Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Heintz.
Amanda, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I guess you could say it started the day that I lost it all. I’m sure we could go back to the childhood moments of who I was, and the personality traits I embodied as a young girl that led me to be here today, but as much as I resemble her at times she was lost somewhere along the way.
When I decided to leave college to get married and start a family at 21, I was told I was taking the hard road and I was at peace with that in my heart. I was willing to work whatever shift was available, spend long hours away from my family to provide, and rarely see my first child while he attended daycare from sun up to sun down and came home with my husband when he got off work. To me, it was all I knew of working-class middle America, being the daughter of a Houston Police Officer, I knew the life of rare but precious time spent with my Dad was because he was providing for our family and following his passions and dreams.
A busy Mom of three, Wife, Entrepreneur, and millions of other hats I wear daily… we have built our businesses and dreams of the moments where we feared we had lost it all while life sat in complete broken shambles. Overcoming traumas that have brought me to my knees in constant prayer and self-reflection, I realized we ALL deserved more in life, financially, and as a family. There is something about a woman who knows what real life loss and mental torture feel like, she fears nothing and never looks back unless it is to remind the skeptics who she is.
A background in sales/customer service in banking and aviation gave me the bare bones needed in understanding what the highest end and business focused individual expected in their investments and communication. When I stumbled upon one of the biggest blessings while in the lowest and most unassuming places of my life, Network Marketing in an innovative Health and Wellness Nutritional Company in November of 2014, I realized quickly that my clients were now not just people just like me but also anyone I could reach and interact with and anywhere!
So many experiences, failures, and life-changing achievements brought me to leading a team to over seven figures in sales and thousands of happy monthly return customers for four years. Successes in this space wherein correlation of sharing with purpose and empowering the men and women who are looking to change it all, even with adversity and life constantly changing the game.
After learning that it was OK to pursue my passion and love for helping others in a space that many people look down on, judge, and misunderstand I truly saw a vision for more in my personal space and future. This is when I felt confident it was time to take all of my life experiences, the personality and gift of gab, and genuine love for meeting new people and help them smile while empowering them to see more in themselves and for their futures.
So, here we are, the moment I am most proud of, the moment where I turned my mess into my message and started Amanda Heintz-She Changed It All! Personal Mentorship and Motivational speaking is probably the business most people are NOT shocked I decided to build. I am booking and hosting events to serve my passion, faith, purpose, and bring others to a new place in their own lives. I couldn’t be prouder of this project!
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The roads of my LIFE have been an off-road rugged terrain hot mess, while it has helped me navigate the winding long country roads of success in business and entrepreneurship.
In 2012, I was working in banking and pregnant with my second son. Even though financially we lived to pay our monthly bills and barely have anything left over when we started a new month, we were making it. I thought that was what I was supposed to have, all that I was worthy of, but had no idea I was about to lose almost everything.
October 29, 2012, I remember checking in on my best friend Sandra Kay Perry who was due to have her first baby at any moment. I had Nolan who was one month old and Hunter who was four, and I just remember I wanted to tell her about how hard my day had been with the new baby and see how she was feeling. She texted me back after a brief call to tell me she would call me after her guests left, but I never received that call and assumed it was because she was tired I didn’t worry about it one bit. That was the last time I ever spoke to her.
My world came crashing down that next day as I stood in my Parents living room. My mom received the phone call, I could it in hear her voice something was wrong but I didn’t know who was on the other end of the line. So, as I stood there holding my one-month-old baby, I felt my mom grab him from my arms and hand him over to my dad while telling me I need to sit down. I guess you could say that is where this all began, I guess you could say it is also where the woman who I had once been left forever. This is the moment I lost my best friend and her unborn daughter to the hands of domestic violence. We had planned our lives together as mothers, just like sisters, and had envisioned our children growing up together, but it looked like I had no idea the direction my story would take next.
November 2013, after battling depression and anxiety over the last year and losing my job at the bank, I was learning to deal with the grief and this trauma in the best way I knew how while still being a wife and mother. One night after coming home from work, my son had hit his head and started to act a little strange so we took him to the ER to be checked out. It was also during this long and difficult year; Nolan had presented seizures but they had been dismissed by the pediatrician as febrile and nothing concerning. I had a gut feeling it was more, but trusted they knew more than I did and we’re doing the right thing. We rushed Nolan that evening to the emergency room for scans and I still believe there is a piece of my heart laying on the floor of that room. I never imagined I would hear the words “Mam, I need you to sit down” in the same tone my Mom had just used a year previous to tell me what I heard next.
“Your son has a 5 cm mass in his right temporal lobe.”
I could go over all the emotions with you all, but words do not describe it. I could describe the aches the torturous pain’s, the breath being sucked out of my body, the pulsating swelling feeling in my brain it because it couldn’t process the information… but honestly, there are no words to describe at all. People ask me still today “How” “how did you do it?”, and my answer is so honest and simple because it is what a parent does when their child is incapable of understanding or being able to face fears in their own strength. It is what a mother does when her child hurts or is scared.
That Christmas Eve we started our journey at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital with Dr. David Sandberg and his amazing UT Physician’s Neurosurgery team. I can tell you that I have never been a trusting person until the moment I met Dr. Sandberg in the emergency room that night, his eyes locked in with mine while I held a screaming baby wrapped in a hospital blanket to get his IV line in, and that was when God let me know this was the man I would put be putting all my faith in to keep my child alive and thriving.
Well, that wouldn’t be the last time, I would have to meet him in that same scenario, we met again a few months later for a second repeat brain surgery, and this one would be different. After his second surgery when we went back to the recovery unit, we were met with doctors and nurses shoving us to the sides as they ran to our child’s bedside. This is where we learned Nolan with no rhyme or reason had lost all function on the left side of his body, and with no explanation, we had no answer whether it would be temporary or long term. God was definitely testing my faith, to be honest, I believe I lost it and didn’t regain it until a couple of weeks later when Hunter, his big brother, came to visit and play upstairs with him for a few minutes. The light that we had seen in Nolan before was back. He so badly wanted to play with his big brother that he got up out of the wagon, wobbly and weak with his strength on his right side, but then moved his left leg. We knew this was the moment our baby was not going to give up, he wanted more. He faced a 3rd brain surgery seven months in and this is where I realized he was a true miracle, my biggest hero, and he taught me my new outlook on life wasn’t to just sit down and give up but to FIGHT for the life WE deserve.
NOTHING about pursuing something very few do is easy. If it was everyone would be doing it. People ask me all the time HOW to get started and especially young women looking for new options as they are just getting started learning the hardships of life, family, and career.
My advice, tune THEM out while you LISTEN to your heart. CHIN UP through it all, face it with your head up and eyes open, those challenges you face are stepping stones to your blessings!
Please tell us more about your work, what you are currently focused on and most proud of.
I love this question so much. I personally started off into this world of entrepreneurship blind, excited, and just eager to make an impact in someone’s life.
It started off with a product that gave me everything I needed to take control of my health, but even better to get my mindset to a place of positivity and motivated to do more for myself and family. I do not believe in quick fixes nor do I believe in magical products that do all the work for you. What I do believe in is filling the body’s nutritional gaps with premium grade nutrition, vitamins and minerals, and that it can fire all cylinders to be able to kickstart the motivation to get up and live a healthier and more active lifestyle.
Four and a 1/2 years later, I have been working from my phone with a team who has done seven figures in sales & THOUSANDS of lives changed as customers while living the lifestyle as a wife and mother of three constantly on the go and building daily. Network marketing was never where I saw myself, even when some of my closest friends were at the top of their companies and showing me their opportunity. Network marketing came into my life when I wasn’t looking for a business, but I fell in love with the product, and knew that I wanted everyone to experience and feel what I was every day! So, I decided to lead with purpose and passion versus monetary goals and trying to sell sell sell. When people see genuine and honest intent, they trust your level of integrity, and you wear your heart on your sleeve while standing behind what it is you do… You will be successful.
Now, today, I have evolved my experiences in life, business, family, and all of the crazy road that has led me here to this very moment into my Personal Brand Amanda Heintz- She Changed It All. This is what I am most proud of, this is the purpose I knew I was headed to fulfill with all of the trauma and ups and downs I’ve experienced, & this part of my story had to be told from my point of view. I found that when speaking to other women, mothers, fathers, and even just a stranger in the grocery store or baseball practice; that they were too struggling with things in life that were holding them back. It may not have been a major trauma or loss, but so many people find themselves STUCK in life with the notion that this is just how it is supposed to be. They give up.
My mentorship and motivational speaking business is new and growing so quickly. My story and personally sharing my life, how I have overcome and achieved what I have today as far as personal self-confidence, financially broken to secure and providing new experiences for our children, our growth as a family and married couple, & using life’s chaos and messes to step up and grow to new and beautiful places… that is something I have been doing daily for the last four years. Now, my vision is to expand to being face to face with people who want more, who are ready to rise above what the rest of the world thinks they have to settle for, or maybe the people who do not even know that they need to hear my story yet. I want to share it all with the masses so that if it touches their life in any way to be better I know it all had a purpose!
Whether it is a conference, private event, team building event, one on one video meeting, or a workshop… I want to bring the raw and vulnerable emotion from my heart to yours in my mission to support and grow from this crazy thing we call LIFE!
It would be great to hear about any apps, books, podcasts or other resources that you’ve used and would recommend to others.
Oh man, THE BOOKS, coming from a girl who couldn’t sit still in school and only read in the Summer to win Astroworld tickets, I can’t believe I am actually even saying this!
Tim Tebow actually started my addiction to reading for daily personal development, I truly admire his commitment and unwavering pride in his faith and journey with God before everything else.
Rachel Hollis, she doesn’t know it yet, but we are best friends in my head because of I HIGH FIVE her and “YASSS GIRL” her every page I turn in her “Girl Wash your Face” and “Girl Stop Apologizing” books!
LOVE podcasts on the go, but so many on my list that I just say go for all of them and experience what fits your mood for the day!
And LASTLY, the best resource, the words of support and future inspirations my husband Forrest Heintz and I share every day and night before bed. He has been the best source of encouragement and motivation outside of our life events. I want him to know HE is my secret weapon!
Contact Info:
- Phone: 832-386-9850
- Email: shechangeditall@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shechangeditall
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/shechangeditall
- Other: https://www.changeitall.le-vel.com
Image Credit:
Jennifer Larussi-Johnson, Sweet Magnolia Photography
Getting in touch: VoyageHouston is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
