What Happens When You Finally Choose Yourself with Amber Brown
What if the most powerful move you could make was to pause? In this transformative episode, Amber Brown shares how stepping away from a life of constant achievement helped her reconnect with her true purpose.
From breaking up with burnout to realigning her entire identity, Amber opens up about what it really takes to slow down, sit in the stillness, and reimagine success from the inside out. She dives into the hard truths of leadership, self-worth, and choosing alignment over approval.
If you’re navigating a season of doubt, disconnection, or change, this conversation will show you the power of trusting yourself—and the pause.
Must-Hear Insights and Key Moments
Amber shares how burnout forced her to stop and re-evaluate her entire identity
Why taking a pause isn’t failure—it’s the path to clarity
How society’s definition of success can keep us trapped
The moment Amber knew she was out of alignment
Tools she used to rebuild her sense of self and worth
The power of therapy, journaling, and support systems
How saying “no” became her boldest and most freeing move
Advice she’d give to her younger self about worth and rest
Words of Wisdom: Standout Quotes from This Episode
“The only thing standing between you and your breakthrough is the decision to start.” - Courtney Turich
“You are not what you do. You are who you are.” - Amber Brown
“Sometimes your biggest comeback begins with a complete shutdown.” - Amber Brown
“It’s not about doing more, it’s about doing what aligns.” - Amber Brown
“Stillness is where you hear your truth the loudest.” - Amber Brown
About Amber Brown
Amber Brown is a transformative executive known as “The Fixer” for her ability to lead organizations through high-stakes challenges and stalled momentum. With over 20 years of experience, she specializes in realigning strategy, operations, and leadership to drive sustainable growth and long-term success. Amber blends sharp thinking, humor, and strategic insight to build trust, energize teams, and foster lasting transformation. She’s led business turnarounds, innovation accelerations, and organizational redesigns that break survival cycles and create clarity. She is also the founder of Inside the Fix, a newsletter delivering bold, actionable insights on business transformation. Amber holds advanced degrees in Organizational Development, Marketing, and Finance.
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BLOG TRANSCRIPT
Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies
Courtney Turich: Hey, it's your friend and host, Courtney Turich, and welcome to Bold Moves, confident Choices, the podcast where we own our path, make fearless decisions, and get real about what it takes to turn bold ideas into reality. In today's episode, we're chatting with Amber Brown, who's made a lot of bold moves and confident choices.
A little about our powerhouse guest. Amber Brown is a transformation expert, executive leader, and the go-to. Fixer for organizations in need of a serious turnaround. With 20 plus years inside Fortune 500 and private equity backed companies, she's built her career reviving, underperforming businesses, aligning leadership teams, and delivering fast sustainable results when the stakes are high.
Amber is also the co-author of an international bestseller on Pivotal Leadership, a Fearless Global Adventurer. She Camelback rides in Morocco and a proud dog mom of two feisty Yorkies. Whether she's leading a boardroom breakthrough or a navigating unchartered terrain, Amber brings clarity, agility, and unstoppable momentum to everything she does.
So Amber, thank you so much for being here on Bold Moose Confident Choices.
Amber Brown: Thank you for having me today, Courtney. I've been so excited to be here. I really love how you empower people to step into their own, make bold moves, and I feel like we're very similar because transformation and redefining careers has been sort of, let's just call it a trend, whether I plan for it or not throughout my career.
And so I think it aligns quite well.
Courtney Turich: Awesome. I cannot wait to learn more myself. Just reading your bio gets me extremely excited. Amber, so before we jump into your deep story, just give us a little background about you first.
Reinvention Through Risk
Amber Brown: Sure. So I have been in corporate America, as you noted, for about two decades, maybe a little bit longer, but I won't give that away.
I started my career as a marketer. Love, love, love marketing, the creativity, the boldness. And I just really enjoyed my time there, leading teams. but what I found as I was going throughout my marketing career is I was really attracted to the bold, the high risk situations. So oftentimes I'd be put on teams where they were entering new markets, they were trying something the company had never, ever done and was.
Terrified of trying something new or really just needing a bold refresh. And I loved that challenge. I'm a big challenge person gets me excited. so I had a really great marketing career. I loved it. And then I started finding myself naturally gravitating into roles where people were saying, Hey, the business is declining.
We're not exactly sure what's going on. Campaigns weren't landing. Strategies weren't working. They had burned out teams and oftentimes in these situations they'd say, Hey, we've had leader after leader in, and while they were fantastic. Something's still broken. How about we give you a shot? And so I sort of naturally fell into this pathway of taking jobs that frankly no one wanted.
So when I would go into these jobs, I would have mentors and family and friends, I'll say to me. What are you doing? You're crazy. There's no safety in that. What if your whole career falls apart? You take one bad move, you know, you walk into this role, it doesn't go well. What happens to you? Your career's done?
I always call it chicken. Little sky is falling, and so I looked at it and said, Hey. mid-career. This is a really interesting element for me. I loved the challenge of change, but I also found that it was a really big gap in a lot of organizations, and we'll talk a little bit more about that, but I really decided that hey, change is really a big critical element, not only in how we see companies perform in the marketplace today and how they operate.
but it's really how you change the whole DNA of a company. You can change an entire operating model and take a company that was declining 45% year over year and suddenly, in a matter of a year and a half to get them growing 20%. And I loved that opportunity. And so I started doing that more and more.
And I think one day I woke up, and I think this sometimes happens, Courtney, where you're like, oh, I've built a whole new career for myself. I have this total different thing that I do now. People call me for very different things. I'm not just a marketer anymore. And I discovered that not only did I reinvent myself completely by accident, in certain ways I.
I could write my own ticket. So what I was finding is I'd get phone call after phone call before I was even finished with one opportunity to go on to the next. And one of the big things that I personally care about in my life is freedom and being able to write your own ticket. And I found that by cultivating this really interesting, sometimes painful, but very unique skillset, I was able to write my own ticket and build this whole new career that I had never even planned for.
Courtney Turich: Amber, you really are a powerhouse. Thank you. There is nothing easy about what you do. Go in to teams and I'm, guessing the morale is really low at that point. Mm-hmm. When you step in, they've been through a lot of leaders and now it's your turn. True. Really, really, really interesting. So just to clarify, now, you are running your own business, you are setting your own terms.
Amber Brown: I am. And so I would say how I run my business is maybe not in the traditional sense of an entrepreneur running their own business. I get calls when companies need a fix. They need someone to fix things. They need someone to walk in and diagnose and what that company needs and what their goal is, varies.
And so what role I take within that organization varies as well. So sometimes I do step in as a strategic leader. And work as an employee with them for, you know, specific periods of time. Sometimes it's advising strategic teams are coming in under straight contract work. every opportunity is different, but I get to decide how I show up, what opportunities I show up to and how I approach it.
Courtney Turich: Okay. So it sounds like in so many ways that you have made a lot of bold moves, Amber. Yes. Almost from every business you interact with, from what it seems. So, if I were to ask you, what was that big, bold, and confident choice in your life that catapulted you professionally or personally?
The Turning Point Assignment
Amber Brown: Yeah, so I have two that were very career defining, but the first one's probably a little more entertaining for most people.
So it was about midway through my career as we've talked about. I was really into marketing. I loved my career. I. My boss called me in his office one day and I thought I was going on like the next big marketing adventure, and he said, Hey, so I need to talk to you for a minute. Come here. And I said, yeah.
And he's like, so we have this business. It's been number two in the market for the whole 10 years that we've owned it. Growth is flat and we have to do something with it. So I was thinking more in the terms of marketing in that moment and he said, no, I need you to fix the business. So there's three ways this is gonna go.
You're either going to turn it around and it's gonna grow at a rate high enough for us to want to keep it. You're going to make it look better so we can divest it and get some of our money back, or you'll get fired. I was like, oh, it's like, and by the way, we'd been working together for a long time.
He said, there's been four before you, so you will be the fifth. And that was my very first business turnaround. And so I said, okay. He gave me a little more information on the business and then he said, you have 48 hours. So I said, I don't need it, I'll take it. And when I left, that's when everyone was calling me, asking me if I was crazy.
I had mentors within the organization and they're like, oh my gosh. You're a woman if this doesn't work out, your career's done. But I just said yes, and I didn't have a good logical reason why. Because if you looked at it on paper, if you looked at it from all of the executive mentors, I highly respected, there was no good reason for me to take that role.
People didn't want it. People said, that's where leaders go to die. And I took it and people thought it was crazy, but there was something I think inside of me that knew this would be a really interesting adventure. So that's one. But two, I had the confidence at that point. I'd built a really great career, so I knew that regardless of how this shook out, it wasn't going to be the end for me.
I would find another way to land on my feet and make something happen. And so I do think even though we all have moments of insecurity, you really have to believe in yourself. And sometimes when it makes sense to no one else, you just have to know. What your gut's telling you, and that you will land on your feet.
You will find a way. And I personally believe, regardless of if you're an entrepreneur, a corporate executive, if you believe in yourself, you will land on your own two feet and move it forward if that's what you really want.
Courtney Turich: Such great advice, Amber, when you're going through that moment. Yeah, am thinking about this being presented to you.
Is there a little bit of competitiveness in you? Oh. Just a little. I'm guessing. So was it. Also the challenge that basically when your boss said, no one's done it before too.
Amber Brown: Yeah. So I think one of the things I love about challenge is that competitiveness, and can be described a lot of different ways.
Sometimes people view that as competitiveness and proving, oh, these guys didn't, and I did, but sometimes it's even with myself. I'm very competitive with myself and. I had never done anything like that before. And to me, in that moment, and it's funny you brought it up, I said, if I say no, I'm chickening out on myself and I'm not gonna sell myself out that way.
Right? So there is that moment of competitiveness and I'm gonna figure this out. And when people tell me I can't do something, I'm the person that will run through walls to prove that I can, if it's something that I truly want for
Courtney Turich: me. So fast forward 24 hours from that, yes. You're going to take the role what are the emotions for you?
Amber Brown: Yeah, so I've learned a lot in my life, whether it's professional, personal, there's sometimes where you listen to your gut. And you answer, and it's because if you spend too much time listening to your gut, you talk yourself out of things, your ego steps in. So I will blindly, sometimes deer in the headlight say, I'm going after this.
I know it's the right thing for me. I'm gonna take the risk. I'm gonna do it. And then I wake up the next day. You have the emotions. I woke up the next day, what did I do? What if I can't do this? Four people that were actually change management executives couldn't figure this out. Like what makes me.
Different. And so I really had to talk myself off a ledge because, I love my family, but they're a traditional, hardworking, blue collar family. I was the first person in my life to go to college, and so most of my family doesn't even understand what I do during the day. they're great supporters, but being able to talk something like that through is always a challenge.
then you have mentors and they all thought I was crazy, so. I was panicking. I picked up the phone. My biggest supporter has always been my dad. He's always had my back from day one. And he said, just do it. And if it doesn't work out, oh well, you'll figure it out. I know you will. And so just knowing that someone else believed in me in that way, regardless of how it would shake out, really gave me the confidence.
And I, picked up my shoes, put my blazer on. I said, all right, let's do this.
Courtney Turich: Oh my gosh, Amber, when I know everybody wants to know the outcome, I do too, but I'm gonna make us all wait. Perfect. When you go into this position and you have to be the fixer, where do you begin? If you could give advice to anybody who's in a similar situation, how would we do this?
Or start the process?
Fixing the Business Starts With Trust
Amber Brown: Yes. So this may seem. A little odd for me to say, but I think the biggest thing is really know who you are and what your strengths are as a leader. Because when you walk into situations like that, you really have to know how to play your strengths regardless of what you're fixing in a business.
In that scenario, the biggest missing piece is trust. You have low morale. You have people that said, Hey, I mean, I had executives are like. One more person, throw one more person at it, nothing's gonna change. You have a very sometimes negative, sometimes neutral environment that you're walking into, and people are very skeptical.
So you have to find a way quickly to not only build trust, but start leveraging the relationships You need to find out what was really going on. And so what I quickly discovered about myself, and this is a strength I'm proud of, but it's also something that people don't always love about me either. they often to describe my leadership style as, Hey, you have an informal leadership style, and the reason I have that is on purpose.
And some executives are like, oh, you'll never be the CEO of a Fortune 500. Don't need to, I. And I've made peace with that. But for me, that is a great skillset for me because I'm able to walk in, build trust and build relationships quickly. And the key thing that really helped me turn around that business and all of the others where other executives couldn't, it's people tell me things that they don't tell anyone else.
And it's not because I'm the secret keeper, it's because they trust me enough to tell me what's really going on, because they know I'm not there. To hurt them. They know I'm not there to go after them. And so I found that people were able to share things with me very quickly that they hadn't shared prior, and that really helped me understand what the true problem was versus all of the layers that people sometimes put on some of those things for the psychological safety in an organization.
Courtney Turich: For sure. Amber, I'm just rolling through my mind of how many times. So many of us have been put in those layers and the fear sets in of being able to talk to the next layer. And I love that you pride yourself on it being an informal leader. I do. And I'm gonna take, I'm gonna take a page outta your book because that trust component is huge, super huge.
Amber Brown: It's really
Courtney Turich: huge. Yeah.
Amber Brown: Yeah.
Courtney Turich: And then I said, oh, go ahead. Oh no, please. I was
Amber Brown: gonna hear what's next. Yeah. So I would say the other big thing, and again, it's not specific business advice. I could dole that out all day. But the second big thing is kind of going back to really believing in yourself and that you are going to find the solution.
And being comfortable with yourself. And why I say that is when you're in a turnaround, not everyone loves you, it is not a welcome sign on the door. Please come join the company. Please look at all of my dirty, ugly laundry and call it out to people, fix it, et cetera. So. It's not always a welcome mat. And then when you start driving change, it's really hard.
So I've been in organizations where they say, oh, we desperately want change the leaders, everyone wants change. They want change until change starts happening. And then it's a personality thing or they don't like you for this. And so people naturally, when they're in the midst of change, get scared and they find other ways.
To lash out, whether they realize it or not. And it's generally at the person that's driving the change. So I always joke and say, sometimes as a change executive, you're walking around with a really big target on your back that says, press me. I'm the one, I'm the fault. And so you have to get really comfortable.
Navigating those conversations. And I think a lot of people that naturally gets them to be in a defensive place and defending what they're doing, trying to find ways to prove that they're right. And you have to be really comfortable with yourself and say, you know, I have a skillset. I'm human.
I'm not perfect. But I know what I'm doing here and how do I help these people navigate their own fear? So it really becomes a masterclass and how you deal with everyone else's fear while you're scared inside yourself, because you don't want this thing to turn upside down,
Courtney Turich: right? Amber, I'm envisioning you walking around the office.
I'm thinking of a yellow hard hat, and also you coming into my office and you're just asking people. That's what enters my mind when I hear fixer change taking place.
Amber Brown: Yeah, it definitely can be. It can work a lot of different ways, I think in this world. markets change quickly and with the advent of continued technology, so everyone loves ai.
What people don't think about just as AI with an example, is a lot of big businesses, mid large businesses, they're not built for the speed required that this sort of technology is going to require them to operate at. Leaders have never dealt with this level of complexity in operating models. So sometimes it can be as simple as, Hey, we have this business, we have all this new technology in it totally changes our operating model overnight and we don't know how to fix it because it's incredibly complex.
Sometimes it's a full corporation needs a whole new operating model. Sometimes I'm walking in and helping them restructure the whole organization in preparation for their next step of growth. So it really looks in very different ways and it's really geared to what the organization needs and how I can help them achieve their goals.
Courtney Turich: Fascinating, super fascinating, Amber. Okay, so now give us the end result of this big, bold, confident move you made.
Reinvention Through Leadership
Amber Brown: Yeah, so I would say the big bold end result is I am who I am today and I've been able to reinvent and write my own career. But the kicker for that business, we went to double digit growth in two years.
It was the first time we jumped up almost 30 points of market share to number one, and we completely changed. How that company and that business operated, and it was very successful. I think even when I checked back on it eight or nine years ago, it was still growing. So that's the other piece I think is really important and what I love so much about what I do.
People think, oh, you're a fixer, and then when you leave, things collapse or you're there for everyone to build around you. The key skillset here is helping companies and leaders. Build their own team. So when you leave, it continues to operate. It continues to grow, and they continue to thrive. And that's a unique skill set and something that I love because I get to bring positive change to organizations and leaders and businesses that are looking, for a new way to be.
Courtney Turich: Wow. When you were saying all that, I had chills from head to toe, amber, and, and it's so cool to see a woman. Like yourself, who is empowering this change in large corporations.
Amber Brown: Yes. Kudos to you. Thank you.
Embracing Nontraditional Growth
Courtney Turich: Okay, Amber, so if we look back Yep. To Little Amber, what would you tell your 18-year-old self? Oh man. I thought
Amber Brown: really hard about that question.
I've been listening to the, podcast before me, so I think there's two key things. The biggest thing for me is. Careers don't always look today, that traditional pathway. So your career can literally, especially in this world, be anything and any way you define it. There's so many opportunities. So not to get hung up on titles and how people think it should look and take a chance on yourself because.
You have no idea where it can go. And that's no true today. It's more true today actually, than it was I think at any other time. And then second, I would say something that I think is so important is really focusing on building people and a diverse community. So as you know, I love global travel. I love big communities.
I joined the Outlier Project last week, so I think we're in the same community now. So, I mean, I think really building communities, but my biggest thing is, school and all of those things are great, but our biggest teachers in life are the people in this world. And being able to expose yourself to all sorts of unique experiences, adventures, and people is, really how you figure out who you are and what you have to offer, to this big, beautiful planet, that we have here.
And the billions of people here.
Courtney Turich: Wow, I'm so jazzed throughout our conversation. And then you mentioned joining the outlier project, which has also just been so good for my soul. Amber. Yes. because that is a part of growth surrounding ourselves, our network with just great people who all wanna be elevated.
Absolutely.
Amber Brown: It's been fun. I'm only a week and a half in, but it's been incredible and just even the welcomes and the phone calls that people already reach out, it's been unlike any other community yet, so.
Courtney Turich: Fantastic. Well, I'm walking through our conversation today and I'm hearing, you know, when we first had this conversation as a fixer, I'm envisioning you coming in being like really stern and this is how it's gonna be, and.
I'm walking away with a completely different perspective, you know, I'm sure that's not the first time.
Amber Brown: No. You know, I was laughing, because there's someone in the project, Melissa, I was talking to her the other day and she, when I was telling her what I did, she goes, Ew. Ew. And I said, I know because people do have this mentality of it being really hard, unpleasant work, and this mentality of who they think someone should be that's doing it.
And sometimes they think of exactly how you described. And so when I walk in, they get really confused. So, wait, can you tell me what you do one more time? So. it's a lot of fun though. But I think the nice thing about it is, like I said, I hope that I'm a fun person. I think I'm a fun person. I love people.
And so being able to walk in and build these great relationships and help people through a tough time is, so rewarding and actually fun. And I actually think people miss a lot of the goodness that comes, from helping corporations and leaders do something new and different.
Courtney Turich: You've completely shifted my mind, Amber, I can see that you bring a real warmth to an environment.
There is a good energy about you. Oh, thank you. I think now like your approach, if anybody's in a situation where you must fix an organization, well, number one, you call Amber Brown. But number two, if you can't call Amber Brown, start by just being you. Yes, be a real authentic human. Talk to them like a person.
Secondly, what you said was trust. Start building that trust. And when you do the trust. Amber, if you could just touch on this. Do you just make sure to talk to everyone you can within the organization? Is that your goal? To start building trust? Not always.
The Power of Trust, Authenticity, and Humor in Leadership
Amber Brown: I think sometimes talking to a lot of people can be challenging.
If you're in a large organization, that could be a few thousand people and that can be difficult. You could get caught in conversations. I think what I find is talking to people, it's not the act of talking to people, it's the emotional element of talking to people. So usually I come in and I spend a lot of time talking to people about.
How's your family? Tell me a little bit about you. It's always really important for me to understand and know the people, that I'm talking to. It helps you understand their perspective and their views and why they think something may or may not be working. It helps you assess things and when you treat people like people.
Yeah, it's amazing the things they'll tell you because in most instances, if you're an employee at a company or a, a leader that is having a problem or a struggle, and you guys have been doing a whole bunch of things to try and fix it, and it's not working, people think, oh, those people don't care. That's not true.
They really want fix. And so they're very motivated, and when they find that you care about them, you really care about the outcome. Of their business and the things that they're facing, they wanna help fix it. But you really have to set the stage and build that bridge for them to come over and support that.
And I think when you spend time cultivating good relationships with people, you can talk to 20 or 30 people and really quickly find out, Hey, here's the first two things we've gotta do to move something forward. Small companies right, do three or four, right?
Courtney Turich: Hmm. Very, very interesting. And as you said at the beginning, I see a lot of everything you're saying.
Like I said, I'm getting so excited over here. I am a change agent myself. I haven't called myself a fixer, but now listening to you, I think it's possible. I.
Amber Brown: Because you're just being real comfortable. Look, there's a lot of room for fixers and there's a lot of things in this world to be fixed. And I would also say too, just something to think about, you don't always have to fix something that's broken.
Sometimes fixing is developing a whole new path, and that's what you do.
Courtney Turich: Ooh, I like that. That's a good one. So, okay, I can't believe this conversation has gone so fast, Amber. So I just again, want to highlight, be yourself. Yes. Know your strengths, build the trust and get out and make sure to network, explore the world.
It provides so much for us all. So, Amber, if people wanna find you, where do they go?
Amber Brown: Main place is LinkedIn. I work for a lot of organizations, so like I said, I'm not a sign on the door entrepreneur at this time, but LinkedIn is the best place. I host a lot of content there. I am starting a podcast in the next month and a half or two, so I can let you know how that goes.
And look, all my contact information is on LinkedIn, so lots of people like to call me directly when they have problems or have questions. So.
Courtney Turich: Fantastic, and we'll make sure to have those in the show notes. But before we leave today, is there anything else you wanna leave this community with?
Amber Brown: look, I think the biggest thing, I think the one big thing, I don't know if you've heard me laugh too much.
Most people will say they hear my laugh long before they see my face or my body in a physical room. look, I'd say at the end of the day, regardless of the role. I am really big on humor and having fun. We all, regardless of whether you're an entrepreneur or an executive, we all have really hard work.
We all have hard things that happen in our personal lives and in the world. And if you can't approach life with a little humor, I. Super hard, super draining. So I would say just find things to smile about and find humor in because sometimes, you know, I always tell people sometimes the only thing I can do is laugh 'cause there's nothing else left.
And sometimes you just gotta do that. So I just, my final thing is no matter what happens at work and everything, sometimes you just have to approach life with a little humor to find a way to get through. And the more you can make your day enjoyable, the better.
Courtney Turich: Everyone you heard, Amber, make sure you go laugh.
It's really important. And if this episode spoke to you, I want you to send it to a friend. Drop a line or leave a comment. And thanks so much for being here on bold moves, confident choices. Go be bold, be confident and be you. Thanks.
