Manders Mindset
Hosted by Amanda Russo, The Breathing Goddess, who is a Breathwork Detox Facilitator, Transformative Mindset Coach, and Divorce Paralegal.
Amanda's journey into mindset and empowerment began by working with children in group homes and daycares. She later transitioned to family law, helping people navigate the challenging emotions of divorce. During this time, Amanda also overcame her own weight and health challenges through strength training, meditation, yoga, reiki, and plant medicine.
Amanda also shares her personal journey, detailing how she transformed obstacles into opportunities by adopting a healthier, holistic lifestyle.
Discover practical strategies and inspiring stories that will empower you to break free from limitations and cultivate a mindset geared towards growth and positivity.
Tune in for a fun, friendly, and empowering experience that will help you become the best version of yourself.
Manders Mindset
100!! The Mindset Behind Manders: A Look Back with Amanda Russo
In this milestone episode of Manders Mindset, Amanda Russo takes a backseat as special guest host J.R. Sparrow from West Virginia Uncommonplace dives deep into Amanda’s personal story, professional growth, and reflections on her journey to 100 episodes. This conversation explores Amanda’s roots, the challenges she’s faced, and the transformative moments that shaped her podcasting path and beyond. From intimate family memories to powerful lessons learned through breathwork and life’s unexpected turns, this is Amanda like you’ve never heard her before.
In This Episode, You’ll Uncover:
- The heartfelt story of Amanda’s relationship with her grandma and the life lessons she carries to this day.
- A candid look into Amanda’s personal struggles, from overcoming body image issues to navigating toxic relationships.
- The origin of Manders Mindset and how a single piece of advice sparked a podcast that’s inspired countless listeners.
- Amanda’s journey into Breathwork facilitation and her vision for making it accessible to everyone.
- Reflections on the milestones and missteps that have defined her podcasting journey, including her first podcasting conferences.
- An introduction to Amanda’s new podcast, Breathwork Magic, and how it complements her original show.
- J.R.’s signature 2020 Questions, uncovering Amanda’s values, quirks, and goals for the future.
Timeline Summary:
- [2:45] – Introducing Amanda Russo: Who is she beyond the titles and accolades?
- [10:12] – The wisdom of Meme: Lessons from Amanda’s grandmother on kindness and judgment.
- [25:30] – Breaking free: Amanda opens up about overcoming toxic relationships and reclaiming her health.
- [38:15] – Behind the mic: The birth of Manders Mindset and Amanda’s journey into podcasting.
- [55:10] – Breathwork magic: Amanda’s passion for Breathwork and her commitment to accessibility.
- [1:10:45] – Reflections on growth: Lessons from 100 episodes and her hopes for the next 100.
- [1:25:30] – J.R.’s 2020 Questions: Amanda’s values, legacy, and what drives her to keep going.
You can watch the episode HERE!
Connect with Amanda and her Resources:
- Follow Amanda on Instagram: @thebreathinggoddess
- Explore Amanda’s new podcast: Breathwork Magic (Available on all major platforms or you can listen on Apple!)
- Join Mindful Mindset Mondays: Pay-what-you-can virtual Breathwork sessions on Eventbrite: Register Here
- Join the Manders Mindset Facebook Community HERE!
- Follow Manders Mindset on Instagram HERE!
Closing Thoughts:
Episode 100 celebrates a journey of resilience, self-discovery, and transformation. If this episode resonated with you, don’t forget to follow, rate, and review Manders Mindset. Share it with friends who could use a little inspiration, and stay tuned for the next chapter in Amanda’s story.
Thank you for being part of this incredible journey!
Welcome to the Manders Mindset Podcast. Here you'll find both monologue and interviews of entrepreneurs, coaches, healers and a variety of other people when your host, Amanda Russo, will discuss her own mindset and perspective and her guest's mindset and perspective on the world around us. Manders and her guests will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life will help explain to you how shifting your mindset will shift your life.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the 100th episode of Mander's Mindset. I'm your host, Amanda.
Speaker 2:Russo, and I am so excited that you are here listening to the 100th episode of Mander's Mindset.
Speaker 3:This is the podcast where we explore the power of shifting your mindset to shift your life, and I have spoken with so many amazing, thoughtful, kind individuals who have gone through so many different internal shifts and have helped me uncover and think of different ways to shift within my own life and I really hope they've helped you guys shift within your own life as well. The road to 100 has been a journey. It has been full of so many mindset shifts. It's been crazy. You know I have put in so much thought and energy into deciding what was going to be episode 100. At first I thought I was going to interview the founder of Breathwork Detox, decided that's not what I wanted to do. Then I debated who I wanted to have interview me and I went back and forth between a lot of people. You know I actually recorded a few different episodes that I told myself and told the guest that I am going to have episode 99 be the episode where I interview somebody really close to me, somebody whose mindset I respect very highly, and someone that's close to me, somebody I know well, who then could switch the tables and interview me. Now, for the longest time I had come up with this great idea of having my best friend, my biggest role model, my biggest inspiration in podcasting and in life, brad, interview me, and I was going to interview him. Now, the way that timing fell, I wasn't able to do this, it wasn't able to work out, and I was so disappointed. If I'm being completely honest, you know, that required a lot of mindset shifts for me. Because a lot of mindset shifts for me? Because I felt almost like I had failed. But I had failed. According to who? According to this preconceived notion that Mando set for herself that episode 99 has to be the episode that I interview my best friend and that episode 100 is the episode that I interview my best friend and then episode 100 is the episode that he interviews me, which, yes, episode 100, 100, anything, it's a milestone for sure. But why did it have to be that way? Only because my mind, my mindset, if you will told me that Then I still had in the mindset okay, I'm still going to follow this plan because everything is figureoutable. If you haven't heard episode 99, tune into that.
Speaker 3:But then I reached out to my really close friend, brandon, who helps me whenever I get myself into any interesting situation, and I was like I need a favor. I know you don't really listen to anybody's podcast, but I need you to let me interview you. Then you need to interview me and we did this and I released episode 99 of my interview of Brandon. I still have the interview where he interviewed me. I will release that at a later date but listening back to it, it came to me that the episode of Brandon interviewing me wasn't what I was looking to air for episode 100. Now, it was a great recording. Brandon and I had a blast. It was his first time ever interviewing somebody on a podcast and you guys will hear that episode at some point. But it wasn't episode 100 quality.
Speaker 3:So I've been a lot of internal reflecting, thinking and mindset shifting, if you will, about what I wanted episode 100 to be, who I wanted to interview me, what I wanted to talk about, what have you Decided to? Have someone really close to me who's also a podcaster, who knows a lot about my podcasting, joni, sit down and have the tables turn and I had a good friend of mine, jr, interview me. I really hope you all enjoy this episode. You get to see a lot of different sides of me and these are some of the internal mindset shifts that I had to shift in the process and on the road to 100 and you'll hear me talk a little bit about this deeper.
Speaker 3:But again, it was also coming back and into that awareness of who set this rule, that this is what it has to be. The only person who set that rule or shifted my mindset in a negative way was myself. So I encourage you to ask yourself what are you telling yourself? You have to do a certain way. What if you did it differently? There's no one certain way to do anything. There's no one certain way to do anything.
Speaker 3:I hope, 100 episodes later, you have learned or taken away at least one gem to be able to shift your mindset, to change your perspective, to look at the world a little more positively, a little more brightly, and I hope you all enjoy this episode of JR interviewing me on Mander's Mindset and if you've enjoyed what you've heard, I'd really appreciate it if you left me a five-star rating, leave a review and share the podcast with somebody who you think needs to shift their mindset, because, all in all, that's all I'm looking to do is help anybody look at the world in a more positive light, because life is hard enough as it is and if I could help shift somebody's life even a tad, it would make my day, honestly. So I hope you enjoy this episode and I hope you enjoy seeing and hearing a different side of Mander's Mindset. And let's get into the episode.
Speaker 4:Greetings everyone. My name is JR Sparrow, I'm the host of West Virginia in Commonplace and I have a great and amazing delight. Today I have the honor of being bestowed upon me the hardest job on her to make episode 100, amanda's mindset, with the illustrious host amanda russo. She's a host, she's a breathwork facilitator and she's got like 70 different other titles and you can find her anywhere walking around new england taking care of herself and making herself known to everyone because she loves to talk. So, amanda, I need you to do something that's nostalgic to West Virginia and the commonplace. I ask a simple question. It's called who is Amanda Russo, so please tell us who is Amanda Russo.
Speaker 3:Now I know how guests feel when I ask them who they are at the core, them who they are at the core. Amanda Russo is a human being. She's someone who's just trying to make people in the world feel seen, valued, heard. I know you mentioned I've got 70 titles, which I do, but I don't necessarily like to focus, necessarily or identified with the titles. It's more of like who I embody at, like the personality I embody pose. Okay, that answers the question, I think.
Speaker 4:That touched the question. We'll or nurse the rest of it through this interview. Now, behind every person right, we have people that build us up. In my lifetime I'm 39 years old I had a father. My father was with me until 1994. He passed away so he built me into this strong, rugged mountain man. But you, you have a story that goes back to a beautiful woman, 15 years I believe. You two had a great engagement in life. This woman gave you a lot of your know-how and how you perceive and handle people correct? Yes.
Speaker 4:And who's that lady, what's her name, and tell me about the moments. We want to hear about the moments. What makes Amanda who she is and who is this one person in particular that has moved and grooved and made you?
Speaker 3:So you're referring to my grandmother. Her name was Sandy, I called her Mimi, but yeah, she really shaped how I treat people, how I show up, how I look at the world. Honestly, she was the biggest shapeshifter of my mindset. If you will, I really I spent a lot of time with her. Granted, and I talk a lot about how. I quote unquote only had 15 years with her, but I spent more time with her than most people spend with their grandparents.
Speaker 3:Growing up, I lived with her. I lived with my mom as well as my grandparents, but my mom worked a full-time job. My grandma didn't. For most of my life when I was young she worked part-time but so she was the adult figure in my life that wasn't really working. So, picking me up from school, it was her. My mom would drop me off, but I was with Mimi 24, seven, because my grandfather worked on the railroad as well. So, like he worked a decent amount when I was younger.
Speaker 3:So there's a lot of times it was just her and I, and one of the biggest things she. So there's a lot of times it was just her and I, and one of the biggest things she always said to me was and if you grew up in like late 90s or before that, you probably heard this from some adult in your life but if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. And it was something I really tried to embody in all aspects of life. Because, you know, I've touched upon this a few times on my own podcast, I'm guessing but I was bullied a lot growing up for being overweight, for the sound of my voice, because I've got maybe it's an accent, maybe I just can't speak that well, I don't know went to speech therapy, but I was bullied for both of those. And you know, but I was bullied for both of those. And you know, with having that mindset of like, if you don't have anything nice to say, just shutting up. You know, like you don't have to say the unkind thing. Like you know, I pride myself in being really unjudgmental, but we all do have our judgments, you know, and nobody can say they don't judge anybody for anything, because we all do, but it's like you don't have to say that judgment to that person.
Speaker 3:You know, there was something else she said to me and I was really young when she said this and I remember I was around the age that, like you, would question everything. I think I was around 10, but she was like, and I was at that age where I was almost like teasing other kids a little bit and even being a standby person when other kids would tease other people, because growing up I wasn't somebody that would say anything, so like if there was a kid teasing somebody I might not follow along with the teasing but I'm not going to be the kid to stick up for the kid. Until she said to me she's like you know, amanda, something you say and I can't remember if she said five seconds or five minutes, but she was like something that takes you five minutes to say could last in somebody's head or in somebody's mind for five years. And I was like what does that even mean? Why is it going to last in their head for five years? Almost giving her a little bit of sass, like it's not going to last in their head for five years. And she was like Amanda, if somebody says something either really nice to you or really hopeful to you, you're going to remember that.
Speaker 3:You're likely going to remember that, but longer than the person that said that to you and it was hearing that I was then like wow, like I don't have to say all my thoughts out loud, you know, like if we get hurt by something somebody does, if we don't understand somebody's opinion on something, if we disagree on something, if we have that judgment of whatever it is, we don't have to say that to that person, of whatever it is. We don't have to say that to that person. You know, and I think there's so much power in, I guess, silence or shutting up, and I don't mean that badly, but like not hurting other people's feelings, you know, and it's just again, you don't know how long it's going to last with what you say to somebody. Like I still remember some of the specific things, you know. I'll probably remember some of the specific things you know.
Speaker 3:I'll probably remember more some of either the really hopeful things or the really great things that were said to you, even if it wasn't yesterday, last month, and it's like bringing that to the awareness. It kind of just makes you pause more so and like okay, like let me journal about this before I like speak my judgment, like let me say it to a close friend instead of I'm somebody that, weirdly enough, like I talk to myself, like, as weird as that fucking might sound like, I'll talk to myself, I'll record a voice message to myself, like just venting and getting it out, but not even having to say stuff to certain people. You know, having to say stuff to certain people, you know, and I, one of the things I pride myself in the most is that I really think I'm not a judgmental person Like people can tell me any and everything and I'm not going to judge somebody just because, like I've seen it, I've been through it, I, et cetera. And you know I really got that from her because she, more so than anybody else in the whole family, she did not judge anybody. You know it's something I jokingly say, but it's honestly. The biggest truth is that there's nobody in the family that liked my grandmother Like everybody liked her. There's people that don't like me, there's people that don't like my mother. My grandma was the person in the family that every single person liked. It is openly known that because she didn't look at anybody differently. So my grandma was the person in the family that every single person liked. It is openly known that, because she didn't look at anybody differently, regardless of what you did, regardless of what you tried, I have a cousin that went down the drug route and got involved in drugs, heroin, whatnot, and even that like he didn't end up graduating high school and you know she still never judged him for that.
Speaker 3:She didn't get to see us make it to the point of high school graduation, but she was still one that like she didn't judge anybody. You know, I had a cousin of mine, a second cousin of mine, and I actually never shared this story before, but she and I don't even remember this. I was really young but she was getting married and when she first met this man he still wasn't divorced from his last wife. So by the time they were getting, by the time they were getting married, he was divorced, whatnot, whatever. But her parents were really old school, very religious, very old school, and they were like, if you're marrying him, like we're not going to the wedding. And they didn't go to the wedding. I was young, so I wasn't even invited. I don't even know if I was like two, three, four, I was super young.
Speaker 3:But my grandma went to this wedding and it's so funny and I only know this story because I heard about it from my mom. But she called my aunt to tell her and she was like I just want to let you know I have no hard feelings. You can do what you want and have your beliefs, but I'm still going to your daughter's wedding. She is not judging her, she is not looking at her differently. This man was going through divorce.
Speaker 3:My grandma understood life. Divorce is a long process. He started a new relationship Before the divorce was fully finalized. They got engaged. They didn't walk down the aisle when he was still married. Obviously, legality wise, they couldn't do that. But her parents were still oh, you shouldn't have met him gone down this road when he was technically married.
Speaker 3:But my grandma was like, listen, I'm not looking at her differently for that I'm not. But she also wasn't one that isn't going to speak up, because some people would have still gone to the wedding but wouldn't have said anything to my aunt. No, she called her to let her know, listen, like here's the deal. And my aunt, I guess, appreciated that because they never had bad blood, because she was very authentic. She even said to her she was like listen, I can't turn my back on my niece Just because she's marrying someone that maybe I don't agree with the timing, maybe I don't agree with the way it happened.
Speaker 3:She's still my niece and you know it was one of those that it was like. I had a lot of respect for that, because people in life, whether you want to call it a mistake, whether you want to call it things, we look back on that. Either we regret or we would have wished we would have maybe done differently. We all have something like that and she wasn't going to turn her back on her people just because of that and I've respected that mindset so much, so much.
Speaker 4:I will let you interject?
Speaker 4:yeah, and I like that because you know, right there, you just gave the audience and you gave other podcasters a personable side about you. We learned something about your grandmother should know your grandmother going through all everything with you and you having this experience and learning about this experience later on. What was a favorite dinner or a snack? Something that you and her did personal together? Did y'all have a TV show? Did y'all have an ice cream? Or did you go sledding in the snow or something? What did y'all do together that was special, like to you?
Speaker 3:if you can just go ahead, we would eat toasted tomato sandwiches with fresh tomatoes, mayonnaise, salt and pepper on them.
Speaker 4:Okay, and when you make that sandwich now, whenever you do, because we know you're really super healthy.
Speaker 3:Had it in years.
Speaker 4:But you might make one tomorrow, right? Just thinking about it just brings up that moment and see that right there is what makes you a great podcaster because you have a moment right there. You told us about it, you let us in, right, and that's what I like about you and your style of podcasting because you doing that right there. Let us know about Amanda Russo. If we were sitting at home with you right now, if we were all sitting around at my favorite pizza place in Franklin Mass she's in new England but she's not a Franklin Mass adult Try to go there and find her. But if we were out there I've got like three spots out there to look. I want to do something fun here with that. Starting there, that's the story of her origin story. Amanda and and I are on a crusade now to learn about Marvel comics, so that'll tie into something later, but with that being tied in, that's her origin story right there. That's part of that. So let's get into the nitty gritty, what people want to know.
Speaker 4:This is episode 100. This is the prolific episode and you brought me on as the host, which is amazing. It's hard to get me guys. I will be honest with everybody. I'm one of those ones that you know you got to. I'm fly by night. You might catch me here and there, but you don't see me everywhere. So let's go with this real quick. You have tons of people that already know the origin story of your podcast, but let's just go back and tell that story one more time. Here's the rhyme and reason for this Telling the story again. There's going to be a new listener. There's going to be a new listener. There's going to be new listeners, right, right. Yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so please tell us what inspired you to create Mander's Mindset and how did the idea for the podcast come about, and then please talk us into how that mindset led to you being part of something that's amazing that you do now. So tell us how this podcast came about and how you ended up doing what you do as a facilitator.
Speaker 3:Okay, so the podcast came about. I've not my whole life, but more of my adult life. I've been a pretty big talker and I've had. I always have something to say, whether it's a comment, whether I'm giving feedback, whether I've always got something to say For a while. I would post on social media on my stories, different videos, talking about different things. I had a friend of mine actually tell me I was like a motivational speaker, shout out to Megan, Ignored that she's like you should start speaking. I'm like what does that even mean? Whatever, in college I was a tour guide. I was known for my loud voice, my speaking skills. Anytime we would have a really big tour. They would always give that to me because I could raise my voice loud enough to get all the families to hear me.
Speaker 4:Yeah, well, I'm sorry to interject. Can you give us a little example?
Speaker 3:example of giving a tour how loud your voice is oh, how loud my voice is.
Speaker 3:I mean, I would just, I would raise it and I would be like everybody. We are going to gather around right over here, we're going to get close in. Nobody's going to bite each other and I'm going to tell you what. We are going to walk through this cafeteria and see On my right when we first walk in, this is what you're going to see and it was global. That's where you can get Mexican tacos, burritos, quesadillas, made to order. You can choose what you'd like In the back corner. You will see I don't remember the name of it now, but it was the Italian you can get pizza, pastas, different dishes each day anything like that.
Speaker 3:Center. We have our main dishes. Changes every single meal. There's three different options. In the back corner you have the grill. You can get your grilled hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled cheese, french fries, everything anything like that. Over in the very front, towards the left, is the deli, and we are going to walk through, we're going to do a loop around. We will come back to the center. Any questions you have about that, you can ask me when we get back out here. And that's an example like that like that.
Speaker 4:I like that. Now you've got to tell us how this podcast came about. Now I was in the process but I'm just making sure that you know, when we get to talking sometimes we lose focus, but with you you have a mindset with a headset, so definitely keep going. You got it.
Speaker 3:No, but that was to give you an example of like in high school, a speaker, I didn't speak a lot, I didn't use my voice, I wasn't really speaking. College, I got more into that. Even the wasn't really speaking. College, I got more into that. Even the tour guide example then post that I was sharing different videos, like I mentioned. Friend of mine had mentioned you're like a motivational speaker. Did not do anything with that. I posted like some random videos of almost like my feedback on different podcasts. Rachel Hollis posted on Instagram. I have no idea what my purpose of this was. If you look back 2022. Fast forward, 2023.
Speaker 3:I went, got certified in breathwork in Utah and I was a big talker there. I always had something to say. It was interesting because at one point he even the founder that had trainer even had his back turned at one one point and he was like does anybody have a question before I see what Manders has to say? And I was like maybe I should shut up. I didn't. But by the end of said training he says to me you know, manders, you should start a podcast. Now, that was the first time anybody had ever said this to me, so it wasn't even something I thought about. So like these videos and this information, feedback, motivation, inspiration, whatever you want to call it that I had been sharing and like spewing my word vomit in different platforms, but not on a podcast, because I just never thought of the concept. Honestly, I didn't know anybody besides one person in my life who had a podcast. So it was one of those things that like, oh, I listened to Rachel Hollis, I listened to Mel Robbins, I listened to Jay Shetty, but outside of my one friend, sean, like it wasn't something that people I knew did, so it was not something that was even in my forefront per se. But now I really respected and admired this guy, one of my friends, shannon and I joke about how, like she's kind of glad that's what he said to me because I would have done anything he could have said you should move to wherever. I would have tried to find a way to move.
Speaker 3:Because that same night I stayed up till it was literally. I remember I saw 2-2-2, 2-22 in the morning that night and I was like I need to go to bed. I am sitting in a wagon in Utah researching how to start a podcast and it's almost 2.30 in the morning. But that night I thought about all the people I'd be interested in having an interview on the podcast, people that I knew in my life personally, that I respected their mindset, I respected their outlook on life. I respected something about them, either people I had met personally some people I had interacted with only virtually but people I knew in my life Because, honestly, at the time I didn't even know.
Speaker 3:Like, where do you get guests for a podcast? Like now I know there's fucking thousands of ways, but when I first even thought of the idea, I'm like where do they come from? I don't know. But also I have the mindset of just because I know you, just because you're my friend, doesn't mean you're going to be on Mander's mindset. Like not just anybody's coming on Mander's mindset. So like I literally pen and paper was sitting writing down and I wrote down a list of 18 people that I thought I respected their mindset and wanted to have on the podcast. And it's kind of ironic, some of these 18 people, over the past little over a year, my mindset or theirs have changed and I'm like you know what? You are not coming on me as much. I haven't said that, but it's like I'm not bringing just anybody on the show, I'm not.
Speaker 4:And I agree.
Speaker 3:I have that mindset and that framework, that perspective, even if you don't want to use the word mindset. Even before I had an official name, I knew I wanted it to be something along the lines of relating it to your perspective, relating it to how you think internally and because I have shifted a lot of different things and how I look at the world internally, honestly. And Amanda's is something that a lot of my friends over the years have called me and, side note, like my name's Amanda, but I've always hated being called Amanda. Even growing up I was bullied for my name. Kids at my school were so weird, like how do you bully somebody for what their name is? Anyways, welcome to my life at 12. But it was one of those. That's even why Manders really caught on.
Speaker 3:When I was in college I had close guy friends that didn't just told me that was too long of a nickname, so they called me Doze D-E-R-S. Basically everybody's called me Manders because of that. So then I was like I like the sound of a play on almost of that. So then I was like I like the sound of play on almost mando's mindset. Initially I had thought of mando's mindset makeover, but then I was like that's long. What I mean?
Speaker 4:that's really long I mean that was really long, like I mean that could be like a special limited edition makeover yeah, that could be a limited series in center pocket but yeah.
Speaker 3:So I had thought about that. But then I talked with my friend sean about it. He helped me with all of that step by step. Literally I didn't understand how to get it published and he sat down with me, helped me figure it out, helped me create the cover out and I launched the podcast one month post getting certified in breathwork. I certified in breathwork June of 2023. It was suggested to me you should start a podcast. I figured all the shenanigans out, launched the first episode on July of 2023.
Speaker 4:Arnelle, being a podcaster, you know I've got to ask you this. We need to know about the technical prowess, how your show is set up. What was the early equipment like for your podcast? Because you can see now you've got all kinds of bells and whistles. Your microphone is doing some extra stuff. Mine doesn't have any color. Until yours has got coloration, you've got a stand and everything.
Speaker 4:I told you a weird story about me, privately. When we were talking in our pre-call, I used to take an iPhone with a mic coming out of it and a trash bag or a bag. I would hold it up in the air like this and I would just yell into it. I'd be like what's Virginia, a commonplace snapping to us a little jumble. Yeah, but please tell us about your setup because I want to know what that's like and people I really did.
Speaker 4:I held it up for a long time. 30 it up for a long time. 30 minute shows. I used to do an hour long show them. My mother would just be like why would you even do that, jr? So we all have life lessons inside our equipment. So tell us what the first equipment was like and look, this is what I want you to do when you tell us about the microphone, because everybody has a thing about. Oh, I had this mic or that mic. You may have had a mic that I may have been interested in and may still want to just put on my shelf. Could you tell us about the setup?
Speaker 3:So my very first episode I recorded after Sean showed me the step-by-step. Then I recorded my first episode. It was a solo episode, introducing what I planned with me under his mindset. Now, for that episode, I used my MacBook at the time and a Yeti microphone.
Speaker 4:A Yeti. Yes, what color was your Yeti? It was blue, so you had the original Yeti. The one if you hold it up the wrong way. I mean, that's a heavy microphone. If you're not careful it could break your teeth or break your face if it swings down the wrong way. Right, it's pretty heavy.
Speaker 3:I mean, I guess.
Speaker 4:It's heavier than the microphone you're using now, right?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's true.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's a weapon.
Speaker 3:I didn't try to use it as a weapon.
Speaker 4:But I mean, if it fell on your foot it could break your foot.
Speaker 3:I guess it could.
Speaker 4:Yeah, now go into more detail. Production on the show, because podcasters need to sell, sometimes Because branding podcaster. You know, I'm one to always help everybody all around and you do the same. You record these episodes right, and you're going about. You've become certified in breathwork, so you've got two things to juggle at one time, right. So how did you juggle doing breathwork and doing podcasting at the same time? I want to know about that because, see, I've never had that. I'm just a podcaster. I talk about society, culture, so all I do is go outside, and if the weather looks all right, I'm talking about rain. If it's snowing, and if the weather looks all right, I'm talking about rain. If it's snowing, I'm talking about snow. If I'm in Tahiti or in my favorite place on Earth, toledo Ohio I'm talking about Toledo, ohio.
Speaker 3:So tell me, how did you balance both of these?
Speaker 4:So like early on or now yes, early on, we'll go to the future later. I just slowly got into it.
Speaker 3:The balance of it as a balance art.
Speaker 4:So let me ask you a question real quick, and I'm sorry to interject, but this is something I need to know, because me, for instance. Everybody knows that I was a spotify for podcasters guy. I was one of those guys that would like go to spotify and do your thing. Who was your podcasting host? And it leads into another question buzzsprout, whoa buzzsprout, all the way down there in florida. Yeah right, how do you upload an episode to that? I don't know how to do this. Explain to me how you upload the episode to bus sprout so you got to sign up for bus about.
Speaker 3:You make an account, choose however many hours you want to be able to have your total number of hours of episodes that you can upload. Then you fill out all the information from podcast title description, your name. It gives you what's called an RSS feed, which is actually an interesting story. When I first published Mander's Mindset, I got what's called an RSS feed because every podcast gets one, and now I didn't even know what this meant. It's some number that is associated with your podcast.
Speaker 3:Well, now I'm an iPhone user, pretty big on Apple products, and most of my friends and the people in my life are Apple users as well. Now, when I first released Mander's Mindset, I didn't know how this happened or what happened, but it was then available right away on spotify but it wasn't on apple. I looked in the back end on buzzsprout and I'm like this doesn't make any sense. It tells me there's a check mark. It says it's like either active or it says something like basically that it's all set, and I was like this is weird.
Speaker 3:So I emailed buzzsprout and like they did like their research on the back end and were like you have two rss feeds and apple thinks this is like a fraud. Apple is like stricter than spotify is. So, like spotify just published your mania's mindset, apple is thinking there's two people trying to publish a podcast named mania's mindset, so they're not letting either of these rss feeds publish. And I was like, oh my god, okay. So I had to go and find the second RSS feed, delete it. But Buzzsprout is amazing. By the way, 10 out of 10 would recommend if you're looking to host a podcast or looking to switch your platform. No, I'm not sponsored.
Speaker 4:Good shout out. That's one of the shameless plugs, like we do on my show. Now, you know, buzzsprout is an amazing company and you and Buzzsprout, you're doing your show and you're learning about podcasting. Everybody learns about podcasting in different places. I want to give an example with me, me and my crew, I've been podcasting since 2017. So I'm with that old school group that no one talks about, but then I went to the pandemic group. So all the podcasters used to hang out on Instagram because who was working, who cared? So we all used to hang out there and make podcasts. Whatever In your instance, you go around, you go into different little seminars and different things, find out more and more about podcasting and along this journey, you know there is this lady and this lady she her in podcasting and she's very vibrant and she has a name.
Speaker 4:Her name is real catchy it's paula, now her last name. Everyone is up in arms on how to pronounce her last name. Go ahead and give us your take on her last name sema, sema. See the way I looked at it. I did. I do it completely different because, you know, I I'm Southern, but I'm from the North, south and the South. How do you pronounce it?
Speaker 4:For some reason I put it as Saman. I see it as Saman. That's how I see it. I knew right. That's why I just say everybody has their own take on it. So anyway, you interact with Paula in some group, correct?
Speaker 3:Yes, and you know you mentioned that everybody had free time during the pandemic. Not everybody did. Some of us worked during the pandemic, just so you know.
Speaker 4:I mean, I worked too, but you know that's a story for another day. You need to do a limited series on that. So you meet Paula and explain to me what you and Paula interacted and how your relationship started.
Speaker 3:So I met Paula virtually shout out talk shit with P. If you never heard shameless plug, go listen. Talk shit with P. She's one of my favorite people. We actually just met this year, virtually before we went to pod fest in January, and I loved her energy. It was radiating. We connected right and we've been inseparable ever since.
Speaker 4:Okay, so she's actually your first encounter in podcasting in a meeting setting like that, right?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 4:Or is she at least the noteworthy one? Let's go with the noteworthy one. Does that work for you? Yeah.
Speaker 4:Or we'll say noteworthy Paula, don't hit me, please don't hit me, all right. So we'll say night worthy Paula, don't hit me, please don't hit me Now. You mentioned something that I was going to mention, but you mentioned it before me this thing called PodFest. What is PodFest? Hold on, I want to know what PodFest was to Amanda before she knew what it was. What was PodFest in the beginning of your life in podcasting? It was a podcasting conference that I had not heard about. Are you sure you want to go with that?
Speaker 3:story, or do you want to recant that and tell me what was PodFest to you in the very beginning? So I had never heard. Of course you asked me this. I had never heard of PodFest, I hosted on Buzzsprout. Course you asked me this. I had never heard of PodFest, I hosted on Buzzsprout and now I was one of those that I don't know why. I thought I would know everything about podcasting, being someone that did not even have friends previously really in the podcasting community, but I thought I knew it all. Anyways, I got an email from Buzzsprout and they're like PodFest is coming and I'm like this is a fake event. Why did I think Buzzsprout was emailing me about a fake event? Out of all people to send me an email about something fake, it was my actual hosting platform. It's not like it's even somewhere I don't host. It was my platform. Anyways, they're like it's coming. I'm like this is fake. I literally deleted the email Fast forward I don't remember, maybe about a week or so I get an email and the subject line is we want to send you to PodFest and I was like this is fake.
Speaker 3:And now it was like a scholarship or a giveaway that you could enter to win a ticket. Now, I purposefully entered this, thinking this isn't real. I'm going to prove that this is like a fraudulent thing by entering and not winning Okay, I don't know. Anyways, to the point where I so don't think this is even an actual thing. I didn't tell anyone about it. I didn't tell anybody. I applied for this scholarship. Normally I would have told I've got a few close friends that I tell even some of the wild, interesting things I do. I tell these certain friends of mine Brandon's one of them but I didn't tell anybody this because I'm like this isn't even a thing. So it escapes even my mind, my thought process. I forget that I even applied for this.
Speaker 3:Fast forward a little bit of time passes. It's probably about three weeks later. I get an email that's in the subject line is you're going to PodFest? And I remember reading it and I said, oh shit, okay. Now my first thought is okay, it's late December at this point, I've got about three weeks until this event. I'm unemployed at the time, so I don't have an income. I also checked when I filled out this scholarship thing that I could definitely attend this event in person in Florida.
Speaker 3:So now I call my mom and I'm like hey, I've got a situation. And now it's funny, because I get myself into different things and she's usually my go-to call, always has been. She's like what did you do now? And I'm like listen, I didn't do anything that bad, this is one of the lesser things you got to worry about. She's like what is it? So I tell her, and she was like that's it. She's like so you just got to go. And I was like mom, what do you mean? I just got to go, I'm not working, I'm this, I'm that. And she's like well, I guess a plane ticket is your Christmas present for me, because you can't tell somebody that you can go to an event and then not go to the event. If they give you a ticket, I'm like oh, my God, okay, I guess I'm going to this fucking event.
Speaker 4:So you're some places but I'm everywhere. But anyway, let me ask you something. We're gonna do some podcast stuff real quick, real podcast roulette, real fast. So we'll keep spinning until one of us get shot. There's an app called the hoover app. It's the most amazing thing that happens to people. This app is like Tinder. It's like a dating service to help you network. What happened to you with the Whova app?
Speaker 3:What happened to me with it? What do you mean?
Speaker 4:Like what happened to you with the Whova app. You had an experience because there was somebody that you wanted to meet in podcasting at Podfest.
Speaker 3:What happened with the Whova app to help you get to where you wanted to go. So, backtracking, a little bit Early on at PodFest, I met somebody who became really influential in my life and he asked me a question that nobody else that I spoke to at PodFest asked me and honestly, it was one of my favorite questions ever, because it really just made me realize that he really cared about why I was there and what I was looking to achieve. He asked me if I could accomplish any one thing at my first PodFest what would it be? And I told him so. Now, in some virtual podcasting event I don't even know what it was at this point, but some virtual podcasting thing that I attended with, I think, jemmy was there, lee was there, different people were there hosting it and Gordon Firemark did a presentation there Gordon Firemark, the podcast lawyer and so I was a big fan, even from his title. I will openly admit I had a huge fangirl crush. I was like oh my God, the podcast lawyer, I love this, I love this man. And then I heard him speak and he was so kind and friendly and approachable and I was like then he ended it with oh well, if you're heading to pod fact it was coming up, I'll see you there. And I was like, oh my god, to the point where I was extra and sometimes I get a little crazy and I do shit and I sent him this long ass voice message on Facebook before even meeting Gordon in public. He didn't respond.
Speaker 3:But anyway, fast forward. I'm at PodFest and so this guy says to me, if you could accomplish one thing. And I said you're going to think I'm crazy if I tell you the one thing. And he's like, no, I've heard crazy things, just tell me. And honestly, he really seemed like a genuine person to me. So I was like I don't know if you know this guy, but there's a guy called the podcast lawyer and I've been a paralegal for years and I have to meet him. I like love him. And I haven't even spoken to him.
Speaker 3:And then this guy that I was talking to I'm thinking this guy is going to think this bitch is fucking nuts. And without even batting an eye he says to me hey, you know this thing called the Hoover app and you know you can schedule and set up a meeting with somebody you don't even have to speak to them, and he shows me and you can request a time and request how long it's for where you want to meet, all these specific things, and I was like oh my God. And I was like oh my God, and I was like he didn't respond to my Facebook message. He's like so take matters into your own hands. You want to meet with him, set up a meeting? And the time I had requested didn't work for Gordon, so, like he sent back a different time, I confirmed it, but then I had a one-on-one hour-long lunch with Gordon. Gordon set it up for 30 minutes, but we were there even longer and it was a blast.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I'm over my crush now. Now gordon and I are friends, so what I wanted to add in that's where the hoobap came in for you. So anybody coming to podfest, make sure you use the hoobap because you see, you got to do something amazing. So now you're at podfest and you're meeting all kinds of people. I don't know exactly how me, stacy and I encountered you, but we encountered you somehow there. We got into talking with you. You went to lunch with us.
Speaker 3:We interacted virtually at some point. Because we were interacting at some point virtually before we met in person. Because at one point you were like I'm recording with people and I was like I want to be one of the people.
Speaker 4:We were recording all kinds of random stuff and there's pictures on Instagram if you want to check that stuff out. But anyway, so you're with us, right, I'm giving this little story inside here. And you go to our restaurant Chili's. We love Chili's, so we go eat Chili's. You talk to me and Stacy and then some incident happens with a vehicle that I will not mention, so I don't want Stacy to body slam me or anything like that, but we have.
Speaker 4:We had a little occurrence while we were going around and then you know you're at Podfest. So you're moving around, You're moving and grooving with people. Eventually, you know Paula comes around and everybody sees Paula is the mayor, the ambassador, she is basically the most energetic person at Podfest. Outside of her you meet these amazing people. You meet a nice lady named Wendy Brandt. She's very stoic in a certain way and you have a story that you have to tell me because you got to podfest before me. Let's go back a little bit. I'm sorry that we're doing that. I hate to, but you got the podcast before me and what did you do when you got to podfest, when you initially got there, after the car ride and everything the Uber cause you didn't get in a car. You were smart.
Speaker 3:You go there and what are you doing during that time? So something I try to do for a lot of places I go if I am able to go a few days early to settle in, get myself in the mindset, in the zen, of what's going to be happening. I do, and I had found out volunteering was an option for pod fest. And now I had it in my head and I really don't know why, but I had it in my head. Oh, it's my first event. For this one I can't volunteer during the actual event because if I volunteer during the actual event I'm going to miss something. So I can volunteer for this setup.
Speaker 3:When I was in college I at one point worked doing something called concierge for a few months on campus. You know I was like I'll do the setup for it. So I did that and I met a lot of different people pretty early on, from Wendy, from Jen Hody to Glenn the Geek. I got to learn he calls himself that. I'm not calling him the Geek. You made a face at me so I'm just clarifying. I'm not just calling this man a geek, for y'all hearing me, but I I'm not just calling this Manic Geek, for y'all hearing me, but I met all these really nice people that told me all about the community, told me all about PodFest and you driving if I'm walking, if I'm, I get lost.
Speaker 3:I have the worst sense of direction in the world. Geography's not my friend, but one of the things that I love so much about Podfest was, even before anything was fully there, I had to go for whatever time the setup was, and I remember I was messaging Jen Hardy all kind of nervous. I don't know if she could tell I was nervous, but like asking her where I'm supposed to meet them, because we are setting up, so there's not going to be any signs, I'm not going to know where to go. And that wasn't the case at all. I literally was able to find my way, even though the signs, like, were not set up. Where we actually ended up putting them. There were still different things that said podfest. There were people with shirts, even though it was the day before the actual event started, and I was like I love this one random little stressor that I've had in so many random areas of my life. It isn't here, okay, like I found my place in a random little way and podfest is an amazing experience.
Speaker 4:Everybody's taking pictures, and I talk about this all the time that I had this weird leaning problem for myself and we took a few pictures and I was kind of leaning this way you look like a dolphin trying to jump out of the water and I can't get all the way out of the water.
Speaker 4:Now, you go to different events. You meet so many different people and you get bonds with people from this. So you meet this guy and I look at him and I'm looking at this guy. I've seen him before, you've probably seen him. He's got this dark hair and I'm like man, this dude looks like he could be a Calvin Klein model. He looks like he's on the cover of podcast GQ. And this guy, there's a lot of things about him, but no addition to him, just a lot of minus. And this man, like it's just something about him. He was catchy, you know, he was a pretty man, and I say that in a clever and a nice way, no intentional.
Speaker 3:He's adorable.
Speaker 4:Right, this great man, and he has the greatest generic name on Earth Brad. You meet the illustrious brad, minus no addition or multiplication or division, and he's been the best addition right, the best addition in your camp. And here's the thing this man, you and him align, because when you look on paper you know if y'all were going to do a fight or something, or just anything you would never fight him well, no, I'm just saying if it was like we were doing this, it's called the tail of the tape.
Speaker 4:Endurance coach, breathwork coach, health fanatics as fast as you guys walk is how fast that I run, and you know both of y'all. Beside each other, you see two people, two people that just look like they know what they're doing. Now you and Brad intertwine at PopFest and when I see both of y'all and before I interview Brad, y'all are walking somewhere in the hallway before you go to the X-Men hallway and Brad is right beside you. He is there, being very cordial, and what I would say about this is this and I know I'm taking over your show a little bit is when you're with Brad. Right, brad has this aura about him. It's just like Brad. He could just tell me that if I put my finger in a socket, I will become energy man, and I'm going to believe it If he has something like a technical prowess.
Speaker 4:I had my Zoom recorders and stuff like that and he told me a certain way to get the sound proper. He told me I needed to put one of these little furry things on here I forgot the name of it because I like to make love to the microphone. He said stop doing that, jr, move away from it. He even gave me the little thing that I just tell everybody Finger to to a mic. Do that to the side, keep away from the mic. So Brad's influential in that little bit of a time. But how far do you and Brad go after that? How far does your podcast friendship and then real life friendship go from there?
Speaker 3:So he's actually the person I was referring to that helped me with the Hoover app and was like you don't even have to speak to Gordon, you can just set up a time and have lunch with him, and I did. But yet he's been such a huge, influential person in my podcasting journey and in my life as a whole. Honestly, I kind of look at Brad the way some people look at God, not even going to lie. Anytime I have an issue with anything whatsoever, I ask him how to solve it, what his thoughts are. There's a funny, and I'm not going to get into the specifics of what it was, but my mom and I actually got ourself into a little bit of what could have been a legal situation. That could have been legal trouble for us, and we didn't know what to do with this.
Speaker 3:Now she was driving her car. I was sitting in the passenger seat and I'm like what the fuck are we supposed to do? And I was like can I call pop, like my grandfather, her father? And she's like what the fuck are we supposed to do? And I was like can I call pop Like my grandfather, her father? And she's like no, this is going to stress him out. Blah, blah, blah, and I'm like, okay, well, I got to call Brad. And she's like, well, I guess he's the only person you can call. And he told me step by step he's like you got to go to the police. This is what. What he said step by step and you're legally safe now. You're legally safe now. But literally he's my favorite person in the whole fucking world. Anything I've needed, anything I've had a question about anything whatsoever, he's the person I text like I have an issue. I'm even struggling to shift my own mindset. Brad's the person I reach out to.
Speaker 4:Okay, now, Brad is strong to you. If you had to think of a comic book character for Brad, who would he be?
Speaker 3:I don't even know comic book characters.
Speaker 4:I would say he's kind of like a dashing Captain America, Spider-Man type.
Speaker 3:I know Spider-Man. I've heard of Captain America.
Speaker 4:Okay, so he could be your Captain America, then We'll go with that, because he looks like he would carry a big shield and just knock everything away. Now you know, you're.
Speaker 3:He can solve anything.
Speaker 4:Right, and Captain America solves everything. I believe that. Well, let me give you this Captain America is the leader of the Avengers, so let's just leave it at that. So he is Captain America and we'll say you're Scarlet Witch or you could either be Black. Widow who's? Scarlet Lynch, scarlet Witch, is one of the women that are part of the Avengers. She has some little red power that she just throws in the air.
Speaker 3:Is she the woman with red hair? Yeah, I watched part of Iron man 2 when I was in middle school and I don't remember anything about it, but I loved that woman's hair and I dyed my hair red because of her when I was in eighth grade. Fun fact for you.
Speaker 4:All right, and then you know if you want to go further, since you're just making an Avenger list, I would say, paula, where she's so hype she could be, let's see what character could she be that would be hype like that. I guess she could kind of. Why are you?
Speaker 3:naming Avengers.
Speaker 4:I'm just going on with something real fast. I feel like she could be Incredible, hulk. Even if she's small, she would be big and she could just smash things and just take care of things for you. If you had your own set of Avengers Now, who else do you have in your camp? You got Gordon. Gordon would be Iron man because Iron man has a certain pizzazz about him. He's got a certain class to him, he's a dignitary, but he puts on that Iron man suit and he can do anything. And Gordon can do anything when he's the podcast lawyer, right? Yeah.
Speaker 4:So maybe we could say that you always have a set of Avengers I guess Podcast Avengers, right, sure, yeah. And maybe you could take them up against mine. Mine would be me, obviously. Stacy, because Stacy's tough. Alex Sanfilippo, because he gives great advice. Why did?
Speaker 3:you get Alex Sanfilippo. Why is he not on my Avenger team?
Speaker 4:Who the hell says he's on your team. I'm not even. I was just talking to him the other day.
Speaker 3:Why is he on your team?
Speaker 4:He might come to my team. I don't know, you don't know.
Speaker 3:I'll ask him. I don't know how to shift mindsets and get people to follow what I'm doing.
Speaker 4:Listen, you know how to shift mindsets and I'm from an uncommon place. So how are you going to get to the uncommon place Now?
Speaker 3:I'm going to shift his mindset and he's going to help me.
Speaker 4:Okay, that may be your power, but either way and I have a bunch, so you've got a stack list of Avengers. Do you think your Avengers could be my Avengers?
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely. But I could take anybody in the world. Even if it was just Fred, he could take anybody in the world. I have faith in him for everything so that's a fun fact. There's nothing that I don't think he could do ironically enough the only disagreements we've ever had is the handful of times he's not been able to do something okay, but then you work the word y'all good to get.
Speaker 4:So you've got your set of revenges and I've got my set. And paula, don't hurt me, I'm going to say that one more time Paula and Brad together.
Speaker 3:they would kill for me. I'm good. Sorry but you got your new thing coming. I'm good, I'm not worried.
Speaker 4:Okay, so you got a group. So that's Amanda's dive into Marvel and into Avengers. I want you all to keep that. She did her Oregon story about her, how she came about podcasting, and then she went to podcast and then she got her own set of Avengers. So I like that. Now you went to another conference and I like this conference too. I did not actually have the opportunity to see you there because I have other obligations, because we know I'm all over the continent of the United States with whatever I do in life, so you were at Podcast Movement. Podcast Movement is in Washington DC. How did you get to podcast movement? Did you fly? I drove, and typical person, because you know I travel your area to my area, to everybody's area. That will probably be I don't know, for someone like me, probably a five and a half hour trip from New England to DC. Did it take you that long?
Speaker 3:It took me 11 hours.
Speaker 4:Whoa, did you come visit me in West Virginia, stacey and I at that time did you come visit us in West Virginia by accident.
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 4:Oh wow, 11 hours. You were tired after that, weren't you?
Speaker 3:Very, it was a full day trip.
Speaker 4:Okay, wow, 11 hours, man, I'm sorry, but that's a little hard on my chest being a navigator. Now, anyway, you get there and this Avenger that's with you is coming to this event and it's Paula. It's Paula, you get there and you and Paula get together. Tell me about the experience of Paula at Podcast Movement with you.
Speaker 3:I ended up picking her up not the first night I was there, but the next day from the airport. I picked her up from the airport. We went back to the hotel and we spent the week together. She volunteered and worked there while we were there. It was a blast and her and I were together. We were together 24 7 there, like when we went to pod fest.
Speaker 3:I spent some time with her, but I wasn't with her the whole time. Now when we were at podcast movement, we were together almost the whole time. There were a few points. There was like two or three different times that I remember that I wasn't with her and, ironically enough, stuff happened to both of us Each of the times we weren't together, like interesting things that were like what the fuck?
Speaker 3:She fell off a chair and got pretty hurt One of the times that I wasn't with her and I heard about it. I heard about it from other people. I started getting messages Is P okay? And I'm like what do you mean? Is P okay? I've been with her for four days, but right now I'm not. Why are you asking me if P's okay? And that's how I found out that my best friend fell off the back of a chair, which was interesting also. But we it was a great week. We were together from like. I shared a hotel room with her, so we were together from sunup to sundown. She was working, but even though she was like working and manning like a booth area, I'd walk by, go to where she was. I spent some time with this other woman named sarah saint john, who I met at podfest as well amazing lady yeah, super nice woman, love her.
Speaker 3:But yeah, it was a blast and it was really nice because it was like the first opportunity that p and I got like a lot of one-on-one time together and a lot of good one-on-one time together. Now we, poe and I had a little trip to Miami at one point but that didn't go exactly as planned. So while we were together it wasn't as fun or memorable I I'll say of a trip as podcast movement was.
Speaker 4:Okay and I'm glad y'all got to go. Don't believe the hype that you can't go to events. There are means and ways to get to events if you try hard. We all know ways to get there. So if you're in the podcasting community or becoming part of podcasting community, reach out to Amanda Brussuce, because she has lots of resources and she knows how to get to these events correct yeah, that's true.
Speaker 3:I won a scholarship to both podfest and podcast movement, so like paid to get myself there, but the ticket itself I didn't pay for either right and all it takes is a simple google form on certain things, moving forward a hundred episodes.
Speaker 4:We're deep into this. You have structured your show from one way that you started out to the way you're doing it now. I listen to your show on two different platforms apple, obviously, because I'm an apple guru, and I listen to it on goodpods because I like to share, because I handle listener migration that's what I do in life and your artwork. How did you change your artwork? Like for your guests? Like your artwork, not nothing disrespectful, but take this as a great critique. You had a good thing going but then, all of a sudden, your artwork for your guests goes from 50 to 3 000. When you say I had a good thing going, do you mean just?
Speaker 3:when it was just me and using the same cover out. Right, I mean you're novice, you were new, but then do you mean just when it was just me and using the same cover out?
Speaker 4:Right, I mean, you're novice, you were new, but then all of a sudden, just like one day, just everything changes. It's like you went out here and like you hook something into your shoulder and now you're just doing all these new things with that artwork. How did that come about? Brad helped me. What.
Speaker 3:Yeah Brad could have helped me. What yeah Brad can help me with everything.
Speaker 4:So let's do something real quick. Let's pay homage to Brad Minus real quick. Brad Minus is what we call a podcast house, is a thing or a person or an entity that can do anything and everything inside podcasting.
Speaker 3:He can do anything and everything inside of life.
Speaker 4:I believe that I hold my hands up for that one.
Speaker 3:I really believe there's nothing that Brad can't solve Okay so now Brad. Hence why, when I was literally almost in a legal situation, the only person I called was Brad. It ended up not being a huge thing, but I knew Brad would know what to do, and even my mom was like you're right, he does basically know everything. And I'm like I know.
Speaker 4:So let's give a great shout out to Brad. We'll pay homage to him. You're not to make a theme song for Brad, just to pop out to make him a T-shirt. He needs a shirt that says Brad and just put a minus on it. You know different colors. You know 80s type colors. You know, if you don't know what.
Speaker 3:Miami Vice is go to Miami Vice and make a shirt just like that. Brad Minus.
Speaker 4:Miami Vice. Okay, yeah, look at the colors of Miami Vice and you'll see what I'm talking about. Good.
Speaker 4:All right, and you do something that I don't do. That I appreciate that you do. In podcasting. You impact people. You inspire people. All I do when I do a show is I put out some social content, this, and that People listen to it, go about their business. Some of them might impact them like 20 years from now, but yours happens right then and there. You don't look for the residual today, you don't look for the gratification or this and that, so that the audience has the true you and the true definitive portion of what you do with your breath, work and what you do inside Vander's mindset. So I want to tell you thank you for that and I want to let you know that people appreciate that, because it takes a lot of selflessness to do that. But I want to thank you for that. All right, now I want to do one thing that we bring over from West Virginia and commonplace, if you don't mind, do you mind?
Speaker 3:No.
Speaker 4:All right, I have this thing called the 2020 questions. I pay homage to a news magazine called 2020 that was on TV. It had Barbara Walters on there, had John Stossel he was for Comic Relief and it had Diane Sawyer on it the best interviewer in the world. So, Amanda, are you ready?
Speaker 3:for your 2020 questions. Everybody, as I'm going to be.
Speaker 4:All right, you produce a show, you take care of the world. How do you fill your glass up with water, in the proverbial sense, after you've taken care of the world, done everything for everybody? When it's the time that we think you're going to sleep because you know you don't sleep you stay up 28 hours. When it's time for you to unwind and to fill that glass up, how do you fill your glass back up?
Speaker 3:Breathwork is a big thing that I do. I do consistent breathwork. I'm very into movement. Even walking is something I do a lot of. I think it really helps if I'm upset over something, if I'm confused about something, just getting out of my body any type of movement. In Bali and then post Bali was like jumping around, shaking, moving the body and just letting it all physically out, getting all the feelings, sensations out of the body by moving it, clearing the energy field, and I think it's different for every single person. What works for that, you know.
Speaker 3:But I'm a big believer in movement and in breathwork or some type of breathing technique. You know a lot of people talk about meditation, certain types of meditation, like I do different types of guided meditations. I do four, seven, eight breathing techniques that really helped me. It's also different depending on the time, like in listening to what it is my body needs in that moment and like coming to that awareness movement, something I love so much. Like I've got a mini trampoline in my living room that I jump on randomly whenever I'm just feeling like jumping around. You're looking at me like I'm nuts, but yeah no, it's not.
Speaker 4:So I'm giving you a look because I'm like wow, you got a trampoline, I need to get stacy one, but anyway. So you mentioned something. There was an episode that goes back in my head and I can't remember the number, but you went to Bali and then, going to Bali, there's a story behind it, so everyone tune into that episode. Do you remember that episode?
Speaker 3:Episode 60. I was interviewed about my experience in Bali. All right, so you?
Speaker 4:went to Bali. Now go listen to that episode so you can get all the insight on this. But this is an inside thing between me and you. This is a personal question between us. Right? You do that episode. Then it gets out there. It carries you across the world to people. It lets people know about breath work, right? It tells about an experience that you have with with a person and how you got to go to this, the circumstances and events that bring you there. So that's an amazing story. That's what to me, that's one of your greatest crafted stories and life lessons the whole thing around which we won't do the life lesson, but we both know it. So here's the question about you in this episode.
Speaker 4:After you finish this episode, people listen to it and I've talked to you about it numerous times because you and I are ab people. We work on these episodes and we work on different things to fix microframes and we talk here and there. Not all the time, but you know, at least every quarter of the year we talk at least twice. So I know you in and out on certain things and you can talk to me about anything. So Dolly Breathwork and Amanda Russo give me a short synopsis on why, to this day, that episode always sticks out in my head. Tell me what I'm thinking and why that episode always sticks out in my head. Tell me what I'm thinking and why that episode always sticks out to me.
Speaker 3:Why it sticks out to you.
Speaker 4:Would you like me to give you a hint, because it's the first time in listening to anything that you've done that you tell about a genuine human experience with you? You always go on and let people know about things and different things, but that experience about how you actually got to go. The Amanda Russo greatest hits. We need the Amanda Russo greatest hits. What are the greatest hits inside your catalog?
Speaker 3:Like of episodes. Yes, I'd say the Bali episode was one of them. I'd say episode 91 through I think it's 94. That was. I spoke with three different women. It was a forgiveness series. Those were some pretty powerful episodes. I'd say episode 98 with Gordon Firemark. That was a really powerful episode.
Speaker 4:Okay, now here's a funny question. This is one of the John Sossel questions, because he's a comic relief on 2020. If we were still producing DVDs and Blu-rays which nobody uses, those everybody's voice on demand or CDs, what format would you use for one of your episodes?
Speaker 3:so what do you mean by what format?
Speaker 4:say, for instance, the episode with gordon, would you put that on a dvd or blu-ray and make a nice cover for it and release it, or would you just want to put it on a cd and people hear the? What episode have you done that you will put on an old physical format and release it Like? I'll tell you something I did, and this is gangster. I released an episode on Laserdisc. You don't even know what Laserdisc is. I did it as a joke, to prove, and I'm the first podcaster to ever do that in the world. I released an episode I did called the Middle, which is considered my. Just to facilitate this idea of that, if we go back in the olden times and I had one episode or one thing that was good, I put it in this physical format. Obviously, record sales best because it's the best sale you can get, and I released one episode that was great. It's a.
Speaker 4:Tom said. So what would be your episode? What would be your physical media? Would it be a? Would you do a VHS tape? Would you do a DVD? Would you do a CD? Would you do a Blu-ray? And what episode would it be? Think about it. If you could do that, which you can do it at any time. What episode could get burnt to a CD or DVD or a record, or even a tape?
Speaker 3:Which I don't know how you make a tape, but whatever, I would put the episode with Gordon on a DVD. Or even episode 99 I did with one of my best friends, brandon. I'd put that on a dvd because it was kind of funny, even my facial reactions, him shaking his head at me, different, different visuals that you could see so, listen everybody, the challenge out there is for amanda to release this on a dv before February of 2025.
Speaker 4:Anyways, now on to the last question. This is the Barbara Walters question. This is the most personable question. This question, right here, will set the mood and tone all the way until episode 200. Are you ready? No, you're not ready. This is your show. You should be ready for this.
Speaker 4:Alright, in life you have done a lot of things. You have over 72 titles to your show. You should be ready for this. All right. In life you have done a lot of things. You have over 72 titles to your name. You have met millions of people and you've traveled all over the world. Now you can actually say you've traveled all over the world and the greatest distinction and the greatest thing that we can get in life is this piece of glass with some kind of crap on it. It's called a mirror. When you get a mirror and you look at yourself from time to time, you see different things. Well, in your life, you looked in the mirror in 2019. And from 2019, you had to go from that portion and you had to go into the future with that mirror. You went to the future. So the mirror in 2019, you put it down, you pick it up and it's 2024. What happened in 2019 that makes 2024 different?
Speaker 3:A lot happened in 2019. Okay, how deep do you want me to go? Let's go down the rabbit hole. Okay, rewind 2019. I was living in Rhode Island on the third floor of an apartment complex with my boyfriend at the time and it was October 2019. I'll never forget I was walking up the stairs to the third floor and I had nothing in my hand and I was out of breath and I was like what the fuck? And now I, rewinding a little bit, had gone through my own fitness journey a little bit, growing up, I was always overweight. Then in high school, I went to the doctors and I got on the scale and I was really close to 200 pounds and I was like, nope, I don't care what I have to do, this is not happening.
Speaker 3:Fast forward. I was also a vegetarian at the time and that sort of developed what I didn't realize or, quote unquote classify as an eating disorder at the time. But I started restricting so much to the point where I was only eating fruits and vegetables, only green vegetables, so like if it was corn, I wouldn't touch it, if it was carrots wouldn't touch it, it was mainly green beans, mainly honeydew melons. Sometimes I'd have some cantaloupe, but that was it, and on and off I'd eat a meal with my family. So, like I didn't look like I was basically having this eating disorder. Honestly, that helped me lose a little bit of weight.
Speaker 3:Fast forward 2015,. I go to college, move away, move to Rhode Island, went to Roger Williams. I got involved in this relationship and it changed a lot about me. I actually stopped being a vegetarian because of said relationship, and that's a whole other story I can delve down after or, if you want me to. In college I gained some of the weight back. I didn't get back to right under 200 pounds, but I had gained probably lost about 30 pounds from that eating disorder. I also started going to the gym, plant fitness membership. I was only doing cardio because I was a novice of the weight room, thought it would injure myself. So lose a little bit of weight with that. But going to college, I started eating meat. I'm in the dining hall. I gained a good amount of the weight back, not all of it, but a lot of it.
Speaker 3:Now, october of 2019 rolls around. I have graduated college. At this point, I'm living in Bristol, rhode Island, on the third floor, and I'm like what the fuck? I am out of breath and I don't have one thing in my hand. I literally I can visualize this in my mind Like I didn't even have my phone in my hand and, honestly, I walked inside and I literally just sat there for a second and I was like what the actual fuck? Like something's got to change, because I just don't want to live like that, like outside of look outside of feel. I was like it's a basic, I'm struggling to walk up the stairs and it's not like again, my biggest example was you have nothing in your hands. If I did, there could even be some excuse, reason, whatever word you want to use for me being out of breath. So I was like something's got to give Now.
Speaker 3:Right around this time, I discovered a woman who's been pretty influential in my life. Her name's Rachel Hollis. Talked a little bit about her on the podcast Not throwing her down that rabbit hole right now, but she mentions about doing something every single day and that's moving your body for 30 minutes, and I thought to myself there's no way or reason that I can't move my body for 30 minutes, even though I'm overweight. I don't have a lot of money right now because job situation was really funky then. But I was like I can go for a 30 minute walk, I don't need anything to walk for 30 minutes. So I've tried to convince my boyfriend to do that with me, whatever. I start walking 30 minutes every single day and I started noticing I was less out of breath. I didn't notice that I looked different and it wasn't a huge difference in being less out of breath, but it was noticeable to the point where I'm like, wow, I'm not like, oh my God, trying to catch my breath just from walking. Okay, so I loved that and I was like, wow, this is cool, fast forward.
Speaker 3:Around that same time October 2019, I got an email from Anytime Fitness saying something along the lines of oh, we'd love to have you back. You can have like a free two-week fob. Now, years ago, I had actually won a gym membership. I never used it. That's a whole other story of the toxic relationship that I was in. I don't know if you want me to delve down that, but I got this email and I thought to myself two free weeks of a gym membership. You know what got this email and I thought to myself two free weeks of a gym membership. You know what I want to see more progress than what I'm seeing with these 30 minute walks. Let me get this two-week membership and see if I use it. I'll keep paying for it. If I don't no harm, no foul, then I will just get rid of the membership. So I go there, I set up an appointment. They show me around the gym and now I see this group workout being done and I was like that is cool. And now I said to the owner at the time I was like I want to do that. What is that? I want to do that. And he's like that's a group hit classes, that's something separate, blah, blah, blah. I'm like I don't care that it's stuck, but I want to do that. He's like okay. So I signed up for that.
Speaker 3:I fell in love with it To the point where it didn't even seem like I was working out per se, which I was, obviously, but I was doing it for the community, for the enjoyment. I made friends and was spending time with people really nice. I had things in common with people who were just genuine good people and I also had a pretty toxic living situation at the time. Now I joined the gym in October. I was in a relationship when I joined said gym. My relationship fell apart that Thanksgiving day, so timing was pretty close to get yeah, it was Thanksgiving.
Speaker 3:We ended up living together for about nine months as broken up, but that fell apart around then and even more so it wasn't great in that month leading up to it. From Thanksgiving until the following August, we lived together and shared a pretty small apartment and I didn't want to be there. I didn't want to be there ever. It was a toxic living situation, which obviously it was, considering we've worked together, we had broken up, we were living together. We broke up because he cheated on me.
Speaker 3:Nothing was good. His excuse was I can't break up with him because we live together. He wasn't gonna move. I was stubborn, I wasn't gonna move. I was like fuck it, you don't want to leave, I won't leave either. We can fucking do this. That's fine, and we did. For reference in terms of how small we shared a bedroom. Even after being broken up, the apartment was so small we didn't even have a couch, so like we shared a bed, even post breaker, I stuck three pillows in the middle of us and told him not to touch me, and we did that for nine months what I'm saying is I'm amazing, okay yeah.
Speaker 3:So that also aided in me working out more, because I didn't want to be there. So if I could be at the gym, I was at the gym. So, for example, I was doing these hit classes. There were times I do two, sometimes three classes in a day, not even necessarily. Yeah, no, it was insane.
Speaker 3:I was moving my body so much so, like I started shedding weight pretty quickly, but it wasn't even because I was like obsessed with the exercising, it was more an escape mechanism, which is it? Is that the necessarily the best thing, who knows? But my living situation wasn't great and, considering all the things I could have been fucking doing instead of being home, if I'm spending my time at the gym, I'd bring my food to the gym. I'd eat lunch at the gym. I'd yeah, I was working at a food program at the time. It was to the point where, like I'd do a morning workout, I'd eat some food. I'd do an afternoon workout. I'd head to work sometimes. So there were times I'd be at the gym, sometimes from like 9am to 2pm, then I'd go to work.
Speaker 4:I mean, that was a smart thing to do so you weren't in a toxic situation all the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 4:This is the 100th episode. We want the juice and the tea.
Speaker 3:Do you have a question on that? I'm just.
Speaker 4:I know you're telling the story right now, so I'm listening, I'm all ears. This is intense. This is like something that could be on the lifetime channel. You know, I could make a soap opera out of this.
Speaker 3:Yeah, no, it was intense and that was a wild Thanksgiving morning. You know, my mom had said something to me and I'm one of those people that I love quotes and I really take different things, random things that people will say to me. It could be random, it could be motivational, but I will remember it for my fucking life. I'll take it to the gravestone, like be careful what you say to me. But my mom had made this comment to me once and I posted this on my Instagram like four years ago. But she made this comment to me once and I posted this on my Instagram like four years ago. But she made this comment to me once I think I'm pretty sure it was about this toxic relationship because we were together for about five years total. We broke up at one point for about two months doing it because he cheated on me even once we got back together. But she had said to me you know, I mean I'm trying to remember exactly how she worded it but she said something along the lines of you know, if something or someone in your life at some point no longer brings you any happiness or joy, it's time to let that go from your life. It could be a job, it could be a relationship, a friendship, a place you live, a location, a hobby, anything whatsoever If you reach a point where you don't have one aspect of something that you enjoy, even the thing you dislike the most. And she mentioned that because, like I've been someone who has a difficult time leaving things, because I see the good in everything a little bit I try to at least do I fairy tale like well, this is not great, but it's good because of this. And you know, she said to me once you've got no joy or no happiness with it, you just got to let it go. And that was something that I had always really reflected back on and I had a lot of my own toxic ways throughout this relationship.
Speaker 3:Now, that same Thanksgiving morning, things had fell off and weird between us and now I found out different things at times throughout a relationship by looking at his cell phone. Should I have done that? No, should I have felt like I needed to? We all have done our toxic shit, but anyways, I toxically looked at this phone this fucking Thanksgiving morning and I saw messages with him and the same woman that he had cheated on me with years prior and I was just like what the fuck? And you know I'll never forget I talked to my mom about it before I confronted him and she was like do you really want to deal with this on Thanksgiving Day?
Speaker 3:And I was like do I really want to deal with sitting next to my cheating boyfriend on Thanksgiving Day? Like what do you want to deal with next to my cheating boyfriend on Thanksgiving Day? Like what do you want to deal with? It was one of those of like what shitty situation do you want? And you know I didn't even tell her this at the time but I really had that mindset of I don't have any joy around this, you know, and it was Thanksgiving and thinking of all these different things you're thankful for.
Speaker 3:And I literally was sitting there and I was like this sounds really fucking horrible and I'm not sitting here trying to like paint this man as like this awful person because honestly, I've got no bad feelings towards him. But I was like you know, I am not thankful for any aspect of this relationship. And it was when I came to that awareness that I was like, if I'm not thankful for any aspect of this, also that mindset of what sharon said to me fucking years ago randomly, like there's no happiness here, like what am I doing? And I was like I can't do this. And I'll never forget like I started his fucking thanksgiving morning with that.
Speaker 3:I was like, listen, I can't do this anymore. And he's like what do you mean? I was like I'm done, like I saw that your text one. So I was like, listen, it is what it is. He's like you can't break up with me on thanksgiving. I'm like, listen, that's not a reason to stay with someone. And then he's like we live together. Listen, I don't care. And he's like we can't live together broken up. And I was like so then you can go, I'm not forcing you to stay here, like I don't know what to tell you like he's like I'm not leaving, where am I gonna go?
Speaker 3:and I said, well, I'm not leaving either. And he's like we can't live together, not together. And I said, well, I don't know what to tell you. You can go or you can stay and we can live together, broken up. And yeah, and I was like I'm not going to Thanksgiving lunch because we were supposed to go to lunch with his mom and his grandmother. And then he's like I'm not going to go either. And I'm like, first of all, just because like we're breaking up doesn't mean you're going to do that to your fucking mother.
Speaker 3:So I took matters into my own hands. This was maybe my grandma coming out at me, but I called his mother and I was like listen, I just want and I wasn't rude, I didn't shit talk her son. But I was like listen, I just wanted to let you know Him. And I broke up Like I'm not looking to talk crap about your son, I know sometimes he exaggerates things.
Speaker 3:He's telling me now he's not going to Thanksgiving lunch. I was like, listen, I'm not in the place mentally to sit next to him on Thanksgiving, but make sure he shows up to lunch, because there was no reason he should not be there. We didn't have a big blowout. I was like he's talking to the same girl he cheated on me with and I'm just over it. And she was like Amanda, I'm so sorry. I was like listen, I'm not looking for you to apologize, but here's the deal. I'm not going to be the reason he misses Thanksgiving lunch with his mother and his grandmother, like his father passed away when he was young. I said no, he was the type of person to like exaggerate shit, whether it was a positive thing or a negative thing, and he's like this isn't the worst thing. I can't go.
Speaker 3:Yeah, buddy, shut the fuck up. You can go to Thanksgiving lunch and you're going to go to Thanksgiving lunch. And it was funny because I'll never forget because he was. He had texted her that he wasn't going and I was sitting next to him and she called him and I don't know what she said, but he was like yeah, I'll be there.
Speaker 3:And he asked me do I have clothes to wear? Yeah, you've got clothes in the bedroom that you can wear to Thanksgiving lunch. He's like I'm gonna go. And I was like good, and then he's like and it's funny looking back, it's five years later now. But I even said to him in five years time, I promise you you will be glad that you went. I said you can cuss me out all you want right now, go for it. Go shit, talking to your mother, I would do this again in five years time, or 10 years, 20 years, when your grandmother is not alive, you'll be glad you went to Thanksgiving. Ok, so you can feel however you want to feel about me. If I could have Thanksgiving with my grandma right now, even if we didn't have this issue, I would be so and he was like I guess that's true.
Speaker 3:OK, you're right, have a nice lunch. I fucking ironed your shirt, you're welcome. And I literally fucking said something like that. I have a lot of sass but I'm like, listen, I'm not. Have a lot of sass but I'm like, listen, I'm not if I can affect how people look back on life just because things didn't work out between us.
Speaker 3:I don't have bad blood towards him, you know, and his grandmother is still alive, but I'm still in contact with some of his family and I know some of his family members have passed away. You know what? He will be glad, whether he recognizes it ever or that ever comes to his awareness. I know for a fact there's a portion of him whether he recognizes it ever or that ever comes to his awareness. I know for a fact there's a portion of him, whether he knows it or not, that he's glad that he was there because his grandma's not going to live forever. She was 70 something then, and not that age as a factor. But it is that times and I'm like, buddy, you ain't going to use me as an excuse. Then I'm going to be the reason.
Speaker 3:And it was funny because that was one of the things that I didn't tell anybody I was going to do. I just left the apartment, I went to my car and I called this woman and even my mom was like Mindy, you can't call his mother. And I said mom, I'm not asking you, I am just letting you know what I did, because I told her after the fact. She's like you can't do that. I said well, you can ask who I did. I spoke to her for almost 20 minutes and I explained to her. I said don't let him not show up to Thanksgiving, there's no reason. And he's giving me all these excuses. No, I ain't having it.
Speaker 4:Now I'm going to say this let's go back to your grandmother for one second and then we're going to move along. I thank you for doing that and now doing it. You won't reflect on it. Like you said, you won't reflect on it now, but later you're going to realize that was a hidden gem inside this episode. We learned about amanda badass. That was amanda badass. You know, if anything else would have went on that day, it would have went on. So now, before we get to the very end of the show, I want to do something real quick. You have a lot going on now. You have turned over a new leaf, you got a new hat on, you got a new shirt on and everything what's.
Speaker 3:I'm not sorry for anything. That's what my hat says. It's from rachel hollis, not something. Manders, mindset is one place, but you started doing something else. I sent an announcement for anything.
Speaker 4:That's what my hat says. It's from Rachel Hollis, not something. Mander's mindset is one place, but you started doing something else. I sent an announcement across Facebook somewhere or something. It was somewhere. We're intertwined in all kinds of stuff. What is going on in the Mander's mindset breathe, the work ecosystem. Now, what can people look forward to now? What's this major announcement you're going to drop on us?
Speaker 3:so if you follow me on social media and if you don't, you should. Instagram's the breathing goddess very active over there, but I announced it on instagram and facebook that I'm launching, have launched a new podcast called breathwork magic. Now I wanted to have a space to simply share just about the benefits of breathwork, the magic of it, the transformations that can happen from breathwork. I've shared some stories about breathwork. I've spoken to some breathwork facilitators on Meander's Mindset and that's even opened my eyes to more of the things that can happen from and through breathwork, which is still mind blowing to me. Like one woman healed her 15 year eating disorder from breathwork, which I was like, okay, that's so fucking cool. But I wanted a place to simply share about the transformations and the magic of breathwork and Mando's mindset isn't that you might want to hear about stories that I've overcame and how I've shifted my mindset, or how people have shifted their mindset, different challenges they've overcome, but you might not want to hear just about breathwork. If there's a breathwork facilitator on Mando's mindset, okay, but you might not be coming for me and his mindset. Like I'm someone who is big on intention what is your intention for doing? Xyz, you know like in the moment and it's funny, that same boyfriend of mine came back around years later and he actually he thanked me. He was like you know, I thought you were a bitch to me that day and I was like I know, I seemed like one he's like, but I'm really glad you forced me to go. He's like I I kind of had a puss on my face, but I'm still glad I was there and I was like I'm sure you were. You know, he's like. I don't know why I did what I did to you and I was like it's irrelevant, we were young, shit happens. But it's like, know, what's your intention with this, and like my intention with Mander's mindset, is not to only share about Breathwork, but I wanted a place for people to hear about transformations and about the power and what can happen from it. So I wanted to create a platform simply for that. So that's what that is.
Speaker 3:Also, I didn't want Breathwork to be something that people can't access. You know, sometimes it's done in person, sometimes it's done virtually. One-on-one sessions are more expensive, more of an investment, because we're putting more time into it. I curate a specific playlist. I send you a very detailed questionnaire about things you're going through thoughts, emotions, feelings, behaviors, habits, all of the whatnot. But I wanted to make breathwork in general accessible to anyone anywhere in the world, regardless of where you are located physically, regardless of economics, socially, status, any of the above. So I've also started launching Mindful Mindset Mondays.
Speaker 3:Go to a breathwork with me, pay what you can. That you can do. All you need is internet connection anywhere in the world, 6.30 pm Eastern Standard Time. Also, I really wanted to be mindful of. I speak to a lot of people who are in different countries, internationally Australia. So I'll send a replay as well to, if you register for the event, so that even if you can't join me live which I really do recommend attending live if you're able to but it still gives anybody the access who wants to experience what breathbook has to offer there. There's no barrier removing any type of barrier to entry okay, and I like that.
Speaker 4:Everybody. You got that right there. That was a shameless plug that I like people to be on my show and they're doing it here now. The hardest thing to do a show is get a show wrapped up. Jay Shetty from the podcast On Purpose.
Speaker 3:Oh boy.
Speaker 4:Is a way and a means to how your show ends correct.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 4:And the questions that get asked to you only get one answer. It's not a long drawn out thing, it's very concise and to the point, and the first part that you handle is the many sides to us correct.
Speaker 3:Yep.
Speaker 4:And when you handle this side, this makes you like the word I always use personable. It makes you more personable and it makes you a little livid too, because people are going to get an adjective about you and they're going to take this adjective. And they are going to get an adjective about you, they're going to take this adjective and they're going to keep it in their mind. That's going to stay with them forever, correct? Yeah? And then the final part of this is the final five, correct? And what happened inside the final five is we get an introspective, retrospective, whatever type of perspective we're going to get from you, and then it's over with. And then, after this episode is done, that's episode 100, and you go on from here and then you do episode 101, which is going to be the hardest thing for you to do. So, manders, are you ready? Yes.
Speaker 4:The mini-sideshow starts right now.
Speaker 3:Sure the mini side sus starts right now Short.
Speaker 4:What is one word that someone who knows you extremely well would use to describe you?
Speaker 3:What was the word that you would use when you first met me? If you had to describe me in one word when we first met, what would it have been?
Speaker 4:Talkative, Talkative. Now the second question what is one word that someone who knows you extremely well would use to describe you?
Speaker 3:Adventurous.
Speaker 4:What is one word you'd use to describe yourself?
Speaker 3:Intentional.
Speaker 4:Okay, okay, okay, okay. What is one word that if someone didn't like you or agree with your mindset would use to describe you? Not like an internet troll or anything like that, but just like someone that just decided that, hey, mander's mindset is not the way to go.
Speaker 3:Annoying.
Speaker 4:What is one word that you're trying to embody right now that the final five get a little intense? What is the best advice you've heard or received?
Speaker 3:probably that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all, because again I'll never understand the reasoning or the need to to be inconsiderate. Like again it comes back to we all have the judgments, but why say them? To hurt somebody else's feelings, you know okay, grandma, we love you for that.
Speaker 4:Grandma, we really love you for that one. What is the worst advice you've ever heard or received?
Speaker 3:I don't know why this is the first thing that comes to my mind when you say this. But I've been very particular with the podcast, with mander's mindset, with what I release, what I publish. You know, I mentioned, like not just anybody's gonna be a guest, and now I had. I ran into technical difficulties at one point in time when I was using Riverside, which I would not recommend. This is not me bashing them, but that's a whole nother story. Anyways, I didn't like Riverside. They gave me a pretty big issue and I was cut out of this recording and I had the recording was messed up and I couldn't use it. But it was a guest I really wanted to speak to and one of my podcasting friends had told me that I shouldn't ask this guest to re-record with me because that's unprofessional and whatever. And I was like listen, I'm just gonna be honest with them, that's it. That's another thing about me, and I say this more so to the people I'm close with. But you might not like what I have to say, but I'm just going to be honest with them. That's another thing about me, and I say this more so to the people I'm close with, but you might not like what I have to say but I'm never going to lie to you. I'm never going to be that person to just agree with you, to agree with you to say what you want to hear. I will be honest, straight up. You might not like what I have to say. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So that was the worst advice, because I was like you know why am I not going to if there's something I want to record, if there's a guest I want to speak to, and just because I've already recorded with them? Yes, it was my issue. But why am I not just going to be real and be like listen, here's the deal. Riverside cut me out for part of the whole recording. My video is gone, my audio is gone. They have no solution for me.
Speaker 3:Blame it on my mac software, and I'm just like what the fuck? So my friend was like just edit it and include yourself and just have it missing what it has missing of the portion that. And I'm like no, that's gonna be choppy and weird, and like one, this person has valuable information to share. Two, I have a certain standard for one Amanda's mindset and two for myself. So I'm like and I'm also not going to settle for not having this recording that I fucking want. If I want something, I'm going to fucking do whatever it takes to get it. That was a long winded answer of the worst advice.
Speaker 4:Now, what is something that you used to value that you no longer value?
Speaker 3:michael kors poses. That's very specific, but I loved them, like when I was in high school. I had so much pride in owning one. I deleted the photo years ago but, like, I literally posted a photo of just a random ass michael kors bag that I bought when I was in high school on my instagram and it's like for what? Who cares to see this?
Speaker 4:no one, literally no one now, if you could describe what you would want your legacy to be if someone was reading it, what would you want it to say?
Speaker 3:I would want my legacy to be to say she made me feel seen, valued, owed. She was somebody that I knew I could talk to about any and everything, no matter what it was I was going through, and just that. I was always a person that showed up for my people. I always showed up for them.
Speaker 4:I like that. Matt, if you could create one law in the world that everyone had to follow, what would it be?
Speaker 3:This is a question I've never wanted to answer. It's really tough, like the paralegal in me thinks so fucking deeply about this, if I'm being honest, but deeply about this, if I'm being honest. But I don't know where this came. I guess my head just did an interesting tone. I, if you're listening to me, I just moved my head in a weird way, but I've never heard this phrase in my life, but I just it came to my mindset. I guess you can say anyways, that you have to journal your judgment because you don't. Again it comes back to that mindset of not being an asshole. For even if you have a reason to judge somebody for whatever, it is like. You see so many different posts on social media and about people judging this person for that and whether they name the person directly or not. But it's just like you don't have to say things Like again, if you don't have anything nice to say, shut the fuck up, you know like. So I have no idea how to enforce this, but I'd say that people have to journal their judgment before they speak it out loud, because you judging somebody. You don't know the level of impact it's going to have on their mental, emotional, physical state, like things that are said to us can weigh us down and people don't often even think about that, you know. So it's like shut up. It's literally like.
Speaker 3:You know, some of the biggest moments in my life that I've kind of seemed like a bitch to people is when, as I got older, I started speaking out about like not being an asshole. You know, I remember I got in an argument. I was a cheerleader in high school and I was the only fat cheerleader Like I, I, yeah, I was. I stood out. But you know what? Again, I didn't follow the rules. If I want to be a cheerleader, you can't tell me just because I'm not a skinny that I can't be one. I'm going to be one and it's side, quick, tangent.
Speaker 3:But there was one girl I was friends with and I'll never forget. We were in art class and she was making fun of some guy because of his pepperoni like face, because he had a lot of zits And'll never forget. She was telling me that she's gonna tell him that and I remember getting in a fight with her and I was like, why do you have to say that? Like, what is this benefiting you? How is this helping you?
Speaker 3:I was kind of sassy, because I was like, are you gonna feel better about your shitty life by telling him he's a pizza face? And she was like, why would you say something like that to me? And it's like, okay, maybe I said it the wrong fucking way, but journal about this. Like you know what you want to talk about this. Talk to me about this. Not that I really want to be this person, but I'm pretty often one of the people talk to about their fucking judgments, which is fine. Talk to somebody. Say it to somebody besides the actual person, which I'm not. This is not me condoning shit talking, but it's like don't hurt people for no fucking reason.
Speaker 4:Agreed yeah. Why would you want to hurt someone?
Speaker 3:And I don't think it's necessarily always people's intentions. I don't think. I think majority of people don't have the intention to hurt people, but we don't necessarily think about what we're saying and it's like write it down, say it to your best friend, like ask yourself if you have kids, or even if you don't have kids, would you say what you're saying about to say to somebody, to a child?
Speaker 1:no, no, no. Maybe take a step back and don't say it.
Speaker 3:Say to somebody, to a child, no, not at all. Maybe take a step back and don't say it.
Speaker 4:Now MSA 100 has come to a close and even though I was the host of the show, I can't be your outro, so I guess it's time to pass it back to you. You're the host now. Leave this. Look, the headphones get to come off halfway. Go ahead.
Speaker 3:Thank you. I really appreciate you taking the time to speak with me and to interview me on my own show. This was fun.
Speaker 3:Well, no bracket, a little different, but I loved it and thank you guys for tuning in to episode 100 and over a year of manda Mindset. I really appreciate it. If you enjoyed the episode, leave me a rating, leave me a review, even if not a positive review, I'd love to hear what you have to say, your thoughts, good, bad, anything in between. I'm not opposed to hearing any feedback but, as always, I really appreciate you guys tuning in to another episode of Amanda's Mindset.
Speaker 2:In case no one told you today, I'm proud of you, I'm rooting for you and you got this, as always. If you enjoyed the show, I would really appreciate it if you would leave me a five star rating, leave a review and share it with anyone you think would benefit from this. Leave a review and share it with anyone you think would benefit from this. And don't forget you are only one mindset. Shift away from shifting your life. Thanks guys, until next time.
