We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Amanda McKinney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

In order to be successful you have to truly know what it means for you specifically. As an entrepreneur I always attributed success to achieving whatever goal I had set at the time which unfortunately means the marker of success was always moving. But one day as I talked to an entrepreneur friend of mine as I sat in a grocery store parking lot I had the aha moment that changed how I think about success. I was on the cusp of hitting a goal but I wasn’t going to actually hit the revenue target I had set and I was upset that I wasn’t going to hit it and she asked me “what does success feel like for you?”. I responded with my goal and she asked me again “Amanda, but what does success FEEL like for you?” and it hit me that I didn’t know the answer. Over the course of the next year I explored this topic and finally defined success on my own terms. I’m forever grateful for that friend and that grocery store parking lot moment.

Amanda, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m an Accountability Coach who helps people make continual progress towards their goal. It truly breaks my heart when I witness the sting that people feel when they believe they have failed and so I’m on a mission to support others so they don’t experience this.

I like to say that there are people who run marathons and others who hold the signs for the runners. I’m the best sign holder there is! I absolutely love supporting and encouraging someone as they are going after something they truly care about. And the reason I believe I’m so good at this is because I know the road will be tough and it makes a huge difference to have someone right there with you as you’re going through the hard parts. I tend to work with ambitious people who are aiming high and impacting the world in amazing ways but when we have high aspirations, it also means we’re going to likely be outside our comfort zone and so we will run into failure or issues along the way. That’s when I truly shine as a coach because I believe in people when they don’t believe in themselves.

While I’ve always been a cheerleader (literally as a kid and all the way through high school), it was when I became an entrepreneur that I stepped into the coach role too. The blend of the two is perfect for helping others as they pursue their goals.

I started my entrepreneurial career in 2017 after being laid off from my corporate job. I began as a marketing consultant for corporations, then transitioned into being a marketing coach for other entrepreneurs and the last pivot was to my current role as an accountability coach. Just like anyone else’s road to “success”, my path has been full of twists and turns but each of them have led me to understand more about myself, my resiliency and drive.

I’m most proud of navigating the ups and downs that have present themselves over the course of my life, both in entrepreneurship and life in general. While they are never fun in the middle of them and they always last longer than I hoped, I’m grateful that I have a growth mindset and can somehow always reflect on what I could learn while I’m in the messy middle of the hard stuff.

The #1 thing I want people to know is that I truly believe that if they have a goal on their heart, they can achieve it. It will likely take longer than they want it to and there will be hard things along the way but it wouldn’t be a dream or a goal of theirs if they couldn’t achieve it. I whole-heartedly believe that.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

When it comes to resilience I could list many times that I technically failed at something but somehow kept going. From products that never sold, to customers being unhappy, to being told no, the list could go on but there is one that stands out. One of my first digital products that I ever created sold a total of $110. This was after weeks of planning, video recording and editing. I had worked so hard on this product and it flopped. I was devastated but after allowing myself some time to recoup I got back after it. I realized that I had done the thing that we should never do as entrepreneurs…assume we know the answer. I had assumed I knew what my audience wanted so I dove in and created it. No validating the idea. No testing. I just created it and then it flopped. But I learned from that mistake and the next digital product I created had the first 100 sales in just a few days. It was night and day different and it was all because I put in the effort to learn from my audience and make no assumptions.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Consistency, patience and authenticity. These are three things that you need in order to grow an audience on social media or any channel for that matter. I think everyone things things happen quickly but they don’t. You’ll start your account or your email list or your channel and it will have 1 person (you). But if you’re consistent with sharing, patient with yourself as you learn and show up authentically, things will eventually pay off. Everyone is looking for a quick-win with this but that’s just not going to happen but for those who are willing to put in the reps, they will eventually see the fruits of their labor and they will be better content creators for it too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.amandamckinney.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theamandamckinney/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/theamanda-mckinney/