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The Amy Porterfield Show

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

The Amy Porterfield Show

Amy Porterfield

Entrepreneurship, Business, Marketing

4.95K Ratings

🗓️ 16 September 2025

⏱️ 25 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Your Fear Of Wasting Time And Money In Course Creation Is Costing You (+ A Hack To Fix It Fast) If you’ve been sitting on a course idea for months (even years), telling yourself you’ll do it “someday,” chances are fear is in the driver’s seat. Maybe you’re worried it will take too much time, cost too much money, or flop without the perfect polish. I know those fears all too well, because I’ve made expensive mistakes myself… including one that cost me $20,000. But looking back, those so-called mistakes became the lessons that built my confidence and gave me the stories, strategies, and success I have today. In this episode, I walk you through the mindset shift that changed everything for me when I felt frozen by fear. You’ll hear a powerful tool I learned from my friend Jill Stanton called “Capture, Cancel, Correct,” which stops negative thoughts before they derail you. I also share why keeping your first course simple is actually your secret weapon to keeping costs down, and how to tap into what you already know instead of starting from scratch. Plus, you’ll hear inspiring stories from my students who launched without all the bells and whistles, validated their ideas, and built profitable businesses step by step. By the end of this episode, you’ll see that the only real waste of time and money is doing nothing, pushing your launch, and delaying compounding revenue. HERE ARE THE 3 KEY TAKEAWAYS FROM THIS EPISODE: 1️⃣ A proven way to stop fear in its tracks – The “Capture, Cancel, Correct” method gives you a practical tool to recognize limiting thoughts, shut them down, and choose a more empowering belief that keeps you moving forward. 2️⃣ Why simple beats perfect every time – Your first course doesn’t need to be polished to succeed. A streamlined, minimal viable course gets you into action faster, helps you earn revenue sooner, and gives you real student feedback to improve with each launch. 3️⃣ You already have everything you need to get started – You’re not starting with a blank page. The steps, strategies, and advice you’ve been sharing with clients, friends, or your community can be packaged into a clear, repeatable framework that becomes a long-term business asset. RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Join my FREE Masterclass: The New & Better Way To Create And Sell A Profitable Digital Course In 2025 → amyporterfield.com/masterclass MORE FROM ME Follow me on Instagram @amyporterfield SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your support helps us reach more entrepreneurs who need these insights. 🎙 Thanks for tuning in to The Amy Porterfield Show! See you next week!

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey there. Welcome to the Amy Porterfield Show.

0:11.3

You have to do things scared. You don't avoid action just because you feel fear. You know this.

0:17.5

You get into action alongside the fear. You dance with it. One of the best ways I've

0:22.0

ever heard this described is that fear can have a whisper of a voice, but it does not get a vote in

0:28.4

your decisions. I once lost $20,000 like that in my business. Here's what happened. I was approached by a contractor who

0:40.3

promised the moon to me around surveying my audience for a six-month period of time and doing

0:47.0

tons of analytics on the back end. Now, this was many, many, many years ago, way before AI,

0:52.4

for the record. And it was really before we started

0:56.2

talking about surveying and understanding our audience in my business. So this contractor came

1:01.4

along and promised that they could just find out everything about my audience, help me shape my

1:06.5

messaging, and just really boost my sales. And at the time, I was very naive. I didn't really know

1:13.3

what I was doing, but I had started to make money in my business. So I gave this person $20,000.

1:18.5

They were going to work with us for six months. They never produced a thing. Zero zilch. Essentially,

1:26.0

they fell off the earth. I don't know where they are today. And so I rushed into

1:31.6

this decision and I felt like I couldn't do it alone or I couldn't figure it out. It was the

1:36.8

insecurity. And this person was telling me they're the best of the best and they can do it. So I said

1:42.3

yes. And I lost $20,000. And that's a lot of

1:45.8

money for me today. But back then when I was making a whole lot less, that was a lot, a lot of money.

1:51.8

And I beat myself up over it for months, months. I just couldn't let it go. And there have been

1:58.4

other situations like this. Like I have a long list of times that I

2:02.3

felt like I've wasted so much time and money on things in my business. However, I really do believe

2:09.9

now that I could look at it from the outside where I'm in a different place now, I get it. I was

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