How To Start A Business In 2024 - Amy Porterfield

Anytime is the best time. I think people need to start before they're ready. And if you feel that knowing, do not wait because you think, well, I better get through 2023 first. We don't know what's going to happen. That's the worst mistake. The best question to ask is how long am I willing to wait until I actually create the life I genuinely want? Right now is the best time because you want it right now.

I'm super excited to talk to your. Your work speaks for itself. You are the hard fought battle entrepreneur, building your own thing from zero to something magnificent already. And I have a heart for early stage startups. I built my own business from scratch to what it is today. And all the twists and turns and all kinds of stuff. And then in the world of the great resignation, one of our mutual friends, Dean, mentioned that we're about to go into a winter season as we step into 2023. And, and then I get, then I get a quick, a quick peek at the new work and I'm just like, oh my gosh, yeah, we got to get this going. Talk to me a little about why now is probably the great, the best time in the world to turn your two weeks notice and basically start your dream.

You know, I have been studying what's happening in the world, especially in the work world, since I wrote the book about quitting. And one thing I've noticed is after we came out of COVID people had a recalibration and I've seen it in so many of us. We where what we valued before has dramatically changed. Where now our personal lives, our family, our health, our hobbies, our lifestyles are just as important as making that paycheck. And so we're not going to put everything into building somebody else's empire by ignoring everything about ourselves and what we want. And we just saw that like rage in us throughout Covid. So now here we are on the other end of it and our priorities have changed and so many people are looking around thinking this can't be all there is, coming to this 9 to 5 job, working for someone else, being on someone else's time and someone else's dime. There has got to be something better for us. And I think people have gotten the courage to question it now. Now as we go into what you call like a winter and it's going to be 2023 is going to be full of un. You know, there's things.

Uncertainty for sure.

Uncertainty, yes. We're just not sure what's going to happen. But at the same time I quit my job right at the tail end of a recession. I really do believe that if you want it and you are serious about getting it going at any time is the best time. I think people need to start before they're ready. And if you feel that knowing, do not wait. Because you think, well, I better get through 2023 first. We don't know what's going to happen. That's the worst mistake. The best question to ask is, how long am I willing to wait? And until I actually create the life I genuinely want, right now is the best time because you want it right now.

Yeah. Well, and the crazy part is, is if you wait another week, it's going to take you another week. You wait another month, another month, another year, another year, right. All over again. It starts a crazy cycle. You know, I'm, as someone who I was kind of forced into my first business, right. I was, I was left out all options, right? So I, I, I knew the construction trade. I grabbed a hammer and I just started and, and you know, lo and behold, through lots of learning and errors and mistakes along the way and whatnot, it fortunately turned into something wonderful. And then I was able to obviously move on from there. But one of the things I remember in that season, specifically of trying to fight on the insecurity side, was am I really an entrepreneur? In fact, I don't even know that the word entrepreneur was really at the top of my head. It was all the insecurities that were tied to who am I to start a business? Why would I do that? Are you crazy? Are you kidding me? Like, I want to touch on that because so many of our listeners and viewers are in that space where they're kind of like they have a dream. Maybe they, maybe they've got a little side hustle going, they got something cooking, but it's not really a business yet.

Yes. Okay. I love that you said that. When I used to work for Tony Robbins, which was my last 9 to 5 job, never ever did I say I want to be an entrepreneur. Was not part of my vocabulary. It felt like a foreign land. Like, what are you talking about? And never even did I think I had the capacity or of being my own boss. So, but I also, like you said, I had this knowing inside of me. I wanted more freedom than I had. And as a woman, I knew I was hitting that glass ceiling and I didn't know how to get beyond it other than creating my own wealth. And so sometimes we have to ask ourselves, okay, maybe I don't know if I'm cut out to do this and you might even be saying, who am I to be doing this? But then I look around and, and I look at a lot of people doing what we're doing. And if you're really honest, but in your private thoughts, I bet you could look around and think, I could do it better than that person. I know I can.

Like, yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure there's some moments like that, right?

Like we don't say it out loud, but we do think it. And if they can do it, why can't I? You have to start asking yourself, why wouldn't it be me if all these other people can do it and figure it out? And so you also have to get very clear on what you do not want and what you do want, because that is going to get you past the who am I to be doing this? It doesn't matter who you are. You want something bad enough or you don't want something, so you want to leave it behind. So we're going to have to move forward. So there's such a mindset shift that you have to go through from nine to fiver to entrepreneur, but it doesn't happen overnight and you don't have to be ready before you start.

Yeah, well, the crazy part is, is you don't really realize you're becoming an entrepreneur while you're becoming an entrepreneur.

Oh, so true.

You know what I'm saying? You're just, all right, I'm making a call or I'm sending an email or I'm building a website. In fact, I want to touch on that for a second is one of the things I loved about what you put in the book. And I know it's, I know it's available for pre order right now, more anything else. But people are absolutely love it because you're so transparent and vulnerable and honest in there. And you're talking about the, the Beastly. Basically an ugly website. Like, do the ugly website. Like get it out there, do something.

Yes, exactly. That's the thing. I always say I made my first million with the ugliest website on the planet. And one, I'm not really good at design and esthetics anyway. But two, I knew where I needed to focus and it wasn't business cards, it wasn't going to all the events, it wasn't a beautiful website. I needed to figure out what I was going to offer and I needed to learn how to put that offer out there. And that was the most important thing And I talk about that in the book, like how you make an offer, what it looks like, how to get started. Because once you make a dollar online, you can make a thousand dollars. Once you make a thousand, you can make a hundred thousand. But you have to start somewhere. I was just talking to a friend, and his first. He has a multimillion dollar business. His first sell online was $7. He made $7. And so he said, and he took a picture. I thought that was really cool.

The first dollar bill on the wall.

Totally. Yeah. So anyone who hasn't made money online yet, the first time you make money online, you take a picture next to your computer and you save that forever because it does give you a sense of like, wait, I can maybe figure this out. And so that's the thing. We worry about all this stuff that we do not need to worry about, and we take way too much time on the things that do not matter. So get clear on what it really takes to get that foundation of an online business up and running, which is what I put in through all of these pages of two weeks notice. So you have a strong foundation to move toward what you really want.

Yeah. So here's another interesting aspect on. I'm jumping around a little bit from what I originally wanted to chat about, just because you're a phenomenal human being and we're gonna, we're gonna cover a lot of ground, this concept of I don't know about you. So I'm now in the, quote, personal development slash thought leadership space. Like I do events, I host events for other people, like Ed and some others we talked about before. And however, my biggest Achilles heel right now and just being transparent and honest with you right now is selling stuff. Are selling products and services online because I want to give it all away. I'm like, everybody needs this. Everybody just have it, right? I don't need the money. You here, right. This kind of thing. And my. A good friend of ours, Randy, comes up to me, said, dude, you can't, you can't do that. I'm like, why? He's like, do you not have to pay for all the plugins and all the website and the hosting? Yeah. Do you not have to pay the. The 3% processing fees for all the transaction? Yeah. Do you not have to pay your graphic designers to design the pictures? Yeah. He helped me realize very quickly that the model in which I was operating on, which was a completely philanthropic model, was going to end up bankrupting what I had spent 25 years creating. So talk to me for Just a minute. On how I get more secure and then offering that to the public at a rate that is reasonable and. But effective enough to build a business. But also avoid the fact of, like, not feeling like I'm overcharging, being icky.

So the thing I learned early on, and again, it was from my friend Stu McLaren, so I've got to get him credit. But what he taught me early on is the more money I make, the bigger impact I can make in the world. If I don't have the money there, I'm very limited in terms of the impact I can make. So when he said that, I thought, holy cow, I have to charge what I'm worth. Because when I'm making that money, I can give to charity. I. I can sponsor people through scholarships, through my programs, and I can create the life that I want. And if I'm living the life that I want, I am a better version of myself, and I am adding even more impact into the world. So I really do think it's important. The more money, the more impact when you use your money wisely, of course, and with full integrity. But another thing is, there's something about self worth here, and I talk to more women about this than men. But since you brought it up, if you're not charging for it and you're saying, I just want to give it all away for free because you do have a big heart and you do want to help people, but what does that say about how you value what you are bringing to the table? You deserve to get paid for that. You wouldn't work for free for somebody else, so why should you work for free for yourself? And I think there's, like, you have to ask yourself, how much do I value what I'm doing? And then you charge for it because you're going to show up as a better version of yourself when you're getting paid what you're worth.

I never thought about it that way. Kudos to you and Stu. I think you just changed me. Awesome.

I love it.

Yeah. That's amazing.

Charge that. Charge for those products.

That's right. Well, you know, the reality is, like, I'm in a good season of life, right? So, you know, there's. There's already things I get to benefit from. And I've always felt like, all right, well, the Stephen that I used to be had $0. The Stephen that I used to be was dyslexic and adhd. And, you know, all those things that I still kind of monkey with today, you know, So I have all of this going on over here. And I was like, well, you know, one of our friends, Rory was talking about, you know, he and I have this quote that we kind of banter back and forth about serving the person you used to be kind of thing. Right. So the person that I used to be was an early stage entrepreneur. Well, not really sure I was an entrepreneur, but then one of the things that I recently understood was I was actually 10 different people in 10 different segments of my life. So, yes, there was the me that couldn't afford anything. And that's where we have YouTube and we have the free ebooks and the things that like, hey, look, if this is all you can do right now, fantastic. Right? Just. Just start. Right? And then there's the mini courses and all kinds of stuff that kind of come in after that. Now, I know one of the things that you're incredibly gifted at, not just as an entrepreneur and a marketer, but specifically the course space. How did you find your niche in the core space?

I love this question because it kind of takes me way back. So early on, when I first started out, I taught Facebook at a time when everyone and their brother was a social media manager. So very saturated. So. So please don't think that just because other people are doing it, you can't. I promise you can. So I made my space teaching Facebook, and then from there I started creating digital courses, teaching other people how to do Facebook marketing and all of that. And what happened more than anything is people would say, how are you making so much money with your courses? How are you selling it? How are you doing those webinars? Like, how are you doing this? And that's what you gotta pay attention to when you first start out, see what people gravitate toward. Why are they coming to you? What are they asking?

And.

And I thought, everyone's asking me about these courses. And so that's when I started to think, well, I love to create courses, and I've gotten results. I teach my students don't teach anything where you haven't gotten results for yourself or for somebody else. It seems very simple, but you'd be.

Surprised how many people operating Lamborghinis.

Yes, exactly. And so. And I have such compassion for people that teach things they shouldn't be. Because my very first course, I taught people how to launch a book using social media. My book is coming out 14 years later. I had never launched a book before that, and so I had no business teaching it. But the compassion comes from. I had a desperation. I got to Figure something out. I got to make money. I can't go back to my 9 to 5 job. So there's a little bit of desperation that comes in the very beginning. Give yourself grace. It's very normal. But I wish I knew. Don't teach anything. You haven't gotten results. But I had gotten some great results with courses. I had gotten asked about it so much I thought, I'm going all in. I'm going to create a course on how to create courses. And now at the time, it was being done by some really big names and some of my friends and I had to have the courage to do it my way. That's another thing. You look around and it feels like everyone's doing what you want to be doing. It doesn't matter. No one's ever going to do it the way you do it.

Yeah, well, it's crazy. So I was one of your customers. I actually bought your courses on how to create courses.

Yeah.

And quite frankly, I actually really enjoyed your approach of how you communicated the content. Not everybody else is bad or wrong. It was a social ability. There was a relatability that seemed very down to earth and humble and like she's legitimately here to help me and teach me. Right. And as a client, a former client, I guess, of that program, I. That's the feedback I would give you. And I think that that's a key point and because one of the other things that you're really gifted at is creating a community of, of like minded individuals who not only engage really well with you through social media and, and whatnot, but also with each other when, when you do different programs, when they get to meet and greet each other. So talk to me a little about that because I think that's a core attribute of building a sustainable business as well, is creating that community that everybody feels like they're part of the same community. I guess.

Yes. I think I feel like that's something that's so incredibly important no matter what you're selling online, to create these communities around like minded people doing something that they could really use support on. So again, I teach people how to create digital courses. So I have this community of my students who help each other and get in the trenches and they have an opportunity to not go at it alone. Entrepreneurship can be incredibly isolating if you're not careful. And so not only do I actually have the container, I create the community that they can come into, but then I create systems and processes for how to get them together. I actually have to lead the way. And so I know it can't just be me. I am not their guru. I want them to actually know that they have it inside them. But, but they can collaborate with other people. So I put together an entire system. Here's how to find your accountability partner. Here's how you meet every week. Here's how to get into community and literally map it out for them. If they want to, great. They don't have to. But this is why people are together for years after my course is done because they found their people and that's priceless. I think you would totally agree. We've been together at events where if you're, there's certain people you gravitate toward that you call up when things are tough that you can ask questions to. Imagine if you had nobody to do that with and things weren't working, you might give up.

Oh yeah. Easy, easy.

So important.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. No, I love that. You know, here's the crazy thing and one thing is I love about the, the book, the new book, which everybody's gonna grab the pre order all day long and we'll make sure we link it in the description, all that good stuff is this concept of well understanding that you have, have to exit well. I, I, I kind of put in my notes, exit well before you sell meaning, exit yes. What you're doing well, don't, you know, don't, don't just throw the big middle finger and head out the door kind of thing and then, you know, start to launch your business. One of the things that I love about the book is you kind of outline that, talk to me a little about how to exit well and then kind of position yourself to really kind of be your own boss.

Okay? So for anyone listening that wants to quit a 9 to 5 job or maybe just leave behind what's no longer serving them. Like when I left my 9 to 5 job, I created a business I hated and I had to leave that behind after that. So wherever you are that you're like, what I'm doing right now is not what I want to be doing, you have to think about how can I exit in a way that I'm proud of that will propel me into my next chapter of life. So one of the things, if you're still in a 9 to 5 job, that I think everyone needs to do, we already talked about it. Get clear on what you want and what you don't want. Do you want to pick your kids up from school at 3 o'? Clock? Do you want to not work Weekends, do you want to make a whole bunch of money? Like, what is it that you want that you do not have? Right now, we're going to get really clear on the days that your worries wipe you out. The why will pick you back up. So we got to get clear on that why. But after that, we got to get more tactical. So first of all, you got to choose an exit date. What is the date you're going to leave behind? The 9 to 5 job, or what's. Whatever's no longer serving you? For me, what I did is it was June 19th. I put it on a post it note, and I put it on my mirror where I get ready every morning. But I didn't just look at it every day. I looked at it and I asked the question, what's one thing I need to do today to move me closer to that date?

Ooh, that's a good question.

Self confidence comes from step, staying true to your own word that you made to yourself. So I knew I'm leaving on that date. Come hell or high water, it is happening. And so from there, you ask yourself, and what I mean by that is maybe you make a phone call, you ask for a favor, you ask for a meeting, you go to an event, you listen to a podcast, you buy the book, whatever it might be. Every single day, you're moving closer to that date. Now the next thing is you have to be careful who you tell, because not everybody deserves to hear about your dreams. The person that runs their mouth and tells everybody.

Right.

You tell everyone your plans, and I guarantee what's going to happen. 90% of the people will tell you why that will never work. And it's a direct reflection of their own fears. They're too scared to leave their 9 to 5 job. So of course they're going to tell you why you shouldn't do it. Do not tell everybody your dreams. I told precisely three people. My husband, Hobie, my mom, who thinks I could land on the moon and do anything, and my best friend. They're the only people that knew in the very beginning, six months before I ever left my job, that I wanted to leave and I wanted to have my own business. Later on, I told more people. But not in the beginning.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's such an important step. I am curious. What evidence did you already see in front of you that those three people were safe for you to share your dream with?

Great question.

What evidence was there? Because I. I did the opposite. Like, I shared it with three people that I shouldn't have shared it with. And then I shared it with one that's like, I will help you do it, like I will mentor you to do it kind of thing. So I did the opposite. So I'm curious what evidence that you see. In other words, how do people kind of recognize this person's. For me, yes.

Okay. So one of the things you want to look at is if this person you're thinking about telling are they. Do they tend to be a naysayer where most things that you bring up or they talk about the. They're kind of a Debbie Downer. They're. They're going to look at the negative before the positive. Some people just have that personality. So if they are a naysayer for other things, they're going to be a naysayer for this also. They don't have to be someone that's quit their job or done big things. Like my best friend who I told. She's always had a 9 to 5 job at the time. However, she also believes in me. Like other things that I've done. She's built me up times when I've really struggled. She was the person that was there when look at their track record with you. Have they always supported you? They might give you tough love, but have they always, at the end of the day supported you? Those are the people that get to know. But other than that. And sometimes it's not your spouse. This is a little tricky, but it is true. And this is especially for the ladies. But some men might be able to relate as well. A lot of the times my students are women and they'll tell me my husband does not support me being an entrepreneur. He is very nervous. He wants me to stay in my. A lot of. I have a lot of teachers. Teacher. She wants me to stay in my teaching job because we need the revenue, we need the money. And he's very scared that like this hobby, he calls it a hobby is never going to be anything. And the thing is not every spouse or partner is going to support you. And this is hard to navigate, but I'm going to say do it anyway because it's your life and at the end of the day we need you to be happy so you can contribute to your family. What you need to do sometimes is explain why this is so important for. For your family, what could this possibly do and why you need their support. Because your spouse or your partner, you're going to need to get their buy in eventually or at least have them accept that you're going to be Doing something different. But it's not always. They're not going to be the most supportive person. They're scared, and that is okay. You still do it.

Yeah. Well, one of the. One of the techniques. So my wife, obviously, when I said, hey, look, I'm gonna start putting myself in the public eye, she's like, why? Why? Why do you want.

Why would you want to do that?

And I'm like, I don't know. I just felt like there's something inside of me I need to share with the world. And so we started centering the conversation. Maybe this will help everybody. We started centering the conversation around not if I should do it or not, but if we were going to do it, how would we do it? Where she was relatable and she was cool with it, you know? So she's like, all right, I don't want to see any pictures of nice stuff that we owned. I'm like, I can do that. Like, I don't want to see you out there, you know, with stacks of dollar bills on top of a table and. Right. All this kind of stuff. I'm like, done. She's like, all right. And then when you do your live events and stuff like that, I want to make sure you're surrounded by people to keep you out of trouble. I'm like, so what are you trying to say? She's like, I'm not worried about you. I'm worried about other people. I'm like, okay, fine. So we started. We started creating a framework, if you will, that was like, okay, I'll abide by these rules just to have your love and support, because this is super important to me. So maybe the conversation's not if I should or shouldn't. It's like, how would we.

I love that. Yeah. How can we make this work? How can I give you a little bit of sense of security knowing that we're also going to get uncomfortable? We're going to have to get uncomfortable to make this work. But what is the level of uncomfortableness you are willing to live by until we figure this out? I love that.

Yeah. Well, the other thing I love about the book, too, is there's. You talk about a Runway, so we talked about some do's. Like, so do some of these things before you exit. Let's talk about the don'ts.

Yeah.

What are types of things we don't want to do as we're trying to build this Runway to our dream?

Okay. So one thing we don't want to do is burn bridges. And the way that you can easily burn a bridge is if you decide to leave and now you're just sick and tired of your job and you're like one foot out and just annoyed. And I've seen it so many times. So you don't want to burn yourself out. Meaning don't say, don't give your two weeks notice, but actually give six weeks or I mean six months. Don't like say I'm quitting but I'll stay for the next six months to help you guys out. Do not do that. You will feel resentful. So get really clear on how long you're willing to stay when you want to give your notice. Some people give a month's notice just to help the other person kind of usher into their role. But be careful how much time you give yourself and how much time you communicate. Make sure you are good with it. Another don't is we're not going to fiddle with business cards and silly things like that that you do not need. I tell this story in the book about my first card. It turned out it looked like a condom wrapper at the end when it was designed. And I spent hours and tons of money on this dang business card that I hardly gave out to anyone. It's just we preoccupy our stuff that built with stuff that feels safe. So don't stay comfortable on this Runway. You have to start doing things that you are not necessarily comfortable with, but it's so very important. And I think another thing that you don't want to do is don't turn a blind eye to your finances. Money anxiety is a real thing when you leave your 9 to 5 job. So if you're thinking about leaving your 9 to 5 job, one thing I want you to do is sit down and think, what do I need to make in order to get by? You're not living in the lap of luxury your first year as an entrepreneur. You're not going on the vacations, you're not driving the nice cars. You are definitely sacrificing because you want to give yourself a little time and space to make the mistakes you need to make and figure it out. And so how much money do you absolutely need to make to get by and then back out? Okay, here's how I'm going to do that my first year. You won't have all the answers. You also do not need a business plan. I've never even seen a full fledged business plan. I don't know any of my peers who had one when they first started out. So an elaborate business plan you do not need.

It's busy work. It's busy work. Yeah. So what you need to do to get started is figure out what value you can bring to the world and then start charging for it. Yeah, I mean it's, I mean that's about it. About it. Yeah, exactly.

Starter idea, just to make money in the, on the short term until you figure out how you want to do it in the long term.

Yeah, I mean I, one of the programs that we do called Unstoppable Startup, I try to take people through the framework, the five frameworks, which is, you know, obviously there's the startup phase, which is hustle and grind. It's just, you're going out, you're making stuff happen, you're knocking stuff over, you're making lots of mistakes. Then there's the testing phase. Hey, I got something that's working. How do I make it better? How do I, how do I maximize this thing? You know, then you got the scaling stage, which is now you got systems and processes and people. Right. And then you got this basically the, the, the next step, which is selling or operating. So you have all these different, different phases. And I feel like people get really confused at what phase journey they're in. They're in the startup phase and they're thinking, no, I need to have all these different systems, all these different processes. And I'm like, no, you just need to knock something over.

Yes, it's so true.

Yeah. I'm curious to know. So we've talked about some do's and some don'ts and maybe we've got people sold. Right. You and I both started businesses from nothing and, and grew them to something. And now we're trying to help people do, to basically learn from those, those experiences. What are some other chapters that would come out of the. The, the, the. There were chapters in the Bible that I don't think ever made it in there. One is called second hesitations. Right. So what are some other hesitations that might. Would keep you from taking the leap now versus, you know, having to wait a year or 10 years?

One of the things is that when your job is okay, when you're in a situation where, like at Tony Robbins, I was making good money, traveling the world, going to his events, like on paper, all of that looked really good. And when you're in a job that it's good, it's okay, it gets by. It's very easy to then justify, I'm going to stay here and maybe I'm just going to dabble on a little side hustle. Or maybe I'm going to go to the court, get the courses, listen to the podcast. I'm doing all that. But you are doing nothing to move forward in your business. So what I always talk about is the fact that you have to get uncomfortable on a regular basis. So if you are comfortable and cozy in your 9 to 5 job, but you know you are not happy, why would you ever live your life that way? Yeah, but it's very easy to do so you can make every excuse in the book why you should leave there. A recession's coming. I should never quit my job. Let me tell you a story. I had a student, I tell this in my book, where she always thought about being an entrepreneur. She did the dabbling, she bought the courses, she listened to the podcast, the books, went to the events, all of that, but did nothing to get started because she always used the excuse, it's not the right time. And she was making a lot of money in her 9 to 5 job.

I don't have X, Y, and z. Yeah, yeah.

And then what happened is she was laid off. She didn't have a choice anymore. They made the choice for her that you don't get to work here anymore. You don't get that paycheck anymore, which could happen to every single one of us in a 9 to 5 job. And so her livelihood was taken away and she scrambled. She knew she wanted to start something, but had started nothing. So now she's scrambling last minute to try to get it together. Imagine if while she's still in her 9 to 5 job, she gave her 6 months to work on her Runway to leave, and. And then she got laid off. She'd be ready to go.

Yeah.

People are getting laid off left and right right now in some of the biggest companies. It's going to trickle down to the smaller companies. Do not let them decide for you that you're not going to work there anymore. If you're ready to move, put a plan together. Get your Runway. I explain the whole Runway inside the book.

For sure. For sure. Another thought I was just thinking of is, all right, so let's. Let's say, okay, Amy, you sold me. I'm ready to start my. My gig. I'm going to go get the book right now. I know you got a roadmap. You got me templates. You got all kinds of stuff. I'm a follow. I'm ready. Okay, what do I do day one on my. You know, so yesterday I was employed, and today I'M not employed and I got my own gig. What am I doing today?

Okay, I love this question because you're going to look around me like, oh, my gosh, what did I do? I remember that day very vividly. I was in a tiny little condo in Carlsbad, California, and I was sitting at my kitchen table because I did not have room for an office. And here I was like, what do I do? And so I don't remember exactly what I did on day one, but here's what I wish I did. Put together a content plan. So here's where we're going to get a little tactical here. Everyone needs to learn how to create original content. Anyone listening right now that if you're struggling in your business, you're not making enough money, it feels hard, and you don't feel like it's really gelling together. It's likely because you don't have a good content marketing plan that's going to bring in the people into your business that want to buy from you. So when I say content plan, here's what I mean. Every single week, I want you to figure out a plan how you're going to create original content. That means a podcast, a video show, a blog. Maybe you go live on IG once a week, whatever it might be, same time, same place, every week you have a new piece of content. And what I don't want you to do is one week you podcast, the next week you put up a video. Maybe you blog once in a while. No, no, no. We're choosing one platform to begin with, and we're going all in. Because the day I went all in with my podcast, which was about a year into podcasting, where I struggled that whole first year when I started to be consistent, every single week is where my downloads shot up.

Yeah.

So I want you to put together a content plan. Now, the question might be, well, what am I going to talk about? Well, you might not even be ready to sell anything just yet. But let's start thinking about what's your starter idea? What could you talk about in your sleep? What's the something that you feel comfortable teaching about? Let's start creating content around there. Start before you're ready.

Yeah, yeah. You know, it's funny. We were chatting before we hopped on and hit the record button with one of our mutual friends, Jen. And Jen was very open to an audience at an event that they used to do. She was like. She literally showed on screen, like, just getting started, and she's like, okay, this is video number one. I'm. Yeah, this is video number one. Oh, hi, everybody.

I'm sure.

Hi. Two people, you know, kind of thing.

Yeah.

And then over the course of a, you know, she showed the transition from, you know, month to month to month, you know, 24 months, 36 months. And not only did she become an amazing presenter across that, but she was also building her community the entire time. Now, I do have a. This is a bit of a selfish question, because especially in the thought leadership entrepreneur space, there's a lot of similar concepts, because some concepts are just life truths. Like, this works, right? Don't spend more money than you make while you're building a business, or don't do it at all. You know, but, you know, there's. There's things that work. How does someone actually create true, original content that feels. That feels original to them versus a mimic or a copycat of, you know, someone they admire or respect? Like, how do you disseminate that?

Okay, first of all, I love this question because in the beginning, you probably are going to model someone else. It's almost inevitable. You look around, you see what you like. You're drawn to this. Oh, I like how they create content. I'm going to do more of that. It's very normal to start out that way, but you do not want to stay there very long. I totally give my students permission to model someone else that they think is great. Not copy, but model. But soon you have to start thinking about what is my authentic way of doing this? How do I want to show up? In the early days, I watered down all my messages. I was not polarizing. I didn't want to have too strong of opinion. I didn't want someone not to like me online, which is impossible, for the record. And at one point, I finally started saying, I'm not getting any traction. Like, I am literally lost in the sea of online noise. And someone said, it's because your message is super watered down. Amy, what do you stand for? And like me saying every single week you should have a podcast, video or a blog. Other people totally disagree with me, but I know what works for me and my students. So I put a stake in the ground and I wasn't scared anymore to say, this is what you need to do. Well, some people are going to disagree. They're going to tell me all the reasons why I'm wrong. And in my early years, I believe them. Oh, my gosh. This is why I'm not meant to be an entrepreneur. I'm an idiot. Why would I even say that? Like, I really believe them. I call them.

There's a thousand yeses and one no. And you focus on the no.

Exactly. And that is exactly what happened. And I called up my friend. I'm like, this guy online is, like, thinking, I. I'm an idiot. He's telling everyone that I don't know what I'm talking about. And my friend Jasmine, she laughed and she said, you're not for everyone. Boo. You're not Santa Claus. You're not going to make everyone happy. You got to find your people and know if not everyone gets an opinion about your business, if they're not paying your bills, they do not get an opinion. And so that's where I started to think, okay, I've got to put a stake in the ground, and I've got to be known for something. And then I started to learn my own style. That's the thing. You don't even know your style in the beginning. You don't even know how you want to communicate. You've never done it before. So that's why we just got to get started, like Jen was saying, and then you'll kind of find your groove over time. I'm pretty sure every single one of us will cringe at the first months of video. I literally want to die.

But I got rid of the ones with me with hair, so I got rid of those.

Okay, well, I had, like, a bob haircut. I look like a monk. And I remember had the ugliest background. And I had a lamp that I took the lampshade off because, you know, lighting is the most impossible thing when you're brand new at making videos. So, like, yeah, we all kind of cringe and we all start with zero.

Yeah, yeah. No, that's so good. Well, all right, so I'm going to pivot a little bit. We talked about why you should, like, why now's the time to start planning for your exit and putting your two. Two weeks notice. Why it's time to go get the book. Why it's time to organize that. That thought process to get you ready. Okay. Yeah, we've talked about some of the fears that you're gonna have to overcome, some of the insecurities that are gonna hit you, and yes, better tell you about them now than when they hit you and then you get derailed.

So true.

Right, let's talk about what the heck are we gonna sell and who are we selling to? Because not everybody knows the term avatar. You know, some people think blue people when they. When they hear the word avatar. So let's talk about avatar, product, service. Like, how do we figure out who we're going to be and what we're going to sell? And like, how do. I mean, how does that even come into shape?

Okay, so the first thing you want to do is think about, okay, what do I want to offer? And remember, this is your starter idea. It's going to change down the road. The first thing I offered was Facebook audits. I for $300, I would audit. And remember, this is the wild west of social media, so no one knew what they were doing. So I would audit someone's Facebook page and tell them what they're doing well and what they need to fix and give them tons of examples of. Of how to do it. $300. That's how I made money in the beginning, and I did as many as I could. That I do not do anything like that today in my business. So just know whatever you do in the beginning, it doesn't stick forever. And that is a good thing. So you've got to figure out, how am I going to make money? And that's where you're going to look at your expertise. Where have you gotten results for yourself in your personal life, in your business life? What do people ask you about all the time? What could you teach in your sleep? Let's just start with what you already know. Now, from there, I call this a sweet spot. There's four quadrants, okay? The first thing is where have you gotten results for yourself or for somebody else in your personal life or business life? The second quadrant is, who do you want to help with the results you can get them. So when you start thinking about how you can get people results, who are the people you can get results for? And you said it earlier, it's likely someone like you, but maybe a few years back, you only need a 10% edge. You just need to be 10% ahead of those you serve so they can follow your lead. So who is it? And when you think about that person, think about their challenges, their pain points, what's likely keeping them up at night, and make sure that your results can be the solution for what they're looking for. Okay, the third quadrant is where are people spending money? So are there books about the topic you want to teach or you want to create a business around podcasts, other courses? Are people teaching this and making money with it? And if the answer is yes, that is a great thing you might say, but, Amy, it's already been done before. Not by you, my friend.

That's right.

It's good if it's already making money, because that's validated, it's a good thing. The fourth quadrant is what lights you up. It doesn't need to be your life passion. But what would you enjoy teaching, doing, putting out into the world? Because you're going to be doing it a lot and you're going to have a lot of challenges in the beginning. So you have to be willing to enjoy what you're doing. And so your expertise, your ideal customer avatar, the person that you can get results for, who is that and what are their challenges? Where are people spending money and what lights you up? If you start thinking about that, that's your sweet spot. That's where you start with an offer.

Yeah. No, it's so good. It's because you know you're going to identify the problem that you're trying to solve. You're going to, you're going to clarify all that. I've always said too that, you know, you mentioned earlier about where you start is not going to be what you're going to be doing three years from now, five years from now, ten years from now. Right. And I think it's because I have this term that I've, I've tried to teach our students, which is pivot until it becomes possible.

Right, good.

So it's, you're going to, you're going to start with concept A and because you're out there grinding and trying to knock something over, you're going to realize that when you knock something over, it actually knock the bookshelf over, over here, that then the book fell off the wall and you're like, oh, I actually resonate with that, resonate with that more. I'm going to do something like that. And you go over there and to do that. And then five years from now, all of a sudden you've, you know, you'll have an entrepreneurial journey to go from. But in the terms of, you know, pivoting, I know that content is so important. You started talking about it and I sidetracked you, unfortunately. Sorry about that. But this signature content, the signature, you refer to it in the book as kick ass content, which I love, the fact that you give a roadmap on how to create it. But I'm curious, how does someone, I know, with the limited time we got left, how does someone kick off kick ass content? Like, how do they create it?

Okay, so first of all, remember, you gotta choose your platform. It's important because if you don't know the platform, you're not really sure how you're going to even create any of this. So let's pretend you choose a podcast. I'm going to podcast, which is one of the easiest ways to get started, for the record. And so from there, you're going to sit down and I want you to think of eight weeks of content that you could teach based on. Remember, we went through the sweet spot. So now you're kind of clear about where you're going to start. I want to teach how. I want to teach people how to meal plan. Let's just say that's where you're going to start. You're a massive meal planner. You're really good at it. There's tons of steps that you do. You're going to teach that. So now you start thinking, okay, I've got this concept, meal planning. So what are eight different things that I could teach? Add insight to tell stories about related to meal planning. And you start to just brainstorm and list them all out. And you're going to probably list out more than eight, but give yourself 10, 20 minutes to just brain dump. I could teach this that the equipment you need, the, the Tupperware that's the best. How to cook tons of things all at once. The fact that, what. What should you be cooking? How should you do your shopping? All these different things. And then you start to think, okay, these are eight different topics I can talk about. You now have two months of content that you can batch. Batching is something I teach in the book, where basically you're going to do a lot of content creation in one sitting. So you're not on the. The hamster wheel of creating content, but it starts with that topic. And then you think all the questions people would ask, all the things they should ask, but they're not asking, and those are individual pieces of content. So let's do two months at once so we can knock a lot out.

Yeah, well, and the other thing was just to get through that, because we, we batch content ourselves here. The cool thing about batching content is you're also in the frame of mind and the frame of reference.

Yes.

Right. You're. You're stepping into an undistracted zone.

Yes.

To go and. And literally create honestly out of thin air. In many respects. I've seen people compound ideas to so much so that it becomes super refined and super clear over time. And a lot of that is done through the batching. And if I can piggyback on what you've also mentioned is when you're creating that content, go ahead and Set up a little, a little iPhone or something over to the side of you while you're recording the podcast. Turn that into an IG story or something like that. So you're kind of duplicating your effort in a way to help you maximize the content production.

Absolutely. I think that's a great idea. The more different angles of content you can create, the easier it gets. But you have to kind of get in a rhythm of, I'm going to turn my camera on here, I'm going to get some B roll, I'm going to record this podcast, but also turn it into a reel. I love that.

Yeah. Well, you know, I got one final question for you, and this is there's so much we could talk about. Lord knows, love chatting you about this stuff because you have a heart to serve entrepreneurs. You have, I mean, you have a huge heart that generally wants to serve people. And I love that about you. That's one of the reasons I was so excited to bring you on the show. But on top of that, I want to talk a little bit about this over service because I feel like in the book you actually overserve. You go as far as giving scripts out for people to send emails to friends and family and coworkers and all that. First of all, why did you do that? And second of all, why should someone use them?

I care deeply that people actually take action with the content I create. Action creates clarity, clarity creates results. And so it's not enough for me to people read my book and think, that's a good book, good job, Amy. Nothing is going to come of that. And if I really believe that I can make an impact by helping people quit their 9 to 5 job and find financial freedom and being their own boss, then I have to give them the tools to take action. Now it stops there. I can't do the work for them. So I always know there's two people in this dance, for sure. That's something I teach my course creators. You can create a kick ass, amazing course, give the best, best instruction, but at the end of the day, there's two people involved, course creator and the person doing it. So you have to give up. You have to let go at one point or another. But I'm going to give as much as I can to get you there and then hopefully you believe in yourself enough to say, okay, I'm going to take what Amy gave me and I'm going to do it. So I'm all about action. That is what I'm about. But also, if people Actually download the resources and they do it. They're going to come deeper into my world. That worked. Amy, what else do you have? Like, oh, you have a course on digital courses. Great. Teach me. So I do want people more into my world, but it starts with action, so I got to help them do so.

No, I love it. Well, I just, again, I just. One of the reasons I do that when anytime I share anybody with our audience, I want to make sure that they know that I only bring people on the show that I have a genuine heart to help them win. Right. You have a proven track record. Long before I got into the thought leadership world or whatever. You've already been doing it for a long time. But I want people to have a full appreciation of the work that you put into this particular work. Because it's meaty. They're going to need highlighters, they're going to need ink, pens and page. Like, there's going to be a lot. There's a lot there. I do love the fact that it's structured in a way of. It's kind of like, why, what, how, when, like it's. This is exactly. So I love the roadmap aspect of it, but I want people to have a full appreciation of that because I want you to go ahead and tell us where they could go ahead and get the pre order. Because if I know you, there's probably pre order bonuses that come with a preorder. So hook us up on where we get the pre order.

So it's 2weeksnoticebook.com and I've got amazing bonuses for those that order the book early or even if they order the book when it comes out. So two weeks noticebook dot com. The earlier you order it, the more bonuses you get.

I love it. I love it. Amy, you're a rock star. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I really appreciate it.

Thanks so much for having me. This is fun. I appreciate it.

All right, take it easy. See you.

Hi.

I hope you liked that video. And if you did, make sure you check out this next video right here.

Hey, you want to charge the highest possible price, be the best value alternative, which doesn't mean the lowest price, and encourage future business. So look at your top three competitors for what you do. How are they charging? What's going on? Talk to your customers and you start to get a feel for where that is. Don't overcomplicate it. You know, what are the top three competitors doing? And price yourself there and then make it a better experience. With a product or a service, and likely you will win.