Lessons Learned from Amy Porterfield

Your useful work can reach further than you will ever be able to measure.

Amy Porterfield sent an email inviting me to listen to her podcast. In that email, she suggested that if I had never listened to a podcast, it might be time to try.

I had not been listening to podcasts. Without that sentence, I might have deleted the email. Instead, I pressed play.

That one action led to me starting The Life Coach School Podcast. It changed my business and my life, and it reached far beyond me.

Amy was doing her job. She was sharing her work and inviting someone to listen. She had no idea what that invitation would set in motion.

I want you to remember that when you wonder whether doing your work matters.

How I became Amy's student

After a year-long trip with my family, I came home feeling burned out from trying to work and train coaches while we traveled. Chris and I talked about what we wanted to do next.

At first, I suggested that he get a job. Then we looked at what that would mean for our time and our lives, and we decided to become business partners instead. We would put more into the business and see where we could take it.

I thought becoming more involved in social media was the answer. That was not a world I knew well. I took a class from Laura Roeder and began learning Twitter.

In the Facebook group for that class, someone recommended Amy Porterfield. I went to her site and bought her Facebook ads course.

I studied it carefully and applied everything she taught. She took me step by step through learning how to run ads. Using that course, I grew my email list from 800 to 10,000.

That was a complete game changer. I learned a skill that helped me understand my business in a new way.

The email that led to my podcast

Because I had taken her course, I was on Amy's email list. That is how I received the invitation to try her podcast.

When I listened, she mentioned Pat Flynn. I did not know who he was, so I went to listen to his podcast too.

Pat talked about asking people how they had found him. He was surprised by how many had discovered him through his podcast.

I had been thinking about Twitter as the way to grow my business. Now I was hearing that a podcast could be the way people found someone.

Pat offered a free video series on setting up a podcast, so I watched it. He also mentioned John Lee Dumas. I went to John's site and contacted him because I wanted to hire someone who knew how to produce a podcast.

That led me to the company where I found Pavel, who helped with mine.

Look at that chain. Amy sent an email. I listened. She introduced me to another resource. I followed it, learned, and took action. Eventually, I started a podcast.

All of that began with Amy showing up and doing her work.

An example of what was possible

One of my missions is to be an example of what is possible for my students. Amy was that example for me.

She had not personally coached me through building my business. I was her student, applying what she taught and watching how she worked.

She taught me Facebook ads and webinars. Watching the beautiful design of her business helped me understand the importance of design in mine.

I also listened as she talked about her business revenue. She was a woman running a business from her home, making a million dollars in a year through the internet.

I remember trying to wrap my mind around that. Hearing her excitement as she described it expanded what I could imagine for myself.

That is part of what a teacher offers simply by being who she is and letting you see what she is creating.

A full-circle moment

Later, I went to a webinar event Amy was teaching with Melanie Duncan. I wanted to work on a webinar for Stop Over Drinking, and I was excited to learn from Amy in person.

Afterward, she told me she loved my podcast.

It was such a crazy full-circle moment. I told her she was the reason I even had one. Her coach had recommended my podcast to her, and now the work she had helped set in motion had come back into her world.

I remember leaving that event amazed by the way it had all connected.

Amy's influence had already been profound before she knew about it. She was teaching, creating, and doing her job. I was on the other end, using what she shared to change my life.

Your work keeps traveling

The impact did not stop with me starting a podcast or growing my business.

As I did my work, people came to work with me. Those employees could provide for their families. People listened to the podcast and changed their emotional lives, their relationships, their health, and their businesses.

Some listeners became coaches and helped their own clients. The people they helped went on to affect other people.

I received a letter from a woman who stopped drinking and saved her marriage because of a podcast I recorded. When I think about how that podcast came to exist, Amy is part of that story too.

That is the ripple effect of someone showing up and doing her job. You cannot plan every part of it or know how far it will go.

When you think that not many people are reading your email or listening to your podcast, consider that one person may hear it. Who is your Brooke? Who might take what you share and change her life in a way that affects so many others?

Show up and be you

This is more than a tribute to Amy. It is a reminder to everyone doing their work in the world.

You are Amy Porterfield to someone. What feels like an ordinary day of teaching, recording, or sending an email may be part of something you cannot yet see.

You do not need to chase people down and try to affect their lives. Show up and be you. Learn, apply what you learn, and do your job.

Let the impact be none of your business. Just know that it is there.

I am so grateful Amy showed up as herself. Her doing that helped make my work possible. What you do matters in ways you may never know.