Good morning, @KEdwards8 ...
Even though when you export a course from Canvas, you do get a message stating that you'll receive an e-mail with a link, you don't really need to use that e-mail to download the export. I just confirmed this in my own sandbox course in the Canvas FFT (Free For Teachers) environment. I am assuming that you are using this Guide as you work your way through the course export process:
After you have exported your course, you can click on your "Home" button and then go back to your course "Settings" screen (just to make sure that things "refresh"). On the "Settings" screen, click on the "Export Course Content" button on the right side of your screen. Under the "Content Exports" heading, you should see some kind of link that says something similar to "Course Export from x minutes ago." (Or, it could say "days ago".) There may be multiple links here...depending on how many times you had opted to export the course. Click on one of the links to download the *.imscc file to your computer.
Now that you've downloaded the file to your computer, you can log in to your school's paid Canvas environment. Navigate to your course (which I'm assuming doesn't have any content in it yet). Then, use this Guide to import the course export that you had downloaded from the FFT Canvas environment.
I hope this will help to clear up any confusion. Keep us posted on your progress. Take care, and be well.