255 – Power in an Identity Shift: Amy Thurman’s Lessons in Personal Growth

Karen Yankovich 0:00
You’re listening to the good girls get rich podcast episode 255.

Intro 0:06
Welcome to the good girls get rich podcast with your host, Karen Yankovich. This is where we embrace how good you are girl, stop being the best kept secret in town, learn how to use simple LinkedIn and social media strategies and make the big bucks.

Karen Yankovich 0:24
Hello, I’m your host, Karen Yankovich. And I am so thrilled and honored to have Amy Thurmond on the podcast with me today. Amy is somebody that I met through marketing, and she’s just doing so many amazing things in this world. She inspires me every single day and inspires many, many other women as well and men. And Amy lives with a disability. So she’s doing this from a place where she doesn’t have all the advantages that maybe you and I have, right so. So her mission in the world is to help people understand that despite a challenge that you might have in your life, there’s always a place for you to build an abundant life. So I can’t wait for you to meet Amy. I’m so excited for you to meet Amy Thurman today, Amy’s story is an inspiration for all of us. Her resilience, her strength, her determination serve as a testament to the power the human spirit to overcome adversity. Her journey is a reminder that no matter the challenges we face, we have the power to transform our pain into power, and our adversity into inspiration. And Amy, you know, Amy is a disabled entrepreneur advocate. She’s a story development coach, she helps you really rest reverse sort of polish the mirror, revealing the messages that your soul longs to share through your stories and through your experiences. And she does this with motivational, inspirational, speaking. And she has a particular passion for the disabled entrepreneur community but serves entrepreneurs in general. And I have had the absolute pleasure of working with Amy. So I’m excited to be able to introduce her to you today, Amy. So thank you so much for being here. Ah,

Amy Thurman 1:57
Garin, thank you so much for having me. I’m truly honored and excited to be here.

Karen Yankovich 2:01
Why don’t you tell our audience a little bit about your story. Let’s kind of just cut right to the beginning. Tell us a little bit about what you were doing, what the challenges that you face were and what you’re doing now to overcome them?

Amy Thurman 2:14
Sure. We’ll just jump right in. Yeah. In 2013, I was working at a major university. And I was doing all the things I had a family, all the kids running them everywhere, working lots and lots of hours. Doing it felt like I was doing everything for everyone. And literally the very next day, I couldn’t even take care of myself. One night I got up I felt ill I passed out landed on my face on the hardwood floor. The impact sheared my brainstem caused a traumatic brain injury. And it actually broke my neck. But that went undetected for six months. And then it was nine months before it could. It isn’t wild. It was nine months before it could have surgery to repair it. But the damage was so extensive had already started to grow that way. And so I continue to live with a broken neck.

Karen Yankovich 3:04
Well, can I take a step back and ask you when when you fell? Do you know why you fell? Was it exhaustion? Or was there a reason? Like what happens? And I’m asking because this is how quickly life can shift for all of us. Right? Like instantly. Yeah, in

Amy Thurman 3:19
a matter of hours. It actually took them six years to figure out why I passed out but I had to go through a lot of tests. I have dysautonomia or pots, okay, which means that my autonomic nervous system just doesn’t work the way it should. And so my blood pressure bottoms out and I pass out sometimes.

Karen Yankovich 3:39
Yeah, wow, that’s nuts. So now you’ve now you’ve you know, you’ve got this life where you’re you’ve got this busy life, and now all of a sudden it comes to a screeching halt. Right. So now what what did you do?

Amy Thurman 3:50
For the nearly the first year after that I had to lay flat in a bed for 23 hours of every day, I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t talk I couldn’t hear or see correctly. And I literally could do nothing for myself. My husband had to help me to the restroom. I, I went from doing everything for like literally doing everything for everyone. Or I could not even take care of myself. I had to wear a cover over my eyes earplugs in my ears. And I couldn’t speak above a whisper. And so that was my life for nearly nine months. Nine months, nearly a year.

Karen Yankovich 4:24
Wow. So as you started to build your strength back and be able to step back into your life to some degree what what were you doing?

Amy Thurman 4:35
You know, I went into this deep, deep, dark place, because, obviously yeah, I could do nothing for myself. I’m a very independent driven person. And I couldn’t even speak above a whisper. And so I went to this deep dark place that I would never wish on anyone. And I thought you know what, I’m tired of being a burden to my family. I’m tired of living like this. I Just want to do something for myself, I think I need to put an end to this, I think this is it, it’s not going to get any better. And I knew that I had enough medication to make it happen. And I fully intended to do that. And then I remember thinking, you know, what, if the answer isn’t to die, there’s just this glimmer of hope in there. Like, what if the answer is I don’t have to die? What if I actually fight instead of fighting to die? What if I fight to live instead, with the, with the intention of using my story to help other people. And so it was that sliver of hope that allowed me to change my perspective. And I started listening to Tony Robbins, Dr. Wayne Dyer, Rumi, that’s how I came up with the name of my business, polish the mirror, I quote, and I really, and it was that shift in mindset that allowed me to start fighting to live, and I fought back fight my way back. It’s been, you know, almost a decade now. And I’m still not where I want to be. But I’m definitely a lot better.

Karen Yankovich 6:03
So I’m so happy to hear that. And it’s crazy to think about how everything changed so fast for you. But you started to shift your work. Let me ask you this. Were you an entrepreneur at all, before you had your accident? No. How did that all come about?

Amy Thurman 6:24
That’s, I started to get better. And thought I want to do something for myself, I have such an independent spirit, I want to do something for myself. And I have with all of this came a lot of auto immune issues. And so that means that I have to be super careful what I put in my body, but also on my body because our skin is our largest organ. So I did some research, because I had to find a company that has clean ingredients. And I found this company that actually ended up being local to me, their corporate offices local to me, and they offer clean, anti aging, smudgeproof, cosmetics and skincare. And after I started using them, I saw such a difference. I joined with them. And to continue this line of the story. After seven months with them, they heard my story and asked me to share my story on stage in front of 2000 women. And that was life changing for me. Yeah,

Karen Yankovich 7:19
yeah, I bet I bet. So, I think you know, it’s so interesting, because, you know, Amy is in our she’s linked up family. And if you’re a longtime listener of the show, you know, that she’s like deputies are the 12 week program that we that, that we help women, you know, build their brand and build their business. And, you know, everybody gets everybody’s entry into that program starts with a call with somebody on my team. And Amy and I had a call, however, many months ago now, and and I’m picky. And I say that not to tell them to dissuade people that are listening from booking a call. Because if you think you want to know more about it, you should book a call. But know that if I don’t think I can help you, I’m going to tell you that, you know, I’m not going to just enroll people into our program. So we have more people and, and I Amy, I was on the fence. And I think I’ve told you this I was on the fence when we talked because I just don’t know if I can really help Amy build her business because she wanted to do is build a team for her skincare business. And that’s just while I absolutely think LinkedIn can help you do that. It’s not necessarily what my program is designed to do. But when I but it was that, that and when I stood on stage in front of those 2000 women, my life changed. That was the statement that I was like, All right, let’s see what we can do with Amy, you know, and I think I told you that like I think I said normally I want this, this and this. But in your case, you know, we’re going to be looking at this a little bit differently. So because I think that you’ve your story is so important. And a big part of of my mission, right is to help more women have more wealth and generational wealth and, and be more successful, but to inspire each other and lifting each other up. And I think really, a lot of that comes down to your visibility. Right? So when you had that moment, on the stage in front of 2000 people, what did that make you start like, what did what’s shifted in you? That made you think that okay, like, wait a minute, maybe I can help more people.

Amy Thurman 9:11
When the company is called senegence When the senegence corporate staff asked me to do this, of course, I was terrified. At first I was like, What are you asking me to do? It was like start

Karen Yankovich 9:21
with their local Chamber of Commerce or, you know, start with an event where you’re talking to six people you jumping on a stage with 2000 people.

Amy Thurman 9:30
Exactly. I was terrified. But I knew that I had made that promise to myself when I decided to fight to live that I would do it with the intention of helping others and that this was definitely an avenue where I could do that. And so I said yes. And I had to go through the process of developing my story in a way that I could share it with others. And not only was that life changing, for me sharing it with others was life changing. But it was life changing for the people that heard it. I continue to get messages from people who were there telling me what an inspiration it was how it changed their lives listening to my story, but also people who weren’t even there still message me and say, I wasn’t there. But I heard it was amazing. Can you send me the link to watch. And so through that whole process, it allowed me to find a power within myself that I didn’t know was there. And I had accessed it almost accidentally. And so I realized, you know what, I can help other people do this, if I could do this with a broken neck. I think I can help other people do this. And that’s where the all of this kind of started. And I need to tell you a story, Karen, that I have told other people, but I have not told you. Oh, I think when our initial call, I told you that I had a little group of women that I was helping teach them about how to use LinkedIn, do you remember that. And I had started this little group where I was figuring this all out by myself, like I wanted to, with my senegence business figured out how to make LinkedIn work for us. And so I had gone through these, you know, the little things, and this is what I tell people that that was going okay, for me, I had figured out a lot of things, but working with you, like you filled in the gaps, like the things that you taught me on how to use LinkedIn, and how to make it work for me, exploded my world, literally, like I see myself from a totally different perspective, I have reached so many more people, I have conversations with people across the globe. Now I have people joining my team, I have new sales, I have a book, you know, all of these things coming out. And it’s all because you were able to fill in the gaps. I did what I could, which was good. But working with you and your team helped me fill in the gaps so that it just exploded. And I want you to know that publicly, I want to tell you that and how much I appreciate you pouring into me and all the ladies that you work with, I never could have done what I’m doing without. So I’m so sorry,

Karen Yankovich 12:00
we are thank you for saying that. Because we work really hard, I think to to help lift our lift the people in our world, but just so you know, we’re just as grateful to have you in our world. Because I say to sometimes like, you know, like some people want to put like their kids report cards on the refrigerator, I want to put like your press clippings, or like my students press clippings on my refrigerator. Because it is you know, because here’s the thing, and this is why one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on the show. It is identity shifting when you do this work. And that’s, that’s the thing that I think a lot of people don’t understand or don’t obey me, like it’s not even understand. And it’s not something I can even tell them beforehand, right? Because they’re like, Well, I’m looking to shift my identity, like nobody wakes up in the morning and says, I need to be a new person, right. But we do this when you step into these bigger roles that you’re meant for. And you have people around you because it’s not just I mean, as much as I love I think I think our team is the best in the world. Also, I think I think the other people in the program also are and I think that they when you guys are lifting each other up like that, it’s different than when like your family or your friends are doing it because they don’t really get it. Right. They don’t really get proud of you. And they want the best for you. But they’re like, Wait, what are you doing now? You know, like, it’s the it’s surrounding yourself with other people that are helping you like they will almost literally carrying you over the line to that new identity. Right? Because it’s a, I’m going to call it a mindset but it’s not even really mindset it is. It is it’s a shift in your who in who you are. And then right then you gotta, then you have to stay there. Right. So I think you might be the first person ever in my program that I said stop getting podcast interviews, like, hey, we have so many interviews because part of what we do is we you know, like listen I at fundamentally what we do in our choosing to program is we want you to get a big fat juicy contract and an immediate hit. Right and we are teaching you the process to do that. So at the end of the 12 weeks, you can kind of do it on your own. Well, Amy had so many media hits that I was like we still need to get you some contracts we’re gonna do some money to stop getting Christmas time so I don’t have time to do all this. I was like alright, well you because you I mean, you went so deep into that but what that takes guts, Amy that takes guts to be out there like showing, you know telling your story over and over to all these people that you don’t know. Right so so that takes guts to do that and you continue to do that I’ve actually started to see some of these epic these interviews go live. Right so the interviews are starting to go live because a lot of times you know if you get interviewed in like Amy and I are doing this in the end of August and this episode is scheduled to go live in beginning of October right so and when you’re whoever’s as you’re listening to this, it’s probably October because that’s what podcast hosts do. Right? We we tried to get a couple months a week or a month or two ahead. I’m in sometimes because he was even do it longer, right? So yes, I think that that’s really valuable to your business and will help you build your business. But it’s a longer term strategy, right? So tell me about the team building piece, because that was the part that I wasn’t even sure I can help you. I was like, I don’t know, if we’re gonna really be able to do this with you, you know, I’m willing to try. I want to take a minute here and just talk for a second about how Amy and I met Amy and I met through marketing, she saw something that I was doing online somewhere and she booked a call on my calendar and joined why she’s linked up accelerator program. And she, you know, oh, my gosh, she did the work man. She did the work she was I was so proud of every ever every step of the way. And she’s one of the reasons why I love doing this work. Because I get to hang out with the most amazing, beautiful women I’ve ever met in my life, to be honest, they’re just so incredible. So, you know, Amy started off not really sure how she was going to step into this new role of hers as an influencer. And as somebody who really had a message to share in the world. And she just killed it, she just absolutely killed it. And of course, we were with her every step of the way. And that’s our goal is to help our clients really create that place of influence and abundance, and then hold their hand as walk across that line with them as they step into that role. And so, sort of living that life instead of building that life or dreaming about that life. So if you want to know what it looks like to get some support with that in your world, just grab a spot on my calendar, Karen yankovich.com/call, get to the calendar. And we’ll chat. And you know, if like, Amy, I think it’s a fit, I’ll tell you what it looks like to get some support. Either way, though, we’re I am there, my team is there to really support you. And to give you some actionable tips to make the next two months, three months, five months, six months, a year, two years, five years, the most amazing of your life. Can you give a shot calm slash call that you’re there?

So tell me how when you stepped into your role as an advocate for disabled entrepreneurs, how did that start to build your direct sales business?

Amy Thurman 17:07
It’s interesting that you asked me that, because whenever I first started doing the podcasts, you talk about the mindset shift, I didn’t believe in you know, this, I didn’t believe that I was the person I was projecting myself to be. I really, really had to work on that mindset shift to step into, this is the person I am and except that instead of oh my gosh, what in the world am I doing? And it was when I stepped into that role that I actually really felt like, Okay, this is who I am, I need to stop acting like I’m not this is who I am. So I think it was that, that just gentle competence that came through in a lot of those podcasts. And it’s funny, because most of my new clients and teammates actually came from those podcast interviews with the people who are interviewing me, the people who are interviewing me, and which is, you know, pretty interesting, because most of the time it comes from the listeners, right? These are the podcast interviewers.

Karen Yankovich 18:10
So great. That’s so awesome.

Amy Thurman 18:11
And, you know, we get we chat a little bit before and after the recording. And so they get to know me a little bit through that too. But just because my, my team building and my senegence business is such a vital part of my story, that it just kind of flows through there. And I think the fact that it just is part of who I am and such a big part of my journey. They they just were drawn to that. And so that’s nuts. Australia, Canada, you know, all over the place. It’s pretty wild. It’s really

Karen Yankovich 18:46
fun. Isn’t it is so fun. Yeah. So okay, so thinking big. Tell us what 2024 is got in store for you.

Amy Thurman 18:56
I’m finalizing my story development coaching program. It’s a 12 week program that I the gist of it is I help you break free or fight back from those things that are causing you to be incapacitated, just like I was my broken neck caused me to be incapacitated, but I figured out a way how to fight back from that, to figure out what not only figure out what my story was, but change the story into what I wanted it to be. And so that’s what I help people do through my story development coaching is I want to teach you how to fight back from the things that are incapacitating you mine was a broken neck yours might be a failed relationship or boundaries that you need to set or something that you’re unhappy about you don’t feel worthy, you know, a lots of things. And then I help you figure out what your story is, and teach you how to make it into the story that you want it to be so that you can find the path and live the life that you are intended to live. And so I’m hoping to That’s what 2020 For holds for me is more more clients that I can help with that the ones I had that are going through my program right now, one of them said to me the other day, she said, I got the greatest compliment that I have ever received the other day and someone said to me, you are so authentic. And she said, that never happened before I started going through your program. It’s just the process that you go through, we dig deep, it’s therapeutic, we do a lot of journaling and figure out what’s in there, and allow it to surface to figure out what you’re really telling yourself and if that’s what you want to believe, or if you want to change that. And so I love love being able to help people in that way.

Karen Yankovich 20:39
Let me just ask you a quick question. What was the date of that? 2000 person event?

Amy Thurman 20:44
The tooth? Oh, it was April 16, I believe, of 2023. This year.

Karen Yankovich 20:53
So April 16, May, June, July, August, August,

Amy Thurman 20:57
four and a half more months ago. That’s yeah, I

Karen Yankovich 21:00
never thought about four and a half months ago, this all of this happened in four and a half months. And I and I would if that’s even the shorter time than I anticipated the answer being. That That’s how fast this can happen. When you have the comp when it’s not even when you have the confidence to take the first step. It’s not even when you have the confidence to build a business and get interviewed on podcasts, when you have the confidence to take the first step. Because that’s really what this is about. Right? Like, what is the next step. And the next step after that. And the next step after that, no one’s asking anybody that, you know, maybe jump off a cliff here. But taking that next step and, and also investing in yourself and having the confidence to invest in yourself and take the step and saying I, you know, I can do that, that. Amy, you do you have any idea how amazing that is? Like, can you like, I’m like a thing about like, Avi and five years from now looking back going Holy moly. You know, like how did like 2023 was a blur? Right? Because, but it’s but it’s amazing. And that’s and you know, that’s another reason why I wanted you to share your story here because so many people. I don’t know. I mean, there’s a great, there’s a brilliant long game installed on LinkedIn, like LinkedIn is brilliant for the long game. But there doesn’t it doesn’t have to be just the long game. There’s a short game as well. And

Amy Thurman 22:19
yeah, I example of that. Oh, thank you so much. I, I think I came at it. Which, you know, this may be typical, it may not I don’t know, but out of a sense of desperation, like I had done everything I knew to do. And it wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be. So I was desperate to figure out what am I missing? And I, I will say that I have never, ever invested in myself, like I have with this with your program. And that was scary for me. That was it took me I had to really, really think. And I had to decide I’m worth this, I am worth this. I’m going to do this. Because when I invested in myself like that, I’m like, Okay, we’re going if we’re doing this, we’re jumping in with both feet, and we’re making something happen. And that’s pretty much exactly what happened. Well, you know

Karen Yankovich 23:07
what I want to just I just, I don’t remember that exactly the words you just use, because I really did want to reply them back. But they jumped out of my head while you were talking. But I do want to say to you, no, no, I do want to say to you, there’s a lot of other things you could have done, you could have said, well let me do a website, there’s a lot of procrastination type things you could have done. And that’s really one of the things that I see a lot is a lot of women are like, Alright, I’m in this place of desperation. I don’t know what to do. Maybe I need a website. Maybe I need to do and those are all of those things, I think, or I mean, listen, I’m not saying you don’t need a website. But I think that they’re a great way for us to invest and procrastinate doing the actual hard stuff, which is showing up and connecting and talking to people and you let me use an example all the time. The people that have the most success in our program are the ones that do the outreach. And you did the outreach. I mean, like I said, You had so many interviews so quickly, because you weren’t afraid to just show up confidently with some of these phone calls. And or maybe you were afraid but you did it. You did it. But I want to just say like, give yourself a little bit more credit because you chose you could have spent a year doing things like your website and you know, business cards and what color and I need branding and maybe I need a good photo shoot first. And, you know, there’s a lot of other things that people will take your money for, that don’t move you as forward as quickly as Who do I need to talk to today. That’s going to change my business. And and I love so I want to give you credit for that because you were like well maybe came from a sense of desperation. But there was still a part of you that understood that you had to just kind of like put on your big girl panties and step into it, and then figure all the rest of the stuff out.

Amy Thurman 24:48
That’s so true. Because when you’re saying that I’m thinking back like, I had none of that before I started with your program. I didn’t have a website. I didn’t have business. I mean,

Karen Yankovich 24:57
literally. I was like everybody’s listening to this because it’s so important, this is so important. You need to talk to people and you need to get business. And that and then you have, then you’ll be getting, you’ll hopefully be busy building a business with enough cash to pay people to do those things. Right. Right, right. But it so many people feel that they need to do all those things first, before they can do outreach. All you need is a great LinkedIn profile. All you need to do to get started. And you’re just an example of that.

Amy Thurman 25:29
Oh, you’re so kind, I can’t tell you and I maybe I have told you how many people like I would send a connection request and they would respond to me with something about your LinkedIn profile really caught my attention, and they would start the conversation so that LinkedIn profile is gold, like it is definitely the starting. But I will tell you that because I responded and reached out in a genuine way. I was not salesy. I was not trying to be like what’s in it for me? I was genuine about it. And I think that made a huge difference to Awesome,

Karen Yankovich 26:03
awesome. Well, we’ll put a link to your LinkedIn profile in the comments. Is your is your talk that talk in front 2000 people is that on YouTube?

Amy Thurman 26:10
It is

Karen Yankovich 26:13
it is. So we’ll put a link to that too. In case anybody wants to watch that that to listen to this episode with the the talk that kicked off Amy’s career. Amy, thank you so much for sharing all this with us today, is there anything that you didn’t share today that you want to kind of leave everybody with?

Amy Thurman 26:30
I want people to know that there’s a power in there that you have a power inside, you just have to be willing to open yourself up to access it and do what it takes. That leads pretty much what we were saying here that it’s gonna take effort and take work, but it’s worth it. It’s worth it to just start, start somewhere, do the hard things, take the step that’s uncomfortable, it’s going to lead you in a direction that you would not get to anywhere else. We don’t say, I’m sorry, you’re going around this, I’m sorry, you’re going over this, we say I’m sorry, you’re going through this. And we have to go through things that are uncomfortable to get us to where we want to be. And that’s what I think has happened in in this situation with

Karen Yankovich 27:10
me? Well, as much as I want to leave it with that. I just want to point out that when Amy talks about doing the hard things, and you know, taking, you know, putting the the work in to do that Amy’s doing the Senate at a much more limited number of hours than most people can do. Right. So So you’re doing this probably in a I mean, in your world is probably full time is that correct? I don’t want to put words in your mouth. But it this is not a 50 This is This isn’t you didn’t do this and 5060 hours a week, you probably did it. I’m gonna say 20 hours a week, maybe less? Yeah,

Amy Thurman 27:41
because of my neck injury, I can only hold my head up for a few hours at a time. And so I have to rest a lot. I have to work from my bed a lot. So I’m very limited. So yes, I have it, you know, like part time.

Karen Yankovich 27:52
Right? So Amy’s version of you know, I had to put it all into this is still it’s and I don’t want to minimize how important that is to you. And but I want people listening that we’re not talking. This did not take her 60 hours a week to do this. Amy, thank you so much for sharing your story here. It has been so impactful to me. And I know, I already know how impactful it’s been to other people because the whole world wants to interview you for their podcasts, right? So. So keep on doing that. Keep on showing up and know that you know, you got a lot of people in your corner Amy and I can’t wait to see. I can’t wait to see you just continue to shine and live I want and I can’t wait to see your light just get brighter and brighter and brighter.

Amy Thurman 28:31
Thank you so much, Gary, I’m so so thankful for you.

Karen Yankovich 28:34
Well, my heart gets warmed. Every time I get to have a conversation with Amy, I hope that you felt the same way. She’s just doing amazing things in this world. And she’s such an inspiration. I wanted you to hear her story. And hopefully she’s inspired you in some way to really take the next steps into whatever your next chapter is, with confidence and knowing that you don’t have to do it alone and that there’s so much available for all of us once we kind of own it and step into it. So if you’ve listened before, if you love what you hear today, you know I love hearing from you make sure that you’re following good girls get rich wherever you listening to this show. Love your reviews. Of course, I’d love for you to share this episode on your social media platforms. Just take a quick screenshot tag me tag Amy. And we’ll be sure to share it with our audiences and get you some visibility in turn for you getting us some visibility. This is what I love to do the most. In the shownotes there’s a link for SpeakPipe where you can leave an audio message I love your audio messages. I respond to every one of them personally, it’s where I get to make this podcast less of a me talking at you and having an opportunity to talk with you. So grab a grab a grab that link and you can get that at Karen yankovich.com/ 255. And let’s start that conversation. I am here for you every step of the way. If you wanna know what that looks like Karen yankovich.com/call and I will be back here with another episode. See you then