Amanda Heal
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Amanda Heal is a published author, professional keynote speaker, sought-after empowerment coach, podcaster, and entrepreneur. For years, she has inspired and encouraged clients and audiences alike to reach their full potential by finding hope, courage, and purpose.
Amanda is the sort of person who, if you tell her she can’t do something, will usually find a way. You may not think that is a big deal, but she has been totally blind since birth, so what you might find easy often creates challenges for her that she overcomes.
Surviving premature birth in 1970 was the first of those challenges. At birth, she weighed just 0.750kg (1 lb 9 oz) and was 24.5cm (10” ) long.
Amanda was the first totally blind student to graduate with honours in Law from the Australian National University. She has climbed to an altitude of 3,210m/10,531 ft, in Nepal, retrained as a speaker and coach after being unexpectedly laid off at the end of a seventeen-year legal career, and is a podcaster and published author of multiple books.
As a speaker, Amanda uses her life experiences to inspire and encourage audiences to take courageous action to overcome the challenges that keep them stuck so they can reach their full potential in work and life.
As a coach, Amanda helps people discover their life’s purpose, overcome their limiting beliefs, and follow their dreams so they can celebrate rather than tolerate what they do each day.
Amanda currently lives in Canberra, Australia, with her guide dog Sadie and her budgie Maestro.
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S01E08 Amanda Heal.mp3 - powered by Happy Scribe
Welcome to the Enabled Disabled podcast. I'm your host, Gustavo Serafini. I was born with a rare physical disability called PFG. My journey has been about self acceptance, persistence and adaptation. On the show, we'll explore how people experience disability. The stories we tell ourselves can both enable and disable our vulnerability is the foundation for strength and why people with disabilities can contribute more than we imagined. I hope that leaders, companies, clinicians, families and friends will better understand our capacity to contribute to the world and help enable us to improve it.
Amanda Hill is an author, John Maxwell, certified speaker, podcasters and personal coach. She's the second amazing person we've spoken to from Canberra, Australia. Amanda's journey is filled with insight, Problem-Solving skills and a deep faith in her purpose, which is to inspire, encourage and empower others. My talk with a man I didn't focus on our disability. Instead, we explored her unique abilities and how they helped her find meaning and purpose in her own life.
If you're enjoying the podcast, please take a minute to leave us a good rating on Spotify, iTunes or whatever platform you're using. Listen to this podcast. Thank you so much. Enjoy the episode. And it is really nice to have you here. I really appreciate you taking the time and it I'm really looking forward to getting to know you a little bit more. We obviously just just meeting now. But thank you for being here.
I'm honored to be here. Thank you.
Very welcome. So if you could tell me a little bit, did you grow up in Australia?
I did. Yes, I was. I was born in Sydney, Australia, and I came to Canberra when I was eight months old. And my parents moved here when I was eight months old. Yes.
What can you tell me? I know you have a visual impairment. Can you tell me a little bit about what what was growing up like for you? How did your parents help? How did you kind of adapt to your situation?
Sure, yes. I'm totally blind. I have been since birth. I was born at just twenty six weeks and I weighed one pounds, nine ounces, and I was ten inches long and given too much oxygen at birth, causing it a condition called retinopathy of prematurity. I, I led a pretty good life. I was an only child and so my parents were able to. Provide everything that I needed. They were they were very good parents, they gave me every possible opportunity.
Perhaps they were a little protective, but you know whose parents aren't. And yeah, no, it was it was a good life growing up. I was one of the first children in Canberra to be integrated into normal schools because most blind children in the 70s were since interstate for their education to specialist blind schools. But my father and other parents got together and lobbied the government until they made it possible for the blind children in Canberra to attend normal schools with the assistance of specialist teachers and Braille transcribers.
How long did that lobbying process take?
I don't know, because I was only only very little, I was only like two or three, so I really don't know. But I do know that now all born children in the act go through or in Canberra, go through and for most of Australia, actually go through normal schools and are fully integrated. And so, yeah, I grew up among sighted friends. In fact, I've got more sighted friends than blind friends, I guess. And it was was good.
I'm very thankful for that.
And to me, that that I was born in nineteen seventy six and I did attend, you know, quote unquote normal schools as well, I have a physical disability, but. That's very forward thinking of Australia to do that, and that's so was generally speaking, the school environment was pretty so supportive. You had good friends growing up. You adapted pretty pretty easily to the challenge, to the challenges that you had.
Absolutely no school was was, I think, just as easy for me as well. Not quite. I don't know. Perhaps I'm being a bit too positive. School was was relatively easy. Yes, I had Braille transcribers, so everything was put into Braille for me or read onto cassette tape. And I also had what they call itinerant teachers who were specialist teachers who would come into classes where I needed extra help, for example, science classes and and cooking classes.
They would they would come in and give me extra extra help and guidance. So, I mean, I had the same difficulties as anyone else. I was bullied a little bit in high school. But, you know, many other people were, too. You don't have disabilities. I had one special friend in in primary school. She was she was my my best friend. She led me everywhere and all my classes with me and such. And she unfortunately went to a different school when we got into high school, which was very hard for me because I didn't know how to make friends because I'd only had her as a friend.
So I guess that was that was very difficult. So high school was very lonely for me. But in the last two years, I changed schools again and had a whole set of new friends and made friends and had a wonderful time. So it had a happy ending.
That's good. What did you think what did you learn that helped you overcome that challenge of being lonely, not having any friends? Because you because you had that one close friend growing up.
Well, I learned that you can't just have one friend, one friend isn't enough, you need more than one. And I guess also being in being an only child, I had a good deal of self sufficiency anyway. So I used to in my in my breaks at school because I had no friends. I used to sit and read my textbooks. So I ended up doing very well at school because I did extra extra reading and and such. But yeah, I had to learn the hard lessons of an only child that you can't you need more than one friend and it's OK for your friends to do stuff without you.
That means they're still your friends, they just have other friends. It's alright for them to have other friends. So now I'm obviously more functional adult and I have not a great deal of friends, but I have some very close friends who I treasure and. Yeah.
It's great. And then as you move, as you moved into college, were there any, you know, new new kind of challenges that you overcame, things that excited you? How did you how did you start to, you know, just continue like the development cycle into adulthood?
Do you mean colleges in the last two years of high school?
Oh, I'm sorry. So here it's college, I guess, in Australia. Oh, university.
OK, yes. When I moved into university, I studied commerce and law. I was the first person to graduate or the first blind person to graduate from the Australian National University with honors in law. And I did a degree. So yes, I my father was an immense help to me at university because we didn't have the same support services that they purchased a Brazilian bossa and to emboss my exams. And I remember the first exam that was embossed for me with the lower one.
And I think that set the imposter wrong. And I suspect it may have been in Boston Spanish or something. I couldn't read it anyway. It was, you know, that nightmare we all have a lot of us have who've been to university about or even even school about sitting in exam and going up in the exam. And it's in a different language. Well, that sort of came true for me. So that was interesting. I had to have my exam supervisor read the questions to me, which was not very easy, but my father was an immense help.
He. He would get a lot of the materials for me and he would scan them with a document scanner into digital format for me and he would teach me the way to my new lectures and stuff. So he was he was amazing. I couldn't have got through uni without him. But, yes, I learned how to. I learned more about making friends. I learned about independent study, about studying, studying independently and also studying with others. It was it was a very good experience.
So I'm very thankful for the last years of high school, because even in Australia or in in Canberra particularly, what we do is we call the last two years of high school college, and it's much more you're much more independent in those last two years. You do have the back up of teacher support and everything, but you're much more independent. You can come and go as you wish. They don't force you to attend classes if you don't want to.
So they they. So I was much more prepared for university than I think people were who were coming from interstate, who partied for the first year and then wonder, wondered why they failed, whereas I just knuckle down and studied like I was used to doing.
That's terrific. What what drew you to LA?
Well, that's a bit of a story in itself when I when I first left school, I wanted to become a physiotherapist and the only. Place that I could study for was I think in America, you would call that physical therapy. The only place I could study that was at the North London School of Physiotherapy because that was pre disability discrimination legislation. And so when I approached the two schools in Australia, they went, oh, good grief, and we can't train you.
You're blind. How how could we possibly do that? So I had to go to London. So I went to went to London and started studying physiotherapy. And they found that I had what they called spatial awareness problems. And I guess the easiest way to describe that is, is I do get disorientated in open spaces and I never carry things like bowls of soup because I can't tell whether they level or not. And so. It doesn't really affect my everyday life, but the physio school decided that, no, I couldn't be a physiotherapist because of my spatial awareness problems.
And not all blind people have those issues. Only only some do. And so. I was sitting in my aunt's lounge room because my my father, my father was English and his sister still lived in England, so I was sitting in her lounge room crying one night going, oh, you know, I always wanted to be a physio. What will I do? And she said, Well, you've got a good brain. Why don't you study law?
So that's how I got into law. And, well, I came back to Australia and I had enrolled in commerce, which is accounting. And I had my father had very wisely suggested I defer it for a year, which was why I was able to get in when I came back from London and I couldn't get into law because I didn't have the marks. So I started studying commerce. And then in the second year of commerce, I did an introductory business law, which I absolutely adored.
And then I remembered what my aunt had said about having a good brain and studying law. And so I approached the dean of the law school and he said, oh, OK, you've got your marks are good enough to do a combined degree. Why don't you do a combined degree? So I do.
Interesting. I a cup, so I'm interested. Just real quick, if we can step back, what was it at that time? What was what was London like for you and what was that experience like? They obviously let you in to study physiotherapy. So they gave you that opportunity. Did you notice any difference there just in terms of how old if they were more open, if they were, they were more willing to give you an opportunity? How was how was the culture different?
It's very interesting you ask that question because the they were very behind. They were very much behind in everything they did. They didn't want me to use my cane, my long cane in inside the building because they were afraid that if I was to become a physiotherapist, the the patients would be afraid of me if I used my cane. And my reaction was, well, they'd be much more afraid of me if I fell over the end of their hospital bed.
So, yeah, they were very antiquated in their in their ideas. There was no there were no tactile diagrams. Very, very there wasn't very much stuff put into Braille. The only real advantage I had was the small class sizes that were only 12 of us in the class. And so there were three, we had three skeleton's between us, between the twelve of us. So we were able to afford skeleton's. So there was a lot more hands on.
But they yeah, they were quite and they were quite antiquated in their ideas. I had no orientation and mobility training when I got there. My mum had to teach me how to get to the local shops and it was so jet lagged that I couldn't remember half of what she taught me. So one of the other students, you had a little bit of sight. He taught me how to go to the shop. So it was literally the blind leading the blind.
So I know you guys have blind and visually impaired my ability instructors over over there, but we don't have them here in Australia. So that was quite a quite a new thing for me, being taught by another blind person. So it was good to get back to Australia and have have the proper support and the proper training and the resources that I needed.
Absolutely, and and then I did some some reading on your website, too, and obviously you had a very successful career and as as a lawyer and can you talk a little bit about about that? What was what did you like about it? What did you learn? How did you how did you grow in that profession?
Yeah, the the law was good to me, though, the law was good to me as a as a as a as a career, I had mostly enjoyable 17 years as a government lawyer, worked for the worked for the government. I decided I didn't want to do court work, although I did a little bit towards the end of my career. It was it was good because I got into the law just at the right time. The Internet was I was opening up.
So by the time I'd finished university, the Internet was accessible. A lot of the some of the materials were on the Internet. So I was able to access those documents. Scanners were really coming into their own and they worked reasonably well. So I was able to access most of the most of the material I needed relatively easily, which was was great. A lot of my a lot of my clients didn't know I was blind, had some interest.
Funny, interesting experiences with with some if I may tell a couple of funny stories, they'll be great.
I remember one particular client he had he didn't know I was blind because it never really came up in conversation. And he had to send me a fax of a picture of someone I needed to draft an affidavit and have a photo in it. And so he sent me a fax of a photo and I showed it to my sighted colleague and I said, oh, is this is this good enough to use in the affidavit? She said she laughed and she said, oh, no, it's a bloke with arms and legs.
You should ring that guy and tell him that you should ring him and tell him that you can say as much of the photo as I can and you're blind and I don't normally make. Well, I didn't back then make jokes about blindness very much. And so I rang him and told him and I was greeted with dead silence. And the poor guy didn't speak to me for two years. Every time he wanted to talk to me, he did call my my supervisor instead and he wouldn't talk to me for two years.
And then eventually he forgave me and we ended up working together again quite well. And now the another story was we went we. Sorry, I'll start that again. Another story was I was talking to a police officer on the phone and we were chatting away and he was flirting a little bit, which was like I didn't buy that. And he said, oh, yes, you must come and have a tour of the police station next time you're in Sydney.
It's like, oh, yes, I'd love to do that. And the next minute my computer goes ding and there's an email with a photo and the photo was called Mountain Man. And so I showed it to my colleague and she said, Oh yeah, it's a photo of a guy in hiking boots and all dressed up for hiking. And he had the policeman called me back for some reason. I said, Oh, thanks for the photo. I had it described to be described to me by my colleague.
And he said, oh, my gosh, please don't sue me for discrimination. Please, please. I'm so sorry. I didn't know you were blind. And I said, no, no. I thought the whole thing was hilarious, that he'd sent me a photo. I must say the flirting stopped and he didn't call me back after that. So I had some interesting, interesting, interesting experiences. But generally was it was good. It was great.
I learned a lot about how to access information, how to ask people for what I needed. They were many times I had to email people and say, look, I can't read the fax. Can you email me the original copy of whatever it was? Oh, there was another story actually about our we used to the organization I used to work for, used to store all the files in a particular storage facility which was next door to a brothel.
And because it was in an industrial area and it rained a lot one particular year, and the reflect and damaged a lot of our files. And we found out the reflect because the brothel had done some work on their roof and they damaged ours. So we had to go out and inspect the roof. And I went because I was the the lawyer on the case and I went with another sighted colleague and we had to climb up these metal steps to look at the roof.
And the one of the person who was representing the brothel apparently was very dodgy looking by. And my guide dog at the time was quite happy to walk up the steps, but she wouldn't walk down them because they were open. So the brothel guy had to carry her to carry pebbles down the steps. So, yeah. Interesting. Had some interesting times. Did you fun.
I mean it's it sounds like it and it seems like, I mean it's great that you had the sense of humor that's always important and keeps you positive. And you know, we should always be able to to have a good laugh. Right. And of course. Did you see. People's perception towards you or just kind of general attitude change over the years where maybe they were more accepting where somebody like the police officer who flirted with you would keep flirting with you, like, did you see any any changes as you you know, as as as you went through time?
Think sorry. No, I don't think so. I if anything, people have become more politically correct, which is kind of a pain, really, because they don't use words like see and watch and whatever. And I use those words in normal conversation or so. So inside the other day or I watch this really good movie because it's normal language. And I think the reason I haven't seen people's attitudes change is because I think I'm pretty good at making people feel comfortable with me because I, I don't mince my words.
I am very clear in my communication as to what I need. I yeah. So I think. I think people. Feel quite comfortable with me, so, no, I haven't seen a great change in attitude, except for people being more careful with their language, which is more of a nuisance than anything else, I think.
I think the fear of offending somebody gets in the way of making genuine connections, and for me, um, obviously I wasn't always like this, but. Into, I'd say. Early adulthood, especially now I'm forty four now, I would prefer that people ask me and as long if they have questions about about my disability, how I got it, as long as you're respectful, as long as you're coming from a place of curiosity, it's not offensive.
Absolutely. I only remember being offended at work once. And that was because this one particular person. They my my first guide dog had to retire early because her eyesight started failing, which is kind of ironic, and this particular person had had. I did before this before this happened, I'd had a conversation with this person and I'd started going out with a a guy and she had said to me, Oh, well, is he blond? And I went, no, why would he be?
And she said, Oh, I just thought. And I said, well, don't. And then, you know, that then that was fun. And then unfortunately, the same person had walked into my office a few weeks later and I was telling her about how I was going to have to retire my guide dog or how I had retired my past guide dog. And she laughed and said, Oh, isn't that ironic? Did you have a put down?
And that that was just that that annoyed me. And I said, well, would you have me put down? And she said, Oh, that's different. And she didn't. She left me alone after that. But yeah, I don't I don't suffer fools kindly, but I'm not easily offended if that makes sense.
That makes complete sense. Yeah. And that's, that's a great way to be. So now that's that's. I'm with you on that, um, so you are now a motivational speaker, and that's right. Right. And you are just about to release your second book, correct?
I released it on the weekend.
You released it on the weekend. OK, so I ordered I ordered it. So I'm really if I shipped it the day before yesterday and I'm really eager to hear it, so. What what's what kind of brought about that change in your mind, where you're happy as far as doing this law work that you were already good at, that you had studied for? What what do you think was the did you have a feeling inside that you just start reflecting one day?
What made you start thinking about, you know, is this really why I'm here, you know, on this earth? Is am I really fulfilling my my purpose?
I love that question. Thank you. I started thinking about, oh, my twenty seventh birthday. I don't know why, but on my twenty seventh birthday I started wondering why I was here and I thought about it and didn't come up with anything. And I asked my colleagues and they didn't know and I asked my parents and they couldn't tell me either. And I even read a couple of books on purpose and that didn't help. And so I forgot about it until in that was in 2007.
And then in 2014 I the agency was working for was downsized and I was laid off. And so I took I took a severance package and then I started to really think, well, I hadn't been happy for the last couple of years in my job for varying, varying reasons. They were changes that were going on and people I was working with, I didn't like and lots of structural changes and stuff. So I really become dissatisfied with my job.
And that's when I started to think, well, here's my chance here. I am about to leave my job to apply for another legal job. What do I start doing? Something else. And so I went through a four year journey of I sold skin care through a network marketing company. I retrained as a John C. Maxwell, speaker, trainer and coach, thought I wanted to be a career coach and that couldn't get clients because I really didn't deeply believe in myself that I was good enough to be a career coach.
And then I realized I wanted to help people find out what they wanted to do with their whole lives, not just their careers. And then I sort of reverse engineered that process into a three step process about how to discover your life's purpose. And then I'd just as just when I lost my job as my legal job, I thankfully had already paid for a cruise to Hawaii and back, which was amazing. And on that cruise, there was a motivational speaker or not a motivational speaker.
She was a historical speaker. She was telling us the history of all the places we were going to. She was really interesting. And I found out that she got her cruise for free because she was speaking every day on the cruise. And I thought, gosh, I could do that. I absolutely love cruising. I find speaking very easy and gosh, I could do that. So maybe I should be speaker. And then, as I said, I became a coach and that didn't work so well and.
Dabbled around in that for a while, wrote my first book, and then. Last year, I was at a conference and it was a Christian Women in Business conference, and we had a number of filtrate sessions where we had to wait on God for various things. And I really felt that God was saying to me, look, stop messing around to be a coach, being a coach and be a speaker like I told you to, because I felt that over the few years that he'd said to me, look, speaker, be speaker, and I'd go, oh, no, no, no, no, no, I'll be a coach.
It's easier. And I can earn more money that way. And so last year I decided I would, before pivoting became popular. I was covered. I decided I would decided I would pivot from speaking, from coaching and just speaking. And then it hit and everything got canceled. And so I wrote my second book. And so that's how I got where I am today. I am absolutely one hundred percent a motivational speaker. I've actually started speaking to I gave my first face to face speech the other day or as as in my own right.
I've been speaking for Guide Dogs, the Guide Dogs Association, for four years now. And so I've been doing a bit of PR speaking for other people, but I gave my first proper face to face talk to a room of people on Tuesday, which was great. And I've got a few more of those booked. We're gradually being allowed to do face to face stuff now in Australia and yeah, so I'm on my way.
Congratulations. That's amazing. So you you said that you felt like you weren't you didn't have the success that you wanted as a coach because that really didn't believe in yourself and you're in your heart that that was what you wanted to be. So that's what has given you. That's the tease out some of those differences between, you know, a motivational speaker and helping somebody with their whole lives versus coaching their career, because for better or worse, at least here in the United States, the career is not everything, but it is a huge part of our lives.
So how would you how do you start to how did you start to differentiate those two? And how how does that process look like of of how you start to help people with their lives and their meaning and their purpose?
Well, I discovered it when I was working with another coach, and she said to me, I think you're putting yourself in. So I do want me to start that again. Sorry about the throat clearing, that's fine. I decided or I discovered the difference when I was working with another coach and she said to me, I think you're putting yourself in a box, wanting to work with people in their careers and. That's when I started really seriously thinking about purpose again, why am I here and your life's purpose?
Yes, career is is a big part of life. You spend a lot of time at work, but your life's purpose goes deeper than your career. You can leave out your life's purpose as part of your career, but it really goes through your whole life, not just your career. So, for example, someone who is someone who discovers their life's purpose could be to care for animals or to. Yes, to to care for animals. They might leave that out.
They might decide to become a vet and they might leave that out of vet. But they might not they might, you know, do the nine to five job to pay the bills. And they might leave out their life's purpose as a an RSPCA volunteer or an animal shelter volunteer and. Or it's yeah, because life's purpose, it's it spills over from Korea into the into the rest of your life, I, I my life's purpose is to inspire and encourage others to take steps to reach their full potential.
And yes, I can do that as a speaker. But that also overflows into just regular conversations with people because encouraging people is something I'm just hardwired to do. It's it just comes naturally to me. I do it without even thinking. So I do it in my work and I do it outside my work as well. Does that kind of you know that that helps a lot? So how do you. I guess a couple of questions there is.
When you found your purpose in that aha moment happened, right, you basically you said that you went in kind of reverse engineered that process later. So do you take that what you reverse engineered that process and try to help other people find what that is?
Yes, I did that as a coach. I was I would take three people, three of the three steps, which is examining your past, examining your present and examining your passions and dreams. And that's what the first half of my book is about and. Yes, so I have done that with a number of clients and help them to discover their life's purpose when one client, she is also vision impaired, her life's purpose is to help people see things differently.
And so she's doing that, she does that through humor and she wants to write her life story and and help people say things, see things differently, help people show people that her vision impairment hasn't stopped her from doing what she wants to do. I helped another person find that her life's purpose was to serve and protect. And she's living that out through security work. She got into a policy job. She started off in the security industry, and then she got into policy and she was very unhappy.
And I helped her realize that was because she wasn't doing the saving, caring and protecting. She was doing the policy around that she wasn't she needed to do the practical serve care and protect things. So. Yeah, that's that's how that's that's that's how that works. But in speaking, I want to I think I want to talk more about courage. Overcoming, facing challenges, facing face, overcoming, overcoming things, building courage, maintaining courage, so I think that's what I want to speak more about.
But you definitely yeah, definitely. I can coach people to help them discover their purpose. Yes.
And what you when you talk about courage, is that is that where you think it is that the stumbling block for most people? Is that why are they kind of stop and don't pursue the things they really want? Where do you think? Absolutely. OK, so it's absolutely yes. Yes. Such a good question because I love your questions. The Yes, because discovering your life's purpose can be quite scary. I mean, when when I left my job, I lost my identity for years and years and years.
I said, I'm a lawyer. And then when I was laid off, it's like, well, what do I call myself now? Do I call myself a lipstick lady or or who am I? I lost my identity. I had people question me and go, you just you studied for years and years. Why are you giving this up? Are you wasting your life now? And so discovering your life's purpose can be or. Changing what you do, changing career.
Not that that's the only aspect of discovering your life's purpose, but it can be it. If you decide to change your career because you've discovered your life's purpose, that can be very confronting, it can be costly. My income halved overnight each year, so there was a lot of times where I had to exercise courage. And I believe that other people do, too, because there will be big changes going on in their lives if they decide to to discover their life's purpose and live it out.
But it's also very freeing. When I discovered my life's purpose was to inspire and encourage others. I felt like I'd been set free the box that had been around me all my life. But this drama that I had had just disappeared and I could live out my life's purpose. However, I wanted as a speaker, as a coach, as a teacher, as a trainer. I had lots of lots of options. And yeah. So it's quality.
It is very freeing. There's definitely courage required. And in my book, the first half of it is about or the first third of it is about to how to discover your life's purpose, and then the rest of it is the tools that I believe you need during that process, which is courage, dealing with change, self leadership, personal growth and managing your finances.
And those are all very important things and some we all struggle with at least one of those things, but where did where did you where did you find where where do you think your courage came from when you faced that moment?
Oh, well, I'm I'm inherently I'm inherently stubborn sort of person, if you tell me I can't do something, I'll usually find a way. So I think I was born stubborn. I was I was born a twin and my twin sister lived for ten hours. But I kept fighting and they'd put mittens on me because I kept pulling, trying to pull my tubes out and stuff. So I'm I'm a fighter. I think I'm I've been made that way.
But also the other very major part where I get my courage is my face. I have very strong faith, very practical. It's not just to go to church Sunday on Sundays type faith. It's a day to day type faith. So I have very strong faith. And that's I draw on that for my courage.
Was that as well, was that faith something that you you've had with you since you were a child? Is it something that came up, came out later in life? Like how what what did that look like? What the process look like?
I always knew existed. And I knew I could ask him for stuff, but I never really. Believed that you'd get it if you asked him, you could ask him for stuff and he might give it to you might not. But then when I was 16, I went into a bike store and I was going to buy a tandem bike so I could ride to school like everyone else. And the guy there invited me to attend a healing night. And so I went to the healing night.
I'd always been my my parents were. Anglicans, I think, think you call them Episcopalians over there, although they were Protestants anyway, and they tended very traditional churches like they were Christmas and Easter Christians, I would only go Christmas and Easter. And so I didn't really understand church very much. It never really made a lot of sense to me. I couldn't sing the hymns, which had forty five thousand verses because I couldn't read the books, obviously, and it was a little bit foreign to me and I never liked it very much.
But then when I went to this haling night, this was in a Pentecostal church and it was back in the 80s when the Pentecostal songs were like one verse, one chorus, very simple. So I picked it up immediately and I love to sing. So that was the first thing that got me in. And then the second thing that got me in was I understood the preaching. It made sense. It was great. And then I went up for prayer, for healing.
Can get healed. But I found Jesus that night, so I accepted Jesus into my life as my lord and savior and never looked back. He's my best friend, he's my constant companion. And then after I lost my job, my faith got stronger because I was running a business. And then I realized that this wasn't my business, this was God's business. And then when I realized when I felt him calling me to be speaker and I was ignoring him.
And then eventually when I when I did pay attention, everything has just started to fall into place. And I now realize that, you know, he he really does have my best interests at heart. He really does. He made me the way I am to serve him and. By serving him, I'm doing what I love because I'm living out my purpose, and that's what I was made to do. So it's kind of a circular thing. And yeah, so it's a very strong it's interwoven into what I do.
Well, I should say I don't. Pushed my face onto my clients, some some clients we pray at the beginning of our coaching sessions, others I don't. I've worked with Christians and non Christians alike. And and, you know, we've got on just fine. So, yeah, I don't and there's a little bit of God in my book, but not a lot like I'm apologizing. But I shouldn't that that's just how it is.
Yeah. Yeah. No, it's a it's a. Religion and faith is one of those sensitive subjects, some people believe some people draw strength from it, some people don't. It's it is what it is, but definitely not something you should apologize for.
No, it's it's part of who I am. Yeah.
And I think I think it's a virtuous, virtuous circle. And I think it's I think it's beautiful. I I studied religion for quite a while. I went to divinity school. I was kind of on track to become a professor and then chose another path. But I think faith is a very important part of. Of my life, and it's it it is definitely a source of strength.
Cool. So be great to chat offline about that. Absolutely.
So so you thought you talked about courage as being we got into your your source of courage, how do you how do you help? Your your clients find their source of courage because it's different for everybody, right? Mm.
I think by example. So. I. I had this a bit of sort of epiphany moment I was at at the John Maxwell conference and I had the. Is the absolute joy of hearing Mick Voytek speak, and I don't know whether you're familiar with him. He has no arms and no legs and he now lives in the US, in California. And he's absolutely amazing. And it used to annoy me when people used to say, oh, you're so inspiring.
And I think, no, not I just leading my normal life. I'm just doing what people do. I'm going to university. I'm going to school. I'm traveling on busses. I'm just doing what people do. I'm not inspiring. And then I was sitting there listening to Nick thinking, oh, wow, he's so cool. He's so inspiring. He's got no arms and legs and he's got married and had four children and travels the world. And he's just amazing.
And I thought, what would I say to him if I met him? And I think I'd say to him, Oh, you're so inspiring. And I thought, oh, gosh, you silly woman. That's what you hate people saying to you. And I had this epiphany and I thought, well, if people find me inspiring. Great. Let's use that not not in a bad way, but if people find inspiring more like, yeah, let's let's just use that to help them.
So I think I help people find their courage by using my own life as an example and as an inspiration to them to say, well, gosh, she's blind and she could do this, this and this was my excuse.
I am guy, that's fantastic, I'm the same way. It took me a long time to get there because the inspirational thing used to used to bother me, too. I would just, you know, could be out playing tennis. You know, I have one arm. I wear prosthetics so people would see me playing tennis and they'd start to watch me. Oh, my gosh, how do you do that? What's going on? And I'm just here playing tennis, you know, I'm just trying to have a chance to get better at the sport.
I'm not doing anything special, but I. I totally get it. And I think inspiration. If somebody wants to be inspired by another person, I agree with you. It is great. Let's use that to connect. Let's use that to teach. Let's use that to elevate.
Absolutely. It's really none of my business. If someone finds me inspiring, that's their that's their thing. It's not anything for me to get hung up about.
Yeah, exactly. So let's talk about your pride. I'm sorry. I wasn't aware you had a podcast. Tell me about your podcast.
It's called They Do What You Love podcast. And it is a lot about. Purpose and hope and courage and values and a lot of the chapters of the book have come from the podcast and some of the podcast episodes have come from the book. So they are kind of related, unfortunately. Well, the best way to get to it is from my website, because I used to be able to play it on smart speakers. But unfortunately, someone else has a podcast called Do What You Love.
So if you say play the Do What You Love podcast, it'll play theirs, not mine, because mine is called the Do What You Love podcast, not do what you love. So that's a bit of a problem. I don't quite know how to get around that. So they, they bought the domain before I bought my podcast, so I don't know who gets the podcast name first. They me said come here, let me stop chewing vecci box and then she choose.
They buy stuff they can chew. You can chew later. Yes. So the best way to get to it is from my website and it's got all the other links there. There's twenty five episodes. I've had a bit of a break because I was writing the book and I'm not really quite sure what to, what to do next with it, whether to stop it, whether to interview. I would like to interview people who were living out their purpose.
So. I'm sort of looking at the podcast guests now, now that I've finished writing my book, I'll be able to concentrate more on bringing it back to life.
Hmm, that's interesting, though, that you you said that the podcast, the podcast helped with some of the writing and then some of the writing also generated some of the podcast episodes. Right. That's that's really interesting. I've just started with the podcast, but Faye, my producer, she's been doing this for like seven years and she's talked a lot about how much synergy she and Joy she got in her life from doing the podcast. She's met so many more interesting people.
Her network has expanded. Her opportunities have grown. So it seems to be this this virtuous again, this virtuous cycle of of building community, helping people and just. I guess this is this is my this is my purpose. In a big way as well, because I want to I want to help empower people. I want to help people understand that people with disabilities have. You know, let's focus on our abilities, let's focus on what we can do, what we can contribute.
What are the skills that we bring to the table that other people don't? Because, like you said, you had to figure out you were stubborn. You had to figure out those problems. You had to find a way to do it because that's what you wanted to wear. I think a lot of people just stop at the problem.
Yeah. And I think you might I say you're very good at it. You ask the most wonderful, insightful questions. So it's a pleasure to be interviewed by you. So I have no doubt you'll be very successful.
Thank you so much, Amanda. The next question that I have for you is, did I miss anything important that you would like to talk about?
Thank you so much. I know I don't really I if I could perhaps tell people where to buy my book.
Of course. Absolutely. Please.
OK, the book is called Seeing by Vision, Not by Sight. And the subtitle is How to Discover Your Life's Purpose and Put It into Action. You can purchase the book at seeing by vision, not by sight, dot com. And on my website you can if you would like me to speak, you can also contact me there. I think I've given you all the links as well. And yes, I'm definitely, definitely available to speak. I can do virtual.
I've got like video and everything all set up and so I can do virtual. I can obviously do face to face in Australia and outside when we're allowed to travel and. Yeah.
Fantastic. I really look forward to reading your book and then having you back on eventually to dove into the book some more, and I just think your. I'm and I'm inspired by what you've done, what you've accomplished and how connected you are with your purpose and the meaning in your life, because that's just that's fundamental. If you don't if you don't have that, you're just. You're lost or you're drifting, you're not really. Giving what you could and finding the joy that you could could find in this world, so absolutely, I think if you're not living out your purpose, you just marking out time till you die.
Really? Yeah, I know that sounds harsh, but it's it's true. Yeah. So but thank you for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure.
You're very welcome. Thank you so much for being here.
Helpful links:
Purpose Vision Future: purposevisionfuture.com
Connect with Amanda Heal on Social Media:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amandaheal
