#232: Focusing on why, midlife beginnings, and are you financially illiterate? with Amy Rowlinson.

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EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION

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Please note that while an effort is made to provide an accurate transcription, errors and omissions may be present. No part of this transcription can be referenced or reproduced without permission.

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Amy Rowlinson  0:00  
So if you are at any point in life and thinking that it's too late to achieve or to, to have or to be who you might have been, then know that it is not know that it is never too late and that it's possible to, to really go for what you want to in life. So from that perspective, what is it that you are holding back from? What is it that you are not pursuing that you would love to? And just focus on on why and have a little think about that? And it goes back to that whole concept of before of being on that autopilot? Are you living or are you existing? Are you? Is your work fulfilling? Or are you just filling in the moments? And are you taking responsibility for your life?

Agi Keramidas  0:48  
You are listening to personal development mastery podcast, where you will find inspirational conversations and actionable takeaways to master yourself and improve your life. I am your host Agi Keramidas, and my mission is to inspire you to grow, stand out and take action towards a purposeful and fulfilling life. I interview successful entrepreneurs, authors, thought leaders, spiritual teachers, people who share their journey, aha moments, milestones and failures for you to be inspired to grow. In each episode, Monday and Thursday, you will find actionable takeaways that you can implement right now, even if you only have limited time. Today's episode is focusing on why? Why do people do what they do? The big purpose? Let's dive right in.

Agi Keramidas  1:49  
In today's show, I am delighted to speak with Amy Rowlinson. Amy, you are a life purpose coach, professional speaker and also a residential portfolio landlord, you have a fascination for understanding why people do what they do. And on your podcast focus on why weights ranks in the global top 1% You shine the light on purpose fulfilment and curiosity to empower others to forge their own paths. Your mission as a podcaster. And a life purpose coach is to gift a living legacy for inspiration, insight and knowledge and to create positive ripple effects. Amy, welcome to the show. It's such a pleasure to speak with you today.

Amy Rowlinson  2:36  
Oh, thank you. It's great to be on another show with another fellow podcaster.

Agi Keramidas  2:42  
That's, it is exciting. And we were saying that before we started recording that we are not only our fellow podcasters. But our podcasts have over 200 episodes, which is not something that many podcasts have. So it certainly demonstrates consistency.

Amy Rowlinson  3:03  
And with quality there Aggie so it's not just consistently putting episodes out there but consistently putting out great episodes.

Agi Keramidas  3:11  
Exactly, it's matters. It matters. Amy, I would like to start this conversation just by you giving us a little bit of background. Specifically, I would like to ask you in your journey. Would you pick maybe a specific key defining moment or milestone that really changed things? Maybe in this sense of what you're doing and coaching and things like that personal development? I mean,

Amy Rowlinson  3:44  
yeah, there's a couple of key moments for me. So I call myself a midlife beginner. And instead of choosing to say that I've had midlife crises, there have definitely been midlife beginnings instead. And what that sort of looks like from an outer perspective is that I've I've changed the way that my family dynamic have been operating. So going back to 2016, I recognise that my husband was not doing well in his health. And it was because of his work environment. That was not it wasn't it wasn't great for him. He needed to leave and easily that environment. And looking at the sort of spreadsheet they'd put together of what the life plan was going to be. He had several more years to carry on working before he could take the opportunity to leave where he was working. And so I started to do some research into what I could do to help I was already gone back to work, having been at home for a long time with the children. And it wasn't working that way. So I quit my job. And I started to build a portfolio property portfolio that would allow him to step away from where he was working. It would Give us an alternative income. And it would mean that he could not work the crazy hours that he'd been working for a considerable number of years. So it was a health warning that we got it was It wasn't anything. And speaking to lots of people on my podcast now I realised that it was a catalyst I caught or it was at an early stage that I caught before it got much worse. And as a result of that, he did retire in 2019. So it took me three years to build a portfolio. He's now taken over the running of that. And I'm stepping into my space, which is what I absolutely love doing, which is coaching and podcasting. Now, in between that the second sort of key milestone was at the beginning of lockdown. I'd been running a podcast and a training property, business and network event with another business, another partner, business partner. And at the beginning of lockdown, instead of taking all of our business online, he just said he wanted you to go into a different direction, that classic word of pivot time that everybody was using. And I took a good look at what I was doing with the property work and the training and the mentoring, and the coaching. And when I actually stepped back and had a good sort of reflection on what I was doing, it was the personal development. It was the mindset, it was the life purpose areas that I absolutely loved helping people with more so than the practical side of the property, albeit that none of that was really important to me. It was it was those other elements. So when I focused on why, and what I loved doing, it was the podcasting. And it was a coaching. So again, I also had a pivot at that point. And it was a case of one door closed, I opened another door and the beginning of focus on why started. And that was at the beginning of April 2020. And here we are, you know, several years or two years just over two years later, and over 281 episodes at point of recording later. There's been a lot of change in my life. And again, a lot of midlife beginnings. Podcasting is a medium that I absolutely love. I feel that it is a very comfortable space for me to share the message of myself and the pioneers of purpose that come on the podcast with me.

Agi Keramidas  7:22  
That's wonderful. And I can relate personally with many things that that you said especially with podcasting, which I started this podcast in February 2010 The show only a couple of months before you and it's it's amazing to see the the amount of of work that has been produced. You said the midlife beginnings midlife beginners, that's also something I hadn't heard of it. But it really rang the bell immediately when I went ahead it because I also experienced the same thing, even though I never thought of it to call it like that. But it's great. Now I will certainly utilise that. And your fascination with why, Amy? How did that. Okay, that works stage of your journey.

Amy Rowlinson  8:22  
It's pretty early on Aggie so what happened was I realised having becoming much more educated. And I mean that from many different facets. So from a financial perspective, I realised I was actually quite financially illiterate, as many people are. And that they were I was just following the way that things were done before instead of investigating alternative ways to invest my money and to understand leverage and debt and the difference between assets and liabilities. The same was with other areas such as personal development, I hadn't really explored that. I dabbled a little bit but not really. And whilst I had been raising their children for 14 years at that point, they're now 19 and 17. But I had been sort of oblivious to the whole personal development, swelling of bookshelves that was going on and all that and in all the stores. And so when I started to look into that area, I was on a mission to understand as much as I could about mindset to understand about neuroscience to understand about all the different elements that come together to to make us a better, more knowledgeable person. And I realised that I had been living on autopilot and that I had been spending a lot of my time just going through the motions. So I'm on this personal mission now to help other people to stop filling in the moments and to create fill moments that are fulfilling.

Agi Keramidas  9:53  
That's beautiful. You said can you share briefly one book that that comes to mind that really made not the one but one books that made a big impact on your journey.

Amy Rowlinson  10:07  
Yeah, one of the first books that I read was called the Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod. And what I took away from that was the practice of habits, and particularly morning habits. And now I know the origins of a lot of where those elements came from. He calls them his life savers, and he did go through a horrendous journey. And those six elements did absolutely save his life. And so what I now know is where the origins of those different pieces come from having read a lot more, but he put it into an a very easy, digestible way of processing that and adopting the lifesavers every day. And so from from that perspective, it will welcome me into the world of journaling. It welcomed me into the world of scribing, in terms of writing every day, but also into just understanding the different elements of meditation or of exercise, of course, I was exercising, but just bringing in that as a daily moment of reading, and of affirmation. So that was probably the first pivotal book that sort of set me on the course for the others.

Agi Keramidas  11:23  
Certainly this way of presenting them or these habits that are consistently done in the morning, not only it sets the tone for for the day, by beginning your day with empowering yourself in different areas. But also I have found for me that over time, it compounds you pick up momentum, and it yields tremendous rewards for you know, given given time, it's amazing how much different than the increased compounded, the effects are. With with that, with the cup, it's been repeated. There was another thing that came to my mind earlier on your sign about, you know, being a little bit in and out of the personal development, you know, reading a bit, but not really transformed. And there is and that's the thing with personal development, it's very different reading than, you know, when you read fiction, because you can read the book, but unless you take some action as a result of it, nothing happens, it is what they call shelf development, not self. Defence.

Amy Rowlinson  12:42  
Well, I've got great shelf development behind me. Now, I'm just kidding. I am a big fan of taking action after reading, because I think it was checked off who said that knowledge is of no use unless you apply it. So it is a case of absolutely getting that information into as quickly as I can action after an implementation after I've, I've read something. So I am a big, big advocate of taking whatever you've learned and just applying that into it my my professional or into my personal life.

Agi Keramidas  13:20  
That's wonderful. Can you I would like to ask you about, you know, maybe some insights that you've got working with people, with your clients on this life, purpose, the fulfilment curiosity was some some words, I remember reading in your description. So if I were to ask you, maybe what do you think other some really common challenges that people face in order to really discover who they are internally, so then they can live their life? According to that?

Amy Rowlinson  13:57  
Yeah, I mean, from the perspective of, of where they're coming to me that the best description I've heard, which I feel can be applied to the circumstances that that are presented is that people feel that they're either in a washing machine just going round and round and don't know when the cycle is going to finish and don't know what's going on, or they are at a crossroads. And it's that indecision, and the lack of clarity of what to do and where to go from there. And that's, that's probably the biggest commonality in terms of purpose is the lack of vision, the lack of understanding and direction. And that mainly comes down to not understanding themselves in terms of their core values. Because when you have very clear core values, you can make those decisions. You're not overwhelmed because it's a case of is this aligned with my values, yes or no?

Agi Keramidas  14:53  
So if someone now finds this very interesting, and they would like that idea of values core values that you said, is there some, some resorts or something that you can direct some of us to explore that a bit more?

Amy Rowlinson  15:10  
Yeah, I mean that there's values, tests and quizzes all over the internet for sure. It's something that I work with, with my clients. So I have a free values working that you could apply, you could email me and I can send that to you for sure. But it's a case of just simply not looking at what you think is an ideal value as it What's something that you need to be looking at. It's a system of a social idealism, or as a core element that we all have, you know, integrity, a lot of people say that's a value, it's like, well, actually, that's just something that we all should ascribe to, to living in terms of being a way of living. The core values I'm looking at, are the ones that are help you to steer you and are intrinsic to the way you operate. And they are, for me, it's simple minded minor achievement, their brilliance, its connectedness, diversity and effervescence. So I know that when I have a decision to make, or if I am looking at something new, and I want to know whether that's the right course of action, I just look and say, does that sit with my values am I going to be able to shine then allow those values to come through into this particular area. And when I look at podcasting, I look at coaching 100%, all of those elements come through my work. And that's where there was probably a bit of a misfit with the property world, because it was it was difficult, I had a very clear focus. But it wasn't something that I loved doing. It wasn't something that brought me great energy, the there are elements that were and of course, it was a huge focus for me to get that portfolio to a certain size, because I knew what it would enable my husband to do and it would lead us to freedom. And quite often, there are things that we do in life that aren't sort of in or are in conflict, and they're not in flow with who we are and what we want in terms of what we want to achieve or have. But we understand that they are steps that are going to be taken to allow us to have that freedom. So that that's for that was what was important to me is to help people to look at the values first. I know, we both share a good friend in terms of I haven't met him you have that's Dr. DE Martini. And he is a big advocate of the values. One of my favourite books is the values factor.

Agi Keramidas  17:41  
He came to my mind as well, when you were talking about the the core values and it's a great, I think, resource for someone to investigate the topic of values, which it's so interesting on on its own, and you said about the people doing and I suppose you were referring to the the job that many people do a job in order to get financial compensation in order to, you know, leave or to, to pay the bills. And I think unless one because many people want to get out of that. But unless you have some understanding a clear understanding of who you are, why you want to do it. And what you give me the example of you going through the building the property business that you did, without having, you know, that real passion, but you had a very massive motivator behind you to carry on and do it. And I think my train of thought has taken me to a completely different direction

Unknown Speaker  18:57  
that I started

Agi Keramidas  19:04  
let me ask you, I wanted to ask you then, a comment about your mission, which I read earlier on in the introduction. So I'll repeat that back to you and to the listeners as well. That your mission and responsibility is to give the living legacy of inspiration, insight and knowledge and to create positive ripple effects which it's a beautiful description for me. When I read it. It brings to mind contribution be helping build a better world with your own unique strengths and methods to do it. And it also reminded me of similar elements that I sent about I wanted your your comments on this. So how did that come about? And how does it Feel

Amy Rowlinson  20:01  
feels amazing. And it's been an evolution Aggie, it hasn't just suddenly happened. When I started focus on why as a podcast, I had the I woke up with the idea on the first of April 2020. And by the 30th of April, I'd already recorded over 30 episodes and went live. And that was just, it just came to me that this is what my role right now was to do. And so for me to share those stories, and to then see the ripple effects take place. I didn't necessarily know that that was going to happen right from the start. But I had an inkling of the power of the medium of podcasting that that was possible. And what happened was, there's a, somebody listens to an episode, they then mention it on social media, and they say, Oh, you've got to listen to this episode, because often they list several reasons. Somebody else listens to that, and they recommend it to somebody else. And it just continues that ripple effect of the knock on word of mouth is really powerful. And as a result of that, I now 200 And almost 300 episodes, I wake up or I turn on my phone, and there are messages there. Or there are posts of episodes where people have listened to one. And they're that they've made a decision or they've gone on to do something as a result of hearing what they've heard in a podcast, something has resonated with them, something has spoken to them individually. And they said, Yes, I need to make a change. So this is where the power of the podcast is such that when you know who you can help and the problem that you can solve. And in this instance, for me, it is providing that insight and that knowledge and the stories to others. And I often describe it as being the soundtrack to people's movies that they're playing. So sometimes they don't have that sort of full piece. And that this is a one of the little missing pieces of the jigsaw of life is is this to listen to an episode or so. And so with these living legacy that I'm looking to give, it's a case of I'm instigating change. Now, I don't know what it will go on to be but only know that it will be positive because of the messages that are being shared being positive. And the stories that are being shared. People have gone on to collaborate in businesses as a result of hearing met the people who've spoken on the podcast, there have been huge shift changes in some some people's lives, they've, they've recorded an episode with me gone away, come back and said you can't put that episode out. I'm now totally changing what I'm doing. I'll come back and I'll rerecord and we can share that journey in the podcast. And that was amazing. And so I know that stories are powerful, you know, stories are powerful, the podcast medium is incredible. And so as I go back to when, when I know who I can help and the problem, I can solve the impact that AI can have. And I do place people at the heart of my decisions. And I am creating purposeful, fulfilling work and solving personal professional. And dare I even say global problems. In essence, that purpose is something or lack of purpose. And living a life of purpose is something that we can all share. Because that's what we're here on this planet to do, we're here to serve a purpose. And a lot of people still don't necessarily recognise what that is right now. And that's okay, you know, know that that's okay. That it will come. And that it is simply not to be scared of the word purpose, a lot of people get quite hung up on it. And, and I always just say, just just look at it, look at it as something that you really want to focus on right now. More than anything else in life, and just what is it you want to accomplish? What is it that you want to achieve? And if there's something that you absolutely love, it's likely to be in that space. And like, and also sort of in contrast to that, if there's something that really angers you, that's something that you could choose to channel your purpose around as well. So instead of saying somebody ought to sword or somebody ought to do something about why not that be you?

Agi Keramidas  24:26  
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Agi Keramidas  25:38  
There were many things that came to my mind and the purpose and what you said that some people many people think of it some of that it is a grant or even causing me a metaphysical thing or spiritual bent probably is all of those things, but it doesn't have to be more on our mind, because that makes it much more challenging to, to face and to deal with and what you said about doing things that excites you and you feel passionate, enthusiastic, I think that's the word I was looking for enthusiastic about this is I will live the pathway towards finding and amusing this word. Find the purpose, I will not use it, you know, in the literal meaning of the word because it's other thing it depicts, right? What purposes, it's maybe experiencing it or leaving it as a more proper or appropriate word for the purpose rather than finding that implies that it is some we're waiting.

Amy Rowlinson  26:49  
Maybe creating Aggie or choosing,

Agi Keramidas  26:53  
creating composing. I like the word like composing like a song like a poem. That is how purpose feels like when you create it like that. It's not one given point and either sides of the point. So it's ongoing. There was also I wanted to ask you, you mentioned about the power of the medium of podcasting. And that's also something another thing that we have in common that we help others who want to create podcasts. And I wanted to ask you because you know, it's it's beautiful, when what you were saying that you get the feedback from listeners or from people who took action as a result of listening to the podcast and going heaven, that ripple effect also to other people beyond them. I wanted to ask you in terms of UAE me personally as direct benefits that you have gained out of, you know, this prodigious output of podcasting that you've done over the years, can you share some of your, you know, biggest things that you you gained, and maybe will hopefully inspire someone that is thinking about it to consider starting their own podcast? Why not?

Amy Rowlinson  28:22  
Yeah, I mean, there have been so many different benefits, it's, I'm going to split them into two sort of camps. So from the personal side, I've I've had huge amount of fun, okay, because podcasting is great fun, and I've had wonderful conversations that I would not have had with people. And podcasting opens doors that are not available to other spaces. People will call on your podcast because they're a pretty revered status, as opposed to asking somebody, would you come on my Facebook Live? Or would you come on my YouTube channel? A podcast is seen as, as being fewer, there are fewer of us, I know that everyone seems to think in the world that everyone has a podcast, it's not true. They are still very, there are very few there's under sort of 3 million or so compared to the sort of hundreds of 1000s of YouTube channels or blogs and other other elements. So that's been fun. Confidence has been incredible. It's given me the confidence to step out of my comfort zone to really use my voice to share my voice and share a message with my audience. It has given me opportunities that I would never have dreamt off in terms of meeting people and and having those opportunities to share conversations with people that I as I said to you wouldn't have been able to with other ways. I have become a better communicator because of the prolific amount of speaking that was involved in terms of not necessarily in my My conversations because I actually take quite a backseat and allow my guests to shine. But in my individual episodes where I do my solo episodes, I do a lot more talking, I do all the talking. And that's that's really made me become a better communicator. And you mentioned in my introduction, that I am a professional speaker. I'm actually the current president for the southeast region of the professional speaking Association. And that was an environment and an organisation that I became aware of just before lockdown, so March 2020. And I have really been involved with some incredible people in terms of hearing them speak and being invited to speak in, in other areas purely because of being involved with that organisation. So that's been fantastic. And that's not just been in the UK that's been worldwide. So in terms of clarity, it's given me greater clarity and my message in my thoughts, because I'm doing a lot of listening, a lot of reflecting a lot of questioning. And and that has made me I would say, a better person in terms of my coaching skills as well, in terms of business, because that's the other side of things, I would say that I am much more visible than I have ever been. But by a long way, I've become more credible people sort of really see you, as I said, is that sort of revered status. And in terms of globally, I mean, the podcast is in 113 countries. And it's it as you said, in the top 1% of global podcasts, according to listen notes, say they use different algorithms and various different data to put together that list of who's in what sort of a hierarchy in terms of, of business, a lot of people who come to work with me have listened to my podcast first. So they've either come to work with me because they want to be coached and mentored into creating a podcast of themselves, or they're looking for help with their life purpose. So that has been has built a huge amount of trust. I've collaborated with people I've been invited to speak at all different memberships. And on on different podcasts, I've done about 60 interviews or So now, I've recorded just over 400 podcasts in total, I think so far. So I see a podcast as a bridge, it's a way that you can enter in other people's worlds, they can come into your world. And it gives you a really nice space for people to listen to, to hear what you have to say, without actually having to do that in a face to face environment. They can do it in their own time. And by the time people do come to me, they're already sold. They're like, yes, I would love to work with you, because I know so much about you.

Agi Keramidas  32:49  
And that's great, what you said about I agree 100% The about them. The visibility that you build, and the the trust that you that you build there is this kind of more intimate relationship that podcaster has with the audience. It's similar for me to the radio when I was growing up, it was the radio that was exactly the equivalent of what podcasts are is that you build a different relationship. You hear the voice inside your ears, it's, it's and you also said something about the 3 million total podcasts? Which Yes, there are but not the most of them are not even active. So they they are there. I think it's about 600,000, the ones that are actively producing episodes. So if you compare that to like, I don't remember how many 80 million YouTube channels that there is a massive difference. How saturated or not this spaces.

Amy Rowlinson  33:54  
Last time I checked, it was back in January, and there are about 31 million YouTube channels. And at the time, there are 570 million blogs. So in terms of absolutely, you know, the the number compared to, as you say, active podcasts, a lot of podcasts suffer from pod fade, and they don't make more than six or so episodes, they just disappear into the ether. Whereas people like your urine, me, we're still carrying on. Yeah,

Agi Keramidas  34:23  
yeah. And that is of course, maybe that's not for for most people to go into these double digit figures of episodes. But yeah, I think it ties up well with what we were saying earlier about the purpose and the journey and doing what is realistic, what we're enthusiastic about there's one other thing I wanted to ask about your podcast because I find it very interesting. And that's your you do every I think you do it five interviews and then you put one episode which you call it reflections with actions where you go back to the previous episodes, and you pick things that you reflect on and give to the listeners. actionable things. And that's I was telling you before we started recording similar to what I do with consolidation episodes, because I truly believe and tell me what your thoughts are, that it's fantastic to have, you know, an inspirational or fun conversation or entertaining, that's great. However, I think that the point and the intention of what I'm doing is not to entertain the listeners, man, that's a nice, lazy side effect, if I can call it that. But for me, the purpose is to inspire her or him to take action to do something different. That's how the personal development happens by doing, you can listen to podcasts all day long, it's similar to what we're saying about the books earlier. So yeah, tell me a bit more about this, you know, distilling the actions and providing them us, you know, to the to your listeners, things like

Amy Rowlinson  36:16  
I used to, I used to call them reflections and observations, and that was fine. They were my reflections and observations, and I was purely pulling on different threads that I didn't get the opportunity to explore in the conversation at the time that the conversation might have gone into a different direction. And so what I do is I then use the separate solo episodes as my opportunity to go and dive deeper on a particular topic and, and put my spin on, on what I believe on, or what I've heard or what my view on that particular topic is. And then I realised that I had to rebrand that into reflections with actions because it's all very well than being reflections and observations. But then what and what's the purpose of that? Don't just listen to an episode and go, that was really nice. I enjoyed that. And they're not doing anything. And yes, they reflections with actions, they they may be reflections with questions that I pose, and I share with my guests in terms of challenging them to take it a step further. So I might share what my reflections and actions are, and what I've done as a result, but only as an example and only as a a suggestion. And so that the questions are quite open in terms of what are you going to do as a result of listening to this? What is it you are thinking could be changed or could be transformed from this particular conversation? So, absolutely, it's all about taking the conversation to another level. And so not just, as you say, I think entertainment is actually quite important. I think that entertainment in terms of engagement is crucial to bring it to a level. So I know, entertainment, sort of in terms of a show on TV is not the same as that. But what we're doing here is we are engaging our audience with compelling content that's going to hold their interest in the knowledge that and this is where the my sort of desire is to incite people to take action to with the the insight, the knowledge, but with the ability to know that that's then possible for them to apply into their world somehow. So that's, that's what I use those episodes for.

Agi Keramidas  38:39  
That's great. And now you said that it is possible for them to, to take that action to implement that action. It is, I will reiterate that and also emphasise it even more that most of the actions that are given in your podcast or my podcast or similar podcasts are they're not just for some people, it is there can be broadly adopted. Certainly, if you're listening to this, you can you can take it I mean with maybe there are some very, very few exceptions, but the vast majority of people listening, they can take action. And you asked me and I'm going to repeat the question and not to you but to the to the listener. So you know, you listen to us having this discussion. Hopefully it was entertaining and don't get me wrong. I didn't mean that. It's not important. But you know, you listen to this, what is it that you're going to do as a result of listening to this what kind of action what different thing you can do? Yeah, I will. I will leave that as a question. And actually, I will ask one last question that is very much related to this, which I asked them, I asked this question when I do my quick fire in the end, but maybe we can expand on it a little bit more. So haven't had this conversation we've had so far if you were if you were to give to the listener, one item, one actionable item, what would you tell her or him?

Amy Rowlinson  40:30  
I think it's about, I could take it right back to the midlife beginnings. So if you are at any point in life and thinking that it's too late to achieve or to, to have or to be who you might have been, then know that it is not know that it is never too late, and that it's possible to to really go for what you want to in life. So from that perspective, what is it that you are holding back from? What is it that you are not pursuing that you would love to? And just focus on on? Why have a little think about that? And it goes back to that whole concept of before of being on that autopilot? Are you living? Or are you existing? Are you? Is your work fulfilling? Or are you just filling in the moments? And are you taking responsibility for your life, because it's so short, and this is what I, you know, I've lost a couple of very dear people in my life in the last month or so. And it's, it really does hammer home that message that we are here for such a short period, and that you have the opportunity to really choose what you want to do in life.

Agi Keramidas  41:37  
Thank you for this very true and inspirational commentary me and let me start wrapping things up a little bit and ask you some quickfire questions, which I always do. And tell me first of all, what does personal development mean to you? Freedom?

Amy Rowlinson  42:00  
Freedom to choose the direction, the quality, the the understanding? And yeah, it's everything. It's just really to investigate and discover and live life as an adventure.

Agi Keramidas  42:18  
That's beautiful. And let me ask you a hypothetical question. If you could, if you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self, what's one piece of advice you would give her

Amy Rowlinson  42:33  
that you are always in exactly the right place where you are right now that you have all have the tools that you need. And that just to trust your core values, and to pursue what you really want to and filter out all the other noise around you.

Agi Keramidas  42:54  
Yes. And one more hypothetical, Amy, if you could wave a magic wand and change something in the world as it is today? What would you change?

Amy Rowlinson  43:06  
Oh, so many things. So I think that the magic wand would have to sort out the, the environment that we live in. Because without that, then we don't have anything else. So first, it would be to wave a wand on being more sustainable and saving the planet. This wonderful planet that we live on, and making people recognise what their parts could be making people that sounds awful, showing people what their responsibility is as an individual, because then collectively, we can save the world.

Agi Keramidas  43:50  
Yes, absolutely. Amy, where would you direct people who want to find more find out more about you?

Amy Rowlinson  44:03  
Well, they have a website called Amy rowlinson.com. And everything is there. And my podcast is called focus on y and it's available on all platforms.

Agi Keramidas  44:12  
It's really brilliant. I will put the links in the notes. And I want to say that I really enjoyed the conversation today, Amy and it's not often that I have the opportunity to speak with someone that it seems there are so many things in common between us and there the paths of the podcasts and the mission. So it was wonderful to to have this conversation with you. And I want to wish you all the best with this magnificent mission of creating those positive positive ripple effects. Any last parting words?

Amy Rowlinson  44:55  
Well, thank you very much for having me on. I really do appreciate the time and it's It's wonderful to share the similar values that we do in in both those worlds. So my final words would be Aggie that who you are and what you do and what you have is all within your control. So what you want to have determines who you become, and what do you do so, my question is, what are you doing

Agi Keramidas  45:27  
i hope you enjoyed listening and that you got a huge amount of value from today's episode. If you have please share this episode with someone who you think will benefit from it. If you want to know more about me and what I do, visit my website AGIKERAMIDAS.COM

Agi Keramidas  45:51  
And until next time, stand out don't fit in!