Ep #50: Why Launching Is Critical to Your Business

You are listening to The Life Coach Business Podcast episode number 50.

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. I’m so glad to have you join me today. I hope you are doing well. I hope for those of you listening with kids in school or school aged I should say, that you’re starting to settle into whatever new routine you have for the school year. I know for some of you that’s distance learning, it’s maybe hybrid. And I know for others of you it might be that the kids are back in school. We have been very fortunate that our kids are back in school full-time. And they are doing amazing. And they are loving it being back in school. As I have to say so are we.

And for those of you that maybe have smaller children, or don’t have children, or your children are grown, I hope that you’re enjoying the transition of the seasons, at least it is here for us in the Midwest, in the upper Midwest. We’re moving into fall which it’s so crazy, just the last couple of days we’ve had leaves that are already turning color. And you can already feel the fall in the air. It’s that fall crisp air, if you know what I’m talking about. And it’s apple season and it’s just a beautiful time of year.

So if you haven’t been to the upper Midwest during the fall, I think it’s one of the most beautiful times of the year with the fall colors and just the crispness of the air. I hope at some point if you’ve never experienced that that you get a chance to experience that, it’s a really beautiful thing.

Alright, today I want to talk to you about launching. And we’re going to talk about launching when you’re growing your business and also the importance of launching when you’re starting your business. And I think this is a relevant conversation for all of you no matter what stage of the game that you’re in. So I know that some of you are working towards your first six figures and some of you might be beyond that and are working towards your multiple six figures or even seven figures.

And what I want to say is that launching and launching properly is really, really important. It’s important to the health of your business and it’s important for a number of other reasons that we’re going to talk about today.

And so the reason I wanted to bring this conversation to you is because I see a lot of coaches and other entrepreneurs in the online space today that are working hard to build their business, but they’re missing some big pieces to that. They’re missing some big pieces to their overall strategy, in the overall approach to the actual building of their business. And instead they’re using what I would call throwing spaghetti at the wall, that’s a method that I’ve kind of termed here, is that they’re throwing spaghetti at the wall. And it’s essentially kind of just seeing what sticks, that’s what that means.

And so I know many of you can relate to what I’m saying. So I want to have a conversation about this. And I know many of you can relate to what I’m saying. So I want to have a conversation about this. And I want to start out by saying that when I say launching, all of you are going to have a little bit different definition of what that means. So if I were to ask each of you that are listening how you would define a launch, I am 100% certain that all of you would likely have a slightly different definition, a slightly different explanation of what that means to you and that’s okay.

And I want to share with you what my definition of launching is. And I also want to talk about some of the mechanics that need to be involved and some of the hidden byproducts of launching that I have seen 100% impact the health of your business. So if you’re building your business this is going to be an important conversation.

Alright, so when I looked up the definition of launch in the dictionary, the definition of launch was, to quote was, ‘to start or set in motion an activity or enterprise’.  And at first I thought that was too general. But the more I thought about that I actually think that that’s a pretty good definition because we all do have our own definition and that’s going to depend on our business. So I like this idea of thinking of the launch, not getting tied up in the details of what that actually means. But to just understand that it’s to start or to set in motion. I think that’s a really good starting point.

And since this podcast is all about building, growing and scaling businesses, I think that’s actually a pretty accurate definition. So to start or set in motion a business, whether that’s a coaching business or otherwise there has to be some form of starting or setting in motion that which we need to do. So, if you have a coaching business or some type of service based business that usually requires you to launch your coaching program, or to launch your service that you offer to your clients and it’s an important step.

And it’s important because not only does that allow you to start generating new clients. But from a business owner perspective, and this is where when I talk about the byproducts, kind of these hidden byproducts, launching really requires that you have certain things in place in your business. And so there’s some really important byproducts that by default will happen when you do launch and especially when you launch properly. That I’m going to talk about in just a few minutes.

But launching requires that you’ve done a certain level of work behind the scenes. It requires that you have generated a certain level of vision and goal in your business that allows you to move into what I would call the execution phase. So for instance it requires that you have a good understanding of who your clients are. It also requires that you know very clearly what problem you’re solving. It also requires that you know how to communicate that effectively to the people that are in your audience.

And it also requires you to have certain things in your business in place, certain things like business systems that are important, and there’s so much more. But here’s the problem that I see. Typically what happens is that – and I see this with newer business owners especially, that are moving into this launch phase without having done the behind the scenes work. Or it could be a situation where they’re not even getting to the launch phase because they’re spending their time doing things that aren’t actually important, that aren’t actually moving the needle in their businesses.

And here’s the problem with that, when you haven’t done the proper behind the scenes development that’s required to build a successful business there are a number of things that can happen.

Number one, the chances of you being able to launch successfully are very slim. And it’s because there are so many considerations you need to make in order to properly position your business, in order to create your programs or the services that you offer.

And I want to take a minute and talk about this because I think this is an important conversation. As more and more people are entering the industry, as more and more people are becoming, whether it’s becoming a certified coach, or they’re opening some sort of online business, we see more and more brick and mortar businesses going online. In so many ways this is becoming more and more important, and I’ll tell you why in just a minute.

Because it’s a beautiful time to start an online business, I think if there’s one thing that we can all learn from 2020 is that there has been a huge opportunity for all of us to really look at the way that we’ve been doing things. It’s been a massive disruption in so many ways that it’s really forced all of us to rethink in so many ways what we’re doing. And so for many people, becoming an entrepreneur and having their own business, that is becoming more secure, actually more secure than not. And I think we’re seeing this everywhere.

So that being said we have to also be real about the fact that there are more people coming into the industry. And so a great example of this is life coaching. So when you think about life coaching 10 years ago, it really wasn’t a thing. So 10 years ago if you were to ask someone, “What’s a life coach?” Chances are that person would have no idea what you’re talking about. Yet today we’re seeing coaching becoming more and more mainstream and we’re seeing it in more and more companies.

And one great example of this is Tony Robbins, most people today are familiar with Tony Robbins or have at least heard of him and many have been personally impacted by him, whether through his books, or his seminars, or otherwise. And I think that’s a great thing. I think Tony is a beautiful human being and he’s one of the greats in my opinion.

And I truly believe that everyone can benefit from good coaching in their life, no matter who they are, no matter what they’re dealing with. I really do believe for most people that they can benefit from working with a life coach. So given the fact that there are more and more people that are entering the industry and they’re starting businesses. The importance of having solid business structures and the importance of having solid business understanding and business acumen is really, really important, because in a lot of ways the bar is being raised.

And in other ways when you consider that the barrier to entry into life coaching for example is so low, there’s also what I would call a lot of noise in the market. So for me and for my clients, for the coaches and the entrepreneurs that I coach, and mentor, and advise, this is a really important thing to understand. There is a tremendous opportunity that we have in front of us to build a very successful and a very lucrative practice if we want it, helping others, and doing it in a way that’s very purposeful. But in order to do that there have to be some things in place.

And that’s really the work that I do with my clients is helping them establish this foundation so that they can grow, and scale, and build a successful and sustainable business. And I think this is one of the most important things that I want you all to consider if you’re listening to this right now.

The importance of having this foundation, the importance of having guidance and proper structure in your business, so that you’re focusing on the things that are actually moving the needle forward, that are actually helping you market your business in a way so that you’re standing out from the crowd. So, that you’re not wasting your precious time and your money on approaches that are never going to get you to where you want to go.

And inevitably at some point if you want to either continue to work one-on-one with clients or if you want to move into more of a leveraged model in your business at some point you’re likely going to have to launch. And this will look different for every one of you, because there isn’t just one way to launch. And there’s different factors that you have to consider, looking at the type of coaching you do, who your clients are, the types of programs that you offer or what your marketing looks like, all of that.

And so this is why I believe it’s really important to have a customized approach in your business, and an approach that takes into consideration all of the things. And so this is why when I see people that just want a quick fix, for example, what tends to happen is they continue to struggle. And it’s because that’s not how this works. Building a business is a long term game. And if you want to be in the game for the long term you have to be playing it that way.

So let’s talk about some other byproducts of launching and why I think this is one of the most important things you can do when you’re building your business. So one of the most important byproducts of launching is what you will learn in the process, 100% hands down. So no matter what your outcome is, whether it’s a launch that you knocked out of the park and you made tens of thousands of dollars, maybe even six figures. Or a launch that flopped where nobody bought, there is so much rich learning that you’re going to get by just going through the process.

And I see this day after day with clients that I work with because what happens is, is they learn so much about their ideal clients, they learn so much about their messaging, about their program, about themselves that you just can’t get to that level of awareness without actually doing the work. You can’t get there without actually being in action and actively launching.

And I want to share with you a recent example of this. So recently I was on a call with one of my clients and we were talking about her launch that she’s currently running. And so part of her launch includes a private Facebook group that she created, it’s part of her overall strategy, it’s part of her overall launch. And what she is learning through that process alone is so much about the challenges and the struggles that her clients are currently going through.

So because part of her launch process is forcing her to engage on a different level with all of these new prospective clients that are joining in on her launch, she is getting so much valuable insight into what they’re experiencing. And because she set it up in a way where she’s communicating with them on a daily basis, she’s learning the exact words, the exact language that they’re using. She’s learning exactly how they’re identifying with the problem that she solves. And she has already such a better understanding of what their long term goals are.

And we were talking because it really hit her that she would have never gotten this level of awareness. She would have never gained this level of understanding had she not decided to do her launch, had she not put in the effort behind the scenes to first understand her clients, to understand her people and to really put together this launch. And so this is one of the most important reasons and why I think launching as you’re building your business is so, so important.

And lastly I want to talk about one of the best byproducts, which is what you will learn about yourself, because here’s the truth. In order to do a launch, no matter what type of launch you’re doing, it’s going to require a certain level of yourself that you likely are not quite stepping into yet today. It’s going to require that you step into a whole new level of understanding for your clients, for the work that you do, for the movement in the world that you’re creating. That quite honestly you wouldn’t have unless you go through this process.

And I equate this; this is almost similar to if you think about if you were reading a book on how to swim for example. If you think about that for a minute, you could sit and you could read, and reread, and reread a book on swimming over, and over, and over. And you could do that and you could feel and think that you would know everything there was to know about swimming. But it wouldn’t actually be until you jumped into the pool, it wouldn’t actually be until you jumped into the water that you’d then be forced to put that learning to actual use.

And I want you all to consider that it’s the same for your business, you can read, and read every blog post and consume every possible freebie that you can. But it will not be until you step onto the playing field that your real learning will occur. And I promise, once you do this it can change everything.

Alright my friends 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 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.