Somewhere along the way, you were taught there was something wrong with you. How you looked, how you spoke, how you were in the world. So you spent years trying to prove that wrong, and no matter how hard you worked at it, you kept coming up short. You don't feel like a hero. A lot of days, you feel like a loser. That's where this class starts, and it's why I called it The Anti-Hero.

This episode is the replay of the live class I taught this week, and I did it differently than I ever have. No slides. Just me, a whiteboard, and the women who showed up. In it I walk you through why the voice in your head never shuts up (it's not what you think, and you can't think your way out of it), what emotions actually are and why you've been playing whack-a-mole with them, and why shame is always a liar. I teach you the 3 steps I use with every woman I coach, in the order they have to happen: regulate, allow, think on purpose. And I tell you about the girl in the Babysitters Club books who I was never going to be, and why Loki is the character I want you to think about instead.

I also cried on this one. I didn't plan to. I was telling the story of the first time someone said to me "you were never the problem," and it caught me. I left it in, because that moment is the whole point of this class.

Key Takeaways:

The person you've been measuring yourself against was never real. No woman has ever been her, and you were handed her anyway.

That voice in your head isn't keeping you honest. It's your nervous system stuck in survival, and you can't reason with a body in panic.

Regulation isn't "calm down." It's pebbles on the other side of the teeter totter, small and daily, until the hard days don't tip you.

You don't need to tolerate more emotion. You need to grow your capacity for it, the same way you'd build a bicep.

Shame is a liar. It was trained into you, and anything that was trained in can be untrained.

It's not "how do I do this." It's "who do I need to become." You're one belief away, not one strategy away.

Book a call with me: If you listen to this and something in you goes "oh, that's me," I want to talk to you. It's a free call, just you and me on Zoom, and it might be the first time you've had someone completely on your side while you say the thing out loud.

Book it here: amandahess.ca/bookacall

You are not the only one. I promise you that.

Links referenced in this episode:

amandahess.ca/bookacall

Watch the class on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=po3p72xhYOE

Today I have my client Annabelle on the podcast, and I'm so glad she said yes.

When Annabelle and I first started working together, she was sitting in the car with her husband in tears. They had just moved from Denver to Northwest Arkansas with a 4 year old and no family nearby, she had opened a business a few months earlier, and she was working 12, 13, 14 hours a day. Not sleeping. Not eating. Opening her laptop first thing in the morning and adding to her to do list at 2am. And still feeling behind.

If you have ever thought "if I just work harder, I'll finally catch up," you are going to hear yourself in this conversation.

A year later, Annabelle doesn't work evenings. She doesn't work weekends. She doesn't open her computer on a Sunday. She has time with her son that she's actually present for, and her business has grown, not shrunk. Her husband left his job to come work with her.

We talk about what changed and how she did it. The 15 minute walk that sounded almost too simple to matter. Deciding when she stops working for the day, and then actually stopping. The guilt that came with both. Why her to do lists were making everything worse, and what she does instead now. How she stopped treating other people's emergencies like her own, and what it took to believe she was allowed to.

And I want to say this clearly, because Annabelle owns a business and you might not: none of this is about business. This is about what happens when you're rushing, guilty, and behind in your own life, and nobody ever showed you another way to live it.

In this episode:

1. Why working harder keeps you feeling behind instead of caught up
2. Regulating your nervous system in a way that actually feels good, not like another item on the list
3. The guilt loop: guilty at work, guilty at home, present nowhere
4. Boundaries that hold, and the belief you need underneath them
5. Why perfect isn't available and what to aim for instead
6. Letting things off your plate without deciding you failed

Annabelle designs beautiful custom closets at Up Closets of NW Arkansas. If you're in the area, go look her up. Find her here: https://upclosets.com/nw-arkansas/

You are not the only one. I promise you that.

Takeaways:

1. Working harder is not what gets you caught up. It's what keeps you feeling behind.
2. Your nervous system comes first. Everything else you're trying to fix sits on top of it.
3. A 15 minute walk sounds too small to matter, and it changed everything for Annabelle.
4. If you don't plan it, you won't do it. That goes for rest as much as anything else.
5. A boundary isn't something you ask other people to keep. It's something you decide and then hold.
6. Nobody's emergency has to become your emergency.
7. Perfect isn't available. Calm and honest is, and it works better anyway.
8. Letting something off your plate is not failing. It's choosing where your time actually goes.
9. You can have a full life and a growing business without burning yourself down to get it.

Want to explore working with Amanda? https://amandahess.ca/bookacall

If punishing yourself worked, you'd have healed by now. That's a line I said in a class recently, and I can't stop coming back to it. Most of us have been taught that when we're not getting what we want in life, the fix is to punish ourselves. We just don't call it that. We call it "holding myself accountable," or "making sure I don't make the same mistake twice," or needing a system and a list and someone to keep us on track. It hides in all these reasonable-sounding places, and underneath it is the same quiet belief: that there's something about me I need to fix.

In this episode I talk about where that belief comes from, how far back it goes, and why it was never yours to carry in the first place. I share how "making a mess" got baked into my identity as a kid, and how so many of us walk around with a version of that: the hot mess, the scattered one, the one who's bad with money or bad with love. And I get honest about what actually happens when we beat ourselves up for it. We shrink. We get smaller and less visible and less willing to go build the life we actually want. You can't make big waves with your wings when you've convinced yourself you're the size of a fly.

I also tell you about throwing my hip out this week training for a figure skating competition, and the exact moment my brain tried to turn it into proof that I should have known better. Having your own back isn't something you master once. It's a practice you come back to, one moment at a time.

Key Takeaways:

1. If punishing yourself actually worked, you'd already be healed. You've tried it for years, and it keeps doing the opposite of what you hoped.
2. "Holding yourself accountable" is often self-punishment in disguise. It hides in the lists, the systems, and the "hot mess" identity we carry around.
3. The stories about who you are (scattered, clumsy, bad with money, bad with love) were baked in during childhood. They were never the truth about you.
4. Beating yourself up makes you shrink. You get smaller, less visible, and less able to create what you actually want.
5. Radical acceptance of a messy life beats chasing a perfect one. Show me a person and I'll show you a messy life. Perfection is a setup, not a standard.
6. Real change comes from learning to have your own back: regulating your nervous system, growing your capacity for big emotion, shifting your perspective, and setting boundaries, again and again over time.

Come to my free class: I'm running a free class called The Anti-Hero on Monday, August 24th at 12:00 PM Pacific. It's all about shame, and about learning to have your own back in a way you've probably never heard before. Come find out what it feels like to stop being the woman who's always punishing herself, and imagine who you get to be on the other side of that.

Save your seat: amandahess.ca/shame1

You are not the only one. I promise you that.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. amandahess.ca/shame1

Today we're talking about something I've wanted to make an episode about for a long time: infidelity. Specifically, the woman who cheats.

If that's you, I already know you're carrying a crushing weight — the secrecy, the panic, the shame society piles on top. Because we've all been told that cheating is the ultimate, unforgivable relationship sin. But after years of coaching and hundreds of women, here's what I've come to believe: cheating is the symptom, not the start. It almost never shows up in a vibrant, healthy relationship. It shows up after years of what I call the invisible sins — chronic emotional neglect, stonewalling, contempt, weaponized incompetence, being starved of affection and visibility. The partner who looks great on paper while you slowly disappear inside your own home.

This is a judgment-free zone. I'm not here to make excuses or decide who's right and who's wrong. I'm here to explore what was actually happening, what was missing, and how you move forward.

So I ask the questions I ask in coaching. Before the affair ever started, what were you tolerating every day? Who did you get to be with someone else that you weren't allowed to be in your own relationship? Was it about the sex, or the feeling of being wanted and prioritized after years of feeling like furniture?

Here's the part almost nobody says: the perpetual giving is what created the vacuum in the first place. You were never taught how to know what you want. You were taught to perform — be a good girl, look good, keep it all together — and then you woke up one day feeling nothing. That's not selfishness. That's what happens after a lifetime of being told your desire is dirty and your job is to keep everyone else okay.

I don't do the shame-to-guilt thing you see all over the internet. Guilt is just as damaging as shame. And no — if you're listening to this, you are not a narcissist. What you need isn't more punishment. You've been holding yourself accountable every single day, or you wouldn't be here. What you need is to learn how to have your own back, how to move through the heavy feelings instead of shoving them down, and how to turn want and desire back on in every part of your life. When those things come online, everything else gets easier.

You were never the problem. And you are not the only one. I promise you that.

The free class: I'm teaching a class on all of this called The Anti-Hero — because you can be the hero of your own life even if nobody else sees it. Monday, August 24th at 12:00 PM Pacific, about an hour, completely free. Sign up at AmandaHess.ca/shame1 or through the link in the show notes. I'd love to see you there.

Takeaways:

1. Infidelity is often viewed as the ultimate sin, but let's be real: relationships can be super complicated and messy, with many hidden issues lurking beneath the surface.
2. Cheating is more of a symptom than the root cause of relationship problems, highlighting the need for deeper self-awareness and understanding of personal desires.
3. Many women don’t even know what they want due to societal pressures to perform and be ‘good,’ leaving them feeling empty and unfulfilled in their relationships.
4. In the quest for happiness, it’s crucial to learn how to advocate for yourself and embrace your desires, rather than feeling guilty or ashamed for wanting more from life.
5. Emotional neglect and invisible cruelties in relationships often lead to infidelity, as individuals seek validation and fulfillment outside their primary partnership.
6. To truly move forward from any shame or guilt surrounding infidelity, it's essential to tackle those feelings head-on, developing a stronger sense of self and what you truly desire.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. amandahess.ca/Shame1

This episode is all about judgment: why we're so quick to hand out labels, and what happens when we stop. It started with a lightbulb moment at a family gathering that turned into a bit of a masterclass in how fast our brains reach for judgment over understanding.

We're digging into why choosing to believe that everyone — yes, even the guy who just cut you off in traffic — is doing their best can genuinely change how you move through the world. When we trade judgment for empathy, we lighten our own emotional load and make room for better relationships, too.

Grab your drink of choice and settle in — because understanding ourselves is the first step to understanding everyone else.

Takeaways:

• In a world filled with judgment, understanding that everyone is doing their best can radically transform our personal interactions and emotional well-being.
• Our brains naturally categorize actions as good or bad, but breaking free from this binary thinking can lead to more compassionate relationships.
• Being a life coach means navigating through my own judgments while helping others; it's a continuous journey of self-discovery and empathy.
• When we approach difficult interactions with understanding rather than judgment, we create an environment where everyone can thrive, including ourselves.

Links referenced in this episode:

• amandahest.ca/bookacall
• instagram.com/theamandahess

Life is messy. Yours, mine, everyone's. And somewhere along the way we decided that was the problem. Something to clean up before we're allowed to be happy.

It's not.

I'm Amanda Hess, certified life coach, and this episode is about a trap I watch women live in for years. The "I'll be happy when." When the house is calm. When the hard thing is over. When I finally have it together.

The messy and the hard don't come in a separate box from the beautiful and the fulfilling. Same box. Same life. It's 50/50, and that's not proof you're failing. That's just how it works.

So we stop waiting for the mess to clear. We lean in. And then we do the part that actually shifts things. We stop obsessing over what we're doing wrong and we start looking at what we want. Where we're going. Because that's the question that matters, and it's the one most of us never get to. We're too busy grading ourselves.

Takeaways:

1. The mess isn't blocking the good life. It's part of it. Stop waiting for a cleaner version that was never coming.
2. "Once I clean this up, then I'll thrive" is the trap. The hard and the beautiful come together. Same life, same day, both at once.
3. Life is 50/50. When you stop reading the hard half as proof you're behind, you can finally be where you actually are.
4. Drop the idea of "normal." Chasing it keeps you measuring your life against a standard that doesn't exist.
5. The move that changes everything: stop obsessing over what you're doing wrong and start building what feels right. What do you want? Where are you going? That matters more.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. amandahess.ca/bookacall

Summer isn’t always the sun-soaked paradise we imagine it to be, and today, we’re diving headfirst into the sticky, sometimes cringe-worthy world of summertime shame. It’s a unique flavor of shame that creeps up on us when we’re basking in the sun, and trust me, I’ve seen it pop up in all sorts of unexpected places. Whether it’s about how we look in a swimsuit or feeling like we should be doing more with our sunny days, this episode is all about unpacking that baggage. Together, we’ll explore why this shame is so prevalent and how it can drive our behaviors in ways that leave us feeling less-than-stellar. So, grab your favorite fruity drink, kick back, and let’s chat about how to recognize, confront, and ultimately embrace our summer selves without the guilt trip!

Takeaways:

1. Summer isn't just about sunshine and good vibes; it can also bring out some serious shame that we need to tackle head-on.
2. Understanding our shame during summer activities helps us reclaim our joy and embrace our bodies just as they are, flaws and all.
3. Shame often hides in the dark corners of our minds, but by bringing it into the light, we can explore and process it effectively.
4. Shifting our perspective on beauty standards allows us to redefine what we find beautiful about ourselves, moving away from societal pressure.

Links referenced in this episode:

1. amandahess.ca/bookacall

Here's this episode: I'm going after the thing nobody wants to name.

Everyone tells you the problem is that you don't love yourself enough. It's not. The problem is shame. That's it. That's the whole thing. Shame is what shows up the second you're anything less than perfect, and every single human on the planet has it — but women get handed a bigger pile of it. We're taught to feel shame about our bodies, our parenting, our work, the way we take up space in a room.

So no, I'm not going to tell you to love yourself harder. I'm going to ask you to look at the shame first.

I get into where it actually shows up — standing at a party feeling like you don't belong, swallowing what you were about to say in a meeting because some part of you decided it wasn't worth hearing. I tell you about my own. Because you can't love your way past something you won't look at.

Self-love isn't a place you arrive at. It's what happens when you stop running from your shame and get to know it instead. That's how you get your power back.

Takeaways:

• Self-love isn't about lacking shame; it's about embracing and navigating through it effectively.
• Shame is a universal experience; we all feel it, but it's how we handle it that matters.
• We're socialized to feel shame, especially as women, which can sabotage our self-worth and happiness.
• True self-love is an active, ongoing process, not just a one-time affirmation in front of a mirror.

Links referenced in this episode:

• amandahess.ca/bookacall