Ep #1: The Identity Shift

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, everybody. I am so happy to have you join me today. I am so excited to launch this podcast and to be bringing this first episode to you.  This has been something I’ve been preparing for, for the past few months. So I’m really excited to finally be able to share the tools, the strategies, and the mindset shifts that I have learned in building my own coaching practice, and also through my corporate career that I know are going to make all the difference for you.

So, first off, I want you to know, I understand the journey of building a business very well. And I’m going to talk a little bit more in detail about this later, but I want you to know that as I bring you this content each week, I’m bringing it to you from the lens of not only growing my own coaching practice, but also through the lens of building and growing organizations and coaching high-performing teams for 15 years prior to launching my coaching practice.

So I’m really excited to be able to dive into the tools, into the strategies, and the mindset shifts that I know are going to support you each week as you grow your business. But before we dive in further, let me tell you a little bit about me.

I am a certified life and business coach. I am certified through The Life Coach School, which some of you may be familiar with. It was founded by Brooke Castillo. I am also a former higher-ed executive leader, a wife, and a mom to two. And so for all of my listeners out there, especially those with young kids, I want you to know that I know what it’s like to not only build a business, but what it’s like to build a business with little ones as well.

And, in fact, when I decided to launch my coaching practice, we were expecting our son. So I know what it’s like to have a newborn and launch a business at the same time.  And let me tell you all, that is no joke.

But I have to say, I am so grateful for that experience and I’ve learned and grown so much through just that process alone that perhaps I’ll talk about that in a later show. But let’s talk about what this podcast will be about.

My vision for this podcast is to help you step into the highest version of yourself so that you can become a true leader in your business, that next level leader that your business needs in order to grow and thrive. And so, to do that, my goal is to help you step into that identity of a successful entrepreneur and business owner, because I firmly believe, and I’ve experienced this time and time again, that the health of any business, it first comes down to the psychology of the leader.

And so, in order to grow a business, you have to first grow the leader, and that is exactly what we’re going to be focusing on in this podcast. And my goal is for you to learn the tools and the strategies that are going to help you take your impact, your leadership, and ultimately, your results to a whole new level. My mission is to help you live your purpose through being able to create and build and lead a successful and also sustainable business, the business that you really envision, that is going to allow you to contribute at a high level and serve your clients and serve the world in a positive way.

And my personal mission is to create the most successful community of high-level coaches and entrepreneurs who are making a real impact through their work and that have high integrity for the work they are putting out into the world and are setting a new standard for business in the online space and what is possible, because I believe it’s time to raise the bar in the industry, and so, my friends, we are going to do it.

So, what I want to talk to you all about today is critical for you if you’re trying to build an online coaching, consulting, or service-based business. And that is the inevitable identity shift that you will have to go through in order to successfully build and grow your business to that next level.

And so, to frame this conversation, I want you to really think about this; there has never been a better time in history than right now to be able to start a business, to step into entrepreneurship, to do the type of work that we do and to also have the technology at our fingertips to create a hugely successful business.

But at the same time, I know for so many of you, you are feeling the challenge of what it’s like to build your business. I know so many of you are feeling stuck. You feel like you should be further along and you might even be questioning whether or not you should continue to build your business.

And so what I want to offer to you today is that if you’re feeling like you’re in that space. I want you to know that there is a real gift for you once you get through the other side of this and it’s likely going to be one of the best gifts that you will receive in the whole process, and that is who you will become in this process, through this process of building your business.

Because in order to get to your next level, you’re going to have to face your fears. You’re going to need to play a bigger game and you’re going to need to go all in. And it is only through this that I promise you, this will literally be the best personal development you will ever go through.

And so I know that so many of you are in this space right now where you know you have a ton of value to offer.  You’re extremely passionate about the work that you’re doing. And I know a lot of you have invested in training to become the best you can be. And I know that you deeply feel that this is your purpose to do this work, but the problem is, for a lot of you, you’re lacking so much clarity in your business.

And I want you to know that this lack of clarity, it’s impacting your ability to grow and scale your business. And so if you’re resonating with what I’m saying, I want you to keep listening, and not only keep listening to this podcast, but I also want to encourage you to keep going.  I want to encourage you to not give up on your dreams of building your business because here’s the reality; the reality is that the only thing between the level of success that you want in your business and where you are today, it’s your own psychology.

It only comes down to who you are being in the process of building your business. And that is exactly what we’re going to be diving into today. And I believe that what we’re about to talk about, this identity shift that you have to make, it will be the most important work that you will do throughout your entire journey of building your business, and that is who you will become in that process because, here’s the real truth, the level of thinking and the level of doing that got you to where you are today, that same level of thinking and that same level of doing, that is not going to get you to where you want to go.

And so in order to reach that next level, there is a real identity shift that must occur and it’s so critical that, in fact, until we step into this next level of ourselves and we start to develop very intentionally who we need to become, we are always going to be limited by how we define ourselves because what happens is, is we create these invisible glass ceilings around ourselves through our belief systems, through our thoughts, through how we choose to perceive the world and how we perceive ourselves in the world. And in most cases, we don’t even realize we’re doing this.

So, I want to talk to you today about why this happens, and to start with because we’re all human, we all have a brain. And it’s really important to understand that our brains are literally hardwired for survival. And so what that means is that even though we’ve evolved tremendously as a society, our brains are still operating as if we were living in caves and we are trying to avoid being eaten by saber-toothed tigers, literally.

So what that means is that any time our brain perceives anything as danger, whether that’s a physical threat, something like fire of even think of a hot stove, to what we’re talking about today, something more of an emotional threat, our brains are programmed to signal a warning throughout our brain, which then triggers an emotion and actions in our body.

And that warning system for things like the emotional threat that we’re talking about today, those warnings very often sound like those self-defeating self-limiting thoughts that we have on a daily basis. And so understanding it through that framework, I want you to all really consider this; as you’re building your business, where everything is likely very new, you’re in unfamiliar territory, you’re up against a tremendous growth curve in terms of your own skills and having to step outside of your comfort zone every day and take big risks, all of this is literally challenging your brain on a daily basis.

And it’s challenging everything you’ve known up until this point. And at a core level, it’s challenging your identity and it’s challenging who you’ve always been. And so, for any of you that are in this place right now, what I want you to understand is that your identity, your self-identity and how you have identified up until this point in your life, this is one of the strongest forces that you’re going to be up against as you’re building your business.

And because what we choose to believe about ourselves and what we choose to believe about ourselves in relation to our business, that is what creates the level of results that we have in our business. And because our core identity is such a strong force and our brains don’t like exerting energy, that means our brains are hard at work doing everything in its power to keep us consistent with how we define ourselves and how we have defined ourselves in the past. So I want you to really consider that.

And let’s look at this a little bit deeper when we think about growing a business. For most of us, we were probably taught to study hard in school, get good grades, get into a good college, get a good job, work hard, climb the corporate ladder and save for retirement, right?

I know that’s what I did and that’s pretty much what drive me up until my late 30s. But what quickly happened was, when I decided to go all in on this journey of launching my coaching practice and building my business, that’s when it really hit me, this inevitable identity crisis.

And what I didn’t recognize at the time but now I can see very clearly is that I had to go on this journey where I had to shift from this old identity, from this old way of being that I had always known into this new version of myself that felt completely unfamiliar. And I felt like a total beginner.

And so I had to move from this identity off a successful corporate leader, as someone who had worked hard, who had climbed the ladder, to this new identity where everything felt very new, very different, and very unfamiliar.  And what I can see now is that, at the time, I was going through this identity shift, this process where I was literally having to shed that old identity, those old layers of being that I had relied on for years, that had allowed me to experience success in my life, layers that had been very comfortable for me, to this new version of myself where all of it pretty much became irrelevant, and it felt terrible.

And what I had to recognize is that what had gotten me to that point in my life, that was not what was going to get me to my next level. And so when I realized that, I knew that, in order for me to be able to move forward and to really build my business, that I not only needed a real business strategy, but I also needed to do some major internal work and focus on a new way of being that would allow me to create this new self-concept of myself, a new identity that would allow me to do the work I’m doing today.

And so for those of you who are in this place right now where you so desperately want to move forward but yet you feel so stuck in your business, I know you can relate. And what I want to bring to your awareness is that you feel stuck because you’re moving from this place of complete familiarity to this place where everything feels unknown and everything you’ve known up until this point has pretty much become irrelevant, right?

And I know it feels excruciating, but I want you all to know that this is part of the journey. This is all meant for you. And so even though you might feel like a total beginner or you might be questioning if you really have what it takes to do this, I want you to just recognize what’s happening.

Right now, if you’re there, you’re in the battle with one of the strongest and most powerful forces in your life. And that is your core identity. And I can tell you, from my own experience that once I recognize this for myself and I started the process of shedding those old layers, which in most cases I was very deeply tied to, it wasn’t until I started to shift this for myself that I was able to create real momentum in my business.

And so during this crisis, during this shift, the way my brain was trying to preserve this old identity of mine was that it would show me evidence through daily thoughts that weren’t serving me, through thoughts that were full of self-doubt, full of second-guessing if I was making the right decision, full of thoughts that were showing me reasons and examples why this was probably impossible for me. And I had to go into battle with that every single day.

And I also had to choose, every single day, whether or not I was going to believe it. And so being in that place, when I was in this crisis and what I see happening with so many of you is that you’re in this place of in between. You’re in this in between zone where you’re moving from who you’ve been to who you need to be.

And yet, for most of you, you’re not fully identifying with this new self. You’re just not quite there yet. And when you’re not yet fully identifying as this new self, you’re also not fully convinced yet that this is all going to work out for you. And so what happens is you start believing all sorts of stories that aren’t serving you, that aren’t serving you building your business, stories that sound like, “You’re not capable. This is all way too hard. This will never work out,” right?

But here’s what’s happening; your core identity, who you have always been, is simply being challenged.  And everything that has been familiar for you up until this point, everything within your comfort zone, none of it really matters because you’re having to shift into this new identity and instead, you’re having to step into this whole new territory. 

You’re having to learn this whole new set of skills. You’re having to put yourself out into the world in a whole new way. You’re having to think about things in a completely different way, right? And you’re challenging everything that has made you successful and gotten you to where you are today.

But here’s the good news; you are literally in the process of becoming the next version of yourself. And it’s in this next version of yourself, that is what it’s going to take to get you and your business to the next level.

And here’s something else that I want to offer to all of you that are in this place; what’s also happening when you’re going through this shift is that your brain will start to rationalize. It will want to justify to you by creating narratives, by creating stories in your mind that tell you, you might not have what it takes, that the level of success you really want isn’t available to you.

And so whatever version of that story that you’re hearing, I want you to see that it’s only an attempt to keep you in your comfort zone. And I want to challenge you today to stop believing the narratives, stop believing the stories that you’re hearing, and instead, I want you to get acutely aware of those narratives, of those stories that are happening in your head.

And once you know what those stories are, I want you to observe them without judgment. And after you’ve observed them, I want you to question them, and I want you to see what you’ve really been accepting about yourself. Because, in this moment right now, the only reason you don’t have the results that you want in your business or in your life is because you’re believing the narrative.

You’re believing the story. You’re accepting it as if it’s a fact in your life. And I want to challenge you right here today to not believe it anymore. Really consider that because what would happen for you if you decided to no longer accept that story? Because once you can see these stories, these narratives for what they are, you can move forward in such a more empowered, intelligent, and powerful way.

And that’s when you can really become the person you need to be in the process. And that, my friends, is what will have a tremendous impact on your business because this is the time when you truly move from who you were to who you need to be. And so to support you in this process, I want you to ask yourself two questions right now.

And the first is, ask yourself, who do I have to be in order to create the business and the level of success that I want? And then I want you to ask yourself, what are the things that I must do in order to bring that vision to reality?

I want you to take some time on these and really consider what that would look like.  And I want you to question those thoughts, those stories you’ve been accepting about yourself. And instead, I want you to start considering, who do I need to be in order to get to where I want to go? That is where I encourage you to start.

It will help you focus forward so you can start being the leader you need to be for your business because it is only through stepping into this next version of yourself that you’re going to be able to create the business and life of your dreams. And the best part of all of this is it’s all available to you right now. I am so excited for you to be on this journey and for you to experience this shift into this next version of you. 

To celebrate the launch of the show, I’m going to be giving away three free VIP strategy sessions where I’ll dive deep into your business and help you put a strategy in place for the next 90 days so you have a game plan on how to create real results in your business and start gaining momentum.

I’m going to be giving away one free VIP strategy session, the same VIP strategy session I offer to all of my highest level clients, to three lucky listeners who subscribe, rate, and review the show on Apple Podcasts. Visit amandakarlstadcoaching.com/podcastlaunch to learn more about the contest and how to enter. I’ll be announcing the winners on the show in an upcoming episode. Thanks so much.

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.