2045 – Transforming Female Leadership for Success with Amanda Riffee

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1:05With us right now, it's Amanda Riffey. Amanda, you are an executive coach for female business leaders, and you're found on the web at acrprofessionalcoaching.com. Amanda, it's great to have you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited. Yeah, yeah. Well, listen, I'd love to hear more about the work that you do and the impact you have on the world and who you serve. Yeah. So, like you said, I'm a certified executive and career coach for women. And so what that means and really kind of my mission is to work with career driven women. So whether that is founders, business owners, C-level, VPs, you name it, and help them find success in a way that feels really good to them.

1:51I am not a fan of burnout. I've been there. I've been back. And, you know, I feel like gone are the days of having to sacrifice the things that we love most in order to have a successful business or successful career. So my mission is to help other ambitious women like me design businesses that work for their lives, because I really do feel like we can have it all. Yeah. I think, and I'd love your observation of this. It's my observation. And again, I'm on the outside, but I think that when we look at the movement and the The season that we're in right now for female leadership and empowerment, and I feel like, you know, again, it's just my observation from, you know, from my perspective, but it feels like there's a lot of stepping into right now that may have been historically, that there may have still been some catching up to do.

2:49And again, I know that there is still so much work to do, but this does, I think, overall all feel to me like we've done some really great work when it comes to equity, when it comes to, you know, kind of, again, female leaders stepping into great high impact roles and not, you know, you know, kind of dispensing with old conventional thinking of the past, that somehow that was just a man's role or job. I think that's disappearing and I hope it continues to disappear. Yes, I think you're completely right. I think we still have a long road ahead of us. But if we think back to, you know, even the 1960s and 1970s, or in some cases, you know, the 80s and 90s, our view of traditional success was so much different than it is today.

3:41You know, we had the corporate organizations, for better or worse, like they were built by a society where traditionally a man went to work. And whether they wanted to or not, the career was their job. Like that's what they had to do. They had to sacrifice everything to be able to provide for their families. And traditionally, the woman's role was to stay home, take care of the household, you know, all of those things. And we have come such a long way since then. But we also still hold on to a lot of those same similar beliefs. And even our corporate structure is still built on that traditional view of success.

4:25And so I think a lot of things along the way, a lot of movements, even COVID had, you know, if there's a silver lining to that, really changed our mentality around, you know, working from home or work-life balance or, you know, taking care of our families. And so I do think we are in a big shift right now with the workforce and what success looks like. So I think it's more important now more than ever to have more women in leadership roles as founders, as millionaires that are really helping to shape the way that these companies are structured, the benefits that were offered. You know, all of those things make such a huge difference in changing, changing the world, honestly.

5:08Yeah. I know you do a lot of work around burnout. Do you mind maybe just kind of giving a little mini Ted talk on burnout, like where it comes from and maybe some great tips on things that we can do to empower ourselves so that we can keep ourselves from that, just that sucky energy. It's like, yeah, we start to like, you know, it's like a, particularly for those of us that are business owners, right? And it's like, we left corporate America because we wanted the freedom. We wanted to be able to design our life. And then now we're in our own role, you know, within our own company. And we still suffer a lot, you know, a lot of the same emotions.

5:46And it's like, well, that's not fair. Like I got into this thing, so I wouldn't have to experience burnout. It's my own company. Why am I dreading going to work? And I've just feel like I'm, you know, checking boxes, you know, maybe there's just an unfulfillment. Maybe it's just like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I am way stretched too thin. It could be that aspect of it. But I would love your take on burnout. Yes. Yeah. And I have so many personal stories of burnout, which is why I'm so passionate about it. But I think one of the biggest things when we leave corporate and we decide we're going to start our own business, we think all of those things that you just said, right?

6:25We're craving that freedom, make our own schedule, right? All of those things. But what's interesting is we don't shift as people when we go into becoming a business owner. A lot of times we keep that still that employee mentality and we are still working the same way that we would have operated in that job that maybe was burning us out before. And so I think some of the biggest things that we can do first is it's a lot of that inner work. So it really is shifting our beliefs, shifting. I do a lot of work on mindset and limiting beliefs and the things that are holding us back from the success that we're craving, because we might want one thing consciously, but subconsciously we have these beliefs that we've had for usually since childhood that are kind of self-sabotaging us behind the scenes that we don't realize.

7:20So that's a lot of the work that I do with my clients. And then second would be boundaries. And I know that can sometimes be a word that gets thrown around a lot, but it really does. When you are your own boss and when you are creating what success looks like for you, getting really clear on what's important to you and doing some of the deep value work and creating boundaries around that is really going to be a game changer. And even when I say values, the work that I do with my clients is sometimes a little bit different than maybe values work that you've done before. Like we really get below the surface and figure out truly what's important to you.

8:03And I'll give you an example of that is one of my values is new experiences. And so this is something that I can apply to work, that I can apply to my personal life, that I can apply to anything. And so that means, you know, I'm really fulfilled when I am working on a new project in my business or when I'm going to a new concert with my family or traveling to a new place in the world. And so when I can do that deep work and really figure out truly what's important to me and then how we can apply that to your business and then hold firm on those things with those boundaries, that is just going to that's going to skyrocket your results.

8:43Yeah, yeah, indeed. Um, another thing, Amanda, I'm curious about, um, are, you know, are there any other complaints that you hear frequently when you're working or beginning work with your clients? Burnout obviously is a big one, right? Um, I wonder about this. Um, how about, you know, people that set expectations? I see this a lot with type A leaders, right? is they set such high demands for themselves that sometimes that comes with disappointment in ourselves when we don't hit it or it doesn't happen or some other consideration takes place, which is always going, like there's just, there's always going to be surprises in business.

9:31But I know historically, I used to beat myself up way too much. And it was my wife who said something And she goes, you know, most deadlines are fairly arbitrary. Like, especially like if you're, you know, if it's your company, like, yeah, do you have goals? Sure, absolutely. Does it mean you're a failure if you renegotiate something or you, you know, have to push a deadline back a couple of weeks? I know that used to really bug me. I don't know if you ever encounter that. Yeah, absolutely. One of my favorite things to ask to clients and to myself when we get in these situations is who said, like, who said that that is the deadline or that we have to get this done today?

10:20And nine times out of 10, like you just said, it's us. It's us that set that deadline or created that, you know, arbitrary, you know, goal for that day. and we are so much more in control than we think we are that we give ourselves credit for. So I think that's just kind of a really quick and easy check to ask yourself. And I still have to ask myself that all the time of like, oh, I have to do this. I have to do that. I have to, and I'm like, who said, who said I have to do this? Oh, wait, it was me. You know, I love that. It's two very simple words. Who said, what a, what a great, what a great book title, by the way.

11:00Just putting some ideas out there. Amanda, tell me what your engagement typically looks like when you're working with someone. How do you begin? Is it just kind of like showing up for therapy or what's the life cycle of your relationship with your clients? Yeah, great question. So I do live events. I do retreats. So that's also kind of the in-person element, the group element. Majority of my business, though, throughout the year is one-on-one. So that's my bread and butter. That's what I absolutely love is working with women one-on-one. And what I love about that is that we can really dig deep into specifically what they want to get out of that experience.

11:44So a lot of the women that I work with, they're in some type of transition. So maybe they are feeling a little bit stuck in their business and they've got big dreams and big goals and they're just trying to figure out how to get to that next level. Maybe they're wanting to make a pivot and they're not really sure what that is. Maybe they're just craving that feeling of I know there's something more for me. I know there's something next, but I just don't know what that is. And so we usually start with first just gaining clarity on what's truly important to them. and do some of that values work that I talked about before, and really dig below the surface to figure out truly what's going to make success feel really good for them.

12:31Because we can build a business that has nothing to do with our values, and we are not going to feel aligned with the work that we're doing, or, you know, the business model that we've created. And so then after we do that, we really do define what success means to them. So that's my favorite where we just kind of wave the magic wand and we just start dreaming really big and we get clarity on down the road. What does that ideal business really look like? How does your day to day look like? What are the big dreams? Maybe it is writing a book or speaking on stages or going global, whatever the thing is.

13:08Um, and that gives us our North star to be able to work towards. And then from there, we essentially uncover what's stopping them from making that a reality what's getting in the way. And that is usually where we start to uncover a ton of limiting beliefs and beliefs are honestly just thoughts we've thought for so long that we now think that they're true. And those are the things that hold us back. And again, what I find so interesting working with women one-on-one is that it doesn't matter if you're a founder, a CEO, you know, you name it, we get on those calls and we get really vulnerable. And what we realize is that even though we've put all of these women on these pedestals because they have great resumes, great success, and they're amazing, we all have the same things that, you know, oh, there's times where we feel like we're not smart enough.

14:03We're not good enough. We feel like we're an imposter. And so those things hold us back from the success that we actually consciously desire. So we do a lot of work in that. And then, of course, we mix in the strategy in there as well. But without the mindset work, the strategy isn't going to get us anywhere. Because honestly, we could just Google how to create that or ask chat GPT and we'd be done with it if it was that easy. But our mind is just such a powerful tool that can honestly work for us or against us. Yeah, yeah, indeed. You know, it's like when you, you look over a crowd of people, it's, it's, it's amazing how often we think that, you know, our challenges are so unique, and they're not.

14:48every leader and uh you know even you know and i think about this rise uh you know in leadership i i think it's completely normal especially if it's something new that we're doing to feel a little a bit in in um incompetent or not ready uh but it's like listen everybody who's doing what they're doing they felt that exact same thing at some point and then they just kind of like they did the thing and then they had the power, right? And the more you did the thing, the more comfortable you got with it. And, you know, it's like podcasting. Congratulations on just, you know, recently starting your podcast.

15:24And, you know, the more episodes we do, the better we got at it overall, you know? And so that's exciting. Amanda, do you mind maybe sharing a little bit more about your other work beyond coaching? I know you do some speaking. I know you create a lot of great content. How else are you having impact in the world today? Yeah, great question. So I do, I love going on podcasts. I love speaking to groups in person, just any way to get this message out. And that's one of the reasons you mentioned my podcast. That's one of the reasons why I started my podcast was to really create that permission slip for female business leaders to understand that we really do have the power to create success in any way that we want to.

16:12And you mentioned around, you know, we think we're the only ones that are scared to do it, or the only ones that, you know, have those limiting beliefs. And the more that, you know, we're able to talk about these things in groups, through events or speaking or podcasts, the more I think we take away the power of some of those beliefs, when we realize it's not just us, I'm like, oh, that person over there who's doing all of those things is also scared to do it. Then it helps to empower us to say, okay, well, if they, if they can do it, then I can do it. And that's where I start to see that, you know, that representation matters.

16:55So the more that we can get that message out, the more we're going to empower ourselves to create that success as well. Yeah. Finally, I wanted to ask you about, I know you've got an event that looks like it's right around the corner. Oh, well, it will have already happened by the time. How'd your event go? Yeah, we had this one scheduled a little bit ago, but I, so I do have a retreat that's happening in September. But probably when, when this airs, the next big event that I will have, it's called Unleashing You Live. And that is a two day event. It's what I like to call professional development in a fun new way.

17:36So it is all focused on female business leaders. we go through coaching tools, speakers, networking. We have female-owned pop-up shops. We have the whole nine. Like it's just so much fun. And we just walk away from that experience feeling so empowered, so engaged, so motivated and just honestly ready to take on the world. Yeah, wonderful. All right, so Amanda Riffey, your website, acrprofessionalcoaching.com. When somebody goes to your website, what would you recommend they do? I would say the easiest thing is to listen to the podcast. So Unleashing You with Amanda Riffey, it's right there on the homepage.

18:18It's also bookmarked at the top, but there is where you can hear more of my personal stories, stories of my clients, my connections, doing all the things that we talked about today. And, you know, they really are creating that success that feels so good to them. And so there's just so much incredible content in those episodes, I know you're going to walk away feeling energized, inspired, and again, just ready to make those big dreams a reality. Excellent. All right. Amanda Riffey, again, certified executive coach for female business leaders, your website, acrprofessionalcoaching.com. Thank you so much, Amanda.

19:00Thank you.

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