Ep #64: Who Are You Becoming?

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast, episode number 64.

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. Happy New Year. I know for many of you as you’re listening, we are just about to turn the page into the New Year. And for others of you, depending on when you’re listening, we’ve already turned that page. And either way, I want to wish you an amazing holiday.

And as we move into 2021, I am thinking of all of you and what I’m going to share today, and I’m really excited about it. And I want to wish all of you a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year.

So before we dive in, I just have to tell you, I am staring out of my window in my office and I am staring at about nine inches of snow. It’s been a blizzard here in Minnesota. We just got back after some travel in the past week and it was a bit of a last minute trip for a family wedding that had been postponed due to COVID several times and was finally decided that it was going to happen.

And so in just a matter of a couple of weeks, we pulled together a last minute trip to Florida and spent some time in the warm Florida sun. And even had a couple of days at Disney World. And I have to tell you, it was an amazing time. It was so great to take some time and unplug and enjoy of course the weather, the warm weather. But at the same time, we’re also happy to be back home and to be home for the – as we move into 2021, into the New Year.

And I was thinking a lot as I was away, I was thinking about today’s episode and really the message that I want to share with all of you as we move into the New Year. And so I’ve been thinking a lot about it and what we’re going to talk about today I think is – I see it really as a gift that I can share with you as we move into this New Year and I really do think that it is a great topic to really kick things off, to kick things off this brand-new year that we have ahead of us.

And I don’t know about you, but to me, there’s always something about this time of year that I love. There’s always something about the New Year. And having a fresh start, having a whole year ahead. I just think it’s such a great, fantastic time for reflection on not only the past year but also on the lessons learned.

And I want to encourage all of you, last week I shared some of my lessons learned in 2020, and so if you haven’t listened to that episode, I highly recommend that you do. And when I think about this year ahead, I think it’s a great time to really assess and I know for all of you listening, as you’re building your business, this is a wonderful time for you to assess what it is that you want to achieve in 2021, what it is that you want to accomplish in your business.

And when we look at those goals, I think a really important conversation is what is happening underneath those goals and the goals that I know many of you are setting right now, and that’s what I want to talk to you all about today.

And so the topic for today is all about who you are becoming. And I have to tell you that I believe this is what will make the difference between you achieving your impossible goals or not. And it’s something that I talk a lot about with my private clients and something that I am constantly challenging them with, and I continually challenge myself with.

And that is who are you becoming? And so when I look back at 2020, I can definitely say in so many ways that I’ve evolved. And as I look forward to the New Year, to 2021, I think about the goals that I have for my business. I think about the goals that my clients have for their businesses.

And as we think about those goals, the most important part of this whole idea is to also be considering who you have to become in order to achieve those goals. So it’s something that I really want to offer to all of you that you take some time and you do some thinking, some serious thinking about this for yourself.

Because I have to tell you, this is something that I personally spend a lot of my time with. It’s something that I spent time with my clients on. And it’s one of the most fantastic opportunities that we have as humans is to be able to proactively and also intentionally think about and decide who it is that we want to be.

And if you really think about that, when you think about all of the creatures on this earth, we are literally the only species that has that opportunity and it’s really an amazing thing. And what I will say to this is that the vast majority of the human race, the vast majority of our society unfortunately doesn’t know this, unfortunately doesn’t have the awareness, doesn’t have the tools to understand and to know and to actually do this.

And so for those of you listening, for those of you in the coaching and consulting industry, the entrepreneurial, online entrepreneurial industry, I want to tell you that you have a really special gift here. You have a really special gift to be able to have the opportunity to intentionally decide who you are becoming.

Alright, so what I will say is that I also want you all to know that this is something that is very personal. It’s something that is very individualized for each of you. And it’s something that I believe you have to be spending time with. It’s something that you have to be continually cultivating.

And so I think sometimes it’s very common, and I observe this a lot, where I see newer entrepreneurs especially that come into the industry and in so many ways don’t really understand the importance of this practice. They don’t really understand the importance of spending time with their future self.

And so again, it’s something that you have to be able to spend consistent time with and it’s not something that we can just sit down for 10 minutes and journal out and be done with. It has to be continually cultivated and something that you have to get very present to and know that it’s an evolving thing.

And so I will share with all of you that when I think about this for myself, when I think about this as a seven-figure business owner, I think about the decisions that I’m making. I’m thinking about the decisions that I’m making personally, that also align with being a seven-figure business owner.

Because the fact is that in order for me to create a seven-figure business, which I know is inevitable for me, I have to make decisions. I have to commit to different things. I have to focus on the things that will ultimately create a seven plus figure business.

And so I will share that that is where I have been spending a lot of my time. It’s something that I’m currently focused on and I have been focusing on over the past several months. And when I think back to when I initially launched my practice, when I got fully clear on the types of programs I wanted to offer and the types of clients that I want to work with, and the type of coaching that really is my zone of genius, I wasn’t only looking at this from a short-term lens.

I really started looking at things from a long-term perspective. So looking at what I wanted to create in a three-year, in a 10-year perspective. And I have to tell you that doing that initially in my business really helped me shape the business that I have today.

And so when I look at how I have been able to structure my business, how I work with clients, when I look at the clients that I’m working with and the resources I’m offering, how I am supporting myself in this process, all of that really came through the lens of not only the short-term goal but looking at it from a three and a 10-year perspective.

And so I want to offer this to all of you as well. I want you to think about your goals for 2021. I want you to think about what it is that you most want to achieve in 2021. And I know for some of you that may be a revenue goal. It might be your first $100,000 in your business, or it might be your first $250,000 in your business, or $500,000, or even a million dollars in your business.

And I know for some of you, you’re also looking at it as a percentage of growth over the prior year. So you’re looking at your percentage of growth over 2020. And for others of you, this might even look like a total restructure of your business. It might be a complete shift in your focus, in your programs, in who you’re working with and what all of that looks like.

So I want to encourage you that whatever that is for you, I want you to just think for a minute about what it is that will be required of you to achieve those goals. And I would also say if you need to pause the show and do this exercise and come back, I highly encourage you to do that.

Because I do think this is a really, really important question, probably one of the most important questions you can ask yourself. And so I want you all to really think about what it is that will be required of you, that is different from how you’ve been operating up until this point.

Because let’s be honest, if you were already operating as that version of yourself, you would already have those results. And so the difference is in many times, it’s in the way that we’re operating. It’s in the way on how we’re asking ourselves questions. It’s in the way on how we’re approaching our business and the strategies that we’re implementing.

And so I really do think these are some of the most important considerations you can make as you head into this New Year. And so that’s really the first step is being able to identify what it is that you want to achieve and then from that, identifying what will be required of you as you set and work towards those goals.

The next step that I want to share with all of you that I think is really, really important, and one that I think is lost many, many times is what are the actual actions? What are the actual priorities? What does this actually mean that you need to do in order to actually create the results you want to achieve?

And I heard one of my mentors say this recently, that in order to have an extraordinary life, you need to have an extraordinary A line. And what I want to say about this is this; in my observation and my experience, I see for many, many of you that you are trying to outsource this.

And what I mean by that is this; I see this with coaches in particular that tend to look for what I call the shiny objects. And what I mean by that is the one elusive thing or the one elusive strategy that is going to guarantee them basically a six or seven-figure business.

And here’s what I want to tell you all about this; I hate to tell you, but it doesn’t exist. There isn’t just one strategy, there isn’t just one thing that is going to guarantee your success. And unfortunately, I think there has been a whole industry really that’s been built and is teaching that there is.

And so the result and what I see happening over and over again is I see many of you jumping around from, for instance, course to course, program to program, searching for what I would call that magic bullet. And what happens in that process is that you lose focus on the core strategies, on the core things in your business that will actually help you move the needle in your business.

And when that happens, there’s so much time and energy that is being fragmented and that is not being channeled to the actual things that are going to help you reach your goals. And the reality of this is that when you are caught in this cycle, when you are continually searching for that next thing and looking for that next thing externally that’s going to guarantee you the success that you want, what actually happens is you lose momentum and you actually lose traction with the things that could be producing results in your business.

And so the reason for this is because when your focus is fragmented, when your energy, your time, your resources are being channeled in different directions, it doesn’t even allow you to get good at whatever that initial thing was that you started to implement.

Because there’s a lot of ways to build and sustain a highly effective coaching practice. And this is something that I’ve really learned over this past year and something that I really work hard with all of my clients to customize a strategy that is unique to them, that is unique to their business and to their clients. That’s really, really important.

And so I want to tell you all that whatever that looks like for you, it’s important to know what that is, first of all. But once you know what that is, it’s important that you stick with it. It’s important that you give it the time that it needs, that you really show up and you really go all in on whatever that is.

Because there are certain core principles, there are certain core things within your business that you have to master. And if you want to build and grow and sustain a successful business, the reality is you’re going to have to master certain things.

And so things like sales, things like marketing, things like becoming the best version of yourself, becoming a powerful business owner, leading your business, those are all requirements if you want to be in this game for the long-term.

And so part of this process is not only identifying what it is that we want to achieve and then what it is or who we need to be as we create that, but it’s actually getting very specific and working to master and taking the actions that you need to take on a daily basis.

Alright my friends, we’re going to dive into this more next week because there’s a lot more that I want to share with you all. There’s a lot more that I want to have a conversation with you about, but I want you to really take some time this week and consider the questions that I asked. Consider the questions that I gave you, and we’ll talk more next week. Have an amazing New Year. 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 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.