AMY PORTERFIELD: “The idea is just to introduce new ideas, new thoughts into your day to day, to spark an idea or a story or a new way to explain something. I promise you, if you have a content blog, if you don't know what to write or you don't know what to say, number one, go back to your old content. Number two, fuel your brain with new content, and I promise you it will spark some new ideas.”
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: Real quick, I wanted to talk to you about another podcast that I think you might love. It's called Being Boss, and it's hosted by Emily Thompson, and it's really just an exploration of not only what it means but what it takes to be a boss as a creative business owner, freelancer, or side hustler. So Being Boss is an amazing resource for anyone interested in getting inspired and, more importantly, getting started as their own boss.
So, head to wherever you get your podcasts to check out Being Boss. And I recommend starting with her episode on releasing the sense of urgency in business. Especially coming back from my sabbatical, this episode was a great reminder to slow down and be intentional. You're going to love it.
Hey, there, friend. Welcome back to Online Marketing Made Easy.
I wanted to check in and see how you're doing. How are you feeling today? I was making a TikTok video—I can't even believe those words escaped my mouth. But yes, I'm on TikTok. If you are on TikTok, make sure you follow me, amy.porterfield—but I was making a TikTok today, and the message I wanted to share was a little exercise I've been doing lately, and I thought it might be fun to share with you here as well.
So as you all know, I deal with depression and anxiety, and I've been diligent about taking care of my mental health every single day. And one exercise that I've been doing a lot lately is so simple, but don't laugh at me, because I think most people don't do it and I feel, though, that it's profound. So any time I feel good, I either say to myself or the person I'm with, “I'm so happy. I'm so happy.” As simple as that.
So, for example, Hobie and I went to the lake house this weekend. And we've had guests all through the summer. So this was our first weekend just the two of us, no guests, and it was just wonderful. And we barbecued, and we went on the water, and we took walks, and we took naps. It was, like, the perfect weekend. And throughout the entire weekend, not obnoxiously, just in the moment, I would turn to Hobie and say, “I'm so happy.” Or, like, I was in the kitchen and I was cooking, and he was out by the boat, and just to myself I said, “I'm so happy.” And for some reason, just vocalizing it, identifying it, reminding myself that I'm okay, that I am safe, that I am happy, I am well, it's like it amplifies it ten times more. And I think the constant reminder that I am well and I am happy, and I actually have to find the moments—you know a depressed mind doesn't necessarily look for all the good things all the time, right? Can I get an amen from whoever is listening that can relate to that?—but when I find those moments, and I make an effort to find them, I just vocalize them. And it has just been helping my mental state immensely.
Anyway, I wasn't planning on sharing that with you, but there you go.
So here we go. Let's dive into today's episode.
I wanted to start out, before I got off track, I wanted to start out with admitting something to you. Lately, I feel like I've been saying the same thing over and over again, and to be honest, this gets to me. I wonder what I'm adding to the conversation. And I ask myself, like, “Am I adding anything new or anything worth hearing about or listening to?” In my podcast-pitch meetings, I do these meetings with my podcast producer and my content director. The three of us get together, and we do what we call pitch meetings, where we're pitching ideas to each other. And in those meetings, I often find myself asking, like, “How can we put a new spin on this topic?” Or “I've already said that ten different ways. How can I talk about something new?”
However, there's a little twist to that. So here it is. While I believe it's always important to stay new and current with different things in your business, I always come back to something my friend and fellow entrepreneur Stu McLaren told me years ago. He said, “Amy, if you're not repeating yourself or sharing the same stories, using the same frameworks, then you're likely not saying it enough.” So again, if you're not repeating yourself or feel like you're sharing the same things over and over and over again, you're not saying it enough.
So what he meant is that when we say something, we think our audience hears it, like our entire audience hears it. Raise your hand if you've ever been guilty of this: you put something out there, and then you never mention it again because you feel like, “Well, I've already put it out there. Everyone's already heard it.” But the truth is, if we're lucky, maybe a quarter of our audience may hear it or see it. I mean, that's being generous.
Let's take social media, for example. When you post something on social, not everyone in your audience, like, your followers and fans, are going to see it, right? In fact, the algorithm, the way it is, it's a very small percentage that actually sees it. Or take email, for example. You send a weekly email newsletter, and we already know that not everybody is going to open those emails for many different reasons. So we can never count on saying something in email and expecting everyone in our audience to see it and remember it.
And you might be thinking, “Well, what about podcasts?” Well, even with a podcast, even if you have regular listeners that are super loyal, they might have missed an episode or maybe just don't recall a story you shared or an example or a lesson. Let’s be honest. We all know just how distracted we are when we're taking in content from, like, every angle, especially when you've got someone in your earbuds, right, when you're listening to a podcast. I am so guilty of this. Have you ever missed something, like, on a podcast, but you know it's important, like, you wanted to hear it, so you rewind, and then you start listening, get distracted again, and you have to go back and rewind it? I mean, I am so guilty of this. It freaks me out, actually. Like, what is my problem? But it happens to all of us. That's why I always say, “If you're multitasking, come back to me,” because I like to make sure people know, “Listen, I know it happens. Let's keep going.” So that's why I say it all the time, because I know that if I were listening, I'd need to hear that.
So what's the solution? We need to put our message out there several times. But here's where you can play a bit. If you're tired of telling the same stories, dig deeper and find some new ones that drive the same message home. If you're tired of teaching something the same way, find a new way to explain it, if you must. Like, if you value variety—in my Tony Robbins days, I learned, you know, different values of people. A lot of people value variety. They love to change things up, shake things up, new experiences. If you need to get the same message out there, because you do, my friend, but you need a little creativity and variety, then, like I just said, you can mix it up.
But speaking of Tony, there's nothing wrong with, you know, using the same stories and saying the same thing over and over again. He is really amazing at delivering an incredible event. Like, if you've ever been to a Tony Robbins event, he's got this event called Unleash the Power Within. But those of us who have been multiple times—and there are diehards that they go, like, every year for, like, a tune up—they know he tells the same stories. He uses the same content. He shares it in the same sequence. And where he has variety is usually when he's, like, doing one-on-one conversations with people in the crowd. But he uses the same thing over and over again because it works.
So as long as if you know your message, your lessons that you share work, which of course you do, or you wouldn't be sharing them, then let's get those out there, like, ten times more than you're probably already doing right now. Your message is your message and something you should constantly be putting out there. What I mean by “your message is your message” is no one can do it quite like you. You're very unique in that. And so you've got to get your message out there and tell the story several times so that, one, people have heard it once and hear it twice, they'll probably recall it better the second time. And those that you missed, will hear it for the first time.
Okay. So you might be wondering, “How does this all tie into experiencing a content block?” Well, when you do have a content block, I want you to remember that you've done so much work up into this point, and all of that content can be repurposed. You never have to start from scratch. And pulling something older and maybe putting a little spin on it and talking about it in a different way is precisely what can get you out of a content block.
So that should make you feel better. You should be taking a deep breath right now, knowing you already have so much that you've created that you can use when you feel stuck. And you should because our audience needs to hear our message many more times than we're likely doing already.
Now, in addition to that, when I feel like I'm saying the same thing over and over again and I feel like I want to be more creative and I want to step outside of what I've been doing for a while, I will stay in the discomfort longer than I want to because I know I need to get my message out there. But I will also allow myself to create something new if I want to.
So with that, what I do is I expand my mind because when I expand my mind, all of a sudden creating new, exciting, interesting content or putting a new spin on old content, it just becomes easier. Like, I'm in the flow. So what does expanding my mind look like? It looks like reading books each month. Sometimes a business one, sometimes just for pure enjoyment, sometimes a mindset book.
I’ll also listen to new podcasts and not always business ones. So I'll admit that I may need to cut back on the true-crime podcasts and add some inspiring content. But what I'm getting at is I think it's important to fuel your brain every single day.
This also looks like learning something new. Maybe that's learning how to play pickleball or learning how to make sourdough bread. For the record, you can learn how to do that instantly on YouTube.
The idea is just to introduce new ideas, new thoughts into your day to day, to spark an idea or a story or a new way to explain something.
I promise you, if you have a content blog, if you don't know what to write or you don't know what to say, number one, go back to your old content. Number two, fuel your brain with new content, and I promise you it will spark some new ideas.
Now, I know you're busy, so what I find works really well is when I add these opportunities to expand to my quarterly goals. Like, for example, I have a quarterly goal just to read three new books to expand my mind. And because I have to take care of my mental health every single day, these three books that I chose for this quarter are all focused on mindset. So I just finished The Gap and the Gain. Oh my gosh, it’s so good, so I highly recommend it. I’ll link to everything in the show notes. And then for month number two of the quarter, I'm actually reading an advanced copy of Michael Hyatt and Megan Hyatt Miller's book. I won't even say the title because I don't even know if they put the title out there yet. But it's about mindset, I can say that. And then the third book is called The New Psychology of Success. That's the third book I'm going to read this quarter. So three books; I'm committed to all of them; already finished Gap and the Gain and highly recommend it.
All right, my friend. Now it's your turn. How are you going to expand your mind? What sounds like fun? What sounds interesting? What sounds doable? And then once you're clear on that, I want you to add it to your goals, like, for this next quarter or whatever makes the most sense to you. Write it down, and then actually make it a goal to get it done.
And just remember, I find that it doesn't take much to restart my creativity and just see that start to leak into all the content that I'm creating. I think you're going to find that, too.
Oh, and before I sign off, there's actually one more way that I love to boost creativity, and this might be a perfect fit for you as well. So if you're listening to this episode when it goes live, I currently have the doors open to my boot camp. It's called Course Confident: A 5-Day LIVE Bootcamp, to get digital-course clarity, attract your audience, and show up with confidence online. In this boot camp, I'll be covering how to gain clarity on your course topic, what type of digital course is best for your business and how to price it appropriately, and how to create a crowd-pleasing course-focused freebie, and a lot more.
Now, it's forty-seven bucks, so it's the cheapest thing I offer. And if you want to check it out, which I think you should definitely check it out, amyporterfield.com/course. So amyporterfield.com/course.
All right. I hope you loved this episode. It’s a little bit longer for a Shorty episode, but I had a lot to share. I hope it goes a long way for you, and I cannot wait to see you on Thursday for more entrepreneurial goodness, same time, same place. Can't wait.
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