there and publish it.

Why do you think that the average person struggles with abundance? I mean, we hear about scarcity mindset, scarcity mindset. Everybody's got a scarcity mindset. Why do you think that is?

I think a lot of it boils down to fear. We're afraid of not succeeding. We're afraid of succeeding. We're afraid that there's some force out there that stops us from being able to reach the things that we really want and the things that matter most. And so I think what it really boils down to is, as a society, we are collectively afraid. And I think that's a lot of the things that happen in the world today. I think they boil down to fear and So breaking it down and making it easier to take those actionable steps and realize that we do have more control over our own lives than we realize. And yeah, not everything is under our control, but the things that are can make a difference. And I think that, that hope is what people need more than anything.

Now, when did you start cultivating this abundance mindset in yourself? Because I know, like, it doesn't— it just— I don't think, actually, I don't know, but I don't think it comes naturally for most people. You know, Nick mentioned the scarcity mindset. A lot of us deal with that. So when did you start to see more abundance in your life? And when did you start cultivating that practice within your life?

So I think Sometimes our rock bottom moments are the moments that teach us the most and help us find the most success in the end. So I mentioned in the book that there was a point 12 years ago when my family was homeless. And this happened because me and my husband started a business. We were starting a martial arts school. And we had been running it for about 3 years. We also both had full-time jobs working for the school district, so we were working 70 to 80 hours a week. We had a new baby at the beginning, 12 years ago. She was about 2 and a half, and we realized we couldn't afford to keep our apartment and keep running the business. It was a, it was a really heart-wrenching moment, but we're both super stubborn. And so we made the crazy decision to give up our apartment and move into the back of our business and live there while we were figuring out how to make our business profitable because we really believed in what we were doing. Our martial arts school is a lot more about leadership and teaching kids to have confidence than it is about, you know, punching and kicking. So we were seeing positive changes in our students every day and we We didn't wanna give up on that. And so we decided to go ahead and give up our apartment. And I remember there was one point where I was sitting in the back of our dojo on this rickety futon that had screws falling out of it. And I was staring up at this makeshift wall that we had put in place to kind of be a barrier between where we had all of our stuff and the office where, you know, sometimes we had to bring parents in. And we didn't want anybody to know that we were living back there. So I was staring up there. My husband was at work. I was not at work because I, I had scarlet fever at the time and I had a 102 fever and we didn't have insurance, so I couldn't go to the doctor for it. And I just remember feeling so alone and like, you know, what, what are we doing here? We've given up everything. My daughter was staying with my mom at the time because I was sick. And I remember I, I took a moment. I had a little, a little moment of feeling sorry for myself. I took an ibuprofen and had a nap. And then when I woke up, I decided, you know what? No one's gonna figure this out for me. If we're gonna do this, we're gonna go all in, and we're gonna do it for real. So that was a moment when I started researching. I started researching YouTube channels, watching Evan Carmichael and Patrick Bet-David, started reading books on abundance and financial success, and then in, in turn started learning more about just mindset training in general. And that was the moment when everything kind of shifted, and I decided that we were gonna make this happen. And when my husband got home, he was completely on board. He 100% agreed. But it, it still took some time. I think 6 months later we did finally move out of the back of the dojo and we had our own apartment. I think about a month after that I was able to quit my job and we were able to focus mainly on the business. And then a year after that, my husband was able to quit his job. But it all came down to that one moment, mindset shift.

Wow. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that story. Man, I'm sitting here getting emotional about it. I just, I think that's such a, that's, I know that's such a powerful, that's a powerful story that I can't wait to share with our listeners. When you got into that apartment, what were you feeling? Did you feel like anything was possible at that point? Because going from being homeless and then 6 months later to being in an apartment again, I imagine that was very uplifting for you. What did you feel at that time?

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It was a very big moment. It was, it was a big breath of relief. I felt like a better mom because I could give my kid a Her own room. I'm getting a little choked up now. It was it was a very big moment, and I I'm glad you bring that up because sometimes those moments don't last. We we forget them because we're pushing so hard to keep going, and I think we did we did that initially. We were still pushing like yeah, we have this apartment, but now we need to meet the next goal. But that That one moment was really important because I got to bring my little girl into her new bedroom and we got to buy her bedroom furniture. And it did feel like a winning moment, one of many.

Now you're being interviewed on a podcast talking about your own book. And we've featured a couple interviews with Evan Carmichael. We've had Patrick Bet-David on this show. So, you, yeah, you are now providing inspiration to the same people that provided you inspiration. So, what's cool about this moment, like literally right now in the present moment, is that we're documenting it so you can't forget it. You'll be able to watch this back. You'll be able to show, you know, your family and everything like that over the next couple of years. But how does it feel to sort of be providing inspiration to the same person that you kind of were years ago? Because that is what our show is for a lot of people.

That, that feels amazing. Um, almost surreal. Like, I, I can hardly believe it. I hope that I can reach just a small fraction of the number of people who you guys have reached through this podcast and the people who've been on this podcast. Like, if, if just one person sees this and feels like they can keep going, then this has all been worth it. All of the work for putting a book out there in the first place, it's all worth it.

Well, it certainly had an impact on me today, that's for sure. I'm curious, what advice would you have for individuals that are in that challenging moment, for that they're in there almost that rock bottom moment and want to give up? Like, what would you tell them to do?

Keep going. Don't give up because it, it doesn't last. Those moments happen, and even after you've been working on mindset and on abundance, they're gonna happen again. But they don't last forever. Keep going. I— sorry, I got an image of my— in my head of the Frozen movie where Anna's singing. Do the next right thing. That line speaks to me. If you just take a step forward and do the next right thing— you can tell I have kids, right?

Yes.

You do the next right thing, and you will come out of it.

Yeah, that's so powerful. And it can be so difficult. But I love that song too. I have 2 girls, and they love Frozen. So we have those playing all the time. But they're really great songs because there's such profound lessons in them. And that second the second Frozen, that was a pretty profound one too that dealt with a lot of maybe adult themes. But anyway, not to make this podcast about Frozen, but I love that song. And you're right, you just have to get up and do the next right thing, which can be difficult to do. But you're living proof that when you do those things, when you take those actions, you get to a better place eventually. And I'm glad you sat in that moment of Sitting there because I'm sorry, getting emotional thinking about your story, but it's like sitting there in those moments of your apartment, the first little, that first little really big win in your life that you hadn't had in a long time. Like we do just kind of skirt over those things and I'm making it more intentional in my life to focus on celebrating those small things because they compound in the right direction. Like when you see that You know, oh, I did this thing, and then you start to show your brain proof that you're doing the right thing, and then you show more proof and more proof, and it just gets easier over time. So when you do have those low moments, you don't sit in them as long. So I just really wanted to take that time to just— this time to express extreme gratitude for you sharing that again, because I think it's going to help a lot of people. So I have another question around you writing a novel. I don't know if you've ever finished the novel, if you— what happened to that world, but I know that you expressed that on social media that you wanted to write a novel at some point in your life. Is that something that you're still looking at doing? Is that something you've accomplished? Like, where are you at in that journey?

That's a good question. So I actually have finished the novel. It's supposed to be a trilogy, and I've finished the first one. I've written the first draft of the second one. Really, it's just getting it out there. I think this book being my first one, I, I wanted to learn more about the process. But my fiction book was the writing project that I was always working on, like behind the scenes, as something that it was my own personal love project that I, I hoped to put out there one day. I hope somebody might read it, but I didn't really think that I would ever publish it. So I'm hoping to do that sometime in the next year. I'll be putting out my fiction book and, you know, see what happens. It's all a learning opportunity. So.

I love that. Well, congratulations on that. That's super exciting. It's another win to stack on top of other wins, and you just continue to create that abundance in your life. Now, we kind of maybe skirted past it a little bit or brushed upon it, but When you talked about abundance at the beginning of the show, you said that it's not always about financial gain and there's other areas that are abundant in your life. There's other areas that you can work on being abundant in your life. What would be your suggestion to people that are listening today for the thing that they should work on first? Like, what abundance area should they work on first? Should it be finances? Should it be joy? Should it be creativity? Like, what should they work on first?

That is an excellent question. So the very first type of abundance that I talk about in the book is self-worth abundance. And the reason I put that first is, well, first of all, because that's something that I struggle with. I think a lot of people struggle with that under the surface. But the biggest thing about self-worth is that if you don't believe that you're worthy of the abundance that you're seeking, then you will self-sabotage. So self-worth abundance would definitely be the first one I would recommend that everyone work on, um, so that you can get your mindset right to accept the rest of the types of abundance into your life without rejecting them when they show up.

That's such a powerful theme, and I know that so many people, including myself, struggle with that. on a daily basis. So I agree with you. What are some of the first steps somebody can take to increase their self-worth?

First of all, I talk about the different steps in the book: say it, see it, write it, and do it. I think coming up with your identity statements, um, these are the things I talk about in the say it section. Those are positive affirmations but also cancellation statements, things that You, you say, because you want to adopt that mindset, I am worthy. I am capable of achieving amazing things. Those are affirmations, and you start by saying those things that you want to bring into your mind. But the other important thing is recognizing your own limiting beliefs and saying statements to yourself that will help you cancel out those limiting beliefs. So I have an exercise. In fact, there's an exercise at the beginning of every section, but it's recognizing your limiting beliefs. And in order to do that, you take a sheet of paper and you just— whenever it comes to that type of abundance, in this case self-worth, you think about every single negative statement that comes to your mind. Any time you think of I'm, I'm worthy or I have self-worth, What rejections do you hear in your mind whenever that happens? What, what things did you hear growing up, or have you heard from a boss or an ex-girlfriend or boyfriend? Like, what things have come up in your mind or immediately come up that are trying to sabotage that area of worth for you? And you write all of those statements down. It can take several minutes, and it can, it can be a difficult exercise because you're having to face these, these things that are coming up in your mind for you. But then as soon as you get them all written out, the next part of that exercise is you write the opposite of that statement. And so something like, I'm not worthy of, you know, making $100,000. The opposite would be, I am worthy and capable of making $100,000. I don't have any good friends becomes I will attract amazing relationships into my life. And so you take the negative statement, the thing that's holding you back, and you flip it around into something positive. And then the ones that affect you the most, you add those to your affirmations and you say them every day. Because that's how you start to train your mind to accept those statements. And what I've found is that a lot of times you will get subconscious rejection whenever you start saying your affirmations and start saying these things that you wanna adopt. Sometimes it'll come in the form of stomach clench, like you'll start to feel a little sick to your stomach or dizzy, or even just you'll immediately try to distract yourself and do something else. And so The power comes whenever you rest in those moments and with those statements, and really let your mind absorb them, because that's whenever you're gonna get more and more used to hearing them, and your brain is actually gonna start to believe that they're true. And that's kind of when the power happens. That's whenever your, your brain starts working behind the scenes to find proof that it's true and to make opportunities happen that make it true.

I love that.

It reminds me of a line. I think it's an Elizabeth Gilbert line where she says, don't fast forward through the times in your life that have the opportunity to teach you the most or something like that. And we always try to run from discomfort, but if we can sit in it and reflect on it and spend time with it, then we can grow and learn from it, which is really important. I have a couple more questions. Let's see. How do you recommend that somebody in the audience who's really into this concept of abundance, but they're surrounded by people that aren't really open to terms like the law of attraction or manifestation, how do you recommend that people bring this into their household and communicate about it with their friends without being too pushy, if you know what I'm saying?

That's a good question. Um, I think a lot of it starts with doing your own mindset training first. Yes, you can, you can talk about it, and I do think you should talk about it. But sometimes you kind of have to protect yourself at the beginning when you're starting something new. So I recommend starting with the journal, starting with getting yourself to a point where you're comfortable with it first, and then Once you feel comfortable enough to start talking about it and you, you don't think that their negative reactions will sway you or make you feel like quitting, that's whenever you can talk about it and start slow. Just let them know, hey, I'm doing some mindset training. People are often more open to the word mindset than they are to the word abundance or law of attraction manifestation. Um, so mindset training and, um, I'm working on changing my life. I'm working on changing my mindset. I'm working on changing my life. Those are the best things to say. And then if they want to know more, then absolutely talk to them about it. Give them the book.

I love that. I love that. All right, here's my last question for you. What book have you gifted the most over the last couple of years to people in your life? And you can't use your book. So any other book other than yours, what book have you gifted the most over the last couple of years?

Oh, that is a hard one to answer because there are several. I am— my friends say that books are my love language because I'm constantly giving books out to people. So it really depends on what circle I'm in. If I'm with business owners and other entrepreneurs, then it's usually The E-Myth or Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. That one's also a really good one.

And Mike Michalowicz hasn't been on the podcast, but Michael Gerber has. So you're also sharing the digital stage with him as well.

Oh, that's fantastic. I love that. The, the newest one that I haven't given out to as many people, but I really loved the book, was The Power of One More by Ed Mylett. That's one of my new favorite books, and I've given that out a couple of times since it came out earlier this year. And then to my creative people out there, I think also The War of Art by Steven Pressfield and Elizabeth Gilbert's Big Magic. Those are probably my favorites.

I love it. Pressfield's been on too a couple of times. He's like my spirit animal in a way. I love that guy.

Such great books. Such great books. All right. Well, I have 2 final questions before we wrap up here.

The first is, where can people go to find out more about you and your books and where can they follow you, Well, I have a website, amandaterryham.com, and then I have my blog is at madlynews.com, and that one is more about entrepreneurship, but I also talk a little bit about mindset on the blog as well. And then of course my Instagram, Amanda Terry Ham or Author Artist Amanda is the easiest place to find me on Instagram. Awesome.

Perfect. I love it. All right. And this is my final question for you, which is this. If you pass away and all the information that you put out there, the blogs, the courses, the books, everything disappears, but you can leave the world with a single piece of advice, what would it be?

I think it'd be one of two. I know you told me to pick one, but—

That's right. There's no rules. There's no real rules.

So one of them would be Earl Nightingale's, as you think, so shall you become. That's a big one. The things that you think in your mind, they are going to create your life. And then the other one would be my own personal mantra that I I created for myself years ago to help me with my anxiety, and it's just fear is never a good enough reason to do or not do something. So if you find yourself making a choice based solely on fear, rethink that choice. I've, I've made that a rule in my life. If I catch myself making a decision based completely on fear and not on logical reasons, then I make myself do the opposite to prove to myself that the fear wasn't founded, wasn't grounded, um, and that I can come out on top anyway. And so I think that practice has helped a lot, and I think it could help others as well.

Great advice. Do it scared. Well, Amanda, we have enjoyed this conversation so much. You did an excellent job. Your energy is amazing. Thank you for getting vulnerable and sharing some incredible We appreciate your time so much.

Thank you so much.

That is a wrap. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Book Thinkers, Life-Changing Books. It would mean the world to us if you could write a review and share this episode with a few of your friends. I mean, these books truly have the power to change people's lives. By reviewing or sharing our podcast, you're helping us make an impact. If you have any recommendations for future guests or any constructive feedback for us on how we can improve our show, please feel free to submit a form on our website, www.bookthinkers.com, or send us a direct message on Instagram @bookthinkers. With that, I am signing off, and I hope you have a wonderful day. Don't forget, go read something.

Thank you.