Today’s Lineup:

• Turns out I’m still a people pleaser if you’re a lovely human 🤷🏻‍♀️
• How to test your IG reels before your best audience sees them 🤳
• Mine and Hobie’s latest competition is getting… unsexy. 🤓

---

I got another draft that I didn’t love and felt sick that I had to tell her… again. 

Backstory: a month ago, I was digging through my mom’s jewelry box, the way the youngest daughter does, looking for something to borrow. 💍 I found a few rings she never wears. Dated, and not my style either. But the diamonds were beautiful.

So I asked if I could have them reimagined into two rings, one for me and one for my sister. A piece of her we get to wear every day. She said yes. 💛

The designer was patient and kind from the first message. I gave her direction, but when she sent mockups, I didn’t love them. So I sent feedback. She sent a new design. I didn’t love that one either.

And instead of saying so, I sat there feeling guilty. Embarrassed I couldn’t describe what I wanted, because jewelry design is not my world. Convinced I was being a pain.

Meanwhile, I am paying substantial money for a ring I plan to wear for the rest of my life. 💍

Listen, I’ve spent years telling you to care less about what people think, and I meant it. Mean comments under an Instagram post barely register now. Someone talking about me behind my back, fine.

But put me across from a person who is working hard to please me, someone kind, and I soften. I hedge and say it’s close enough.

You think you have your people-pleasing under control until you’re dealing with the people you like.

Which is why it matters to catch it. If I hadn’t, I’d still be telling myself I’ve outgrown caring what people think. And I’d keep paying full price for work that isn’t what I asked for.

You have a version of this. The contractor whose draft you accept at 80 percent. The team member you rarely correct. The vendor you thank, then redo yourself at 11pm.

Going easy on her costs us both. She never gets to make the thing I actually want, and I never get to wear it.

I’m sending the real feedback today. You too?

Are You Using Trial Reels?

The growth strategy I’m testing and loving lately? Trial reels. 🤳

If you haven’t used them yet, Instagram lets you post a reel to non-followers only.

It doesn’t go to your grid, and your audience doesn’t see it. Within 24 hours, you have real engagement data from people who’ve never heard of you, and if it performs, you can share it with your full audience.

So I get to test on cold traffic before I spend my own audience’s attention on it. 🙌

We were in a growth slump for a while, but by using the strategy, we’ve grown by thousands quickly.

Now, a word of warning. ⚠️ I could have turned this on a year ago. I didn’t, and that was deliberate.

I spent two quarters getting my messaging right first: who I’m talking to, what I say to her, and the words she uses when she describes the problem.

Volume multiplies whatever message you already have.

If the message is vague, you get vague at scale, and now you’re paying for more content to reach more people who still can’t tell what you do or why it matters.

So, that’s the order. Message first, then volume. Before you add more content, answer this: if a stranger saw three of your posts back to back, could they tell you exactly who you help and what changes for them?

If you hesitated, don’t add volume (yet). Go fix the messaging.

I’m in a Sleep Competition (And Losing) 💤

---

I obsess over my sleep score every morning like it’s a P&L. And because Hobie and I are incapable of leaving a number alone, we compete. 

Last week he pulled a 100. I got a 75. 😤

My score isn’t always that low. But the Eight Sleep I told you about a few weeks ago? It can only do so much when my routine is out of whack, so I added magnesium glycinate. Fingers crossed!

Then my friend Kate came over this weekend and told me about sunset glasses.

You wear them from sunset until bed, block the blue light that scrambles your rhythm, and sleep better than you have in years. 😎

She recommended some from Ra Optics, and they say their lenses use a pigment that absorbs high-energy blue wavelengths the same way melanin in your skin absorbs radiation so you don’t burn.

No idea yet if it works. But I trust Kate. 🤝 So I ordered them.

So starting this week, 6pm is glasses o’clock. ⏰ Which means I’ll be making dinner in heatless curlers, an overnight sheet mask, and a pair of funky orange lenses.

Lucky, lucky Hobie Porterfield. 😉

Nice chat! Let’s do it again next week.

Until then, tell the truth when the work isn’t right, test your best content before you amplify it, and don’t mind me turning good rest into a gauntlet.

Amy

P.S. The tasks you keep doing yourself because explaining them would take longer than doing them is the exact work I want you to hand off ASAP… and not to a person.

I went through Callan Faulkner’s AI Employee Bootcamp, and 10 out of 10 recommend. ⭐ She teaches you to build AI employees (trained on your business, processes, and voice) that do the repeatable work just like you’d do it. It’s taken real hours off my week and real money off my P&L. 🙌

She’s running it again over three 90-minute sessions on September 29, October 1, and October 6. General admission is $47 today, but the price goes up soon! 🚨

If absolutely everything is still up to you and the only advice anyone gives you is “hire someone,” grab your seat here now.

I’m an affiliate, so I do get a kickback if you join through my link. But I’d be telling you about it either way.