134: Two Weeks Notice: Finding the Courage to Quit Your Job with Amy Porterfield

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Welcome to the Course Creators MBA podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Destiny Kopp, and I help business owners increase the revenue with digital products and evergreen sales funnels. In this podcast, we go deep into product and marketing strategies for digital product creators. We cover everything from digital product creation, how to market and sell your digital products, and just as important, how to find your ideal customer. Let's jump right into our show.

Thirteen years ago, Amy found herself sitting in a boardroom with a group of the Internet's top marketers. They were all men and all making their own rules and harnessing the power of digital marketing to build businesses that allowed them the freedom to live as we all dream of. It was at this moment that she realized there was another way. A way out of stuffy boardrooms and cramped cubicles and into cozy slippers and a self led schedule. A way to sidestep being overlooked and overworked and step into being her own boss. That moment changed everything and catapulted Amy onto a path that's led her to a place where she's now the one teaching others how to build an online business that fuels their wildest dreams. So in this episode I want to introduce to you Amy Porterfield. We're going to hear about Amy's stories about how she went from sitting on the sidelines in a corporate boardroom to a multimillion dollar a year digital products business owner. And throughout this episode, we're also going to talk about Amy's new book, two Weeks Notice. So if you are listening and thinking about turning in your two weeks notice to pursue a life of entrepreneurship, then this episode is for you. Let's jump right into my conversation with Amy.

There it goes.

Amy, I am super excited to jump into this topic and chat with you and I want to hear all of the juicy stories and tips you have for us related to your journey from being that corporate girl to a multimillion dollar a year business owner. And I know that all of this started one day when you are sitting by the sidelines listening to a group of male online business owners in a meeting talk about the businesses that they own. Can you tell us a little bit about that story and how you felt listening to them and what you decided to do next?

Yes. So I always say that I was a corporate girl for life. I never really thought I would leave my 9 to 5 job. I definitely never dreamed of being an entrepreneur. That word wasn't even really part of my vocabulary. And I was good at having a boss. I liked a paycheck every Other week. I liked paid vacations. I like to get all the benefits. And working with a team and having a boss kind of guide me. I was comfortable in that situation for many, many years, up until my 30s, when I realized, wait a second. I have never been free. So to back up a little bit. I grew up with a really strict father. It was his way or the highway. He was essentially my first boss. And then I went into the work world after college, and I had lots of bosses, mostly men. And I really got used to being that corporate yes girl and doing whatever was needed. And then one day, like you said, I was sitting in a meeting and my last job was with Tony Robbins. And so I was the content director, got to travel the world with Tony, work on content that he does on stage. And he brought in a bunch of online business owners, and they were talking about their business, and all I heard was freedom. They were working when they wanted, where they wanted, how they wanted. They got to be as creative as they wanted. They were making tons of and a really big impact on their students and clients. And in that moment, I thought, I'm not really sure what these guys are doing because they were all men at the time, but I thought, I want that. I want a piece of that freedom. I have hit the glass ceiling. I know I'm only going to make so much money in this 9 to 5 job. Even though it was a great job, I actually really enjoyed my job. I knew I had hit a ceiling. And so from that point on, I put together a plan of leaving my 9 to 5 job and start starting my own business. And it took about a year. I put together a Runway, and in about a year from that meeting, I went on my own and started my business. Fourteen years later, it's been amazing, but, geez, there were a lot of missteps along the way.

And I definitely want to dig into those missteps and the things that you learn, because we want to learn from people who've gone before us for sure. And I can definitely relate to what you said there about. I. I wanted that piece of. I wanted the piece of that freedom. Right? Because that's what these online businesses, when you have your own own business, you do get that freedom that you don't get in the corporate world. And when I was reading your book two weeks notice, one thing that really caught my eye is that concept that you talked about in there about unboxing. Can you go into a little bit more detail about that for the audience? And what do you mean by unboxing? And what does the process of embossing look like?

So I know that we're talking to a lot of women, and this unboxing really hits home for many of them, including myself. So this word is a little bit made up, but it's around the concept of beginning to believe that you can lead yourself and that you do not need anybody else to lead you in order to make the kind of money you want to make and build the kind of life you want to build. Now, if you go back to. To my own story, My first boss was my dad. And then many bosses in the corporate world, all men. And so when I went out on my own, I looked around and thought, wait a second, no one's telling me what to do. I've never not had a boss. And I was scared. It felt very. Not only lonely, but can I do this is it, Can I even figure this out without being guided? And so I started to work on unbossing myself, which means I had to work on what I thought about myself. Looking at my capabilities and believing that what I want to do is possible. I had to re evaluate my values and what I stood for so that I could step into being the boss that I knew I could be. Like, I started to believe, okay, I can figure this out now real quick. Where it gets tricky is when you get out into the world and let's say you have clients. What I did in my first two years, here's one of my big mistakes. I let my clients be my bosses. So instead of having one big boss, Tony's a big guy. Instead of having one big boss, I had like eight mini bosses, which they were my clients. But I let them tell me what they needed. And I said, yes, you've got it. I would leave meetings with long list and I was literally their employee. But now I had eight bosses, all of my clients. So the process of unboxing takes time. It takes mistakes, you have to course correct. But it's constantly finding yourself saying, can I make the decision myself? Can I move forward on my own? Do I need to rely on someone else? No, let me figure this out. And that's the series of embossing. And most of us women, if we've worked in the corporate world for a long time or a 9 to 5 job, we have to emboss ourselves.

And I love that. And what you said there, I so can relate to about I let my clients be my boss. And that's something that I think a lot, a lot of us newer entrepreneurs get into that Trap. Right. It does take some time to kind of, kind of work through that. Now I'm going to switch gears a little bit more. And I know a lot of people, when they're thinking about moving from that safety of that corporate world to going out on their own, they have, you know, the money comes up and they have this money anxiety and they want to know, you know, what if I, you know, won't earn enough money to replace my income or I won't be able to support my family? Do you have any strategies for dealing with this money anxiety?

Oh, yes. So first of all, it's very normal. So when you think about going out on your own, when you think about doing your own thing, all of a sudden you think, well, what if this doesn't work and I can't help pay the bills and what would that mean for my family? So, so thinking about money is very smart. And being fearful of having anxiousness around it is very normal. I absolutely had that. So here's what I tell all my students. First of all, before you leave behind whatever it is you're doing to make money to move into what you want to be doing, we have to look at our finances and say, okay, how much money do I actually need to make every month in order to contribute to the household? And, and we have to get real and honest about that number because if we cover our eyes and cover our ears and say, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not going to look, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna be a part of the conversation. You will have no clue what you need, which really unlocks so much in terms of the decisions you make around that, in terms of what you do and how you do it. So we need to look at our finances, get really honest with how much money do I actually need to make? Now when you're doing that, you, you want to make sure you're giving yourself some grace each month to make the mistakes that we all make. So that means that if you're going to make money, you want to pay the bills and reinvest back into the business, but you're not taking vacations in that first year, you're not buying a car, remodeling the house. You're really sacrificing in order for your business to thrive. You save money now to make a lot of money later. So you got to look at it as the long term gain and it's going to take a little time. So great conversations with your partner, really honest looks at your finances. Get that Number and then reverse engineer. Okay, so how might I get to that number? You also need to remember nothing is guaranteed and that time is currency. Your joy and happiness, that is still currency. So it's not all about the money, but how you feel and how you're showing up in the world matters as well. So we've got to take it. We can't make it all about the money, but we need to get realistic about the money.

And I like what you said about planning, but also putting some money aside to also reinvest back in your business. I think that's something that we kind of overlook in the beginning. And they're like, oh, I need to do that too. So I think that's a really good tip there. So let's say I know people are listening. They're like, yes, Amy, I definitely want to, you know, make this. I want to make this, this change in my life. So. And I have this business idea. So once somebody has this idea that they've been probably quite frankly, thinking about for years, how do they go about turning that into an online business? Do they need a business plan or what are some of the steps that you would say that you would recommend that they need to do to get started?

I love this question, because when you have an idea and you think, okay, I would want to. I want to start a business, whether it be a side hustle or a full time thing, you look around and think, okay, where do I even start? And a lot of people will think they need to do a lot of planning, a lot of research. They need more time to get the knowledge. So they stall the whole thing. And what I talk about in my book Two Weeks Notice is that you absolutely do not need a full fledged business plan. I've never even seen one, so I wouldn't even know what they look like. But I asked my peers when I was writing the book, did you have a business plan before you started your online business? And they all kind of just laughed at me, like, no, that's, that's not how I got started. Most of us got started really scrappy. And so of course you want to get your idea and kind of formulate that idea. You want to start thinking about who do I want to serve and what are their challenges that I'm going to solve. So I want you to do some journaling about this, really kind of putting together a plan of this is what I want to offer, this is who I want to serve. And also I think it's good to do some research in the market and think it's. And find out who else is doing it and how are they doing it. And really making sure that people are paying for this service or this offer, this course, this membership, whatever it is you're creating that they'll want to buy. Now, I want to stop right there and say, when you start to do your research, you'll look around and think, oh, wow, she's doing what I want to be doing and she's doing it really well. Or. Or you'll even take it even further. I can't do it that well. There's no room for me. I might as well not do this because someone else is doing it better. And what I always say is, if someone else is doing it really well, that is great validation that there's a need for it in the marketplace. And there are 7 billion people in this world, and I promise you, you just need a sliver of their attention in order to find your own audience. So if someone's doing it and doing it well, hallelujah, look at that as great validation. And now you're going to do it your own way. And I think that part is so important because it's easy to start comparing ourselves to other people and then thinking we're not good enough. We don't measure up. So I need more education. I need more time. Nope, you don't need any of that. You already have what you need. We just need a very clear plan, very simple plan. And then from there, let's not get caught up on the things that keep most people from starting. Number one, I need a business plan. No, you don't. Number two, I need a fancy website with all the bells and whistles. No, you don't. I had the ugliest website on the web for years, and I made my first million with that ugly website. I had good content on it, but I. It wasn't really pretty. I took a snapshot in my lawn for my headshot and put it together very loosely. But at least I had a home base. So going down the rabbit hole of business plans, websites, business cards, all of that is not important. What is important is, is starting to create content. And in my book, two weeks notice, I have an entire chapter around content creation. How to come up with ideas so you know what to post every week, how to figure out if you want to start a podcast or a blog or a video show. Content is what starts to build your audience. It puts you on the map. It makes sure that people actually find you because they like you and they know you and they trust you. Content is everything when you're getting started. Not business plans, not business cards, not websites, creating content.

And I love what you said about you don't have to have a fancy website because I think a lot of us get into that trap, right? We spend, we think we need to spend thousands of dollars on this website and then quite frankly, we end up pivoting a year down the road and we have to redo it all over again. So. Exactly.

It's so true. And you're going to beat out your competition if you just focus on the right things instead of worrying about the things that absolutely don't matter. And I want everyone to hear me on this next one, this next thing I want to share here, and that is when you get started, whatever you get started with, you're going to be scrappy, you're going to put it out there, it may work or not, you have to tweak it. You got to spend some time on it to get it working. But whatever you start out with will be dramatically different years from now. Action creates clarity. You will not have the type of clarity you're seeking unless you put something out there and, and let people let you know how they want to navigate with it. If it's working for them, are they interested in it? Action creates clarity. And so when I first started out, I did social media for small businesses and I also did Facebook page audits for $300 where I would look at someone's Facebook page, tell them what's working and what's not, and put together a little report for them. That's how I made money in my early days. Fourteen years later, I do nothing like that. I don't teach social media like that. I definitely don't do audits and I don't work one on one with people. My business is dramatically different. But I'd never be sitting here today with the kind of wealth I have or the kind of freedom I have if I didn't get started with my starter idea. So I'm a big proponent of getting scrappy and just getting started.

And I agree with you. Action creates clarity. I can't even tell you how many times I have pivoted in my business over the past, you know, five or six years.

So absolutely, it's so normal.

So let's change gears just a little bit. And we know that once somebody is ready to make that shift from their corporate job into, you know, creating their own business, one of the first things that they want to focus or they need to focus on right because they got kids to feed, a family to support is making money. So what are some of the most popular or successful ways you're seeing people make money online right now?

Ooh, so many cool ways you can do this. So once you come up with your idea, I like to make sure that my students think of their idea before the actual platform that they're going to build it on. Meaning I want to give me an example of someone in your audience what their starter idea would be for their business.

So let's say that they are making. Who crafts these handmade crafts. You know, they want to sell them.

Either on their own side or Etsy.

Or, or something like that.

Okay, so you've got these handmade crafts and you're, you're making them yourself, you're selling them on Etsy. So you're thinking, okay, this is, this is what I want to do with my business. Well, the first thing is when you do that, when you sell them on Etsy, you're already making money. So that's like a beautiful thing. And, and I gotta tell you about one of my students. I'm gonna take a quick pause. One of my students, Lauren, she would, she was an accountant for 15 years. She worked in an accounting office for 15 years in a small town. And on the side, she made wreaths and sold them on Etsy and there were these beautiful wreaths. People really love them. And then she decided, okay, this is working really well. And the number one question I keep getting asked is, how are you selling on Etsy and how do you figure all of that out? So she literally, because she took action, started selling on Etsy, was really good at it, changed her whole business model and started teaching other women how to sell on these different sites with their hobbies and their crafts, and so you never know where it might take you. And she's made tons of money and absolutely left that job of 15 years that wouldn't give her a raise. So she's one of my favorite stories for that. But if you want to do, let's say if you're creating crafts, that's where you start and you put them on Etsy or any other site. And that's your first step. From there you can start thinking about, okay, would a digital course make sense either how to make what I'm making or is it something else I want to teach in a digital course related to this or is it a membership site? A membership site is fantastic for arts and crafts or is it, do I want to do one on one coaching or One on one consulting with people. That's a great way to start a business in the beginning. Or group coaching as well. Or. Or a service based business, which essentially is what I did, where I actually did the social media for small businesses. Service based businesses work really well because people love to pay for you to do something for them and they tend to pay a premium because they don't want to do it. So there's so many different ways. And in the book Two Weeks Notice, I actually write out each of these different business models, the pros and cons, what it looks like. So people really realize you have so many, so many options. But start with your idea first and then say, how would it fit into one of these business models?

And I have to ask Amy, which one is your favorite out of all of them? Because I feel like I've done them all.

My ultimate favorite is a digital course. And in the book I actually have a full chapter. I almost didn't do this, but I couldn't help myself. I want people to be able to make money quickly with my book. So there's an entire chapter in my book of how to create a workshop course course. And a workshop course is essentially a mini digital course that's easy to get up and running and make money with. And I love courses because once you create them, you can then sell them over and over and over again, whether live launching or automated launching. But you don't have to keep starting from scratch. And one of the things I learned early on in my entrepreneurial journey is the more often you start from scratch, the slower you will be on your success. But with the course, you can continue to make it better and tweak it, but it's still, it's been created. So I think the most lucrative business model is creating digital courses.

And I love the tip that you.

Gave them there of starting with that workshop course, because you could do that.

With almost any tool out there, like Zoom, like what we're using right now to record this podcast episode. Absolutely.

We actually even say that. We say you could start with Zoom to record your course.

So before we wrap it up here, if you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of a.

Business advice, what would it be and why?

Oh, so many things. I could list a hundred things of like, don't do this, do this, don't do this. And I guess I put it all in my book two weeks notice. But if I went back to that girl 14 years ago. You know, it's funny, I'm in my 40s now and I started in my early 30s and I look at her in videos me, but she feels like a foreign person to me, like I don't know her. I look at her and I think, ah, I wish you were kinder to yourself in the early years of entrepreneurship. And I know this isn't like a strategy tip, but it's so important because 80% of entrepreneurial success is what you think. It's your mindset. And I was so hard on myself in the early years. In fact, my very first launch, I made $267 when I thought I was going to make $100,000. It was my first year of business. I, I don't know why I thought I'd be so successful considering I really didn't have a big audience yet. But I made $267 on a digital course and I was devastated. I cried for like seven days. I thought I'd have to grovel back for my 9 to 5 job because in my mind what I told myself is, you're not good enough. You are not cut out for this. You are not entrepreneurial, entrepreneurial enough to make this work. And so I really beat myself up now. Thank God I had someone in my life, my husband, to, to say, oh, no, we're not going there. We're not going to get into a pity party, get back up, figure this out, go back to the drawing board. So he wouldn't even let me wallow in my misery as long as I wanted to. Thank God. So I tell this story for two reasons. Number one, know that your expectations are not always reality. And it might not look exactly how you want it to look, but if you just keep going and you don't beat yourself up at every turn, you, you can continue to see progress. Because just a few short years later, I had a million dollar digital course launch. A few short Years later, from 267 to, well, it was $950,000, so almost a million bucks. That is what I love about online marketing. You can always figure it out. The second thing is that I also surrounded myself with people beyond my husband that are doing big things. I was part of a mastermind. And right after I had that failed launch, I, I went to this mastermind and I was devastated. And one of my mentors there said, you cannot wallow in this and think that you are not enough because you took a huge leap and left your 9 to 5 job. You knew that you wanted to go after something bigger. So you can't let every single setback slow you down. So I had two people in my ear, which is important. So the last thing I'll say to that is find people that will support you. Not everybody deserves to hear your dream because they can't handle it. They'll tell you all the reasons why you shouldn't quit your job, all the reasons why starting a business in a recession is a terrible idea. For the record, I started in a recession. And they'll tell you all the reasons you shouldn't do it because they're afraid to do it themselves. Hold your dreams close. Only tell a few people that will really support you and be your biggest cheerleaders until you finally get it out into the world. And when people say rude things and they will remind yourself they don't pay the bills so they don't get an opinion.

And I can tell you, I for one am so glad that you didn't stop after that launch of $267 and you ke going because I have really enjoyed learning from you over these years. Now, Amy, can you tell the audience.

Where they can buy your two weeks notice book?

Yes. So you can buy two weeks notice wherever you buy books online, Target.com, barnes and Noble.com, amazon, of course, anywhere where you get your books. And I just have to say that I wrote this book because I know that there are women out there that are looking around, they're, they're in a 9 to 5 job and they think is this it? Is this all there is? Or there's other women who are not in a 9 to 5 job. However, they want to start something and they think, am I good enough? Can I do this? So in the pages of this book I'm going to give you the courage to go after what you absolutely want and then a roadmap strategies to actually get there step by step by step. So you can go to 2weeksnoticebook.com to get some bonuses when you pre order my book or when you order it when it's out 2weeksnoticebook.com so make sure to visit there after you've gotten the book so I can give you some cool bonuses to help you start your business.

And Amy, thank you so much for joining me.

I thoroughly enjoy chatting with you and good luck with your new book.

Thank you so very much. I really appreciate you having me.

I hope you enjoyed this episode with Amy. And if you are interested in turning in your two weeks notice, I want to invite you to check out out Amy's book two weeks notice. You can go to the website that I have included in the show notes and here you can find out where you can order her book and also grab some special bonuses for free. I hope you have a great rest of your day. Bye for now.