We were lucky to catch up with Amanda Russell recently and have shared our conversation below.
Amanda, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
I’ve struggled with anxiety and depression since I was a child. It wasn’t until I was an adult that I felt like I was in a place to reach out and truly get help. There is so much stigma around getting help, and while that seems to be fading away, we still have a lot of work to do. There is nothing wrong with saying, “You know what? No. I’m not okay right now. I need to find support.”
For me, that happened after I had my three kids. I knew I needed to get my mental health under control. I couldn’t be the best mom to them if I wasn’t the best me to myself. My diagnosis explained so much about my past – why it was hard to get out of bed some days and why I was so tired on others. Once I went to therapy, learned the right techniques to manage my symptoms, and established the right mix of medications, I felt like a whole new person.
My mental health will always be something I struggle with, but now that I’ve accepted it as a part of who I am and learned how to stop myself before I start to spiral, my life has improved tenfold. I’m able to function. I’ve built a thriving business and have a strong community of support. The best part? I’m showing my kids how to take care of themselves and their needs before they fall into a dark place like I did.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
Since I was a little girl, I have always loved to write. I wanted to be a journalist when I was in school, but life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans. After working as a paralegal in complex corporate litigation and estate planning firms for almost a decade, I knew I needed something more flexible. I had had three kids in four and a half years and was just so burnt out that I couldn’t be my best in any area of my life.
After I had my youngest daughter in 2017, I knew that I couldn’t return to my old, fast-paced lifestyle. Chaos Coordination was born in 2019 with the purpose of giving me a professional outlet that paired well with my new life as a mom of three small kids.
Now, with all of them in school full-time, it has expanded into a full-fledged business. I have written hundreds of social media captions, thousands of words of website copy, and connected with brands and businesses across the world.
My goal is to help you build your brand by telling your story. I love to dive into my clients’ businesses and truly become part of their ecosystem. I want to know why your business operates the way that it does and expand it’s ability to reach and serve it’s clients. I’ve always been fascinated with how our thoughts, actions, and buying power influence the communities and societies we live in, and I get to see that up close and personal as I work with like-minded entrepreneurs to help them make the impact they want to make.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I think my curiosity, perseverance, and empathy have impacted my journey the most. I am constantly curious about the world around me. I want to know why people act the way they do, why they make the choices they make, and what makes them tick. This has helped me with marketing my clients’ businesses because I can get into their preferred audiences’ shoes and understand what they’re looking for. It has also helped me craft their messaging and capture their brand voice.
Regardless of what field you want to go into, I think all three of these qualities are important to find success in your personal and professional life. Understanding other people, having empathy and compassion for where they are in life, and developing the skills to push past the naysayers will always help you get to where you want to be.
As far as advice, I’m not really sure! Life has always been a trial and error game for me. As long as you remain true to who you are, stay curious, and commit to figuring things out, you’ll be in a good space.
Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
“Choose Wonder Over Worry” by Amber Rae is the book that pushed me out of my comfort zone and into my business. I had always wanted to use my voice to impact and help people but this book is the thing that helped me make that leap.
In one part of the book, she says “anxiety is not your foe, it’s your friend.” All my life, I had felt like I was somehow less than because I had struggles with my anxiety. This was the first time I heard it reframed to be a superpower.
This particular line really shook up everything I knew: “When you sink beneath your spinning thoughts, shortness of breath, and racing heart, you’ll discover your voice of wonder. You’ll hear your inner truth and intuition saying ‘Hey, you. Pay attention. It’s time to realign.”
I knew it was time for me to realign my life and find a career that I felt good doing, and this book pushed me to take a totally new path.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.chaoscoordinationllc.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chaoscoordinationllc
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chaoscoordinationllc
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-courtney-russell/
Image Credits
Meg Shupe
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