Ep #91: Commitment: The Secret to Changing Your Results

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast with Amanda Karlstad episode number 91.

Welcome to The Life Coach Business Podcast, a show for coaches who are ready to up-level their business and take their impact, leadership, and results to a whole new level. If you’re ready to start taking powerful action and become the leader your business needs in order to grow and thrive, this show is for you. I’m your host, Amanda Karlstad, certified life and business coach, and entrepreneurial leadership expert.  Now, let’s get down to business.

Hello and welcome everyone. I’m so glad you’re here today. I hope you’ve all had an amazing week. We are about to head into the fourth of July weekend here as I’m recording this. It has been an awesome week. It has been beautiful weather. We are looking forward to some downtime with the kids, spending some time outdoors in the pool, some time at the lake. It’s going to be an overall great fourth. So for those of you in the U.S. when this episode drops, I hope you’ve had a great fourth of July.

All right. So today I want to talk to you all about something that I think has the potential to help you take your business and take yourself to the next level. So what I want to talk to you about today is your capacity to change anything. You might be thinking, “Wait a second. That seems like a big promise.” But bear with me. I want to talk to you about your capacity to change any result in your life, any result in your business as long as you’re committed.

So as I was thinking about today’s show and I was thinking about my clients who, by the way, are doing amazing things in their businesses, I really started to think about how I’ve observed their capacity. Their capacity, and how that has grown as I’ve been working with them, you know, however long that is. That capacity to really step into that next level and to then lead your business into that next level.

The truth is is that we all have that capacity. We all have the capacity to change things whether that’s in our life or whether that’s in our business. We have the ability to do that very quickly, but there’s a caveat to this. That caveat is we have to decide to do that. We have to commit to doing that.

Now, some of you may be familiar with the story, and it was actually in the book for those of you that have read Think and Grow Rich. It’s a classic book. It’s an excellent book. One of the greats, in my opinion, by Napoleon Hill. He talked about the idea that, “Every person who wins in any undertaking must be willing to burn his ships and cut all sources of retreat. Only by doing so can one be sure to maintain that state of mind known as a burning desire to win essential to success.” So I just took that from the book.

So what he was talking about here was essentially committing yourself to a point where there’s no source of retreat. Okay? So it’s essentially cutting off any option of being able to retreat. Now in this case, in the context of this, that really was the difference between life or death. That’s, for the record, not what I’m talking about here in this podcast, but I do think that there’s a great lesson here. I think this is a great example of what it means to truly commit to something.

So for all of you, I know that you’re listening to this show. You tune into the show weekly because you’re growing and you’re scaling your coaching business. By the way, for any new listeners welcome. So glad to have you here.

So this concept of committing to a point where it’s no longer an option for retreat I believe is really profound. I will share with all of you that I can remember a very distinct moment in my own journey of stepping into my own business. And this is after years of climbing the ladder and getting to a point whereby most traditional standards I had “made it”. Right? Where I was in an executive role. I was responsible for a very large team. I was responsible for a very large budget. I was responsible for driving entire revenues for an entire organization.

So when I decided to start my coaching practice, when I made the decision to leave that career and move into coaching, I remember that there was a day in that process where my business wasn’t at the point that it is today. Where I was just starting out, but I made a very clear decision that day. The decision that I made that day was a defining moment for me. It was a defining moment for my business. That decision was that I would never go back to an office. That I would never go back to doing what I had done, even though quite honestly for many, many years I had loved my work. It was really my line in the sand moment.

So when I look back at that time and look back at that moment, that defining moment, that line in the sand moment where I said and committed to myself, I committed to my business that I would not go back. It allowed me to create so much space to move forward in my life. It allowed me to move forward with so much more conviction and clarity in my business. It allowed me to focus on such a greater level of building my business.

The reason I share this with you is because I know so many of you right now might be in a similar position where you might be in a corporate job, where you might be in a professional career that you’ve worked your entire life to get to. Some of you might have already transitioned into your business, maybe after leaving your career for whatever reason. Maybe you’re in that growth phase. You’re working maybe towards that first 100K, and it’s difficult. Some of you might be farther along, but maybe you’re not quite yet where you want to be in your business.

I also know what it’s like to let go of a career, let go of a profession, let go of something that you’ve worked for years to build. You’ve worked for years to get to a certain level, and you’re really walking away from that. So no matter where you are, I think it can be very easy when you’re in a place when things aren’t going as planned in your business. When things aren’t maybe happening as quickly as you might have expected. When maybe you don’t experience the level of success that you had been hoping for right out of the gate.

What I observe happen, and this has been my own experience, is that it’s very easy to start to entertain the idea of going back to what you’ve always done, right? Going back to or maybe not fully leaving, not fully letting go of your current position and going all in on your business. It creates this space of in betweenness.

I want to be clear that I’m not saying that you should all just leave your job, you should leave your career today. That’s not what I’m recommending here. I think the timing and how that looks and how it’s looked for me, how it’s looked for my clients is very personal. So, for me, I made the decision to go all in on my business right away, but I also was in a situation where I had the space to do that. I know not everybody does.

I’ve had clients that have come to me that have decided to go all in on their business right away. I’ve had clients who’ve been in their business full time for a number of years before working together. I’ve had a lot of clients who have come to me that I’ve worked with that have been still in their corporate position or they’ve been in their professional career, and they’ve built their business to a certain level before they fully transitioned out of that career.

So what I am saying is that this is a very personal decision for all of you. I think there are some important factors that need to be weighed if you are in a position like this where you’re ultimately looking to transition out of your business. But what I want you to really be thinking about today in this conversation is the idea that no matter what those circumstances look like, when you make a committed decision and when you follow up and back yourself on that decision each and every day, you truly can and will change your results. You can and will change anything when you operate from the place that I’m talking about.

So here’s why I think this is so important for all of you. When you have experienced a level of success in your career, which for all of my clients that’s really the case. The clients that I work with have really experienced success on paper, right? For most people looking at their situation, they have, on paper, made it, right, by traditional standards.

So when you’ve experienced a level of success in your life, when you have a level of life and professional experience, it’s easy to really start questioning when things, again, aren’t going as planned. When maybe you’ve fallen into a bit of self-doubt or you find yourself in a bit of a funk or when things just aren’t quite clicking yet in your business, it becomes very easy. Our brains like to start offering all sorts of evidence to us as to why this maybe isn’t a good idea.

So when that happens, we start questioning why am I even doing this? Right. We might ask ourselves, “Do I even have what it takes? Am I even taking the right approach here? Am I even following the right strategy?” This can take the form of so many things.

So what I want to offer is that all of this is part of the process. All of this is part of the evolution of you as the leader of your business. This is part of the evolution of your overall business. It’s why when you’re on that journey, especially when you’re making your first 100K in your business, that’s why it can be so difficult.

So this is very profound because this is also the way for those of you that want to grow your business to an elite level. So for those of you that have dreams, that have goals, that want to build a seven or even eight figure business. There are major shifts that you will encounter that you must encounter both internally for you as the leader of your business and operationally in your business.

The likely biggest challenge that you will face is going to be within you. It’s going to be within your head. It’s going to be dealing with the voices in your head that are telling you that this can’t work for you. It’s dealing with the voices in your head that will tell you that you don’t have what it takes. It’s dealing with the voice in your head that someone else has already taken the market. Somebody else is already doing what you want to be doing. Why would someone ever want to buy from you?

So it’s dealing with the emotions of not wanting to do certain things in your business. It’s dealing with the emotions of frustration, disappointment, hopelessness. My friends, let me tell you this is where most coaches quit. But here’s the thing. This is the point where you must double down. This is the point where it requires you to commit at an even higher level.

The reason for that is because that is where the actual growth happens. Literally this is where your brain is actually growing. Because when you’re at a point where you are in a scenario that you haven’t dealt with before. So as you’re building your business, maybe it’s learning some of the tech things in your business, right? Maybe it’s getting some type of funnel installed in your business. Maybe it’s learning how to set up and run paid advertising in your business, right? It could be building out your website.

There are so many learning opportunities, right, that you’ve likely never dealt with before. All of these things are huge opportunities for you if you let them and allow them to be huge opportunities for you.

So I want to encourage you to approach them not from a place of resistance but from a place of growth, from a place of positive expectancy. From a place of understanding that while yeah, I understand this isn’t going to be easy, I don’t expect it to and that’s okay. It’s being able to understand the game that you’re playing. It’s not fighting the process. It’s not fighting when things get hard or don’t go as planned.

Because here’s the reality. When you put yourself in a scenario where you’re forced to learn, when you put yourself on the playing field, you will be forced to grow your skills. When you put yourself on the playing field, it will require that you become an even higher version of yourself. This is where your brain will literally grow. Your mind will become more resourceful.

This is whereby default of that process, you’re building new neural pathways where you have an opportunity to move beyond any old narratives that have kept you where you are. This is building your entrepreneurial capacity. It’s your evolution in your entrepreneurial journey, and I just think it’s a beautiful thing.

Because when we don’t put ourselves on the playing field, when we don’t commit ourselves in a way that forces us to grow beyond our current capacity, we only end up repeating that which we know. When we don’t put ourselves in an environment where we have to learn and we have to develop new skills, our brain isn’t required to solve for anything new. All it has to do is replay the past. It only has to replay what we know. If that’s all it’s doing, there’s no room to build that capacity for something new. There’s no reason for the brain to grow and to solve for any other situation from that which it knows.

Let’s not forget my friends, our brains crave repetition. Our brains crave efficiency. Our brains crave familiarity. So anytime we’re moving outside of those zones, that comfort zone, it feels challenging. So this is why it’s so vital that if you want to build your business to an elite level that you make a conscious decision to do so, and you follow up that conscious decision with full commitment every single day.

I just think a beautiful example of this is I’m thinking of one of my clients in particular that has been going through this evolution of herself. She’s been going through this evolution in her business. I’m observing her really going through this process as she’s been growing and scaling her business, and overall just taking things to the next level in a really, really big way.

So over the past couple of months, to just give you a little bit of context, we have transitioned her from a one on one model, right. So she had been working with clients one on one for quite some time, and we have now launched a brand new program. She’s now launched a leveraged model in her business. So now she’s moving into a one to many model. The beauty of this is that it’s going to give her the capacity, the ability to serve so many more clients at a time, right. Versus working with clients at a one on one basis.

So as she’s been going through this transition, I’ve been observing as she’s been going through this process of moving through extreme discomfort, right. Moving through this process of what’s always been familiar. It’s letting go of the way that she’s been working with clients, which in her case has been a very long time. So she’s really stepping into this place of the unknown.

What it’s done is it’s required her to learn so many new skills. It required her to upgrade her thinking in such a massive way. It’s required her to upgrade her skills just in everything that she’s doing, and it’s required her to upgrade how she’s showing up in her business.

I will tell you all that one of the things that I think is so impressive with her and how she has continued to show up every day is how she has actually been in this process. Who she is actually being in this process. She’s showing up from such a place of deep service to her clients. She’s showing up from such a place of conviction in her mission. She’s showing up from such a place of knowing that what she’s in the process of creating that it’s going to change so many lives.

It’s funny because we were just having a conversation the other day. She told me, “My goals of growing and creating this multimillion dollar business.” She said, “You know what Amanda? I know this is already done.”

What I want to offer to all of you is that her getting to that point would not have happened if she hadn’t committed just a few short months ago to stepping into this next version of herself, to launching this new program, to be willing to take the leap into the unknown. If she hadn’t committed to serving clients in a new capacity, if she hadn’t made the decision to stay where she was and not challenge herself and not challenge herself to lead her business to the next level.

So the result of that decision just, again, a couple of months later is that now she’s in this position where she has already grown so much. She’s already become that next level leader, and the results are following suit of that. It hasn’t been easy. It has been hard. Every week I watch as she’s learning and growing in so many different ways, but it’s also shaping her business. It’s shaping her as the leader of her business. She’s become such a stronger leader of her business than even she was just a few short months ago.

I will tell you she’s approaching it from such a place of joy, from such a place of positive expectancy. She’s having such a positive attitude about every challenge that she’s faced with because of that decision.  Because of that decision and her commitment and her conviction and the service to clients, it’s changing everything. It’s not only changing right now. It’s changing her future.

So I want to offer to all of you that you already have what you need in this moment to create the business you want to create. By nature of you having the vision you have for your business, it’s already in the process of manifesting for you. It’s already in the process of becoming a reality for you, but it’s only in the process of stepping outside of that comfort zone that that true growth begins. When you start to put yourself outside of the edge of what you know, that is when the real learning begins. That is when those new neural pathways are created. That is when you actually start the rewiring process.

So if you’re listening to this and you are not getting the breakthrough that you want in your business, if you are not getting the results that you want in your business, I have a few questions that I recommend you ask yourself. The first question is where am I not fully committing? Where am I not fully committing to my business, to myself, to my clients? Where am I not allowing myself to step into unfamiliar territory? What are the stories that I have surrounding my experience, surrounding the process that I am going through? What am I making this mean about me?

Finally, I will leave you with this. You can change any result that you want to change in your business, but it must start with a decision to change that result. It must start with a decision and a level of commitment that you demonstrate each and every day. This isn’t a matter of wanting to be successful. This is a matter of deciding to be successful, and then acting each and every day from that future result that you most want. Acting in a big way. All right my friends. Have an amazing week. I will talk to you all again very soon. Take care. Bye, bye.

Hey, if you’re ready for a real breakthrough in your business and want to grow and scale your business to at least six figures or more in annual revenue, I invite you to apply to my exclusive program The Mastermind at amandakarlstadcoaching.com/the-mastermind. I look forward to seeing you there.

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Life Coach Business Podcast. If you want to learn more about how to build, grow, and scale your business and accelerate your results visit amandakarlstadcoaching.com.