Ep #205: The Value of Raising Your Standards

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast with Amanda Karlstad episode number 205.

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 glad to have you here today. I am excited to talk to all of you. I hope you’re doing well. I have a great conversation today. I am so looking forward to this last quarter of the year. I know so many of you are feeling this way looking at this last quarter and thinking about your goals and how you want to end the year.

I know, for me, I feel like this year, as always, has flown by. It’s hard to believe that we are already here flying into the fourth quarter. It’s been a great year. There’s been so many wins for my clients. So many lives that have been impacted through their work. So many businesses that are hitting new revenue levels, and launching new programs and putting amazing work out into the world, and so many who are supporting their clients so well. 

This time of year is always kind of a reflection time for me. I’ve been thinking recently of my work and the work that I do with my clients to build, grow, and scale highly successful businesses. So we’re talking multiple six, seven figure plus businesses. 

When I think about the very important strategic work that I do with all of my clients, that is one side of it. What’s also very important is the inner game work that we do and helping them to step into the next versions of themselves. I truly believe that if you’re a coach and you have a strong desire to grow and scale a highly successful practice, the process that I teach, the customized strategic plans that we help our clients implement, the high level of coaching that we do inside of our programs is really the best, is the most streamlined, and is the most way, and is what I believe to be the most accelerated way to build grow and scale. 

I was recently at an event where there were a lot of coaches. So all types of coaches, life coaches, relationship coaches, health coaches, executive coaches, etc. One of the things that I observed after having so many different conversations with so many different types of coaches is that there are a lot of coaches that are really unclear as far as what steps to take in their business, as far as how to take their business to the next level. 

What I want to offer to all of you is that if right now you’re not sure how to take your business to the next level, if you are feeling confused, or you’re feeling a sense of doubt about being able to reach your goals. Number one, I want to tell you that it’s totally normal. I understand this because I also was once there in my business. 

At the same time, I also really, really, really want to encourage you that you don’t have to stay there. That that is where having a real strategy, having a real roadmap is crucial. Because one of the things that I’ve learned is that when we don’t have certainty, when we aren’t sure of our next steps, it opens the doorway to so many other thoughts, so many other emotions that will hold us back from truly stepping into our purpose. So having the right support, having a game plan is critical. 

It’s not about the latest social media trend or tactic. It’s real business strategy. So I want to encourage you if you are feeling in that place right now, now is the time to get support. If you’re serious about growing your business to that multiple six, that seven figure and beyond mark, I want to invite you to reach out into apply to work with us. We are so proficient at helping coaches create real, sustainable, successful, and profitable businesses, real businesses. The work that we do, and I don’t say this lightly, is million dollar work. 

So you can go to the show notes or go to my website at amandakarlstadcoaching.com. You’ll see the link to fill out your application and book a call and see if we’re a fit. I want to really encourage you to do that, to not wait, to not let any more weeks or months or even years go by where you’re not living your full potential in business. I can’t wait to help you get there. All right. 

Today, I want to talk to you all about a lesson, a distinction that I think is vitally important in the journey of building your business. It’s been something I’ve been thinking about, something that I have been observing across the board in talking with my clients. It’s just been something that’s been on my mind. What that is the importance of what I call raising your standards. 

When I say this I’m talking about, of course, in the context of business, I’m talking about essentially the standard that you hold for yourself, the standard that you hold in your self-concept, in your self-image, in your identity. I could probably do an entire series just on this topic alone. But today, I wanted to open the conversation with you about the importance of raising your standards. 

Before we dive in, I just want to talk really briefly about what is a standard. There are a lot of different definitions of what a standard is. One that I found as I looked this up, one that I think that most represents the context of what we’re talking about today is that your personal standard is simply a list of activities, thoughts, and behaviors that you accept is helpful. Your expectations help develop the standards you have. 

Additionally, the circumstances you find yourself in also play a role. Your values and goals are also tied to your personal standards as well. So when I look at that definition and when I think about this concept, your personal standard is what you currently accept in your life. It’s what you accept in your business. It’s made up of your behaviors and the thoughts that you have, your belief systems, your values, and also your goals. 

If we look at what a personal standard is, I want to refine this further. Looking at this in the context of business. If we look at the current results that you have in business, I want you to consider that that is the result of your personal standards. It’s what you have either currently accepted or maybe haven’t accepted in terms of your standards. 

So there’s a lot of things that can be a part of your standards. But I want to zoom in and talk about this specifically as it relates to your business results. So if we were to look at your current results right now, if we were to look at what has created the results that you have, my guess is that we can clearly see what it is that you have been accepting or maybe not accepting up until this point that has ultimately created the results that you have. 

What I’ve learned is that predominantly, this is always going to be driven by beliefs, by the thoughts which is going to filter into what you either have or don’t have to create the level of success that you want. So the concept of your personal standard in business is an extremely important one. It’s something that I think from my experience that for most coaches who are in the process of growing their businesses is something that I don’t think we always take time to consider.

It’s something that I think is not intentional. It’s something that we don’t put a lot of consideration towards. I want today’s conversation to really open this up for all of you. I want this to be the catalyst to help you start to consider what your own personal standards are and what they have been. 

To give you some personal experience around this context, this was some work that I did a few years ago early on in my business as I was considering what it was that I wanted to build, as I thought about what it was that I wanted to create in the world, and what I wanted to be known for and what was that impact that I wanted to make through my work and through my programs.

It’s something that I can honestly say I’ve gone back to, and I have been able to refine as I have been in this journey. It’s something that I continue to look at even today. 

It came up for me recently when I was at an event that for me brought up this internal conversation around standards. As far as what my own personal standards are and whether or not certain things were still in alignment with my standards. 

It’s been a conversation I’ve been having over the last few days. I’ve been really examining my beliefs and my thoughts and my standards. While ultimately the standard that I have has helped me to create extraordinary success in my business, while it has helped me become a master coach, while it’s helped me to build a fantastic business, I can also say that, for me in this moment, I am also in a place where I feel an uplevel in my own personal standard in my business. 

Having this experience, having this time to look at this for myself while having to look at some things in a different light. I can also say that there is an energy, there’s a power in redefining this for myself that is ultimately energizing me in new and different ways as I look forward. So this is the power of raising your standards and deciding whether or not to accept or not accept certain things as it relates to your business. 

So let’s bring this back to you and how this applies to you. Here’s what I would encourage you to think about. When you look at your results, when you look at what you are currently accepting as your standard in terms of your business, in terms of what you’re predominantly thinking about in terms of your business, in terms of what you think about for yourself.

I want you to question is this the standard that is going to get me to where I truly want to go? Or is it out of alignment to where I absolutely want to go? Do my standards match the level of success that I truly want? Or are they in contradiction to that which I want? 

I think these are some really important questions. To give you an illustration, an example of this, and what this means in your business, I want you to think about your business goals. So for some of you, that might be a million dollars. It might be $10 million. It might be $500,000. Maybe it’s not a financial goal at all. Maybe it’s more of an impact goal. Maybe you have an impact goal of reaching 100,000 people or helping 500 clients achieve their goals. So whatever that is, consider what the ultimate extraordinary goal is for you.

Then I want you to consider where it is that you’re currently at. So when you look at the results that you have right now, when you look at today, I want you to consider where it is that you are and what are the personal standards that you have had that have created those current results that you currently experience?

So, for example, maybe the goal is to create a million dollars in your coaching business in one year. Maybe right now you’re at six figures, maybe you’re at $100,000 in your business. Maybe you’ve done that with a lot of trial and error, and you’ve kind of thrown things at the wall, and you’ve hoped some things have stuck, and they have. But you also know that as you look at your goal of creating a million dollar plus business, you can also see that it’s going to require way more intention. 

So as a personal standard when you look at your time, you can see that it’s about trading your time and valuing your time much more as a million dollar business owner versus your current reality might be allowing yourself to get off track and not stick to your calendar or to become easily distracted. 

So the point here is that instead of deciding that you don’t have control over certain things, or in the case of time where you allow yourself to be distracted and unfocused. When you raise your personal standards, when you decide from your million dollar self that you’re going to value your time as a million dollar business owner.

Which means just to put some dollar amounts around this, if you’re working full time in your business, your hourly rate is probably going to equate to around $500 an hour. Or if you’re working let’s say 20, maybe 25 hours per week, which I know is the goal for a lot of you, then that means your hourly rate is probably around $1,000 per hour. 

So I want you to consider this. If you look at how you have been spending your time up until now, if you look at the hours that you are working in your business, and let’s say those hours were worth anywhere from $500 to $1,000 per hour. I want you to consider do your efforts, match that hourly rate? Do the outcomes of what you’re creating in those times monetarily match those types of rates?

I want you to get really honest about that. Because if the current way that you’ve been valuing your time doesn’t match up monetarily to what it is that you want, then you have to raise your personal standard. That means what you’re expecting of yourself in the time that you’re working, and what a business owner who is generating a million dollars plus per year is spending their time on, the results that are being created in those hours, the value that is being created, the skills that are being sharpened, and what is being learned in order to advance and grow the business. 

When you start to raise your standards, what you tolerate or no longer tolerate will instantly get you into momentum. There is a real energy when you elevate what it is that you say you are going to do and then going out and doing it. There is real momentum when you are taking massive action, when you’re no longer tolerating a standard that doesn’t align with where you’re going. 

So I want you all to look at this for yourselves and to examine what standards you’ve been holding as it relates to your business. Are you wanting a certain result, but the reality is that you need to be holding yourself to a higher standard? Or are you letting others dictate the level of your standard? 

Whatever this is for you, I want you to decide with intention what your new standard is, and align it with where you truly want to go. All right, my friends. Have a beautiful 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.