Attitude sets the tone for everything you do!

Glenn and Amy, Python Huntress, talk more about attitude, how it affects your life, and how it can change the trajectory of your future.

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Listen to the podcast here

This is going to be such a cool conversation because we have with us, Ms. Amy Siewe, the Python Huntress. Amy has an incredible story. At her website, PythonHuntress.com, you can go find accessories from what she does, watch her videos and photos, and get a little education on what she does. She is also launching her professional speaking career. If you are an event planner or somebody that is looking to find somebody, she is awesome, but a little unusual with what she does. The Python Huntress showed us what she does when goes to work. Amy, how many feet is this?

She is 17’3 and 110 pounds.

Did you catch this python?

I did. She is so big.

It’s unbelievable. I want to welcome my friend and my former real estate colleague, Ms. Amy Siewe. Do you still have your real estate license?

I do.

I like it. Amy, welcome to the show.

Thank you very much. I’m very excited to be here.

We had seen each other at the airport a few years ago. I’m like, “I’m going to get you on your show,” because ladies and gentlemen like most of you reading, you may be in a career where you are like, “This isn’t fulfilling. This isn’t my heart. This isn’t what I want to do.” Seventy-five percent of people are not satisfied with what they do. Our guest, Amy, is going to talk to us about how she came to that decision and how she shifted, changed her life, and what her attitude was.

If you are somebody that’s feeling stuck, if you are somebody that’s going, “I want to pursue my dream. I want to pursue what makes me happy. There’s something more to me inside.” Amy might be able to help you. First of all, I always love to ask our guests, what’s your definition of attitude or what’s that mean to you? Who do you think was your first attitude teacher?

Attitude for me is the mindset of what you do for everything. It sets the bar for everything that you do. I have had all kinds of attitudes. Haven’t we all though? It was probably between my dad and Jack Canfield. I’m a huge Jack Canfield fan.

We are working on getting Jack on the show. He would be awesome. Do you know him?

I don’t know him, but I have gone to a lot of his things.

Maybe you can help us get him on. It’s your dad and Jack Canfield. Tell me what your dad and Jack Canfield taught you about attitude.

As far as my dad, growing up, I was very impatient. I didn’t have a great attitude. Everything was annoying to me. I was a typical teenager so he instilled it in me to slow down, put your patience pants on and that helped with moving forward. With Jack, it was more about the attitude and the mindset in life. How you view things as how they will be. It’s easy to sometimes get down into a yucky place. Some of the things that I learned from him is to make that choice to take it in a different direction and it changes everything.

We all can choose our attitudes, which is a great thing. What was the number one thing Jack Canfield taught you that you take with you or you think about? What advice did you get from him that has made things happen for you?

There have been so many things that I could sit here for an hour. The one thing that I will tell you is when we went to his seminar a couple of years ago, he does the Come as You Are Party Five Years from Now. Do you know what I came as?

What did you go as?

I came as an anaconda hunter in the Amazon. Python is not even a thing. That’s what I went a couple of years ago and a couple of years later, I’m catching pythons in the Everglades.

That’s self-manifestation of what’s going on. Let’s dig right into this major life change for you because this is why I wanted to have you on. Give me a little backstory of why did you get into real estate and how long were you in there? You were very successful. Me and you did deals. I loved you from the second we met. I remember our deal was a lot of fun. What happened when you said, “It’s time for me to pivot?”

This starts before real estate or my career even started. This goes back to when I was three. My dad put me in a creek and taught me how to catch fish, crocodiles, snakes, and all that fun stuff. My fascination with snakes took off. It’s this weird passion. I thought, “Everybody likes snakes,” and that is not the case. I have done the exotic pet store, exotic vet, herpetology at Toledo Zoo, and presentations for kids. I was a breeder. I had over 50 snakes in my house. That was way back in college. It was always more of a hobby.

I have a degree from the University of Toledo. I got into real estate several years ago and I didn’t do much with the snakes anymore. I was concentrated on my real estate career and I loved it. Real estate is amazing. I had a great career and so much fun. I was very successful. One day I said, “I’m done. I’m going to Florida.”

How long did you start real estate?

Thirteen years.

That’s a long career. You then said, “I’m going to go to Florida.” What was going on? Was it truly you woke up and said, “I need to change my life?” Did you think about it? Was something gnawing at you? What do you think the attitude was that you took when you made that jump for those people that may be feeling like you? What’s the experience like?

The funny thing was I wasn’t looking for anything else. I love real estate. It was great. This passion or this love has always been a part of me. I was at a real estate convention in Austin and I got a call from the producers of The Swamp People. They said, “We want you to be on a bonus episode of Catching Pythons in the Everglades?” I said, “I’m sorry, what? First of all, yes. I didn’t even know there were pythons in the Everglades, so why are you calling me about this?”

I had this Lake Erie water snake video that I put out a while back that went viral with 3.8 million views. There are a lot of water snakes at Lake Erie. The reason I did this video was that all of my real estate clients didn’t know that I had this whole fascination and passion for snakes. I wanted to show them this other side of me. That’s the whole reason that I did this.

I do remember when this came out. It was freaking crazy. You had multiples.

That’s how these people found me. The bonus episode didn’t work out, which is fine, but that’s how I learned that there was a problem with pythons in the Everglades. My fiancé and I took a three-week trip down to Florida in January 2019 to see what it was all about. I went on a hunt with one of my now very good friends, Donna Kalil, she’s a Python nerd too and we caught a python. I was hooked. I was like, “I have to figure this out.” It was so crazy because I wasn’t looking for anything.

You were collecting all these water snakes.

For fun and I let them all go.

Did you throw them back in the water?

Yes, I tried counting them. Who does that?

It’s crazy. If you are going to Lake Erie to swim, there are snakes all up in there.

The two weeks of June are their breeding season, I suggest not going. After that, you are fine.

Was that in June when you did that? That is freaking nuts. Tell me what the rush was about the first python that you caught because they aren’t like water snakes.

That is exactly why. They are not like those water snakes. They are huge. They are gigantic. I’m a herper. The study of reptiles and amphibians is herpetology. People that do this as their hobby, we call ourselves herpers. I would go all over the place catching snakes and letting them go. To find a giant python is like the Mac Daddy of all snakes that you find outside, especially here in the United States.

That was the draw. It was the biggest rush and to think, “These things are out here,” but part of it too is that my whole life it’s been more of a hobby. I thought, “I could do some good here. I’m not afraid of them. I know all about them. I can be an asset here and help Florida get rid of the pythons in the Everglades.”

Let’s talk about the nobody knows there’s a python problem. Nobody probably understands there’s a python problem. What is the good that you are doing by capturing all these pythons? What’s the deal down in the Florida Everglades that nobody knows about?

Pythons are an invasive species. They are not from Florida. They are from Southeast Asia. They are here for two reasons. First of all, they were very popular pets because they were so docile and wonderful, except they get to be 20 feet long. They would be 10, 11, or 12 feet and will be too hard to handle, feed, and house. People said, “Instead of killing the snake, I’m going to let it go and live a long happy life in the Everglades.” A whole lot of people did that.

The other major contributor was Hurricane Andrew in 1992. It came through and it blew a breeding facility away. It sent thousands of Burmese Pythons into the Everglades. Now, we have this huge problem. The problem with them is that it’s 3.5 million acres that they are perfectly camouflaged in and mainly inaccessible to humans. We have to wait until they come up.

They didn’t even realize there was a problem until 2002 when they found the first baby. They said, “Nobody’s letting their $200 little python go in the Everglades. We have a problem.” By then, it was way too late. The thing is they are eating all of the mammals and birds. Ninety-eight percent of the mammals are gone in parts of the Everglades because of the pythons. They are the apex predator.

They are at the top of the food chain. We have you to knock them off of the apex. How many big ass pythons are there in the Everglades? Are there millions?

We don’t know. It’s estimated between 100,000 and 300,000. They reproduce 20 to 40 eggs a year. The big ones are over 100 eggs. It’s a big problem.

One female snake could produce 50 snakes a year. How does a python get pregnant?

That’s for a different show.

Is it like fish or is it like humans?

We will go with like humans.

Have you ever watched two snakes breed?

Yes. It’s on my Lake Erie video. There’s part of it because everyone wants to know what it looks like. This is what it looks like.

If you guys want to know what two snakes breeding looks like, you need to go to PythonHuntress.com. The great Amy Siewe is with us talking about life changes, career changes, and what she’s doing now. Financially, real estate is good. I’m guessing that this probably isn’t as good as real estate. Was your thought, “I don’t care. I’m going to do what I want to do. This is what’s going to happen. I’m leaving the money behind?” How do you do that? What would your advice be to people that are sitting here reading and going, “I would love to go do something else, but I can’t afford it?”

Here’s what happened. We got back from a three-week vacation and I just had this feeling. It’s like, “I have to be there. That is what I’m supposed to do.” I don’t know why I feel this, but it was so overpowering. I talked to Dave about a week later. I said, “Dave, I have to go. There’s nothing that I can do here that’s going to help me become a python hunter in Florida.” He said, “I know. I knew we were going from the moment that I saw you with that python.” He said, “I will be there. I just can’t quite yet, but I will be there.” It looked ridiculous on paper.

Everyone thinks I’m crazy and nuts which is fine. I take it as a compliment. I didn’t know anyone down there. I just knew Donna. The government was closed when I went. These are all government jobs. I’m a contractor. I didn’t even know if they were hiring or if they would be hiring in the near future. I didn’t have a place to live, a job, or anything. In my heart, I knew I would figure it out.

That was the biggest thing for whatever reason, it felt more right than anything in my life. This is a conversation in my head. I had to sit there and say, “How do you know that this is going to work?” I said, “I trust myself that I will figure it out.” “What happens if you don’t figure it out if it doesn’t work if they are not hiring, or if it’s not what you thought?” “I come back to Indie and do real estate again. I get my license in Florida. I get a different job. I could bartend if I needed to. I will be fine. I will figure it out. It’s not like I’m going to die if I don’t make this work.” I said, “Okay. Here we go.”

“I’m not dying. Let’s go.” I love that, “I trust myself. I’m not going to die. Think about the best compared to the worst. Think about what you could have left behind.” You are fulfilled like none other. You are fulfilled like a lot of people aren’t. Are you licensed in Florida to sell?

No.

Only in Indiana?

Yes.

I want to go back to when you worked in a zoo. What’s it like to work in a zoo? Give me one of your favorite zoo stories.

I was a volunteer in college at the Toledo Zoo. There were so many crazy things. I cleaned all the animals. That’s what I did. I got that fun job. Working there made me realize I did not want to be a biologist, zoologist, or herpetologist because all they did was sit and look at microscopes and do lab work. It was so boring and I wanted to be out doing stuff. I’m very thankful that happened because I realized that’s not what I wanted to do.

I was in charge of cleaning this tortoise run one time and the guy said, “You are going to have to do this quick because this goes back behind all of the crocodile displays.” I said, “Okay.” I looked down and there were all these metal-like patches in the wood. He said, “If you want to keep any parts of your body, don’t put them over the fence.” The fence was only as tall as my shoulder. I said, “Okay.”

I’m doing my thing and cleaning. All the crocodiles were in the front of the display until I looked and I didn’t see any. They were all right there stalking me. I was like, “We are going to go quick now. We are going to be done with this,” but that was a little interesting. I’m surprised looking back that they put me in that position, but it was cool to be stalked by Nile crocodiles.

No doubt. Besides a snake, what’s your favorite animal? Why is a snake your favorite?

I don’t know why. I sometimes wish it could be like kittens or something that’s normal.

You feel grounded or drawn to them for some reason.

Yes, for whatever reason since I was little.

What do you say to people who are terrified of snakes?

I respect it. My mother is deathly afraid of snakes. I feel like I was a punishment for her for something she did in her life. I have a huge respect for it. People tell me all the time, “I killed the snake over there.” That’s fine. Most people do. I’m not going to hold it against you, but I have helped a lot of people overcome their fear of snakes. With the snakes that I have. That’s a cool thing.

I have seen you because I follow you. I am a freaking fan. You have bitten and the blood’s coming out. On the three million things, you were bitten and did not even seem to care that you were bitten by the Water Snake. What’s the most dangerous bite or the one you are like, “Holy shit, I can’t believe I got bit by that?” Tell us that story.

It was the 14-footer that bit my hand. There were four of us. She was huge. She was hard to get, and she went to bite someone behind me and I stuck my hand out in front of her to block it. I don’t know why. I surprised her as much as I surprised myself. I was just bleeding everywhere.

It’s like throwing yourself in front of a bullet to save someone’s life.

She’s a hero.

We will go with that. I got bitten on the butt. That was the most embarrassing one because it was a day when we were all out. We got seven pythons on these islands which is unheard of. We brought them all back to Everglades Holiday Park to show the people because most of the time people aren’t even going to see a python. We have these seven pythons and they are everywhere. I have this little one that’s probably 7 feet long and it’s nippy and keeps trying to bite me. I have to keep holding it out. I could have grabbed it behind the neck, but we were putting on a little show, so whatever.

All of a sudden, this other python comes looking in front of me because somebody lost it. I bend down to pick it up. My arm goes back behind me, the python gets me in the butt. Somebody got a picture right after it bit me. Somebody got a video of when it happened. I didn’t even know this until later. I had nine puncture marks on my butt. This girl came up to me and she goes, “I want to let you know that you have blood on your pants.” As a woman, you never want somebody to tell you that, but I never thought it would be because I got bitten in the ass by a python.

When pythons bite you, do they immediately release or do you have to move their head up because their teeth are a certain way?

Yes, their teeth are very curved, but these are all defensive bites so they just strike. They don’t view us as food. They are not trying to hold on and kill us or anything. They are trying to get away. They are going to strike and take off.

They will very rarely hold on and try to eat you.

Correct.

What do they like to eat the most?

It depends on the size of the python, but it’s everything from squirrels, wading birds, possums, raccoons, bobcats, or deer.

One big-ass python can eat a whole deer.

We found one with a doe and two fawns in her at the same time.

That’s a big stomach. How long was that python?

She was 16 feet.

You are kidding me. Their jaws must open up like crazy.

They do. That snake that I caught, the 17-footer, I’d be an easy snack for her.

They could eat people if they wanted, but they don’t like to eat people.

We are not on the menu.

We taste funny. You said, “I worked night shifts.” Talk to me a little bit about the organization you work for. What’s the good stuff that they can do? Is there a website or something for the good that we can promote for you that maybe our readers can go and donate $25, $50, or $100 because you are speaking to them and wanting to know more? What would you suggest that we do?

The National Parks Alliance would be a great place to donate. They find all of the South Florida Parks and help keep this program going. I worked for the South Florida Water Management District. They started with 25 people as an experimental program with these pythons. It was so successful that they hired 25 more. I was part of the second group of 25. They then hired 50 more after that, and that’s it. There are 100 of us and 15 of us are women. It’s a pretty cool thing. We are in this elite group. We are the only ones in the world.

Do you want to go outside of the Everglades to hunt in a different spot and where would that be?

We go where the pythons are. Thankfully, the pythons are not too far north yet. We found them at the southern tip of Lake Okeechobee which is in the middle of the state, but the southern part. They are not up north yet.

Tell me about the day shift versus the night shift. Being a python hunter would scare the crap out of me and I would want to be day shift. 1) What’s the difference? 2) Let’s walk through when you punch the clock and tell us what that’s like to be a python hunter for eight hours a day.

Sometimes it’s longer, sometimes it’s not. In the summer, the pythons are nocturnal because it’s so hot during the day. What we do is we will start at dusk. Sometimes I go by myself and sometimes I have assistance with me that is approved. Sometimes I go with other contractors and we will decide on a meeting place. I have got my truck and my light pack on it with lights inside ready to go. We meet at a place, either go down the regular road or a levy. There’s a driver and everyone jumps in the back. We go about 5 to 10 miles an hour down the roads spotting pythons. That’s what we do.

Do you have binoculars or do you use your raw eyes?

We use our eyes.

In the day when you don’t have light, you are doing the same thing, patrolling? Is the car going 5 miles an hour?

Winter is their breeding season and they are not very active. They are back in the woods doing their breeding thing. We have to go to them and not very many are caught in the winter. We take these boats and canoes to the different islands. We do what we call jungle busting. I have got bruises and I’m bleeding. It’s hard work. At the end of the day, it’s crazy. You come upon a breeding ball and you get 5 pythons in 1 shot and they are not small. That’s the difference. The summer in the night shift is the most lucrative. That’s when they are active.

I have seen you cutting open pythons that have hundreds of eggs in them. Also, you skin the pythons, that’s your thing. Out of the 100 people, you are the chief skinning person or how does that work?

There are a few of us that do that. If you would have told me that I would be skinny pythons a couple of years ago, I will be like, “You are out of your mind.”

What do you do with the eggs?

I throw them out. My friend, Donna, uses them to make cookies, brownies, and stuff. They are okay and I don’t think they are awesome. That’s just me.

They are almost like chicken eggs. Is there mucus inside of a shell-type thing?

It’s more like lemon meringue coming out like cream. It’s not like the yolk and white. They are the size of potatoes. They are huge eggs.

Let’s talk about what was it like to skin your first python. What’s the process? Do you cut off the head or the tail? Talk to us a little bit about the magic you make with the python skins after you are done.

I do have a good story about the first python that I skinned. First of all, you mentioned pythons don’t pay like houses or whatsoever. I had to figure out how am I going to make some money. I heard some people skin. I wanted to see if it is worth it. I called around and decided that, “I can get into this.” It turns out there are only four tanners in the United States, even tan the way that it needs to be done. Nobody would skin. I have to get this figured out myself.

What’s a tanner?

They turn it into leather. I had this 11-foot snake. I was ready to go. I live in a condo. I have to be careful because I have got a bunch of snowbirds and I don’t want them to be like, “There are snakes there.” I have to do this after dark on my lanai. I have this guy that’s coming over. He told me he was going to teach me how to skin. I have got this all set up and I called him, I’m like, “Where are you?” He said, “I can’t make it.” What am I supposed to do? I have got this 11-foot python that I can’t put in the freezer. because it doesn’t fit. I don’t have a big freezer, so I have to YouTube it.

Was it alive at the time?

No, it was dead.

How do you kill a snake quickly?

With a captive bolt gun in the brain like a cow or pig. They have the bolt that goes in there. I said, “I have to YouTube this.” There are no YouTube videos on skinning python, at least at the time. There were rattlesnakes and water snakes and it’s not the same. In two and a half hours, it looks like a scene from Dexter. I am cussing and sweating. It was the worst experience ever. The worst part is I had to time this with the dumpster or the trash pickup because I can’t let this smelly carcass be in Florida. I will be in trouble with the HOA. I go to throw this thing out. It’s 60 pounds and I can’t hold the thing open and throw it in. I have to climb into the recycling bin and open it up. I was like, “No.”

With a bloody snake bag?

Yes, it was awesome.

Did you do it by guts or did you say, “Let’s go with the rattlesnake YouTube video and try it from there?”

I did that and it was horrible. I said, “There’s got to be a better way.” I did find a guy up in Ocala. He said, “I got it. I will teach you how to do it. I have been doing it for years.” I took twelve snakes up to him. He showed me how to do it. It was awesome, so now I know.

How long does it take you to skin a snake?

It depends on the size. If it’s an average 8 to 10-footer. From skinning and flushing, because you have to scrape all the flesh off after you skin it, it takes about twenty minutes. If it’s a big snake like the 17-footers, we truck-skin it. We hook it up to two trucks and pull the skin right off.

That takes a lot less than twenty minutes.

It takes about 30 seconds. It’s awesome.

Do you have a film on that?

I do but they are strict with what I can post. I’m not too allowed to post that.

PETA wouldn’t like that.

No.

Is PETA against you?

Yes.

What’s that like? Have they ever threatened to sue you? Do they send you letters?

Not to me.

It’s the people that you work for which is a government entity. They are against the government quite a bit. This organization that you are a part of is in danger of being taken out at all?

No, not at the moment. Our governor, Ron DeSantis gave another $3 million to get rid of pythons. The dude does not like pythons at all. It’s so funny because we were at a press conference or something and they had a big python. He was looking at it like, “Keep that thing away from me.” It was awesome.

You don’t know him?

I don’t know him personally.

Do you know anybody famous because of this? Has anybody reached out to you that you are like, “I can’t freaking believe this?”

No, not yet. I have taken some people out that are YouTube famous in Florida. They have got a lot of followers that way. I always thought that that would be fun to have somebody famous going to a python hunt just to see.

We have got a few. Joey Mullen needs to do this. Joey is with Barstool Sports. He came on and he’s fun. He has lots of Twitter followers. He would be the perfect coward to come out and try to hunt python with you. That would be so much fun. You got the snake skinned. Is there a price per foot when you go, “The skin’s 3-square feet, I’m going to be able to make X amount of dollars?” How do you price the skin?

We are the pioneers of this. Nobody has sold Florida Python leather before. Asian Python leather is one thing, and you can get that for $20 a meter. This sells for about $35 a foot because it’s so expensive for us to even get it. Catch them, skin them, and tan them. If we did $20 a meter, there’s no possible way. The most money comes from the products.

For all of you guys that are in no shortage of supply, can you order these and have them in by Christmas for us people in Indiana?

Yes, absolutely.

Go to PythonHuntress.com and order your python accessories. People would be like, “What the hell is this? I dig it.” You say, “Read this and you are going to know all about it.”

It’s cool because you are saving the environment. You are helping the environment in Florida by purchasing these because it helps us.

Amy Siewe Into The Swamp Python Hunter. Is it into the swamp something?

That’s just what I put on there.

You go into the swamp and snakes freaking everywhere, and you are not afraid at all.

I’m not afraid. It’s not what I thought. I thought it was going to be, “I’m going to jump in the swamp and pull out all these snakes.” I didn’t even catch one for the first weeks I was there. I didn’t know it was the worst time of year to go.

iWatches and all that stuff. It’s nicely done.

Thank you. I’m working on some more products that we are going to get out.

I thought these would sell for a lot more. These are a good deal. A couple of hundred bucks and you are good. Let’s say some guys reading this are like, “I want to do what she does.” What would they do and contact whom?

If they are in Florida, that’s a start. They would probably go on the FWC or South Florida Water Management District website. They are not hiring. They are only hiring to replace people that have either left or been fired because as big as the Everglades are, there are only so many places that we can find them. If we have more than 100, it’s going to get too crowded out there.

Do you guys have a Christmas party?

We don’t, but it would be a lot of fun.

Do you love your fellow 100? What’s their attitude? Are they granola? Are they nutballs? Are they a whole mix-match of people? Is there one attitude trait that runs through them?

They are all kinds. I like the majority of them. That’s how it always is. Funny story, I went with Jane, one of my friends now, and she’s a hunter. She was one of the originals and we were hunting a few months ago and said, “Amy, when you first got here, nobody liked you.” I was like, “That’s cool.” She said, “We were like why is this girl coming from Indiana to catch pythons? What an idiot.” I said, “I can see that. I got that a lot. It’s cool.” She said, “You showed us that you knew what you were doing. You caught the snakes. We all like you now,” but I thought that was interesting because I didn’t pick up on it. I didn’t care, even if, I would have known.

I went into this all blind. I had no idea what the dynamic of anything is. I didn’t even know FWC was different from the parks and South Florida Water Management. I had no idea about any of this. I went in guns are blazing. I came from real estate. I was going 24/7 from not having a job and not even knowing how to look for pythons. I started calling people, “Whom do I need to know? Who can tell me this? Who can help me? Who do I need to talk to?” I met a lot of pretty important people that I didn’t realize were important at the time.

Now, looking back, I’m glad I didn’t know and was naive because as far as the attitude, I might have been a little more cautious about calling them. The superintendent of the park, he’s like God to South Florida Parks. I went up to him in a fundraiser. I was there for a week and I don’t even know how I got invited to this thing and I said, “This python program is ridiculous. Nobody knows anything. Nobody can tell me how I get hired.” I’m going off.

How much booze did you have in here?

I didn’t even have any yet. Thank God because it would have been way worse. He said, “Wait a minute, what? No, that’s right.” I said, “It is right. I have been here trying to get this figured out and nobody can tell me anything.” He said, “We need to get together.”

Are you kidding me? You walked right up to the lead dog. Sometimes not knowing is better than knowing. Amy Siewe, the Python Hunter, she’s been so good. I appreciate you unraveling and that last point is so big. GAPers, I wanted Amy on here because that 3 out of 4 people are not following their dream and chances are it’s 90 out of 100 are not following their dream. I wanted you to meet Amy so you could say, “I have got to sit with somebody that left it all behind and said I’m going to go challenge and I’m going to go grab my destiny. I’m going to go find the number one person in an organization and tell them their stuff’s full of shit and move on.”

Sometimes we got to do it. When you talk about following and going after your passion and your dream, this gal has done it. Amy, we are going to close this show with what we always do with a little exercise called Knowledge Through the Decades. I’m going to walk you through your life as long as you will let me. You don’t have to admit how old you are, but it would be nice because that’s what we try to do.

I want you to walk through your life with us. I want you to tell us what the attitude lesson is at each decade of your life. I want you to think back because a lot of times what you learned is something that we can also learn. You probably don’t remember being born, but when you think about birth, watching the birth of snakes, or you being born, what do you think the attitude lesson is of birth or new life?

The first thing that I thought of was when I used to breed snakes, they would come out of the little egg fighting mad. They are like, “I got this.” They are so tiny and think they can take on the world. I can relate to that a little bit because of stories my parents have told me. When I was little my mom was like, “Don’t touch that.” I’m like, “Watch me.”

I have a granddaughter, Jane, that does that. I love that you brought it in. When you look at it, it’s the inherent fight that is involved with new birth. Let’s go to ten. Were you in Indianapolis?

I was in Dayton.

You were in Dayton, Ohio. You said you remember your 3rd or 4th-grade teacher. In 3rd or 4th-grade, what was the attitude lesson you learned? Did something happen to you? Think back about being ten and what your attitude lesson was then.

When I was ten, I was in the creeks looking for snakes. I was recruiting my friend to come with me. They were very reluctant. I was like, “It’s fine.” I remember I was bitten by this little bitty snake that now I know was a Northern Water Snake which is harmless, but I didn’t know. I was bleeding and I was like, “My dad’s going to kill me because I got bitten by a venomous snake. He’s going to kill me and then I’m going to die.”

My friend and I were like gauging how I felt all day long and seeing if it was swelling and if I was going to die. I then went to my dad finally and said, “Dad, I think I got bitten by a venomous snake.” He said, “When?” I said, “This morning.” He’s like, “Let me see. You are going to be okay. Don’t worry about it.” I said, “I thought you were going to be mad at me.” He said, “No, it’s cool.” I don’t know for some reason it was like, “Okay.” I don’t even know what the lesson was, but it was something that I have always remembered. I have always taken it with me like, “It’s cool. I got it.”

When we look at human emotional needs, certainty is one of the big things why people do things. Your father probably gave you the certainty that it takes to go pee a freaking python hunter because most people would see hunting snakes as a very uncertain way to live. That’s a very interesting story. Now, did you have another friend that loved it too? Are pythons lethal?

No, they are not venomous. They are constrictors. They will squeeze you to death. Growing up, I didn’t have any other friends that were like that.

You didn’t have friends?

No, I did, but it was weird that I was this girl and I like snakes.

Let’s go, you are at the University of Toledo at twenty. What was going on with you at twenty? What were you like and what was the attitude lesson you had when you were 20 or 21?

This is all revolving around snakes. It’s so weird how it goes through my whole life. At twenty, I was volunteering at the Toledo Zoo, which was amazing. I had a whole lot of pets in a no pets apartment including iguanas, ferrets, and snakes.

You are one of those tenants.

Not anymore. I don’t have anything right now, but I own my house so it doesn’t matter. I drank a lot. I’m sure I learned a lot of lessons from that.

We are not mad at you.

I told you about Jack Canfield and when I said that I was going to be catching Anacondas in the Amazon in five years. When I was at an interview class during my senior year in college, we had to break out into groups and have to go interview all of these people that ran companies. I remember one guy said, “What do you want to be doing in five years?” I said, “I want to be catching Anacondas in the Amazon.” He said, “You want what?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Okay. You are hired,” for his little fake company. It was being who I was and being freaking weird to most people, but it’s okay because people respected that I owned it and this is who I am. I’m not going to apologize. Again, if it could be kittens, I’d be great, but it’s not. It’s snakes. Let’s roll with it.

Being your authentic self is a lesson and an attitude that everybody that’s reading this right now exercises, “Am I my authentic self or am I a shadow of who I am? Am I afraid to show myself to the world?” When is it time for you to unleash your authentic self on everybody else? That’s pretty awesome. Let’s go to 30. My guess is you were selling real estate at 30. Do you remember your 30th birthday? What was going on in your world? What was your attitude at 30?

At 30, I was almost getting divorced.

Let’s talk about divorce.

We never should have been married. I was married for five years. He didn’t like snakes, but he thought it was cool. I had 50 of them.

That does not check the box.

After I got divorced, I was so tired of going on dates and people were like, “Snakes,” that I put that picture of me with all the snakes as my main Match, Tinder, or whatever picture to be like, “You either like them or don’t. I’m not going to waste my time.”

Deal with it.

It’s probably good to get that out there in front. Let’s cross that bridge earlier.

“He’s perfect, but he’s a total wuss. He doesn’t like snakes.”

In my 30s, I have been single since then but I found my footing in real estate. When I went to Keller Williams, it was a game-changer. If I would have gone to Florida after I made that Lake Erie video which was several years ago, I never would have made it because I had no idea how to run a business or how to network. I didn’t know anything. I was just very green. The other companies that I worked for didn’t teach me a lot of that. I had a business mindset and learned so much that it prepared and allowed me to trust myself to get to Florida and get it figured out.

The attitude lesson there was to create a business mindset. Have a mentor copy them, which is Attitude Booster number five. The answers are there. This may be the message for the GAPers as you look to become your authentic self and jump towards your destiny, quite often, and as Amy said the answers may already be there, but we may be suppressing them. We may not be exploring them. That could be your second thing to do after this show. What are the answers that I have to make this change in my life that would be good? Let’s go to 40. That was a couple of years ago. What was going on a couple of years ago? You have been doing the python thing for more than four years?

No, two and a half. I moved in March of 2019.

Right before the pandemic.

It’s good timing.

I’m guessing COVID probably didn’t slow you guys down.

No, we kept doing our thing. Pythons were like, “COVID, what?”

Talk to us about being 40. Do you remember turning 40? What was in your head and what was going on?

I spent my 40th birthday in Marco Island because my birthday’s December 29th and I wanted a pool party. I don’t think I knew about the pythons yet. I had a bunch of my college friends and Dave. We all came down and rented a house with a pool so I could have a pool party on my 40th. I remember sitting there outside on my birthday in shorts and flip-flops, I was like, “This is going on in parts of the United States, not in Indiana. I can sit here on my birthday in flip-flops.” It’s the other piece to everything falling into place when it did. It was like, “I got to move. I got to get out of cold Indiana.” I had no idea or intention that it was going to be so soon, but that started getting those wheels.

Sun and sand can be an attitude booster.

All day long. I realized after I’d been here probably for a couple of months that something I said in Indiana almost every day and sometimes twice a day is, “I hate this effing weather.” I haven’t said that one time since I have been down there. It changes your attitude, at least for me, and everything about how I do things.

I very rarely meet people when they go to scrape ice off the car and go, “God, I love this freaking weather. This is so good,” but it is self-talk in another great attitude lesson. It’s like, “If you are up north, it’s going to be cold. What are you saying about the cold? Can you turn that negative into a positive right now?” Amy Siewe, you have been an awesome guest. You are so enthralling and deep. I love it. It’s a way to bring something to the show that nobody else has. I enjoyed this.

One thing I’d like you to do is talk to our readers if you can. If you want to give them a message of hope or what’s your thoughts for the future. If somebody’s reading this, now is the time to tell them, “This is the attitude that I have had,” but send whatever personal message you’d like to our GAPers, if that’s not too much pressure on you.

Not at all. The big thing is to figure out how you respond to fear. I realized a few years ago that I respond by making excuses. I’m not afraid of snakes, dying, and all the things that people are usually afraid of, but when I’m faced with achievement, business, or something that I’m not quite sure about, I start making excuses. I said, “Fraidy cat, just do it. You are afraid.”

The thing was when I moved to Florida, I did not have one excuse. Not that I didn’t have a job and I didn’t even know if they were hiring. I had to share a bathroom with the guy’s dad from the room that I rented because five hours away he told me that the guy wasn’t moving out right of the room that I was supposed to rent, but he had another house, but I’d have to share a bathroom with his dad. That wasn’t even an excuse. That’s a big thing. When you find out what your response is to fear, you can start to conquer it a little bit. You then also know when you are truly not afraid of something and you are like, “Let’s do this.”

We were not afraid to have you on the show. GAPers, this is the great Amy Siewe. Check her out at PythonHuntress.com. If you guys want to get some attitude, she’s going to give you some attitude when you watch it. Do not live in fear. Live in hope. Live with attitude. Live with passion. We will see you in the next episode.

Thank you.

Important Links

• PythonHuntress.com
• National Parks Alliance
• The Swamp People with Amy Siewe
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• Connect with producer: www.JasonAaron.pro
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