Ep #41: My 5-Year Overnight Success Story

You are listening to episode 41 of The Confident Coaches Podcast, the one where you stop stressing over how long this is taking.

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.

Hello my confident coaches. How’s everybody doing out there? I hope you’re doing amazing. I have to tell you, I’m freakishly excited because this week that I’m recording this podcast episode, I’m attending my own coach’s mastermind event. I’m so excited.

Now, it is a virtual event, this go round, so I mastermind with her and a group of other brilliant coaches for six months at a time. And then those six months always kick off with a three-day event. And that three-day event is this week. As a matter of fact, I’m recording this under the wire because I’m getting ready to pack up and everything because I’ve booked myself a thinking spot here in town.

Now, we were supposed to be at the Four Seasons in West Palm Beach, but because of COVID, that’s not happening. But I have booked myself a couple of nights at the Four Seasons here in St. Louis. I know, I’m so excited.

Now, there’s a million reasons, a million, that I love working in a group mastermind format, but I think the biggest is probably this here, this group synergy factor. Now, even though the event is being held virtually, we are all going to be masterminding with one another and we’re doing breakout rooms together, yes, online. Did you know you could do this? It’s very, very cool.

This collective brilliance of a group of coaches together, working through their shit as they all grow, other people seeing my mind, how I can’t see them, business ideas I hadn’t considered, other formats I had never considered, new ideas, there’s nothing better. I love it so stinking much. It’s why I offer a group mastermind because it’s how I’ve done all my growth, and we’re going to be talking a little bit more about all my growth in this episode right here.

So hopefully, you’ve been listening to me these past few weeks and you’ve hooked up with me on Insta stories. Because by the time this episode comes out, all of the Insta stories that I’m going to be posting over the next couple of days of all of those behind the scenes, me in the luxury at the Four Seasons, as well as what it’s like to attend a virtual three-day event, it’s all going to be on my Insta stories and it’s all going to be gone by the time this episode comes out, so hopefully you’ve been listening to me.

And if you haven’t, you haven’t connected with me, don’t you want all of those behind the scenes of the confident coaches? How this coach works? How I work with my groups? Snippets of my real life? Lots of inspiration and motivation, not to mention connecting with other brilliant life coaches.

Friends, I’m tell you all right here, when you get a group of life coaches together, we change like, the room. And then we go change the world. So make sure you are following me, at Amy Latta Coaching on Instagram. My handle is @iamamylatta and let’s connect, my friends.

And the reason why I keep rejoining my mastermind is part of the story I’m telling you today because I get asked all of the time about my overnight success. Now, what I’m talking about here is something I’ve coached on before, and I was inspired to put it together in a podcast episode today because of coaching one of my clients in one of my current masterminds.

So we are five weeks into a six-month mastermind, and this coach has been coaching for seven years and she has made some good income, but not that consistent 8K a month life coaching business that equals a six-figure business.

And the thing is that she’s just feeling all of the feels. Have you ever had one of those days? I know that I’ve had plenty of them, or just that day, you’re just feeling all of it because your Helga brain is just feeding you all the bullshit at one time and it just takes you down. We’ve all been there.

So she’s feeling all the feels because she’s thinking all the things. All that crappy Helga stuff. And these Helga thoughts are so stinking common that I thought it was high time we talk about it in this episode today. These are some of the biggest thought errors around. So a thought error, that is just a thought that you keep thinking that’s like a computer glitch. It’s an error in your head.

It’s like, why am I thinking that? Because it doesn’t allow me to create what I want to create. So some of the biggest thought errors that I hear, and all I mean by a thought error is a thought that you always have that creates a – it’s like a glitch in your brain. It just doesn’t help you create what you want to create.

And these are some of the most common thought errors that I hear. It’s taking too long. It’d be easier to believe if I had the results already. I can’t seem to figure this out, or you know what, it’s not working. So first and foremost, you might have your own, but these are all pretty common. I know I’ve thought them before. Most of my clients have thought them at one time or another.

So I’m sure that there’s some familiarity there for you if you’re listening to this podcast. So first and foremost, let’s plug each of these thoughts into a thought model and see what it gets for you. On the surface, we can be like, oh yeah, sure, I can see how that doesn’t serve me, I don’t want to believe that.

Do not skip this step of really seeing what it’s creating for you because some of you have brains that want to argue with me that these thoughts are not thoughts, that they are in fact facts. Cold hard circumstances. And I guarantee you, they are not.

And you especially are believing this – so if you heard any of those and said, “Well, that one’s just true,” that means you just really believe them. But I promise you right now, each of the things that I just said, those are thoughts and beliefs because not all seven and a half billion people on the planet would agree with you.

Somebody else has been plugging away for 15 years before they finally hit success, and they’re like, no, good thing I didn’t think those thoughts, right? So put them each into a model on paper and truly identify the feeling and the emotions that those thoughts create for you.

What does, “This is taking too long,” create for you? Where do you feel it in your body? Is it fast or slow? Hard or soft? Does it have sound, color, texture? Where is it centered in your body? Feel this feeling. What one-word name would you put on that feeling?

And what do you want to do when you feel this feeling? What kind of things do you do? What do you not want to do when you’re feeling this way? And when you do those things, or don’t do those things, what’s the result that that creates for you?

You see it now? What about the other thought, it’d be easier to believe if I already had the results? I know this feels true, but true is not a feeling. And that is a thought. Maybe it’s not easier to believe if you had the results because I can tell you, I have plenty of clients who have really good results and they still are struggling to believe.

So it’d be easier to believe if I had the results, what does that create for you as a feeling, other than true? Where do you feel that in your body? Where is it centered? Is that fast or slow or hard or soft or have sound, color, texture? What one-word name would you put on that sensation? And when you’re feeling that, what do you want to do or not do? And what kind of results do those actions get you?

I can’t figure this out. Where is that in your body? How does that feel? What one-word name would you put on that? What do you want to do and not do when you feel that way? What kind of result does that get you?

Make sure that these models are something that you’re doing on paper so you can really own what it’s creating for you because only then can you really say I see what this line of thinking is getting me, and then you can start to question it. What if that’s not even true? What if those thoughts are not even true?

This is where my story comes in because it appears on the surface that I was an overnight success in the year 2018. It’s now 2020 when I’m recording this. For a lot of people, I have heard it so many times before. “You just came out of nowhere.” No, I didn’t. I did not come out of nowhere.

I started coaching people in 2013. I was selling a direct sales product and coaching people through their weight loss every week. And I can’t remember now going back through my files or whatever, which I’m pretty sure I don’t even have, but I had about 25 to 30 clients that year.

I made $600. I made $600 my first year as a coach. And in 2015, which is the year that I discovered life coaching style coaching, I made $1200. By the way, total side note, but this just kind of gets my craw a little bit. I remember trying to get a credit card in my own name to put for life coaching school that very next spring and I couldn’t get one to cover the expenses because I could only claim the $1200.

I was really wanting to do it just in my own name and not use the family’s credit, but I wanted to use just my own Amy Latta’s credit. I mean, I was a former corporate marketer. I was in corporate marketing for 10 years and I made good money at that time and I had great credit.

But at this point, I had been a stay-at-home mom for 10 years and they wouldn’t give me the credit I needed. It made me so mad that that 10 years in corporate marketing didn’t matter, the 10 years I raised my kids didn’t matter. The $1200 that I made didn’t matter. The fact that my husband fully supported us and he was all in didn’t matter.

No bank cared that I had plenty of money at my disposal. They were not going to give me the credit that I needed. And I was so determined to show them. I don’t even remember that bank that phone conversation when the woman said, “$1200 a month?” And I said, “No, a year.” And she was like, “I don’t think this is going to happen.”

That’s not exactly what she said. That’s the tone of voice she said it in. But I remember at the time being so determined. Woman, I am going to make this work and I am going to make money and I’m going to get my own credit card on my own name like a real grown up, which by the way, I totally did last year. Thank you.

But I digress. Just a little side note there about the funny things that inspire you to take some action. So in 2016, unfortunately, I did have to use some of the family’s credit to pay for coaching school, but I finally got certified because I thought that was going to be the thing that was going to make me confident enough to go out there and earn more money.

And I did earn more money that year, the year I got certified. I made $6000. So you following me so far? First year in coaching, I made $600. I made about the same in my second year of coaching. In my third year of coaching, 2015, I made $1200. In my fourth year of coaching, the year I got certified, I made $6000. Are you seeing the progress here?

It’s not an overnight success. I was plugging away. Now in 2017, I did make $18,000, most of which was earned in the last three months of the year after I hired my coach. The coach I still work with today. And with the exception of one year where I went and I worked with her mentor, I have resigned into her mastermind one right after the other.

I knew as soon as my one-year program with her mentor was over, I was coming right back. Because consistent 8K a month income did not come to me until the second round of a mastermind with her. A full seven months after I first signed with her. And that summer in 2018, I was the “overnight success” that actually took five years.

In 2018, I would go on to earn a total of $103,000. When someone comes to me six months into their business saying I’ve only signed a handful of clients, I’ve only made a few thousand dollars and there’s a brand-new coach who’s only been working for six years, I do try really hard not to laugh out loud.

There’s a part of me that’s like, yeah, and? But that’s my work. Not theirs. Because the thing is there are way more coaches working year in and year out before they finally realize that all of their work is truly in their thinking and in their belief, and not some mythical, magical thing or place outside of them.

They are not at the mercy of people that sign up with them. They are not at the mercy of the whims of the business world or the economy or anything like that. That all of their answers, that their success is 100% determined on their belief in their ability to have value, that they have something of value to offer, that there are people who want what they have to offer, that there are people out there ready to sign up with them, that they can feel confident about that before they have the result.

I mean, one of my own mastermind sisters in my coach’s mastermind with me, she certified and started working in her business in 2011 and she’s “behind” me income-wise. She has now become a six-figure earner as of last year, but she started two years before I did. And another masterminder in my current July group, she’s been coaching since 2012 and this is the year that she finally decided, alright, let’s finally do this thing.

Can you imagine if any of us had decided that the only thing we could base our belief on was those number of years? We would never keep going if we only focused on the meaning that we were putting behind the number of years we’ve been working at this.

How do I know this? Just go look at those models we just created a few moments ago. Go look at those models. No wonder if you’re focused on that, what kind of actions and results you’re going to be getting. We put all this meaning into that number of years that we’ve been working this business and it’s so arbitrary. Who decides that X amount of time is too long?

Is there some guideline somewhere? Is there a rulebook that I missed? Oh, that’s right, there are no rules. Friends, this is all literally made up. Every bit of it. You don’t have to make any of those years under your belt mean anything. I mean, thank goodness I didn’t.

I would not be here today. Getting ready to pack to go to my last 200K mastermind because coming February, I’m going to be starting in the two-million-dollar mastermind with my coach. Thank goodness I didn’t believe that bullshit, right?

Thank goodness I didn’t make those five years of plugging along and struggling and doubt and all of that mean anything to me, otherwise I would not be here today. Thank goodness I didn’t make it mean I was never going to figure it out, I was never going to learn how to feel more confident, I was never going to figure out how to sign more clients, I was never going to be able to figure out how to create a business that actually supports my entire family.

I mean, here’s the thing. I could have. And at times, I certainly did. But why? When it’s so obvious what that line of thinking creates for you, why would you choose to continue to believe it? If your Helga brain is insisting but it has to mean something, question it. Why does it have to mean something? Because it doesn’t.

Those years don’t have to mean a thing. Or actually, you can choose to decide that they could mean something and you could choose something entirely different. You could choose to make those years mean I never give up on my dreams. I believe enough in me to keep going, even though others might quit.

You could totally make those years mean that you have perseverance and resiliency, that every time you fall down, you keep getting back up again no matter how many times it happens. You could totally make those years mean that instead.

Sure, you could make it mean it’ll never happen and that it’s taking too long, but why? Not when there are options and so many better options. Because plug those thoughts into a model that I just rattled off. I never give up on my dream. How does that feel? Where do you feel that in your body? What does that feeling inspire you to do?

I believe in me enough to keep going when others would quit. How does that feel? How inspired do you feel to go do something with that now? No matter how many times I fall down, I keep getting back up again. How does that feel? What does that feeling inspire you to go do right now?

See? Options, my friends. You always have choices and options. Now, I also want to make sure that I do recognize that you can have success much sooner. There can be true overnight successes. This entire podcast is not in any way, shape, or form, to diminish those coaches that do create success in a matter of months because that is entirely possible for you also.

Shoot, one of my own Confident Coaches success stories has a very short timeline. April Price, if you haven’t listened to her interview, I just interviewed her a couple of episodes ago and it’s so stinking brilliant. She’s going to share with you in that podcast episode the thoughts she kept coming back to. And she just discovered life coaching early last year.

She was signed up for certification and hired me by later that summer, and she just created her first $12,000 in June of this year. There are absolutely people who come out of nowhere, start their businesses, and hit those six figures very quickly in a matter of months. It can happen fast. It can happen quickly.

But here’s the thing; it’s the same work no matter whether it happens fast or whether it takes you more years. You still have to believe it can happen for you. You still have to hear those Helga thoughts and purposely choose not to believe them and feel the discomfort of not believing her. That is crazy uncomfortable and it doesn’t matter how fast or slow you go. It’s still the same stinking work of not believing those thoughts when they come up.

You still have to show up as the queen bee of your business and not some worker bee who doesn’t know what they’re doing, who’s looking to other people to tell them what to do. You still have to learn not to trash talk yourself and how to have your own back. And you still have to learn how to stop quitting on yourself, how to evaluate the work that you’re doing, so you’re not just constantly throwing spaghetti at the walls and you’re actually moving forward.

And when you decide to take that work seriously, the results will come. It will happen. It is inevitable, only if you believe it’s inevitable. So let this episode be your kick in the pants. I’m going to go get my ass kicked in the arena this week. This is your little ass-kicking for you.

To become your own overnight success, story, whether there was six weeks, six months, or six years, or more of overnights before that success. Put those Helga thoughts into models and really see them on paper, what they are creating for you. Don’t just go do this work in your head.

And realize you have a choice to make those overnight years mean what doesn’t serve you or to make them mean what does serve you. And for heaven’s sake, there are no rules. I mean, have I yelled this enough yet at you? There are no rules. It’s truly all made up.

We are all in a simulation made up of rules and you get to decide what to pick up and run with. So at least choose to pick up what serves you and run the hell with that. So here’s to an overnight success for all of you no matter how many years of overnights you have under your belt. I cannot wait to see what you create with this, so until next time, let’s go do epic stuff.

Friends, I am so excited to offer you a podcast-only treat. I am sharing with you the five-day Unblock Your Confidence mini course. It is only available to The Confident Coaches Podcast listeners and the only way to get your hands on it is right here. Why do you need this course?

Well, in this five-day mini course, you will learn why it seems like you struggle with confidence when others don’t, how to build trust in yourself, how to get over your fear of failure, how to stop caring so damn much what other people think, and the best thing you can do to unblock your confidence today.

All of that in just five days. This is some of my best work waiting for you. Visit www.amylatta.com/unblockconfidence to get yours. Again, that’s www.amylatta.com/unblockconfidence. Go now and get started today.  

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