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Women In Wellness: Amanda Frolich of Action Amanda On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Look after yourself. There’s only one of me and I’ve often pushed myself to absolute exhaustion to reach my goals. I’ve always been into fitness and nutrition, but now I’m getting older this has become even more important to me — as has having some ‘me time’ every single day — to just breathe and be in the moment.

As a part of my series about the women in wellness, I had the pleasure of interviewing Action Amanda.

Amanda Frolich, aka Action Amanda, is an award-winning children’s entertainer, early years educator, health and fitness expert, best-selling author and Government advisor.

This year marks Amanda’s 30th year in business as the CEO of Amanda’s Action Club. From starting in a small community centre, Amanda has grown to working globally. Her impressive client list includes some well-known stars including; Brad and Angelina and The Beckhams… Peter Jones, Amanda Holden, The Beautiful South’s Alison Wheeler, Take That’s Mark Owen, Declan Donnelly, Sarah Beeny, Catherine Tate, Olympian Matthew Pincent… and many more…

In 2020, Amanda was invited to become a UK Children’s First Champion in Parliament, encouraging policymakers to put children first at the heart of all decision making. She previously worked as a children’s fitness consultant on the government’s Change4Life programme and was selected to run classes, events and training for Sure Start. Over the last 30 years Amanda has won multiple awards for her work, she is a number one best-selling author and iTunes number one chart topper — beating Baby Shark to the number one spot!

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Our readers would love to “get to know you” better. Can you share your “backstory” with us?

I was born in Middlesex and brought up on the council estates of Northolt with grassroots sport as the main entertainment of the local children. Coming from a working class background, we didn’t have a lot and so my “happy place” became sport and generally being active.

I grew up playing any and every sport, in particular football and me and my cousins played rounders together, come rain or shine. I excelled in Track and Field at high school, winning the prestigious 5* Athletics Award and this meant everything to me.

After leaving school, I took a Sports Management course and in 1987 joined a Sport Development role with Playsport in London, offering free activities for children in parks and community centres through Ealing Borough Council — this was the early beginnings of my business, Action Amanda.

From there, I worked leisure centres and trained as a Fitness Instructor and Sports Coach. This was where I discovered my love for teaching preschool children and in 1991 I attended a Music and Movement Course with Jane Loukes which was an inspirational course. This firmly cemented my ambition for Amanda’s Action Club. This small idea began 30 years ago and has developed into a global brand, recognisable in the world of early years provision.

I got married in 1999 and my daughter was born in 2005. I did everything I could to practise what I preach, raising her to exercise and eat healthily with me. She would sit on the kitchen top, whilst I was cooking and try a wide range of fresh ingredients! She’s added to my belief that having an active, healthy life-style can enhance children from a young age.

As the business was beginning to grow and develop, I suffered a terrible blow when I was run-over by a car in 2011, breaking both my legs. I was wheelchair-bound and needed months of physio but I was determined to be active again and with plenty of hard work and commitment I was fully recovered within 17 ½ weeks. At the same time, I continued to attend all of my own Action Club classes, as the children and I needed continuity and positive experience. It really was a miracle recovery and I put this down to how active and fit I was as a person, along with my determination to prove the doctors wrong. Even now at aged 52, with pins in both legs, I am super active and haven’t suffered any prolonged pain from the breaks.

I now run children’s parties, and I’ve written a book and chart-topping children’s songs, we’ve launched an app and I’m a children’s champion for the UK Government working with them to shape policy which puts children at the heart of the decision-making process.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career? What were the main lessons or takeaways from that story?

Oh, there are so, so many. Let me tell you this one … I was due to go on Dragon’s Den, for anyone who doesn’t know, this is a BBC programme where entrepreneurs enter ‘the den’ with a business idea or venture. They pitch the idea to a team of global multi-millionaires who, if they like the idea, offer to buy a stake in the business. I wanted to be everywhere, helping every child and parent, in every home in the country, but there was just me. So, I came up with the idea of making an app and selling prop bags — the ‘kit’ any parent, nanny or grannie would need to do my classes at home. I was so excited to be able to pitch this idea, having got through the audition stages, but the night before I was due to, I got a call from the BBC saying I’d have to withdraw as they’d found out I’d once entertained for Peter Jones (one of the Dragons) and the producers felt this was a conflict of interest. I was absolutely gutted. My dreams shattered in an instant. But I picked myself up and went on to create my app on my own — and the rest, as they say, is history.

Lesson learnt — you will always face hurdles in life and your career, but be strong, continue to believe in yourself and you will overcome them.

Can you share a story about the biggest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

My Franchising Failures! My aim, when I started out was to franchise the business, across the UK and the world. I didn’t know it at the time, but no matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t going to go global. I’d never crack America. I wouldn’t even make it in Margate. I tried, oh boy, did I try. But I failed. Had I taken my own advice and trusted my gut, I’d never have set foot down this long and very windy road, but I did, and it’s shaped me. First came Fiona, (name changed for obvious reasons) a franchising guru, or so I’d been told. £25,000 later I had a website and 225 pages of franchising documents. Not one of those pages held water. Next came £20,000 on my mortgage and a £20,000 business loan. The heart was ripped out of my brand. “You can’t be Amanda’s Action Club” they told me, “you’ll never sell a franchise to anyone but an Amanda.” Stupidly, I believed them. They tried to woo me in Wuhan, yes Wuhan of all places. Wined and dined me. The food on my plate left as bad a taste in my mouth as the deal on the table. Next it was Egypt and then the Philippines and whilst my experience in Asia was beyond incredible, the same can’t be said for any of my forays into franchising. Deals abandoned, bank balance in the red and finally, finally, the realisation that I was better off alone. What did I learn from all this? To trust my gut and not be ‘wooed’ by people who think they know better than me. I know my business inside and out. It’s a part of me and I have to trust that I’m the one who knows what’s best for it — and for me.

Let’s jump to our main focus. When it comes to health and wellness, how is the work you are doing helping to make a bigger impact in the world?

When I look back, I can’t believe how much of an impact my work has had. From starting in a small community centre in 2003, Action Amanda now works globally. I’ve been asked to support high profile campaigns and this global enterprise has taken me all over the world, including; Dubai — where I entertained at The Dubai Marina Mall, The Atlantis on The Palm and the Jumeirah Beach hotel. Wuhan in 2010, I was invited to contribute to a centre for education… I am also speaking at a forthcoming conference in New York this year.

Over the last thirty years Action Amanda has grown, developed, pivoted and extended and I pride myself on supporting, educating and inspiring children.

In 2018 we launched the Amanda’s Action Club App so that parents could take Action Amanda ‘on the road’ to entertain and educate their children whenever and wherever and during the pandemic, like so many others, we broadcast daily from my living to families in need of support, fun, exercise and sanity! We’ve had so much incredible feedback from families who tell me that these sessions became a lifeline during lockdown.

In 2020, I was invited to become a Children’s First Champion in Parliament, encouraging policymakers to put children first at the heart of all decision making — this is a role I am hugely passionate about.

In 2021, we released ‘Time to Shine’, a song featuring The Beautiful South’s Alison Wheeler, to give children the confidence that despite the struggles they face, this is their time to shine. When we recorded this song we felt it held such an important message, and seeing it fly straight to the top of the children’s chart proved to us it’s something special and enabled us to raise money for charity as well as inspiring and uplifting children, and parents, globally.

We recently created the ‘Action Amanda’ cartoon character and I hope that she will continue my legacy — we have exciting plans in the pipeline with Cartoon Network and further development of the App and future Music videos.

Can you share your top five “lifestyle tweaks” that you believe will help support people’s journey towards better wellbeing? Please give an example or story for each.

  1. Get Outdoors — Don’t we all feel better for some fresh air and gentle exercise and no matter where we live, we can find green space. Even if it’s stepping outside into your garden, or wandering to your local shop for a paper or magazine. Everyday activity, fresh air and green spaces help us get stronger and feel better, sending those happy hormones whizzing round our bodies and energising us for whatever the day holds. I love to get out in the morning, giving me time to reflect, plan and appreciate what my body can do for me.
  2. Hold Your Own Kitchen Disco — Whether Radio 2 is your jam or asking Alexa to play your favourite ABBA or QUEEN song or DISCO playlist, you don’t have to be a diva to turn the music up! Music is fabulous for lightening your mood and giving you something to sing, smile and dance about to.
  3. Laughter — Children are our teachers. They are experts in laughing, we can learn from them. While there is nothing wrong with relying on comedy, humor and jokes, laughter becomes therapeutic, healing and transformative if we can learn to laugh just for laughter’s sake. Laughter offers us many mental, emotional, spiritual and social benefits, besides allowing us to live in the present. We all grew up knowing about “laughter is the best medicine. What are we supposed to do with medicine? Take it! Benefits will be innumerable, fun, healthy, create connections, allow us to be more creative and live a richer, more happier and fullfilled life.. All these benefits are available to us for free, anytime with plenty of teachers around. Laughter is our connection to the soul and is made love visible.
  4. Try out some new recipes Many of us often eat the same basic dishes week in and week out, but trying out new things can be so invigorating. Why not tantalise your tastebuds and have friends/family round for dinner — you could make a course each? Or, you could pop a number of your favourite recipe ideas in jar and then monthly/weekly pull one at random to be inspired and make. You could also create a ‘Taco Tuesday’ night or ‘Sundae Sunday’… any reason for people to get together for a feast of good food and great company — it truly is one of the best recipes for fun and laughter!
  5. Find your inner child Life can be challenging in so many ways but there is something delightful about revisiting your favourite childhood experiences. Did you play on the swings, eat ice-cream on a sea-wall, play a team sport or pull everything out of the dressing up box? You’re never too old to play! Check out your old haunts, visit a restaurant or special place, maybe even plan a road trip. The possibilities are endless and you’re never too old to enjoy them!

If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of wellness to the most amount of people, what would that be?

Movement! That’s perfect. If I could encourage adults to respond like the children I’m with everyday, I really do think we’d be on the verge of a wellness revolution. We have to be prepared to move physically, and be prepared to move into spaces which are healthier for us mentally and emotionally. Whether, like my song, adopting positive messages which change self-destructive thought patterns and help us to believe it’s our time to shine too, to moving into healthier relationships, setting boundaries, … whatever it is, wellness starts with movement and there’s no better day to be intentional about that than today!

What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started” and why?

  1. There isn’t always something or someone better out there. I’ve been taken for a ride so many times because I’ve trusted what people tell me. People have offered to help me take my business to the next level, promised me they’d make me a star or secure me a brilliant business deal and time after time they haven’t delivered. They’ve taken the money and run.
  2. Trust your gut. I know what’s best for me and my business and when I trust my gut things rarely go wrong. It’s all about self-confidence and believing that what you think, matters.
  3. It will be a roller-coaster of a ride. There have been so many ups and downs in my career, but I’ve learnt something from all of them. Running a business is never going to be plain sailing, no matter how good you are at it.
  4. You’ll meet some amazing people, see amazing sights. Savor every single one. I’ve had a blast running my business. I’ve met some inspirational people and been to some fantastic places, but I haven’t always stopped to appreciate this. I’m now making sure I do that every single day.
  5. Look after yourself. There’s only one of me and I’ve often pushed myself to absolute exhaustion to reach my goals. I’ve always been into fitness and nutrition, but now I’m getting older this has become even more important to me — as has having some ‘me time’ every single day — to just breathe and be in the moment.

Sustainability, veganism, mental health and environmental changes are big topics at the moment. Which one of these causes is dearest to you, and why?

Ultimately, I want to leave a legacy. I want to tackle childhood obesity and create global change so that all children can access fun and educational movement and physical development from early years and beyond so that they have strong bodies, confidence and understanding of health and self-care. The healthy boys and girls of today are the healthy men and women of the next generation.

I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution to that and I think we have to be responsible about seeing the broad picture here. We can’t choose any one of these big topics over another, we have to be prepared to play our part across them all.

What is the best way our readers can follow you online?

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Amanda Frolich of Action Amanda On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.