When Words Don't Come Easy
When Words Don't Come Easy
Faith and Resilience: Amanda Foust's Journey into High-Performance Coaching and Motherhood
Join me in hearing the inspiring journey of my dear friend Amanda, a high-performance coach and entrepreneur, as she details her unique path to founding Homegrown Collective and creating the Highest Potential Planner - a tool that is revolutionizing time management and personal success tactics.
Amanda’s compassion is revealed as she unveils her adoption story, taking you through her journey to becoming a mother. Brace yourself for a rollercoaster of emotions as she shares how her faith carried her through the intense process of adopting her second daughter from the Congo amidst a countrywide border closure. This episode will encourage you, whether you're seeking inspiration, personal growth, or simply a fresh perspective on embracing life's unexpected turns.
Follow on Instagram & Facebook: @AndyBHoward
Buy the book on Amazon: www.amazon.com/When-Words-Dont-Come-Easy/dp/1955362084
Listen to the first chapter: soundcloud.com/andy-howard-788712319
Learn more at AndyHoward.com!
Oh man, you know I love a good story and I love hope. Today we have a leader, an entrepreneur, a high performance coach. This girl gets a lot of things done with the same amount of time as everybody else. We're all given 24 hours a day and she's going to teach you how to structure that time. She's going to teach you how to wake up to your full potential and what God has for you. But stick around to the end. A phenomenal story of God's goodness, his grace, even using a childlike faith to bring a child home. So special, such a special story. So stick around to the end because you will not be disappointed. All that and more happening right after this.
Speaker 1:Hey, welcome back to the when Words Don't Come Easy podcast. I am Andy Howard. It's so good to have you with us. If it's your first time joining the podcast, I do want to welcome you. This is just a podcast about hope. I'm someone who's gone through personal struggles with mental health and I always want to push or find someone who can bring hope into your lives. And that's what you'll find on this podcast. Nine times out of ten. It may be just me sharing a personal story from my life experiences, but every once in a while I'll get a guest on here, and that's what we're doing today. Have a dear friend of mine who, tiffany and I, we've had the pleasure of working with for, I'd say, a couple years now. I don't even know the exact time, but let's just dive into that. First of all, let me bring on Amanda. Welcome, amanda. How are you?
Speaker 2:I'm great Thanks for having me today. I'm excited.
Speaker 1:Oh, it's an honor to have you, and I guess I should kind of explain to them who you are a little bit. You're a busy person. Yeah, you do a lot, you accomplish a lot and it's very proud of you. I was going to say she's a wife, she's a mom. High performance coach this is my title I gave you, but you actually put it better. I was going to say you're a social media guru, but yeah, you're actually the founder of Homegrown Collective. We'll dive into that in here in a minute as well. You're an entrepreneur and as well as a brand new podcaster. That's pretty cool. We'll dive into that as well.
Speaker 1:You do a lot of things, but none of it happens by chance, and I did want to dive into that. I've noticed you. You talk a lot about being intentional, which I love that word. Nothing happens by accident, right, and so if you have a goal, if you have anything, you have to know how to manage your time. You have to know how to go for it. You can't just always wanted to do that and then just sit and wait and see if it happens. So, so let's start with that One. You wrote it. I don't know if you wrote it or you plan to put it out, but the highest performance planner Let me get that right, that's OK.
Speaker 1:Planner Tiffany, I have one as well. I'm not as good at it. I need to get better. Tiffany will not like leave the house without it. She loves it. Yes, so tell us about that and how that came about, and and more on that.
Speaker 2:Yes, so, as you said, I run two different companies. So I do a coaching company and then a marketing company, and so, with the busy life as you say, I like to say it's an intentionally full life. But I realized that I needed something to keep me on track, but something that wasn't just a calendar, but also something that wasn't too much time right, because a lot of the ones that are more mindset related are, like, very time consuming and not sustainable, and so I was looking for a way to combine both the mindset piece and the planning piece into a like five minute a day planner, and so I had. It was interesting because I have this history of reviewing planners, which is kind of funny. I didn't know what that was like. Come full circle right, like in my early years of writing and marketing, I helped other people with their planners, market their planners, and so I got to try out a lot of different ones, and then I was like I think I can do this.
Speaker 2:And so I pulled kind of my favorite pieces from each one and put it together, did some research on what high performers needed, and that's when the highest potential planner came along.
Speaker 1:Well, I would think that would be very beneficial for you, very helpful to get a lot of experience from, from doing that, isn't that funny how God gives you the experience long before maybe the ideal even came about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I never even considered it at the time. I just enjoyed getting to like review other ones, and then I ended up just being able to develop from start to finish my own.
Speaker 1:Well so neat? Well, tell me, because in your bio. Excuse me, since you're a high performance coach. What is a high performance coach?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I started my coaching journey back. Oh, it's been almost a decade, which is crazy to say. So nine years, wow. And I I just was a life coach, right, like that.
Speaker 2:You've probably heard that phrase and I was like coaching all these people and I realized that the client I enjoyed coaching the most and I attracted the most were what was called a high performer, and I'd never heard that phrase before. I was like, what's a high performer? But they were basically people who excelled at standards that the average person didn't, and not in like a better than way, just in a way of like just really high achieving people. And so I was like, okay, if these are the clients I'm attracting, these are clients that like working with the most, I want to niche down and really like know how to serve them well.
Speaker 2:And so I don't know if you've ever heard of Brendan Bershard. He's really big in the personal development industry, like really well known coach, and he did some training for coaches, and so I think that was that wasn't quite nine years ago I don't even remember what year that was, but it was. It was a while ago and I decided to go and like really learn how to serve high performers specifically, and so he coaches on teaching how to help people with clarity, productivity, influence, courage and energy, and those were like the main things, and he's basically like if somebody can nail these five things, no matter what industry they're in or what they're doing, they're going to be good to go. And so that was what I learned, and now I do have it coaching.
Speaker 1:So well, I love that and it is very important kind of touched on that earlier about being intentional. I was never a structure person, believe it or not, and most people aren't, I would think. But what I found after being willing to step out and try it a little bit when we stumbled on our health program, that we did it helped me with the structure Like it. You know, we have to eat every two to three hours, we're going to have this, this, this, and it laid it out for us and it ended up being so easy, having the plan laid out for me. All I had to do was follow it. I was like, wow, what if I could apply that in other areas of my life? Because for so many years it was just kind of like, well, now I want to do this and if it's in front of me I would do it, and then I would forget about everything else and just living to survive the day. And then you look back and you're like some things I did well, but then there was so much I felt like I left off the table.
Speaker 1:You're a structure person. You teach people how to be better, so how? How would you encourage people about structure? And then what is? I know you're big on routines and starting your morning off with a certain. I've seen some of your podcasts recently. What, what is that? How do you encourage someone to embrace structure if they don't like it? And then what's a good routine or something that anyone can can start in the mornings?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I love that question, Annie, because I'm very similar. People always think that I am a very structured type A person because that's how I live my life, but I'm actually I mean, I am that, that's true, but I've developed. That is not natural for me. I had a lot of big goals and big dreams and I realized very similar to what you explained where I was like, if I live this reactive lifestyle of just like trying to react to what's around me or letting my life lead me instead of the other way around, I'm never going to get where I want to go. And so I realized that freedom that I desired so much, that's like one of my top values is this freedom. I was like, if that's my top value, I'm actually not allowing myself to be free if I'm not taking charge of my own life and living intentionally and so um. So all this structure that people see on the outside in my life has been because I really do value freedom and creativity and all these other things, and so, um, what I would say for somebody who's wanting to start structure, who doesn't naturally feel that way, similar to how you and I are wired is to start small.
Speaker 2:A lot of people want to structure every part of their life because they're like, oh, I'm, I lack structure, so I need structure here, here, here, here here.
Speaker 2:And it's like, well, yeah, you probably do, but to start with everything, you're just going to set yourself up for failure.
Speaker 2:So, um, it's been interesting because my husband's actually on a recent journey trying to add structure to his life and I've been able to watch him in those beginning stages and so what's worked for him is he has used my planner. But even if it's not my planner, it can be a notebook, I don't care what it is but just being able to write down the top three things you want to accomplish that day is huge, because I think so many of us we just make it to do less. We all know how to make to-do lists, we all know how to make checklists, but then it's just overwhelming because the to-do list never actually ends right, it's just keeps going, yeah, and we never feel successful when that happens. It's like, oh, I didn't get it done. But if we can just name the three needle-moving activities in our lives that we need to do each day, then we feel successful. And the other thing too, speaking of that, is to define what success looks like each day.
Speaker 2:So I mean, sometimes success for me just looks like quality time with my kids, just having eye-to-eye contact that day, because maybe I haven't been intentional with that, maybe it looks like a bigger project completing that, you know. Maybe it just looks like sitting in gratitude for a few minutes because I haven't really reflected on that, like I don't know what it is. But if we can define what success looks like each day, it really helps us structure the whole day around that and then we can feel way more successful at the end instead of feeling like I don't even know what I did today. I was busy but I don't really know what I got done.
Speaker 1:That is good. I love the defining your success part, because so many times maybe you have had a successful day and you don't even realize it because you haven't even defined what is success. And so then you look at the 17 other things that didn't happen instead of focusing on all the successful things you did or what you did accomplish and even starting small with just three. I think anyone listening right now would say I could do that. I could define three strategic goals a day or whatever you want to do, how many times a week you want to try that I think anyone could try that and start small. And then what I've found is when you start having success, or when you start seeing how much how easy it is and how structured does help. You may can add to that, but just a bare minimum of on my worst day, I can do these three things. I love that. Well, speaking of how to start your morning, you got a brand new podcast.
Speaker 2:I'd say fairly new. Oh yeah, it's not even been a month yet, not even a month.
Speaker 1:Okay, I knew it was just out. I love it. The whole concept of you you'll share, like some daily affirmations. It's so quick, it's a punch in the face, like a three, three to five minutes, just a quick little podcast shot. But it so, anyone can do, it. It'll fit, so you don't have to think, oh, I have to squeeze in a 30 minute or an hour podcast. It's quick but it's uplifting. It's darts your day and I am.
Speaker 2:Please forgive me, I'm lost the title of it.
Speaker 1:Wake up to your life, love it. It's available everywhere. Yep, awesome. Tell us the how it came about and then give a better job describing it, because I don't know that I did a good enough job on that.
Speaker 2:No, you're great. Thank you for even bringing it up. So it I just started it several well, a couple of weeks ago, and it's a daily podcast which I was nervous about taking on. I was like, oh my gosh, a daily, but it's just a few minutes, like you said, and the whole premise of why I started this is because a lot of the types of people I was coaching and then also the types of people I was working with on the marketing side of the business there there are a lot of similar types of people. They're both high performing people.
Speaker 2:It was amazing how they were getting a lot done. They were successful on paper, but a lot of them were just not awake to the life that they created. So they spent years and years and years working towards this life of success. Right, and success is different for everybody, whatever that means. But but they weren't awake. They had their habits dialed in, they were able to, like, accomplish a lot, but then they weren't feeling fulfilled and I was like there's something missing here, because they're doing all the right things, but they're not feeling awake. And so I felt this stirring a few months ago, and I was even seeing it in my own life. I was like why do I feel like I'm not really feeling the joy that I thought I would in this phase of my life? And I realized that God wants us to be awake to the life he has for us, not just the life we're building for ourselves, but the life he has for us which is even greater than the life we can imagine.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:So I feel like I had been in a phase in my life where I was in a really dark place. We adopted children from different places, some overseas, some locally actually too, or from Texas. Oh wow, you know you're from yeah.
Speaker 1:And I want to be very clear that, yeah, exactly right.
Speaker 2:I want to be very clear, the darkness was not them Like that wasn't what I mean by that, and that's why I want to be careful how I say this, but it was more just like.
Speaker 2:The trauma involved in adoption in general is very heavy, and so I had to learn how to walk through that in a way that was not only, you know, protecting them from what they were going through and trying to be there for them, but also realizing like it impacted me as well.
Speaker 2:And but also it's difficult because, as an adopted parent, it's not about you, it's about them, and so it's really difficult because it's so common for adopted parents to just put how they feel to the side and not deal with it until years and years and years later.
Speaker 2:So I spent about five years in a place that looked really great on the outside, but on the inside, feeling very dark and heavy, because I didn't know how to handle the types of things they had gone through in their lives, and so, anyway, all that to say is I felt like God sometimes allows those things to happen to you because he wants you to use that story, similar to how you are, to speak truth to other people who might go through that and it may not be as an adopted parent, but it could just be anyone going through mental health issues.
Speaker 2:And so I realized that the key to digging myself out of that dark place was to be awake to the life God had for me, and not necessarily the life I was trying to create. And so that is where Wake Up To your Life came from is just helping people see that God has a plan for them in their life and that he wants you to live up to your highest potential, but in his version, not necessarily our version, because it's so far better. I hope that made sense.
Speaker 1:And that made a ton of sense, and thank you for taking the time to put it like that, to find your words. I have found that I have found in this I would say most people have found you go through something, no matter what it is, and you think it's for you and it is for you, it happens to you, but there's something you will learn from it. But I have seen, as we've shared our story, that so many, there are so many people hurting and we do get in that bubble of why me? Look at me and why did this happen to me instead of for me? And it's a mindset and it's an attitude. And the more I speak and the more I share, I see, just, I've seen hundreds of people that are weeping and broken, where it's just so moving that it's not just for me. Yes, it happened in God, and I'll be clear as well God did not do it to you or to me. He's allowed it to happen. He's now saying, well, it happened. Now what do we do with it? Let's use it for his glory, for his good, to help others, and so thank you for sharing that.
Speaker 1:And while adoption, I think, is probably the greatest illustration of God's love that I can think of my pastor that we serve for and we work for as youth pastors. At the time they adopted two kiddos and I remember one Sunday when he was sharing an illustration of it and he was talking about that, the judge standing before the judge and when they were finalizing it and everything, and the judge says, no, you do realize, if you go through with this and you adopt and you accept this mission I don't know I'm paraphrasing, but he basically said that they have every single right that your kids have, because he has biological kids as well. And I mean basically laying it all out there, and it may have went even to further detail, but it was so phenomenal and that is what God did for us. He adopted us, as his own Singing the word says, even as sinners right, even when we were in our darkest place, when we were centered. He loved us so much that he sent his son to die for us to make a way for us to have eternal life. I didn't mean to go down this rabbit trail, but it's just so beautiful, so beautiful. So thank you for sharing that and I did want to dive into that just a little more, if we can.
Speaker 1:So this summer, tiff and I had the privilege and I'll throw this out there If you're looking to sponsor a kiddo man, we we still have some kids. We have a goal of a hundred kids that we're trying to sponsor. That just means help them get to school, help them get food, help them with so many expenses. Some of them don't even have running water. It's just, it's very sad and it really grabbed our hearts, and so that's why God gave us the number hundred. I didn't just throw it out there, and we're making progress. I think we have 50 left, maybe 40, 45. And we have a link for it. We will post it in the show notes. But you guys have adopted from and I don't know if some may be from Africa, but tell us more. You said two are from Texas.
Speaker 2:Yeah, texas, and one is from Congo.
Speaker 1:Here in Africa, awesome, awesome. Well, tell us how that came about and what. I'm sure there's a story behind it what you can share. But how did God lay that on your heart to to adopt a kiddo from Congo?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's again such a God story. So back when David and I first got married, I think I was like 22 when this all started, which is crazy. I feel like I thought, you know, at 22, I was like, oh, I'm so mature and so, you know, I look back, I'm like I was like a baby.
Speaker 1:But anyway, yeah right.
Speaker 2:And so we were newly married and I always knew that I wanted to grow my family through adoption. That was just kind of a thing, and that was actually something I expressed early in dating. David was I said this is how I want to grow, this is how I want to grow our family whether we have biological kids or not, I don't know, but I just want to make sure you're good with that. And he he's like I could go either way, like I'm open to it, but also if we don't, like I'm open to that too. And so I was like, as long as you're open to it, great.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't think you realize how quickly I was going to move on that, because we were like barely a year married and I'm like the adoption process overseas takes time. We got to like start the process and he was a little bit hesitant, not to adopt, but just hesitant to start so early. And anyway we decided to jump in, thinking it was going to take a long time. But we quickly got matched with Evelyn, who she is my second daughter in birth order, but first child and she's 11. And we got matched with her very fast, like within a few months, because she was medically fragile and needed to come home very quickly, and so that was a surprise.
Speaker 2:Like I said, I was thinking we were in it for like a year or two with the adoption process, and it was like we started it in September. We were matched with her in February which in that world that's fast and then we brought her home. Well, we actually didn't bring her home till the end of that year, but I went to meet her in October and then I stayed there the rest of the year with her. So anyway, it happened quickly, but she it was actually a pretty scary process because with her being some medically fragile, she got malaria twice while she was over there and she was a year and a half I forgot to mention that.
Speaker 2:So that was the age she was was about a year when we started and then about a year and a half when we brought her home, and so she was very malnourished. She was only eight pounds at six months old, and so we tried to find a foster family for her over there, because we were like we got to get her out of the orphanage. Like we, she may not survive this, and so we matched her with a foster family. But that was so hard just to be over here and try to get all that process going.
Speaker 1:And help us, I'm sure yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it felt very helpless. It was very. That was a dark time as well, and again I was 22. I'm like I don't know how I did any of this stuff then, but I was just learning how to be an adult on my own at the time. But basically, once we got, well, this is a God moment too and I don't want to take up too much time with this. But basically, right before we left, we were told not to go because to go get her because the country had shut down. They said we aren't letting any citizens out of the country. So it wasn't to do with adoptions, but it affected adoptions because we couldn't. We could come and go, but the children could not. And so our agency told everyone like hey, the country's closed, we don't know when it's going to open. It could be a year, it could be longer and I was I just remember the moment it happened and I was like just gutted. I was like what? Like she needs us, like this isn't just? I mean, every child needs a home.
Speaker 2:I want to be clear about that, but at the same time, like, medically, she needed us to bring her home. And so I was crying in the car when I got the news and I told David, I was like I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I was frantic. And then I felt this like peace come upon me. There's been few moments like that where I've just it's been very, very clear, the voice of God. And I heard the word go and I was like what, what does that mean? We were just told not to go. In. Now I just we're supposed to go and I feel peace about it. And I shouldn't feel peace about it because this is like anything but peaceful. But that's what that's, god, right, when you feel the unexplained peace.
Speaker 2:And so, after I was done being hysterical, I looked at David in the car because he's driving, probably like what is wrong with her? What's going on? And I was like, oh, we're supposed to go, we're going to go. And he's like what? You just said that they closed the country. What do you mean? We're going to go. And I was like God told me to go. So good thing, because we did end up getting stuck over there for like longer than we had planned, but we were one of the few people who were able to bring home our child in a timely manner. Everyone else pretty much had to wait a year or longer after that, and we got her the help she needed. So we brought her home on.
Speaker 2:Christmas Day.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow.
Speaker 2:My brother. He, my brother's a lot younger than me and he was, like, I think, 10 or 11 at the time I don't remember his exact age and he was praying that we'd be home by Christmas every day. And I remember telling my mom I don't want his faith to be rattled, like we're probably not going to be home, like there was no sign that we were coming home. And I was like that sounds so terrible. But I'll just be honest.
Speaker 2:I was like praying this I don't want this to be something that he, like, can't forgive God for.
Speaker 1:Anyway, on Christmas Day we came home, his so, instead of his faith being rattled, his faith was strengthened by his prayers being answered.
Speaker 2:Right, who am I to stand in God's way? Right, but wow.
Speaker 1:Well, that's a phenomenal story and I thank you for sharing that and for being vulnerable, and thank you for what you're doing. Wow, all these kiddos, lives changed and I think if you're out there and you're praying about it, or if you've been thinking about adoptions, man, maybe that's your sign, because how special was that. So, thank you so much for sharing that. In closing, is there anything because we could probably go anywhere with all the different things you have going right now? Excuse me, but is there anything on your heart or anything you'd like to push or plug that you're doing right now or in the next coming months that you'd like to talk about?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I just think, like with the wake up to your life stuff, I just encourage you to tune into the podcast. It's a new podcast but I really like that there's actionable steps. So it's not just like feel good inspiration, which isn't fun to, but it's like okay, here's actual things you can do to wake up to the life God has for you and to be open. That it may look different than what you have in mind, but it's so much better. So, yeah, you can listen to that podcast. Or even if you're looking for a tool, as you mentioned, the highest potential planner is a great tool to get started, so you can check that out as well.
Speaker 1:Well, I love that. And if they're very interesting and reaching out about even your high performance coaching and everything that you offer, how do they find you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that is on a new website, so I have to remember it. I think it's called wakeuptoyourlifeco, so I changed the name of it due to podcast, so that's marketing.
Speaker 1:I love it. Yeah, well, very cool. Well, amanda, I thank you for your time today. I love your story. I feel like I got to know you a little better today, Even though we've known each other for a while. I heard some things I've never heard today, and so thank you for being vulnerable, for sharing. I know it will help so many people, but best of luck with everything you continue to do and thanks for doing this.
Speaker 2:Thank you, Andy.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Amanda, for being vulnerable. That is something so many people struggle with is opening up and just being vulnerable, and I get it because it is hard. But you know why it's so hard? Because the enemy, the devil. I'll just get a little spiritual here. As we're closing, We'd love nothing more than to keep your story wrapped up, because it will help so many people. There are so many people I know right now hurting and struggling, and your story can bless them. So my encouragement to you today is open up, share the goodness of the Lord, his faithfulness, even if it isn't in failing. We learned so much more from failure, I think, than from success. So God can use your, your humility and the hard times or the trying times to bless others, because nine times out of 10, those same people are going through something too. So so good. Thank you, Amanda, for sharing that. So so good.
Speaker 1:If you haven't got the book yet when words don't come easy, it's available. You can get it from AndyHowardcom. It's also available on Amazon and available on Audible, where I will even read it for you, or you can get it on Kindle. I thank you guys so much for your time today. God bless you. Thanks so much for tuning in. If this episode helped you in any way, it would mean the world to me If you would leave a review and share it with somebody else. Thanks so much. I'll catch you next time.