Ep #77: The Importance of Playing The Long Game

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast, episode number 77.

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 with me today. I hope you’re doing well. I’m doing amazing. I am just getting back from spring break. I took some time off and we did a little bit of traveling with the kids and had so much fun. And it’s also good to be back.

Alright, so I was thinking about all of you while I was off and while I was traveling and thinking about today’s podcast and what I wanted to share with you. And when I think about you and when I think about my clients who are building their businesses, I really felt compelled to share with you what I’m about to share with you today.

And it’s something that I actually shared recently with one of my cohorts for my foundational business accelerator program, which is called The Mastermind. And it’s something I’ve also been personally thinking a lot about in my own business.

And I think about this a lot for my clients and for their businesses, and so because of all of that, I want to share it with you all today because I believe it’s really, really important. And I believe that it’s especially important because it is directly correlated with your ability to be able to effectively grow and scale your business.

And so what I want to talk to you all today about is choosing to play the long game. Now, even though this is extremely critical to your long-term success, to the success of your business, I want to tell you this. I see very few coaches actually do this.

That actually consider this, that actually are in it for the long game as they’re growing their business. And here’s what I mean by this. Typically, when you’re starting out, you’re generally concerned mostly with how you’re going to get clients, right?

And so this is typically where I see most coaches put the majority of their focus, where they put the majority of their time. And in many ways, this is what’s needed. This is actually required. Because if you don’t have clients, you don’t have a business.

And what I tend to see happen a lot in the first few months and I would say actually that first year especially and keep in mind, this is in general because everyone’s situation will be a bit different. But for the clients that I work with, their goal is to build a highly successful practice.

Their goal is to build a practice that allows them to at a minimum replace their salary and ultimately go beyond that, ultimately be able to build a business that generates at least multi-figures in revenue, to seven, even eight figures in revenue.

And so what I see happen so often is that when you’re in a position where you’ve already worked hard to get to where you are in life, so let’s say that you’ve climbed the ladder, you have had some years in your career and on paper, you would be considered what we would consider as a society to be successful.

And so what I see happen a lot is that when you’re in this position where you’ve already experienced a high level of success in your life, yet you’re finding yourself in a position where you also know it’s not your purpose, where you’re wanting to do more fulfilling work, where you want to have the flexibility, you want the freedom and all of the freedom that comes with having your own business, it can be a challenge.

Because what happens is that in especially those first few months, and I would say probably typically a year, it requires such a deep level of growth. It requires so much especially to that first six figures.

And this is why I always talk about really that first six figures in your business can in many ways and typically is the most challenging. And it’s because it requires such a different version of you as the coach, as the business owner.

And so what often tends to happen is when I observe coaches that are in this phase and working with clients that are in this phase and helping them reach that first six figures, it’s very normal to react to things and especially when things don’t go as planned, or if the thought is, I should be farther along by now, which I know for many of you you’ve experienced that thought.

I see a lot of coaches that essentially allow themselves to lose momentum. And what happens is they start to doubt the process, they start to doubt themselves, they start to doubt their decision to even build a business. And what happens very quickly is it affects their attitude, and it affects their attitude about their business, about their clients, about whether or not they’re even capable of building the business, whether or not it’s even possible for them.

And I just have to say when you’re in this place, it is a losing battle. And it’s something that I see happen a lot. And so this is why I’m bringing you this topic today because being able to play the long game is so, so critical to your success. It’s so critical to your business.

And I want to be honest with you about this. If you are in a position right now where you’re questioning whether or not you are in it for the long game, I would highly recommend that you consider that. That you consider your thoughts about that and consider what you’re doing.

Because if you want to build a highly successful and profitable coaching business, which I know you all do, you have to be in it for the long game. And that means being in it no matter what your journey looks like. That means being in it no matter if it takes months or even a year or more to build the momentum in your business.

And it’s really, really important to understand this, to make the decision to be all in no matter what. And I have to tell you all, I think this is one of the reasons when I look at my own journey, that this is part of the reason why I’ve been able to grow my business as quickly as I have.

It’s one of the reasons that I have now built my business to a level that quite honestly very few achieve in this industry. And it’s also why I’m able to help my clients do the same.

And I will tell you that very early on, and I can remember this very – it’s very clear in my head. I can remember very early on making the decision in my business that I was all in. And I will say it wasn’t just one decision, it was also a series of decisions that I made along the way.

But it started with a very clear decision and a very clear commitment to myself that I was all in on this business. And I decided and committed to build a successful business no matter what. And what that did is it took away any other alternative.

And so what I want to share with you is that doing this, I was able to then channel all of my energy. I was able to channel all of my focus. I was able to channel my resources into building the business that I really wanted to build.

And in that process, I was also able to tune out what wasn’t important. And that really allowed me to put my focus into becoming the best coach that I could be. It allowed me to put my focus and direct my focus on creating the two programs that I have today that help my clients become the best versions of themselves and allows them to now build businesses that are in full alignment with them and provide them the actual support they need.

It also allowed me to stop entertaining any ideas of other alternatives. And so by doing this, when I look back, I was literally able to save myself a ton of time. And it allowed me to channel my mental resources, my physical resources, my financial resources into a direction that actually served me, that actually served my business.

And so this is why deciding and also committing to the long game is so vitally important. Because not only does it allow you to channel the time and likely the limited time that you have, it allows you to channel your finances, your mental, your emotional capacity in a direction that actually serves you and serves your business.

And I believe it’s a requirement to the sustainability and the overall success of your business. It’s required. But I want to take a look at this and go a little bit deeper with this because one of the things that I was recently teaching in one of my cohorts is something that I think when you really understand this beyond an intellectual level.

So when you really get this on a deep emotional level, I’ve really experienced that this can change everything. So to give you a little bit of background, recently I was teaching some of my clients about something called the law of gestation.

So for many of you, this probably isn’t a concept you’re familiar with. And so I want to take a minute to explain what this is and also talk about how it relates to playing the long game, like we’re talking about today. And so for those of you that aren’t familiar with my work, one of the areas that I do a lot of teaching around, that I work with my clients on specifically within my programs and help them apply to their business are the concepts of the universal laws.

And so many of you I’m sure are familiar with or you’ve at least heard of probably the most commons, which is the law of attraction. And it’s definitely an important law to understand. I don’t want to say that it’s not. But what I want to say is there’s a lot more when it comes to all of this.

And it’s one of the areas that I have really dug into myself. It’s one of the areas that I study very intensely myself. And it’s also part of what I teach inside of my programs when I’m coaching my clients and how to actually apply these universal laws to our lives, to our businesses.

And one of the reasons I love this work is because it’s so exact. If you think about it, the universal laws, our universe operates from a certain set of laws. And when you’re not aware of these laws, if you don’t understand how they actually apply, what ends up happening is you’re actually working against them.

And so this is why in a lot of cases, when I see coaches that come to me that are experiencing such high levels of resistance and they’re just not able to gain momentum, they’re not just getting the traction they really want in their business, it’s because in many cases, they’re not understanding, they’re not applying these laws.

And so to give you again, just a little bit of background, there are seven main laws of the universe. And within those seven main laws, there’s also a number of subsidiary laws. So there’s other laws that do exist that work in conjunction with those seven main laws.

And so one of those main laws is what’s called the law of gestation. And this law states that there’s a period of incubation that all seeds need to go through in order to grow so that they can be harvested. So if you think for a moment about a farmer or you think about a garden and you look at the natural process that a plant for instance goes through, it starts as a seed.

And so the first point of this law of gestation is that that seed is planted. And there’s a period of time then depending on what type of plant that is, what type of, let’s say, a vegetable or fruit before it can actually be harvested.

And what’s so interesting is that if you look at any living thing, this law applies to everything. So just taking humans for instance, we also have a gestation period. We have a gestation period of about nine months. Now, there’s obviously some give and take, depending on a lot of factors, but the point of this is that it takes approximately nine months for a child to be born.

And so in the same way it takes plants, it takes vegetables, there’s a certain gestation period from the time it’s planted to the time it’s ready to be harvested, in order for it to be ripe, in order for that plant, that vegetable to be harvested.

And so what I want to teach you today is that the same is true for your business. There’s a certain gestation period that applies to your business in the same way it applies if you just think about the human gestation process, if you think about the plant gestation process. There’s a certain point in time from when that seed is planted until it’s ready for harvest.

And so if you just think for a minute, the example of – let’s use a fruit tree. Doesn’t matter what type of fruit tree it is, but let’s say that you planted a fruit tree. We all know that you don’t harvest the fruit the day after you plant the tree, right?

And in some cases, depending on what type of tree it is, you might not harvest the actual fruit until months, and in some cases years later. But once that fruit starts growing, once that tree is fertilized and cared for, it’s going to bear fruit every season.

And the result of that is you’ll harvest, you’ll be able to harvest that fruit every season. But we also know that this is a long-term process. We also know that when planting a tree and caring for a tree and fertilizing a tree, it’s a lifetime process.

And so this is really important to understand that the same is true for your business. So in the same way, our thoughts, our desires, our goals for our business, they have to mature over a period of time before they’re actually manifested in our reality.

And so this means that just because we have thoughts about having the six or the seven-figure business, that doesn’t automatically mean that that business manifests from purely thought alone. What it means is that in order to manifest that level of business, there are certain things that have to be implemented in that business.

There are certain things that must be created in that business. You as the business owner have to be taking certain actions in order for that business to manifest. And so when I look at my own business for example, my two programs, so I have The Mastermind, which is my foundational business accelerator program, and my high-level mastermind program, which is designed to help coaches scale to multi-figures and beyond.

Those two programs went through a process of gestation. And it started by first creating the vision for these two containers and getting very specific about how I wanted these containers to look, how I wanted to serve my clients in these containers, as well as the types of clients that I wanted to serve within these containers.

But once I had that clear vision and once I was clear on what it was that I truly wanted to build, what I was then able to do is get to work on creating that vision, bringing that vision to life. And throughout that process, it allowed me to stay focused on that vision, which now today has resulted in me being able to serve my clients at the level that I do.

But that also didn’t happen overnight. And that didn’t happen even in a month. This all happened over the course of several months and it required several months of concentrated focus, several months of concentrated effort. And I will tell you, it requires intense focus still today.

But because I had a very clear vision and because I committed to that vision and then followed it up by showing up every single day in my business, I’m now in a position where I have a very successful business, where I’m able to help amazing clients, where I’m able to provide a level of value that literally impacts the futures of my clients and their businesses, all by deciding and committing to playing the long game.

And understanding that everything, including a business, has a gestation period. And so by being able to understand this and putting this into practice in my own business, and now being in a position where I’m able to help my clients do the same in their own business, it’s the understanding that whatever it is that you want to do, whatever it is that you want to create, the level of business that you really want, I’m telling you, it’s available to you.

So I want you all to understand that if you want a six-figure business, if you want a seven-figure business, some of you even want an eight-figure business, I’m telling you you can absolutely build that. You have the ability to build both the life and the business of your dreams.

But you also have to be willing to play the long game. You have to be willing to grow through what it is that you need to grow through in order to build your business to that level. And you have to be willing to be all in and stick with it over the long game.

Because it doesn’t happen overnight. And I also want you to know it doesn’t have to take years. It’s understanding that your business growth can be inevitable and is inevitable when you have the right mindset, when you have the right approach, when you have the right strategies, when you have the right support.

But this will only work if you’re in it for the long game. So I want to really encourage you all to consider this and be honest with yourself whether or not you’re in this for the long game, or whether you’re in this on a conditional basis.

And consider whether you’re up for it all, meaning the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because the truth is in order to get to where you want to go, you’re going to have to grow through and break through levels that you’ve never broken through before.

It’s going to require the next evolution of you. And it’s going to feel awful in many cases. Yet one of the ways that you can ensure the inevitability of your success is by committing to and being willing to play the long game.

And I want to leave you with this; when you commit to and play the long game, what happens is you will calm so much noise within yourself. You will develop such a stronger mindset because of this. You will demonstrate so much more resiliency in your life.

You’re going to make better decisions in your business. You will be able to discern opportunities much better. You’re going to have more energy in your business. You’re going to be in a position where you’re actually helping your clients at a much higher level.

You’ll learn to truly honor the process of growing a business and ultimately, you will become the example that you most want to be. So commit to playing the long game y’all. Your future business and your clients are depending on you to do this.

Alright 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.