Ep #89: Entrepreneurial Maturity

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast with Amanda Karlstad episode 89.

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. Welcome to the show. I’m so happy to have you here. I have a great show for you today. I’m really excited to talk to you all. Before we dive in, I have a couple of exciting announcements for all of you. So the first announcement that I have is that I have recently launched a brand new three-part exclusive private podcast series called The Three Vital Shifts to Scaling Your Coaching Business. So this is a private and exclusive podcast series that you can only get access to by going to this link. That link is amandakarlstadcoaching.com/3vitalshiftspodcast. We’re going to have that in the show notes as well.

It’s a three-part exclusive private podcast series that I created for all coaches. So no matter where your revenue level was at, my goal with this series is to help you understand what the three vital shifts are for you in order to scale your practice. So even if you’re working towards your first six figures in revenue or if you’re working to your first multiple six figures or even if you’re working to get beyond that, this series is for you.

I’ve designed each episode to really function as a masterclass in each vital shift that’s required to take your business from where it is to where you want to go. So every episode is truly a masterclass when it comes to the three vital shifts and what is required to scale your coaching business.

So it’s content that up until now I’ve only shared with my private clients. So it’s really valuable content. When implemented, it really has the potential to change everything for you and your business. So there is so much valuable information in this series. And there’s also a companion workbook that I’ve designed to go along with the series to help you really integrate what I’m teaching you in the series and to help you really take the content that I’m delivering and turn it into actionable strategies that you can implement right away in your business.

So I invite you to go to amandakarlstadcoaching.com/3vitalshiftspodcast. Once again, we’ll link that up in the show notes. Go ahead and register there, and you’ll get immediate access to the series. You’ll also hear about a very exclusive opportunity that you’ll have by participating in the series that you don’t want to miss. So, again, that link is amandakarlstadcoaching.com/3vitalshiftspodcast. All right.

The next announcement that I have is that the mastermind program enrollment is also now open. So for those of you who might be new here, the mastermind is my signature business accelerator program that’s designed to help coaches take their business to the next level. So if you’re a coach looking to take things to the next level, I highly recommend that you apply. You can go to amandakarlstadcoaching.com/apply. We’ll also link that up in the show notes.

What I want to tell you about this program is that it really is a program that is extremely comprehensive. It’s helped so many of my clients reach their first six figures. There’s clients that have even reached multiple six figures in their business as a result of this program and the work that we do. But it’s just overall such an extremely comprehensive program that is really designed to give you everything you need to take your business to the next level. 

I’ve really designed this program with an extremely high level of support. Because of that reason, it is application only. I’ve carefully curated not only the curriculum and the content of what is in this program, but I’ve also structured the experience of this program very intentionally.

So not only are we focusing on strategy and strategy in your business and implementing a holistic growth strategy in your business, but we’re really working on helping you step into your next level and the CEO of your business. So we really work on your inner game in the program. In fact, it’s one of the things that I hear consistently from clients that have gone through this program is how much they’ve transformed personally as a result of the program. How much they’ve transformed and become the leader their business needs them to be.

So while we do have a focus on strategy, while we do have a focus on implementing a very specific and customized strategy for clients in the program, we also work on who you’re being in your business, and we up level that tremendously in the process. I’m just so proud of the work that my clients do in this program and the results that they create in their business.

We have had clients that have literally been struggling to sell $400 coaching packages in less than 12 months now making multiple six figures in their business. In fact, one client in particular just celebrated her first $75,000 month as a result of the work that we did in this program. So we have clients that have transitioned fully out of their corporate or professional jobs who never thought it would be possible. Clients hitting their first six figures. So many milestones. It really is a game changer.

So I really invite you if you know that you’re ready for a higher level of support. If you know that trying to DIY and piece things together in your business just isn’t going to work anymore. Maybe you’ve tried some courses. Maybe you’ve tried some other programs, but you just don’t have the level of results that you want yet. I want to invite you to go to amandakarlstadcoaching.com/apply and fill out your application.

There you’re going to have access to set up a call with me directly. In that call, I will put together a very clear strategy for you and your business. We’ll really talk about a game plan for you over the next six to 12 months, and what’s really possible for you. And, obviously, determine whether or not you’re a fit. So, once again, that’s amandakarlstadcoaching.com/apply. I look forward to talking with you very soon.

Okay. Let’s talk about today’s concept. So today’s concept is something that I came up with recently as I was coaching some of my private clients. After thinking about some recent trainings and some recent masterclasses that I’ve delivered in my programs that are for my private clients. It’s something that seems to come up over and over again both in coaching conversations but also just in my observation in general of clients and just coaches in general.

So the concept that I want to talk to you all about today is called entrepreneurial maturity. Now, I’m going to start this episode with just a little bit of a warning. I think this topic, I think today’s conversation may be at least somewhat triggering for some of you. Here’s why.

As humans, we love to be right. We love to argue for our limitations. We love to think about your circumstances very often as fact, but here’s the truth. Very rarely are our circumstances fact. Very rarely are the limitations that we tend to argue for worth the energy that we tend to put into them in order to justify them whether it’s to ourselves or to others. When it comes to being right, so often being right is just a matter of how we’re thinking about something. It’s not actually something that is right or wrong.

So these are just some of the ways that I have seen this surface recently for clients and, as I mentioned, as I just observe coaches in general. So it’s a concept that this concept of entrepreneurial maturity is a big concept. It’s a big concept that unfortunately I see a lot of coaches struggle with. So the reason that I believe that this is such an important concept is that in my own experience, unless you’re operating from a level of entrepreneurial maturity in your business, it’s going to be extremely difficult to create the results and the impact that you want to make in your business.

Growing a highly successful business requires a certain level of maturity. It requires a certain level of thinking, a certain level of approaching, and a certain level of how you operate within your business. By the way, I’m not talking about age here. I’m talking about a state of being. Because the truth is you can’t operate a six, multiple six, and definitely a seven figure business unless you’re operating from a level of what I call entrepreneurial maturity.

So let’s talk for a minute about what this means exactly. So one of the things that I believe is a game changer and that has a potential to change everything for you is how you make decisions and how you make decisions when it relates to your business. In fact, I believe one of the most important skills you can develop as an entrepreneur, one of the most important things that you can do in your business is to make decisions that are congruent with the level of results that you want to achieve.

So this means that if you want to grow let’s say a seven figure business, then you must make decisions like a seven figure business owner today. What you can’t do is make decisions as a business owner who, let’s just say, the reality is that you’re making $2,000 per month. You can’t make decisions as a business owner who’s making $2,000 per month and expect to create a seven figure business from that level of decision making. You have to first operate and make decisions as if you’ve already created that seven figure business.

Now, this is where most of you get stuck. This is where I see most of my clients get stuck. That is making decisions not from who they want to be, who they’re becoming, but from who they perceive themselves to be right now.

So in the last three episodes of the podcast, I created a special series on identity. Hopefully, you’ve listened to those episodes. If not, I highly recommend that you go back and listen to them. If you did listen to those episodes, you know how important that your identity, how you perceive yourself, and how you perceive yourself to be is to your journey of building your business.

One of the more recent observations that has been coming up a lot is that depending on what that identity is, depending on how you think about yourself, how you think about yourself as it relates to your business is very, very important. And also directly impacts the level of results that you either have or don’t have in your business.

For example, a lot of you think that you should be farther along in your business by now. I know that some of you are frustrated that you don’t have the results that you want in your business. But in my observation, when a coach comes to me and tells me that they think they should be farther along in their business by now or that they’re frustrated that they don’t have the results that they want yet in their business.

The truth of the matter is that in most cases, they’re not taking full ownership in the first place of their results. By not taking full ownership for the results that they either have or don’t have, they’re not able to operate from true entrepreneurial maturity.

So entrepreneurial maturity is taking 100% full ownership for every result regardless of whether you like that result or not. It’s understanding that wherever your business is at today, wherever that level happens to be, and whether you’re happy with that level or not, it’s knowing that you as the business owner have created that result.

Now, here’s the other thing that I want to say about this. Most of you listening intellectually understand this concept. Most of you understand that you’re in charge of your results. But here’s the difference. When it comes down to brass tax, and when you’re truly looking at the number of clients you either have or don’t have or maybe the amount of money that you have made in your business. If you’re not happy with whatever the answer to those questions are, I can 100% guarantee that in some area you’re not operating in true entrepreneurial maturity.

It could look like this. It might be that you aren’t taking certain action in your business. It might be that you aren’t learning certain things that your business needs you to learn. It might be that you’re not making decisions that are congruent with the type of business you want to build. It might be the way you view yourself as a coach, as an entrepreneur that’s affecting the level of entrepreneurial maturity that you have.

The thing about this is that in a lot of cases, it seems very innocent. I think in a lot of cases this isn’t a conscious thing for most cases. So a lot of this is due to the subconscious programming that many of us have been holding onto for years. Because what happens is that whatever the belief systems are that you’ve been programmed to believe, that you’ve been conditioned to believe. Right?

So an example of this is maybe you have this perception of yourself as the 16-year-old version of yourself, right? You might be hanging onto certain characteristics and ways of being that you might have demonstrated when you were younger because you have this perception of yourself. Because you have this identity of yourself. Right?

Maybe it’s certain stories that you’re carrying about yourself or what it means to make money. There are so many ways that this can surface. So it isn’t until we start to reprogram these stories. It isn’t until we start to reframe the belief systems. Until we raise the level of awareness as to what’s really holding you back from stepping into true entrepreneurial maturity. Because until that happens, your brain will find and will continue to find evidence to prove that which it believes to be true.

So if you believe that you are still the 16-year-old version of yourself, guess what? Your brain is going to find evidence and bring that to you. If you believe that you’re a “baby coach”, which is a term that I know some of you may use. Guess what? Your brain is going to find evidence of that for you. So entrepreneurial maturity is understanding, and it’s embodying being a trust business owner.

It’s embodying being a CEO of your business. It’s making decisions from the future results that you want to create. It’s becoming that next version of yourself that sheds the old limiting beliefs and stories. True entrepreneurial maturity is making the decision to shed those stories. To become aware of them in the first place, and to decide on purpose what those stories become.

It’s also about making real business decisions. So making decisions like ensuring that you’re building a real business, and you’re building a business that can be sustainable in the long term. So it’s not just building your business on tactics and shiny objects and on things that aren’t actually founded in true business principles. It’s being able to discern between real business advice versus following the shiny objects and following the short term tactics.

It’s being able to discern and understand the difference when you’re allowing your emotions to take control. Versus taking intentional control of your emotions. It’s working towards a level of self-mastery. It’s understanding that it is about the journey, and not just intellectual understanding but embodiment of that understanding.

It’s also about choosing to honor your own journey, and appreciating and honoring the struggles that you face, and having the knowledge that this is actually how you get to where you want to go. It’s knowing that this is going to be where the real growth happens, and it’s leaning into that struggle, into that challenge and choosing to become better for it.

True entrepreneurial maturity isn’t resisting doing the hard things. It’s understanding that by nature of signing up to be an entrepreneur that it’s also signing you up to evolve and to be stretched beyond where you’ve likely been stretched before. It’s learning to appreciate every challenge, every stretch that you experience, every level of discomfort knowing that that’s the currency to what you most desire. It’s not expecting the process to be all rainbows and daisies and get upset when it’s not.

True entrepreneurial maturity isn’t fighting against the things that don’t go 100% as planned. It’s also understanding that one launch, that one event, that one webinar or whatever it is that you’re doing doesn’t define you. Doesn’t define the future of your business.

True entrepreneurial maturity is making the choice to go up to bat every single day and knowing that by just doing that that you’re getting one step closer to your goals. It’s continually building and maintaining your faith. It’s not letting that fire go out. It’s choosing to take full responsibility no matter if you like the result or not.

True entrepreneurial maturity is being willing to change and evolve and go through the identity shift that for most will be very, very difficult and required. It’s also about building a level of belief so that you’re willing to bet more of you and your future and who you’re becoming than on who you’ve been and what you’ve done in the past.

True entrepreneurial maturity is leading yourself and understanding that when you lead yourself, you can then lead others. It’s also about following when you need to so that you can learn what you need to learn and be better for it. It’s knowing that 100% without a doubt as long as you don’t give up that there isn’t a way to fail. But in that same vein, it’s also being willing to fail as you step forward into new territory each and every day.

True entrepreneurial maturity is committing and then recommitting every single day to your mission, to your clients, and to your compelling why. So go out and build your entrepreneurial maturity this week. All right my friends. Have an amazing week. I’ll 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 for 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.