April 1, 2023 • 24 mins
Amanda is the sort of person who, if you tell her she can’t do something, will usually find a way. You may not think that is a big deal, but she has been totally blind since birth, so what you might find easy often creates challenges for her that she overcomes.
Amanda has made a number of television appearances, including appearing on ABC News (Australia), 60 Minutes, and The Midday Show (Australia). She has also done quite a number of radio interviews.
As a speaker, Amanda uses her life experiences to inspire and encourage audiences to take courageous action to overcome the challenges that keep them stuck so they can reach their full potential in work and life.
https://purposevisionfuture.com/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-mark-howard-show--4542671/support.
Amanda has made a number of television appearances, including appearing on ABC News (Australia), 60 Minutes, and The Midday Show (Australia). She has also done quite a number of radio interviews.
As a speaker, Amanda uses her life experiences to inspire and encourage audiences to take courageous action to overcome the challenges that keep them stuck so they can reach their full potential in work and life.
https://purposevisionfuture.com/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-mark-howard-show--4542671/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:12):
Welcome back to the Mark Howard Show, and I have my special guest with
me, Amanda Hill, author andmotivational speaker. Amanda, thank you so
much for being here tonight. Thankyou so much for having me, absolutely
and so looking forward to the conversation. And really I want to start with
a question, maybe a little differentin some of other podcasts, but I
(00:33):
noticed that you had a chance tospeak at the Experts Online Global Business Summit
in October of twenty twenty two.Is that correct? Yes, Yes,
that was. That was a great, great function, wonderful. Can you
tell us a little bit about that, just what you spoke on and kind
of how that event went for you. Absolutely. I gazed my keynotes,
(00:56):
my forty five minute key note,which is actually on how to build resilience
and overcome uncertainty by building courage,and I spoke about my five pillars,
which are fix your eyes on theprize, not the problem, Optimize your
goals for outstanding outcome, connect withyour conviction the greater consistency, upgrade your
(01:21):
courage to unbelievable results, and finallysee your success by putting your courage into
action. It was fun, Itwas great. Now, there was quite
a few other speakers at that event. So that was kind of a kind
of a big deal, right tobe featured with all these other keynote speakers
and be able to kind of sharesome digital space with them to do this
(01:42):
event. Oh totally. I wasfelt very honored to have been accepted when
I applied, and I'm actually goingto be speaking at that same event in
March this year. Again, wonderful, wonderful, while look forward to being
able to catch that. Now.You mentioned in one of the pillars just
now you talk about optimize your goal. Yes, so also a bit about
(02:07):
what that, what that looks like, and kind of how that works in
our daily life. Sure, absolutelywell. Research has shown that if you
set meaningful goals and then break themdown into bite sized pieces, then it's
much easier to achieve the big goalbecause as you do each little step,
(02:30):
then it increases your courage to dothe next step, and the next step
and the next step until you actuallyget to achieving the final goal. And
once you achieve that goal, thenthat increases your courage to set the next
goal and work your way to achievingthat. So, yeah, that's that's
what I talked about, and Itold a story of getting a guide dog,
(02:54):
because I'm totally blind and I havehad four guide dogs. And when
you get a guide dog, youhave to go to various steps. You
know, first you learn to walkin a straight line, and then you
turn corners left and right, andthen you graduate onto slightly busier and busier
and busier areas until you're walking througha shopping mall with lots of different people.
(03:17):
And I was just talked about how, you know, achieving each step
then gave me the courage to goon to the next one and the next
one, until I had achieved mygoal of independent travels with my guide dogs.
I love that and I think it'sso important to the way you describe
that as you've got to kind ofmake sure I understand this and communicate this
(03:38):
correctly, that you've kind of gotthis bigger goal, but then you kind
of break that down into these littlesteps where each each little step you're taking,
you're kind of getting this win right, this building onto another wind to
another wind that leads you to thatbigger vision, that bigger girl. Is
that correct? Oh, that's absolutelyperfectly explained, beautifully explained. Yes,
(04:00):
So one of the things too,and I'm sure with your coaching that you
do and you're speaking, which issuper exciting. With all that you do,
I'm sure you've run across clients whomay as they kind of set these
big goals and they start taking thelittle stets. See as these whens,
sometimes there's obstacles and things that kindof might derail us, I guess you
could say. And how important isis kind of keeping your eye and you're
(04:24):
focused on that big goal as you'reas you step in these little steps so
that when we do have these obstacles, you know, to make sure we
don't lose our momentum. How importantis that? Oh, it's vital,
It's vital. And that's why myfirst pilla is fix your eyes on the
prize, not the problem, becauseyou know, when when we are working
(04:45):
towards that goals, you know wewe we do, as you said,
have something blocks which which come comein or a little obstacles which which are
put in our way, and ifyou focus on those then, as you
said, you can very easily getderailed. And so it's so important to
keep your eyes on the prize,which is that big goal, or even
(05:06):
even achieving that first step, becauseit is easy to get discouraged when things
don't go as smoothly as they might. I know there were occasions when my
dog, who hadn't got used tomy wits and my heart, you know,
led me into things, and thatwas certainly a little bit discouraging.
I'd also recently just recovered from aknee injury, so I was very nervous
(05:30):
about changes in the level of thepavement or things like that, so that
took a lot of I had toreally concentrate on being able to travel independently
so that I didn't get discouraged bymy own fears, my own fears of
falling and hurting my knee again,or perhaps walking into things, or perhaps
(05:51):
the dog going too slow, toofast, or something like that. So
absolutely, it's very important to keepyour eye focused on me, on the
goal that you're trying to a change. You know. It's funny because earlier,
just probably an hour before we're recordingthis podcast, I had posted something
on social media, and I postedand I said, You're tired. Keep
(06:14):
showing up, bad day, keepshowing up the bills behind, keep showing
up, struggling in your health,keep showing up the only you only lose
if you stop showing up. Youonly lose if you quit. Don't quit,
keep showing up. And for methat's just a reminder to myself,
but hopefully it'll encourage somebody listening toBut as we as we set these goals
(06:34):
and we and we start stepping outinto the real world to try to achieve
things in life, no matter whetherthat's in our personal life, relationships,
finances, our spiritual life, whateverwe're looking at, you know, there's
gonna be obstacles, right, Sowe've got to just keep showing up,
never quit. The only way welose is if we stop. And so
I think that's super important. SoI had read somewhere thank you. I've
(07:00):
read some where you've mentioned a kneeand fory a few minutes ago, but
I've read you had actually climbed tenthten thousand feet in the hall. But
correct, that's yeah, yeah,that's correct. There was a group of
well, someone has left some moneyto you Beat Guide US Association in Australia
and they wanted that money to beused to make a film. And so
(07:21):
someone got the idea, well,why don't we take six blind people to
Nepal and we go tracking because youknow that that will show the general public
that blind people like to do thesame thing as they do. You know,
have adventures, take risks, knownew skills, and it will also
(07:42):
help those people who go on thetrack to improve those my ability skills.
You know, relate to people thathaven't related before, meant to trust people
that haven't trusted before. So itwas a wonderful experience. I just loved
it. I got to get fitand you know, learn how to get
fit, and I got to trustto different Nepalese guides who he guided me
(08:07):
throughout the trek, and I walkedalong holding onto their backpacks. And I'd
done some experimenting before I went onthe trek to work out the best way
to be guided, and that wasit holding onto their backpack because they had
waste straps on their backpacks and soI was able to feel where the hips
were going, so I knew whichled to steps with so I was effectively
(08:28):
stepping in their footsteps. So yeah, it was a wonderful experience for all
of us. We all learned differentthings, and because we're all different stages
of fight loss, I was theonly totally blind one there. And yeah,
everyone had different life experiences and differentskills, and we all learned different
things and it was an experience I'llnever forget. It was wonderful. Wow,
(08:52):
that is so cool, so kind. I had gotten kind of off
subjects here. You have a wonderfulbook that I do it seeing by vision,
not by sight, and I lovethat. And if I'm not mistaken,
that theme is kind of about purpose. Is that right? That's correct?
Yes, I was made. Iwas laid off. In Australia,
(09:13):
they call it being they made redundant. So I was laid off in twenty
fourteen from my seventeen year job asa government lawyer. And had always wondered
why I'd been put on the acts, And I thought I'd been put on
the air for a reason that youknow, I didn't know what that was.
And so that gave me the chanceto go on a bit of a
(09:35):
journey to discover what my life's purposewas. And so eventually, after working
with some coaches and after doing someyou know, lots of trial and error
and searching and praying and thinking,I discovered that my life's purpose was to
inspire and encourage others. And Iwanted to become a speaker and someone said
to me, oh, well,if you want to become a speaker,
(09:58):
you need to write a book,because no one will take you seriously unless
you've written a book. So Idid. I wrote. I wrote this
book on how I discovered my lifepurpose and how other people can discover theirs.
And it's a very interactive book.It's I say in the introduction that
usually you know, you shouldn't writein books. In fact, they to
get very angry when I was studyinglaw and people used to underline things in
(10:22):
the library books, which meant thatmy document scanner wouldn't read the recognize the
words because they were underlined and highlighted. So I've always said, you know,
I think anyone who writes in abook should be shot, but particularly
a public book. But my bookI actually encourage people to write in.
It got lines to write on,and it's got questions, reflective type questions
(10:43):
that people can answer to go onthe journey to discovering their life's purpose and
putting an into action. Wonderful.So what point did you start going from
after you've written the book to startdoing speaking engagements. Was that kind of
simultaneously or what led to some ofthe first speaking engagements that you got.
(11:03):
While I have been actually working forfree as a speaker since round about nineteen
ninety two. I was working foras a volunteer for the Guide Dogs Association
of New South Wales and ACT andthey used to go to schools and different
clubs and associations and I used totalk about guide dogs in working with a
(11:26):
guide dog and how to treat peoplewith guide dogs. And then part way
through my journey to discover my purpose, I started selling skincare through a company
called Arbon and they used a lotof John C. Maxwell's material to train
their consultants. And I decided thatI would get out of selling skincare because
(11:48):
I was losing more money than makingand I decided to retrain as a John
C. Maxwell speaker, trainer andcoach. And then in twenty sixteen I
was offered a paid job with theGuide Doogs Associations. So now I go
out and I speak to different groupsand I train train bus drivers on how
to make bus travel more accessible forblind people. And yeah, so I've
(12:09):
been speaking on and off for quitea long time, but I got I've
started getting formal speaking engagements in liketwenty eighteen twenty nineteen mainly by word of
mouth, and it still is mainlyby word of mouth. So yeah,
if you feel that your organization needssome courage or resilience, please do reach
(12:30):
out to me. Yeah. Sothat's how I get my speaking engagements through
word of mouth and by applying tobe on podcasts like yours and yeah,
and you have a YouTube channel thatyou have got some great material of I
do. I got to be Igot to be on this on this lovely
thank you for that. I gotto be on this on this great internet
(12:50):
TV channel last year, which waswhich was great. I had a three
month stint with them, so gotto present some of my carry out of
my book can out and out ofmy other other types of resources, So
that was that was great. Thatwas very good experience for me. So
when you when you get a speakingengagement, is there certain areas that you
(13:13):
try to stay within? Do youtravel out of the country kind of what
is? Uh? So we mayhave listeners right now, but they're thinking,
hey, I would love to haveher come speak to our company about
her five pillars. What what's kindof the rules of hiring you? Where
do you go? Well? Ican travel anywhere within Australia and you know
New Zealand. Basically, I mean, hey, I'm always happy to come
(13:35):
over to the US if someone willpay my fare, that's very happy to
do that. I'm also set upso I can do virtual as well.
So yeah, I've got cameras andscreens and things set up so I can
do virtual too. On very cool. So when you when you do a
(13:56):
speaking engagement, and I know you'vedone some personal coaching and I've heard some
of the stories about, you know, some of the transformation that people kind
of find their purpose while in coachingwith you, and there's some really cool
story. So listeners, make sureyou check out the use of channel and
some of for social media, whichwill put some links in the show notes,
so click on those and find someof the PESSMONIALUS of videos. It's
(14:18):
amazing. But the question I havefor you is, if you do a
speaking engagement, what is kind ofwhat is something you want them to take
away something in the audience, inthe audience listening, what is something that
they could take away from from yourspeech. Well, the thing that I
say at the end of all myspeaking engagements is if you're facing a challenge
(14:39):
which seems a little bit too big, perhaps a little bit of overwhelming.
Just reach down, grab hold ofthat courage that I know is inside you,
and you'll be just fine. SoI want people to grab hold of
the courage which is in them alreadyand build on it and use it and
(15:01):
do whatever it is that they arewanting to do. I love it.
Do you have a Is there anytips or tricks? And it's not that
fine that someone can use to startsteaking in or finding courage, and say
they're looking for courage to maybe expandtheir business or to take the next step
at their career. There's something theycan do to kind of start must enough
(15:26):
that courage. Focus on that dream, focus on what it really means to
you and how much you really wantit. Because if you really want something,
really really want something deep down,you'll find the courage to do it.
Because if you want it bad enough, it's like that, Okay,
lez Brown, he used to say, how hungry are you? Are You
(15:50):
really hungry? If you're hungry enoughfor that thing, you'll do just about
anything to get it. So gethungry for it. And also, if
I may off for a second,tip, don't be afraid to ask for
help. You don't have to doit all by yourself. I think that's
why I failed in the skincare business, because I was so determined that as
(16:11):
a blind person I had to proveto the world but I could do this
by myself, that I didn't askfor help when I needed it, and
so therefore I failed. So don'tbe afraid to ask for help. Surround
yourself by the with people who willhold you up, lift you up,
encourage you. Because it's so easyas an entrepreneur to feel isolated or you
(16:33):
know, talk to the wrong people. Maybe it's even you know, loved
ones who are closest to you.They may be afraid for you, they
may not want you to take arisk, so they will unknowingly bring you
down. So surround yourself with peoplewho will lift you up, other entrepreneurs,
(16:53):
other people who will encourage you.And they're definitely some ways that you
can and stout building your currenty.I love that and you know that talking
about their environment. So I havea book coming out in April, and
one of these chapters is called HiddenMentors, and that's it, you know,
So it kind of talks about ifyou don't have people in your inner
(17:17):
circle or your circle of influence thatyou work with on a daily basis,
or your friends with. If youdon't have the people in that circle that
that you want to really strive tobe like, then we can we can
find especially today twenty twenty three iswhen we're recording this, the last day
of January, and we have somany resources on books, audible books,
(17:41):
excuse me, audiobook, YouTube,you know, social media, and there's
people out there who share so muchcontent, right, so find those people
and I call them hidden mentors isbecause you know, we may not get
to go like that was with wordsor have coffee, but you could start
to absorbing that information online through allthese different resources and let that be your
(18:03):
environment, right, Let that behow you can get that courage to start
building up. Is kind of borrowfrom the other people's experiences and borrow from
their courage until you can stand onyour own. Oh my gosh, absolutely,
I mean my, you know,John Maxwell was one of my and
still is one of my mentors.I've read so many of his books and
(18:26):
I've actually been blessed to meet theman in person, and he's absolutely lovely.
But yes, for a long timehe was my mentor in a book.
And you know, I'm also anavid reader of the Bible, and
Jesus Christ is one of my mentorsas well. So absolutely you can have
mentors in books and on YouTube.Totally. Yes, I mean Jesus obviously
(18:47):
the ultimate mentor, next right behindhim, definitely him. First, one
of my greatest mentors was Jim Rohan, who I've never met, who has
a way, but I love andwrong material. And there's this video on
YouTube that he recorded in nineteen eightyone and I've watched it I don't know
(19:07):
how many times, because the wisdomin that video are from him in that
video is just as good and valuabletoday in twenty twenty three as it was
when he spoke it in And soagain the point is, y'all. She
mentioned of being hungry, and Ilove less bround how he says that be
hungry. Know your why you know? And if you think you want something,
(19:32):
and you think and you start settingsome goals and you find yourself really
not pushing to get those, stopand reevaluating. Ask yourself, right,
a man, Just ask yourself,So, hey, is this really what
I'm wanting? Is this really thedirection I want to go because you can
often measure how important something is toyou by how much you're willing to sacrifice
(19:52):
for it. And if you're notwilling to sacrifice, then maybe that's not
the direction you want or what Maybeyou don't really want that right now?
Oh? Absolutely, I mean Iremember in the network marketing industry they always
used to say, if your whydoesn't make you cry, it's not big
enough. Amen. I like that. I like that. So, Amanda,
thank you so much for all thisI do have, and I want
(20:14):
to respect your time, even thoughI could probably keep you on for a
few hours, but I'm not goingto do that tonight. So I do
have three questions for you, andthe first one, or these three,
I try to ask everybody that comeson the podcast. So the first question
is, if I give you aone hundred dollars bill and you have to
spend this on yourself, what doyou buy. My first thought was I'd
(20:36):
put it towards the holiday, butthen I said, no, I won't.
I would put it towards tessonal coaching, a coaching. I would spend
it on a coaching session with oneof my favorite coaching Yep. Absolutely,
I love that. The second questionis, do you have any goals or
resolutions you're working on for this yearfor twenty twenty three that you would like
to share. My goal for twentytwenty three is to get since paid speaking
(21:00):
engagements, absolutely, because most ofmy stuff is you know, I've just
been building my reputation and building andbuilding, and most of my thinking have
been the free, So I wouldmy goal is definitely to get paid to
speak somewhere outstanding. Now this mayyou may integrate this into the third question
here what you just said, buthow can our community here at the Mark
(21:22):
Howard show, how can we helpserve you this year? Oh my gosh,
if you want me to speak toyou virtually or in person, please
do reach out, because I amjust dying to speak into the lives of
people and give them courage and helpthem achieve what it is they want to
achieve, and help them overcome allthe unpleasantness of the last couple of years
(21:48):
and just build their courage again andget them going and achieving what they want
to achieve. Well, you mentionedearly on that you feel like you were
led to inspire and encourage others,and I believe you're living that out on
a daily basis that you're doing sucha wonderful thing by sharing the content that
you have online and by doing yourspeaking engagements and coaching. So thank you
(22:11):
for touching the lives of all thosethat you come in contact with. We
are so grateful that we've had achance to spend a few minutes getting to
know you tonight here on the episode, and we as a community, we
are definitely going to help support you. So what I want all the listeners
to do is, first, Iuse to make sure you check the show
notes on whatever platform you're listening tothis, and I want you to start
(22:34):
clicking links. I want you tocheck her out on social media, make
sure you subscribe to YouTube, lookfor her books, and then if you
have an organization or a way thatyou can bring her on to speak,
even if it's a virtual so youcan if you're in the States, you
could do a virtual if need be. But be sure to reach out now
your email, How can they what'sthe best way for them to contact you?
(22:55):
Amanda contact details on my speak,your website and Amanda Heel dot com
dot AU. There's a or youcan email me at Amanda at Amanda Heel
dot com dot AU and the spellingof that will bit of in the show
notes, and yes, so thatthey're the best way to contact me,
(23:15):
either assume my website or via directlyvia email. Perfect. Well, thank
you so much again for being hereand visiting with us. We look forward
to kind of keeping track of youthis year and to watch you fulfill those
goals of having some great paid gigs, also just aspiring and encouraging others.
(23:36):
So thank you again for being heretonight. Thank you for having me.
It's been an absolute closure.
Welcome back to the Mark Howard Show, and I have my special guest with
me, Amanda Hill, author andmotivational speaker. Amanda, thank you so
much for being here tonight. Thankyou so much for having me, absolutely
and so looking forward to the conversation. And really I want to start with
a question, maybe a little differentin some of other podcasts, but I
(00:33):
noticed that you had a chance tospeak at the Experts Online Global Business Summit
in October of twenty twenty two.Is that correct? Yes, Yes,
that was. That was a great, great function, wonderful. Can you
tell us a little bit about that, just what you spoke on and kind
of how that event went for you. Absolutely. I gazed my keynotes,
(00:56):
my forty five minute key note,which is actually on how to build resilience
and overcome uncertainty by building courage,and I spoke about my five pillars,
which are fix your eyes on theprize, not the problem, Optimize your
goals for outstanding outcome, connect withyour conviction the greater consistency, upgrade your
(01:21):
courage to unbelievable results, and finallysee your success by putting your courage into
action. It was fun, Itwas great. Now, there was quite
a few other speakers at that event. So that was kind of a kind
of a big deal, right tobe featured with all these other keynote speakers
and be able to kind of sharesome digital space with them to do this
(01:42):
event. Oh totally. I wasfelt very honored to have been accepted when
I applied, and I'm actually goingto be speaking at that same event in
March this year. Again, wonderful, wonderful, while look forward to being
able to catch that. Now.You mentioned in one of the pillars just
now you talk about optimize your goal. Yes, so also a bit about
(02:07):
what that, what that looks like, and kind of how that works in
our daily life. Sure, absolutelywell. Research has shown that if you
set meaningful goals and then break themdown into bite sized pieces, then it's
much easier to achieve the big goalbecause as you do each little step,
(02:30):
then it increases your courage to dothe next step, and the next step
and the next step until you actuallyget to achieving the final goal. And
once you achieve that goal, thenthat increases your courage to set the next
goal and work your way to achievingthat. So, yeah, that's that's
what I talked about, and Itold a story of getting a guide dog,
(02:54):
because I'm totally blind and I havehad four guide dogs. And when
you get a guide dog, youhave to go to various steps. You
know, first you learn to walkin a straight line, and then you
turn corners left and right, andthen you graduate onto slightly busier and busier
and busier areas until you're walking througha shopping mall with lots of different people.
(03:17):
And I was just talked about how, you know, achieving each step
then gave me the courage to goon to the next one and the next
one, until I had achieved mygoal of independent travels with my guide dogs.
I love that and I think it'sso important to the way you describe
that as you've got to kind ofmake sure I understand this and communicate this
(03:38):
correctly, that you've kind of gotthis bigger goal, but then you kind
of break that down into these littlesteps where each each little step you're taking,
you're kind of getting this win right, this building onto another wind to
another wind that leads you to thatbigger vision, that bigger girl. Is
that correct? Oh, that's absolutelyperfectly explained, beautifully explained. Yes,
(04:00):
So one of the things too,and I'm sure with your coaching that you
do and you're speaking, which issuper exciting. With all that you do,
I'm sure you've run across clients whomay as they kind of set these
big goals and they start taking thelittle stets. See as these whens,
sometimes there's obstacles and things that kindof might derail us, I guess you
could say. And how important isis kind of keeping your eye and you're
(04:24):
focused on that big goal as you'reas you step in these little steps so
that when we do have these obstacles, you know, to make sure we
don't lose our momentum. How importantis that? Oh, it's vital,
It's vital. And that's why myfirst pilla is fix your eyes on the
prize, not the problem, becauseyou know, when when we are working
(04:45):
towards that goals, you know wewe we do, as you said,
have something blocks which which come comein or a little obstacles which which are
put in our way, and ifyou focus on those then, as you
said, you can very easily getderailed. And so it's so important to
keep your eyes on the prize,which is that big goal, or even
(05:06):
even achieving that first step, becauseit is easy to get discouraged when things
don't go as smoothly as they might. I know there were occasions when my
dog, who hadn't got used tomy wits and my heart, you know,
led me into things, and thatwas certainly a little bit discouraging.
I'd also recently just recovered from aknee injury, so I was very nervous
(05:30):
about changes in the level of thepavement or things like that, so that
took a lot of I had toreally concentrate on being able to travel independently
so that I didn't get discouraged bymy own fears, my own fears of
falling and hurting my knee again,or perhaps walking into things, or perhaps
(05:51):
the dog going too slow, toofast, or something like that. So
absolutely, it's very important to keepyour eye focused on me, on the
goal that you're trying to a change. You know. It's funny because earlier,
just probably an hour before we're recordingthis podcast, I had posted something
on social media, and I postedand I said, You're tired. Keep
(06:14):
showing up, bad day, keepshowing up the bills behind, keep showing
up, struggling in your health,keep showing up the only you only lose
if you stop showing up. Youonly lose if you quit. Don't quit,
keep showing up. And for methat's just a reminder to myself,
but hopefully it'll encourage somebody listening toBut as we as we set these goals
(06:34):
and we and we start stepping outinto the real world to try to achieve
things in life, no matter whetherthat's in our personal life, relationships,
finances, our spiritual life, whateverwe're looking at, you know, there's
gonna be obstacles, right, Sowe've got to just keep showing up,
never quit. The only way welose is if we stop. And so
I think that's super important. SoI had read somewhere thank you. I've
(07:00):
read some where you've mentioned a kneeand fory a few minutes ago, but
I've read you had actually climbed tenthten thousand feet in the hall. But
correct, that's yeah, yeah,that's correct. There was a group of
well, someone has left some moneyto you Beat Guide US Association in Australia
and they wanted that money to beused to make a film. And so
(07:21):
someone got the idea, well,why don't we take six blind people to
Nepal and we go tracking because youknow that that will show the general public
that blind people like to do thesame thing as they do. You know,
have adventures, take risks, knownew skills, and it will also
(07:42):
help those people who go on thetrack to improve those my ability skills.
You know, relate to people thathaven't related before, meant to trust people
that haven't trusted before. So itwas a wonderful experience. I just loved
it. I got to get fitand you know, learn how to get
fit, and I got to trustto different Nepalese guides who he guided me
(08:07):
throughout the trek, and I walkedalong holding onto their backpacks. And I'd
done some experimenting before I went onthe trek to work out the best way
to be guided, and that wasit holding onto their backpack because they had
waste straps on their backpacks and soI was able to feel where the hips
were going, so I knew whichled to steps with so I was effectively
(08:28):
stepping in their footsteps. So yeah, it was a wonderful experience for all
of us. We all learned differentthings, and because we're all different stages
of fight loss, I was theonly totally blind one there. And yeah,
everyone had different life experiences and differentskills, and we all learned different
things and it was an experience I'llnever forget. It was wonderful. Wow,
(08:52):
that is so cool, so kind. I had gotten kind of off
subjects here. You have a wonderfulbook that I do it seeing by vision,
not by sight, and I lovethat. And if I'm not mistaken,
that theme is kind of about purpose. Is that right? That's correct?
Yes, I was made. Iwas laid off. In Australia,
(09:13):
they call it being they made redundant. So I was laid off in twenty
fourteen from my seventeen year job asa government lawyer. And had always wondered
why I'd been put on the acts, And I thought I'd been put on
the air for a reason that youknow, I didn't know what that was.
And so that gave me the chanceto go on a bit of a
(09:35):
journey to discover what my life's purposewas. And so eventually, after working
with some coaches and after doing someyou know, lots of trial and error
and searching and praying and thinking,I discovered that my life's purpose was to
inspire and encourage others. And Iwanted to become a speaker and someone said
to me, oh, well,if you want to become a speaker,
(09:58):
you need to write a book,because no one will take you seriously unless
you've written a book. So Idid. I wrote. I wrote this
book on how I discovered my lifepurpose and how other people can discover theirs.
And it's a very interactive book.It's I say in the introduction that
usually you know, you shouldn't writein books. In fact, they to
get very angry when I was studyinglaw and people used to underline things in
(10:22):
the library books, which meant thatmy document scanner wouldn't read the recognize the
words because they were underlined and highlighted. So I've always said, you know,
I think anyone who writes in abook should be shot, but particularly
a public book. But my bookI actually encourage people to write in.
It got lines to write on,and it's got questions, reflective type questions
(10:43):
that people can answer to go onthe journey to discovering their life's purpose and
putting an into action. Wonderful.So what point did you start going from
after you've written the book to startdoing speaking engagements. Was that kind of
simultaneously or what led to some ofthe first speaking engagements that you got.
(11:03):
While I have been actually working forfree as a speaker since round about nineteen
ninety two. I was working foras a volunteer for the Guide Dogs Association
of New South Wales and ACT andthey used to go to schools and different
clubs and associations and I used totalk about guide dogs in working with a
(11:26):
guide dog and how to treat peoplewith guide dogs. And then part way
through my journey to discover my purpose, I started selling skincare through a company
called Arbon and they used a lotof John C. Maxwell's material to train
their consultants. And I decided thatI would get out of selling skincare because
(11:48):
I was losing more money than makingand I decided to retrain as a John
C. Maxwell speaker, trainer andcoach. And then in twenty sixteen I
was offered a paid job with theGuide Doogs Associations. So now I go
out and I speak to different groupsand I train train bus drivers on how
to make bus travel more accessible forblind people. And yeah, so I've
(12:09):
been speaking on and off for quitea long time, but I got I've
started getting formal speaking engagements in liketwenty eighteen twenty nineteen mainly by word of
mouth, and it still is mainlyby word of mouth. So yeah,
if you feel that your organization needssome courage or resilience, please do reach
(12:30):
out to me. Yeah. Sothat's how I get my speaking engagements through
word of mouth and by applying tobe on podcasts like yours and yeah,
and you have a YouTube channel thatyou have got some great material of I
do. I got to be Igot to be on this on this lovely
thank you for that. I gotto be on this on this great internet
(12:50):
TV channel last year, which waswhich was great. I had a three
month stint with them, so gotto present some of my carry out of
my book can out and out ofmy other other types of resources, So
that was that was great. Thatwas very good experience for me. So
when you when you get a speakingengagement, is there certain areas that you
(13:13):
try to stay within? Do youtravel out of the country kind of what
is? Uh? So we mayhave listeners right now, but they're thinking,
hey, I would love to haveher come speak to our company about
her five pillars. What what's kindof the rules of hiring you? Where
do you go? Well? Ican travel anywhere within Australia and you know
New Zealand. Basically, I mean, hey, I'm always happy to come
(13:35):
over to the US if someone willpay my fare, that's very happy to
do that. I'm also set upso I can do virtual as well.
So yeah, I've got cameras andscreens and things set up so I can
do virtual too. On very cool. So when you when you do a
(13:56):
speaking engagement, and I know you'vedone some personal coaching and I've heard some
of the stories about, you know, some of the transformation that people kind
of find their purpose while in coachingwith you, and there's some really cool
story. So listeners, make sureyou check out the use of channel and
some of for social media, whichwill put some links in the show notes,
so click on those and find someof the PESSMONIALUS of videos. It's
(14:18):
amazing. But the question I havefor you is, if you do a
speaking engagement, what is kind ofwhat is something you want them to take
away something in the audience, inthe audience listening, what is something that
they could take away from from yourspeech. Well, the thing that I
say at the end of all myspeaking engagements is if you're facing a challenge
(14:39):
which seems a little bit too big, perhaps a little bit of overwhelming.
Just reach down, grab hold ofthat courage that I know is inside you,
and you'll be just fine. SoI want people to grab hold of
the courage which is in them alreadyand build on it and use it and
(15:01):
do whatever it is that they arewanting to do. I love it.
Do you have a Is there anytips or tricks? And it's not that
fine that someone can use to startsteaking in or finding courage, and say
they're looking for courage to maybe expandtheir business or to take the next step
at their career. There's something theycan do to kind of start must enough
(15:26):
that courage. Focus on that dream, focus on what it really means to
you and how much you really wantit. Because if you really want something,
really really want something deep down,you'll find the courage to do it.
Because if you want it bad enough, it's like that, Okay,
lez Brown, he used to say, how hungry are you? Are You
(15:50):
really hungry? If you're hungry enoughfor that thing, you'll do just about
anything to get it. So gethungry for it. And also, if
I may off for a second,tip, don't be afraid to ask for
help. You don't have to doit all by yourself. I think that's
why I failed in the skincare business, because I was so determined that as
(16:11):
a blind person I had to proveto the world but I could do this
by myself, that I didn't askfor help when I needed it, and
so therefore I failed. So don'tbe afraid to ask for help. Surround
yourself by the with people who willhold you up, lift you up,
encourage you. Because it's so easyas an entrepreneur to feel isolated or you
(16:33):
know, talk to the wrong people. Maybe it's even you know, loved
ones who are closest to you.They may be afraid for you, they
may not want you to take arisk, so they will unknowingly bring you
down. So surround yourself with peoplewho will lift you up, other entrepreneurs,
(16:53):
other people who will encourage you.And they're definitely some ways that you
can and stout building your currenty.I love that and you know that talking
about their environment. So I havea book coming out in April, and
one of these chapters is called HiddenMentors, and that's it, you know,
So it kind of talks about ifyou don't have people in your inner
(17:17):
circle or your circle of influence thatyou work with on a daily basis,
or your friends with. If youdon't have the people in that circle that
that you want to really strive tobe like, then we can we can
find especially today twenty twenty three iswhen we're recording this, the last day
of January, and we have somany resources on books, audible books,
(17:41):
excuse me, audiobook, YouTube,you know, social media, and there's
people out there who share so muchcontent, right, so find those people
and I call them hidden mentors isbecause you know, we may not get
to go like that was with wordsor have coffee, but you could start
to absorbing that information online through allthese different resources and let that be your
(18:03):
environment, right, Let that behow you can get that courage to start
building up. Is kind of borrowfrom the other people's experiences and borrow from
their courage until you can stand onyour own. Oh my gosh, absolutely,
I mean my, you know,John Maxwell was one of my and
still is one of my mentors.I've read so many of his books and
(18:26):
I've actually been blessed to meet theman in person, and he's absolutely lovely.
But yes, for a long timehe was my mentor in a book.
And you know, I'm also anavid reader of the Bible, and
Jesus Christ is one of my mentorsas well. So absolutely you can have
mentors in books and on YouTube.Totally. Yes, I mean Jesus obviously
(18:47):
the ultimate mentor, next right behindhim, definitely him. First, one
of my greatest mentors was Jim Rohan, who I've never met, who has
a way, but I love andwrong material. And there's this video on
YouTube that he recorded in nineteen eightyone and I've watched it I don't know
(19:07):
how many times, because the wisdomin that video are from him in that
video is just as good and valuabletoday in twenty twenty three as it was
when he spoke it in And soagain the point is, y'all. She
mentioned of being hungry, and Ilove less bround how he says that be
hungry. Know your why you know? And if you think you want something,
(19:32):
and you think and you start settingsome goals and you find yourself really
not pushing to get those, stopand reevaluating. Ask yourself, right,
a man, Just ask yourself,So, hey, is this really what
I'm wanting? Is this really thedirection I want to go because you can
often measure how important something is toyou by how much you're willing to sacrifice
(19:52):
for it. And if you're notwilling to sacrifice, then maybe that's not
the direction you want or what Maybeyou don't really want that right now?
Oh? Absolutely, I mean Iremember in the network marketing industry they always
used to say, if your whydoesn't make you cry, it's not big
enough. Amen. I like that. I like that. So, Amanda,
thank you so much for all thisI do have, and I want
(20:14):
to respect your time, even thoughI could probably keep you on for a
few hours, but I'm not goingto do that tonight. So I do
have three questions for you, andthe first one, or these three,
I try to ask everybody that comeson the podcast. So the first question
is, if I give you aone hundred dollars bill and you have to
spend this on yourself, what doyou buy. My first thought was I'd
(20:36):
put it towards the holiday, butthen I said, no, I won't.
I would put it towards tessonal coaching, a coaching. I would spend
it on a coaching session with oneof my favorite coaching Yep. Absolutely,
I love that. The second questionis, do you have any goals or
resolutions you're working on for this yearfor twenty twenty three that you would like
to share. My goal for twentytwenty three is to get since paid speaking
(21:00):
engagements, absolutely, because most ofmy stuff is you know, I've just
been building my reputation and building andbuilding, and most of my thinking have
been the free, So I wouldmy goal is definitely to get paid to
speak somewhere outstanding. Now this mayyou may integrate this into the third question
here what you just said, buthow can our community here at the Mark
(21:22):
Howard show, how can we helpserve you this year? Oh my gosh,
if you want me to speak toyou virtually or in person, please
do reach out, because I amjust dying to speak into the lives of
people and give them courage and helpthem achieve what it is they want to
achieve, and help them overcome allthe unpleasantness of the last couple of years
(21:48):
and just build their courage again andget them going and achieving what they want
to achieve. Well, you mentionedearly on that you feel like you were
led to inspire and encourage others,and I believe you're living that out on
a daily basis that you're doing sucha wonderful thing by sharing the content that
you have online and by doing yourspeaking engagements and coaching. So thank you
(22:11):
for touching the lives of all thosethat you come in contact with. We
are so grateful that we've had achance to spend a few minutes getting to
know you tonight here on the episode, and we as a community, we
are definitely going to help support you. So what I want all the listeners
to do is, first, Iuse to make sure you check the show
notes on whatever platform you're listening tothis, and I want you to start
(22:34):
clicking links. I want you tocheck her out on social media, make
sure you subscribe to YouTube, lookfor her books, and then if you
have an organization or a way thatyou can bring her on to speak,
even if it's a virtual so youcan if you're in the States, you
could do a virtual if need be. But be sure to reach out now
your email, How can they what'sthe best way for them to contact you?
(22:55):
Amanda contact details on my speak,your website and Amanda Heel dot com
dot AU. There's a or youcan email me at Amanda at Amanda Heel
dot com dot AU and the spellingof that will bit of in the show
notes, and yes, so thatthey're the best way to contact me,
(23:15):
either assume my website or via directlyvia email. Perfect. Well, thank
you so much again for being hereand visiting with us. We look forward
to kind of keeping track of youthis year and to watch you fulfill those
goals of having some great paid gigs, also just aspiring and encouraging others.
(23:36):
So thank you again for being heretonight. Thank you for having me.
It's been an absolute closure.
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