Angie Colee (00:01):

Welcome to Permission to Kick Ass. A podcast about leaving self-doubt in the dust, punching fear in the face and taking bold action toward your biggest dreams. I'm Angie Colee, and let's get to it. Hey and welcome back to Permission to Kick Ass. With me today is Amy Collins. Say hi, Amy.

Amy Collins (00:24):

Hi Angie. Hi listeners.

Angie Colee (00:27):

I love it. You didn't go with the, the typical, like dad joke that a lot of my folks do where they're like, hi Amy, in response to me saying hi Amy.

Amy Collins (00:34):

Oh yeah. Gracie slayed that decades ago.

Angie Colee (00:39):

Dad jokes never get old to me, but I have that personality for sure. So tell us a little bit about your business and what you do.

Amy Collins (00:46):

Yeah, so I'm a copywriter and marketing strategist. I work primarily with emails, uh, but I do other kinds of copy as well as it, uh, you know, assets that go along with emails. I'm also a storyteller and a comedian. I regularly perform standup comedy and sometimes I do improv, um, also an essayist. I have a free newsletter that I write a personal essay every week that is, I've been told both hilarious and thought provoking.

Angie Colee (01:16):

That's awesome. I love it. I love it. I feel like I, you know, there needs to be some more like comedy levity in business. I know for years when I first started, I thought I had to be some sort of like professional other like somebody other than me, because me was not acceptable enough. Me told too many Dick jokes. Um, and it's not appropriate in a work environment, Susan from HR. I know,

Amy Collins (01:42):

But there's still funny. They're still, they're so funny. Uh, yeah, I think we all fall into that, right. Of like this mold of who we're supposed to be. And I don't know who created it. I think some old white dudes and, um, it's mostly a lot of bullshit and I love that. First of all, I love that. I think we're allowed to curse on this podcast, right?

Angie Colee (02:07):

Oh yes.

Amy Collins (02:07):

Oh yes. Okay, great. This is gonna be delightful. Um, yeah, I think that's a lot of bullshit. And I think when you're running your own business, you get to decide exactly who you want to be, but it requires some, you know, uh, courage I think, and like just self permission to kick ass, Ooh, look, I just

Angie Colee (02:28):

Nice. Threw a little shout out for the show you're already listening to, but it's great. I love it. I mean, and, and yeah, you get to be who you want to be. Just know what comes along with that because certain personality types are aren't for everyone. I know that there are some out there that have made like a, a niche for themselves. Like there was one a while back that was like the rich jerk. And I know there's some other personalities out there that like, you know, take the hyper macho. I'm a jerk to everybody. I, I kick you off my, if you ever unsubscribed from me, you are permanently banned for life and like, okay, well, cool. If that works for you, that is, I am decidedly more easygoing than that. So it's like, if you wanna unsubscribe from me and then come back later, cool. Just don't mark me spam, please.

Amy Collins (03:17):

Totally, totally. It's a very different life view, right? I mean, we all work in, in cycles and circles and you have friends with people and then you don't see 'em or talk to them for 15 years and then you reconnect and it's, it's like no time has passed. And I think that's fair to say for subscribers and followers too, like people come and go, they find a other things to do. And I'm, I'm not telling anybody they can't come back.

Amy Collins (03:45):

Oh, I love that there are seasons and cycles to every relationship, whether it's professional or personal and sometimes, and that's the thing that drives me nuts the most when I'm working with like clients or copywriters that want me to chief their emails. And if they haven't been emailing their list for a while, one of the first things that they say is, okay, so I'm gonna send out the I'm sorry, I haven't been in touch. I'm like, do no. Do you really need to do that though? Do they even know that you're gone? Probably not like, Hey, let's go look at my inbox and see how many emails have come in since about five o'clock this morning. Probably didn't realize that you were gone. No offense. So need to apologize and waste my time. Just get to your point.

Amy Collins (04:23):

Yeah. I agree with you completely. First of all, never apologize unless you've actually done something wrong in which case own it. And unfortunately,

Angie Colee (04:30):

Make it mean something.

Amy Collins (04:31):

Most people are unwilling to apologize when they do fuck up. But no, I agree completely. And I think in the almost year that been writing my newsletter, now that's called rude, but charming I've missed like two. I know it is me. Uh, I think I've missed two newsletters and I don't know if this is a humble brag, but I actually have people reach out and are like, are you okay? Because I didn't get your newsletter yesterday, but for the most part, no, one's paying attention. Yeah, no one's paying attention and whatever reason it is that you missed, it's not their business either. Like, just keep going. Just keep going.

Angie Colee (05:12):

Yeah. I have a newsletter that's called Kick Monday's Ass. So you would think it comes out regularly on Mondays. Sometimes I just cross out Monday and put Tuesday if I just didn't get to it, or Monday was like a national holiday. I do my best to observe holidays and weekends because that's how I want my business to run. I don't wanna be working around the clock and hustling, ingraining myself into an early grave. But, um, on that pleasant note, uh, let's talk about business, cuz I know before we started recording, you were tell, I mean, we've all had bumpy years, the past couple years, but last year and the year before, we're kind of an adventure for you. You wanna go a little deeper into that?

Amy Collins (05:51):

Yeah, for sure. So I have been a copywriter or writer of some form journalism essays, fiction, whatever, uh, for over a decade and like dipped in and out of it from times, you know, time to time. And I was not doing any writing when pandemic hit, I was supposed to be writing my memoir, but my, mostly I was hustling as a Uber and Lyft driver here in new Orleans where I live and also performing a lot of improv comedy, but then pandemic hit lockdown, went into place. Everything disappeared for me. I started copywriting again because a copywriter friend was like, I've got too much work. Do you want a client? I was like, um, yeah, that's probably a good idea actually. So I started doing that again and it started snowballing and it was great, but I was kind of doing whatever copy came my way. And I thought I wanted to get more serious about it and get more specific. And I was like, I need help. So that's when I found a really wonderful mastermind community and joined that and started like figuring out what my superpowers are when it comes to copywriting and what I really enjoy, which is how I ended up writing about email. Or writing emails. So, but in that time I also had like a midlife breakdown. Right. Like I, I call it a nervous breakdown because well, first of all, it sounds exciting. Right. It sounds very old Hollywood, you know, please take me to Betty Ford.

Angie Colee (07:29):

I'm chuckling with you. Not at you.

Amy Collins (07:31):

Oh 100%. I know. I know. Um, so yeah, I just got to a place where it was like, okay. A lot of these things that I'm doing in my life patterns, habits, decision making are no longer working for me. Now that I'm was then 44. Right. And you have a choice, like you can keep barreling through and just get more and more miserable or you can change. So I started changing and it was really hard. And at that whole time, I was also starting to build a copywriting business, like a proper business with the naivete of not realizing that building a business is an ginormous emotional endeavor. So, you know, but I just like to go hard, you know, like when things get bad, just go ahead and put all the shit on it and let's just break it down all at the same time. So yeah, it was a pretty exciting time. I think I had approximately 627 breakdowns between like, uh, the lockdown. And uh, I'm gonna say like last August. Right? Wow. So yeah, it, it's the exact number of breakdowns. You need to have the breakthrough to finally understand Gwenyth Paltrow's vagina candle.

Angie Colee (08:53):

I love, I love that. It was so funny cuz I was gearing up to say like put in this little witticism that I heard of, you caught me off guard with Gwenyth Paltrow.

Amy Collins (09:03):

Yeah. It always hits, it always hits.

Angie Colee (09:05):

I've heard that phrase and I really loved this. Not only because of the swear word, but you know how quippy it is, um, the, the shit happens so the shift can happen. And I was a like, Ooh, put that on a mug.

Amy Collins (09:17):

Yeah.

Angie Colee (09:18):

I need that with maybe like, have you seen those mugs that have the middle finger on the bottom so that when you take a sip, like you're flipping somebody off. It's fantastic.

Amy Collins (09:26):

Oh, that's great.

Angie Colee (09:27):

I need one of those. Um, yeah. I was taking notes while you were writing all of that because it's, it's easy from the outside or as a newbie to entrepreneurism to see all these people doing stuff and you see kind of the professional, the button down the established for years and it seems like nobody else is freaking out and I'm freaking out all the time. What the hell is wrong with me? And I know that for me, one of my breakthrough moments business was seeing somebody that I respected have kind of just an anxiety spiral in a, in the safe space that we were in and going, oh shit, you could do great things while still wildly spiraling in, in your innards there.

Amy Collins (10:10):

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't think there's this, you know, plateau that anyone reaches where every things just always, okay, like that's not real. If that, if you're living that life, you have a partial lobotomy. Like it's just, that's not human. And I think more people are starting to talk about the hard part and the mental breakdowns and the struggles. But I also think it's still like very kind of taboo and background and people are afraid to say like, Hey, I'm human. And sometimes I just like, can't really get through the day. It's hard, but that's real. And I think when you're working as a solopreneur, right, you're a solo business owner, even if you're in a mastermind program, which can super, super mitigate a lot of those struggles cuz you have other people going through it, but you're still ultimately on your own and you're making all your own decisions. Sometimes you get to the end of the day and you're like, I don't know how to feed myself. Like I don't wanna make any more decisions, you know, it's, I think that's just real. And it's doesn't mean that I'm a fuck up or that I'm like not on top of it. It just means there are a lot of things. And I, it did take a therapist to tell me that, to tell me that I was doing a lot of things.

Angie Colee (11:23):

And it's, I love the fact that you brought up, like, I don't wanna make any more decisions. I don't wanna make any more choices today because decision fatigue is a real thing that especially as entrepreneurs, you start to get firsthand, like toward the end of the day, I'm just like, Nope, no more like today as an example, we're recording in March. I am currently in Las Vegas and somehow I thought I had it set to where this couldn't happen. But somehow I have five back to back podcast recordings today. It's gonna be an adventure day, but because I bring so much energy and I have so much fun talking to people that like, by the time I get done with the last one, I guaran-God damn-tee you, all I'm gonna wanna do is like go pick something up at the drive through and sit here in the dark binge watching Netflix. Cause I don't wanna talk to anybody anymore. And like, it's okay to know these things about yourself. It's okay to come up with solutions that help you cope with that versus like feeling like you have to soldier on and be some sort of like wonder woman Superman hero. That's got it all together. Uh, I, I think a lot of people are surprised by the fact that if I perform on stage or I speak on stage, usually when, and I come off, I'm like, I love you. I need you to step back. Like I, I just need to be by myself for a while. Thank you very much.

Amy Collins (12:41):

Yeah. I think, I think that's real. I think most people experience that. Like I've now been doing standup comedy for not a tremendous long time, but long enough that I'm out at enough mics and do doing enough shows that I'm watching other comics of, you know, who've been doing it much longer than I am. And you know, there's a high when you come off stage for sure. But there's also, you need to protect that high, first of all. But also like you've just put everything you have right there on stage and I'm sure like you feel that way when you speak. And also when you perform music, you know,

Angie Colee (13:17):

Absolutely. I mean there, to me, there's something that's almost literal about leaving it all on stage. Uh, and I've had, yeah, I've, I've had blunt conversations with people before that were like, why are you being such a? I'm just trying to give you a conversation. I'm like, not now I don't need the compliments. I don't need for you to buy me a drink. What I need is to not be on the stage. And I need to be by myself, just give me 15 minutes to get my shit together and we can talk later.

Angie Colee (13:45):

Yeah. Cause I do need those compliments. I just need a minute.

Angie Colee (13:48):

Yes. I will take all of the compliments that you want. Like shower it on me. I almost prefer that to like the dollar bill rain, just shower me in compliments. I love the praise, but like give me a minute. I love that. That's perfect. Um, and there was something that you said about that about the whole process of like I had, I had to have this many breakdowns so that I could have the breakthrough that really caught my attention. And that was about realizing that something wasn't working for you any more and choosing to change. I always think that change has to be a deliberate choice that we make for ourselves.

Amy Collins (14:24):

Yeah. I mean, yeah. I think it's always a choice, right. I mean, I think there might be circumstances that leave us with fewer choices. Which is not something we Americans are accustomed to. I mean, we have way too many options yeah. For everything. Right. But I do think it's always a choice how you respond or react to a situation or to another human. It's always a choice. And I don't always make the choice I want to make. Sometimes I wish I had made a better choice in my reactions, but I'm human. And I think that's the other thing that I really learned through all this is that self-compassion and just like yes. Being patient with my self and allowing myself to not be perfect. I mean, perfect is a myth, I've been saying that for years, but like thinking something, knowing something rationally or intellectually and believing it with your whole body is two different things.

Angie Colee (15:24):

Or like the rules that we apply to ourselves, being different. That from the rules that we apply to other people. Cause I know that I have always been way harder on myself than anybody else in my life. And that really changed for me. So I have, I have a friends that I've been, uh, I've known for 20 years at this point. And at some point in the last decade, we came up with a rule that's like, I can't talk to me in a way that my best friend wouldn't talk to me. And so like I approach the, that kind of internal self-talk from would, would I say this to somebody I give a damn about and expect that relationship to actually remain intact without like serious, serious damage? Why do I, why do I talk to myself that way? That's damaging my relationship with myself.

Amy Collins (16:09):

A hundred percent and we all do it. And that's, that's a thing we have to unlearn.

Angie Colee (16:15):

Oh yes. It takes, it takes practice. But it's definitely doable as somebody that is continually hard on herself. It's, it's a practice just like yoga, flexibility, strength training. It's it's always a practice and see what you can do today and give yourself that grace for being human. Now you've mentioned something else that I thought was it brought up a thought for me, this idea of, you know, too many choices and how often it feels like we don't have a choice. I know with a lot of my coaching students, I point out to them every situation there's a choice. Doesn't mean it's an easy choice. Doesn't mean it's a pleasant choice. Sometimes the choice is refund this person and their money and walk away as, as painful as that would be. Sometimes the choice is, uh, you know, once I had to, I had just renewed a lease and I had to go figure out how to break that lease and figure out how to move. And like that wasn't easy. I did not like that. I didn't like paying $2,500 to get out of a lease early, but it was a choice that I could make, even if I didn't want to. I love that.

Amy Collins (17:19):

Yeah. Just because a lot of times I think the decision doesn't feel good. It doesn't mean it's the wrong decision.

Angie Colee (17:27):

Yeah. I, I like to tell them every, every choice that you make can be unmade. It just might be hard.

Amy Collins (17:33):

Yeah.

Angie Colee (17:36):

Oh I, and you know, going back to what you said in the beginning, when you were working, you, you were hustling with Uber and Lyft and I'm sad that I didn't know that you lived in new Orleans when I was there last year, I feel like we could have torn some shit up.

Amy Collins (17:51):

Yeah. Um, there's a lot to do in new Orleans.

Angie Colee (17:55):

Yes. Although it was interesting when I was there because it was before the vaccine came out. So there was still a lot of stuff that was shut down. Like I went to Frenchman street on a Wednesday night and it was, it was very sad.

Amy Collins (18:06):

Nothing happening. Yeah.

Angie Colee (18:07):

It was very sad. But um, so you talked about getting back into copy because you knew somebody who was just like, Hey, I got too much work. Can you help me out? And to me, like a lot of people that I know in the freelancer space too, think of other people as competition, so,

Amy Collins (18:23):

Oh yeah.

Angie Colee (18:24):

Like there were, I can't, I can't talk about email because Amy talks about email. But if Amy is overloaded with emails, Amy, and she knows that you talk about emails too, she could reach out to you and be like, Hey, I have too many emails. You want some emails?

Amy Collins (18:40):

Yeah, for sure. I, so this friend was, well, we went to college together and we both are like writer writers, you know, like she writes YA novels, I wrote a dirty novel. And then I write essays. Uh, and we both just do copywriting because we need money. Right. And those other things don't really pay. Um, but when I got, when I first got into the space of like copywriter communities and joined Facebook groups and I did feel a little bit more of not so much competition, like we're competing for the same clients, but I have had conversations with myself about I'm gonna niche an email. Well, this other person's, nicheing an email and this person. And then as I start working on developing products, cuz people ask me to teach them how to do what I do. So I'm in the process of figuring that out and I have those same conversations. Right. Well, you know, this woman really does great on teaching email. And so does this woman and I kind of have to stop and be like, yeah, but people want to hear from them or they want to hear of me. A lot of it is who, who do you like listening to? Whose perspective do you like, who do you like the way they communicate? It's it's that almost more than the information. Right. So there isn't really a competition. There may be some overlap, but

Angie Colee (20:14):

Oh yeah.

Amy Collins (20:14):

I think when we get in these communities, our walls close in and the world feels much smaller.

Angie Colee (20:22):

Oh yeah.

Amy Collins (20:23):

But it's actually not. And when you step outside and you talk to someone who's not in these communities, and then the first thing they say is, I'm sorry, but what is a copywriter? Yeah. You're like, oh yeah. There's a whole world of people who don't even fucking know what I do. And some of them actually might wanna be my clients or my, my buyers. Right. So, you know yeah. It's it just perspective taking perspective.

Angie Colee (20:48):

Yeah. And then like we get in our heads too, especially if it's something that we've seen a lot before. Cause I know this happened in copyrighting communities a lot. There's a lot of people teaching how to approach it because there's a lot of different ways to approach creating a sales message. Um, and it really, at the end of the day comes down to what resonates with you like you were talking about. But by the same token, almost everybody out there that's interested in learning about this is learning from probably a dozen different sources and they're picking and choosing what works for them or they're, you know, or they're succumbing to shiny object syndrome and delaying taking action. But that's a rant for another day. Um, if, if you're fascinated by cooking, you're probably following several chefs. If you love music, you're probably a fan of several different artists. Like there is no, like I have picked my guru and that is it. I have planted the flag and never shall we move? No people learn from multiple different sources. And that is a great thing because that makes your voice important. Super important. Even if you've said it, something that has been said a thousand times before, the way you say it could be the one thing that unlocked it for somebody and finally made it make sense, even though they've heard it before.

Amy Collins (22:07):

Yeah. Yeah. I, I held back from interjecting because you were saying so many good things. Um, starting with let's hope that people don't just find the one guru and follow them because now we're talking about cult issue. Um, and you are giving people money most often. So, uh, yeah, definitely self check that make sure you have multiple gurus in your life that you're,

Angie Colee (22:32):

You're not in a community you're in a cult be aware of the difference.

Amy Collins (22:37):

I mean, I'm working on building a cult, but you know,.

Angie Colee (22:40):

Oh yes. Yeah.

Amy Collins (22:42):

I feel like that's my next career.

Angie Colee (22:44):

Nice. The, the Cult of Collins, I don't know. Um, there's probably gotta be a cool name for that somewhere in there.

Amy Collins (22:52):

There is, I don't know what it is yet. I it's gonna come to me.

Angie Colee (22:56):

I, I, you know, I like the idea of a cult, but like a not serious cult, like just a, fun based cult. So we're, I I'm in Vegas. As I mentioned at the beginning of the recording and I'm in the process of planning, my first event and a lot of people seem to be really it's about evenly split. Some people are really surprised to hear this. And some people are not at all surprised to hear this. My first event involves bulldozers. We will be driving bulldozers. I have to actually tell people, coming to my event, you need to pass a breathalyzer test. Otherwise you won't be able to drive a bulldozer. Add That to lists of things that I never thought I would say in my business. Um, honestly.

Amy Collins (23:38):

By the way, put me on that cat or isn't that, what they're called.

Angie Colee (23:44):

Yeah. Like the big Bobcats. Oh gosh.

Amy Collins (23:46):

Yeah.

Angie Colee (23:46):

I was, I was on the, uh, grand canyon railroad on the way to the grand canyon last month. And they did something similar. Like we have a Bobcat, if you look out the window to your right. And it was a fucking backhoe, They got us all with the best dad joke of dad jokes. Um, so I love, I wanna go back to something that you were saying too, which is that people were asking you for this and how easy it gets to get in your head and be like, I can't create this. Cuz there are so many other products about this out there, but people were asking you, they wanted you.

Amy Collins (24:20):

Yeah. Yeah. And this has been going on for months, by the way. And I've been doing that thing of like, but this person's doing it and this person's doing it. And I don't even know how to tell you what I do because I work so intuitively. And I finally just, you know, a couple of weeks ago, a friend in my mastermind program just kept pushing me. He's like, I just think you're gonna be really good at this. So I was like, fuck it. I'm gonna like throw up a masterclass, teach a free class and go from there. So I'm this week, I'm in the process of like I'm teaching the class on Friday. So I'm like promoting it now, even though by the time this publishes, this idea will either be like a fully vision product, like in like tangible or it will be a distant memory. I, I can't wait to find out in late July. I think you said you'll probably drop this. But um, yeah. So it's, it's a matter of just deciding to just go for it and just looking at it as data collection. Just a, what if, what if this works? What if it doesn't work? Like just what if, I mean mean otherwise I'm gonna sit around like just thinking about what if I did do it when I'm not doing it.

Angie Colee (25:36):

Yeah. It's so easy to get in that trap of like thinking it and overthinking it. And especially, I, I know that dudes do this too, but especially women, we like to have a backup plan and a, a backup, backup plan and a backup to the backup plan and, and on and on it goes. And the funny thing is that you can have plans A through Z and then, you know, problem, 1.2 comes up that you never even saw in your alphabet of solutions. Um, and I love that you pointed out that it's data collection, cuz I've said that before too, I think that if you approach every idea, like it's an experiment, I don't know what's gonna happen. I'm hoping for this outcome, but either way, I'm gonna learn a ton. That's like the ideal way to approach these things. Love.

Amy Collins (26:22):

Yeah. I mean, plans at best are, you know, their dream adjacent, you know what I mean? Like you can have all the plans in the world, but most everything about the plan is out of your control.

Angie Colee (26:34):

Oh yeah.

Amy Collins (26:35):

Um, but I think one thing that's also really helped me get here is doing standup comedy, like doing open mics and stepping up there and trying out a new joke that I've not said out loud and see what happens because you can write it in a, a notebook. You can hear it in your head. You can recite it in your living room, all you want, but you still are gonna learn something from delivering it to a live audience and you get feedback and then you tweak it or you throw it out or, you know, whatever. So it's constant trying shit in a very vulnerable, very seen environment. And you know what, like nothing terrible has happened.

Angie Colee (27:21):

Yeah.

Amy Collins (27:22):

Like I just, so I'm like, well, the what's what's to lose. Right. I mean, this is the same thing. I mean, even if I totally bomb on Friday and I put something out that people are like, yeah, that was a waste of time. Like, okay, well I'm sorry.

Angie Colee (27:37):

And there are trolls out there for sure. Those are miserable fucking human beings though that they're, they're just, there are crabs in a bucket. Get trying to pull everybody back in the bucket with them. Don't feed the trolls. But I think by and large, most people are decent and that they're rooting for you to succeed. They're not waiting for you to put your foot in it so that they can make fun of you. Okay. Maybe my best friend is probably gonna wait until I put my foot in it and make fun of me, but we're gonna laugh at each other. That's fine. Yeah. Um, but like this pendulum swings both ways. If, if you put it out there, it could either be like, this didn't go anywhere. Like I hoped and it sucked and I wanna crawl into a hole that was embarrassing and it could go with like, that is the funniest fucking thing I have ever said in my life. And people were rolling and they came up after it's like, when you're, when you're going down your anxiety spiral, make sure to swing that pendulum both ways. What if I fail? What if I win in the biggest way possible? Oh, so great. So

Amy Collins (28:31):

Yeah, exactly. And if you take kind of an existential stance on it, or actually maybe it's a little bit Buddhist, like there is no meaning, right? None of it means anything. And I don't mean it in a nihilistic, like curl up in a fetal position, but in like a, you, we have the freedom to make all the choices we want and take creative risks because whether I fail or succeed, it doesn't mean anything unless I choose to apply meaning to it. Right.

Angie Colee (28:59):

Oh, That's super zen.

Amy Collins (29:05):

Oh, my pendulum swings from like hilarity and, and I don't tell a lot of dick jokes, to be honest with you more like dildoh jokes. Cause.

Angie Colee (29:14):

Yeah.

Amy Collins (29:15):

That's like more the, you know, where I run, but it swings from there all the way back to like, I'm so deep. I'm like one of those weird sea worms that lives on the bottom of the ocean that no one ever sees. Uh, so you know, you get it all. And sometimes within a thirty second period.

Angie Colee (29:34):

Like we just like, we just did in action. Um, we contain multitudes, my friend it's okay.

Amy Collins (29:41):

We do.

Angie Colee (29:42):

And I, you know, I really wanted to highlight something that you said too about the importance of putting it out there because it could be the most brilliant thing in the world. But until you subject it to scrutiny from outside your own head, you really don't know because your own perspective on what you're doing at as evidence by this entire conversation right now is a little bit skewed. It's a little bit warped. Like you're either too hard on yourself or you're not really approaching it. Like there there's there's perspective in putting yourself out there. And it could be perspective that, you know, this thing isn't gonna work the way that I hoped it could be perspective like you're on to something. This is gonna be amazing. But like the same thing happened to me with planning this event, cuz it started from a, a frustration and a pain point that I have, which was, I love marketing events. I love business building events and they're too much for me. I can't be in a room for three days straight having people, people talk at me just absorbing information, not really having a chance to get up and move or journal or like assimilate or try this. And then by the end of it, I'm so fried from so much peopling and so much learning that when I get home and I'm by myself, like, all right, what the fuck do I do now? That was where do I even start? Uh, I got like three days of notes to unpack. And I, I am probably just gonna put this into a, a hole and promptly, forget about it. Um, and just call the people that I had a beer with and remind them that I'd like to have beer with them again soon.

Amy Collins (31:16):

Yeah. Yeah. I think that's real.

Angie Colee (31:19):

So I started telling people like I wanna design an event where it's like, we do something ridiculous. Get out of our own heads and this idea that you have to come to a business conference and be professional and like network like, no, this is why I start with bulldozers. Like lower the resistance, be a little bit ridiculous, laugh at yourself. Then we generate ideas. Then we create a plan. Then you start working on the plan and you go home. And I told them, I was like, and in between I was like minimum two hour lunch, break, time, fidget toys.

Amy Collins (31:53):

Nap time.

Angie Colee (31:54):

Yeah. Nap time. I'm gonna, I'm definitely gonna have like a variety, like a buffet of fidget toys for those of us that are like, I can't sit still and listen to you. And if I don't do something with my hands, I'm gonna be on my phone. Not listening to you at all.

Amy Collins (32:07):

Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually like I'm playing with, can you see these like little magnetic beads? I don't even think of myself as a fidgeter, but I've noticed that I do this on calls. So I guess that's something.

Angie Colee (32:19):

Oh yeah. I've had friends actually. Even my master's degree program gave me a bunch of grief because they would usually see me playing solitaire on my computer. And one day they saw like my

Amy Collins (32:29):

Rivoting conversation.

Angie Colee (32:31):

Yeah. Like the big glass window was to my back. So they could literally pass by and see me playing solitaire. And one day I got called into the Dean's office and he was like, so it doesn't really look good on the school if like we bring somebody by for a, you know, see what's what's up here and they see you playing solitaire. And I said, did you ask the class whose notes they borrow to study for tests? That would be mine. I'm playing solitaire so that I can actually focus and pay attention. If you need me to not have my back to the window where people can see me playing solitaire, I will happily oblige you. But no, I'm not gonna stop playing solitaire cause good focus. Um, but if like you talked, you mentioned it earlier that this is just now starting to become a thing that we're okay. Talking about that brains work in different ways that.

Amy Collins (33:13):

Yeah, I think so. And I don't think I qualify as like neurodiverse at all. I've never been diagnosed with anything. Um, I just think it's hard to listen. Like I think it's hard for all of us to listen. And I notice when I spend too much time scrolling through Instagram, it's worse. It's harder for me then to sit down and read a book. Like we are training ourselves to incapable of paying attention. Um, it blows my mind. I met a comedian not too long ago. Who's who's on the up and up. Right. He's starting to get big. Um, I don't even remember where I met him. I think we were at a show or an open mic maybe. And he was about to film a half hour special. And he made a point of telling me that he's doing half hour specials because younger generations cannot sit through an entire hour long, special. And I just thought that is fucking insane that we are changing the medium to meet an audience that we think can't pay attention that breaks my heart. Right.

Angie Colee (34:23):

I was gonna say.

Amy Collins (34:23):

The hour long, special is the standard. Like that's the gold standard once you've hit an hour. Um, so I, I just think that's fascinating

Angie Colee (34:33):

If, if anything like Bo Burnham proved that you with, I don't know if you watched inside. I thought it was hilarious and also kind of microcosm of my brain thinks very similar to his, I was like, yes, these are all the feelings that I'm having about being stuck inside too. But like they were all like skits that just randomly jumped from one to another within the hour. And I was like, yeah, this, this is great. This is entertaining. I'm paying attention for more than an hour. Woohoo. Who knew.

Amy Collins (34:57):

Yeah. Yeah.

Angie Colee (35:00):

Oh, this is fantastic. So, um, yeah. So how you had the breakdowns to get you to where you're at. Tell us a little bit more about where you're at and where you're going.

Amy Collins (35:12):

Great. Um, whew. Where am I going?

Angie Colee (35:17):

I put you on the spot.

Amy Collins (35:17):

I wish someone would tell me that. Are aren't you pulling, pulling tarot on this, on this podcast for me?

Angie Colee (35:24):

That's my best friend. That's my best friend. They do that.

Amy Collins (35:26):

Yeah. Okay. Um, I am at a place where I am, nicheing down to do the thing that I really, really love to do and building in that direction. I am also, like I mentioned, starting to build products, um, and creating a way for me to share what I've figured out in terms of writings specifically that may branch out to other things. I don't know. Um, you know, I, can I get a little bit woo?

Angie Colee (36:04):

Yes. Absolutely

Amy Collins (36:06):

Are you familiar with human design?

Angie Colee (36:08):

I've heard about it. Like I went to one conference where the, um, the leader of the conference was very big on human design and had us take the te I think I'm a, can I remember this? I'm like a manifesting generator, I wanna say.

Amy Collins (36:23):

Okay. Yeah. That's one of the things there's like five things you can be. Um, so part of the lure of human design, if you wanna dip in and it is a crazy rabbit hole, it, it goes all the way to China. That's how deep that rabbit hole is. Um, but this idea of living the way you are built, that you are supposed to come into the world instead of living the way that we've all been conditioned to, uh, I've been really leaning into that. So my type, my energy type is projector. I I'm a six, two mental projector, so I'm like 2% of the population.

Angie Colee (37:04):

Wow.

Amy Collins (37:04):

So pretty fucking rare, which is like, that's why I always feel weird. You know? Like I'm just not really like the others, but I don't know. Uh, but anyway, it's, you know, talks about, uh, be being leader and being invited to share knowledge. Right. So I'm kind of dabbling in that and being open to that. Like I think, you know, people asking me to show them how to do what I do. That's an invitation, right? So leaning into it, like, okay, let me see if I can figure how to show you. Um, at best I think I can probably offer you a different way to think. Um, yeah. So that's kind of where I think I'm going, I don't know, you know, what that looks like. I don't do five year plans. I don't do one year plans. I mean, I am planning to finish laundry today. Like that is a plan that I expect to be executed, but I try to keep the bar low. You know, I set expectations low.

Angie Colee (38:11):

That's a valid way to do business. And if that's the way that you do business, like for you listening, if you're like, I can't, I can't five year fucking plan. What, like, there are a lot of us, there are a lot more of us than you might think that are on that side of, of the field or the fence or whatever. Like, I don't have a five year plan. I don't know what's gonna happen with this fucking bulldozer event that I've got going on. I hope it goes well, like you were saying with like, I, I hope the course goes well, I will see what happens once I put it out there, but yep. I have no plan. And to circle back to something that you said about being weird, I'm learning that weird is wonderful because look at all the people that we admire in our society, uh, and all of historical figures out there that made a difference and get taught in curriculum and, and whatnot. There were usually some kind of weird and people made fun of 'em and were like, ah, you're so different. And I don't like it Einstein with your crazy hair. And you can't, you have a learning disability can't function like the rest of us. But no, we were just wonderful sometimes.

Amy Collins (39:13):

Yeah, yeah.

Angie Colee (39:16):

Actually a lot of time.

Amy Collins (39:17):

I think that's really true. The people that we end up admiring the most are the people who are most themselves.

Angie Colee (39:25):

Absolutely true. Oh, this is fantastic. I have like so many notes, but we're getting close to time. So I wanna give you time, tell us how to find you and how to learn more about your business.

Amy Collins (39:37):

Yeah. So my website is the realamycollins.com.

Angie Colee (39:42):

Awesome.

Amy Collins (39:44):

Yeah. And you can sign up for my newsletter there, Rude but Charming. It is free. And you could also find me on Instagram at the real underscore Amy Collins. Uh, I post a lot of stuff there, a lot more comedy, as well as marketing and insights and just, I don't know, whatever that may be different by the time this drops. And maybe I may be posting, uh, I don't know. Hexagrams I, who knows? I don't know where that came from. Uh, yeah, that's a all you can find me. I'm also in the usual places, LinkedIn Facebook.

Angie Colee (40:21):

Awesome. Fantastic. I'm gonna make sure that they have clickable links in the show notes and thank you so much for being on the show. I think I really needed that laugh today.

Amy Collins (40:30):

Oh, good. I'm so glad. Yeah, this was really fun. I knew it would be fun. So I'm glad, uh, you said yes and invited me on

Angie Colee (40:39):

Invitations. I love it.

Amy Collins (40:41):

Invitations.

Angie Colee (40:46):

So that is it. Another awesome episode of Permission to Kick Ass on the books. If you want to know more about the show or if you want to know more about me, Angie Colee and the mission I'm on to help entrepreneurs punch fear in the face and do big bold things, then head on over to permissiontokickass.com. That is all one word together, permissiontokickass.com. Make sure to sign up for my email list so that you know whenever there's a hot, fresh and ready podcast episode out for you. And also on Mondays, I like to send out a little newsletter called Kick Monday's Ass. I'm sure you're totally, totally surprised by that. So thank you for being here with me today. I'm Angie Colee. Make sure that you share this with a friend that needs to hear this message today. Like it, share it. Comment wherever you're listening to this today and let's go kick some ass.