AMY PORTERFIELD: “My very favorite podcasts. And listen, I've got a lot of favorites, but I've chosen a few that I feel like if you've missed them, you've got to listen to them. But I'm going to tell you why. And so you can kind of pick and choose through this Shorty episode—this is a really quick episode—so you can pick and choose which ones feel like, ‘Yeah, that's an episode that could really help me right now,’ wherever you are in your season of business.”
INTRO: I’m Amy Porterfield, ex-corporate girl turned CEO of a multi-seven-figure business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, the budget, and the time to focus on growing my small-but-mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned, and you'll see the business I have today, one that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible, one that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step-by-step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur, or one in the making, who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and a life you love, you're in the right place, friend. Let's get started.
AMY: My latest podcast obsession is My First Million, hosted by Sam Parr and Shaan Puri. They discuss how companies made their first million and brainstorm new business ideas based on the hottest trends. They recently released an episode with my friend Nathan Barry from ConvertKit. It was called “How to Become a Billion-Dollar Creator.” And I loved when Nathan talked about some of his biggest failures and what he'd do if he had to start over. You know I'm a sucker for conversations like that. You can check out My First Million wherever you listen to your podcasts.
Well, hey, there, friend. Welcome back to Online Marketing Made Easy. I hope you’re having a wonderful week. At the time of this recording, it is raining so hard outside, and it's so beautiful. I have my windows wide open, in terms of the curtains pushed back, so I can watch the rain while I'm podcasting with you, which kind of feels perfect for me. So I'm cozy in my podcast studio. And for my birthday, one of my friends got me a heating pad. Now I did not know I needed this, but I am always cold. And so for no reason other than just to be even cozier, I've got this heating pad on my lap, and I might not get up all day long, so it's a podcasting day.
And speaking of it being a podcasting day, we're going to talk about my very favorite podcasts. And listen, I've got a lot of favorites, but I've chosen a few that I feel like if you've missed them, you've got to listen to them. But I'm going to tell you why. And so you can kind of pick and choose through this Shorty episode—this is a really quick episode—so you can pick and choose which ones feel like, “Yeah, that's an episode that could really help me right now,’” wherever you are in your season of business.
And I have to reiterate that this was really tough. I have so much fun creating my solo episodes, and some of you tell me those are your favorites, when I'm just here alone with the mic and taking you behind the scenes. So there's a lot of those that I've loved, but I absolutely adore some of the interviews that I've done.
So, when I say I've selected some of my favorites, it was not—and I repeat, not—a simple task. But these are the episodes that have stuck with me over the course of almost five hundred episodes and many, many years. And I always learn from my podcast, so, hopefully, you're learning a lot. But when I interview people, I'm learning a lot as well. So again, these are the episodes that really stuck with me. I walked away with lessons and new truths and new insights that I didn't have before the podcast episode, and I've applied them to my life and to my business, and so that's why I've chosen these specific episodes. So my hope is that you're going to check these episodes out, and if you haven't already, give them a listen and maybe give them a second listen if you really want it to sink in.
Okay. So, let’s dive in.
First up, episode 421. It was called “From Court Rooms to TikTok: The Korean Vegan’s Journey of Reinvention, with Joanne Lee Molinaro.” Ah, so it’s a good one. Take a listen.
JOANNE LEE MOLINARO: “Failure is a necessary component to becoming successful. That is absolutely, 100 percent true. And so you have to learn to embrace the discomfort of some failure in your life in order to figure out what it is you are meant to do.”
AMY: Joanne was real, honest, and took us behind the scenes and shared stuff most people won't share. And I was so inspired by her story of transformation, not only professionally, going from a lawyer to a full-time content creator, but also personally. I could very much relate to her journey. I think the biggest takeaway for me from that episode was when Joanne talked about having a conversation with her mom, the conversation explaining why she was leaving a secure, amazing job with benefits and lots of clout into becoming a content creator. So when she had this conversation with her mom, she said, “I earned this. I earned the ability to make the pivot and experience something new and change things up. I've earned that.” When Joanne said that, I felt it in my bones. I felt the exact same way for my own journey, and I knew exactly what she meant, and I thought that was so powerful.
Now, aside from that, her ability to story tell really moved me because I think we can all become better storytellers if we tell a story with intention. And to me, she is the ultimate storyteller.
So anyway, those are some of my biggest takeaways, but I'm just a huge fan of Joanne. So if you haven't checked her out, make sure that you listen to that episode. Check her out on Instagram and TikTok. You will not be sorry.
All right. Next up is episode 295, and it was titled “How to Create Atomic Habits, with James Clear.” Take a listen.
JAMES CLEAR: “So behavior and beliefs are kind of like a two-way street. The things that you believe can influence the way you act, and the way that you act can influence the things that you believe.
But the core argument that I make is that true behavior change is identity change, because once you start to see yourself as a new type of person, then you don't even really have to force yourself to do it as much. And you actually hear people say this when they go through habit transformations. They'll say things like, ‘Yeah, I don't know. It was hard in the beginning, but now I can't even imagine not working out. It's just part of who I am,’ or ‘Yeah, I don't really motivate myself to meditate. I'm a meditator.’ And once you start to assign those labels—I'm a meditator. I'm a writer. I'm a runner—then it becomes much easier to stick with it. You're not even really pursuing behavior change anymore; you’re just acting in alignment with the type of person you already see yourself to be.”
AMY: And James Clear wrote the book Atomic Habits.
I was recently talking to somebody about my upcoming book launch, and they were using James as an example. And I don't know the exact statistics, but that guy has been on the New York Times’ bestseller list for over a year, probably much more than that, but he continues to get massive sales of his book every single day. That is, like, a dream come true. That's, like, a unicorn book. If you haven't read the book Atomic Habits, please go read it. I listened to it on Audible and loved every minute of it, and then I had to have James on my show. So this episode happens to be one of our most popular episodes ever. And again, his book Atomic Habits, highly recommend.
So for me, this episode was really powerful because I continue to go back to the habits and the strategies that I learned in this episode over and over again. “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” I'm going to read that again. “Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement.” He shared that getting just one percent better each day offers significant results. James believes that it might be the only way change happens in the real world. That's powerful. He says that accumulating one percent improvements over time will actually get you the results that you're looking for.
So, I shared on this podcast that it wasn't that long ago how I was struggling with depression and anxiety. I shared this in 2021. And with that, weight gain. And if you know me, you know I’ve struggled with my weight most of my life. I have a few episodes on this podcast about my issues with weight and self-love and just being able to put myself out there in a healthy way. And one thing that I've taken from this book is that this year, in 2022, as I work again to get the extra weight off but also just become healthier mentally, I have dropped the all-or-nothing mentality. And I really, really have. And that's a big deal. I wish that I didn't have to be in my forties to learn this lesson. So if you're younger than me, please pay close attention. No matter what age you are, I think this is important to hear me say this, because I was somebody who if I didn't do it exceptionally well, I'm just not interested in doing it.
And here’s where I take it even further, and you could use this in any area of your life. For me, it's overeating, emotionally eating, not showing up in the most healthy way when things are tough. So if I, let's say I had a bad day of eating, then I’d just continue the bad day. Like, I’ll start over tomorrow. Like, it's that f-it mentality. And that just was not serving me at all. And so what I decided to do is every day, I'm going to definitely show up as my very best. But when I mess up—and I learned this from Elizabeth Benton, who, hopefully, is going to be on our podcast. She has a podcast called Primal Potential—but I learned this idea of the next best move. What's the next right move I can make right now versus tomorrow?
And to get back to James Clear, his idea of these one percent improvements, if I could just do it a little bit better, but it's not exactly how I want to do it, my eating wasn't perfectly clean today, my workout wasn't—I didn't lift as heavy as I wanted, whatever, but I got a little bit better. And every day, I do feel like I'm getting a little bit better, and dropping that all-or-nothing mentality or saying f-it has changed things for me dramatically.
So, I don’t know. I just wanted to share that. But that's one of my biggest takeaways. Just one percent improvements every day, over time that adds up to be a whole heck of a lot of success. So, anyway, there you go.
All right. Next up is episode 259, so I’m taking you back. And it’s called “Seven Secrets to Talking About Your Product Like a Pro.” Take a listen.
“If I encouraged you to choose three bullet points to tell me what your product is, in the shortest possible way, what might you say? And for me, for DCA, I haven't worked it all out yet, because I'm not promoting until September again, but I would definitely weave in something where its course creation from start to finish, webinar creation from start to finish, and something around the lines of building a digital-course business. I don't know how I'd weave that in, but those are the three most important things that I want people to really understand about my product. And so you have to take a step back and say, ‘What's most important? What do I really want them to get? What is this about?’ Now, they have to be short and sweet because you're going to actually say them over and over again.”
Okay. So, this one is one of my favorites because it's a solo episode, and it's very unique in the sense that before I was friends with Jamie Kern Lima—and if you know Jamie, you know she has a book called Believe It, and she sold her business for over a billion dollars. So we talk about that. She's actually on my podcast, and she's in one of my favorite episodes—but before I knew her, I was watching an infomercial, and I love infomercials. I know that's going to sound kind of wacky, right? But remember, I came from the Tony Robbins world, and Tony's infomercials were incredibly powerful. Like, at one time, I heard that anywhere in the world, you can turn on the TV, and you will absolutely find one of his infomercials. This was back in the day. So I've loved infomercials for a long time.
But I was watching one for IT Cosmetics, when Jamie Kern Lima still owned the business. And she was going through her product. You know, why it was great; what worked about it; the struggles, the challenges people have; the solution to her product. And I thought, Oh, my gosh. The way she's breaking down her product and talking about it, you can use these same strategies on a webinar. You can use these same strategies on a Facebook Live. You can use the same strategies Jamie's using in an infomercial that costs millions of dollars to create, you can use the strategies she's using to talk about her product to sell your digital course.
So what I did is I recorded the infomercial, sat in front of my TV, and transcribed the entire thing. And then I broke it up and taught what she was doing in that infomercial on the podcast. And the whole goal is to help you sell your digital course or membership or coaching program with ease and more confidence. And I took Jamie's strategy and her brilliance in selling and taught you how to do it on your own.
So the episode’s really, really unique and a very popular one. Episode 259, if you ever struggle with selling online, go listen to that episode.
All right. Moving on to the next one. It’s episode 301, “Why You Should Always Start Before You’re Ready, with Marie Forleo.” So take a listen.
MARIE FORLEO: “Please listen to me now. You have to trust that voice. You wouldn't have the dream in your heart if you didn't have what it takes to make it happen.”
AMY: Okay. That’s powerful. You wouldn't have the dream in your heart—say it again.”
MARIE: “Wouldn't have the dream in your heart if you already didn't have what it takes to make it happen.”
AMY: “I hope you all can hear that. I think that’s a message that we all need to hear over and over again.”
Since Marie is literally the most recurring guest on Online Marketing Made Easy, it should come as no surprise that she made the list. Now you might be asking, what was it about this exact episode, number 301, that stuck with me the most? Well, for starters, we talked about simplifying to amplify. What that means is if you're working on ten projects at once, and none of them are getting done, you are just spinning your wheels. I think of this often because as visionaries, as CEOs, as entrepreneurs, as owners of our business, it's easy to get caught up in all the ideas, all the projects. And I often have to come back to this and ask if I'm confusing activity with accomplishment, which is something that Marie shared in this episode. Are you confusing activity, or you could even call it busyness, with accomplishment, getting things done, closing loops?
And then, we also talked about the ten-year test. Ah, the ten-year test. I really like this one. So, to summarize it, you think about a goal or a project you want to take on. And ask yourself, in ten years, will I regret not going for this goal or not diving into this new project? And notice what comes up for you.
I did this test with writing my book. I had to be honest with myself. I had a lot of really wonderful things going for me, and I wondered if I really needed to add a book to the mix. And I knew that taking on a book, not only would the writing be difficult for me, but then promoting it is a whole other beast I've never done. So I said, “Okay, Amy,”—talking to myself—”If I didn't write this book, and it's ten years down the road, will I regret not going for it?” And like, I got instant chills. The answer was, “Hell yeah, you would. You would absolutely regret it. The time is now. Do it.” So this ten-year test is powerful. Marie talks about it more in this episode. You can go take a listen. Amyporterfield.com/301.
All right. Last but certainly not least, episode 398, “The Uphill Battle of Being Your Own Boss & How to Keep Moving Forward.” Take a listen.
“I don't let myself just be normal. I feel like I have to be so good or so strong because how can I be a good leader if I'm not? And if you've ever felt this way, too, if you've ever questioned being able to be a leader or make an impact, I want to remind you and myself that even leaders have rough days, rough weeks, heck, even rough years.”
Ah. So this one is an episode that I almost didn't release into the world. I literally texted my podcast manager, and I was like, “Do we really think we should release this one?” But she doesn't let stuff like that fly. So she was like, “Yes, we're doing this.” I think this episode gave other entrepreneurs permission to feel their feels and be okay if they weren't feeling in total alignment with how they think they're supposed to feel. And I'd be lying if I said that this one was an easy episode to record, because it wasn't.
A moment ago I mentioned that I did an episode about my anxiety and depression. Well, this is that episode. I was going through a season where I felt really alone in this entrepreneurship thing, and I figured that if I was feeling this way, maybe a few others would as well. So in the episode, I get honest about some really big life changes that I experienced in 2021 and how I was working through them. And I talked about how to show up as a leader, even when you don't feel like one.
And I created this episode as an invitation for any entrepreneur who feels like they've had to hide or fake it to make it. And I made it an invitation for them to feel however they want to feel and know that it's okay to feel that way and that we're all on this journey together, and we always go through different seasons. Some of them are amazing seasons, and some of them, like for me in 2021, was one of the darkest seasons I've ever gone through as an entrepreneur. Just a rough year.
So I talk about it. And those are the episodes that are the most difficult. Being vulnerable and honest and open about my personal life is not my most favorite experience. It just feels like I'm naked the whole time. But I also know that if I'm going to invite you into my life, I want to be transparent. So this episode was the most transparent I’ve probably ever been, and it was one of those that I was like, “Okay. Maybe we don't post this.” Good thing I have a team that pushes me.
All right. So, there you go. I hope you loved this Shorty episode. I wanted to tell you some of my favorite episodes but tell you why. Now that you've heard them, hopefully, you're like, “Okay. Where I'm at right now, I could really use that episode.” Or one of the ones I just mentioned. Go just take a listen. And in the show notes, if you go to amyporterfield.com/444, that's the number of this episode, I’ll link to each of those episodes so you can get to them quickly.
All right. So, there you have it. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today. And if you'd be so kind, if you have a friend that's looking for some entrepreneurial support, looking to grow their business or start their business, please share this episode with them or this podcast in general. I'd be forever grateful.
And if you love what you're hearing, be sure to follow Online Marketing Made Easy on your favorite listening platform and leave me a review. Reading your reviews lights me up and helps me to give you the topics that you really want to hear.
All right, my friend. I hope you enjoyed this Shorty episode. I'll see you on Thursday for more entrepreneurial goodness, same time, same place. Can’t wait.
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