Podcasting Made Simple
Podcasting Made Simple is the premier podcast about podcasting! We’re here to help podcast guests and podcast hosts reach more listeners and grow their income so they can change more lives! Join Alex Sanfilippo and other podcasting industry experts as they share how you can level up on either side of the mic! (Show notes and resources: https://PodMatch.com/episodes)
Podcasting Made Simple
From No Online Presence to $100M In Sales | Amy Porterfield
As podcast guests and hosts, we each have a vision and passion to make a positive impact on the world. However, we often get discouraged because it seems we're not getting closer to achieving our goal. In this episode, Alex Sanfilippo interviews Amy Porterfield about how she went from having no online presence to having one of the most well-known and impactful online brands in the creator space. Get ready to learn the secrets to Amy's success so you can apply them to your own journey!
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Qualifications
01:11 Amy's Entrepreneurial Journey
08:08 Focusing on Your Expertise
21:45 The Role of Compassion
32:32 Final Thoughts
Takeaways
Courage is essential when starting out as an entrepreneur, as it allows you to take risks and overcome setbacks.
Having a strong why is crucial for staying motivated and focused on your goals.
Focusing on a specific area of expertise and doing fewer things allows you to become known for something and excel in that area.
Perfectionism can hinder progress and growth, and it's important to embrace B plus work and continuous improvement.
Compassion plays a vital role in business and life, as it fosters connection, understanding, and success.
MORE FROM THIS EPISODE: HTTPS://PODMATCH.COM/EP/301
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You're listening to Podcasting Made Simple. Hey everyone, Alex Sanfilippo here. I'm joined by Amy Porterfield today. Amy, thank you so much for being on Podcasting Made Simple. So excited to have you here today. Alex, I'm so delighted to be here. Thanks for having me. For sure. Listen, we're talking to podcast guests and podcast hosts who have a desire to grow their brand. And I have to say, you might be the most qualified person on earth to talk about this. Maybe. Wow. No pressure or anything, but I'm excited about the topic. I love it. I really love this topic. And it's one that like I like to dive into whenever we get the chance because again, as podcast guests and hosts, we're looking to level up and yes, maybe there's other people that are qualified as well, Amy, but like I feel like you've just done the best job. Like you've done such a good job. I went to your website, amyportefield .com and I was just like blown away by not only your success, but also your ability to like create a well -rounded, complete brand. It's one of the best I've ever seen online. So again, congrats to you and your team for all that success. Well, thank you so much. It's definitely years in the making. And if you saw it in the first few years, you probably wouldn't be saying any of that. So I'm really proud of what we've been able to do. I have a team of 23 full -time employees. And so definitely it's not just me. So I feel really lucky about that. I love that. That's so cool to hear that you have like the team behind it. You give some credit there as well. I actually want to talk about your entrepreneurial journey because I believe that this would be really helpful. I'll kind of dig out some, some key points that I kind of hear along the way and stuff like that. But first off, you left your corporate job working for Tony Robbins, which is like, it's a big girl job. Like it wasn't like just a part -time thing. It was a big deal. And that was in 2009. And then you started building your company. I got to first ask, I'd love to hear the journey, but did you start off? building what you've created now, like as I called it, like a complete brand, like super well done, or did you kind of start with a different direction? If you don't mind walking us through some of those early years. Those early years were messy. So I wanted to always, so what I do is I help people create digital courses. And I always had that desire and wanting to teach through courses, but had no idea how to do it. So the day I left my Tony Robbins job and ventured out into the world, I was doing social media for small businesses. And I wasn't the greatest service provider. It just wasn't my forte, but it's all I knew. I knew social media and a heart to serve. So that's what I did. And I did that for a good two years. I also charged $300 to do a Facebook page audit. This is back in the day where no one knew how to use Facebook. It was the Wild West. Everyone and their mother was a social media consultant. So it was a little bit easier to get in the game. And so I would do these audits of Facebook pages and then they would give me $300 for my notes. So essentially that's how I started. And then I created my first digital course teaching people how to use social media. and I made a whopping $267 and then cried for a full week. And I told myself, I'm not meant to be an entrepreneur. This will never work. What was I thinking? I'm gonna have to grovel back from my job. So it was a little bit of a rough go in the beginning. Well, you know, quick side note, the average time it takes a podcast host to begin to gain some meaningful traction is a hundred episodes or two years. So kind of interesting. It took you a couple of years to figure out as well. Good to know, yes. And I'm going to circle back to some of that journey, but first I kind of want to hear the rest of it. Like you found the niche that you wanted to get into, right? And like eventually broke out of social media a little bit and then kind of got into like actually having some successful launches. Can you share the rest of the journey? Cause there's a lot of years in the gap between then and where you are now. Definitely. So the first two years I really stumbled to find my way. And then I created a course that was in my will house where that first course I created, it was really about how to teach authors how to launch a book with social media. I had never launched a book in my life. So I chose a topic I wasn't an expert in. And now I teach my students to find your 10 % edge. You've got to be 10 % ahead of those you serve before you actually create your course and put it out into the world. So I learned that lesson the hard way and then realized, I can teach Facebook marketing to people that have info products. That would be my expertise. I did something similar when I was at Robin. So I thought I could do this. So once I kind of fell into my expertise, that's when it started working. I had a $30 ,000 course launch and I thought that was the most money in the whole world. I couldn't believe it. And I remember telling my husband, my gosh, this course made $30 ,000 in about a week. And he looked at me like I had two heads, like what? That doesn't even equate, doesn't make sense. It was probably like half his salary as a firefighter at the time. So it was really wild. And so once I had a taste of, okay, this worked, Here's what I did that I think allowed me to have the success that I have today. Instead of creating something new after the success, instead of going for the next shiny thing or the next opportunity or saying yes to everything, I thought I'm gonna launch this again. I'm just gonna make it better. I'm gonna make my marketing better, my course better, but in a few months, I'm launching this again. And so I did and we saw growth right away. And then I launched it again, growth right away. So I found that if I could stay in my lane and get really good at the same thing, I could be known for something. So what happened was that course was really successful. I ended up eventually retiring it and creating a few different courses. But I started to get the question, Amy, how are you having the success with courses? Teach us. How are you creating the courses? How do you do your webinars? How do you launch? That's what we want to know. So because I slowed down a little bit and I listened to what my audience wanted, I realized, wait a second, that is my next big thing. And if I do it right, I could be known for it. So I created a program teaching people how to create and launch courses. And I have had that same course since 2019. I launched it three times the first year, two times the next year, two times the next year. Now I only launch it once a year, but it is a huge revenue generator for us. I use affiliates to launch it and allows me to get out in a bigger way. And so this is what's interesting. So we've generated over $100 million in the last 15 years. The bulk of that came over, thank you, the last probably five or six years is when we really started to see the major traction. But I only have two digital courses, one membership, and I do a few affiliate launches a year. That's all. I don't get paid to speak on stage because I don't enjoy it. or rarely get paid to speak on stage, I should say, I don't yet have a mastermind. I don't sell a physical product. I don't do any one -on -one coaching or consulting. And I rarely chase shiny objects anymore like I did in the beginning. So my motto is less is more. I want a very simple business, but I want to be really good at what I do. And that after 15 years, that has absolutely happened. Unbelievable. Congratulations. Thank you. Congrats. So amazing. We're going to circle back to a lot of these things, but something I want to just highlight once again, 100 million in revenue. And I know it's nearly or just over at this time recording 100 ,000 students. And I know your podcast gets millions of downloads per month. Like unbelievable. Like you have just absolutely crushed it. And some of the things you shared are really, there's a lot of practical advice here that I'm really, really excited to dive into because I believe it's going to value to not just me, but also everyone who's also checking this out. So the first thing I want to talk about is like after that first launch, I think was it $300 you said you made in your very first launch? 267. Okay, cool. You know the number, you should have it written down somewhere, right? You could call it a tattoo. Is it on your arm? Right? I should! That would be a great tattoo. No, I don't give tattoo advice. Let's not do that. You know? Or at least not for me. Don't be like, that Alex guy told me to get this. You can add a K to it later when you get like a really big launch or something like that. You know? I digress. Anyway, after that launch that just didn't do what you expected to do, it made you cry even, right? Something I've heard you talk about is that you attribute confidence and courage as pillars of your success. But you clearly had some insecurities that developed at that moment that you probably also had leading up to that. Can you talk a little bit about the role, like how you actually came to that conclusion, how you overcame these insecurities? Because the reason this matters is podcast guests and hosts, especially when we get into it, we're putting our words on the line. We're putting our message on the line. We're being transparent. Like we're setting ourselves up for our insecurities to be heard by the world. So how do you develop this confidence and this courage along the way? I love that we're speaking to guests and to hosts. I think it's very very rare. I don't know any other podcast that does this. So it's really cool to be able to speak to both because when I'm thinking about guests who putting themselves out there, hoping to get on somebody else's show or hosts that are looking for great guests, if you're new at this, if you're in your beginning journey of a podcast host, you've got to look for courage over confidence. And the reason I say this is I believe courage is a leap of faith, whether you have faith in God, the universe, whatever it might be. It's, I don't know if this is going to work. I'm not sure if I'm gonna fall flat on my face, but I'm gonna have the courage to take the leap of faith, because I want something big. I want something different. I wanna push myself. I want to grow. So the courage is I have no proof. that I can do this personally, but I'm gonna go for it. And I believe every important journey in your personal life and your business life starts with courage because we don't have a proven track record. And that's exactly how I did it. I had a leap of faith with my first launch of $267, but I didn't have proof after that. It was a failure. So I had to take that courage, sum up as much as I could get, summon that courage and go out again and do my second launch. But by my second launch, I made $15 ,000 and then $30 ,000. That turned into confidence. I had a track record. I knew how to make $15 ,000 on the internet. That was a big deal for me. And so then it started slowly that courage morphed into confidence. And I feel really confident now in what I do. But if I didn't start with courage, I would never be here with you today. There's a way that I like to say it. Courage means being afraid, then doing what you have to do anyway. Yes, exactly. And I think we're all afraid. You know, just recently, I'm 15 years in, and I recently did something I've never done before. I co -hosted a podcast with Jasmine Star. So it was her podcast, but I got all the guests and we were co -hosts. And we sat down in real time and these guests would come to Nashville, which is where I live. They came to our studio and we recorded. The minute we sat down, and remember, I'm 15 years in, I have a big podcast, I've been doing this forever. Jasmine opens up her mouth and you know Jasmine, she's good. She's a good interviewer. She paces with people fast. She's fast on her feet. She thinks the great questions. That's not my forte. I'm not as good live in the moment as I am, let's say teaching in a digital course. And the minute she opened her mouth, I thought, no. I'm gonna look like an idiot. I am not this good. She's gonna be disappointed in me. I can't bring it like she's bringing it. And I got in my head and I thought, okay, you have no proof of doing this before, but you've got to muster up all the courage because we are live and you don't have a choice. So it still comes up for me, but it just, I'm able to move past it pretty quickly. That's good. Jasmine is, she's a handful. I regularly quote this scripture and I'm going to take it way out of context, but even a fool is considered wise if they keep their mouth shut. Which basically means if you just share a little bit of wisdom, like you can throw it in there, then you look like a genius, right? So when it comes to Jasmine, I just be quiet and wait for my turn. Amen, friend. I'm like, my gosh, I cannot hang with you. But it was a really fun time and I learned a lot also. Like I've started to change my podcast based on what I learned from that experience. So it was great. But wow, it was easy to get in my head. And I think that for all of us, we have those experiences. Yeah, that's so good. For a second time, I want to keep on moving along to another question here that kind of goes back to your journey. And I kind of touched on this a little bit, but as a podcast guest or host, we're sharing what we're passionate about. We're putting ourselves on the line on either side of the mic, Craig. We're putting ourselves out there. And when traction starts, and I'm sure that you saw this, especially in that second launch, is as soon as traction starts, So do mean comments. So does communication from haters or negative feedback. So basically conflict, right, is coming into the game. How did you handle that in the early years? Has it changed at all? I just want to get your wisdom list because I feel that so many of us were like, I did it. I put myself out there. I shared the best way I know. I show up to serve. And then somebody's like, your voice sucks, right? And you're like, what? Like, it hurts. It still hurts. I'm yours in as a software founder and as a podcaster. It hurts. But like, any wisdom on this topic for us, Amy. Yes, absolutely. From my own experience in the first few years, I took it to heart. I believed everything I read and I read everything. And I think those were some mistakes that if I could go back to my early years, I would absolutely change it. Number one, looking at these negative comments, one thing that I do now that helps me immensely is I believe in this one statement, like to my core, and that is anybody that's doing anything big or more than me or putting themselves into the world and they've had success. Anyone like that will never leave a negative comment for me. The people I aspire to be like and inspired by, they would never take the time to leave a comment and tell me they don't like the way I look or sound. I've always had a weight issue all my life. Right now, I feel like I'm on a great health journey and I've really put the effort, but I have been a hundred pounds over the weight I am now. So it showed, I can't hide it. I was on camera. And I was terrified of the comments about my weight. But then when somebody told me, no one that you aspire to would ever leave those comments. I remember what my mom said when I was little, consider the source. And the source of those mean comments are people I never wanna sell to, nor do I ever want to be like. So I'm going to wish them well and send them off. And I do that, I still get mean comments, but now it's almost laughable. Like I wouldn't wanna be in your world anyway. So you go on and do your thing. But I didn't know that back then. No one ever shared that insight with me that I believed to my core. So I took it really, really hard and it held me down and kept me small. I remember I wouldn't share some certain things. I hardly got on video in the early years and I think it slowed down my growth. So if anyone's listening now as a guest or a host and you feel like it's your weight, your voice, anything about how you look, you say, that's a big thing with my students. Amy, you never say, but I do. It doesn't matter. It makes you more relatable anyway, if you say it. Like you're just like everyone else. It's cool. So anything like that, consider the source. I have a very successful business. I've never left one negative comment online in my whole life, nor would I ever would. So that was big for me. That's good. I love that perspective. Something that I do internally with the team is we actually have this written down. It's really important for all us to remember. We remember that hurting people hurt people. And our job is to love people who are hurting. not like that. Not that we respond to everything, but when it makes sense and we realize, man, this person really is hurting, like, let's just, we're going to respond and we're just going to let it be, but we're going to respond in a way that is loving versus combative, right? In fighting, let's just let them have it and maybe it'll make them smile a little bit. Yes, I love that. We have a value list in our company. One of our values is everybody is doing the very best they can in the moment. we will just lead with compassion. So yes, we do the same thing. If it is a really mean comment that we could add a little love to, we absolutely will. That's good. I think it also, it shows your heart, which I like. Now what about some of those mean comments? Sometimes there's some valid comments that are maybe just not delivered super nice. And again, as a podcast guest and host, maybe it's about your show, maybe it's about your performance as a host, maybe it's your product or service or delivery as a guest even. How do you kind of... filter through what you should ignore and what you shouldn't? That's such a great question. So I think anybody listening that does want to give constructive feedback, if you leave that feedback in a really respectful way, I really do believe it's going to be heard. Literally today, it's so funny you bring this up, Alex, I got a message from one of my students and she said, hey Amy, I'm in this special group of yours that we're doing a promo right now. Can I give you some feedback? And I have to tell you, there was a pit in my stomach. I wanted to hear her feedback, I need to hear it, but I was very nervous what she was going to say. And she's a really great student of mine. And so of course I said yes. And she came back with feedback that really, truly, I do think we have an issue and we do need to fix what she suggested. And it was delivered in such a beautiful way. It was definitely, hey, you're doing this wrong and you should fix it. But I needed to stop being so sensitive. And where's the lesson here? And is there some truth? To answer your question, I asked myself the question, Is there some truth here? Is there something I can learn? And there absolutely was. So there is value in that feedback and you make a great point. It's not always going to be delivered beautifully, but if we can read between the lines, we can learn a lot. Yeah. And it does, it does take courage to even accept that. Cause same feeling when someone's like, Hey, I got some feedback for you. Even if it's like a close friend, I'm like, okay, go, you know, like, go ahead. They're going to hit me, you know, like, okay, go, go quickly, please. But it is so important because like you said, if you just allow that to happen, which that takes courage, that takes some confidence for sure to allow that to happen. But if you can know who you are, where you're going, but also hear what someone else is saying, that's how you can build something that truly serves people at an even higher level. Whether it's a podcast, whether it's a course or a business, whatever it might be, it's going to do really well. What I've learned that's helped along the way, Amy, and I want to get your perspective in this as well, is having like a really strong why, like a conviction for what it is that I do. That's helped with my courage, that's helped with my confidence. Can you talk about the importance of having a strong why with you and your team that in the role it's played in your business? absolutely. I think this is everything. I talk about this a lot to my students that I wrote a book called Two Weeks Notice and it's all about how to quit your job and start an online business. And one of the big chapters in that book is that you have to get clear on why you want it because the days that your worries knock you down, your why will pick you back up. And I share with my students that my why for leaving my job at Tony Robbins. That was a good job. Paid well, he was good to me. I was in a really top position that I got to work with Tony personally. It was awesome. But my why for leaving was I didn't want a boss. I didn't want to be told what to do, when to do it, or how to do it. I wanted to call the shots and I wanted an opportunity to make my own way. That was the reason I left and started this business. So that was the why that got me over a$267 failed launch. It was a why that got me at a $40 ,000 debt in the beginning when I did a lot of things wrong because I knew I wanted to be my own boss and call my shots. However, if you fast forward 15 years now, my why has dramatically changed in the sense that I wake up every morning. I know there's a woman in a cubicle that's not getting paid enough, not appreciated, hates her job. And I know that if she created her own digital course and put it out into the world, she could start a business and build something amazing. She is the reason I get out of bed. But that didn't start there. It really started with my own needs and wants. And that's OK, too. A why is personal. But you have to have it strong enough that when your worries knock you down, your why picks you back up. So good. So well said. All right. I want to transition here to something that you mentioned earlier and kind of hinted at. And everyone buckle up. I'm going to give away Amy's secret sauce. And I'm not picking on Amy by saying what I'm about to say, but the secret to her success is that she doesn't do very many things. And again, I'm not trying to be rude or mean. Amy even kind of mentioned earlier about, I have three quotes I wrote down that I heard you say on different podcasts. So I'm gonna read those real quick. I do the same thing over and over again by make it better each time. My team and I choose to do a few things and go really deep. This is how I do it. I grow my email list. I create one digital product, rinse, repeat. So the secret sauce that you have is not... committing to doing too much. And the reason I think that's so powerful, I want you to talk about it, is because I meet so many new entrepreneurs that they already do more than you do. They do more things than Amy, who's been doing this since 2009, right? And I just think that that's such a trap to always want to do more. And when I look at your website, I can only find seven things that... or like in all that you do, including like your funnels and everything like that. Can you talk about the importance of this? Am I wrong at all in what I'm saying here? If I am, please correct me. No, you're spot on. It literally is the secret to my success. That's not much of a secret anymore, but it's something that I really believe in. The thing is we get into entrepreneurship. We start our podcasts, we start growing our audiences, we build our courses or memberships or services, whatever it might be, because we usually We want more freedom. We want lifestyle freedom, financial freedom, creativity freedom. But what happens is I think we get, there's something called desperate energy and I've been very guilty of it. Like I need to make sure I make this kind of money or I need to have this always coming in or promoting all the time in order to make sure I feel validated in doing my own thing. And so the offers, the courses, the opportunities pile up and then you feel really burnt out. And I've absolutely been there in 2012. So I was two, three years into my business. I did have a lot more of the, what I call spinning plates in the business. And I looked around and thought, this is not what I signed up for. I don't love this. I'm way overwhelmed. My team was miserable. And I realized I had to change something. So everything I've learned, I've learned from the mistakes that I've made. And I learned the hard way, unfortunately, but I've been in both camps. And this one is freedom filled. And also really allows me to be very good at what I do. Cause here's the thing Alex and the people that are listening, those of you who want to be guests to get your message out there and those of you who want to host, while you build a business, you have to be known for something. I really do believe every entrepreneur I admire that's like top, top, top, they are known for something. And if you keep doing all these crazy different wacky things in your business just to make a buck or to validate that you are worth it, you will not be known for something. So let's say you're in a room of other business owners or people want to build businesses and someone says, I want to create a digital course. Who can teach me? 15 years in, I can promise you my name is going to be on that list. If they mentioned five people, I am absolutely on that list. That was not by mistake. I've stayed in my lane for so long. Now I want to say one thing. I know that's not super sexy. I know that entrepreneurs love variety. We love to create things, but not always finish things. It's just like in our blood, I've got this idea, that idea, this idea. So here's my advice. Not every idea you have needs to make you money. You can have passions and hobbies and interests and go do that, but find one thing that can make you money. One area of expertise and your name will come at the top of the list when somebody needs you. That is how I built my business. You talked about avoiding. desperate energy and I just never heard it said like that but so many people need to hear that including myself at times. Same. That leads me right into like a follow up question here and you kind of alluded to this earlier when you mentioned like you don't really go on stages because you don't enjoy it but you get opportunities and asked every week I'm sure to go on probably some pretty exclusive stages. How do you choose what to ignore and combat this I guess shiny object syndrome? You know if the object is a stage for you to be on like how do you go through getting past these things saying I don't need to do them? Such a great question. So it's because of my goals. So every single October and November, I'm setting the goals for the new year. And even if you're listening in the middle of the year, you can still do something like this. I am very clear on my quarterly goals and my yearly goals. Beyond just revenue and profit, which is something I watch very closely, it's either creating something new within my program or building my email list to a certain level. or supporting our students to get more success stories, whatever it is, I'm very clear on what those goals are. And I commit to them before the end of the year. And I communicate them with my whole team. Everyone knows where we're going at all times. I use the EOS system, Entrepreneurial Operating System, EOS. The book Rocket Fuel is part of that. We use that system in the business. And so we have a very clear way of tracking quarterly and yearly goals. So when an opportunity comes my way, I check my goals. Does this contribute or align or add to the success of these goals? And if it doesn't resonate with any of it, if it's definitely not included, I have to ask myself, am I willing to let go of something to say yes to this? Because when you say yes to something, you are saying no to something else, or you're at least watering down your ability to make that other thing work as well. And so I can make the decision, you know, this wasn't part of my plan, but this is important to me. I'm going to do it. but I'm very aware of what's not going to get done. So my goals guide everything that I do in my business. It's been said that every yes has to be protected by a thousand no's. Yes, it's so true. And I have found that to be so true in my business. And just to kind of follow up this, now you have 23 full -time employees at time of recording. And so you have some built -in accountability as to like, I said we're doing this. yeah. But let's go back to solo, Amy. Or just pretend that you're one of these solo podcast hosts or guests that maybe has a small team. What role does accountability play to make sure that you don't change your mind on what you said you were going to do? So true. I literally did a training today and I talked about this, about two things. Number one, we all have to become the person that is true to our word. And that is not easy. I am definitely not perfect at this. But if you're looking for more confidence, if you're listening right now and you really like to feel confident in growing your business or you're getting your message out there, you first have to be the person that when you say you're going to do something, you absolutely do it. This is a muscle we have to build. So believing that's important is half the battle. But the other thing is that when I say I'm going to do something and I don't stick with that, that is definitely pulls me back like 10 steps. And if I am very clear that I want to get forward, I want to do this, I know that this is hindering me from playing a bigger game. So I really do think it's a mindset shift more than anything else. That's so good. All right. Let's now pretend like you set your core early goal. It's the wrong goal. Like, let's just say you slipped into doing the wrong thing. And maybe at this point in the game, that doesn't happen as much. But early on, I'm sure that you started down a path that you realized was wrong. How do you course correct? When do you course correct? What's your suggestion for someone a bit earlier in their journey on that? Ooh, such a great question. So. Well, if you're really early on in your journey of making this work and you have a small team, it might just be you or maybe a virtual assistant for five hours a week, which was my first virtual assistant, five hours a week. And you set these goals and you realize, wait a second, this is off. First, you have to be really honest with yourself. Is it off because it doesn't feel good because you're not hitting the goal and it feels like maybe you want to change direction because it will make you feel more excited or accomplished if you do something different. That's not when you change a goal. Instead, you gotta get strategic and say, how are we going to do this different? How can I make this work, but I have to put my blood, sweat, and tears in this to make it work? But the second thing is, if really it's off, like I thought I wanted a digital course, but in reality, my audience really needs a membership, and here's why, and you can totally justify it, then what you do is every quarter, we look at our goals and we think, Does anything need to be adjusted? Is this still true? And as long as we're not leading from fear or that dopamine hit of feeling good because we're hitting goals, but if we really need to change something because it will mean that this is better for the business in our community, then we give ourselves permission at the end of each quarter and we reevaluate the revenue and the profit. We communicate it to whoever needs to know and we move on. So a quarterly check can really help, even if you're a one woman or one man show. Brilliant. Okay. So this next question here, this is one I've been very curious about, because you choose to do less instead of more and to go deep instead of wide. So with that approach to business, do you ever find that you struggle with perfectionism because you have such a narrow focus that every detail could just be perfect because you feel you maybe have the time or the space to do it. So perfectionism versus continuous improvement, is that an element in your business at all? It absolutely is, but I will say as your team grows, it's easier not to be a perfectionist because there's too many people that will call you out on it. And so the benefit of eventually growing a team is to move away from perfectionism. I just don't have that luxury and I use quotes with that to play in that game. However, if I go back to when I was first starting out, I wanted everything perfect and I wanted it buttoned up and ready to go before anyone on the internet saw it because I was so scared of what people would think about me. And I have a good friend Brooke Castillo and she taught me this concept of B plus work. Now I'm the girl in high school that got all A's. That was a very big deal to me. Can you relate Alex? I feel like you'd be a really good student. No? I was awful. I'm good at the things I like, but if I don't like it, I'm really bad. Okay, I love that. I was a CED student, but thank you for thinking I was an A student. I totally thought you were the A student in the front of the room, which is a compliment, I promise. Thank you. But yeah, so I was that student. And so when Brooke said B plus, I was like, no way, I'm not doing B plus work. But what she explained is, the A plus work, when you get into A, A minus A plus, that's all about your ego. The B plus is good enough. It's value packed. You've done the work to get out the message and you are all about getting results for your students. It's just not always gonna look great or sound great. but the meat of it is there. And when she explained that you will be able to move forward faster and hit your goals in a bigger way, if you just allow for B plus work, it changed everything for me. Cause at the end of the day, I want my students getting results and I want to grow this business. And so that I literally operate from B plus work. I reviewed a webinar last night. I knew it wasn't perfect, but I asked, does the customer care? Do they care that that arrow is in the wrong place? Do they care that there might be a typo here or there? They do not care. They want me to tell them how to get to the results they want. So B plus work changed everything for me and I stepped out of perfectionism. Listen, B plus work is great and more than enough in podcasting as well. Amen. I'm waiting for people saying I gotta get rid of every pause, every this. But the reality is it takes the humanity out of it. People are actually happier with B plus than A plus is what I've learned along the way in podcasting. On either side of the mic, don't sound too robotic because humans aren't perfect. Don't try to make yourself be that or make your podcast that. It's really hard as a guest if you sound so perfect to relate to the people on the other end that do not feel so perfect. So you're absolutely right. Yeah. I had a guest on one time on my show and I wanted to hear his entrepreneurial journey. So I asked about failures and setbacks because that's a human thing, right? Yeah. Apparently he never had a failure or setback the entire way. What? And so the conversation was extremely short because I'm like, you're lying, but I'm not going to say that here. But I was like, okay, so what led you to being perfect, right? Like I didn't even know how to say it. But the reality is, once again, it's not relatable. People want to hear a journey along the way. And I believe that people know when they work with a human company helps as well. As a matter of fact, I'll use Michael Hyde as an example, who I know is your coach, mentor. He's been a mentor to me, like most of my adult life, I feel like. One time his team sent out an email with a spelling error and a wrong date. And they sent out an apology. But I was like, I liked it. Like it was great to see that this is like... You guys are the top of the top and you all make mistakes that made me feel good. Like I have hope to build a business one day. And that's before I was an entrepreneur. So I think that's really valuable for everyone to hear. Absolutely. So before we get into the final thought here, because I want to hear from you before we close out, I do want to mention to everybody, Amy are not saying to never do anything new ever again. OK, good point. Yeah, you just need to be intentional with it. And something I want to share real quick is you have a podcast episode. It's one of your most popular. and encourage everyone to go check this out. It's called, her podcast is online marketing made easy with Amy Porterfield. It's episode 531. I'm reading that off. I don't just have that memorized, but it's a four step checklist that she uses before she had something new to her business. If you're saying, I think it's time to add something new, go listen to that. We're not going to dive into it today, but go check that out. Cause I believe it will really, really add value to you. I got a lot out of it. So Amy, thank you for having that resource. I don't know if you have a quick thought on that before we move into the final thought though. Alex, you're such a great. interviewer, now I see why you do what you do. Just even being able to know that that exists. You are so right. I love new things, but not until you've absolutely exhausted what you're doing and you'll learn that in the episode. So thank you for that. It's great. Okay. Final thought before we let you go here. I've heard you talk about the way that you want to be remembered is as compassionate. Yes. Compassionate. And I want to talk to you about why that's so important as your final thought. What role has compassion paid in who you serve and the way that you show up in life and in business? You know, I've always really struggled with my self -esteem and I am harder on myself than anyone in the whole world can be on me. And so when I'm greeted with compassion, my heart opens up. I feel like I could take on the world. And let me tell you a quick story. Speaking of Michael Hyatt, he is my business coach and has been for years. And I went to him last year when I was launching a book and launching a book was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. People say no to you all the time when you want them to promote it. It's embarrassing. It's awkward. It was hard for me. And I said, Michael. I need you to teach me mental toughness. I need to be tougher. I'm so sensitive. Things hurt me quickly. I don't want to take things personal. Please teach me mental toughness." And he said, no. He said, Amy, your superpower is that you are empathetic and sensitive and also powerful. You can be both. And if I strip away that sensitivity and if I strip away you not being empathetic, you will lose who you are and why you have been able to be successful. And so to have a coach see something in me and say, that is your superpower, to me that's compassion, but I also see what it did for me. And so I want to do it for others. So it is the most important thing in our business is to be compassionate for others. Cause I know I need it from others as well. Amy, that's a beautiful way to end today. I thank you so, so much for your wisdom and time today. Thank you for being a guest. Thank you, my friend is such a delight. For more episodes, please visit podmatch.com forward slash episodes. Thank you so much for listening.
