Lighting Your Fire with Amanda Abella [TDI005]

Today’s interview is with a passionate entrepreneur who quit her “day job” and became life coach, blogger, published author, and so much more.

She’s helped a lot of people along the way, and there’s no sign of her slowing down anytime soon.

It’s not surprising that she was featured in such publications as Forbes, The Consumerist, and The Huffington Post.

Let’s dive right into Amanda’s story.

(As always, questions from The Daily Interview are in bold.)

Amanda, I’m really “fired up” to be featuring you on The Daily Interview today. Inspiration is what we’re all about, and you’re a professional when it comes to helping people become inspired. Tell us about your journey and business – how did you get started as a life coach? What role does your website (at AmandaAbella.com) play in your overall business?

It’s quite funny actually. I was coaching before I knew it was coaching. In the midst of unemployment a few years ago I started a personal development blog called Grad Meets World. It was a space for millenials to go get positive advice on anything from entrepreneurship to health related topics. It was really just a message to the world saying, “Screw your Recession, Gen Y is going to be just fine!”

I eventually found my way into a job where I was recruiting for Fortune 500 companies. We’d coach candidates and consult them on their next career moves (I’m talking resumes and everything).

In early 2012 I ran across the work of Gabrielle Bernstein and signed up for one of her group coaching courses. As I was partaking in the group and watching the live stream I had this strong internal voice say, “THAT’S WHAT YOU NEED TO BE DOING! YOU NEED TO HELP PEOPLE LIKE THIS!”

At that point I realized I’d already been doing it informally (blog) and for job candidates (at my job) for about two years. I immediately signed up for a life coaching certification course, found myself mentors, hustled big time, and a little over a year later I was able to quit my job and go out on my own.

Now I’m proud to say that I help people create better relationships with work and money.

What has been your greatest success (or successes) so far?

When I got serious about running my own business I was able to quit my job in six months.

I literally walked in to my boss’ office, said it was time for me to really go, and got on a plane to Portland, Oregon for the World Domination Summit. It was THE BEST way I could have possibly celebrated reaching a milestone I’d been working so hard to achieve.

By the third month of working on my own I was making about $1,000 more in monthly income than I’d ever made at a regular job, speaking at giant blogger conferences, and writing for national media publications.

Even the most successful people have stumbled along the way. What do you consider to be your biggest failure, and what did you learn from it?

My biggest failure was definitely not asking for help sooner.

I let myself get pretty burnt out before I reached out and got my own business coach. Having someone there to help guide me really made all the difference and now I’m proud to say that I do the same for others.

That seems to be an obstacle a lot of people run into – not asking for help when they should. When you were struggling and letting yourself get burnt out, what was it that you needed help with the most? In other words, what was the biggest impact your business coach had on you?

In my case it was learning how to put the proper sales funnel in place. Although I technically worked in sales I had no idea how to apply it into my own business because I’d always seen myself as more of an administrator type.

It was also great to have someone to lean on for support since I had given myself some major goals I wanted to meet quickly. With the help of a coach I got support, accountability, and guidance that allowed me to smash not only personal goals but professional ones.

My original goal was to quit my job and work for myself full time within a year, with the help of a coach I was able to do it in six months. I wouldn’t be where I am (and I know most of my colleagues will say the same thing) without the help of a coach.

You’ve helped a lot of people, and that’s obviously something to be proud of. What’s your experience been like helping young entrepreneurs? Is there a common issue or problem that they seem to encounter, and if so, what is it?

Money is a topic I coach people around all the time. Making it, managing, and trusting in their innate ability to deal with it.

We can’t do the kind of work we want and be of service to others if we don’t have a solid relationship with our money. That doesn’t mean you need to be raking in six figures to have a good relationship; in fact, it has a lot more to do with psychology and reframing perspectives than the actual money you have the bank.

You help people for a living, so I’m sure you have a lot of advice to give (and you’ve already shared some of it here). If you had to take your best advice for other internet entrepreneurs and put it into one sentence or phrase, what would that be?

Don’t hide your gifts just because you think someone out there is already doing it. [Click here to tweet this]

(Straight from my book Make Money Your Honey)

What are your favorite online resources?

My colleague Brandy Morris has this brilliant offering called Operation Ideation.

It’s totally free and each month she sends members actionable (and beautiful) templates that they can use to bring their offerings into the world. My personal favorite is Check it or Chuck it which is like a game you can play to figure out whether you need to go after this big idea or maybe shelf it for a while.

For someone who is just starting out creating a blog or attempting to start a business online, what advice would you offer? What do you wish someone told you about when you first started?

You’re probably going to be doing more work on yourself than on your business. There are a lot of mindsets about work and money that will be challenged in the process of creating your own blog or business.

Notice what sneaky stories you have around work or money (for instance, “money doesn’t grow on trees”) that will hinder your from making the money you deserve doing the work you love.

Then, start reframing them.

One simple one people can do is instead of saying “I can’t afford that” they can say “I’m choosing not to buy that.” It puts the power back in the person’s hands instead of seeing money as some external factor that is out to ruin their lives.

Finally, where can people find you online ?

You can find me at AmandaAbella.com or on Twitter @amandaabella.

You can also find my book Make Money Your Honey: A Spirited Entrepreneur’s Guide to Having a Love Affair with Work and Money on Amazon.