Rise From The Ashes
"Burnout to Brilliance: Great CEOs, No Burnout"
Leadership is tough. Burnout makes it tougher.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Rise From The Ashes is the ultimate podcast for visionary CEOs and executives who refuse to let burnout rob them of their brilliance, legacy, and impact.
Hosted by Baz Porter, this show isn’t just about surviving leadership it’s about transforming it. Each week, we delve deep into the art and science of thriving at the top, combining actionable strategies, spiritual alignment, and raw truths that reignite your purpose and optimize your energy.
Here’s what you’ll get:
- Bold Frameworks: Learn the exact steps to conquer decision fatigue, streamline your mental energy, and reclaim control of your leadership.
- Spiritual Awakenings: Explore the intersection of purpose, alignment, and success to lead with clarity and connection.
- Transformational Insights: Hear unfiltered stories and practical wisdom from world-class leaders who’ve turned their burnout into brilliance.
This isn’t just a podcast it’s a revolution for leaders ready to rise, inspire, and leave a legacy that outlasts them.
Rise From The Ashes
Guiding Through Life's Storms with Intuitive Consultant Amanda
Have you ever been at a crossroads, faced with the daunting task of reinventing your life? Amanda, the Life Change Mentor, joins us to recount her extraordinary transition from interior design to intuitive consulting, driven by her deep dive into holistic healing and overcoming personal adversity. Her candid conversation reveals the inception of her intuitive powers, her collaboration with Dr. Keith Hearn, and her remarkable ability to guide others through life's tumultuous seas, by focusing on the power of the mind and the necessity of crafting a unique blueprint for change. Amanda's journey isn't just a story; it's a testament to the human spirit's resilience.
Amidst the chatter of our busy lives, we often overlook the whispers of intuition that guide us toward alignment with our true selves. Today, we explore this phenomenon with Amanda, who shares her intimate understanding of how rituals, from morning exercises to meditations, can infuse our days with direction and purpose. Her narrative takes us through the significance of aligning with the universe to experience a life of flow and serendipity, all while grounding our spiritual practices in the tangible world. Amanda's insights on reaching personal lows and discovering one's potential are a powerful reminder of the profound revelations that often follow our darkest moments.
Writing, resilience, and the desire to leave an indelible mark on the world – these are the themes Amanda delves into as she discusses the trials and triumphs of publishing her memoir and combating societal issues like domestic violence. In this heartfelt exchange, she underscores the importance of legacy and shares her vision for fostering change through holistic empowerment. As we wrap up, Amanda imparts wisdom on the value of self-awareness and personal development retreats, providing listeners with a glimpse into the transformative journey that awaits when one dares to confront life's challenges head-on.
Colorado’s best business coach, Baz Porter, has a new mindset strategy mentoring service to help you unlock new heights of growth, prosperity, happiness, and success. Book your first meeting with the coaching visionary at https://www.ramsbybaz.com/
Friends, as our time together comes to a close, I want to express my deepest gratitude. Thank you for joining me on this bold journey of self-discovery and leadership. My mission is to help you rise from burnout to brilliance, because Great CEOs deserve No Burnout.
If this episode struck a chord with you, please share it with someone who could use its message. Together, we can spark a revolution in leadership, one conversation at a time.
I’d love to hear from you whether it’s your biggest aspirations, your toughest challenges, or the lessons you’re uncovering. My door is always open, physically in Boulder or digitally at www.ramsbybaz.com.
Ready to take things deeper?
If you’re tired of confusion and craving clarity on your path to purpose, let’s work together.
Visit my site and schedule a coaching session to discover how the RAMS framework transforms results, breaks limits, and builds legacies.
This is Baz Porter, signing off with immense gratitude. Stay bold, stay true, and remember you always have a partner in your corner who knows the weight you carry and the greatness you’re capable of.
Until next time, keep rising.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Rise from the Ashes. I'm Baz Porter, your host, and I'm joined with somebody here who is an amazing person. She's come from a lot of diverse backgrounds and her name is Amanda. She's from the UK, so big shout out to my UK fans out there. How are you doing, amanda? Please say hello to the world, and what do you do?
Speaker 2:Hi. Yeah, thanks for inviting me along here for this lovely interview. I'm actually just retitled myself, actually, the Life Change Mentor. I've been an intuitive consultant for nearly three decades and, because of the nature of the work I do, someone said look, you really need to change your title because that's what everyone calls you. So, yeah, I help people go through life changes.
Speaker 1:So what sort of life changes do you help with, and how did your story, your background, help you actually get into this?
Speaker 2:Formerly I was supposed to go into interior design. It was not a path that I chose at all and I had a very troubled upbringing, to put it mildly, and from that I went into an adulthood where I was becoming addicted to quick fixes, anything that could help me to get through, because I realized I was attracting what seemed to be a lot of bad luck. Um, it got worse. The more I tried to work against it, the worse it got, until eventually I had to take stock of my life and realize I was on a complete spiral downwards and and start looking at what I was doing, how I was attracting it. So I became fascinated with holistic healing, because orthodox methods didn't work for me. And then, as I slowly started to change, people were then asking me if I can see you're changing, can you help me? And I got sucked into it. I got a bit addicted to it. I've got an addictive personality Me too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, that's how I, and then I, became more and more fascinated with it, and now I just can't let it go.
Speaker 1:Okay. So what did you specifically become fascinated with? Because it's, because now it becomes a part of who you are. Yeah, what drew you to that? That, that element of this?
Speaker 2:Healing wasn't enough. Holistic medicine works. Holistic therapies work, but to a certain level. It makes you feel good for a period of time. But I needed to go deeper and I had actually I had managed cochlear septicemia.
Speaker 2:So it was pretty serious, pretty life-changing, and from that moment I realized I had to do something that changed in the mindset. So I started looking at how I could work with that and I just attracted the right people at the right time. So I started working with Dr Keith Hearn. He's the leading media spokesperson in the UK on the power of the mind and he invented the dream machine in the science museum. So he he appealed to me because there was something quite edgy about him. He was looking at things from a much broader perspective and he's got a condition where he actually can't he doesn't have any imagination at all. So he was fascinated with this subject. So I worked with him and and then I could see that there were slight improvements.
Speaker 2:But I knew that I had a long way to go. So I've just gone from one practice to another, opening up all different avenues to find what my, what my I guess you could say my prescription, and that that then led me to help other people with their prescriptions. It was what works for me doesn't work for everybody else. But I realized that I had quite an extreme upbringing so I thought if I can do this, anyone can do this, and that's. And I've also got that mindset, which is I thrive off adversity because I always know that you'll come out of it and there's going to be something better, and so I get a bit of a buzz out of that. So I have to sort of live off life going through these challenges, putting myself through it, so that I can help others.
Speaker 1:I like that. I just got a picture in my head then of something my nan used to speak about is going through a hedge backwards, and that's how I sometimes describe adversity. When you've just you wander and you come out and you're like, oh my God, hairs everywhere. I'm not going to have that problem anymore. Hairs everywhere, used clothes are all wet, got scrapes, bruises. But you find tell me this is your experience, please you find in these moments you have a defining moment. Within the chaos and madness, what was one of your poignant defining moments in your life?
Speaker 2:that was really. It was huge for me. That's, it was when I realized that I was creating my reality and all that destructiveness, that I'd created it, even though I got pretty angry about that, because when I realized it dawned on me that I'd created it, I then I sought to take that out on the people that had created it, but that didn't work either. So what? I realized that actually, armed with all of that, I had to take full ownership for it, and it gave me my power back, because then I was able to then work out how to control my mind in a way that was proactive rather than destructive. And that's when it it was.
Speaker 1:I went over the the mountain and then saw the other side, and that was a yeah, it was a pinnacle moment for me when you look at the constructs of personal development, spirituality and they, often they can combine and the wisdom that comes out of that is immense. You have mediumship, you have channeling, you have intuitive work. Did you explore the realm of spirituality as a quantum, as a scientific view, or did you just go in as an intuitive and learn as you went?
Speaker 2:I became very intuitive as a child and that was a survival. From the age of three I started getting very bizarre dreams, lucid dreams where I could play with this reality that seemed to be different to other people's reality. And then, with saying that, I also started to realize that there was stuff going on in my everyday reality that wasn't what other kids were doing and I could predict things and I could use my mind to switch things on and off, and it was very pliable for me. I found it very natural. But then I grew up in a it was a bit of a quandary really. I had a very outdoors. I was free to do whatever I wanted to do with animals, nature, but also I was very contained, imprisoned, abused and abandoned, and so what I did was I focused on the stuff that I could control, and the stuff that I couldn't control I just had to accept. And so when I came through that into my teenage years, I shut it down because our brains developing into another, different realm and so I didn't trust it. It was only when I was faced with other challenges that I started to draw back on that experience and think if I did that naturally as a child, what was I doing? And then my science mind wanted to pull it to pieces and I became obsessed with it to the point where you wouldn't have recognized me. I wasn't really here.
Speaker 2:I went through what I call my bizarre woo-woo stage, traveling all over the world, channeling, meeting these incredible people building altars. I just, yeah, it was madness. But there was no reality, there was no. I wasn't grounded enough to do anything with it and that's. And so when I was mature enough to be able to handle it, that's when I realized you've got to be really anchored with it. You've got to be grounded and you've got to. You've got to be really anchored with it. You've got to be grounded and you've got to. You've got to be real with it, because there's a lot of bullshit out there in the spiritual industry, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:No, you can say what the hell you want here. I don't care and it's most. It is what it is. I love to speak. I want to go a bit deeper with this because there's you. You hear the concepts like time travel or quantum jumping, and I loved it. By the way, I love these subjects. These are, this is I love this. Have you ever experienced anything similar to that, them concepts, or have you done it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I play with time all the time. I play with time all the time. I did it as a child. I watched and observed my father do it, because he was an entrepreneur, so he had to be very disciplined with everything he did. He was a martial artist, so his mind was all very much about focus. So I just copied him and I realized that there was something unique about that and I have been very fascinated with it. I do incorporate a lot in my work. I have to I'm a very busy person as well, so I have to stretch time, and sometimes I have to. I'm a very busy person as well, so I have to stretch time and sometimes I have to play with time so that it works for other people as well. So it's something we can learn.
Speaker 1:It's we are not restricted by time and space alone there's something I want to have a conversation with you a bit later or another day maybe, because there's something that I would like to discuss with you about. Some of that I want to go back into unconventional wisdom. Unconventional wisdom is things that we don't necessarily learn in an orthodox way A textbook, going to school, listening to the formal mentors that we should have in life. In your experience, has there been anybody that's shown up in your life other than your father, father that has been like left field and come in and gone.
Speaker 2:I'm going to teach you this and this, and you've just absorbed all that information and you've exploded with it actually I've met somebody recently, but I tend to find that we're on that frequency where we attract those people, where we learn the great insight which is more in alignment with who we are and where we're going. So I think when you're on that radar and you've got that antenna sending out that message, it's an incredible thing and I'm still wowed by it. I've had conversations with people that have no academic qualifications whatsoever, but they've had the greatest success in life, but they've gone through the greatest adversities to get there, and those are the people I feel have the biggest emotional radio. So therefore they're truly living life. If you come here, you do your qualifications, you get a nice job and you get a nice family and you just trickle through life. You're barely breathing life. You're barely breathing, you're barely existing.
Speaker 2:I have much more respect for people who have and that's not to say I don't have respect for people who are qualified and work hard. It's just that when people say to me they've experienced life, they've gone through adversity and look what they've created from it, that's the essence of what being a human being is about. It's not about getting good grades at school. It's about this is your life. This is the challenge that you've got. What are you going to do about it? And that's where we all need to be, what we all need to experience, to really fully develop into our true human nature.
Speaker 1:So, in your own words, what is your human nature? What do you love? What inspires you Other than doing the work? What's that deeper level?
Speaker 2:So I live on my values, and that's being purposeful. You know, love is everything. It's constantly learning about love. It's not accepting that you can give love and accept it, it's the very depths of love, because there are so many extremes. It's also being mindful, not about what we're saying as much, but what we're thinking. And when you have that level of awareness of what you're putting out into the world and you sometimes have to sacrifice the stuff that you want or the stuff that you need because you've got to do the right thing, i's that's when you're truly living in your true nature, because you it's about being aware and being mindful in in, in everything that you do and think I like that.
Speaker 1:It's a. It's an element that I often ask people, but the answer I get is vague. What you've just given is a quite in-depth answer and I want to thank you for that, because it means you've actually done the work. You're one of the few that actually talk the talk and walk the walk, and I can see within your own passion, your own face, expressions that you really love doing what you're doing. That's something rare to find. Really A lot of people have this status or this ego they present to people. True passion can't be faked, it can't be misrepresented. It is a part of who you're, who you are, your values, your core, your purpose, which I love. So I want to thank you for that. Meditation and consciousness now. This is why it's not that my stuff is not scripted, it's just need to be, because I want to get the best of you out. Yeah, what's your take on meditation and consciousness and if they go hand in hand, but what's your experience with it?
Speaker 2:so I've. I meditate every day. If I don't, it's I'm not breathing, I'm not eating, I'm not drinking water. I teach it to my clients. It's the core, it's the fundamental thing that you need to teach people, because if they don't know and learn how to use this bit of equipment, then how are they going to make any changes? So meditation is embedded in all the work that I do and I teach. I get very passionate about it.
Speaker 2:I've got a retreat coming up in a couple of weeks and it's always the way I don't anything and then I get a download five, six, seven days beforehand and I get all the material and I write all the meditations, and that's because I need to feel the energy of that group. I don't even know half of the people that are going to attend until I arrive on the day, but when you sit there and you're doing that meditation with them, you're having that aha moment, which is, oh my gosh. I'm so connected to these people because you're connected to consciousness and that's where this information came from and that's how you created this meditation and I'm still in awe of it and I would never work any other way. That's why I just can't give this work up and go and get a job in Tesco's not to say that there's anything wrong with Tesco's, but there's a lot wrong with Tesco's.
Speaker 2:I'm going to say it but sometimes you do get to that point. You must get it. You get to a point you think what am I doing? Why am I putting myself through it? And then it moves and something comes in, and then you get up and you just get on with it and then it all shifts and everything changes again. And that's the beauty of it it again. And that's the beauty of it it's always evolving.
Speaker 1:That's the flux and the flow. I was watching something the other night about this is going to a really trippy place, but you'll understand it About using consciousness to call or vibration to call other beings in, whatever you call them other beings, light beings, angels, aliens, otherworldly, it doesn't really matter. There's different species out there and there's a thing called you might have heard of it, might not have heard of it called the EE project, and it's about calling other worldly beings in, using internal consciousness or vibration and opening yourself up to different forms of communication. Have you ever experienced doing anything like that?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah I actually went with a team of people twice actually, but the but the second time we went with a group of people 40 of us, and there were three groups of 40 from all around the world and we went up the Nile. We did all the pyramids in the Great Pyramid and we did something on the spring equinox, which was incredibly powerful. But we had to prepare for that, so there was a lot of work beforehand. I went to Glastonbury and I did all this work and it was a calling. It was really an incredible experience and I've never moved away from that.
Speaker 2:I still feel very connected. Sometimes I can find myself just being transported and I have to be very careful that I bring myself back here. I get it sometimes in meditation and from teaching. I have to really anchor myself when I'm teaching because I'm not there. I'm just passing on that information. It's a hard concept for people to get, especially when I come across and I swear and I do all the stuff that makes me human. But sometimes people can witness it and see it but they're not quite sure what's going on. But I am no, I.
Speaker 1:That's why I asked the question, because I we're on a simba thing.
Speaker 2:So when we look at resilience and also rituals.
Speaker 1:Is it anything that you do in the mornings or in the evenings or even during the daytime that you is a must? It is an absolute necessary to set you up for success, whatever that you define that as during the daytime so first thing in the morning I always do I do a routine.
Speaker 2:it's an exercise routine because that gets the energy moving around my my body. I do my main meditation. Last thing at night, and anything that comes through from that, I do a short meditation. Then I'll do that and that's's my thing. Then I have to sit in contemplation because then the energy needs to settle and I'm very fortunate because I sit overlooking the river. It's beautiful, everything is natural around me and I just I anchor myself until I'm ready, and I don't. I have a structure what I'm going to do that day. I might have got things booked in, but more often than not that's where all my insight comes in to let me know this is what you need to do, and I get this download that just then progressively works its way through the day. I can't just start a day. If we get up and we waste that opportunity to see how we fit into this world and be grateful for being here, then how on earth are we going to be aware of what we need to be doing during that day to really fully function in our power?
Speaker 1:I love. You say you sit over the river, along the airplanes and that's uh, it can be challenging sometimes, but what? What's your most profound experience while you've been going through that? And it would you, if you're willing to, would you share the ritual you actually do?
Speaker 2:maybe it will help out some other bills so where I work actually on the retreat, it's on a beautiful 30 acre site and before I do my retreat I always go there first thing. I'm there at five and then at six it's getting light. I will meditate there and then I there's a lot of holograms and all sorts of things that are all embedded into the place around there and it's there's a lot of ley lines there, so I just tune into that. But that's pretty much what I do here. I've created what I call vortexes. Wherever I go, they're transportable, they come with me and I've done it wherever I live, wherever I work, and I that's what I do in the morning I just create this vortex in my mind.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty much matter of fact with them, because before it was always I'm not worthy. Now it's oh, I get it now. If you want me to do that, this is how we're going to do it. But yeah, it's pretty much sitting and just contemplating and being aware and, as it comes through knowing, it's a knowing. It's like today that I had so many things on, but I knew I had to speak to one particular person and I had to give them a window and I just happened to have to leave my house because we had people viewing the house got into the car, sat down, got a message from that person can you talk? And for the duration of that time that person was here, I managed to speak to that person. It was incredibly important, and that's what I'm talking about being in alignment, when everything just flows. That comes from setting that up first thing in the day. You can't just expect that you'll get all this stuff. You've got to put the work in 100%.
Speaker 1:I love what you're doing is because you back up with what you do. People just sometimes, as I'd be saying earlier, they talk it but they don't actually walk it. It's lip service. What you're going into now is living what you're teaching, which is a completely different level, and I love what you do. When we look at defining moments, they usually happen at rock bottom and the worst places, but they also help us realize our own potential. Is there anything that you would love to share with the audience about that one of them? Defining moments?
Speaker 2:I'm sure you have many yeah, I think the most defining moment for me was when I decided that I just had enough of life and I had planned. I had an exit plan and I decided that I was going to go to Australia. I was and I planned how I was going to do it and I had surreal time. I knew I had enough money to last for a week and I knew that at the end of the week that would be when I was going to do it. I knew how I was going to do it. I knew the rock, I knew the beach and I'd never been to Australia before. It's just that I knew that I had to go there. It was annoying and that lasted for a week.
Speaker 2:Every day I would walk down from this guest house to the beach, watch everybody thinking this is madness.
Speaker 2:Everybody's living a normal life and they haven't got a clue what's going to happen. Nobody knew I was there and during that time I needed to anchor myself. So there was this late night thing that was yoga on TV. So I did that in my room and I went to a secondhand bookstore on the second day and I found this little tiny spiritual section and a book just popped out, and it was the Alchemist and I'd never read it before, so that became my mantra doing my yoga, going down to the beach, drinking this green stuff, this algae stuff that was actually absolutely delicious and thinking why am I being so mindful when I'm just about to kill myself? But this book, it was like it was meant for me. And on the last day I remember I had walked to this spot where I was going to do this and I decided that I was going to go on because I'd never been to the next beach and Bondi was was quite a big thing.
Speaker 1:I've been there you've been there.
Speaker 2:So, as you go, walk along the rocks, there's a graveyard, a cemetery and I just noticed it.
Speaker 2:You, yeah, you know where it is so I walked along to Bondi and then, I don't know why, because I think I was so overwhelmed there's so many people there and I just thought I've had enough, that's it, I'm done. Now I'm ready. And as I was coming back, I went into this graveyard, I went into this and I went, went there specifically to shout at my father, to say to him I've never ranted at you, but I am so angry with you because you've never given me any feedback about. I can get all this channeling and speak to all these other beings and do all this amazing stuff, and you have never, ever, come through and said anything to me, and I was incredibly incensed. I ran from there and I was running incensed.
Speaker 2:I ran from there and I was running towards this rock and as I got there, I don't know how this had happened, but in the couple of hours that I'd been walking, somebody had come along and written in white paint on that rock, just as I was heading towards it, the very words that only my father had ever I'd ever heard him say. No one had ever said those words. No one's ever said it since, and that was. It's not what I taught you, it's what I gave you. That counts, so it's. It was no, sorry, it was not what I gave you, it's what I taught you. That counts. And when I saw that, I literally came to a grinding halt and my world changed, and that's when I decided to to face the music, go home and say hi, I'm back. I don't know how this looks, but I'm going to crawl back from where I went and I'm going to make this work, and I did.
Speaker 1:I want to pause a moment just to say thank you for doing that yeah without you doing that, this wouldn't exist this conversation and the lives you went on to change would not exist, and I want you to recognize that the fact that you're here is testament not just for yourself but for your father, and you have a lot to give, and that is something that needs celebrating every fucking day. And I do mean that, amanda, don't quit. We've all been there. I'm not sharing my story now, but I know what that felt like. I can feel the passion within you and your voice, so thank you for being here with me today. I really appreciate that.
Speaker 1:We spoke about unlikely mentors earlier. Thank you really. I want to acknowledge that and say thanks because that I know how difficult that was to share. Unlikely mentors come from everywhere, but there's one that always stands out above all else, and it's not usually a teacher that you would find. We talk about consciousness and beings of consciousness. Is there anything that you've written or you've read that have really stood out and that has been a guiding star, a North Star for you? Bear in mind, mind, there are three North Stars, there isn't just one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually. I wrote a memoir. And I didn't intend to write this memoir. I had been asked several times to do it. I was immensely private, even though I was working on the periphery of the public space, and it was only when I had. I got very sick, I went bankrupt, lost everything, two businesses, had two children, dependent children, three dogs, and I had to survive and the only thing I had left was this part written book, because I had started writing it more for my children, more than anything, because I wanted them to make sense of my wacky life, so that they could make sense. And and I wrote this book, would you believe, on a blackberry. You remember the old blackberries with the yes, yes aching thumbs I had.
Speaker 2:I could only do it my thumbs while I had a cleaning job because that was the only way I could bring uh money in into the house, and I did it in my break. So for half an hour every day I would write a little bit and it just this information just poured in from me, put into me from I don't know where, and I would upload it in secret because I was going through a violent relationship at the time onto this very old pc and that's really how that book began and I think it came from a, not from me. When I write, I'm transported, I step out the way and I've written five books I've re-edited. I've just released that book again, more edited version, more up-to-date version, and I've part written books as well. But when I write articles for magazines and whatever, but there's something that takes over and that's what I love about writing if you don't let your ego get in the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I love what you just said. There, people get their ego or their alter ego most of the time in the way and it disrupts the flow. Firstly, what's the memoir called? What's the book called? Because I'm going to go and buy it.
Speaker 2:Sue me, sue me.
Speaker 1:And the book itself. What was your experience? I get a lot of people say how do I write a book, how do I an author, how? And you were writing this in between breaks while sweeping the floors and mopping and hoovering and doing whatever else you were doing. How long did it take you?
Speaker 2:it took me six years all in all to finally get it there. I lost six chapters and I just abandoned it, but when I actually decided to make this work, I I managed to find the funding. I went through a hybrid publisher and even that was miraculous. I got this funding at the last minute within an hour on Kickstarter, and 5,000 pounds came in. If I hadn't got that, I wouldn't have got any of the money and we'd have lost the contract.
Speaker 2:So everything I always feel happens for a reason. But I got those rights back because I got so much attention. I didn't like the attention. Orion picked me up, they gave me a four book deal, including that, and they were going to republish it. But then they looked at it and said we need to cut it by half to fit the format of the other three books. We're not going to do that. This is your history, this is your legacy, and they gave it back to me. So this time I've published it myself, with my rights, so that I can do what I want with it, even get sued.
Speaker 1:This is what I like about people like yourself and self-publishing. Yes, it's sometimes very difficult, but it's so rewarding long because you don't have to obey by other people's rules. I've got a friend, a couple of friends, who are very established authors and they have been penguin and hate, but I don't know whether you're aware of this, but I'm sure it's public knowledge yet. But sod it, if I get sued, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Penguin has just brought hay house have they yeah, I don't know if it's public knowledge yet, but I have it from a very trusted inside source that a penguin just bought Hay House, washed that space. But all of these authors, they have a criteria and, like you said, they try and stifle who people are for their narrative. I love what you've done and that's be who you are. The question for you is how the hell did you get picked up by another publishing? Or does it just they contacted you, or did you reach out to them first?
Speaker 2:I got a lot of attention when the book first came out and I pulled it after four months. I just couldn't handle it. It got endorsed by Professor Evan Stark, who is who was the. He was the researcher behind the law change here in the UK at the time. It all happened to be a huge coincidence that my book was raising awareness about the very subject that was being talked about on the news and it was very relevant. So there was a lot going on there.
Speaker 2:I then got so an agent. I had an agent in Miami who wanted to sign me up, but she got panicked. It was all too much for her. Then I got another literary agent over here in the UK and she approached me and first of all I was getting film offers, but then they wanted to create this sort of our land version of it. So I didn't want that kind of narrative going out there. That was not what the essence of the story was.
Speaker 2:And she happened to go to a meeting with the head of Spring Imprint, amanda Harris, at Orion Publishing, and she went there for somebody else who'd been on Dragon's Den and she had said oh, by the way, just in case you're interested, gave her my book and Amanda Harris read it in four days it's a big read In four days came back to me and said I've been looking for this person for two years. Would she sign a four book deal with us and write three more books about angels? And it was just an amazing experience. So I got the credibility for writing for a big publisher. But at the end of the day, you are going by their rules. So I knew that when I did write this book, I had to do it on my terms, and I also feel that the publishing world is just so fickle, because it's all about protecting those that are the perpetrators and the people that really have something decent to say. They're restricted, they're bound by the rules. So I decided I was going to break them, because that's what I do.
Speaker 1:I like that. That brings me on to my next subject is legacy and resilience within legacy. We're all building legacies in one form or another. What would you like your legacy to be and how would you like to be remembered by other people?
Speaker 2:power back, especially in the domestic violence arena. This is a big industry it's about 24 billion that's invested into the UK alone and we're not even scraping at the surface. And that's because coercive control, which is the element that actually starts playing with the mind before you even get to the physical, is rife. One in four women are abused at some point in their lifetime here in the UK and one in six or seven men. But there's still not enough done about it. And that's because we're not doing anything. We're changing the programs Sorry, I'm just going to turn that off and that's because there is lots of counselling, lots of good stuff going on, lots of support, great charities.
Speaker 2:But I want to develop something which will roll out through the UK Eventually.
Speaker 2:We can do this on a global level and I'm in talks at the moment about starting something which will help people by having more holistic and more subconscious work done to help support those services that are already doing good work, work done to help support those services that are already doing good work so that people have an exit plan, they can work on themselves, so that they don't repeat those patterns and build good lives.
Speaker 2:And I've got two producers. I've got one here in the UK, one in Los Angeles, and they want to create a documentary and a film on this, based on this memoir, to take it and tour it around the UK. We're just looking for funding. We've already got one funder. He wants to invest in this and so if we do that, we're going to have cinemas around the UK where we'll take this and do the Q&As, raising awareness, and eventually that will then lead on to this project, which is to create something that's going to be united throughout the UK to help people and more of a holistic, more of a mind process to get so people can take their power back.
Speaker 1:So that's the legacy. I want to leave now that I love them, I'm gonna I'm gonna connect you with a couple of people as well to you, that's just sprung to mind.
Speaker 1:You answered my last question, but it and I still ask it because it's relevant if you could start a movement today that will leave that legacy, not just for the next 50 years. But I'm gonna go winston and cheshire's level of legacy, that famous speech, that level of movement within a culture of people, what would that be? I know it's got to do with something with what we were just speaking about it would definitely be about.
Speaker 2:It's all based on what I teach, which is that we all have this ability to be able to turn our life around if we know how to use our mind in the most appropriate way, and that comes down to education.
Speaker 2:We're not taught in school how to use this. We come through in this work, into this life, with this mind, which is we're downloaded with all this information which becomes irrelevant, but we're not taught how to use it. So I always say it's like being given a Ferrari and driving it around like a Fiat Punto. We need to be learning at a very young age what our genius potential is. Not trying to keep up with bertie big bollocks next door because he's his mum's paying for a blooming tutor so she can. He can do maths better than he can. So it really is down to letting kids understand what their genius potential is when they're young, understanding that they will be challenged and knowing that they have this mind that can work through the challenges and find the opportunities and answers, because they have the power to do it. And then, once you teach this in school, we're going to have a very different society, agreed?
Speaker 1:I love it. Thank you for joining me here today, amanda. It's been truly amazing. It's a privilege to be with you having this conversation before we go. We leave the audience with some inspiration, but I also want to you give the opportunity to share my call to action or where to go to find a bit about you and book retreat, whatever it is you wish to share yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:If they want to find out about any of my retreats or working with me, they can just go on to amanda-hartcouk All my details are in there and they can find me on social media. But what I would say to people if you do not have discipline in your life, you will always come unstuck because you need to anchor yourself. We're not just free falling, we need to be anchored, and that becomes through discipline, good practices and being mindful and kind, and that's the fundamentals I love it.
Speaker 1:Thank you very much, amanda, for joining me. Thank you, dear. Honor is mine. I believe me from myself. Ladies and gentlemen, if you enjoyed it, download it, share it with a friend. You never know you may change someone's life. It's free to share and if you want to support the show, it's three bucks. That's it. You're more than welcome to leave a review. Be please be kind. This is not about me, it's about the guests, and if you don't like me, that's fine, I don't care. From myself, I'm bass porter. A big shout out to amanda hart check out her website. Pause, go back and re-listen to things, get get a notepad and pen, use this information to support your life. Thank you for listening and it's a pleasure to be here once again today with you. Amanda, from myself, as always live with purpose my friends and inspire with legacy. Until next time, be safe and be blessed.
