Elevating Experiences with Amber Vilhauer Part 1 (of 2)
“I want to elevate every experience.”
YOUR KEY INSIGHTS FROM Amber
Amber Vilhauer is a leading digital marketing strategist who supports authors, speakers and coaches to establish a powerful, integrated online presence that gets results and empowers them to make a difference in their industry. Since starting her agency, NGNG Enterprises (standing for No Guts No Glory) in 2007, she has spent her career impacting her community and building strong strategic alliances with industry leaders and game-changers across the web. Amber has supported thousands of entrepreneurs on six continents with branding & website development, online marketing and live streaming services. She has been the launch manager behind dozens of #1 bestselling books including those for Mark Victor Hansen, Brendon Burchard, Martin Lindstrom, Dr. Daniel Amen, Lisa Nichols and Les Brown. She was recognized as the Female Entrepreneur of the Year at the 18th annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business and at the 14th Annual 2021 Women in Business and the Professions World Awards. Connect and learn more at www.ambervilhauer.com and www.ngngenterprises.com.
No Guts No Glory
“I did start my own company. It's NGNG Enterprises, which to your point stands for No Guts, No Glory. It was not something that I planned on, I've got to be honest. So along the way, I was doing a lot of restaurant jobs. And then in my early 20s, I discovered Cutco Cutlery, which is the high-end kitchen knives that college students go around selling. I loved the product. And that was enough for me to follow their training. And their training is so good that no matter what you do, if you follow it, it's going to work. So this was really the first time in my life where I was successful in my mind. I was one of the top sales reps that summer, and I quickly advanced into management. By the time I'm 20 years old, I was running conferences and speaking in front of 300 of my peers, teaching them how to sell knives and get more leads and referrals and leadership skills. I was running 100 person trainings every week, I was running group interviews for 30 people at a time, managing 30 receptionists at 20, while I was going to college.
So that was really an incredible opportunity where I think I started to open up to my entrepreneurial heart. But after about five years, I was crushing national records. And I was kind of feeling like it was time for a change. I knew that there was more for my life. And as a side job, I got this job as an event planner, teaching entrepreneurs how to get money into their business and how to market online. And this was my first experience with the online world. I knew nothing about it until I was just organizing the event itself and working with the speakers. So now I'm 24 and these are some of the top internet marketing experts of all time still that were speaking on those stages. I was very fortunate, it felt divine. But I was excited about that opportunity of the online world and I looked at it as a challenge that would keep me entertained. So I went home and I taught myself to code my website. And I called it insightful development at the time. I was blogging about just whatever I was learning about from search engine optimization, social media, webinars, digital marketing, you name it. And randomly this woman Julia came across my website, she submitted my contact form asking if I would help to manage her website called Conscious Diva is out in Canada. And then the next client came in, the next client came in… I didn't know anything about starting a business. I had a mentor come to me at one point saying, Hey, Amber, feels like you should be filing an LLC. And I said, What's that? I mean, that was the extent of my business knowledge. And as I was filing for the LLC, it asked me for my business name, and I'm thinking, I don't even know I don't even have a business what is going on.
My mom used to say to me, No guts, no glory all the time growing up. And I thought, what better reminder every day as I face my fears and see what this is. And now all of these years later, I just laugh looking back at that because I had no understanding of how to grow a business, I had no incentive, I had no goal to do it. It's just what happened organically and naturally. And now I have a team of 35. We're one of the top book launch and marketing agencies around, we also build really awesome experiential websites that connect with your prospects in a digital way. But it feels like human connection instead of just a digital brochure. So we also do branding, marketing launches, all sorts of really interesting things. But I have to tell you, I'm so extremely deeply fulfilled in what I do, and the people that I get to do it with. So I guess it was meant to be in some way.”
Core Values
“One of my current criteria for if you want to become a client is that you have to be kind. People laugh when I say that they're like, who can I introduce you to? And I say, Well, my first criteria is I only work with kind people. So if you're not kind, then I'm not your person, because I am too sensitive. I take it too personally. And when you become a client, you are my family and I will literally do anything for you. And so if you're not even going to treat me well, you'll just take advantage of my kind heart. So kindness, somebody that wants to do good in the world. And after that, it's all over the map. But these are people that I feel are my people because I want to do good in the world. And I want to elevate every experience. And so now we have these core values in common. And when we come together, it's like a supernova. It's just so powerful. It's so expansive. And now I know that through this work with these amazing people, my influence on this world is so huge. I can't even wrap my brain around it. Now that's a big responsibility. But I take that very seriously. And now I know that I'm leaving a really important legacy for my son and for all the future generations to come. That's important to me.”
Awareness
“In my professional life, I have this high confidence in this high clarity. And in my personal life, I've taken all of these assessments over the years, and in my personal life, that confidence and clarity depth. I just became aware of that two years ago. And when I became aware of that, I thought, well, that's ridiculous. I'm the same person all the time. But I started to really observe that that's actually not true. And some of my closest relationships had an influence on me, that kind of kept me never feeling like I was good enough.
But what I will say, Darren, is that one of my company core values is lean in. And I think that if you're a person who leans in, you're always striving for that personal and professional growth and that kindness and that love. And so whether I was consciously aware of it or not, I really was approaching my personal life in that same way. It's just that now there's been a level of consciousness coming in to some of these choices and behaviors that I didn't even realize was impacting my life personally.
But now having that awareness, I can make changes to really balance those out. And just in the past few months, I've seen a significant rebalancing that's occurred. And there's just this happiness and this fulfillment that's coming through that's feeling very grounded and peaceful and important. And I can only imagine that as I continue understanding some of this journey and what has happened. You know, I really get kind of giddy thinking about the future of what's possible when I don't have anything holding me back. And when I'm fully consciously aware of what I'm driving toward, and how that can make an impact in all areas of life, and not just my life, but the people closest around me, and how that's impacting them. So I'm actually at a pretty exciting time in my life, I have to say. “
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