The Goal Digger Podcast, Amy Porterfield, and a Season of Strategic Change
Two announcements that sparked a bigger conversation.
I’m sure most of you caught wind of Jenna Kutcher stepping away from her podcast. For years, she’s been an industry icon. Someone we’ve probably all learned from as we built our businesses. I remember listening to Goal Digger episodes during my lunch breaks when I was still working a 9–5 back in 2019. Jenna had a profound impact on my early years of building BrandWell and directly influenced my decision to start The Branding Business School Podcast.
If that were the only announcement, I probably would’ve thought, good for Jenna! A well-earned pivot. Our kids are similar in age, and I know firsthand how much energy it takes to run a meaningful business while raising a young family. Maybe she was tired of doing both. But then I saw Amy’s announcement…
ICYMI, Amy Porterfield is also stepping away from something…her flagship course, Digital Course Academy. Wait, what?? You’re telling me that the course that generated more than $120 MILLION in revenue is being put on a shelf? Not tweaked and relaunched…but canned.
These are smart, strategic women. Category leaders. So yes, they have my attention when they both walk away from their signature offers…at the same time.
Both Jenna and Amy positioned their exits in a similar manner, which isn’t really surprising considering they’re best friends. I’m sure they’ve been voice texting back and forth about these announcements for months. After watching Amy’s YouTube announcement and listening to Jenna’s farewell podcast, here’s a quick summary of what they had to say about it:
Both framed their departures as intentional, not reactive
Both suggested they were choosing what no longer fits, even if it still performs
Both referenced evolution and honoring seasons, without explicitly making it about motherhood or a stage of life
Both announcements were calm, not dramatic or click-baity (if that’s a word🤔)
Here’s my two cents…
What we’re watching isn’t burnout or failure…it’s adaptation. The online business landscape is shifting. And if you think Amy and Jenna’s announcements were just a coincidence, then I’d encourage you to talk with your friends who own online businesses.
That’s what I’ve been doing lately, and the theme is consistent. Founders are stepping back and asking honest questions about why the things that once worked so easily now require so much more energy.
Why is this happening now?
I won’t pretend to have all the answers, but I do have my perspective, shaped by my own online business and the hundreds of clients I’ve worked alongside. AI is here, and while it’s not replacing most service providers or educators outright, it is fundamentally changing how buyers make decisions. Information is no longer hard to come by. Frameworks are no longer novel. “How-to” content is everywhere, and it’s endlessly summarized and increasingly automated.
Which means buyers are no longer asking, “Can you teach me this?” They’re asking, “Why you?” They want to know if what you have is aligned with where they are headed. They want to trust your perspective.
The part I fear a lot of women are missing…
In a shifting market, the instinct is to tweak the offer. Add in more deliverables. Repackage the experience. Layer in more “value”. But Amy and Jenna are proof that endless offer refinement won’t help you in a new market if your brand isn’t positioned for how people are choosing now. The point of this conversation isn’t that Amy and Jenna are walking away from their flagship offers, and it’s certainly not meant to scare you. What matters is that they can walk away. That level of flexibility only exists when you’ve built a brand, not just a business. Both Jenna and Amy have created so much trust, credibility, and perceived value that removing a signature offer doesn’t remove their relevance or their success.
Jenna and Amy’s audience was never tied to a product. It’s tied to them.
And I think that’s the real invitation here. If you removed one of your signature offers tomorrow, what would be left? Would there still be demand, trust, and clarity? Or has your growth been dependent on constant offer refinement instead of brand-building? Because refining offers can drive short-term results. But building a brand answers the deeper question: why you. When the market changes, clarity matters more than cleverness. Positioning matters more than volume. Trust matters more than tactics.
The founders who will continue to thrive aren’t the ones who keep tweaking their offer, they’re the ones realigning their brand to reflect:
• who they serve now
• how their audience decides now
• and what truly differentiates them now
That’s why we’re seeing leaders simplify, step back, and make intentional shifts. Amy and Jenna didn’t step away because something was broken. They stepped away because they’ve built brands strong enough to evolve without losing momentum.
A strong brand gives you options.
You don’t have to abandon what you’ve built, but you do need to zoom out and assess whether your brand is pulling its weight, or if you’ve been compensating with more content, more offers, and more effort than necessary.
At BrandWell, this is the work we do day in and day out: helping women rebrand with intention so their visual identity, messaging, and positioning align with who they serve now and how their audience decides now. Because when your brand is clear, you don’t need to convince, you attract. And when the market shifts, you survive, because the value was never tied to a single offer anyway.
So while I’ll miss tuning into the Goal Digger podcast and sending clients to DCA, I’m grateful for the lesson Jenna and Amy are living out for us in real time. And as a podcaster who’s not leaving the podcasting space anytime soon, I will happily take Jenna’s baton and continue showing up to have thoughtful conversations that educate, encourage, and inspire the next generation of female founders. Tune into The Branding Business School Podcast on Apple or Spotify.
XOXO,
Victoria
