Ep #196: The ONE Thing That Can Solve 95% of Your Problems in Your Coaching Business

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast with Amanda Karlstad episode number 196.

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. It’s so good to have you all here today. I’m super excited for today’s episode. We are just coming off of a 10 day trip. We spent some time in Florida. We were there for a national dance event and had a few days that we spent on the beach and at the pool and had so much fun.

It is so good to be back. It is so good to be with you all today. I’ve been thinking about how awesome it is that I’ve been able to grow and scale my business to a place where, quite honestly, I can take vacations like these. Where I have the ability to take time and really be present with my kids and my family and not worry about the business and not worry about whether or not things are taken care of. It’s really an amazing thing. 

I was thinking about this as we were on our trip that I have so much gratitude for my past self, for what I’ve built, and for decisions that I have made that have allowed me to be in this position today where I can take time off and be fully present and still run a super successful business where I can still serve my clients at a high level, where I can still step away and know that what needs to be taken care of is being taken care of with my team. 

I have been feeling so much gratitude over the past few days for all of this and for what I’ve created and for decisions that I’ve made that I now am living the result of those decisions, of the work that I have put in. It’s truly an extraordinary thing. I’m so grateful for it. 

I also love that I now get to help my clients do the same, to help them grow and scale their businesses in a way that is truly scalable, that allows them to take time away to enjoy their life to spend time outside of the business. And still allow them to grow the business in a way where there are systems in place, where there is solid infrastructure, where not only can they create and build the business of their dreams, but also live and create the life of their dreams. 

It’s really an extraordinary thing if you think about it. I will challenge you that wherever you are today, right now, the decisions that you are making and the choices that you make. All of those things are what will create your future, what will create the next 12 months, what will create the next three years. You have the ability to do that today. I think that that’s an extraordinary thing. 

So today, I want to talk to you all about something that as I think about some conversations that I’ve been having and alone, just this week, I’ve probably had three or four different conversations around this topic. It’s something that I know is super present for all of you listening and is frankly one of the things that I also see is presenting the biggest challenge for most of you.

That is also something that I am really serious about helping my clients solve in their business very quickly and in a very streamlined way. It’s something that I have really built my programs around, I have been working on over the last few years that I’ve been continually optimizing, continually teaching in new and different ways, really staying on the cutting edge, continually learning. All that to say so that I can bring that back to my clients. 

It’s one of the reasons that I believe my clients are able to create truly extraordinary results in an accelerated time frame, and it’s something that I have observed and experienced myself. That once you solve this in your business, for most coaches, this also literally solves, I would say, 95% of all the other issues in the business. 

Some of these other issues, I’m going to call it mind drama which I’m sure all of you can relate to. This is really, really important. It’s what I see so many of you that have yet to solve in your business. It’s one of the reasons that you are likely not where you want to be yet in your business. That is your marketing and sales system. 

This has come up recently in a few coaching sessions. It’s something that I mentioned I’ve observed over and over again as I just look across the board in the industry, as I interact with so many coaches that are in this journey of really working to grow and scale their businesses. This one thing, this one key element in the business. 

Quite literally when you have it dialed in, when you have it working in your business, I will tell you for every client that I have helped implement this in their business that I have worked with that we have made real progress on this, that we have made real momentum, we have created real momentum around this for any coach. It doesn’t matter what niche you’re in. It doesn’t matter what type of coaching you’re focused on. 

When this is solved, when this is working in your business, this will take care of literally I would say 95% of your other issues in your business. So that is how important having an effective, a solid marketing and sales system is in your business. 

Now, one of the things that my clients come to me with is either expanding on their current strategy. So for example, I have many clients that come in that have already established businesses, that have six figure plus businesses. A lot of times these businesses are grown through various different channels. 

For the most part, it’s typically organic. It might be a mixture of social media. It might be through different collaborations. Many do have podcasts and have been able to generate clients through their podcast. It might be through different visibility avenues that they have experienced. For every coach, it does look a little bit different. Whatever that does look like, it generally has allowed them to build their business to, again, that six or possibly even multiple six figure mark. 

Typically those clients reach out because while they have hit that mark in their business, they’re also fully aware that what they have been doing will not get them to their next level. They recognize that they are literally capped to a certain degree that they’re relying fully on methods that are okay for perhaps getting them to where they are, but they’re very clear that it’s not going to get them to that next level. 

So that is definitely one group of clients that we are very good at helping get to that next level. Depending on where the business is when they come into the container, that might be taking them to that 250k or 500k or even seven figure level and beyond in a really accelerated way. 

There’s also another group of clients who tend to come in who haven’t yet reached the six figure mark in their business who are typically working with clients on a one on one basis, who maybe have an established program, or maybe don’t but also do recognize the need that in order to get to that six figure or multiple six and eventually seven figure mark in an accelerated way, they do recognize that they have to do things differently. 

Typically they have tried doing a lot of the things we typically see on social media. They typically have been trying to build organically on social media. Despite their efforts, they are still struggling to build any real momentum in the business. 

I say this having coached now hundreds if not thousands of coaches through all of my different channels that without establishing and implementing a true effective marketing and sales system in your business, it is very difficult to build and grow the business to the level that I know so many of you desire without having this in place. 

What I have experienced time and time again and that I look at daily is that when you do have an effective marketing and sales system working in your business, it literally takes care of 95% of your other perceived issues in the business. It takes care of so many of your perceived mindset blocks. It takes care of what you might be perceiving to be in the way of you taking your business to the level that you desire. 

So I felt really compelled to bring this to all of you today because I see so many coaches that are focusing on what I call bright shiny objects that quite honestly do not matter. Where I see so many brilliant coaches every single day who have so much value to offer that are doing such important work in the world, that are really allowing in a lot of mind drama and false beliefs to really hold them back and stand in their way of success. 

The honest truth is I look at so many of you all and think about if I were able to, for instance, snap my fingers and install a marketing and sales system in your business, if I could solve that problem for you just by the snap of my fingers. The truth is that it would quite literally solve almost every single other “problem” that you might be thinking is a problem in the business. 

There’s a number of reasons for this that we’re going to talk about in a minute. But before we do, I think it’s also very important to understand that as a coach who has made the decision to build a business, who is driven to make an impact that can truly help others in a huge way.

I also believe that it is your responsibility as a business owner to not only understand this, but to solve this by finding the right support, by getting expert level support so that you’re actually creating and moving the needle on the things that matter and no longer wasting time or energy or money on things that quite honestly will not translate into ROI in your business. 

As the CEO, I know we talk a lot about that term in this industry, the CEO term. I know that I use it all the time. But I also want to say that I choose to use it very intentionally. Because whether you consider yourself to be a CEO or not, if you have made the decision to start a business and grow that business, or you’re in the process right now where you’ve created success, and you’re in the process of growing that to the next level or scaling that business, the growth of the business, the results, the success of your business will fall on you. 

It requires that you are solving and implementing the things that actually matter in the business. So it’s important to understand that every business, it doesn’t matter if it’s a coaching business. It could be a completely different type of business. Any business will go through very distinct phases of growth. This is something that I teach inside of all of my programs. Within each of these phases, there are different elements that have to be solved for, that have to happen in order for these different phases of growth to happen, in order to essentially advance to that next level of growth. 

I’ve talked about this before in a number of different ways. But I want to focus on the phase that I know so many of you are in. So whether you right now are below six figures, or you might even be at that six figure mark or past it, and you might be on your way to looking at that 300k or 500k or seven figure level.

Right now you are in what I would say is the growth phase of your business where in order to continue to grow the business, right, to continue to go to the next level, you have to have a solid marketing and sales system that is working in your business. 

Again, for me and for my clients, I have a very streamlined process that I teach that we help our clients implement into their businesses that not only help create the momentum right now, but also create a system for the long term. I have to tell you, I see so many even high six or even seven figure businesses that have yet to really, truly effectively implement this into their business. 

The result of this the result of not having an effective marketing and sales system in your business. The true result of this is that for so many, you are working from a place of survival. So I want you to consider Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for a moment.

So let’s say that if you, for example, have fully transitioned out of a successful career into your coaching business, and let’s say that you right now are in a place where you don’t have the volume of clients that you really want, and you’re struggling to find clients or to make consistent sales in your business. Or maybe you’ve created some success, but you also are at a level where, again, you know that you’re capped. 

The truth is that until you have an effective marketing and sales system working in your business, it doesn’t matter how much mindset work you do. Most humans are going to be operating from a place of survival, from a place of are my physiological needs, are my safety needs being met?

This is a real thing. I will also say that when you are operating from this place in your business, you’re also likely operating from a heightened state of emotion. Again, this is where I see so many coaches that end up stuck, that end up spinning, that are unable to break through to their next level because they’re operating out of the basic human need of making sure that number one, their physiological and safety needs are taken care of. 

This is also why I believe building a seven figure business is so important. That’s a different conversation. But the reality is that if, let’s say, your finances are being threatened, if you are feeling as if you are being threatened financially because your business is not generating the revenue that you either thought it would or you think it should or you might need it to be, it’s a very difficult place to be. 

I will tell you while the mindset work is always going to be useful. I’m not saying that mindset work is not useful in this phase. But I will also say what I believe to be even more important is that you solve the real business problem. That you solve for the fact that right now you probably don’t have a true marketing and sales system working in your business. 

So while I fully believe that any success is going to be 80% psychology and 20% strategy, there is also a very real reality in business. That in order to grow to the level that you want, you have to have marketing and sales. You have to have an effective system that is consistently working in the business. 

This is what I think can be so difficult. Where I see so many coaches get stuck for literally years is because until this is solved for in the business, there truthfully is no way to advance to the next level. There is no amount of mindset work that will produce that out of thin air. Now, it is true that the mindset that you take into creating this marketing and sales system will be extremely important, which is why the mindset piece is always something that I’m looking at.

But I want to bring this to you all today because I am feeling compelled to have a direct conversation with you all about this because no matter what the issue might be presenting to be or what you might be making things mean right now, the truth is that rather than doubting whether or not you can do something or doubting whether or not what you want to create is possible, questioning that. I want you to consider that what if you actually had a system that was working in your business that attracted and delivered three, four, five or even more clients per week directly to you? 

What if you were in a place where your calendar was so full, where you were making sales consistently that you needed to start focusing on how to solve that problem? For most coaches, this alone solves the other 95% of what I call those perceived issues. The lack of belief, the doubt, the confusion, the stalling, the spinning, the ruminating. Ultimately, yes, I’m gonna say it, the excuses. 

Because here’s what I know to be true. Business is like a game. Just like in any game, to win you have to do certain things. Certain things have to be in place. You have to advance to different levels in order to win the game. The same is true, my friends, in business. To make the level of impact that I know you want to make, to make the money that I’m sure you want to make, to do the work that you love at the level you want to do it, to create the life and have the lifestyle that is so important to you, the time freedom, the flexibility. Then this must be solved for in your business. 

It’s not going to be solved by taking another social media course or trying to piece things together. This requires real business strategy. It requires you to grow your skills in the areas of marketing and sales. So if you’re in a place of disbelief, if you’re in a place of doubt, if you’re in a place where you’re not where you want to be, I can almost guarantee it’s because you don’t have a true marketing and sales system that is working effectively in your business. That is going to give you, quite honestly, the chance to create the success that you want. 

So I bring this to you today because I see so many of you struggling with this. I also want to invite you that if you know that you need help with this and if what I talked about resonated with you today, then I want to invite you and challenge you to take action. To take some real action to solve this in your business. 

I want to invite you to apply to work with us, to see if you’re a fit for the mastermind or the High Level Mastermind depending on where you’re at in your business. Because no matter where you are today, I want to encourage you that what you do desire and what you want to create is 100% available to you. It is 100% possible. But it’s also going to require different and new levels from you. It’s going to require that you do something different. It’s going to require that you truly solve the real problem in your business. 

By default, as we’ve talked about, which is why this is so important. It’s also going to solve 95% of all of the other perceived issues that you have. So this is really, really important, my friends. I want to encourage you to really let this sink in. Really take the next step, really take this to heart, and see what your next steps are. It’s that important. All right, my friends. Have an amazing week. I’ll talk to you all again 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.