Amanda Parker, a coach and the creator of the T7M Community mastermind, joins Niiamah Ashong on the Outlier's Edge Podcast to talk about courage and how to apply it. She shares why courage looks different for every person, how the rooms people sit in reflect their thinking back to them, and how intuition guides bold moves. What emerged is that listening to intuition and acting in alignment with it creates its own certainty, and the more people know themselves, the easier it is to make moves that once seemed impossible.
Episode at a glance
- Guest: Amanda Parker, Coach, catalyst for courage and creator of the T7M Community mastermind
- Host: Niiamah Ashong, coach to outlier leaders
- Show: Outlier’s Edge Podcast, released January 31, 2023
- Format: conversation, 44 minutes
- Topics: Courage is personal, Courage and confidence, Rooms that reflect people's thinking, Setting a room up for possibility, Listening to intuition, Self-trust
What Amanda brought to the conversation
Amanda Parker describes herself as a catalyst for courage, helping people access a deeper level of themselves and a courage they didn't know was inside them. Her own path took her to two other countries to work in wildlife conservation, moves others called courageous and she says would have been impossible for her not to make. She started her business in 2018, has led many group coaching and leadership development programs, and works with leaders, creators and change makers, many of them in social impact and tech. She created the T7M Community mastermind so people working on their next edge can see they're not alone, build confidence and reach their next level of success.
What emerged
The central insight is that courage is personal: a step others call brave may come naturally, and the real edge lies somewhere else. Amanda Parker ties courage closely to confidence, saying the more a person trusts and knows themselves, the easier it is to make moves that would have seemed impossible before. Niiamah Ashong heard in this that leaders who choose their own path get to create their own certainty, by listening to their intuition and taking action in alignment with it.
Questions this episode answers
What does courage mean for a leader?
Amanda Parker says courage is worth defining because the limit is different for each person: what takes tremendous courage for one person comes naturally to another. People called her moves abroad to work in wildlife conservation courageous, but for her it would have been impossible not to make them, so her edge was somewhere else.
How are courage and confidence connected?
Amanda Parker ties them closely together: the more a person trusts, knows and understands themselves, the easier it is to make moves that would have seemed impossible before. From the outside it looks courageous, but in the moment that person is simply living their life and making choices, and the edge keeps moving.
How does the room a leader is in shape their thinking?
Amanda Parker has noticed that at every stage of her career she has been surrounded by people reflecting back whatever her fears were at the time, from how to get clients to whether her rates were too low. Without an outlier in the room who sees things differently, she says it's really hard to get pulled out of that way of thinking. Niiamah Ashong recalled a group money conversation where one woman said making money wasn't hard for her, which showed him how much groupthink was in that room.
How can a facilitator set a group up to think bigger?
Amanda Parker says the way she sets people up determines what happens in the space: if she frames the room around what isn't working, people bring that energy in. Instead she charges the space with what is possible and what people really want to create, giving them permission to think outside the box, show up fully, dream a little bigger and not be afraid of looking stupid or making silly comments.
How can a leader tell when they're out of alignment?
Amanda Parker says intuition, whether someone calls it an inner voice, wisdom or knowing, speaks to each person differently, and when she ignores her knowing she can tell something is out of alignment. She says the body will show it too, in a different way for each person, and she encourages getting familiar with how one's own intuition speaks through sitting down, journaling and reflecting.
In their words
It's worth defining what courage means, because that limit is really different for each of us.
Amanda Parker
You're creating something that's never been there before, so the only judgment you have is what's coming from within.
Amanda Parker
Key moments
04:13 – A catalyst for courage
07:51 – Defining what courage means
13:34 – Courage and confidence
15:40 – Groupthink in a money circle
21:49 – Setting a room up for possibility
27:35 – Intuition behind bold moves
30:10 – Creators create their own certainty
31:43 – How intuition speaks to each person
38:32 – A mastermind for the next edge
About Niiamah Ashong
Niiamah Ashong is a coach to outlier leaders, host of the Outlier’s Edge Podcast, and founder of the Trailblazer Collective. He coaches leaders who are creating something only they can make: a company, a body of work or a movement. Make a difference with your difference.
Work with Niiamah: 1:1 with Niiamah | World of Difference
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