Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amanda Nutt. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Amanda, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

One thing that led us on the path to owning this business, was its appeal to work with and serve a community who is very dear to my heart, is faith based and wants nothing more than to change the lives of those we work with. I have worked with adults with special needs for years after graduating high school. I got my degree in Behavior Analysis/Special Education and have loved every minute of it. A lot of parents, when they hear about what we do, always ask me the same question… “What diagnosis does your child have?” And at first, I found it strange that someone would ask me a question like that, but then it started to make more and more sense. I have naturally loved and supported this community for so long, no questions asked. It wasn’t because someone in my family had a diagnosis and I wanted to better their lives. It was simply that I have such a heart and passion for this community, and I want nothing more than to get them to places that they never thought they could! This business is 100% about the individual’s we work with and the relationships we’ve built from it says it all!

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?

When I graduated high school, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with myself, college of course was the first option. But my older sister had been at a job working with adults with disabilities, so I figured, why not… let’s get a job and then go from there. I took my first steps in the door and came home from my interview thinking, there was no way I could do this. Well, 10 years later, that obviously changed me. I grew to love those individuals, took them on vacations, planned day trips, special events like Christmas in July parties… the number of things we did were endless! And never once did I question why I was there. I knew I had a gift to work with these individuals and not many people have it. So of course, I was going to give them the best I could as they deserved it! These individuals were a part of my wedding day and made more of an imprint on my heart than I could ever put words to. I left that job to begin teaching Special Education, also a huge passion of mine! After a few years, I became a stay-at-home mom with our 2 boys, and probably head back to work once they were both well into school. It was a random day when my husband Michael, sent me a text with the Special Strong website attached to it and asked what I thought about it. At first glance, it sounded great as I knew how much of a need this community has. And it wasn’t until after we truly sat down, went through everything and realized just how much of joy this would bring me, that we decided to send our inquiry in. We met with the founder Daniel and his wife Trinity and fell in love with the whole part of it. It was starting to become difficult to say no to doing it. I then went on a discovery day to meet some of their athletes and get a glimpse into the world they live daily and was amazed. I hadn’t had that much fun in so long! And the rest is history! We signed our papers, got everything ready & had our Grand Opening just a little over a year ago! It has been an amazing year meeting so many new faces, working with so many new individuals & changing the lives of so many!! I couldn’t ask to be doing anything more!

Have you ever had to pivot?

First of all, starting up a business, having two little children and a household to run, was more than I could have ever imagined! I didn’t realize the amount of time that would be taken up from running a business. I had it in my mind that this would be something that would give me some me time, doing what I love and get me out of the house without kids. And what running a business truly means is WAY more than that. There’s the paperwork side, the legal side, the marketing side, finding trainers, rental places, etc etc. The list could go on and on. And it took me about 6-8 months of being up and running to realize a lot of this. I started to feel the mom guilt more and more and had to slow myself down a bit from the business side of things to focus on my boys more. Could we be growing much faster, of course! Could I be spending less time with our family, yes! But I had to switch my mindset on things and change how I was managing my time between work & personal. I had to map out when I would work and when I would be focused on my kids, and also what my schedule would look like so I wouldn’t miss out on anything more like baseball games, school events, etc… because those things get missed when you have a business to run. But I have been so blessed with parents who are understanding and have allowed me to move sessions around so I could make more of my boys activities and to be home with them more as well. And now with yet another trainer on board, I am able to manage even more both work & personally which has been amazing! Doing all of these things is not easy and is quite stressful at times, but I love every part of what we do and I’m so thankful we’re still doing it!

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

When I first moved to Texas, many years ago, I met Michael randomly about a month after I had lived here. It was pretty quickly that I realized I would not be moving back home to Ohio and I had met my match. Michael, my now husband, is the one who found Special Strong. He is 100% my biggest support and push to be the best at what I do everyday! He is the one who coached me to send in our inquiry for Special Strong, he is the one who helped out with the kids so I could attend the Discovery Day, he took lead over the house while I had to be gone for 2 weeks of training… he is my rockstar for sure! Michael now takes over the Vice President role in our business, tending to the business/legal aspect of things whereas I’m the one running the main up-front part of the business. he still works full time in his own line of work, which he loves & has done for years to support our family and continues to do so, all while making sure I’m set in my ways with this business. If I were to ever give the biggest shout out to someone, it would be him and all he does/brings to our lives. Michael also shares a love for this community, about as much as I do and that’s one of the reasons I knew he was my match!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.specialstrong.com/northwest-houston-tx/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/specialstrongnwhouston/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/specialstrongnorthwesthoustontexas/
• Linkedin: Amanda Nutt – Owner Special Strong Northwest Houston

Image Credits
Bostick Photography & Videography – all of our pictures/videos