Caitlin Clow
Contributor
The decision to travel to Revelstoke for a year was truly lifechanging for Amy Phillips.
“Originally, I just wanted to experience a snow season in Canada,” the Australian said. “Then I quickly fell in love with the beautiful scenery, this town and a Canadian man.”
Upon her arrival, she learned just how hard accommodations were to come by. Luckily, she scored room and board when she was hired on as a server at Peaks Lodge where she met Greg.
“He was my boss a bit and then things flourished,” she said with a laugh.
“I am so lucky to actually be able to stay here,” Amy said of her newfound home, admitting it’s a challenging situation for many international visitors.
“I really admire people who stick it out here because you know they truly love the lifestyle and the towns they’re in.”
Now, nearly five years later, she’s pretty well settled in. She operates her own business, hosts a podcast and six months ago, she and her partner, Greg, welcomed their beautiful baby girl, Lyla Rose Simons.
“Having to dive back into work and run a business has been tough for both my professional and personal life,” said Amy. “Being a business owner has never been a second thought to me and neither has being a mum, so managing both parts of my life was definitely something to get familiar with.
“It’s something I’m still working on, for sure,” she said.
Amala is Amy’s mobile massage and private yoga business in Revelstoke. She had a similar business back home in Melbourne.
“It worked really well for the type of lifestyle I wanted in terms of hours and actually doing something I love, so it was a no-brainer really,” she said. “It came quite organically.”
So did her path to massage in the first place.
“I studied massage and rehabilitation straight out of school and if I were to pin down a reason why I chose this, it would be mainly because of my interest in the human body.”
An active lifestyle growing up sparked an interest in how to improve athletic performance and training.
“Any extra information I could learn to better myself, I would take on. By studying joint and nerve rehabilitation education, it gave me a very deep and well-rounded knowledge of the human body that I was after.”
Meanwhile, she discovered her passion for yoga after her move to Revelstoke.
“The biggest yoga town ever!” she said, adding she completed her training in Bali in 2019.
Running a business does not come without its hurdles, but Amy said it’s crucial to learn from your mistakes and the people around you.
“As a business owner, you are networking and working alongside other leaders who can show you how to do business for the better,” she said. “Or maybe how you’d prefer not to handle certain things.”
Amy’s advice to others considering venturing down the entrepreneurial path is take the leap.
“This is something I work with other ladies on my passion project @makinghermagic,” she said of her business coaching podcast, newsletter and ebook. “My favourite piece of advice to give is to ‘just do it’ — thanks, Nike.
“Plow forward and fix the mistakes later,” she continued. “I think the fastest way to learn is to make mistakes now rather than later, especially when motivation and creativity is flowing.”
Inspiration comes from everywhere, but for Amy, she said she’s inspired by every single woman in business.
“Both those who I know in Revelstoke and those who I follow on socials from around the world. Watching women build, grow and sell businesses excites me so much! Bonus points if you’re doing it with a babe on the hip!”
She points to her newborn as her main motivator these days.
“As soon as I fell pregnant with Lyla, everything I did from then on is for her. I want to give our family the experiences and lifestyle that make us want to jump out of bed in the morning.”
But she says she’s still accepting tips on how to strike work-life balance.
“My work is quite seasonal, so it’s hard to say no when big jobs come through which can leave me with no days off for months.
“But this is something that I’ve stepped into knowing it gives me a lot of freedom for other parts of the year.”
Amy said next steps for this year are to build a team that can take some of the workload.
Finding balance as a new mom is an even more complicated matter.
“I have the best partner in the world,” Amy said of Greg. “We are really lucky that his job is super flexible and we can tag team whenever I need to go to work.
“Greg loves spending time with Lyla, so I never feel guilty or like me working is ‘too much’ or ‘too hard,’” she said. “Even though the mom guilt can still creep up on me every now and then…I know she’s in great hands.”
Amy said she’s especially blessed as she has such a strong support network in Revelstoke.
“Thankfully, the majority of Greg’s family is here,” she said. “My mom’s here at the moment but she lives in Australia. My sister lives there too. My dad lives in Thailand, so that’s a little harder to get to.”
Now that it’s warming up, Amy said she’s going to work harder on extending her network and making some mom friends in the area.
READ MORE: Women of Inspiration: A bright light creating shade
@josh_piercey
josh.piercey@revelstokereview.com
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