Graining Confidence with Amy Shield

Kim Beer (00:01.034)

name said.

Amy Schield (00:02.278)

Yeah, yeah, just a single shield, not an armor of shields.

Kim Beer (00:06.781)

Okay, so just a single shield, Amy's shield, okay,

Hi there, Business Animals. It's Kim with Be More Business. And today I am here with my lovely guest, Amy Shield. And Amy is actually I've gotten to know Amy quite well a little bit. I wouldn't say quite well, but we belong to an organization together in Kansas City called the Wellness Consortium. And I think we're both we're both champions for that. Amy is a little newer to the champion role than I have been. I've been doing that for a while for a little over a year, I think.

And it's such an amazing organization. And I feel like we're very like hearted in how we approach entrepreneurship and business. And so I'm super happy to have you on the show, Amy. Welcome.

Amy Schield (00:56.616)

Thank you so much, Kim, and thank you for having me on the Business Animal podcast. I just adore you and I love your energy and your spirit, so it's such a pleasure to be with you today.

Kim Beer (01:07.598)

Would you tell the listeners and me a little bit more about who you are and your business, who you serve and what you

Amy Schield (01:16.2)

Yeah, of course. So I am a neuroscience based time management and mindset coach. so basically what that means is that I coach folks based on what's happening in their brain right now, both the structure of their brain in terms of the neural pathways, as well as what's happening in their mind. And I work with them to take a look at what are the results that their brain is producing for them right now and where do they want to

And so how can we use the power of neuroscience and what's called neuroplasticity to help them make those changes? So that's kind of a really nerdy way of saying, I help people upgrade their mindset in a way that's fun and conversational. I serve mostly small business owners and solopreneurs. I'm actually widening my niche right now to busy professionals who work a W2 job as well. So that's really exciting. I do all my work one -on -one.

I have reasons for that and probably some things that I need to get coached on as a coach before I would consider group coaching. But that's kind of me and my business in a nutshell.

Kim Beer (02:27.91)

Well, so you know, Amy, I am big about creating a business that supports the life you want to live. And that really supports our strengths because that's, you know, I've I, I am one of those people who has a little different approach and neurologically to things I, I've never been diagnosed as neurodivergent. But I think that it has more to do with my age than it does with how my mind sometimes works, which I love my brain, it

works fantastically. But what have I've struggled with is trying to fit myself into a world that is not set up for somebody who thinks or responds the way that I do. So I love that what you do is take a look at one of those some of those things that underlie that and help people.

I mean, live their best life and understand themselves, which I think is such an important piece, whether you're a leader or whether you're an entrepreneur or whether you're just a human walking through the world.

So on this show, we like to talk about business models and what it really feels like to be an entrepreneur and a solopreneur in your case. So I would like to go back to before you started your business and know a little bit about the story about how did you become an entrepreneur and what did you envision your life was going to be like in this business that you're creating?

Amy Schield (03:57.758)

So that's a super interesting question, Kim. And to answer that question, I have to go back to my childhood for like 30 seconds. I'm not going to give you my entire biography here. So when I was a kid, thought that owning a business, being a business owner, creating things and putting them out into the world sounded amazing. It sounded like what I wanted to do. And at some point around 12, 13, 14, I took some personality test.

Kim Beer (04:07.085)

You're fine.

Amy Schield (04:25.958)

And the results of that test told me that my personality was the opposite of what an ideal entrepreneur is basically. And so I was really disheartened over that for a lot of years. And so it's always been something that was kind of in the back of my mind and a desire that I've had. But because I thought my personality was other than entrepreneur, I just never really had the confidence to do it. And so I started working with a coach

to work on those confidence issues, not just in terms of career and vocation, but in other areas of my life as well. And that's when I kind of discovered the power of changing our thoughts, working with our emotions to actually change our brains so that we can become the kind of person that we want to be. So going into entrepreneurship, I knew it wasn't going to be easy. think there's kind of a misconception

that gets perpetuated through some different channels that you can use somebody else's plug and play system and set up a business and be profitable from day one. And that might happen in a small percentage maybe of cases, but for the vast majority of people becoming a successful entrepreneur, and this is true for me too, means a lot of hard

more rejection than you've probably ever dealt with in your life, more failure than you've probably ever dealt with in your life. And so I knew it was going to be full of that stuff. I just didn't realize like how full that popcorn bag was going to be. And so that, that was kind of an adjustment in terms of, you know, rejection, failure, rejection, success, rejection, failure. And

for me, I kind of went into it with eyes half open and sort of realized over time that, wow, this is probably the best personal development endeavor that you can undertake as being an entrepreneur because you ask so much of yourself on a day -to -day basis.

Kim Beer (06:37.658)

Absolutely. do say entrepreneurship is a lot. It will push every single button that is not fully locked in in your life. mean, it definitely, it'll find them and it'll push them. And I really believe entrepreneurs walk out the other side, better human beings, because it teaches you a lot about yourself and it also teaches you a lot about other people and all of the commonalities that we have kind of across the board.

And I've talked on this show before about the fact that I'm of an age when entrepreneurship was not presented necessarily as a choice when I was growing up as a career. I looked at all of the fancy careers like computer science. I was very good with technology and I looked at.

and I looked at being a lawyer and I looked at engineering and what's funny is that those are the things that you want to talk about neuroscience those are the things that my brain struggles the hardest with and a lot of that was because I didn't feel like it would be a legitimate career to do what I do today or to do what I've done for the last 30 years which is be very very creative for both myself and

other people. So developing that neuroplasticity and finding that personal growth in myself, I think I'm a hundred times better human because I didn't choose the other path. And I agree with you on that as well. So what is your business like? You work one -on -ones. You mentioned that.

But what do you do on a day -to -day basis? Do you develop programming? Do you work specifically with clients? Like, what is a day in the life of Amy look like?

Amy Schield (08:30.78)

So it kind of depends on the day and just for the sake of my time blocking and being efficient in my business, I have specific days that I coach on. So I coach on Mondays and then like half day Wednesday and then here and there on Thursdays. And then I use Tuesdays and Fridays to do my content creation, my networking.

In theory, I get to take Fridays off if I get all my work done. That hasn't, that hasn't happened here for about six months. But, that notwithstanding, I, I block my, coaching sessions, especially on Monday, sometimes I'll have four or five, six coaching calls on a Monday, so that I can stay in that coaching mode. And I can have one major day where I'm kind

pouring all of that energy in because, and I mean, you've coached people as well. I know you coach people on a regular basis. Coaching takes so much concentration and editing your own thoughts out. And so it is mentally taxing, it's intensive. And so for me to just be able to kind of block most of that task on Mondays, then frees up my mental resources, my emotional resources for that matter.

for the other stuff that I have to do to keep my business running, keep new clients coming in and pitch podcasts, pitch speaking events, all that kind of stuff.

Kim Beer (10:04.174)

So what part in there, because I want to get to the time management piece, because I know a lot of people that are listening to this struggle with time management, because a lot of entrepreneurs do. But what in there, what in that week long process, and I teach a lot of my clients to do this as well, like think about how do you want to structure your week versus how you want to structure your day. But what in there did you in the beginning of your business struggle with that you had

get the coaching around? Was it the time management piece or was it the strategy? Like what in there kind of stumped you?

Amy Schield (10:43.998)

So for me, what struggled me, what I struggled with was really the content creation piece. So for a lot of my life, I had perfectionistic tendencies and perfectionism and efficient content creation clash a little bit. And so that was an exercise for me alone.

for example, accepting B - work for myself, not capitalizing the first letter in every sentence on my AI -generated closed captioning, know, like moving myself past those kinds of things so that I could spend my time and energy on things that actually matter. That was a big piece for me. And one of the things about time management is

the recurring tasks in your life or your business especially, the more you do them the more efficient you get at them. And so I've now been able to shave a third of the time off of my content creation block that I do. And so I freed up an extra hour in my week, which honestly doesn't sound like that much. But when you're a solopreneur like I am, an hour in an eight, 10 hour workday, that can make a big difference.

Kim Beer (12:08.608)

You can absolutely can. I mean, that adds up to five hours over the course of five days. And most entrepreneurs work a seven day week or at least a six one. So I mean, that's almost giving you a full workday back. So that's a huge amount if you look at it over months or years, it adds up really quickly.

The curiosity, how did you use, well first of all, where did you learn the time management in neuroscience from? Where does that background come

Amy Schield (12:43.742)

So that's for my coaching certification. So I'm a certified professional life coach through an organization called the Life Coach School. And that certification included neurocognitive behavioral change, time management, and there was actually also some weight loss and smoking cessation that I don't use in my practice, but it's similar processes in terms of brain function.

changing behaviors, changing habits. And so it was all kind of rolled into that certification.

Kim Beer (13:20.042)

So how did you choose coaching? Like where did that come into play? Like as you picked out what type of a business you were going to have, was it the fact you had worked with a coach and had good results?

Amy Schield (13:35.006)

Yeah, that's basically what it was. you know, I didn't set out to start a business. I actually have another online business that I've had since 2017. And it's it's a cleaning and organizing blog that, you know, makes a little bit of money on the side. But like I mentioned earlier, or maybe I didn't mention. I had huge struggles with confidence for a lot of my life. And yeah, and and

Kim Beer (14:00.263)

You did mention that, yes.

Amy Schield (14:06.108)

I knew that I was capable of more, I knew I was meant for more, and I could just feel in my bones that I was holding myself back. so several years ago, I bought myself this self -coaching program for Christmas, loved it. And then I started working with coaches one -on -one and that absolutely changed my life. And at that point, I felt called to help other people make those same changes. I was, it's almost like somebody took a little hammer and

knocked the hard candy shell off of me and I just emerged as this more confident, more vibrant version of myself. And I wanted to help other people make those same changes. And so that's why I pursued certification. I thought, you know, back to your earlier question in terms of what I thought business would be like. So I do have a master's degree in business administration, which did not prepare me whatsoever.

to be an entrepreneur, right? Because they're really two different skill sets, especially if you're gonna be a solopreneur. And so that's really how I came to coaching as a professional because I had amazing results and I wanted to help other people make those same kinds of huge shifts in their lives.

Kim Beer (15:21.801)

So I'm curious, confidence was the reason you stepped into working with other coaches. How does time management, like, because we tend to gravitate to what we need most to shore up ourselves, right? So I'm curious, how does time management hand you confidence?

Amy Schield (15:44.03)

So that's an awesome question. And confidence ties into time management really because when we're talking about time management, people tend to think of tools, tactics, strategies, right? Your Google calendar, your planner, your Pomodoro timer, all of those kinds of things. But true effective time management is only about 20 % tools, tactics, and strategies, and it's about 80 % mindset.

and that cognitive emotional management. Because if you think about people's biggest barriers to time management, what is it? They struggle to prioritize because everything's important because I don't want to disappoint anybody. I don't want to let anybody down. That's people pleasing. People struggle to get work done on time because they're double, triple, quadruple checking because they're afraid to make a mistake or they struggle with perfectionism like I used

People get overwhelmed and so they shut down and they back away from their work, pick up the phone and get those dopamine hits by scrolling on social media. So those are really the time management issues that, and really their mindset issues kind of disguised as time management issues. They manifest as time management issues, but they run way, way, way deep below the surface.

Kim Beer (17:03.601)

I that's fascinating to me. I recognize a lot of that in myself and how I have struggled over time, over time, you know, I and the perfectionism piece of things. I and I bet there's a there's a ton of people listening to this that can really align themselves with that. And I know for myself, a lot of times it gets so overwhelming that I can't like let it go.

And one of the biggest gifts I've ever given myself is saying it's better done than it is perfect. Like it's just better for it to be done and checked off and blessed and released than it is for me to spend all of my time agonizing over it. I work with a lot of artists and I know that's probably a population that would maybe benefit tremendously from you that maybe doesn't think maybe all at the

of their head about having a time management coach as an artist because that's supposed to something you're flow into right it's supposed to just come naturally and the reality is is that there's nothing further from the truth and there's a famous quote and I can't remember who it's from and I'm notorious on this podcast for coming up with quotes and then have to figure out who said them but the the quote goes like an artist never finishes their work they just abandon it and I I think

that perfectionism in work in the artistic mind and so I know I've gotten off on a tangent but I think that's fascinating with what you do and I think that brings so much in the fact that

being able to stand in your own confidence is as much mindset as anything else that you do in your day. So I think that's awesome. Do you want to add anything to that before I ask you? Because I'm going to ask you about something that has recently happened in your business. Is there anything else you want to add to that conversation before we shift over into that?

Amy Schield (19:09.18)

The only thing I would say, particular to your comments on artists, is that, and you're absolutely right, and inspiration, creativity, a lot of times that is a spark thing. It is a spontaneous flow kind of a thing. But it is possible to schedule creativity, time for creativity, and to get those juices flowing.

I know coaches who are time management coaches specifically for artists, so there is a way to do that. Not like making yourself an Elvis on velvet painting mill, but creating the conditions where you can stimulate your creativity on a little bit more of regular schedule. just artists out there, just know that that is possible.

Kim Beer (20:02.148)

Absolutely. And I teach over on our other podcast, Cowgirls with Cameras, we've had a long discussion about my Creative Amplifiers, which are techniques that I've used over the last 30 years to be able to be creative on demand, which is a huge when on when artists make the shift from doing art for themselves to doing art as an entrepreneur. It's a huge shift that they have to make. And I think the same thing happens to coaches as well, to be honest with you.

never thought of it that way. It's it's one thing when you get into coaching. It's another thing when you make a business out of it. It's the same thing with art. But I have all of these little things that I do. As a matter of fact, there's like 11 or 12 of them that I use to manipulate my ability to be creative, like finding things that are going to disrupt my schedule, like just simply moving to a different space to work in, like changing up the view around me, like getting out of my office and going to a coffee shop

play or you know, I have things that are called creative juicing, which are those dopamine hits in my head that I'll utilize to leapfrog off of to find my creativity. And I would imagine that's another piece of time management is allowing yourself the latitude to be able to take advantage of some of those things. And I love that because when you work with somebody's mind and the neuroscience

behind it that suddenly becomes an option rather than this very staunch plenary kind of we're gonna do this at this specific time kind of deal so anything else you want to add to that particular thing like you know and that's probably it so let me ask you this before we dive into the transitions that you've been up to in your business

I think when people who haven't worked with somebody around time management think of a time management coach, they think of somebody who's going to tell them exactly how to spend their day. Do you tell people how to spend their day or how does that work?

Amy Schield (22:10.908)

Yeah, absolutely not. And that's really because how I would set up their day or how I set up my day isn't necessarily going to work with them because they have a different brain. They have different priorities. They have different strengths and areas of opportunity than I do. so I and I I've even had people suggest to me, well, why don't you just offer like

I'm like, because most of the people who go through that would fail because I would be setting that up based on what I think matters, not what matters to them. And you alluded to it a few minutes ago, but every single one of us are unique. The neural pathway structure that we have in our brain right now has been created over the course of our entire lives by our experiences. And so that

how and why we get things done. And so it's much better for somebody to work with me and I can help them figure out how to set up a system that works for them versus me just coming in and telling somebody what to do. I mean, you can Google, you know, how should I set up my day and get that information for free. What you're not going to get from Google is, okay, here's what I'm struggling with. What are the steps that I can take

schedule my day to manage myself around that issue or to grow in the areas I want to grow, whether that is things like efficiency, not giving into distractions, accepting B minus work, right? Like you said, getting it done, blessing it and letting it go. So I don't tell people what to do. It's much more sustainable and much more holistic if I can help them figure out for themselves what to

Kim Beer (24:06.081)

I love that. That's very gestalt, which is my big thing is that gestalt is all about you have the answers. Me as the gestaltist, I'm simply here to open up some paths for you to find your own solution to whatever that particular situation is. And I will admit, I am on the Keirsey Bates, I am very much a P, which means that we don't tend to do

the same as the rest of the world. But we're also the largest consumer of planners, like paper planners or planners online, to -do lists, schedulers, all of that. Because we feel like if we can somehow conquer time management, that we can somehow conquer the world. And I think one of, and this is the lesson that I'll leave if you have anything to say about it, the lesson that I learned.

is that it's okay to leave blanks on my planner. Like, for the longest time, I felt like I was such a failure if not everything on my planner was filled in. And so it actually spurred me to buy simpler and simpler and simpler planners until I got down to the one I use today, which is the Mona planner, which I love for me because it's absolutely brain dead simple. And to be honest, I use about 70 % of it, even

simplicity level because that's what works for me long -term day in and day out. yeah.

Amy Schield (25:41.414)

Yeah, and I love that what you've really done is gone through and experimented and tested to find what works for you because at the end of the day, it's kind of like the concept in business that it's cheaper to keep a current client than to acquire a new one, right? It's less mentally taxing, especially in the short term, to just work with how your brain is operating now than to try to change

so that you can manage your time better, right? So I love that example and I applaud you for going with how your own brain flows. That's amazing.

Kim Beer (26:20.13)

It only took me 58 years to get there. We won't mention that part.

Amy Schield (26:25.999)

Don't put that on the testimonial, right?

Kim Beer (26:28.61)

I don't know about that testimonial. took me 58 years to figure that one out. So yes, and I mean, I think that goes along with my concept of what I like to help people with now is creating a business that supports the life they want to live. And I can tell you hands down, no doubts about it. I do not want to live a life that is infinitely scheduled out. And I know for some people, that's a preference, right? It's the way they would like to live their life.

person is not me. The more.

restrictive or scheduled out my day is the the lousier I feel about that day. So and the more free and open it is, the better I can feel about that day. And again, that's a I hope that there's young people out there listening that it's okay to give yourself permission to work the way that you work, not the way somebody else thinks your schedule should go. So I love that. So Amy, you have

been through, I know over the last couple of months, because I sit in a mastermind with you as well, that you've been reworking your messaging, kind of what does that evolution look like from where you started to where you are now? And I don't know if it was a hugely dramatic one, because I didn't look too closely at the pre, but I have looked at a lot of the stuff that you have out in the world now. And so I'm curious how that evolution went for

Amy Schield (27:59.258)

So, love this question. the evolution really went from me constantly talking in coach speak. Coaches are not my target market. And therefore, most of the people who heard me talking about who I am and how I help had no idea what I was actually saying. And I think that that can

I mean, somebody can be an SEO expert or somebody can be an entrepreneurial mentor, the entrepreneurial wise woman, right? And we can get so stuck into our industry lingo that the people, the audience that we're talking to have no idea what we're saying. so, you

they swipe up on the video or they don't reach out and contact us because I haven't done a great job of explaining to people what I do and how I help. And honestly, that's something that I'm still working on. And so really this whole messaging transition has been about me learning to connect with the needs and desires of my target market and then express how I can help with that.

And it's been about me taking a look at, from my customer's perspective, what's not ideal about my industry? And what are the misconceptions? And what needs to change? And how can I be a leader in that? And how can I clear up those misconceptions? A great example is I just did a video on a few weeks ago.

tools and tactics, if you want to improve your time management, tools and tactics are not where you need to start. And so, and that was actually one of my best performing videos ever. Now, trust me, I'm not like, I'm not crashing the YouTube website with my channel, but I have noticed that as I have made the conscious effort to change up my messaging in a way that makes sense to people, in a way

Amy Schield (30:16.796)

gets people curious and interested and helps them identify with the solutions I'm offering. Yeah, my engagement has gone up. I'm getting more looks. I'm booking more consultations. And all of this really came about because I had a story about myself, again, back to that brain, that I'm not a marketer. And so earlier this year, I'm a coach, not a marketer. Well, as a solopreneur, I'm a marketer by default.

right? And so, yeah, I'm in everything by default. And so, I realized earlier this year, I have to stop telling myself that because I am blocking myself from communicating effectively with my potential clients. And so that's really where this whole transition came from was me saying, all right, Amy, and it's time for you to learn to be a

Kim Beer (30:46.591)

Yes, 100%.

Kim Beer (31:12.028)

Yeah, and the truth is, as a solopreneur is every business, every position in the business, and even small business owners, you still have to be every position in the business because you got to manage it. Even if you have somebody doing your marketing, you still have to manage that piece of your business. And I do believe we tell ourselves narratives all of the time that aren't true, because each of us, I hear the one a lot in the cowgirls with

space about I'm not creative. Well, heck yeah, you are. You got up this morning and chose clothes to put on. That is an act of creation. You decided what to wear. And that's just the beginning of all of the creation that you created in your day. It's the same thing with entrepreneurs who want to say I'm not good at sales or I'm not a salesperson. I'm not a marketer. I'm not a good at working on my business. I may be good at what I do technically, but I'm not a good

person. No, you are. You have to start retelling those stories and reshaping those stories. And then what's fun about that is you show up more authentically. And I love your shift at being more client centric because one of the things I tell my baby entrepreneurs is that you will have started your business for you. You have a why, which is your worthy hell yeah, in my opinion, and I'll have you say yours after I get done with this statement.

that's yours and that's the reason that you started your business. But your customers all have their own whys for needing whatever it is that you're doing. And when you tune your programming, your business, your messaging, when you fine tune that in to them and their why, that's when the magic wand starts waving around to the room and billy -bobbly -boo, you have lots of customers

you have happy ones because that's when you're finally speaking their language. So what is your worthy hell yeah?

Amy Schield (33:20.239)

So for me, my worthy hell yeah is that, you know, the human brain honestly is the original machine learning entity, right? It is so incredibly designed. It is incredibly efficient and it is constantly scanning the environment, taking information in and updating, doing an operating system update.

every minute of every day based on the stimulus that we get from the world and from ourselves. Now the thing about that is it did not come with an operating manual. I haven't gotten one. If you have one, please send me a copy. But because we don't learn in school or wherever how our brains work and how to put them to work for us, a lot of people, myself included, for the first three and a half decades of my life get in our own way.

and we hold ourself back from achieving the goals that we want to achieve. We stop ourselves from becoming a better version of ourselves because it's too scary, it's too overwhelming, I'm afraid I'm going to be rejected, all of this stuff. And to me, one of the saddest things in life is to know that somebody's potential, somebody's goals, somebody's dreams are sitting on a shelf because they can't get out of their own way simply because of what's going on in their brain.

And so my why is to help one person at a time understand their brain and then take that knowledge and start putting it to work so that they can shed that, you know, candy shell like I talked about of lack of confidence or overwhelm or fear of failure, whatever the case might

Kim Beer (35:09.35)

I love it, I love it, I love it. So two standard questions I ask everybody at the end of interviews. So how does Amy Shield coaching support the life that you want to live?

Amy Schield (35:24.078)

in a number of different ways. Number one, all throughout my career, regardless of where I was working, one of my very favorite things to do was to train and mentor new employees and employees who were younger than I was. And I absolutely loved helping people learn and grow and watching them develop and succeed. And so from that angle, being a coach,

I get to facilitate that for people every single week. So for me personally, that's incredibly fulfilling. And then second, like I talked about earlier, it is the ultimate personal development endeavor. I am constantly asking myself to re -examine my beliefs, to take another risk, to put myself out there,

face that potential rejection, try something completely new that I've never tested that I may fall flat on my face. And being willing to actually ask myself to do that and then step up and do it has been scary as heck, but I've also grown so much. And then finally, I do have some degree of flexibility because I do one -on -one coaching. I am dialed in to specific slots with specific clients.

several days a week, but I have location independence. And like I said, if I'm a very good entrepreneur and I get all my work done, I get to take Fridays off at some point, right? But so I do have that flexibility. You know, my dad is 80 years old and he lives 45 minutes away from me. And depending on the day, if he needs me to come up and unmute YouTube for him, for example, I have the flexibility to do that, right? And so

And so it's a wild, scary, amazing, fulfilling experience for me. And I wouldn't trade it for the world, but I would also tell other folks this is not a place to tread lightly.

Kim Beer (37:41.755)

Yeah, I would I would give similar advice. I I'm the epitome of that person who will gladly work 18 hours by themselves rather than work eight for a corporation. So I get that or another corporation. Yes, technically, I am a corporation. Amy, so we've talked about your one on one services. People can find you on your website, which the link will be in the show notes. But it's amyshield .com. And then you have a burgeoning YouTube channel for Amy

Shield. And I will also put the link into that. So Amy has got some really good videos on here that you can partake in and get a little bit of her wisdom. If you are interested in the topic of time management and kind of this neuroscience behind time management, it would be super helpful. Is there any other place besides YouTube and your website, you do have a great lead magnet on your website. So there's a free

for you if you go go sign up for Amy's VIP list but is there anywhere else besides the YouTube channel and your website that you would have people find you?

Amy Schield (38:53.182)

Yeah, absolutely. So I post shorter clips of those YouTube videos on Facebook and Instagram, as well as LinkedIn. And LinkedIn is where I tend to engage the most. So I would encourage folks to connect with me on LinkedIn as well.

Kim Beer (39:09.434)

So give her a connection if you're connected to me. I do believe we are connected on LinkedIn. So you should find us through a second connection. It should show you as the second connection. All right. Final question for you. As you know, this is the business animal. And for me, animals are such a partnership in what I do in life. And so do you have an animal story that you can share about an animal or situation with an animal that has affected your life in

Amy Schield (39:41.394)

do. And it's a horse. And this, this kind of this goes back to before I even became a coach. And, and back to kind of this one spark where, where I realized that I wasn't trusting myself, I didn't have the confidence in myself. So I'm an equestrian. And several years ago, I rode a horse.

named Princess. She is a big, beautiful paint mare and she's the kind that knows she's beautiful, if you know what I mean. And she wasn't my first horse at this barn. I worked my way up to her, she... I mean, I was on a Pinto Arabian before her and he was gelding. He's quite a bit smaller. so Princess, big, beautiful, talented horse, beautiful geometry.

And I was really intimidated. And she could tell, right? So talking about this kind of lifelong journey of building my confidence, and as you know, Kim, animals absolutely pick up on our emotions, especially horses. And she could smell my fear. And my writing instructor, who I think must be part horse because she can also sense fear, trepidation, all of those emotions.

She told me, said, Amy, she knows she knows you're afraid, you know. And so through working with this horse, I had to up my confidence because if I was going to continue riding and training on her, I had to. Otherwise, I was either going to end up on the ground or just let her drag me around the arena all day. And I mean, she bucked and she cowhopped and all of that. And those

I was super afraid of those things happening. Guess what? They happened and I survived it. And so not only did I through this experience and I think I probably wrote her for three, three years. Not only did I develop a relationship and a partnership with her, but I also had to learn to trust myself, to trust my balance, to trust my instincts and my abilities, and also to trust myself to handle things.

Amy Schield (42:07.472)

if something did go wrong. Because that's what it ultimately came down to. I didn't have confidence in myself. I didn't trust myself. And so that experience was kind of like the the bud of this whole journey to self -confidence that I've been on for, gosh, probably the last seven or eight years now. So Princess the Beautiful Paint Mayor.

Kim Beer (42:31.562)

Nice. As I'm sitting and listening to you tell that story, I'm thinking back over our conversation during the podcast today, and very much your business has carried a parallel to Princess in your life. So, and I think a lot of entrepreneurs are in that same boat where they see something beautiful and lovely and they want to master it and partner with it, but they've got to learn how to trust themselves. And as they grow,

business becomes better and better and better. So I love how those stories always work out and kind of come back around to it's just so true that animals give us so much in life lessons. So thank you so much, Amy, for being on the show today. If you guys want to look up Amy, find her information in this show notes. Thank you again, make sure you hit that like and follow button and share this to your friends that are also entrepreneurs or would be interested in what we talked about

I'll see you next week.