We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amy Powers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amy below.
Amy, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
I’m so much happier as a business owner – or rather, “businesses owner”, because I’m a big believer in creating multiple streams of revenue from different ventures. And frankly, I never think about going back to another way of living and working.
My last “regular job’ was as a Real Estate Finance attorney at White & Case, a major international law firm. I’d finished up a JD/MBA at Harvard and Columbia, respectively, and was lured by the prospect of a high-paying, high-prestige corporate career. But the job turned out to be not only exhausting but a complete mismatch for my playful, collaborative personality.
I was quickly diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, and bedridden for months. I innately knew this was a sign that corporate life wasn’t for me. As luck would have it, during that time, someone suggested I try writing a song to pass the time, and I was instantly addicted.
I spent the next years writing lyrics for genres from pop to country to TV, animation, and Broadway. Despite the roller coaster of freelance life, I thrived in the creative space. However, by the time I’d gotten married to a fellow freelancer (film, TV, and theater producer J. Todd Harris), had two sons, and suffered through a recession and seismic shifts in our respective industries, our income felt too unstable.
I knew I’d never go back to corporate, nor go back to school to train for a new career. Yet luck struck again when I was invited through a fellow songwriter to join Arbonne, a major online plant-based health and wellness products network marketing company. I had some negative preconceptions about this kind of opportunity, and I wasn’t a sales type, so I almost said no…. but, luckily I did my due diligence, realized the brilliance of the opportunity, the quality and impact of the products, and the way I could weave building a part-time online business into my already busy life.
I worked consistently on this business for 5 years, part-time, and became a top 1% earner -not typical, but possible! (To see what’s typical see www.earnings.arbonne.com.) It’s been 14 years now and having this daily consumable products business as a counterweight to my creative endeavors has been a true blessing.
Having two businesses with two different clientele opened my curiosity to who else I could serve, and how. That’s how I came to write a best-selling book, offer private life and business coaching, create my concierge connections service AmySentMe, co-produce musicals and films with my husband, and invest in a getaway rental/retreat center on the Costa Rican Gold Coast.
Each of my businesses offers different products and programs and serves different people. Revenue flows at different times, with different structures. But all together, it allows for a full expression of my gifts and talents. I am a happy multipreneur and blessed to support others seeking health, joy, purpose, and profit.
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?
I’m a Lawyer turned Health & Wellness Entrepreneur/Coach/Connections Concierge/Lyricist/Author/Film & Broadway Producer and Rental/Retreat Property Owner.
For my health and wellness clients, I help people looking to release inflammation, gain energy and focus, decrease anxiety, maintain a healthy weight, create good daily habits, and use safe, effective products.
For my health and wellness business team, I teach a proven system with a longstanding company that can catalyze self-growth and financial well-being.
For my coaching clients, I offer one-on-one sessions to re-ignite their passions, rediscover their worthiness, reinvent themselves, manifest peaceful prosperity, and find balance.
For my concierge connections service, I link those seeking greater health and happiness with a variety of pre-vetted high-level coaches, teachers, healers, and event creators.
For my lyric writing clients, I create Pop, Country, Kids’, Animation, and Broadway songs.
For my readers, I offer frank, informal advice and stories gained over decades of life as an entrepreneur.
For my film and theater projects, I bring together investors, creators, and producers, as well as lend creative assistance.
For my property rental and retreat clients, I offer sanctuary. Literally! Our Costa Rican property is called The Sanctuary.
I love helping people recharge, renew their connection to their purpose, and recognize, utilize, and celebrate their talents.
I’d say that I’m most proud of embracing the art of pivoting, learning to trust my intuition when it comes to business choices, and stretching past perceived limitations.
We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.
I’ve done the “side hustle to main business” a few times now, and for me, the story is the same each time – success came about because I coupled my drive to create with a love of reciprocal networking, and a conscious connection to a community of people who taught and supported me.
For my first reinvention, I wrote lyrics in addition to my full-time job as a lawyer, jotting them down during lunch hours, early mornings, and even on the office elevator! I had zero songwriting experience, but I found a community where I could learn the craft at the BMI and ASCAP Musical Theater Workshops in NY.
Two years later, I left my job as a lawyer – jumping with no net but a growing network. I ended up being introduced through a Broadway producer to Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber, who gave me my first professional lyricist job, contributing lyrics to his show Sunset Blvd.
My songwriting career grew from referral to referral. So when I was ready to expand my writing to pop music and beyond, I again found constructive community in workshops, seminars, and classes. All my jobs organically came out of the pool of people I met there. And because I found I had a knack for connecting people, I was able to help many others get jobs along the way.
A similar pattern occurred when I first joined Arbonne. I met my mentor Linda Huntington through a mutual songwriter/producer friend. Linda had gone to the top level of Arbonne while still running a 7- figure music publishing business. She explained the power of having a large team of people, all using and sharing products they truly loved, and I saw the possibilities right away. I felt driven to get to the top level of the company.
So, once again, I started a new career with no experience and only small bits of time, but a big vision. I soon met a terrific community of other Arbonne Independent Consultants. They were a huge part of why I was able to grow a significant business. They helped me build my belief, learn critical skills, and outgrow my paralyzing fear of public speaking.
And once again, my success was over time, not overnight. However, within 5 years my Arbonne business was out-earning my music business.
Now that I do even more kinds of projects, I can’t really describe any of them as a side hustle. They’re more like side-by-side-by-side hustles. But come to think of it, ‘hustle” sounds exhausting. I prefer thinking of them as simply business ventures. Or even better, business adventures.
Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?
I find that, for me, following my intuition often beats “strategy.” I am genuinely curious about people and meet them all over – online, in line at the grocery store, at events, through friends, walking to yoga, or at the dog park. In all of my business endeavors, I get the best results from simply reaching out, remaining authentic, connecting with people from the heart and looking for ways to serve.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.amypowers.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/happyhealthywithamy/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/amylynnepowers
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-powers-b47060216/
- Other: Linktree: https://www.linktr.ee/AmylynnepowersAmySentMe: http://blinq.me/yEu8hZ95F7AbThe Sanctuary Costa Rica: https://vidapinilla.com/rentals/the-sanctuarywww.amypowers.arbonne.com
