Founder's Story - From Music Video Dancer to Recovery CEO: The Dark Side of Early Fame | Ep 294 with Amanda Marino Founder of Next Level Recovery Associates

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Amanda Marino shares her journey from child runway model and hip hop music video dancer to addiction, recovery, and ultimately founding Next Level Recovery Associates, a global concierge recovery service helping individuals and families navigate addiction, mental health, and trauma with privacy and care. Key Discussion Points Amanda Marino reflects on the contrast between early fame in the entertainment industry and the darker realities that followed, including sexualization, childhood trauma, and substance abuse. She shares how becoming a mother forced her to confront addiction, sobriety, and the identity shift that came with recovery, grief, and physical changes. The conversation explores her transition from performer to recovery professional, including her work on Intervention and why authenticity and boundaries matter when helping people in crisis. Amanda also explains how COVID accelerated both mental health challenges globally and the growth of Next Level Recovery Associates, built on customized, private, and service-driven care. Takeaways Amanda’s story shows that recovery is not a straight line and success without healing is unsustainable. True resilience comes from sitting with pain rather than bypassing it. Entrepreneurship, especially in service-based businesses, thrives when it solves a real and urgent need rather than a personal desire. Healing personal trauma can unlock the ability to help others at scale, and legacy is built not through fame but through integrity, presence, and impact on family and community. Closing Thoughts This episode is a reminder that transformation doesn’t erase the past. It integrates it. Amanda Marino’s journey proves that when healing becomes the mission, business success can follow in ways that are deeper, more meaningful, and far more enduring than fame alone. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You have a fascinating story. You're helping people now with addiction and rehabilitating their life becoming better. But at one point, you were a professional dancer and hip hop music videos. Yes. In like the heyday of, I think, the videos, obviously now, I mean, videos, you know, back then it was like MTV and stuff. Like, videos were the thing. Yes. Everyone was watching these.

So tell me about that. experience? I mean, I had some lovely experiences, but I also was, you know, a lot of the things that have been coming up now with the whole P. Diddy thing. And then R. Kelly Prior, you know, really just kind of triggered, you know, I was abused as a child and that's what brought me down my dark path, I believe. And then being in the entertainment industry, like the second I turned 18, you know, sent to auditions for hip-hop music videos, a dance for, you know, a quality thing was like a Ricky Martin She Bangs video in the Bahamas. That was on MTV making the music video. Like, I was a whole big thing, right?

And, but then I also did hip hop, like straight hip hop videos. Arkelley feeling on your booty, which makes me feel nauseous video is what I was in. And I think back to that time, I think I was placed with Method Man and Red Man and thank God because they were cool and they were funny. But what if I would have been put near R. Kelly? Like, could that, could my life have been different? Like, you know, and I was definitely put into some uncomfortable situations in that field. That's an interesting take around.

You could have gone down two different. You were right there at the edge of the possibilities to go down two different paths and one being very, very dark and could have traumatized you. How does that feel knowing that, you know, the path that you did take? So, so grateful, you know, it had to get worse before it got better for sure. However, I think that I would have been kind of, it was around the time Britney Spears kind of went off, popped off. You know, like, I think that's when my whole, my issues were.

and I just am so so grateful that, you know, I was brought down this path and I get to help people with all kinds of things today. Like anything that they're struggling with eating disorders, you know, mental health, addiction, all these things. And it's like, it's such a gift. And I think because I've been in so many dark situations, I can say I've been there in a lot of ways to people. Yeah. So when you're talking to somebody and you're hearing these stories from them, I find it tough sometimes to listen to some people's stories because it almost brings up anxiety in me. how do you handle those situations when you're when you're hearing these things how do you like disassociate yourself or also not then take it home with you so when i when i um take i mean i just i'm pretty good at keeping it at the like leaving it out out the door you know um but there are times where i cross my own boundaries it happens i'm human you know um so i'm pretty good at at keeping it separate

and not taking on people's things like i work on energy you know do energy work spiritual work like I have to do extra, extra self-care just to be like a status quo with the stuff I deal with. Because some of it's crazy. Some of it's light and fun. But some of it, most of it's really hard work, you know, dealing with really, you know, families that are going through a lot for generations, usually, like generational wealth and people and entertainments, athletes. It's like, you know, it's heavy things. It's like we look up to celebrities in the sense that we all say, hey, Amanda, I want to be a celebrity. I want to be this famous person. But we probably don't realize what that person is going through.

What are you finding that these people, what's the reality? So the reality is, I used to think that, like, that was the, that was the trajectory I was on. Like, I was going to make it. I had really good opportunities that I messed up. So that was, like, all I wanted from age four to 22, you know? And I just started making porch wasteses towards the end. But it's a dark area, you know? And this has been going on for 20 plus years.

So this is not something that's new. And like these things that are just coming to light, that's hard for me to hear. You know, like, how did this just come out now? These things, these things have been going on for 25 years. So, yeah, anyone in that space, it's harder. Like, I mean, you and I have, you know, presence on social media. That's even hard. Like, I had comments on some video the other day about, like, saying you have a million surgeries. And I'm like, actually, I have no surgery on my face, which is the first for me, which I never, but I've had mean messages. So, like, they have, have to do with that like on a scale of like mass you know and you have to have some thick skin to

take some of the stuff and you have to do work on yourself and remind yourself who you are I would definitely want to hire somebody to manage I would say look I don't even want to look at souls like don't even give me I would take like a flip phone like give me a flip phone because I don't want to see anything about anything because I couldn't handle it I would not want to be mass famous well I'll tell you after the show because I worked on the show intervention when that came out I was warned by my colleagues and friends that have been on it for a long time. Just wait. You're going to catch some shit. And sure enough, boy, like people were coming into my website to my back of my social medias and my email like everywhere and like saying, you know, threatening things called.

Like just, it was wild. But it made me, it made me stronger. It helps me ground myself into reminding myself who I am. It only matters what I think. Only matters what me and God think. You know, it doesn't matter what the world says about me. And that comes from like being bullied as a kid and like all these things like I've gone through so much that there's nothing that anyone can say that can that can hurt me at this point honestly so you were in hip hop videos dancing which by the way I always wanted to be in a hip hop video I feel like it'd be a interesting experience and then and then at some point you moved into reality TV what is real is I always say is it unreality TV is it not reality TV or is it legit reality TV like what is that experience like okay so I had worked with the produce the

executive producer and director. I had worked with him on another show called digital addiction. And it was for anything I heard from intervention, I've heard different things over the years. However, the year that I want on digital addiction and on intervention, both on the A&E network, I knew the people and trusted the team. And I said, I have to be able to treat every single person I work with like, like I'm just being me and that I'm, they're my real client and I had to be able to work with their families. Like that to me is important for that authenticity. And they were, so supportive of it. If they had a question about anything, like they didn't know. They relied on people like us and the psychiatric evaluations and things like that. They would ask us.

And then we could set boundaries. Like in Memphis, we almost didn't go because the clients, they were filming before we got there were like trying to run the camera people over and pulling up guns. And so we almost didn't do Memphis, but we just did in a different way. I'll never go back to Memphis. Just, I know. But yeah, for my experience, it was real. But I have friends. that are on other reality shows, such as housewives and other things like that, where that was, that's a lot of staged and a lot of trauma. So I had a great time. I mean, it's great that you had a good experience and it wasn't one of those traumatic experiences. It seems like you can also, you know, leverage that in business and stuff later on. And it's great talking points as well.

You're building your personal brand, I think, online through these shows and stuff. So you have this company now, and now you're dedicated to helping people. Yeah. So I have two, you know, I have the next level recovery associates, which is also, you know, we've expanded, like I said, the eating disorders, which is huge, dual diagnosis, people that are hoarding, gaming, gambling, porn, whatever, whatever you have going on, right? And you don't want to, you want to have privacy and secrecy and a customized program for you. That's what we do. We bring professionals from all around the world, speaking all different languages to go live with people and to create a concierge plan for them or travel with them, whatever they need. And then my brand is, you know, Amanda Marino, which my daughter was the one

that found out that I had like, I was a TV personality on Google. I guess she was trying to show a friend something. She's like, mom, you're a TV personality and I was cracking up. So, yeah, so there's, there's two things that are going on. And I works only in behavioral health for so long. And one day I woke up and I was like, I am in the wrong rooms. I'm in the rooms where everyone knows the solutions. Everyone knows that there's this kind of therapy and this kind of treatment. I need to get to people that have never heard that they're not alone, that there's this kind of care out there, that there's this kind of support, you know, like, so that's my message now is to amplify that. Like I did at your TEDx, you know, the Forbes Park was, you know, I want to get reach people

that don't have any clue that there's help out there because there's a lot still, all around the world. What type of help are you finding that people really need right now? Because I think we went through COVID. I think we were all pretty much traumatized every person. on this planet has some sort of trauma. I don't think most of us ever faced it nor dealt with it. And then we just said, go back to your normal life. Everything is open. And it seems like mental health is just on a sliding scale downward. So what are you finding right now is the biggest

thing that people struggle with? First, I'm going to start with the downward is true, but it's also an upward because it had to smash a lot of the stigma and people being scared to reach out for mental health help, right? So people were left in a position where they had to ask for help. They had to find something or they weren't going to make it. So people that were healthy, teetered. People that were like on the edge went over. People that were over the edge, like, you know, it was a very, but it's made the conversation about mental help. COVID actually helped us a lot because, you know, like I've been posting about it on LinkedIn for like since 2011. And I was one of the first people to talk about my personal journey on there. And so, you know,

we're seeing a lot of depression, agoraphobia. People scared to, like, go out and leave their homes. People that used to travel a ton. So we'll go take them to the airport and have coffee with them. We'll, you know, whatever they, whatever people need. A lot of hoarding. Their hoarding is a big thing. Alcohol is still number one as far as like addiction wise and eating disorders, men and women are at a rise. So what, when somebody comes to you and says, you know, I have this, I have this problem. Is there like a, I'm thinking like a, I'm thinking like, like five steps or whatever the steps. Is there like a certain step thing that most people should go through? Or is it totally unique and custom to the individual?

We customize everything. So we're because we're concierge and like, you know, white glove kind of service, boutique. You know, we have a clinical expert, Dr. Jeffrey Hutman. I have a clinical psychiatrist on call, Dr. Alda Morales. And then we partner with clinical professionals and dietitians and different people all around the world, also culturally competent to go to be in different cultures and speak different languages. So yeah, it's, it's fun and wild and it's unique to each person. So like when we go down our client list every Thursday and do clinical rounds, every Tuesday, there's so many different

things that we're talking about, right? There's wild and diverse from adolescence to 70, 80 olds. You know, we're helping. When you think about legacy and your mission and life, what comes to mind when you think of those words? My kids. I want, I'm doing this. because of that. I mean, originally because of them. And now for me, you know, my son, I had my son at 24 and he's the reason I decided to, you know, work on my trauma and work on my issues and change my life. And I got to bring him to the Philippines to watch me do a TEDx. I come from living in, like, the hood, you know, like when I was, I was a poor, poor single mom. And I never thought in a million years, I would go to all these countries and do all these things. It's been such a gift.

So my kids are, I want to leave a legacy for them. I want to leave, I want to be able to, help them by a home. That's my dream. Like, I want to help them, you know, do the things that they want to do. Not spoil them by any means, but, you know, give them great life experiences that they remember and cherish and know that mom was a woman of integrity and mom pushed herself, even if she was scared and did all these things. You know, my son, when he graduated, he said he wants to work for me and he wants to be a firefighter. So he just got accepted in a fire academy and he's done some training to work with me. So he's on the path. He's 20. You met him. He's massive. No one's going to talk about us, but our kids, essentially, right?

Like most people, at some point, every person will be forgotten about, except our kids and family, hopefully will continue to talk about us in the future. I know resilience is a big thing for you. It's also probably the most successful people we've had have told us, resilience and entrepreneurship are pretty much tied together. So when you look at resilience for yourself, how have you remained? I get knocked down and I crumble behind the scenes and my home and go into the jam of days and go through dog.

I just, I sit like, I, even my tag, so sit with it. I sit with it sometimes and that's the hardest thing to do, like, and just move, move through it. Like with resilience, you know, it's, it's being scared and doing it anyways. It's, it's quote unquote failing, but failing isn't failing because failing, you're actually trying. So if you try something and it doesn't work out, that's still a win. And people need to realize that. Like if you if you try something, try something else, you know, if you want to leave your job and build your own company,

figure out what your worst case scenario is if you put a strategy into place, right? So for me, my worst case scenario is if this doesn't work out, then I will have to get a job doing this. And that was, so I went for it with $100 in the bank account. I built a international brand in COVID. What would you say was a turning point? So you started with basically no capital. We could say $100 is basically no capital, right? What was a turning point in the company when you said, wow, like this is going to be a legit thing?

Well, we were, as my mother was telling me every day about, you know, people dying and people losing our jobs and, you know, business is closing. And like, I was thriving because, of course, the need for my services, I was in the younger population. Like my mentors and teachers were older and they couldn't do these things. They couldn't travel. They couldn't be in person. So, you know, it was just. getting it done and doing whatever you have to do to get it done. It's you definitely solve a need.

I feel like some people go into business because it's something that they want. But you and I know it doesn't mean other people will want it, right? Like if I'm solving a problem only I have or I'm solving a problem, I like to say it's the supplement versus the medicine. If I'm solving a problem that's a supplement, people may or may not want it. They may or may not pay for it. But if it is a medicine to them and they absolutely need it, then that is something that I can create a thriving business from.

Yeah. And COVID, it was just like I had like the survivors guilt kind of at first. Like, oh my God, my mom's like calling me every day. I'm telling me of all these people losing the business. And I'm like killing it. And, you know, I felt bad. But like I also was like, no, I made myself a first responder in my mind. I have to help people that are in crisis that their families can't come help them because they're high

risk. Like I had to show up. I was at Atlanta airport with one, like I saw one person in the whole airport. That's weird. We went to Vegas like six times or five times. No, but we got like presidential suite for free because there was nobody there. I kind of liked it a little bit. I did like a little.

The traveling then was I did kind of like that. It was wild, but I just felt grateful to be of service in a time that was so hard. But I knew we took off right away. And then like a year later, like with the rebrand, like do we want to like have people everywhere doing everything? No, we want to have a handpicked people that we know. You know, I'm not going to just put someone in someone's multi-million dollar home that I don't know and trust and have a background check on, you know, that's representing mine company. So it's, you know, I feel like also when we did, we were almost bought. And once we did that valuation and like whatever they do with the accounting, I was like, wow, we actually are worth like something.

Like it was really, that was a cool moment because I had no idea. So I love those moments. Oh, Amanda, this has been amazing. always great to have a conversation with you again. I'm sure people want to get in touch with you because they want to follow the journey. Maybe they need help and you can, you know, you can provide that. But how can people get in touch with you? They can look at Amanda Marino official.

That's my Instagram and my TikTok. And then I'm also Amanda Marinospeaks.com to book me for any speaking gigs, motivational, you know, inspirational. That's my thing. And then you can call me, five, six, 17352590. My number is everywhere at this point, so I don't even mind. You can text me, call me, schedule a call if you're struggling. I will personally speak to you. Only a few people have ever given out a phone number. So that that's when you know that you are there for the people.

You are a person there for the people. But Amanda, you are one of the best speakers I've ever heard. I've seen a lot of speakers. Your speech was incredible. Like I cried, I laughed, I learned, I mean, what else do you need to do during a conversation? But this has been great, really diving in more about your story and your life. And I appreciate you coming on today. So thank you for joining us.