Meet Amy B Scher

 

We were lucky to catch up with Amy B Scher recently and have shared our conversation below.

Amy B, so good to have you with us today. We’ve got so much planned, so let’s jump right into it. We live in such a diverse world, and in many ways the world is getting better and more understanding but it’s far from perfect. There are so many times where folks find themselves in rooms or situations where they are the only ones that look like them – that might mean being the only woman of color in the room or the only person who grew up in a certain environment etc. Can you talk to us about how you’ve managed to thrive even in situations where you were the only one in the room?

Being the only one in many rooms without a college degree, I’ve learned to lean on my own experiences versus my education. I never liked school and never did particularly well. Then, in my early 20s, I was struck with a chronic debilitating illness. College just wasn’t something that felt in the stars for me. And I was okay with that. But as I re-emerged from illness in my early 30s and began my publishing career, I felt out of place with those around me. Most writers I knew had a college education; many had MFAs. But I also noticed I often got to work faster, got more done, and was willing to take bigger risks; perhaps because I never had the constraints of rules or what I’d learned to churn self-doubt inside of me. So instead of being insecure, I found a way to see my own experiences as an education all its own. I started talking about—and writing about—what I’d learned along the way. Instead of hiding my lack of formal education, I started to own it. I teach writing and business classes now, and I always first tell my students, “If I can get to where I have with no formal experience, you can too. It’s okay to have a different path, and you should embrace it.” I think it’s made me more creative in so many ways.

Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?

I teach on the topics of healing, human-ing, and writing. Most of my work centers around helping people release emotional blocks to becoming their happiest healthiest selves.

I’m the award-winning and bestselling author of five books, which have been translated into 20 languages. My work has been featured in The Washington Post, Cosmo, Good Morning America, CNN, National Geographic, CBS, The Los Angeles Review of Books, New York Daily News, Oprah Daily, and more.

I’m most well-known for my memoir, This is How I Save My Life (Simon and Schuster, 2018) and my popular How To Heal Yourself book series. But I’m also an enthusiastic traveler who writes about how exploring our own neighborhoods and destinations around the world help us discover who we really are. My most recent book, Out In The World, is a co-authored LGBTQIA+ travel guide with National Geographic. And because I don’t know when to stop, my my debut Young Adult novel comes out in 2026.

But before I accomplished all that, I was just a girl trying to figure out how to help myself.

After surviving almost a decade with debilitating illness (chronic Lyme disease, autoimmune issues, and more), I’m grateful for my complete recovery—and the ability to use my experience to help others.

I have now been healthy for over a decade (hooray). My greatest work is connecting with, and helping others—and offering hope for a path forward. As an energy therapist, I love sharing my own approach to healing which has allowed me to be who I am today. Through my journey, I’ve found my own version of being healed—living in a healthy body while also sometimes losing complete Zen-like perspective, binging on gluten, and temporarily forgetting all the important life lessons I’ve learned. Except for this: being human is so much better than trying to be perfect.

My monthly healing classes guide people through my signature energy therapy techniques to release blocks to their healing.

I also work with writers to help them worry less, write more, and get their books done in as little as 15 minutes a day. I’m the secret weapon to literary agents to help write winning book proposals. I just love every aspect of publishing and am so proud to get to do the work I do.

And as a former Marketing Director for Harley-Davidson, and someone who built my own successful business from scratch, I teach my method of building a business, authentically to heart-centered entrepreneurs all over the world.

I wear a lot of hats, but I absolutely love it.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

I think that my creativity and my ability to relate to people has been most impactful on my journey. In my early 20s, I got a job as a Marketing Director for Harley-Davidson. I didn’t have the degree requirement (which was a BA). But I had my personality, my ability to really connect with people, and the confidence to share why I thought I was right for the job anyway. My dad always told me that the worst anyone will ever tell you is no. But you’ll never know unless you try. So I’ve really carried that with me my whole life. I have worked hard to get those yes’s, to overcome the challenge of not having the right degree or education. But it’s also inspired me to find a way around it. I don’t have the degree but I do have that genuine ability to help people understand me and creative ideas to impress them with instead. I think it’s okay to not have one thing because it often makes you better in other areas of your life.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

My parents are amazing in every way, but one thing they really did best was give me the freedom to be myself; to do things my way. I never felt I had to follow societal norms. I never worried if I didn’t do X, Y, or Z, then I’d fail. My dad had a formal education and was a psychologist with his own private practice. My mom doesn’t have a college degree but she’s had several interesting and successful endeavors over the years. They really modeled that there’s no one way. And they always only said they wanted me to be happy. I might not have really taken it in when I was younger, but as an adult, I come back to it over and over.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Tatiana Scher Photography

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