VBB 334: Bunni Ambrosia Grows From Basket-Case To Wonder Woman!

Intro [00:00:01]:

Virgin Beauty Podcast: inspiring women to overcome social stereotypes and share unique life experiences without fear of being defiantly different. Your hosts: Christopher and Heather.

Let's talk, shall we?

Christopher [00:00:20]:

I am yet to meet a superhero who can leap tall buildings in a single bound. But we can introduce you to a real-life Wonder Woman. Someone who has managed to overcome all that life has thrown her way, and she is committed to keeping others safe from harm. Her name is Bunny Ambrosia. Welcome, Bunny, to Virgin Beauty. Bitch.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:00:44]:

Hello. Thank you.

Christopher [00:00:46]:

You're our superhero today.

Heather [00:00:48]:

Thank you.

Christopher [00:00:49]:

Now, Bunny, on your website, you introduce yourself with these words. My story reads like a wild country song, full of twists, grit, and a rebellious spirit that refuses to be tamed. My first question after reading all that is, any regrets, and what have you overcome in life that you are so passionate to share?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:01:12]:

Okay, so as far as regrets, no, I have zero regrets, and I don't think that I ever will. Like, I live purposefully, to not have those regrets. And I think it was Lucy, Lucille Ball, who, gosh, how did she put it? That you're more likely to regret the things that you don't do than the things that you do. So I'm quick to do and then figure out what I did after.

Christopher [00:01:47]:

But your life has been a, I mean, reading your bio, life has been a hurricane. You've been through a lot. Can you walk us through so people understand where you're coming from and when you're offering what you offer now?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:01:59]:

Sure, sure. So I started out. I was born in the US in the South. I had a very Southern, proper family, Southern Baptist. We had to obey the rules, especially if you were a girl, and I didn't. So I got in a lot of trouble.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:02:19]:

They married me off pretty early. I was 16 and became pregnant right away. And while I was having my daughter, I became widowed. He passed away during my labor. And that forced me to grow up in a lot of ways that I didn't even know were possible. I had to learn what it meant to be a single mom when I didn't know that was going to happen. He died in the car that we had. I had no car then.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:02:51]:

I had very minimal support from anyone. It was complicated after I got married, with family, but I had less than 13,000 a year raising my daughter for the first few years. No car to begin with. I got clean from drugs and put everything into giving her everything that I could. And it took me across the country. It gave me the chance to take her with me and to show her the world, which is beautiful, and to be able to see it through the eyes of a child. Right.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:03:40]:

And during that process, I fought my way up. Every job I got better, every relationship I got a little better. And I've been collecting the pieces that made every time a little bit better, a little bit easier as I went. And I've collected them all together, and I wrote my book on it.

Christopher [00:04:05]:

Love the title of that book, by the way. Give us that title. It's great.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:04:09]:

It's called Basket Case: An Argument for Crazy.

Christopher [00:04:13]:

I love it.

Heather [00:04:17]:

I mean, I love the name of your book, Basket Case. That feels part memoir, part manifesto. And you speak very eloquently about surviving childhood abuse, homelessness, widowhood, some of the hardest shit that life can throw at someone, but then to become a thriving entrepreneur and coach, and that is quite the transformation. And, you know, just to hear how young you were when you were made into a single mom, can you walk us through some of the steps that kind of got you into okay, this is where my life was at, but I want to make a transformation. What did that look like for you?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:05:04]:

So living in a tent with an infant gives you a lot of time to think about things and not a lot of time to do things, because it's a situation that you do not want to be in for very long. And that lit a fire in me to figure it out right now. And I was able to. The timing worked out because it was almost tax time, and it was my first year to claim her as a dependent, so I got a little extra. I was able to use that to move into one of those monthly hotels. And then just every time we got a job that was close enough that I could walk to. I paid the bills, saved a little bit, got a car, and got a job that was a little further away that paid a little better.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:06:01]:

Like, just every time, just a little bit more.

Christopher [00:06:04]:

So, just one step at a time. It's a surviving one day at a time kind of mentality.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:06:09]:

Yeah.

Christopher [00:06:10]:

Did you. Do you. Would you say this? This is a, I don't know, it's kind of a brutal question to ask, but would you say that your daughter saved you?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:06:18]:

I mean, absolutely.

Christopher [00:06:19]:

Would you. How would you describe that? What. What was. What was it about that child that made you become something that you may not have been?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:06:30]:

Yes. First off, she's amazing. She's so precious and every. Like, at the beginning, you know, she's just a little potato, and I had to do everything. But once she got to where she could walk around, she started talking. She was hyperlexic. She started talking at six months old.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:06:53]:

Not big sentences. But she hasn't stopped talking since then. So lovely. But she's got such a unique perspective on everything, and she always finds something to be happy about. And when there was a time that we had to do something that wasn't maybe fun or didn't get to go to the amusement park or, like, whatever that she wanted to do, if you asked her if she had a good time or she liked it, she would say, well, that was an experience. And so this perspective changed me in itself, right?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:07:43]:

But then also, just understanding how much goes into caring for a human, right? Like, I can deal without a lot of things, but I wasn't going to let her deal with that. A lot of things, you know, so I had to keep going. I had to give her everything. And there were times it was very hard. I remember she was in, I want to say it was the summer between 6 and 7th grade, she got invited to a Duke University summer camp program, and we qualified for the scholarship.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:08:19]:

So we got the scholarship, but it was still another three, like, $3,200 or something. So, for a few months, to be able to save that money so she could go, I only ate every other day.

Christopher [00:08:31]:

So I talked about Superhuman, right, or Wonder Woman before this. Do you resonate with any of that?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:08:40]:

I do, I do. I. I try to be humble, but I also want to share it with people. So you just put your boots on, right?

Heather [00:08:55]:

I want to dive into the myth of the healed woman, since, you know, you. You say on your website that you don't need more therapy. You need strategy, and that is a hard pivot, which I love. Can you tell us more about what you mean by that statement?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:09:16]:

Sure, sure. I do want to clarify that "more" is in there for a reason. Therapy is good. Like, do that for sure. But laying out your roadmap gives you a clear idea of where you're going, right? If you. What's the Cheshire cat say? Like, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. You'll just be wandering around forever, not accomplishing anything. And even if it's just like a little goal, right? Maybe you want to have 20 bucks at the end of the month.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:09:54]:

That's doable, but you have to know what you're working toward. So start with your biggest dream, and put it at the end. And then work backwards for what? Like, think about what two or three big things, if you accomplished, would get you to that end goal, and then break each of those down and keep breaking it down until you have something that you can do daily to get you there. Little things. It's important to have a win every day.

Heather [00:10:30]:

I enjoy that so much because I feel that there have been a lot of conversations over the years around healing and so many different ways to, you know, let go or to move forward or to shed the past, not be burdened by shame, especially as women. What are your thoughts around different elements of healing, or even the word itself? What's your journey been like with that?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:11:01]:

Sure. A friend of mine, a few years ago, sent me a meme that said something to the effect of, Don't try me. I said, I'm healing, not healed. And that's. I really have a little dark sense of humor, and so that cracked me up. And I'm like, I'm going to remember that because it's true.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:11:27]:

It's like I am a work in progress, just like everybody else. Until we're done here, we're doing something every day. And so every day, I work a little bit on me. I work a little bit on what I want to do.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:11:45]:

And I think just remembering that it's, that you'll never be done. It's not something that you get to the end and are just like, well, everything's fine now. I don't have to do any more work because you can do better for yourself every day.

Christopher [00:12:04]:

I'm so happy to hear you say that, because I think we are under this false belief of the Hollywood story, of the happy ending, and happily ever after. We may not be consciously thinking of that, that's what we're striving for. However, that's how life rolls out. It's like, okay, where's my rainbow and my pot of gold?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:12:30]:

Right?

Christopher [00:12:31]:

So I would, you know, reading through your website, is it fair to say that you offer tough love?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:12:41]:

Yes. Yes. Yeah, that's what I needed. And so I, you know, you always are better at conveying things that you've experienced. So I got the tough love that I needed a couple of times, and I can hand it out, too.

Heather [00:13:05]:

Something that really shines through for me on your website and your work is the undertone of a discussion around feminism. But I want to lead into that conversation with a question that we love to ask our guests, and that is, what does feminine mean to you?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:13:30]:

I love that question. I love that you guys asked that. And I was thinking about it, how I wanted to word it for you. I think being feminine, feeling the feminine, is seeing the strength in your softness. Being strong in your ability to be gentle.

Christopher [00:13:56]:

That is so poetic and so beautiful.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:13:59]:

Thank you.

Christopher [00:14:00]:

That is so beautiful. I want people to understand. Like, we're talking to Bunni right now; she's in her truck cabin. She's a trucker. Okay. We're talking feminine.

Christopher [00:14:11]:

And people wouldn't necessarily put those two things together.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:14:15]:

Right. I get it a lot. You're a trucker. Yeah.

Heather [00:14:24]:

But we love that on this show. That it isn't just one way. Right. And that the strength and the softness and, you know, I think that sometimes when feminism has been tied to a traditional view of feminine, we lose sight of some of the important pieces of just as you've said, you know, what is the strength in our softness? And to own that as something that's important for us as individuals, but also for us within community.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:14:58]:

Yes.

Heather [00:15:00]:

And I feel that sometimes feminism kind of also gets lost in today's world with CEO boss girl vibes or brunch panels on feminism and rebranding the patriarchy. And, you know. So what I appreciate so much about your work is the inclusion of what it's like for a single young mom or for sex workers or for different types of bodies or disabled folks. So, if just to bridge on your definition of what feminine means to you, what is your feminism?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:15:37]:

Inclusion? I was raised by a wonderful woman who happens to be blind, and she taught me a lot about being gentle. But then, my daughter has also taught me from the other direction on what it means to love her well and keep it soft and still lead her. I think just keeping it all together and being able to do that for everyone in my life, from learning from both of them, and getting to share it.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:16:22]:

I have friends all over this country and a couple of others, and it's really inspiring to get to learn from everyone that I get to meet. And by being open and soft in a safe place for others, I get to learn from them. And that's amazing.

Heather [00:16:46]:

I feel like you've really carved a path from survival and softness, and that both of those elements in your life have forged a very strong woman who demands or commands space, and that is just really uplifting to see.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:17:07]:

Thank you.

Christopher [00:17:08]:

I wanted to also expand on your strength and softness because I believe that applies not only to one sex or one gender across the board. So that's why that is so universally beautiful. And it's a remarkable statement. I really enjoy the way that you put that.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:17:29]:

Thank you. I think it is important to remember that we all have pieces of masculinity and femininity in us, and there's a time for both, right?

Christopher [00:17:39]:

Yes. Yes. Bunny, it has been remarkable to catch you and to have this conversation with you. You are a remarkable human being. You really are.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:17:54]:

Thank you.

Christopher [00:17:56]:

It's funny. Heather and I get to spend a few minutes with the individuals we speak with, but in the time, and I don't know, again, maybe it's us attracting, I don't know what it is, but we always seem to get human beings like yourself, who emote such beauty and such richness out of life. It makes us overjoyed to be able to have these conversations.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:18:27]:

Thank you. Thank you. I watched a few of your episodes this week. I've been trying to watch more. I love it. The people who you get on this very good collection, I'm grateful to be one of them.

Christopher [00:18:41]:

Thank you.

Heather [00:18:42]:

And just to showcase where you are now, can you tell us more about? A little bit more about your book, about the empire that you're building, about your coaching, and just kind of this person that you've really stepped into over these years?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:19:01]:

Yes. Yeah. So with my book, I had the goal, I don't know, maybe a decade ago, but it's a scary thing, like, to write a book. A lot of people want to write a book, but never do it right? And so my goal was to publish a book. Like, I don't want to be on the New York bestseller list, like, right out the gate, you know, I'm like, that's a huge book. That's terrifying.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:19:31]:

So I'm like, I just get it published, and that will be my win, right? And so I collected the things that I've been learning and put them together. And it took years. It took years. It took probably five years to even start typing the first page, you know? And then inevitably, some life happened, and I put it on hold and came back to it. I really wanted to make it condensed so that there's not a lot of filler in it. You know, if I wanted to give you the vehicle to reach your goals without fluff, to get it out, so that I knew that I could do it.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:20:22]:

But now I'm working on my next book, which will have more of me in it and more of the nuance to it and what I teach. And I put all of that into my coaching. When I work with people, we find a goal and we get them to it. I'm a Transitional End-Goal coach. It's a lot of people going through big transitions, you know, like they just became an empty nester, or went through a divorce, or changed careers. There are so many big things that can feel just crushing. Right. Like you.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:21:08]:

How do you move forward from here? But that's a goal. So to put them both together really helps propel people forward, and I just love that. I love seeing people succeed and find themselves again, and it warms my little heart.

Christopher [00:21:27]:

How do they find you? Tell us how they can connect with you.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:21:31]:

Sure. A lot of where I've found clients so far has been word of mouth, and then searching and finding my book or my website. I've also just started with Numani, which is a new coaching platform where we're bringing clients and coaches together. So I hope to find more people there. But that's a really exciting place.

Heather [00:22:01]:

Can you share your website with our listeners?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:22:04]:

Yes, absolutely. It's ShiftwithBunny - B u n n with an I dot com. Wonderful.

Christopher [00:22:14]:

Fantastic. It is a pleasure to meet you. And likewise, when that next book comes out, make us one of the first calls you make. Okay?

Bunny Ambrosia [00:22:25]:

Absolutely, absolutely. I will be in touch for sure.

Christopher [00:22:28]:

Okay. Thank you so much.

Heather [00:22:31]:

We would love to hear more about it when it comes out, and it's been so lovely to hear your story on the show. So, thank you for coming on.

Bunny Ambrosia [00:22:39]:

Thank you so much for having me. It is truly a pleasure.

Christopher [00:22:43]:

And that pleasure comes to you because you've been listening to the Virgin Beauty and the Bitch. Yes. Find us. Like us. Share us. These incredibly fantastic conversations continue. Bring yourself on back. Bring your friends, if you really love them.

Christopher [00:23:21]:

To become a partner in the VBB community. We invite you to find us@virginbeautybitch.com, Like us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, and share us with people who are defiantly different like you.

Until next time, thanks for listening.