SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to What Would Amber Do with your host, Amber Howard, your weekly post of guidance, inspiration, and strategies to have your small business and whole life thrive. We bring you incredible guests who share their real life experiences of being an entrepreneur so you can have your whole life work. Now, here's your host, Amber Howard.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to What Would Amber Do. I am really excited this morning to be speaking with Alicia Twee. Alicia transitioned from a career as a teacher to a holistic wellness coach and nutritionalist. Alicia is also a wife and a mother of two who is committed to teaching others to live a holistic life. Alicia, thank you so much for being on the show this morning. It's so great to have you here.

SPEAKER_02 0:53

Thank you for having me, Amber. I'm looking forward to this.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Yeah, it's great. I um I book these like sometimes months out, and then I'm like, it's almost like Christmas morning. I like I got really excited about specific conversations. So I've been really looking forward to having this time with you and sharing you and what's important to you with with the people who listen to the show. So so why don't we just jump in? So what had you like first, like talk to me about the journey to get to today, you know, because you were a teacher and and now you're running your own business and you have kids. So I know as a mom myself, like running your own business, you know, it's hard to transition from a job like being a teacher, which is a little perceived to be anyway, a little more stable to being an entrepreneur. So, what was that journey like for you?

SPEAKER_02 1:41

Yeah, so it's um an interesting journey, and I mean it's been a great one. So I have always been interested in health. I did my Bachelor of Science in kinesiology and kind of knew I always wanted to go down that route, but wasn't really sure which path to take. So I was a personal trainer for a while. Um, I ran a health center and you know, was a kinesiologist there, and then decided that I wanted a little bit more of that security and thought, oh, maybe I'll go into teaching. And I really loved my phys ed teachers, did a little bit of um volunteering with them and I really liked working with teenagers. So I was a cheerleading coach and I coached a lot of teenagers, and I just loved that interaction that we would have and the relationship and those types of things. Um, and so I decided to become a high school teacher. So I taught math in phys ed for almost 15 years, and um then I was teaching full phys ed for a while, and I just found that the place I love to be was in the classroom. I loved teaching about health. And um teenagers, when they're in phys ed, they don't really want to be in the classroom, right? They want to be they want to be in the gym playing, which I get. And but for me, I just felt that calling that I wanted to be doing something more. Um, a couple of years before I left teaching, I had found essential oils. And so I was doing more of that health teaching in terms of teaching people how to integrate essential oils into their life in um a part-time role. So I was doing that with adults and I kind of really loved that. And it was one of the springboards that, you know, I decided to leave teaching, go on a leave of absence. Um, and my husband and I moved to, I used to live in London and now we're in Markham where he grew up. And then I decided I didn't just want to do the oils, I wanted to do something else with it. And I've always been interested in nutrition. So I went back to um school for holistic nutrition. So now I'm a registered holistic nutritionist, and yeah, I've got my own business helping women and athletes. Yeah, that's my my journey. And here we are today.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

It's amazing. I I love teenagers too. It's funny because a lot of people think I'm crazy for that, but there's just like a there's an energy that they have socially and emotionally, they're growing and learning so much. And I just find, I don't know, I find them fascinating. And it's uh, you know, um I just acknowledge you for like just taking steps and continually being in the discovery of like, you know, there's so many ways to fulfill on what matters to us in life. But like, what's the way that's gonna give us the most pleasure? What's the way that's gonna be like the most aligned with our heart? And really, that's what I hear. It's like as you were going through your journey, you you know, you had a sense of where you wanted to be, but it's like, oh, I'll try that. No, that's that's that's some of it, but it's not all of it, right? So why not be out in life like I can have all of it?

SPEAKER_02 4:52

Yeah, and a big part of it too was I have two little ones, my well, not so little anymore, actually. Um my son's 10 and my daughter's eight. And you know, as a teacher, you're working the same hours as them, which is great because you can be home in their home. I mean, I coached as well, so some seasons I wasn't, but you can never do the field trips, you can never do the things that other parents can do as a teacher, right? Because you're with other people's children instead of your own. And so for me, that was something that that I craved, right? I actually had um a concussion. I got a concussion at work in one of my phys ed classes, and I was off for a while. And so it gave me, and then I was back part-time, and so it gave me a little bit of a taste of that. And I think that, you know, we always say things happen for a reason, and you might say, like having a concussion is awful. Yes, it was, but it led me to this life, I believe, right?

SPEAKER_01 5:56

I I a hundred percent agree with you that, and and you and I have both studied in, you know, Bob Proctor's work and with Danielle and you know, this whole idea that life is unfolding for us, right? And even though it doesn't always look like that in the moment. And like, what if we could just be out in life? Like anything that happens is a gift. And I think what you know, what you just shared, I really hear your commitment to your children, to being a mom, but also to like getting to create your life the way you want to create your life, not, and this is one of my big things that I talk a lot about is like, like, what does it look like to be a leader in your life? Well, it looks to me, it looks like creating your life, not living up to someone else's standard for what happiness and success should look like, but really saying, what do I want inside of, you know, how do I not only do what do I want in terms of like the actual tangible results, like I want to make this much money or I want to live in this house, but like the experience of achieving those results.

SPEAKER_02 7:02

Yeah, exactly. I mean, and the the one moment that comes up to me when you're talking about that is that, you know, when we moved here two years ago, my husband and I both were able to take them to school on the first day of school. Before, you know, I relied on my mom, and thank goodness she was there to do that, but she got to experience that with them every other year, right? So now I get to.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

Yeah, it really is about those moments, you know. It really is about those moments. It's beautiful. So I think there are some words that kind of get thrown around a lot, right? And and I think sometimes, I mean, it's great in a sense that we can kind of each bring our own meaning to them, but one of those words for me is kind of like holistic. And so for you, what does it mean? You know, you one of the things that you talk about that's important to you is that people get to live a holistic life. So, what is what is what is that? How do you define living a holistic life?

SPEAKER_02 8:05

Well, I think first of all, for me, living a holistic life in terms of my registered holistic nutrition is when I'm working with a client, I'm looking at the whole person. Right? So it comes from the word whole. And it's not just, okay, this person has diabetes. Let's give them, we they can't have sugar, so let's put them on a diet pop, right? Which, which some people might think is a good solution. Well, I know what that diet pop is going to do to them in terms of all of the other stuff that is in it, the chemicals and those types of things. So we're looking at not just one piece and and putting a band-aid on it. It's that whole approach. And so I kind of, you know, we kind of live our life like that, right? We we do the whole thing. We exercise, we um eat healthy, we spend time together, we do breathing exercises, we meditate, you know, um, and and spending that quality time together. So the holistic life is is kind of encompassing all those pieces that you know I believe are important in health and not just looking at one piece of it.

SPEAKER_01 9:21

So that's yeah I'm and I guess part of that would be because of the work that you've done, like, you know, you know again, we've both participated in personal growth, like the mindset piece. I'm I'm I was looking at some of your content and kind of getting to know a little bit about like how you you communicate what you're up to into the, you know, on social media and stuff like that. And uh I was present to Louise Hayes' book, You Can Heal Your Life, and this idea that like anything that's happening with us physically, like, you know, and Bob talks about this this idea of like disease is actually disease, like a lack of ease in the mind manifesting itself physically in the body. So is that part of the work that you do as well? Is like looking at what's happening in terms of beliefs and mindset.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yes, definitely. I mean, as both of us know, mindset is huge, right? It's huge. What you believe can become a reality. So that is a huge part of it. And I think that that's one of the things that makes me unique in the work that I do is that not everybody focuses on that. I mean, with the school I went to, we did have a psycho-spiritual um course and um mind course, mental health, actually, it was so nutrition for mental health. So you had two pieces of it, but uh not everybody uses that in their practice, right? Like they'll do the lifestyle, the supplements, the food, but maybe not touch on that mindset part. And and I think, you know, the people that use it, it really, really is an advantage because we know what people think about themselves is what is what happens in their life.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yeah. It's like getting to the root cause of something, right? So one of the things that I teach people and I and I do like in business with my clients is like getting to the root cause, right? So you know, you talk about fixing the band-aid, right? So someone's got diabetes. Well, we want to get their sugar down, we're gonna give them diet pop. Well, is that actually gonna get to the root cause of whatever is going on that's causing, whether it's a you know, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually, that's actually causing the disease in the body. And um, like I people often don't want to hear its mindset, I think. I think there's just like, because then it's like, you know, if it's something like when people come and they'll be like, oh, I want to make more money or I want to change my body or whatever. And I remember in in Think You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay says, when clients come to me, I don't talk to them anything about anything other than self-worth. Because until you get that sorted out, there's really no point talking about anything else. Because like that, for her, anyway, and I and I I think I can find myself in this in my own journey as a human being, like that was at what was at the root of every like that was at the root of all of it.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Yeah, that's really true. And you know, because when you don't have that self-worth, you don't think you're worthy to nourish yourself properly, right?

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Absolutely. Yeah. So I got the approach that you take, but why is this so important to you, Alicia? Like, why is it so important to you, you know, that people get to live a holistic life?

SPEAKER_02 12:42

You know what, that's an interesting question for me because as far back as I can remember, it's just health has been something that was always important to me. Um, you know, I started, I was always involved in athletics growing up. I was um I was that kid who, when my parents would go to McDonald's, I would order a salad. And I don't know why. I just I didn't like the food that was there. Um, and so I was always the person who chose, you know, the non-traditional things that you would get when your parents take you out or you go and do different things. And so I always loved that kind of food. I don't know if um I had, I guess I do know actually, I had some sort of intuition what was good for my body. Um even going back to, you know, in my late teens and 20s, I remember that I was on the birth control pill. And it's one of the things that a lot of, you know, girls get prescribed for um acne and birth control reasons, but I wasn't on it very long. I had this intuition, and nobody taught me anything, but I had this intuition that putting these synthetic hormones in my body was probably not the best for me. And so I took myself off of it. So just throughout my whole life, I've had these little, you know, intuitive hits that these things are important to us and um we need to take care of our bodies. And I just have this um this want to help people do that for themselves. You know, I've always been a teacher in whatever and a leader in whatever aspect I've been in in my life, and um, and I just want people to be able to feel that for themselves, but they have to want it first, right? We can't take somebody. I mean, you know, I have specific examples of people in in my life who I know I could help them, but they're not ready for it, right? And it might be part of that self-work that we were talking about.

SPEAKER_01 14:47

A hundred percent, I think it is, right? Like we we have to be willing, but but before we can be willing to step into something, we have to see that we're even worthy of it. And I, you know, I can tell you for you know, I'm in the process of writing a chapter for a book called Women Who Lead, and uh I was sharing about my experience of like faking it till I made it, like because that's how I did life for the longest time, right? It was like, and I remember, and and in the in the chapter, I share about like this experience I had. I was like in my in an office of one of the managers where I worked, and we were having a meeting, and my director walked in because she wanted me to participate in a photo shoot for an award we want at work. And they'd asked me multiple times, and I declined, and I never really gave a reason. I just said I didn't want to. Really, I didn't take pictures. Like I hated the way I looked in pictures, and uh, I just did not want like my image displayed on the company internet. Like I was like, no. Um, and no one would have known, Alicia, that I had self-image issues. Like I watched with my shoulders held back, my head was high because that was my biggest weakness, and no one was gonna know that. Like that was always in the space between there was always this like distance. And so she came into that off in the office and she she didn't mean to, and she poor woman, she felt horrible after, but she pressed again because she had pressures on her, right? To like have me participate, like you know, happens in companies. And she pushed and I welled up with tears. And I in that moment I was like embarrassed and I was angry at her because I felt exposed. Because it's like this very like it was not a very thick mask, but this mask I wore, you know, was like it was like it had been cracked in some way, and I felt very exposed in that moment, and that was life for me for the longest time, and it was so hidden from my view. I really thought I had done a lot of work on my self-worth until I started my personal development journey, until I started my personal development journey. Yeah, until I started my personal development journey, and I got how in my blind spot my self-loathing and self-hatred was. And it for a lot of people in my life, Alicia, it was such a shock when I shared with them, like when I started being vulnerable and real and sharing, it they were like they just like they actually had a hard time believing it because I had done such a good job of creating the facade that I was okay and that I, you know, that I was confident. Uh, so I think you're absolutely right. I until and and I can tell you when it kind of first came the awareness that I was still coming, like I needed that awareness that it was still because it was so hidden from my view. But then the next thing for me on my own journey was like I had a my first coach who when I shared my story with him about who I was and where I came from, it was in a leadership program. He was like, Wow, you're extraordinary. But he could hear that I couldn't be with that acknowledgement. And he offered me for the first time to take an objective look at who I was. Like, if you saw her walking down the street, what would you say about her? And that was the first time in my life that I had this ability to kind of step outside of my own mind, which was so polluted, and kind of objectively look at who this person, Amber Howard, had been in the world. Um and from there, the willingness to start doing the work and digging in. And it's taken, it's you know, it's taken however long it's taken, but it's it's definitely a journey.

SPEAKER_02 18:44

Yeah, and that's thank you for sharing that. And that's you know, there's so many people who resonate with that, right? That if they were to look at somebody else with their achievements, their whatever it is, they would think that person was awesome. But because it's them, we have that inner voice, that inner critic that you know doesn't allow us to see our greatness.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

I love that. That's such a good yeah, and it's so funny because we were kind of, and it's you were taught, right? And I think is we're both teachers, like it's part of that. We're taught that we're individuals, we're taught that we know bet what's best for our lives, and like, you know, and my experience has been that other people saw my greatness far before I did. And so sometimes, like, this is why I have a coach, this is why I have you know, a mentor or someone that you know is a gap for you, because they're going to listen to you much bigger than you listen to yourself, and they're gonna they they're gonna see a much bigger possibility for you in your life than you see for yourself. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So, what is it specifically? You said earlier that you got into essential oils while you were still a teacher. What was it about essential oils? And like clearly you're still very much involved in Duatera, and you know, um, what is it about essential oils that is so appealing to you or that you enjoy so much?

SPEAKER_02 20:20

Yeah, so it's um it's funny because I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine who um was a colleague in the physette department with me, and she was telling me about these essential oils. And I remember because my daughter was two and my son was four. And if anybody has young kids that go to a daycare, you know that they get sick a ton. Like it's ridiculous, right? Um, and everyone says, oh, that's normal, they have to go through that, it builds up their immune system. And and some of that may be true. Um, but I was looking for better solutions. Um, and the catalyst was becoming a mom. I remember when I was pregnant, um, you know, you don't put certain things on your body anymore because you're growing a human. You're not supposed to use cleaners. Like if you're pregnant, you're not supposed to clean your house with chemicals because it's bad for the baby. And I remember having this again, intuitive hit. Hold on a second. If I can't use it when I'm pregnant, why should I be using it when I'm not? It's okay for me as an adult to breathe this stuff in and have these toxic chemicals going into my body. I don't think so. So I had started, I had cleaned up that area, and then this friend was talking to me about essential oils. And I remember actively looking for somebody who sold them. So it was probably it was 2015, so a while ago now, and there weren't as many people um selling doTERRA. So I reached out to a friend of mine. Mine who I knew had some contacts. She was in the fitness industry and stuff. And so she set me up with one of her friends, who is now a dear friend of mine. And I remember sitting, we went for coffee, and she told me about, you know, the top 10 oils and how it can replace 80% of what's in your medicine cabinet. And I remember saying to her, okay, I teach math. I'm very scientific. This sounds a little bit too good to be true. I just hope these work like I want them to. So I bought them, went away, very skeptical. Like very skeptical. We're going to try these. At least they're going to make my house smell good, right? And I had time after time after time where my mind was blown. One of the biggest ones for me, and so many stories I have about it, is lavender. We know lavender can help calm things. We know it can help us sleep. But I had no idea that it had so many other uses. My son got um this burn on a Halloween from one of those glow sticks. He bit into it and it and it kind of was burning him. He was he was in pain and he's four years old. And I didn't know what to do. I was like, oh my gosh, do I like what do I do? Do I put this on it? Do I put this on it? And then I remembered I just bought these oils and I ran and got my lavender. And he was like, I can still see him. He had that like uh uh uh uh his shoulders up. I took the lavender, I put it on where he was burnt, and he instantly went, like just calm, stopped, done. Um, another quick story is I had family over for um my daughter's birthday party, and there was this beehive that we were unaware of, and my son got stung and he was screaming, right? Getting stung by a bee hurts. So literally screaming, grabbed the lavender, put it on the bee sting, and he instantly stopped. So much that like my brother was joking, but he says to me, You did that on purpose to show us how much how well those oils work, didn't you? Yes, I I made my son get stung by a bee so I could show you how these work. I mean, obviously joking, but um it just you know was a testament to showing how much that they can do for you. Um, and so I use them as my first line of defense. Like we use them for everything. Um, my daughter's eight, she's never been on an antibiotic. Um I took my daughter, obviously, to the doctor hospital when she broke her arm um a couple of years ago. But other than that, like we don't really use the traditional um medical system because I have all of these tools and now I have an additional one with nutrition and things like that. So um they've literally been life-changing.

SPEAKER_01 25:00

So great. It's interesting when you uh one of the things I wanted to talk to you about, and you know, this is about like network marketing as a business. So when your your family member said, Oh, you just like staged this to show us the power of lavender oils, it like maybe got get present to you, you know. So let's like kind of dig into this a little bit. So I often get asked by people as I, you know, I help people start up new businesses, and you know, sometimes like I help people with their goals and objectives, and sometimes like looking at being a business owner is a way to fulfill on certain goals that people have. And the the conversation about network marketing comes up, and I'm often asked, like, you know, I don't actually own or participate in network marketing at this point in my life, but I'm asked, what do I think of it as a business? Right. And I I personally think it makes a lot of sense to, you know, you cut down costs, you, you know, it's mobile, it's remote, people can do it anywhere they want, people can scale and build it. And, you know, oftentimes that work, you know, the network marketing companies come with a back office. So a lot of that stuff that's difficult for new business owners to set up is kind of handled for you. It's like a bit of a business in a box. And yet, network marketing seems to have a little bit of a bad rap or a stigma around it. There's a lot of noise out there. Um, and so I'm interested to kind of hear from your perspective, like, and perhaps what are some of the things that you could suggest to people if they were interested in network marketing or the idea of network marketing to think about before moving forward with that, or even for people who are listening to the show who are in network marketing right now, that they could do to maybe elevate the level of their business. But what is it about? I guess we could start with what is it about the model, like the business model of network marketing that appeals to you, Alicia?

SPEAKER_02 26:51

Yeah, so this is um, I have a lot of thoughts on this, to be honest. So I was somebody who um always said that I would never get involved with network marketing. Um so I I didn't have a problem with it. I've supported people in terms of like, you know, I've I've bought from Arbon, I bought um, I had a a party for a friend who did Stella and Dot, and a whole bunch of my family bought that stuff. And um, I have you know, the Enyo cleaning products and and all those sorts of things. But I remember my friend who did Stella and Dot coming over and doing all of her stuff and having all of her things and and me saying, Oh my god, I would never do that. I would never do that. Then I started using DoTERA. And what happened was, you know, it happened organically. I used the oils, they worked. I have I worked in um, you know, a school with tons of colleagues, and they all had young kids too. And so you just have a conversation, just like you might have a conversation saying, Oh, I went to this restaurant, it's awesome, right? I said, Oh my goodness, this is what's happening with your child. Do you know what you could try? And so my thought was, I'm giving them, I like to teach about health. I'm giving them all of this information, anyways. So instead of just sending them to my friend Megan, why don't I do it as a business and make and make a little bit of money? And I um, you know, I'm a high-level leader with doTERRA. So I've done, I've done very well with it. And um I know there's a lot of stigma still around network marketing or what people call it MLM. I will never get involved with an MLM. And it drives me crazy because what it is is um ignorance, right? And we know ignorant is not a bad word, it just means not understanding. They just don't understand. Um, they think that the products are more costly because we're being paid a commission, which is not true, right? These companies are using us to market instead of having to pay millions of dollars into marketing, right? We're their marketers. So it doesn't mean that the products cost more. Um, it just means that the money is being directed into people instead of, you know, as they're educators and those types of things, instead of um just advertising. I know specifically for doTERRA, if doTERRA oils were on the shelf, just like other essential oils, people would not know how to use them. So you pick up, like I said, lavender and you know that it's good for sleep. So you're gonna take it home and you're gonna use it for sleep, and you have no idea what else it's good for. Um, like I actually used an essential oil before I started um using doTERRA because a friend of mine told me it would help my daughter with her colds. I went and bought it from Walmart and I did stuff with it that I shouldn't have done because I didn't know, right? At that point, I had no idea. So with doTERRA, it comes with education, right? I am your advocate, your wellness advocate, and I help you learn how to integrate these essential oils into your life, right? I have my Instagram, I have a Facebook group where I actually do a lot more of the essential oil stuff, and we hold classes. You know, in September, we're starting a three-month sleep class where you can order products. You get three different packages every month, like one in month, one month one, one in month two, one in month three. And we're taking you through a sleep system, right? And we have a sleep expert on our team. You have me who's in nutrition and supplements and those types of things. So we can add the different things that go along with it. Um, you know, so network marketing is a great business model, a great business model. I mean, you know, Bob Proctor, who we we work with, his wife is involved in network marketing, and he thinks it's one of the smartest business models out there. Um, there's just so many good things. Is there anything that I didn't cover?

SPEAKER_01 31:13

I love it.

SPEAKER_02 31:14

I feel like I went off.

SPEAKER_01 31:15

I love the passion for it. I I yeah, like I really love the passion for it. And, you know, you point to something that I think is really important that people know, and it's actually the only reason I haven't gotten into some kind of network marketing business. I think it's so important that people get that you need to love what it is that you're selling. Like it's coming from your, you know, you are so passionate about essential oils, you were passionate about them before you started doing the business. It just made sense because you were already sharing about essential oils and the power of them and all of this stuff. And then I'm sure as you became more and more involved in Duotera, your education grew and your ability to serve people expanded, but you were already like really lit up, enrolled in, and like happy to share. Kind of like I call it being a geek about things, right? Like being able to emote on a somewhat childish Simon Pegg has this great definition of being a geek, which is like the freedom to emote on a childlike level about the things that we love without feeling like we have to be, we're being inappropriate like an adult, right? So I like that. And that's the only reason I haven't done it because to be honest, for me, I would rather talk to people about their goals and objectives, like the kinds of conversations, like what I'm passionate to talk about is not products. Now, I may, I may uh share, like I use essential oils, I I, you know, I use some Arbon products and stuff like that. But I'm just not natural, it just is not natural for me to sit down and talk with someone about my skincare. Now, I will just sit down and talk to you about philosophy or life or what matters to you. Like those are the commerce. So if there was some kind of network marketing for that, I'd probably be all in, right? Yeah. Um, so I think that's important that people understand that. It's not like pay 200 bucks, start a business, and then go talk to your friends about it. It's like, what do you really love? And there's so many different network marketing opportunities out there, you know, whether it's services, whether it's, you know, different kinds of products. But I think it's important if you are gonna choose to do that, that this be something that you um that you really understand. It's about what you're passionate about to begin with, not, you know, and then from there, I think there is a big element. You have you just need to know that you're gonna have to educate the people in your social network networks. Because, like, in order, because there is this stigma that comes with doing this business model, and you can make it wrong, and you can be like, oh, people shouldn't think that way, or they're ignorant, and you know, or you could just be like, that's just the what's so. For whatever reason, there is this stigma. And if I want to go into this business and be powerful in this business, then I have the opportunity to help people understand what network marketing is actually about versus everything they might have heard, or or to be honest, all of the exam experiences that may have had beforehand with people who went into network marketing and didn't know how to do it well, or didn't understand, you know, how to make that but that business really work and then left something in people's space about it, right?

SPEAKER_02 34:19

Yeah, and that's and you're so right with all of that. And that there are a lot of people who uh they are taught that they need to come at people and and get them to do the business and all of these things, right? Where for myself and a lot of people in doTERRA, anyways, like we it's customer driven, right? Like we we help people get the essential oils into their lives, and some of us actually don't really talk about the business a lot. Um, maybe I should a little bit more, probably should, but um that's okay, right? This is where I am right now. And for me as a nutritionist as well, you know, it's just another tool that I can that I can use. It doesn't mean that I will use or that I will force it on anybody, but it's an option, right? I've got food as a tool, I've got supplements as a tool, I've got um essential oils as a tool, right? Because we can use them if somebody uses all three of those together and the mindset and all of those things as well, you know, they're just gonna get better results, right? Um and you know, the other thing that I wanted to say is just because I use DoTERRA and right now I use their supplements does not mean that I would give everybody their supplements. Like I'm very open to the fact that, you know, maybe um a supplement from DoTERRA is not good for them. And I would use something else, like an AOR or um Genestra brand or something like that. And so I have all of these options that I can work with, right? And I'm not going to put somebody on something that I don't think is right for them.

SPEAKER_01 36:00

So well, that looks like having integrity, right? And being aligned and congruent, right? Um what you're pointing to there with all of those tool sets is like really how I feel about personal development. And you know, for me, personal development, like learning, like I don't even want to say personal, just learning. Uh I I've been on a lifelong journey. I just love learning. Like it's funny, people have other hobbies, like you know, they knit or they scrapbook or whatever. You know, my one of my primary hobbies is learning. Like I just love it so much. And but to me, it really is a lifestyle. Like it's like doing personal development, taking courses, like discovering things like you know, mindset, neurolinguistic programming, you know, even in my business, you know, getting trained as a coach, I'm looking at doing my PhD, starting my PhD next year. All of these things are like they're different tool sets that I can use and they stack, right? So it's like I can use them in my own life, I can use them to make a difference with my clients, with the people I coach. Um, but I think it's really important to understand to get that. Like not every, this is why there's so many different approaches to how to transform your life. And and not all of those approaches are gonna work with every individual. And for some people, the greatest access access will be through the physical well-being. And then, you know, ideally they'd be working with someone like you who's gonna be able to like layer on some of that mindset work, right? But for them, like the access into being able to transform every area of their life will be through their physical well-being. For other people, it will be through their spiritual well-being. And then on that journey of transforming themselves spiritually, you know, things are they're gonna change their physical lifestyle and you know, their emotional well-being will improve and mental, all of that. Um, but I think it, I think it to me, it's a lifestyle. It's not about fixing myself, it's not about there being anything wrong with me. It probably started that way. Probably started off like there was something wrong with me that I needed to fix. But as I've gotten deeper and deeper into the work, I really get that just as I continue to evolve and develop as a human being, there's an ongoing evolution of Amber. And so continuing to stay in the conversation for personal development and learning allows me to continue sharpening my tools or gaining new tools in order to be able to really create the life that I want.

SPEAKER_02 38:30

Yeah, yeah, that's great. Um, learner is also one of my, it's one of my top five strengths. So we have that in common too. Strengths finder. Yeah, yeah, the Gallup Strength Finder. Um, we did it at um uh doTERRA Leadership Retreat one year.

SPEAKER_01 38:47

So great. So for anyone listening to the show who doesn't know what we're talking about, Gallup Poll has this great tool, assessment tool that you can use called Strengths Finder. You can buy a book which has the assessment, it's an assessment you could do. It has the code in the back of the book if you want to actually buy the book, or you can just go on their website and do the um the assessment. And it's this idea that we have this narrative in our culture that anyone can be good at anything if you just try hard enough. And their argument is, well, perhaps yes, and there are these in natural strengths that each of us has. And if we play to those strengths, we're gonna accomplish way much way more than if we kind of dial in and put all our energy into something that we're not naturally, naturally good at. And uh I find it really helpful. The report gives you um like areas, like jobs, careers that would work well with your strengths. And one of the things that I loved about it, Alicia, so much is like one of my top five strengths is being a developer. And like, so I'm really good at developing people, but it's another strength to know what to develop in someone.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:52

And I don't have that strength. Like, that's not in my top five, right? Not that I don't have some facility with it, but it's not in my top five. So like it creates this opportunity to be able to say, well, who do I need to partner with? Who could I partner with so that I could, you know, develop my coaching clients or develop people that much faster versus you know taking a longer time to try and figure it out on my own.

SPEAKER_02 40:14

Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, I have Maximizer as one of mine as well. Oh, nice.

SPEAKER_01 40:20

Mine are connectedness, strategic learner, developer, and my favorite because I just think it sounds cool. Woo, winning others.

SPEAKER_02 40:29

Oh, yes, I remember that one from I I'm not that one, but I was like, woo.

SPEAKER_01 40:35

Yeah, I know. I was like, oh um so that's cool. What it what keeps you going? I mean, I think this is something that's so important to talk about it, you know, and not just as woman, but you know, and I'm gonna say as woman, uh, you know, you're a mom, you're a wife, you have your own business, you you know, you've got what what motivates you? How do you, you know, when you're a leader, when you're leading other people, what what enables you to be able to keep putting yourself out there and and and inspiring others?

SPEAKER_02 41:09

I think one of the biggest things, and my husband and I have talked about this, you know, leaving, both leaving teaching and moving to a new city, you know, bringing our kids and moving them to new schools and things like that. One of the biggest things is um teaching our kids what's possible, right? Um, they have seen us both give up safe, secure jobs, move to a new area and thrive, right? That you know, some people say, Oh, I could never do that. Well, you could, you just don't want to, and that's totally fine. You want to have that, you know, I'm somebody who actually craves that safety and security. And this so it took a lot for me to actually, you know, push that paradigm aside and say, no, I'm going to go through this. And my thing was because if I don't in 20, 30 years from now, I'm gonna look back and I'm going to say, what if? What if we had tried? What if we had done it? Right. So um, yeah, showing my kids that they can literally be do and have anything in this life.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

You know, I have a lot of points of view about the education system and, you know, the ways in which we, you know, we the the the successes and the the gaps and and all of it, right? But show me a world where children were raised and embraced and like not just hearing that from their parents, and it's remarkable that you and your husband are that for your children, um, but show me a world where kids were raised and they hear that in the education system, and they hear that in social media, and they hear that from their peer group, and they hear that from their parents, that that they can be do and have anything. And I think that's probably a perfect place to end this conversation. Because, you know, when children get that, they grow up to be adults that live a created life. And for anyone listening to this show right now, you just really want to look for yourself. You know, where are you not that? Where are like if that's what's possible, and you can look in your life to see examples of people. We all look in our lives. We can see examples of people who are living that kind of created life. They do be and they they are being, doing, and having anything they want. So you can see, like that provides you the opportunity to say that's a possibility. Now we may be, you know, back to the self-worth, there may be some conversation that that's possible for them and not for me. And that's that's belief, that's whatever. But it's like if you're not like I really invite people to think about and be in this inquiry with yourself, if that's what's possible, like if it's possible for me to live a life where I be do and have anything, and my life isn't that, why not? Like, why am I not like and and what you know, our mentor Danielle, and I quote her on this all the time like the quality of your the questions gives the quality of your life, like like inquire into that. Like, what's getting in the way? You know, what what what's missing? What would I need? Who would I need to be? What would I need to give up believing or create as a belief that would enable me to go live that that kind of life? And and Alicia, I just really want to acknowledge you and thank you for your leadership, for your, you know, for your coaching clients, for the people that you work with, um, you know, for your children, that you're that kind of woman and leader out in the world whose standing that other people get that they can live that kind of life. And thank you for being on the show this morning.

SPEAKER_02 44:53

Yeah, thank you so much. It was a great conversation. I really enjoyed chatting with you.

SPEAKER_01 44:58

Yeah, and we're gonna schedule coffee. For all of the people in the world, Alicia and I have been in a conversation to get a coffee together forever. And now that the world is opening back up, we're gonna do that. So I look forward to meeting you in person and just thank you so much for being on the show and sharing yourself with us. And for anyone listening, you'll be able to find out how to get a hold of Alicia and and all of her products and connect with her about how she can support you in your personal, you know, well-being and holistic well-being journey in the show notes. Have an amazing weekend to everyone.

SPEAKER_00 45:29

Thank you so much for joining us for this week's episode. For show info, visit whatwoodamberdo.com. And for information about Amber Howard and Associates' offerings and services, visit amberhowdenc.com.