Should You Go into More Debt to Invest in Coaching?

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"Should You Go into More Debt to Invest in Coaching?"

How to Make a Powerful Decision When You're Scared but Know You Want More

In today's episode, I cover the following:

- How to make a financial decision despite feeling fear

- Understanding the difference of decision making from power vs panic

- Questions to ask yourself to understand where you're making a decision from

- How debt isn't the real issue and what it actually is

- Real client story about how she paid off all of her debt!

- What's the real cost of NOT investing

and so much more!

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Transcript

0:00

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the Building Her podcast. I'm your host, Kati Lillian. If you've been loving this podcast, go ahead and rate the podcast five stars and DM me on Instagram when you do that, because I want to connect and personally thank you. If you are new here, hit that subscribe button. It really helps the podcast grow, and that way you'll never miss an episode. So let's dive in. Hey, my name is Kati Lillian, and I am obsessed with all things mindset, personal development, and helping you build the best version of yourself. I'm a women's life and mindset coach and an entrepreneur who started a fun hobby of posting hashtag sweaty selfies, grew a successful side hustle, and now I run a six figure coaching business. I teach you the secret of building a life that aligns with your deepest values and one that you wake up excited for. This podcast is designed to expand your mind and. Challenge the status quo. So get ready to uplevel your life and let's start building her. I wanted to talk today about investing. Into yourself and investing into coaching. I have been having some conversations with people on Instagram because a lot of early and aspiring coaches follow me there, or I have been talking with a number of my she EO ladies just about how they're feeling because this is my second round of hosting she EO. Sadly, we are in our last month of the program. That's a four month program, and so June now is going to be the final month. We have our last call on July 1st, so it's always bittersweet when it comes to this moment, right? Because bitter, obviously no one wants it to end, but sweet, because you've learned so much, you've grown so much, and you've had community, and you have met other like-minded women, and I mean, there's only positives to this thing, right? But with that said, I've been having conversations and just trying to gauge like, where is everyone at? How are they feeling? What's next for their journey? Because you don't build a business in four months, right? Like that's just the reality of it. So there's always going to be a next step, whether you feel like you're in a season of life where, okay, I got it. Like let's apply, let's integrate by myself. I feel confident in doing that. Cool. Right. That, that's awesome. I've had those seasons in my journey as well, but other journeys are like, Ooh, actually, like I'm not ready to. You go away and step away from mentorship and community. It actually really helped me and I just feel like I'm building my momentum and so I don't want that momentum to end. Right. So maybe there is a second step for you and what does that look like? Right? Is it a hopping to another program, another coach? Or is it continuing with your coach, whether it looks different like a one-on-one capacity or more of like a membership community style, but less intense of a four month mastermind program where we meet every week, but maybe you need someone to check in on you and and talk biweekly or even on a monthly basis, right? So there's so many different ways to continue your growth and the momentum that you have been feeling. But what I keep running into and what I notice based off of my conversations is that there is always this hesitancy, there's this fear around investing more, and we know this is not. Tens of dollars. We know this is thousands of dollars when we invest into coaching, and those are the women that I wanna talk to today here on the podcast because pretty much in every conversation that I'm having here, I would say in the last week, it's been all the same responses. And so I just really want to cater this to those women that are really standing at. A crossroads essentially, right? They're at the, this fork in the road and they're trying to decide what do I do? Do I keep investing? Do I keep taking the the scary, messy steps of action? Do I put thousands of dollars more onto my credit card if I'm already in credit card debt, or do I. Stop. Right? And do I do this by myself? And you just need to be really honest and accountable with yourself in terms of what season of life you're in. Does that feel good to do it by yourself? And again, implement and um. Take advantage of all the knowledge that you've gained, or does it feel better to continue the momentum, to continue the mentorship, to continue having a community? Right, so this is for the woman who wants to grow and continue growing her coaching business. And she knows deep down that she's ready for the bigger leap, for the bigger investment and for the thousands of more dollars to put it on her credit card, even though she has existing debt, right? So she wants to take the leap. It's kind of like a no brainer, right? Money aside, she would do it in a heartbeat. But since money is involved in into this equation. Her financial situation might feel a little scary, so she's sitting on credit card debt. Maybe she's already invested, maybe she's already feeling essentially like burned a little bit, and now she's wondering the ultimate question, should I really invest more into coaching? Or am I just being irresponsible? So I wanna walk you through the real question underneath that doubt how to make this decision from your power. I. Not your panic, your power and what, what to watch out for in your money mindset. So I hope this speaks to those that are listening. I have about five sections here that I've divvied this up to. So get comfortable, get your notebooks out. You already know the deal. We're in school today and let's get started. Okay. Section number one, don't hate me, right? It's my job as a coach to lovingly call you out. But the real issue isn't the debt that you have, it's actually underneath that, the fear that you have. So let's just be honest for a second. If you're debating another coaching investment. Especially a high level one. So we're talking one-on-one, we're talking thousands of dollars here, and you already have debt. Guess what? The money actually isn't really the problem. The problem is the fear that you have underneath. So for example, the question is, what if I invest and I still don't succeed? What if this is the time I mess up for real? What if I invest thousands of dollars and I put my family's finances at jeopardy and my husband, my spouse, my partner is angry with me and is disappointed in me. And if I have a child or children, they're disappointed in me if they're old enough, right? Just that feeling of disappointment in yourself. Or the thought might be, am I just being naive or reckless or stupid? But here's the thing, you're not scared of investing more money. You're scared of trusting yourself again. Lemme say that again. You are not scared of investing more money. You are scared of trusting yourself again, so you're not afraid of the debt. At the end of the day, money, it's a series of numbers, right? Everyone has credit cards these days. You swipe. We carry a balance. That's kind of just how America is. America is propped up on debt, whether you like it or not. Debt is part of it. There's good debt. There's bad debt, good debt there. Mortgage. Um, school coaching, personal development, that's all moving the needle forward in your financial wealth, but also you as a human, I would argue bad debt is any depreciating liability, like cars, like clothing, like products, like consumer goods, that kind of stuff, right? So we have to get comfortable with just even the idea of debt. So it's not you're afraid of debt.'cause I think we understand that difference of good and bad debt and that that's literally just how America operates. But you are afraid that you won't get a return. You're afraid to bet on yourself again and lose. So picture this, let's say one-on-one coaching is$20,000. I'm making this number up. If there was a guarantee on the other side of that 20 K investment that you would not only make you at that 20 K back, but you would triple it so you invest 20 k. Into whatever program and you are guaranteed that you triple that, meaning you make$60,000, would you do it? First thing that comes to mind, yes or no? Right. It's, it's a yes. We all want that. 60 k are you kidding? From 20 K to 60 K. That's great. That's a great ROI. But most of us don't think like that because there is no guarantee. Why? Because it's completely based off of you and your work ethic, your hustle, your determination, your self-belief, your action, it's all up to you. Yes, coach is 50% of the equation. We're here to hold your hand. We're here to support you and guide you and give you our advice. And of course, but the other 50% is you. And that's really fucking scary. Believe me, I've been in your situation, in your shoes before. I've invested hundreds of times by now. Okay? Hundreds of times that's exaggerated, but lots of times and lots of fucking money. And there's always that, that heaviness right of energy. There's always that big question of like, oh, okay. I need to prove to myself, I need to trust myself. I need to bet on myself that I will be stretched. And I will show up and I will do the fucking work because in that work, I will get to the results that I want. And we all know that's true. If you're listening to this right now and you've already made an investment before, whether it's group, whether it's one-on-one, whether it's even a digital course, and either you show up to the calls. And you have questions prepared based off of the work and the activity that you've done over the week. Then you get those responses. You get the help. You get the guidance. You're present for the calls. You actually apply and integrate the scary steps of action that the coach told you to do. I guarantee you, you have some kind of result within that behavior. Whether you did send out the dm, whether you did ask for the consultation call, whether you did have the call where someone said yes to, whether you did actually sign the client, whether you raised your rates and someone said yes to it, whether you decreased the amount of calls. From weekly to biweekly, yet for the same amount of money that you would've weekly or more like you have already these results and you have it because you did the work. You applied what you actually learned, so you already have proof and you already have evidence that you can do the work. That is the self-trust that you are building. But now to just end it, to stop it while you have momentum is doing you a disservice and your growth. And so putting, swiping your credit card. And putting more thousands, thousands of dollars onto it. Is the skin in the game? Is the uncomfortable action? Is the uncomfortable, like, what the fuck am I doing? Behavior that we actually need to take? It's the risk involved that we have to take in order to grow. That. That's just what it is. If you think about investments in general and like when, let's say you're a startup company, like Think Shark Tank, right? Think Shark Tank, that's a beautiful example. And you go and you have this pitch for all the sharks and they're all watching you and listening to you, and you have to be like witty and cute and whatever. And you have your pitch for, I don't know, 30 seconds a minute. And you show them this product and you're just hyping it up and you're selling the shit out of it. At the end of the day, those sharks actually have no idea if this is actually going to work. They have your results right from the past and what you've done to that day, but they have no idea. They have no guarantee. That this company will actually thrive, that you will actually do the work that is necessary to make this thing happen. They've just met you in 30 seconds. They have no idea. All they go off of is, do they like your energy? Do they like you as a human? Do you have a good story? Are there some emotions evolved? Alex, her talks about this all the time. Do they even like your product? And then based off of all of that information, all of the, the variables considered, they then have to make a decision whether they want to invest in you or not. They are taking a gamble. They are taking a risk.'cause they don't know what's going to happen with your business. They can just guess. They can assume they can hope, they can pray, but no one can tell the future, even a multimillionaire, billionaire investor. So that's the same thing you're doing here. When you are thinking about investing in yourself, you are betting on yourself and you're taking a chance and you're taking a risk. On the unknown, but you have some track record. You have some level of self-trust you've already built because of the results that you have, and you only have those results because you put some skin in the game. I guarantee you, you didn't get this by a free PDF download online. You got it because you've already invested thousands of dollars into yourself and that thousands of dollars, it feels like, holy shit, I'm doing this. It's your sign to the universe like, this is what I want. Let's fucking go swipe, swipe, swipe right. Then you show up to the calls on time in its entirety. Then you're present. You have no distractions. Then you listen to what the coach is saying. Then you actually take notes. Then you actually have questions prepared for the coach. You're in it. You're there to win it, and then once the call is done, you actually leave and you apply and you integrate, even though it feels scary and cringe and icky, but you're like, whatever, I'm doing it. Anyways, that is how you got the result. So again, you are not afraid of the number or the debt. You are afraid that you will not get a return, but the only way you get a return is based off of you. Okay. Let me tell you what I told a client. This is section two of who was in a situation like this. Obviously I won't share names for privacy, but one of my clients in my first round of CEO, she was in my mastermind. I had this exact conversation with her'cause she already invested into my CEO program, right? This was the first time I was launching CEO. So she also didn't even know what she EO was. I just had to tell her what she EO was. Think of again, shark Tank. Uh, and she's the shark. I have to tell her and sell her on she EEO'cause she never heard of it before. She took a chance. She invested$3,000. She took advantage of the early bird, uh, sale. However, before she did that, she and I had a conversation and she told me, she, um, was honest and transparent with me that she was four D thousand dollars in credit card debt. That's four zero in credit card debt. And a lot of that debt primarily she mentioned was bad debt. And it was from, um, clothes, like from shopping. She, she loves shopping, so she just swiped it, put it all on her credit card. Okay. So part of her really wanted to do the CEO thing, learn how to become a coach, go all in. But part of her felt guilty, part of her felt scared and part of her felt unsure if she should add more to the debt. Okay, so here's what I told her. This is section part, uh, number three, I guess. This is the coaching I gave her, and I want you to use this for yourself. Am I choosing? This is a question to ask yourself. Am I choosing from power from my own inner power, or am I choosing from a state of panic? If you say yes to private coaching, group, coaching, digital course, whatever, whatever thing is, thousands of dollars. Okay? It's not about adding more debt, it's about giving yourself the structure and support to earn your way out of it faster. Lemme say that again. If you say yes. To continuing your investment into coaching, whatever format that looks like. It's not about adding more debt, it's about giving yourself the structure and support to earn your way out of it faster. You have to think who got themselves into this position in the first place you did. You put that debt onto your credit card. Specifically, the bad debt is what I care about. But you have now someone that is giving you a chance to be in your corner and to coach you and advise you how to even pay down that debt. But you need money first to pay down the debt, right? Like side tangent, everyone talks about this concept of passive income. And while it's sexy, for sure, everyone wants that. Guess how you make passive income First earned income. You have to have money to even invest so that you make passive income. So you have to make money first, and then you get to pay down your debt. And if you don't know how to make money, how are you going to get yourself outta that debt? So by you investing into someone that has$0 or very minimal bad debt, they could probably teach you a thing or two on money mindset, on money structure, on balances, on p and l reports, right? Structure and support to earn your way out of it. If you say no. Make sure it's not because you're afraid, but make sure it's because you genuinely believe that you have what you need right now. So this is what I said at the, the beginning of this episode. If you genuinely feel like, no, I'm good, and like my debt isn't that bad and I feel actually really good about my debt and what, what it is even for, and I have a plan to pay that off. And, um, everything that I've learned from prior investments, I actually am. Still applying and it's working and right, like you have to understand and determine the season of life that you're in. But again, you're making it from a place of power, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, knowing versus fear. Versus, oh shit. Okay, so again, the debt isn't the problem. Staying stuck with the debt is if your business isn't structured to be profitable yet, and you know you won't figure that out alone, then the real cost is staying exactly where you are for another year. Again, what are you gonna do with this balance? And so going back to my story with the 40 K debt girl, she eventually did sign up for she EO, okay? So despite the 40 K debt credit card balance, which again was a lot of bad debt from clothes, she still added three K onto it for her CEO investment. In that time of she EO, she learned, she showed up to every single fucking call. She was there on, on time. She took notes. She was present. She was like a, a sponge. Okay. She actually applied what we talked about on the weekly calls, and I know this because in our telegram group chat, she was there all day, every day asking questions, sharing stories, sharing experiences. Hey. Someone said this to me in the dms, how should I respond? Hey, I just scheduled this call. I'm freaking out. What do I do? Like constantly blowing up the chat, which, hello, that's what it's there for. And she made money. She did not make 40 K, she made eight K. She signed two clients for 4K each. And after those four months, you guys, she continued to grow. She continued because of the knowledge she learned, and so that AK. Doubled and then tripled all from the knowledge and wisdom, right? So this is long past four months and I am so happy to say that she actually did pay off her 40 K debt. She also made moves behind the scenes because her rent for her apartment was like four to$5,000 a month and she, her mom lived nearby and has this huge house and she's like, you know what? I have to swallow my pride. And this is like. A hit to my ego, but I think I also need to move home to save that four or five grand to pay off my debt faster. So she was also clicking into solution mode in other areas of her life versus just thinking about making money as a coach. She was also like, okay, how do I also reduce my expenses here? Okay, cool. We're moving home. So that's just her example. I'm not telling everyone to move home if you even have that. Option. But what I'm saying is she wanted it so badly that she made it fucking work. Like you could not tell her, no, you could not stand in her way because she's like, you are either gonna help me, you're gonna support me. You're gonna move out the fucking way. Right? That was the vibe she was on. So again, the debt is not the problem. It's you staying stuck and not doing anything about it. That's the real cost because that debt is just gonna stay with you unless you do something about it. Okay, so profit equals freedom, right? We'll have choices when we have profit, but it starts with self-trust. Okay? So I told her, you're not just buying coaching, you're buying your next level of belief, clarity, and momentum. You're not buying coaching. You are buying your next level of belief in yourself, clarity and momentum. That is what you are investing in. When you invest, that's already 50% of the way there.'cause now your mind has clicked into, okay, let's go mode. Also, it's the ultimate sign to the universe of like, this is the direction I'm heading. Like, back me up, let's co-create, you know what I mean? So I'm not here to convince you, I just wanna share that story, but I'm just here to remind you like who the hell you are. Okay. I can say from experience, I do not have the multi-six figure business from Katya. I did not build this by myself. My multi-six figure coaching business is on the shoulders. I stand on the shoulders of others. I stand on the shoulders of my mentors. It's my thousands of dollars of investments until this day. It's picking the brains of people that are smarter than me, further than me, that have gotten me to where I'm at today. So you have to make a decision for your future self and the the decision that your future self will be proud of. Whether that's a yes or a no, I'm not convincing you either way. I'm convincing you and reminding you that you have to make a decision out of power, not panic, okay? So to help you make that decision for yourself, going here into section four, I wanna help you decide, okay? So it's like a little mini framework, um, that you can do. So if you're in this spot again, you're at a fork in the road and you're trying to understand and decide what do I need next in my journey and my growth? That's what we're all here for, is to support you. Try this decision filter. So first question to ask yourself, do I know why want this, or am I still unclear? And if you're still unclear, you need to get more clarity before making a big decision. So number two, am I making this decision from trust or from fear? Trust says, I'm going to show up and make this worth it. Fear says, I'll probably fail again. Third question, do I have a plan to turn this investment into income? Right? Remember, you don't need a full map. You don't need all the ducks in the row, but you do need momentum, and you do. You do need a support structure. Those are the questions to ask yourself. Section five. Last section. There is an optional, sorry. There is an optional middle path, so if something that is like private coaching, thousands of dollars, whatever feels like a stretch for you, but you don't want to lose momentum, you can also ask your coach, your group again, wherever you're at. About maybe like a hybrid option. So is it six months? Is it three months? What? Like what else do they offer? So you can stay in their energy, you can keep the trust going, you can keep the momentum going, but maybe something that feels softer to you and like more approachable. Approachable and more of an option. Right? So it's again like understanding what you need and then seeing what you guys can work out, right? Something that keeps you in motion. You don't always have to go all in, but you do need to keep moving. Okay? That's the only way out of out of debt, for example. So if you're sitting on this decision right now, I really hope this podcast episode helped you. Like I said, I've been having multiple conversations, not just now, but in the past, and this always comes up, right? Ooh, the investment. Ooh, the price tag. Ooh, the thousands of dollars, especially if you've already been investing into yourself. Um. Or maybe it's to work with me personally and you've considered it, but you're like, ah, I don't even know what katya's one-on-one, um, pricing is. It's probably a lot of money. Or maybe someone else. Just remember, you don't need to be debt free to grow your business. What you do need is to be. All in on yourself. You need to bet on yourself. I believe in powerful women making powerful decisions, and quite honestly, those are the types of women that I wanna work with. I want to work with women who fucking get it. They understand and they're like, get outta my fucking way. I'm gonna make this happen. That's quite literally it, and that's the mindset and the attitude that we need. So if you're listening to this, you're already a client of mine and this just resonated with you, it hit, or you have more questions about it, please feel free to DM me on Instagram. If you are brand new and you're listening to this and you're like, I don't know what Katya's on, but I want some of it because this fired me up. DM me the word power in all caps, then that will go to the top of my DM inbox and then I'll be able to. Talk with you, see where you're at, and I'll send you some more details. Um, again, I won't convince you, you're still gonna make a decision that's best for you, which I support. I just want to coach you and help you into clarity and making that decision from power and not panic. So. That's what I got for you this week. If anything about this episode resonated with you, which I hope it did, do me a favor. Take a screenshot of this podcast, post it on your stories, and tag me at Kati Lilian while also, if you want a separate personal DM conversation to go to help you in your journey, DM me that word power in all caps. I would love to connect with you and support you along in your journey, so. Thank you in advance. I appreciate you and until next time. Mm.