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Women In Wellness: Amy Goldberg of The Amy G Experience On The Five Lifestyle Tweaks That Will Help Support People’s Journey Towards Better Wellbeing

An Interview With Candice Georgiadis

Trust that I was always on the right track. I knew at an early age that I wanted to create something impactful where people could thrive. Realizing that the plan may and probably always will shift and yet the intent and vision is there has been my guiding light.

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

Amy Goldberg is a wellness leader, connection specialist, author and the founder/CEO of The Amy G Experience; She shows people where the opportunities are in life and in business, then makes them happen. Amy challenges thinking by helping people to think differently. She focuses on helpoing others to identify, create, and action life deliberately and on purpose. She can be found producing, creating, consulting, speaking, teaching, strategizing, and collaborating for positive results.

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?

Since I can remember I’ve been drawn to a healthy active lifestyle. I knew early on, mostly from the things I wasn’t doing, that I needed to incorporate healthy practices into my life every day or else I’d feel trapped. It certainly helped that my father was an outdoor enthusiast and made sure his children got involved. It felt natural to pursue a creative career that incorporated wellness. It also felt natural for me to want the same for others, so I founded one of Canada’s first employee wellness companies. Over the years wellness have morphed into several different iterations and yet really what people want is help to set priorities where their health and well-being is important. It matters.

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?

I remember consulting for a wellness company. They were eager to create a robust and engaging programs where employees could track their wellness efforts. The company CEO came from an institutional corporate background. I think he had forgotten that he was now running a wellness company as his leadership practices fell short of embodying and encouraging a wellness practice. On one occasion, much to my surprise he blurt out to his team, “I don’t see any urgency in the work that you’re getting done.” This was just one example. Ultimately the team lost trust and started to depart. This sadly was not an isolated experience. On countless occasions I experienced the same lack of awareness from leaders not practicing what they said they believed in.

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?

So many mistakes and yet I learned from all of them. I realized early on that incorporating wellness in a workplace environment was more about proving to the leadership team that wellness worked, rather than actioning more of the work to help improve an employees wellbeing. The long game didn’t seem to be an option where the Value of Investment (VOI) should have been deemed more important than the Return on Investment (ROI). This was incredibly frustrating. Companies wanted facts, stats, and decreases in their costs associated with ill-health. Absolutely you could measure some costs related to Short and Long Term Disability, Sick Days, Productivity and yet things like presenteeism (although arguably related to productivity) were tough to measure. What about employees being happier to be at work. Motivated to do great work. Supported in their efforts, etc. It was tricky. Although this isn’t really describing the biggest mistake I’ve made, it’s more about recognizing them. However, it does lean into the learning that I needed to satisfy my need and determination to want people to be happier and healthier at work, while appeasing those that hired me to do the work. Even now, the dance still continues.

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?

Helping to shape organizations and their culture in a way where people are motivated and inspired to go to the office, to work, and work from home is pretty significant. My hope is that we listen more, talk less, and take constant action toward creating a healthy and diverse culture. It’s not so farfetched. Without your health what do you have? Health and wellness means that people need to come first by taking care of themselves. Our emotional and physical well-being matters. If every person took small steps every single day toward leading a healthier life, that would be spectacular. Then we would see that bigger impact in the world.

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. Have a morning ritual of self-care. It could be 5 minutes. It doesn’t matter. Practice something that sets you up for the day. Meditation, Exercise, Journaling. All of the above. Start your day on a positive emotional level.
  2. Take time to set your intention for the day. What do you want to achieve? Setting yourself up for the day helps to set yourself up to achieve more — and by more I mean whatever that looks like for you.
  3. The words you use, matter. Speak kindly of yourself and to others. Consider how you communicate. Are you successful in your interactions? Do you feel that conversations were more relational?
  4. Set boundaries. ‘No’ is an empowering word. Burnout is real. Think about all the things you say yes to and not whether you were happy with your decision? Did you have to sacrifice your well-being or time away from things that want to be doing?
  5. Perfectionism is our way of masking fear. Move past the ‘perfect’ and ease into ‘just do it.’ Take action. It does not need to be perfect in order for you to take the next step. Small steps lead to bigger movement.

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

Creating more opportunities for people to want to lead a healthier lifestyle. To create the opportunity for that connection. I’m passionate about showing people how to navigate a healthy wellness journey.

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

  1. Trust that I was always on the right track. I knew at an early age that I wanted to create something impactful where people could thrive. Realizing that the plan may and probably always will shift and yet the intent and vision is there has been my guiding light.
  2. There will always be those that won’t buy-into the idea of wellness. Naysayers are everywhere. In fact often they help to reinforce what I’m creating. It helps me to answer the tough questions.
  3. Do it anyway — seek forgiveness later. Too often I see people giving up on a passion, an idea, an interest for a number of reasons — mostly because it’s not happening fast enough. It’s a long game. An endurance sport. Lace up your sneakers.
  4. Continue to grind. Grit and not giving up will get me there. Pivot, shift, swivel, whatever you need to do but keep going. Know that you will be discouraged. Fight the desire to throw in the towel. Action what needs to be done.
  5. Continue to be creative in my thinking — be original. Be myself. I’ve always grappled with how much of ‘me’ I can be. That’s ridiculous. In fact it reminds me every time I see a glossy corporate photo of the ‘must’ have triangle hand position where your hands are visible and fingers touching in the shape of a triangle — you’ve seen the shot. It’s suppose to show you’re trustworthy. That makes no sense when it’s a ‘canned’ shot.

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

Interestingly I was vegan for 31 years. That story to be told at a later date. Mental health is near and dear to my heart. More than ever before people are struggling and don’t know where to get the help they need. I’m thrilled that I’m able to work with organizations to help guide and offer the support so desperately needed.

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

Instagram: @amygoldberg3

Twitter: @amygrocks

Clubhouse: @amyrocks

Website: www.theamygexperience.com

Thank you for these fantastic insights!

Women In Wellness: Amy Goldberg of The Amy G Experience 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.