This episode of the Creating Superfans podcast welcomes a very special guest, Amy Porterfield.
Amy is an ex-corporate employee turned online marketing expert and CEO of her own multimillion-dollar business. She’s the creator of several best-selling marketing courses, the host of the top-rated Online Marketing Made Easy podcast, and the author of the brand new book, Two Weeks Notice: Find the Courage to Quit Your Job, Make More Money, Work Where You Want, and Change the World.
In today’s episode, Amy and I chatted all about Two Weeks Notice – which is officially available today, everywhere books are sold!
Whether you’re working a corporate job or running your own business, Amy’s tried and true strategies, inspiring stories, and mindset shifts will help you create not just the type of business that you want, but the lifestyle you want.
listen to the EPISODE
show notes
2:40 – Why did Amy decide to write Two Weeks Notice now?
4:26 – Why it was important for Amy to share her vulnerable stories with her readers.
6:40 – What are Amy’s non-negotiables? Why is it so important for entrepreneurs to set their non-negotiables?
9:20 – What is “tiger time?” Amy explains the concept that she developed years ago.
12:36 – The poignant distinction between courage and confidence, and why you don’t need confidence to start your business.
13:40 – What does Amy mean by your “capacity for zero?”
14:47 – What was it like for Amy when she made the leap and left her job with Tony Robbins?
16:20 – How did the intentionality of setting an exit date give Amy more courage?
18:30 – What does Amy mean by the “ten-percent edge”?
21:25 – Why are superfans so important to entrepreneurs?
22:56 – How Amy’s team incorporates “surprise and delight” into her customer journey.
25:15 – How Amy meets her audience where they’re at through strategic content creation.
26:37 – Amy tells us about a student of hers that launched her own business, but it’s not what you think it might be
29:40 – The “sweet spot test” and how it helps you identify your starter business.
30:56 – What are the ‘boss traps’ that Amy details in her book?
34:07 – Amy shares the most surprising part about writing a book.
transcription
Brittany Hodak:
Amy, thank you so much for being here today.
Amy Porterfield:
Well, thanks so much for having me. I’m thrilled to be here.
Brittany Hodak:
Well, I have been a follower and a fan of yours for a long time. Uh, I was a DCA student years ago. I’ve followed your work online for years and years, and I just gotta ask why now? Why write two weeks notice? Now, I’m sure people have been asking you for this book for years. What is it about the stars aligning for you to finally put all of your wisdom out into the world in this format? Mm.
Amy Porterfield:
I love this question because I feel as though for many, many years I thought about writing a book and writing about building businesses and being an entrepreneur, but there’s something just really special in my heart about people just getting started, just putting themselves out there. And once I reached a point in my business that I feel really solid about how I got here and how I can teach other people to do so. And once I really started to think about who do I think, uh, I really could help the most, it was those beginners, those that are still in the nine to five job or maybe just left their job and they’re just getting started. And then I thought about all the things that I struggled with when I was getting started as an entrepreneur. And it’s typically in those first two years where you think, uh, am I cut out to do this? Is this going to work? Do I have to go back to my job? So I wanted to catch them in that pivotal moment to say, keep moving forward. You’ve got this. Here’s how to build the strong foundation so you never ever have to question if you’re meant for this. So once I got clear on that, I was ready.
Brittany Hodak:
Well, and I would say as, as somebody who was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of the book, for anyone who’s even considering leaving their job to go all in on their side hustle or to find a side hustle to just help them get more alignment Yes. In their life and their work, this book is an absolute must read because it’s a roadmap. Like it’s not just somebody telling their story. It’s, this is like, do the work hands on. Here’s, here’s what you need to, to make the leap. So I commend you for writing this book. I also love how many like super personal stories and details you shared. Like you get real, like talking about crying under the desk and some of the uncomfortable moments and bad decisions like this is like pulling back the curtain.
Amy Porterfield:
So there were some stories I didn’t want to tell, and I, I had the editor that said, you’ve got to tell these stories. And I said, it makes me look weak or it makes me look crazy at times, or like, I, I don’t have it all together. And she’s like, yeah, that’s entrepreneurship. That’s why you’re writing this book. So there’s a few stories in here that I thought I’ve gotta just tell, like stories of how I almost lost my business and I was prac practically in a puddle on the floor thinking I’m gonna lose everything. I started, there’s stories of people not believing in me and what I did about that and, and, uh, lots of crashes and burns. But I think the best part is that I, I share, I got back up. And in entrepreneurship, there is no way you’re not gonna crash and burn.
There’s no way you’re not gonna have challenges every step of the way. I’m 14 years in now and just yesterday I had a moment with my husband tears streaming down my face. I was frustrated about something that had come up. I didn’t know what I was gonna do about it. I still have those moments. The beautiful thing now 14 years in, is I bounce back really quickly where in my first few years, it took a while for me to get my, my footing again. And I think that’s really normal. But telling the hard stories was a necessity so that those reading this book realize they are not alone.
Brittany Hodak:
Well, and I love that because I think so often people, especially when they’re venturing out on something new, there’s this tendency to compare like our insides with everybody else’s outsides. And so for you to put that inside on display and tell some of those stories in a way that’s not just, you know, not just to let somebody in, but also to say, don’t do what I did. Like I I love you have a whole section in the book where you talk about not relying on outside influence and not feeling like you need a partner and, and you said you felt like you needed a man to like come in and say, this is what you’re gonna do. This is the next step. And I think so many people feel that, especially if they’ve never gone out on their own before. So I just wanna say thank you for writing a book. I wish I had had this 13 years ago when I started my first business. And I know it’s how Fred, countless people take that next step.
Amy Porterfield:
<laugh>. Yeah, I love that. Now
Brittany Hodak:
There’s so many good things in this book. I wanna dive into a few of ’em. I love that you talk about non-negotiables. Can you talk a little bit about what that means and why it’s so important for anybody who’s gonna set out on their own?
Amy Porterfield:
Yeah. So I write about non-negotiables in the book because it’s a big mistake that I made and I didn’t have any. So a non-negotiable is basically boundaries. What are you willing to do or not willing to do as you begin your entrepreneurial journey? And anything beyond that, meaning like, I’m 14 years in and I still use non-negotiables, but it’s getting clear on the lifestyle that you want. So one of the mistakes I made is I got clear on the business I wanted to create. What would I do? How would I do it? I didn’t have all the answers, but I, I really focused on that in the beginning. And then I came up for air about two years in when I was fully burned out and thought this is never going to work. And realize I’ve created a business that, uh, is ruling my life.
And what I think is so important for any entrepreneur, but especially if you’re just starting out, you’re so lucky to learn this, figure out the kind of lifestyle you want first and then build a business around that. I did it the opposite way and I really had to do a lot of work to untangle that. So what I mean by that is do you want to be home at the dinner table with your family? Do you wanna be able to do pickup time with the kids at three o’clock? Do you want to take a quarterly vacation? Do you want a vacation home? What do you want? This is the time to br uh, dream big and figure out how you wanna spend your money, what you want your life to look like. And then once that’s clear, then you start to build that business. And I think it’s so important because then you’ll build non-negotiables. Like, I don’t work past 6:00 PM I don’t work on the weekends unless there’s a special occasion. I, um, I don’t take clients at a desperation for just money. I, I really make sure I work with the people I want to work with. These are things that if you decide early on you will create the business in life that you really have never even imagined you could have. Non-negotiables are important early on.
Brittany Hodak:
And I love this message. I feel like for so long there was this celebration of hustle culture. Oh, and the idea that if you wanted to be an entrepreneur, you had to quit your 40 hour a week job so that you could work a hundred hours a week. And I think that’s, you know, been one good thing to come out of the pandemic is this sort of shift of people reevaluating their priorities and saying, what do I really want with this one life that I have? And so I love that you talk about the non-negotiables and you give a really great framework for people to follow. So anybody out there saying, I don’t know what I want, I don’t know what I would do, you’ve got a really clear roadmap that they can use to sort of think about and figure those things out. Yes. Now one of the other concepts that you talk about, uh, in the book along those non-negotiables is this idea of tiger time. Can you tell us a little bit about what Tiger Time is and why that’s so critical?
Amy Porterfield:
Yeah. So years and years ago I came up with this concept because what was happening is I always felt like I was being pulled in a million directions. Today we call it context switching, which is detrimental to your productivity. But I would be working on a little thing here and then I would be pulled out and I’d be in that meeting and then I’d be pulled out and I’d get on that interview and I was scattered all day. And by six o’clock I would walk down the stairs and I would greet my husband. Like I had been run over by a bus. Like I was a shell of a person. And it was because I was doing too much in too little time. And so what I realized is if I would just focus my time and stop the content switching, I’d get so much more done.
I am known for someone being very prolific. They’ll say, how do you put so much content out? How do you have over 500 podcast episodes? How are you always creating content? I’m very intentional with my time via Tiger Time. So basically it’s very simple, but most people won’t do it. So I encourage you to do it throughout. How I talk about it in the book is that you look at a period of time, let’s say it’s an hour, three times a week where you’re focusing on a very specific project. For me it might be designing my book launch. I’m deep in it now, but a year ago I needed concentrated time for my book launch. So it’s Tiger time. This is the hour I’ve planned ahead. I know it’s coming up and nothing gets in the way. I’m like a tiger with her cubs. Nothing gets in the way. This is what I’m doing at that time. And when you become that intentional, you will be amazed how work you get done. And I think so much of our time is not planning, not intentional. So I mean, like the day before, I’m making sure it’s on the calendar and I’m committing to it, but Tiger time has changed literally how much I get done.
Brittany Hodak:
That’s amazing. And in the book, you, you actually share your schedule. I love that you say, okay, this is how long it takes me to write these blog posts. Yes. And then do these podcasts and here’s how I make sure that I’m using content wisely. So again, I think this is applicable not just for somebody starting their business, but anybody listening right now who either has your own business or are an employee, the book is fantastic just for the concepts that are gonna be, you know, game changing for you just in life. And Tiger Time is something that I know I was excited to apply, not just to my business but also to time with my kids. Cuz I was like, yeah, you know what, I’m too clucked to be like, oh yeah, I was gonna take the kids to the park, but this opportunity came up. And I’m like, Nope. Now Tiger Time. When I say it’s gonna happen, nothing’s gonna come in the way.
Amy Porterfield:
Yes. I love that so much. And I love that you said someone in a nine to five job that you’re not really sure if you’re gonna go out on your own. So many of the principles I use in my book you can use, and then those that are already out on their own doing their own thing, I have a whole chapter of how I create content, how I batch it, how I get it all dialed in. There’s so many strategies of just how I’ve made my business better that can apply to those that have already started their entrepreneurial journey.
Brittany Hodak:
Oh yeah. I mean I’m more than a decade into my career and I took so much away from the book. One of the things that I really loved that’s applicable to everyone is the distinction that you make between courage and confidence, which I thought was so poignant cuz I’ve never heard anyone talk about it this way. And it was just like a light bulb moment. So I, I’d love for you to share a little bit about that juxtaposition between courage and confidence and how we sometimes, you know, jumble ’em all up in our head.
Amy Porterfield:
Yes. So when I work with students, they’ll say, Amy, I wanna do this, but I don’t even know how to get started and I don’t have any confidence to do it. And I always tell them, you do not need confidence to get started. In fact, there’s no confidence to be found. So confidence is, I’ve done this thing and I’ve done it fairly well. So I see a little track record here, so I’m gonna do more of it. I’ve, I’ve got confidence because I know that this is working out. Courage is, I’ve never done this before. I don’t know if it’s gonna work out, but I’m willing to take a leap of faith cuz I want it bad enough. And so I believe that all of us, with any new project, any big endeavor, we have to start for confidence and not even, or start with courage and not even look for the confidence.
It’s not there yet, it will come, but you’ve gotta do the time and you gotta put in the actions. So courage is at leap of faith and we all have it in us and it also allows you to kind of let your shoulders down, take a breath. Oh, okay, this is new to me. I don’t know how it’s gonna go, but I’m willing to give it a shot. And I, it comes back to this concept of this capacity for the higher your capacity for zero, the easier it is to tap into courage. And what I mean by capacity for Zero is, are you willing to start with zero social media followings, zero money in the bank from your business, you’re creating zero email subscribers. Are you willing for people to look at you and think, Hmm, what is she doing? This is different. I’ve never seen, it’s this capacity for zero. I’m, I’m willing to start over to get to where I ultimately want to become. The higher your capacity for zero, the more courage you can sum up to get out there and get it done.
Brittany Hodak:
I love that. And, you know, capacity for Zero is, is such a beautiful way to frame this idea that there’s never gonna be a better moment than right now. Like this is it. And I love, in the very beginning in the book, you talk about like picking a date, right? Opposed to note, tell yourself this is when I’m gonna do it. And just sort of make that leap. What was making that leap like for you? Because you had, you were working for Tony Robbins when you decided to be an entrepreneur. Yes. You had like this big deal job and, and, and this big team around you. So I’d love for you to talk a little bit about what your courage looked like at the beginning of your journey.
Amy Porterfield:
You know, I always say that I had the golden handcuffs. I had a beautiful job. I got to travel the world with Tony Robbins and his team and work on the content that he does on stage. And I really had, and I got paid well and treated well, had a really great situation. However, in the book, I talk about this one moment early in the book where I was introduced to online business owners and they were talking about their business and what they did and how they did it. And all I heard was freedom. They were making money the way they wanted, how they wanted, where they wanted, they were working from home. This is way before remote working was even a thing. And they were calling the shots. And in that moment I thought, I’ve never been free, I have never called the shots in my life.
I’ve always had a boss. Uh, not to get too deep, but I grew up with a really strict father. And so he was my first boss. It was his way or the highway. Then I get into, uh, being a career girl, I’ve always had a boss. So the minute that I thought, wait a second, I want freedom, it was like a light bulb that went out in this very specific meeting I talk about in the book. I knew I had to go for this. So first I had to get clear on why I wanted it. In order to find the courage, you have to get clear on your why. So for me it was very simple. I didn’t want anyone to tell me what to do, when to do it or how to do it. I didn’t wanna be on someone else’s time or someone else’s dime.
I was done with that. And it was just something in me that was like, boom. I knew I wanted that freedom. So when I was clear about what I wanted, then the courage came because I thought, okay, I’m going after this. I feel it in my bones, I’ve gotta make this work. And another thing though that gave me courage that I I outlined very specifically in the book is I created a runway. I decided at the time I’m gonna leave, it was about six months till I decided, wait a second, I gotta figure this out or I’m never going to leave. So I chose an exit date, which was six months from that date. I put the exit date on a post-it note on a mirror. I looked at it every single day and I asked myself, what do I need to do today to move me closer to that date because I’m going to stick to it no matter what.
And then I started to listen to podcasts and buy books and digital courses all around what I needed to learn more of because I wanted to go out and do social media for small businesses. What I do now is very, very different, but that was my starter idea. And so I needed to educate myself more. So in those six months I started to wake up early in the mornings, stay up a little later at night and get the information and knowledge that I needed so that I could leave. So there’s a specific runway and I take people in the book through the steps of how to build your own runway. So the day you leave your nine to five job, you have a plan. And I think a plan also gives you that courage to take the leap.
Brittany Hodak:
It absolutely gives you the courage. And I love that. You know, you’re so self-deprecating in this book. You share so many anecdotes. One of, one of the chapters, I’m gonna probably mess the name up a little bit, but it’s called like the ugliest website in the world Yes. Or something. Yes. Yes. And, and you talk about how in hindsight you cringe when you look at this website that you were like so proud of at the time. And so a constant theme throughout the book is this idea of always iterating and always improving and always taking what you’ve learned and continuing to serve more people. So I’d love for you to talk about your 10% role mm-hmm <affirmative> and what it means for somebody who’s starting out, but also for somebody who’s, you know, continuing to improve and wants to get better all the time. Because I know a lot of people who listen to this show, they’re in real estate, they’re in mortgage, they’re wealth managers, they’re in the credit union business. And so they’re constantly iterating and working on their personal brands.
Amy Porterfield:
Yes. Okay. So this concept of 10, the 10% edge came up when I realized so many of my students will say, Amy, I’m not ready to create my own business. I think I need to get a certification. I think I need to go through coach training, or I need to go back to school, or whatever it might be. They automatically feel as though they don’t have enough experience. Now, this could be both with men and women. I see it primarily with women where we don’t think we’re good enough. And so what I’ve taught my students for years now is all you need is a 10% edge. A 10% edge means you are 10% ahead of those that you serve. So that you can show them the way you need to have gotten results in whatever you’re teaching, but you’re just 10% ahead. So you can say, come on guys, follow me this way.
This is where we’re going. There’s no need to be a hundred percent ahead or years and years ahead of them. In fact, most of us build businesses to serve those that are just a few years behind us essentially. So we can show ’em the way. And that’s 10%. So take the pressure off of yourself. I promise you everyone listening right now, you already have what you need now. Sure. If you want to, to add to that, if you wanna enrich yourself even more, that’s what I did in the runway. I, I wanted to get better at the social media. I wanted to learn the trends, I wanted to get better, but I had the knowledge and skillset already. And most of us do. So 10%, which means you should take a lot of pressure off yourself thinking you need more time because you do not
Brittany Hodak:
Well. And if you think about who you learn best from, it’s this idea of like, if you were gonna go out and be a better basketball player, you would not want LeBron James to be your coach right away because you are not ready for LeBron James. Like, you need somebody who’s 10% better than you because like otherwise it’s just gonna be a mismatch because you’re not gonna be ready, you’re not gonna be ready for that like graduate degree course when you haven’t like taken the junior high or high school version of the course.
Amy Porterfield:
It’s so true. I love that analogy. It’s really good.
Brittany Hodak:
Well thank you for sharing it in the book and writing about it so eloquently. So I talk about this idea of creating super fans, which are customers who create more customers. And this is something that you are such a natural at. I know I found you from friends who had gone through Digital Course Academy the first time I took Digital Course Academy. I wasn’t even like gonna launch a course. I was just like, so many people have said, you’ve gotta take Amy’s course, you’ve gotta learn about Amy. I was like, okay. And I did it and I was like, oh, I get it. I understand why they love her online marketing Made Easy is, you know, such a great, um, just such an amazing listen. So I, I would love for you to talk about the idea of creating customer advocates and the power of once you go out on your own, once you, you know, find your ideal customer avatar once you’re serving them, what you need to do to make sure that they’re creating more customers for you and helping grow your business organically as you’ve grown yours over the past 14 years.
Amy Porterfield:
Yeah, you know, I, I learned from an early age that it’s easier to, um, uh, keep a customer then acquire a customer, meaning like get them through a journey through your business. And I really do believe that we work really hard to get new people into our business, um, promoting this book right now. Lots of people who’ve never heard about me will buy this book. And that has been a challenge to like get in front of these new audiences and introduce myself and get them to trust me. However, I’ve got lots of people in my community who have already purchased my courses, already know what I’m about and they trust and love me. And so I want them to be my best recommenders. I want them to tell other people about me and and encourage people to get into my world. And we’ve done that.
And one of the ways we we’re very intentional about this is that we have a, a value in my company that we lead with compassion and you never know what somebody else is going through, especially because I work with a lot of beginners in their first few years of business. They’re vulnerable at that time. So we don’t take for granted anybody that has come into our world. Some of my students, I help people build an email list and they’ll say email, I only have a hundred people on my email list. And I remind them, these are a hundred heart beating, breathing human beings that have com uh, have challenges that they need you to solve. We need to treat everybody as though they matter. And so I never take advan or take for granted the numbers. Like if I just have a few people that want to do something with me, I celebrate that and I encourage my students to do so as well.
And we make an effort. We actually have a budget in our company for sending out flowers and balloons and congratulating people or, um, when people have lost somebody and their families sending flowers and let them know we’re thinking about them. We genuinely try to treat our customers as though they’re our friends and it served us well. So it’s, it’s really just a different way to think about it and not always just think, I need more people, I need more people. What about the people sitting there right now who have raised their hand said they wanna be part of your community, love up on them, and then here’s a strategy behind that. Make sure you have other things to offer them. So at one point in my company, you’d come in, you’d take one of my courses, I had nothing else for you. So they’d go elsewhere to continue to grow. And I thought, no, no, no, I, I want them to stay with me. So we create a course that then you go into a membership or we’ve got our podcast to keep people, uh, tuned into what’s going on. So we did have to kind of build out a place where people would continue the journey with us.
Brittany Hodak:
And you’ve done such a great job of that. And again, in the book, you offer a really great roadmap and you’re practicing what you preach. You’ve got the resource section in the book that people can go to for things beyond what’s already in the book. And what I think anybody who’s preneur minded, if preneur is a word <laugh>, something that I know I saw in the book that I know others will recognize as well is you do such a great job of meeting people where they’re at because as you said, you get a lot of beginners, but you also get a lot of people who are further along. And I think there’s a really great lesson for anybody who’s a solopreneur or, or you know, even running a small business to, to look at the way that you’ve crafted some of the tools and some of the offers so that there is always something next.
You’re not like inviting them to the party and being like, oh, party’s over. You know, you talk about your lead magnets, you talk about, you know, that that journey. And as somebody who talks a lot about customer journeys and sort of the before, during, and after stages, I think this book is just a really phenomenal case study of whether somebody has followed your work for a decade or they see your book in an airport in are picking it up, um, for the very first time. There’s a lot to meet them where they’re at and then help guide them the rest of the way.
Amy Porterfield:
Yes. I love that you see that and that’s definitely my goal.
Brittany Hodak:
Yeah. You and you just in fact launched with your podcast. I saw like a choose your own adventure where you can like take a little quiz and then you curate a to give everybody exactly what they need right then.
Amy Porterfield:
Yeah, I think, you know, I love that you touched on that. I, yes, that’s exactly what we did. With over 500 episodes on online marketing made Easy, people can get lost really quickly. So we have them take a a one minute quiz, tell us where they’re on, are in their entrepreneurial journey, and then I give them the 10 episodes that are going to help them right now. And I think we need to do more of that in the book. I talk a lot about content creation because I think it’s the, the heartbeat of your business, but making it easier for people to get into your world. Sometimes they might come in and they’re like, I love what you’re doing, but I don’t know what’s for me or where to go. But if you kind of spoonfeed, oh here’s your first step, here’s what you need to do, they get in faster and they stay there. So I do think being intentional in those ways makes a big difference.
Brittany Hodak:
Yeah. And so again, and for anybody who’s saying what can I do to help people have an easier on-ramp into what I’m doing, so many great lessons throughout this book and you’ve helped countless students. I know it must have been hard to narrow down the stories that you shared in the book because while you share so many success stories, I’m sure there were hundreds of others that you wanted to include. Yeah, but couldn’t, I would love for you to share a couple of those stories right now. Maybe one of a student who didn’t think that they were ready to start their own business but found that courage and now has a completely different life because of it.
Amy Porterfield:
You know, so many of my students I could, I could think of for that one that really comes to mind is um, I have the student who, she was an accountant for 15 years in a small town and um, her name is Lauren and she uh, was a single mom. And so after many, many years of being an accountant in this small town, she went to her boss and said, I’m going to need a raise. Like, you know, this is important to me. I haven’t gotten a raise for a long, long time. I’m gonna need a raise. And she was looked at with blank stares like, this isn’t happening. So she didn’t initially think, I’ve gotta quit, I’m outta here. I mean she’s a single mom, she’s gotta pay the bills. So she thought, I’m gonna start a side hustle, which I love that so many of my students use my book to start a side hustle first and then go on to something bigger.
So she’s decided to start a side hustle and she was really good at making wreaths like Christmas wreaths, but reesey you could put out all year, you put ’em on your door. She’s really good at that. I have zero craftiness in my body so I’m always impressed when people can do beautiful things like that. And so she started to sell them on Etsy and people were buying them. They love these wreaths and she started to make a good amount of money every single month charging for the, or selling these wreaths. Now it was just enough to kind of get her by a little extra since she didn’t get her raise. But then this is what happened, and this is the important lesson. Many women came to her and said, you are doing so well on Etsy. You’re one of the top sellers. People love you, you do great customer support.
How are making that happen? How do you sell on at Etsy with that kind of success? And a light bulb went off and she thought I could teach other people how I’ve had success in this area. So she started to teach other people how to sell on Etsy and all the other sites you could sell on. And she made a hundred thousand dollars with this program she created and that was when she thought, oh this is a different kind of life. Now I can do something different. So she ended up quitting her job and she says, look, there are days that are hard. Being an entrepreneur is hard. There are days that like I think am I really cut out to do this? But then when she said, when I realized my life was passing me by when I would live for the weekends when I would miss all the school functions and now I don’t have to miss any of that, this is all worth it. So essentially it comes down to the different kind of life you want. And all of us are welcome to choose a different kind of life. It’s never too late to create the life that you deserve.
Brittany Hodak:
I love that story and there are so many great lessons in that and some of the others that you share in the book of your thing might not be what you think it is, right? Right. You’ve got somebody who was accountant and then then who was like are business, but now she’s teaching other people the sell. So I love the exercises in the book where you guide people through finding their own uniqueness and what it is that they may be 10% or more in front of somebody else to have that edge. So ugh, love that story.
Amy Porterfield:
Me too, me too. I’m so proud of my students and just watching them change their lives, like making that big pivot. You’re right. She never thought I’m going to teach other women how to make money on Etsy. That was never ever her plan. That’s the beauty of a starter idea. So in the book I walk you through something called the sweet spot, and I won’t give it away here, but it’s how to come up with an idea for your beginner business, your side hustle or just to get going. That starter idea is important because action creates clarity. I would never have an 85 million business today if I didn’t start with a starter idea, which is I’ll do social media for small businesses. Today, you couldn’t pay me enough money to do that. I have no desire whatsoever. And I didn’t enjoy it when I was doing it. I didn’t know that till I started to do it and thought this isn’t the kind of business I want. So I had to make some pivots, but I had to start somewhere. Thank God I did. So I wanna encourage everyone listening that it’s not your end all be all. What you start with doesn’t need to be what you end up with or do forever and ever. It’s just to get you going.
Brittany Hodak:
So good. And you know on that, on that note, I want you to talk a little bit about the idea of boss traps because I think that’s something that’s so easy for people to fall into, especially everybody who is like nodding along with what you just said, saying yes, that’s me. So let’s talk a little bit about what boss traps are and how we make sure we don’t fall victim to them.
Amy Porterfield:
Yeah. So a boss trap is you doing own thing, starting to think like an entrepreneur. Maybe you have a side hustle, you’re starting to get some customers or maybe you’re going for the whole, maybe you’re in it and you have your online business but you operate like you have a boss. So one of the boss traps I talk about in the book is becoming a yes woman or a yes man to your clients. And I was so guilty of this, this is one reason I didn’t like to do social media for small businesses. I didn’t know how to have boundaries. So I would get on a call with them, I would coach them through what we’re going to do. I would end the call with 20 action items on my side and literally zero on theirs. But that wasn’t really the agreement. And so I would just let them boss me around, tell me what to do.
I’d say yes cuz I was desperate. I didn’t wanna lose the money. I was scared about not having enough clients, all the insecurities that pop up when you’re an entrepreneur. And so I created a situation where I was an employee to my clients. One of the biggest boss traps you have to be very careful of boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. Another boss trap is this like superwoman syndrome and it happens with the gentleman as well sometimes where you think you should do it all yourself. I don’t need any help. Or you tell yourself I can’t afford any help, so it’s just going to be me. The challenge is the first year, yeah, it is just you, you are a solopreneur, but when you start making a little money, one of the best decisions is to reinvest in let’s say a virtual assistant, a va. Mine was Rebecca, five hours a week, $20 an hour. And I was freaked out. I wouldn’t know what to give her or how to afford her, but I knew I’d never grow this business just alone. There’s no badge of honor doing it on your own. The strategy here is finding people that will support you in your business. And so you can start out small, but don’t drag this on so long that you’re so proud. You’re doing it all yourself. You’re also burning yourself out. So that’s another boss trap that comes up a lot.
Brittany Hodak:
You’re burning yourself out and you’re not being very efficient because you’re using your, you know, $500 an hour time to do a task that you could pay somebody $25 an hour to do.
Amy Porterfield:
Amen. Yes. So true.
Brittany Hodak:
And I love the calculator. You actually have a calculator in the book for people to figure out what you should be charging for your time per hour to help you decide what to delegate, what to eliminate, and what perhaps you can automate.
Amy Porterfield:
Yes, we do talk a lot about how to make money and how to put together your offers and how to break down, you know, how to get someone hired because I think the money situation isn’t discussed a lot and I love making a lot of money. I also love making an impact. And those two go hand in hand. So there’s some great conversations about what to charge and what to offer and what to sell, uh, in the book as well.
Brittany Hodak:
Well, thank you so much for coming to talk about the book. Two weeks notice is so good. It’s already one of my favorite books from the past several years. Everyone should go pick up a copy because I’m just, uh, coming off my own book launch too. I would be not to ask you, I wanna know, what was the most surprising thing about writing a book for you? You, you waited several years into your career to do it. What were you like? Oh my gosh, that was not at all what I was expecting in the process of writing and launching this book. You
Amy Porterfield:
Know, I don’t think I knew how long the cycle was. Like from the day you sit down to write that first page to that book actually comes out, holy cow. I’m thinking it must have been a year and a half for me, if not a little bit more. And so now we’re down to, you know, this book, getting Out into the World. I didn’t think I braced myself for such a long journey. And so that’s one thing I wish I knew. Like, okay, get ready, buckle in, you’re gonna be on a wild ride. And it has been a wild ride from the opportunities I’ve gotten from this book to the fact that I had pushed myself to request to be on people’s podcast and, and get into Success Magazine. Like I had to make all of that happen. And I think it’s such a great lesson for all of us entrepreneurs. Even if you’ve been in the business for a long time, you’re still gonna have to put yourself out there. I’ve gotten uncomfortable every single day throughout this book launch. When you get uncomfortable, you grow. And so that’s been a beautiful lesson as well, a great reminder for me. But thanks for asking, you know, firsthand, like this is not an easy road to be an author, that’s for sure.
Brittany Hodak:
Well, and you just used the word author. I was gonna ask, are you, do you feel it yet? Like I know we’re a couple weeks ahead of book lunch. Yeah. Like, are you like Yeah, I’m an author and an entrepreneur. Like, do you feel that yet or no? Is it not gonna feel real until you see it in stores? Yeah,
Amy Porterfield:
I gotta see it. I I can’t wait to walk by a Barnes and Noble and look and see that book there. That gives me chills. Like that’s when I think it’s gonna feel real. But until it’s really out into the world, no. And so, um, it’s just kind of a wild thing to say.
Brittany Hodak:
Well, congratulations my friend on all of the success. You have earned it. The book is beautiful. It’s going to help countless people. Thank you so much for coming here to talk about it. You know, I’m a super fan and you’re gonna create many more super fans with this brilliant book.
Amy Porterfield:
Thank you my friend. I so appreciate you having me on.
