Ep #62: The Process

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast, episode number 62.

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 the show. I’m so glad to have you all with me today. Welcome to any new listeners. I’m so happy to have you here. We’re going to have a great conversation today.

But before we dive in, I want to wish you all a very, very happy and healthy holiday, wherever you are. A very happy and healthy holiday season. So I hope you’re able to connect with family and friends, I hope again, you are all staying healthy. Knock on wood, we’re all healthy here and the plan is to stay healthy and I’m very grateful for that.

So today we’re going to talk about something I think is really, really important if you are an entrepreneur. If you are growing and scaling a business, I think this is one of the more important conversations to have. And I want to talk to you all today about the process.

And what I mean by the process is the process that you will inevitably go through as you grow and scale a business. And specifically when you are growing and scaling a business and you are going through that process, being able to have a genuine reverence, having a genuine appreciation, and a higher level of awareness to that process and to what’s really happening in that process.

So this is what I want to talk to you all about today because it’s really, really important. And I have to be honest with you all. Many of you are missing out on this. Many of you are missing out on the real growth that’s available to you. The real value of being in the process.

And I know this because I see it all of the time, whether it’s with clients or in general in the coaching industry. And so here’s what I want to say about this. I believe that growing a business is a spiritual journey. I believe that growing a business is an opportunity to develop yourself like no other.

It’s truly one of the most valuable gifts I believe that we have, where we’re able to go through a process like this. And to be able to create what we create and through that process have a level of growth of ourselves that is available to us.

But what I see happening in most cases is that I see most people that go through this process that want to just skip through it and they just want to skip over it. And what ends up happening is they end up resisting the process.

And it’s almost like expecting to go from zero to 100 overnight, in like a day. And I want to be clear here. I think having a level of drive is great. I think having ambition is not a bad thing. I do believe that having these things is part of what is going to help drive you to go where you want to go.

But the problem comes in is when we stay in resistance, when we start fighting what is. And I want to be honest with you all that this process, this journey that you’re on is literally full of amazing growth opportunities for you. It’s literally full of lessons that you are in a position to learn and it allows you to develop in ways that you would never have before.

And what I want to say about that is you can only really gain that though when you start perceiving it as this, when you start to move out of your resistance. And I also want to be clear that this doesn’t mean that you’re not going to feel discomfort.

The fact is that you will feel discomfort. You are going to feel discomfort in this process. But what’s really important to understand is that this is also where the most growth will and always does happen.

And so this is really where I see the real growth happening and this is where you become the version of yourself that creates those results that you most want. And there is just so much power in this, so much power of leaning into this process.

And so I really want to offer to all of you to really think about this episode, really think about what it is that I am offering to you today, and really applying this to your experience and applying this to your business and where you’re at with your business.

Because this really is about going deeper into those lessons, going deeper underneath the hood, so to speak. And what I will say is that it’s really, really hard to get there when you are fighting and resisting the whole way. It’s only when you can start to become present and start to get curious about what you’re experiencing that I see shifts happen.

And I will also say a big part of this is also understanding and stepping up and taking full responsibility, taking full responsibility for your results and for your experience. And not blaming anything external to you.

And so this is some of the work that I really love doing. I love when this comes up with clients. I love being able to dive into this. And I have to say, it happens with every client. And because the reality is, we so often have things flipped, we so often think that we need to have the results first before we learn the lessons.

And the irony in all of this is that we don’t get the result until we learn the lesson, until we take that full and complete responsibility, and we understand that it’s us, it’s we who are creating the experience. And in every single case, in every client that I work with, this is a very uncomfortable process.

It’s a very uncomfortable process to shed these layers, to be confronted with these things. It’s very uncomfortable to take full responsibility and to really be present and open up to the experience that you’re having.

And I will say that it’s something that I think in most cases, whether it is with a client that I’m working with or just in general, what I’m observing, I do think in most cases that it’s one of those things that we get on an intellectual level.

So we understand this on an intellectual level that we create our results. We understand intellectually that we create our experience. But the difference here and what I’m talking about here today is taking that intellectual understanding and actually bringing it in to embodiment, to leaning – essentially leaning into it, especially when it feels uncomfortable, especially when it feels like we’re not getting the results that we want.

And so one of the reasons I decided to have this conversation with you today is because quite honestly, this is one of the places that I see so, so many of you getting tripped up and I see so many of you staying stuck. And it’s also one of the most important things that when you understand this on a deep level for yourself, it’s actually one of the things that can help propel you forward.

It’s one of those things that will help you actually create momentum. And so it really is being able to genuinely appreciate and genuinely see the process for what it is and understand the lessons and know the lessons that you are meant to learn.

And I believe that if you’ve chosen to be on this journey, that if you have chosen to be an entrepreneur and are growing a business, I truly do believe that this is a lesson that you will inevitably learn at some point. And so in order to get to your next level, this will be a part of it. It will be required.

And so I know that all of you have chosen to be on this journey and I know I’ve said it before, but I just want to say that I really do believe this and my hope is that you can all see this at some point, whether you see it today or whether you see it in the future, that this really is a special journey that you’ve chosen to be on.

And I do believe that it can be and is the best developmental opportunity for you if you decide to see it as such, if you decide to really lean into it. And that really comes when you start, or rather when you stop fighting and pushing and resisting.

And here’s the truth. This is one of the best; entrepreneurship is one of the best opportunities for self-development because what it does is it requires that you know yourself better, that you understand your gifts, that you understand your purpose, that you have such deep clarity on who you are and who you’re here to serve and what your contribution to the world is.

And so for those of you who might be in the earlier stages of your business, I think this is a really, really important concept for you. It’s a really important practice. And that is being able to lean into the process and genuinely cultivating appreciation for the process. It’s a very, very easy thing to miss and it’s also, again, one of the things that I see can catapult your growth.

And so I want to give you all an example of this because I was just having recently a conversation with one of my clients about this, about this topic. And it was really interesting because we were reflecting over the past year. So just to give you a little bit of context and background, so this client and I, we started working together in April of this year, so April of 2020.

And we were talking about all of her growth that she’s experienced just in those short eight months. So since April, since we started working together, we were really reflecting on how far she’s come and how far her business has come. And what was so fun is that she actually wrote down everything that she’s accomplished in those eight months.

And it was just such a great exercise. And so she wrote down everything that she’s accomplished in her business, and she was completely blown away by that list, by how far she’s come, by where her business is at today.

And so just to be clear, the business that she has today did not exist eight months ago when she came to me. It was a complete rebuild because the truth is that’s what we had to do. So this particular client is a therapist and had a one-on-one practice, in-person practice.

And obviously with COVID and just everything we have encountered in 2020, it became very clear, she had already been thinking, leading up to before even COVID was here, that she wanted to move her practice online, that she wanted to branch more into coaching.

And so it was just very – the timing really worked out great. And so when she came to me eight months ago, she had kind of a rough idea of what she wanted to create. She had a sense of it but wasn’t really clear on what that was. And like with most clients, when we sit down and really start hashing through things and I take them through the process that I take them through, it becomes very clear very quickly where we wanted to take things and where she wanted to take things.

And so it was quite obvious that we needed to make some big pivots in her business. It was very clear that we needed to, what I like to call take a sharp right turn in her business. And this was really so that we were building a business that was in full alignment with her and for really where she wanted to serve and where she wanted to grow her business.

And so looking at where she had grown her business until that point, she had been really successful with it, but knowing that that wasn’t sustainable, knowing that that wasn’t really the area focus that she wanted to stay on, it was very clear that we were going to need to do a rebuild.

And so that is what we did. We went to work and rebuilt out her entire business model and program and all of the backend infrastructure and essentially all of her marketing. We implemented a whole new marketing strategy.

And today, fast forward to today, it’s really, really been amazing to see where she’s at and for her to just reflect on all of the things, all of the ways that her business has grown over these last eight months. And so in that short amount of time, during COVID, it’s really been so much fun to look back at that.

And what I want to share with you all is that when I look at this particular client, what’s really interesting and that I will share with you all is that I could see very clearly that over these last eight months and her and I had conversations throughout the last eight months that there were some times that were not easy.

When you are essentially flipping your business upside down and rebuilding your business upside down, that is not always an easy process. And so through that process, there has been a lot of discomfort.

And what’s so great now, having gotten to the other side of that, being able to look back and reflect on that journey, what’s really fun and what’s so exciting to see here today and what her and I were talking about was that it’s so obvious now to her that had she not done this work, had she not gone through the process, had she not leaned into the discomfort and made the bold moves that she made, there would be no way that she would be able to be in position for the growth that she’s positioned to have in 2021.

There would be no way that had she not done this hard work in these last few months that she would have the business that she has today. And I just want to tell you all and I have no doubts about this, we have built a million-dollar business. She has created a million-dollar business in these last eight months. I have zero doubt in my mind.

And I just have to tell you that because this is the power of going through a process like this. This is the power of being willing to go through the discomfort. This is the power of being able to lean into these things that I’m talking to you about today.

And I know this because she is doing amazing work and she is in a position now to help so many more people than she was eight months ago. She is in a position to help literally hundreds of thousands of families and hundreds of thousands of kids with her work.

And so the point I want to make here and why I want to share this with you is because I see this over and over and over, whether it’s working with clients or just in general, when I see coaches, especially that get in what I would call the thick of it, when they’re in a place where it feels hard, where things might not be clicking, where maybe you’re in the thick of building out some infrastructure, you’re in the technology, whatever that is, when you feel like giving up or when you start to question things, I’m tell you all, that is when you need to lean in even more.

That is when you need to look even more closely at what lesson you’re meant to be learning. This is when we need to lean in and take an even deeper level of responsibility for your experience. Because this is where the true growth happens, this is where you start to shed those old layers and those old stories, those old constructs.

And this is also where you’re able to give birth to the new. And I think if anything, 2020 has, I know for me, taught me that, and I think for all of you that it’s such an opportunity to lean in and we all have such an opportunity for rebirth here.

And so it’s so much fun to be able to – when I reflect on that conversation with her, to be able to have that conversation, to be able to see the growth that she has made, to see all of the progress that she has made, to see how she was able to move through that discomfort and essentially turn her business upside down so that now she’s positioned herself to where she’s going to be helping a lot, a lot of people.

And so it’s just so much fun to see her stepping into her more purposeful work that she’s really here to do. So that’s what I would encourage to all of you today, to stop for a moment and appreciate where you’re at. Look at the process. Process the process and genuinely cultivate an appreciation for it, whatever it looks like.

Think about these lessons that you’re learning. Think about the value and how this can really serve you in your business. You all have an amazing opportunity to apply these lessons if you choose and I think there’s an amazing ripple effect when you can do that.

Alright everyone, have an amazing 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 atamandakarlstadcoaching.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.