My interview with Amy Porterfield
===
Kari Doherty: [00:00:00] Thank you for listening to the Luminous Recovery Yoga Podcast, hosted by Kari Doherty. The views and opinions expressed here are strictly those of the person who gave them. Take what you like and leave the rest. These views and opinions do not represent any specific 12 step program, only my experience, strength, and hope in recovering from the dise of addiction and codependency.
If you'd like to learn more, please visit my website at www. Dot Luminous Recovery yoga.com. Hello, my friend. Thank you so much for joining me for this week's episode of the Luminous Recovery Yoga Podcast. This week, I am so excited to deliver the honor of a lifetime. I am sharing with you my interview with Amy Porterfield.
Amy Porterfield is one of my favorite teachers and mentors in the online marketing space. Now, you might be asking yourself, what does that have to do with a podcast about yoga and recovery? And I'll tell. everything. I can't wait [00:01:00] for you to get into this episode and to listen to the awesome conversation that I got to have with Amy about her new book, two weeks notice.
Two weeks notice is coming out on February 21st, and I would rush to get my copy if I were you. Let me ask you a question. Whose dream do you devote most of your days to? A third of our lives are spent working. If that truth makes your heart sink a little bit because you know you're spending so much of your precious time helping your company's bottom line, you're not alone.
Most people have been led to believe that entrepreneurship is only for a chosen few. The ones with connections, a nest egg, an original ideas you could never compete with, but most people are wrong. Building your own business has never been more access. Known for her actionable, fluff free approach to teaching and a philosophy centered on going before her students so that everything she shares is proven to work.
Amy stands apart from other educators in the online marketing [00:02:00] space. Two weeks notice isn't a collection of generalizations, vague business tips or impractical platitudes. It's the exact. It's the step-by-step blueprint to design your life for financial freedom, lifestyle flexibility, and major impact, even if you have no idea how to get started.
No advantages and no secret bank account to serve as a backup plan. This book is for you. If your time is precious and you wanna spend it on projects that genuinely. You're over vague business ideas and want a realistic action plan. You can't remember the last time your boss thanked you for a job well done.
You want an income that doesn't rely on how many hours you spend at work. You want more to look forward to than a week of paid vacation, and you would quit your job in a heartbeat if only you knew how, or if you wanna design your life instead of leaving it up to someone else. I hope that you find this episode insightful, impactful, and fun to listen.
I had such a great time interviewing Amy. [00:03:00] I really hope that you take something away from this episode. That helps. So with that being said, onto the episode, all right, Amy, you can hear me okay? I can hear you. Good. This is so exciting. This is my dear teacher Amy Porterfield, and I'm so deeply honored and pleased to be here with you.
You know, we're not gonna go too much into it. But Amy is somebody that I've been working with for the last several months. And as a yogi, I have a lot of respect for my teachers. My teachers are the people who take me through the world, and and so Amy, you are my dear teacher, my precious teacher.
And so it's just really an honor to be here. What a
Amy Porterfield: beautiful thing talking to you here. Thank you for that. Like I feel very honored, so thank
Kari Doherty: you. Thank you. And so Amy has come out with a new book. It's coming out February 21st. Is that book launch day? Yes. That's exciting. So when people are listening to this podcast, this book will have been launching this week.
So we're like [00:04:00] talking to our future selves, which is exciting. Yes. and. Amy wrote this book two weeks notice, and so we are gonna really focus this interview on this book because this book is an expression of your spirit. Like, I could feel you in this book. I heard your voice, I heard your stories, and you know what I love about this book is how relatable you are.
Oh, thank you. You know, I, I know people get all like Amy Porterfield, cuz you are, you're a big name in, in the industry that you're in. It's possible that people who listen to this recovery might not know who you are yet. Mm-hmm. . But what I love about this book is how relatable you are. I heard myself in this book,
Amy Porterfield: That makes me so happy to hear it cuz I wanted it to land for the right people.
And so for you to say that, it's like, thank goodness.
Kari Doherty: You know, and it's funny, I, I, I'm an honest person. I'm a 12 stepper and honesty is just how I leave my life. At first I thought, oh, this book is for people who haven't started a business yet. This book isn't, what is this [00:05:00] book gonna have for me? Right.
And yet you're Amy Porterfield, you're my teacher. I read what my teacher puts out, so it's like, oh, I'm gonna read this book because Amy wrote it right? And this book had so much for me. Ah, this book had so much for me. So what I wanna say is that anybody who's listening to this, and maybe you already have a business, this book still applies.
Amy Porterfield: Feel the same way. So thank you for saying that. It might at the surface, like how to quit your nine to five job and start an online business. But many people who have already started businesses, but they're looking for a solid foundation, they're looking to uplevel, they're looking to make more money between these pages, you're gonna find those answers.
And so I love that you put it out there like that.
Kari Doherty: Yeah. And. , you know, maybe you have a brick and mortar business. Like I ran a brick and mortar business for years and this is really the first time that I'm putting a heavier emphasis in online. Mm-hmm. . So even if you've had a brick and mortar business that you're looking to up-level your online presence, this book has that.
[00:06:00] And, and you know, I found myself taking lots of notes, even though I've been through your online course, I've taken bootcamp with you. Wow. I've done so many of your things already, and I still found this. To be highly useful. So I wanna say to anybody out there who's listening to this, this book has something for you at any stage of the journey.
Even if you think, oh, I'm a seasoned entrepreneur. I've been doing business for a long time. I wanna say this book still has a place for people.
Amy Porterfield: And I, I so appreciate you saying that, but where you really surprised me, but I loved it absolutely is when we got on camera, or before we got on camera, You said you looked at this book through recovery and I thought, well, that's a whole different lens that, that I was really excited to talk to you about because that's different than what most people will, but the fact that you got something out of it, even through that lens, I just like my heart bursts open.
I love that.
Kari Doherty: Yes. And I wanna talk about that because this is a recovery podcast. The people who listen to this podcast are people who are in recovery or who are recovery cur curious. [00:07:00] And you know, one of the things I wanna say, and I like to say this almost every episode, Definition of recovery is calling your spirit back from all of the places where you've left it.
Amy Porterfield: Ah, then I could totally relate to what you mean by, by that.
Kari Doherty: So we look at this book through the, through the lens of, of recovery through who has not left their spirit. In the workplace.
Amy Porterfield: Ugh. Amen to that. Yes. Who has
Kari Doherty: not left their spirit? You know, I read your, your story in here about that woman coming up to you saying you're not a marketer.
Mm-hmm. , right? Like, your spirit got lost in there somewhere. Right? Absolutely. The piece of your spirit was, was taken from you that in that interaction. Right. And so when I think about my life in the workplace, and I think about all of the places that I left my spirit. In the workplace. Like there's a lot of recovery, there's a lot of calling your spirit back from those workplace experiences.
And, and, and you know, I had a friend who I was [00:08:00] texting right before this interview. I was like, it's happening, you know? And and I told my friend, I read the whole book and they said, well, what's your takeaway from the book? And I said, my takeaway is that like, if I had to give an overall takeaway through the lens of recovery, this book.
Will, it will help you recover your spirit from the workplace, because we've all had workplace trauma and we've all put energy into another person's business, right? Because that's what being an employee is. You're putting your spirit into somebody else's business, and this book will help you call your spirit back so that you put that energy into your own.
Beautifully
Amy Porterfield: said. Like I, I would never have even thought about that till you said it. And the minute you said it, I was like, absolutely, absolutely. Calling your spirit back. And I think for me it comes back to, Ownership, owning your worth, owning that you know you are worth more than you're getting paid.
Your time is worth more, your [00:09:00] happiness is worth more. And so just knowing that and saying, no more am I going to tolerate what's no longer serving me. I'm going to go after what I want. That's what I wanted to write this book for. And so for you to say that, I'm like Absolutely. Total
Kari Doherty: a. . Yeah. I mean, who hasn't like been a little traumatized or a lot of traumatized by what happens in the workplace?
But here's the thing, Amy, and this is what's funny. Reading your book, I can tell you that I have also become my own worst boss. Oh,
Amy Porterfield: tell me more about that.
Kari Doherty: I work myself sometimes 24 7. And and one of the things I actually wrote down that I wanted to repa repeat back to you, cuz I thought it was just, I'm like, oh, this woman gets me.
You said that, oh, I wanna find it real quick cuz it was a really great quote. You said that all right, I'm just gonna try to sum it up. You said, oh, here we go. Overcommitting can be an a. We can start to believe that if we are not working 24 7 that we're not doing. [00:10:00] Yes. That hit me in the head. . Yes,
Amy Porterfield: same with me.
I, the only reason why I was able to write that is because I have lived it and for so long in the nine to five corporate world, but also in my own business for many, many years, I, if I was not working, My tail off, weekends, nights, every minute. If I was not busy, busy, busy doing something, I was not worthy of the success that was going to come.
And in fact, I didn't tell this story in the book, but there was one point along my journey in the first two years where I did a launch and I did incredibly well. I mean $30,000 in like a week, which is more money than I've ever seen in a week in my life. And I remember thinking something bad's gonna happen because something good just happened.
So something bad has to happen. It, which is sounds bizarre, but so real in my head. And that came from, I, I, I might have not worked hard enough or I didn't deserve it or anything like that. So that working, working, working to an addiction. [00:11:00] Very real. Yeah.
Kari Doherty: Yeah. Like that feeling that the other shoe was gonna drop or like, yes, we couldn't possibly have earned a piece of success without having to like walk each over, look over our shoulder that something's.
Come up and snap us in the ass or something, you know? Yeah, exactly. Another thing that you call yourself in the book, and this is so great, you call yourself a recovering people pleaser. Hmm. Yes. And I think a lot of people can identify with
Amy Porterfield: that. And it's like something I work on every day, so as absolutely in recovery.
But dang, I still got a lot
Kari Doherty: of work to do. Well, and that's the thing is those of us in recovery, we never say we're recovered. Okay? We always say we're recovering or we're in recovery because they're, you know, anything could backslide you. Anything could like put you back into that newcomer. Mind, you know, but Oh, so true.
You know what it means to be a recovering people pleaser. Let's
Amy Porterfield: talk about that a bit. Because when you go out on your own, when you start your own business, you go out on your own. It's very real to think, what if this doesn't work? And [00:12:00] then the next thought is, what will people think of me? What if I crash and burn?
What will people say? What will they think about me? My old coworkers, which it's so bizarre that we worry about people that are not paying our. That really shouldn't have an opinion about what we're doing, but we worry about what they think about us. And so I have been a people pleaser to my core since I was really young.
And one of the things that happened as I got going in my business is I started to post a little bit more of my opinions online before I was really watered down as plain safe. But then I thought, I'm gonna get lost in the sea of noise online. So I need to have opinions and put my stake in the ground.
Tell people this is what I would do to start a business. So I started to do that. And then online, especially Instagram, there would be people be be telling me I was wrong and one day I remember this one guy just wouldn't stop. That's a bad idea because this, this and that. You don't know what you're talking about.
And then other people got involved and I freaked out and I called my friend Jasmine on the phone and I said, people are attacking me. [00:13:00] Now, it might have been like three people, but it felt like 3000 people. And so she just kind of laughed and I'm like, what are you laughing at? And she said, you ain't for everyone boo.
And not everyone's gonna love you. I'm like, wait, what? And she's like, you cannot possibly please everybody on the internet. And if they don't like what you're saying, they're never gonna buy from you. So who cares? You, you're not gonna impact their life. They're not for you. And when I realized that not everyone is for me, and I'm not for everybody.
I was able to breathe a little bit and let go of some of the people pleasing cuz I realize it is impossible and unfortunately people get really brave in those comments on social media and as an entrepreneur, business owner, we have to have thick skin cuz there's no way that I can take that away from everyone.
It's going to happen to all of us. Mm-hmm. .
Kari Doherty: Mm-hmm. . Yeah. I feel like that applies to dating. Like you could Oh yeah, you could apply this. And that's the thing is I'm reading this book and I was like, well, this is good dating advice.
Amy Porterfield: Yeah. . [00:14:00] I wish I took that before I was married. I had the worst dating experiences ever.
Yeah. And that's another thing I wanted everyone to like me and, and what's crazy if we talk about dating for a second, I never asked if I liked them. It was all about do they like me? Do they like, . And so that business, you could do that like, like it's,
Kari Doherty: you know, it's dawned on me recently. Yeah. Oh, sorry. I think we had a little snag with the, I think that with the connection no, I, to completely feel you.
I've, I've had an a revelation recently that I have not actually been that intentional in a lot of the choice making in my life when it came to business choices, dating partners, even roommates. I have this tendency, and I wonder if a lot of women can relate to this, specifically women, where we tend to take what we get and make the best of it.
Yes.
Amy Porterfield: Yes. And that absolutely is showing up in our jobs. Yes, well, it's paying the bills and you know it's safe and I'm getting a paycheck every other week and I have benefits. That's [00:15:00] not life. That is not enough. And I think, you know, feeling comfortable and safe is important, especially the safe part. I always wanna feel safe, but to the point that I literally am playing small, I got to the point that I'm like, I am not doing this anymore.
So I have a motto in my business and what I teach my students now. Mm-hmm. and. , how often are you getting uncomfortable? Being uncomfortable will not kill you, and it doesn't mean you are not safe. It means you're putting yourself out there in new ways. If I can get uncomfortable every single week, I know I'm growing.
I know I'm pushing myself, which is important to me, but if you're constantly comfortable and safe, there's no growth in that and you're like, settling for something just because it's okay,
Kari Doherty: but you have giving me chills, Amy Port
Amy Porterfield: appeals, right. There's so much more in life to than that. So that's why I needed to get people outta their nine to five jobs when they weren't happy.
You just can't, you know, and I teach the
Kari Doherty: same thing in yoga. Like I teach the same thing in yoga about finding your edge. And you know, [00:16:00] like you know, in yoga we have this saying comfortably uncom. Oh, I
Amy Porterfield: love that. How do you explain that? When you tell people comfortably uncomfortable, what do you say?
Where
Kari Doherty: like, you find that place where, okay, you don't want your joints throbbing. You don't want, you don't wanna lose the connection to your breath, but. You know, are you finding an edge? Is there a place where you can explore a little bit further? And, and so there is this balance of, you know, or for instance, I don't know if you do yoga, but a opposed people find very uncomfortable is half pigeon, right?
Yes. Yes. Like a hip opening pose. Right? And sometimes there's this point where you're getting a, a, you know, a deep stretch or a deep sensation and it's uncomfortable, but you know that something is, Yes. Yes. Right. And that's one of the things I do on this podcast is I like to explore what happens out in the world and how we could actually apply that to like our own body, you know, how that actually sits in the body.
And so, you know, that feeling of being uncomfortable, but also, you know, And actually I wanna segue into this cuz this is a [00:17:00] great question. I think to segue into this, do you have any strategies for dealing with money, anxiety when somebody decides to make that leap, right? Because that is a comfortably uncomfortable place where Yes.
That anxiety of money and like, what if I don't, I mean, I'm going through that personally right now. What if I don't make it what, you know, I should probably just go back and get a job. What am I doing ? You know? Yes, yes, yes. And and so if you're scared to quit because you don't think you'll earn enough to support yourself, like where is the comfortably uncomfortable there?
Or how can we wrestle with that discomfort of money, anxiety in making such a.
Amy Porterfield: Okay, so the first thing is with money anxiety, we have to normalize it. Of course, we're gonna be worried about money when we go out on our own. No longer is someone sending us money every two weeks, guaranteed. So that anxiety, that fear, that overwhelm is very, very real.
And we need to remember that emotions will not kill us. We can feel all of that and continue to move forward. So that's the first thing, normalizing [00:18:00] this anxiety. It's very real. It's very normal. Number two. Is that I want you to look at anyone thinking about leaving a nine to five job. I want you to look at how much money do you really need to make to survive.
Now, whatever survive means for you, you have to place a meaning on that. But I'm not talking about living in luxury. I'm not talking about the good life yet That will come, but how much money do you need to to make it? And so typically when you know that number, it might even be less than what you're making in your nine to five job.
Maybe not, but maybe in terms of what I'm trying to say. Give yourself a little bit of wiggle room and, and if you can make less great, because when you go out on your own, nothing's guaranteed and you're gonna have to navigate some things. So getting clear on your number and then asking yourself, how can I make that number and what do I need to do?
Very important, get clarity around your finances and if there's some places that you can cut back, if you can sacrifice for a short. Absolutely do it because the long-term gain will literally blow [00:19:00] your mind. If you stay in the game and you make this work, which you. The other thing is start a side hustle.
Everything I teach in the book, I don't specifically talk side hustles, but everything I teach could be applied to a side hustle that you eventually turn into a full-time thing. So when I was at my nine to five job, what I did is I started to take clients and do their social media. So I had two or three clients at one time, while I still had a nine to five job.
Weekends, nights, mornings, I would work with these clients. That way I could prove to myself, I'm willing to put myself out there. I'm willing to make an offer. There's a little money coming in. It's not replacing my salary yet, but I've proven to myself that I am going to act like an. That's another thing from the day you decide to quit to when you actually do start acting like a business owner, what decisions do you need to make?
How do you need to show up? Do you need to get up earlier? Do you need to have some routine set so that you can start acting the part before you actually take the leap? That gives you some more confidence as well, but a side hustle and looking at your [00:20:00] finances and getting really clear on that number will help ease the anxiety.
But notice I said ease. I didn't say take it away. It will always be there. Mm-hmm. .
Kari Doherty: That's one of the things I love, love, love about this book is I love how middle of the road you. You know, like one of the things you talk about is, and I think this is so great you know, like you don't have to have the prettiest website on the internet and you talk about how your website was super ugly at first.
Amy Porterfield: Oh, it's very, made a million dollars in
Kari Doherty: and that's so humbling, you know, because I think people think they need to start and you know, it's one of those things that you hear about like comparing our back end to other people's front end. Yes. It is so
Amy Porterfield: unfair to do and we do it all the time. When you look at someone's Instagram and they look great, they sound great.
They're telling you all the good things. I can guarantee you they are keeping a lot back that they do not want to share. That is, Human nature. So when you compare the back end of your business, you know everything going on in your business to the [00:21:00] front end of somebody else's, you will never measure up.
So when I'm in business, this is something I learned from an Oprah Pro podcast years and years ago. She talked about when she was first starting her show, she tell her team to put blinders on like a racehorse in a race. You can't look left or right, you can only look forward. She said, we put our blinders on and we stopped comparing ourselves to everyone.
She didn't know what all the other people were doing in the talk shows. She only knew what they were going to do. That's how you need to start your business for sure.
Kari Doherty: Mm. And you talk about that in the book, and this is where I'm like, Ooh, recovery, recovery, you talk about in the word you use is comparisonitis.
And in recovery we talk about learn to identify, not compare. You know, and, and I, what I, and, and that's why like I could read Amy Porterfield's book and be like, I identify with everything Amy Porterfield says, right? Like, I'm not Amy Porterfield. I'm not in my business yet where you are. Right. And if I compare my backend to you, having been in business for, what, 14 years now?
Yes. It's so unfair. I'm gonna cry. [00:22:00]
Amy Porterfield: Yes.
Kari Doherty: So I hear you. You know, so I, I really like the way that you use that word comparisonitis because I think that, you know, all of us, you know, and it's funny, I've recently learned that I believe it's the, the hippocampus, the, it's, it's actually a function of our brain.
Yeah. To compare ourselves to other people. And it's, it's like, it's how we, it's how we, it's danger, right? Like, oh, okay, the last time somebody. Looked at me like that they attacked me, right? Yes. Like there's an actual function of our brain to compare ourselves to other people. It's how we detect danger in, in the wild.
And obviously we're not necessarily in the wild, we're in modern society, but Right. It's how our brain keeps us safe. Yes,
Amy Porterfield: that would, that would make sense. Definitely. So there's a function there for sure. Yeah. But I also know that when you take it too far is where you absolutely be immobilized instead.
And
Kari Doherty: that's one of the things Brene Brown says. She says, we can't necessarily stop ourselves from comparing ourselves to others, [00:23:00] but what we can do is start to notice. . Oh, that's huge. And then we can choose, do I wanna engage this thought or, or can we change the channel here? And that's what I love about your book, is it's that middle of the road, you know?
Other, again, other recovery phrases that you use. Keep it simple. Mm-hmm. . Yeah. You know, you use the, the phrase progress, not perfection. Yes, these are slogans that we use in 12 Steps, so that's why I was reading this book, like this is a recovery book. This is how to recover from years of workplace abuse.
Yes, yes. And, and to bring that energy back into our, our own, our own business and our own selves and, and really business is an extension of ourselves. Like our business. I is who we are, you know. It,
Amy Porterfield: it really is. And, and I love that you bring up, I, I haven't talked about it a lot like workplace abuse and it's very alive and well.
I could tell many stories of that. And I was reading this article yesterday about people asking for raises throughout the last [00:24:00] year and how studies have shown that more men got the raises, then women. And when I read that, although my book is for men and women, but when I read that, I. This is why I wrote the book though, because I don't want any woman who knows her worth to have to ask for a raise and then be denied and go back to her desk and continue the work that she's been doing and probably doing an amazing job and not getting the accolades for it.
I want more women and men to create their own wealth in their own way, on their terms, and the only way you can do that is when you're, your. That is not going to happen in a nine to five job. You can have a great job. Like I employ 20 full-time employees. I hope they love their job. So imagine how kind of awkward it is to write a book to say, quit your job and start your own business.
And anyone who does though, right? Not my team. But no, when I tell my team, if that's what you wanna do, I'm gonna support you all day long, but. Some, some people are in a job they [00:25:00] absolutely love and are thriving, but they're likely not going to pick up this book. It's when you know to your core, something's off and you want something more.
Mm-hmm. . Mm-hmm. . And that's what you've gotta
Kari Doherty: listen to. You know, I know we have to wrap this up, and I have just loved this conversation, and if we could just end with one thing. I know that there are people who listen to this podcast who are in recovery, who also are either trying to start their own business or are in their own business.
And if you had one piece of advice, if you could go back in time and give one piece of advice to your former business advice to your former self, what would.
Amy Porterfield: Ooh, I love this question. So I gotta say two things. Number one is that the advice I'd give is to please be nicer to yourself. Mm. I was so mean to myself.
Those first two years of business, something didn't work. I would tell myself, I'm not cut out to do this. I didn't make as much money as I thought I would. I'd say you have to go back and get your nine to five job. You're not cut out to be an entrepreneur. the way I talk to myself, [00:26:00] really, I can't even believe I stayed in the game.
So be very mindful of how you talk to yourself because it means the world in terms of staying in the game versus not. I just got lucky that I still stayed in, but I can't even believe I did. Take the risk, make the mistakes, use it as feedback. I wish I gave myself permission to make more mistakes in the beginning and not have to have it all figured out because who does in the.
The other thing is I would've asked myself even before I left my nine to five job, how long are you willing to stay in a place that is not bringing you happiness or satisfaction or joy? Like how long are you willing to stay here before you go after the life you really want? I stayed way longer than I should have.
Most people listening are staying longer than they should. Mm-hmm. . So how long are you willing to live the life you don't? Because when you know the life you want is literally on the other side of fear. So I'm encouraging people to take that leap and go for that courage. And I think this book is gonna help 'em get there.
It sure
Kari Doherty: will. And I wanna encourage people, once this book is released on [00:27:00] February 21st, get a copy. Thank you so much. Get yourself involved with Amy Porterfield. You are a gem. You are a queen. You are regal.
Amy Porterfield: I can say I love you, all that about you. I'm such a fan of the work you do. I love you so much and thank you so much for having me.
Thank you so much
Kari Doherty: for being here and for taking the time to share with us. You are an incredible person and I encourage anyone to get yourself involved with Amy Porterfield, so ah,
Amy Porterfield: thank you my friend. Thank you
Kari Doherty: Amy. Thank you for listening to the Luminous Recovery Yoga podcast. If you'd like to support the show, please consider joining my pat.
Or leaving a comment and review. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts or YouTube,
