AMY PORTERFIELD: “If you are committed to doing something, if you said you're going to do it and you said you're going to try it for a certain amount of time, let's just take the option off the table to not show up. And let's just say, like, that's not even part of the conversation.
“It's funny. Not too long ago I did an episode about the fact that it is absolutely okay to quit. And I believe that. I do believe that. But I also—this is why I wanted to create this episode—I also believe that you've got to stick it out long enough to see if the magic is going to happen. So you can quit if it's no longer serving you, if your heart's not into it, if you know it's not right for you, and it's not bringing you any joy. I had talked about this in that other episode. You can absolutely quit. But don't quit—and I talked about this also—don't quit if you're just fearful of looking silly.”
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: Hey, there. Welcome back to another episode of Online Marketing Made Easy. I am so very glad you're tuning in today.
I am recording this on a Monday morning, and, typically, I really enjoy quiet weekends. If I get to go away to our lake house on the weekend and just be with Hobie and Scout and sit and look at the water, read a book, go for really easy walks, I mean, that's, like, a perfect weekend to me. However, this weekend was very different. It was very busy, but for really good reasons as well.
So I had some friends in town. Jenna Kutcher and her husband, Drew, were in town because they invited us to a charity event. It was for Bob Goff, and it was here in Nashville, and it was just a beautiful weekend. This charity event was so very cool. They're doing amazing things for people internationally, but also here in the U.S., and it was very inspiring. I loved every minute of it.
And also, Stu McLaren was in town, so I got to have dinner with Stu last night, which was so fun. And we talked all about family and work and everything. You know, I've been away from my friends for so long because of COVID that it was so fun to finally connect again.
And something really special happened where, you know, Hobie's retired now from the fire department, and I've been praying that he finds something that really lights him up. And he is super busy. He does tons of construction at both of our houses, and he's always busy. He helps take care of anything that my mom needs at her house. And he keeps himself very busy.
However, I just know that on his heart he wants to help in a bigger way. And so when we were at this charity event, he really loves charities that help people here in the U.S. He loves to be able to go there and be a part of it. And he wanted to really get involved. And that was the first time that I saw that something really sparked his interest, and he's really excited about it, and so he's going to make some calls today and see how he can get involved. And that was just, like, the biggest gift ever, and I loved seeing him light up to know that he can help, and he was really called to do so. So that was just a big blessing of the weekend.
So here we are, Monday morning, and I am ready to dive in. And today's episode is unique in the sense that it stems from a conversation I had with the woman who does my makeup for video shoots here in Nashville.
So let me back up just a little bit. This episode is a little tender to me because it's all about how we show up when we feel something is not working or when doubt starts creeping in. So here's what happened. A little while back I had a photo shoot for my upcoming book, Two Weeks’ Notice.
Hopefully, you've preordered it by now. It comes out in early 2023, but preorders mean the world to authors, so I've learned. So, hopefully, you've gotten your hands on a copy or two.
But anyway, I was getting my hair and makeup done for this big video shoot, and my stylist says to me, “Oh my gosh, you have been killing it on TikTok.” And I looked at her, and I said, “What are you talking about?” Like, our platform? It is crawling. We are not killing it on TikTok. It’s, like, slow, slow growth, because I got to admit, growing my followers and getting a lot of views on my posts has been kind of agony to watch on TikTok.
Now, I'll admit, it's also been very humbling. And I actually think it's good for me because when I teach my students to have patience and stay in it even when it's not working yet, I don't remember those feelings. They happened to me, but I've been in this almost fourteen years now, so I'm not totally in touch with what it feels like to keep grinding when things aren't yet clicking. But, oh, my friends, I am here to say if that's how you're feeling about anything in your business, I am right there with you.
And I recently said to Stacey, who runs my social media, “What are we doing here? I don't think this is working.” It's been a few months now. At the time this is all going on, maybe we had three thousand followers. We have more now, but still, I told her, “I just don't know if this is working and if this is worth our time.” And her response was, “You've got to stick with it. We said we're doing this for a full six months. So whether it's working or not, we won't know until after six months, when we come back together and figure this out.” And I did make that commitment. So I'm like, “Okay, you're right.”
But when I said to my makeup artist, I said, “I don't think it's really working,” she said, “Yeah, but you're clearly showing up for yourself. You clearly are doing it your way, and that feels very authentic.” She says, “When I watch you on TikTok, I know you are being absolutely yourself because I know you personally.” And when she said that, it just kind of made me wonder. Yeah, you're right. I am being authentic. It is who I am. But what if it doesn't match what the platform wants and needs? Maybe I'm not right for TikTok.
So, listen, you know that these Shorty episodes I do, they're all about exploring the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur. And I like to take you along for the ride. Like, the goal of these Tuesday episodes that I do are to show you what I'm going through, and, hopefully, at times, you just feel less alone. And so with this episode, I'm not here to deliver a definitive answer or to share that I'm going to continue to do TikToks or even give you TikTok strategies. Right now, I'm not your girl for that. But what I will say is that sometimes things don't work out the way we expect them to even when we pour our energy, time, and thought into them. And so for TikTok, I honestly don't know if this is going to work for us. But again, I made a six-month commitment, so I'll reevaluate when that is up.
Because one thing I committed to this year is I have to be a woman of my word to myself. I am pretty dang good about keeping my commitment to other people. Up until this year, I'd say I was pretty weak about keeping a commitment to myself. And typically, if fear takes over or doubt or frustration or exhaustion, I just don't do it anymore, or at least, that was the old me. Now I just say, look, I know that this is hard. I know that this isn’t working as planned. I wanted a hundred thousand followers by now, but that's not going to happen. But maybe it's not just about the followers. Maybe it's not even just about the growth on TikTok. Maybe it's something about me trying something new, having feelings I haven't had in a while, being able to connect with some of you that are feeling the same way I'm feeling and remembering how you're feeling so I could have more compassion for that. I mean, just as my good friend Jasmine says, this is all happening for me, and I absolutely believe that.
And if you're listening to this right now and you're struggling with something in your business, just like I am—like, is this TikTok thing worth it? because it is a lot of work. On average, I'm doing a video a day. So it is definitely a lot—so I guess what I wanted to say to you is if you are committed to doing something, if you said you're going to do it and you said you're going to try it for a certain amount of time, let's just take the option off the table to not show up. And let's just say, like, that's not even part of the conversation.
It's funny. Not too long ago I did an episode about the fact that it is absolutely okay to quit. And I believe that. I do believe that. But I also—this is why I wanted to create this episode—I also believe that you've got to stick it out long enough to see if the magic is going to happen. So you can quit if it's no longer serving you, if your heart's not into it, if you know it's not right for you, and it's not bringing you any joy. I had talked about this in that other episode. You can absolutely quit. But don't quit—and I talked about this also—don't quit if you're just fearful of looking silly. Don’t quit if you’re just fearful, like, “I'm scared it's not going to work, so I'm going to quit.”
And if I quit TikTok, it would be for all the wrong reasons right now. That's why I'm not quitting. I would quit because I don't want to look weak. I would quit because I'm kind of embarrassed that the growth is small. I would quit because it just isn't clicking, and I'm impatient. Those are not reasons to quit. So I know the difference now of when it's healthy quitting versus when I'm quitting for all the wrong reasons, and that's why I'm sticking with TikTok.
And I wanted just to share that with you, that sometimes we've got to hold on a little bit longer when we've made a commitment to ourselves and we know we're just afraid. Because for me, the honest-to-God question of if I should stay on TikTok or not is am I good enough for TikTok? Now, that's not a healthy question, I'm well aware. But that's the question that keeps coming up. Maybe because I'm not silly enough. I don't dance on camera. I'm not maybe witty enough. Maybe I'm not good enough for the TikTok algorithm.
Now, I know that's very silly. I know that's a limiting belief. I know that's fear talking, because there's many people I follow on TikTok that are not dancing, that are not silly, that are just giving just great information. They're just slaying it with the content, and they are doing incredibly well. So I have proof that my style could work, so I’m not going to give up, because my reasons for giving up are absolutely not good enough in terms of just letting go right now.
So at the end of the day, I know I'm good enough. Whether TikTok likes me or not, I know that I have something of value to offer. I know that my audience is out there. And maybe or maybe not they’re on TikTok—I don't know yet—but I just want to stick it out to see. And I think I'm growing because of it. So if you're multitasking, come back to me here. At the end of the day, we must remind ourselves that we are good enough. Period. End of story. And whether or not a platform, in my case, is working for me or not does not get to dictate if I feel good enough about myself as an entrepreneur. No algorithm has the ability to make me feel a certain way or not. It's just the thoughts in my head, the sentences I say.
And so I'm not going to ignore the feelings that I’m feeling—like, it is making me feel anxious and kind of impatient—but at the end of the day, I'm going to choose a new belief. I'm going to think differently. I'm growing. I'm learning. I'm trying something new. Getting uncomfortable is proof of my growth. And that's all that matters. That's all that matters.
I was watching—ha, funny enough—a TikTok of this guy that said the only thing in the world that matters is if you continue to grow. And I do subscribe to that. If I'm not growing, I feel like I'm dying. So if TikTok is going to give me the opportunity to grow in different ways, whether it works or not, I’m here for it, and I believe that getting uncomfortable is so necessary for growth.
So here I am, in all my uncomfortable ways on TikTok, and I'm just going to keep showing up. I'm going to keep trying new things. I'm going to keep experimenting, because the cold, hard truth is not everything has to be a win, nor will it ever be. Did you hear me on that one, my friend? Come back to me. Are you multitasking right now? Come back. This is the one I want you to hear. Not everything you do in your business will be a win, nor does it even have to be. Being an entrepreneur means we're not going to hit home runs left and right. It's just how it is, my friend. And it can be okay to not be right for every platform or every trend out there. But that doesn't mean that you're going to play it safe. You're not going to play it small, and I'm not going to either. We are not going to wallow in the low-level thoughts that I mentioned earlier.
What we are going to do is give equal airtime to the things that could be true, things like maybe this is going to take a while. Maybe that is just absolutely true. Maybe one of my TikToks will reach somebody and it will literally change the trajectory of their life, because on TikTok I talk about leaving your nine to five and starting an online business. I have a very, very specific focus on TiKTok. I did that by design. And so what if one of my TikToks hit somebody on a day that they think, “I'm going to give it a shot. I'm going to find my exit date. I’m going to put it on a Post-it Note. I’m going to look at it every day, and I’m going to do everything I can to hit that exit date and start this business that I’ve wanted to start for so long”? Then I’ve done my job. I have. If just one, even one person, and I do believe that. So that changes the game.
I need to remember that everything I do is to help other people realize freedom. And that might not look like a hundred thousand TikTok followers, and that's okay. I can't control the outcome, but I sure as heck can control how I show up, where I show up, and why I'm showing up. And if it doesn't work, I will survive. I'm not going to die if TikTok is not my thing. But I sure as heck better give it a shot.
Because one thing, my friend, and I believe in this and I hope you feel it in everything I do, I will always go first if you want me to. I will always try it because I sure as heck am never going to teach or talk about something that I have not done myself. That has always been a rule in my business. I don't teach things I don't know. I don't promote things I don't use. I just don't go down that road, because then when you come back to me and you have a struggle, how the heck am I going to troubleshoot with you and support you? So I'm always going to go first if you want me to. And this time, in you’re not on TikTok, I’m there, my friend. I’m amy.porterfield. I couldn’t even get my freakin’ name, just Amy Porterfield. So amy.porterfield, if you want to go see what I’m doing over there.
But regardless if it works or not, I'm showing up, and I'm pretty proud of myself for doing so. And I hope that you identify the areas that you're showing up, even though it might not be “working” just yet. Maybe it's really uncomfortable, and maybe you want to jump ship but you said, “I'm never jumping ship for the wrong reasons,” so you're staying in it.
So right now I'm going to step off my soapbox, checking my ego at the door, and I'm going to send you all the love. If you're struggling with something similar, I encourage you to stay committed and give yourself a timeline. You can quit, my friend. Heck, you could quit tomorrow. But quit for the right reasons. And if you're not ready to quit, give yourself a timeline and say, “I'm going to stay in it till this time.” Trust the process, remember who you're serving, and at the end of the day, give it all that you can.
I hope that you loved this Shorty episode and found it valuable. I know it's a little bit more tender than my other ones because it's kind of embarrassing. It kind of feels embarrassing to share all this with you, but then at the same time, I'm like, “No, it doesn't, Amy. These are your friends. These are people in the entrepreneurial space with you, in the trenches.” I may teach you stuff, I may guide you along the way, but at the end of the day, I know, you and I, we are more like each other than we are different. So, hopefully, what I shared today got to you in a way that it needed to. Hopefully, it added value in a way that you think, “Okay, I needed to hear that.”
If you have never left a review for Online Marketing Made Easy, maybe today is the day that you feel compelled to do so. I would be forever grateful. The more reviews we get on this podcast, the more the algorithm pushes us out to people that need us. And I would love to find more people that we could help on their entrepreneurial journey. So if you've never left a review, I'd be so grateful. I read every single one.
All right, my sweet friends. I will see you on Thursday for more entrepreneurial goodness, same time, same place. Can't wait.
