Ep #135: How to Stop Indulging in Disbelief in Your Coaching Business

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast with Amanda Karlstad episode number 135.

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. Welcome to today’s show. I hope you’re doing well. I am doing amazing. I just wrapped up some amazing calls today with my High Level Mastermind clients. So these are clients who are in the process of scaling their businesses. For many of them, that’s taking their businesses to that multiple six figure level or even seven figure level. It’s just such an amazing yet intense process.

I’m so proud of them. They are all doing amazing work and crushing their goals. It is just so, so great to witness their growth and to see what they’re creating in this world. It really is amazing.

On that note, I do want to invite you if you’re an established coach. So if you have built your business to that six figure level or if you’re trending towards that level and you’re ready to take things to that next level, if you truly desire to build a highly successful coaching practice then I want to invite you to apply to my High Level Mastermind. It’s a high level coaching container that combines both high level strategy and high level mindset. It’s really an extremely powerful container where we take you and we take your business to that next level.

I am so blown away by my clients and the wins that they’re experiencing. It is such a powerful container that I want to encourage you if your true desire is to go big in your coaching business, to build a multiple six, a seven figure business and beyond this container, the process, the coaching in this container will absolutely get you there.

One of my goals this year is to help as many coaches as possible to do that. Because there is such a high level of support and a high level of customization that happens in this program, space is limited. So I do encourage you to apply. You can find the link in the show notes. You can also go to my website at amandakarlstadcoaching.com.

We have some really exciting things coming up including our next upcoming retreat that is going to be happening. Our last retreat was in March. There were so many takeaways, so many great breakthroughs that came from that retreat that I’m so excited for what’s in store for this next one.

So go ahead and fill out an application and set up a call. I would love to talk to you more about where you are and where you want to go. We’ll talk about whether the program is a fit. I’d love to help you really see what’s possible for you this year. So, again, go to the show notes wherever you are listening to this podcast, and you can also visit my website at amandakarlstadcoaching.com and set up the application and the call from there.

I also have a really special invitation for those of you who are working towards your first six figures in your business. So maybe you’re working with clients on a one-on-one basis, and you too are ready to go to that next level. I do want to invite you to join the upcoming cohort of the Mastermind. This is my six month business accelerator program that’s designed to help coaches grow to their first six figures. We’ve got a cohort that, again, is going to be starting soon.

Because this program is only offered a couple of times a year and because there is—just like with my High Level Mastermind—a very high level of support and personalization that happens in this program. This is not another group program where you are in a super large group, and you are just a number. There is a high level of customization. You have my eyes on your business. I really want to encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity.

There is also an application for this program. We’re going to link that up in the show notes. You can also find that on my website. I would love to help you take your business to your first six figures this year. So many exciting things happening. So many great winds that are happening day after day. I am just so truly proud of the work that my clients are doing in this program. I want to really invite you if you’re ready to go to the next level, now is the time to join us. All right, let’s do this.

Today, I want to talk to you about something that I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’ve been thinking about this because I’ve been observing this a lot in the industry and observing it in a lot of different ways. I felt like it was really important for me to bring this conversation to you today.

So what I want to talk to you about is indulging in disbelief. When I say that, I’m talking specifically about your business. I’m talking specifically about your ability to build your business, to grow your business, and really take your business to the level that you want.

It’s something that I will tell you all I have experienced this myself at many different points in my journey. It’s also something that I have been observing recently in many, many coaches that I’ve been speaking with. It’s something that I will say can truly slow down your growth if you’re not aware of it, if you aren’t actively addressing it.

So, I really want to give you all this gift of awareness today and to be able to look at yourself and look at your business. If this is something that you are currently dealing with, I want to coach you through some things. Some of the most common things that I have seen come up with both my clients, with myself, and with coaches in general.

So I want to start out by clarifying and defining what I mean when I say indulgent. The reason that I’m using this word is because I think something that I’ve observed, again, recently with many, many coaches, and I think it’s really important to be clear about the words that we use, is this word of indulgent.

So when it comes to our emotions, one of the things that I think is very important to understand is that our emotions are triggered by our thoughts. Our emotions are triggered by our belief systems. So, for example, let’s say that you have a belief that you’re a great coach. That you’re a very capable coach, as I know many of you listening are.

When you think about that, you as a coach and your ability to coach your clients, you have probably experienced some amazing coaching sessions where you have coached your clients, where you’ve felt a level of confidence in your coaching ability that has helped build that belief. It’s helped build that pattern of belief within you that you’re a great coach.

You probably have some evidence of that working with clients, and you have confidence in the tools that you offer. So when it comes to your coaching ability and your ability to coach your clients, when you think about that, you probably feel a sense of confidence, a sense of capability in your coaching ability.

What happens is that emotion of confidence, that emotion of feeling capable, comes from the thoughts, from the experiences, from the evidence that you have about your ability to coach. So this is an important distinction that I want to make because we all have emotions that we experience on a daily basis. No matter what it is that we’re doing, whatever it is that we’re experiencing, our emotions are based on our thought patterns, based on those belief systems.

But I want to take this a step further. Because our emotions are triggered by thoughts, because they’re triggered by those beliefs, what also happens is that because our brains like the known and because our brains don’t like what’s not known, it doesn’t like the unknown. What tends to happen is that depending on whatever deep, ingrained thought patterns we have in our subconscious and depending on what we’re choosing to consciously focus on.

What I see happens so often, especially when you’re in this process of building and growing and scaling a business where in most cases you don’t have the evidence yet that it’s working or that it’s working to the level that you want it is that it’s very easy to start to indulge in certain thought patterns. There is a tendency to begin to indulge in certain emotions. Quite frankly, in most cases these emotions, these thought patterns, are not supporting you in where you want to go.

Again, I’m using the term indulgent very intentionally. Because without even recognizing it, what I see happen so often is that it’s very common to start to indulge in certain thoughts. When we indulge in certain thoughts, what happens is that triggers emotions.

So depending on what those internal belief systems are, and I see a lot of times this is in the subconscious programming with my clients, so not even them being conscious of it, is that we begin to indulge in certain thoughts and certain emotions, even when they don’t serve us. But because they’re known and because our brain likes the known, our brain still offers them up because they’re recognizable, because they have been a pattern in the past, because the brain perceives them as being more comfortable than the opposite.

So an indulgent emotion is actually an emotion that is comfortable. It’s something that you tend to dive into more than you would like to, even when it doesn’t give you the results you want. One of the ways that you can start to recognize this for yourself and when you might be indulging in certain thoughts, in certain emotions that aren’t truly serving you is when you’re not experiencing the level of traction, the level of growth, or the level of movement that you really want in your business.

I will tell you this doesn’t just come up when you’re starting out in your business. I personally have found that this comes up even when you’ve experienced a high level of success in your business, even when on paper your business might look like a success. It’s something that I find it comes up especially when you’re about to go to a next level.

The reason that this happens is because the brain has no evidence when you are going through an uplevel in your business. What’s happening is that when you’re about to experience an uplevel, when you are going through the internal process of upleveling yourself, you start to step into what the brain perceives as unfamiliar territory. You start stepping into the unknown.

Even though this is a great thing for most of you, we have to be aware that the brain, that it’s most concerned with keeping us safe. So even though it might be a great uplevel, it might be a great move, it might be great work that you’re doing, the brain is likely perceiving it as unknown. As unfamiliar even though it’s a great thing for your business. So just know that your brain is still going to be wired and present you with evidence, always with the intention of keeping you safe.

So here’s why this is so relevant. It’s relevant because every day when you’re in the process of growing or scaling your business, especially, again, when you’re looking to take things to the next level, it’s going to require that you start doing things outside of your comfort zone. It’s going to require that you do things that you’ve never done before.

What happens is when you take those steps, when you start to step into that unknown, that is when the self-doubt, that is when the fear, that is when the overwhelm, insert whatever emotion that might be for you. That is when that starts to take over.

Where I want to bring all of your awareness to today is that unless you’re actively conscious of this, unless you’re actively managing your mind on a daily basis, unless you’re actively managing your mind in a way that is creating and generating the types of emotions that fuel your growth, it’s very easy to fall into a pattern of disbelief. It’s very easy to fall into indulging in disbelief.

So this is the awareness that I really want to bring to you today. Because one of the things that I will tell you all has served me very well in my own journey is my daily dedication, is my daily commitment to my own self-coaching practice. What I mean by that is the habit, the active management of my own brain. It’s something that I on a daily basis work on. It’s something that’s very intentional for me.

What I have found is that for me, when for whatever reason I might have fallen away from my daily practice, when I might have gotten off track, I can feel it immediately. It’s something that I’m aware of, and I’m so conscious of that I’m fully aware of it almost immediately. What this allows me to do is to also, because of that level of awareness that I have, to also address it and to get myself back on track. That has come from daily practice and being consistent with this in my life. This has really served me.

So I want you to consider for yourself how active you are and how effectively you are at managing your own brain. I want you to really ask yourself and be honest in your answer. Are you currently indulging in disbelief? Again, I want to encourage you to get honest with yourself because one of the number one things that I see slowing so many of you down is choosing to indulge in disbelief.

What I want to encourage all of you to do is to decide with intention and with practice to indulge in belief instead. I want you to think about this for a moment. I want you to ask yourself what would happen if you suspended your disbelief? What would happen if you suspended your disbelief even for a day, even for a week? Think about the compound effect that that would have in your life. Think about the effect that that would have in your business. Think about how you would show up differently in your business and how you would think differently in your business.

This can truly change everything. So take some time. I would encourage you to do this right now and really ask yourself, where in your business have you been indulging in disbelief? Where in your business have you been entertaining stories of why you can’t be successful? Where in your business have you been entertaining stories of why this won’t ever work for you?

I will say we all have our own versions of the stories. But I want to invite you to take some time and pull out a journal and really become consciously aware of where you have been indulging in disbelief. You can understand that by looking at the results that you currently have. Our results don’t lie, my friends.

When you’re doing this work, I do also want to invite you to do the work of flipping that belief and really looking at the opposite of whatever that belief is that you’ve been indulging in. Think about what would change if you only indulged in belief from here on out. I know for certain that this has the potential to change everything for you.

So I want to invite you all go out and indulge in belief. Consciously choose to indulge in belief. Choose belief over disbelief. I promise it’s going to serve you and your business and your clients so much better. All right, have an amazing week everyone. Take care. Will talk to you soon. 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.