Ep #163: Holding Your Vision

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast with Amanda Karlstad episode number 163.

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. So great to have you here. I hope you’re doing well. For those of you in the US, Happy Thanksgiving. This episode, the day that it is set to air is Thanksgiving Day here in the US. So I want to tell you all, I’m so grateful for you. I am so grateful to have you with me today, that you tune in week after week, that you are showing up for yourselves, for your dreams, and that this podcast is a part of your journey.

So often when I get on a call with new clients, for so many of you who listen to this podcast, I have to tell you that it is so great when I see that someone tells me in their application as they’re setting up their call that they have listened to my podcasts. Because I think there is something really special about listening to a podcast that inspires you, that supports you, that coaches you. I know that this show is just that for so many of you.

I want to thank you and let you know how grateful I am that you’re here. That what you take from what I’m bringing to you here each and every week is really a special thing for me. To be able to create this content and bring you these episodes and these teachings. I am so, so grateful for all of your feedback and for the reviews and for really just how you’re showing up for yourselves and for your dreams.

So one of my intentions is that this podcasts serves you in your journey. That it is transformational for you. That it helps you transform in the ways that help you create more success, that help you create more success in your business and really take things to the next level.

So, once again, thank you. I am so grateful for you. I am grateful for this platform. I am so grateful to my past self for making decisions from my highest self, one of those being launching this podcast. This has been such a blessing in my business that has allowed me to connect with so many of you and so many amazing, amazing clients that allows me to bring you this content, which is really a creative process for me. It’s a way that I love being able to bring you this content week after week. So, once again, thank you. I am so, so grateful to you. I’m so grateful that you’re here. All right.

Today, I want to talk to you all about something that I was inspired by recently, as I was preparing to take a trip. I was actually on my way to Phoenix to attend an event with one of my coaches, many of you know her. Her name is Brooke Castillo. It was something that as I was preparing for my trip, that hit me.

One thing that I want to tell you all, and my clients know this about me, but one of the things that I use in my work with my clients with their businesses, as I coach, as I advise them, as I mentor them, is my intuition. Whenever I’m coaching my clients, whether that’s in a group call, or maybe it’s an a one on one session, or maybe it’s at even one of our in person events, one of our retreats.

Whenever I’m creating trainings or delivering trainings or creating podcasts like this, one of the things that I’m always working from is from my intuition. It’s something that I haven’t honestly talked a lot about before, but it’s something that is very, very powerful in my work. So as I was preparing to leave for Phoenix, this was something that came to me. When it came to me, I immediately sat down and started to create this episode for you. I did that because I knew that it was something that I wanted to bring to all of you today.

So know that for all of you listening, this episode is for you. What I want to talk to you all today about is holding your vision and the importance of holding your vision as you go out and build your business. So for those of you that follow my work, you know that one of the things that I talk a lot about is the importance of your vision. I’ve done several different episodes on vision and the importance of vision and how to create vision. About a year ago, I did an episode called Expanded Vision.

Sidenote, I would highly recommend that you go back, and you listen to that episode because that was a really important episode. So, vision is something that is a huge part of my work. But today, I want to talk to you all about the importance of not only having a vision and having an expanded vision, but then also taking that a step further and doing what I call holding your vision.

So I was thinking about this, and I was thinking about what it means to actually hold your vision. I started thinking about just how important it is for you, as an entrepreneur, as a coach, who desires to do big things, is to hold your vision. What I mean by that is to be in relationship with your vision, to spend time with your vision, to connect to your vision, each and every day. What’s just as important that I have found is that you also have others who help hold that vision for you.

One of the things that I love being able to do for my clients is to help hold their vision for them. As I was reflecting on this, and I was thinking about my clients and the work that I do, one of the things that is very powerful in the work that I do is my ability to not only see very clearly the expanded vision for my clients, but also my ability to help hold that vision for them.

So not only can I see the expanded vision, that highest level of them, that highest expression of them of their brand of their business, of their work, of how they can contribute at their highest level, but then also being able to follow up and hold that vision for them. What this looks like is so often it’s bringing them back to their vision. It’s reminding them of their vision. It’s helping them to make decisions from their vision to structure things in their business from their vision.

So in so many ways, when we create a vision and when we start to hold that vision consistently, what happens is it becomes a filter for everything that they do. As I was thinking more about this, I was looking at the effects of this. The effects of being able to see your vision and then hold that vision is very profound.

When I look at my clients, it’s really a profound effect in how it’s been able to help so many of them to double, triple grow their businesses, to uplevel to a place that they didn’t think was possible. It’s profound on how this has helped them step into and to become CEOs of their businesses, to create those inner shifts, and to step into that next version of themselves. It’s profound in how so many of them have been able to build and grow businesses that just a year ago, six months ago, didn’t think was possible for them.

So holding the vision and having a coach that can hold your vision has been, in my experience, one of the most powerful aspects to not only my clients lives, but also to my own growth. It’s shown in the extraordinary growth of so, so many of my clients.

So I want to offer to all of you that holding your vision isn’t about just writing your vision down one time. It isn’t about writing it down and then not looking at it again. It’s about bringing it into your day to day. It’s about working from it as you work in your business and as you prepare to work in or on your business, as you make decisions in your business, and you do things, things like even structuring your offers, your programs, how you decide to articulate your offers. It’s about showing up and stepping into and becoming that next version of yourself.

So holding the vision of who you are, of who you’re in the process of becoming, which I want to speak to this for just a minute. Sometimes in this journey of entrepreneurship, when you are ready to go to the next level, it requires becoming a different version of yourself. Some of the things that I’ve experienced in some of the shifts that I’ve made in my own journey has been about becoming a different version of me. It’s about becoming more of a certain part of me, becoming more of a certain aspect.

So while it always isn’t about becoming something that you’re not, what I’ve found is that many times it’s about becoming even a more of who you already are. I think this is a really important distinction. Because a lot of times whether we think about this consciously or not, we think we have to, at times, become something that we’re not. I want to tell you all that I don’t think that this is the case. I think for most of us it’s about becoming more of who we already are. When you can have that clear vision, when you can consistently hold that vision, when you can begin to operate from that vision.

So not only is my work focused on helping my clients create and build that vision, but it’s then also helping to hold that vision for them and bring them back to their vision over and over again. It’s like helping them walk into that vision.

So the first step is you have to create the highest and the most expanded vision. This, by the way, I believe has to be in full alignment to you. But after you’ve created that it’s also about then stepping into and holding that vision on a daily basis. These are two very different things, but they’re very nuanced things.

Because, my friends, it’s one thing to sit down, to write down, to be able to see that expanded vision for yourself, for your business, for your life. To create a vision that excites you, that allows you to contribute at your highest level, that enables you to build your dream business.

But I will tell you, it’s a whole other thing to then hold that vision consistently, to be connected with that vision consistently, to remember that vision, to operate from that vision. The reason it’s so important to make this distinction is because something that I have observed, and I see happen so often, is that even though many times you may have sat down, maybe you’ve created that vision for yourself or for your business, and you’ve probably written it down. Maybe you’ve even meditated on it. Maybe you’ve talked to someone about it. Maybe you’ve done all of the things. Maybe you’ve done it several times.

But here’s what happens. What happens is is that inevitably as you go out and as you do things in your day to day, as you go out and live, as you go out and do the things required to build your business, as you are faced with difficulty, noise, competing priorities, or emotions like fear, doubt, worry. Inevitably, you will start to lose sight of that vision. You will start to lose connection to your vision. You will lose momentum around your vision, focus, intensity. In some cases, I’ve even seen where you can forget about that vision.

So this is why it’s so, so important that you intentionally hold your vision. Because here’s what I know for certain. Every single day, every single one of us have instances, have things where we can be thrown off course. Where we might hit a roadblock, where we have a curveball, so to speak, that might be thrown our way, or a launch maybe doesn’t go the way that we’d hoped. Something might come up personally, or you might get distracted, or you might doubt that you have what it takes in order to step into that next level.

Ultimately, your brain is going to be offering to you in so many different ways that maybe it’s not the right time, or that it’s just not possible. It’s so, so easy to start losing faith, to start losing hope. So no matter what level of business that you’re at, you have to come back to your vision. You have to be able to hold your vision and allow that vision to also be held for you.

I believe it’s one of the most important things. Because your vision and the level of vision that you create and then to the degree that you then hold that vision is directly correlated with your ability to create the business of your dreams, to create the financial abundance and the wealth that you desire.

It was so interesting. As I was preparing this episode, I heard a quote. It was a quote that really spoke to me. It speaks to exactly what we’re talking about here today. That is the greater your vision, the greater your potential for wealth. The greater your vision, the greater your potential for wealth.

I have to tell you, I really believe that. Over the years, as I look back, and as I observe, I have had the pleasure and the opportunity to see so much evidence of that in the coaching industry, in online business, in my own experience. Because when you have a big vision, that big vision will propel you. It will focus you.

It will lead you so that no matter what when something comes up, whether that be a challenge, or a season or something in your life or in your business that challenges that vision that will compete with that vision. What will happen is when you stay true, when you hold true to your vision, you will be so much stronger and won’t be guided by external factors.

Holding your vision allows you to have agency and to decide with intention how to respond to things outside of yourself. It will allow you to hold strong to your vision, to stay clear, to know exactly where you are going, to be confident in the direction you’re moving towards, in the actions that you’re taking.

Because unfortunately without it because we are human and because we are wired to not only move towards that which is pleasurable, that which feels good, that which avoids pain and discomfort, without even recognizing it. Unless you’re holding your vision, it can be so, so easy to lose it. When you lose that vision, you also lose your why. You lose the vision of what you’re creating, of who you’re in the process of becoming.

I have to tell you all I found that this is the truth at every level of your business. No matter if you’re growing to your first six figures, or if you’re growing to your first million, or maybe even 10 million. Your ability to hold your vision, your ability to connect with and see that vision, to feel that vision and become that vision is something that requires discipline. It requires intention. It requires energy. It’s one of the most important aspects of your growth as an entrepreneur.

So I want you to think about this like building a new muscle. If you’re building new muscle, the work that’s required, the discomfort that comes along with that. So even when you can’t see the result of that vision, even when that vision hasn’t manifested, know that as you hold that vision more and more consistently, it will create a higher degree of clarity, a higher degree of commitment to what it is that you’re building, to your practice as a coach. It will require a higher degree of commitment to you as an entrepreneur, a higher degree of commitment to your goals. This is a beautiful thing.

So no matter what, I want to encourage you all to not only develop your vision, but I want to challenge you to then hold that vision. Hold it fiercely and consistently each and every day. Just remember that no matter what it is, whatever that vision is that you hold for yourself, know that 100% without a doubt, it’s there for you. It is 100% available to you. So I want to encourage you to see it and to hold it and to work from it. Know that it’s just a matter of time, and you’ll create it. All right, my friends have an amazing week. I will talk to you all again next week. 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.