Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Amber Underwood. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Amber, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
I’d parked my car on the side of the curb in front of her house. We’d just celebrated her life. It felt nothing like a celebration.
My best friend, since 2nd grade, was really gone and she wasn’t coming back.
I’d been struggling to make sense of her death and I needed answers, so I wept on my steering wheel and cried out to God in prayer. I waited and there was nothing.
Cars passed by and I’m sure the man across the street thought I was crazy. I screamed one last time for answers and I heard “look up”. I looked over and there was a word plastered on her license plate – “HUPOMON”. I’d never seen that word on her license plate, let alone heard of it.
It was like Porcia to have such a profound, yet complicated word on her license plate. LOL. She was intelligent with a servants heart, beautiful with medium mixed caramel skin, and long, sleek curly hair that my kinky tight hair admired. It was with her that I forged my momma’s name on letters to ride the bus home with her. It was with her that we skipped classes, with indirect permission, to go to the lunchroom to see my momma. It was with her that I made peanut butter marshmallow sandwiches. It was with her that I became one of the girl’s from Destiny’s Child and danced all night. It was with her that I learned what not missing birthdays looked like. It was her that all of me was welcomed in our friendship, no matter what side of the tracks I came from. So when Porcia died, going in to our senior year of high school, I became depressed, anxious, and struck by grief.
I began coping with it all in various ways. In 2012, my freshman year of college, I tried to kill myself. I failed at my suicide attempt. I went on a healing journey – Jesus, therapy, and my journal – and I collided with that word Hupomone, again. I was invited to relive all the experiences that started from that word. It was an invitation to get to the root so that my life could bloom. I accepted the invitation.
While healing internally, I was on quest to get my college degree. I came in to college as a nursing major. But after a series of rejections from nursing programs, coupled with my own shortcomings and other set backs, I prayed and asked God to lead me to what was supposed to be. I anxiously landed in the field of social work. After running from my calling, I finally graduated with two degrees in social work, international experiences that set my soul on fire, and I embraced Hupomone through writing – later turned book.
Hupomone is someone that runs their race with patient endurance. They endure to the end, no matter how bad it looks or feels, because they know that only good can come from where they are.
I’m often asked how I found my purpose and the honest answer is that I didn’t find it. If I had it my way back then I would have died. I would have been the single rich auntie, traveling the world as a neo-natal nurse. But here I am, a life coach, mental health therapist, author, speaker, and beacon for the becoming. I didn’t choose my purpose. My purpose chose me and I thank God everyday it didn’t go my way.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m a multi-soulfulpreneur on a personal mission to see thousands running their race in their lane. I believe that we were all divinely placed here on Earth for a reason and coming to know that reason is the true gift of life.
I’m a 2x University of Alabama Tuscaloosa alumni who says “War Tide” because I grew up rooting for Auburn but landed at Alabama. LOL. I love everything about Monarch butterflies and their process of becoming. I hope to own a butterfly farm in Mexico one day. I’m an ambivert who loves people but thrives when I’m alone (middle child things LOL). Matcha tea lattes with extra matcha, books, my writing/prayer journal, and Chillhop Lo-fi music brings me an unexplainable peace. I’ll forever tell you to try all 4.
I have the gift of faith so I’m the friend that will not only remind you to run your race, but I will believe for you when it all seems impossible.
My experience of higher learning became the voyage to awaken my purpose. College became less about the degree I’d get and more about who I was becoming, for a calling much bigger than me (your calling will always be bigger than you).
Additionally, I work full time as a school based mental health therapist. After 5:00 you can find me working on my business. I am the founder and CEO of Hupomone Ventures where our mission is to decrease the rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide in communities of color – with an emphasis on women – by enriching their minds, bodies, and spirits with innovative products, services, and experiences. We are currently working on a daily planner that reduces anxiety and stress in women of color so they can take their superwoman cape off and live their lives intentionally, with purpose, productivity, and ease. We exist to empower you to choose life and not death, because living life purposefully and abundantly should be your norm.
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?
When I was 8 years old, I became fully aware of the world around me. I came to understand what was placed inside of me and embraced it.
I believed big, stayed organized, and overcame things that I was too young to experience. I knew that I’d make it out of my situations as a child, I just didn’t know “how”. That mindset introduced me to my gift of faith. I knew that staying organized not only made me productive, but it gave me peace in my environment. That organization awakened my gift of administration, and has since opened doors that a woman like me should have never been able to walk through. Learning the art of patient endurance (I’m still learning because there are levels too it) has strengthened my faith and equipped me for the hard things.
The greatest gift you can give yourself is failing early. When you fail early, it teaches you about your faith, your organization and productivity, and shows you that you’re capable of overcoming and becoming with patience and endurance. Nurturing those areas may not be pretty at first but they will prepare you.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
Overcoming myself and limiting beliefs has introduced me to another version of myself, as well as people and opportunities that I have been praying for. Feeling resistance to my plans and goals invited me on a journey to surrender it all to God. Surrendering not only brought me peace, but it brought clarity. Growing in the areas of mindset and surrendering to the ultimate plan for my life has allowed me to see things with fresh eyes. I’ve learned that I’m where I’m supposed to be.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ambernunderwood.com
- Instagram: @ambernunderwood
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amber-underwood-msw-707748115/
Image Credits
Honey Sage Photography Martin Glaster Taylor Dane Photography
