Jeffrey: Welcome to the light in your launch podcast today, we're talking about two controversial words, alignment versus hustle. Stay tuned. Hey,

Announcer: Hey, we're in the Launch Squad and this is the Light Your Launch podcast. We teach coaches and course creators how to lighten their launches. We're bringing you all of the tips and strategies to take your launch from intimidating to money-making. In this podcast, we talk about everything; the sales, strategy, mindset, technical and spiritual aspects of running your best launch ever. So if you're feeling overwhelmed and unsure of the next right step, we're here to bring clarity, confidence, and excitement into your next launch. This is the Light Your Launch podcast.

Katie: Welcome back to the show. I'm Katie Collins. And I'm back again here with a last one. And today we want to talk about a couple of buzzwords in the coaching industry, alignment and hustle. Now I'm sure some of you listeners out there think that one of these words is more positive and the other one has a more negative connotation, but we're here to actually debunk that. So let's dive in, let's start with the word alignment, which I think is a little bit more fun to talk about. I think when people hear the word hustle, they're like, oh, so Aleyah, what, how do you know when something feels in alignment for you? Well,

Aleyah: I was an ENF P for me, it's all about feeling it, um, rather than knowing it it's like, I feel it in my body. Um, you know, I, I also look for synchronicities and signings, um, like number sequences, like right now I'm having seven 11 everywhere. And to me that's just like a little, uh, you know, sign that I'm on the right path. My body feels good when I'm in alignment. And I mean, by that, I mean, I don't have any, um, like worry or anxiety or, um, nagging feelings in my gut, you know, uh, Jeffrey and I were talking about this last night, just talking about how we followed our breadcrumb trail to the launch squad. And that really started for us like five years ago when he was starting his, um, WP in one-click business, and then kind of moving over to funnels.

Aleyah: And I just kept having this nagging, intuitive feeling that we were supposed to somehow work together, but I'm doing like my intuitive angel business and he's doing funnel, you know, business coaching. And I just kept having that feeling. Um, and he was occasionally feeling it too, but at the very beginning, he was like, eh, I don't think that'll work. But I was like, I just see it. I just know it. And that was years of just following a trail, you know, each the next right step would lead us to, you know, a different, uh, course that we were taking or different people like running into you, you know, a year ago. And, um, even though you and Jeffrey had that connection from 10 years ago, but it was like, you know, that when we finally realized that the gap was like that you weren't there yet.

Aleyah: And our other, the rest of the team wasn't there yet, you know, we were meant to work together, but it was with this bigger team, right? Like forming our lives. And once we did that, once we figured out that we needed our squad or wanted to make our launch squad, I was like, oh, this is it. This is zero doubt. We had both of us had zero doubt that this is what we were supposed to be doing. Zero question marks around it. And that is alignment, but it took us years to get there. And I just want to bring that up because sometimes people think it's an overnight thing and alignment isn't always like that. Right. The alignment was the breadcrumb trail. It was looking for the next right step, which next right step makes my body and mind feel like I'm growing and getting somewhere. It may not be the whole shebang all at all, every step of the way. You know what I mean?

Katie: Yeah. Yeah. Oh, totally. Um, I love the synchronicities and signs. You know, I hear a lot of stories like this because I am in sales and, you know, I sometimes support other people's launches as sales support for them. And, and so when people decide to spend thousands of dollars, they love to share with me the synchronicities that came about. I remember this one woman telling me about, um, dragonflies and it was like a sign for her. And, um, she saw one that morning and she decided to, you know, say yes, and then it was around my birthday. And so like that same week I went, um, and, you know, spent the day with a good friend of mine. And she gave me a card with, uh, you know, deceased, pressed dragon flying. Wow. And I was like, oh my God. Talk about synchronicities. Like this other person just brought dragonflies into my, into me.

Katie: It made it feel like, yeah, she's not kidding. That was the right step for her. So I just love hearing those stories, you know, and I, of course I know my own as well. Um, but I totally agree with you. Like, we can feel it in our body and like, you know, it's common, um, common talk out there that women have better intuition than men. I don't even know if that's really true to be honest, but I just feel like we just have learned to tune into our bodies because of our cycles and things like that. But we've just learned how to like really pay attention to our bodies. But I think all humans have the chance to feel, you know, where does that feel? And, and we're going to get into, you know, cause sometimes nervous energy and fear get misinterpreted. And I know, you know, w we chat about that in a minute.

Katie: Um, but I just, you know, I guess like in the sales conversations that I've had with people, and if they say no, this isn't the right fit. It doesn't feel good in my body. Um, and a lot of times I'm selling to kind of the coaching and healer industry. So it's like a lot of healers and they're very sensitive and highly sensitive people. And, um, I wouldn't identify myself in that way, but I can hang with those people, understand those people. And I, I finally got enough guts to say to people just because it doesn't feel good in your body, doesn't make it wrong. And, you know, I just, so we're gonna dive into this deeper. So if you're listening to this saying, huh, you know, stay, stay here with me for a minute. But just as a quick example, um, I was looking to hire a business coach.

Katie: I was leaving a community. Um, I was leaving mentors that I had had for years and I was just ready. I was graduating myself. It was time for my next level of stuff. And, uh, I got on the phone with a business coach and I was thinking, it's going to be maybe eight to $10,000 for a six month program. Um, which is funny, cause that's what I was charging. And so you probably don't want to hire a business coach that has the same rates as you, you know, but anyway, that's what I was thinking. It was going to be. And then she comes back and says, oh, it's $30,000, you know, for the year. And I was like, huh. Um, but even though it felt scary in my body, there was this certain knowing that if I said yes to spending $30,000 on my business and that what that meant for me was going to get a personal loan and agreeing to pay back.

Katie: I got two personal loans. So one of them was a three-year term and one was a five-year term. So it's kind of like buying a car, like I'm literally spending as much money as somebody might spend that on a brand new car to get a coach for just one year and then I'm paying it off for three to five. It was a very big decision for me and a scary one. But I think the nudge I kept hearing was this is your chance to bet on yourself. This is your chance to say like, I'm never going to quit this business. I mean, not, not, not for the long haul, you know, I'm in it for the long haul here. I'm not going to give up. And so if I can spend 30,000 to learn how to finally kick it into six figures, let's do it.

Katie: And I did, I kicked it into six figures that year. And actually I can see that like that five-year loan is going to get paid off in half the time then I thought, right. So it's so cool. And so, anyway, just to say it wasn't that it wasn't scary to spend $30,000 on my business, but I moved through that fear because what I've identified, and this is what I say to people in sales conversations, when they say it doesn't feel good in my body, I just say, is it fear? That feels uncomfortable because what you're being asked to do is outside of your comfort zone. And so of course it doesn't feel good in your body, but that doesn't have to, you don't have to assign meaning to it as the wrong choice. I think that's the most important thing for people to read. I agree.

Aleyah: And even though I do listen to my body's navigation, I have to also check in if it's something outside of my comfort zone, there is going to be fear around it. So how do you take that a step further? And it sounds like, you know, for you, you also could hear the voice of your intuition and your inner wise mind when making that choice and that wise voice was guiding you over the physiological feeling of probably like, I don't know if that's happens for you, but for me, it's like a clenching in my gut or like solar plexus area where I, when I feel tight about spending a big chunk of money or something like that, or other types of, you know, things that make me uncomfortable, like making videos. Um, I'm like, so I think that's such an important distinction. I do think the body can guide us in alignment, but it can also be where fear shows up as well. So if you are sensitive, you might feel all those things, you know, at once you have to be able to, to have a system of checking in with yourself to see, you know, what is actually underneath that fear.

Katie: Yup. Yup. And so we chatted a little bit before this and you know, we kind of, um, even though the original thing was alignment versus hustle and we'll chat about that in a little bit, but alignment versus resistance, I think is, uh, uh, a worthy topic for discussion because, you know, you brought up your videos and I know for a while you felt, uh, resistant to that,

Aleyah: Even angry, I'm an angry kid. Why are you making me do this?

Katie: Yeah, it's true. Because I could see that you could do it. That was the thing. Like I could see what your friends reflected back to you and what your clients reflected back to you. So how do you suggest people move beyond? Or first of all, identify is this wrong? Like out of alignment or am I resisting something because it's scaring me? How do you help people decipher that? Well, one

Aleyah: Metaphor I use a lot in my practice is my silly minivan metaphor. And that is who is driving your van that day. And I think we've even talked about this in our podcasts before. So in an ideal universe, my wise higher self is driving my van and in the back seat, I've got my mind, I've got my ego, my shadow, my little animal self, you know, all the different aspects of myself are my passengers. And they are all wonderful and unique in their own little crazy ways. I love all of those parts of myself, but I don't necessarily want them to be driving my van. And sometimes, you know, my ego or mind might hijack the keys runaway with the van. And so for me, that is a helpful way to sort of piece out and in a healthy way, kind of compartmentalize all my little inner selves so I can tune in and say, okay, who is this?

Aleyah: That's, that's making this decision right now. Who's feeling this beer. And I like to give them like personas and like have little visuals around them. So if you haven't done that, it's kind of a fun thing to do, even name them. Um, but you know, for myself, I also have a grounding practice. I meditate that really helps. I also, um, when there's, uh, trying to distinguish between the voice of fear and the, and then inner intuition, um, the fear voice will always sound like panicky, anxious. It has a lot of circular, um, talking and, uh, circular, you know, types of information going around, you know, your mind spinning. And why is intuition, you know, will sound grounded, will sound very clear and direct. It never is confusing information for you. So if you're trying to decide, is this my intuition or is this my anxious, you know, anxiety, then that's how you can tell,

Katie: I love the, the clear and direct, like it's like, we always are you sure right in the voice is going, do it, are you sure? I don't know if I'm hearing you, right. Yes. Yeah. I love that. Um, I had this, you know. Yeah, yeah.

Aleyah: Well, I was just going to say, I had the example earlier. I was thinking about where I used to feel like I needed to do everything alone and I'm a very, like do it yourself kind of person. And, but I work much better with a team, which I'm finding more and more working with our squad. Right. And so I have resistance to working with a team, but when I actually work with a team I'm happier, my business is flowing better. I've got more inspiration. We bounce ideas off each other. I have accountability, I get things done. So I don't just have ideas doing around in my head that I keep procrastinating on. I mean, it's like night and day to work with a team versus working all alone. But that was a hard hurdle to overcome for me because I've just always been like, I can just get this done myself and even thought that that was a strength, but it really isn't. And so I had, you know, I had resistance to that and I think that's really common where a lot of times we have resistance to these things that are so going to make our lives easier and better. Right. You still have to hustle when with a team, but you've got support and you can stay in your lane.

Katie: Yeah. Yeah. We've been saying that a lot lately and you know, it's fun. I mean, really, we got to reflect as a squad. Um, Friday we have meetings with everybody on the team on, uh, every Friday and it was so fun to reflect. Like we, um, came up with this idea in June of 2020, we worked behind the scenes and trying to figure out who we are, what do we want to call ourselves all of that for about six months? And then like right after Christmas, um, Jeffrey and I hit go on the first podcast and, you know, we plan the launch and yada yada. So in six months, you know, we've done, um, 25 episodes, um, two launches, um, you know, anyway, a whole bunch of a whole bunch of stuff in six months. And there are times when, you know, I might not feel like doing a podcast and if it were in my own business, I probably would have blown it off and been like, ah, nobody cares.

Katie: I'll just drop one every 14 days instead of every seven. Right. But it's like, Nope, we agreed to every seven. We agreed to every Monday we're dropping a podcast and because we are a team, um, there's just less, there's greater accountability and less kind of BS because you know, that people are counting on you to do what you said you do. Yeah. You know, so, and I think working with a coach is similar when you're paying for that support. And that accountability is just kind of up-leveled because they're like, you know, you're kind of wasting your money if you're not taking the action steps and that kind of thing. I think, um, you know, where people get stuck, you know, between the, the fear, like, it doesn't feel good in my body conversation. Um, and then just the, um, self limiting beliefs that they're holding onto that won't let them say yes. And we talked about that with hiring. Oh yeah. Right. And so we would not have had such a successful launch nor would it have been as enjoyable or, uh, less, it would have been more stressful without our team members. Right. And of course, without each other. Um, but really having team members that we paid to, you know, assist us with whatever we needed made such a huge difference. And I know you're sharing, um, you know, you said something like Jeffrey and I will never move forward again without an Alison. Oh yeah.

Aleyah: Alison she's our project manager in the launch squad, but she's also our VA for our personal business as well. And for about a year before we, so I guess we've been with her about two years now, but I was the one resisting that and I was trying to help Jeffrey with his admin stuff. And I am not an admin person. Like I don't have, I don't even have one cell of an admin person alive in my body. And, um, but I was trying to do that for him to save money. And he was to all the, you know, business by design and James Wedmore, you know, telling him to hire someone. And I was the one saying, you know, doing the budget and just going like, oh, we can't afford it yet. We just can't afford it yet. And he was like, we can't afford not to do it.

Aleyah: And, and he was so strong about it. So I was like, okay, we just, we were just going to make it work. We disagreed. And Alison came along and she was like the perfect, perfect VA for us. And it has made the hugest difference in all the world to have her on board. And we will never, ever, ever exist without Alison or someone similar, you know, helping us with all of that aspect of our business. And, you know, and even in the launch squad, like how would we do all the things that we do and how would we get through our launches without her. Right. And you know, that is not an intuitive angel reader zone of genius. Like I am not going to be graded admin and, and project management as well as all the things that I am good at. So, and that's okay. You don't, you can't be all the things and we're not meant to be all the things it's, it's so wonderful to connect with people that are doing their zones and are in their zones. Right. Then you get to let them shine and, and appreciate them for their gifts. And it's, you know, if you get cosmic about it, I feel like it's kind of like your purpose, right. Like why you're here even. And so to kind of withhold that from people is almost just stingy. Right.

Katie: It's true. It really is. You know, you're not operating with an abundance mindset and it's so important to operate with that in every area of your business. Um, I feel like, you know, like when you're thinking of making a change or saying yes to something that literally your intuition is going do with, and you're, you're finally gonna listen. And part of that is probably hiring someone. Um, you know, we really encourage you to commit to really giving it a try first, like you could hire someone on a three-month basis, see that you could budget for that. Like, okay, I've got the money for this. I'm going to invest in this because it matters. Um, and, and just see the results that come before you say, no, this isn't for me because, you know, I've, I've heard this so many times when people like, I'll never go back, I'll never go back to that limiting way of living or of, of doing things. Right. Like, and I find

Aleyah: Financially our business doubled every year since we hired her doubled.

Katie: Right, right, right. Yeah. Right. It's big it's you knew that, like you weren't the right person for it. And if you were going to take that business to the place where obviously like all the work you guys did made the launch squad easier to come together, right? Yeah. Yes. That was part of how part

Aleyah: Of the flow of the launch squad was the fact that we already had these other pieces in place,

Katie: These systems and the fact that you could bring Alison right over. Yes. I didn't have to search for someone. Yeah.

Aleyah: And that's the thing with the breadcrumb trail. It's like, you don't know what is leading to what, when you're in it in the moment, just follow it because it's leading somewhere. Awesome.

Katie: Just trust it. Yeah. Yes. So that's the big thing, you know, we chatted a little bit earlier about like the word resistance. Um, you know, so as a business coach, I hear, um, and it, because of really the people I work with where they're, heart-centered healers and coaches, and, um, they're kind of tired of the old way of marketing, the old way of doing things, but the sales-y approach, they don't want to do it. Right. And even like, for, for you a layer, when we were doing our YouTube ads landing pages, and we had a template from someone, and there was something on that landing page, it was like flashing, you know, book now or something, right. Like time is running out and you were like, delete that. That's not, you know, like you said, can we please delete that? Cause your sweet and your communications.

Katie: Um, but it was like, it wasn't aligned with us and with our brand. And it was like, yes, thank you for the permission to delete that. So what I always share with people is, um, you know, look, sales is sales. You have to sell to have a business. You have to make money, right? And so you can't avoid sales. What you can avoid is certain sales tactics, or marketing gimmicks that you are not aligned with and you can still make money. But here's where I was bringing in the word hustle. And it's like, I feel like it's, um, a very masculine word, right. It kind of goes with these marketing, like we're going to crush it. Right. It's so like, bro, I'm really

Aleyah: Sad that it replaces the, my seventies roller disco hustle because that's what I always associated it with until recently until it being

Katie: Darn it let's bring that to the rollerskate hustle. That's what I think. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I am like one of those, you know, I'm trained in the art of feminine presence and I'm big into feminine energy, but I'm big into a balance. I really don't believe one. I don't believe the masculine is better than the feminine and I don't believe the feminine is better than the masculine. I think you need both. And that is that getting young symbol. And so to me, hustle means like, okay, I'm about to roll up my sleeves and work hard towards something that matters. And that's, to me when hustle is an okay word, it's okay to use it. You know, one of my taglines used to be, I help you make consistent income in your business without constant hustle. But when I see other people say without the hustle, I'm like, Hm, I, you know, I just believe that there are some things, sometimes you have to work hard.

Katie: So I started thinking this morning, what are things that I hustle for? You know, when, when do I hustle when it actually matters? And I was thinking of like getting ready for a party and boy, like, that's something that really bummed me out about COVID I love entertaining. And as an example, I would have like 40 people over for a corned beef and cabbage and Irish bread dinner on St. Patrick's day. And I did that for like five years in a row. I just loved it. And so that was something I loved and I would hustle and clean my whole house top to bottom because my friends were coming over. And that's what you do. You clean your house when people are coming over, um, that is hustle and I'm okay to do that in like just last weekend, you know, it was Memorial day weekend.

Katie: Um, so we had, you know, three days and I decided it was my planting weekend. And then it poured rain in Denver pretty much all day, every day for the entire weekend. And of course, yeah. And I'm like, actually we need the rain so bad. I didn't even complain about it, but it was like, I put on my rain boots and my raincoat and I got my planting done anyway, because that is what I had planned. And gardening is hustle, right. You've got to like cold the soil and it's a big like on your body. And every, every tool I use is a hand tool. It needs me a lot, you know, and it's like just me doing it, but that's another example of where I hustle and I really enjoy it. And I water these flowers every day and I'm like, I'm so glad I got that done.

Katie: I'm so proud of myself for not letting the rain, you know, deter me or whatever. And, you know, and then, you know, coming off of our most recent launch was, which was just a couple of weeks ago. There was definitely so hustle, you know, and not even just the launch week, but leading up to it, there was like, okay boy, I got to get this done because my team is expecting, right. Like I have to do a so that the team can do B right. So if I'm laid on a, everything is late. Uh, so there was some hustle in there, but I didn't care. And I'll, I'll ask you, you know, what you thought about your, your own hustle. But for me, I didn't care because I was so turned on with what I was doing. The content creation was turning me on, like I just loved, we were breaking rules left and right.

Katie: We took what we knew about a webinar or a masterclass. And we created a two hour ceremony instead. And there was a little bit of an element of like the webinar masterclass mixed in with all of this other stuff. We'd love to giving people and you know, it just, we just did it our way and because it was like heart-centered and aligned with who we are and how we want to show up. I didn't mind. I just, I didn't mind the hustle. Um, and the fact that we were all in our own lanes, the hustle I had to do, wasn't stressful. It was just okay, put on your binaural beats and get this done.

Aleyah: Yeah. I think when we go, our heart is in, is in the hustle. When it's something about your heart, that's nurturing you and feeding your life purpose, then it just feels easier. Right. You know, then it doesn't feel so much. I mean, it is work and we were creating something new. So it wasn't like we had, I mean, I think you can, as an alarm squad, we definitely know that you can get it all automated and it can be a lot easier, but we were creating a totally different type of launching experience for people. And it was all new coming up with new content and it was, you know, a lot of work, but so, so rewarding and so fun. And you could really see how people were lighting up around it and getting so much out of it. And people were saying, oh my God, I can't believe this was free this week.

Aleyah: Like this was amazing. And that just made our hearts so happy just to be helping people, even if they weren't ready to fight, ready to sign up with us, we all felt rewarded that, you know, this actually was helping people's businesses and that they were getting something out of it. And, and we, you know, committed to, to doing that though, we made that commitment. And I think, you know, like we were talking about maybe before the podcast about the webinar thing and it's like, well, that might be scary. Um, and you also may not like what a two hour webinar looks like. And we didn't like the way that looked either. So we changed it and we made it, we made it have parts and pieces of our soul in it. Like you, Katie, like finalist beautiful music that we all loved. And it resonated with, you know, your sweet spirit and people were saying, you know, in the podcast, like, I mean, in the, um, ceremony, they were saying like, what is this music? I love it. It's so inspiring. And you know, just your sales don't have to be icky and sleazy. It can be heart centered and you can do it a different way. And that's okay. And I think that's, you have to do it a different way sometimes, you know, so that it, the hustling feels enjoyable and not draining.

Katie: Yeah. I think that it's true. Like just the, when your heart is in it, you can hustle with heart. Yeah. That's what we're all about. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, you know, I think, um, when I think of the word hustle, like you thought of your roller skating tune, um, I think of exercise and there, you know, I work with a lot of health coaches and so, you know, people are always afraid to use that word exercise. People don't like exercise. I use movement instead, whatever the word, um, to get results, you have to hustle. Right. And I remember avoiding, I go to a gym that, um, changes the part of the body that you're working on. So like front of the week is very strength-based and end of the week is very cardio based. And I found, I was stacking my classes with front of the week cause I loved weightlifting.

Katie: And I was like, cardio, no things. But in reality, that's part of the hustle of exercise and you've gotta be willing to do it. Right. And so now it's like, okay, I love my body enough where I'm going to go sweat it out for 40 minutes. And I just did it today, Saturday morning, it's cardio. And you know, I was like, ah, should I leave early? Like, it was like, I'm not feeling well, I'm kind of tired. Um, but anyway, that hustle just makes me feel good. So I think that's the most important thing for people to realize is when you're avoiding hustle all together and you're avoiding feeling uncomfortable altogether and you're avoiding any type of fear, then you're not moving, you're just not moving. Right. Yeah.

Aleyah: I mean, sometimes you just have to get your feet wet. You've got to commit to a certain amount of time to trying something new. You know, if you feel kind of a nudge and intuitive nudge like, oh, I think this will be good for me. But then the shield of resistance comes up, just know that's normal. And you've got to just commit to like doing this for a week or two or three before you're, you know, and then reevaluate don't judge it based on your discomfort, your initial discomfort.

Katie: Right. And that, yeah. It's like, I think as an entrepreneur, one of the best lessons I've had is, um, if you're comfortable, then you're not doing it. Right. Um, and I've learned that with skiing. I remember snowboarding. I was learning how to snowboard in my twenties. And, um, somebody I ran into like a roommate that I had and uh, he asked me, you know, well, how's your day. You know, it was like day one of, you know, maybe day three of snowboarding. And I was like, you know what, I'm doing great. I haven't fallen once. And he said, then you're doing it wrong.

Katie: And here I am trying to snowboard in a way that I wasn't falling instead of actually learning how to snowboard and LinkedIn. Right. And so that, that really stuck with me, like when we're striving for perfection or striving to not get hurt in lieu of learning and growing. Right. And I just, I remember it, he was like, you want to fall, you want to try to link your turn till you follow your knees. And he was like, oh, that didn't work. Let me try that again. Right. So I just love that. So I, I feel that way in business as well. And you know, I, we, we stand for you being aligned with every business decision you're making, but to be able to distinguish what's fear and what's out of alignment and why, so hopefully this podcast episode helped you out with that. Yeah. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for joining us. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review and hit the subscribe button. You can check out the show notes at the launch squad, lab.com forward slash episode 26. Have a good day, everyone.

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