For my first EVER blog post I wanted to go deep beneath the surface & share some personal pieces of my journey that I have NEVER shared before.  I always got so caught up with blogs & content in the past, worried about if I need to post this or that to explain my life.   To avoid getting overwhelmed this time & stick to it, I’m just going to start with today. I’ve started & stopped many blogs over the years but this one is different. This one I have a purpose, a product & an opportunity to share. It won’t JUST be about my life but about the lives of others & how we are all working together to change the world (or at the very least change our own lives & the lives of others.) I thought this would be a great first addition because it illustrates what I do for a living & how far I’ve come in just 2.5 short years. (Click images to view larger.)

i was ready to change my life…

This time of year is always emotional for me because it was two years ago this month that I had a falling out with my best friend & confidant, my father. I remember it so vividly. I was about 6 months into starting my Beachbody coaching business. I was a full time art student (& had been for 8 years) as well as a full time waitress. I was living paycheck to paycheck, struggling through  life with no purpose. My husband and I couldn’t get ahead with our careers or our lives & I saw this amazing opportunity unfolding in front of me. I had originally decided to coach after my transformation, which you can watch here, to pay it forward. It was never about making money but then I realized that you are only successful as a coach, if you are directly impacting lives & I couldn’t believe this was actually something I could for a job. I started exploring all the success stories of millionaires & 6-figure earners doing something I was already doing but for free, and I thought “why not me?” Get paid to be fit & healthy & pay it forward? This must be a dream come true! After being a waitress for 10 years (from 16 to 26yrs old) I decided that this was my calling, my purpose & I wanted to be a full time Beachbody coach.

if you can believe it, you can achieve it.

I was getting more & more inspired daily by the Beachbody community and all the success stories I was hearing, plus I was feeling more & more drained, taken advantage of, & belittled at my current job. I have always felt that I was meant to do more & once I hit 25 something clicked inside of me. I was getting older & was showing nothing for my life. I would’ve been in my 30’s by the time I graduated from college & in severe debt like many young Americans (the millennials.) I was ready to make a change & go for it. I came up with a proposal for my dad. He’s a doctor & although he’s very well off, he’s never helped me with finances. I’ve always paid my own way through college & life, so this was a huge step for me to put myself out there & ask for help. I figured if a guy could buy a $50,000 Hermes hand-bag for his wife then he could help his daughter pursue her dreams. I made a plan asking him to loan me X amount of dollars so I could quit my waitressing job & focus on my business. His response was “Beachbody would never work” (not that it doesn’t work) but that it would never work for ME & it wasn’t a “real job.” Considering he had always wanted me to be a doctor or a lawyer this honestly came as no surprise to me. I see people get discouraged every day in this business because their parents don’t believe in them but for me, it made me even more hungry. Hungry to show him he is wrong about me, Beachbody & what I can achieve. My motivations for making this work got even bigger at that point.

believe in yourself.

So now, I’m going to share some very personal stuff that I’ve never shared on social media. I know my dad is out there seeing my success & missing out on a big part of my life. I feel so bad for him, this hole he’s dug for himself & how much of my life he’s missing out on.  I never wanted to give much energy to the situation but I feel compelled to share because of my success being an entrepreneur with no degrees & the hardships I’ve endured throughout my life to get here. I want to deliver hope, especially since I know a lot of people struggle with their relationship with their parents.  As we get older & start to realize that perhaps our parents don’t have the best advice or aren’t the best people to model our lives, morals, values or direction after. It’s a big moment in a child’s life when their parents become mortal, flawed human beings & we can release ourselves from that desire to make them happy, please them or make them proud. This couldn’t of happened at a better time for me.

you can love your family from afar.

So, to continue with the story. A few weeks after the proposal was denied my dad & step mom got in yet another fight. My dad told me he was considering divorce & I told him I supported him no matter what decision he made. Somehow, I became the enemy in the whole dysfunctional battle they had & my dad decided that he no longer wanted me in his life unless I basically bowed down to my step mom (no effing way.) He used money as leverage as usual & this time I decided enough was enough! Now, let me attempt to paint the picture of what kind of a man my dad is. He drives luxury vehicles, shops at Hugo Boss, spoils his whole entire step-family but when his daughter would even so much as ask for a pair of shoes for Christmas it was always about making a “deal” with him. He waved his wallet over my head from the time I got sober till this time two years ago. I never realize how stunted I was by this. To know that if I needed him for a bail out, he’d be there but I had to always say the right things, do the right things, be in college (that I paid for) & live my life in a way that would make HIM proud.  Living in FEAR! I had ENOUGH! I was ready to change my life.

get out of your own way

So, when this all went down I decided (thanks to the personal development we do as a company) that I no longer wanted the poison of my father or step-mom in my life. I was in a loving, supportive relationship, I had pulled myself up from the depths of hell getting sober & I was ready to be happy. I decided that I DESERVE happiness. After all the abuse I endured as a child, I FINALLY decided that I was going to grow up & take control of MY life. It was so freeing to not have him there anymore to keep me locked in my jail cell of college & work. I realized all along, I was just doing it because HE said it was what I SHOULD be doing. Years living my life by somebody else’s design (how ironic that I was in design school – maybe not?) Not what I actually needed to do to make me happy or reach MY full potential! I decided to drop out of college & pursue this endeavor with all of my heart & soul.

when i achieved emerald coach

I started to push really hard at this business, training myself on how to be a better leader, teacher & coach. It became an obsession, passion & through going to seminars & learning how to invest in myself daily I learned it was my calling to bring people to freedom. I found freedom from self, the bondage of others, a job, my body, my brain, school, debt, family, relationships, the government…everything through this opportunity. Two years ago, I was just starting this business with big goals, hopes & dreams for myself & my husband. I wanted to quit my job, retire him from his & have financial freedom. I was able to do that & now all I want to do is help guide people on their way to finding what I have found! I can be proud of myself & my team, my husband & everyone around me. I don’t have to be my father to be successful, in fact…my net worth will be worth more than his by the end of 2014 & I’m a college drop out with only 10 years of waiting tables under my belt as a resume. Booyah!

2012 ELITE coach #25 out of 100K coaches

Nothing can describe this feeling. Nothing. So, with that I wanted to share that I am successfully leading hundreds of people to freedom every day. Last month I was ranked #17 out of over 130K coaches. It’s my second year finishing as an ELITE TOP 25 COACH, I am making 6-figures from home, my husband works by my side, I have traveled more in these past few years, than I ever traveled in my life & it’s my JOB to help others do the same (sure beats bussing tables.) I get to wake up every day with joy, happiness & gratitude because I know that even if I do the bare minimum today, I am going to be helping at least one person change their life. I also wanted to share that as top producer last month, my team was in the #4 spot for top rank advancements. What does this mean? It means that no dad, you were wrong. This is real & not only is it real but I am not JUST changing my life but my team is kicking some serious tail & it’s all because I believed in myself & was able to see the big picture. I am a business woman now, a fitness coach, an entrepreneur, a health coach, a leader, mentor & I did it without anybody believing in me but myself & my husband. What’s better than helping others change their lives? Being the sole drive & energy that’s gotten you to where you are today. This is probably the best feeling I could ever ask for & all I want to do is continue to share my story & life with the world to hope & inspire those souls that are out there who need to be set on fire. Contact me at amysilveremanfitness@gmail.com or fill out an internship form here.

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