LeaderImpact Podcast
LeaderImpact Podcast
Ep. 92 - Jennifer Amirault - From Anxiety to Alignment
What happens when the highlight reel stops working? We sit down with Jennifer Amirault to unpack a journey that looks like success on paper—big titles, fast growth, and the white Mercedes—yet quietly spirals into anxiety, ego, and sleepless nights. Jennifer opens up about choosing flexibility for her young family, scaling a business beyond her leadership, and the moment she began to trade hurry for stillness in search of real peace.
You’ll hear candid insights on comparison traps, servant leadership, mental health, and the kind of legacy that outlasts metrics. If you’ve ever chased the next milestone and felt emptier at the top, this conversation offers a grounded path back to meaning, resilience, and calm.
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Welcome to the Leader Impact Podcast. We are a community of leaders with a network in over 350 cities around the world dedicated to optimizing our personal, professional, and spiritual lives to have impact. This show is where we have a chance to listen and engage with leaders who are living this out. We love talking with leaders, so if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions to make the show even better, please let us know. The best way to stay connected in Canada is through our newsletter at leaderimpact.ca or on social at Leader Impact. And if you're listening from outside of Canada, check out our website at leaderimpact.com. I'm your host, Lisa Peters, and our guest today is Jennifer Amiro. Jennifer is an independent consultant and regional vice president with ARBON International. She has been with ARBON and the network marketing space for over 17 years with a Bachelor of Science in Applied Human Nutrition degree. She has a passion for wellness in helping women to become well physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. She has been a member of the Leader Impact Halifax team since 2023 and is excited to be launching and leading a women's group later this month. She is passionate about personal development and transformation and is on her own journey to grow into the person that God has called her to be. She and her husband Chad recently celebrated 24 years, and together they have two sons and a little Havanese named Lola. Welcome to the show, Jennifer. Oh, thanks so much for having me. It's a privilege to be here. So what's a Havanese? It's a dog. What kind is that?
SPEAKER_01:Cuban descent. She's about 18 pounds and she is my sidekick. We hang together all day, every day.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. My sidekick's at my feet over there, and hopefully it won't snore too loud.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, that's good. This one is not here, she would bark and say hello. So yes.
SPEAKER_00:So it did say that you you have a women's group, but I'm thinking you've probably already started that group. We just launched it about a month ago, yes.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, and how's it going? You know what? It's it's been a little bit of a slow start. The two, um, I'm leaving with one other girl, Lisa Lance, and we've both had some challenges over the last month, but we're just getting started. So I think that we will probably have a firmer launch in the fall. But we're going now till September or till June, and then we'll probably take the summer and read.
SPEAKER_00:Well, keep going.
SPEAKER_01:Are wonderful. Yes. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I've been doing them for many years, and I just show up because I need it.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my goodness, yes.
SPEAKER_00:It's it's such a great conversation and to share with other female leaders or male leaders, however, your group is designed. It is a blessing. So thanks for doing that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, thank you. It's it's really had an impact on myself and my husband over the last year and a half. So happy to pay that forward.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Good. All right. Well, we'll begin. We want to hear more about uh your professional story and how you got to where you are today. And what we really love are sort of those, you know, because the story can be long, the pivotal moments of like the snapshot of those moments along your journey.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's been a it's been a wild one, honestly. Um I started um, yeah, so I have my nutrition degree. I started in the retirement living industry right out of school, and I loved that industry. I worked in with three different companies, locally in Halifax private companies, over over 10 years. And then we found ourselves um with two little baby boys, uh 21 months apart. And when I went back to work after um after my first, after our first baby, I was quite newly pregnant with our second baby, and it wasn't very long before I realized I didn't want that lifestyle of the nine to five, Monday to Friday, three weeks vacation, but I had no idea what I was gonna do. I wanted to work, I needed to work financially, mentally, emotionally, all the things, but I really wanted more flexibility. So I was working at a trade show one Saturday afternoon and came across this booth, and it was the company that I'm now working for. And she said to me, you know, I've actually come off of my third MAT leave. I'm not going back to work with the airline industry, and I'm going to be working with Armon around my family's needs. And I walked away from that five-minute conversation so filled with hope and excitement. I prayed that she would call me because I really didn't know what else I was going to do. So she did call me and I started very quickly. Um, I had never tried a product, I just saw what it could do for me and my family. And um, my goal was very small with that, with that um that business. I really just wanted to replace what I would have been taking home after I paid out two kids full-time child care. So um I did that, but then along the way, I would talk to all of these women who wanted to do the same thing. And what I found is it started to grow and it started to grow quite quickly, and I exceeded my goal. And then I kind of didn't know what I was doing. So it outgrew my leadership. It outgrew my leadership in a big way, and then um I found myself earning more money than I ever would have thought I would have earned, especially in that short of an amount of time, driving a beautiful white Mercedes. I was very flexible with my kids, I had a decent marriage, we were traveling more. Life was so good, except it wasn't. And so I was struggling a lot with just anxiety, a lot of um, I just found myself in a place that I had no idea I'd expected to be. And so in 2015, I started um to just really crave peace. So I wasn't really on a spiritual journey. I grew up in a Christian home. Um, so that wasn't foreign to me at all, but I wasn't seeking God, I was really seeking all of the things that we're told to seek, right? Like the the paycheck and the title and the car and the status and all the things, right? And so as I um really started to seek peace, I started to try to meditate. So I was doing chakra read chakra clearings, I was doing things to try to like lessen my energy and my anxiety. And so I started with five minutes a day of just stillness, and I just was craving stillness, and it was honestly pure torture for me. I couldn't keep myself still, my mind was going, it was just really hard. I was just used to being very, very busy, and that was a comfort zone for me, right? Stillness is hard. And so I would I worked myself up to 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 20 minutes over time, and I was doing these chakra clearings and starting to feel some peace. And I literally was laying in my son's single bed one afternoon, just before they came home from school doing this meditation, this clearing, and I saw Jesus on a bench in a meadow, and it was the clearest, most vivid picture I've ever seen in my mind. It was it was more vivid than I've ever seen anything. And I felt like that was an invitation, but I kind of ignored it, I brushed it to the side, kept on going my merry way. My husband's business was thriving at the time. They ended up going from a business where they started as an IT consulting company on an ironing board in his friend's basement to penthouse office downtown Halifax with 20 employees and growing. And that started to go backwards. It started to fall apart through just different decisions that were being made that weren't agreed upon and things like that. Ended up dissolving in court. And so at this time, um we actually he had taken a trip to Nicaragua, a mission trip to Nicaragua. He really felt a lack of peace in his own heart. So he took this mission trip to Nicaragua, had an incredible experience there. That's his story, came home, and then we found the dissolution of his business, my business was falling backwards, and we were kind of a little bit at rock bottom. And so we were, I can remember coming home from a conference on a high. He literally picked me up from the airport. We went downtown Halifax and we're taking multiple trips out, clearing out his office before the doors would be locked the next day. And I was just listening to worship music on full blast the whole way in and out, and I didn't know what else to do with myself. But through that whole series, we just or that whole process, we decided that we were not personally going to claim bankruptcy. We were facing losing our house, we were facing losing our vehicles, um, we lost the land that we had bought to build out on the ocean, about 40 minutes away here. And um, we just decided that no, we were going to honor our debts and we were gonna do this the way it felt good to us. And so it was a lot of money. And we sought out some different people to help us out, and they wouldn't touch us because it was far too risky. So we just took a deep leap of faith, honestly. And through that process, um, we saw God show up so, so, so many times in just um chunks of debt that was erased quickly and without any reason. And it just was a beautiful faith walk. And now we're just kind of here in this place where um regrowing and rebuilding with a completely different um alignment of our priorities, I guess is where we are now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. Um and I I mean, I want to talk later about failures, and in your talking about one right now. Um but how we learn so much and we we come back stronger. When when you were in this lowest spot, when both you and your husband have had hit, how and this might be deeply personal, but how was your marriage? Because it's it's hard on it's hard on you, and you take a lot out of yourself and you think what you think of yourself and your husband, and you know, the communication stops the. So I'm just wondering if you can because I think a lot of people go through it.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, they do. And I honestly can tell you, I think our marriage became stronger. Um and I'm so grateful to be able to say that because I've had countless people say, I don't know how you guys made that through. And that's where we can truly say, Well, we both lean on God, and that's where that's the only way we made it, the only way. Um, it was definitely a struggle. My husband struggled with depression, um, a quite deep depression at one point in our marriage. Um, not necessarily at that time, but he really, he really just um learned the true love that God has for us on this trip. It was just such a divine experience. And then it kind of um brought to light the experience that I had had. And we've both grown up in Christian homes. We've been prayed for, you know, for generations, which we're very, very fortunate to say. And so I do think that the prayers of even our grandparents are being answered, you know, as we walk this out. So just grateful for that. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you for sharing that. That was a great story. Um on the we're gonna talk a little bit about business and just your principle of success. Um what it would do you have your best principle of success and do you have a story that illustrates that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I think I mean, really overall, what I've learned is um on our own, we're really not as good as we think we are. So, you know, so for the first while I thought, wow, like I'm really something. Like I got quite a little ego going for a while there. And um, you know, as my income grew, as my my organization grew, as my title go grew, um, you know, life was very good. And on the surface, everything was really good. And I did get really a false sense of pride there, I think, and a false sense of security. Um, because of course we know that things can be taken away as quickly as they can be given. I'm experienced that firsthand. So um, yeah, I think just getting priorities in order. So I really do spend the time with the Lord first thing in the morning now, and I've kind of come to really depend on that time. I know my best days are when I start that way, and I know the days that I hit the ground running on my own oftentimes are not quite as good. Even, you know, even the good days just aren't quite as good. And what I've learned is that what I've invited the Lord into, whether it's my marriage, whether it's my women's group, whether it's Leader Impact, our family, it's always turned out, and my business actually, it's always turned out better than I could have imagined. And so I keep kind of going with like God is like we have God's favor, God wants good things for us, right? And so when we seek him first, all these things will be added to you. And I kind of live by that principle now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it's a good one. Um yeah, ego, ego, that's uh it can definitely um take you down, you know, when you think you you're you are all that and a bag of chips and you're not, you know. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01:When we were facing losing everything, I did not sleep for months. And I thought, like, how embarrassed will I be? I was mortified and so embarrassed, and it was all pride and all ego that really just had to be stripped down.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So it's it's purposeful, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Um I will share. Uh, I've been in a similar situation. My um, this was 10 years ago, and my dad had died. And I am, I am my whole family's flying in, and my husband dropped everything to help us, and and he moved people from the airport to the hospitals and and then the funeral. Everybody had left, and I was sitting in the office doing thank yous, and my husband walked in, and I knew I knew the business was he was struggling, and he sat down in my office on the floor and he said, I just want you to know we're meeting with the lawyers tomorrow and we might claim bankruptcy. And no time in this time of uh my dad did he tell me. He just served, and uh we're we're good now. I'll just gather myself. And I remember looking at him and going, God's good, we'll get through this, and it just never phased me to go, you know.
SPEAKER_01:Isn't that incredible? And the peace, the peace that you feel in those moments are inexplicable, and that's only God. Yeah, wow. Anyway, yeah, just yeah. So and I just lost my dad a month ago, so I know the feeling of that too.
SPEAKER_00:So it's oh I'm sorry. Yeah, yeah. All right, well, we'll continue. So we talk about um failures and mistakes, and it was funny. This morning I just had a my leader impact talking about failures and fears. We learn more from them. We know that we learn more from our failures, mistakes, and our own successes. So I'm wondering if you have one that you can share and uh what you learned from it.
SPEAKER_01:A failure. Like, I don't know that I have a specific failure. I feel like I failed forward for a long time, honestly. I've learned kind of to reshape failures as lessons. I really have. And I've learned so many lessons. I've made countless leaders leadership mistakes. Um, I've put business for before people at times, which I will never do again. It's people first for me. I think that's probably my biggest lesson is to truly love everyone where they are and and and serve from that place versus, you know, going after a goal and how can they achieve help achieve this goal? It's just a very, very different place to work from and to lead from. Yeah. So that would be probably my greatest lesson, slash failure, slash, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. I wish we could tell the younger generation to fail forward. We, you know, to it's not a fail. It is not a fail. It's just you're moving forward, you know, and and you're learning and take it for that. And what are we walking away from? And yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um and I do think the further you fall, I mean, that I love that whole thing, the further you fall, the higher you fly. And you know, sometimes I think we have to go through those tough, tough, tark, dark times in order to truly appreciate um and also get it right when you fly again.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. It's it's hard when you're in it. Yes. And if you know that um you will see the other side uh and and something will come out of it. I there's a there's definitely a you know, have faith. Have faith. Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01:And I do love, I I I thank you for for the invitation because I haven't shared that story publicly really at all. But I do feel when we share our stories, it it gives someone else hope. And I think that's the the most important thing. Like I don't think that we go through things for nothing. I don't think they should end with us. I truly think that, you know, in in time as we heal and move forward, not in the thick of it, it's very difficult to share it when you're in the thick of it. But when you look back, you're on the other side, you're doing well, you can say, Listen, I've been there, come along. I you're gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I um, as you said that in sharing our stories, and we learned, I I thought of my leader impact group, and that's what we're about, is um we don't all go through the same failures, mistakes. And when we share our stories, we know we all have gone through it in different ways. And to share the stories with other leaders who may not be able to share it with anyone else on their team because you know, you're leading them. You don't feel that these are the people you should be sharing with. We are your peers. And um, there's been some great stories. So uh your your group in Halifax will continue to grow and and people will love showing up just to you know be part of a bigger team. Yeah. Yes, yes, that's exactly what it is. Yeah. So all right. Uh at Leader Impact, we want to grow personally, professionally, and spiritually for increasing impact. So I'm well wondering if you're willing to share an example of how the spiritual makes a practical difference in your life as a leader.
SPEAKER_01:Well, um, I didn't really realize. So, again, starting my day seeking wisdom and truth. I don't know about you, but I find there's an awful lot of noise out there right now. And uh and so I find grounding myself in just some solid truth, wisdom, um, and guidance for the day helps me immensely. And then um I did actually share my testimonial last year on one of our team calls. We do weekly team calls and I shared a short testimonial at the end very spontaneously. And as a result, I've seen other women start to seek God and grow in their faith. And I just find that's been such a blessing. And so I love um, you know, having space to sometimes do that as well, just incorporate it into our work.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I um when you share, more people are willing to share their own story. And when you become vulnerable, they'll ask you the simple questions about your faith. Like, how do you pray? What does that mean? Or what does it mean to have stillness in the morning? Or you know, and they ask you because they they look at you and like she's calm, she's taking this problem very calmly, or you know, you're finding peace, and they they ask you, what are you doing? And you're like, Well, I start my morning.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, and I'm dependent on that time.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, I when we first started talking, you talked about uh finding stillness is hard, and we are sisters from another mother. Um, and and I think every woman finding stillness is hard and finding so much noise in your day. And when my morning is interrupted, I get it. Yes, it's sacred time. It's sacred. Yeah, my kids know that. Well, at Leader Impact, we are dedicated to leaders having a lasting impact. And so as you continue to move through this amazing journey you're on, um, I'm wondering if you're willing or want what you want your faith legacy to be when you leave this world.
SPEAKER_01:Hmm, legacy is seems like such a big word. Um, I really want women to know they're enough and to know they are loved. That truly is um so heavy on my heart right now, I think, because I struggled so much with not feeling enough and comparison, and I think that was um a lot of my anxiety was rooted in that. I work in a predominantly female industry, and I think there's just a lot of that that you just need to work through. And once you work through it, it's okay. But um I do I do think that so I like I say I work predominantly with women, so I see um it's so easy to seek um validation in sometimes the wrong places, numb. Um, you know, just I just want them to know their worth. I truly want them to know that they have a creator who has created them for a purpose, they are loved beyond measure, just as they are. They do not need to um be or do anything more, they just are enough and to truly live that out. So that's a desire on my heart right now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I think um when when people, I mean, just looking at you, they they look at women think you have it all together. What you know, what do you know? So sharing the stories and saying, I've I've been where you've been, and you are enough. Like it, you know, you will grow. Um, and I again the importance of sharing the stories.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Because women need to know that they're not alone, they are enough.
SPEAKER_01:Um, and vulnerability is a is a power in itself. It really is. Not you don't have to spare it everything, but you know, being willing to share creates true connection.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. So that's what makes it what's leader impact a great group. Um, our last question for you is what brings you the greatest joy?
SPEAKER_01:Right now it's my kids. My kids are two boys, they're 17 and 19, and they're just coming into their own. And that brings me so much joy. I've struggled, I've worked from home for um 17 years. So I was living COVID long before the pandemic happened. So um, you know, there's isolating moments in that. There was times that I questioned whether I was doing the right thing. Um, but I have been so present with them over the last, over their entire lives. They don't remember full-time childcare, and I was always available, which I just consider such a blessing and a gift, and I'm so grateful for. And I just see God's hand through my entire life, honestly, even up to this point, in ways that I didn't even recognize at the time. But yeah, to watch them flourish, to watch them just to grow in their confidence, in their own faith, um, in their own trust in the Lord, um, is just really making me so joy-filled right now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. I have uh two children, 20 and 20, well, it's gonna be 22, 20 and 22. Oh, you're just ahead of me. Yes. And married at the same time, 24 years coming up. Um my gosh. I know. Again, from another mother. Uh your comment about um being isolated. And you know, I I have worked from home for many years prior to COVID. And um, we can't let that happen, right? We we have to get out of the house. Um, we we know, but I I think we got good at it before. So to any, I just if you have any advice, and I mean I'm trying to think myself about isolation for women who are living in, and how how would you suggest, you know, how do we get out of it? Um, yeah, that is such a great question.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I don't feel like it's in the last year that I've even started to get out of it, to be honest. Yeah. Um, and really crave people. Like I was actually very happy in my little bubble of four for about a year and a half. They were homeschooling, and I just loved the little the time that we had with them till till I didn't. Um about two years in, I was like, okay, this is enough now. But it's only been about probably end of 2023, early 24 that I started to realize okay, we need connection. We need people, we are not meant to do this life alone, and we're meant to be in community. And so leader impact has been huge for me, honestly. Um, I also have another women's group, just four, there's five of us who've become just dear friends, and our spouses have become friends, and now we're traveling together a little bit, and it's a it's we're just we we pray together and we we just you know do life together, but I think finding your people is so important, so important. And it's not everyone, right? Like just finding that kind of inner circle is so key, and put you kind of need to put yourself out there until you find that too. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00:There's uh so I I host a TV show in my in my city, and we just recently had they're called uh Regina 55 Plus Community Center. So um it's it used to be called Senior Center, but they've rebranded 55 Plus. And it's just a place to go and and do community, and there's lots of activities you can join. And I'm like, um 55 plus. And I should I should go, right? And I I know I'll be going alone, and tonight I'm going to a concert alone, and I'm like, you know, and I good, this is very new for me, but it's to get out, like I am like you. It's like it's it's time.
SPEAKER_01:You have to force yourself. You do, and I became a hermit, I truly became a hermit, and that was my comfort zone too, right? So getting back out with people is like we have to learn, yes, relearn how to socialize. So do it awkward, do it uncomfortable, do it, just do it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And even if you don't talk to anyone, like I can go to a concert, I can listen, and I can leave. Or I can turn to the person beside me and say, Hi, I'm Lisa. Yes, the choice is yours.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, the choice is mine. Oh, the choices are endless. So yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Jennifer, I want to thank you for joining us this last 25 minutes. It is it has been a pleasure to meet you.
SPEAKER_01:Um, nice chat.
SPEAKER_00:I uh I have had a great time. I know actually a friend of my my neighbor used to be, well, is in Arbonne. I don't know if you know Becky Young.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my goodness, she's lovely. The OG is in Arbonne, she's legacy, she's our legacy. Yeah, she was one of the first women in Canada, I think.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, she was. Yes, she was. Yeah, they moved in beside us, but her husband was had they also had the the ranch, and I think they just couldn't do both, and they moved, they went back out to the ranch, and then I think they're somewhere else. But uh it was lovely to have them as neighbors.
SPEAKER_01:I'm sure she is lovely. I've never met her in person, but I've heard her speak many, many times.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, lovely.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so connection.
SPEAKER_00:There we go. Thank you. That's right. All right. Well, uh Jennifer, and if anyone wants to connect with you, find you, learn more about you, what is the best way to connect with you?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm I'm trying to be more active on social media. I don't have a website at this point, but um uh uh Daily Walk with Jen. Daily Walk with Jen two N's is my Instagram handle. You can pop me a message if there's anything I can help with anybody with, I'm happy to do that. I'm happy to walk through situations with people that I've already experienced and uh love to connect with new women. That's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you again for sharing the last half hour with us. You're welcome.
SPEAKER_01:Thank you so much. Have a great day.
unknown:All right.
SPEAKER_00:Well, if you're part of Leader Impact, you can always discuss or share this podcast with your group. And if you're not yet part of Leader Impact and would love to find out more about us and grow your leadership, find our podcast page on our website at leaderimpact.ca and check out our free leadership assessment. You can also check out groups available in Canada at LeaderImpact.ca, or if you're listening from anywhere else in the world, check out LeaderImpact.com or get in touch with us by email info at LeaderImpact.ca, and we will connect you. And if you like this podcast, please leave us a comment, give us a rating or review. This will help other global leaders find our podcast. Thank you for engaging with us. And remember, impact starts with you.
