How to run a thriving and profitable membership with Amanda Armstrong

Tune in as we discuss how to create, structure, and run a thriving and profitable membership and how it can fit into your product suite. We also dive into the importance of ignoring cookie-cutter business advice and finding what will truly work for you.

For the full show notes and access to resources mentioned in this episode visit https://www.easyscaling.com/blog/episode8 

In today's episode, we’re talking all about running a membership. We touch on how to structure it, how to host it, what to include, and how to deliver the content. We also talk about how a membership can fit into your product suite and how it can serve both new and existing clients. 

My guest is Amanda Armstrong, a neuroscience and trauma-informed anxiety & depression coach and Founder of Rise As We, a mental health coaching space. Like most healers she has her own history of mental health struggles and trauma. Mainstream mental health support weren’t a good fit. From completely personalized 1:1 coaching to the most comprehensive mental health membership community out there, Rise As We offers the programs and support she wishes she would have had on her healing journey.

Amanda is a mom so we also dive into navigating motherhood and entrepreneurship and some parallels we see between parenthood and business ownership.

Topics discussed:

• The importance of not undervaluing yourself and your expertise
• How to add accessible offers to your product suite
• Why you don’t need to promise the same transformation in all of your offers
• Front loading education inside of a group program to provide more customization
• The role of education and course content inside a membership
• Ignoring cookie-cutter business advice and finding what will work for you
• When you might want to think about taking a break from coaching
• How clients can move between 1:1 coaching, groups, and a membership
• How co-coaches can help facilitate a membership
• Ideas for what to provide and how to deliver content inside of a membership

Love what you heard? Reviews really help us out! As a thank you, you can get my 90-Day Planning Formula ($97 Value) by submitting a screenshot of your 5-star review at easyscaling.com/podcastreview

Transcript

Ep#8 - How to run a thriving and profitable membership with Amanda Armstrong

Jordan: All righty. In today's episode, we're talking about a lot of fun stuff. We're talking a lot about memberships, which I didn't know we were gonna do, but it ends up being really, really cool and interesting. What we dive into around how to run a membership. We talk a little bit generally about products, suite.

Talk a little bit about motherhood. We talk about, just generally. Building a business that you love. My guest is Amanda Armstrong. She is a neuroscience and trauma informed anxiety and depression coach. She's the founder of rise. As we a mental health coaching space, she offers personalized one-on-one coaching.

She has a mental health membership community. She does a lot of really cool stuff. So I really hope you enjoy this conversation. It was super insightful and informative and exciting for me to talk to her. And I hope you love it. 

Welcome. Welcome everyone. And welcome Amanda. I'm so glad you're here. Sure. Thanks for having me. Yeah, of course.

This is gonna be awesome. We're gonna, we're gonna just see where this goes. Cuz we have some fun stuff that we chatted about around product suite, that I think is gonna be a cool place to start. But then who knows what's gonna come up. so let's first. Before we dive into some of that, let's give some people some context about who you are and what you.

Amanda: Yeah, I am Amanda Armstrong and I am a neuroscience and trauma informed anxiety and depression coach. And so I really help individuals understand their anxiety and depression through a nervous system lens. And so we do a lot of nervous system regulation, work lifestyle, behavior, change, stress management, and so really leaning into mental health coaching.

And I know we mentioned product suites we'll get into, but I do everything from monthly mental health membership to one on one coaching and then lots of different things in between. Yeah. 

Jordan: I love it. And we met through curate well, co right. Through Pia. Yeah. Cause I think I did. Was it my presentation on SOPs or on group programs?

Group programs. Group programs. Okay, cool. Yeah. Yeah. I was trying to remember which one it was so, so let's, let's talk about this because you know, you're saying you, you do one on one, you do group, you have a membership, so maybe tell us how did you get started and how has that product suite evolved along the way?

Amanda: Yeah. So I started my business rise as we, while I was working full time at Google out in California. And so I was a health fitness specialist there. So my role was kind of personal trainer and then I did some mental health stuff. And so my business started just as like supplementary and in addition to.

Just my regular full-time income. And that looked like a couple one-on-one clients. That was more just this inter lap between I was still very deep in the fitness industry. So it was some like online fitness coaching paired with some mental health conversations. Cause that's what my degree was in, was in exercise psychology.

So that overlap of lifestyle, stress management movement, mental health, and that turned into a membership that started off as just like a daily workout of meditation. My goal was to just give mental and physical health and equal seat to the table in some program somewhere, I felt like there was so much toxicity in the fitness industry, meditation and mindfulness was so intimidating to me.

And I was like, let's just put it in a simple place. You show up, you hit play and you've got what you need for your mental and physical health in part, at least for the day. And then it just kind of evolved from there that membership turned more. Coaching, where there was like monthly master classes and different things.

And it was probably two years in when I really added the deep mental health one on one coaching. I was like, okay, this membership is amazing. And it holds a lot of space, but there's a level of personalization in, in people's mental health journey that just demands that one-on-one support. And so started to develop that.

And it's a combination between education is huge across all of my offerings. And so really teaching people, what is your nervous system, the role that it plays in mental health, the things that impact our nervous system, how trauma and stress. And so there is a kind of module component. There's always a workbook component.

And then there is the coaching component, which is that personalization. And so this is. Kind of the long journey of how I got to where I have. I have really just been like a one step at a time what's needed. How do I shift? How do I adapt to either do what I feel is more authentic to what I wanna be doing or to meet the needs of the people that I'm serving.

And so I went from that membership to having a membership and one-on-one coaching, and those still are my primary offers. I've greatly expanded beyond just that daily workout meditation membership. It's now a full suite mental health membership that involves that education piece, life coaching, guided movement, meditation practices, et cetera.

And then for individuals who want either more privacy or that deeper level personalization, we have a 16 week one-on-one coaching container for anxiety and depression. 

Jordan: This is so interesting because. I feel like people don't usually start with a membership and then move into one on one. It's always the opposite.

Right? Like the, the progression is typically one on one group and then membership like you stack 'em on that way. So this is so interesting. So what made you decide to do a membership right off the bat? I 

Amanda: had, like I said, I, at that point I'd been in the personal training world for, I don't know, maybe seven or eight years.

And so I had a long history of clients that I had worked with both. I started as a trainer in university and then, and I think I started with kind of like somewhat on one and membership at the same time. And then I had, I mean, it wasn't a big Instagram following, but I was having some of these conversations on Instagram and honestly, I just felt like I wanted to go for it.

That was the thing that just. Peaked my interest. And I had seen a couple other people and I, I think that's a thing in the fitness industry at the time. This is when a lot of like virtual training is probably like, this is eight year. I was doing coaching before it was cool to be a coach, in the online space.

And so this is where a lot of, fitness trainers were starting to kind of make that pivot is before the big life coaching boom. And so there's like the apps and, you know, the, the meditations and whatever. So I think it's in part because that's what I, I saw other people doing. Mm-hmm and I didn't really wanna do one on one online, personal training because I was doing so much of that during the day.

And I wanted to create something that wasn't just about fitness. I was a little over just being in the fitness space. And so, and I think I had the luxury of it being supplemental income to my full-time income. And so I got to play a little bit. I got to say, let's just go for it and see what happens. And I naively said it at a stupid low price point.

And so what was it people bought, because I think it was like 30, 27 or $30 a month. Yeah. And the amount of hours that I put in behind the scenes to film daily workouts and meditations for someone to pay me less than a dollar a day was it's it's comical. 

Jordan: Yeah. like, 

Amanda: oh my gosh. Like I think that every coach, I think does that every coach undervalues what they have to offer at the beginning.

Yeah. Um, Well maybe not every coach I for sure did for a really long time. I remember the day I was in a, a mastermind and, we were just talking about one on one coaching and rates and whatever. And in that mastermind, I was like, I'm doubling my rates tomorrow. Yeah, I have to, I have to, for it to feel like a fair, energetic exchange for it to be an investment level that matches whatever.

So, that's not what I charge for my monthly membership anymore. But yeah, I think that's kinda why I started there was just because it's, it's what I saw and it's what sounded fun. 

Jordan: Yeah. Did that membership, did it allow you to, quit your nine to five or was it more the one on one side of things?

Both? 

Amanda: I also. Did I, I was very financially smart, my nine to five and uh, went to side note when I quit my nine to five. I was living in a van. 

Jordan: No, yes. 

Amanda: I built a, again, one of those things I did before pandemic and before it was cool. I bought a sprinter van in like 2016 and decided to build it out into a tiny home.

And so I was in a really awesome position where I had just spent the last couple years not paying bay area, San Francisco, California rent. I was making really good money. I mean, hustling my soul for it, but I was making really good money working at Google. And so I had a, I had a little bit of a, a, a cush there mm-hmm and it was towards my fifth year at Google where I realized when I was with clients.

I was thinking about rises. We, and when I was with, when I was doing my rises, we stuff, I was like two in the morning when I had a 6:00 AM client. And I just had that, like coming to do this moment where I was like, you, you can't keep doing both. So you either have to choose whether, you know, this, this rises, we, this like mental health move is where you wanna go or probably let it go.

Cuz you're, you're actually killing yourself. yeah. And the guy was dating at the time, got a job on the east coast. So that was a good Mo motivator. Now he's been up level to husband and, you know, baby daddy, but that was a good motivator for me. I was like, I think it's time to let this chapter go and really move into RISE's wee full time.

That's 

Jordan: awesome. I love it. How long did that take you from when you first do, do you see the membership? Like when you started that, is that like the start of this business? How long was it from like starting to getting out of your nine to five. 

Amanda: Probably about two, two to two and a half years, I would say.

Yeah. 

Jordan: Yeah. So, so then where does the group come into play then? 

Amanda: So I have done periodic groups where I've done just, Hey, here is this particular topic. Let's do it, you know, a little more in a, have those conversations and to do that coaching in a more intimate way than we can do in the membership, but not quite as intimately in one, on one, or it's a topic that's not it's maybe a little bit more specific than just, you know, broad anxiety or depression.

And actually what we're we're playing with right now is we do have, my membership is a really high touch membership. And so there is a lot of opportunity for them to get some personalized coaching within a group environment. But there is, I think an eventual need as that membership grows of people who either.

Don't feel like they entirely need the one-on-one or there's just, they don't have the financial resources for the one-on-one, but would benefit from a little bit more support than this monthly membership. And so right now I don't have an active group coaching program, but I that's something that would super easily fit in as maybe like once a year or twice a year, we would take the one on one anxiety and depression coaching curriculum, and just offer it within a group, a small group setting anywhere from 10 to 15 people.

Jordan: Probably. Yeah. And I remember when we, because now it's all coming back to me when we chatted at that presentation that I did on group programs. The piece about accessibility came up a lot for you. Like how can I make this accessible and help people who can't afford my one-on-one, but I also don't feel like I can give them the transformation that I can with one on one.

And I think I remember me mentioning something around, well, you don't have to promise the same transformation in your group program as your one on one like that. It doesn't have to be an equal, you know, offer. And that's what makes it more accessible is you can give them just a piece. You don't have to get them from a to Z.

You can get them from, you know, a to D I think was the analogy that I use. So is that, is that what, what you're thinking you'll do, or it will be more. it will still be accessible, but it will still, it will give them the full overview of how you work with people in a one-on-one setting. 

Amanda: So in the group, so with the, the way the one-on-one is formatted and the way this will transition, I think, well, to group is it is a 16 week container.

And within the first 12 weeks of that, there are eight different education modules that are kind of spread out and paired with that learning is some worksheets that allow you to explore it, right? Cause it's one thing to learn something. It's another thing entirely to personalize what you learn to you.

Like people are learning everything I have to teach on podcasts and YouTube, and that's not why people come to work with me. They come to work with me because they are struggling to personalize what they're learning. They're struggling to apply what they're learning in a way that's making a difference in their healing journey.

And so all eight of those education modules would perfectly transition. And I think that that the way that those are laid out would be. Essential to how I would run the group program as opposed to promising like this piece of this equation or this education will be in this group, et cetera. So I think all of the education will be there.

The difference in kind of like you were talking about in result promising would be, this is not one on one. It is in a group environment. So there is, you know, just a little less attention put to solving and putting together the unique pieces of your puzzle. That being said, There will still be time to put together the unique pieces of your puzzle.

You just may need to be a little bit more autonomous in the group versus one on one. So with our one on one, for example, you have our weekly coaching calls, but you also have Monday through Friday messenger support with your coach for that full 16 weeks. And so we are really in the weeds with our clients in terms of how did anxiety show up for you today?

What did you try? What worked, what didn't work, et cetera. And so that would be a value piece that would not be likely in a group coaching program. Is that like one on one day to day support in the absolute weeds of, of how that's showing up for you on a daily basis. And so, but in terms of structure, I think it would be fairly similar in that you would still have these modules that would still kind of drip out.

Let's say. I made it 16 weeks as well. It's a 16 week group program. Now the modules will drip out the same way over those first, you know, 10 to 12 weeks. And it's a combination of education exploration and kind of starting to personalize and implement things. And then you have those last, you know, four or five weeks of the program to really applied.

Like it's one thing to know. It's another thing to do. I want you to go and live the reactive and proactive protocols that you created for your anxiety, for your depression. What's working, what's not working, what's workshop it. I would, could even potentially see maybe extending the group coaching program a little bit longer in terms of the implementation end and going from weekly calls during that education to maybe biweekly and then even monthly calls, just kind of like slowly letting that implementation, you know, kind of leash go out a little bit longer.

Cuz the magic, I think. In, what I specifically do is the education piece is invaluable. The more we understand trauma the more we're learning that it's not enough just to sit there and, and hold space, but we also have to empower the people that we're working with to become, and to feel like experts in trauma themselves, and to understand, right, you have to know how your body works in order to work with it.

And so that's where, you know, this emphasis on education and modules or worksheets, whatever is not a part of everybody's coaching one on one or group coaching program, but it will forever be a really valuable piece to what I do because it lays the groundwork for self-compassion for someone to see that like, oh, I'm not broken actually the way that I feel, the struggles that I'm having make perfect sense with how my nervous system works.

And so in group coaching and one-on-one coaching, that's kind of the first thing I have to hold space for is I need to teach you and hold space for that shift of like, oh, there is hope in my healing. I can be in partnership with my body again. And then it comes into the how, and I think it's that how piece that changes in changes the most in terms of one-on-one to group, to membership.

Yeah. It's like how held in the doing 

Jordan: are you for sure. And I do think that's a really cool structure for a group to front load the education. And I actually was just talking to a client who's in my mastermind a couple weeks ago because she's planning out a coaching program and planning out her curriculum and she evenly spaced everything so that people can, you know, you teach about one thing and then you implement that one thing.

And I think that can work well for some offers for some topics, but sometimes people just need it all up front and then let's dive into the pieces that you need to actually implement together at the end. And I think that's a, that's a, probably a somewhat unique way of doing it because a lot of people's group programs, they do evenly space, the content and give you time to implement throughout.

This is almost like a more customized way. I would, I would imagine to run a group program because you give them all of that space at the end to dive in deeper to the pieces, the pieces that they really need to dive in and get support around instead of forcing them to spend the same amount of time on each module.

Amanda: Absolutely. And I think two of my favorite things you said is one, like that's a really unique way of doing it, which I feel like could just be like the poster child for my business. because over time I've had to take just about every piece of business advice that I've ever gotten from a business coach.

And at one point or another, like throw it in the garbage and just be like, what is gonna work for my business. Right. We all went through that phase where it was like, never post your prices on your sales page. You wanna get 'em on the discovery call and like sell your value and like yes. In a lot of, in a lot of instances that might be right.

But I had to finally get to this point where like my one on one coaching is an investment and. My price has to be up front for me to feel like I'm not only a trauma informed coach, but I'm also engaging in trauma informed business practices. I want to, I wanna give them as much information as they need to decrease anxiety so they can come into that call feeling safe.

And so I've had to, and now I'm seeing like trauma informed business coaches like popping up as like a really new trendy niche. But that like, wasn't a thing when I needed it to be a thing. And so I've had to create these like unique off the cuff ways of engaging in business practices or building my memberships or building my offers because I'm doing something that.

That people aren't doing, or at least weren't doing when I started doing it. 

Jordan: Well, I think what's funny about that is that it's like with anything in life, but I especially can compare it to having kids in that the, the advice that everyone was giving 10 years ago, it's like flipped on its head. Like literally, like you used to be put your baby on their tummy when they sleep and now it's put your baby on their back.

It's like, everything's changing all of the time. And so the, the most important thing is to just stay flexible with it, because now the advice is more like don't get on a call and until you've already told them what your prices and you've gotten them to agree to, you know, being aware of what the prices are.

Amanda: and see, I feel like I don't even know that that's the new conversation because for the last year and a half, I had to like, just check out so deeply from those conversations, because I was like, okay, You have, and I've also, I think like a lot of us, like I struggled with imposter syndrome for a long time of like, somebody else knows a better way of running my business than I do.

Mm-hmm and somebody else knows a better way to like sell what I have or somebody else knows a way to offer what I have. And so for the last year and a half, I've really had to step back and I like told myself, I was like, you will not hire a business coach. And I firmly believe in having business coaches and coaches working with coaches, but I was like, you cannot intake anybody else's voice until you have gotten a lot better at hearing your own, because you are the best person to do this work.

And you do know how, and you are muddying your water by assuming everybody else knows better. And so what I've really been able to do. To come up with my own ways that are working. And now when I go out and I seek advice, it's more process oriented. It's more, how do I do this specific thing better? Not how do I be 

Jordan: better?

Yeah. It's not, what should I do? Yeah. A lot more about here's what I wanna do now. Help me do it more easily. Yeah. 

Amanda: Yeah. And, and I think the, the second point you said is in terms of it seems like a, a group coaching format that allows for more personalization, especially towards the tail end. And I love that you saw that.

I love that. You're able to see that in, in my expression or my explanation of it because that's kind of my motto. It's like mental health looks different for everyone. And so, so will the solution and the problem I'm often trying to solve is that I feel mainstream mental health offers. Our fairly cookie cutter, right?

Your therapist has like the modality or the practice you're using, or, you know, the doctor has the medication model that they're using. And there's, there's also a lot of, maybe this is in every industry, but I also think there's a lot of well, working with this kind of a person is better than this kind or this kind, or like acupuncture is whatever.

And the reason there are so many different healing modalities is because different things work for different people and I'm not somebody who's like, you need to do it this way. I'm like, what are all of the ways? And then what works best for you? And so I think in order for a group coaching program to be impactful in the work that I do, there needs to be that space for, okay.

I wanna be here to hold safe space while you go and try a lot of what we do is it's trial and error. You you're. You're the scientist, you're the detective in your healing. And then I'm just the one that like sits in the lab next to you and doesn't let you ever lose hope and promises you that there's another way.

And I sometimes talk about my coaching. It's, it's kind of 50 50 in terms of like safe space holding. That's really important for trauma informed coaching. But also I kind of become a little bit of like a lifestyle consultant where I kind of cross that like true, you know, therapeutic trauma informed.

Well, what do you think? What do you think? What do you think? And I'm like, okay, you know what? Here's what the research says. Here's some things I think we could try. Are you in, let's try it. Let's experiment together. And then let's come back with that information and workshop and I love, and my clients love that's.

I think what they say is. Biggest difference between working with us versus other things they've tried is that there is that space to collaborate and to consult. And they don't feel like they're always just being asked. Well, how does that make you feel? Mm-hmm yeah, totally over and over and over again, 

Jordan: for sure.

I, I really resonate with that because I see that as my role a lot too, because I see a lot of what works and what doesn't work, because I work with a lot of different business owners and there are definitely tried and true strategies that are probably gonna work . But that's not always gonna be the case.

And so, and, and kind of going back to what you were saying earlier, people in the business space, I feel like frequently lean on formulas and cookie cutter strategies. And this is the way to do X, Y, Z, and. I don't subscribe to that. I think it's like actually kind of a harmful way to tell people to do things.

I, I will 

Amanda: consistently tell people like, you know what? And I tell 'em, I'm like, look, when you are veering away from therapy and into like maybe working with a mental health coach, you need to know that there is no regulating body. You need to know that there is nobody who says I'm qualified enough to call myself a mental health coach, an anxiety or depression coach.

And so, and there are incredibly powerful and qualified coaches. I consider myself, you know, among the top of those ranks, I've, you know, got higher education. I've spent thousands of dollars, thousands of hours, you know, in continuing education. But making sure that, you know, that person's qualifications feel good for, for you.

And like you said, we kind of know what works and what doesn't work with. These tried and true strategies. But it's not cookie cutter. And I will often share if there's an anxiety coach out there, that's like cure your anxiety with this six step formula or join my program. And you'll be anxiety free in six weeks.

Like do not work with that person. Do not, because that's just not how, I mean, you're see you see it in the business world. It's not how anything works. There is no cookie cutter or anything. And it also deeply invalidates that person's personal wisdom, their personal story, and their current life circumstances.

You have to be flexible in all of it, both in business and mental health and take all those things as valid considerations. Not as well. If you can't follow my cookie cutter program, then like you lack willpower or you're not motivated enough or. 

Jordan: Oh, yeah, I can totally leave you feeling. I mean, obviously I'm, I'm, I'm seeing the parallels in business, but also in like motherhood , but it, it can totally make you feel like a failure, cuz you're like, well, wait a minute.

Why didn't this work is, is what I offer, not valuable. Like, is there something wrong with me? Am I not cut out for this? Like you start to really question all of those things and I love that you have you've come to this conclusion. Sounds like kind of in a roundabout way. And I love that you've restricted yourself from having a business coach.

I actually have had the opposite experience in this last year in that I think I found a coach that their style was perfect for me. In the, in the place that I am in my business. And I was actually just talking to my husband about this yesterday, because I feel like I've gained so much confidence in my ability to make my own decisions.

And I don't, I don't need to ask, like, I'm not the client who's in the slack being like, what should I do about X, Y, Z? Not that I don't think people should use. those types of groups and communities to get feedback on things. But you want to, you don't wanna use them as a crutch, right? Like you wanna use them.

Intentionally and get to the point where you could answer those questions for yourself, because you're really confident in your ability to make those decisions and trust your gut and, and just do it without having to always get the validation. But it is there of course, to help when you need it. And so I think I'm really fortunate that that's been my experience in the last probably like nine months with the, the mastermind that I'm in is that I've gained the confidence by being in that container.

But it sounds like you have had the opposite approach and that you're like, I need to just get away from all of it to really understand what I wanna do. And that's gonna give me the confidence. I, it was really cool. 

Amanda: Yeah. And, and my stepping away was always with the intention to step back in, but to step back in from a much, a place of much deeper self trust and self confidence and.

No longer needing to defend my seat at the table in, in a way, especially, right. Like I am in the mental health field. I am a mental health coach, but I'm not a licensed therapist. And there are a ton of different opinions about that. And it's definitely becoming much, much more accepted as there are more qualified, you know, trauma informed coaching certifications and et cetera, but there, and truthfully, and maybe I'm sure this will resonate with a lot of other coaches and entrepreneurs.

Like it was some negative comments on some like TikTok content that like tail spin me out. And I had to just really sit here and be like, I have a seat at the table, or I Don. Do I believe that I have value to offer here or don't I, and if I do, then I need to step in and stop being afraid to step on other people's toes in the industry, or to rub some people the wrong way, because the truth is there are hundreds of people you've already served who, whose life you've changed.

You know, I worked with one, one on one client who came to me after her therapist said, I can't handle your anxiety attack and sent her to the ER oh my gosh. Yeah. She was having daily panic attacks. And after six weeks of working together of her better understanding her nervous system, et cetera. We now do periodic follow-up calls.

It's been two years and she hasn't had an, she went from daily panic attacks and anxiety attacks to six weeks of us working together. We worked well beyond that, but that six week mark was when she had her last attack. And hasn't had one in two years. That's right. And so it's like, you deserve a seat at this table.

You're, you're teaching things. You're, you're supporting people in a different way. And I just really had to own that for myself. And I'm excited because my business is doing and you know what my business has thrived this last year has been my best year in business. And so that's been awesome to see that when you do show up more aligned more with, with more self trust and which is a little more courage truthfully, right.

And, and not being worried you find the people who need you and your business grows, and I am excited to step back into whatever my next phase, whoever my next business coach will be from that more aligned place. Yeah. And I think what I'm hearing from you is like you got there and you found the coach that now supports that.

And I think that's probably my next step as well is okay. I'm here. Yeah, I don't need help with my confidence anymore. Right. I just need help with like the implementation and, and the idea like, I need help, like help me just stretch my brain. I love that. 

Jordan: Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. I hadn't even remembered this, but I actually did take a break cuz I was in a mastermind that ended in June and I took a break between June and like November was when I found this other mastermind.

And so it was almost six months of a break and I had it, it wa I wasn't approaching it in the same way that you're approaching your your hiatus from coaching. Mine was more like, I don't know what kind of support that I need. And I was like, I feel like. there's going to be this big shift and I don't know what I'm going to want or need, and I wanna make sure I have the right person to support me in that next step.

And so I didn't wanna invest until I knew what it was. And then once I found it, I was like, yep, this is it. Boom, done signed up that day. Didn't really need to think about it. And I was glad that I had the space to make that decision. Cuz I know a lot of people who come to me, they're like, ah, I really wanna work with you, but I'm in this other thing.

And you know, it doesn't end for like six more months. I'm like, ah, man, that sucks like that, that that's the bummer about long containers. Like we are evolving all the time. 

Amanda: Yeah. And I think too, what I noticed I was doing was I was kind of jumping from like one coach or one group to the next, et cetera.

And I was like, I wasn't leaving any room or any space in my life. To implement the things that I was getting, I was in this amazing mastermind with a bunch of other women. And then right when it ended, I was like, okay, what's next? And I was like, you literally, haven't done half of the great ideas that you came up with in this mastermind.

What do you mean what's next? Yeah. And I think sometimes we jump hoping that that next coach or that next container is gonna have like the magic answer for us to have our million dollar year. And it's like, sometimes we do just need to trust that, like we know enough to take the next step. And what does it look like to actually give yourself the space to implement that information as well?

Jordan: Yeah. It's tough in the space because there's so many things being thrown at us all the time about these strategies that are gonna work, and this is gonna be the solution. This is gonna be the thing that like you said, is gonna get you to your million dollar business, but. 100% of us aren't getting there because we're not actually following through on the stuff we know.

like, I can say that for a fact. Like if, if you haven't made it yet, it's because you haven't done fully the 20 or 30 things that you've tried, like full stop. Like I, and I know I can say that because I've, I've been there and I've done that. And as soon as I like put my head down and was like, no, this is the thing we're just gonna keep chugging along.

And we can talk about motherhood and juggling being a mom and being a business owner. But that was really the thing for me. Like the forced slow down the, I can't jump from strategy to sta strategy. I have to just like, see one thing through, because I only have so much time and this, this is gonna work.

I'm so thankful for Because, yeah, I, I think when I signed up for my, with my coach, I was like, I feel like I'm just like downloading freebies every day and throwing spaghetti at the wall. And like, I dunno what I'm doing. 

Amanda: yeah. And I, so I have a two year old and I am preparing little bit of, kind of personal life share.

So I had my two year old and then in the last year I've actually had four miscarriages. Oh my goodness. Gracious. Yeah. So figuring out number two has been harder. I can get pregnant the caring part and we don't have any answers. So as a family, we've decided to move forward with IVF. Again, it's like a weird next step because I can get.

But what this does is it helps to control for genetic viability. We're just, we're just trying to get more information. And I look back on my son's pregnancy and my husband has like five or six pictures of me with this huge pregnant belly asleep on the couch with my laptop. And my business was just in a place where like, I didn't feel like I got a maternity leave.

I worked like a dog through my whole pregnancy, and I feel so excited. First of all, I hate pregnancy. So I'm not so excited for the pregnancy part, but I feel so much more excited for this next pregnancy because I am in such a different place in my own mindset. I have set up the systems in my business to where like things happen, even if I'm not there now.

And. , I am going to be able to rest when I need to rest in this next pregnancy. And even this last year, right? Like full stop mother should motherhood slows you down. But also so does grief. And one of my miscarriages was a late term loss in December. And so we lost a little boy, a little boy, I held and had to leave at the hospital.

Right. Like, that's not, that's not like small fries. Like you don't just like jump back into your business as normal. And so I think that's also been a huge part of my journey and getting to where I am just in general is that strips you, that level of grief, like it just strips you and you have to look at everything that you're doing in your life and saying, what matters most?

Mm yeah. What matters most? What do I wanna create? What do I have the capacity for? And I have completely bypassed grief in the past, and I felt like I, I owed it to. To my, my son that I have living, I owe it. I owe it to the son that, that I, I don't get to raise to not bypass this grief. And I owe it to all of the people that I coach in their grief and their mental health to make the space in my life, to be with this process and to be in this healing.

And so I think a lot of what I've, what I've done too, is running my business is just one thing that I do. And for a long time, I did not know how to let it be that one thing I have major productivity based self-worth right. The more value I create, the more money I'm making, the more value I have as a human being.

And I've had to do a lot of unlearning of that so that I can work smarter, not harder. Right. I think it's just like the easiest way to say it and to get those systems in place that allow me. To also live my life to allow me the space, to heal, to allow me the time to, to make a pillow Fort with my two year old and not worry if something is falling apart behind the scenes in my business.

And it's been a brutally long and messy process for me to get there. So I know your listeners are in every stage of their business building. If you're not there right now, like it's, it's okay. That's a great goal to set though, to be in a place where, where your business takes up, exactly the amount of space in your life that you want it to, whether that's a lot or a little, again, it's not cookie cutter that totally gets to be you.

And that question of what matters most has been super transformational in the content that I create, the conversations I'm having with my, with my members, with my clients And then just the choices that I'm making in life as well. I think with entrepreneurship, like there just aren't those clear lines between a lot of the pieces of your life.

Jordan: Oh yeah. A hundred percent. And I think it's even, it's compounded when you love what you do. You clearly love what you do. I mean, I love what I do. Yeah. And, and that's what makes it hard because who, I can't remember who was telling me this, but so I'm not gonna get the quote. Right. And I'm not even gonna try to say it, but it is, it is so difficult to set your business aside and create really strong boundaries that you want to create around working or not working when.

When it's not just work, it's also hobby. It's also fun. It's also creative outlet. It's also all of these other things. Like our, our business can, can fulfill so many pieces of us, not just the money, you know, it's not just work. And so I think that makes it really difficult for, for business owners who like us are trying to build something that we're really passionate about.

So I, I get it. I, I have been there and people are going to get tired of me saying that I'm so thankful that I had to build this business while I was pregnant, because I had to do it in a way that, that fit into my life. Because I've built businesses and put myself out and, and worked, you know, 80 hour weeks and stayed up all night and had my health suffer.

And I knew I wasn't gonna do that again. 

Amanda: Yeah. And one, I think too, this is where like, Understanding your nervous system is also so valuable for business owners and entrepreneurs, right? Because I have only been able to build my business in this way, because I know how to access a sense of safety. And the truth is we can all make a million dollars in the, the, the portion of our life that we want to give our business, but we have to be creative and you can only be creative.

You can only be curious about new solutions. If you feel safe, if you know how to access a sense of safety when we're in that scarcity, that hustle culture, when we're worried. And, and I do understand that like, you know, finances are real thing for people and, and there are bills to pay and things to do, but when it comes to like soul driven entrepreneurship, what you are doing and what I'm doing, there's also, I think, a, a huge value in, in the work that I do in just understanding your nervous system and that when you are in that state of fight or flight, You, you don't have access to your logical brain.

You don't have access to your creative thinking to curiosity. And so figuring out what you need to do to get yourself to a place where you can take that deep breath and say, there's always a different way. I just don't know it yet. So either how do I figure that out? Or who do I find to help me figure that out?

And I even think about that, like in, in motherhood too. And it's this combination of, I think understanding that there are people who know more about things than you, that can be helpful, like what you and I do. Sometimes that consulting role, like we know what works and then being able to filter that through, but what's gonna work best for me, for my family, for my business, for my, my clients, my unique thing.

And we have to. be able to access that, that regulated state in order 

Jordan: to do that. Mm-hmm yeah, I um, the way that I see this show up in my business and the way that I think about it, it feels really tangible is Not ever being frantic. If I'm frantic, I know like, Mmm, something's not right here. I need to slow down.

And luckily I have, I have multiple coaches and Julia is a regular guest on the show. And she is the person that can kind of pull me back from that and be like, okay, well, why are we frantic? Are we burn out? Is it really frantic energy? Or is it just actual excitement? Like I just recently went through an experience where, I mean, for the last three years I've been pregnant or breastfeeding.

And so your energy levels and your hormones are totally different than when you're not doing either of those things. And I was talking to her and I was like, I just feel like I'm like buzzing. And I was like, I can't tell, like, if I'm, if I'm burning out and if I'm, am I feeling frantic or do I just have a lot of energy?

Turns out. I was just drinking a lot of ice coffee and, and, and I'm coming back into like this energy of just being my own person. And if, I think back to three years ago before I had kids, my husband who wasn't, my husband at the time was like, I can hardly keep up with you. Like you have so much energy.

Like you always wanna just go, go, go. And I'm like, oh, I think that might just be how I was before I was exhausted. you know, so it's not 

Amanda: necessarily frantic little Golan needed me like 10,000 times a 

Jordan: day. yeah, exactly. Or it was like just a physical burden on my body and the hormones and all the things, you know?

So, it, it, it can be tough to tap into. what is this physical emotion or physical experience or this emotion or whatever it is that I'm experiencing? Is it a good thing or is it a bad thing? It's ki it's tough. 

Amanda: Well, and if you're somebody who has a history of anxiety, it's a real fine line between excitement and anxious.

Mm-hmm because when you think about how those show up in your body, right, we get, you know, some butterflies in our stomach, our heart starts to race, you know, excited and anxious don't feel very different. And so if you have a history of struggling with anxiety, that excitement, excitement can quickly turn into anxiety because your body is like, oh no, we're going there.

And so it's always like this beautiful celebration. When a client comes, who struggles with anxiety comes back and tells me, like, I was actually able to just be excited about something this week. And I'm like, yes, like your nervous system is regulating. You're creating a more regulated baseline for yourself that you have more space between, you know, the.

The elevation of those emotions and having someone like your coach is to sit there and be like, okay, frantic, right. Frantic can be excited. Frantic can be anxious. It can be burnout. Let's tease out the nuance of your frantic a little bit help you tone it down. And then refocus is so, and that right.

That's a co that's what we, that's what we need coaches for. That's what coaches are for is to help us just who come back to center. 

Jordan: Yeah, for sure. So now that we've taken this very windy road to where we've ended up now in the conversation, I'm gonna abruptly take us back to product suite. You, you mentioned something about how they kind of play together and I could be making this up and it maybe is just something I wanted to know, but do you have a really strategic way for how your different offers.

Connect or lead into each other, or what does that look like in your business? 

Amanda: Yes, and that's something I actually just recently really, really cleaned up. So I've had that one-on-one coaching program in a similar structure, and then I've had this membership and my membership was previously more of just kind of like general life coaching, mental health conversations.

It was a little bit more all, all over the place. And just, what do we wanna talk about next month? What do we wanna do, et cetera? And I think it was about six months ago. I said, no new members into my monthly membership. Wow. I need to figure out because I was kind of this like daily workout, meditation girl, this like mental health life coach, girl, and then this one-on-one anxiety and depression girl.

And I was like, no, this is exhausting for me. It's probably exhausting for my consumers. And I, again, what my last year has all been is like, I have a clear vision of. Who and how I wanna help people. I, my programs today are what I desperately wish I would've had, you know, eight to 10 years ago in my healing journey.

And so I, I closed my membership and I approached, I think at about 60 individuals in that membership at the time. And I said at fifth or 60, and I said, I'm stripping it. I'm creating something different. This is what it's gonna look like. It's gonna be very much nervous system, anxiety, depression, mental health.

We're still gonna have movement meditation practices, but no more of this, like one off master class, et cetera. I didn't lose a single member. Yeah. Every single one of them said, we've been waiting for this. Wow. This is exactly what we didn't know we needed from you. And from this space and that. So incredible.

And so the answer is now yes, there is a very clear pathway. What it typically looks like is either one, you go right into the membership because that feels like the best fit for you or financially that's, what's accessible for you. If you are gonna, and then from the membership, some people are saving to invest in the one-on-one coaching.

And then for individuals who start with the one-on-one coaching, it typically looks like one-on-one coaching. After those 16 weeks, then you will feed into the membership, which is teaching the same things. In fact, you come into the membership feeling like you kind of have a leg up because you've personally worked through all of that.

And that membership becomes the maintenance model. I like to think about it like working with a personal trainer, right? You work with a personal trainer for, for a few months, and then you don't cancel your gym membership. You work with your personal trainer for a handful of months to, to personalize it, to.

To really check your form for you to come up with these, like your personalized physical health plan. And you get to a place where you're confident enough to implement it on your own, but you still need the tools. You still need the weights or the group classes or the pool or whatever. And so I think about our, my mental health membership, kinda like a gym membership, there is a ton of different pieces in there and you and me might have the same gym membership, but you love the weight room and I'm like rocking it in the pool in the sauna.

You and I both feel like we're getting what we came for. We both feel like we're getting our value. But we're doing different things. And that's how, which is also different. A monthly membership a lot of times is kind of like, here's the thing I've built this membership to be here is the daily guided practices.

Here's the course you can work through. Here are the live Q and a here's the live coaching session, the guided breathwork and yoga and. All of it is there for people to kind of personalize what is it that you need in this season of your healing? And so that's how my programs right now really work together is that you've got that one-on-one high touch, that feeds right into the membership, which is kind of their now they get this community aspect.

They've been so personalized just with their coach, which they needed to kind of have the blinders on for their healing. And now they jump into this membership and they're held in community with other people who are on the similar journey and they have access to the tools to help them maintain all of the progress that they've made in their healing.

But it also works as a reverse ladder where people who are like, well, I want something now, while either I make the space in my life for the one-on-one coaching, or I make the space financially for that to move myself up. And then likely after that, they will come back into the membership. And so this membership is a really beautiful.

Holding container. And I often get asked like, well, how long should I expect to be in the membership? Like before I'm better. I'm like, it's not, it's not that kind of a membership. Right? Most of us, we budget a gym membership or something for life. We're not thinking like, well, I'll cancel it, you know, after four months or some people do.

But the idea is you come into this space for as long as you need to be there, whether that's two months or 20 years to hold you in your healing, which is a lifelong journey for most of us. So that's the way. And then group coaching, I think would just slide right in the middle of that in terms of, you know, if a one on one client it's been a while and they wanna reminder, or they wanna really just rededicate themselves to the things that they learned, they could jump into the group as kind of like a booster.

And then it also provides a more maybe cost effective option for people who are in the membership trying to save for that. One-on-one aren't sure if they'll get there. Well, that group provides like a really beautiful stepping in that journey. 

Jordan: Mm. I love it. And I mean, man, even wanna do a membership is so interesting.

Okay. so I think it's cool that you've combined it as an entry level option and as a maintenance option, because a lot of times I think people have to people think that they have to separate those two things out and distinguish them, but your analogy of it being a gym membership is so beautiful. I'm totally gonna steal that.

I, I hope that's okay. It's just take it. It's so helpful. It's so helpful to look at it with that framing. And that it can meet, it can meet people where they are. That's so cool. So I have a couple of logistical questions. How are you facilitating the membership? Like as far as community and actual actual delivery of the content?

Amanda: So I'm in mighty networks is the platform that I'm using. So what I love about mighty networks is it allows me to kind of have different programs and different groups. And so I was on Kajabi for a long time, but Kajabi, I just felt had serious limitations in their community feature mm-hmm and my users are not interested on being on Facebook.

And what I liked about my mighty networks is that it has a similar feel to kind of a Facebook feed while also providing. Robust enough ways for me to compartmentalize the different content. So in my membership, for example, you join my membership and you click the programs tab and there are four different categories of quote unquote programs.

One of them is the course. So it is a 12 module course. And actually when you sign up I tangibly mail you a hundred page mental health workbook to go along with that course. Oh, that's course sick. yeah. I, I, it, for me was so important that I gave you something that you could feel in touch. Yeah. And with every new member, I so underrated about a ma meditation bracelet that like myself or my sister, like hand makes for every member.

And so you just, you know, stop from the minute you jump in, you're seen. This is your safe space. I like half of them, I hand write your address onto the envelope. And again, these may not be the most efficient business practices. People be like, Amanda, you're wasting so much time, like hand making a bracelet for everyone of your members.

And I'm like, yeah, absolutely. And I will let other pieces of my business go. So that, that can stay important to me. Yeah. So I digress. So there's those four different programs. So the first is that that static course at 12 lessons, we have like a, a specific coaching call each month that focuses on those 12 lessons.

And it'll just recycle every year. And you'll be able to, to take your work a little bit deeper with each one of those lessons every year. So that lives in the membership always. Then the second quote unquote program is where every single month you get new. Daily workouts and meditations. And so it's a seven day format.

And so you have kind of that static content with the course, and then you have this dynamic content that changes every single month in terms of your daily practices. This is constantly new every the, the daily workout meditation. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm who does those? Well, there's, there's only 10, 10 or 12 a month because it's 

Jordan: just one week was like, there's I thought you meant like every single day, there's a new thing.

Amanda: 365 a year. no, there's a, there's a Monday through Saturday, so it's a Monday through Saturday and it's the same one week's worth of content for that full month. And so it just rotates each butt. Nice. And then it's myself and then I have two other movement and meditation coaches that help me curate that content.

And then there is just like a growing content library with a lot of different guided meditations breathwork practices, somatic releases. There's. Like mini guides in there. So things that like how to move through being triggered, et cetera. So that's just a growing library. And then the fourth quote unquote program is our events page.

So every single week, there's one to two hours of life coaching opportunities, whether that's a Q and a, or a zoom call. And what I love so much about the way that, that this is set up from a logistic standpoint is before with my old membership model, I was constantly creating new workbooks and new master classes.

And I felt like I was so disconnected from being present with my community because I was so burnt out on this like hamster wheel of content creation. And the way my membership is now is the bulk of the content is in that 12 modules. I hustled my butt and I made it, but it's made and it's beautiful. And then with my, my coaching staff, I filmed four half hour workouts a month.

And two meditations. That's totally manageable for me. And I love being on camera and I I'm able to film those workouts in a trauma informed way, where we integrate the nervous system, et cetera, no problem. And then I create, and I add to that content library as needed, but the reason I'm able to show up anywhere from six to 10 hours for live coaching in that membership, whether it's Q and as, or on zoom back and forth is because that's what I do now.

Everything is in place. It's super manageable. My job now is to hold space and personalize and coach. 

Jordan: Do you think that that's only possible because you spent time in the past really putting your head down and creating a bunch of content. So you have all of these resources you can lean on now. 

Amanda: I mean, I think it depends on what, what you want your membership to offer.

I think that this would be an incredibly valuable membership. If all I offered was my weekly life Q and as, and study sessions, you don't, you don't have to have content. You as a coach can just be there to hold space for the brainstorming and the personalizing to actually do the coaching. I like my format because what, what was the game changer for me in my healing journey was that education piece right.

Was learning how my system worked, how to work with it, et cetera. And so, no, I don't think that there is a way that you have to, is it easier that I've like done everything the hard way and I've made thousands of hours of content that I'll never see the light of day again? Yes. I am extremely adept at creating content.

I am great on camera. I teach really well. It's just a skill that I've acquired. Over a long lifetime of experience. But it was interesting because by far like this iteration of what I do came together with, even though it sounds like it's the most complex, like 12 modules, Amanda, a hundred page workbook, it came together with so much ease because of the clarity mm-hmm of what I was trying to create, what I wanted to do.

Jordan: Yeah. Yeah. I think unfortunately though, getting to that clarity sometimes requires like waiting through all of the sludge that is the creating the content and realizing like, okay, this, this works, this doesn't work. Like it's I think people underestimate the value of the experimentation phase of working with people and creating the content and, and doing all of that.

Like, you're not just gonna start a business and like create a course. That's gonna hit like immediately and be the exact thing. It needs to be long term, 

Amanda: such a silly thing when that's like, what is sold because the truth is, I think I bought into it. And my early entrepreneur, someone was like, this is the way you need to do it.

And this is it. And like, this is all you need to do to make a million dollars. And I have since, so it's not something that I, I do much of, but I will occasionally take on a client who reaches out to me specifically. And it's like, I want to, it's, it's almost kinda like a business qu business coaching consulting of like, I wanna learn how to apply this trauma informed lens to, so for example a friend of mine is a sobriety empowerment coach and she reached out to me and she was like, I've done like the life coach school, the thought work, the mindset stuff, but like there's more to it with people's addictions.

There's more to it with sobriety. And can you help me to understand, like the role that the nervous system might be playing in people's sobriety journeys? How can I bring that more trauma informed lens to the work that I'm doing? And then also to how I hold myself as a coach, she was really struggling with owning her client's results.

So if a client would relapse, I would get this long message about like, I must be wrong. My program is wrong, et cetera. And I'm sitting here take a deep breath. Like this is actually information. Like this is a really important relapse is a really important part of people's journey, whether it's, you know, quote unquote relapse, cuz you had another anxiety attack or relapse cuz you had another drink.

And so I've really, really loved to do that in terms of helping people apply this trauma informed, nervous system lens to the work that they're uniquely doing in their, you know, industry and their little world. And all of that I think lends to it is messy. It is messy and as stressful as my mess was, I think heaven's for it because it's the only reason that I am able to do my work in the way that I do my work now with as much clarity, because I sat in the mud for so long.

And, and I also feel like not that it's necessarily like a Rite of passage. I love that for you, if you were able to create your signature course and like, have it take off and do everything that you wanted to do. But I also think that there is a, a willingness to continue to be flexible and to continue to learn and to grow and an openness that I needed in all of that experimentation in all the things that didn't work.

To take my business to whatever the next level looks like that I don't even know yet. 

Jordan: Yeah. And I would imagine, I don't know if you would label it like this, but the, this coaching coaches aspect of what you sometimes do probably was nowhere near on your radar when you were getting started. Right. Like, so there's just so many things that you can't plan for as far as like offers or how you might support people long term.

So like you said, I think being, being open and adaptable is just so critical and most, most entrepreneurs are that way kind of naturally, like, we're just kind of like trying to figure it out and like we're playing with it and it's fun. So I think that's good, but it's helpful to have the, I have some more follow up questions on the membership.

I'm so intrigued. Oh yeah. Okay. Quick question. What's your price point on your membership? Do you have multiple price points or is it just one? 

Amanda: Just one it's 1 27 a month. 

Jordan: Okay. And how do you structure that? Do you, is it a like pay as you go thing you give discounts for people who like pay for longer terms.

Amanda: So right now it's just month to month. I am in the works, so my husband is big in Google ads and webinars and et cetera. And so we're in the process of figuring out like an evergreen webinar funnel and that's where kind of the bonus offer will be for an annual membership. You'll save, you know, X, hundreds of dollars.

And I think I'll eventually open that up as an option to members as well, who are like in it for the long run. Yeah, totally. I think that's a great way to, to add value to people who are committed to being in your space for a long time. But so right now it's just a month to month. And for me, especially, I think I will always, there are some memberships I've seen that, like you mandatory have to be there for a year, et cetera.

Mm-hmm , even though my curriculum is technically like a 12 month to get all the way through. I hope you're with me for years. Again, coming back to these like trauma informed business practices of, I didn't wanna lock people into any kind of contract because I need this space to feel safe in order for them to be able to do the work that they're doing.

And, you know, our nervous system needs choice, context, and connection in order to feel safe. And so having the, the option of them being able to cancel whenever if they so choose felt, regardless of what it means for, for longevity or financial projections of my business. I think that will always be an option for my membership because it adds to this element of, of choice.

And agency and that allows them to feel safe enough in this space, knowing that they can go. 

Jordan: Yeah. And I think that's, that may be part of why this works so well as like kind of a core offer of yours is because traditionally memberships are offered as a month to month, you know, you can join and go anytime.

And it's part of what makes them challenging to run as a, as a business owner is because the retention piece and the marketing piece is so much more difficult than something where people are, you know, locked in to, to some timeframe, especially because they so low cost. Totally. So it's just, there's a lot more turnover typically.

But it, it's almost like a feature in, in your business that they're structured that way. So, two more things for now, but we'll see what else comes up. So your content that's in the membership, that's a different. Is that a different curriculum than your one-on-one and this potential new group program?

Amanda: There are a few modules that overlap, right? Like the basics of understanding your nervous system. Those modules are the same. There's one on I call it your RX lifestyle. So your prescriptive lifestyle is what we're helping you to curate. Right? You know, these are the things that proactively help you and reactively help you with your mental health.

And so there are in the eight modules that are in the anxiety and depression coaching one on one, I think three of those eight are, are exactly the same as the membership, those basic just education ones, but the content that is in my one on one, and that would be in the group is a little bit more specific to.

The nitty gritty of regulation of your nervous system of creating your unique mental health plan, where the modules in the membership are a little bit more expansive. Like we have a module on cycles. And so, this is the only piece of the content that's specific to menstruating humans, but that plays a big role in your mental health.

We also have a module on play, and so it's a little bit more whole life orienting in the membership because the idea is, if you've done the one on one, we've done the nitty gritty, we've done the really hard healing trauma type stuff. And the extra value you get from coming into the membership is there's also content that takes what you know, and expands it to these other areas of your life.

One of the modules in the membership is on. Your impact. And so taking your healing and your story, and now also giving a, giving it life and giving it purpose is something that we know helps to build resiliency. And so there are some pieces that overlap, but by and large their focus is 

Jordan: a little bit different.

Yeah, that's really cool. That's super helpful. So I wanna know a little bit more about, it sounds like you have Cocos or support coaches, or I don't know how you, how you label them, but how did that, how did that happen? How did you get started with that? And H how do you think about those people? What are their titles and how do they interact with your clients?

Amanda: Yeah, so I have One one woman, she's my head coach. And I just realized about a year and a half ago, two years ago, I couldn't take on the one-on-one clients that I wanted to and run my business in the way that I wanted to. And so she's come on and she takes the majority of our one-on-one clients through the anxiety and depression coaching, and she's phenomenal.

Also trauma informed. She's an RN. So she has this beautiful balance between kind of like medical education and mental health and, and holistic certifica. She's just amazing. And so that will, as my business grows, her position will also grow. So there will be multiple coaches that run people through the one-on-one coaching.

And then she also plays a role in the membership in just facilitating some group coaching and community building Q and a et cetera. And so she's kind of like my go to girl to support me in taking one on one clients, as well as running the membership. And then I have. One woman who does some meditations and films, yoga videos for me, and then another woman who films three or four of the workout videos for me.

And so, that's how it's scalable is, you know, I've got these, this, this crew over here who helps with just the, the recurring content creation of workouts and meditations. And then AJ is the one who is really like by my side, in that coaching 

Jordan: role. Yeah. So I was just having a conversation with one of my clients the other day about she's thinking about bringing on like another support coach or, or something, and we're trying to figure out what to call them.

And so that's interesting you call her the head coach. Is that what people know her as like, this is she's the head coach. So even client facing that's her title, what's your title, then? 

Amanda: Founder, coach, whatever people wanna call me. I am not concerned with. What that is. 

Jordan: Yeah. Yeah. It's just interesting trying to like, figure out how to title people in a way that like, is it makes sense to, to outsiders coming in, you know, 

Amanda: I'm usually, I'm usually either like the founder who also is a coach and I I'm in the role of a coach often.

But I never refer to myself as the head coach. Right. I'm kind of the founder and a coach. And then she's, she's my head coach. 

Jordan: Yeah. Okay. Yeah, that was kind of the, what I was leaning into with her was. You don't have to have like a, like, like you don't both have to be titled something that hangs together, you know, like it doesn't have to be like an obvious hierarchy in your titles.

You can just be you like, you're the business owner, you're the face. Right. So that's interesting. Okay. And I think 

Amanda: eventual, like, you know, hypothetical roles, as I think eventually I'll have like a community manager who helps, you know, as my community inside my networks grows, who helps me, you know, vet that space.

And the woman who does my yoga video, she's also a licensed hypnotherapist. And so she eventually, if there's a demand for it in the community could offer some one on one, you know, hypnotherapy sessions or even group facilitated ones. And so there's a lot of ways, depending on, you know, what, what my community asks for, what we feel would be supportive that I can bring in different people.

In, I mean, a limitless amount of ways to provide value. 

Jordan: Yeah. Okay. I've got more questions. I did not intend for this episode to be totally about memberships, but I am just like mind blown by what you're doing. It's so I'm here for it. 

Amanda: So cool. Love, love my membership 

Jordan: model. I have to be really careful because as a manifesting generator, I don't know if you dabble in human design at all, but I get really excited about lots of things and ideas, and I can sometimes be like, oh, I should do this, but really it's not for me to do.

It's helpful information. 

Amanda: I don't, but I do know that I'm a generator. Okay. So

Jordan: I, yeah, I don't know. I'm gonna have to, I'm gonna have to sit on it and think about is, is a membership really something that I wanna do, but right now I'm feeling super excited about it. so, how many people do you have in your membership right now? 

Amanda: 103 last I checked. That's so awesome. And I would say though, I will add the little asterisk.

Some of those members were just like the $30 a month, daily meditation and workout. And I grandfathered them in. So that's not something I'll probably ever offer again. Yeah. But I would say maybe 30, 30 or so of that 103 are still that like very base level membership offer that. I've just, I let them keep that part of the membership.

And if they ever wanna jump up, doors are open. But once they jump up, they'll never be able to 

Jordan: jump back out. Oh. So they don't even get you didn't grandfather them in on the price. You grandfathered them in on, you only get access to this piece. How do you facilitate that? Are they still in mining 

Amanda: networks?

Yeah, they're still in myy networks, but they just, their membership gives them because when you join it's four different programs. Mm-hmm, , it's the, the course, the daily resources, the live events, and then the library. So their membership just gives them access to that one program of the daily resources.

Jordan: Oh, so interesting. Mm-hmm 

Amanda: that's super cool. Yeah, it totally worked. 

Jordan: Yeah. That makes it really easy to, to facilitate. That's really cool. So, for the live events, you said, I think what I heard you say is that you spend like six, six to 10 hours a month. Is that all on live stuff? Or is that also some of the content creation?

Like the workouts that's 

Amanda: all live? Yeah. Okay. So the way that it works is, I mean, let's just take a normal month. There's four there's four weeks in a month. And so each week has a different style zoom call. So week one is our study session. So week one focuses specifically on whatever that lesson is in the course for that month, week two is just open office hours.

So I'm just there for whatever. What do you wanna come? Do you wanna do a mini coaching session? Do you just have a question? Do you want me to help you with a worksheet? 

Jordan: Totally open call. Anyone can come question and that's with you week 

Amanda: and myself or my coach, but usually with me. Okay. Yeah. And then week three is our community coaching call.

So this one is usually an hour and a half up to two hours. If we have a lot of coaching and it's basically kind of 10 minute hot seat, personalized coaching, how many people 

Jordan: are usually on that? 

Amanda: Lately we've been having anywhere from 15 to 20. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And then week four is the only one that's not a back and forth call.

That's what we call our attunement session. And that is just a guided nervous system regulation. So we do it's somatic practices. Breathwork practices. It's about 45 minutes long. And then in addition, so those are the weekly like zoom calls and then mighty networks is a feature similar to Facebook live or TikTok live, where you can just go live in the membership.

And so every Friday most Fridays. I go live and just do either a, a short lesson with a Q and a, or there's an anonymous Google form where they can just always submit something they're struggling with something they'd want feedback or coaching on. And that's for, if you can't make the live coaching calls, you can always still get feedback on something that you're, you're working on.

Some people like a little bit more a anonymity, that's the word they like to be more anonymous. There we go. And so that gives them a space where they can kind of anonymously still get feedback and coaching. And so that's the eight hours is we have those four hours of zoom and then almost every Friday, I go live for an hour within that community to offer more personalized support.

Jordan: That's awesome. The first weekly call. Okay. Two parts to this for the modules, the, the course that's available, is it, is it available all year round? So even though you have a focus on one month, they can dive into any of those. Right. Mm-hmm okay. Yeah. So, yeah. So then you have the focus of the month. One of those Mo one of those 12 modules, are you doing education or is it just another open Q and a call around topics related to that?

Amanda: So I'll start the call basically. So it's kind of the, like, you're gonna get more out of this call. If you've watched the module first, I'm not reteaching the module. This is where I get to help you personalize what you learned in this module for you. OK. And so what I'll start is typically just like maybe like a five to 10 minute overview, and then sometimes I'll have come across a new piece of information that I feel like is really valuable in addition to this.

And so there might be a little bit of teaching upfront. And then if people come ready to ask questions. Awesome. If not, I may ask a question of like, what impacted you the most or how do you feel like you're gonna struggle or benefit the most? What does this look like in your life? And that's sometimes how I can kind of like.

Get the group to move toward. I mean, think about just our school system and the way that we're taught. Right. You're like, you're just told how the world is. And so I think sometimes there's a little hesitation in being reflective personally, on how that information applies to you. And so it's a balance between but it's predominantly me to hold space to help them personalize what, what they learned in that module.

Yeah. And I think it's, it's kinda like what, what you do with what, you know, it's like what, you know, doesn't matter, it's what you do with what, you know, that matters. And so that call is really to help them figure out what is like the 1% shift in my life. What, what can I do with what I learned in this module to move me towards healing?

Jordan: Yeah. And it feels like there's some, there's some built in accountability there in that. Yeah. You're gonna have this opportunity to ask things or implement things around this specific topic. So like go do the module. because a lot of times people have access to all this content. And I say people, and I'm talking about me too.

Like, I, I don't even know how many courses I have access to in the mastermind that I'm in now, but I'm just like, I don't ever make the time. I was gonna say, I don't have time. It's partly true. I also just don't make the time to actually consume the content. And so having that accountability that each month here, this is the thing, like, it's not open, it's this one thing, go do the module.

I think that's a really cool thing to add in. And 

Amanda: it's neat because there's been countless times where someone has shown up and they're like, didn't watch the module. But having engaging in that conversation is. The motivation that they needed to go watch that module. Yeah, because they're like, this was an cause I tell 'em, I'm like show up anyways.

I don't care if you watch the module or not show up for the conversation because the module's always there. And so that's always really fun to see is when those conversations really like kick 'em in the gut and they're like, Ooh, okay. I do, I do wanna learn more. I do wanna know more about this. And then they, they go seek out that 

Jordan: content.

Yeah. It's so cool, man. This flew by we talked about so much, this was so fun. And like I said, I didn't realize that we were gonna go so deep down the rabbit hole on memberships, but I think this was unbelievably valuable. And I really appreciate you being so transparent and, and talking through so many different aspects of this because it it's a unique.

Memberships in general, I think are really intriguing to people. And I think you're doing some really cool, interesting things with it. And, and you've got my wheels turn at big time. So I know this is gonna be valuable to everyone listening. We will, of course have your info in the show notes so people can find you follow.

You do all the things, but is there anything else you wanna leave us with? Anything else you wanna mention on anything that we've talked about or not talked about?

Amanda: Thanks for, for holding space for this conversation. This has been just so fun in general. And I think just to whoever's listening, like you're fine. You're doing fine in where you are in your business right now. If it feels messy, that's fine. If you're thriving, that's fine. And there. There's space for, for all of it in what we're doing, people listening to your podcasts are, are, are people, women, like you like me who care about what they're doing and care about the way that they're serving people and care enough to let it be messy.

And then also care enough about you, right? You are the most important part of your business to step away from your business when it is coming at an extreme detriment of you. And that doesn't mean that you're gonna get to a place where running your business just feels like floating on a cloud all the time.

And it's perfect. Like, I, I feel like I'm a pretty regulated human now and I run a really regulated business and there are still, you know, weeks of hustle. There's a, there's a launch or my brain is just going and I just wanna get this thing created. And it's okay that I enter those seasons of hustle. But I lived in that chronic hustle for years.

and burnout's real and it takes a long time to recover from. Yeah. And so the goal is just to create space for, for that flexibility. And just knowing that where you are is fine, you're doing likely doing way, way better than you think. And there is a place for you to do the work that you wanna do. And there is a way for you to do the work that you wanna do.

Just, just one foot in front of the other. 

Jordan: I love it. Beautiful. What a great way to end. Let it be messy. You're doing great. this was fabulous. Thank you so much. You're so welcome. Thanks for 

Amanda: having me.