Ep #114: 100% Effort

You are listening to episode 114 of The Confident Coaches Podcast, the one where you stop hustling and learn to give 100% effort instead. All right, let’s go, coach.

Welcome to The Confident Coaches Podcast, a place for creating the self-confidence you need to do your best work as a life coach. If you want to bring more boldness, more resilience, and more joy to your work, this is the place for you. I’m your host, Amy Latta. Let’s dive in.

All right, hello everyone. How you doing today? I am doing fabulously. I know, I’m always saying I’m doing fabulously, but I need you to understand really just how fabulous I am right now. Because for real, true story, my husband and I both ended our 2021 with the flu in early December and Covid the last week of December. Not even joking. How was that even possible?

Two years of not being sick at all. And we both got sick twice in one month. And this is just so out of the ordinary for us. So when I say I’m doing fabulously now, now that we’re into the second week of January, oh, I am so ready to go. Well, I mean, I’m ready to go with also tons of rest, and lots of taking care of me, and then giving it my all when it is go time.

That’s actually what this episode is all about today, of what that looks like to have tons of rest and lots of taking care of you time. And also giving it your all and giving it 100% effort. Because so many of you, and I know this because I just coached on it in my mastermind. So many of you have brains that are telling you that these are conflicting things, and they are not.

So we’re going to define what 100% effort looks like today, so that you can put it to use and get better results, faster results. 100% effort is how you’re going to get better and faster results. And I’m going tell you what that looks like in just a minute.

But before I do, I want to give a shout out to my Spotify listeners. If you are not listening on Spotify, know that I love you. But Spotify is the platform that I use. You can listen to me in so many different places. But one thing that Spotify has just done, they just did it, do you know that you can now rate podcasts on Spotify?

They just introduced it at Christmas time. So if you do listen on Spotify, I would love you so much if you would please take just one moment and give The Confident Coaches Podcast a star rating. You don’t have to write anything, you literally just tap the rate button and give it one to five stars. I’m really hoping that most of you are giving it five stars. Anybody that’s giving it one star, just don’t take the time. Just pass on by.

So rating the podcast that you listen to, what it does is it helps other people find the podcast. So when you give The Confident Coaches Podcast a star rating, you’re helping other coaches. Other coaches who know they have a brilliant coaching business inside of them, but they need help getting out of their own way. You’re helping them find the show.

Now, 450 of you follow the podcast on Spotify as of this date. And it would rock my world if you would give it a quick star rating. It’s right there under the following button to the left where it says self-help. All right? I would love you forever. I mean, I’m going to love you forever anyway and I’m going to continue to deliver the goods to you anyway. All I’m asking for in return, Spotify listeners this week, is for you to go give me a quick star rating. That would be amazing.

So as I mentioned before about what this looks like to take care of you and give it your all at the same time. As I mentioned before in December, so it was during my launch, you’ll remember that in December I was launching for, I was selling the February of 2022 class for Confident Coaches Mastermind.

So while I was selling that, my husband and I first caught the flu and it knocked us down. I mean, he was in bed for like eight days. I was only in bed for about a day and a half. two days. But then it hit my chest, and it hit my voice, and you remember that I was talking like this. I actually lost my voice in the middle of my free training.

So then that got better and then we both caught Covid. I mean really? Are you serious? How is that even possible? We, for real, have not even had the sniffles in two years and here we are, twice in one month. But it really was the perfect chance to learn what 100% effort means without killing yourself, without overworking, without hustle.

So me talking about this really was this thing that happened, getting sick twice in one month in the midst of a launch, at Christmas time, in the final month of the year. And pairing that with some brilliant peer coaching that I got from my friend Becca in the midst of my launch.

So this is something that I do myself in my own mastermind, and it’s what I will coach you to do in the Confident Coaches Mastermind, which is reaching out for other peers. Reaching out to the other coaches that are in the mastermind with you to get peer coaching to help you find answers that you’re struggling to find yourself.

It’s really a key part to hear this work not just coming out of my mouth, but having it filtered through your peer’s brain also. You hear things in a different way. They might explain things in a different way, even if it’s the same concepts. So this is what Becca was doing for me.

And she pointed out something that I didn’t realize until she pointed it out, you know that thing, you don’t see it until somebody holds up the mirror. And then you’re like, oh, that’s totally me. As soon as she said it, I was like, that’s 100% me, of course. And I absolutely see this in a large number of my clients.

And that is this, we are so worried about not overworking and not hustling, and really wanting to build business in this kind of anti-hustle culture, right? There’s a huge hustle culture out there. But so many of us life coaches know that we don’t need to do it that way. And so many of my mentors have built businesses in this anti-hustle culture.

And we’re so married to that, “I’m not going to hustle my way there. I don’t have to do that,” that oftentimes we let ourselves off the hook when it comes to taking action in our business. And specifically taking actions towards a specific goal that we’ve set for ourselves.

So as a for instance, if you have a I want to sign X number of clients by the end of the month– Let’s say you want to sign five clients this month and it’s the last week of the year and you’ve only signed one. How many of us will think, well, I can hustle to get the other four? But I don’t want to hustle because I want to build a business not hustling. So I’ll just decide that it’s okay.

And here’s the thing, one of the key things that you will learn in Confident Coaches is how not to beat yourself up if you don’t meet a goal by a certain date. To be okay if not all five people have signed up by the end of that. Because beating yourself up, that’s where shame and that’s where guilt live. And that doesn’t help you, that doesn’t help anyone long term.

And it’s not that hard to slip into that, oh, it’s okay kind of energy. Because we don’t want to beat ourselves up, we don’t want to go to shame, we don’t want to go to guilt. So then we’ll default to the other side. It’s like a pendulum, right? Then we’ll go to the other side and we’ll be like, oh, it’s okay. It’s okay that I didn’t sign all five, I still believe that they’re coming.

But there’s a subtle energy to that, do you hear it? I can even feel it a little bit, right? Learning the difference between letting yourself off the hook for not meeting your goals and knowing that you gave 100% effort and still didn’t quite make it, there’s a difference between that.

It’s like the pendulum can swing from beating the shit out of yourself to giving up on yourself. From, “That was not nearly enough and you should have done more,” to, “Oh, you did fine. Oh, you did okay.” From, “That’s not okay at all,” to, “It’s fine. It’s okay, it’s fine.” When there’s an entirely third option available to you.

And that is what giving something 100% effort looks like. Knowing it and feeling it in your bones, giving it your all. And also allowing the result to be what it is and to not use the result you get to then punch yourself in the face either way. And then you just keep going until you get the result that you want, even if it’s not by the deadline that you set. because you know you’re giving it a 100% effort. And you keep giving it 100% effort.

So I recently coached my July CCM class and my October CCM class on this. And the response was swift and very similar in both groups. It was almost immediate. I could see in both separate groups, I coach one on Tuesday, I coach one on Wednesday. And I could see their faces in both groups do the exact same thing. Because the immediate response was not being able to see the difference between hustling and 100% effort.

And there is a huge difference between hustling and giving 100% effort. And you know this by how it feels. Hustling and 100% effort feel very differently because hustling feels bad. Hustling is what you’re doing in your actions when you’re feeling desperate, or needy, or graspy, or frustrated. Because you’re thinking you have to get these consults. I have to get the sales. I have to have these consults or this isn’t working.

Like you need the consults or the sales in order for you to believe that this is working. You need them to prove that this is worth doing. Or you need them to validate the amount of time and the amount of money that you’ve put into this business so far.

I mean, how many of you are like, I need to get so many clients by the end of this month or maybe I should just quit because I’ve invested too much money and I’ve spent too much time and I’m not getting anywhere. So I need these people to show up so that I can stop thinking that I’ve wasted my time and that I’m risking my money. Mm-hmm, I see you. I know.

And it feels terrible. Hustling doesn’t feel good. And the hustling is what you’re doing in your actions, right? You’re overworking. You are working 12, 14, 16 hours a day. And you’re hustling in what you’re doing in the specific things that you’re doing. You’re just constantly trying to take action or you’re constantly thinking about your business all of the time, even if you’re supposed to be hanging out with your family.

You’re convincing yourself that you have to work these 12-hour days, or else. You’re not taking time to allow your brain space to breathe, and to answer questions, and to speak to you. You’re not spending time mining your own brain for ideas and for solutions to the problems that you’re facing because you’re just too busy doing or you’re too busy obsessing. You’re too busy looking at what other people are doing and wondering why they’re getting it figured out and you’re not. And it’s very bro-preneur.

Do you know what I’m talking about? Like, bro-preneur kind of energy, you got to work your ass off. You have to sacrifice what others aren’t willing to sacrifice to get the results that you want. You got to turn down what’s important to you for what’s more important, which is success, right? It’s this real like, you know, I sleep four hours a day and I get all of these things done. And I’m just constantly going because this is what it takes.

Bullshit. I’m calling bullshit on all of that. It is not what is required. And so many of you are agreeing with me. You’re like, yeah, I don’t want to have to do that. That sounds terrible. That sounds miserable. And as soon as I mentioned, what does it look like to give 100% effort to my clients, they were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I do not want to do that, Amy.

That was my life in corporate. That is why I want this to be a home-based business. I don’t want to sacrifice my family. I got into life coaching so that I could have time freedom. So that I could be with my kids whenever I want to be with them. This is not what I signed up for. I’ve done this before and it exhausted me and I hated it and so did my family. So I’m not going there.

Well, good news. Because 100% effort is not that. It’s not that at all. 100% effort feels entirely different. Remember, you’re going to know the difference between hustling and 100% effort by how you feel in your body. 100% effort feels sure. It feels determined. It feels committed.

But also there’s a sense of flow and ease to it, because you’re thinking I’m not giving up on myself. I’m not giving up on the people that need my help. And they’re waiting for my help right now. There are people who need what I am offering right now and they’re waiting for me.

And what does my person need from me right now? What could I share with them in this moment that can help them see how I help them? What can I share with them right now where they can’t be anything but compelled to take me up on my call to action?

And 100% effort will show up in your actions. It might mean personally messaging everybody who’s told you that they are interested. If they are signing up, if they are clicking links. So as a for instance, I know that when people are looking in my emails and they click on the sales page for the mastermind page, my email program will tag them as being interested so I can personally and individually message each one of those people.

If they’re commenting on my stuff, if they’re joining trainings, they’re telling me they want what I have to offer. They’re liking my stuff. So be very clear. Personally messaging people isn’t dropping into people’s DMs and spamming them. Personally messaging people is you have shown me interest, you have told me that you’re interested. And I’m going to give you a personal invitation to take the next step.

It might be asking yourself what are the top three things that my people struggle with? And then go create a free training based on that, so that you can show your audience this is how I solve this problem for you. This is what we’re going to do. You can create a webinar from this, a training from this. You could do weekly Facebook Lives tackling one struggle of your ideal audience every single week. Shoot, you could tackle the same struggle every single week with a Facebook Live.

It might be actions where you’re doing a series on Instagram, you’re putting together a workshop and inviting everyone that you know. A lot of times 100% effort in your actions looks like spending time in your own mind. Spending time thinking about why your ideal audience is not taking you up on your call to action. What might be preventing them from saying yes to a consult call with you?

It’s spending time exploring your brain, how can I say this simpler and easier than I ever have before? It’s spending time in Gigi thinking, which is a skill you’ll learn in the mastermind that I have talked about in this podcast multiple times. It might be spending time problem solving for that one client problem that keeps coming up that you haven’t been able to coach them through just yet. What do you know about that?

100% effort on the action line might be reaching out for coaching. So if you’re in a mastermind, like Confident Coaches, you have an opportunity to post in the Facebook group. Raise your hand for coaching in the Facebook group. Raise your hand for coaching on one of the coaching calls. And being willing to ask what am I missing here? What is it that I don’t see?

100% effort on the action line might be signing up for a mastermind, if you are not already in one. So that you can get the support so that you can show yourself what 100% effort on the action line looks like week in and week out.

And here’s the most powerful thing about 100% effort that differentiates it from hustling, because you can do that in any amount of time a day. You get to decide, do you work 15 hours a week? Do you work 25 hours a week? It’s not about the number of hours in a week that you work, it’s committing to the hours that you’ve decided you’re going to work. You can do this in two hours a day, five hours a day, eight hours a day.

It doesn’t mean you have to work 12 plus hours every day to exhaustion. Because 100% effort isn’t about the hours that you put in, it’s about the effort that you put in in those hours. It’s about how you show up in the hours that you’ve decided you’re going to work.

100% effort is coming to the end of the day and knowing I gave it everything I got, and I’m going to get up tomorrow and I’m going to do it again. Hustling is not sustainable, but 100% effort is sustainable.

100% effort also includes meditation, walks, taking long walks out in nature, journaling sessions. It involves thinking sessions before you start acting. Before you start doing anything it involves going into your mind and focusing on how you’re going to answer these questions today? What are you going to talk about today? What’s the problem you can help someone solve today? What’s the thing that someone needs to hear so that they are compelled to schedule a consult call with you?

It’s the thinking time before you get on that consult call to pre-plan for any objections that you might think this person might have so that you’re ready for them when you’re on the phone. It might be at thinking session before you go in and you have that coaching session with your client that has that struggle that you haven’t been able to solve for yet.

100% effort should absolutely have room for lots of times with friends and family, knowing that when the work hours are on, you are on. And it might include the last day of the month and you haven’t reached your goal and asking yourself, okay, what can I do right now so that I know I left it all out on the table at the end of the day? Because 100% effort is going to bed at night with zero regrets no matter the result you got.

100% effort is so damn rewarding. It feels amazing. And it feels way better than that’s not okay, we should do more, and what we do is never enough. 100% effort feels fabulous. And the result doesn’t have to be there to have made it worthwhile, because everything that you do in100% effort is selling your people on what you have to offer. And the universe will deliver all of that back to you.

Man, do you feel it? I can feel this right now. Like I’m pumped up right now. Are you pumped up right now? I just think about this right now, when I think about putting in 100% effort, I get excited. It’s like what brilliant idea is going to come to me today that I don’t even realize is inside of me right now? I cannot wait.

And that’s the kind of energy I want to impart on you. I’m going to show up and I’m going to give the universe everything I got today. Knowing that the universe is going to deliver it all right back to me. And I’m going to make sure that at the end of every day I gave it my all. And I’m going to get up and I absolutely am going to do it again.

I know this is possible for each of you. I know that it is because actually, that last thing that I just shared, that was something that one of my clients, Thais, talked about. She was one of the first people that said, “I like this, Amy. I can do this for a day.” She was like, “I can do what you’re saying for a day, but I can’t do it every day.” And I was like, why?

And that’s where we realized the confusion on the difference between hustle and 100% effort. And what I love that Thais did, is she took the coaching that I gave her inside our group coaching session. And she took it and she put it to use for her right away. And so just one week later she shared with us, on the group called one week later, how it’s changed how she is showing up for herself and for her business. How she’s working the same number of hours, but she’s getting so much more done.

She wrote out all her emails for an entire month. She got so much more done in the same amount of time and she’s so much more relaxed with her family. Because she’s a busy mom of like three kids. I sure hope she has got three kids because that’s what I’m remembering right now. But she’s a busy mom with multiple children, trying to take care of her kids, take care of her family, and take care of herself, and take care of her business. 100% effort is what makes it possible.

So what will 100% effort look like for you? I’m going to let you canoodle on that. All right? And here’s the beautiful thing, this is a total side note, but 100% effort is something that can apply to every aspect of your life. That if you gave everything that you did 100% effort, like give Netflix 100% effort, give your business 100% effort. I just think that it really means showing up in your actions, giving it your all for the thing that you’re focused on in that moment.

It can be working out. It can be cooking, and eating, and taking care of your body. It can be spending time with your family. It can be all of those things. And then it’s leaving those things with no regrets as you move on to the next thing. And then at the end of the day, you are giving 100% effort to resting your body, resting your brain.

I can’t wait to see where you guys go when you pick up this idea, this concept of 100% effort and you run with it and you make it your own. I just love you guys so much. And until next week, I can’t wait to see what you create. So until next week, let’s go fuck some shit up.

Coaches, I have created a brand-new freebie offer just for you podcast listeners. I created a brand-new training called Stop Over-Complicating Confidence. Because I see my coaches do it all the time, make this confidence thing way harder than it has to be.

In this free training you’re going to learn exactly how you over-complicate confidence, what’s creating that, and how to stop it. Here’s the best part, all of it less than an hour. Less than an hour of your time. You will feel more confident in less than an hour. Yeah, friends, this is the best training I’ve ever done. So visit amylatta.com/podcastgift to get yours. Again, that’s amylatta.com/podcastgift. Go now and feel more confident in just an hour.

Thanks so much for listening to The Confident Coaches Podcast. I invite you to learn more. Come visit me at amylatta.com and until next week, let’s go do epic stuff.