Amy Porterfield (0:01)

Hey there. Welcome to the Amy Porterfield Show. Working under constant pressure leads to resentment. Working towards a vision creates momentum. So my question for you is, are you putting way too much pressure on yourself right now? A couple episodes back, I asked you, do you, like, when I start the episode, like, right away, like, almost like in the middle of a sentence, I just get going. Or would you rather me be a little bit more nice? Like, hey, how you doing? Welcome to the show. So glad you're here. Every single one of you who sent me a DM on Instagram said, cut the niceties, just get right to it. I. I mean, you're booked and busy. You've got things to do. So just know that every episode moving forward, I am just jumping right into it, which I'm going to do right now. Okay, so tell me if you can relate to this. Maybe right now, in this moment in your life, or maybe you've had these feelings before. So here's the thing. You're not fully burned out in this moment. You're not like exhausted every minute of the day. Don't get me wrong, you're tired a lot, but you're not fully exhausted. You're not miserable, but you're not lit up either. You're not excited about the work you're doing. You're just like somewhere in this weird middle ground. Can you relate? Have you been there? I have absolutely been there. I actually think I was there at the beginning of this year. I didn't know it, but when I did the research for this episode, I'm like, oh, yeah, I know these feelings were really well. And many of you have actually told me you're feeling this way. You're just not lit up or excited about a lot of the things that you're working on. And here's the bad news. That's where dreams quietly die if we're not careful. So the good news is there's a way to fix this. But if you just continue to not be lit up, not be excited about your life or your business, that's where dreams just slowly die. And the thing is, like I said, this feeling is not rare. I hear it from many of my students. One of the advantages of me creating the Millie Club and my made to scale mastermind is that I get to have really intimate conversations with women building businesses. So I feel like I get this front row seat to what it feels like to be in those first few years of your business or just at that place where you're trying to scale and things feel a little bit Messy. And it's easy to feel that feeling of, oh my gosh, I'm not lit up, I'm like the doer of everything. And that's exhausting. And while I was researching this episode and really wanting to get down to the heart of the matter, I came across this article from Forbes. Now, I teach people how to create online businesses, but a lot of the people that I serve, they are still in 9 to 5 job and have a side hustle, or they recently left a 9 to 5 job. So the study by Forbes, it came out early in 2025, and the title of the article was job burnout at 66%. In 2025, 66% of the people they surveyed were just burned out in their job. And again, this episode really isn't about full burnout. It's that messy middle, that just kind of really weird place where at the end of the day, if you're really, really honest with yourself, you're not completely happy. And the thing is, when I think about those numbers, I think about, you know, that might be those in the workplace. However, so many of my students building businesses, it's the exact same feeling. The feeling of going through the motions, showing up, but not feeling truly connected to the work that you're doing or even the people that you're surrounded by. I was talking to my trainer this morning, like working out with my trainer, and she works with a lot of entrepreneurial women. And she said it's so clear that women in a season right now that so many of the women she works with, they feel detached, detached from their work or detached from the people around them. And at the time of this recording, the world's kind of weird right now. Things are happening that are just really new and different to us and we kind of don't know how to make sense of some of it. And so that's going to play a part. But again, you might not be feeling this now, but I bet you can relate, like, oh, yeah, I've had these feelings. Or some of you will feel this in the future. And I hope this episode will bring you some solace and just help you kind of move past it. Because we cannot live there if we don't catch this early. It can be really dangerous and it can turn into full on burnout. Because when you're not lit up by the projects you're working on and your surroundings in general, it drains your creativity, it drains your momentum, and really, it drains your joy. And the scary thing is about this is that you don't Even realize it, it's just. Just a little drip, drip, drip until it's not. And so that's why I think we need to talk about it. And more importantly, we need to talk about how to reignite the spark before it's totally gone. And that's what I want to do with you today. By the end of this episode, you will have a crystal clear plan to get back to creating, leading, and living from excitement, not obligation or responsibility. Let's move you out of the have to's and get you into the get tos. Now, I'm going to talk a little bit about joy today, which is not a topic I typically talk about, but I'm a little bit inspired by Hoda coffee. So I love Hoda. I wish she was my best friend. I wish she could come over for coffee. And she recently quit the Today show, as many of you know, and she's gone on to create a new business, and she has a brand new app called Joy101. And I've been watching the responses and how people are engaging with this new opportunity, and there's a lot of really great buzz around it. One, because everyone loves Hoda, but also this concept of joy, we can't take it lightly. So in the spirit of joy, let's talk about the first step that you can take. So the first step is creating a mindset that actually makes room for joy. Not just like in your business, but in every part of your life, but in your business, too. So to me, I just. I'm a little bit warped. Like, when I think of the word joy, it feels fluffy to me. Like, I almost didn't bring it into this episode. It feels a little airy fairy, which is actually very sad, right, that I feel that way. But when I think of joy, I just feel like that's for other people. I know. I'm embarrassed to even say that. However, joy can actually be a business strategy, and I've done my work around this, and I know this is true. So for me, when I started to think about putting more joy into my life, into my business, especially my business, I realized, oh, I feel the most joy. We can replace the word joy with happiness or, you know, feeling good. I feel my best in three ways in my business. Like, there's three areas where if you inject joy, this is where they show up. Number one, proximity to my team. So my leadership team, especially, because I get to see them the most. But every quarter we get together in person, in July, we meet at my lake house right after 4th of July as a leadership team. It's our quarterly retreat. That's the one that's the most fun. We try to get all our work done in one day instead of two. And the second day, as long as we get our work done, we get to go out on the water, out on the boat, inner tubing and having a great time and laughing and all that good stuff. And we have so much fun. And it reminds me, oh my gosh, I love my team. I am so lucky that I get to hang out with this team and have a great time. Also, I have my whole team once a year get together and they're coming out to Nashville actually this summer. Fully looking forward to that. We're going to do a little fun, a little work. It's going to be a good time. The second way that I feel I have a lot of joy in my business is when I get to connect with my students. Now what I had been missing for so long is actually getting in proximity with my students. And you know me, I'm an introvert. I could hide behind my computer for years and years and probably be really happy. However, I forget that I actually like being in proximity with people. And so with the Millie club and my other mastermind, I do live events now, they're small, there's like 20 or 30 people there, but I'm sitting down on couches with them and we're talking about everything under the sun. And I'm learning about who they are, the challenges they have. They're sharing their lives with me. That lights me up. It does. And I forgot how important it was to get in proximity with the people that I serve. And then the third way in my business that I find joy is working in my zone of genius on projects I deeply care about. Okay, so let me give you an example. The Millie club is the club that I have for women that are around 500k or a little bit more. And they want to have a million dollar plus business. And so we're starting at a very specific place in their business, growing from there. And I work with a group of 30 women for six months. So I'm into my second cohort now. Well, with my second cohort, I realized I want some curriculum. It's one thing to have a mastermind feel and do hot seats and conversations, but these women, they're on a mission. And so I created something called the Millie method. And the millie method is 10 pillars around how to build a million dollar business. Not necessarily from scratch, although we could use it that way. But More So once you get things going, you've got your courses or your membership, and you have a small email list or a big email list. You know how to do business, but you want to scale. And so we talk about funnels and offers and customer journey and how to sell and how to build your team. Those are all the pillars. But I got to create it with two of the women on my team. I mean, I was typing away, I was in it, I was thinking about all the things that I've learned along the way to build a multimillion dollar business. And it became a 300 page physical guidebook that I got to put on their tables when they arrived at the Nashville event. And that thing is so special to me. And it felt so good to create it. Like, I loved it. It meant later nights. It meant sometimes working on a Friday, even though we have a four day work week. But it was worth it. And I had to talk to Hobie, like, look, I know this is taking me a little bit longer than I thought it would, but I'm really loving it. And he's like, as long as you're loving it, I love it. So I was very fortunate for that. So those are the things that really bring me joy. The one thing I need to work on is what brings me joy outside of business. So my least favorite question you could ask me is, Amy, what are your hobbies? Oh, I don't have a lot of hobbies. I want to have hobbies after Hobie and I build our home. Remember I did that post on Instagram that we bought these 70 acres in a place called Leapers Fork. We're building a home. You have to make sure that I stick to the fact that I want to garden. There's this big area for a beautiful garden and, you know, I want these little highland cows and pygmy goats. Who am I? I don't even know who I am right now, but I want to be. I want to be on the land. I want to be having hobbies on our new property. So once the house is built, if I'm not gardening, you need to call me on it. But I do spend a lot of time with my friends and have little adventures with them and my family. So I need to find joy outside of work more. So I'm just confessing that right now, and maybe you can relate. So your goal here, I've got a few steps for you, just two more steps. But I want you to get out of that kind of not lit up phase. And so you've got to figure out, like, what actually brings you joy. I would love for you to send me a dm. Just give me one thing that brings you joy. It might even be something silly. It doesn't matter. Just what is something that brings you joy, either in your business or outside of your business. I'm just at Amy Porterfield on Instagram, and I, like, dig for these DMS the day my episode comes out. Like, I'm looking for them. So don't leave me hanging. What's one thing that absolutely brings you joy? I want to hear it. And then I want you to go do it. I want you to do more of that. That's the goal. Do more of what brings you joy. Okay, so my next move for you is setting up an environment where vision leads and pressure takes a backseat. Where vision leads and pressure takes a backseat. So pressure feels heavy. Vision feels magnetic. So I'm working on a new project right now. I can't talk about it yet till I kind of get it into place, because it would be a little reckless if I did. But it's a very big deal. It's a way that might even change some of my business model and what I offer. And I'm excited about it. It's new, it's different. And I'm not the kind that needs a lot of different things all the time. Like, I've promoted Digital Course Academy the way it is since 2019. Like, I like to stick to something that works and just get better at it. But there is some excitement about what if I had something new and different that I've never offered before? So that feels exciting. But if I put pressure on myself and said it needs to come out in two months and it needs to work and it needs to make this much money, that's going to kill all the creativity. I have a student of mine where she was launching something last week, and I got to see her the week before, and she said, amy, this has to work. She took one concept and changed it and turned it into a different offer. So it's all she had. She had one big offer, and she said, this has to work. It has to work. And it freaked me out a little bit, the pressure she was putting on herself for something brand new. She had never launched it before. It's so unfair to do that to yourself. And that leads to desperate energy. And desperate energy shows up as making decisions that are not right for you. It's changing things too fast. It's not allowing you to have some white space to actually think desperate Energy is the worst kind of energy you can have. So working under constant pressure leads to resentment. Working towards a vision creates momentum. So my question for you is, are you putting way too much pressure on yourself right now? And ask yourself why? Like, of course you need to make money, of course you want to hit your goals, but for what? Like, why are we doing this? Sometimes I'll choose a revenue goal for a course or whatever, and then when I don't hit it, I feel really bad. And someone's like, well, where'd you get that number? And I'm like, I just really wanted to hit it. Why? I don't know, I just wanted to hit it. I just, I just don't think that's like the best way to go about it. We've got to put some more meaning behind the work that we're doing. So I've got a journal prompt for you and I don't know if you journal, but I want to encourage you to do this one. Here's the question. If I trusted that growth is inevitable, what would I create next? If I trusted that growth is inevitable, you've got this, you've already won. What would I create next? Another way you could look at that is what would I stop doing? What would I take off my plate? What would I delegate? If success is inevitable, meaning whether I do it or not I'm having success, maybe someone else could do it on the team. What would you give up? I think that's another great way to look at it. So I would love for you to do a little journal prompt around this one. If you asked me that question many years ago and if success was inevitable, what would I do? I would have said I'd move to a four day work week. So for years I wanted to work less and I was terrified that it would take down the business. But then because I'm such a people pleaser, I thought, well, if I want to only work four days a week, then it's only fair that my team works four days a week as well. And I just felt weird taking Friday off. Listen, you can judge me all you want. Probably should go to therapy about that one. I just didn't love the feeling of me taking it off. And I have a really, you know, small, tight knit team. I wanted them to experience that as well. So years ago I did a kind of a example of this journal prompt. Like, what do I really want? I want a four day work week. And so I, I laid it all out and then I started to say it out loud. I Started to share it with people, and then it became true. So it moved from, wouldn't it be nice one day to actually. No, this is actually happening. I'm creating this. And it started with a journal prompt. Then I started to speak it more. If you want something, talk about it more. Now, be careful who you share your dreams with. I remember in my book Two Weeks Notice, I wrote about, if you've got a really big, audacious dream or goal, be careful who you share it with. Because if you share it with the wrong person and they just cut it down and tell you all the reasons it won't work, that could really get in your head. So I'm always selective. When I'm excited about something, I want to do something, I strategically share it with the people that think I could land on the moon tomorrow, which is essentially my mom and Hobie. So there you go. Okay, so once you have this joy mindset, get really clear in your business, what brings you joy. We want to do more of that. And then you set your vision without a lot of pressure, like, what could you do if it absolutely worked, what would you do? So you're setting that vision. Now it's time to do an honest audit of your current work. So if you're feeling like you're not really lit up, you're probably stuck because you're doing too much of the wrong kind of work. So, like, there's three types of work to check out. Soul sucking tasks, things you dread. I just wrote a newsletter. If you're not on my newsletter, please get on my newsletter. I've been sharing so much behind the scenes. It's just amyporterfield.com forward slash newsletter. But I shared in my recent newsletter that on Sex and the City, there's this scene that Charlotte is talking to one of the other girls. So Charlotte's like the good girl and she's talking to one of the other girls. And they're like, you don't love Harry, your husband, all the time, Right? Like, you can't possibly love him all the time. He has to drive you crazy. And she says, no, I love him every day. I don't like him all the time, but I love him every day. And I think about my business like that. I don't like everything I do in my business, but I love my business every day. And so in order for that to continue, I have to get rid of the soul sucking tasks. Sure. I'm going to do some things I don't want to do, but I don't need to be doing those things that literally drain the crap out of me. So of course those are the things I need to find someone else who will happily do them and it doesn't drain them. Also, here's another task. Sleep walking tasks, things you just do mindlessly. If you do too many things mindlessly, you feel mindless, like you feel empty. So you gotta kind of be mindful of those. And then spark igniting tasks, things that challenge and excite you. Like my new Milli method guidebook that I created. That is a spark igniting task. So I'm not here to tell you that everything you do should be a spark igniting task, but I would love for you to do three columns just on a piece of paper. Three columns. Number one, what is sucking your soul? Just be honest. Two, what are some sleepwalking tasks that are mindless and you're doing them all the time and just they're not your favorite and maybe we can make some changes there. And then what's sparking your joy? And. And so I want you to do more of the sparking joy, less of the soul sucking. And then of course, you're just going to do some things in your business that you don't necessarily want to do. I don't love to have to review a P and L, but I also want to know where my numbers are. So those kind of things you kind of have to just kind of play with. And know you don't have to like everything you do. But if you're hating everything you do right now, that is a red flag. So I want you to move at least two or three of the soul sucking things off, off your list. And then some of those mindful things. Maybe ask yourself, like, how can I make these a little bit more enjoyable? Or is there someone I can delegate to? Okay, so the final step is reignite your founder Energy by giving yourself permission to create purely for the joy of it. What a concept, right? The fastest way to reconnect with your founder Energy, the founder Energy, is why you created this in the first place. That excitement you had when you first started talking about starting your business. That energy about what if, what if this actually works? We got to get back there. So to reconnect with that founder Energy is to create something just for you. Not for strategy, not for approval, not for likes on social media, but for the pure enjoyment of building something you, you just love. So when you create from that place, your spark comes back. A lot of my girlfriends, they do this like in their personal life where they love Needlepoint or one of my girlfriends is learning to crochet. One of my other girlfriends, she watercolor paints. She's not even good at it. She'll tell you, but she just likes to have these things outside of work. And she says, when I find joy outside of work, I come back into the work reignited. And I think that's really cool. So when I say create something just for the sake of creating it, I don't even mean for work. You could do it in your personal life as well. But protecting that founder energy, it's not selfish. I think it's actually you being really responsible. Because reigniting the energy, your whole team will feel it. The contractors you work with will feel it, and. And definitely your students. I think it's essential to keeping your business and your vision alive. So can you think of a one project that you want to create simply because it excites you? It could be in the business or out of the business. Like, what's something you always thought, oh, I really want to do that? One of my friends is going back to school for marketing. So she was a teacher by trade, and now she built an online business around supporting other teachers, and she just wants to go back to school and get a marketing degree. Cause that sounds fun to her, not so she can prove to people that she knows how to run her business. No, nothing like that. It just really interests her. So I thought that was really cool as well. So can you think of something that would really just make you happy to create or do? Let's go do it now. Before I let you go, we do need to talk about resistance. So when you do the work that brings you more excitement and joy and that founder energy, and you find that deeper meaning and you put it back into your business, something unexpected might show up, and that is resistance. In the book the War of Art by Steven Pressfield, highly recommend it, the War of Art, he describes resistance as the invisible force that rises anytime we move toward growth, creativity, or real change. Change, resistance and excitement, they're not opposites. They're two sides of the same path to growth. So remember, feeling resistance doesn't mean the excitement is gone. It means you're getting close enough to feel the weight of what's possible. And that's what I don't want you to forget. And if we don't push through it, we don't just stay stuck. We miss out on the joy and the spark and the creative energy waiting for us on the other side. So it's okay to feel a little resistance. When you're making some of these shifts, that means you're on the right path. So as you start inviting more excitement back into the work you do, and as you step into projects that truly light you up, stay mindful. If you hit some resistance, it's not a sign that you're doing it wrong or you're on the wrong path. It's a sign that you're getting closer to the work and the impact and the life that you actually want. What a concept, right? The only way out is through. So keep moving toward what excites you, even when it feels uncomfortable. I think that's where the magic is. So a few things I want you to think of as we wrap up. Fine. I'm doing fine is a warning sign, not a destination. Feeling fine, not burned out, but not excited either. That's fine is a quiet danger that drains your momentum and creativity if left unchecked. Recognizing it early is the key to reigniting that spark. Joy is not optional. Think of joy as a business strategy, infusing joy back into your business and your life. It fuels creativity and leadership and resilience. Joy isn't a reward for success. I need to repeat that. If you're multitasking, come back to me. Joy is not a reward for success. It's a tool that drives sustainable success. It's a tool that drives sustainable success. That is not something I learned early on in my career. I had to learn it way too late, unfortunately. Number three, vision pulls you forward. Pressure holds you back. So working from pressure, it creates resentment. Building from vision, it creates momentum and just magnetism. So a powerful vision is what keeps you excited about the future that you're building. And number four, your energy flows where your focus goes. So when you do an honest audit of your daily work, the soul sucking work, the mindless work, the spark kind of work, doing a really honest audit and then figuring out what do you want to delete or delegate or rework is such an important step. I'm in a phase right now that I just have taken on way too much and I am working more hours than I would like to admit. I'm in this weird season. So I told Hobie I'm going to have to just eliminate, not just delegate. My team has a lot to do right now as well. What are we not going to do? I think there's some energy in that question. What are you not going to do? What are you willing to let go of? Even though that's kind of scary, in order to bring some more joy back and then remember your founder energy. That energy that usually happens right before you start your business or in the first few years, even though you're freaked out, everything's messy, and you're uncertain, there's a founder energy there that you want to get back in touch with. It's excitement, it's that creativity. It's like this vision, like, what if I create something amazing? Let's get back there. And to protect that founder energy, you've got to do things just for the sake of bringing you joy. You got to create a project, and who cares if zero people like it? Zero people see it, and you don't get a bunch of social media comments around it. That's not the point. So I'd be so curious if you have something like that. Like, I'm gonna do this just for me. Please DM me. I would love to mention some of those on the podcast because I think it will spark. Some people are listening. Like, I don't even know what that would be. So if you know, DM me on Instagram, because I would love to share that here. And then also, just remember, resistance might come up, you might feel a little joy, and then you. It's resistance to me is like, I feel a little guilty. Like, should I be having. I wait, I gotta back up. I was raised by a father that he. This is so, so sickening. Like, bless his heart, he meant well, but he taught me that if you don't enjoy the work you're doing, that means you're doing hard work. Yeah. Take that to your therapist. If you're not enjoying the work, if it's miserable, if it's hard, if it's like grueling, that means you're working hard. And this. My dad was a blue collar guy and he did work really hard, but that's really effed up, right? Like, what? So sometimes when I have a lot of joy or it's too fun, I mean, even me saying too fun is sad, right? But when it just seems really enjoyable, sometimes in my head, I think I'm not working hard enough, so I had to be really careful. And that's my version of resistance. So I. I'm pretty good at catching it now and, like, staying in the moment. But dang, that was a hard one to break for sure. So there you have it. If today's episode reminded you that your excitement is worth fighting for, I hope it did. I hope this episode reminded you that your joy, your excitement, your passion, you have to fight for it. Sometimes it gets away from you. So if that's what this episode did, then I did my job. And if you have a friend that's kind of in it in a hard season, not sure if things are going to work out for them, send them this episode. Because if they can infuse just a little bit of joy into what they're doing, they might just stay in the game longer so it actually starts to work. So there you go, my friend. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I cannot wait to see you again next week.