I Wasted $20,000 (Here’s the Lesson I Still Use Today)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: The Amy Porterfield Show

Episode: I Wasted $20,000 (Here’s the Lesson I Still Use Today)
Host: Amy Porterfield
Date: September 16, 2025

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Overview

In this candid solo episode, Amy Porterfield explores the realities of making costly mistakes in online business, focusing on a pivotal moment when she lost $20,000 on a failed contractor relationship. Through personal anecdotes and tangible student stories, Amy highlights the real costs of fear-based indecision and perfectionism, reframing "wasted" time and money as necessary tuition for entrepreneurial growth. She breaks down the belief systems that keep aspiring course creators stuck and provides actionable mindset shifts and strategies for moving forward—imperfectly but boldly.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. The $20,000 Lesson: Learning from Expensive Mistakes

[02:10]

• Story: Amy shares a vulnerable story about paying a contractor $20,000 to survey her audience—only to be ghosted with zero results.
  • "I once lost $20,000 like that in my business. Here's what happened...They never produced a thing. Zero, zilch." — Amy ([02:10])
• Reflection:
  • The decision was rooted in insecurity and the belief she couldn’t figure things out alone.
  • Amy beat herself up for months but now views the experience as a valuable lesson that helped her become a trusted expert and teacher.
  • Quote: "Those decisions were lessons that shaped me into the entrepreneur I am today. No doubt, they gave me the data, the scars, that allow me to teach from experience." — Amy ([03:55])

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2. The Mindset Shift: “Capture, Cancel, Correct”

[05:57]

• Framework: Amy introduces a mindset tool from Jill Stanton to help listeners reframe fear-based thoughts about wasting time or money:
  1. Capture: Identify the unhelpful thought.
  2. Cancel: Consciously decide not to indulge it.
  3. Correct: Replace it with a more constructive, realistic belief.
  • Example: “Even if my first course isn’t perfect, I’ll learn what to do better next time.”
• Key Insight: The only real waste is not starting at all.
  • "The only real waste is not starting at all." — Amy ([08:16])

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3. Fear Holds You Back—Not Failure

[08:20]

• Case Example: Laura Belgray journaled about creating a course for years—mentioning the idea 89 times before taking action.
  • Lesson: The true waste wasn’t failure, but years spent sitting on the sidelines.
  • Quote: "You are actually wasting time and money on the sidelines. That’s the big waste." — Amy ([09:23])
• Reframe: Waiting for the perfect time or product is more costly than launching and learning.

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4. Dancing With Fear: Action Despite Uncertainty

[10:40]

• Core Message: You must act with fear, not after it disappears.
• Memorable Analogy:
  • "Fear can have a whisper of a voice, but it does not get a vote in your decisions... Fear can ride in the car with you, but it doesn’t get to drive." — Amy ([11:12])

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5. Breaking Down Common Fears (and the Truth That Counters Them)

Fear #1: You Need Months or a Huge Budget to Start

[11:58]

• Busted Myth: Launching a course doesn’t require tons of time, a huge email list, or big investments up front.
• More information only increases confusion; following one proven plan is key.
  • "You can absolutely launch with simple tools, a small email list, and a clear plan. Thousands of my students have." — Amy ([12:28])

Fear #2: If My Course Isn't Perfect, It Will Flop

[14:01]

• Advice: Embrace the minimal viable product model—your first launch should be simple, not perfect.
• Includes success story of Carlin, who made $10,000 in two months with a stripped-down launch—no live webinars, just targeted emails and social posts.
  • "Your first launch should be bare bones... It gets your idea validated faster." — Amy ([14:31])
  • "In her first two months, she made $10,000, and over the next eight months, she generated an additional $32,000." — Amy ([16:23])

Fear #3: I'll Have to Start Completely From Scratch

[19:20]

• Truth: You already have teachable frameworks and value embedded in work you’ve done—past content, client resources, informal advice.
• It’s about packaging what you know, not inventing from nothing.
  • "You are not starting from scratch. Most people think they have to build an entire course from nothing—that’s simply not true." — Amy ([19:27])

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Memorable Quotes and Moments

• On working with fear:
  • "You dance with it... Fear can ride in the car with you, but it doesn't get to drive." — Amy ([11:12])
• On inaction:
  • "You are leaving so much money on the table by not taking action and wasting so much time doing other things that are not getting you the big revenue boost you’re looking for." — Amy ([09:24])
• On progress vs. perfection:
  • "Your students don't need perfection either. What they want is transformation." — Amy ([17:42])
• On course creation as an asset:
  • "Your course isn’t just another project on your to-do list. It’s an asset in your business... Every ounce of effort you put in now continues to pay you back." — Amy ([21:41])

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Actionable Takeaways

• Reframe mistakes and financial losses as tuition for real-world business education.
• Practice “capture, cancel, correct” to interrupt unhelpful mental loops.
• Stop waiting for circumstances (time, money, perfection) to align—action is the cure for fear.
• Simplify initial launches; don’t over-engineer your first product.
• Use your existing knowledge, materials, and advice as building blocks for your digital course.
• Remember: Every business owner who succeeded regrets waiting—no one regrets launching and learning, even if imperfect.

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• $20,000 mistake story: [01:15] – [03:55]
• Mindset shift: Capture, Cancel, Correct: [05:57] – [08:16]
• Laura Belgray's journaling/wasted years: [08:20] – [10:10]
• Fear as a passenger, not the driver: [10:40] – [11:40]
• Common Fear #1 ("I need months/big budget"): [11:58] – [13:44]
• Common Fear #2 ("It must be perfect"): [14:01] – [17:30]
• Carlin’s simplified launch success story: [15:36] – [17:36]
• Common Fear #3 ("Starting from scratch"): [19:20] – [20:45]
• Final encouragement and recap: [21:41] – [23:36]

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Conclusion

Amy’s episode is both a vulnerable share and a pep talk for online business owners hesitating to launch, invest, or take their next big step. She reframes business “mistakes” as crucial tuition, encourages listeners to act before they feel fully ready, and dismantles the common fears that keep people stuck. The lasting message: Take action, keep it simple, and allow learning to be part of your journey—because the true waste is never trying at all.

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For further learning, Amy invites listeners to her free masterclass on course creation: amyporterfield.com/masterclass.

Transcript

[A]

Hey there. Welcome to the Amy Porterfield Show. You have to do things scared. You don't avoid action just because you feel fear. You know this. You get into action alongside the fear. You dance with it. One of the best ways I've ever heard this described is that fear can have a whisper of a voice and but it does not get a vote in your decisions. Hey there.

[B]

Before we jump into today's episode, I have a question for you.

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Do you have a course idea you've been thinking about and just about an hour to learn how to make it happen. I hope you said yes.

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So if you did, then I want.

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You to join me for my free masterclass. It's called the new and better way to create and sell a profitable digital course in in 2025.

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So in just 60 minutes I'm going.

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To walk you through what's actually working in course creation and launching right now.

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So it includes my five step framework.

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To building your course from scratch. The beginner's advantage almost no one is using how to leverage AI to create.

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Content faster without compromising on quality and how to launch without a big team.

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Big tech or a big budget. It's free, but seats are limited and classes fill up fast. So. So head to amyporterfield.commasterclass to grab your seat today. Amyporterfield.com masterclass I once lost $20,000 like that in my business. Here's what happened. I was approached by a contractor who promised the moon to me around surveying my audience for a six month period of time and doing tons of analytics on the back end. Now this was many, many, many years ago, way before AI for the record. And it was really before we started talking about surveying and understanding our audience in my business. So this contractor came along and promised that they could just find out everything about my audience, help me shape my messaging and just really boost my sales. And at the time I was very naive. I didn't really know what I was doing but. But I had started to make money in my business. So I gave this person $20,000. They were going to work with us for six months. They never produced a thing. Zero, zilch. Essentially, they fell off the earth. I don't know where they are today. And so I rushed into this decision and I felt like I couldn't do it alone or I couldn't figure it out. It was the insecurity. And this person was telling me they're the best of the best and they can do it. So I said yes. And I lost $20,000 and that's a lot of money for me today. But back then when I was making a whole lot less, that was a lot, a lot, a lot of money. And I beat myself up over it for months. Months. I just couldn't let it go. And there have been other situations like this. Like, I have a long list of times that I felt like I've wasted so much time and money on things in my business. However, I really do believe now that I could look at it from the outside where I'm in a different place now. I get it. I was too close to it then. So beating myself up was very easy. But now that I'm removed from some of these bad decisions. If you're not watching me on YouTube, I just did air quotes. Some of these bad decisions. I think they were the exact lessons I needed to move forward at the time. All of these so called mistakes. And I've made many. I felt frustrated, embarrassed, lack of confidence, sometimes like downright mad at myself. But the truth is those decisions were lessons that shaped me into the entrepreneur I am today. No doubt they gave me the stories like the one I just told you, the data, the scars that allow me to teach from experience. If you've lost time or money creating something that didn't pan out, I know how it feels. I also know how to pivot your mind around it and how to pick yourself up and put yourself back out there. Because I have done it myself today, I can confidently guide because I've already walked through the fire and made the mistakes that taught me what really works. And that's why my peers and my students, they trust me. They trust me because of these mistakes and because I so called wasted time and money in these areas. So before we dive into today's episode, I want to give you a mindset shift that has helped me immensely when those fears of wasting time and money creep in. It comes from my dear friend Jill Stanton. And it's called capture cancel. Correct. Here's how it works. When a thought pops up like, what if I pour my time and money into this course that I'm creating and then it goes all wrong. So that's a thought that comes up for many of my course creators when they get started. What if I waste my time and money creating this and no one buys? So first of all, if that thought comes up for you, you pause and capture that thought. Like, oh, I'm aware that is a thought that is not serving me. And then you cancel it. You say, I am not going to believe that. I do not have time for thoughts like that. I am not going to indulge in this thought right now. You're canceling it. And then you correct it by asking, what's the next best thought here? Maybe it's even if my first course isn't perfect, I'll learn exactly what to do better next time. Like, you don't have to jump to, my course is going to make me millions of dollars when I launch it for the first time. Like, we don't need to go to that extreme. But if you catch it, you cancel it, and then you actually choose a different thought. Maybe my first course will work, maybe it won't. But I'm sure as heck going to learn about what to do to make it better. So it will eventually be a huge success. So when you practice this, you stop letting those automatic negative thoughts that we all have run the show. And you start to see that every step, even the messy ones, is when you get closer to the results that you want. So if you're holding back from taking action, whether it's creating your digital course because you're afraid of wasting time and money, or hiring your first VA to free up your schedule, or even making a change in your personal life, I want you to know this. That fear is what's actually keeping you stuck. And the only real waste is not starting at all. So if you're stuck right now and you're, like I said, not creating your digital course, let's say I've got digital courses on the brain. Obviously, I've been getting ready to teach digital courses this month. So let's say you're stuck. You're on the sidelines. You've thought about it forever and you just haven't done anything with it. So here's the thing. You are actually wasting time and money on the sidelines. That's the big waste. If you're afraid to waste your time creating a course, if you're afraid to waste your money creating a course, you are leaving so much money on the table by not taking action and wasting so much time by doing other things that are not getting you the big revenue boost that you're looking for in your business. I got to tell you a quick story. One of my dear friends, Laura Belgray, love her. She's my longest standing entrepreneur friend. She's the first friend I made when I left Tony Robbins. She journals every day. And I think she said she journals 750 words a day. I think there's an app to do this. But she's a writer and so she is in this practice of being consistent. And she's done this for years and years. And I think what she did is she took her journals and uploaded them to ChatGPT. And she then asked, how many times did I use the word course over like years, let's say five to seven years of journaling. And it said something like 89 times. And what she realized when she went back and did her research, she'd been talking about creating a course for years. In fact, she's mentioned it 89 times in her journals. But those were all the times that years had passed where she didn't do it. I really need to get my course created. I really need to learn how to create a course. I got to get a course up. So I'm not only doing one on one work. Talked about it for years and years and years before she actually did it. And I would say she wasted time and money by not just doing it, learning the lessons, making the mistakes, and getting the data to move forward faster, to get results. So I just want you to know you're not alone. Laura too, sat on an idea of a course forever. And many of my students do. But I can promise you, every one of them regrets waiting this long. And that's what the lesson I want you to get from today. They all regret waiting as long as they did. So we can stop that regret right now. If you were to say, okay, screw it, I'm just going to finally do it. I'm so tired of talking about it. And the thing is, you have to do things scared. You don't avoid action just because you feel fear. You know this. You get into action alongside the fear. You dance with it. One of the best ways I've ever heard this described is that fear can have a whisper of a voice, but it does not get a vote in your decisions. It's always going to be a whisper. It just doesn't get a vote. Fear can ride in the car with you, but it doesn't get to drive. You are the one that is taking action and that's exactly what we're going to do here, take action. Even with fear riding shotgun, like, hello, old friend, you've been with me a long time. It's never going to go away. It's riding shotgun, my friend. So just let it ride with you and do the things you need to do to get whatever it is you want to create out into the world. So I want to dig into a few common fears that might be holding you back from creating a course that you can launch again and again to build real financial stability. And I'm going to share some practical ways to quiet those fears so that they don't keep you stuck. Remember, they'll always be a whisper, but they do not get a vote. And here's how you overcome giving fear a vote. So fear number one, you need months or a huge budget to get started. So you need tons of time in order to create and launch a course, or you need tons of money, or you need both. And this comes up a lot. And you might be thinking, if I try to create a course, it's going to take me forever and it's going to cost a lot of money. And that fear alone can stop you in your tracks. But here's the truth. It's actually a lie. That is a lie. It's not only a fear, it's a downright lie. You can absolutely launch with simple tools, a small email list, and a clear plan. Thousands of my students have. They've danced along with fear, but they've gotten it out there. Tiny email lists, simple tools. They're following my plan, but they don't follow it to a T. Some of them, like, follow it halfway and still get results, which I think is so cool. Why? Because they're getting scrappy and they're getting it out there. So often this fear is created because people binge YouTube tutorials or try to piece things together from random blog posts. Over the years, I've noticed that the more free content you consume from different people online, the more conflicting the advice comes and the harder it is to know what's actually right for you. That's when you end up spinning your wheels and not being able to make a decision, wasting money on the wrong tools, and staying stuck in research mode instead of taking action. The best way to quiet that fear is to stop cobbling things together and follow a proven step by step framework with a roadmap that's already been tested and gets results for real students. You don't have to second guess. You just take the right next step and keep moving forward. So when you're creating your course, your students want the exact same thing, right? So if. If you're going to follow a plan to create and launch your digital course and you get success with it, well, that's exactly what your students want. They want your plan. They don't want to piece together random advice from 10 different people who they don't even know if they trust. They want one clear, proven, step by step path from you. A path that saves them time Money and frustration. Hey, real quick, before we continue, a quick word about our sponsor, I've got.

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Okay, let's get back to the episode. Fear number two. If my course isn't polished and perfect, it will flop. Now, I know that you're saying, amy, I know my course doesn't need to be perfect. I know we're not going for perfection. But your actions speak differently. Your actions are telling me you actually do think it needs to be better. It does need to be more polished. You don't feel as though you're good enough to put something out there that might be like, B plus work, not A plus work. Because if you haven't started, if you're like Laura and you mention a course for years and years before you actually do, makes me think that you think it needs to be really, really polished before you get it out there. And that fear can keep you stuck for months or years trying to build out every module, every bonus, every fancy piece of tech before you hit publish. But here's what I want you to really hear. Your first launch should be bare bones. I know that might feel counterintuitive, especially if you like things like done just right. But keeping it simple is actually your advantage. A minimum viable Course with a simple launch doesn't just save you money and keep you out of overwhelm. It gets your idea validated faster. You can start bringing in revenue right away and collect feedback from real students, which is gold when it comes to improving for your next launch. I'll be honest. When I teach how to create and launch a digital course, I do show you all the bells and whistles. Why? Because those are the strategies that have helped me run multimillion dollar launches. And of course I want you to know how to create really big success. But here's the thing. I also tell my students, you don't need to add all these bells and whistles. I have a program that I sell and it's called Digital Course Academy. I launch it every year and I tell my students, you get lifetime access into this course so that you can start out simple and you can learn about my bells and whistles that I add. But don't do them just yet. Not on the first launch and then the second time you launch that same course. Because my goal is rinse and repeat. Now we can add a bell or a whistle. The next time, maybe add two bells or whistles. And so I love to have my students go through my program, cherry pick what works for them in the beginning, what feels simple to them, and then they can just add on and I could continue on the journey with them. That's what I love. So I have a student, her name is Carlin, and she teaches English Language arts and reading and creates digital courses and curriculum resources that teachers can use to support and enhance what they're already teaching in their areas of expertise. Now here's what's so inspiring about Carlin's story. She didn't follow the full pre launch Runway and live webinar model that I teach inside of my program. Instead, she chose what worked for her lifestyle and capacity. Right now she took a little here, took a little there from my own program and she kept her launch super simple. Just posting on her business Facebook page, sending launch emails that I told her how to write. But she didn't do a live webinar. She didn't do a big pre launch content push, just posting in emails. And it worked. In her first two months she made $10,000 and over the next eight months she generated an additional $32,000. That's big. Did she leave some money on the table by not doing live webinars? Probably. But that's okay because she has room to grow. Now. She has already said she wants to layer in webinars and more strategy over time. But the important part is she got started. Now she's gone on to build a business that's worth over a half a million dollars. But what if she was like, I can't put this out there. Amy said that I should do all these things, which I didn't. But she could interpret, like, because I teach a lot of really cool strategies in my program, that she has to do them all the first time out. No, that's not how we start. And I tell you this story because I want you to hear how simple she made it. The fear of wasting time and money creating a digital course is what keeps so many people stuck. Carlin couldn't let that fear stop her thinking she had to do it all the right way from the start. Instead, she chose to do what was doable for her. And she proved that even with a simplified version, you can get results, you can build your own confidence, and you can grow from there. And here's the thing. Your students don't need perfection either. What they want is transformation. They don't care about the polished course that is so outdated. They're not signing up because your slides look gorgeous or your bonuses are stacked to the sky. They're signing up because they believe you can help them get results. So when you focus on just the essentials you're actually modeling for your students, that progress matters more than perfection. And that, my friend, is a very big deal. So I love this story of Carlin because it's proof that she wanted to follow someone who had a proven plan. That's me. She wanted to follow someone who's gone before her and is willing to say, this is exactly how to do it. But she made sure that she allowed herself to grow in phases, using my model versus telling herself it had to look exactly like I do it. I'm 16 years in. Nothing that you do in your first few years is ever going to look like someone 16 years in. So I just want to remind you of that. If you're feeling a little fired up, if you're like, okay, wait a second, Amy, you're kind of speaking to me. I've had these fears, and I have talked about courses forever, and I haven't done them, and I have no idea where to start. Well, my friend, I want to invite you to a free masterclass that I'm actually doing tomorrow. So if you see this episode when it comes out, which would be September 16th, tomorrow, I am doing a free live masterclass. It's called the New and Better Way to create and sell a profitable Digital course in 2025 the new and better way so I'm kind of hinting at some of the new and better ways here, but I'm really going to get into it in my free masterclass, so I'd love to see you there. Amyporterfield.com masterclass. You can grab your spot, but I promise you, if you feel a little fired up or if I'm speaking to you even just a little bit, my masterclass is perfect for you. And it's just 60 minutes. It will go by really fast. But I'll lay out what it looks like to create and launch a profitable digital course in 2025 when the world is changing because courses are still thriving. The industry of digital course creation and launching is still growing. So I want to share with you how to position yourself so you are at the top. When people think I need to learn XYZ your niche, your name comes up. Okay, let me share a few more fears to see if you can relate. Another fear is I'll have to start completely from scratch. So it might be like I don't even know where to start creating a course. I'll be staring at a blank screen forever like I don't know how to get started. Amy, this is a big one I hear all the time. But here's the truth. You are not starting from scratch. So if you're multitasking, come back to me. I really want you to hear this. You are not starting from scratch. Most people think they have to build an entire course from nothing, but that's simply not true. Chances are you already have plenty to pull from past podcast episodes that you've done, client resources that you've created, or even advice you've shared with your friends, family or colleagues and help them get results. Think about it this way. When people text you for advice, maybe it's how do you handle tricky clients? Or what's your process for meal prepping each week? You already have steps you give them that works. That's the foundation of a course. Those steps you naturally share are a proven process. You've been teaching informally all along. You already know enough. I believe every single person has a digital course inside them. You've been teaching, coaching, or sharing pieces of it all. All along. It's simply about packaging what you know into a clear roadmap that saves people time, energy, and the headache of trying to figure it out on their own. And these days, the courses that really are rising to the top, making people a lot of money is if you lead with helping them along the way. If you build in a little accountability to make sure they stay on track. If you build in some support, office hours, private community for your course students, access to you, not overwhelming access to you, whatever feels good to you and helping them implement along the way, those are the courses that are killing it. No matter if AI is on the scene or not, AI is not going to keep people accountable. It's not going to support them with that human touch. It doesn't help them implement when they get stuck in the moment. With real teaching, that's where you can come in. So here's what I want you to remember as we close out this episode. The fear of wasting time and money will always show up. It will always be riding shotgun, whether it's about creating a digital course or anything else in your life. But the real waste that's letting the fear keep you stuck. You don't need months or a massive budget to get started. You don't need every bell and whistle for your first launch. And you definitely don't have to start from scratch. You already have so much that you can build from. And when you do, take action. Here's the shift I want you to make. Your course isn't just another project on your to do list. It's an asset in your business. A course is something you create once and sell over and over again. That means every ounce of effort you put in now continues to pay you back. So when you keep things simple, follow a proven plan and and build from what you already have, you minimize the risk, quiet the fear, and finally give yourself permission to get your course out into the world. That's when your confidence grows. That's when clarity comes into play. And that's when you start building the kind of freedom and stability you've been craving. And if this is resonating at all, if you're shaking your head, yes, Amy, or hopefully some of you are thinking, how did you get into my head? Because I am just like you. I've absolutely been through so much of what you're going through now. So if you're feeling like, okay, she gets me, then join me. Tomorrow, I'm hosting a brand new free masterclass. It's called the New and Better Way to Create and Sell a Profitable digital course in 2025. What is working now? Inside? I'm going to walk you through exactly how to get started without wasting months or spinning your wheels or pouring money into things you don't need. You're going to leave with a clear picture of how to build a profitable course that fits your lifestyle and your goals. I would love for you to join. So go to amyporterfield.commasterclass to save your spot. All right, my friend. I'll talk to you soon.