AMY PORTERFIELD: “I just don't think it's fair to the people that I've traveled to be with, and I also hate feeling always in a rush, always in a rush. And so I want to just be present, and I want to be calm, and I just want to be wherever I'm supposed to be.
“So for that reason, I don't treat my travel days like work days. And yes, I fully understand how hard that is to do. Again, I used to do it a lot. But now if I'm traveling, I'm just fully present wherever I'm traveling.”
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: Let's talk about a podcast I am loving. Inclusion and Marketing, hosted by Sonia Thompson, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Inclusion and Marketing digs into important topics like belonging, customer experience, and diversity, and how you can practice inclusive marketing authentically. Because when you lead with inclusivity, you win the attention, the loyalty, and the trust of a broader group of consumers. I think one of my favorite episodes to date is when she shared about cultural appropriation and inappropriate use of a culture not your own. Such an important conversation. You can listen to Inclusion and Marketing wherever you get your podcasts.
Well, hey, there, friend. Welcome back to Online Marketing Made Easy.
I wanted to check in and see how you're doing. How are things going? Hopefully, really good.
As you might know, I have been really busy with all of the promotions for Two Weeks Notice, and I have been traveling a ton, doing podcast interviews and masterminds and all sorts of things, and it's been a lot of fun, but it's also been really exhausting. Over the past few months, I've been to Napa, California; New York; Los Angeles; Vermont. I got to spend the weekend in Vermont with Mel Robbins and her sweet husband, Chris, when we taped for her show. So that was really fun. And Hobie got to come with us, so it was a great experience. I've been to Arizona. I've been back to L.A. I'm going to Charleston in a week, where we actually do our live event for the book.
So I never, ever travel this much. And I have to be honest: I don't love traveling for business. And I consider myself a good traveler, and I have a lot of experience doing it. I mean, my time with Tony Robbins, that was insane travel: Fiji, London, Australia, Philippines. I mean, everywhere in the U.S. And so because I traveled so much in my corporate job, I don't necessarily love traveling for business now.
I mean, if I'm traveling with Hobie, going to Aruba, okay. But when I travel for business, I usually travel alone. And I'm a homebody, and I miss Hobie and Scout. And so I’m kind of a wimp when it comes to stuff like that. But it's necessary.
And I want to go to the places. I want to do these interviews. I want to spend time with my friends in business. So I want to do all those things. I just wish you could teleport me there, and I didn't have to sit on a plane for hours and hours.
And the thing is, when you travel for business, it's not always easy because you're usually going someplace with a specific intention or goal that you have to accomplish. You've got to be top of your game. And that can be hard when you're jetlagged or tired from sleeping in a bed that's not your own, or heck, like I said, even a little homesick, wanting to be with your loved ones. And I really do believe there's an art and a science to business travel, and that's why I wanted to share this episode.
I feel like I'm good at business travel, like I said, but I'm no expert. So I bet you could add on a few of your own tips. Heck, I would love to hear them. So, you know, I'm just @amyporterfield on Instagram, right? So as I go through all of my tips, if you're like, “Oh, Amy, you need to include this one,” I want to shout out some really good tips on the day this episode goes live. So what I want you to do is I want you to DM me the minute you hear this so I could still shout it out for my social, give me your best travel tips. Like, give me your number one best business travel tip, especially because I'm sure it won't make this list; I’m only going to share a few things with you. So all you need to do is go to @amyporterfield on Instagram, send me a DM, and say, “Travel tip,” and give it to me. I cannot wait to hear from you.
Okay. Here are a few tricks up my sleeve on how to be the very best version of yourself when you're traveling for business. So when I'm traveling, my first priority is to make sure that my physical body is set up for success. Okay, let's be real. There's nothing worse than being out of the comfort of your own home and then not feeling well. So I tend to get really dehydrated when I travel. I don't always have access to as much water as I want, or I'm just too busy to drink water. Like, it's not on my mind. So I make sure to bring these little packets of electrolytes to pop in my water. I do not go anywhere without them. It's just electrolytes and vitamins to help you stay feeling really good. The one I love is called Waterboy. So it's really funny because if you go to Waterboy and look it up, they talk about it's for hangovers, but I don't drink that much, and I still love these. Every morning when I'm traveling, I take one of these, and it makes me feel so much better.
I also make sure to bring along all of my supplements. Just because I'm on the road, there's no excuse to skip out on my routine of what I do at home, right? So I make sure I have every day I have my supplements. And I take a lot of supplements. And so it's important that I just kind of stay on track.
Now, another thing I do before I travel is I go get IV therapy the night before so that I could get a little immunity boost. So IV therapy is the fastest way to get nutrients in your body. So I find that it's super beneficial for me to do it right before I travel, just to make sure I'm healthy.
Now, the place that I go, it's called Arete, and it's in Nashville, and they also have cryo and B12 shots, red-light bed, a sauna, a hyperbaric chamber, and all sorts of treatments you can do, just to make sure you're feeling amazing. And you could walk out of there spending thousands of dollars, so you need to be very careful. So Hobie and I try to go one or two times a month, but I always go right before my trip, and I at least do the IV therapy.
But I got to do a side note here real fast. You all know that I struggle with depression and anxiety, right? And I was really open about it in 2021 because it was at its absolute worst. I don't know what happened. I think it was my move from California to Nashville, and it just jarred my system. But there were days I literally couldn't get out of bed, or when I did, I would just start crying for no reason. It was just so frustrating. So I made a pact with myself that I have to stay up on my mental health.
Like, if I feel that black cloud coming—which those of you who have ever dealt with depression, I think you know what I mean. For no reason this black cloud could just be over your head out of nowhere—well, I got to share with those of you who can relate to this, I started doing cryo, which is where you get into that super-freezing room, like a freezer, for three and a half minutes. And at the place I go to, they blast your favorite song. So you know I have got Journey playing in the background super loud. And Hobie and I can go in it together, which is kind of cool. So anyway, I have noticed that it lifts the depression, and it also helps massively—on a totally other note—with jet lag. So both of those things I tend to have, especially when I'm traveling or when I'm just not feeling my best. So anyway, I don't know, if there's one in your area and you struggle with anything I struggle with, you might want to check it out.
So these are some little rituals, though—getting back to the travel—these are little rituals I do right before I travel and also when I get back.
And I also want to make sure that I'm comfortable when I travel. And for me, that means I have to bring a blanket. Who here can agree with me that planes are freezing cold? The only person I know who would not agree with me is Hobie Porterfield. That man is a walking furnace. He is hot every single minute. When I am literally feeling like I'm ten degrees, I'm freezing, and he is warm. But I am always cold, so I bring this really lightweight blanket on the plane. And I used to bring my Barefoot Dreams blanket. Chloe got me into that. It is so clunky and big, and I tend to drop it, and then I'm grossed out that I just dropped it on an airport floor. So I thought, “I can't do this.” So I found this really lightweight blanket that does the trick, and it fits into my bag. Now I can’t travel without it.
And then, of course, comfy clothes. The only challenge with that is I usually am traveling to, like, a conference or a business thing. And I tend to see one or two people that know me or that I know while I'm at the airport—it's really random—and I don't want to look like a slob. So I try to be, like, put together, but I am not wearing something fancy, and I'm not even wearing jeans. Like, I must be in yoga pants just to be comfortable. But then, I also am presentable. So I usually have, like, a sweater on, yoga pants, tennies, and then I'm good to go. But I have to be comfortable because four or five hours on a plane, no. Jeans are not going to work. And there's no way I'm wearing a dress or anything like that. So I'm always comfortable on the plane.
Okay. So the next thing I do when I travel is I take advantage of the actual travel time because let's be real: there's so much downtime when you travel, from the Uber ride to the airport to the long wait to get on the plane, especially if you're delayed, which you usually are these days, and then the time that you're flying. So because of that, I make sure I have audiobooks and podcasts downloaded on my phone and ready to go, and my AirPods Pros. Like, I cannot live without them.
In fact, when I went to Vermont, I forgot them, and I was so mad because they're noise canceling, so they're so freaking good. So anyway, now what I do is I had to create a checklist of all the things I do not want to forget. I’ve been travelling so much, and I forget one or two things each time. So now I put the list together, and my AirPods Pros are right there at the top.
Now, I have to say, I'm not usually one of those people who can bust out a laptop and work the whole time on the plane. I have always struggled with motion sickness, and, also, I get really tired on a plane. Like, I don't know, the movement, the white noise. So I'm not the most productive. But because I've been so busy with the book launch, I have to be productive. I can't get this work done if I'm not taking advantage of travel time. So I always do get on my laptop lately and at least bust out, like, two hours of work, which uninterrupted work, where no one's bothering you, you can't get on your phone, you don't need to go to meetings; you could probably get five times more done on a plane than you would sitting at your desk at home. So I do take advantage of that time.
But I do tell my assistant, Christine, “Please don't, like, book deadlines for me that have to get done while I'm on the plane,” because sometimes I feel nauseous or I don't feel like it or I'm tired. So I try to get, like, Asana cleaned up on a plane or review a bunch of stuff, things like that.
But back to what I listen to, I tend to listen to true crime because I love it. You all know that I'm a total crime junkie. But I like to listen to something entertaining or a really good book. It's not always business. I mean, you rarely get any time to yourself to do things that you want to do, right?
Oh, no. Here comes Scout. Can you hear him? So when Scout comes barreling in here—I don't know if you could hear that, but he just barreled in here because every time he goes on a walk, he likes to announce himself when he gets back. So Hobie just took him for a walk.
But anyway, what I was saying was, you don't get a lot of downtime to yourself, but when you're traveling, if you're traveling alone, you can take advantage of that and do something you enjoy, listen to something you enjoy, watch something you enjoy, whatever.
All right. So we're moving on to the third thing that I do when I travel, and that's staying present while I'm there. This one was important, and I learned this through my book launch. So when you travel for business, you're usually in that place to accomplish a certain outcome. For instance, I recently got to go to Napa, and we did a mastermind, and there were some incredible people there. My friend Brendon Burchard put it on, and it was just his friends that he brought together. And with things like that, I want to be present.
So what I don't want is I don't want to be booking random Zoom calls with my team that I need to get on or interviews right in the middle of whatever experience I've traveled for. So I didn't want to be at Napa and someone sharing—they’re, like, in a hot seat—and then I have to secretly duck out to go take a twenty-minute call. I used to do that all the time. I used to book just random stuff. Like, “It's okay. I could just take this quick call or get on this quick meeting.”
I do not do that anymore. I just don't think it's fair to the people that I've traveled to be with, and I also hate feeling always in a rush, always in a rush. And so I want to just be present, and I want to be calm, and I just want to be wherever I'm supposed to be.
So for that reason, I don't treat my travel days like work days. And yes, I fully understand how hard that is to do. Again, I used to do it a lot. But now if I'm traveling, I'm just fully present wherever I'm traveling. So that has actually helped me enjoy travel a whole lot more, and I'm not that person who's always preoccupied, trying to do something else.
I remember, years and years ago I was on a trip with Rachel Hollis, and she was, like, at the height of her busyness. Like, she was doing an event, it felt like, every single weekend. She was getting on all these shows. Like, it was a very busy season in her life. And we traveled for, like, a girls’ weekend. And I didn't see her on her phone once. It was really like, “Whoa.” And here I am on my phone, and my life was not nearly as busy as hers at the time. And I just respected that. I even said something to her, like, “You're rarely on your phone.” And she said, “I want to be present here.” And I thought that was really cool. And so I just keep remembering that it felt good to me that she valued our time together that her face wasn’t in her phone all the time. And she had enough going on that it could have absolutely been that way. So I've always admired that.
Speaking of being fully present, I also want to make sure that I'm not worried about what's going on at home. And so even though Hobie's retired, and he manages a lot of the household, I've always had that role in our marriage that I always know what's going on. Like, I know everything that's going on. Can I get an amen from anyone else who can relate?
So, like, Hobie, wouldn’t think about the fact—like, one time we were going on vacation, and we were going to Mexico. And the night before, just joking, because I had already had it planned, I’m like, “Hobie, what are we doing with Scout? We're going to be gone for five days. What are we doing with Scout?” And he looked at me, like, panicked, like, “Oh, my god. I don't know.” And I started laughing. I'm like, “I got it covered.” But he just doesn't think of stuff like that.
So I like to write a list, a honey-do list, like, make sure you take the Scout to the vet. Or don't forget, the cleaning crew is coming over on Monday. Or water the plants when I'm away. Things that he just won't remember to do. It just doesn't enter his mind, and I've just come to accept it. I used to get very frustrated at him. Now I just love him through it. Like, just love him. So I write the list so it's out of my mind, and I know he'll take care of it. So that makes me feel really good.
And the last thing I do to make sure I'm staying present while I'm on the road is I keep the conversations with Hobie to a minimum. Now, this might seem kind of weird, but number one, I'm not a big phone talker. I don't like to get on the phone and talk for a long time. So we text each other every single morning to say good morning. And when we go to bed, we either text, or maybe we do a phone call, but it's rare, unless I'm gone for a really long time. But if I'm gone for, like, three nights, we might just talk on the phone one time. He's not a really good phone talker either, so what's the point?
I want him to know I'm thinking of him. And because he's not part of this world, I think sometimes he feels a little bit left out. I don't know if I'd say that to him publicly, and he doesn't listen to this podcast, so it's okay. But sometimes I feel like—he'll say, like, “You've got this whole other world that I am not a part of.” Like, he doesn't know a lot of my business friends, and he doesn't really know everything that's going on. So he feels a little disconnected, especially when I'm deep into the business or when I'm traveling. So I like him to know, “I'm thinking about you. I love you.”
You might have seen on social, we tend to write little notes to each other, and I'll put it, like, in his drawer where his toothbrush is, or he'll put one in my suitcase. We tend to do that, but we don't talk on the phone a lot. It allows me to stay focused and in the game wherever I'm at, but it also reminds him that I'm thinking about him, and I like to know that he's thinking about me, too.
But we don't check in a lot when I'm traveling. Kind of weird because you all know I'm kind of obsessed with him, but it just helps me get through the trip. I think I'm more homesick when I am constantly in communication with him.
So, there you go. That was kind of a random episode I just recorded for you, but I wanted to take you behind the scenes. I've learned some of these little tricks. They've helped me immensely. So I want to know yours now. I'm sure I left out fifty really important ones. So when you travel, especially for business, we're talking business travel, which is not as fun as personal travel, right? It's not like I'm going to Mexico, and I'm in the sun for five days. I'm going to a business conference or whatever it might be.
So give me your business-traveling tips. Go to Instagram, find me. I'm just @amyporterfield. Put “Business-Travel Tip” or whatever so I see it right away in the DMs, and I want to shout out a few the day this episode goes live. So get them in quickly. Hopefully, you listen to this right when it goes out.
All right, my sweet friend. Thank you so much for tuning in. And if you liked this episode, I know it was a little bit of a weird one, but if you like this kind of stuff, leave me a review. Just go on any platform where you get your podcasts. I love to read every single one of them. And the more reviews I get, the more people will actually find the show. It gets pushed out into the algorithm more. So I would greatly appreciate it.
Thank you so very much for tuning in. I love you to the moon and back, and I'll see you on Thursday for more entrepreneurial goodness. Bye for now.
Tell me this: are you sick of wasting your precious time on tedious tasks like pulling reports or rewriting blog posts or trying to personalize all of your emails? I'll say no more because I've got some new AI tools that are going to blow your mind.
Introducing HubSpot's newest AI tools: Content assistant and ChatSpot. Content Assistant uses the power of Open AI’s GPT-3 model to help you create content outlines, outreach emails, and even web-page copy in just seconds. And in case that wasn't enough, they created ChatSpot. It's a conversational growth assistant that connects to your HubSpot CRM for unbeatable support. With chat-based commands, you can manage contacts, run reports, and even ask for status updates. The easy-to-use CRM just got easier, so get early access to the Content Assistant beta and the ChatSpot alpha at hubspot.com/artificial-intelligence.
