Amy Porterfield
Appearances
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Yes, absolutely. Yes. And find your happy there. But Depression and anxiety have been a very big central theme in my life for a very long time. So since I was very young, I didn't know it was depression until I got to college. My parents had just divorced after 25 years. I really struggled with that. I went to a doctor because I couldn't stop crying. I didn't know what was going on.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And for those that know depression, you'll likely know a black cloud is over you even when you don't have a reason to be sad. Like, my life is great. I'm in college. I've got this great boyfriend. What's the problem? Black cloud. And so starting in college, I've been on and off depression medicine for a very long time.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I didn't have anxiety, never felt that, never knew what it was at the time, but depression followed me until about two years ago. Two years ago, I met a doctor and he was giving me an IV like for energy. It was right after I had gotten COVID. We went, we got an IV to just feel better. And while I was sitting there, he talked to me about what he did, which was ketamine treatments.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And I can't believe I'm even talking about this because when it happened, I was like, no! telling anyone this. I've never gotten high. I've never been into drugs. No judgment, just wasn't me. But here this doctor is saying ketamine, which is also a drug people give someone like on a date to knock them out. So that's kind of scary. But they found that using ketamine on soldiers that had PTSD-
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
He eliminated some anxiety and depression severely. So he told me this. I, of course, went home, did the studies and thought, nothing has ever worked for me. And I can't feel like this every single day. Days I didn't want to get out of bed. And I'm running a business now with 20 people on my team. There's just no way this is going to serve me. And it got really bad in 2021. And so I did it.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I did a ketamine protocol. It was over, I think, six weeks. And I had to go into his office twice a week. I did this. You kind of feel high when you do it and you stay there till you feel good. I always had my husband drive me home. But I did this for six weeks. And after that, boom, it was gone. And I can't even believe that. I'm not suggesting anyone do it. Talk to your doctor.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
However, it changed my life. And now every six months, I might feel a little of that black cloud and I go in for what is called a tune-up and it's gone again. So without talking about anxiety yet, the depression part, that is what I did and it changed my life.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
You know, I've never been asked this question and I love this question. It's kind of amazing what we can do even at our lowest points, even when we're not our very best. And I think for me, I wanted it so bad. We talk about freedom and sometimes entrepreneurship looks nothing like freedom, but you are building a life on your terms, like you said. And I wanted that more than anything.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I had worked in corporate since I was 30. I grew up with a really strict father telling me what to do and it was his way or the highway. I just thought that's how life was. Then I get into all these corporate jobs and typically it was a man I was working for telling me what to do their way or the highway. And I got to a point that I thought, I don't want anyone telling me what to do ever again.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Like I just hit that point and I knew that. I wanted freedom. I wanted to work when I wanted, where I wanted, and how I wanted. And I did not want to be told what to do. And so with that, on even my darkest days, I knew what I wanted. And I know that I'm speaking to an audience right now that many of you do not want to leave your corporate jobs. You're on your way up the ladder. You love it.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And believe me, I loved that. So I get that. But also just thinking about what is it for you that you just won't stand for? Whether you're staying in a corporate job or build your own business, what is it for you? Why do you do what you do? What are your values? Getting really clear on that, even on your darkest days, they peek through. Those values, those desires peek through.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And I think for me, it absolutely did. And then one more thing. I have a really supportive husband. I joke, my husband, so long story short, I met my husband at Tony Robbins because I had a really good girlfriend that was head of HR. And I would go into her office all the time and she had a little picture of her husband on her desk. And I used to very inappropriately say, your husband is so hot.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Like he is a good looking guy. And she would laugh. And then about a year after I met her, we were very good friends. They got a divorce. And about six months after that, she called me up and said, I want to set you up with my ex-husband. And so I married one of my very best friend's ex-husband. And the three of us raised their child, who was four at the time.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
The three of us parented Cade, who I call my son. And it's been an incredible experience. I'm very, very lucky. But I bring that up to say, I think divorced men are great to marry because they've been through a lot. They never want to go through that again. And they try even harder. So it's a little joke, but very true as well.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
But I have a husband that cares deeply about my success and he was by my side every step of the way. And that's another thing, having someone in your court, a mom, a dad, a friend, a sister, a brother, a spouse, it means everything. So you gotta find your person that's gonna pick you up and push you out when it just isn't working for you.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I used to say that I had no example of an entrepreneur growing up. My dad was a firefighter, blue collar to the bone. He also had a side job because firefighters typically have a lot of time off. So heating and air conditioning, also blue collar. My mom stayed home with my sister and I. And so I always look back, why would I ever have thought to become an entrepreneur? Well, two things.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Okay, for those who are wanting to leave a nine to five slash corporate job and do their own thing, there's something I really believe, but anyone thinking they love their job, they want to stay in their nine to five, I want them to have earmuffs, because this is not for you. It's for someone that has a desire to do their own thing.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
One of the things I talk about in the book, which is true for me and true for many of my students and peers, is that the worst day as an entrepreneur Everything's not working. You've lost a bunch of money. Everything is falling apart. The worst day as an entrepreneur is better than the best day in a nine to five job. And I believe that to my core.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And the reason, this is only for those who want to leave, the reason for that is because it's on my terms. It might not always go my way, but at the end of the day, I get to make the decisions. And if you have that huge desire, I think knowing that is a way to kind of push you to explore a little bit more. So that's one of the core messages in that book.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Another core message is this idea of life on your terms. And you're right, you could still have a life on your terms whether you are in a job or you go out on your own when you get clear on what that looks like. And so pursuing that and going after that is so incredibly important for the value of your life and those of your family and friends. So important to have that really clear in your life.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And then another thing, because the book is about how to quit your job and go after your nine to five, is how to do that. One of the core messages is what does that transition look like? I didn't wake up one morning and think, I'm leaving my beautiful Tony Robbins job and starting my business tomorrow and everything's going to work. What I did is I said, okay, I'm gonna take baby steps.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
First, I asked if I could work from home two days a week. The business was in a transition and so I just went for it and they said yes. Then I asked if I could go to 20 hours a week and work on just one main event with the content. They said yes. And then I eventually said, I'm going out on my own. Not until I had a few clients under my belt and had a little plan of what I was going to do.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
The plan fell out the window and the first two years were a disaster, but at least I thought I had a plan. And so just that transition of what that looks like, we get into that in detail in the book as well.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I think that the first two years of entrepreneurship are brutal. I think they're really, really hard because you just hit it on the head. You think that if someone told me to post three times a week and do XYZ and I did it and it's not working. I hear this from my own students. I teach list building. I teach course creation.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I was on a live Q&A today and someone said, Amy, I followed exactly what you told me to do to a T and it didn't work. And I said, sometimes you got to stay in the game a little longer until it does because I had the same exact experience. So one of the biggest challenges is thinking it's going to work faster than it does and then making it mean something about you when it doesn't.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Number one, I actually didn't for a long time. I was in corporate jobs since the day I left college, from publishing to working with Tony Robbins for seven years. That was my last corporate job. I worked for Harley Davidson in marketing. So I had a lot of corporate jobs and I loved climbing the corporate ladder. Like I'm an ambitious woman and I like to win. So that was always a goal of mine.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I'm not cut out to be an entrepreneur. I think I said every day to my husband, I'm going to have to go grovel back for my Tony Robbins job. Like I'm going to have to beg him to take me back. This is not working. He's a former Navy SEAL. And there was this thing that they always say, just one more day, just one more day. And so he's like, just one more day, stick with it one more day.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And every day he would say that. So it's much harder than you think. And that is part of the journey. So if you just understand it's gonna be hard and it is part of the journey and it's not all supposed to work out in the beginning, that is something so important to know.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Here's another one of the challenges that one of the biggest challenges that I wish someone taught me that I was never taught and then I learned later in my business is when is enough enough? So as an entrepreneur, We do launches and we promote and we want clients. And it feels like we're always chasing our last goal. So if I made $10,000 on this launch, I want to make $20,000 on that.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
$20,000 leads to $50,000. $50,000 leads to $100,000. Like every single time, grow, grow, grow, build, build, build. And I did hit the $100 million mark. But there was a moment, I've never talked about this before, for what? For what? Because I have a lot of money, I have a beautiful life, but I don't need to keep chasing a bunch of revenue.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I'd rather focus on the impact I make to my students and work with my team and build beautiful content. And I'm not just saying that because I have the money. I'm saying I wish someone told me years ago so I could get clear on what my enough is because I've worked myself to the ground at times. Not always.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I have my seasons of working too hard and I come out of it and I feel very free and I have a lot of time, but there's been moments that I've worked way too hard for what? So get clear on what enough is for you and then go out and enjoy your life and not chase the dollar every minute.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
That's such another point. I had a woman named Tara McMullin on my podcast and- She talked about what success looks like, and it's different for everybody. And she says, you think you should be doing something. You think you have to be doing something. This is the right way to do it. Says who?
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
So like taking out all those constraints and what you think you should be doing, what ultimately serves you? And I love that message. And it's not a message that I was familiar with until recently in terms of what that could look like. So today I'm 16 years in, so I have a team of 20 full-time employees all across the US.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
But if we go back many, many years, it took me at least five, if not seven years to hire my first full-time employee. So I had an assistant. She started at five hours a week. I was paranoid I couldn't pay her. Then she went to 10 and she became a central part of my business. But my first real money-making hire was a project manager in marketing.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And she became my right hand, then became my CMO of my company and stayed with me for seven years. And that role was so paramount because I realized it's very lonely building your own business. And having a sidekick in the business that you ultimately trust and you can run ideas by, that was a game changer for me. that was my first hire, but it was at least five years in.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And then when I found myself working for Tony, that's when I started realizing, wait a second, he talks about being your own boss and talks about going after what you want. And that must have just started to really rub off on me. However, if I go back to the days I used to play Barbies on the floor with my sister, I remember so distinctly now my dad saying, find a way to be your own boss.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I'd used contractors, but didn't have any employees. And so fast forward to where we are today, and one of the best perks that I've given my team is a four-day work week. And so we work Monday through Thursday, regular eight-hour days, and we take off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sometimes during a promotion, we'll work on a Friday, but the goal is for the majority of Fridays, we are not working.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And selfishly, I wanted this for me. I just didn't want to work five days a week. But then I thought, I love my team so much. I can't possibly take the day off knowing everyone else is working. That just is not my personality. I'd love to say that I'm that girl. I cannot. And so I gave it to everyone. It was the best decision I made. And the year that we did it, we read a book called Shorter.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
It's a great book. I highly recommend it. A lot of corporations are examples in this book, not entrepreneurs, but corporations, big businesses, small businesses. And one of the things in the book said, just experiment. So just do 90 days of four-day work weeks and then reevaluate what worked, what didn't, where are we struggling?
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
But the day I went to my leadership team, I thought I was going to be the best boss in the world. And I presented to my leadership team, I want to go to a four-day work week for everyone. And instead of saying, you're the best boss ever. We love you. This is so cool. They said, you have lost your mind. We can't get this much work done on four days. There's no way.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And I was like, oh no, I thought this was the greatest thing ever. But I was convinced that we could figure this out. And so they all got on board with me. They all read the book. We figured it out. And I'm proud to say it's been at least three years that we've had a four-day work week and we did not lose money. I thought we'd lose money the first year. We absolutely did not.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Yeah, and for some people thinking about doing their own thing, that could stop them in their tracks. Like, no way, I can't put myself out there because people are mean online. And the truth is, they are. Just today when I mentioned that Q&A, one of my students said, I had two social media posts that went viral last week, which is a very big deal.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And she said, the hate on those posts have crushed me. She had two employees that were disgruntled. They were really good friends, so they kind of banded together and they just have taken over those posts. And a few things that I told her. Number one, this is going to happen. It's your social media account. You block them, you hide the post, and they do not need to be anywhere in your world.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Now they could go create little stupid accounts that come in, you don't know who they are, but you just do your best. But it will never be foolproof. The other thing is that you just need a tiny sliver of the internet to pay attention for you to be profitable. There are over 7 billion people in this world, but if you started your business and 20 people hired you, that could be a lot of money.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
We had no idea what he was talking about. We were very young. He wasn't his own boss, but he kept saying, find a way to be your own boss. And that must've just somehow seeped into me because when I became my own boss, I realized, oh my gosh, my dad has been saying it since I was very young. So that's essentially how it went, but it was never a dream of mine.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
So you need to know that not everybody needs to like you or agree with you in order for you to be ultra successful online. And that is something that really is important for people to understand and not everyone will like you. And here's the worst part about it. The bigger you get, the more haters you have. So I definitely have people that do not like me and I am a people pleaser.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I have gone to therapy over this. Why wouldn't this person that I really like not like me back? And we've had to work on that and I've had to let it go. Which leads me to my final thing and that is, Mel Robbins wrote a book. She's a dear friend of mine. She wrote a book called Let Them.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Anyone who is struggling with people pleasing, worrying about what others think, or being deeply hurt by other people's habits or behaviors or anything that they're doing reflecting on you, you have to read the book Let Them. It is a powerful message and it has really changed my life.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Yes, that's so true. Like I knew this would happen. You kind of manifested it. So yeah.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I think that when you want to do big things in your life, whether it's quit your job and start your business or other big things, but stay in your job, one of the things that is absolutely necessary is to work on your mindset on a regular basis.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
When I worked for Tony Robbins, one of the things he said that I never have gotten out of my mind is that building a business and being an entrepreneur and having success just in general, even not an entrepreneur, just having success, 80% is mindset, 20%. 20% is mechanics, like the strategies and techniques. 80% mindset. So you can bet that since I've started, I've been in masterminds.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I've always had some kind of a coach. I read all the self-help books that I can get my hands on, and I have an audio book in my ear or a podcast, reworking my mindset on a regular basis. My mind is a very dangerous place if it goes unattended. So mindset is a huge, huge piece of the puzzle for me. But I want to talk about money mindset because this is one that I've definitely dealt with.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
It was never a goal until very later when I turned 30.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Many, many years ago, I had just hit a million dollars in a calendar year. It was like three years into my business. And I was in a mastermind with a bunch of my peers. And there was this one guy in my mastermind that was just brilliant, doing brilliant things with paid advertising and all this stuff. So one day I asked him, hey, will you help me do that in my business, that paid ad strategy?
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I'll give you a cut of my sales. And he said, I can do one better. Let me be your business partner. Now, I'd like to tell you that I spent weeks mulling over this, talking to a lawyer, talking to my husband, really thinking, is this the right move? I just hit a million dollars. This business is working. It took me one night where I said, yes. One night's sleep.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And the reason for that is I was insecure. I thought that this was a fluke. My success was going to go away. I couldn't do it alone. I've always needed or had a man in my life, my dad and my bosses, to guide me. I need him. And so he came into my business. He did not pay a penny to come into it. He got 50-50. These are decisions I made at a young age and we killed it.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
For the next few years, my business went from a million to three to five beyond. It did really well for several years. I think about three full years. And then I realized this is the worst decision for me. I'm losing my voice. I'm letting him be my boss. It's not his fault. It's mine. But my business became his. And so I literally would get on a call with him.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I'd have 20 action items after the call. He'd have zero. Like he was running the show. And I thought, I have lost myself. So I needed to get out of the partnership. And I said to him, I need to get out. This is not working for me. I want to get my business back. Let's talk about what it's going to take. And the first thing he said was, this is going to be bad for you. And I said, why?
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And he said, because of how you are with money. And in that time, I was so offended, have no idea what he was talking about. He was absolutely right in terms of how I was with money. I held onto it so tight. I thought it would go away so quickly. I thought it was a fluke. I was scared to spend it. And when you're like this with money, I promise you it does not flow into your life.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And so what I've learned over the years is to hold money loosely, be strategic with it, but spend it, use it to invest in yourself, invest in your business, because when you're making good decisions and spending money, it will come back to you. And so that was one thing I really needed to learn, hold it more loosely, but strategically.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And so I really struggled with money in the beginning, thinking I need to hold onto it as much as I can, and that did not serve me.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
For Harley-Davidson, it was at a dealership level, so I marketed for several dealerships in a town that I lived in. And I remember, I don't remember the book, I don't remember the details, but I do remember finding a book of how to get a job in a different way, meaning it's not apply to a job, send a resume.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I love that you said this. I have a good friend who sold his business for over $100 million. Him and his wife started it from scratch. They exited with over $100 million. And his philosophy is buy the ticket. You want to go on that flight. You want to do this. You want to do that. I'll do it when he says buy the ticket.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And I really do think that is a mindset of abundance, that more opportunities are going to come your way and you don't have to wait for it for a special time. So anyway, I love that way of thinking.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
What I do is I help people take their knowledge and know-how and turn that into a digital course that they can then sell over and over again. So for example, you work in a corporate job. You are really good at leadership. You are great at building leaders, fostering leaders, curating leaders, negotiating, all that good stuff a great leader does. You would take that knowledge and
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
and put it into a digital course to teach other people how to be a leader in your unique way. And then you would sell that course through webinars, boot camps, different strategies online, paid advertising to get it out there. So some people start their online business with a digital course. I essentially did. It was the first main moneymaker in my business.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Other people just add a digital course to what they're already doing in their business as like a supplement. And some people just have a side hustle. They've got a course based on their expertise and when they have time and energy, they sell it over different times during the year. But the whole goal is one to many.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
What I knew I didn't want early on is to work one-on-one because there's only one of me and there's only certain hours in the day. So if all I did was work one-on-one, I would definitely hit a cap in revenue. And so working one course, I created it one time to many people who could buy it, it opens the doors. And so I first created courses teaching social media marketing. They did really well.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And people started saying, how are you selling your courses? What are you doing to create them and sell? When I got enough questions like that, I moved my whole business into helping people create digital courses.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
It was essentially find the person that is going to be hiring you, do a lot of research, write a really cool letter that's different than a resume, and find a way to get it to them. And so I don't remember all the particulars, but I do remember doing it differently. I'm always looking for ways to stand out or grab someone's attention, which I do now in online marketing every single day.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
With the anxiety, I didn't experience that until about three years ago. And when I first felt it, I have no idea what this is. What is this feeling? Why is it coming up? And so that coupled with the depression, not a really great combination. So I've had anxiety for a few years now. I take medication for it. It was the only thing. I tried everything.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Once I hit medication, it was the best thing for me. And so I wanted to come back to that because I know I mentioned that came later, but that was also a big part of this. But if I was speaking to my younger self or I was talking to someone that was just getting into wanting to do their own thing or adding their own thing as a side hustle to what they're already doing,
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I know this is so cliche, but it is so true. I've lived it for 16 years. Make the mistakes. You have to let yourself make mistakes. I grew up always wanting to be a good girl. I wanted my dad to think I was a good girl. I didn't want to make mistakes. I got straight A's in high school. All of that stuff created so much stress. No wonder I have anxiety as an adult.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
So I wish my family, my dad, my mom said, make those mistakes. It's okay. Do what you gotta do because it will shape you. And they have. I will tell you, I have made many mistakes over 16 years, including letting someone have 50% of a multimillion dollar business. And everything that didn't work out was the biggest lesson to something really good.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
So the story of getting out of the partnership, we didn't have a real contract. And so again, ridiculous. So we had to get lawyers involved. Never worked with a lawyer in my life. I had to pay for one. It was expensive. So did he. And we got to the point of mediation. scariest day of my life. We mediated. He was in one room. I was in another.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
We didn't even talk to each other, but we came to a conclusion of what I needed to pay him to get him out of my business. We made $5 million the final year he was in my business. 18 months later, we made $16 million. This mistake allowed me to find my voice and do something bigger and be courageous. It would have never happened if I didn't have this horrible experience with the partnership.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
So make your mistakes, learn your lessons, allow yourself to experiment, because I promise you that is what unlocks the success.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Yes, it's been so great to get to know you a little bit more. Before I came on the show, I was doing my research and I'm like, this girl's killing it. I love talking to other entrepreneurs that are making things happen. So it was really a pleasure to get invited. Thank you so much, Amy. Thank you.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
But that's how I landed the marketing job at Harley-Davidson. I came in kind of a different way and had a different experience so that I caught their eye. But for Tony Robbins, it was different. So I was living in Ventura, California, where I was working for Harley, and I had broken up with a boyfriend who I'd been with for a while. And every night I could not sleep. I was heartbroken.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
The worst day as an entrepreneur is better than the best day in a nine to five job.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
It was terrible. So every night I would lay on my couch, hoping I could fall asleep, watching Tony Robbins infomercials. That at the time, every single minute, an infomercial was on for Tony. It was a statistic. Every minute you could find a Tony Robbins infomercial. So I had no idea who this guy was, but I was motivated and it got me motivated. And I was like, I want more of this.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I feel like my life has come to a big stall with this breakup and not knowing where to go next. So I went to the library, bought some tapes. That's how long ago this was. Even though CDs were out, some reason I had some tapes and put them in a player and I would listen to these any chance I got. And so I decided I'm going to go work for him. I loved everything he taught. I believed in his content.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I want to go work for him. So I applied for a job. I got an interview. And at the time, I think I was making $60,000 at Harley and I was offered $30,000, but I I could travel the world, work with Tony directly, and have this amazing experience. Now, what I did next, I can't believe I did, because I turned down the job.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I don't know who turns down a job working directly with Tony Robbins, but I did, because I knew I was made for greatness, I knew I deserved more, and I did not, at that being that young, I didn't wanna go backwards with my pay. I just really couldn't afford 30,000 versus 60.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
So I politely said no, but I said, if you're looking for somebody to be a manager in your content department, that's the role I was going for, I'm ready and I want it. So just let me know if something becomes available. Within a few months, something did. They came back to me.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I landed a director job for content, traveled with Tony, got to work with Tony on the content he did on stage, been to London and Fiji and... Everywhere, Australia, it was incredible. And I learned from the best. And so it was worth holding out. For those listening, sometimes the decision to say no or to close a door makes zero sense.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
But in your gut, you know that it's the right way to go, even though it's so scary and you kind of want to throw up when you do it. Listen to that knowing because our gut doesn't lie. And it was the best decision I ever made.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Oh, yeah. It's so true. But I wanted it so bad or thought I'd miss out on an opportunity. So I just said yes and really regretted it. So yes, I totally get that.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Why would I ever have thought to become an entrepreneur? I had a lot of corporate jobs and I loved climbing the corporate ladder. Like I'm an ambitious woman and I like to win. I worked for Harley Davidson in marketing to working with Tony Robbins for seven years. And I got to a point that I thought, I don't want anyone telling me what to do ever again.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I think the number one thing I learned from working with Tony is to be resourceful. Every idea that came our way, everything that he wanted to do, we always figured out a way. And I don't mean by throwing a bunch of money to it. We had to stay within budget. But there was always a way, someone you could call, some way to do it differently to get that yes.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
So resourcefulness is one of my biggest strengths, and I learned it directly from Tony. Never take no for an answer. Figure it out. Go beyond your comfort zone. There's always an answer. So that has served me well as an entrepreneur. Another thing was, so I worked in content.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
So that meant I worked with different events he did, Unleash the Power Within, Date with Destiny, the content that he does on stage, I got to work behind the scenes. It all really comes from Tony, but fine tuning, the writing, the putting it together was my department.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And when you walked into my department in the offices in San Diego, California, there was a big sign that says, does the customer care?
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And I have taken that lesson into everything I do, meaning as an entrepreneur or someone that is in a corporate job, you're creating for customers, but sometimes we start creating for ourselves, throwing in everything in the kitchen sink, because we have all this information, or we should do this, we should do that, and what about this?
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And all of a sudden, it's so overwhelming to your student, to your client, but it felt exciting for you to create, or it felt right, but the customer does not care. Or little details, I'm all about excellence, but sometimes we focus on things that just are not important and it takes us away from what actually is. So everything we do in my business today, does the customer care?
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And the answer usually is no, we've gone too far, we've gone down a rabbit hole, we've put too much in it, let's pull back.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I'm so glad that resonates with you because absolutely every example you gave, yes, yes, yes. I think the final thing, if I were to talk about three things that I really took away from working with Tony and working on that team is storytelling. What was interesting about working on the content with Tony is every section of content always started or ended with a story.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And this is something I sometimes struggle with in my business and watching the master do it, Tony do it, I can get intimidated pretty quickly. His stories were animated. He brought them to life. He's on stage moving around and telling it, making people laugh and making people cry. But every piece of core content had a personal story tied to it.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And I just thought that was such a beautiful way to draw people in and really paint the picture of what you're trying to teach. And so in my business today, we're always documenting stories, looking for ways to weave in stories. And I'm always working on my storytelling skills because it really is a skill.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And then I eventually said, I'm going out on my own. Sometimes the decision to say no or to close the door makes zero sense, but in your gut you know that it's the right way to go even though it's so scary and you kind of want to throw up when you do it. Listen to that knowing because our gut doesn't lie.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
It doesn't come natural to me, but I love weaving in stories when teaching in any kind of way.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
That was a tough one for me. I had been at the company for almost seven years. I had been treated very well. I was making great money. I got great bonuses. I got to travel. All of that was wonderful. But every time Tony got on stage, there was always some little message about be your own boss and find your freedom and create a life on your terms.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And I just knew, especially as a woman, I will hit the glass ceiling. And I also knew that there wasn't a lot of different areas I could go at that point. And so one day, without even thinking about what I wanted to do, I was in my job doing my thing, and Tony brought in a bunch of internet marketers to our San Diego conference room.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
At the time, I had no idea who these people are and those listening. If you're not in the online space, you might not either, but just in case those who do, Jeff Walker, Eben Pagan, Brendon Burchard, Frank Kern, like really big names in the online marketing industry, they were all around the table. All men, no women, and I was invited to the meeting to take notes.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I didn't even sit at the main table. I was a director in the business, but we do everything in those roles. So I was brought in and I'm so glad I was. I sat at the side table and I took notes. I took the worst notes of my life because I was entranced with what these men were talking about. So Tony was getting more into the digital course space, the online marketing space, selling programs online.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
And he wanted to hear about what these masters who were selling digital courses and memberships, what they were doing. Because I love how Tony, he learns by asking other people, what are you doing? What does that look like? And then he does it way better. And so he had the guys go around and talk about their businesses. They didn't just talk about their businesses.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Every single one of them mentioned the word freedom or lifestyle or time with their family. And I just looked around and thought, these guys have figured out how to create a life on their terms. I have no idea what they're doing. I do not know how to create digital courses. I don't even know how to market my own business. I want it. I want a piece of that. And for the next year, I was hungry.
Leap Academy with Ilana Golan
Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I started doing my own research nights, mornings, anytime I could. What could I create? What could this look like? And about a year after that fateful meeting, I left Tony Robbins for the very last time. I remember it like it was yesterday. I had this little white car stacked up with boxes, leaving the San Diego offices in the song, Here Comes the Sun, came on the radio. And I thought, it's a sign.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
It's a sign. So that was basically how it all came about.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
I want to pause for a quick second. When I was talking about my success and leaving my nine to five job in a different interview, one of the women said to me, I was telling her about all the different things, what we're talking about, what I did to create my own business. And she said, well, working for Tony Robbins obviously helped you.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Kind of like taking away my skill and my knowledge, but saying you work for Tony, so that opened doors for you. And it possibly could have, but I want to just point out, I work for Tony Robbins, but I still had imposter syndrome. I still had zero confidence in doing this on my own. And I doubted every single decision I made. And so I had to figure that out as I went. So I love this question.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
It was the most terrifying decision I've ever made in my life. And the day I left, I thought it would be easy. I genuinely thought I would work less hours. You know, you see the people on the beach with their laptop saying like, Freedom, that was what freedom was.
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Amy Porterfield: I Quit a Prestigious Job with Tony Robbins and Built a $100M Business
Yeah, that was not my reality at all. I've never worked so many hours in my life the first years of leaving my last corporate job. And every single thing I did, I doubted it. And I felt like a fraud for a really long time because I had no idea what this landscape looked like. So every emotion you could think of, I had.