The Entrepreneur’s Mindset Makeover: Ditching Limiting Habits for Growth

The Entrepreneur’s Mindset Makeover: Ditching Limiting Habits for Growth

As coaches and entrepreneurs, we are no strangers to the power of mindset. We preach about it, we teach it to our clients, and yet—let’s be honest—we sometimes get caught in our own thought patterns that hold us back from reaching our next level of success. That’s why I was so excited to have Amy Kemp, a Thought Habits & Money Mindset Coach, on my show recently. She brought the exact wisdom we needed to hear.

Amy has been in the coaching space for eight years, but her journey started long before that. She led a sales organization of over 1,000 people before transitioning to a career helping entrepreneurs rewire their subconscious thought patterns. And let me tell you—her insights are gold.

The Fantasy Trap: Why Big Dreams Aren’t Enough

One of the biggest mindset traps Amy talked about was what she calls fantastical thinking. If you’re a coach or entrepreneur, chances are you can vividly imagine your future success. You see yourself speaking on big stages, running a thriving coaching business, making an impact. Your vision is crystal clear—so clear, in fact, that it feels real.

But here’s the problem: Too many people get stuck in the fantasy of success without taking the tiny, necessary steps to actually create it. Amy called these millimeter steps—the small, intentional actions that move you forward consistently.

Coaching is more than just being a great coach. There’s also the business of coaching. The work of getting clients, showing up daily, and refining your approach is just as important as the work you do inside your sessions. Amy has seen so many brilliant coaches get caught up in the dream but fail to do the work that actually gets them there.

The Arrival Myth: Why You’re Never “Done”

Another common mindset block? Arrival thinking. We tend to believe that once we hit a certain milestone—our first six-figure year, our first 10 clients, our first online program launch—we’ll have arrived. But business doesn’t work like that. Success isn’t a destination; it’s a process.

Amy and I talked about how once you master client acquisition, for example, you don’t just “graduate” from it. You now have to sustain and scale it. The market shifts, people’s needs evolve, and you always have to be adjusting your approach. Instead of looking for the moment where you can stop working, embrace the fact that growth requires ongoing effort.

Rewriting the Story You Tell Yourself

One of my favorite takeaways from Amy was about the stories we tell ourselves. She shared a personal example of how she reached out to a prospective client, had a great conversation, and sent a follow-up email. When she didn’t hear back right away, her mind immediately started filling in the blanks: Maybe I was too pushy. Maybe I misread the situation. Maybe they don’t want to work with me after all.

We’ve ALL done this, right?

We assume the worst, and it directly impacts how we show up moving forward. If Amy had let those thoughts spiral, she might have hesitated in her follow-up, carried insecurity into her next sales call, or even avoided reaching out to new clients. But instead, she told herself a different story: Maybe my email got stuck in drafts. Maybe they’re just busy. Maybe I should check in one more time. And guess what? That client ended up working with her for two years.

Here’s the lesson: If you’re going to tell yourself a story, make it a good one. Your assumptions shape your confidence, and confidence impacts your actions. Choose a narrative that serves you, not one that holds you back.

You Can’t Outwork Your Thought Habits

This is the core of Amy’s work—helping people realize that hard work alone won’t get you where you want to go. Every entrepreneur hits a point where working harder stops producing results. If your thought patterns are limiting you, no amount of hustle will fix it. You have to go inward and change the subconscious beliefs that are creating resistance in your business.

Final Thoughts: It’s Time to Take Action

So, what can we do today to break out of these patterns? Here are a few takeaways: ✔ Check your thoughts – Are you stuck in fantasy mode instead of taking real action? Identify your next small step. ✔ Ditch arrival thinking – Success is an ongoing process. Instead of looking for the finish line, embrace the growth journey. ✔ Rewrite your internal stories – Stop assuming the worst and start choosing a narrative that fuels your confidence. ✔ Do the real work – Coaching isn’t just about being great at your craft; it’s also about mastering business growth.

Amy’s insights were a powerful reminder that our thought habits shape our success more than anything else. If this resonated with you, go check out her book “I See You”, available wherever books are sold (and on Audible, narrated by Amy herself!).

And as always, if you loved this, be sure to subscribe to The Amanda Kaufman Show and leave a five-star review. Let’s keep growing together!

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Coaching and Mindset Transformation

03:07 The Journey of Becoming a Full-Time Coach

06:04 The Book Writing Experience

08:51 Challenges in Building a Coaching Business

11:37 Understanding Thought Habits and Their Impact

14:17 Overcoming Fantastical Thinking in Entrepreneurship

17:18 The Importance of Presence and Positive Storytelling

20:04 Conclusion and Resources for Further Learning

Full Transcript

Amy Kemp (00:00)

The danger is a lot of times we can just get caught up in living in that fantasy world in our minds and not come back and really start to take the millimeter steps of creation.

Amanda Kaufman (00:33)

Well, hello and welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show and we are continuing our series on the coaches that don't suck. So welcome Amy. I'm so excited that you're here. Amy is a Thought Habits Money Mindset coach and she is so eager to share with us about her book that has been published and all of those good things. Amy, welcome to the show.

Amy Kemp (00:57)

Thank you, I love the title. I'm really excited to be in this group.

Amanda Kaufman (01:02)

Yeah, right. This is a prestigious

club of the coaches that don't suck. And so for the listener, Amy, why don't you take 30 seconds and just let us know who do you work with? What do you do? What's your core expertise?

Amy Kemp (01:15)

Sure, I'm celebrating my eight year anniversary almost today, it's tomorrow, of starting Amy Kemp, Inc. And at the beginning of this work, I thought I was just going to do a little something on the side and pull together some incredible women and use the assessment tool called the Habit Finder and the curriculum that corresponds with it to guide them.

through the process of replacing habits of thinking that aren't serving them or that could be holding them back. And it quickly, more quickly than I ever could have anticipated or dreamed became my full-time work as I saw the impact this kind of...

deeper change had on people's businesses and on their lives and on their careers. So it's been a really amazing unexpected journey.

Amanda Kaufman (02:08)

You've said it's unexpected. What surprised you so much on this journey?

Amy Kemp (02:10)

Mm-hmm.

I think I didn't have, and I'm generally a pretty strategic thinker, but in this instance, I really just continued to have the same conversation with so many different women that I knew in my life. And I thought to myself, if I could get them all together, something really magical could happen. They could really use each other's energy and just to know they weren't alone in the journey. And so,

The reason it was so unexpected is that I didn't think I was really starting a business that would become my full-time work. I just thought, okay, I'll do this on the side because I see this glaring need and continue to run my other business. I just didn't believe or know. I guess I would have believed it, but I just didn't anticipate that it would grow as quickly as it did. And so I'm grateful because I feel like this work is a very stripped down,

version of work I've always done in developing people. This just kind of allows me to use the habit finder tool in curriculum and to be more intimate where I can just really work on the things I was most passionate about always as I was leading people. So yeah, fun.

Amanda Kaufman (03:24)

I love that. And

so you mentioned that you had another business. have you been a career entrepreneur? Is coaching relatively new at the eight year mark? Like what led you here?

Amy Kemp (03:29)

You

Yes. So I was, yeah.

I was leading a sales organization of about a thousand people across the United States. So I was developing, yeah. I was developing people always, you know, just teaching them more specifically in a lane of product. And, you know, I was really more specifically geared in one business.

Amanda Kaufman (03:41)

No big deal!

Amy Kemp (03:57)

This business has allowed me to work with people who own all different kinds of businesses and or who work in sales or maybe just they have a traditional job even or they work for a government entity or a nonprofit. So it has just expanded. the cool part is they're just people. You know, everyone's just people and they really.

Amanda Kaufman (04:18)

Everyone's just people. It's so true. And I really think of coaching

as being an influencing role for sure. There's a lot of overlap with sales. It's just the subject matter that we're talking about, the context, and sometimes you're selling people and believing in themselves, right? Like there's, yeah, lots of overlap there. So Amy.

Amy Kemp (04:35)

Mm-hmm. Wow.

Amanda Kaufman (04:40)

You it blew up. You even wrote a book. So tell us a little bit about that journey. Like how did the book come about?

Amy Kemp (04:44)

Ugh.

Yeah.

Well, I've been writing the book for 25 years. That's what I always tell people. I mean, not really, but you know, 25 years of developing my own leadership style, voice, figuring out who I was in the context of being an entrepreneur. And so this book has been a dream of mine for a very long time.

Amanda Kaufman (04:52)

Wh-oh!

Amy Kemp (05:10)

What I really wanted to create and actually the reason I chose the publisher that I did is because when she read it, she said to me, the owner of the publishing company said, I feel like this is a coaching experience in a book. Like when I have read what you've written, I felt like I stepped into a coaching engagement with you and got to experience what that would feel like. And I thought of it sort of like for people who aren't familiar,

Amanda Kaufman (05:25)

I love that.

Amy Kemp (05:37)

with work like this. They've never done it. Or maybe it just feels like that's a lot of money to invest in myself. Or maybe I'm not sure what kind of coach I want to work with or how to do that. This was a way for me to kind of create a foyer to my house that I was building where people could just step into the foyer and sort of look around and see if this was the kind of place where they wanted to stay. Or, you know, if this felt like a good fit for them. And so

Amanda Kaufman (05:58)

Yeah.

Love it.

Amy Kemp (06:05)

The tool, while it stands alone and provides a lot of value to my reader, it really also, I wanted to give people a taste that was safe where they could kind of experience the work I do without it being the deep dive right away.

Amanda Kaufman (06:19)

Yeah, love that. That's like super opposite to what I did. I'm in a, well, and I love that, I love this, cause that's one of the reasons I do this show, right? And this is one of the reasons why I love interviewing other entrepreneurs. I'm also eight years in and I did it like super opposite land. Like I just, went just all very premium, very private, small group of clients. And I have yet to write the book.

Amy Kemp (06:27)

Mm-hmm.

you

Amanda Kaufman (06:46)

and I kind of worked my way down, down the ladder, I guess you could say. But the book is such a useful tool, just exactly the way you laid it out. I'm not even gonna repeat it because it was just so good. And I think it was like literally one of the biggest challenges that I had building my business was that it would go from like, hey, I kind of like you, Amanda, I think you could help me to like, yeah, and here's a really big commitment that you've got to make next.

Amy Kemp (06:46)

Mmm.

Amanda Kaufman (07:10)

Right. And so now at this stage of my business, I'm offering other ways for people to be able to, you know, sample the goods, so to speak. And a vast majority never escalate. But yeah, I'm so curious. In your eight years, what has been the biggest challenge, would you say, in building a business? For you personally.

Amy Kemp (07:11)

Yes.

Yeah, well, I was going through a pretty significant professional transition, meaning I was leaving one space where I was

Amanda Kaufman (07:36)

Yeah.

Amy Kemp (07:39)

I mean, for lack of a better way to say it, famous. I don't know how to, you know, not famous, but like in a very tiny little world, very respected, totally.

Amanda Kaufman (07:48)

Right, but you had your status that you had achieved because,

I mean, like, no one gets promoted to leading a team of a thousand people on accident. Like, that's, that was hard work that got recognized in a community.

Amy Kemp (07:58)

It was significant.

Yes. And also I knew that most that people wouldn't be happy that I was leaving that space. and they would have their own experiences with my choices in that way. And that was difficult because I had deeply invested in a lot of people and really care about them. Thankfully. and maybe it's a Testament to building that business through really solid, strong relationships that

those relationships with particularly my key leaders are very strong to this day. But that was, that was a difficult internal transition. Also in terms of identity, I was stepping into a world I knew nothing about. still, people will use catchphrases around this work. like, I don't know what that means, but what I do know is the people I serve. I know.

Amanda Kaufman (08:32)

That's awesome.

There you go.

Amy Kemp (08:53)

And even in the process of writing the book, would be times I'd get a little spooked about the concept of writing a book. But if I focused in and thought about my ideal reader, the person I was writing the book for, I'm very clear. And I know who she is.

Amanda Kaufman (09:10)

That's like,

dear listener, that's the secret, right? Like if you did have to leave the episode, which you should not, but if you did have to leave right now with that golden nugget, like if you ever find yourself completely in your head about your marketing, your sales, your systems, your tech, your finances, all of these things, make it about them, right? Like really think about them. And I think what you're saying too about that.

Amy Kemp (09:13)

Mmm.

Ugh.

Amanda Kaufman (09:34)

Sort of pressure to people please. I feel like that's a very common experience for both female entrepreneurs and also coaches just in general, because I mean, we're in a people service business, you know? Again, that's not entirely accidental. So one of the little phrases I try to remind myself is I love to see people pleased. I'm not a people pleaser, because it gets very, very painful if it is like I'm...

living for everyone else's opinion, you you can't, you can't and make a great transition into the next thing. And even once you make that transition into the next thing, if you're worried about pleasing the people who were with you on like super ground zero, now you're leveling up to that next level as a business owner. And you're like, I don't want to change anything, but you must if you're going to level up to that next place, that people pleasing energy is a

Amy Kemp (10:25)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (10:27)

definitely something that holds a lot of us back. So thanks for sharing that. So Amy, tell us a little bit about the book itself. So what's it, who is it really perfect for and what's talk about?

Amy Kemp (10:30)

Yeah, of course.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

It's my favorite question is not really even what did I write it about, but who is it for? And it is written for women who want more impact, influence and income without more work. However, I will say this is so funny. I was playing pickleball this morning and one of the guys I played pickleball with who's just a riot. He's one of my favorite people to play with. He comes bounding in the gym. He said,

Amanda Kaufman (10:44)

Mm-hmm.

Amy Kemp (11:08)

Well, I read your book and I don't know why you said it's for women because I thought it was really beneficial. Like it was the funniest. I was so shocked. I said, first of all, what, what? Like it was so, you know, but he said, well, my girlfriend was next to me on the plane. I look over, there's your face. And I thought, I'm going to read that. I play pickleball with her all the time. Anyhow, we had this really great conversation. So while I do the messaging in the book and the people I serve are mostly women, I will say,

I've gotten really great feedback from men who have taken a dive into the world as well. The core message of the book is that you can't outwork your thought habits. So...

Amanda Kaufman (11:48)

You can't outwork your thought habits. Say more about that.

Amy Kemp (11:50)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So the work I do is around subconscious habits of thinking and the habit finder assessment kind of gives me a picture of what's going on beneath the surface of the brain.

Every entrepreneur I know reaches a point in the growth of their business where there are no more hours. There's not more energy that they can give to the business and yet they want to take the business to a new place. And there comes a point where just working harder actually can have a diminishing return or can be detrimental.

or even can cause you, I mean, I've seen a lot of people get actually physically sick because they just keep trying to work harder to solve every problem. But there does come a point where we've got to stop and really address the subconscious habits of thinking that are creating outcomes in our lives and businesses that are holding us back, frankly, or that are causing a lot of pain or

that are really just sort of hiccups, sort of like if you had a bump in your tire and then every time you hit it, it kind of bumps you and jars you. And so there comes a point where the growth has to come from the internal, I always say like personal growth precedes professional growth, but where a leader or an owner or an entrepreneur in order to go to the next level, absolutely must address some of those habits of thinking.

and really do some work there.

Amanda Kaufman (13:21)

Yeah.

I love that. So, you our audience is very typically coaches, like I said, kind of people, people-minded people. What would you say are some of the top thought pattern habits that you see holding, for example, a coach back from their next level of success, whether it's getting their next five clients or it's, you know, finally offloading some things to systems or to a team? Like, what do you see getting in way the most?

Amy Kemp (13:28)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Okay. One that I love to talk about is that a lot of entrepreneurs are fantastical thinkers where their brains can very vividly see what it is that they want to create in the future. They can imagine it with such clarity that if we hooked their bodies up to monitors, it would be as if they were experiencing the thing they are visualizing. So you may be visualizing a revenue outcome or

the growth or the launch of a new product or service or a new location or and you are your brain can really go and see the thing that isn't there. The danger is a lot of times we can just get caught up in living in that fantasy world in our minds and not come back and really start to take the millimeter steps of creation.

I see this with

coaches a lot other coaches that use the tool I do for example, a lot of them are probably better coaches than I am but they don't take the millimeter steps that create the clients and they get caught up in like, I'm going to make all of this money doing this thing and serving people and they probably really do have natural genius in the area of coaching but there's the business of coaching but there's also the

There's the work of coaching, but there's also the work of acquiring new clients. And we can get caught up in the fantasy world and then not do that tiny work. Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (15:22)

I'm going to yes and that right? Yes,

it's the client acquisition. And another thing I see is once people master client acquisition, they're like, okay, I'm done. it's like, wait, hang on a second. You're now managing new capital. You've got to be able to sustain and scale this thing. And hey, the market's always changing. there's, you you never get away from the I think I think one of the delusions that I see the most is like this arrival thinking.

Amy Kemp (15:37)

you

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (15:50)

And

it is like you're living in that future place and you're like, yes, you know, I just believe. And it's like, that's important to believe it, right? Because if you don't believe it, you're gonna half ass it and you're not gonna get any good results. But believing it and experiencing it in your mind is different than necessarily, like you said, taking the step-by-step, day-by-day of the work, shall we say, of being a coach.

Amy Kemp (15:58)

Yes.

Yeah, it's sort of like

someone saying, you know, well, maybe it's sort of like going on a diet, right? Like I go on a diet, I think, okay, well, I get to my goal weight, now I'm done. But like, you're not really done. Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (16:24)

Yeah, exactly. That natural tendency to pull back from effort. And, you

know, I saw a documentary, well, it like kind of a documentary. It's called Stuts on Netflix and I loved it. And it was a psychiatrist. And I believe it was Jonah Hill's psychiatrist is the whole thing. So anyway, totally worth a watch if you're a coachy type. But one of the things he said in there that just rocked me is that

there's three certainties in life and these are the same three things that we are basically wired to avoid and that is pain uncertainty and effort work, right and I was like dang dude, know, you pretty much Summed it up right there that we were trying to avoid say the pain of rejection or we're trying to avoid like the effort required for follow-up or you know or we want to have that certainty that like okay, but

But if I do this master class, I'm definitely gonna make $25,000, right? You know.

Amy Kemp (17:22)

Yes, yes.

The other way this particular habit of thinking can go is to catastrophe. So I tell the story in my book, I had a call with a prospective client and it went really well. It just really felt like we connected and I sent a follow-up email right away, but then I got busy and I didn't hear back and it was maybe three days later.

So I think I reached out again, but then didn't hear back, you know, and at that point I start to tell a story of maybe I misread the situation. Maybe he, maybe I was being salesy. Maybe, you know, I'm, kind of filling in blanks that are left by this lack of response. So finally I get an email back and it says,

Here's the email that has been stuck in my drafts folder for the last week. And here's the moral of the story is, first, if you're going to tell yourself a story, you might as well tell yourself a good one because I could tell myself I was pushy. He thought I was weird. I misread the situation, which causes me to show up for every following conversation with less confidence and less

presence and less fullness of self, right? Or I could say maybe it got stuck in his drafts and I just haven't heard back from him because of that. Right? Either could be true. And it turns out that the story that, you know, we ended up working together for two years, but I, I think a lot of times our brains can fill in with catastrophe.

Amanda Kaufman (18:52)

Yeah, yeah.

Amy Kemp (19:07)

and whether that even is true or not. And we spend all this time in these made up scenarios of things, bad things that could happen. And our brains are so fast to get there instead of being present in the moment and showing up fully for the thing that's right in front of you, the conversation you're having in this moment, the email you're sending right now, the marketing material you're writing today.

Amanda Kaufman (19:18)

Mm-hmm.

Amy Kemp (19:32)

You know, just being fully in the moment of the work you're doing.

Amanda Kaufman (19:37)

So good, so good. Amy, what is the best way for people to follow you?

Amy Kemp (19:41)

Yeah, I love Instagram. So Amy Kemp, Inc is my Instagram handle. That's a fun, fast, easy way to find me and just sort of follow along with things I'm learning as I'm sharing them as I'm going. so that's the easiest way. I also would invite you into my foyer of my book. it is titled, I see you and you can purchase it anywhere you get books. So Amazon bookshop.org.

Barnes and Noble, and then the Audible is my voice. So I did read it. So if you are a listener of books, I've had a ton of great feedback about listening to this particular book. There's a lot of story and a lot of, it's a conversational book. So it does work well on Audible.

Amanda Kaufman (20:20)

That's amazing, that's so good. And hey, listener, don't forget to hit that subscribe button so you don't miss another episode and go ahead and leave a five star review. Amy showed up, she was bringing you the exact secret sauce. I loved it, really good episode. But that review, really, it helps people choose to listen to this podcast and we always appreciate you taking the 30 seconds to do that.

And also, if you've got some friends that are working on their confidence, they're building their next phase of their business, this is a nice, short, punchy episode to share with them. So go ahead and share this with three of your friends. We'll see you on another episode, and take care for now.