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Joanna Newton: Do you ever feel like you're spinning a hamster wheel, working around the clock with No control over your schedule? Even as a business owner, it's easy to get caught up in the endless amounts of emails, [00:01:00] meetings, tasks, and to dos. Our guest today, Amy Kuphal is a business coach specializing in helping coaches build online coaching businesses that allow them to work the hours they choose while earning the income they deserve. She is a fierce advocate for income.
Joanna Newton: Anti hustle entrepreneurship, and a super fan of simplicity systems and structures. Amy is on a mission to help coaches re imagine entrepreneurship by opting out of hustle culture and leaning into more rest, play, and joy. in their business and in their life. Welcome. Amy.
Amy Kuphal: Thank you so much for having me today.
Joanna Newton: So excited to have you here. Can you give us a little bit of a background on who you are, what you do and what we're going to talk about today.
Amy Kuphal: I have been in the entrepreneurial space, gosh, since 2011. Actually, I started as in a fitness business space. I was a personal trainer, nutrition counselor, ran that for a good number of years pivoted a few years [00:02:00] back to pulling everything online. and was approached by a number of my peers saying, Oh my gosh, we've been watching you grow your business over the last 10 years.
Amy Kuphal: It's the height of COVID. They're like, we're looking to start a business. Can I pick your brain? And it was through getting on a number of these calls that it ended up leading me to say, you know what, even though I've been in this fitness building space this whole time, my passion has always been entrepreneurship.
Amy Kuphal: And had I been asked at any point during my fitness journey if you could continue working in fitness, As an employee or be an entrepreneur, but have to pick a different subject. a hundred percent would have said entrepreneurship. So I think it was a really cool and natural pivot from running my own business for about a decade to now coaching other people how to do so as well.
Joanna Newton: you are passionate about anti hustle culture, right? Building a different type of life. Can you talk to us about Your experience before you had the [00:03:00] realization that you need to build just a different way of working and living.
Amy Kuphal: kind of, I think the important detail there is that my daughter's now 12 for the last 12 years, I've been a single parent. So being a single parent, being a business owner, of course, there is so much that you're juggling. And the big thing for me too, is there was not a plan B like this had to work.
Amy Kuphal: I'm the only one covering the mortgage. I'm the only one making the car payments. So in my mind, the second I left a traditional job and started my own business, Even the fitness space and now in the business space, my mentality was always, I need to be running at full speed because there was always this feeling that if I stopped, or if I slowed down, I wasn't going to be able to keep up the income.
Amy Kuphal: I wasn't going to be able to keep up all these things and I needed to. So really that was this constant hustle that I knew, you know, if anyone had asked me, year 50 plus hour weeks, head down on the computer all the time. If anyone had asked me. Is this healthy or sustainable? I would [00:04:00] have said no.
Amy Kuphal: It was impacting my health. It was impacting my relationships. But it wasn't until it was when my daughter was, now she's 12, 9 years old, that I had this pivotal moment that made me say, this can't continue to go on the way that it is anymore because it was impacting at that point way more than me. It was impacting her as well.
Michelle Pualani: So many of our business owners get caught in that trap needing do, do, do work, work, work. Where do you think that comes from? Where do you think it comes from for us? That feels like we either have to be putting in 50, hour work weeks, or we're constantly spinning our wheels or we're showing up. more often and avoiding the rest, skipping the workouts and doing all those things. Where do you think that comes from within us?
Amy Kuphal: I think there's two places. The first, I think we are surrounded by this hustle culture mentality that I think in some ways ingrained within us. So people saying, I'll rest when I'm dead. And, you know, if you're [00:05:00] sleeping, the guy next to you, the guy next to you is hustling and he's going to get ahead.
Amy Kuphal: And. This mindset of scarcity versus abundance, I think we're swimming in, so it's hard to sometimes think otherwise when that's constantly what we're hearing. And I know for me on the second side of that comes from, and I think a lot of people as well, a perfectionist tendency. So it was thinking that I had to do everything so perfectly and do all the things.
Amy Kuphal: And then having that reinforced, it reinforced by the media messages that made me get to the point that I was and made me truly believe two things. One, that hustling was the only thing that was going to get me to where I needed to go. And also the misconception that I had, that was if I hustle hard enough, I'm eventually going to arrive at this place that I have this time freedom, that I have this financial freedom that was promised to me when I left my nine to five to two.
Amy Kuphal: Be an entrepreneur and thinking that hustle is [00:06:00] going to get me there. But newsflash I found out for myself. It does not.
Joanna Newton: It's so interesting because all of the guests we've had, I feel like are resonating with something like I'm personally going through in life. It's just one of those kismet moments of, Oh, I guess I needed to hear this. And one of the things for me is I've a hustler out of necessity for really all of my life.
Joanna Newton: I did not grow up with a family with a lot of money or resources. I had to. Do a lot on my own to get myself where I needed to be, figuring out how to get grades, how to get extra resources in school, how to get into college, pay for college, figure that out. Worked full time while getting my degree, right? Got a job right after the financial crisis when things were not good. And my first job was Terrible pay, right? Like low level entry level [00:07:00] made no money, had to just like work. And I hustled my way from an entry level job to like corporate executive and just like six years. And that was through perseverance, hard work, hustle.
Joanna Newton: I had a couple of setbacks in my career that put me in different places. Right. And I worked hard to hustle, got there. And you can get yourself. pretty far by hustling. But here's the thing. I even, I built a business, did all of this thing and I feel like I hit a plateau because I think there's a point to where hustling can get you that you'll eventually get stuck.
Joanna Newton: And if you have big dreams, big goals, big plans, when you're at that point where your basic needs are met, you're really out of survival mode, but you're stuck in survival mode, that's a really. not.
Joanna Newton: a good place to be in and I'm, currently realizing like I need to realize [00:08:00] I'm not in survival, like I'm not in survival mode anymore.
Joanna Newton: I have some of the things I need. I have the systems. Now I need to start thinking differently about work and thinking differently about how I set my life up and thinking differently about how I achieve that next level of success.
Amy Kuphal: I would agree. And I like that you pointed that as well is that an end. That's how I've been to. It's like always been hustling. And yes, you can get to a certain level. And maybe that's even what we would say is that third thing is like It reinforces itself when we hustle and achieve, which many of us have probably done.
Amy Kuphal: Then in our mind, we say, okay, to achieve the next thing, I just need to do more of this thing that got me to this level. But the point that I got to was that, like I said, my health was, I was not working out. I was getting to 4 PM in the afternoon and going, Oh my God, all I've lived on today was cups of coffee.
Amy Kuphal: And I'm like this. I could hustle that for a certain point. I was at the point that my daughter would ask me to [00:09:00] play and I wouldn't have time for three days. to put her on my schedule. You can hustle to a point and get to a certain point, but it's not sustainable. And pretty much what it came down to for me is at that point of massive hustle and massive burnout, honestly, where it was, I was surviving, I think on adrenaline and caffeine for a lot of time.
Amy Kuphal: And at that point, income wise, I was just hitting that a hundred thousand dollar mark. So in this time of realization for me, it was going, I'm surrounded by networks of amazing and strong and powerful business owning women. And I know that many of them are making 300, 400, 500, 000 a year. So I started to question, I'm like, if I feel this terrible and I think I'm a decently smart person, I don't know like I'm doing okay.
Amy Kuphal: But if I'm feeling like this at a hundred thousand dollars, how the heck are they earning 500? Because I know it's not possible to do five times the amount Of what I'm doing. So it's at that point. I said, okay, [00:10:00] so they're not hustling 5 times as hard as me because there's not enough hours in the day to do that.
Amy Kuphal: They must know something that I don't know. And that was one of those realizations to that. I'm like, there's things that they're doing that I obviously I'm missing something. And how can I figure it out? Because the solution cannot be hustle harder.
Michelle Pualani: I often think of those around the world and different occupations. So we're looking at obviously entrepreneurship and business ownership, but there are a lot of roles out there who work very hard and who do very well at what they're doing, but they don't make a lot of money. So the hustle and the work does not equate to financial success. It may be gratifying. It may be labor intensive, which is something they enjoy. Maybe it's even outside. Whatever it looks like, it's paid for. It's positive for them in that way and it's gratifying and it's secures them something that they're looking for in the work that they do. But oftentimes as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, you are looking for the financial freedom and flexibility, the time freedom and [00:11:00] availability and those pieces of your lifestyle, living a healthy, well rounded lifestyle, being on your own time. living on your own schedule instead of feeding into someone else's demands of you as an employee. So if it's not more effort, if it's not more focus, if it's not more work, if it's not more of to do everything all the time, what is it then distinguishes the focus and the work that you're doing as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, that feels like you're hitting that plateau, that limit versus people who are able to more comfortably work less hours, but generate more capital.
Amy Kuphal: I love that question. I love that because I think it made me think of 2 things. The 1st is that I was like, oh, got to put a pin on that was that you talked about the gratification piece and that's something that until you said it, I think I didn't actually fully think through is that there is this piece of hustle.
Amy Kuphal: That's gratifying to us, right? [00:12:00] We glorify busy. So in order to say, Oh, my gosh, I just worked like a 10 hour a day. As much as it feels not so great internally, there's also this one. I'm not thinking I must be successful, but there's this element of Ooh, I checked 10 things off today. Like I'm doing something.
Amy Kuphal: So I think part of this is being able to understand that if you work a 4 hour day and you're really efficient and you're smart about your choices. and you're relaxing the rest of the time, that's okay. I'm someone that has a really hard time relaxing and working nonstop is easy for me. That's my default.
Amy Kuphal: And a quick side story about that is that, so I implemented a 30 hour workweek for myself. Like I said, I was working 50 hours plus every single week. I'm someone that needs, I love data, I love to measure it. If it goes on a spreadsheet, it is 100 percent my jam. That's my thing. So I was like, okay, I know I'm going to need some extreme measures to remake this whole life that I'm living.[00:13:00]
Amy Kuphal: So I ended up downloading a time tracking app. So I use it's called a tracker and I joke that I should get a kickback from them because I talk about it all the time, but it's like a 2. 99 app that I bought three years ago. Like one time payment changed my life. Best 3 I've ever spent because What I ended up doing is now I track not only how many minutes that I'm working, how many hours that I'm working per week, but where those hours are going.
Amy Kuphal: So that's kept me honest. And where it got thrown real quick in my face was that I said to myself, you know, and to my daughter, because she keeps me real accountable, I'm going to cap at 30 hours a week. Okay. So now one of the weeks, a couple, about two months ago, it got to the point that I had hit my 30 hours on a Thursday and now she's heading out the door on Friday.
Amy Kuphal: And I'm like, Oh my God, like I'm, she's gone for like the next seven hours, but I've maxed out my hours. So I was talking to her in the morning. I said, buddy, I'm like, I don't know what to [00:14:00] do. I'm already at 30 hours. And she's what do I do with myself today? Because I don't want to continue to work.
Amy Kuphal: Cause I know that's not what I said I was going to do. mom, you could go for a walk or like you get a massage or you could relax. And to tell you how hard. It was for me to not open my laptop on a Friday when in my head was circling, Oh my God, you're wasting time. You have seven hours.
Amy Kuphal: You could be getting ahead on your business. That was really hard. So I think there's a big learning curve for those of us that define ourself by hustle and that are better at hustling than relaxing. So I think number one, to answer your question, number one is doing the internal work to realize why it's so hard for you to actually take a break.
Amy Kuphal: And then the second thing is how can we strategically do this is one, I think the time tracking app, but two, really thinking about what you do throughout the day and saying, I always put it through three, four questions. So looking at your massive to do list and saying of all the things. Each item on this to do list, is there [00:15:00] anything that could be eliminated?
Amy Kuphal: So things that you're doing that, quite literally, if you cross them off your list without doing them, no one would notice, your income wouldn't be affected. Whatever, we're gonna cross it out, we're gonna start there. What can we eliminate? Second thing is, of the things that are left, what can we automate? So is there anything that could be done by a computer? Perfect. We're going to automate some things from there. What things can be delegated? So they have to be done, yes, but do they have to be done by me?
Amy Kuphal: That as a business owner of those 10 an hour tasks. So can we hire a VA? Can we go on to Fiverr? And then really it's only those things that are left on our list are the things that we as a CEO should be doing. So that was helpful. Really just continually looking at my list and giving an honest answer to what things do I actually have to do and what things actually have to be done by me.
Joanna Newton: I love the idea of tracking time and figuring out that baseline. What is it that you actually spend your time [00:16:00] on? And I think sometimes. When we're like observing our life without data, we likely have a really unrealistic view of how much time we spend on certain tasks and how much time we spend on valuable tasks, how much time we spend on rest and actually having the baseline understanding of what. you do in a day is really realistic. One thing I know I struggle with is I tend to set unrealistic expectations for the amount of things I can get done in a day. I'm really good at doing it for other people. Like I'm really good at identifying like a timeline for their project or what they're capable of or what they do.
Joanna Newton: It makes me, I think a good boss, right? I think I have realistic expectations for what my team can handle in a certain period of time. Yeah. But I'm bad at doing that for myself. So one, one sort of cycle I can get into is I [00:17:00] set up what I want to get done in a certain period of time. I, call it quits for the day.
Joanna Newton: And I'm disappointed in myself for the amount that I got done. I feel unsatisfied. If I go back and look at what I completed holy shit, I did a lot of stuff. You know what I mean? I'm like, and that was a high value task. That was, I'm looking and this was, I did really good, but I just had a bad idea of what's possible. So actually understanding, tracking your time, understanding, like, how long do things actually take you? What are you really spending your time on? I think you can do a couple of things. Help you set realistic expectations. Also help you see, like you said, if you're spending time on tasks that one don't matter.
Joanna Newton: Maybe they have no impact on your business. Are you spending time on tasks? You really should be delegating, right? Those 10 tasks, those things that lots of people could do. Doesn't need to be you, but also this is [00:18:00] one thing that I Fine, because I work with a lot of coaches, creators, business owners, a lot of times your visionary types can get sidetracked down things that like actually aren't valuable for the business.
Joanna Newton: They'll spend a lot of time working. They're working. They are working, but does it have to do with their goals? Does it have to do with them making money today? Michelle's laughing. Cause I'm talking maybe to her.
Michelle Pualani: I feel like really called out right now, either seen or called out. It's hard to say.
Joanna Newton: I didn't even mean to point that at you, you just get in these modes because you have this idea. You go down this road. And you probably do need space for that, right? But how do you organize it so you're still doing the other things, right? And I think like I have some tools and tactics that I do to help that, help you focus and get the things done that you need done.
Joanna Newton: But time is such a valuable asset I hope if you're listening [00:19:00] to this podcast and you're an entrepreneur, you like have a budget and have an idea of how you spend your money, but you budget your money. You should, budget your time and understand where it's going.
Amy Kuphal: And that was another thing again, that for me, I feel like, again, I like concrete, I like data. It was something that. I knew I needed to put in a trackable way, so I went on Canva real quick and I just created a simple PDF that has Monday through Friday listed out and three lines with checkboxes.
Amy Kuphal: So quite literally every single day I have three items that I can put on my to do list. And these are going to be high value items that are going to move the needle within my business. If I have a fourth thing, I have to put it on a different day. everything takes a different amount of time.
Amy Kuphal: Like producing a podcast is a different amount of time than sending an email, but it's three things, which I think does two things. One, it keeps me focused on the right things. But also like you had mentioned, when you get to the end of the day and you're like, I feel like I've done so much, but what have I actually done?
Amy Kuphal: Yeah. This gives you, it's [00:20:00] like you can look back and you can say, I did these three needle movers and anything else was just bonus.
Michelle Pualani: Feelings a lot of similarities between you two right now with your spreadsheets and your tracking and all that stuff and tracking is critically important. Even in health coaching and working with clients, it's always important for me to start with some sort of tracking. Paying attention in that context, of course, what eating, when they're moving, how much they're sleeping, et cetera, which does greatly impact how you budget your time throughout the day.
Michelle Pualani: So all of those things are really important to look at and optimizing your health and wellbeing so that you do show up to the things that you're doing with focus, with mental clarity, with energy is very important. So I love all of the advice that you're giving Amy. It all totally makes sense to me.
Michelle Pualani: I think it's hugely important. So with these tools and strategies that you've been implementing. what did you see significantly change or shift within your business? You say that you started this maybe about three years ago. [00:21:00] What did it do for your business? How did you see things change? Whether that was how you were investing your time, the results that you were seeing, the opportunities that you had, and what kind of came along with that. And then what are you doing with that time that are the important tasks?
Amy Kuphal: So what did it do for my business? I think more importantly, what did it do for my life outside of business is that it allowed me to one, connect on a deeper level with my daughter, make her feel more of a priority. Because again, with that hustle, she is my top priority.
Amy Kuphal: That was never a question, but the misconception I was under, it was that I'm doing this for her. And if I just hustle a little bit more, I'm going to get to the spot where suddenly I have this extra 20 hours that I'm looking for to give back to her. So by limiting it to 30 hours, immediately, I was able to one connect on a deeper level with my daughter, which is super important.
Amy Kuphal: I was able to start working out on a regular basis. Again, I'm currently training. I have a June 1st fitness competition, bikini competition. So [00:22:00] that's taking like a lot of time and energy, right? Like in food prep and lifting that I for sure would not have been able to do as an underslept, overworked 50 plus hour a week business owner.
Amy Kuphal: So it's allowing me to get back to those things that are really important to me and the things that I think make me feel like me. As a result, I'm able to show up better in my own business. Nobody wants a depleted coach that slept about three hours and then they're trying to coach you. But if you have someone coming into your coaching calls or leading you in any sort of way, that's energized and that's taking good care of themselves, the clients get better results.
Amy Kuphal: So I think that's definitely a huge part of it. I also think the other huge part of it is limiting myself to 30 hours made be a smarter business owner. And so it was one of those things that even like, when we think about, like, when I was like, Oh, how am I going to build a business as a single mom, all of these other, men that have people supporting their kids and all that, they have so many more hours than me.
Amy Kuphal: Like, how am I going to do it? [00:23:00] But what I originally thought was my disadvantage truly I can say is my advantage because I'm forced to think about what strategically is the best move in ways that if I had so many extra hours I wouldn't have to do. So I think it, that would be a huge benefit to intentionally cutting 30 hours as well.
Joanna Newton: Yeah, Being able to organize your time benefits your life, your wellbeing. Cause all of this is not just about making money. we build businesses, we do that. for financial reasons, but a lot of times there's other reasons, right? You want to control your schedule. You want freedom. You want creativity.
Joanna Newton: You want all of these things. And then it can be easy to get wrapped up in the grind, the hustle culture, say, I'll have time for my creativity when I'll have time for my family. When we talked a lot, I think we talked about this kind of similar concept in an episode we did on like worthiness. I'm worthy [00:24:00] for. Rest when I'm worthy for that treat when and you're never gonna hit that when so if as a business owner You say I want time for creativity and content creation Like I want that time then it needs to be worked in to what you know If you want to do a 30 whatever hours you want to work. You need time for that in there.
Joanna Newton: And prioritize that. Prioritize those high value tasks, figure that out. And I think it's so true that people in, in project management and productivity talk about the idea that you'll fill the container of space. Like you allow it to fill. And I remember being in high school and People would write papers and someone would be like, I stayed up all night writing that paper and I would be like, Oh no, did I do a bad job on that paper?
Joanna Newton: Because I don't know, I got tired at 10 and decided I was done, right? I was like, I just wrote the [00:25:00] paper and submitted it and we would get the same grade. And I don't think I was way smarter than that person. I just knew I had to sleep. Right. And for me, that was important to me. And I think we fill the time and as a little aside, I think working moms are like the world's best kept secret. I worked in the corporate world forever and people will say things like. moms aren't as valuable because they have to leave at five and take care of their kids and all of this stuff. Working moms are so valuable because they know they have to leave at five and go get their kid and take them here or there or anywhere.
Joanna Newton: So they get all their work done by 4 30 so they can get out, right? They just figure out how to get it done. And I think there's truth to the fact that if we reduce our work time, we're just more efficient. Yeah. With our work time.
Michelle Pualani: Best cab secret? Absolutely. I think that when you your schedule to be what [00:26:00] you need it to be first based on priorities, then you are the one in charge. You are the driver. You get to decide as opposed to being reactive to those things that are coming at you. And then letting your schedule be dictated by the things that you have to do, need to do, should be doing. So I think the important thing here is owning the responsibility that you have in your business to be able to make these decisions, to be able to think critically about how you're investing your time, what you're doing in your activities, in your business, and how you're showing up in any of those ways. And then again, think about those priorities. What are your priorities? Is it family? Is it health and well being? Is it fun and activities? Where do you want to be investing that and then letting everything else fall into place or be determined by those things as opposed to being reactive to what you were thrown into?
Michelle Pualani: That's where I think a lot of that hustle mentality and overwhelm comes from is when you don't feel like you're [00:27:00] realistically in charge of or the driver of your own life. And to business, to health, To your state of being to family, to your relationships, to friendships, to your career business, whatever that is. You are the driver of that. And when you can own and take responsibility of that, that's when you're going to be able to make these hard decisions because it's not easy. We all get the same amount of time during the day, but how we invest that time is very critically different. So thinking about it from for yourself as you're listening and starting to tune into where am I spending my time?
Michelle Pualani: What's happening there? How can I think differently about this? How can I approach this day differently? How can I approach my systems differently? How can I? Figure out truly what it is that I want in the world and in my life, because I get to be the manifester, the decision maker, the driver, the CEO of how I'm showing up in all of these ways. So one of the questions [00:28:00] that's coming up for me, Amy, during this talking about high value tasks. We're talking about needle moving activities. We're talking about these things that people should be prioritizing or think about prioritizing as they're getting started as an entrepreneur and business owner. So one, is it possible to start a business? without that hustle mentality. And do we do with our time and our energy? If we're focused on those very important and valuable tasks in less time, What are those things that we're being more efficient with?
Amy Kuphal: So to answer the first question, 100 percent yes, it is very possible to have a thriving business without it starting from that place of hustle. Now, I don't have obviously the personal experience to share of myself because I did start mine with hustle, but I have the privilege of being connected with so many other business owners and hearing them speak on stage.
Amy Kuphal: And a couple that come to mine, one, two of them come to mine, really. One of them started when she had young kids, [00:29:00] and she now has a seven figure business, and she started her business and ran the majority of her business while her kids were napping. So she did it. So I'm like, okay, that's one proof. So in my head, I go, okay, she did it.
Amy Kuphal: I have another friend of mine also in that seven figure range who had young kids at the time she started her business. And what she chose to do is she said, I know, I don't have all of this time for networking and visibility and all of this. So what she chose to do is she said, I'm going to spend the limited time that I have getting really clear on my messaging and then leveraging ads to do the work for me to bring clients in.
Amy Kuphal: So she was able to then use money. In the place where maybe someone else chose to use time.
Joanna Newton: When I talk and work with business owners, I think one of the big mistakes that I see is lack of focus. They're trying to do too much. They're spreading themselves over so many different tasks. [00:30:00] So you know, I'll get on a, even just a discovery call with a new potential client and they want to do, they're just starting out creating an online course and they want everything. And. That's it. If they're looking for help, one, they may not have the budget or they may not have the time.
Joanna Newton: and trying to do everything at once isn't going to benefit them. And what I always try to do is, especially if they're starting a business as like initially as a side project before it becomes their main gig, start with one thing. Maybe it's you start building an audience, or maybe it is you create one funnel that you're sending ads to. You start with one piece of the business. You might have the vision for everything that you want long term, but you can't, you can essentially maybe hustle yourself into it, but you'll get sick, you'll have issues.
Joanna Newton: You won't necessarily enjoy your life. You won't remember why you were doing it in the [00:31:00] first place. But if you actually pick, I'm going to do this. Like when that's making money, then you can do the next thing when that's making money and you can build on it. Rather than trying to do everything at once. And I think you can be more, more successful that way. Like for my business, we were about to. Next week, start like our social media and marketing efforts. Yay. And we haven't yet because we've focused on direct sales. Like we're just, we're selling one on one. That's what we've decided to do to, that's what we decided to do our business. And we didn't try to run Instagram, run tech talk, run funnels, run all of that. And do that. We said, let's start here. Let's build that. Let's get that sustainable. Then when that's running and we have a team, we can start the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And I think figuring out ways to simplify your business model, simplify what you can do can aid in this [00:32:00] anti hustle culture mentality.
Amy Kuphal: I am a super fan, we know, of anything that can be simplified. And I was just listening actually to a podcast episode yesterday. And I'm also a big fan of like visuals. So if you can tell me a story through like visuals, like it's gonna sink in. And the one that this particular host was talking about was that the difference between someone who in the business space, hasn't made it.
Amy Kuphal: So they're that unknown they're working their butt off, but they really haven't broke through to that next financial level or fame level or whatever it is that they were looking for. The difference between these individuals and someone who like an Oprah, like a Gary Vaynerchuk, who's known and made it financially, what is the difference?
Amy Kuphal: And the way that he was describing it is. the people who have made it. And the way he said it was like a sledgehammer. If we picture a wall, they're hitting a sledgehammer in the same spot over and over again. That's going to cause that wall to crumble [00:33:00] versus someone who is on the other end, who hasn't made it yet.
Amy Kuphal: They might be looking around and saying, Oh, what's this person doing? Okay. They're hitting the wall over here. So let me try that once. Oh, what's this person doing? They tap the wall over here. Let me try that once. And they're going around, they're tapping this wall and barely making a dent in a thousand different spots.
Amy Kuphal: And wondering why I'm doing all these things that all of these successful people have done, but I haven't made it the difference being that they chose to focus on one thing and keep tapping that wall until they were able to break through to the other side. And that visual, I think, was just really profound for me, and hopefully it'll land with other people as well when they're thinking about this.
Michelle Pualani: Absolutely. I think that's a really strong and powerful metaphor. For focus and attention and how we need to be choosing within our businesses. And I am a 1000 percent guilty of this and everything that Joanna described when it came to the visionary of wanting to do all the things at the same time, at the same rate my problem.
Michelle Pualani: And so that's something that I am. Acutely working on right now because it was build this, create this, start this [00:34:00] program, go this direction, do this type of launch, get on this social media platform, be in this place. And I kept thinking and wondering what is wrong? Like I'm saying all of these great things and people like the content, but it's just not working.
Michelle Pualani: And I always thought Oh, it's the platform or, Oh, it's this, or it's this other thing that's external to me. And I finally had to get super honest about the fact that okay, Michelle, you're the problem. I'm the problem. It's me. That was the fact of the matter. And that's been the biggest change in my business over the past year.
Michelle Pualani: And Joanna and I say this, it is my breakout year because this is going to be a huge year for me. I'm super excited. And. What that has come to for me and what that realization has been is there has been a huge lack of focus. So focus is my theme word for this year. And it's so important for us to look at the things that we're doing and say, where is our attention divided?
Michelle Pualani: Where are we trying to build too many bridges? Where are we putting too much time and attention on things [00:35:00] that are fanned all over the place as opposed to in this one solid direction. And like Joanna mentioned, once that's then we can add on, then we can additionally do, then we can create, then we can move forward in these other directions.
Michelle Pualani: But of the people that I follow in the digital marketing space always say, Build that one offer, the one methodology to sell it, get to a million dollars, get to a million dollars, and then create the next thing. And if you haven't gotten to a million dollars yet, don't try to create something new.
Michelle Pualani: And that's something that I did not learn enough. In my journey, because I created the thing and then I tried launching it a couple times and I didn't have the success that I wanted to, or at least the thought, the success that I thought that I should have compared to seeing other people's success in the online space. And so that I put it down and was like, okay, I guess I have to create something different and new. And I did that over and over again. And it just started to divide my attention, divide my focus. And instead of. Going deep [00:36:00] on the messaging, like you mentioned, Amy, as your friend did, as opposed to going really, want to use the word hard, but really intentional with a certain platform and being really consistent about what I was doing. where I know that I got distracted and moved around. And I know that a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners do this. So again, as you're listening, starting to think to yourself, where has that showed up for me in my past? In the past couple of months in the past year, when I look back, we just did a digital decluttering as part of the podcast and join.
Michelle Pualani: And I did it for ourselves and our businesses in our lives. And I started looking back at the evidence, you know, you say and mentioned the metrics and looking at something that you can measure. I could see all of the places in which I started. And then stop and then started and stopped and pivoted and changed and did this and oh, I had this for a little bit and then I was focused on this other thing and I started to see the timeline of it and I never [00:37:00] realized that while I was doing it.
Michelle Pualani: So often again, we don't. Realize the things that are happening on a daily, weekly, monthly basis when we're in it and living it, but in retrospect, I could look back and see, oh, this is the timeline. This is the reality of the choices that I was making. this is a very clear demonstration of the insecurities, the doubt and the questioning and everything that was coming up for me that I then needed to work through.
Michelle Pualani: So I think that internal work that you mentioned as well is critically important for us to decide how are we going to shift things forward? that. How are we going to transmute the fear? How are we going to allow ourselves to operate outside of perfectionism and take the messy action and do the thing and then realize that, hey, if it doesn't quote unquote doesn't work, then we can take that, tweak it, change it, adjust it as opposed to saying, Oh, let's scrap the entire thing.
Michelle Pualani: good messages here. I think that our listeners are probably In the place of, or have experienced this in the past. And so I think it's such an important topic. Thank you so [00:38:00] much for sharing everything that you have today already. And I think 1 last question that I have as we head towards wrapping up this conversation is. So for you with where you're headed in your business, what does that look like when it looks like time? Are you looking to decrease the 30 hour work week? Are you looking to expand your reach and grow? Do you have certain goals that you're working on that fit this time work balance?
Amy Kuphal: So at this point, the 30 hours feels good because I've played with a couple different amounts of time. And the fun part I think about tracking is prior to giving myself this 30 hour limit, I didn't put a limit on it. I was just tracking just to see, and I was experimenting with different things. And there was a substantial shift in my energy level.
Amy Kuphal: Once I started getting into that 33, 34, and now. Maybe some people will say that's not very much, but I will also say that how I track is [00:39:00] very strict because, and my mom laughs at me all the time. Cause she's you, she knows, she's you're a little bit of a maniac. I'm like, I know. I will stop the timer if I'm like going to the bathroom, I will stop the timer if I'm making lunch.
Amy Kuphal: So my 30 is truly 30 working hours where I'm doing something in my business. It's not that I started at nine and then I ended at this time and all of that time counts. Even though I go, Oh, 30, that's less than a typical 40 hour work week. I still bet it's a lot more work than a 40 hour work because you think if we go into the office and you're talking to your coworker and you're this and they're at.
Amy Kuphal: So 30 for me was the limit that felt really good. So I'm definitely going to keep it there. I think the thing that I am shifting, we're heading into Q2 at the time of this recording. So it's really a time up for me, at least evaluating what's going well. What's not is that up until this point, I've been doing a lot of general business coaching specifically for online coaches.
Amy Kuphal: That's still pretty broad. So I'm helping people build on my businesses. There's [00:40:00] still there's a million and one things that still fall under that umbrella. So a lot of what I'm working on in this point is even niching that down even further. And when I'm hearing my audience screaming about is lead jet is the major thing that they're like, I'm just struggling to get.
Amy Kuphal: Eyes on my stuff and convert those eyes into leads right on the email list and convert those leads into clients. So that would be, I think, if we're talking about what's shifting within my own business, it's going to be even tightening that more so.
Joanna Newton: that's such a great perspective, really helpful for us to hear. And I think for any of our listeners listening in, I hope that you really are using this episode to think about how you can possibly restructure your time, prioritize your time, and get what you need done while actually achieving your goals, because it is possible and you can do it and you can do those things. Amy, I'd love for you to share with us. How our listeners can stay connected with you, [00:41:00] learn more from you, from your expertise on how to get that balance of time and get their time back. How can they find you?
Amy Kuphal: So I would say the number one way is the thing that I'm super passionate about that I've been doing, and now it's only two months old, so it's brand new, but We've already got a good number of people within this group is that I host a monthly networking call. What makes this networking call different than a lot of other networking calls is instead of just going around and giving our elevator pitch, every single networking call has a theme, and that theme is devoted to elevating some area of your business in a way that feels energetically aligned.
Amy Kuphal: So we cover a little bit of a teaching topic, the next three months, like I said, are going to be heavy on lead gen. So we'll cover some sort of lead generation topic that helps you generate more leads. And again, a way that's simple, it's sustainable, it's energetically aligned. And then we also have a network in peace incorporated.
Amy Kuphal: So that's once a month, you can get your invitation for all of the events for 2024. If you go to amycufal. com [00:42:00] forward slash community I would love to see you there. It's like I said, it's a really cool, we've got great people inside that group. And then if you want to just connect in the DMs, I tend to hang out on Instagram and that's at Amy Kouf, A M Y K U P H.
Joanna Newton: Amazing. Thank you so much. I hope that our listeners will all go check out what you have to do. Maybe join a networking call, find you on Instagram. I know I like following you on Instagram um, and keeping up with what you're doing. And as we just finish up chatting today, I encourage all of you to think about your time, think about what you can eliminate, what you can automate what you can delegate and take some of the advice that Amy offered us today.
Thanks for tuning in. Find the link in the show notes to join us in the Her First Collective, a free Facebook group to discuss the podcast, ask questions of our guest experts, and network with a group of female [00:43:00] entrepreneurs who value collaboration over competition. Please subscribe, share, leave a review, and be sure to catch our next episode.
What is one thing you can do today to prioritize you in business and life?
