We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Baudier recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Amanda thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

In 2012, I was seemingly thriving — personally and professionally. At 28, I had recently become a partner at Tao Group and gotten engaged. I was planning events for celebrities at the hottest venues in NYC and had even gotten a yoga teaching certification on the side.

But I was burning the candle at both ends — and had been for years — to reach this level of success and very suddenly, it all caught up to me. One day at a routine gyno appointment, my doctor flagged that something was wrong with my pulse. She felt it was serious enough that she advised me to go to a cardiologist immediately (like, that day) and refused to renew my birth control prescription until I did.

After a litany of doctors and tests, a sever arrhythmia was found as my heart was skipping every 3rd beat. Unable to find a true medical cause for this issue in a young, “healthy,” person — a VEGAN for goodness sakes — they blamed stress. So at 28 years old, just weeks after getting married, I had heart surgery to repair my damaged heart after years of pushing it to the brink day and night.

They say that “God throws pebbles, then God throws bricks,” and I had just taken a brick to the skull by anyone’s measure. I had ignored the pebbles — unexplained weight loss, gastrointestinal issues, trouble sleeping, breakouts — you know, the common and “minor” symptoms that overly stressed out humans experienced. I ignored, numbed and pushed through. But my body, as they say, kept the score. Through sheer force of will I was able to keep performing at an extremely high level, but physically I was broken down. Burnt out to a near fatal degree.

Once the surgery date was scheduled, everything in my world got really quiet. It was definitely an awakening — I questioned everything: who I was, how I lived, what mattered — and most importantly — what didn’t. I took a year sabbatical where I deepened my yoga training, became a Certified Health Coach, meditation teacher, and studied Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction under Jon Kabat Zinn. I consider this like a year “studying abroad” but instead of learning a new language & culture, I learned how to regulate my nervous system and live with appropriate and healthy boundaries.

I eventually returned to NYC and the world of work, but as a wholly changed person. I shifted my career to the wellness industry, and realized my ultimate goal was to bring what I learned to stressed-out Executives with whom I can deeply empathize. My heart surgery led to me becoming a Certified Executive Coach through NYU and to launch my business Full Plate Full Cup. I am now also in year 2 of a 3 year certification program through Somatic Experiencing International, learning how to heal trauma through a body and nervous-system based approach. I am constantly adding new tools to my toolkit so that I can be a trusted and transformative partner in the life of my clients.

The name of my business is deeply meaningful to me. I wasn’t someone who wanted a “small life”. I wanted to make a difference in this world and usually, that requires a full plate and a busy schedule. But I knew I didn’t want a “big life” if it meant working myself sick or even just unhappy again. I would always be mindful of keeping my cup full — knowing all too well what could happen if I don’t.

Today — every single day — I live my purpose. I share my story, the tools I have learned, and do so in a way that allows other people to feel seen and safe. So many people suffer from burnout and while most won’t end up in the hospital like me, no one should have to suffer even a little bit just to have a rich, full life.

Modern society makes it so easy to fall into overstimulation and overwhelm. We have to be the reverent stewards of our own well-being or slipping into burnout is almost guaranteed. It is my mission to empower people to build lives that honor their personhood — never sacrificing their health for a paycheck. I have used my own pain to fuel my purpose and hope to continue using it to inspire others to take their power back as well.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Now that you know my story, and how I came to my line of work, I’d love to share a bit more about what I actually do.

In my 1-1 work, I refer to myself as a Whole Person Executive Coach. I work primarily with Founders, Executives, and Senior Leaders who are nearing the point of burnout or simply feeling overwhelmed by what they have on their plate. While we focus on their businesses first — cleaning up any inefficiencies dragging them down or holding them back — I spend a good portion of my client work on nervous system regulation, mindfulness, and introspection. No matter how solid your business plan or practices are, if you are starting from a dysregulated place, nothing is going to land. So in that regard, I coach the whole person — not just their professional parts.

Through my company Full Plate Full Cup, we design and lead bespoke workshops for organizations and teams. Similar to my 1-1 work, we focus on a few key topics like Burnout Prevention & Recovery, Finding & Living your Purpose, and Connection to Self & Team. We’ve worked with dozens of companies ranging from tiny startups to global corporations. We also have a podcast (also called Full Plate Full Cup) where we interview successful people we know and love, and get a peek behind the curtain of how they built their careers, in the context of building a life. You can think of it as “How I Built This” meets “Super Soul Sunday.”

This summer, we are launching something that is — no pun intended — incredibly close to my heart. It’s our first digital course called “From Burnt Out to Lit Up.” For the first time, we are sharing the tools and strategies I used to heal my own severe burnout and that we employ with all our 1-1 clients. This course is zero fluff and will be priced accessibly so that many people can benefit from this work — not just those who can afford private coaching.

Our rally cry is “You deserve to be wildly successful but more than that — to be wildly happy.” Everything I do from my 1-1 work, corporate workshops, and of course the content we put out on Instagram and through our podcast — ladders up to that mission. What’s the point of achieving “success” if you are too burned out to enjoy it? We don’t think you should have to choose between a successful career and a happy life and we help our community learn how to claim that truth for themselves, too.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Back in 2018, I was working as a VP at Sakara Life and was invited to attend a retreat for wellness leaders hosted by mindbodygreen. At one of the dinners, I was seated next to Rebecca Stump — then an employee at mindbodygreen and now my business partner.

What struck me about Rebecca was her energy and her positivity. I’ve often described her as a “lightning bolt” because she’s got a splash of “ray of sunshine” positivity, but with a tough, smart edge. A lot of people you meet in wellness, and in business in general, seem like they are trying to impress you or prove something. Or, they size you up and don’t give you the time of day — wondering if there’s someone more impressive THEY could be networking with.

With Rebecca, there was no artifice. She was smart, kind and interested in me. Like the dork I am, when I returned home from the retreat I slid into her LinkedIn DMs and shared my contact info, saying I wanted to keep in touch. Thankfully, she didn’t leave me on read, and we started having occasional coffee dates every few months and then staying in touch virtually during COVID when she moved to Portland to work for Nike.

Fast forward to Spring 2022 — Rebecca is back in NYC and taking a breather between roles to figure out what she wanted next. At that time I had just put in my notice as the GM of Melissa Wood Health, knowing it was time to start my entrepreneurial chapter but not really sure what I was going to do other than “coach people”. My last week on the job, Rebecca and I went to an event at Soho House together that was kinda lame, so we ended up sitting on the couch just talking to each other about what might be next…

Rebecca shared her mission to help people find what lights them up and move on from jobs that well, suck. I too was hoping to help founders reignite their spark through burnout recovery, and we realized that together we’d make a powerful force. I’d had the name Full Plate Full Cup as an IG handle for more than 5 years at that point, but had never done anything with it. We agreed that that name was perfect for what we envisioned building and the rest is history.

Moral of the story: don’t be afraid to be a dork and slide into someone’s LinkedIn DMs! If you meet someone and have a genuine connection, stay in touch. You never know what it could lead to!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I’m a meditator and a big believer that what goes around comes around. The way you treat people in business — and in life — matters. If you’ve been kind, supportive, reliable, and professionally competent — you’ll be remembered as such. If you burned bridges, ghosted people’s emails, didn’t support other people’s launches/endeavors, or phoned in your work at a job because you were “over it” — that’s how you will be remembered.

I hold myself to a high standard of professional excellence and always have, but more than that — I hold myself to a high standard of humanity. My very first client on the DAY I announced my coaching business was a Founder I had met with 5 years prior when all she had was a deck. She was now a 30-under-30 CEO but she remembered how generous I was with my time over a “pick your brain” coffee chat and felt confident I would be a good coach for her.

I’ve gotten referrals from people I worked with in the nightlife industry, former interns of mine, even people I interviewed for jobs that I didn’t end up hiring them for! There’s an old saying that your “network is your net worth” and while I find that sort of cringe, I’d reframe it this way: you’re only as respected as YOU have given respect to others. I’ve been highly respectful to others — even if I had nothing to gain from them specifically — and in turn, my network has become my street team. Every single client I’ve coached has come from referrals and even though I’ve only been running my business full-time for one year, I have an established and impressive roster of clients to back up the power of a strong personal network.

If you are looking to launch a service-based business, YOU are your product and your reputation can make or break you. Just in case you needed another reason to be kind to every human you ever interact with — it’s good for business!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fullplatefullcup.com and www.amandabaudier.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amandabaudier/?hl=en and https://www.instagram.com/fullplatefullcup/?hl=en
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amandabaudier/
• Other: PODCAST: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/full-plate-full-cup/id1658663586

Image Credits
Hanna Hazel