Hate Your Job? Laid Off? Reimagine Your Future & Take the Next Right Step | The Mel Robbins Podcast

Mel Robbins 0:03 Almost every single human being in the past three years has had some kind of reset button hit, where you've gotten very clear that maybe the way that you've been doing life, it's not really what you want anymore. And so we're gonna focus today on your ability to be your own boss. My guest today is a dear friend of mine. Her name is Amy Porterfield. I wanted to give you a zero-cost masterclass, how to think totally differently about what's possible for you, and that's the invitation of this episode. (upbeat music) Hey, it's your friend Mel, and welcome to an eye-opening and incredibly empowering episode of The Mel Robbins Podcast. I am so excited for the conversation today because we're gonna be talking about big themes, themes like freedom, taking control of your life, and most importantly, it is my mission today to drop literally, like, a grenade in your head and blow open your thinking about what's possible for you. And I've been wanting to do this show for a while because I see in the news all these people getting laid off. I myself have someone graduating from college who does not currently have a job, and the anxiety is starting to ramp up. And I also know that almost every single human being in the past three years has had some kind of reset button hit, where you've gotten very clear that maybe the way that you've been doing life, it's not really what you want anymore. You have values that aren't aligned with the kinda work that you're doing or the way that you spend your time. And so I am on a mission to open your eyes to a whole different reality because whatever move you're gonna make next when it comes to your career, your finances, and your life, I want it to be the greatest move of your life, and I believe that you have the ability to do that. And so we're gonna focus today on, um, your ability to truly be your own boss, and you might not have ever thought about that because of how old you are or how young you are or the fact that you have a really crappy mindset and you're constantly beating yourself down. I am here to tell you, I am living proof that absolutely anybody can take control of their life. You can design it how you want and you can do the work to, yes, you, control your destiny and launch your own business, and has nothing to do with your skillset. It has nothing to do with your qualifications. It has nothing to do with your age. It has to do with your willingness to lean into what you deserve, and what you deserve is freedom. You deserve to be able to be at home at night with your family for dinner. You deserve to be able to have savings so that you can sleep at night. You deserve to be able to do work that's meaningful for you, and I wanna wake you up today and make you realize that you are one decision away from having that happen. And so if you're new, my name is Mel Robbins. I'm a New York Times bestselling author. I am also one of the world's leading experts on motivation, behavior change, habits, and I am kinda startled when I sit here and think about this, but I only started making money online five years ago as a 49-year-old woman. So if I can figure this out, you can figure this out, and I wanted to give you a zero-cost masterclass with a woman who has taught more than 50,000 people how to pivot, from as young as 19 to as old as somebody in her late 60s, how to think totally differently about what's possible for you, and that's the invitation of this episode, that by the end of this episode, you're gonna think very differently about what your next move might be in your career. You're gonna think very differently about what you're capable of, and you're going to have a small taste of what freedom could be and the next right steps to take to start walking toward it. So my guest today is a dear friend of mine. Her name is Amy Porterfield. She is an entrepreneur who is one of the world's leading experts in launching an online business. She has taught this to literally millions of people, more than 50,000 paying students. What you're gonna learn today, I mean, normally to take one of her classes or to have one of her coaches coach you, we're talking more than $10,000. You're gonna get this at zero cost thanks to our sponsors and thanks to Amy's generosity today. She is here, she has a brand-new book called, uh, Two Weeks Notice, but the book is really about the step-by-step blueprint for making a major pivot and creating freedom in your life. I'm so excited that you're here, Amy. Thank you so much for being here.

Amy Porterfield 4:58 I am so thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me.

Mel Robbins 5:01 You're welcome. And so here's where I wanna start. So Amy, you and I have reinvented ourselves.

Amy Porterfield 5:06 Yes.

Mel Robbins 5:07 And in the past 14 years, we have both gone from working for somebody else to figuring out how to launch our own business, and I'm gonna get to your story in a minute, but I wanna put something into context for everybody. Guys, I first started making money online five years ago.

Amy Porterfield 5:27 Five years ago. That was like yesterday.

Mel Robbins 5:29 And I was 49 years old, Amy.

Amy Porterfield 5:31 Okay, I love to hear this.

Mel Robbins 5:33 If this old dog can figure out-

Amy Porterfield 5:34 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 5:35 ... how this internet thing works and how to, like, march toward my curiosity about it and how to learn this stuff-

Amy Porterfield 5:43 Yes.

Mel Robbins 5:43 ... I mean, there are people, everybody, out there who are way stupider y- than you-

Amy Porterfield 5:47 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 5:47 ... making way more money than you because they stopped and they paid attention to what we're about to tell you today. You can do this, and Amy is living proof. She has taught 50,000 students, more than 50,000-... students how to take even, like, you even start with people who are like, "I have no idea what I want to do."

Amy Porterfield 6:06 Absolutely no idea, yes, and-

Mel Robbins 6:08 That's crazy to me.

Amy Porterfield 6:08 ... they figure it out and create incredible businesses. They blow their own minds.

Mel Robbins 6:13 Without any business experience?

Amy Porterfield 6:14 Absolutely.

Mel Robbins 6:15 And what is the... Why did you, why did you want to help people do this, and what do you want the person listening right now as they're driving to a job that they hate, or they're taking a walk in a neighborhood that they wish they didn't live in, or they are unemployed,

Mel Robbins 6:29 they've been laid off, they're beating themselves up, what do you want to tell them they are going to get out of this conversation today?

Amy Porterfield 6:37 I want them to know that there's an entirely new world waiting for them. They don't even know what's possible yet for their future, and it's not inside a cubicle or commuting to a 9:00 to 5:00 job. There's a whole other world out there that you can take as your own, and the reason I know that is because that is my own story 14 years ago. So because it was a new world to me and I ran with it, now I help other people do the same.

Mel Robbins 7:02 Okay, so you've got a world-class expert here that has held the hands of 50,000 people, and these 50,000-plus students that she has taught everybody, they are no more smarter than you. They are no more qualified than you. They simply were in the position that you're in right now where they bumped into this conversation, and it had them experience a whole different possibility for their life.

Amy Porterfield 7:29 Yes.

Mel Robbins 7:29 And that's my mission. My mission is to wake your ass up. My mission is to have you flush that stupid shit you're telling yourself that it... "You're too young. Oh, I'm just great. I don't have anything to offer anybody. How could I make money online?" Bullshit, you're actually tech native. Of course, you could do this if you change your mindset. "Oh, but Mel, I'm not 49. I'm 60. How am I gonna do this?"

Amy Porterfield 7:51 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 7:51 You're gonna do this by stopping that bullshit that's spewing out of your mouth and getting serious about listening to two women. She has made $85 million in the past 14 years teaching people how to do this, and you want to know why I'm saying that number? Because I'm damn proud of her, and I also think if you put your head down and you listen to what some expert like Amy is about to tell you and you pick up her book and you read the blueprint, you can figure this out too. This is about teaching yourself something new. It's about telling yourself something different, and that's what we're gonna do, and I want to tell you a quick story about how perspective-changing things can be, and then we're going to hear your story, Amy. So I remember when I was in law school, right?

Amy Porterfield 8:31 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 8:31 I grew up in a teeny tiny town in Michigan, and then I go to college in a teeny tiny town in New Hampshire.

Amy Porterfield 8:37 Okay.

Mel Robbins 8:38 And I was sort of like your meat-and-potatoes

Mel Robbins 8:40 kind of gal.

Amy Porterfield 8:41 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 8:41 I was not the biggest experimental eater, uh, like I am now, and I remember one of my really good friends, shout out to Sydney, uh, she was a super cool lady, and she grew up in Providence, Rhode Island, and she, uh, was multicultural family, like super cool, and I remember she invited me to leave the campus, the law school campus-

Amy Porterfield 9:02 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 9:02 ... and go into Boston-

Amy Porterfield 9:03 Okay.

Mel Robbins 9:03 ... to this restaurant called Jay's, and her boyfriend, who was older, was going to take the two, uh, you know, col- or law school students with no money out, and it was a Thai restaurant, and I had never been in a Thai restaurant before, and so we sit down. I had no idea what to order, and so they just order the pad Thai. When this thing arrived in front of my, you know-

Amy Porterfield 9:26 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 9:26 ... plate there, when, when, when this plate with-

Amy Porterfield 9:28 What do you think when you saw that pad Thai that you'd never seen before? (laughs)

Mel Robbins 9:31 I was like, "What the hell is the eggs and chicken and shrimp and these noodles?"

Amy Porterfield 9:36 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 9:36 And it's like pasty, tacky, weird texture and peanuts and bean sprouts. So I just shoveled a fork in, and I just took a bite. It was like a unicorn in my mouth.

Amy Porterfield 9:50 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 9:50 It was the, the most delicious thing I had ever... And I had this thought, "There is an entire world I have been missing out on," because I just didn't know. I just didn't know.

Amy Porterfield 10:03 Yes.

Mel Robbins 10:03 And that is what this conversation's about. It's like a pad Thai for your career. There is a whole-

Amy Porterfield 10:09 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 10:10 ... world that you have not considered as seriously as I want you to because you just didn't know. I- I- I didn't know you could make money online. You know, Amy's the kind of person that knows how to tap into that confidence that is inside you to make a pivot, and I know that reinvention is a hot topic. Our project on Audible, Reinvent Your Life with Mel Robbins, is number one on Audible. Everybody is feeling this need to change something about their lives, and when you take your career and your ability to make money into an entirely different level, it's extraordinary how that impacts your life. And Amy has been able to not only teach herself how to do that, but to teach so many other people how to do that, how to find financial freedom, how to get control of your time, how to create a life where you get to work when and where and with whomever you want to work, and i- and do not tune this out. This is possible for you. I don't care what your life li- looks like right now. This is possible for you, and that's why I wanted Amy to sit here and give you a zero-cost masterclass in thinking differently and taking control of your fricking life starting today. So Amy, what was your pad Thai moment in your career?

Amy Porterfield 11:21 My

Amy Porterfield 11:22 pad Thai moment was 14 years ago. I was working for peak performance coach Tony Robbins, and I had an ma- an amazing job. I was the director of content, traveling the world, working on the content that he did on stage. However, I didn't realize in that moment that I had never been free, and here's what happened. Tony brought in a bunch of business owners to the San Diego office. They happened to be all men, and they were making money online, and so he brought them into this office. It was this big oak table, and I was called in to take notes. So... (laughs)

Mel Robbins 11:54 Now, now, okay, so first of all-

Amy Porterfield 11:56 Yes.

Mel Robbins 11:57 Were you annoyed by that?

Amy Porterfield 11:59 Uh, uh, well, it was kind of common for the content department to take notes, but yeah, there's a little bit of me like, "I want to be in the action. I want to be doing the things." But yeah, I was on the side table.

Mel Robbins 12:10 Oh, so you were not even at-

Amy Porterfield 12:12 I w- No.

Mel Robbins 12:12 ... the big table-

Amy Porterfield 12:12 I was... No.

Mel Robbins 12:12 ... with the boys. You were on the side-

Amy Porterfield 12:14 I was on the side.

Mel Robbins 12:15 ... taking the notes.

Amy Porterfield 12:16 Yes.

Mel Robbins 12:16 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 12:17 So here I came into this meeting, but thank God I did because here's what happened. I started to take notes and these guys started to talk about their businesses, what they do, what life looks like, what their lifestyle is, what their family life looks like. Like, they were really talking about their whole experience as business owners. And all of a sudden I realized, wait a second, they're working when they want, where they want, how they want. They're creating these amazing products. They're being as creative as they want to be. They're on their own time and on their own dime. And I realized, I have never been free. I have never been my own boss. I will always hit a glass ceiling. I will always have to ask for a raise, always has to, have to ask if I could take vacation. I was not the boss of my own life or my business. And in that moment, a light bulb went off and I thought, "I want it." I have no idea what they're doing. I don't know how to do any of it, but I want it. And so that was the moment for me, but the next thing that happened was this flood of doubt. And I looked at my friend who was in the meeting with me and I said, "I have no skill where I could be my own boss. I, I know nothing that I could being my own boss."

Mel Robbins 13:26 I want to stop right there, because I think this moment where you're sitting in a meeting, and you experience something.

Amy Porterfield 13:37 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 13:38 This like wake-up call happens in your body, and I've had a moment like that. It's way bigger than a pad Thai moment.

Amy Porterfield 13:46 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 13:47 I was sitting in an audience and I was at an Oprah Winfrey, like kind of one of these Live Your Best Life tours. This would have been a decade ago.

Amy Porterfield 13:56 Okay.

Mel Robbins 13:56 Decades ago, actually. Probably two decades ago at this point. And I was there because I was networking to try to get clients for my life coaching business.

Amy Porterfield 14:07 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 14:07 I had just started this on the side. I was working full-time, uh, doing business development for a advertising agency in the big tech, uh, kind of bubble that happened in the early 2000 timeframe. And on the side, I was trying to build a business as a life coach, full of doubt. So I go to this Oprah Winfrey concert. Concert.

Amy Porterfield 14:31 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 14:31 It was actually a, like, meet- It was like a event that she held, a one-

Amy Porterfield 14:35 Yes.

Mel Robbins 14:35 ... day summit to, like, live your best life. And so I'm sitting in the big audience and Oprah's on stage, and then she introduces this woman that I have n- I'd never heard of. Her name was Martha Beck. And Martha Beck walks out. And I don't even remember what the hell she said. I had never heard of her. I had no clue what she ad- what she did. But she started talking and there was something inside of me that was like, "I want that." And it was the same thing you're talking about, which is this taste of, of... I, I'd never thought about the word free, because there I was, I was actually... I had lied to my employer.

Amy Porterfield 15:15 Mm-hmm.

Mel Robbins 15:16 I had taken the day and I had told them I was somewhere else and I had gone to this thing for myself.

Amy Porterfield 15:22 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 15:22 And so here I am completely out of integrity, getting paid by somebody else to sit in a place where I'm prospecting for my side hustle that hasn't even launched yet. And I realize when she walks on the stage, holy shit, that's what I want. And I didn't even know what that meant. I just knew that I wanted the freedom that she seemed to have. She was writing books. She was, uh, clearly writing for Oprah. She had written her first book. She was now talking about that first book on a stage. I didn't know what I would write about. I didn't know what I would speak about. I was scared to, to think about-

Amy Porterfield 15:56 Yes.

Mel Robbins 15:56 ... being on that stage. Uh, it... That is the moment, and so I want to hit pause and I want to talk to the person, you, right now listening to us. I want to talk

Mel Robbins 16:09 to you, because I need you to start to pay attention to those moments. You don't have to have the answers to change your life. You have to have that moment where you go, "I want something more for myself." And what I wanted is, I wanted to be able to go to an event without lying to my boss. Well, I could have just not lied, but you know what I mean.

Amy Porterfield 16:32 Yes.

Mel Robbins 16:32 I wanted to be able to go to an event because I was going to go to an event. I wanted to be able to work when I wanted to work, but I did not know how the hell do you go from that moment to knowing what the hell the right next step is? Because you're right. What happens next is, "Well, you're dumb. You got nothing to offer. You're this, you're that." Like, how did you go from, "Okay, there's all these dudes sitting around the table. I'm basically the secretary, no offense to secretaries, in the corner."

Amy Porterfield 16:59 (laughs) Right.

Mel Robbins 16:59 "And I am sitting here being exposed to something that I'm not part of this club."

Amy Porterfield 17:05 Yes. So the first thing I... All those doubts came rushing in, and then I learned something a long time ago that if you're watching someone do something

Amy Porterfield 17:14 and you feel a little bit jealous, like-

Mel Robbins 17:16 Yeah.

Amy Porterfield 17:16 ... "Look what they have," or angst around it, which I had. Like, I wanted what they had even though I didn't totally get it. Whenever you have a feeling of jealousy or angst or you want it, ask yourself, what do they have that you want? Like, get really clear. What is it about their life that you think is so attractive or you'd like to go through it? Because I had to get clear about what I wanted, and in that moment, I thought, "They get to be their own boss. Like, that's what they have that I have never had." So I think clarity, uh, in terms of what you want is the first big step. You talk about that a lot. What do you want? And so once I got clear on, "I don't want a job anymore. I want to call the shots," then I had to start thinking, "What would I do?" Because I had no clue. So for the next few months, I kind of went through this process that now I teach called the sweet spot, which is figuring out, what might you want to do?

Mel Robbins 18:07 Wow. Okay. I am so excited to go through this with you. I cannot wait to send this to approximately 100 people-

Amy Porterfield 18:14 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 18:15 ... because I feel like I have those kind of epiphanies probably once a week.

Amy Porterfield 18:22 Yes.

Mel Robbins 18:23 Even if you look at me, or you look at Amy, and you're like, "They got it all figured out," I still have these wake-up calls all the time.

Amy Porterfield 18:30 Oh, yeah.

Mel Robbins 18:30 Like we just had one yesterday-

Amy Porterfield 18:31 We did.

Mel Robbins 18:31 ... where we were talking about wouldn't it be nice to be able to support other female entrepreneurs-

Amy Porterfield 18:36 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 18:36 ... with investment money. Like, maybe we should step into, like, starting an investment fund, and we both looked-

Amy Porterfield 18:42 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 18:42 ... at each other, and we're like, "Well, I don't know how to do that. I don't either."

Amy Porterfield 18:45 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 18:45 "But we kinda feel interested." So that's sort of the moment we're talking about, and I-

Amy Porterfield 18:48 Yes.

Mel Robbins 18:48 ... want to give, I want to give the audience a real range-

Amy Porterfield 18:53 Okay.

Mel Robbins 18:54 ... okay, of scenarios where you could have this wake-up call, because I feel like for those of you that are in your 20s and 30s that listen to this podcast, you're probably

Mel Robbins 19:04 part of the demographic that looks at everybody that is an influencer or a YouTuber, or they are travel bloggers, or they are, uh, now starting their line of supplements, or they are doing exercise videos. And you're now streaming exercise videos from somebody who's largely your age, and you have this thing where you're like, "Wow, I'd really like to do that." What Amy and I are here to tell you is that is the power moment. That is the eye-opening moment. That's it. That awakening is the only thing you need in order to pivot your life in a new direction, because we are lucky enough, and Amy's gonna talk about this, to live in a world where if you want to create an online exercise studio, if you want to take your catering business or your grandmother's tomato sauce-

Amy Porterfield 20:01 Yep.

Mel Robbins 20:01 ... that everybody compliments and start selling it, you can figure out how to do it, but you have to honor the wake-up call.

Amy Porterfield 20:11 Yes.

Mel Robbins 20:12 You have to honor this thing inside you, because Amy's right. How many times have you seen somebody you're jealous of, or you've had this moment of inspiration, and you've been like, "Nope, not gonna happen for me"? And so I want you to know that that's takeaway number one, that takeaway number one is that wake-up call is going to change your life if you're willing to look for it and if you're willing to hit the pause button when it happens. Now, for those of you that are like, "Yeah, okay, so I don't want my, what my life currently looks like," that's enough.

Amy Porterfield 20:50 Yes.

Mel Robbins 20:51 So talk to me about this thing that you walk people through.

Amy Porterfield 20:55 Yes. So it's called the sweet spot formula.

Mel Robbins 20:57 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 20:58 And I developed it because it's essentially what I did w- to leave my last 9:00 to 5:00 job and start this business, and it has four quadrants. We'll walk them through the four quadrants, okay? This first quadrant of the sweet spot is, what are you good at? What do people always say? Like, "How do you do that? That comes so easy to you." Because what comes easy to you does not come easy to everybody else. Where have you gotten results? What do you... Where have you gotten results in your personal life or your business life? So maybe you're an accountant, and you do really good in your job. So you have all these skills that could absolutely translate into your own business, but maybe you don't want to be an accountant, but at home, you're really good at getting your picky eater, your toddler-

Mel Robbins 21:39 Ooh.

Amy Porterfield 21:40 ... to eat everything. And other moms are like, "How do you get your kids to eat all these vegetables? What are you doing?" And you have all these little secret things you do. That could be a business. So start looking around. But here's the

Amy Porterfield 21:52 beauty. You only need a 10% edge. When people start to think about, "What might I do in a business? Oh, I need more education. I need certification. I need more time," you don't need any of that. You already have the business in you. 10% edge. You need to be 10% ahead of those that you want to help and serve.

Mel Robbins 22:08 It's so funny. I just talked-

Amy Porterfield 22:09 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 22:09 ... to my husband about this.

Amy Porterfield 22:10 Yeah?

Mel Robbins 22:10 So Chris is, uh, you know, the founder of this men's retreat, Soul Degree, and he's starting this online huddle-

Amy Porterfield 22:17 Yes.

Mel Robbins 22:17 ... a nine-month-long program, and he's like, "I don't think I'm ready. ƒ€%$@#€%. I don't have it all figured out." I said, "Dude, you need to be one training ahead of everybody else."

Amy Porterfield 22:25 Exactly.

Mel Robbins 22:26 "That's all that you need to be," and I think that that's kind of one of those things that gets us in the way. I want to back up a minute though. Can you tell the story of how you went from taking notes in the corner-

Amy Porterfield 22:40 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 22:41 ... to figuring out what to do?

Amy Porterfield 22:42 Yes.

Mel Robbins 22:43 How did-

Amy Porterfield 22:43 Okay.

Mel Robbins 22:44 ... you do that?

Amy Porterfield 22:44 So for me, what it looked like was I started to think, "Okay, what, what am I doing right now in my business that could maybe translate?" And I was doing marketing and some social media and little bit of, like, online education kind of stuff. So I started to look at that, and I liked what I did. I didn't like the fact that I wasn't free, but I liked the work that I did. So I started to think maybe I could teach social media online. It wasn't my end-all be-all. You just need a starter idea. I just needed something to get me going.

Mel Robbins 23:13 Okay, let's stop there.

Amy Porterfield 23:15 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 23:15 You just need a starter idea, everybody.

Amy Porterfield 23:16 Yes.

Mel Robbins 23:17 I'm literally gonna baby step everybody-

Amy Porterfield 23:19 Good.

Mel Robbins 23:19 ... because every single thing that Amy's gonna talk about in her own journey is one of those obstacles that you're gonna have to remove, because, you know, if you think about what you currently do for somebody else, whether it's project management or what you studied in school, maybe you were a marketing major, and you spend your life on social media 'cause you don't have a job yet. Guess what? You probably understand a lot about social media.

Amy Porterfield 23:43 Yep.

Mel Robbins 23:43 You seem to like it a lot. Like, there are things that you do naturally. Maybe your house is super insanely clean, and everybody constantly-

Amy Porterfield 23:52 Yes.

Mel Robbins 23:52 ... remarks about how clean it is and how good it smells. Maybe that's what you just do naturally.

Amy Porterfield 23:58 Yep.

Mel Robbins 23:58 Maybe it's something you used to do a long time ago, but, you know, starting with, well, what are you good at, what other people say that you like, and so that was your process.

Amy Porterfield 24:08 Yes.

Mel Robbins 24:08 So here you are. You're still at your job.

Amy Porterfield 24:10 Still at my job.

Mel Robbins 24:11 And for somebody who's unemployed right now listening

Mel Robbins 24:14 or they're a student about to graduate-Like, what are you suggesting? Do you suggest they do this process while they're unemployed or while they're looking for a different job?

Amy Porterfield 24:24 Absolutely.

Mel Robbins 24:25 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 24:25 This is something that no matter where you are in your journey, if you have that desire, that calling, that there's gotta be something better for me, something different, this is what you do. You start to think about, "What am I good at? What could be a starter idea?" And then what I did is I started to look online on social media and started to go for, like, total immersion around what kind of business I'd want to create. So I wanted to teach social media or do social media. That's how I wanted to start, so I started to follow all these accounts on social media that were doing what I wanted to do, these other women and men that w- had the businesses I wanted. So I, the first step I did, I call it this process of unbossing, which is learning or believing that you could lead yourself and you don't need someone else to lead you. So I thought, "I've got to unboss myself," which is, "I have to think like a boss."

Mel Robbins 25:14 Okay, now, everybody stop because I want to make sure that you have this, 'cause this is another tool.

Amy Porterfield 25:21 Yes.

Mel Robbins 25:22 I don't care if you're trying to get ahead in your career or if you wanna figure out what to do next in your career or you truly do want to start something and grow it into a business. Unbossing yourself is a tool that you can use to change the way that you think-

Amy Porterfield 25:44 Yes.

Mel Robbins 25:44 ...because most of us grow up in households where we see our caregivers going to work for somebody else. So you already have a mindset where you think safety comes from being somebody's employee. You already have a mindset where you believe that, oh, those benefits, oh, that salary, oh, that, you know, kind of savings account, all that stuff that I saw my parents chip away and try to do, you think that that is the way-

Amy Porterfield 26:18 Yes.

Mel Robbins 26:18 ...to financial freedom, and what I'm here to open your eyes to

Mel Robbins 26:23 is this idea, what if you had a different mindset? What if you started to think like somebody who has their own business? And what I will tell you, being somebody that has my own business and that has a great team, it's that our team are people who think like bosses-

Amy Porterfield 26:46 Yes.

Mel Robbins 26:46 ...because a boss means you take responsibility for what you're doing. A boss means you figure shit out instead of sitting around and licking your wounds and feeling sorry for yourself, that this unbossing is a process that you have to go through in order to get yourself to think differently about how you're showing up. And so what are the components of unbossing your mindset-

Amy Porterfield 27:12 Yes.

Mel Robbins 27:12 ...and your actions?

Amy Porterfield 27:13 I love what you said about no matter if you plan on staying for your, in your nine-to-five job or looking for another job if you get laid off or starting your own business. If you adopt the mentality of unbossing yourself and you actually start thinking like a business owner, you're gonna show up so much better in every area of your life, because someone who is unbossed, they're not looking for everyone's approval. They're not asking everyone how to make a decision. They're not coming to the table and saying, "I'm stuck. What do I do?" They might come to the table and say, "I'm stuck. What do I do? I've got these two options. What do you think is best?" That kind of thing. So it's changing your mindset and h- and really stepping into more confidence that, "I've got this. I'll figure this out. Watch me," kind of mentality.

Mel Robbins 27:54 So I want to take a question real quick from one of our listeners-

Amy Porterfield 27:57 Okay.

Mel Robbins 27:57 ...because I think particularly for those of you that are in the situation where you've been laid off or you know somebody who has been fired or laid off, um, that's a real kick in the teeth. And so it can be very hard to muster up the confidence, and so I want to take a quick question from a listener named Jimena.

Narrator 28:21 Hi, Mel. I'm Jimena from Spain. I'm being laid off some weeks ago. How do you overcome feeling disposable? And also, I feel shame about telling people that I'm being laid off. How can I overcome this feeling? Thank you so much. Love you.

Mel Robbins 28:36 Okay, Jimena, first of all, I, I want you to understand something. Um, it is normal to feel punched in the face when you get laid off. It, it is. Even if you hated the job, it's normal because it's a rejection.

Amy Porterfield 28:49 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 28:50 And I can tell you a million things about how it's for the best, and it is for the best, but I will also tell you, I've been fired twice. Not laid off, fired. I have been told that, "You are not a fit for this job," and the first time was, uh, the job right before I decided to start a life coaching business.

Amy Porterfield 29:11 Oh, wow.

Mel Robbins 29:12 Yeah.

Amy Porterfield 29:13 Okay.

Mel Robbins 29:13 I was working in a, in a tech startup, and I basically talked my way into the job. I'm sure none of you can, can imagine that happening, but I had talked myself into the head of, like, like, the director of content, you know, what you used to be. And I had no fucking clue what I was doing.

Amy Porterfield 29:30 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 29:30 I mean, I just was desperate. I had talked my way into that job, and within, I don't know, it was clear within six weeks, but the gig was up within six months.

Amy Porterfield 29:40 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 29:40 And they called me in, and I knew... I would literally sit at that job all day and pretend that I was working 'cause I did not know what-

Amy Porterfield 29:49 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 29:49 ...I was doing. I had no understanding of engineering. I had no idea how all the tech worked. I just bullshitted my way in. I know that I'm painting a wonderful picture of myself, and they fired me, and they should have fired me. And the... it's a hard

Mel Robbins 30:05 thing to grasp that it actually isn't personal. It's always a business decision. You're not a fit for where the business is going. You're not a fit for where the business needs to go. You're not a fit in terms of your skill set. That's it. That's all that it is, and it always is a, a really positive thing.... when you look back, because if it's not a fit for your employer, it's not a fit for you either. But I want to say something quickly, because I know that you have so many women as students, and that is that based on the research, everyone, women in particular take getting laid off so personally that we typically see a decrease in our salaries of 24% after we've been laid off. Men typically bounce back stronger. They typically earn an average of 1.3% more when they get-

Amy Porterfield 31:06 Wow.

Mel Robbins 31:06 ... the new job. And I'll tell you why. Because of what you're talking about. We think we did something wrong.

Amy Porterfield 31:10 Right.

Mel Robbins 31:11 We think it's our fault. And the truth is, it's just not a match, and I need you to understand that it's normal to feel this way, Jimena, but it's why I want you to listen to this episode, because you're not meant to be in a job where it's not a match for your skills. You're not meant to be in a job where you feel trapped, and you're not meant to be in a job that you know deep in your heart, 'cause we all know deep in our heart that it's not a fit. You can feel it's off, you can f- And it doesn't matter how good of a person you are. We've had to, um, you know, lay off people that we love because the company's headed in a new direction and the skills are not a fit.

Amy Porterfield 31:46 Absolutely. One of my students recently got laid off after 20 years of being in the job that she was in.

Mel Robbins 31:51 So tell me the story.

Amy Porterfield 31:52 And so she was, she's now in her 50s and working at this job for 20 years, doing a great job, wakes up one morning and they lay her off, and she was totally surprised by it, never thought it would happen to her. And in that moment, she felt the shame and the embarrassment and, "What did I do?" But then the very next thought, and this is what's so powerful, she thought, "I didn't even like this job anyway. I've been staying in a job that I don't even like because it pays the bills. It is secure." And I always remind people-

Mel Robbins 32:25 I'm scared.

Amy Porterfield 32:25 ... there's no growth in security. That is not where you're going

Amy Porterfield 32:29 to shine, when you're just always safe and secure. You got to get out of that in order to shake things up. And she realized, "I need to shake things up." And her next thought wasn't, "Let me dust off my resume," and a lot of people that are going to get laid off this year or something's going to happen, they think, "I got to go look for my next job."

Mel Robbins 32:46 No.

Amy Porterfield 32:47 But if they just took a beat, "What do you really want?" And that's the part, that's where I want to grab people right there and say, "Wait a second. What do you really want? Is it really to go back to a 9:00 to 5:00 job, or have you been dreaming about doing your own thing but you're just too scared to take the leap?"

Mel Robbins 33:02 Wow. What do you really want?

Mel Robbins 33:06 That's a huge question.

Amy Porterfield 33:08 It is.

Mel Robbins 33:08 And I want you to contemplate that. What do you really want?

Amy Porterfield 33:13 And here's the secret: you start with the life you want. So when I teach people how to go out and get their own, build their own business, I always say, "First of all, let's talk about what lifestyle you want." Because when I was in my 9:00 to 5:00 job, one night I was rushing home to make dinner on time. I wanted to be home with my family to sit at the table and have dinner, and I was running late. I stayed in a meeting late. I had some things to get done. It was now like 6:30. I knew it was going to be too late, but I was bound and determined to get home, so I was racing to get home and got pulled over.

Mel Robbins 33:43 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 33:43 And this female cop came up to my car, and already I felt flush in the face. Like, I was just so upset, now I'm getting pulled over, and she says, uh, "Ma'am, why are you driving so fast?" And I looked at her and I said, "I'm trying to get home to dinner with my family 'cause I haven't been home all week and I don't want to miss another chance to be with my family." And she said, "Go. Just go." And it's like she understood that when you are in a 9:00 to 5:00 job that you no longer want, everything else seems to fall by the wayside.

Mel Robbins 34:15 Hmm.

Amy Porterfield 34:15 Like, you're not living the life that you want. So that was just one moment, like, I wanted to be home with my family. I wanted to actually make more money so I could invest in things that I wanted to invest in. There was so much that I didn't have that I wanted that I kind of just started there. So you got to just ask yourself what kind of lifestyle you want and then build your career around that.

Mel Robbins 34:37 Well, I think a lot of people got a huge wake-up call these past three years.

Amy Porterfield 34:43 Yes.

Mel Robbins 34:43 If, if the pandemic did nothing else, it certainly made you reflect on your values. It made you reflect on where you wanted to live. It made you reflect on what was important to you. And this mindless chasing of more, more, more-

Amy Porterfield 34:57 Mm-hmm.

Mel Robbins 34:58 ... it became very clear for a lot of us that that is not the lifestyle-

Amy Porterfield 35:03 Yes.

Mel Robbins 35:04 ... we want. You had a huge move. I had a huge move, all beginning with the question, "What do I actually want my life to look like?"

Amy Porterfield 35:10 Yes.

Mel Robbins 35:10 All right, well, I want you to pause right there, 'cause we're going to take a word from our sponsors. But when we come back, we're going to take a few more questions from listeners, and we're going to continue to hold your hand and walk you step-by-step through this process of starting to embrace the wake-up call, ask these big questions, and get fricking serious about your ability of making it happen. Welcome back. It's your friend Mel Robbins. I am here with Amy Porterfield, and we're asking the big questions today of you. What do you want your life to look like? How nice would it be if you had freedom, you were free to work when you wanted, where you wanted, that you took the time to design your life to work for you? And for those of you that have never thought about this before, you always thought, "Okay, I just got to get a job. I got to get a job," we're unpacking a concept called unbossing yourself, because I personally believe this is all mindset.

Amy Porterfield 36:12 Oh, yeah.

Mel Robbins 36:12 It's all mindset. And you've got two strategies to unboss yourself. But before we get to those, I want to go back to the story, because you had this wake-up call. You're like, "Whatever these dudes are doing to make money online, I'm figuring this out."

Amy Porterfield 36:25 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 36:25 "Because I am not free if I work for somebody else."...and I really see and have a taste of what they have, and now I wanna figure it out. And so takeaway number one, everybody, pay attention to the wake-up call. Takeaway number two, yes, you can sort this stuff out. And takeaway number three is, what did you do next?

Amy Porterfield 36:45 So that's when I started to think, "What could I possibly do? How do I need to unboss myself? How do I need to think in order to step into what I want?"

Mel Robbins 36:53 Got it.

Amy Porterfield 36:53 So I really did start with my mindset. So this concept of unbossing, really understanding that you could lead yourself and you do not need anybody else to tell you what to do, make the decisions for you, or lead you. So once you start to think, "Okay, how can I lead myself?" I had to det- I had to take some steps to get me there. The first thing was, again, I talked about, "What do I want?" And I went on social media and started following a bunch of people that had the kind of businesses that I wanted, total immersion. I wanted... You know, you did an episode a while ago that you talked about when you, let's say, got a new car-

Mel Robbins 37:27 Yes.

Amy Porterfield 37:27 ...and you started to see that car everywhere.

Mel Robbins 37:29 Yes, yes.

Amy Porterfield 37:29 It's the same concept. When I decided I wanted to start my own business, I started to see bosses everywhere, doing what I wanted. But I was intentional about it, and I cleaned up my social media.

Mel Robbins 37:38 Okay, so takeaway number one-

Amy Porterfield 37:40 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 37:40 ...you have this wake-up call. What do you want your life to look like? Get serious about curating your social media right now so that you are immersed in the world that you wanna step into. That is step one. That is what a leader does. That's what you're gonna do. We all have boards of advisors. We all call experts, like I call Amy on speed dial when I need help with marketing. You're gonna do social media and you're gonna use social media and in a very intentional way to start to create that community and that mindset around you. What's the second thing you can do to change your mindset and unboss yourself?

Amy Porterfield 38:16 Start asking for advice.

Mel Robbins 38:18 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 38:18 Find

Amy Porterfield 38:19 the people who are doing what you want and find out how they did it. And I actually have a great story about this-

Mel Robbins 38:24 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 38:25 ...okay? So when I was still at Tony Robbins, I knew I wanted to create courses and help people do their marketing and build businesses down the road. I wasn't ready for it yet, but I knew I wanted that kind of business. So I went online and I found a bunch of people doing what I wanted, and there was this one woman who absolutely had the kind of business I wanted. I did not know her at all, but I watched her online and I thought, "That's the kind of business I want." So I went to her contact page on her website, wrote her a little email and said, "Listen, I know you don't offer this, but can I pay you for an hour of your time? I just wanna ask you all about how you built your business. I'm new to all of this. I, I don't even know where to start. Will you share some insight with me if I pay you?" And she said yes.

Mel Robbins 39:06 Wow.

Amy Porterfield 39:06 Yup. So do you... You gotta ask.

Mel Robbins 39:08 You gotta ask. And here's another way you can do it 'cause you're probably sitting there, notice, you have a employee mindset.

Amy Porterfield 39:15 Yes.

Mel Robbins 39:15 Where you're like, "But I don't have any money to pay. Amy's got money 'cause she works for Tony Robbins." No, no, no, no, no, no, no. That is not the mindset. You are not a loser. You're a winner. Uh, all of these people that you follow have likely done a podcast interview or a YouTube video, or they've written a blog post-

Amy Porterfield 39:34 Yes.

Mel Robbins 39:35 ...and all the advice is in there. And another way that you can get people to respond to you is you can present them with some challenge that you're facing and say, "Could you, could you give me," like, "I, I need some help making a decision. I'm facing this challenge. Here are two or three things that I'm thinking about doing. Which would you advise?" Because then you've done the work. You've thought like a boss. You haven't called on somebody to solve your problems. So that's another way that even if you're working for somebody else, unbossing yourself is a mentality. Don't expect your boss to solve your problems. It's s- it's not their job to solve your problems. It's your job to come up with the solutions to recommend for the problems that you're facing in whatever your role is. And so that's a way that you can take this philosophy into your current job while you figure out what you wanna do.

Amy Porterfield 40:25 Yes.

Mel Robbins 40:25 So you stuck with this job, and you chipped away at the job while you changed social media-

Amy Porterfield 40:33 Yes.

Mel Robbins 40:33 ...and you started asking people for advice. You started chipping away at learning things. What else did you do in order to kind of step-by-step march toward building something you had no fricking skill or experience to do?

Amy Porterfield 40:50 Yes. I had to get unreasonable. And by the word unreasonable, I mean I had to start thinking in ways that I had never done before. And so, like with the call with that woman that said yes, like, I was still at my office. I had to crawl under my desk 'cause the walls were thin. I didn't want anyone to hear me at my lunch hour. I'm whispering to her on the phone like, "How did you build your business? What did you do?" And she's whispering back to me and I'm sure she thinks that's weird that we're whispering, but I needed to make it happen. So I had to start putting myself in places that I was way out of my element because I wanted something bigger than my life at the moment.

Mel Robbins 41:23 Now, how do you keep that present? Because I think this is what separates people in life.

Amy Porterfield 41:33 Yes.

Mel Robbins 41:34 We all want it. Who doesn't want to make a million dollars? Who doesn't want freedom? Who doesn't

Mel Robbins 41:40 want, you know, to, to, to figure out how to make money online and, and check their balances while they're, they're sitting on the toilet? I mean, who doesn't wanna make money-

Amy Porterfield 41:49 Right.

Mel Robbins 41:49 ...while they're sleeping? But what separates those of us who do and anybody who doesn't is literally the action-That's it.

Amy Porterfield 41:59 Exactly.

Mel Robbins 41:59 That is it. Like, if you're willing to go one step further than the person that just quit, you, my friend, have the secret formula. There, there is no fucking secret formula.

Amy Porterfield 42:08 Yes.

Mel Robbins 42:09 You have to stop listening to the bullshit that is stopping you from taking action. I mean, this woman is sitting under her desk-

Amy Porterfield 42:16 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 42:16 ...I'm literally at an event I'm not supposed to be at, because we wanted something more for ourselves. What did you do to keep that freedom, which is this big-ass word, what did you do to keep that front and center, other than having your social media feeds reminding you-

Amy Porterfield 42:36 Yes.

Mel Robbins 42:36 ...that this is the world you wanted to step into? It's sort of like a kid who decides, "Okay, I'm going to go to a coll-, I'm gonna go to this college," and they're really into, the first one that popped into mind is Michigan. I'm from Michigan. Everybody loves either Michigan State or Big Blue. And so kids would, would, would wear the sweatshirts, and they'd look at the school, and they'd follow people-

Amy Porterfield 42:54 Yes.

Mel Robbins 42:54 ...and they'd buy the swag, and they've been wearing it all over, and so they're like immersing themselves in this world before they're there. How the hell do you do this for yourself-

Amy Porterfield 43:03 Yes.

Mel Robbins 43:03 ...when it's about a side hustle, or who you want to become? Because you're talking like recreate your whole damn life, like stop, stop getting a job and get serious about what you want your life to look like.

Amy Porterfield 43:13 So, I started to change my identity. I'm going to be a business owner. I'm going to be a boss. What do bosses do? They listen to podcasts about building businesses, they buy the books about how to change your mindset, how to start a business, how to get things going. They buy the digital courses. I'd never bought a digital course in my life. I bought my first digital course while I was still at my nine-to-five job, it was all about how to do video marketing. I had no idea how to make a video.

Mel Robbins 43:36 Oh, can I give everybody a pro tip?

Amy Porterfield 43:38 Yes.

Mel Robbins 43:39 A lot of companies, as a perk, give a login to MasterClass-

Amy Porterfield 43:42 (laughs) There you go.

Mel Robbins 43:42 ...and some of these other places-

Amy Porterfield 43:44 Yes.

Mel Robbins 43:44 ...and so you can be-

Amy Porterfield 43:46 Use it.

Mel Robbins 43:46 Yeah, there, there is so much free education, you're hearing Amy go, "Buy, buy, buy."

Amy Porterfield 43:51 Yes.

Mel Robbins 43:51 Khan Academy, YouTube, all this stuff is free, everybody.

Amy Porterfield 43:56 That's so true.

Mel Robbins 43:56 You got to be willing to look for it. If you've gotten laid off, the Harvard Extension School has free resume templates if you're willing to freaking Google it. So, you know, we have to get out of this mode of stuff's being done to you and, you know, "Damn that job" and, "I'm embarrassed." Bullshit. That job was not a fit, and you want to why, you want to know why it wasn't a fit? 'Cause you got fired-

Amy Porterfield 44:19 Right.

Mel Robbins 44:19 ...'cause you got laid off. And yes, it sucks, but you get to decide now what it means. Are you going to pivot and are you going to take this as a wake-up call, or are you going to sit there and feel sorry for yourself?

Amy Porterfield 44:32 It's so true. So yes, get resourceful. You don't have to pay for any of this, there's tons of free resources out there, even more so now than there were when I even left. But I started to, again, total immersion, fuel my mind with the right things. But here's another thing I did. I started a side hustle, and I think this is an important conversation for people right now. If you're afraid of getting fired, laid off, or you're just not making enough money, a lot of people listening, they think they're staying in their nine-to-five job but they know they're not getting paid enough. They know they're undervalued. So, the best next thing you can do is start your own thing in the mornings, nights, weekends, to bring in a little extra money. Let me tell you about a student of mine who did this.

Mel Robbins 45:09 Yeah, give me some, give me some examples.

Amy Porterfield 45:10 Okay. So, one of my students, her name was Rachel, she was a pharmacist. And she did this job as a pharmacist 'cause her parents wanted her to have that job. It looked good, it sounded good, and here she is as a pharmacist during COVID and-

Mel Robbins 45:24 Ugh.

Amy Porterfield 45:24 ...hates every minute of it. Like, her life was miserable what she went through. And so on the side, she decided, "I'm gonna learn how to buy real estate." She didn't have a lot of money, but she said, "I'm going to learn how to just buy a little bit of real estate and turn it into an Airbnb and see if I can make a little extra money doing that." So she researched, she started saving, she started, she bought her first piece of real estate and it did really well. And she told her husband, "One day I want this to be my full-time thing," and he laughed at her like, "The, no, you're a pharmacist, you're not going to do that." But she kept at it and she kept at it. She made $300,000 last year when she figured out how to get this real estate and get the money to invest and all of that, quit her pharmacy job, and never has looked back.

Mel Robbins 46:11 So, is this somebody with a trust fund?

Amy Porterfield 46:12 No, not at all. Like, this woman was scrappy. Let me tell you another story of someone who didn't have a lot of money, okay?

Mel Robbins 46:18 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 46:18 Because I know some people-

Mel Robbins 46:19 'Cause most people don't have a lot of money.

Amy Porterfield 46:20 Right.

Mel Robbins 46:20 Like, most people are paycheck to paycheck, most people are like, "That sounds great but I've got no money for a course. I, you know, I'm definitely gonna pick up the book, Two Weeks Notice, that you just wrote, Amy, for the step-by-step guide, but I don't, like-

Amy Porterfield 46:32 I don't have a lot-

Mel Robbins 46:32 ...buy real estate? What are you talking about?

Amy Porterfield 46:33 Yeah. Okay, let me give you a better one. So, this one is from my student Tara, and she was an accountant for 15 years in a very small town. And she's a single mom, and she said, "I need a raise. I'm not making enough money." She went to the company and said, "I'd like a raise," and they looked at her with blank stares like, "That's not even in your future at all." And she realized, "I've got to do something." So, she was really good at making wreaths. She made these beautiful wreaths-

Mel Robbins 47:01 Wreaths?

Amy Porterfield 47:02 Yes.

Mel Robbins 47:02 Like, you mean those, those round things-

Amy Porterfield 47:04 Yes.

Mel Robbins 47:04 ...that we hang on our doors?

Amy Porterfield 47:05 Yes. She made beautiful wreaths-

Mel Robbins 47:05 Okay, so she's really good at wreaths. So, I want to go back to something. Remember how Amy said you've got to go through the sweet spot exercise? By the way, tons of resources linked all in the show notes on every single platform.

Amy Porterfield 47:17 Yes.

Mel Robbins 47:18 But I, I want you to hear this. This is a person who has been told by people forever that she does a good job making wreaths.

Amy Porterfield 47:28 Yes.

Mel Robbins 47:29 I know what you're thinking, everybody. You're thinking, "Mel, I have a mortgage to pay."

Amy Porterfield 47:34 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 47:34 "Mel, I have student debt. Mel, I am not starting a fucking business making wreaths because I will not be able to pay my bills doing this." Here's what I want to tell you: You have no clue what you're capable of, but what you're capable of right now is shooting down every single idea. You're putting all your energy into coming up with reasons for why not, why it's stupid, why you can't. What if you put half the amount of energy into why the fuck not?

Amy Porterfield 48:06 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 48:06 Why not make wreaths?Why not see where this goes?

Mel Robbins 48:10 Why not, instead of flopping down in front of Netflix tonight because I'm, my soul is sucked dry from my job search or my job that I go to or worrying about what, why not invest that same time that I procrastinate at night into creating a little bit of a side hustle, tasting a little bit of freedom-

Amy Porterfield 48:32 Yes.

Mel Robbins 48:32 ... saying yes in a little way? Why not?

Amy Porterfield 48:36 Just a starter idea.

Mel Robbins 48:37 Just a s-

Amy Porterfield 48:37 She just needs a starter-

Mel Robbins 48:37 That's all she had.

Amy Porterfield 48:38 She just-

Mel Robbins 48:38 That's all she had.

Amy Porterfield 48:39 Yes. So she wasn't saying, "I'm gonna quit my job tomorrow 'cause I'm making wreaths." She just thought, "I gotta bring in some extra money. I better get scrappy."

Mel Robbins 48:46 Yes.

Amy Porterfield 48:46 So she started making these wreaths, selling 'em on Etsy, and she was doing really well, bringing in, like, $1,000 a month extra, so-

Mel Robbins 48:53 That's pretty good.

Amy Porterfield 48:54 Right? So-

Mel Robbins 48:54 That's, like, take-the-kids-to-Disney money.

Amy Porterfield 48:56 Exactly.

Mel Robbins 48:56 That's pay-the-bills money.

Amy Porterfield 48:57 So she's, like, feeling a little bit... That's another thing. You start to feel a little confident when you start to take some action and get some clarity, like, "This is actually working." So what happened was her friends started seeing her make money on Etsy, and they were making crafts, and they weren't making any money on Etsy, and they said, "Teach us how you're doing that. That's what I want to know." And that's where it started to click for her. Her starter idea was not going to pay the bills. However, she took action, got some clarity, started to listen to what people were saying, and they said, "Teach us how you're doing that." So she created a little mini course teaching other people how to put their crafts online and make money with Etsy. $100,000 later, this woman never in-

Mel Robbins 49:38 What?

Amy Porterfield 49:38 ... a million years thought she'd make $100,000 teaching other women how to put their crafts on Etsy and then make money.

Mel Robbins 49:43 So how long of a period of time from the idea of, "Oh, I could..." 'Cause first it becomes... I want everybody to pay attention, because I'm trying to open your eyes to the fact that your whole life can change because of one wake-up moment and the willingness to lean into something that you naturally do well or you're naturally interested in. I'm going to put an example into this in just a minute, but this willingness to lean into what you're naturally good at and other people compliment you on, "I've never thought about it this way," not so that it, it, it pays your mortgage, but so that it gives you a taste of freedom, and it taps into this power and resour- resourcefulness and moxie that is inside you.

Amy Porterfield 50:30 Yes.

Mel Robbins 50:31 Because when you start feeling that, you'll start thinking even bigger. And so, you know, I, I'm thinking about this because... And I'm gonna offer up an example, because it literally could be anything. I think about my daughter, Sawyer, who constantly is complimented for her interior decorating style-

Amy Porterfield 50:52 Yes.

Mel Robbins 50:52 ... and skills. No training. And I keep thinking to myself, "Boy, she could do a whole Instagram strategy of designing on a budget. She could, uh, do a whole thing about how you design a killer dorm room for X number of dollars or how you design your first apartment." I'm thinking about another kid. I have a, I have a neighbor whose son, senior year of high school, no joke, made almost $30,000. You want to know how?

Amy Porterfield 51:17 How?

Mel Robbins 51:18 I'll tell you how. He saw one video, one video. He googled "how to make money online," one video of this business where you advertise a service of picking up people's stuff, like couches they don't want, and then you list it for sale on Facebook Marketplace, and you deliver it to somebody else.

Amy Porterfield 51:39 Brilliant.

Mel Robbins 51:40 Brilliant!

Amy Porterfield 51:41 And scrappy. I like scrappy ideas.

Mel Robbins 51:43 And so, I'm, I'm not suggesting you'll make millions. Maybe you will, because maybe you'll turn it into a junk removal business. Maybe you'll turn it into something else. But you are limiting what's possible because you won't even lean into something like the wreath idea or the idea of starting an Instagram account that is about decorating on a budget because you tell yourself "It's not possible. I can't do it. Somebody else has already done it." Do you have another example of somebody who just, like, was either really old or really

Mel Robbins 52:15 young that did this?

Amy Porterfield 52:16 Yes, I have a great story. One of my favorite students, her name is Anne, and Anne worked in corporate at Gap and Old Navy. She was in her 50s at the time, and she got laid off, which is, tends to be a theme we're hearing a lot. So she's laid off, and she thinks, "Okay, well, let- I've been in this business for a while. I'm going to dust off my resume, get it back out there." So she did. Months and months and months, couldn't even get an interview.

Mel Robbins 52:39 Oh.

Amy Porterfield 52:39 And I hate to say this, but I think it was her age.

Mel Robbins 52:42 Probably.

Amy Porterfield 52:42 Right? People are hiring younger, so they're not e- they're just looking over her and all of her experience that she had. And so one day, her husband said, "You've got all of these different crafts up in our attic. You love to do these. Why don't you just play around there for a while, see if it sparks anything?" And so she didn't have any other option at the time, so she started to kind of get in there, and she does this one thing really well, surface pattern design. You know-

Mel Robbins 53:08 What the hell is that?

Amy Porterfield 53:09 Right? I'm not crafty at all, so I, I really had to kind of dig in to understand it. Basically, it's this idea of drawing your own doodles and different graphics on, let's say, through a software, and turning those drawings of yours into wallpaper, into wrapping paper-

Mel Robbins 53:25 What?

Amy Porterfield 53:25 ... into mugs-

Mel Robbins 53:26 This is a business?

Amy Porterfield 53:26 ... into journals. Yes.

Mel Robbins 53:28 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 53:28 And so she did this really well, and yet again, people started to say, "How are you doing that?" That's why when you think of the sweet spot formula, the first thing you do is pay attention to what people think you're good at, because it's just a natural thing. They're interested. And so she did it well. Other people wanted to know how she did it, so she started to teach them how she did it. Now, this woman went from literally not getting anyone that wanted to hire her, not even getting interviews-

Mel Robbins 53:58 Wow.

Amy Porterfield 53:58 ... to doing launches of this q- this new program she created, $100,000 launches over and over again. But I want to point out, she's in her 60s.

Mel Robbins 54:07 Wait. Okay.

Amy Porterfield 54:08 Yes.

Mel Robbins 54:09 You buried the lede, Amy.

Amy Porterfield 54:10 Yes. She's in her 60s. Didn't know how to run a business, didn't know how to do technology, didn't know how to put up a website, didn't know how to do a webinar. She knew none of it. But what she did know is she wanted a different kind of life, and she got honest with herself, "I don't want to be begging for a job. They think I'm too old? Watch me."

Mel Robbins 54:27 Ooh, I love that, "Watch me."

Amy Porterfield 54:28 And that's what I want, yeah.

Mel Robbins 54:30 "Watch me. Watch me do this damn thing." I- I- I cannot wait to send this episode to my kids. Can you tell me about someone on the younger side-

Amy Porterfield 54:41 Yes.

Mel Robbins 54:41 ... that, um, went from nothing, telling themselves, "No skills, too young, I can't do this, missed the boat, there's already too many people doing fitness online," or whatever the hell it is that you want to do, "Too many interior designers, no room for me"? Tell me about somebody on the- on the younger end of the scale.

Amy Porterfield 54:59 I will. And I want to say, if you're looking around and you think, "I want to do this," and you see so many other people doing it-

Mel Robbins 55:06 Yes.

Amy Porterfield 55:06 ... and they're doing it well-

Mel Robbins 55:07 Like podcasts with me.

Amy Porterfield 55:08 Yes. The first thought

Amy Porterfield 55:10 is, "There's no room for me."

Mel Robbins 55:11 Yes.

Amy Porterfield 55:11 "I can't do that, it's already been being done."

Mel Robbins 55:14 Yes.

Amy Porterfield 55:14 First of all, there's over eight billion people in this world, there's definitely an audience you can reach. But the second thing is, if it's being done and it's being done well, that means there's money to be made there.

Mel Robbins 55:23 Ooh.

Amy Porterfield 55:24 Right? It's a validation. Look at it and think, "Oh, great, Mel's a great example that I can make money doing this. Let me try it as well."

Mel Robbins 55:31 Okay. Did you hear that, everybody?

Amy Porterfield 55:33 It's important.

Mel Robbins 55:34 It's really important, because somebody else doing this is a validation that there is a business and money, and more importantly, people want this.

Amy Porterfield 55:45 Yes.

Mel Robbins 55:45 They want this in their lives. And so I want to also say something. Um, there are eight billion people, Amy. And oftentimes, the expert that my kids like, like let's just take online exercise classes.

Amy Porterfield 56:00 Yes.

Mel Robbins 56:01 I feel demoralized when I'm looking at a 28-year-old's rear end as she's doing, like, the donkey kicks-

Amy Porterfield 56:07 Amen, sister.

Mel Robbins 56:07 ... and the Hydrant thing. And I'm like, "She, like, hasn't had kids yet, I- I'm in menopause. I- I'm feeling like the stomach hanging down, this is not great." I want a different expert.

Amy Porterfield 56:20 Yes.

Mel Robbins 56:21 I want what my daughters have in that market, but I want somebody that I feel represents me.

Amy Porterfield 56:28 Yes.

Mel Robbins 56:28 And so you have a unique take on things. The 60-year-old woman that you talked about that launched her first online course, do you know how empowering it is to see somebody teach you when you're in your 40s or 50s and they're older than you? Do you know how empowering it is when you see somebody that has your background, your religion, your skin color, your body type, your experience? You are most qualified to help the person you used to be-

Amy Porterfield 56:54 Yes.

Mel Robbins 56:54 ... and you will most inspire the person who sees themselves in you and your story. And so there are people out there... Like, when I think about the podcast market, and I saw there are five million podcasts on Spotify, five million alone, I'm like, "It's already taken. What more... What could I possibly contribute?"

Amy Porterfield 57:16 Yes.

Mel Robbins 57:16 I know that's what everybody's thinking right now, "It's already been done." Bullshit. You want to know why? It hasn't been done by you.

Amy Porterfield 57:23 Amen. That's it. It hasn't been done by you. You have lived experiences that nobody else has, and you have stories and insights that you share that nobody else will. And you only need a sliver of the internet to pay attention. That's the wild thing here. You don't need 100,000 customers to make money. A sliver of the internet, you get 10 customers... Let's say this, Mel. When I teach people how to create side hustles, let's say you have a $100 program and just 10 people buy that, you've just made $1,000 that you did not have. 10 people, that's all you need. So when you start to think, "This is too big, I'm too overwhelmed, I don't know where to start," you start with your starter idea and you just get into action.

Mel Robbins 58:05 You know, I want to give a huge shout-out to my kids' guitar instructor, Dave Wade. So Dave Wade, he has made a huge difference in our life, and, um, he... You know, I was always barking about how he should do something more. He was, is a session musician, classical guitarist, uh, plays on all these major stages, and he started a music school in Boston in the basement of a church, and it's slowly grown. And, you know, by just paying attention to that wake-up call inside him, "There's something more I could be doing, I could be reaching more kids," he figured out how to create an online course.

Amy Porterfield 58:44 Yes.

Mel Robbins 58:44 And he launched it before COVID. So all of a sudden COVID hits, and he's done this thing simply as a side hustle to an existing business, a way to take something you're doing in real life and take that and put it online. And he was positioned for COVID, and now he does nothing but virtual lessons with students all over the world, like, and in person in Boston, but-

Amy Porterfield 59:09 Yes.

Mel Robbins 59:09 I mean, it just changed his life. Why? It's not because he's smarter than you. It's not because he has more skills than you. It's because he did one thing you're not doing. He's saying, "What if it works out?"

Amy Porterfield 59:22 Yes.

Mel Robbins 59:22 "What if I just take this kernel of an idea and I lean into it? And I don't do it overnight, but I start chipping away at it." Sure, look for a job. Sure, work on your resume. Don't forget the fact that 85% of jobs aren't even listed anywhere and they're gotten by networking.

Amy Porterfield 59:38 Yes.

Mel Robbins 59:38 So make sure you're out there talking to people. There's another free tip. I want to take another question from Louise in the UK.

Narrator 59:44 Hey, Mel, it's Lou from the UK. Um, I have a question for you. I, um, am no longer in my corporate career and, after 25 years, and I really want to use this time to do something that I'm really passionate about, um, coaching other people. I've got the qualifications, it's just the confidence, um, that's stopping me. How can I get past the fear of judgment of others to really put myself out there and follow my passion rather than making myself go back to a corporate career that doesn't like me up? Thanks.

Mel Robbins 1:00:15 Oh, Lou, it's your lucky day man, 'cause you got Amy Porterfield in the house. So how do you deal with the fear of rejection? "What are people gonna think if I'm selling my wreaths? What are people gonna think if I, like-"

Amy Porterfield 1:00:27 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:00:27 "... call myself a coach?"

Amy Porterfield 1:00:29 Okay. So first of all, notice in that question she said, "I'm qualified."

Mel Robbins 1:00:34 Yes.

Amy Porterfield 1:00:34 And then she just brushed right over it.

Mel Robbins 1:00:36 Hmm.

Amy Porterfield 1:00:36 That's the thing. And then she said, "How do I find the confidence?" You don't. It does not start with confidence.

Amy Porterfield 1:00:42 You have to tap into courage first, and this is a mindset shift right here.

Mel Robbins 1:00:46 Okay, stop. You don't tap into confidence, everybody.

Amy Porterfield 1:00:51 No.

Mel Robbins 1:00:52 You're not gonna feel confident is what you're saying.

Amy Porterfield 1:00:54 It's never gonna show up in the beginning.

Mel Robbins 1:00:55 Okay, so you gotta tap into courage. So please explain what that means-

Amy Porterfield 1:00:58 Okay.

Mel Robbins 1:00:58 ... to Lou or anybody listening who's like, "Okay, I got my idea. I got the wreaths, I got the streaming online, I got the coaching business. Now I'm doubting myself."

Amy Porterfield 1:01:08 Yes. "I'm looking for confidence everywhere." Confidence comes from a proven track record of something you want to do. You look and think, "Oh, I've done this, so I can keep going." You've never done this. She doesn't want to do what she did in her 9:00 to 5:00 job, she wants to start something new. That's uncharted territory.

Mel Robbins 1:01:22 Yes.

Amy Porterfield 1:01:23 There's no confidence in that. So what she needs to do is first say, "I'm going to find the courage to do this." Courage is taking the leap of faith-

Mel Robbins 1:01:30 Hmm.

Amy Porterfield 1:01:31 ... knowing everything I've done in my life, I've literally gotten to this point. I've overcome all of my obstacles, I'm alive, I'm here. She has a proven track record of being resilient, of showing up, doing the work. Uh, she said, "I have the experience. I'm qualified." So we're gonna tap into courage, saying, "Well, then I'm gonna create something new based on the fact that my track record is I can figure this out."

Mel Robbins 1:01:55 You know what I love about this? It's a way to basically just whack self-doubt away.

Amy Porterfield 1:02:05 Whack it.

Mel Robbins 1:02:05 'Cause what you're saying is, "All right, I don't know how to do this. I've never done this before. Not feeling that confident. Imposter syndrome is kinda coming up. I have the courage to try."

Amy Porterfield 1:02:16 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:02:17 "I have the courage to keep going. I can tap into this thing inside me to say, 'I know I'm nervous, I know I'm this, but I'm gonna fucking do it.'"

Amy Porterfield 1:02:24 "I'm gonna do it," yeah.

Mel Robbins 1:02:25 "I'm gonna do it."

Amy Porterfield 1:02:25 Exactly. And so, that part is so important. We're not gonna chase confidence anymore. The other thing is, when I left my 9:00 to 5:00 job, I got home my first day on the job, I'm in my kitchen at my kitchen table kind of typing away, and freaked out thinking, "What did I do?" And I started to make videos. And I would make these videos about marketing and funnels and all this stuff, and publish them nowhere. And my husband would say, "I see you making these videos, but you're doing nothing with them. Why not?" And I said, "I'm so afraid what my old coworkers are gonna think about me doing this. They're gonna see these videos where I'm not good on video yet, so I look like a mess, and they're gonna think, 'Who is she? She looks like-"

Mel Robbins 1:03:07 Who does she think she is?

Amy Porterfield 1:03:08 "... a fool. Who does she think she is? She doesn't know what she's doing.'" So, I didn't move forward in this dream I had because I was afraid of what they were thinking. And here's the truth. One, they're not even paying that close of attention. People are, are into their own lives, they're doing their own thing, and any opinion they'd have of me making videos is a direct reflection of their opinion if they could do it as well. They didn't leave their job yet, they're not going after it, so they're gonna tell me all the reasons why I shouldn't or I am not going to make this work.

Mel Robbins 1:03:35 Here's two pieces that I would add to that, okay? Um, Lou, if you wouldn't trade your life with them-

Amy Porterfield 1:03:45 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:03:46 ... why the fuck would you listen to their advice?

Amy Porterfield 1:03:48 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:03:48 That's number one. Uh, because people who have not done what you want to do have no clue what it takes to get there. So stop looking in the rearview mirror, you're not heading in that direction. Second thing I want to say, the second that you decide that you're going to pivot your life, your social media's not for your friends.

Amy Porterfield 1:04:13 Hmm, yes, that's good.

Mel Robbins 1:04:14 If you could get this concept into your head, your social media is not for your friends. Your social media is for you and your dreams and your self-expression, and it's meant to put something out in the world intentionally so that people who are looking for you and who need you can find you. That is what social media is for. If you want to share photos of your kids with your friends, text them to them. But when you get serious about making a pivot in your life, the inbound of social media is your board of directors, it's your board of advisors, it's the way that you do total immersion, as Amy just said, into who you're becoming. Your outbound, what you post, is meant to be something like a beacon that draws in the kind of people that are interested in this. And when you can get clear, it's not for your fucking ex-coworkers, it's not for your relatives, it's not for your family, it is not for your friends. I think most of my long-term friends do not follow me because I post three times a day and it would choke their feed and, you know, if they want to catch up with me, they'll text me.

Amy Porterfield 1:05:21 Right.

Mel Robbins 1:05:21 And by the way, they're not into what I do.

Amy Porterfield 1:05:23 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:05:23 They're not into personal development, and so why would they follow me? I'm not putting it out there for anybody else but the people who find value in it, and when you can wrap that around your brain, it'll change your fricking life.

Amy Porterfield 1:05:36 I mean, that's a great example of unbossing. You have the courage to put out content that you know is no longer for your friends to see, or kids or whatever, but I'm gonna put stuff out there that's going to attract people that I can serve.

Mel Robbins 1:05:47 Yeah, you think the CEO of Coca-Cola worries about what their ex-colleagues think about their new marketing campaign?

Amy Porterfield 1:05:53 Amen.

Mel Robbins 1:05:54 No. They-

Amy Porterfield 1:05:55 We often say that about Beyoncé. Do you think Beyoncé or Oprah are sitting there thinking, "I don't know if I can do this? What are people gonna think about me if I put it out there?" They're not thinking that way.

Mel Robbins 1:06:05 And now she has the world's, uh-

Amy Porterfield 1:06:06 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:06:07 ... most Grammys of any recording artist ever to fucking prove that if you just find the courage. Forget about confidence, it'll come later.Find the courage to try. Make the damn wreaths.

Amy Porterfield 1:06:18 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:06:19 Say you're gonna do the online exercise thing, say you're gonna figure this thing out, do it, because you will not regret it. I wanna go to one more question, and this one comes from Kerry in Scotland.

Amy Porterfield 1:06:29 Hi, Mel. My name's Kerry, and I'm from Edinburgh, Scotland. Um, I recently got laid off from a job, uh, that I hated, and I took it as a sign from the universe that I needed to find something else to do, a new career. Um, it was a great idea at first, um, but now I have absolutely no idea how to go about finding the career that I love or finding my passion. Uh, any tips on where to start?

Mel Robbins 1:06:59 Ooh, I love this question. Congratulation, Kerry. I know it's scary, but you're gonna be just fine. Can you walk Kerry and everyone listening through your sweet spot exercise?

Amy Porterfield 1:07:11 Absolutely.

Mel Robbins 1:07:11 She's just been laid off, no idea where to start. How do you figure out what direction to move in?

Amy Porterfield 1:07:16 So this is exactly what I did when I decided what I was going to do when I left my job, and so I built it into a formula. So there's four quadrants. Here's how you look at it. The first quadrant is, what are you good at? So what do people always ask you about? Where have you gotten results in your personal life, in your business life? You might want to take what you know in your business life and bring it into your own business, or you might look at your personal life and think, "You know what? One year ago, I was lazy on the couch watching Netflix, eating all my snacks, and I realized I want to run a marathon."

Mel Robbins 1:07:46 Hmm.

Amy Porterfield 1:07:46 And so what you did is for three months, you put together a plan to figure out, how am I going to run an entire marathon from couch to marathon in three months? You put together a plan and you freaking did it, that's what you can sell. Other people wanna know how you did it, and they don't wanna know from the leading experts in the marathon industry.

Mel Robbins 1:08:06 Hmm.

Amy Porterfield 1:08:06 They wanna learn from a girl that literally three months ago was sitting on the couch eating snacks. So-

Mel Robbins 1:08:10 Yeah, 'cause that looks like me.

Amy Porterfield 1:08:12 That, yeah, exactly.

Mel Robbins 1:08:13 Yes.

Amy Porterfield 1:08:13 So where have you gotten results in your personal life, in your business life? How can that translate into a business?

Mel Robbins 1:08:17 So that's number one.

Amy Porterfield 1:08:18 Yes. Number two is, think about who you might want as a customer. And the reason why this is important is you wanna start thinking about maybe some things they're struggling with. Mel said it earlier, the easiest way to find who your customer might be is, who were you five years ago-

Mel Robbins 1:08:33 Hmm.

Amy Porterfield 1:08:33 ... and how can you help them get to wherever they want to get? That's one of the easiest ways to look at, who might my customer be. Maybe it was you just a few years ago.

Mel Robbins 1:08:41 Got it.

Amy Porterfield 1:08:41 Remember, you just need a 10% edge, 10% ahead of those you serve.

Mel Robbins 1:08:45 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 1:08:45 The third thing is, where are people spending money? What books are being sold on the topic you want? Um, are there courses being sold? Uh, a one-on-one coaching? Meaning, will people spend money to get what you're going to teach them or what you're going to sell? So it's important to do a little market research.

Mel Robbins 1:09:01 So you wanna look for people who are doing something similar.

Amy Porterfield 1:09:04 Exactly.

Mel Robbins 1:09:04 Got it.

Amy Porterfield 1:09:05 Absolute validator.

Mel Robbins 1:09:05 'Cause that's like a proof that you could actually do this.

Amy Porterfield 1:09:07 Yes. So, want people to already be doing what you wanna do, it's a plus.

Mel Robbins 1:09:11 Okay, great.

Amy Porterfield 1:09:12 Fourth quadrant, and it's the most important, what lights you up? Not what's your passion. You're gonna go down a rabbit hole and never come back up. We don't need to find your passion right now. But what do you enjoy? What will make you excited to get outta bed in the morning? Because if you're gonna create a business around something you don't love, watch you crash and burn. If you, if it lights you up and you're excited, you're going to figure it out. So what lights you up?

Mel Robbins 1:09:34 She's inviting you to create a life that you love-

Amy Porterfield 1:09:37 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:09:38 ... instead of surviving the one that you can't stand.

Amy Porterfield 1:09:42 Yeah.

Mel Robbins 1:09:42 And it does take courage. It really does. Um, I, I am so happy you're here. Tell me the story about you had a 19-year-old.

Amy Porterfield 1:09:51 Yes. So one of my favorite students, 19, his name's Aiden, and he dropped out of college. You know, it just wasn't for him. And I can totally relate. College isn't for everyone. So he thought, "What am I going to do?" But he needed to make money really quickly. And one thing he was really good at, 'cause everyone said, "How do you do that?" is training his dogs. He, he's not a professional dr- dog trainer, but talk about those jo- dogs not jumping on the couch, not jumping on people when they walk through the door, not barking like crazy. He just had it down. He had two dogs d- and trained them well. So he thought, "Well, I'm gonna start making some videos. I'm gonna start posting on social. I'm gonna show people what I can do with these dogs." And what happened was, this is the scrappy part, in his local neighborhood, people started to hire him one-on-one, "Teach my dogs. Come get my dogs. Teach them what you know."

Mel Robbins 1:10:37 Okay.

Amy Porterfield 1:10:37 So that was the first action, the starter idea. Now it's ballooned into creating courses and memberships and teaching people all about dog training, but it started in his local community. You can't discount... you can't say, "I wanna make a million dollars tomorrow." Let's focus on the $1,000 that you can make right away.

Mel Robbins 1:10:57 Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Did you guys just hear that? See, this is a practical application of making it smaller.

Amy Porterfield 1:11:05 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:11:06 How can you make $1,000 now doing something that you love? Because when you find the courage to do that and then post the photos of your wreaths or put up the little video of you teaching the neighbor's annoying yappy dog how to sit when you say sit-

Amy Porterfield 1:11:20 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:11:20 ... you're not... it doesn't matter what your friends think. You're starting to see yourself doing something instead of thinking about it, and that's gonna create confidence in you to do more and more and more. See, it doesn't begin with a million dollars. It begins with $100 or $1,000. And you're not gonna make that $100 or that $1,000 if you're not willing to have the wake-up call-

Amy Porterfield 1:11:42 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:11:42 ... and then you're not willing to lean toward it, and you're not willing to say to yourself, "Why not me? Why not me?" If these two chicks, Amy who's almost 50 and me who's 54 can figure out how to make a lot of money and build a business online with no prior experience, no skill set, the one thing that we have that we are inviting you step by step by step, and Amy walks you through this in her book, Two Weeks Notice, is to think differently, to think differently, to open your eyes up to a totally different possibility, freedom.... financial freedom, freedom with your time, the freedom and the power to create a life that really works for you, this is not just for some people. It's for everybody. It's for people that are willing to say, "You know what? I do want more for my life, and I do want to feel in control. And I can make money, and I can learn how to pay for my benefits and my healthcare. And I could take the power back if I'm willing to think differently." Amy, what are some final thoughts for people? 'Cause I know what happens in an episode like this. Everyone's like, "Holy shit." Okay, first of all, don't quit your job just yet.

Amy Porterfield 1:12:54 (laughs)

Mel Robbins 1:12:54 I know she's written the book Two Weeks Notice, but when you put too much pressure on something, it makes you freak out. And so if you are working, let's start with a side hustle. Let's start-

Amy Porterfield 1:13:06 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:13:06 ... with a runway. And she's gonna walk you through this in her new book. If you are newly laid off or y- somebody sent this to you because you're laid off, or you're about to graduate from a program and you don't have a job and you're freaking out, chill. And what is the next right step for somebody to take? Is it to do the sweet spot exercise?

Amy Porterfield 1:13:28 Absolutely. I think doing the sweet spot exercise could be really helpful. And if you get stuck on, "What am I good at?" ask your friends and family.

Mel Robbins 1:13:35 Ooh.

Amy Porterfield 1:13:35 I want you to send a text out to 10 people today and say, "If I were ever going to go out on my own and do my own thing, what am I good at? What do you think I should start?" Because your family and friends will have lots of ideas for you. So that's one thing you could do.

Mel Robbins 1:13:49 Hmm.

Amy Porterfield 1:13:49 And I also think it's important, you know, in my book, a lot of people will say, "I don't know where to start." We just heard that one, like, "I want to do my own thing, but I have no idea where to start." I wrote the book I wish I had 14 years ago when I was starting out. I too had no idea what to do, and I fumbled for two years, and I don't think that's necessary. So I wrote the step-by-step guidebook to give you everything you need to know to start your own hi- side hustle or start your own business. But here's what I want to say. You have, you- you've been out there on TikTok saying, "No one's coming to save you."

Mel Robbins 1:14:20 Yes.

Amy Porterfield 1:14:20 It's actually a really, um, popular TikTok that everyone is using. Like, no one's coming to save you. You're a TikTok sensation, for the record. And that is very true right now as well, meaning you don't need anybody to save you. You do not need anybody to tell you how worthy you are. You do not need someone to approve how much money you can make or how you can spend your time. There's a world out there that you literally are designing your own life by calling the shots. Everybody is welcome to explore that, and the only people who will take us up on this today are those that are, will say, "All right, I'll give it a shot. I don't know how this would work out. I don't know what this would look like. I'm at least going to explore the possibility that I could have a different life." That's all we're asking for people to do right now.

Mel Robbins 1:15:08 Wow, all right. So the next right step, you gotta follow Amy Porterfield.

Amy Porterfield 1:15:13 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:15:14 Make sure you're subscribed to both of our YouTube channels because we will pump you up, and we will give you the next right steps. And I want to congratulate you listening on one thing. You took the time to listen to this. You took the time to entertain it, and if you feel something fluttering inside you, take the next step. Pick up Amy's book. It's Two Weeks Notice. We've linked to it in the contents, and also check out some of the free resources.

Amy Porterfield 1:15:36 Yes.

Mel Robbins 1:15:37 We have linked to some of the videos that she has that are free that you can watch that are gonna walk you through some of the next right steps, and, you know, we're here to support