Ep #108: Expanded Vision

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast with Amanda Karlstad episode number 108.

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. Glad to have you with me today. Thanks for joining. I hope you’re doing well. We are doing great here. We’re trying to stay warm. Such a beautiful time of year, but I’m also quickly remembering how fast it can get cold. And how quickly it can turn from beautiful fall 60/70 degrees to about 40 degrees. I think it’s been in the 40 degree range here over the last few days.

So I was literally on a coaching call earlier this week and had my fireplace even turned on. It was already that cold. So we are heading into the coldest time of the year. It’s one of my favorite times of the year, but it’s definitely cold.

I am really excited to talk to you all today about today’s topic. Before we dive in, I just want to remind you all. If you haven’t downloaded my free three part private podcast series called The Three Vital Shifts Every Life Coach Needs to Rapidly Scale Their Practice, I want to invite you to do that.

I have been getting such amazing feedback from so many of you that have gone through that podcast series. I know it’s been so, so helpful to you and to really what we’re going to talk about today. It really is related to today’s topic. I want to talk to you all today about what I call having an expanded vision for your business.

I want to encourage you to go ahead and download and access my free three part private series. Again, this is a private podcast series that you’re not going to have access to on the regular podcast feed. It is something that you have to access. So we’ll put the link in the show notes.

So for those of you who are interested, who want to dive deeper into the strategy, into the shifts, into what I have really learned in the last several years in my own journey and working with so many coaches grow and scale their businesses. I want to invite you to download that. We’re going to link that up in the show notes. So make sure you go ahead and do that.

The next reminder is I also want to remind those of you who are really looking to take things to the next level. So you may be in a position right now where you are working to build your business, perhaps to your first $100K or you may be looking to scale your business. In either case, I want to remind you that there is an upcoming cohort of my Mastermind program.

So this is my six month business accelerator program that I’ve developed for coaches that are looking to grow to their first six figures. I’ve developed the mastermind program. It’s an accelerated program. It’s an implementation style program that combines not only small group coaching but also one-on-one coaching.

It’s an extremely comprehensive program that I have created, and doors are open for that. I’m currently enrolling for the upcoming cohort for The Mastermind. We’re going to be officially kicking things off after the first of the year. I highly recommend you apply today. You get your application in as the cohort is capped at a certain level because of the high level of support and coaching that is really delivered in the program.

So I really truly believe that if you’re a coach and you’re looking to grow and scale a highly successful practice that this is the program that you need. So definitely check that out. Go to amandakarlstadcoaching.com/the-mastermind. We’re going to link that up in the show notes as well.

If you’re a coach who’s looking to scale. So you’ve already hit that $100K mark in your business and you’re really looking to go to a million. If you’re really looking to over the course of the next 12 to 24/36 months, really the next couple of years. If you really are serious about taking your business to a million dollars or more, I want to invite you to apply. I have a few openings in my High Level Mastermind program.

So this is my year-long program that is designed for coaches who are scaling. So this is where we literally take everything to the next level, and we do literally million dollar work in this program. So, again, you can go to my website amandakarlstadcoaching.com. You’re going to see a link there where you can apply as well for that program. I would love to talk with you and talk about what is possible for you.

All right. So let’s talk about today’s topic. I’m super excited. This is truly one of my favorite topics. It’s some of the…When I think about my work and when I think about where my genius really lies and how I’m really able to help clients take and make such quantum leaps in their business, I really think a lot of it comes back to what we’re going to talk about today.

So it’s something that the more that I study, the more I do my own personal work, the more that I coach myself, the more that I coach my clients and really just continue to immerse myself in the concepts that I bring you in this podcast. One of the concepts that has really been coming up lately in a number of ways and that I’m finding myself even doing my own deep work on is in regards to vision.

One of the things that I think is really important in terms of vision is being able to develop what I call an expanded vision. I love talking about this concept because it’s actually, again, what I believe is one of my superpowers when I look at how I work with my clients and the work that I do and the customization and the personalization that I bring to each and every one of my clients. All of my clients know this.

One of the things that I love the most when I’m working with them and when I’m coaching them is helping them to not only develop this expanded vision for them and their business but also to help them build the actual infrastructure. The actual ecosystem in their business that is going to support this expanded vision, that will help them ultimately step into and become the person and the business owner that is capable of creating those level of results.

Something that I see happen over and over again whether it’s with clients or for all of you listening is that being able to develop a vision like this, being able to see a vision like this for yourself. Being able to see that is truly possible for you can be a very challenging thing. I have learned that unless you have a sounding board, unless you have that outside perspective, and I see this as true for many of you.

Your vision for where you see yourself being able to take your business, where you think you can take your business or in some cases how you think you need to build your business. I see for so many of you that this is actually keeping you very small. It’s actually keeping you playing a very much smaller game than you could be.

So this is why I think this concept is so important. Because the truth is what you think is possible for you. What you truly believe is possible for you will dictate what you do today. It will dictate where you put your focus, where you put your energy. The decisions that you make in your business and how you show up daily in your business.

So having what I call this expanded vision is an extremely powerful thing for you, and it’s vital, I believe, to your long term success. The more convicted you are in your vision, the more committed you are to an expanded vision for yourself for your business. What will happen is that by default you’re going to feel so much more motivated to achieve and to keep taking steps towards that expanded vision. This is so, so important.

Because if you don’t have that powerful expanded vision that anchors you, if you don’t have that expanded vision that challenges you, if you don’t have that powerful expanded vision that motivates you, you won’t have the motivation to overcome the inevitable challenges you will face. The energy and the grit that will be required to solve those challenges, to be able to overcome the challenges that you will face.

What I see happen for so many of you is that you instead end up spinning in your business. You end up not making the level of progress that you know you could be making and ultimately getting more and more frustrated in the process.

So having an expanded vision isn’t just important for you to be able to know where you’re going. It’s everything. It literally informs how you think about your business today. It informs how you think about yourself. It informs the things that you choose to focus on in order to build your business to that expansive level. Because how you feel about your business, how you feel about your clients, how you feel about your future and where you are going is vital.

So there’s a few key elements that I believe are essential in order for you to be able to develop and ultimately operate from an expanded vision. The first step is that you have to first be able to see it, right. You have to be able to become aware. You have to first allow yourself the space and the time to develop a vision like this for yourself, for your business, for your clients, and for that level of impact you want to make. You also have to give yourself permission to be honest about what it is that you want.

I believe that this is something that you absolutely must write down. I think it’s very important that you take the time to journal, that you take the time to write out to allow yourself the time and space to write this down. I will also tell you that this isn’t a one-time exercise. I think this is something that I’ve experienced myself and I see this with my clients. It’s something that grows and that evolves over time. As you grow and as you evolve, it’s a very natural part of the process, but you have to start somewhere.

So if you’re not clear on what your expanded vision is, I want to invite you to give yourself 20 minutes to sit down and write this out. I would encourage you to really span out the timeframe with this, and to really think about your vision in terms of your overall big impact, in terms of your overall long term.

Ask yourself these questions. What impact do you truly want to make? What is the movement that you want to create with your work in the world? What would blow your mind if you were able to achieve that? These are some questions I want you to start with because asking yourself these levels of questions is where your greatness lies.

Once you’ve identified that, the next step that’s extremely important in the process. Once you have a clearer sense of what your expanded vision is, is then to deliberately practice being the person, being the leader, being the coach, being the entrepreneur who has already achieved that vision.

Now there is an entire process, there is a whole process on how to effectively deliberately practice. Because the practice of being able to deliberately practice requires some key things.

So I’m going to use the sports world. I’m going to give you some analogies here because it’s actually something that’s very common in the sports world and something that every professional athlete uses in order to play at a high level. The same is very true to play at a high level in business.

So there’s really five key principles when it comes to deliberate practice. So the first principle is that you have to be able to push yourself beyond your comfort zone. So if we look at the case of building, of growing, of scaling a business, you have to first understand that you’re going to have to operate for much of this process, that it’s going to happen outside of your comfort zone.

I think it’s really important to understand that in this process, in growing and scaling a highly successful business that I know all of you want to do, that the majority of the process, the truth is that it will challenge you. It will force you to, again, operate outside of your comfort zone.

I talk about this so much, but this is why this process can feel so uncomfortable. It’s why this process in so many ways is one of the most confronting processes you will go through. Because you’re operating outside of the know. Because you’ve moved into a zone that’s unknown, it’s requiring more of you. So that’s number one.

Number two is that you have to have a well-defined and specific goal. Now for most of you, I know that you have specific goals in mind. I know that for many of you, you have specific and defined revenue targets that you have. I know that you are working towards certain impact goals in your business. All of this is definitely part of it.

I also want to challenge you here and to move beyond just the revenue goal of your business. I want you to consider the level of impact that I mentioned. Consider what I call the movement that you want to create with your work through the vehicle of your business.

I think if you’re a coach, I think this is one of the greatest gifts that you have. That you have such an ability to be able to make an impact with your work. That you have the ability to not only impact your clients lives but to create a massive ripple effect in the world. It’s really a very special gift, I believe, to be a coach and to ultimately serve in such a way that truly helps others.

The third element is that you have to then focus intently on that goal. I like to think about this in terms of having a magnificent obsession. I think consciously directing your thoughts, consciously directing your energy, making yourself the questions that help you focus intently on your expanded vision. I think this is one of the most important things you can do.

It’s something that I believe you have to do every day. Not every minute of every day, but carving out some deliberate time. Carving out some deliberate space where you’re able to focus on that vision, where you’re evaluating the things and what you’re doing. How you’re becoming more and more aware and where you’re placing your energy, where you’re placing your thoughts. Evaluating whether or not that’s supporting your expanded vision or not.

The fourth element to an effective deliberate practice is receiving and responding to high quality feedback. This is why I believe working with a coach is so critical. Because if you think about, again, a professional athlete. No matter what sport you’re playing, every single professional athlete that plays at that high level, at that professional level has a coach. What’s key to their development, wants key to their performance in their growth is being able to receive. Is being able to then respond to feedback from that coach.

So recently I was coaching one of my High Level Mastermind clients who has built her business very, very successfully in a short amount of time. She’s built it to the high six figures. She’s averaging over $50,000 per month, in some cases upwards of $75,000 per month cash in her business.

We were talking about some of the things in her business. Some things that she now sees after having built her business to this level. There’s some things now that we need to tweak, right. There’s some things that she’s looking at that we’re looking at different ways to optimize different things in her program.

So she was sharing with me recently one of her thoughts about her program. This program is thriving. Clients are doing amazing. It is growing by leaps and bounds. So really everything is great with this program. What she was sharing is that she was thinking about making a change to the program that was based on something she was currently experiencing. So it was really important that we talked through her thoughts around this.

Because the truth was that after talking it through and having me question and having us really look at some of her thoughts that she was having around this tweak and having me question her as to why she was thinking a certain way about these changes. She was really quickly able to come to the realization that making the change, implementing a change like this like she had originally been thinking, the truth was that it might end up the consequence of that would actually likely work the opposite of what she was thinking, right? It would actually create the opposite effect of what she was actually going for.

So really allowing her the space to let her talk through this and to really question her in the different ways that I did and really inspecting her thoughts and really starting to dig in at a deep level. Also offering my own perspective, my advice on what she should do. We actually were able to come up with what will probably be the equivalent of several hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue per year for her in her business. Not only that, it will likely enhance the experience her clients are already experiencing in the program.

So that’s just one example. That had we not had that conversation, had she not brought that to me as her coach, had she not received that perspective from me, had she not been questioned in this way, she likely might have gone out and made that change. The truth is it likely would have created more of an issue in her business.

So this is why if you’re a coach and you’re building a business, my belief is that working with a coach is non-negotiable. Because we all have blind spots. Unless you’re aware of what those blind spots are. When we start to allow things like our feelings to drive certain decisions in our business, it can be a very slippery slope. It can be extremely dangerous. So being able to receive and respond to feedback is huge.

The fifth element of deliberate practice is to develop your mental model. So I like to think about this as essentially how you are able to visualize yourself achieving that goal, achieving that expanded vision.

So if we think again if you were a professional athlete. Let’s say that you were competing in the Olympics. You’re an Olympic athlete. There’s countless stories of this where professional athletes at the top of their game, how they have actually incorporated visualization in their daily routine, how they have used visualization to see themselves winning the goal, to see themselves winning the race, to see themselves winning the event whatever their sport is.

So I want to offer to you all to really start looking at this for yourself. Look at your own deliberate practice. Look at it as a way to align your thinking, to enroll your subconscious into your expanded vision, into that long term goal that you’ve identified. Because once you’re able to do that, your emotions, your actions, and literally in just a matter of time you’re going to start to see results that line up with this deliberate practice with the mental model that you’ve constructed and that you’ve replayed over and over. That you’ve built the discipline around, that you’ve created structure around.

On that note, I want to talk to you all about discipline and structure for just a minute. So one of the things that is really fun for me to observe, again whether it’s clients in my High Level Mastermind program. So coaches who are scaling their businesses to multiple six figures, evenly a million, or my Mastermind program, which is for coaches who are looking to build towards that first $100,000.

It’s that so often after we’ve identified their expanded vision, after we’ve gotten really clear on what that is, which is something that I work with every client on. It’s a very customized personalized process that I take every client through.

What’s so much fun is to be able to observe and to see clients start stepping into and becoming that future version of themselves almost immediately, that future vision that creates that expanded vision. That literally allows them to collapse time. That literally allows them to take those quantum leaps in their business.

Where they’re literally in so many cases sitting in awe about the fact that they have created their dream business. That they’re in that process of creating their dream business and they’re doing amazing things that they’ve literally dreamt about, they’ve visualized, and in some cases, this may have just been a few months before.

So this is the power of having that expanded vision for your business and for your life and being able to back up that expanded vision with structure, with discipline, with the actual foundation in your business that supports the expanded vision. It’s really, really important. This is where it also gets to be real.

If you’re a coach and you know you’re capable of more and you’re ready to really take things to the next level. If you know you could benefit from having an expanded vision like I just talked about and you’re ready to build the structure and the foundation that supports your expanded vision, then I want to invite you to join me for the upcoming cohort of the Mastermind program.

If you’re an established coach and you’re looking to scale your business, I also want to invite you to apply to my High Level Mastermind where we will take everything to the next level and we will build your million dollar business. So go to amandakarlstadcoaching.com. We’re going to link up those application links as well in the show notes.

2022 is right around the corner my friends. Now is the time to set the stage for a very successful 2022. It is your time. I’d love to help you make 2022 the year where you become an example of what is possible. All right everyone. Have an amazing week. I’ll talk to you all again very soon. Take care. Bye, bye. 

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.