Living your life to the fullest doesn’t start with the next coaching session or with your next purchase. It starts with you. Joining Michelle Faust today is Antoinette Logan, is brand expert, consultant, author and founder of The AIM Agency. In this episode, Antoinette talks in depth about her journey to living a full life starting with the hardships from her early life and the pivotal moment that led to her shifting into the positive mindset and towards the path to success. She offers life-changing advice and insights on self-love from her book, It Starts With I, where she discusses how manifesting can drive change. Stay tuned to learn more on how you can start changing your life by starting the work from within.
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It Starts With I: How Living Your Life To The Fullest Starts From Within An Interview With Antoinette Logan
We have an amazing young lady who has quite the story. What you’ve done with your life is quite fascinating. Ms. Antoinette Logan, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much for having me. I’m so happy to be here.
We are all thrilled to have you here. Let’s dip in and let the readers know about who you are and where you come from.
My name is Antoinette Logan. I have dabbled into so many different things. Before becoming this awesome person I am, my life didn’t always be as awesome as it is now. Life was difficult growing up. I had an interesting childhood. I lived with a lot of different people. It’s funny because I was never in the foster system. I was with my family. Anytime you live somewhere other than your parents, you’re in a fostering situation. I was a move-around kid. According to the story I heard after being a grown woman, I was either 2 days or 2 weeks old when my mom gave me away. I didn’t even know this growing up.
I was there until I was about maybe, between 5 and 7. I went and lived somewhere else. They said that my dad had come and got me. I don’t remember much of that part. Whatever happened between those age brackets, I was there. I do remember after my grade school years. I lived with the bus driver from my school and different stuff like that. It was interesting. My mother had a habit of meeting people and giving her kids to them. That’s crazy in my mind. I had an interesting life.
I’ve been around a lot of different people and saw a lot of things. A lot of things happened to me, which was for me. Those things are the stepping stones that allow me to be who I am now. A bunch of different stuff was packed in my whole childhood life. Moving along to becoming an adult, I have a son. He’s an amazing kid. I love him dearly. He plays chess. He’s a basketball player, a gamer, video games, a smart kid, top of his game in school.
I used to be an entertainer. I used to be a rapper and a singer, opening up for different people, doing concerts, open mics, and hosting random shows on YouTube and events. I’ve modeled. I used to do hair and makeup. I used to own a credit repair company. There is so much packed into this life of mine. I’m that girl that if my spirit said, “You could do this,” I’m getting up, and I’m going to do it. We’re going to make it happen. I’m going to try it out. I’m going to try my best because I’m a winner in my eyes. I can’t do something and it not be done well. It has to be done at the best top-tier premium level.
That’s a difficult way to grow up. You don’t have any role models. You don’t have the stability and someone to help you develop your value system. Was there a pivotal moment? Was there something in particular that shifted you into this positive mindset?
It’s funny. I used to have an audio recording of me probably 4 or 5 years old, maybe a little older than that but young. I was out of town with my mother’s elder family. A lot of time, they’d be out down South somewhere. I was out of town with them. There’s this video of me saying, “Come here. Let me lay hands on you.” I’m acting like a preacher or something at that moment.
It Starts With I
I’m bringing that up because I have always had this thing in me that was exciting and wanting to come out for as long as I can remember. I’ve written poetry even as a young girl, as early as preschool. I’ve always had this ball of energy in there. How did I keep it positive? To be honest, it was probably my safe space in my mind. To let it out into the physical is me making myself feel safe and protected from other things that aren’t so positive.
That’s interesting because I can see that. In any traumatic or maybe less than positive situation, we all find our safe place. The interesting thing is most people will go in the opposite direction. That’s where they get their stuff, limiting beliefs, self-doubts, etc. Yet you turned it completely around and decided you wanted to be in that world of positivity, information, and enlightenment. That’s pretty incredible.
Thank you. What I want to add to that, though, is the crazy thing about life is that there’s a duality in everything. Even though I did have the positive side, the other side that you talked about existed. The difference is that part was the part that people didn’t see too much. I held it inside. The push of the positive was me trying to fake it to make it true. Do you know how they say fake it until you make it? It wasn’t faking because it was in me, but the negative parts were there, too. I was trying to give more positive on myself to help that overshadow the negative if that makes sense.
How do you show up with people? That’s an important thing. You are showing up in your best self, what you considered your best stuff and what you wanted to put out there. If we could all do that, the world would be a much better place. You’ve done a lot of things in terms of work, etc., but what are you doing now?
I have The AIM Agency. We’re a creative agency that focuses on brand development and lead generation strategies. We take our clients from idea to brand, brand to business, business to elevation, and profits. We meet them where they are and help them achieve the goals they have set. That’s the main thing, but I’m also an author. I came off of a tour. I stayed on the road for almost two years.
That was amazing. I met some amazing people. I didn’t do it like a traditional tour where I’m going on tour. You know she’s here on this date at this location. It was like a pop-up tour where I booked one ticket across the other end of the world. I went to all these places. I wanted to put my feet right on the ground and go to where the people who needed what I had to offer were at.
Affirmation is a thing that anybody could use. I knew that. I also knew that from the place from which these affirmations that I wrote came from. I felt the people who needed it were either broken from something or dealt with some serious stuff as I had. I knew that those people were not necessarily sitting on my Facebook page. They weren’t sitting on Instagram.
They’re not on the computer all day. Nine times out of ten, they’re probably on the streets at the liquor store, places like that. I went to different places across the world. I sold books at the liquor store. I sold books at the gas station. I went to where they were. I got a chance to hear their stories, have real conversations, shake their hands, and hug their bodies. It was a freeing experience.
You’re coming off of a tour that’s right smack in the middle of a pandemic.
No matter what you want to do or where you're trying to go, you have the power to make it happen. It starts with you. Share on XIt was the best time for me to travel because I didn’t do it like a traditional tour. I’m going to be honest. There wasn’t a $1 million budget there. That was the best time for me to be gone because traveling was so low. My round-trip tickets were $13. Let me tell you how much stuff was birthed out of this tour. During this tour, I ended up starting a travel sector within my business. I was already getting cheap flights and stuff. I went ahead and did the little things I needed to do to be recognized as a travel advisor.
We get good discounts for hotels, car rentals, airfare, and all that good stuff. It could have been an entirely new business, but I wanted to keep it with AIM and let it be a sector of the business to help make my travel cheaper and offer it to my clients. That was great on that part. I didn’t get sick. I had COVID before COVID came out. I was one of those people that got sick. They weren’t calling it COVID yet because we didn’t have a name. That’s when I experienced it. I was sick for a while and got over that.
Throughout the whole time, I did not get sick. I wore my mask and stuff. I traveled a lot of ways. Once I got to one place, I didn’t take a plane to every location. I would travel on the road. Sometimes I got on the bus and traveled. I went between Arizona, Nevada, California, and those surrounding areas. I did that on the bus for $20. It was amazing. I would do it again.
That sounds so grassroots. I love that because you’re not doing it with a big budget. You’re not doing a flash in the pan. It’s getting where the people are and where the people need your help. That’s great. What’s the name of your book?
It Starts with I, because it does, doesn’t it? No matter what you want to do or where you’re trying to go, you have the power to make it happen. It starts with you. Your mindset, thoughts, voice, what you’re putting into yourself, what you’re watching, what you’re listening to, everything about it, everything starts with you.
I need to get a recording about that and play it out. That’s my message. You said it so well. I believe that because we are the only thing we can control. It’s how you decide to show up. The decisions you make and the commitments you make have to come from you. Nobody else is going to do for you. Everybody wants that magic wand waved over their heads. It’s not happening. The quick fix takes some hard work.
Here’s the thing that I want to add to that. When you’re looking for a quick fix, you get a quick fix if you look inside of yourself. When we say hard work to people, they think that it’s hard work. It’s not as hard work as it sounds. It’s a tweaking of your perception and mindset. If you switch your mind to the I perspective, and then you tell yourself, “It’s not hard for me to listen to myself. It’s not hard for me to love myself,” it won’t be hard for you.
You said that it’s not hard for me to love myself. Do you know how many people out there can’t make that statement? A lot of people say, “It’s hard for me to love myself.” Do you know what I’m saying?
That’s why it’s hard because they’re saying it to themselves. That’s what I’m saying.
Living Life: The thing about manifesting and affirmations is about you knowing and expecting what you said. You’ve got to know and expect. With expectation, you walk with that expectation. You move with that expectation.
The key, though, is loving yourself first, before anything else. Work on that.
It’s hard for me sometimes to explain this verbally. Loving yourself starts right here. It’s not about physical things first. It’s here first. The reason why affirmations work is because your brain needs to hear certain things. It’s wired to react to what it hears. Start saying it to yourself, “I love myself. I love you so much.” I felt something like I hugged myself. I could feel that. Try it. Do you not feel the energy that you give yourself? Do you not feel that energy going through your body?
There’s a bit of energy in a hug in any form, even though it’s just me hugging myself. We all said so much during the pandemic, especially how much we missed hugs. We can hug ourselves. That is possible. My mind is spinning a little bit. Your book is affirmation. It’s a thing that people should be thinking and repeating to themselves. Am I right on that?
Yes. They’re focused on the six main areas of life, self-love, mindset, business, wealth, money, and growth. For me, these affirmations were the main things that I needed to say continuously for the main areas of life to be in a place where I’m comfortable with them being. It’s a practical way of building out your lifestyle for exactly what you want it to be. That’s it. It’s about the reader, not about me. It’s about you, the person reading it.
You have all those different areas there. Any individual reader is going to go to the areas that mean the most to them or where they need to break through the walls.
Probably. I would urge you to use them all. You can never have more than enough of any of those areas. You can’t have too much self-love. You can’t have too much of a positive mindset. You can’t have too much growth. You can’t have too much of these things. I’m pretty sure that every person in the world has an area in all of those things that we could be better in, every last one of us. I wrote the book and I still can be better in those areas.
We need to be constantly growing and being better. When I stop learning is probably when I die. I’m going to touch on one area. I’m not trying to single it out. For a lot of people who are in business, or if they’re struggling financially, that’s the one thing that trips them up. You hear all the time, “You manifest money. You can create your wealth.” What are some of the affirmations around wealth and money that you might share?
The thing about manifesting and affirmations is about you knowing and expecting what you said. A real example of that is as a business owner and someone says, “You can manifest what you need, however, $1,000, whatever.” I say, “I’m going to get $1,000 now.” That’s my information, but ten minutes later, “How am I going to pay? How am I going to do this?” It doesn’t work like that because you don’t even believe in yourself. I don’t even want to say believe. I don’t even use that word. Let’s scratch that word because belief means that you think, you assume. You need to know it.
Do you believe that you are inside your house or outside the house? I know I’m inside the house because the door is right there. That’s outside. I know I’m inside. You’ve got to know and expect. With expectation, you walk with that expectation. You move with that expectation. If you are married and your husband is supposed to bring dinner every day at 7:00, you are ready to eat by 7:15.
The expectation has to match the mindset and your mouth. You need to be specific about it. Share on XHe walks in the door and you’ve already got the plates and stuff on the table. You expect that food to be there, to be put on the plate. When it’s not there, you’re looking crazy because what happened? You have to move with that expectation. If you didn’t expect him to walk through the door with that food, you wouldn’t have put the plates on the table.
I’d put it even if he didn’t show up.
We could talk about disappointment also. Focusing on the expectation part, with business and money, if you are saying that, “I’m going to make this $1,000,” you want that $1,000 for a reason. It’s a reason that you put that number on it. It’s not just to have $1,000 in your hand. You need to order software, tools, or whatever. The way you create that manifestation is by that expectation is, “If I’m going to go and create a software for this, I mean going to go open my cart, put the items I need in the cart, and create whatever I need.” I’m moving like I’m going to get this $1,000 to pay for this stuff that I need.
I’m going to organize a habit. I’m ready to go. As soon as that money comes, transaction is complete. You’re telling the universe to give you exactly what you want because you’re moving in that direction. If you want a new house, you can’t get a new house without looking for a new house. You can’t get a new house without contacting the people you need to get those things you need for that new house. The expectation has to match the mindset and your mouth. You got to be specific about it, too.
If you tell somebody, if you affirm, “I’m getting a new car,” then your five-year-old nephew comes over, “Auntie Michelle, I love you. I miss you so much. I brought you something,” and he gives you his favorite toy car. You got your new car. You didn’t say, “I’m getting a new Tesla that’s going to drive and get me from point A to point B for the next few years.” You said you were getting a new car. When you get that new car, be happy because you got it. You got what you said.
There are a few things that matter when it comes to manifesting what you want. You need to be specific about what it is that you want. You need to move, expecting it to happen because you know it’s going to happen. When I want things to happen, I say what I want. I’m vocal about it with whoever’s listening, wherever I’m at, and I’m moving just like I expect it to happen every day, every moment in time.
Don’t get me wrong. I’ll be honest and transparent that I have weak moments, too. I have moments where I say the wrong thing to myself or about myself in front of myself. As quickly as I said those things, I’ve got to fix it and change that energy immediately. I’m going to fix what I said because I put that out there. If you put it out there, you got to know that it’s coming right back to you. You’ve got to put out what you want, which is going back to the expectations and the affirmations to get to the manifestation.
I feel like I went on a rollercoaster. What I mean by that rollercoaster is what you said with a lot going up. For that, your mind goes, “Let me compartmentalize this a little bit.” My real takeaway is that you know it in your mind, verbalize it, and act on it even ahead of time. You’re saying, “I need it. I want it. I wish I had it but it’s sitting on my cart. That’s what I want. That’s what I need. That’s what I’m making money for.” Mention looking for a house. “I want a new house. I’m going to start looking at what’s out there.”
That action part is important. Don’t we usually sit around and wait? It gets you nowhere fast. We don’t want to be nowhere. That was a good answer to my questions about money and finances. One thing more I’ll say about that because I’ve been impacted by this myself is not believing your true worth. “I can’t charge that much money.” You can. There will be people who are going to pay for it because they want what you have to offer.
Living Life: Knowing your worth is important and knowing the worth of your business, your product, and the service you sell. Both of them are two different things and they both matter equally.
I tell this to my clients all the time. When a lot of them are creating their pricing for their products, offers, or services, they are doing it thinking about a type of customer, not all of the customers. I’m like, “Let me ask you this. If you make your product at that price and only 100 people buy it, are you still in business? Can you stay in business?” I’m making them think from that perspective.
After that, I say, “I want you to focus on what it took to become who you are, even to have this business or offer this product or service. I want you to think about all the hours of studying, learning, or hands-on experience, all the fees that you paid for school, courses, or whatever. All of those things need to be a part of this thought. I want you to look at both of them together and say how much you think you were worth again?”
All of that stuff plays a role in your price and strategy for what you’re offering or selling. If this is how you’re making a living, you got to put into play, “Can I live off of this amount?” Number one thing, knowing your worth is important and knowing the worth of your business, your product, and the service you sell. Both of them are two different things and they both matter equally.
We all have this client that says, “I can’t afford that. That’s too much. I’m looking for something a lot more budget-friendly.” I truly believe that you get what you pay for. It’s a true thing if you think about that. You specialize in marketing and branding. I don’t know how to do my own marketing or branding. I need to hire somebody who has gotten the experience, training, education, and all of that goes with it. Otherwise, I’m going to be spending hours trying to train myself how to do it.
It’s going to take you even longer. It’s funny that you said that because when you said that, they say, “I can’t afford that,” my immediate thought to that was, “You can’t afford not to.” You cost yourself more trying to figure it out on your own. All that time, do you know how much you lost? Do you know how much time you can’t get back? Do you know how much money you didn’t make and won’t ever make because that time is gone now versus whatever that fee was of paying someone to do it? It’s done in a timely manner and now your ball is still rolling.
I’m guilty of that. I will be getting on my entrepreneurial journey. I didn’t have a budget, so I tried to wear all the hats. I slowly came to the realization that I was spending all of my time trying to learn how to do that. None of my time isn’t worth what my skillset is, bringing in the client and bringing enough money. That’s a hard lesson to learn, though. A lot of people go through that process.
I personally identify with it, too. For me, when I was doing a lot of my businesses, there were times in my life when I was homeless. I didn’t have a budget, but I couldn’t stop. A lot of the times that I was in those predicaments, I was at the height of some of my careers. I’m looked at as this person that’s doing this thing that people see. They’re clapping for my skill, whether I was Ready Redd, the rapper, or whatever, they see me as this, but I was going through that personally.
I had to take the time to learn the skills because I didn’t have money to pay. I needed it right then, though. I couldn’t wait. That’s why I even have this agency that does all these things because I’ve spent all these years learning all these skills just for the thing that I needed at that time in my life. I can’t sit back and let these skills go to waste. I got to do something with it. Learn from me. They’d be like, “This is Antoinette. Antoinette spent all this time learning all these skills so that she could be what she didn’t become. Now she has an agency. Don’t be like Antoinette. Just hire Antoinette.”
“Don’t be an Antoinette. Hire an Antoinette.”
Whatever it is that you want to do or become in your life, focus on your internal self. Tap into who you are at your core and let your best self shine no matter what. Share on XYou fixed it for me. That’s it. I love that one.
I wish you could bottle up some of the energy of that stuff.
I got energy for sale and not a fee sale. I’m going to figure out a way. We need to create platforms, so we can be in the same room. That’s how we bottle up that energy and give it away. We create opportunities for us to be in the same room and share our gifts and our talents. That energy transfers over. You’re getting it because I’m getting yours.
The energy does tramp over into the group. You absorb it. It boils down to how you are showing up in the room. You’re showing up a whole lot of energy that I, in turn, am feeding off of it, which is good. I want you to tell people how they can get in touch with you.
You can connect with me. I urge everyone to follow and connect with me on social media. I am easier to reach there than in any other place. When you reach out to me on social media, even though I do have a team that sometimes will respond, if they respond before me, I’m always coming right behind to give you a real interaction with me. I am a personal person. I love people.
Even though I’m also an introvert and stay to myself, I can connect with you on social. We can Zoom and jump in our DMs or whatever. Reach out to me through social. I can be found @AskMsLogan or you can follow the business @AIM4Brands. That’s on all social media platforms.
I’d like you to talk about your message. If you had to boil it down to what is your message to people, what would you say?
My message to people is that whatever it is that you want to do or become in your life, focus on your internal self. Tap into who you are at your core and let your best self shine. No matter what you do, what you say to yourself, how you treat yourself, how you speak to yourself, what you’re listening to from yourself, all of those things matter. Having a business is great. Having money is great. Having a whole bunch of friends is great. Having a loving family is great, but nothing beats how you are feeling on the inside.
You’ve got to make sure that you do what is important and necessary for you to be your best self internally, your heart and your mind. You got to have that on point for anything to be great in life. If that isn’t right, everything you try to do will crumble at some point. You’ve got to have you on the inside together. Things are going to happen in life. You’re going to experience stuff that is going to hit you out of nowhere, whether it’s a direct hit or a hit to someone you love or care about.
Living Life: When you’re inside isn’t right, it’s hard to even be a good friend, a good mom, a good daughter, good at your job, or give someone good advice
You’ve got to be armed and prep yourself mentally that no matter what hits you, you can handle it. You got to be able to ride the wave of life in any direction it comes. You’ve got to be the best surfer of the life wave of all. I’m using analogies to give you an example. All I’m saying is to get to know who you are and love on you to the max. Everything else will fall in place.
We do create our own destiny. We create them again by taking care of you first. The great family will come. The great job, money, or whatever, is going to follow suit. If you’re not in the right place mentally and in a positive way that you are in what you’re doing, then it will crumble.
I want to add to that. I’m a real-life example of that. The same way that you and I talked about all these different things that I’ve done, achievements, and all that, some people would be like, “Why aren’t you a millionaire yet?” The answer is because while doing all of those things, the inside of me wasn’t all the way together. I was still hurting. I was still in pain from all the traumatic situations. I had not started my healing journey.
If you see me and know where I came from, I know for a fact that people that see and know both sides, see that joy. They feel it by looking at a picture. I’ve got messages from people. They’re like, “You look so happy and joyful. You look like you’re living this amazing life.” I am. It’s not because I’m a big-time celebrity, a millionaire, or any of that. It’s because I’ve done the work and the healing started. The inside of me is so pure. It’s a place that I want people to tap into on their own because it makes a difference.
Now here I am. Truth be told, I reached out to a lot of different media companies like yourself to participate and be on their show. Alongside of me reaching out, they don’t have to say yes because I reach out. People are saying they invited me to their platforms and things because this thing is real. This love and this renewed and refreshed feeling that I have is real. I’m giving it to you and anybody that I can encounter.
It’s all because of that inside being right. When you’re inside isn’t right, it’s hard to even be a good friend, a good mom, a good daughter, good at your job, or give someone good advice. When I became a life coach, I started my nonprofit. It was for people who had experienced situations with their family like I had with my parents and my son had with me.
I told them out of my mouth, honest and transparent, “I don’t think that I can help you because my advice is coming from a personal place, from my experience with my mother and father. I don’t feel it’s coming from the right place to give you advice on your situation. What I’m feeling from my connection might not be the answer to what you need to do in yours.” Do you know what I’m saying? We got to be right on the inside so that we can show up our best selves and do our thing.
Instead of saying, “How are you?” which people would go, “I’m fine,” and probably they’re not fine, we should say, “How are your insights?”
I have people that I do that with. I don’t say that exactly. When I say, “How you doing?” they’d be like, “I’m cool.” I’ll be like, “Why are you just cool? Why are you not amazing? Why are you not great?” That makes them go a little bit further and say, “This happened. I’m doing this.” You get to tap in where you are coming from, not necessarily the trauma-informed approach.
There's greatness in every single person. You just have to tap into it. Share on XEven with that type of mindset, you start to read between the lines when people say certain stuff, especially if you know them already. Even if you don’t know them, let’s say this was our first inbox and I’m like, “How are you doing?” You say, “I’m doing good.” I come back and say, “Just good?” You’re going to look at that and be like, “She’s asking me how I’m doing for real.” It’s going to prompt you to respond in a real personal way.
When we greeted each other, I asked you how you were doing. You said, “I am amazing.” All of a sudden, it leveled everything up. It made me think, “I’m amazing too.” Why aren’t I living that feeling? Even the way you respond is so much. I’ve learned to go through checkout lines, smiling and saying, “How are you?” I’m not picking up my phone when I’m engaged in the transaction, things like that. It’s amazing the response that I get. I get the smile back. I get, “Thank you for not picking up your cell phone.” Smile. Say, “Hello. How are you?” It goes a long way for other people. Let’s be kind to each other. Let’s all feel amazing.
There’s an amazing part in all of us. There’s greatness in every single person. You just got to tap into your greatness. What’s your great part? Whatever that is, focus on that. I’m not going to tell people that I want to read a book if I don’t know how to read. I won’t be like, “I’ll write you a story. I’ll write your bio. I’ll write your copy.” Do you get what I’m saying? Focus on the best parts. Let that big light shine.
That will be a nice tie it up with a bow. That also goes back to the whole thing of, “Don’t try to do it all on your own. You spend the money. You hire somebody else. You have to do what you do best.” We’ve only got 24 hours in the day. Some of us, we have to be asleep. Focus on what you do best. You are amazing, Antoinette.
Thank you. You are, too.
I know that our readers are feeling a different energy level because you brought it into the room. Thank you so much. Thank you, everyone, who had taken the time to tune in to my little show.
It’s your big show.
My amazing show.
It’s those little tweaks that we have to train ourselves to stop saying what’s little. It’s not little. This is big and amazing. You gave me a place to share my story and what I’m doing in my life and my book. I appreciate that. There’s nothing little about it. It’s a big opportunity and I’m grateful for it. Thank you.
You are so welcome. Thank you for saying that. I’m going to go look for your book, It Starts with I. I need some of those affirmations because you just called me on it.
I love you. It’s not about calling you out, but it’s about being their friends to help us make those small changes to make bigger differences.
I meant that only in the most positive way. You’re bringing a lot of light into the world. Thank you for that. Thank you for being here. Thank you to all my readers. Everyone, make it a lemonade day.
