This episode focuses on the importance of the present moment in developing a successful coaching business. If you're looking for motivation and why now is a good time to go for it in your business, you'll find it in this episode.

[00:02:00] Commit to the Journey: Jo emphasises the importance of recognising the long-term commitment required in building a successful coaching business. It's about understanding the dedication needed for both developing coaching skills and business acumen.

[00:06:00] The Power of Immediate Action: Discusses the necessity of taking swift, decisive action on your ideas to prevent procrastination. Highlights the law of diminishing intent and the importance of acting quickly to make your goals a reality.

[00:08:00] Set Ambitious Goals: Focuses on the importance of setting challenging and ambitious goals. This step underscores the value of the journey and progress made towards these goals, contributing to significant growth.

[00:10:00] Create Practical Steps: Details breaking down large, ambitious goals into smaller, actionable steps. This approach is about making overarching objectives more manageable and achievable through daily or incremental actions.

[00:12:00] The Art of the Possible: Covers finding inspiration in the successes of others and using that as fuel for your own journey. It involves changing your perspective from comparison to inspiration and learning from personal triggers to understand what aspects of others' success can be motivating.

Useful Links

Free Ultimate Success Planner for Coaches 2024

How to secure more coaching clients' free training

Download the 12 ways to get clients now

Learn about The Business of Coaching programme

Connect with Jo on LinkedIn

Rate and Review the Podcast

If you found this episode of Women in the Coaching Arena helpful, please do rate and review it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

If you’re kind enough to leave a review, please do let Jo know so she can say thank you. You can always reach her at: joanna@joannalottcoaching.com

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Hello and welcome to Women in

the Coaching Arena podcast.

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I'm so glad you are here.

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I'm Jo Lott, a business mentor

and ICF accredited coach

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Microphone (Samson Q2U Microphone):

and I help coaches to

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build brilliant businesses.

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I know that when you prepare to enter

the arena, there is fear, self doubt,

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comparison, anxiety, uncertainty.

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You can tend to armor up and

protect yourself from vulnerability.

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In this podcast, I'll be sharing

honest, not hype, practical and

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emotional tools to support you to make

the difference that you are here for.

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Dare greatly.

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You belong in this arena.

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Hello, welcome to the 46 episode

women in the coaching arena.

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I am so glad you are here.

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Thank you so much for your

feedback on one of my earlier

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episodes of choose your hard.

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I actually listened back to the episode

a few weeks after I recorded it on the

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release date and wanted to sneak in and

quickly delete it before anyone listened.

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But I'm very glad that I didn't because

I had so many emails and messages

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thanking me for my honesty, saying

that you really resonate saying that

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you're really thinking about which

hard you want to choose right now.

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And no matter what option you go

for, that's what you need right now.

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And always be kind to

yourself in those moments.

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So today I am excited to have a

different slant on things as we are

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a few weeks into the new year now.

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So I am no longer feeling

the January blues.

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Today I wanted to talk about

why this moment matters.

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And why this very moment today, the

day you are listening is the perfect

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time to fully commit to your coaching

dreams, and your coaching business.

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So as we are a few weeks into January

now, depending on when you are listening.

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It's the perfect time to

commit to the long game.

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Lately, I've had quite a few experiences

with short-term thinking and I

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completely get it because I was exactly

the same early on in my journey.

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And I had no idea how

much I needed to learn.

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We can end up going into this thinking

we can just sort all this out.

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And what I really want to share

today is that it is an art

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form, just like your coaching.

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So just like that MCC coach who has

thousands of hours under their belt,

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which is why they're a great coach.

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You will not be a great

marketeer in the beginning.

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It is going to take thousands of

hours of practice for you to be

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great at building your business.

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So commit to the process, just like

you have committed to your coaching

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practice, knowing that every single

time you practice is an opportunity for

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reflection and deepening your learning.

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Knowing that you continuously

go on courses and have mentor

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coaching and do all of the

things to make that skill better.

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It's exactly the same in your business.

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So embrace the journey, knowing

that you will get better every

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single time you practice.

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So how can you create more

opportunities to practice today?

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Something we're practicing in my

group at the moment is storytelling.

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We have had several guest experts and

a copywriter come into the program, and

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it's been brilliant to share stories,

ask for feedback and commit to get real

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live feedback from the people that see

that post which will make you better.

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So just like you're coaching

and you being able to listen and

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reflect back, think about what

you could have done differently.

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It's exactly the same here.

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So go into this business building

journey, knowing that you will

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continue to grow and refine.

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And it is a practice just like coaching,

just like yoga, just like being fit.

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It doesn't suddenly happen.

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It's a journey and it

needs your commitment.

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My favorite role model Fabienne, who

I've talked about in a few other episodes

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has a program which is two years long.

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That is her shortest program

that you can work with her.

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And I actually love that, and I'm

not quite courageous enough to launch

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something like that yet because I

worry that people won't commit to

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two years, but I love the way that

Fabienne says getting to a hundred K is

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going to take a minimum of two years.

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And getting to a million, it's going to

take another two years minimum after that.

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And I'm sure it will take a lot longer

for most people too, but I love how

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she really sets that expectation.

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And in this online world of everyone

wanting quick results and not wanting to

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put the time in it's a true inspiration.

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Okay.

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My first point was to

commit to the journey.

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So 0.2 is to overcome any delay

with the power of immediate action.

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I talked on another podcast about

the law of diminishing intent.

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The longer that time goes on from you

having an idea to acting upon that idea.

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The less likely that

thing will ever happen.

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And the less likely you will act at all.

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So how can you get the idea

and take fast, messy action to

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get it out there in the world.

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I am doing a 30 day launch

program at the moment.

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So this is generally for people who

have a reasonably established business.

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They already have their

foundations in place.

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They may have an audience.

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They may already be having sales calls.

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But they want to have more, they

want to launch something really

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thoroughly really properly.

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And it's about fast, messy action,

not the longterm building the brand,

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which really does need to be done.

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But it's about just getting that

thing out there and overcoming

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delay and taking immediate action.

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The feedback from people is often

that they make so much progress.

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Because it doesn't allow

for procrastination.

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It's really fast paced.

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It requires you to take action every

single day to build your business.

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Obviously the action

people take is varied.

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And some people maybe just literally put

out the first ever social media posts.

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Other people may go to

networking meetings.

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Other people may run webinars,

obviously, whatever you do will

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have an impact on your results.

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But the best thing about this program.

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And in a way I don't always enjoy

running it because I think sometimes

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people can think they'll get the

result of my business of coaching

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program, which is the six month

mentorship from a one month program.

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And it's not like that.

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It's not about building your brand,

building your audience, all of the things

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that need to be done really thoroughly.

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It's really for different audience

who know the foundations, they have

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their things going on, but they

want to take massive action and

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launch something really thoroughly.

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So what is one idea that you have going

around in your head right now that

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maybe has been going around in your head

for several months or several years?

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What is one thing you can do today

to just move that thing forward?

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Send that email to someone.

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Call that person up.

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What is going to help hold you to

account to take action on it immediately.

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So I encourage you to pause this

podcast and do that thing right now.

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I know it's super difficult to

take action, especially when you

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are often on your own in this

journey of entrepreneurship.

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So let's use the power of

now to move you forward.

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Okay.

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So hopefully you have taken big

action or made yourself a note

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to do that after the podcast.

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My next point is that small

steps create big leaps forward.

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Again, the power of the offer to

market is every single day you do

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something to build your business.

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and I'm always really surprised at

how hard people find that, because

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I think what often happens is.

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We get super slow when

we have our own business.

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I mean, I do the same.

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Don't get me wrong.

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This is a reflection of me as well

as loads of other people I know.

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We allow ourselves to take

far too long to do things.

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And it's like, well, what

happened to the eight hour day?

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If you haven't got clients right now?

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Then we really should have eight

hours a day to market your business.

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And that is fair enough if you're

in your coaching business full

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time, which not everyone is.

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But often thinks yourself if you

had a manager right now, And you

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had to report to them at the end of

the day, what you achieved to build

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their business in that one day.

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And you had to warrant your salary.

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Every single day to show the

impact of the work you have done.

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How would you rate yourself

in a performance review?

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I feel like I get a lot done.

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But I still think I would

probably be on needs improvement.

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Maybe.

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Maybe I'd be fair because often it's

down to me to do the thing that I

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don't make decisions quick enough.

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I don't get enough done.

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I don't time block enough.

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I put a lot of other things

ahead of my business.

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Like I get super excited when

I have a day without calls.

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So then I go to the gym and I go

in the hot tub and fair enough,

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this is why we have our business.

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But I think sometimes, especially in the

early days, I am so much stricter now.

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We can't always be going out meeting

people for coffee in a working day.

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Like this is your working day.

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This is your job.

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Just like previous.

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Would you have been able

to do these things before?

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And how can you really try

and get the most out of your

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working day and out of yourself?

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For me that often means going

to a different location.

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So I'm not distracted by the

house work and all of the things.

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It means planning in advance.

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I started having Sunday planning

meetings with my husband, telling him

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what I'm doing each day, each week.

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Which is really helping.

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Cause I think often it's that

real granular accountability

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that makes such a difference.

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And just having someone to talk

to about the ins and outs of it.

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I am super excited that this week

in my program, I have taken on

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a new mentor coach, who has been

my personal one-to-one coach.

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She is going to be personally

contacting everyone in my program.

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Every single week to check in on them,

to make sure they are supported, to

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make sure that we know, for example,

when they have a webinar and how did

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it go, what could have gone better

to help them to constantly deepen

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their thinking, reflect on their

week, reflect on their priorities.

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I already have a mass of other

accountability in my program.

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But I am so excited for this more in

depth accountability because you are 95%

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more likely to be successful if you have

strong, weekly accountability in place.

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Again, my favorite person that I keep

mentioning Fabienne, who I've only met

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once, but I adore everything she says.

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Talks about the fact that new

business owners think they know it

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all and think they can do it all.

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And reasonably successful ones know

that they need a lot of help and

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a lot of accountability in place.

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And she said, millionaire business

owners, which is all she works with,

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have daily accountability in place.

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I know this from so many podcasts

and different things I listened to

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of super successful entrepreneurs.

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Amy Porterfield, for example, voice

notes someone every single morning

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saying what she's going to do that day.

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And every single evening

saying what she did that day.

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So there is so much proof of this

and that is why I'm so excited to

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bring this really, really strong

strategic accountability in my program.

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So I can think, okay, where

is this person struggling?

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How can I help move them forward?

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So it's going to really help me to be

more strategic in my own business and

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make sure that my clients continue to get

the best client results in this industry.

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Okay.

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So step one was commit to the journey.

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Step two was the power

of immediate action.

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Step three is the journey of goal setting.

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So setting goals is something that I

kind of struggle with because often you

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feel like, kind of, what's the point

it's so far removed from where I am now.

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And that is why, again, it's so powerful

to really set that goal and know that

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you will get so much closer to it

than if you never set the goal at all.

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So it's not about reaching the goal.

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It's about knowing that you are

getting closer every single day,

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I did vision board with Lara

Doherty a couple of years ago now.

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And I remember when I

created the vision board.

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It actually made me feel quite sick.

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And I didn't look at it for at

least a month after creating it

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because it felt like ridiculous.

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It felt so far removed from where I was.

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I had raise your voice

to make a difference.

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At the time I didn't have this podcast.

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So now it's funny that I have fully

stepped into it, but it has taken two

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years for me to really realize all of the

things that I had on that vision board.

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I had a lot about leadership and it's

been amazing to have case studies

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this year where clients have actually

all talked about my leadership.

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And as someone who has never seen

herself as a leader, It's really

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amazing to hear people say that

I'm a great leader of my community.

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And it's taken a lot

longer than I thought.

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And again, it's back to that first point.

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That we always underestimate how

long things are going to take.

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And I think now two years into

my vision board rather than

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the one year that I expected.

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I have kind of finally realized most

of those visions and I'm probably

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ready to create another vision board.

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So how can you stop today and

allow yourself a moment of looking

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back at where you started on

this entrepreneurial journey and

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reflecting on how far you have come.

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However long that is for you.

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What have you achieved in that period?

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Before you started did, you ever

think you would be where you are now?

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Often we have achieved the

dream that we set out to do,

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but we have moved the goalposts.

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So allow yourself this

moment to let it sink in.

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All of the challenges, all of the

lessons, all of the celebrations that

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you have had on this journey so far.

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Okay.

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So step four is making practical

steps to achieve your dream.

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So it's about breaking that

big goal into actionable steps.

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Instead of thinking I want an

entire content strategy and an

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entire months post created break

it down and think, okay, here's my

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first step to achieving that goal.

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I'm going to just overarchingly

map out my content pillars.

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For example, today.

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And tomorrow I'm going to do the

next step and the next step, rather

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than making that goal feel so

overwhelming and so impossible.

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And how can you share with

your accountability partner?

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If you have one what that tiny

next step is to achieve your dream.

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Okay.

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My final point is the art of the possible.

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I love this one because it's

something we often don't do.

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So if you are ever in scarcity mindset

and feel like it's never going to

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work, it's completely impossible

then make your brain search for

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examples of who it has worked for.

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Has it worked for someone?

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If it has worked for them,

it can work for you too.

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So take a moment now to think.

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Who does have what I want?

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what are they doing well?

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If you find that triggering,

then that's often because

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that person has what you want.

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And what I know from

reflecting on my own triggers.

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It's usually because they are doing

the things that I am not doing.

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So there was one person

that probably triggers me.

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I'm generally not a

comparison type of person.

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I just stick to my own thing

and I don't really look around.

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But there was one person who

I definitely found triggering.

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And when I reflect on why I found

this so triggering, it was generally

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because she was showing up way

bigger, way better than I was.

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She was speaking her mind.

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She was giving her opinions.

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She was speaking in places that I wanted

to speak in that I wasn't prioritizing

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getting a guest expert spots in.

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So often think about those own

triggers and see what they reveal to

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you about what you know you could be

doing in your business that maybe you

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are avoiding or not doing right now.

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And use that as inspiration rather than

comparison as to what is possible for

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you as well, because of it's possible

for them is possible for you too.

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So as we wrap up today's episode, let

me just summarize our five points.

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So firstly was commit to the journey,

know that this is a long-term project.

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This is not a five to 10 minute

or even five to 10 month project.

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Building a business is a huge project

and I would highly recommend you

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go into it with five to 10 year

mindset, not five to 10 month mindset.

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Point two was the power

of immediate action.

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How can you take action

on that dream today?

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Do not wait.

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If you wait more than 48 hours,

it's highly unlikely anything

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will ever happen at all.

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Our next point was set ambitious

goals, knowing that the point

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is not to reach the goal.

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The point is to go after the goal and

know that you will get way closer than you

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would if you didn't have the goal at all.

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Step four was to create practical

steps and share them with someone

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to make sure you take small steps

which is the root to your success.

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And step five is the art of the possible.

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Always be looking to confirm your

belief that this is possible.

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If it's possible for them

is possible for you too.

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So I hope this episode has left

you fired up to take huge action.

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Thank you so much for listening.

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I appreciate your time is your

most precious resource and I am

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so grateful for you being here.

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And as usual, I encourage you to.

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trust yourself, believe in

yourself and be the wise Gardner

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who keeps on watering the seed.

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Thank you so much for listening to this

episode of Women in the Coaching Arena.

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I have a mess of free resources on

my website joannalottcoaching.com.

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That's Joanna with an A

and Lott with two T's.

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joannalottcoaching.com.

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And I'll also put links in the show notes.

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Let me know if you found

this episode useful.

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Share it with a friend and

leave me a review, and I will

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personally thank you for that.

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Remember to trust yourself, believe

in yourself and be the wise Gardner

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who keeps on watering the seed.

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Get into the arena dare, greatly and try.