Episode 1/ Amy Porterfield
Amy Porterfield’s Superpower May Be Yours, Too: How to Harness Your Unique Strengths for Success
What You'll Learn in This Episode:
Strategies to combat and overcome imposter syndrome, especially as it relates to women in business.
The importance of knowing your "why" to push past fear and self-doubt in pursuit of growth and success.
Insight into Amy's personal journey from being an employee to creating a multi-million dollar business teaching digital courses.
Amy's experience with burnout, how to recognize it as a warning sign, and practical tips for managing burnout seasons.
The benefits of turning perceived weaknesses into strengths, and how what is often seen as a personal liability can be a professional asset.
Meet the guest
Amy Porterfield is an ex–corporate girl turned online marketing expert and CEO of a multimillion-dollar business. Amy empowers women across the globe to take their futures into their own hands and find professional autonomy, independence, achievement, and success far beyond what a corporate glass ceiling would traditionally allow.
In this enlightening episode of the Who Made You The Boss? podcast, we sit down with the digital marketing guru and powerhouse entrepreneur Amy Porterfield as she shares her insightful journey from working one-on-one with clients to creating a multi-million dollar business teaching digital courses.
Amy discusses the intricacies of imposter syndrome, particularly among women, and the importance of creating inclusive environments for all individuals to honor the unique dynamics both men and women bring in leadership and business. You’ll learn from Amy’s experiences with burnout, the relevancy of intuition in our careers, and the significance of embracing our obstacles. Amy opens up about the fears that haunt professionals and how she navigated her company through a bad business deal.
Get ready for an episode packed with valuable lessons on personal growth, recognizing one’s strengths, balancing work life, and the courage to do scary things. Tune in to this inspiring episode on creating a thriving business and embracing your true potential.
“As they went around the table to talk about their businesses, all I heard was freedom. I could tell that these guys were calling the shots. And in that moment… I thought, I don't know what these guys are doing, but I want a piece of it. It was the first time ever I thought, I want to be my own boss, and I want to create something by my own design.”
Amy Porterfield
More about Amy Porterfield
Amy Porterfield is an ex-corporate girl turned online marketing expert, author of the New York Times bestselling book Two Weeks Notice, and CEO of a multimillion-dollar business. Through her best-selling book, digital courses, and top-ranked marketing podcast Online Marketing Made Easy, Amy has helped hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs turn in their two weeks’ notice and trade burnout for freedom, income, and impact. Amy’s action-by-action teaching style provides aspiring business owners with the tools they need to bypass the overwhelm and build a business they love.
Learn more at AmyPorterfield.com and make sure to follow Amy on Instagram: @amyporterfield and check out her hit Podcast, Online Marketing Made Easy.
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Lindsey Epperly [00:00:02]:
Awesome. Welcome Amy to the who may do the boss podcast. We are so excited to have you today.
Amy Porterfield [00:00:07]:
Well, thanks so much for having me. I appreciate it.
Lindsey Epperly [00:00:09]:
Yes, we were just talking a little bit more about being connected through one of our mutual friends, Shannon, who we adore. And it's one of those things, like, right. Any friend of hers is a friend of mine and so thrilled to be connected.
Amy Porterfield [00:00:22]:
Same. I feel the exact same way.
Lindsey Epperly [00:00:24]:
Well, I want to kind of in the natural place. I've filled the listeners in on your background and your bio and all the amazing things you've achieved, but I really want to camp out for a little while on how you got your start. The idea of this podcast is who Made You the Boss? And everyone has a different story for how they stepped into their professional lives as leaders. But you had a very interesting story and that you took the ultimate risk of leaving what sounds like it was a decent, lovable job to pursue something more that you knew you were capable of, really. So I would love to hear a little bit more about that journey.
Amy Porterfield [00:00:58]:
So, I always say I am an ex corporate girl turned accidental entrepreneur. I really never had my sight set on owning my own business or being my own boss, and I always thought I would be in. I, you know, graduated college, did a few different jobs, and landed at an amazing job working with peak performance coach Tony Robbins. And so I got to travel the world with Tony and the team and work on the content that he does on stage. So if you know anything about Tony Robbins, unleash the power within Date with Destiny, these were events that I got to work on, and it was incredible. I traveled to the most amazing places. I got to pitch and catch with Tony. I got two do, really cool things, and I absolutely loved it.
Amy Porterfield [00:01:42]:
One day, though, I found myself being called to a meeting to take notes. Now, that's a little humbling. I was the director of content development, but in that world, everyone's just taking notes here or there. And so I got called into this meeting, and it happened to be a meeting where Tony had brought in a bunch of Internet marketers. They were all men. And Tony was looking to do more online and selling his own digital course online. And one thing that Tony does really well is he finds people that are killing it, doing really great things, and he finds out what they're doing, dissects it, and typically does it even better. So he brought in all these online marketers, and they sat around this table.
Amy Porterfield [00:02:20]:
I sat at a side table to take notes. I wasn't even invited to the main table. And Tony went around and said, tell me about your businesses. And these guys all men. Again, they sold digital courses memberships, masterminds, some physical products, and they were all in different arenas. So dating, advice, real estate investing, so all different walks of life. But they had one thing in common. They were all their own boss.
Amy Porterfield [00:02:46]:
They were all making a lot of money and a really big impact. And so as they went around the table to talk about their businesses, all I heard was freedom. I could tell that these guys were calling the shots. And in that moment, I probably took the worst notes of my life, because in that moment, I thought, I don't know what these guys are doing, but I want a piece of it. It was the first time ever I thought, I want to be my own boss, and I want to create something by my own design. And so fast forward a year after that fateful meeting, and I had put a plan together of starting my own business. And so a year after that meeting, I packed my car up with all the stuff in my office, drove out of the San Diego offices to start my own business. And that was 14 years ago.
Amy Porterfield [00:03:32]:
And I started out with doing social media for small businesses one on one, coaching, consulting, service based work. But about two years in, I realized, I hate this. I don't like working one on one with clients. This is not what I had planned. And I created a business where I taught through digital courses. So now, today, I teach people how to create their own digital courses, how to take their knowledge, their know how and skill set, and turn that into a profitable digital course that they can sell in their business. Ongoingly. So I've ushered in over 50,000 students into my digital courses, generated over $85 million in course sales, and it's what I do every single day, and I love it because I help people build businesses with digital courses.
Lindsey Epperly [00:04:19]:
That is incredible. That's amazing. Thank you for sharing all that. I have so many questions, too, because there are certain points where you emphasize very strongly, for example, that it was all men in that room, right? And so there's got to be something that created, like, a little bit of a chip on your shoulder to say, I want to be a woman that is leading in this position.
Amy Porterfield [00:04:37]:
Truly, I looked around and thought, where are the women? And it wasn't that Tony wasn't inviting them to the table. What I learned really quickly is the weren't a lot of them doing what these guys were doing online marketing, selling digital courses and memberships and masterminds. It was a man's world 14 years ago, and there are very few women, but I found a few. And one of the first things I did even before I left my last job with Tony, I got into a mastermind with a woman that led the mastermind. And there was like 20 entrepreneurial women. All of them were doing bigger things than me, which was a great thing because it allowed me to up level. But I spent a lot of money that I didn't have to get into a group of entrepreneurial women to learn what I don't know or didn't know at the time. Best decision I ever made.
Lindsey Epperly [00:05:27]:
That's incredible. I love it. Well, and our listeners are both men and women, but I think it's really important to create more conversations and this kind of feels like a little bit of a divisive society at the moment where it feels like men are being ushered out of the room so women can talk. I want to create more conversations where men feel comfortable listening in to learn what it means to be a woman in business and how to support them. And so I think you speak to women so beautifully. And actually I'm going to read this quote from you book, two weeks notice because I wrote it down. I thought it was just a powerful quote and it clearly showed what your mission was. But it's to see more women, marginalized women, women of color, women of all economic backgrounds, religions and sexual orientations, hold more positions of power, call the shots, make more waves, make more money, pave their own way on their own terms.
Lindsey Epperly [00:06:10]:
That is what you want out of life. And I think it's really important for us. Let's just dive a little bit deeper into the issues that plague women in business. Why were there not individuals that were pursuing that path when you first started? What do you think it is that stand in the way for women to actually kind of take this leap?
Amy Porterfield [00:06:28]:
That's such a great question. I think that especially 14 years ago, we had so few opportunities to step up and find our way. When I came into the online marketing world, it was very hard to be seen and heard because the men were so loud. And I actually don't fault them for that. They had been in this industry for a long time. They had found their way. There were lots of clicks. They called it the syndicate back in the day.
Amy Porterfield [00:06:55]:
There's lots of syndicates of guys helping guys market. And women didn't know how to mobilize in my industry back then. Believe me, now they do. It's incredible the shifts I've seen of women doing amazing things in the online marketing world. But back then I think the doors were closed to many of the opportunities and it was very much a man's world, so we call it bro marketing. And it was very much alive and well back then where the guys would be standing in front of their Ferraris saying like, you can make money while you sleep and the private jets and that kind of marketing. So a lot of women were like, I want nothing to do with that. And so I think we were a little bit slow to get in.
Amy Porterfield [00:07:38]:
But there's a few women that paved the way and opened up a lot of doors. And I think women came flooding through, and they're killing it, doing an amazing job of creating their own digital courses, creating their own masterminds and memberships and all of that good stuff.
Lindsey Epperly [00:07:53]:
Beautiful. I love that. I think it's important too. Maybe something we can talk a little bit more about. And I know that I actually listened to a recent podcast that you did on this topic, that impostor syndrome, right? I think it plagues a lot of professionals, but I think it's very unique to women and how it manifests in us. And there have been moments where I often find myself, if I'm on the cusp of evolution, like, I feel like all it takes is this little next step to become a better leader or to open that part of the company that I've always dreamed of but I've always been afraid of. You've got that little gremlin in the back of your head, and that's always saying, like, why you? It's the reason of the cheeky podcast name of who made you the boss? That is the gremlin asking that question. So I would love to hear more about your experience with impostor syndrome.
Lindsey Epperly [00:08:39]:
The times that you almost talked yourself out of doing what you knew you should have done and kind of like how you battle that, how you get past that.
Amy Porterfield [00:08:46]:
This is such an important topic. It comes up every single day working with the students in my community. As know, I recently heard Mel Robbins, someone I absolutely love. She said her daughter wants to be a singer. And she tells her know, I feel like an imposter. She's young. She hasn't really gotten a big opportunity yet. She says, I feel like an imposter.
Amy Porterfield [00:09:08]:
And Mel says to her daughter, you're not an imposter. You're just new.
Lindsey Epperly [00:09:13]:
That's all.
Amy Porterfield [00:09:13]:
You're just new. Allow yourself to be a beginner and figure out the way to get to where you want to get to. And when she said that, it was so refreshing because we beat ourselves up. Like, I'm not good enough. I'm not capable. I'm not worthy of this. I don't deserve this. Who am I to be doing this? Who made me the boss? And really, it's like, wait, but you're just new.
Amy Porterfield [00:09:33]:
You're figuring it out. Let yourself learn what you need to learn. And so for me, impostor syndrome was alive and well. Really just leading up to leaving my nine to five job, there was a lot of those gremlins in my head saying, what are you doing? Leaving a secure nine to five job, a really good job. It would like, boost in my ego. It was really cool. What are you doing leaving this behind? So that was like the first battle I had. And then when I went out on my own, I actually launched my first digital course in the first year of going out on my own, and it was a huge failure.
Amy Porterfield [00:10:07]:
I made $267 and the program was 297. But when you backed out a few thousand dollars in expenses, my profit was 267. I cried for a week. I didn't want to get out of bed. Luckily, my husband's like, we need to do something about this. And I told him, I said, I'm not cut out to be an entrepreneur. I obviously am terrible at this. I'm going to have to go grovel back from my job.
Amy Porterfield [00:10:32]:
And so right away, I made it mean that I wasn't worthy. And so I struggled with this year after year after year for a very long time. And the only thing that has really changed for me and why I don't feel like an imposter, it's really time and a proven track record. And that's the sad thing about impostor syndrome. It doesn't really go away until you have that time, until you have the track record. So what do you do in the moment when it's rearing its ugly head and you're new and you're just starting out? And my only advice is you do it scared you do it even though you don't know if you can do it. You show up even though you're not sure if this is going to work out. And the way you do that is your why has to be stronger than your worries.
Amy Porterfield [00:11:19]:
Who am I to be doing this? I don't have what it takes. I'm going to have to go beg for my job back. Those are all the worries. But my who was I don't want a boss anymore. I do not want a boss. I don't want to be told what to do, when to do it or how to do it. I wanted freedom more than I was concerned about the worries that came up. So when your why will pick you up as your worries, knock you down, that's how you stay in the game.
Amy Porterfield [00:11:43]:
And you get past impostor syndrome.
Lindsey Epperly [00:11:45]:
I love it. Well, and I think it's so important for others to hear individuals like yourself who we can very much look at where you've made it now. Right. You've got a phenomenal thriving business. You just wrote a New York Times bestseller. I mean, you've got really amazing credentials to your name, but for everyone to know you too. Amy Porterfield has dealt with imposter syndrome.
Amy Porterfield [00:12:05]:
Absolutely. And it still comes up to this day, 14 years in and I still feel it when new projects come up, when new things happen, when I don't get invited to something I thought I would be all of that. But the only difference now versus 14 years ago is I can snap out of it pretty quickly knowing, like, okay, I know what this is, I know why it's here, and we're just going to keep moving forward. So it's easier now, but it still shows up.
Lindsey Epperly [00:12:28]:
Totally. I feel that I will never forget, actually. It was Shannon that we mentioned earlier. So for listeners, Shannon is a mutual friend, and she is the founder of a company called Belay, and it's a wonderful company that she's since sold with her husband. But I remember hearing her give a keynote at an entrepreneurship event that we were at, and she made the comment that every day I wake up and I run a business that is a little bigger than it was the day before. And that stayed with me because I thought, oh, you're right. Every day you have to challenge yourself and recognize that if you want growth, which is the sign of a healthy company and a healthy life, then you're going to have to be challenged every single day with something that's a little bit different than it was the day before. And that's a breeding ground for insecurity if you let it get a hold of you.
Amy Porterfield [00:13:14]:
Absolutely. But just like being aware of that, I'm choosing to get up every morning and work on a business that every day is just a little bit bigger. And I thought you were going to say bigger than me. I also feel like my business feels bigger than me, and it feels scary. And I've got 20 full time employees now, and their livelihood depends on me, and that is very scary to me. But again, my why was always I wanted freedom. I didn't want to be told what to do, when to do, or how to do it. My Why today is very different.
Amy Porterfield [00:13:44]:
I have that freedom now. It's I want to help people build businesses so they become their own bosses and they get to have that freedom and call the shots. So my why has changed over time. But I love what Shannon said. You got to find the courage to do that.
Lindsey Epperly [00:13:59]:
You do. But, I mean, what you just hit on is also a very real challenge I think that today's modern professional has, which is this idea that if I want to be in a leadership role, that means I have this really important job of stewarding the people that are following me. And to take that very seriously, because actually, you even said this at the start of this. You didn't set out to become a boss. Right. You'd never have that inkling of, like, I would like to become a boss and a leader. And I think if you did, that might be like some sort of questionable narcissistic trait. Right.
Lindsey Epperly [00:14:31]:
I think that when people are like, you're the boss today, there's probably a bit of a power trip that's happening.
Amy Porterfield [00:14:36]:
Right.
Lindsey Epperly [00:14:37]:
So there's really this kind of reconciliation that happens when you do start leading people of, oh, wow. I mean, this is a big responsibility. It's also a big honor.
Amy Porterfield [00:14:47]:
Yes, truly. It truly is. I don't know why this has happened, but I employ a lot of young women that are having babies. So four women on my team of 20 are pregnant and going out on maternity leave soon. And I look at that, and I think their little babies get to see their moms kick ass. And I love that because these women are in leadership roles. They're doing big things in my business. And I love that their little girls or little boys get to see them do that.
Amy Porterfield [00:15:20]:
My CEO. She's a new CEO. She was promoted in March of this year, and she was telling her husband they were talking about her new role. And Sienna, her little daughter, says, like, Mommy, you're a CEO. She has no idea what a CEO is. And she's like, yeah, I'm a CEO now. And she says, can Sienna be a CEO? And she's yes. Yes, you can.
Amy Porterfield [00:15:42]:
And so I love that her daughter is seeing her do that. That feels very that you're right. It's an honor that I get to employ these amazing women and men that are doing big lot. It's a lot to hold.
Lindsey Epperly [00:15:59]:
Yeah. As a mom of two girls, that brings tears to my eyes on so many levels. And I think about this too. I know we're spending a lot of time talking about what women face in the professional world, and I think you bring such a unique perspective to that because it's such a passion of yours. And I think that one of those things that I personally have dealt with and tried to figure out, how do I get past this? And I have these different ways of doing it, but it's people pleasing, and it's the question of you actually had this line in your book. It might have been a chapter title of You Ain't For Everyone. Bill.
Amy Porterfield [00:16:30]:
Yep.
Lindsey Epperly [00:16:30]:
Exactly.
Amy Porterfield [00:16:31]:
Yes.
Lindsey Epperly [00:16:32]:
And I wonder I just want to kind of spend some time on that, because I think about the first time that my company received a one star review, right? You close your eyes, you feel it. You feel it in your gut. You know exactly what that feels like. But in the moment, it just feels like your world is leveled. This is the worst possible thing that could happen to you. Even if the review I mean, regardless of whether ours was about a service we didn't even offer. So it was actually kind of funny. And I remember when I received this review, I was in my favorite coffee shop with my husband, who is also my business partner, and he goes, let's pull up the reviews of this coffee shop.
Lindsey Epperly [00:17:07]:
You love this place so much. I just want you to see what their one star reviews are. And there were reviews that were like, coffee shop is too far from my house. Just crazy one star review. So sorry. But it really made me think about the way that we try to people, please, right. When we get those negative comments, like what we do when we internalize those, I would just love to hear kind of like, how you have learned to get past that professionally?
Amy Porterfield [00:17:34]:
Yes, I am an absolute people pleaser. For many years, I said I'm a recovering people pleaser. But I just see those tendencies come up with me. I just kind of own it that I am a people pleaser. But I'm very aware of it. So I try two protect myself around it. But that chapter You Ain't for Everyone Boo came up because one of my dear friends, Jasmine Starr, I sent her a text message many years ago, and I said, I'm freaking out. This guy in the comments of one of my social media posts is telling me that I'm wrong about what I'm teaching.
Amy Porterfield [00:18:07]:
I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm a joke. I'm like, I'm freaking out. Everyone can see it. And she started laughing, and she's like, you ain't for everyone boo. It's no big deal. And she was so nonchalant about it that it kind of took this weight off my shoulder. And then we had this big discussion about, like, you can't build a business online where the whole world can see you and think that everyone is going to like you.
Amy Porterfield [00:18:32]:
And if everyone likes you, the your message is so watered down that it's not making an impact to anyone. They just don't care. I don't like you. I like you. I don't like you. I'm neutral. So you don't want to be neutral online. And so when I started to realize, oh, everyone's not going to like me, and people are going to say some mean things about me, and that just comes with building the business online, I started to just be more okay with it.
Amy Porterfield [00:18:57]:
Now, I will tell you this. I'm a sensitive kind of girl, so I don't read comments a lot. My team helps me do that. They'll delete nasty, mean things that they see. But I don't spend a lot of time in the comments. Now, the person that does spend too much time in my comments is my husband, where we will be watching TV and he'll say, who's this jerk? What is he saying? Or why is he saying that? I'm like, babe, get out of the comments. We can't look at that stuff, especially on Facebook. It's bad.
Amy Porterfield [00:19:27]:
And so he started to look and get really upset and frustrated. So I'm like, get out of the yeah, I just I've gotten stronger because I know my message resonates with so many people. And if it's resonating with everyone, it's too watered down. Yeah.
Lindsey Epperly [00:19:42]:
Oh, that's beautiful too. Because when you think about I remember getting this advice when leading a travel agency in the middle of a pandemic, right? So, like a very difficult time of it doesn't necessarily even matter which side you stand on, what you stand on, stand for something. Because whether this is that you are keeping the lights on and you're marching forward or you've got to go into hibernation mode, just stand for something. Don't stick in the middle where people don't know what to follow. So I think that's absolutely right. To make your impact you can't try to please everyone. You have to go in the direction that is right for you.
Amy Porterfield [00:20:12]:
So very true. It's an important lesson to learn and it's not easy for sure.
Lindsey Epperly [00:20:16]:
Yeah. And I think about now you would hope the probably sitting around in him on social media or something and seeing just it's so hard. I had a really interesting conversation with Carlos Whitaker, if you are familiar with him and his work, but he is a guest as well and he wrote a book called how to Human. And the conversation that we just had was about what he's focusing on as his next project, which is the time we spend on our devices, the time we spend away from where we should be and where our head should actually be. So I think it's really wise for you as a leader to say, I know the things that are going to trigger me or going to put me in a bad headspace and I'm going to just simply avoid those things and have like a front line of defense that's actually helping you with that.
Amy Porterfield [00:20:59]:
Absolutely. I think that is so important. Have that front line of defense, be very aware of what's going on. It helps immensely.
Lindsey Epperly [00:21:07]:
Yeah, I'm curious too because I heard you do a recent conversation on Burnout and I think burnout is something that applies to every single professional, especially over the last few years where people's job descriptions a lot of times completely changed or they had to start over in what their profession was or they thought it was. And I'm just curious to hear more of your thoughts on where I stand on burnout is every time that I've had it, it's actually been kind of like a big blinking red light of something is wrong and you need to change something. So for me it's almost like my body's response to hey, something's got to give, you have to make a change. And I'm curious when, you know, kind of to interpret burnout as a symptom versus a warning sign and what you do with that information when it occurs to you.
Amy Porterfield [00:21:51]:
That's such a great question because my recent Burnout, the one I did on my podcast was I launched this book in February. So six months leading up to launching the book, I did a huge presale campaign and then a few months afterwards continued to get on stages and talk about my book. And then I found myself fully burned out. Like I didn't want to talk about the book, I didn't want to talk to anybody, I didn't want to get on another airplane. And so I'm 14 years in and I still have my ebbs and flows of burnout or kind of pushing it a little bit too hard. One thing that I do remind myself with burnout is that I was in a season. I was in a season to do whatever it took to get my book out into the world and get into as many hands as possible. And I knew that season would come to an end where life would get back to normal.
Amy Porterfield [00:22:38]:
So when I compartmentalize my business in different seasons, like right now, I'm in a launch september 20 eigth, this launch is over and I'm out of my launch season. That is important to me to be able to know when the white space is coming or when I'm all in and also when I'm all in that my family is aware this is a season of craziness right now. Like, my husband was a book widow for a while, but we had talked about it in advance and we took this beautiful vacation after. Right now, he knows September, I am in launch mode and I'm rarely present, but I'm out of it in October and we plan fun things and we do things. So one of the ways I combat this burnout is knowing I'm in a season or not. It doesn't mean that at the end of the season, I don't feel burned out, but I know that there's a reprieve coming. But to get back to what you said earlier, I do think that sometimes if you're hitting burnout over and over and over again and you don't want to get out of bed in the morning, we need to look at what you're working on. You're likely not staying in your zone of genius.
Amy Porterfield [00:23:43]:
You're doing a lot of things that don't come natural to you that you don't like doing, that you just kind of want to scream. And that's when we have to look at delegating automating or eliminating in our business because you can't every day wake up and do things you don't want to do in your business and think that that's going to be sustainable. It's absolutely not. And so if this is an ongoing thing that burnout keeps coming up, coming up, we got two. Change what you're working on and maybe get you some support. But then again, the other way to look at it is, is this a season and will I be out of it soon?
Lindsey Epperly [00:24:15]:
Yeah, that's wonderful to be able to kind of better identify. And I think that actually answers the exact question, right, is this just a symptom or a warning sign? Is it happening over and over and over again? When you come out of those seasons, it sounds like you are very intentional with your time. Can you tell us more about it's? Vacations? It's rest. Is it big picture thinking what revitalizes you and gets you ready to go back into another season of hustle?
Amy Porterfield [00:24:40]:
So for me, definitely we plan a trip way in advance. It's funny you bring up Shannon because Shannon and Brian Miles, they were part of our big vacation that we went on. We went to this really fun Florida retreat together and we absolutely had so much fun. So that was a special moment that I knew was coming up and I got to look forward to. But another way that I get ready for my next season is I make sure so we work a four day work week in my business. So we work Monday through Thursday. We take Friday, Saturday and Sunday off, the whole team. And so making sure that I'm getting back to my four day work week.
Amy Porterfield [00:25:13]:
Because when I'm in like a launch mode, we'll work this Friday. It's just one Friday out of the month, but we're working. So I get back to no nights. I'm not working at night. I do not have my laptop in my lap watching a show with my husband at nighttime, the computer's away, the phone's away. I make sure I have my nights free, my weekends free. I take some time off during the week if I need to. Lots of white space before I get back into another really busy season.
Amy Porterfield [00:25:41]:
For me, though, this is the part that I love about owning my own business. I choose a promotion calendar that allows me a lot of white space. So once September 20 Eigth hits and my program is filled up every week, I'm delivering on that program. But that's just one day a week. October, November, December are pretty light for me. And then we'll ramp up again in January. So that is absolutely by design. So I'm a very big fan of a twelve month promotional calendar where we do this in October and we work on it for a good month.
Amy Porterfield [00:26:13]:
We have to add things, subtract things, move things around, but we plan out our entire promotional calendar for the next year and we make sure we see a lot of white space between those promotions. So we're very intentional about it.
Lindsey Epperly [00:26:28]:
I love that. That's great advice. Especially if you are in control of your schedule or you have a business that is very seasonal and you can kind of know, when do I capture this momentum? When can I actually ride off of that momentum and actually give myself a little breather? Because I think if you don't create that white space, then this is just your life always, right? Like you're just always working or you are just completely unable to turn off. So that's very smart to be intentional like that. Yeah. I'm curious something that we talk about on this podcast a lot. I've dubbed it because I spend a lot of time writing on it. I've dubbed this as the Monsters That Save us.
Lindsey Epperly [00:27:03]:
This is this idea that there is a big scary thing that we always have feared, especially when it comes to our professional lives. I think that oftentimes, especially as you're building a business, the fear is oftentimes, well, what if one thing happens and it just levels it, right? And it keeps you up at night. And I did have that happen. I mentioned running this company in a pandemic. It absolutely happened for 18 plus months. But I found that that happening relieved me of the fear and actually allowed me to operate with more freedom. Ultimately, it was this big scary monster that led to a really beautiful season of redemption and of discovery. And I feel like each of us have obstacles that we turn into opportunities.
Lindsey Epperly [00:27:44]:
And I would love to talk a little bit more about any similar seasons that you've had or any instances that you feel like, wow, I thought that was going to level me, but in retrospect, it made me who I am.
Amy Porterfield [00:27:54]:
Oh, absolutely. I've had a few, but the one that I talk about in my book, that was the one I didn't want to talk about the most. I didn't want anyone to know is that about three years into my business, I had hit the almost the million dollar mark. That year, we had hit $950,000 in the business. It was just me and a really small team, and it was doing great. And I was in a mastermind with a bunch of other people, and there's this one guy that was just killing it, doing amazing things. And I asked him if he'd help me with something. And his idea was, let me be a 50 50 partner in your business and I could help you skyrocket this.
Amy Porterfield [00:28:29]:
Now, I'd like to tell you that I took weeks and weeks to decide. I consulted lawyers, mentors, really thought about this one night's sleep. I woke up the next morning and said yes. And the reason for that is I was raised by a really strict father. It was his way or the highway. And then in my corporate years, I always had male bosses. And there's something in me I hate to admit this, but I always thought that I needed a man to help me, to get me out of a pickle, to be by my side. And I didn't want to be alone on this journey.
Amy Porterfield [00:29:00]:
And so when this man said, I see potential in you and I think your business would be amazing, let me help you, I said yes. So we got into this partnership, a business I had created that almost hit that million dollar mark. And we became 50 50 partners of the business. And for a few years, the business thrived. It was soaring, like I was on the map. People knew who I was, what I was going to help them with, and we became a multimillion dollar business very quickly. He's incredibly strategic and smart, but what happened was I fully lost myself in this relationship. The became my boss, and this is by no fault of his.
Amy Porterfield [00:29:35]:
I allowed this to happen. When something didn't go right, I looked to him when I was worried about something. I asked him if we were going to be okay. When we would get on phone calls, I would leave with 20 action items to his one. He just kind of knew how to keep his boundaries, and I had no boundaries whatsoever. So about three or four years in, I realized this partnership is not working for me. And so I got the courage to go to him and say, I want out. And that was and the next year was hell trying to get out.
Amy Porterfield [00:30:03]:
We didn't have a really good legal contract in place. We could not agree on what I would owe him to buy back my business. And we could not come to an agreement for an entire year. I think I cried every single day because I was losing this business that I had created. Because the alternative was we had to dissolve it all and I had to start over. And he had other businesses I didn't. This was Amy only thing. And I felt like I gave birth to this business.
Amy Porterfield [00:30:30]:
I've never had a child of my own. And so this business was everything to me. And so finally I woke up. I don't know what happened, but it was about a year in and I woke up one morning and I told myself, I will burn it down and build it back better. I am done with this. I will burn this down and build it back better. Because we were in limbo. I wasn't launching.
Amy Porterfield [00:30:51]:
I wasn't budging. The wasn't budging. My business was slowly going down the drain. And so I went to him and I said, last thing we're going to do, I'm going to suggest mediation. And he said, yes. And so we went into mediation. It was the craziest experience of my life. I've never been with a bunch of lawyers and a bunch of back and forth, back and forth.
Amy Porterfield [00:31:12]:
But at the end of that day, my business was mine again. We agreed to a number that both of us felt good about. My business was mine again. And my whole life changed in that moment. And I tell this story because I made a lot of mistakes in that experience. I almost lost my business. But the day it became mine, I was a different person. I found my voice again.
Amy Porterfield [00:31:35]:
I started speaking up. I started doing things the way I wanted to do them. And within 18 months, we went from 5 million to 16.5 million in the business. And that's when I knew I'm going to be okay. I never knew I could do it alone until I was forced to. And that inner Beyonce came out of me like, I will burn this down and build it back better. Like, if you don't want to go to mediation, I'm done. But he said yes.
Amy Porterfield [00:31:59]:
So I think what we have to all remember is that when things scare us, when things aren't working out, when we're not sure if we can figure it out, look behind you. Because we've all gone through things that are proof that we are resilient and we will figure this out.
Lindsey Epperly [00:32:15]:
That is all so good. Okay. I have so many things to ask and just think about. But even at the very beginning, when you were talking about the things that you learned when it came to the conditioning that you had growing up, feeling like, I need a man to rely on or that is such an interesting belief. And I think it resonates with me because I grew up with mostly made mentors. And again, in speaking in this conversation today, it's so that men can better understand what females, how we're designed differently, and just the ways in which oftentimes we overlook that. And so for me, one of those examples was my male mentors, whenever I was having a business struggle, would tell me, well, you just need to get thicker skin, as though you could just go pick it up at Staples. Right.
Lindsey Epperly [00:32:58]:
It just sits next to the printing ink.
Amy Porterfield [00:33:00]:
Yes, exactly.
Lindsey Epperly [00:33:01]:
And I struggled. I would just like, well, maybe the way to thick skin is to callous and is to sit in this negative and to keep going through and to listen to the men. And then it was like an abundantly clear day where I realized, wait a minute, I think that the thin skin, or what I've been calling thin skin, is actually my intuition. I think that I'm actually trying to mask that because we're wired so differently and men might be able to lead very confidently. And to your point, he is able to keep his boundaries because that's something that men are just really wonderfully equipped at. Naturally. I see that with my husband all the time when we go into a conversation where he has a strong opinion and I'm still trying to form my opinion, I'm like, don't give me your strong opinion yet because you're so resolute.
Amy Porterfield [00:33:39]:
You already know.
Lindsey Epperly [00:33:40]:
And I have a knowing I kind of have to spelunk into and sit with. And so I think that was a really beautiful testament of understanding, using that to understand yourself and to see where you could step into your power. And it sounds like it made you a better leader.
Amy Porterfield [00:33:55]:
Oh, yeah. My whole life changed after that moment. But I love the example you just gave because I, too, have male mentors. So any man that's listening, I love men, and I think that I work with a lot of men, and my business mentor is a father of five girls, and so he's very sensitive. He's perfect for me because I'm sensitive. But I got on during my book launch. You get a lot of no's during a book launch, even if you've been around for a long time. And it's a very big blow to the ego.
Amy Porterfield [00:34:27]:
I always tell my girlfriends that are writing books, if you want your ego hit every single day, write a book because you're going to be stronger after this. And so I was getting no's, like, from today's show and Good Morning America and all these things that I wanted, and I was really, really upset about it. And so I got on a coaching call with him, and I was so embarrassed, I started crying. And I said to him, I need you to teach me how to be more mentally strong. I need to have a stronger backbone. I need to be able to get through these moments and be more mentally tough. That's what I told him. I said, Teach me mental toughness.
Amy Porterfield [00:35:00]:
And this sweet man with five daughters said, your sensitivity is your superpower. You are sensitive and you are powerful all at the same time. He said, I'm not teaching you anything different. This is why you do what you do, how you do. It why people love you. This is your superpower. And I could cry right now thinking about it, because it was the first time that someone validated, it's okay that these things hurt you. It's okay that you're sensitive and behind the scenes, that you cry.
Amy Porterfield [00:35:28]:
I don't get on social media and cry my eyes out or anything, but behind closed doors, those things hit me really hard. And he said, but it makes you who you are. And I think I did a whole podcast about this because I think all of us have a weakness that is likely our superpower if we really look at it and see, how has this helped me navigate my life? And so I think we all have it.
Lindsey Epperly [00:35:49]:
I completely agree, and I think that is a really wonderful way of putting it, too, that it's almost like the gifts and the skills we have. Right. Like you mentioned earlier, your genius that we work in it. That's probably like a larger zone of genius. Yeah, exactly. But I think a lot of times we overlook those things because we're actually so good at them, because they're so natural to us. Right. And so we take it for granted and think, well, no, anyone can do that.
Lindsey Epperly [00:36:14]:
It's interesting that you mentioned writing, because I am in the process of writing a book, and I feel everything you just said. But writing has always been a gift that I often overlooked because I thought, well, so easy. It's so easy, and it's not everyone. So life just feels like this constant quest for figuring out what are those superpowers that I have actually been taking for granted?
Amy Porterfield [00:36:37]:
I love that it's such an important thing for all of us to consider. I hope everyone listening right now that you're going to take a minute and think, what do I see as a weakness that could actually be my superpower? And could I step into it more?
Lindsey Epperly [00:36:49]:
Yes. Any tips for those listeners as they're trying to figure that out? What has helped you the most in figuring that out? Yes.
Amy Porterfield [00:36:55]:
So, number one, you have to think about, where do you beat yourself up the most when you've got that negative self talk? What do you think is your problem? Because truly, I really believe that my problem was I do not have mental toughness. And so first you have to identify, where is it? And then ask yourself, okay, so if you don't have this thing that you think you should have, what do you have? What does it look like? And so, again, for me, it looked like I'm just very sensitive. I feel everything. And then the question to ask yourself is, okay, that thing, I think that is my weakness. Where has it served me? Where does it show up? How does it make me be more compassionate, more empathetic, a better person, more open minded? Whatever it is, where does it show up that it could actually be what I need or what somebody else needs from me? And that's how I identified it when he's like, Wait a second, this makes you the person you are. I saw it instantly. And so it really has helped me stop beating myself up so much because I am really good at that part.
Lindsey Epperly [00:37:59]:
Yeah, I completely agree with that. And I think that that is something I would imagine most people are able to relate to. Right. It's a lot that we've talked about when it comes to the impostor syndrome. If we let the gremlins get in our head and tell us where we are not capable and we believe those things. This has been such a great conversation. I am so thankful for all of your wisdom and your insight. I feel like everything you stand for whenever I go and listen to your podcast, which please, please, listeners, go check out Amy's podcast is phenomenal.
Lindsey Epperly [00:38:27]:
You're just talking about the unique challenges that I feel like today's modern professionals face, and they're really important things to open up about so that others can know that they're not alone.
Amy Porterfield [00:38:39]:
Yes, and that's my goal. I just want others to know you're not alone. You're not weak, different, broken. We all are in this together, especially entrepreneurs and business builders and people that are leading others. We need to stick together because we have unique challenges that not everyone does have. So I love your podcast for that because I think it does just that.
Lindsey Epperly [00:39:02]:
Thank you. Well, thanks for leaning into who made you the boss today because you have really taught us some wonderful lessons. So, for us all to stick together, what is the best way for listeners to keep in touch with all things Amy Porterfield and follow along with you?
Amy Porterfield [00:39:14]:
My podcast is called Online Marketing made easy. So I've got over 600 episodes that you can dig into, and I'm most active on Instagram, so I'm just at Amy Porterfield, so thanks for asking.
Lindsey Epperly [00:39:26]:
Lovely. Okay, Amy. Thank you. This is a wonderful oh, wait, I almost forgot to ask you my question. That I love asking people because we like to end on this note. Right. It's this idea that every day we can have something we're grateful for. And my family that has evolved to the dinner time conversation, which is often my three year old saying, what is your happy today? So, Amy Porterfield, what is your happy today?
Amy Porterfield [00:39:46]:
I love that so much. So, Amy happy today is that I had time to not only get a workout in, but take my dog for a walk before I started. And that's my most favorite thing to do when I can get outside before.
Lindsey Epperly [00:39:59]:
At the it and we even give a shout out to it's. A labradoodle. Scout.
Amy Porterfield [00:40:04]:
Yes, scout.
Lindsey Epperly [00:40:06]:
So Scout bringing it full circle. I love it. All right. Thanks, Amy. We appreciate your time today.
Amy Porterfield [00:40:12]:
Thanks, my friend. Take care. Yeah.