Doing more of what makes you happy with Amy McLaren

Your Dream Business

English - August 09, 2021 00:00 - 49 minutes - 45.3 MB - ★★★★★ - 34 ratings
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Previous Episode: Tips for managing your time during the Summer break

Next Episode: Why you can’t do it all on your own and what help you need

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with the lovely Amy McLaren who is the CEO of three passion-led businesses - Lady Strength where she takes women on trips that get them to leave their comfort zone, a charity called Village Impact where they help build schools in Kenya and a luxury Airbnb!

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

Take one step at a time and just put one step in front of the other.You can learn so much about yourself when you are put in an uncomfortable situation.It took 3 years for Amy to write and publish her new book.Your legacy and the impact you have on the world starts from the little things we do every day.We can all do more good in the world.Giving back doesn’t have to be a huge gesture – you can start small.Just be kind - in life and business.You may never know how much of an impact a simple act of kindness can have one someone.Living with passion doesn’t have to be expensive and you don’t have to change your whole life.Do more of what makes you happy and brings you joy to fulfil your passion. This could just be small moments of your day, not your whole life.There is no point doing something that makes you unhappy or feel unfilled.We are all here for a purpose and to do something.People never forget how you make them feel.It is important to encourage our children that they can have what they desire, but they have to work for it!Take a moment to check in with your life and ask yourself if you being intentional with your time and what you are doing.If this was it – would you be happy?

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Do more of what makes you happy and brings you joy!

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

An introduction to Amy – 05:00Women in business – 18:45Turning passion into purpose – 21:46The myths about living passionately – 29:48Leaving a legacy – 35:04True happiness in your life – 45:05

CHECK AMY OUT:

Book – Passion to Purpose

Website

Transcript Below

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So if you are new around here, welcome, it's lovely to have you here. If you've been listening for a while then welcome.

You're still very, very welcome to be here. Also, if you've been listening for a while and you feel like sharing this podcast, I would be so very grateful. It's like with everything you have to just keep working at it and working at it and working at it. And even though we are over 200 episodes, we still keep, to keep having to work at followers and get the podcast in front of people. So I would really, really appreciate it. And by all means, tag me in, and then I will share your post to my audience. I would really appreciate that. So anyway, thank you for that. Um, okay. This week we have an interview. And it's a really, really good interview.

It's with a lovely lady called Amy McLaren. And you know, when you meet someone or you talk to someone and you think, "Oh my God, you are like so genuine and nice, such a lovely person." Well, that's exactly what I felt when talking to Amy. She was just so nice. We had such a nice chat. It was really, really good.

KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST

THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…

Do more of what makes you happy and brings you joy!

HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS

CHECK AMY OUT:

Book – Passion to Purpose

Website

Transcript Below

Hello, and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are you doing? So if you are new around here, welcome, it's lovely to have you here. If you've been listening for a while then welcome.

Amy is a mum of two. She's a CEO, adventurer, a tea lover. When I say I love tea for those of you know, I mean, gin. So I don't think she means that, but I think she does like gin as well. A ceiling pusher, first-time author and a people connector, experienced maker ride-or-die friend, Peleton crusher, wife, Airbnb entrepreneur, and Founder of Village Impact and Lady Strength.

That's an amazing bio. So basically Amy came on to talk about the fact that she has a new book coming out. The premise around the whole book. So the book's called Passion to Purpose and she's put together this book to talk about how you can take yourself from living with passion and having a life full of passion.

And we talked about that a lot. We talked about kind of the the journey she's gone through with the various different businesses that she's got her charity, which, oh my goodness. Like when you hear what she's done with this charity and, and the lives that should have impacted is huge. Her business Lady Strength when she does masterminds and adventure travels and that sort of thing.

And then, as I said, this brand new book that's come out, which I've already gotten order and I will link to it in the show notes. Amy has had a really interesting and busy life like this lady has got plenty to do, and yet somehow still manages to achieve amazing things and live a life that she absolutely loves with passion.

And I just think it's such an amazing message. I'm really excited to hear for you to hear this episode this week. Because I think we need to remind ourselves that we're not just doing this for, you know, we're not just in this business thing and we're not just like running these homes and families or whatever we're doing for the sake of it.

You know, we get one life. We need to enjoy every flippin at moments of it. We need to embrace it and, and do things that lights us up and we enjoy. And I just think it's really interesting to hear. The kind of take that she's come from and some of the stuff she's done, it's been really, really amazing. So I am going to let you just get on and listen to this episode, here is the lovely Amy McLaren.

So I am super excited today to welcome to the podcast the very lovely Amy McLaren. Amy, thank you so much for joining me.

Amy: Oh, thank you. It's um, it's so fun. Cause you're, you're being British. It's like, I am British myself, so I like, I love chatting with people from the UK. It's my day.

Teresa: Got me. Cause to listen to you, Amy you certainly don't sound British. Like this.

Amy: No. I know, but I still say a few words. Um, but you know, I was born in Oxford, England in a little village, uh, born in the Marlcliff but grew up in a little village called Tackley um, near Banbury, Kidlington area. Um, yeah, so I am UK. I still call myself British. Um, but I do sound very Canadian as well.

Teresa: I love it. I love it. I love it. So Amy I'm really excited for this conversation. Say you've got some great stuff to share with us, but let's just by the start by introducing you to my audience, tell them who you are and how you get to do what you do today.

Amy: Sure. So my name is Amy McLaren. I am a mom. I have two young kids. I have a ten-year-old daughter who I think sometimes is 16.

I don't know how that goes. Um, and I have a little, um, we adopted a little boy from South Africa and his name is Sam and he's seven. And I also have, I guess I'm a fur baby mom. We have a golden labradoodle. That's like my home life. And then I'm an entrepreneur at heart and I have, um, a few passion-led businesses.

So I have my charity that I started called Village Impact with my husband, where we help build schools in Kenya. And then I also have a brand called Lady Strength where I love getting out there and traveling around the world and taking women on really trips that are pushing them out of their comfort zone in a lot of different ways through Lady Strength.

And then my most recent passion-led business is I'm a luxury Airbnb that I just started. So I'm definitely a passion-led entrepreneur.

Teresa: And you are busy. Like that is a lot of stuff. I mean, I have an 11-year-old girl. I totally get the going on 16, like.

Amy: Scary. Right. It's scary.

Teresa: You try and think back in there.

I'm sure. I wasn't like that. I'm sure I wasn't that confident and that kind of like. So aware of the world and stuff, but they're hilarious. They have grown up so, so fast. And now I don't know about your daughter, but mine won't let me choose her clothes.

Amy: No, I know I've I haven't had that for a while and my daughter is really into.

Which I guess is a good thing. She loves comfy baggy big clothes because she just likes to be comfortable. So I'm kind of like, whoa, that's good. At least I'm not fighting like. Short crop tops and all that other stuff. Maybe, maybe it'll come. I'm not there yet.

Teresa: We have the crop top thing and we are real time.

Luckily now it's like, it's not crop, but it stops at her waist. So I can just about manage that. But yeah. Children aside life is crazy busy. So tell me about, did they come in the order in which you said, so was it the charity first, then your business and obviously the, the Airbnb. So tell me about the charity and what made you even start down that route? Why you wants to do it?

Amy: Yeah. So, absolutely. So first of all, like you said, these three businesses did not happen overnight, and nor did they happen in the last, like they happened, like you said, in a sequence. So the first one for me was my desire to give back and creating Village Impact. And I, um, like as I mentioned, I grew up in the UK.

My parents were wonderful. We did a lot of traveling, which I miss. Like I travel a lot now, but being in the UK, you're so lucky because you get to go to all these different places for like a weekend or whatever you want to do. So we did that as a kid growing up, but my, my parents were really good and showing that we can give back in all these different ways.

So we were at soup kitchens. I mean, we had strangers over for dinners because they had nowhere to go and my mom wanted to give them a home to come to, like we were like shelters. So we did all this growing up and that kind of thread of giving back and the desire to help more kind of carried on through my twenties and I volunteered at the hospital and was always doing something.

And, and then my husband and I started a business together and we gave some of those profits away, but my charity really started. And it sounds so funny. Cause at the time I wouldn't have seen it as a pivotal moment in our life by any means, but we were sitting down watching TV. And at that point in my career, I would, so I was a teacher by trade.

I went to school for teachers, teachers college. I taught grade 1 for 10 years. At this point in my career, it was like my seventh year and I was not enjoying it. I felt really trapped. My spark had like completely gone. So we were anyway, we were sitting down one night watching Oprah's Big Give and for anyone that has seen Oprah before, I mean, everyone loves Oprah and wants to be Oprah.

Of course. So we were watching the show, this Big Give show. And I said to my husband, I'm like, oh my goodness. I'm like, I want to do what she's doing. Like, I want to go back to you know, traveling overseas and helping abroad because growing up in all of my twenties, I was living with Thai families. I was in refugee camps.

Like I was immersed in completely different cultures. And I like truly love that. I love learning from other people and what I can, you know, learning from other cultures, because I think there's so much in that. And, um, I was kind of in teaching and I didn't feel like I was filling my buckets or going up that way.

So we've watched this show and, um, my husband doesn't drink, so, and that's okay. He loves water. I should drink more water, but he loves water. I was drinking my wine. Right. And we're sitting there and we're watching the show and I just said like, that's what I want to do, but I want to do it. At an international scale because that's what brings me joy.

Like that's what opens my heart. Like that is truly what I love to do. And he, and I'll never forget. He's like Amy, he's like, he's like, when do you want to do it? And I'm like, well, Christmas. Right? Cause as a teacher, you only get two weeks off. So he's like, okay. And I'm like, all right, let's do it. You're the business guy.

Like you, you make the money. I think of how we can make the money and I'll organize because I don't know. I don't know about you. I love organizing stuff.

Teresa: And especially trips and things like that. And yeah, having it all there, making sure everything's all done. Love it.

Amy: Yeah. So we did and we sat and I, so, um, we did, we organized a fundraiser and we basically asked seven, um, entrepreneurial friends at that time, if they would share their predictions for the upcoming year in their business.

And they're like, okay, that sounds good. And they did. And when then we charged people to listen to that advice and. Um, at that time, it was a teleseminar, which is essentially a webinar that people paid to listen to that information. And we raised $14,000 and it was crazy. Right. And like two days. And we, so we took that money.

We took it down to El Salvador. We helped at an orphanage. We helped at a school. Um, we did, we lived with a family in there, um, up on the top of the mountain. They didn't speak English and we didn't, and obviously, I wouldn't expect them to, but you know, there was no, it was a little hard to communicate a little, but I love that stuff.

It was fun. And we learned a lot and we helped and we're coming back that day and on the plane and students like, okay, I think I know what you want to do. And I'm like, And then the next Christmas we did the same thing. We raised some more money and then we went to Africa and that's kind of like the start of what now, you know, like, and again, 10 years later, that's not overnight 10 years later.

Now we have quite a big nonprofit. We have a small staff, but we built 15 schools, um, helping over 5,000 kids. And we partnered with the government. So we're really big on partnerships and community-led. And we partnered with the government. So our schools are built and the government sustains them by supplying the teachers.

And essentially run some. And that was a really big for me, like Stu and I were to walk away. I never want something to crumble, so they, um, they would still happen. Everything would still go on. Um, but that's essentially my long story like Village Impact. And then just as Village Impact has grown I've, I love the travel and pushing out of my comfort zone, which created Lady Strength which is only really a couple of years old or a few years old. And then my Airbnb experience, we've always invested in real estate, but never short-term rentals. And that's really come about in the last year. Um, cause I really believe we'll get one thing going right before you, I can't do all those things at once.

Teresa: And that's the thing, you know when we said at the beginning and I was at I bet that is a lot of work, but of course what happens is you build it and then you get processes and systems and team, and then you find, you can pull away from the everyday grind of it and do something else. So tell me about Village Impact because I mean, that is just phenomenal.

I don't know. And I think you'll probably younger than I am, but I don't it's my age. I'm 40. I can't remember three, two.

Amy: I'm not, I'm not far behind you.

Teresa: Recently. I've got really passionate about the injustice of some of the things that are in this world and how people have to live or how they're treated.

And, and more and more, I'm starting to think. I'm starting to see that growing the business I have and growing my own wealth can now impact on other people. And that's exactly what, you know, what you guys have done. You've, you've built something to impact and help other people. Was there a point where you were like, geez, I'm out of my depth on this because I wouldn't even know where to start.

And especially in teaming up with, you know, the government and that sort of thing, like how did you know how to do this?

Amy: Oh, I, I didn't, I did, I didn't at the start. It was messy, like so messy. Like when we started, we, um, we actually were running the fundraisers through our business, so we were paying tax dollars on the donations personally, and everything was such a mess. Um, but I didn't know what to do. So to me, I Googled like how do I start a charity? And I literally found a good lawyer in Toronto who still works with us today. And I said to him, I'm like, "Okay I want to start a charity. What do you think?" And he actually said to me, which was great advice.

He's like, "Well, do you want to start a foundation? Or do you want to start a charity? Because if you want to start a charity that is essentially another corporation it's another business." And it is, I mean, a charity, like I have a board of directors, I have some staff it's, it's run like a business. So that was a good eye-opener for me in a great conversation.

And I think a lot of people don't realize the options or different things that you can do. Like you don't have to start a big nonprofit. There's the option of a foundation or these other little things that you can do. So now I've gone on a chance. We were just talking about that and I want to make sure I answered your question.

So, no, it was never, it was messy at the start. Do you know what I mean? It was like, I just put one foot in front of the other, and then it's grown over time. And now I have a greater understanding than what I did. I didn't know how to start a nonprofit 10 years ago and working with the government has come from just our relationships that we've built on the ground over time.

So we've managed to build some really great relationships with the Kenyan community and they've led us to be able to have the relationships that we do with the government today.

Teresa: That's amazing. And I think there was a few really good messages in there for, for people who are listening, one, you just took one step in front of the other, and I think sometimes we get so sort of concerned by looking at someone who's way futher ahead in the journey of us and thinking, "Well I could never do that. How on earth could I ever do that?" Well, yeah, but you couldn't do that on day one and you get to that point and another thing, I think that is so important and funny enough, I've just been early on today. I was writing some emails cause I batch write emails and things, and I was talking about, you need, you need a team.

And if that team is a good partner or a VA or community, or, but it is about networking, it's about like knowing you can't do this on your own and building...