Ep #155: The Thoughts Stopping Your Business’s Growth

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast with Amanda Karlstad episode number 155.

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 having an amazing week. I am doing really great. I have been working on some big things behind the scenes. I’m so excited to move into the fourth quarter of the year. We are heading into fall, into just a beautiful time of year. I’m really excited for what’s ahead.

So not only for finishing this year, strong, but also heading into the next year, into 2023 with a ton of momentum. Just the opportunity that I’ve been able to create to help so many amazing clients create really massive success in their businesses. When I look at what’s happening, it’s just so incredible because we have so many wins and so much momentum happening.

So many of my clients are hitting their biggest sales months of the year. We just had a client that hit his first $50,000 sales month for the first time. We have clients that are bringing in their highest cash months ever. Clients who are bringing in $30,000 or more of cash. We’ve had clients over these past couple of months hitting $150,000 in revenue. So it’s just phenomenal the level of momentum and the level of wins that are happening.

Outside of just the money and the revenue, we have so many other exciting things. So clients who are building and launching new programs. We have a client that’s building out a certification program at the moment that I’m really, really excited about. We have a client that just recently landed two huge corporate yearlong contracts that is worth a lot of money.

Clients that are literally four and five x-ing their return on paid marketing. So what that means is essentially for every dollar that they’re putting into paid marketing, they are literally generating and receiving four to five times that in their business. For one of my clients in particular on their campaign, were actually getting a 17 time return. So every time $1 is put in, $17 is coming back. So it’s really, really an amazing time. So many beautiful things happening in their businesses.

I love sharing that with you because it really does speak to what my mission is all about, which is helping my clients become examples of what is possible. That is what we are doing. Outside of again even just the financial side of things, we have clients that are really creating more peace than ever. Who are going on amazing trips, going to Disney World with the family for two weeks, and going to Europe and going to all sorts of places, and just really doing some cool things personally.

So again, I want to share this with all of you because I know so many of you have big goals in your business. I want to share these examples with you because for so many of these clients, just a very short time ago, they were, so many of them, where you might be at right now. Where you have these big goals and you know you have the capability to do it, but you’re not sure how to actually go about that.

So I want you all to know that if you’re listening to this podcast, you have what it takes to create these types of results. I want to help you do that. So I want to invite you if you’re ready to go to that next level in your business. If you’re ready for your first $100,000 year, or if you’re ready for your first $100,000 or more month, I want to invite you to apply to work with my team and I so that we can coach you and mentor you and advise you to really creating the business of your dreams, and really creating these types of results in your business.

So depending on where you’re at in your business right now will help us determine which program is the best fit for you. I have to tell you all there are some really exciting things happening in our programs, and especially for clients that are joining us in the upcoming cohorts of these programs. I would love to have a conversation with you. I would love for you to be able to take advantage of some really, really exciting things that you definitely don’t want to be missing out on.

So if you’re serious about getting into momentum in this fourth quarter, if you’re ready to move into next year with real momentum in your business, that I want to invite you to apply. You can go to the show notes in this podcast. You can also go to my website. You’ll find the links to fill out a quick application and book in a call. I would love to talk to you about how we can help you reach your goals in the coming year and to really start moving the needle in your business.

So again, go to the show notes or go to my website, fill out your application, book in a call. I can’t wait to help you become an example of what is possible. All right let’s dive into today’s topic.

Today, I want to talk to you all about your thoughts about your business. I decided to bring this topic to you today because I’ve been noticing recently as I’ve been coaching some of my clients, both in my High Level Mastermind and also in my six month foundational program, which is called the mastermind, I’ve been noticing something that has been present for some of them. That is the thoughts that they’re having about their business, and specifically the thoughts that they are believing to be true.

One of the things that I think is really, really important to be looking at on a consistent basis. That is truly foundational work to the work that I do is how we are thinking about our businesses. I have found a great way to uncover what those thoughts are and to start to understand what those thoughts are is something that I actually asked some of my clients recently.

I asked them when someone asks you about your business. So let’s say it’s a friend or maybe a family member or maybe even it’s a colleague who asks you about your business. What is it that you say? What is it that you tell them when they ask you that question? So, for instance, do you tell them that things are going amazing? Or that things are going maybe better than ever? Or do you tell them things are going kind of slow? Or things are maybe okay. Or that eh things have been a little bit tough lately?

So I want you to think for a minute and I want you to be honest about how you have been answering that question in your life. The reason this is so important is because how you are answering that question will be an indicator of how you’re thinking about your business.

So when I was asking my clients this question, it was so interesting as I was listening to their responses. Because for a lot of them, it really opened up their level of awareness as to how they’ve actually been thinking about their business and what they’ve actually been believing about their business. For all of them, it was in ways that they actually hadn’t realized.

So for example, one of my clients, she shared that while things were going great in her business. So the truth is that she’s making more money than she’s ever made ever before. She’s been in business for many, many years. She is working with more clients than ever. At the same time, what’s so interesting is that internally as she is answering this question to others, but what her true thought is and the internal narrative that she’s been telling herself about her business is actually very different.

The internal narrative that she was actually telling herself that she wasn’t aware of is that she’d actually been beating herself up over not getting certain things done in her business. She has actually been beating herself up over taking too much time or what she’s perceiving as too much time on implementing a new marketing initiative that she’s been working on. She’s been feeling bad about it. She’s been having some really intense emotions around it.

So, up until that conversation, she wasn’t fully aware of it. But after looking at that internal narrative that she had been having, she could clearly see how that internal narrative was actually impacting how she had been showing up and how she’d actually been approaching the project and how that internal narrative was really creating, quite honestly, a lot of unnecessary drama for her.

Now, on the other side of this, you might also be answering this question in the opposite way. You might be answering this question in a way where you’re saying it’s been okay. Or it’s okay, but it’s taking longer than I expected. Or it’s been a little tough, right? Whatever that narrative is, I want you to really look at how you’ve been answering that question.

Then I want you to ask yourself what is the internal narrative that you also have been telling yourself about your business. Because one of the things that I have seen happen so often is that a lot of times we think we’re being really positive. We think we’re living in belief about our business.

But when we really start to look at how we’re articulating this to others, how we are verbalizing this to others, when we start to look at our language and how we’re describing our business to others, it’s actually very telling as to how we’re currently believing about our business, as to what we’re currently believing about our business. What we’re believing about our business is how we’re actually defining the business. It’s how we’re defining our results.

So I want to offer to all of you that it’s really important to get present to how you’re answering that question from others. How you are answering this question when somebody asks you this is very indicative of what you’re believing about your business. So I want you to question how you’re articulating your answer. Know that whatever that answer is how you’re also choosing to unconsciously define your business.

I will tell you, for most coaches, they don’t have any idea how this is actually playing into their results and how it actually is impacting how they’re showing up in their business. So for all of you listening today, how you answer that question, and how you have been answering that question, is a very, very powerful way to look at what might be happening unconsciously for you. That can give you a really clear indicator into the narrative that you’ve been playing, your narrative about your business, your narrative about your results, your narrative about you as a coach, or even as an entrepreneur.

Now, the other aspect that I want you to consider with this is how you’ve been answering this question, and really looking at what are you using as those parameters to define your business? So for example, some of you might be answering this in ways in which you’re tying your revenue or maybe even the number of clients that you’re working with to that answer.

So to give you a real example of this. Let’s say that you had a revenue goal for this year of $100,000. I’m going to use that number just because it’s an easy, even number to use. So let’s say that you had a goal to generate $100,000 in revenue in your business this year. Let’s say that right now, you are pretty far away from that number. Let’s say that you’re way lower than you want to be.

What I want you to do is I want you to notice how this might also be playing into how you’re defining your business to others. How you perhaps might not be as excited about your business or how you might be feeling about your business. You might be feeling defeated or disappointed or thinking that you’re so far off from your goal.

So whatever that is, I want you to think about that and think about the narrative that you’re currently telling yourself about that number. Look at how is that impacting how you might be showing up in your business? How might that be showing up in how you’re approaching your day to day? For example, are you really showing up from a place of passion in your business or from a place of service and mission? Or are you instead coming from a place of disappointment, from a place of frustration, from a place of self-doubt or even apathy?

Whatever that is, I want you to notice where you’re going to answer that question. Look at the internal narrative that you have a look at how that’s actually been impacting all the different aspects of your business. But I have some good news with this.

The good news is, is that you with this awareness, have a choice. You have a choice on how you want to define your business. You have a choice on how you want to define yourself, as a coach, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur. So rather than spending time searching for the missing piece or that one elusive thing that you think is going to change everything for you.

I want to tell you all that I’m actually giving you that gift right now in this podcast. That comes down to getting really present to how you’re thinking about your business, to how you’re thinking about yourself, to how you’re thinking about who you are as a coach, as an entrepreneur. Because how you think about all of those things will define who you actually are and what you actually create and to what degree of success you experience.

So your business is something that isn’t just is. Your business is a product of your thoughts. It’s a product of how you’ve chosen to define it, how you’ve chosen to define it to yourself and to others. Your business and the results that you have are the effect of how you have and how you’re currently defining things.

So for many of you, right now, as you’re looking at your results and as you’re looking at where you’re at so far this year, I know so many of you are using your results as truth. As evidence as to why you may or may not be capable of doing something. As to why it may or may not be reasonable to think that you could do certain things in your business or to create the results that you truly desire.

But I want you to remember that you get to decide. You have a choice as to how you want to define your business going forward. As to how you desire to define this last quarter of the year, as to how you intend to move into this next year, and everything that you desire to create. So if you’re using your results as truth and as evidence and to define things as not working or not going fast enough, the fact is that you don’t have to define it that way.

Instead, you get to choose how you want to define it. How you want to define you, how you want to define your results and your business. I want to give you permission to do that. To decide on purpose, to decide what it is that you want your business to be, to decide who you truly are in your business, to decide where it is that you’re going. Then create an action plan around that.

So please, instead of settling for the narrative that you’re probably telling yourself right now, that you’re probably telling others, and you’re probably doing it unconsciously, I’m really offering you an opportunity here to define what that is. Define who you are, and define where you’re going. To start telling yourself this new narrative and to tell others and start living into it each and every day. All right, my friends. Have an amazing week. I will talk to you all again very soon. Take care. 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.