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AMY PORTERFIELD: Hey there, Amy Porterfield here. Welcome to another episode of The Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Today I have a special guest. His name is Hobie Porterfield.
Hobie, say hello to everybody.
HOBIE: Hello everybody.
AMY: This episode is extra special because we are going to do a rapid fire 20 questions. Let me set it up for you. About a week or two ago I asked my audience to send in questions in advance for a rapid fire 20 questions.
The hook was that I couldn’t look at any of the questions in advance and Hobie was the only one that got to look at them.
He went through all of the questions and chose his favorite 20. I haven’t seen them, right?
HOBIE: You have not seen them. There were a ton of great questions so it was actually really hard to narrow this down.
AMY: Was it? Okay, be easy on me. I’m a little nervous that you’re going to ask questions that will make me feel very uncomfortable.
HOBIE: This is so exciting because you’re definitely going to be uncomfortable on a couple of them.
AMY: You guys can’t see us right now but we’re sitting very close to each other. It feels very awkward. Last time Hobie was on the show I made him go in the other room and use his own mic because he fidgets the entire time.
Do you think you can kind of get it together here?
HOBIE: Yeah, but I’m definitely going to fidget.
AMY: Oh great. Okay. Here we go. I’m going to try to keep my answers really tight unless I kind of have to elaborate. We don’t want a super long episode, right?
HOBIE: That’s correct.
AMY: Actually, now that I think about it, some people might not know about you if they didn’t listen to that other episode (Episode #161). Do you want me to give you a proper intro?
HOBIE: Sure.
AMY: My guest today is Hobie Porterfield. Hobie Porterfield is the most handsome husband of Amy Porterfield and the father of Cade Porterfield, who is our 15-year-old son. We live in Carlsbad, California. Hobie’s a San Diego firefighter. He has huge muscles. He was a Navy Seal and he’s a very handy man and can fix just about anything.
You’re fidgeting and they can hear the paper rattling.
HOBIE: I’m not supposed to fidget.
AMY: Yeah, so don’t rattle the paper. There’s your intro. Do you like it?
HOBIE: That was a great intro. Thank you very much.
AMY: Let’s get to it.
HOBIE: That made me feel completely disarmed and I’m completely ready to proceed. So I get to ask you questions and you’re going to have to answer them.
AMY: Yes, I am ready.
HOBIE: This is so good. Here we go. Question #1: How do you find a family and business balance without losing your sanity and feeling guilty?
AMY: This is an easy one. I find my balance because I married a man that makes it very easy for me to find balance. I’m really not just building you up right now. You never give me a hard time for working too much. You’re very patient when I’ve got to work longer hours and you also speak up when it’s too much.
Would you agree with that? When I push it too much or work too many weekends and am working too many nights you’ll say, “I haven’t seen you. You need to close the computer. We need some time together.”
You’re pretty vocal in that as well.
HOBIE: That’s a pretty good answer.
AMY: Right?
HOBIE: Here we go with Question #2: When are you going to move or retire to Tennessee? Inquiring minds want to know.
AMY: Do you have names for these people?
HOBIE: Yes.
AMY: Okay, who asked that one?
HOBIE: That was Chantelle.
AMY: Okay, so am I going to give in and move to Tennessee? I think yes. I was talking with a girlfriend today and was telling her, “I really love this idea of getting a lake house in Tennessee.”
The funny thing is Hobie looks at lake houses online every single night. Would you agree with that?
HOBIE: Every night.
AMY: We have to wait until Cade graduates high school, which is in about 2 ½ years so we’ve got some time but I think it’s going to come. Nashville, we’re coming for you.
HOBIE: Yes! Porterfield compound. Question #3: What was the best vacation you ever had? From Tracy.
AMY: Oh Tracy asked this one. Best vacation. I would say our best vacation was at the One&Only in Mexico.
HOBIE: The first or second time?
AMY: I actually loved the first time. We’ve been there twice and the second time was amazing. We had already known what to expect. The first time, when we went outside and had a little mini pool on the balcony overlooking the ocean we had never had anything like that before. Would you agree that was kind of amazing?
HOBIE: 100%.
AMY: Would that have been the vacation you would have chosen?
HOBIE: Yes, for sure. I don’t know if I would say one for sure but definitely there. Alright, next question. Can you share with us about a challenging period of your life and how you got yourself out of it?
AMY: When I think about the business, the most challenging time was when you decided to become a firefighter. You quit your general contracting business and went into training. You had to go back to school for fire science and then you went into training with a bunch of 21 year olds when you were in your late 30s.
You weren’t making any money and I was so afraid you were going to hurt yourself. Remember you would get out of bed every morning and I would say, “I wish I could wrap you in bubble wrap every morning.”
Your back would hurt. Your joints were hurting. You were in bad shape but you kept going. It was the most challenging time because my business was just starting and we weren’t making a lot of money.
We were actually getting in debt during that time. I was trying to get the business going. You were trying to become a firefighter. Cade was still really young. I really never want to go back to that time.
HOBIE: I would have to agree. But we made it through it and look where we’re standing now.
AMY: Yes. It’s funny. When you ask these questions your voice gets very, very deep and sexy.
HOBIE: Oh yeah?
AMY: Are you trying to be like that?
HOBIE: Could be. I’m trying to be an interviewer.
AMY: Don’t use an interview voice. Your real voice is not coming through so can you try?
HOBIE: It’s kind of my real voice.
AMY: A little bit.
HOBIE: Next question. If a work-life balance is important to you how can you tell if you’re getting it right?
AMY: That’s a good one. I know I’m getting it right when I wake up in the morning and I feel happy and you and I are happy in the morning, talking to each other, having a good time, getting our coffee. Things feel light.
When we go to bed at night they still feel light and there is not a heaviness around us. And, when Cade is happy too, when Cade’s getting good grades, he has good friends, he’s enjoying stuff in school. When Cade’s happy and you’re happy I feel like I am winning at life.
HOBIE: You are winning at life. Next question. How did you pick your dogs’ names…Gus and Scout?
AMY: Oh my gosh. Gus was never going to be named Gus. Do you remember what he was going to be named?
HOBIE: Yes.
AMY: What was it?
HOBIE: You say it first.
AMY: Okay. Let’s say it together. One, two, three…Bates. You didn’t say it! Would you have said it?
HOBIE: I didn’t say anything because I keep forgetting his name.
AMY: Oh my gosh! So Gus was going to be named Mr. Bates because at the time we got Gus we were obsessed with Downton Abbey. We loved Mr. Bates so we were going to name him Mr. Bates but it was weird.
HOBIE: Every time you called him that it was like, “Mr. Bates, Mr. Bates.” It didn’t really gel.
AMY: No. And I always said if I ever had a little boy I would name him Gus. Since we don’t have children of our own I thought, “If I’m never going to have a baby maybe I could name my first dog Gus.”
Gus was definitely my first so we named him Gus.
HOBIE: And Gus kind of acted like an old man.
AMY: He did. Gus sounds like an old man name, which I love. Then Scout, the reason we named him Scout is because right at the time we got our dog we also got a 1970, was it a 1970?
HOBIE: 1970 International Scout.
AMY: It’s really cool, a convertible. We love it. It’s our little beach ride. We had gotten this International Scout, an old car, so we just wanted to call our dog Scout as well. Now it gets very confusing, if you’re like, “Do you want to go in the Scout?”
HOBIE: Scout, let’s go in the Scout. Come on Scout, Scout.
Okay, next question. What does a typical day look like for Amy Porterfield?
AMY: Just for the record, not to pimp my other episodes…You wouldn’t know this Hobie. Hobie does not listen to my podcast. That would be weird if he did because he’s not in the internet space but I did an entire podcast episode, A Week in The Life.
We’re going to have to link to that. You don’t know this but there are show notes and you link to other episodes when you mention them.
HOBIE: Oh.
AMY: You’re learning all this stuff.
HOBIE: Someone told me I was really good in an episode we did before.
AMY: There you go. Here’s the deal. A day in the life typically looks like this. I usually have some kind of live video to do or just a recorded video. Would you agree I’m always doing some kind of video?
HOBIE: Always.
AMY: Every time I’m ready to do a video why don’t you share with everyone what you tend to do.
HOBIE: When you share a video?
AMY: No, when I’m recording a video downstairs what do you tend to do?
HOBIE: I usually go in and out of the garage which is the exact wrong time to do it.
AMY: Oh, and he flushes the toilet. We have the loudest toilet in the world downstairs.
HOBIE: I wasn’t going to share that with everybody.
AMY: We’re sharing it all today.
HOBIE: Oh alright!
AMY: Hobie goes pee every time. I can hear him pee and I can hear him flush the toilet while I’m recording a video. Would you agree?
HOBIE: That’s true. That’s true. For some reason, when you start talking on a microphone I’ve got to go to the bathroom.
AMY: I usually record some sort of video whether it be an Instagram video or something for Facebook ads or a Facebook Live like I do in my groups. It feels like I’m always recording some kind of video.
From there I am typically working on some content for the podcast or for the new program. I’ll sit down and literally write content and work on outlines and all that good stuff.
I tend to always have one meeting check in with somebody on my team, so that typically happens. If I’m just thinking about work stuff, then I spend a little time in Asana, our project management tool, to go over tasks I’m working on and make sure I’m on track.
Those are some of the things I do work wise. I always get up in the morning and if it’s a day I’m working out I’ll work out first. I tend to get up before the boys.
HOBIE: Always.
AMY: I’m always up before the boys so I’ll get up maybe 5 or 5:30. I love that whole hour or hour and a half before anybody gets up. I’ll drink my coffee. I’ll do a little work. I usually like to do writing or outlines or content because I’m best in the morning.
The boys get up and I do the mom stuff if I need to. Truth be told I tend to not need to when you’re home because you do all of that. You get Cade breakfast, get him out the door. You make it easy for me.
Then I work out and take Scout for a walk and then I go on to my day.
HOBIE: You forgot that you wake me up.
AMY: Oh yeah, I tend to wake Hobie up around 6:30 every morning when he’s home.
HOBIE: I’m not good at waking up without you. Next question. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made in your business or the single best thing you’ve ever done in your business?
AMY: Oh my gosh! The biggest mistake or the best thing I’ve ever done? Wow.
HOBIE: Which comes to mind first?
AMY: The best thing I think I’ve ever done is to say that I want to create online training programs, I don’t want to have clients, I want to get rid of doing social media for other people, and I just want an online course business model. That’s the best thing.
The funny thing is, I was talking to a friend today and she does masterminds. I’m always thinking she does “this” or he does “this”, maybe I should be doing that. One day I might but I always come back to the fact I really love my business model and it really works well for me so I keep it.
HOBIE: That was pretty good. I remember when you were making that transition. It was a big deal.
AMY: It was big.
HOBIE: Giving up on set income to go after just what you wanted to do. I’m proud of you.
AMY: Thanks Babes!
HOBIE: Thank you. Next question. How do you manage not to respond on negative comments? Example, Facebook ad with webinar link. Please share that with us because I don’t look at your comments because I can’t not do it.
AMY: Hobie’s terrible, guys. Just so you know. On Facebook he has to jump into the conversations that I tell him, “Do not jump” into, like the personal ones or the firefighter union ones or anything like that.
For me, I never engage. If it’s something that’s broken and I need to apologize and say, “We’re going to fix it,” I’ll jump in every day. But if someone’s just saying something negative and nasty about me I rarely see it.
I don’t even look for that stuff. And #2, if my team sees it they don’t alert me. There’s no need for me to know. And, #3, I always just say it’s more about them than it is about me. It never even enters my mind to look for negative comments about me.
HOBIE: God, you’re so much more positive than I am.
AMY: You like a good fight though.
HOBIE: That’s how I work the team. Keep the ball grounded. Next question. Does Amy share the blankets, Hobie? Or, is she a covers hog? Inquiring minds need to know.
AMY: We’re not saying people’s names. We’re forgetting to say their names.
HOBIE: That’s Nicole.
AMY: Okay Nicole, that’s a funny one. Go ahead Hobie.
HOBIE: That’s not a funny one, that’s an easy question. My nickname for Amy with the blankets is The Alligator because she grabs it and rolls until she is wrapped around it and I have nothing on the entire bed.
AMY: Sometimes in the middle of the night I wake up and he’s literally laying there with no covers whatsoever. I literally have to cover him up because I’ve taken all of them.
HOBIE: Freezing. Warm with love but freezing.
AMY: So hard.
HOBIE: Next question. What would be the best, most challenging part of swapping jobs for 24 hours? This is from Eric.
AMY: You and I swapping jobs?
HOBIE: That’s what I got out of it.
AMY: Oh my gosh, Eric! This is such a good one. The question was the most challenging part of it?
HOBIE: What would be the best and most challenging part of swapping jobs for 24 hours.
AMY: The most challenging would be all of the physical stuff you do. Hobie told me a story. He came home from the fire station the other day and literally had to wrestle a huge giant to the ground because he was getting unruly.
I could never, ever, ever do that kind of stuff. The hero, physical stuff? I can’t do and would never want to do even if I was in shape like you. I couldn’t do that.
But, I think the most rewarding part and the most exciting part, to me, would be the part that you get to help people every day. That’s pretty cool that you do save lives every day.
Sometimes Hobie leaves the house and I say, “Alright Babe, don’t be a hero today.” He would be the first one to jump into the fire or go help someone. I say, “Don’t be a hero today,” and what do you say?
HOBIE: I say, “That’s my job.”
AMY: That’s my job! So I don’t want him to be a hero because I don’t want him to get hurt. Okay, so how about you?
HOBIE: I think the most challenging part, I would have to have Chloe with me even more than you have Chloe with you because to say I’m technologically challenged would be the understatement of the year.
AMY: Very true. You would need Chloe for sure.
HOBIE: I’m barely up to the email phase of technology.
AMY: I try not to tease you too much about that. Can we tell the story? Please let me tell the story.
HOBIE: Go ahead, tell the story.
AMY: Okay you guys, I have to tell you something really quick. I know it’s going to be more funny if you were in it and now you’re hearing it so it’s not going to be as funny. The other night Hobie was at the fire station and he was texting me.
HOBIE: I wasn’t texting.
AMY: Okay, he wasn’t texting me. I called Hobie and he didn’t answer the phone. What he didn’t know is he accidentally hit a button and you know on an iPhone you hit a button and you can send an auto message. The auto message was, “Can I call you later?”
He didn’t know he sent that to me. I looked down at my phone and I get a message that said, “Can I call you later?” Then I got another message that said, “Sure.” I asked him if he just answered his own text. You were confused.
HOBIE: I couldn’t figure out exactly how that happened because I didn’t touch my phone other than to take it out of my pocket and you asked if I answered my own question.
I went back and looked at it and saw that it was in blue meaning I had sent it myself. Then I wondered, “How did it just do that?”
AMY: I laughed so hard. It was the kind of laugh that no one was around and I was still laughing. You sent yourself a text and you answered it. It’s a good thing you said, “Sure.”
HOBIE: See, that’s more technology than I can handle.
AMY: I know, Babe. I know.
HOBIE: Now the best part of doing your job is that when we get to meet people and they talk about how you changed their lives and changed their business. When I hear people look at you and genuinely say you have changed their lives by helping them do their business and how much you give that’s pretty touching.
AMY: That’s sweet. That was a good one.
HOBIE: That’s pretty amazing.
AMY: Thanks Babes.
HOBIE: Next question. How has being a woman played to your advantage or disadvantage in growing your business?
AMY: Oh wow, you’re not pulling out any stops. What is this person’s name?
HOBIE: Amber.
AMY: Okay Amber, a disadvantage is that I believe being an internet marketer is still a boy’s club. Would you agree? It feels like a boy’s club to me.
HOBIE: There’s definitely more boys. Yes.
AMY: Because it feels like a boy’s club I sometimes feel that I need to play in that energy, that masculine energy of go, go, go, hustle, hustle, hustle, no tears kind of thing. We both know I’m a crier.
HOBIE: That’s alright.
AMY: I’m an easy crier. Sometimes I feel like I have to be stronger or more masculine than comes natural to me. That would be a disadvantage. The advantage of being a woman is that I feel like women have super powers that you boys don’t have.
HOBIE: That’s true.
AMY: I feel we can show up in a different way that can instantly connect with somebody or allows us to make that connection in a way that is incredibly powerful and genuine and we need to take advantage of that more.
I’m not saying that men can’t do that but I do think it comes naturally to more women than men, those instant connections where I get you, I see where you’re at, and I can help you. I feel that’s our super power.
HOBIE: I agree.
AMY: I hope that didn’t sound sexist. I do want to preface that with “some men can do that too.”
HOBIE: Okay, that’s good. I like that. I’m a man. I’m not offended by it.
AMY: Do you like it when I touch your leg when we sit here like this?
HOBIE: It makes it such a better angle. It makes my leg stop moving too. Next question. What family routines or rituals keep your family or marriage happy?
AMY: Family routines or rituals? Can you answer this one?
HOBIE: Yeah, I can think of the very first one. We’ve got to have our cup of coffee together in the morning.
AMY: We do. We have a cup of coffee together every morning. We have a unique situation where, just so everyone kind of understands how it works over here, Hobie goes to the fire station at 6:30 in the morning. He comes home the next day at around 8:30 in the morning.
When he comes home around 8:30 I try to plan my day to be able to stop and even just do 20 minutes together so that we can sit and drink our coffee together. The regular mornings that you’re here we do it at 6:30 in the morning if we get up with Cade and all that good stuff.
I took that for granted. I forgot that’s a thing we do every morning.
HOBIE: The other thing that I don’t think everybody does, we go to bed…
AMY: Keep it appropriate.
HOBIE: We go to bed together. It’s not important to be speaking of what we’re doing in bed but we go to bed together every night.
AMY: We do. That’s a good one. Basically, around 10 o’clock at night or somewhere around there, or earlier but let’s pretend that doesn’t happen, we go to bed together every night.
I can’t sleep without Hobie and I have to sleep without him every other night so we never want to take that for granted. We don’t get every night together so no matter what we are always going to bed together at the same time, which I love.
I do know some couples that someone will go to bed at 10 and the other one stays up until 1 a.m. I love that connection of always being together in that.
HOBIE: Yeah. For sure.
AMY: And, of course, guess who goes to bed with us? Scout.
HOBIE: And sleeps at my head.
AMY: We’re having an issue right now. We need Scout to get off the bed sometimes but he doesn’t want to. Anyway, moving on.
HOBIE: Next question. No more about Scout’s intimacy.
{ding}
AMY: Is that your phone Babe?
HOBIE: Yep.
AMY: Babe! When you do a podcast…
HOBIE: I understand.
AMY: You’ve got to turn off your phone.
HOBIE: I never have it on.
AMY: Are you an amateur at this?
HOBIE: Yes, come on! This isn’t my first podcast. Next question. If you could only do one thing differently when you first started your business what would it be?
AMY: If I could do one thing differently…
HOBIE: Just one.
AMY: When I first started my business…I would…
HOBIE: That’s tough because everything led to something.
AMY: I know. That’s so true. If you changed one thing maybe we wouldn’t be sitting here today talking about our 20 questions. This is such cliché but it comes back to list building.
I wish I grew my list faster and was more intentional. It took me two years to say, “I’m going to sit down and make list building a thing every single day in my business,” but I didn’t. I always say if I could go back that is the one thing I would change.
I would also go back and tell myself that I don’t have to take it so seriously, I don’t have to kill myself every single day to make this business work, and I would also tell myself that how your business looks today will look dramatically different years from now so continue to make decisions but don’t make everything set in stone.
You don’t know this but I say that to my students as well.
HOBIE: That one’s tough because you can’t really go back and do that. That would be cheating but that was a great answer. Next question. Twenty seconds of courage. Can you share a moment in your business when you had to call in true courage and it became a pivotal moment for you?
AMY: Oh my goodness.
HOBIE: Good question Janet.
AMY: When I had to call in true courage. You guys don’t know this but Chloe is in here with us doing this interview. Can you think of anything Chloe, where I had to call in true courage. That’s a hard one. Chloe, why don’t you say, “Hi” to everyone.
CHLOE: Hey guys, how’s it going?
AMY: Chloe’s doing a little video so we can use it on social media. Let’s see here, a moment I had to call in true courage. There are so many times I’m nervous to make decision and to do things.
This is going to sound kind of silly but it was a very big deal to me. It’s going to sound super nerdy to most people. There was a moment where I had Facebook Marketing Profit Lab. It was making tons of money and was doing really well.
My first big step in that was that I wanted to change it from Facebook Marketing Profit Lab to just The Profit Lab. I wanted to take off Facebook and that sounds so silly but I didn’t want to be known for Facebook anymore.
I wanted to expand my business and be known for more things. I was getting burned out with just one topic. We made the leap to take off Facebook Marketing and sell the program as The Profit Lab. I was afraid the sales would totally decline on the next launch.
Looking back now, I think I put way too much weight to it. In looking back, it wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought. But in the moment I was scared I would lose my audience. That was a big one for me.
The second one was this year, literally weeks ago. I spoke at Social Media Marketing World. I don’t think I told you this whole story, Hobie, but I spoke at Social Media Marketing World.
The topic was how to do video when you don’t like doing video at all. You know me and you know we’ve talked many times about my weight and sensitivity around my weight and being on video.
At Social Media Marketing World I got up there and talked about that to an audience live on stage. They could see me, which is very vulnerable. I can’t hide the weight so they could see me and I was talking about not liking to do video because of the way I look.
I talked about all of these insecurities and then I talked about how I still do it anyway. I did that on my podcast, as you know, but to be in front of people standing there where they could see me talk about it took more than all of the courage I’ve ever had.
I was literally sweating so much I came off stage and thought I had been standing in the sun for 20 hours. But I did it. I forgot. That story was better than the first.
HOBIE: And they told you what I tell you every day.
AMY: You’re going to…
HOBIE: You’re smoking hot.
AMY: I was going to say…let’s just stop and move on.
HOBIE: Smoking hot.
AMY: Hobie’s very romantic and I will tell you guys that when I call Hobie he will answer the phone and probably nine times out of ten this is how he answers, “Yes, you are a smoking babe! Yes, I love you. What do you want?”
That’s how you answer the phone every single time. Moving on!
HOBIE: Next question. If you look at your business five years, ten years, and 15 years from now, what does it look like? Are your long-term goals carefully mapped out and planned or are there massive leaps that can’t even enter your short-term thinking?
AMY: Massive leaps that cannot even enter my short-term thinking. I only think about the year I’m in right now. I’m not a huge planner beyond this year. You can see that as a good thing or a bad thing.
I am really trying to stay present and work on the things that are right in front of us because it’s very overwhelming for me to think about things in front of me. I’ve got big dreams and big hopes for our business, our family, my team but I don’t even solidify those.
HOBIE: But, let’s be clear. That year you’re talking about is planned out to the second.
AMY: That’s true.
HOBIE: I didn’t want you to come across as if you are flying by the seat of your pants because you are one of the most planned people I have ever known.
AMY: A little bit to a fault. You’re right. There is a lot of planning that goes into the here and now and this year. My audience knows that because I share my planning process with them and they kind of know what that looks like. They know I plan for every podcast episode which is why this one feels very awkward to me.
I will tell you that Hobie and I sitting here together, he has a piece of paper that he will not stop shuffling, and I don’t know the questions on it. I keep wondering if people will really like this. It’s way too off the cuff.
I didn’t even do a proper intro. These are things I think in my head.
HOBIE: If they could just see the pantry and see all of the organization and the bins.
AMY: I’ve got a good pantry, guys!
HOBIE: Next question. What makes your marriage with Hobie super special?
AMY: That is not a question. You’re just…
HOBIE: It is a question. Emily!
AMY: Emily, what makes my marriage with Hobie extra special?
HOBIE: How could I not put that in there?
AMY: Some of you guys already know this. It’s a repeat but I have a point to say in this. I met Hobie when I was still working at Tony Robbins. He hates when I tell this story. Did we tell this story when you were on the show before?
HOBIE: Maybe a little bit but you’re kind of going into the next question.
AMY: Oh!
HOBIE: What makes your marriage with Hobie super special.
AMY: So he doesn’t want me to talk about that story. We’re going to scratch that and come back to it, I guess. What makes it extra special is that we genuinely like each other and respect each other.
I think he is the coolest, funniest, sexiest guy in the whole world. I feel bad for some people because I think I’ve got the best husband in the world and I feel guilty that I took him from everybody. That’s what I think in my head.
HOBIE: We’re going to have to pause this.
AMY: Stop it. That’s so inappropriate. When the audio came on I told him, “Do not say anything inappropriate.”
HOBIE: That’s not going to be possible.
AMY: I do feel like the luckiest girl in the world. My mom knows I’ve been through a lot of frogs to get to Hobie so she always reminds me he’s exactly what I was looking for.
I was 30 when we met so I feel I waited a long time for you. What do you love most about me?
HOBIE: For me it’s your heart.
AMY: Aww, thanks Babes!
HOBIE: I watch you with different people. I think back to an episode where you had come to visit me. At the time I was living in a not-so-nice part of town. You actually stopped your car at a red light, while it was running, got out of your car with the door open, and helped a guy in a wheelchair across the street.
You should not have done that because at that particular intersection it’s a miracle someone didn’t drive off with your car or you didn’t get mugged. But I thought to myself right there you might be one of the most caring human beings I’ve ever met.
AMY: Awww. That’s sweet.
HOBIE: And you’re hot. Let’s face it.
AMY: Thanks!
HOBIE: That was pretty easy too.
AMY: Thanks!
HOBIE: It’s been unbelievably fun to actually watch you grow from the things that used to scare you, hiding in the closet, to you dragging anything out and facing it full frontal.
AMY: It is fun that you’ve been with me since the very beginning so you’ve seen the transition, transformation.
HOBIE: Good question Emily. Next question. How did you and Hobie meet and why do you think you connected so well? Then the plot twist is, “Hobie has to tell the story from his perspective then you have to tell the story from your perspective before listening to Hobie’s answer,” which isn’t going to be possible.
AMY: What a plot twist. Who asked this question?
HOBIE: Lauren from England.
AMY: Okay Lauren I think we talked about this so please forgive me guys, it’s so annoying if you have to hear a story twice, but really fast because we’re going to make this episode short, how did we meet?
HOBIE: Cade’s mom, my ex-wife, actually introduced us. You two were friends at work and you were friends before we had split up. Then we had split up and quite some time later, just to be clear so that nobody’s thinking anything weird happened because nothing weird did happen, it was quite a while later that Tracy had asked me if I would be interested in meeting someone because she said that she has a friend she thinks would be perfect for me.
That’s kind of how you and I met and from the first conversation it was no question that this was who I was supposed to be with.
AMY: This episode’s making me fall in love with you all over again. That’s exactly how I would tell the story except that I add that the reason Tracy said, “I have someone that you should meet,” is because I would go into her office and little did I know they were separating at the time.
I would say, “Your husband is so hot.” She had a picture of you from his modeling days guys! He’s not okay with me saying that. This was way back when.
She had a picture and I would say, “Your husband is so hot.” Then when they got a divorce she would always get into my car and I listen to country music but she does not like country music so she would say, “You remind me of my husband.”
You didn’t know that, the music one, she always thought we would like each other and hit it off because of that. Anyway, she set us up and literally the rest is history. We have been dating ever since. We dated for two years and then we got married.
HOBIE: It took a year before I would tell any friend that’s how we met.
AMY: For Hobie that’s weird, “My ex-wife set us up.” For me, I’m just like, “My really good friend set us up,” so it’s perfect.
Tracy’s a huge part of our life. She lives five minutes from here. I always say Cade is my son because I love him as though he were my own. But he is my step son and he’s been in my life since he was four.
HOBIE: He’s your son.
AMY: Yeah.
HOBIE: Next question. How long did it take you to feel like you finally made it in your business or at least like you had it together? Were there ever any times before that point where you felt like completely throwing in the towel?
AMY: Many times, the first two years, every time I thought I would have to go back to my corporate job. I worried if they would take me back. I didn’t think I was cut out for this. I never, ever even dreamed about being an entrepreneur. It wasn’t on my radar.
When we got married I never told you, “One day I’d like to be an entrepreneur.” Never. I thought I would be in corporate the rest of my life. Then I got that entrepreneurial bug.
The first two years I hated the business I created as a consultant. I was miserable. It just was not for me. I kept thinking, “This is not going to work.”
Many times you had to pick me up off the ground and say, “Keep going.”
HOBIE: Yeah.
AMY: There were many pep talks.
HOBIE: Those first two years were pretty rough.
AMY: The turning point for me was when I launched two products that didn’t do so well. I launched them on my own and then I launched a program called FB Influence. I launched it with Lewis Howes and Sean Malarkey and that was a success.
I learned the ropes a little bit more through them and was then able to do it on my own. The first time I did it on my own after that I launched a product, the ads program, and it made me think I could do this.
HOBIE: I knew you could do it from “jump.”
AMY: Thanks Babes.
HOBIE: Next question. I could really use some advice on handling laundry while you’re working from home. Does somebody else do that for you or do you just work around it?
AMY: Okay, he chose this one you guys. First of all, did you make this question up? Who was asking this?
HOBIE: No! I think it’s Ina.
AMY: Ina, he chose this one, my friend, because he wanted to let you all know that…
HOBIE: She’s never done laundry.
AMY: That is a lie.
HOBIE: Or dishes.
AMY: Yes, he does the laundry and he does the dishes. That is the truth.
HOBIE: I didn’t ask the question.
AMY: Do you want a pat on the back?
HOBIE: No.
AMY: Geez! Moving on.
HOBIE: She just wanted to know how you handled it. I thought it would be important for you to tell her.
AMY: I don’t do it. That’s the truth. Geez!
HOBIE: Alright, next question. How do you balance giving personal attention to your clients while still trying to automate your business and not be too involved?
AMY: I balance it by doing Facebook Lives. That’s a great question. I have a Facebook group called Insider’s Club. It’s for all of my students from all three programs. Once a week, for one hour, I do a live Q&A.
We have a community manager that helps people in the group when I’m not in there. Because my programs are automated I want them to see my face, I want them to hear me, I want them to know my heart and know that I care. I make it a commitment to get in that group.
An hour-long Q&A every week can get a little overwhelming because you’re just answering questions but it also reminds me where my students are and what they need from me.
It makes me feel like I am part of their journey even though the program isn’t necessarily a live experience. That’s how I do it.
Time out. I wish I could do more. I do feel guilty. I wish I could be more in the group or do more one-on-one sessions but I just realize that’s not my personality nor my bandwidth. You’ve got to be clear about what works for you as well but I have the guilt sometimes.
HOBIE: Your family’s happy that you have guilt. It keeps you out of it too much.
AMY: True.
HOBIE: Last question. If you were just getting started in social media what are the three top platforms you would focus on building an audience?
AMY: Hobie why don’t you answer this question. What would your answer be? You guys, when he was putting these questions together I genuinely couldn’t see them. He didn’t let me see anything. But out of nowhere he asked, “What is IG? People are writing IG.”
I told him, “That’s Instagram, Babe.” He does not have Instagram. Chloe is laughing right now. I think the three platforms would be YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram. If I was starting over and could only do three social platforms I think video, for sure, is huge on YouTube.
Facebook is where most people are spending their time and video is huge there as well. I love Instagram. I think it’s more personal than any of the three platforms. I’m starting to do more DMing with all of you and that’s really fun.
I love InstaStories because they are only 15 seconds. For a girl that doesn’t love video I can do 15 seconds.
HOBIE: I’ve heard of all of that except for DMing.
AMY: What do you think that means? DMing.
HOBIE: You don’t want me to say that on here.
AMY: Come on.
HOBIE: Damn man.
AMY: Damn man? Yeah, that’s what it means. That really makes sense. It means direct messaging.
HOBIE: Oh yeah, of course.
AMY: So, we have reached the end of our 20 questions. I want to thank all of you for sending questions in. Hobie said there were a lot of them. So, if you like this episode and want more of it you’ve got to let us know.
HOBIE: It was very hard to choose this down to 20. Honestly, if you didn’t get your question asked I bet you anything it was on my list. It took me a long time to narrow this down.
AMY: It did. He kept laughing when he was reading all of the questions. There is one question, I just realized, that he didn’t ask me but I don’t remember the exact…
HOBIE: I remember it.
AMY: First of all, tell everyone who it’s from.
HOBIE: It’s from this Army guy named John Lee Dumas. It was an instigating question that said, “If you could choose to have the Pittsburgh Steelers win the Super Bowl or win a Tesla in an affiliate marketing contest which would it be?”
That’s terrible. That’s something that only someone in the Army would say to somebody in the Navy.
AMY: Obviously someone was in the Navy. John Lee Dumas, you crack me up.
HOBIE: Don’t ever ask Amy anymore questions.
AMY: Obviously a Tesla. I will tell you guys one more story before we wrap up. Hobie is not in love with this question because he’s a die-hard Steelers fan. He bleeds black and gold.
HOBIE: And I’m not a fan. That’s family.
AMY: Oh sorry guys. Those are his family. Hobie’s from the Pittsburgh area. But I will tell you that when we got married there was a guy on the Pittsburgh Steelers named Travis Kirschke. He went to my high school in Yorba Linda where I grew up in the Orange County California, area.
When Hobie heard this he was very excited and I got my first custom Steeler’s jersey with the last name Kirschke on the back of it.
HOBIE: It was his jersey.
AMY: I wore it like a devoted fan while we dated.
HOBIE: She pretended to be a Steeler fan and to love football.
AMY: I watched every game with you. I was loyal.
HOBIE: She would put her jersey on with Cade and I every Sunday.
AMY: Then we got married and I stopped wearing the jersey.
HOBIE: You just came right to me and said, “Listen, I’m just going to be honest now that we’re married. I’m not really a big football fan.”
AMY: I thought that was funny. He literally looked like he was devastated.
HOBIE: I stayed in a hotel for three weeks.
AMY: He’s a liar. You did not. Anyway, I do not suggest that dating advice. Let’s not trick our men. But I apologize publicly for doing that, alright?
HOBIE: Alright, but it still stings a little.
AMY: Alright guys, thank you so much for being here. Hobie that was a lot of fun.
HOBIE: Hey, thanks for having me.
AMY: I love you dearly. I love you on the show. It’s always so much fun and I can’t wait until you come back again.
HOBIE: Okay.
AMY: Thanks guys for being here. I will see you again next week. Bye for now.
HOBIE: Take care.
