Click here to download the PDF version of the transcript.
AMY PORTERFIELD: Hey there, Amy Porterfield here. Welcome back to another episode of The Online Marketing Made Easy Podcast. Today is going to be extra good.
Marie Forleo is back on the show and she is the one guest who has been on my podcast more than any other guest. This is her eighth appearance, to be exact.
One secret about Marie coming on the show, we always collaborate in advance. We come up with a really good idea and then we hash it out together and get all the details together. We go back and forth a bunch to make sure every minute you spend with us on this episode today is going to be worth every minute of your time.
Let me tell you a lot of thought and work went into this episode and I think you’re going to really find it valuable.
Today we planned something special because we’re going to walk you through the seven fears we have personally struggled with as we’ve built our businesses. But I asked Marie to come to this episode with some extra special, something she hasn’t done before.
As we walk through these seven fears I want Marie to tell stories of students of hers who have faced these fears head on and by really working through them they’ve built online businesses that are thriving, profitable, and successful.
I want you to hear stories of other people who have gone before you and have just busted past all of the fears, even though they felt all of them, and they’ve made their business a reality.
I think you’re going to walk away feeling incredibly inspired and you’re going to have a shot of courage after this episode because you’re going to be ready to really dive in and make big things happen.
That is my mission for this episode.As you hear these stories you might think, “Oh no, that girl! She can’t build an online business. She doesn’t have the right background,” or she doesn’t have enough knowledge or skill set or everything is stacked against her, “No way is this going to work.”
Or, you might think an idea is crazy, “No, no, no, not going to work.”
I want you to really listen to the stories because there were so many times in these women’s lives they thought it was not going to work but they still plowed forward. They still made it work.
I’m always inspired by real-life stories. I want to see that it can be done. I want to hear about people that have gone before me. It gives me courage. I hope you feel the same way.
To give you just a quick snapshot, here are the seven fears we are going to talk about today:
Ø I don’t have an email list. How can I start a business if I don’t have an email list. No one’s going to buy from me.
Ø I don’t have enough skills to make an online business work.
Ø It’s all been done before. My market is so saturated and other people are already doing exactly what I want to do.
Ø I’m too old to be starting a business online.
Ø I want to make a pivot. I want to do something different than what I’ve been doing for the last 5, 10, 20 years but I’m not sure how to start over.
Ø I can’t figure out all of the tech that’s needed to get my business up and running. Just the thought of creating a website stops me in my tracks, let alone all of the other tech stuff I’ll need to do.
Ø I am overwhelmed. It’s just too much.
Those are the seven fears we’re going to drill down into today and I bet you can relate to a bunch of them. I know I can. I can still relate to some of those ten years later after building my business.
Stay tuned because we’re diving into all of them. Again, Marie will be sharing not only the real-life stories of triumph from students that have busted past these fears but also some tips and trips to navigate these fears in your own business.
I mentioned that these stories you’re going to hear today are Marie’s students. A little insight there. You may or may not know that each year Marie opens the doors to her mega-successful, incredibly valuable training program called B-School. B stands for business.
B-School is an online training program for big-hearted creatives who want to build a meaningful, profitable business online.
Whether you want to turn your part-time gig into a full-time business or take your existing company to new heights or maybe you’re starting from scratch, B-School helps people at so many different levels in their journey.
I promote B-School each year because it’s 100% aligned with how I teach online marketing and what I teach.
Many of my students also go through B-School. Where I teach the step-by-step roadmap to create a profitable business, creating and selling online courses, Marie takes a holistic approach and drills down into the goals, the vision, the brand, and overall foundation building of your business.
You need both. You need to know how to craft your goals and vision and branding and build that foundation. And, you need to know the step-by-step to build the type of business model that you want.
That’s why our programs are incredibly aligned and that’s why I am a huge supporter of the B-School program.
Why am I telling you this right now? Before Marie ever opens the doors to B-School she always releases one of the best, a must-see experience, business-building workshop.
It’s totally free, all online, and she delivers it over three separate training videos. I encourage you to check it out. Again, it’s free, incredibly insightful, and I want you to take a bunch of notes.
The first training video comes out today and you can watch it at https://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/marie. It’s so good and so free and I will be watching it again. I do every year.
I’ll be talking about it a lot online. If you want to go on this business-building journey with me then, by all means, make sure you check it out. One more time, it’s at https://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/marie.
I won’t make you wait any longer. I think you’re going to have a lot of fun with this episode. I know I sure did. Let’s do this.
AMY: Marie Forleo, welcome back to the show. I’m so excited you’re here yet again.
MARIE FORLEO: Yay! I’m so excited to be with you, Amy. We always have such a good time and this is going to be our best yet.
AMY: It’s going to be our best yet! I just know it. You guys know I’m a planner so you know Marie and I have notes. We went over the ideas. We talked about it. I was actually just on Skype with her before we started recording and told her to stop talking. It was too good. I’ve got to get it all recorded so I just cut her off and said, “Let’s go for it.”
What people probably don’t know (my listeners) is that you and I talk a lot. We’re constantly text messaging and doing voice texts and all of that because we are sharing stuff with each other, the wins, the losses, the challenges, the questions. That is so valuable to me.
MARIE: It’s so valuable for me personally and I think the point you want to make is everyone listening right now needs those folks in their life that they can have on speed dial.
That’s your dial a friend when shit’s burning down or something is so good and you need someone to celebrate with who you know is going to lift you even higher.
When you’re an entrepreneur a lot of folks still, frankly, don’t understand all of what we do, especially when you go into the world of online business and online marketing and how we build everything. Frankly, it’s like a completely different language, still, to most of the world.
I know when people get in you think everyone’s doing it but if you step back and look at the bigger perspective it’s still quite strange. That’s why I appreciate you so much, Amy. I also just want to say this to all of your listeners.
Guys, I have witnessed and been around so many different people over the past 20 years that I’ve been doing this. Amy is one of the most talented, gifted, generous teachers that I’ve ever met.
She’s even better personally, if that’s even possible, than what you guys hear on her podcast each and every week, which is beyond stellar so that just gives you a little bit of a frame on how smart you are to listen to this woman.
AMY: Okay, come one. You are the guest on my show. You are just so very generous with that so thank you for that. What’s cool, Marie, is you have seen what’s happened with me over the last year.
I’ve talked about it on the show a little bit. I got out of the partnership. I’ve been going in a new direction. I have a new program. What’s cool is you know me at my core and I think it’s important that we surround ourselves (this is a tip for all my listeners) with people that know you at your core and know what you’re capable of and can give you that tough love when you need it.
Moving on from our love fest. We are talking about fears. Specifically we are talking about the fears that my students feel, especially when they’re just starting to build their online business.
When you and I were talking about this you said, “These are not new fears.” Talk to me about that.
MARIE: Here’s the good news with our fearful, stressful thoughts. None of them are new. They are all recycled. All humans have a variation or the very same stressful, fearful thoughts.
Here’s what’s great about that. Nothing is unique to you. What’s even better is they are all figureoutable. So the fears we’re going to talk about today, I guarantee there’s going to be at least one of them that are not the exact wording you have in your head but it’s something very close.
Here’s another thing I want to say, Amy. When we were going through this list so many of these can be adjusted even for the folks who are listening that are a little more seasoned or advanced.
These fears really do recycle back at each new stage you go through in your business. Right now, as you know, I’m working on putting the final touches on my book. I can recognize some of these fears for myself after doing this for 20 years.
I think this is going to be a really valuable conversation whether you’re just at the beginning of your journey or you’re going to that next chapter. You’re going to recognize how old and tired and worn out these fears are and that gives us a leg up to overcome them.
AMY: Yes! The whole goal is to recognize the fear and then get inspired to move past it and do things differently so you don’t live in that fear and let it pull you down. The stories will inspire you guys. Just wait for it. They are so good.
Let’s get into it. Are you ready?
MARIE: Yep.
AMY: Fear #1: I don’t have an email list.
MARIE: Yes. First of all, all of us start so I want to make this statement. We all start with no mailing list. Amy started with no mailing list. I started with no mailing list. Anyone that you admire or are following on Instagram (oh my goodness, how the hell did they get there?) at one point in time they started with zero.
Back in the day when I started I used to carry around a yellow legal notepad to my bartending gigs, to all of my fitness classes and I would sign people up for that newsletter right on the spot because you were allowed to do that in those days.
Here’s the second thing I want to tell you guys. Always, when it comes to a mailing list or even when it comes to followers (again, Amy and I both teach that it’s not about that because you don’t own that connection with them) it’s always about quality over quantity.
I would rather take a smaller, more highly engaged list of subscribers over a mega list any day of the week. It’s that important to focus on quality over quantity.
I want to give you two quick examples of people who are like, “Yeah, this is fun for you Amy and Marie. You guys have got big lists.”
Okay, let me tell you about some folks who are, perhaps, very close to the stage where you are right now. The first woman is Francesca Hogi. She is a dating and career coach in California.
Francesca went through our program, B-School, and wrote to us to say, “Hey, I don’t have a mailing list and I did not have an online business.”
She didn’t even have an offline business. She had no clue where to begin. She was asking herself how she was supposed to get clients. How do I build an email list? How do I cut through the noise?
And, this is the one that everyone has at some point in their career, why would anyone ever take me seriously?
That’s where Francesca started off, again, where we all do. She went through BSchool. She busted her buns. She implemented and she changed everything.
She went from Ground Zero to growing her email list to over 3,000 subscribers. That is not an insignificant amount. In doing so she started creating content. She was discovered by a Today Show producer and that has led to 12 appearances on that show.
She told me she went from having a wannabe business to an actually growing business that supports her full time.
AMY: That’s so good.
MARIE: Isn’t that cool? She’s a dating and career coach. So, again, if people have it in their minds that you can only make money if you’re selling how to make money, NO!
No, no, no, no, no. Get that fear out of your mind because it’s not true.
I’ll tell you one more quick story if that’s okay. This one is from Molly Patrick. She is great. She told us that before she went through the program she was broke and stressed and worried that she would never be successful.
By the way, I’m rewriting and editing a chapter in my book right now where I was in that exact same place feeling like, “Oh my goodness, nothing is working, nothing is ever going to work.”
When she started with our program she had no revenue at all. Fast forward about three years she went from zero to now having five full-time employees, a 33,000 email subscriber list, and last month they brought in over $100,000 in sales in one month.
AMY: Wait! What do they do? What is her business?
MARIE: Get this, it’s not how to make money. You know what it is? She’s a plant-based expert. This is all about wellness and foods. She has a company called Clean Food/Dirty Girl. It’s super, super fun.
Her and her girlfriend got married last year. They bought a house in Hawaii. Now she says she is living a life where she’s comfortable. She has money enough to give to her sweet parents to help them out and she said she is no longer scared of failing because she’s winning.
AMY: Yes!
MARIE: Those are two examples of folks who started off exactly how Amy and I did with no email list and no clue, a dream, knowing they wanted to do something, and being willing to work really hard for it.
If you have that fear that you don’t know how to grow an email list, you don’t have one or know if you could ever have one, we can take that fear and set it aside because it is 100% figureoutable.
AMY: Yes and yes. Okay, moving on to Fear #2: I don’t have enough skills to make an online business work.
MARIE: Yeah. This is a really understandable one, especially for those of us who don’t feel particularly technically savvy. We feel creative. We want to do the craft. We want to do the work. We want to help people. We want to connect with them.
I know at least I have had this fantasy, right? Can someone else just do all of that really hard stuff because my brain doesn’t work that way.
AMY: Right!
MARIE: I’m not built that way. I’ve heard that time and time again. Again, I’ve had those thoughts in my mind. I’m curious, Amy did you ever have this particular one?
AMY: Oh my gosh. If we’re talking technology specifically I tell my students all of the time that I am anything but technologically savvy. I am not techy at all and I actually don’t even enjoy that part of it.
But I also say we’re entrepreneurs. We figure this stuff out. You can’t just say, “I’m going to close my eyes and just pretend it will go away and hope that it all comes together.”
You’ve got to just get in there and do it.
MARIE: Even if it’s not about technology, even if it’s about the day-to-day operations of running a business (again, I’ve worked with people on that). I remember when I first started my coaching business.
Oh my goodness, Amy. I did not know how to hire anyone. I was terrified of having an assistant because I have never been a boss. Because I started young I also had a lot of self doubt and fear and concern around hiring someone that was older than me and managing them and doing a really crappy job.
Let me tell you Stacy Ann’s story. By the way, you guys, obviously these stories are from B-Schoolers but whether you join us for that program or not, just listen to the stories themselves. These are real humans who went from having an idea and being in a place of fear and insecurity to making their dreams come true.
I want you to be able to use that as fuel and possibility for yourself. I’m sure people know this, Amy, but I just wanted to say it.
Amy and I are so committed to people having success whether you join us for our programs or not. We want to see more people succeed because when people are happy they contribute. When they contribute this world gets better. Everything improves.
That’s just a little bit of context.
I want to tell you about Stacy Ann. Her business is Quilted Ornaments, Patterns, and Knits.
AMY: These are my favorite stories because you are like, “What? Say it one more time. What is it?”
MARIE: Quilted Ornaments, Patterns, and Knits. Stacy’s story is a mind blower to me. It always bowls me over. She is a mom in Florida. She was selling her handmade ornaments mostly on EBay and Etsy.
She was doing it just to make a little extra money around Christmas time. Stacy had never graduated college. She had been a stay-at-home mom her whole adult life.
Tragedy struck and she became a widow and everything in her life was turned upside down. She was put in a position where she needed to turn that tiny side hustle of an ornament business into something that could support her and allow her to support her kids.
Her biggest problem was confidence. She had the fear that she didn’t know if she had what it takes to actually do this. She wasn’t sure she could actually make a living selling Christmas ornaments. It seemed way to seasonal, way to niched, and definitely something that wasn’t scalable.
She said something really funny, Amy, she was like, “Marie, I know you always say the world needs that special gift that only you have except for the gift of folding little pieces of fabric into Christmas ornaments. The world does not need that.”
It actually does! Anyway, she did B-School. She implemented, again she worked her butt off. Her audience began to grow. Sales of what she was selling at that time was an eBook of patterns actually started to take off.
Suddenly she started to see from evidence that something she felt was so tiny and unimportant wasn’t. Then Amy, she had this idea which I think is brilliant. She got a joyful idea.
She thought it would be cool if she launched an ornament of the month club. She will tell you she thought the idea was kind of out there. Is anybody going to want an ornament of the month club?
Guess what? She trusted her gut. She went for it and it started to take off. She kept going with that. It allowed her to hit her first six-figure year and then just a few short years later she is doing seven figures and has a ten-person team now.
She’s bought her dream home, which was an old lake house, and she runs her business from there so she can be with her kids.
AMY: Hold on a second. For a woman that you said she didn’t go to college and she had been a stay-at-home mom. I believe anybody can do anything but I’m sure in her head she thought, “I didn’t go to college. I’ve never had a real big corporate job. I can’t figure this out.”
MARIE: That’s right.
AMY: She still did it. That is incredible. Also, this ornament of the month, my first thought would be, “Who’s going to want an ornament when it’s not Christmas?”
She still went with her gut. These are the things I love when you just feel like you have to do “this” and go for it.
MARIE: Here’s the thing too, like what we talk about in B-School all the time. Amy you and I talk about this and I’m sure you talk about it on your show. We have to give ourselves permission to play and experiment.
She gave it a go. She tested the idea to see if it had legs. She had some momentum going with her eBook sales and things were starting to take off. But when she had this new ornament of the club idea she gave it a go.
If it didn’t work after a few months I am sure Stacy would be wise enough to say, “Okay. What did I learn here? Let me take in that feedback and try something else.”
But she would have never known that it could turn into a seven-figure business unless she gave herself the permission to test.
AMY: That’s what I was hoping. I am so glad you brought that up because it was on the tip of my tongue. Let’s say she did the ornament of the month club and it didn’t work. Now she’s that much further along to try something else or pivot but you’re right.
If she didn’t even give it a go because she wondered who would buy an ornament when it’s not Christmas she would never be where she’s at in her beautiful lake home running her business from her home.
MARIE: Exactly. So if anyone listening is feeling like you don’t have the education, like you’ve never done anything before like this, or (like Stacy said), “Who the hell is going to need the special gift of folding fabric into ornaments?”
It’s like, oh no! There are folks out there who have the same type of desires and quirks and loves and passions that you have.
AMY: Yes, exactly. That was a good one. I love the stories that bring these fears to life. It makes me feel as though everything is grounded in concrete and real. Let’s keep going.
Fear #3: It’s all been done before. Sometimes you hear, “My market is too saturated and other people are already doing exactly what I want to do.”
MARIE: This is a super common fear and I will say that as you get into the online world, and people will recognize themselves in this, all of the sudden once you have an idea you start seeing it everywhere.
You start to have the belief that everyone’s talking about “this” or everyone’s already done it or people that you admire have already done it and it’s a million times better.
This is common. I can still hear the voice in my head saying this. Again, I’m doing this now for two decades, if you have this fear you are very normal and I just want to say it’s not going to go away. There are no new stressful thoughts. There are no new fears.
They are all recycled.
I want to tell you a story about a market I think we all know is incredibly big and there’s a lot of activity in it. The health and wellness space in terms of nutrition and healthy eating is a $277 billion market and it’s only growing.
Specifically, if you think about juices and cleanses I don’t know where you live but they are probably where you are. I see them constantly.
I want to tell you a story about Jen Hansard and Jada Sellner who didn’t let the idea that the market is too saturated stop them. When they joined B-School they created and launched a product right after the program.
It was a $47 green juice product. It was a smoothie type product. It was not very expensive. In 12 days they generated over $85,000 in sales with no advertising and no affiliates.
AMY: What? How? How did they do that?
MARIE: They took a lot of the ideas, the strategies, the understanding, the marketing know how they had just gained through B-School and positioned what they were doing so they were focusing on the solution. They poured their heart. They focused on their ideal customer. They remade over all of their copy.
Amy, they just fucking went for it. I’ll tell you, they didn’t stop going for it because those gals went on to create a multiple six-figure business with two books and over a million followers.
AMY: Wow. They are great. I love both of them so very much. They are friends of mine so hearing their story is so inspiring.
MARIE: Yeah. But, I want to bring it back to this idea that a market is too saturated, right? Again, health and wellness. Thinking about the nutrition and eating space is all over. But just because people have done something, and I’ll tell you this, Jada and
Jen, as amazing as they are, there’s loads of other successful smoothie green juice people.
My best friend in the world is Kris Carr. She’s got a beautiful, enormous business that’s just got a different frame on it because she’s different from who they are.
Here’s the takeaway I want everyone to remember. There are over seven billion people on the planet. There is more than enough space for you as long as you bring your unique gifts, your perspective, your stories, your take on a topic, on a product, on a service.
If you try and copy someone else you’re going to lose but if you stay grounded in the genius that is intrinsically you then you are going to win. If you learn marketing, whether you learn it from Amy or myself or somewhere else, but if you learn it and learn how to write great copy, learn how to connect with your ideal customer, learn how to pour your personality in with confidence about who you are then you are going to win.
Bringing it back, remember there is more than enough space for you as long as you have that strength to bring the full you to the table.
AMY: Yes. Amen to that. It’s so good. My listeners needed to hear that more than probably any of these fears so thank you for that. I love it.
MARIE: One more before we move on to #4.
AMY: Bring it.
MARIE: On that tip, guys, if you compare yourself to others and start doing shots of compare schlager you’re going down the tubes. Please don’t do it. The moment you’re in the space of comparing yourself to other people, I promise, you will lose steam in your business.
You have to be like a racehorse. You have to put blinders on. You have to have faith and you have to trust. There has never been and there will never be another you.
That’s not just poetic. That’s not inspiring. That’s based on scientific fact. Your DNA is one of a kind. It will never be on the planet again.
Your DNA is part of the root of where your special gifts and your talents and strength and perspective come from. So when I say the world needs that special gift that only you have, again, it’s not just a platitude. That’s based in science and fact.
Never worry that it’s all been done before because if it hasn’t been done by you it has not all been done before.
AMY: Yes and yes. You’re on fire girl. We’re moving on to the next fear. This fear is going to resonate with a lot of my listeners. I just know it.
Fear #4: I am too old to be starting a business.
MARIE: Oh my gosh! If we just cut that one off that “I am too old”, can I be honest about this?
AMY: Yes.
MARIE: Everyone, whether they are in their 20s, their 30s, their 40s, their 50s, their 60s, their 70s, or later, we all have this thought.
AMY: Right.
MARIE: We live in a culture that is obsessed with youth. If you’re not the top fucking 15 entrepreneurs under 15 years old you feel like a fucking loser. It’s insane. This is nuts. I remember feeling too old in my 20s.
Right now I want to slap myself. Are you crazy? Anyone who is legitimately right now listening saying, “Yeah, whatever girl. But I’m in my 60s or 70s,” I want to tell you a story in a minute but I do want to just emphasize that this idea that I’m too old, everyone has it at practically every stage of life. Would you agree with that or not, Amy?
AMY: A million percent. I definitely remember in my late 20s thinking, “Oh my gosh, people are so much younger than me getting onto the online marketing scene.” I remember it like it was yesterday.
MARIE: Yes. Didn’t you have those thoughts for the next decade?
AMY: Yes. I mean yes!
MARIE: You’re like, “Oh sure, it’s different now. Now it’s really over. Oh, now I’m over the hill. Forget about it. Now they’re all coming up.”
AMY: Yes and yes. I did an episode where I talked about some things I didn’t want to admit. One of them was that I hate aging on video. I am very aware that I am getting older and it’s showing. I’m sensitive about that. Yes, I get it.
MARIE: Yes, it’s common. I want to tell you guys about this incredible woman. Her name is Alexis. She’s from Philly. She is a 62-year-old artist. She signed up for B-School and told us that in her mind what her thoughts were saying, perhaps her best years were already behind her.
Again, I will raise my hand to that. I don’t know anyone listening who hasn’t had that thought at least once. But once she did B-School she said she learned her best years are here and now and in the future.
She’s an artist. Again, an artist. She’s not selling how to make money. She’s selling beautiful illustrations and paintings and eCourses about creativity. She started off not having many sales. Now she’s enrolling hundreds of people into her eCourse, 100s of people!
She started in her 60s. We’ve had other B-Schoolers in their late 60s and early 70s who bought their first computer ever to do the program.
AMY: Stop it!
MARIE: No! I’m telling you, we’ve seen this and I fucking love it. I’ll tell you this, it’s a little bit off topic but I do need to share it because it’s pertinent. This whole idea that you’re too old is such bull shit.
My dad is about to turn 71 in just a few weeks. Do you want to know his workout schedule right now, Amy?
AMY: I want to know it all.
MARIE: Five days a week my Pops, a little short, used-to-be-pudgy Italian guy, 71, does a 45-minute boot camp style circuit class every fricking day from 8 to 8:45.
AMY: What?
MARIE: No wait, this is five days a week from 8 to 8:45. He’s sweating his little buns off doing all of the jackknifes, burpees, all of that stuff. Then in the evenings seven days a week he does not one but two 30-minute sessions on his stationary bike like a boss.
AMY: I love this. Are you serious?
MARIE: I shit you not. I lie to you not. My dad is working out harder and better than I am right now. Age is nothing. You are never too old to follow your dreams unless you say you are.
Here’s one thing I want everyone to remember. The most powerful words in the universe are the words you say to yourself. If you say you’re too old, you know what, you’re right. But I will tell you if you look out in the landscape and look out for possibility and look out for people who are whatever age you can totally do whatever you want.
If you’re still breathing you’ve got time. That’s the truth.
AMY: Yes. What’s your dad’s name? We’ve got to give him a shout out.
MARIE: Ron.
AMY: Ron, you’re doing it man, like a boss!
MARIE: He is, he is doing it like a boss.
AMY: I love it. So let’s see here. We’re moving on to Fear #5: I want to make a pivot. I want to do something different than what I’ve been doing for the past XX years but I’m not sure how to start over.
MARIE: This fear is a big one, Amy, because I think for most of us if we’ve had a certain level of success or even if we’re comfortable in our careers and we have experience, we have a track record behind us, something in our souls (that little small voice inside) says, “It’s time for a change. It’s time for some reinvention.”
We want to be like whoever, we want to be like Madonna back in the day when she was constantly reinventing herself. It’s understandable that this fear kicks up because you’re moving into uncertainty, into the unknown.
You’re probably going to need to develop a new skill set so I think this fear actually encompasses layers of the others (I’m too old, I don’t know if I have what it takes) so a lot is built into this one.
I want to tell you guys about a woman named Karen. Karen was an acupuncturist for 20 years but things were starting to slow down. I think we’ve all noticed that in our lives. There is a certain aspect of something you’re doing and it’s not quite working for you anymore.
You start thinking about starting something fresh. That was happening for Karen. She had been mulling over ideas for a business but really didn’t have any. Then tragedy struck. Her mom, who was her best friend in the entire world, had an emergency surgery and never recovered.
For Karen, her whole life was shattered in that moment and she really took it as a signal that it was time to start her next chapter.
Karen’s story is really unique, and here’s why. She signed up for B-School and within eight weeks (which I had never seen this done before, Karen is a fricking rock star) she launched a new business. In eight weeks!
AMY: What?
MARIE: Yeah. No, no, no, no! It’s crazy and it was focusing on a breakfast food called congee. She had beta testers for her subscription service. She had never done anything like this before and, frankly, I’ve never seen someone implement that fast.
She went from going, “Well, maybe it’s time to retire,” to actually feeling excited about turning 50 and building a brand new business.
She told us that before B-School she had no clue about things like SEO or opt ins or automation. Now she’s automating and optimizing and capturing leads. She’s making promotional videos and she said each day she breaks free from limiting beliefs and just goes for it.
She says, “As Marie says, all of the details are figureoutable. The sky truly is the limit.”
AMY: This is a good story because I think there are a lot of my listeners who have been doing something for a really long time but they want to do something different. The way from acupuncture to breakfast food is very different so this is a great story.
MARIE: Yeah it is. One thing I want to share is that I think all of us tend to underestimate ourselves in such a big way. When we’re making the transition to a new chapter we completely forget we’re bringing wisdom, we’re bringing skills and understanding.
Even if those skills and understanding don’t precisely align or apply with what we want to do next it’s like we erase our entire life before hand and feel like we’re bringing nothing to the table. That’s so not true.
Yes, while you will need to learn new skills, we all do. You will need to develop new capabilities and new understandings and new languages, per se, in terms of whether it’s technology or marketing or the particular topic you want to go into, that’s fine.
But don’t underestimate all of your wisdom, all of your experience, all of the life skills you’re going to bring to the table. Frankly, for most of us, if we’ve been doing something for ten, 20, 30 years you cannot discount what you’re bringing to the table.
I’m happy to be where I am now. I would never want to go back to being 18 again. I didn’t know shit.
AMY: Amen.
MARIE: It’s completely possible for you. One of those fears, and we have many more stories like it, but I love Karen because in eight weeks she went from nothing to “I’ve got this.”
AMY: I love it. We’re moving on to Fear #6 and we kind of touched on this one but I want to get very specific about it.
Fear #6: I can’t figure out all of the technology that’s needed to get my business up and running. Just the thought of creating a website stops me in my tracks, let alone all of the other tech that I need.
MARIE: This fear is really understandable. Here’s what I want to do. I want to paint a contextual picture.
Amy, do you remember back in the late 1990s or early 2000s? When I first started all websites were hand coded. It was insane. Every single thing had to be painstakingly built from the ground up and hardly anyone knew how to do it.
We’re living in the best time now. Even if you don’t know how to figure out the tech it is 100% figureoutable. Now things are so much easier. They are lightning fast, drag and drop, and more user friendly than they have ever been and that trend is only continuing.
Here’s what I want everyone to know. If you’re afraid of tech it’s nothing to be afraid of. You don’t have to. It is really all figureoutable. There are incredible tools online. If you wind up joining us for B-School we have a lot of support in terms of mentor coaches and other B-Schoolers and people that will never leave you hanging to try and leave you in a lurch.
I want to quickly tell a story of Christine Elder, again think about this niche, an environmental educator and biological illustrator. I didn’t even know these people existed.
Christine had spent 20 years as an environmental educator and a teaching artist. She wanted to inspire people to learn more about nature but her market was limited to the rural towns where she lived.
She did not grow up with the technologies available today. She never even considered the possibility of taking her business online, let alone scaling it globally. But, after she did one year of B-School everything locked in to place for her.
Now she’s done B-School for four consecutive years. She went from being totally ignorant on tech to now having tackled that fear of technology. She’s shooting, editing, and producing nature education videos and developing a membership site for families to learn about nature through sketching and journaling…all online.
AMY: These are the stories I live for because she knew none of that before she said, “You know what? I’m going to make this happen. One way or another I’m going to make it happen.”
MARIE: That’s right. She put herself in the environment. Again, our environment is BSchool, you can choose any one that you want. She surrounded herself with people who not only believed it was possible but people who could show her the way.
They support her in her learning. They would offer her resources, ideas, and examples of how to actually do it. Again, you can think I’m annoying as all shit. Don’t come in. That’s fine.
I want to just instill in you that whether or not you can figure out technology is completely up to you. It is 100% figureoutable. You’re more than capable of doing it.
The question is: Do you really want to?
AMY: Ooh, that’s a good question. I always tell my students if they would just sit down and say, “I’m going to figure this out,” and tackle it then it’s a lot less scary when you get in there versus thinking about it all day thinking you don’t have what it takes to figure it out.
MARIE: The mind is the most tortuous place to live in the world. Our minds are not designed to make us happy. They are not designed to help us feel pleasure. It’s not designed to help us feel confident and capable. It is designed to have us feel afraid, stressed, and freaked out all the time.
That’s why it’s a shitty place to live.
AMY: Exactly. Actually, I am so glad you brought that up. That leads me to our seventh and final fear. This one is for everyone. It doesn’t matter if you’re just starting out or you’ve been at it for a long time. It’s the idea and it’s just the word that kills me. I think it brings us down.
Fear #7: I am overwhelmed. The thought that it’s just too much. I want to be on a crusade for myself and for my listeners to take that word out of our vocabulary. I think it’s poison. But you must hear this a lot, Marie, with your programs and everything you do online.
People get so overwhelmed with all of it.
MARIE: Overwhelmed is a state of mind and it’s a place you can choose not to be. It’s a choice that you make. Listen, I am not preaching from the mountaintop. I remind myself of this daily so I’m in this with you.
I absolutely work on catching myself. Any time that my mind and the thought appears, “I’m overwhelmed,” I’m like, “Actually, no I’m not.”
You know what? I left the present moment and I went into my thoughts about the present moment. Not to get too spiritual here but it’s really practical.
Stop saying you’re overwhelmed and refocus your attention and energy in this moment. I’m overwhelmed is a choice. You need to choose again. It’s not too much. You’re going to have a to-do list until you are powder. That’s just the truth.
We’re all going to have things to do until we die. The choice we need to keep making, and it really is a practice and habit that we can develop (like you said, Amy), is to not say that you are overwhelmed, not to allow yourself space to go into that state of being.
The trick is if you have a lot on your plate you might need to do a 10 or 15-minute brain dump to get it all down on paper so that it’s not squirreling around up there.
That’s fine. In the moment you do that you get back into engagement in this moment and doing the next right act.
In any moment you can really only be doing one thing. If you’re talking to yourself about everything you have to do you’re actually not getting anything done in that moment. You’re stressing yourself out. It’s a fear that’s really common and it’s a fear that’s 100% within your control.
That said I want to tell you guys a story about a woman named Adrienne, who is a speech language pathologist and a sign-language instructor.
Before she came through the program she had no experience at all. She didn’t know how to create a website. She didn’t know who to sell to. She didn’t even know what the hell an email list was.
She told us she was feeling overwhelmed, defeated, discouraged, and lost. She was asking herself who she was to start a business. Do I have to go to business school? Do I need an MBA? Am I too young (Adrienne’s on the other side of feeling insecure because she doesn’t have the experience yet)? What’s my first step? How would people even find out about my product even if I could get it online?
Here’s what she did. She stopped telling herself she was overwhelmed and she stayed in action. Within nine months of launching her business after she did B-School she surpassed her monthly income as a speech language pathologist and now she’s making a full-time living doing what she loves.
AMY: Wow, I love those stories. The fact that she started out thinking she didn’t even know how to make it work or what she was going to do but my favorite part of what you just said is that she took herself out of “I’m so overwhelmed.”
MARIE: Yes. That’s right. She was in that same place that we all start off. I’ll tell you, Amy, when I started writing the book I’m working on now do you know how easy it was for me to go into that head space?
I was like, “I’m overwhelmed.” Again, I’ve been doing this. I have written another book before. This is so chronic. So if you have this thought you need to know that you’re not alone but please also know you can save yourself. You don’t have to go down with it.
AMY: This is great because one thing you said was that instead of staying in that overwhelm you want to get into action. That’s exactly what they did in so many of your stories you shared with us today.
They didn’t know what they were doing or how they were going to do it from the start. They put their head down and they got into action.
That is such a perfect segue to something I really want you to talk about. You have a free business-building workshop that went live today at the time of this episode going out.
It is one of the best of the best business-building workshops I’ve ever gone through. I want you to tell my listeners a little bit about this and why it’s just so valuable for them.
MARIE: Thank you for that. Why I particularly want people to go through it: A) It’s free, B) Because I think one of my gifts in this world is being able to take complex and often overwhelming subject matter and break it down into step-by-step pieces where people can not only consume it but they can see the big picture and know what action step to take first, second, third, and so on so they can start making progress.
It gets them out of that state of feeling paralyzed and feeling like there’s just too much and that they don’t know where to start and wonder about the first thing they need to do. It gets them on that first step so that they can take the second, the third, and so on.
Specifically, with the free online business-building workshop I’ll teach you about the six pillars of building an online business. Again, it’s a very sprawling subject but we break it down so that you start off knowing, “Here’s the first thing I need to think through and understand. Here are the questions I need to ask myself and answer.
Here’s what I need to consider first.”
Then you can think about Pillar #2. Then you can think about Pillar #3 and Pillar #4 and so on. We have a workbook that goes along with the series. Again, all of this is free.
It allows you to take all of those brilliant ideas in your head, all of those potential possibilities, all of the things you’ve been thinking about, and put it into a structure and architecture where you have a roadmap to move yourself ahead.
Again, I believe so much in the power of small business. Frankly Amy, it makes me want to cry when I hear these stories. Many of the stories I’ve told today, I’ve never met these people in real life.
I have worked with them via videos in an online experience but it’s not like I’m holding their hand everyday telling them what to do. The fact that women, especially (I love men too, of course), but so many of these women found themselves in these places of crisis, in these places of insecurity and self doubt, in these places of financial hardship and went from nothing to having a life they love.
I feel like I’m doing my service in this world. Why am I saying that? If you take yourself through this free business-building series you will have a roadmap for yourself whether you never learn from me again (I hope we come and work together but even if I’m not your solid that’s cool) I want to give you the tools so that you can fulfill your destiny and that’s what this free series is about. It’s the starting of that path.
AMY: I have known so many people who have gone through this free series and taken pages and pages of actionable notes and taken action from those notes and they’ve gotten real results. I’ve heard it over and over again.
MARIE: We’re so proud of our B-School community and our larger audience but I think what’s really impressive about that is that it proves to each of us that it’s possible. That’s why I love those numbers.
Folks from every different walk of life coming from every different background and circumstance, every different set of gifts and sensibilities and things they want to do and change they want to do in the world, Amy, I think that’s probably the one thing that is consistent about our audience and why I love getting an opportunity to be on your show.
We want to work with people who not only want to make money through their business (money is great, we love money, it’s awesome) they also want to make a difference.
They want to use what God or the universe or Smurf ferries or whatever source you believe in, the gifts you’ve been given to actually contribute meaningfully to other people, I think that’s what our greatest opportunity as business owners is…And to be able to put yourself in an environment where other people believe that, they see that, and that’s what they’re working towards, it really gives you the fuel to keep going.
AMY: It is so true. Guys, I highly recommend you go through this free business-building workshop. It is one of my favorites. You do not want to miss it and it’s for a limited time. It’s not going to be up forever so you definitely want to check it out at https://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/marie.
Marie, thank you so very much for being here. I loved the stories. I love talking about these fears, bringing them to life and really hitting them head on. I think this is one of my most favorite episodes.
MARIE: Thank you, Amy, and thank you for having me on again and thanks everyone for listening.
AMY: There you have it. I hope you loved this chat with Marie and I as much as I loved it. I thought it was so inspirational because I loved all of the stories. I hope you check out our free business-building workshop.
The first video, The Six Pillars of an Online Business, is your roadmap for your overall business. Even if you’ve gotten going in your business, watch it and then check your business against the six pillars and see if you have all of them in place and you’re working on each of those pillars as you grow your business.
Make sure to download that free workbook that comes along with the six pillars. I think it’s really good.
One final thought, especially if you’re on my email list currently or if you follow me on Facebook or Instagram. In the next few weeks you’ll likely be hearing a lot about Marie Forleo’s free training series and her wildly popular program, B-School.
My goal over the next two weeks, as you hear me talk about my own experience going through B-School nine years ago, is to help you do what I did which is face your fears in your business, determine where you are right now, and fully clarify both the quick wins and the long-term opportunities that you need to build your business and make consistent revenue.
Along with Marie’s free training videos I’m going to take you on a journey of discovering more about where you are in your business right now and exactly where you need to go in order to match up your hopes and dreams with the actual strategies that you’re working on to get results.
Let’s go on this journey together. I think it will be a lot of fun. The first step is to dive into Video #1 with Marie at https://amyporterdev.wpenginepowered.com/marie.
There you have it. I’m looking forward to diving in to next week’s episode with you which is all about building your three-month content calendar. One of the ways to really solidify the foundation of your business is to be creating consistent revenue. My students struggle with coming up with content ideas enough.
We’re going to put together a three-month content calendar, how to do that, what that looks like, and all of the steps in between to help you really solidify that foundation.
Alright guys, I can’t wait to talk to you again next week same time, same place. Thank you so much for being here. Bye for now.