Transcript
Speaker: OK, we should be live. OK, let me make sure. OK, yep. OK, welcome to Mamas Who Lead, the podcast where we delve into the lives of incredible women who mastered the balance between leadership, family, and the pursuit of their dreams. I'm your host, Laura Carafino, and today we have an extraordinary guest, Mary Amato. I'm going to try to keep pronouncing that right.
Speaker: With us today, Mary transitioned from a career in engineering to becoming a powerhouse in network marketing and demonstrating what it truly means to be made for more. Her life rooted in faith, family, and relentless ambition exemplifies the essence of a woman who never settles for average. Today we'll explore Mary's story from her beginnings as a sixth child of immigrant parents to her role as a luminary for women everywhere.
Speaker: From modest starts to significant achievements, Mary's narrative is one of perseverance and tenacity. As we dive into our conversation with her today, we delve into how Mary's early experiences with personal development and her deep commitment to aiding others have enabled her to achieve both freedom and audacity in all aspects to her life. Mary, welcome. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me. I'm super excited. It's funny you said that about my last name.
Speaker: I remember a friend of mine leaving me a voice message on my voicemail, and he said, are you sure you pronounce your last name like that? Because I've never heard it sound like that before. I know. I know. It's so, it's, I was, I know I'm glad I asked. I've been pronouncing it totally wrong. All good. When you start fumbling on amoebo, then people know, oh, that's the mayor you're talking about.
Speaker: Yes. I know I've nothing but amazing things to say about you. And I am so excited that you're here with us. So for our listeners today that may not know you personally, would you mind sharing a little bit about your story and where you're at today? Yeah. So like your intro said, I started my career as an engineer. My parents were immigrants from Vietnam. I was born as my parents were immigrating here. So that's a whole different story. We'll get into all that.
Speaker: But my dad was a high school principal in Vietnam, so education was everything. It was ingrained in us. You go to college, you get a good job, you have a 401K. And after busting my tail and getting my engineering degree, and that's a whole nother story about being a single mom and being in that season, I realized I wanted more. I didn't want to be at someone else's beck and call. I wanted more autonomy.
Speaker: And my husband and I went through different businesses. He's an entrepreneur through and through. He's only had one W2 his entire life. And that was when he was a teenager. And so we went in and out of traditional businesses and then kind of fell into network marketing. And one of the things that I loved about network marketing was really the ability to pull out the greatness in other people. You see, Laura, my husband and I, we met in a personal growth and development program.
Speaker: in 1998. And we have just, I fell in love with personal growth. And that really network marketing gave me a vehicle for being able to pour that out into others. And that's really what I fell in love with. You know, I always tell people, I'm a good network marketer, but I'm a really great leader developer. And that's probably why we've had this level of success we've had. I've had people in my downlines
Speaker: that were far better network marketers than I ever was, but I've been able to extract the greatness in them, which is something I find kind of like finding Easter eggs, you know, helping someone get their greatness. Wow. And that's amazing. So what would you say, what drove you to transition from like engineering? I mean, that's like such a powerful background to network marketing.
Speaker: Um, the, the real story, I usually condense it, but the real story is I was an engineer. I loved engineering. I'm one of those geeks that loves spreadsheets and physics and, and I do a lot of training around physics too, even in my network marketing career. And I got laid off and I got a big fat severance package. I had a six month severance package. I had my sales bonus and I had all this money and I had been thinking about medical school for a really, really long time.
Speaker: And in my own mind, at the time, Laura, I did not think I was smart enough to go to medical school. I had literally talked myself out of it for many, many years. And my husband said, listen, Mary, now or never. You are more than smart enough and capable enough. So I pursued that. In the pursuit of that, I got a taste of what it would be like to have flexibility and be a stay -at -home mom. And I really loved it. Stay -at -home moms were not a paradigm I grew up with. I grew up lower middle class.
Speaker: Everybody's mom worked. Everybody's parents worked. My parents worked two, my mom worked two jobs. My dad worked two shifts just to make ends meet. So that wasn't even a thought process. And so that's what had me on that pursuit of looking for some kind of business that would give me the freedom and flexibility, but without sacrificing the kind of income I had been accustomed to. And to be honest with you, Laura, when our friends approached us about this network marketing company,
Speaker: our very first real network marketing company, I had already dabbled in a little bit of network marketing and I realized this is this is not for me. You know, the paradigm I had at the time was network marketing was for a stay at home mom to make an extra two to three hundred dollars a month. That was my paradigm. And even although that is true, it was so much more than I thought. I was this arrogant engineer that I thought I was better than the industry.
Speaker: And when our friend talked to us about the industry, I kept saying no, no, no. And finally her husband, my friend's husband called me and said, Hey, listen, we met someone in your office. Would you mind if we talked to them about our company? And I said, absolutely not. You know, here's his name. Here's his number. Let me know what I can do for you. And before that guy came in, our friend called my husband and said, listen,
Speaker: Your friend's going to come into the business. We think he's going to be really great. Do you want us to make all the money or do you want to make some money too? And he threw him his credit card and said, put us in the business. And that's how we got started. That's how we got started network marketing.
Speaker: Wow. You know, that's so funny. Like that sounds very similar to my background. Like I, I said, no, I had a very misconception of what the industry was and what it could do. I too thought I was like, Oh, that's just for, you know, stay at home moms. And they just make, you know, three, $400 a month or whatever.
Speaker: Have that little parties, have fun. That's just not for me. So that's just so funny that you started that way too. And someone who's very career minded had a very successful career, success, like education. And then you went into network marketing. You know, how, what would you say is like a common misconception about leadership or network marketing that you wish you could possibly correct? I would say,
Speaker: Very common. One of my favorite authors is John Maxwell. And he wrote a book called The Five Levels of Leadership. And the lowest level of leadership, like level one, is title leadership. And you see that all over network marketing. Someone hits a rank and all of a sudden someone calls them a leader. Listen, if you're a rank and no one's following you, you're not a leader. You're just at that rank. And that is something that happens so much in network marketing. People get
Speaker: um, very entitled to be able to do certain things because they've hit a certain rank. And though that's great, like I applaud those people that hit those ranks because it takes something, it signifies something, but that doesn't mean that you're a leader. And I would say too, too few people in network marketing really take stock in leadership. You can have someone at a low rank and have far more leadership quality and ability than someone at the top rank of the company.
Speaker: And, you know, the problem with a lot of people is they get to some leadership position, leadership rank, and they don't actually level up their skill set, their ability to lead consistent with the rank that they're at.
Speaker: And so really great leaders will try to stay one step ahead of the people that they're leading. And sometimes they're just struggling to keep their head above water to really be able to effectively lead their people. And then the not great leaders will just lead with an iron fist and say, I'm at the top rank and you're gonna do what I say you're gonna do. And that's just, it's just not effective. I think what I've seen that really works great is if you don't have the skill set yet, you desire to, and you might be moving up the ranks
Speaker: in your company, be humble. Let them know, listen, I'm learning. I'm striving to be better. I'm working on myself. And get around people that are going to stretch you, that are going to call forth your leadership. You know, Laura, I think one of the greatest things that I ever did starting in my 20s is when I got introduced to personal growth,
Speaker: That was a new concept to me. Nobody in my family had ever read a personal growth and development book. Nobody had ever handed me a book to read. Nobody had ever invited me to a seminar until I was in my young 20s. And when I got a taste of that, I got so hungry for it.
Speaker: You know, one of the best things that you can do is invest in yourself. And as ladies, as mamas, we are the last to do that. You know, I'll go shopping with my girls and I will buy them things. And then when it comes time for me, I will, I will not buy it. I won't think twice to drop money on my girls, but when it comes to me, I pull back. And I think a lot of women are like that. And the more you can invest in yourself, in your own growth,
Speaker: the better you're going to be for the people around you. So I think people have to kind of shift the mindset that when I invest in myself, it's not selfish. When you invest in yourself, you're investing in your relationships. You're investing in your effectiveness with the people that you love. You're investing in your job and your career, the people that you lead, because when you become better, it creates an environment for other people to be better as well.
Speaker: You know, that is so powerful because I did not start seeing success personally until I started diving into personal development. I thought it was this fufu stuff didn't want nothing to do with it. And then I started, you know, listening to leaders like yourself and they were always talking about this personal development, John Maxwell, Tony Robbins, like,
Speaker: I'm like, Okay, if they're doing this, this, there must be something to it. So I too, I dove into it. And then that's when I started seeing the success. You know, given your breadth of experience with this, like, how do you perceive like the evolution of personal development within network marketing? You know, there's, we have access to so much right now, Laura. I mean, it used to be that you had to go to an in -person seminar.
Speaker: or read a book. Those are your options of personal growth. Now we've got YouTube videos, you've got podcasts, you've got webinars, you've got master classes, you have access to stuff right at your fingertips. But you really have to invest your greatest commodity, which is time. Like you have to be willing to take time out to
Speaker: really poor to slow down so that you can speed up. And I think right now there's a lot of noise out there. There's a lot of garbage out there. There's a lot of stuff that's just not really valuable. I know that as technology gets even more rampant, there's going to be a lot more noise. And so you've got to be very cautious and discerning who you're going to follow. What's the vibe? Get really clear.
Speaker: on what you value most and those are the people that you should be having to pour into you. You know, John Maxwell was a mentor of mine for two decades before I ever got a chance to really work with him. And, you know, recently I've fallen in love with Jamie Kern Lima and I got to meet her on Saturday. But there's people that you can study from that always my recommendation is go deep with someone.
Speaker: Don't be shallow with a bunch of people. Go deep with a few people. So find the people that you really love and go deep with them. And then you could have some shallow other relationships sprinkled in. But if there's somebody that you really resonate with what they do, go deep, go get on their podcast, watch their YouTube videos, listen, get on their webinars, whatever that is, you have access right now. It used to be for me when I
Speaker: was first in personal growth over 25 years ago. The only place to go was going to a seminar. You didn't have any other choice but to go to an actual physical location. And today you can have it every time. Listen to podcasts like this, getting inspired by other mamas who leave. Do what feed your soul to have you inspired to go do something else.
Speaker: Absolutely. Yeah, everything. It's at our fingertips with technology today. Instantaneous, you could have access to personal development. What are some of your favorite personal development books or resources that have fundamentally changed your outlook? There's so many, but this one, it's on my desk. I always reference it. This is like my leadership, the Bible. John C. Maxwell, 15 invaluable laws of growth.
Speaker: You can tell it's yellow. This is how long I've had this book. And the quote I always read from this book is this one. The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story and writes another. And his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he hoped to make it, J .M. Berry. And so I reference this one a lot. So this is my favorite.
Speaker: And then one book that really changed my life was Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordero. And it's actually a book for pastors. And the thing that I pulled out of that was the 80 -15 -5 rule. And I live by it. 80 % of everything you do, anyone can do.
Speaker: Anyone can go wash the dishes, anyone can do the laundry, anyone can drive a car, anyone can do. 80 % of what you do, anyone can do. Think about all the things you do in a day, right? Somebody else can do those things. 15 % of what you do, anybody with enough training can do what you do. So you're a heart surgeon. Someone with enough training, they can be a heart surgeon too. You know, if you're a network marketer, right? Someone with enough training can lead your team. If you're a teacher, someone with enough training can teach your class.
Speaker: But 5 % of what you do, only you can do, only you can do. I'm the only one who can be a mom to my kids right now. I'm the only one who could be a wife to my husband. I'm the only one who can take care of my health and my body. I'm the only one who can develop my mind and grow myself personally, right? So that 5 % that only you can do, do that really well. And that's going to help with the other 80 and 15.
Speaker: And so that changed my life. I realized that I got to take care of that 5 % before all the other stuff. But as women, we're going to take care of the 80 and the 15 first. And the 5%, if we have enough time for, we're going to do. But we think it's the 80 and the 15, and we get busy with that. Even in our relationships with our kids, we're managing lunches and schedules and playdates and all that stuff.
Speaker: And that's important, but somebody else can do that. Only you can be there to listen to your kid, to give them that hug, to have that mom presence. And I think we get so caught up in the busyness that we forget that. So those are the two books that I have read over and over and over and over again. And there's a lot of other books that I have loved, but those are like my two go -to books that I have loved.
Speaker: And then there's one video that I watch over and over again every couple of years. Actually, there's two videos I watch. So the one video that my husband and I watch at the end of every year is Tony Robbins' video on goals. Like we watch it every year, every single year. It's an incredible, it's a great reset and we listen to it. We typically drive for an annual ski trip right before New Year's Eve and we listen to it. We make our kids listen to it. We talk about it.
Speaker: content out of that and then the other video I watch is there's a an interview that Stephen Furtick does with Bishop TD Jakes on his book soar and This recently since making this career pivot. I Listened to that interview four times in one week four times in one week because I was pulling stuff out of it. I'm constantly wanting to do
Speaker: expose myself to things that expand my thinking, expand my vision. And always my recommendation is if you can get into the room with people that will challenge you and expand your vision and have you feel small, not in a bad way, but like make you realize, oh my gosh, I am playing really small. And to just kind of light some fire in you, that's where you need to be. You need to be in those rooms.
Speaker: That is exactly true. I, you know, we need to be in those rooms and inspired by that. You know, how we're talking about like, the personal development and you watching these videos and how they I loved how you shared the 80, 15, five rule, and I think I said the right 15 and five rule.
Speaker: You know, how, is that, like, how do you, you know, manage going more into that, I guess, the balance between the demands of leadership and network marketing and what you're currently doing and your family responsibilities? Like, how do you meddle that all together? So one of the things that my husband and I do every year is we do a vision trip. So we take 3, 4 days out, and we schedule time to go away.
Speaker: When we were first doing it, we did fancy places and then we realized we don't need a fancy place, we just need a way and we need some space. And so we bring those poster boards that we can put on windows. I always look for a place that has lots of windows so we can post those up. We bring books, we bring calendars, we bring study materials, and we have a guidebook that we used to follow, but we created our own. And I can send that so you can send out to your viewers and listeners
Speaker: But we crave this guidebook to go through every facet of your life and we calendar our entire year. We put all the big things in first and then we put in the important things with our family and we schedule out our time and our vacations.
Speaker: And then we go through every facet of our business as well as every single child and figure out what are the things we're actively working on. So one of the things I live by Laura is I literally live a life by design, not by default. Like if you don't design your life, if you don't say this is how it's going to go, you're going to be just reacting to what life throws at you. And don't get me wrong. I got, listen, I still have,
Speaker: I'm gonna tell one on myself. It's March, March 12th. I still have one bare Christmas tree up in my dining room. It's bare, but it's still up. And I do Christmas like it's nobody's business. I put it six, six or seven Christmas trees in my house. So there's a lot of Christmas going on.
Speaker: But right now, it's really not important. That's not important to me right now. So I look ridiculous if someone comes to my house. People who know and love me, they're not judging me because I have a fair Christmas tree up in my living room. I mean, my dining room, they're not judging me. And the people that are, I don't care. If they knew how little I care about other people's opinions, it would just startle them. But it really is putting what's most important on the foreground.
Speaker: And so there are days where, you know, I I've been traveling like crazy and I went to, you know, I was out of the country and then I was home a day and then I had an event and it was a workshop. And normally my normal bit would have been that one day in between I got to prepare for this workshop so I can get the most out of this workshop that I paid big money for. But I just knew my son needed me. He needed me to be present. And so I just went into that workshop not ready and I did what I could. And I wasn't worried about it because I knew
Speaker: that my son needing me to be present that day that I was home was more important than getting ready for the other stuff. You can always make money. You can always recover from a bad business. But what you do with your kids for the first 18 years of their life, that's going to dictate your relationship with them for the rest of their lives. I mean, you think about your own relationship with your parents, right? However close you were those first 18 years,
Speaker: That kind of dictates, can you recover from stuff? Yeah, you can recover from stuff. But why recover from stuff when you can actually create something beautiful? You know, create something intentional in those 18 years so that you don't have to spend their adult years trying to make up and recover and create a relationship that you could have created in those first 18 years. So I keep that.
Speaker: It's very sacred to me. My relationship with my husband and my kids is very sacred and that comes first before anything else. And you just have, you have to prioritize what's most important. That's inside of the 5%. Constantly, constantly looking at what's the 5%, what's the 5 % and you still have to deal with the 80 and the 15. You have to still deal with the other 95, but the 5%, that's,
Speaker: The 5 % is what gives you quality of life. I firmly believe, you know, because in that 5 % and I'll tell one on myself, Laura, I used to be so driven, you know, as an engineer, as a network marketer in the first few years of network marketing, I was driven and I will bulldoze to produce the result. And I wanted to hit the rank and I wanted to make the money and I wanted all the things that very common for like a type personalities.
Speaker: And then I realized that it was at the sacrifice of my family and that really wasn't what I wanted. And I used to just bulldoze and bulldoze and strive. And there was a season where I realized I was doing that even with my family. And there was a day where I saw this look on my daughter's face when I was being that way in business, but I was being that way with her.
Speaker: And I did not know how to stop Laura. I was like, I had no, I didn't, I didn't know how to not just keep driving, driving, driving. And I told my husband, I'm like, I cannot be this way anymore. It is going to kill my relationship with her. And I have to transform this, but I have no idea how to transform it. I had already been in personal growth for over a decade and I had no access to it. And so what I told him is I need your help. I know you see it when I'm being that way. I need your help.
Speaker: And so I said, I need you to say a code word that's going to have me break out of that. That's going to have me snap out of it. And so our code word is giraffe. Why it's giraffe? I don't know. I love that. It makes no sense. It doesn't go with anything. And so when I would start being that way, he would say, uh, giraffe, like he was kind of timid cause I'm scary. I'm like, I'm really scary when I'm like that. And,
Speaker: After doing that for a few months and years now, I'm able to stop it without someone having to say giraffe. There's some days he's like, honey, your neck is feeling a little long. And I have little giraffes everywhere. I have this giraffe on my desk. Oh, thank you. So I have this little giraffe on my desk. I have, let me show you this other thing. I have this little giraffe up here. A little giraffe here. And then my sweet assistant, she had her husband
Speaker: make this for me for Christmas. It's on my desk, but it's giraffe with a little angel, like an angel giraffe. So I just have them everywhere to remind myself like who I'm being makes a difference with the people around me. So there may be something that you're struggling with. Get some people that you trust that can help you break through that because we're not in this life alone.
Speaker: We're in this as a community. And I don't even know how I got on that tangent, but that's where we are. No, it's good. I asked you about the 80, 15, and 5 % rule. And that's how we got there. Yeah. And it really was my relationship with my kids were like that 5%. I realized that that was a quality that I was destroying. Like I was destroying it. I wasn't just trying to make a great relationship. I was literally destroying it just from focusing on the 80 and the 15.
Speaker: Right, right. I see that. I'm guilty of that too. And that caused me to make a very pivotal decision in my life. And so you can focus on your family more. And I love that. And I love that you guys chose that word, that giraffe. And now you have the reminder set everywhere. So it's kind of to keep you focused on that 5%. That is so good. I hope you're all taking notes if you're watching this, because this is so good.
Speaker: you know, as we dive a little bit further, you know, what piece of ice would you offer any women that want to venture into leadership and network marketing? I don't think you can intentionally go into leadership and network marketing, or I don't think you can intentionally go into leadership in anything. What you can intentionally do is grow yourself, develop yourself and serve. We have served our way into leadership. We have
Speaker: always had a serving heart. We've always looked for ways, where can I add value? I think that's why I gravitate to John Maxwell so much because his number one thing, his mission, his purpose is to add value to others who will then add value to others. Like he's always about the domino effect. And so I am always looking for how I can serve. And so that has been the secret sauce that I didn't know had me get into circles where I
Speaker: probably had the greatest growth. You know, when we were newly in our, well, fairly new in our network marketing company, the first real one that we had like some real success where we became financially free, how we got that training, we didn't have any upline. Literally, as soon as we got involved within a few months, our sponsor was gone, their sponsor was gone. It was the next up was the co -founder of the company. Like that was it.
Speaker: And so we had to seek out leadership wherever we could.
Speaker: And because we weren't on anybody's team, we just said, Can we serve? Can we come to your event? How can I serve? Can we do from the registration table? Can we help with cleanup? Can we, you know, I remember the number one earner in that company was doing these trainings every Saturday. And he would drive from Austin to Dallas, which was where the corporate headquarters were. And he would do this training. And we said, Hey, can we, can we come early and help you set up? And we're happy to stay late and break down.
Speaker: And we were there really just to serve. And in that time, he started kind of coaching us, asking us about our business and how are things going and giving us tips. And we forged a really great relationship, mentorship. And now we've got this great, almost, you know, 20 -year friendship with him because we just served. So if you're ever looking to lead, my recommendation is be a servant leader, serve.
Speaker: serve wherever you can, provide value wherever you can. Have a heart, because I find the greatest leaders are the leaders that serve, that, that really want to add value to other people, because that's, you want to be a leader that people are endeared to.
Speaker: not someone that people have to follow. You know, that's not a leader. That's a level one leader. That's, that's a title leader. People will do it because they have to, but will they follow you when they don't have to? You know, that's the real question is, are they following you because their life is enhanced by what you do? And if you don't have anything in you to give, then you're never going to be a great leader. So
Speaker: you know, invest in yourself, grow your skill sets. If you've never read the 15 invaluable laws of growth, I would say read that book. It is foundational when it comes to growth and leadership. And so that's always my recommendation is just to serve. That's, that's where we've been able to get in some really incredible circles. It's just serving. And it's not, and we didn't serve in order to get into circles. We served really out of a desire on our heart to provide value for somebody.
Speaker: I love that. Serve at leadership, serve with heart. And I can attest to that. Every conversation I've had, you've always, your heart is just a heart of gold and genuine. And you, you do, you thrive for serving others. And I'm just blessed to know you. So, you know, what was, before we wrap up here, what was, what was it, or was there a pivotal moment where you
Speaker: New you were made for more and how you over, you know came over any obstacles that were in your way You know, it's funny there there have been lots of seasons kind of where that's happened and to be honest with you Laura this Pivot in my career of leaving network marketing and pursuing this Leadership with women that was over 15 years in the making and to be honest I spent 10 years running from that
Speaker: dream, that desire. And I think God placed that dream in my heart. But I let my own thoughts of my own shortcomings stop me from pursuing it. It was really a introverted introspective looking at myself where I was just looking at where I lacked, where I was insufficient, what I didn't have.
Speaker: And in this past year, in 2023, I started really pressing in, like, what would it look like if I were to go for it? What would it look like if I were to go full force? And I remember being at Ray Higdon's event, Faith Over Fear, and listening to Cap Chatfield speak. And he's a digital marketer. And he said, whose life is on the line because you won't get online? And it hit me. Like, it pierced my heart. And I thought,
Speaker: whose life is not getting changed because I'm unwilling to step out of my comfort zone to share what I know. Because I still get moved by that because I know that God allowed me to walk through the fire and not smell like smoke. And I need to reach back into the fire and grab a hand of somebody and help them out of the fire. And I hadn't been doing that. I did that in network marketing and that was great.
Speaker: But I feel like I have a greater reach that I can reach out and help more people get out of the fire. You know, one of the things that John Maxwell says is a leader will always have a ladder and a really great leader doesn't just put the ladder down and have someone climb. A great leader puts the ladder down, climbs down the ladder and holds the ladder steady so that that person can climb out of the pit to their next higher level. And that's something that I hadn't been doing. I,
Speaker: got too consumed with my own thinking about what I was short and not consumed enough by the person that's wanting that ladder. And so I said, I gotta, I gotta go and give the ladder. I gotta throw the rope down to the next person to help pull them up. I gotta help someone through the fire. And so when I shifted my focus to what I could provide for somebody else who was still going through the fire,
Speaker: that just lit something in me that just had me not even think about all the things that I couldn't do. I just started focusing on what can I do? What can I provide? And that was a long journey of doing that, but I just pressed in. And there's lots, lots more of things that didn't go right. And I am a firm believer of
Speaker: When things don't go as planned, there must be a reason for it. There must be a greater reason for it. So I wasn't always like that, but I've learned to be that way. I've developed that muscle. And I just want to encourage people that no matter where you are, no matter, don't ever get sucked into, this is how I am. This is not how you are. This is how you are right now. But this doesn't have to be how you are forever. And it's because you don't have a muscle to be any other way yet.
Speaker: and you can develop the muscle at any time. And it might take a lot. It might take you something, a lot more effort than somebody else to develop that muscle, but you can develop the muscle. Everybody has it in them.
Speaker: Oh, yeah, it's like a you're shifting your paradigm. And it's it's hard. It's not easy. But the more you do, the more easier it becomes. I, I love that. So you mentioned you are transitioning from the network marketing space. Yes, right. A little bit about what you're doing. So my passion, my real passion is working with women and developing them developing their leadership, developing
Speaker: whatever the greatness is inside of them. Like one of the things I love, like I said earlier, is I love helping someone, someone discover their own greatness. Like you have greatness in you. That's already out, Laura, but you have even more greatness in you that's yet to be discovered by you. And so one of the things I love to do is I love to create an atmosphere, an environment,
Speaker: for you to be able to discover your own greatness. Like I can help you grow that, but it's really creating that atmosphere. So this year I'm doing my very first seminar, in -person seminar called Unlocked Keys to Leading with Grace and Power. So I believe that women either lean on the side of grace or they lean on the side of power. I believe that all women can be powerful and graceful at the same time.
Speaker: that they can love and be firm at the same time, that they can be strong and be soft at the same time, that you can go and develop that naturalness in your own leadership ability. You don't have to look like me. You don't have to look like you. You can, whoever you are, your own essence, your own flavor, your own aroma of leadership, I want to help develop that. And so that's the first seminar. I'll be doing intensives. I'll be doing masterminds.
Speaker: But I am so excited. I have never felt this alive about doing something as I do now. Like I've loved my 20 year career network market. I have loved being an engineer. I've loved all of that. But I am stepping into a season where I just, I know lives are going to be changed. I'm excited that I get to participate in that kind of change.
Speaker: I am so excited for you. I just know you're going to change so many women's lives. You can hear it in your voice. I have not seen you this excited. I can't wait. I cannot wait. Before we close here, is there anything else you'd like to share with our listeners? I really just want to encourage everybody to just get into a place where you're growing yourself.
Speaker: Like that, the most important thing that you can ever invest in is in yourself. Like when you develop yourself, you develop your skills and you can do it in any area, you know, you can focus on being a better parent. You could focus on being a better spouse. You can focus on being a better friend. You can focus on being better in your finances. It doesn't matter what area you focus on you being better because when you have a heightened awareness in one area,
Speaker: it will naturally heighten the awareness in all the areas of your life. Just have that be part of your daily plan is just being, growing yourself, being intentional about it. You don't have to spend a lot of time growing yourself. If you invest 30 minutes a day and you can be listening to something while you're doing your makeup, while you're doing your hair, you can invest that time listening to something. If you do that every day,
Speaker: 365 days a year, five years in a row. In five years, you are not going to recognize yourself. You are going to be someone completely different. And that is only listening 30 minutes a day to something positive. Well, I'm not even talking about reading books and going to seminars and watching YouTube videos. And you can add all that. But if all you do is just 30 minutes a day,
Speaker: of listening to something positive. And you can listen to an audio book and just listen to that every day, 365 days a year, five years from now, you will be completely unrecognizable. So I just, I'm excited for those of you who are, and I challenge you. I challenge everybody who's hearing my voice to do something and stretch yourself. Over the next year, do something to stretch yourself and see where you are one year from now. So whatever you're doing, amp it up, amp it up, whatever you're doing.
Speaker: amp it up. Yes. And there's no excuses. I listen to my audio books, excuse me, audio books and when I'm taking a bath, doing my makeup. So all of that Mary just said, do take on her challenge. I love it. I love it.
Speaker: Well, you know, as we conclude our conversation with the beautiful Mary, it's evident that her journey is a powerful illustration of the belief that we are all indeed made for more. Her story serves as a beacon of true leadership, grounded in service, faith and unwavering belief in one's potential. You know, Mary, how can our listeners support you and your work and connect with you after this?
Speaker: Well, you can always find me on my website, maryamoytho .com. Find me on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook. There is not, I don't know if there's another Mary Amoytho out there. So it's easy to find my, all of my social media handles are Mary Amoytho. So I would love to connect with you and
Speaker: If you send me a message, definitely send me messages. I always love to hear from people and what you took away. I respond to them, not some VA, not some bot, but I respond to them. And it's something funny like I like to do is I like to mess with people's VAs in their bots because I know a lot of people have them, but I like to respond to them all myself. I'm going to test you on that. I'm going to send my bot over to you.
Speaker: Oh my goodness. Well, thank you so much, Mary. Thank you everyone for tuning in to Mamas Who Lead with the inspirational Mary Amoido. Her transition from humble beginnings to monumental success and network marketing challenges us to pursue our highest potential fearlessly. Mary's life proves the impact of faith, family and dedication.
Speaker: To all our listeners, remember you too are made for more. Embrace your path and never stop reaching for the stars. Until next time, keep leading with heart and don't forget to support each other on this journey. Mary's, excuse me, Mary's narrative reminds us of that the perseverance, passion and purpose achieving our dreams is within reach. Her success in network marketing not only highlights her personal achievements, but also underscores the power of believing in oneself and the importance of lifting others along the way.
Speaker: For those inspired by Mary's story, remember her journey is a testament to the idea that no matter where you start, your aspirations and goals are valid and achievable. It's about taking the first step, staying true to your values, and always striving for growth both both personally and professionally. We hope today's episode has ignited a spark within you to explore your own potential and consider the impact you can make in your community and beyond.
Speaker: Mary's journey from an engineer to a network marketing leader showcases the endless possibilities when we dare to dream big and lead with an intention. Stay tuned for more episodes of Mamas Who Lead, where we'll continue to share empowering stories of women making a difference. Connect with us on our social media platforms to join our community of powerful, inspiring women. Women, share your thoughts, stories, and let us know what topics you'd like to hear about
Speaker: About future episodes, thank you again, Mary, for sharing your incredible journey with us and for being a beacon of inspiration to women everywhere. And to our listeners, thank you for joining us. Remember, you have the strength, the courage, and the potential to lead and make a difference. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun, Laura. It was. Thank you. Bye.
