Harnessing the Power of Certainty for Explosive Business & Personal Growth

0:01 Welcome to The Coaching Equation, brought to you by Empire Partners and hosted by Ryan Lang and Brooke Bishop. Our mission is to help you build a profitable and impactful coaching business by cutting through the noise and all the expert advice to deliver tried and true actionable insights that you can deploy in your business today. Each week, we bring on expert guests, unveil cutting edge tactics and strategies, and share the secrets and stories that we've gathered from working with the most successful coaching companies on earth. Welcome to episode 12 of the Coaching Equation Podcast.

0:42 I'm your host, Ryan Lang, CEO and co-founder of Empire Partners, alongside my co-host and co-founder, Brooke Bishop. And in this episode, we are broaching a topic and a subject that is so under-discussed, both in life and in business, and that is the importance of certainty. Certainty is literally one of the foundational keys to success in your personal life and success in your business. And in this episode, we're going to break down for you exactly what it looks like to be certain in the various areas of your business where it's needed. How to be certain internally as a human being so that you can show up the right way. How to be certain as a leader. What it looks like to have certainty in your own clients and in your product, in your process, in your service.

1:28 We're also going to show you the pitfalls of not bringing that level of certainty into both your personal life and your business. And most importantly, we are going to give you tactical ways to cultivate certainty starting right now, immediately today. So buckle up. Let's dig in. Let's get ready to cultivate some certainty in episode 12 of the Coaching Equation podcast. Welcome back to the Coaching Equation Podcast. I'm your host, Ryan Lang, alongside Brooke Bishop, my co-host and co-founder. My man, it is a beautiful day here in the state of Colorado, and I'm ready to rumble. How are you?

2:08 Dude, I'm pumped, man. This is going to be a very impactful episode, brother. I'm very excited to dig in on this one. You know, this is one in particular that there are a lot of times where we plan things out ahead of time, a long ways ahead of time. And then sometimes we kind of get that sign from God, the universe, that there's something in the water, so to speak, that really puts us in a position where we feel compelled to hit a certain topic. And that definitely hits the subject today. Yeah. So digging in on today's episode, today is all about certainty. And going through this episode, we're going to dive into what certainty is, what it isn't, why it's absolutely vital.

2:51 And in fact, to go one step further, why it may be the single most important thing that you're going to need to create success in your business. So first things first, man, I feel like there's a lot of misconception around certainty. And I think a lot of times people confuse certainty for arrogance. So what's the difference? It's really interesting because I think there's false certainty, which is usually what it comes across as arrogance, right? And then there's genuinely certain, like where somebody is just so dang certain about what they believe. And it's visceral, it's physical, it's energetic, where you can feel what that person's saying, that they fully embody it.

3:33 They believe it in every ounce of their soul and in every atom in their body. There's a big difference. And you can see this, especially, I wouldn't know this for a long time, but I would assume in the dating game, You meet somebody who's fake certainty versus truly certain, right? You can tell the person who's just walking around arrogant, who's almost just like the fake it till you make it kind of concept. And that oftentimes comes across as arrogance, especially as it pertains to our business, as it pertains just to how we interact with other human beings. I would agree with that 100%. And I think that one of the other nuances as it comes to this is certainty and confidence kind of go hand in hand. And I think that, as you say, I think energetically, you can really tell the person that is certain and confident And one of the things that I like to double down on, we all have the different ways that we communicate.

4:25 We all have the different ways that we sort of project ourselves in relationships and conversations and things like that. But I would say, generally speaking, that if I could give you a little bit of a mental picture of certainty and confidence versus arrogance... The arrogant one is oftentimes the one who's spouting off at the mouth about it. You know, so often, you know, the person who's the true badass in the room because they shut up, they let other people talk. And when they do speak, they speak with authority. And they also seem to have a way some of the most confident and certain people I know have a way of.

5:05 making sure that the conversation isn't always about them. And it's not always about them. It's not always about what they're doing. They do a great job of roping other people into the conversation, asking really good questions. And then when they do speak, you often go, my goodness, like that's just, it's profound. You know? I would agree with that a bit. A bazillion percent. Yeah. Somebody who's truly certain in themselves and certain of what they're doing, they definitely will listen more than they speak. One of the gentlemen I worked with when I was working with Tony Robbins, he used to say, you know, God gave you two ears and one mouth for a reason. It's like, okay, we should be listening twice as much as we're speaking. And yeah, the one who's arrogant will absolutely be, you know, sucking the air out of the room.

5:50 Yeah, 100%. Let's dig in really quickly just on the idea of certainty in general. The truth is that when you're in business, if you don't have certainty around several different things, and by the way, here's what's going to throw you guys for a loop is that this is not just certainty about one thing. or one person or one idea. It's certainty around several different things for you personally, inside of your business. When we lack certainty, we're always in a position of influence being in the world of business. And that, by the way, is not a dirty word. When it's used the right way with the right intention... We're simply saying, hey, I have something.

6:32 You're looking for something. Let's figure out if what I have is what you're looking for. And in the process of that, I want to convey as much certainty as is humanly possible to you, the customer. So that you're in a position where when the time comes to make that decision, you feel like you're making a choice, the right choice, right? The right choice by choosing me, the right choice by choosing my business, the right choice by choosing my team, etc., etc. It also, I feel like certainty as well, Brooke, is almost predicated on the idea that partnership is woven into framework issues. Arrogance can exist out on an island where it's all about me and it's all about my thing and you're going to do things my way and all of that stuff.

7:19 And I feel like true confidence and certainty is kind of a bedrock and a foundation that really promotes partnerships. It's this dynamic of sales being a dirty word, or, you know, we think of the sleazy salespeople that are out there. They're usually trying to become your friend because they're trying to manipulate, right? And there's an arrogance that's there that they can. And part of it's probably because they've been rewarded for it at some point in time. And so as we weave in certainty into the conversation... You know, we think of human needs or these dynamics that we need as beings. The number one need across the board that people are craving is certainty. It's literally hardwired into our brain. We need a certain level of security.

7:59 We need to know that if we do something that we're going to survive. And so there's this survival dynamic that's there. In a business engagement, the person who has the most certainty is captaining the ship of influence. And I know we're going to dig into this in a moment, but if your clients are more certain about their limitations than you are about getting them out of the hole, guess who's driving the ship, right? So, I know there's some pieces that we really wanted to dig in on this. And I just think that now more than ever, just because of where the world is at, when the world is massively uncertain, what does it need? It needs leaders. It needs people who are certain. It needs people who have a vision. It needs people who are committed to the destination. They're committed to an outcome.

8:39 And that's where I think that right now, more than ever, coaches are needed more than any other point in time in the history of mankind that I'm aware of. Yeah. Amen. And I mean, this kind of links up to with the conversation that we had in our episode where we talked about becoming the trusted advisor. That's really what's necessary right now. And certainty is at the foundation of being able to be a trusted advisor. You cannot be that without certainty. So let's dig in on this, man. First area that I want to explore today is certainty in your business. And let's start in the world of marketing. How can we and why do we need certainty in marketing in our business?

9:20 What does it look like and how do we do it? If we take it out of the context, so I know we're jumping into marketing, I'm like taking us out of marketing. But if we look at it in the context, you know, if we were lost out at sea and you go to the captain and go, Captain, are we going to survive? Are we going to make it? And the captain looks at you and goes, eh, maybe. Like... Right. I don't know. We'll see how it goes. Right. That's how a lot of people's marketing is. And that that's in terms of their language. That's in terms of their body language. That's in terms of how they speak about the results that they're going to get their clients. That's how it's how they talk about the problems that they're even looking at. Right. So you imagine going to a doctor and you go, OK, doctor, what's my diagnosis? Well, could be this. Could be that might be this.

10:01 I don't know. Let's give it a shot. And you're like, what? You're not going to let that person operate on you. There's no way in hell. And that's how a lot of people's marketing is, right? We cater to, I'm the expert on all things to all people, which basically means I'm nothing to nobody. And so when we talk about really bringing certainty to your marketing, when we really look at your copy, when you look at your ads, when you look at the videos you put out there, your email, be real. But whatever you put out there, own it. And I think that there's a lot of people that have outsourced their copywriting to other people where they're using chat GPT for everything. Right. And we have this diluted, safe marketing space versus being real and authentic and certain about who you serve, how you support them and the results you can get them.

10:44 Yeah, I agree with that completely. And I think also to kind of take your example and go one step further, take the example of the doctor, right? Let's just say that I'm searching for a family practice doctor. And I land on some dude's website and Doc Brown, let's call him, I land on Doc Brown's website and in his copy on the website, it's kind of like, well, so listen, I'd love to have you in for a visit. I may or may not know, you know, what's wrong with you. I may or may not be able to fix it. And, you know, if I can, I mean, I know a couple of people and hopefully I'd be able to steer you in the right direction. But by the way, no guarantees. Like, I'm not going there. Okay? I'm not going there.

11:25 I want to see certainty. I want to feel it in the words. And part of it too, I think that especially as it relates to marketing, certainty is in direct alignment with authenticity. One of the ways that we get uncertain in our languaging and our copy is when we either A... We think that we should portray ourselves a certain way that's not truly authentic. And we put it out there and it comes off as uncertain because it's not really what we believe. It's not what we believe about ourselves. It's not what we believe about our expertise. And I think that's a really, really slippery and dangerous slope.

12:06 I think that when it comes to certainty in marketing, I want something that is truly authentic, something that you can stand behind, even if it's simple. I would rather have simple and authentic than complex, fancy, inauthentic, and something that you're not certain in at the end of the day. And I do think too, that to your point, Brooke, this sometimes is something that can come up when you're working with an external copywriter. And by the way... We're not throwing copywriters under the bus. We know several that are amazing. But sometimes if you're not honest, you can work with an external copywriter or you can work with an external marketing agency or you can work even with ChatGPT and you can end up with copy that you don't really believe in.

12:51 And let me just be the first to tell you that if you don't believe in it, you should not be publishing it. Period. End of story. Because here's the deal. We start behind the eight ball when we do that, because somebody is going to show up on our doorstep. And if we have to fulfill on something that we've now put out there that we don't 100% believe in, whether it's the theory that we don't believe in, whether it's the approach that we don't believe in, or whether it's just our ability to actually deliver the result that we don't believe We got a major problem. There's this old adage, you know, whatever you're going to put out there, make sure you own it. That's the smell test. If it's marketing, if it's you, is this your voice? Is this something you can stand behind?

13:31 Cool. Whatever it is, own it. So next in business, we hit marketing. Let's talk about sales. We literally could spend anything. episode on certainty in sales. So we'll be mindful of the fact that we've got a smaller container to work with here. But I would go as far as to say, Brooke, that certainty in sales may literally trump absolutely everything. There have been so many occasions where I've listened to a sales call and structurally, it was such an epic disaster. And at the end of the call, the person ends up saying yes. And the only reason is because the human who was on the other side had certainty in the outcome that they could provide, in the service they were providing, that they could help somebody solve a problem.

14:23 You know, if you give me a choice between certainty or structure, I'd take certainty all day long and twice on Sunday. Well, yeah. How many calls have you listened to where somebody is, I said everything you said you have in your script. I did every step you have in your whole strategy. I literally used every single word that's written down. And it's like, you listen to it and it's like, yeah, but you sound like you're like standing on a bridge while you're doing your sales call, right? It's like, couldn't agree with you more as it pertains to selling where I see it come up more than anything is you've got to have, well, a couple areas. Number one, you've got to have certainty in your sales process, like your sales structure. If you're going into it going, I hope to God this is going to work, you're already off to the wrong start. The other part is you've got to have a ton of certainty as it relates to the product that you're selling.

15:08 And here's another key piece of this thing. If your certainty about the solution that you're going to provide them is not stronger than their certainty and their limitations, So I'm going to say this one again, because this could literally just soundbite this one piece. If your certainty about the solution, about what you're offering them is not stronger than their certainty about their limitations, you will not enroll the person. That's just a fancy way of saying if they come into the call and they go, I am more committed to my story than I am to applying what you're trying to provide me, you will never enroll them. I love that you just brought that up. And it kind of comes back to something that we talk about in a sales engagement, which is that the stronger frame is always going to absorb the weaker frame.

15:50 Right? Yep. And this is exactly what Brooke is talking about here, guys. And it's absolutely vital. It's also one of those things, by the way, that you can't spot on a piece of paper. Right? And even sometimes you can't spot it in the words that are said necessarily. But the more trained you are in terms of really understanding and hearing nuance in a sales call, I can always tell when there is an issue with certainty and which frame is absorbing the weaker one. It's a really, really, really good point. And by the way, you know, you may have heard us say before that we truly treat objections like limiting belief. So if we can't come in with that level of certainty, our ability to actually handle objections and overcome them at the end of the call, we're dead.

16:39 We're toast. And we haven't even got there yet. Spot on. And we've used these words quite a bit. And we should actually make a bumper sticker with this one, brother. But it should burn the boats, right? So when we have a prospect who comes into a sales engagement, I know you and I have no fear of this. But it's like asking somebody, are you more committed to your limiting beliefs? Are you more committed to your limitations? Are you more committed to staying stuck where you're at right now? Are you truly ready to burn the boats on where you've been and step into the new version of yourself, right? Yeah. There's this piece of when we're super certain about the outcome and where we can take people, we also call our clients to a whole new level. Amen to that. So certainty in yourself, certainty in your solution. And Brooke said something really important too that I'll just mention is certainty in your sales process.

17:25 If that is something right now that feels super nebulous to you, if you're like, man, like I'm winging it in my sales process right now, I don't really have a really clean and clear structure or my sales process, I was taught something that feels inauthentic to me. If that's where you sit right now, I will just mention that we literally give away our 7-step sales process completely for free. You can go get it at empirepartners.io forward slash script. Download our 7-step sales process and get something that we've done well over $100 million in coaching revenue with over the years. It's a fantastic system and one that you can plug in pretty quickly. So... Okay, so staying inside of business right now and getting to customer service.

18:10 This is an interesting one, man. Tell me your thoughts on certainty in customer service and where this is going to play a part. Yeah, so, you know, in working with whether it was Buffini and Company, whether it was working with Tony Robbins, John Asaroff, like any of the big, big organizations that we've played in, they have full-fledged customer service divisions, right? So they have 10, 20, 30 people that are running customer service for those size of companies. And it was really, really fascinating because I could walk through the halls of the customer service department and I could very easily pick up who's getting chewed up and spit out on the customer service team and who's genuinely there able to hold space and turn clients around that would otherwise be canceling or asking for a refund or trying to jump out of the company. It always came down to two pieces.

18:52 One was certainty, which is kind of the theme for today. So that's kind of the obvious one. The second one is that the customer service reps that would serve at a deeper level, they always came from their heart space. So how that played together is they had certainty. And this is really important. They had certainty in the product and they had certainty in helping that client. So as it pertained to customer service, when you had somebody that came in with a challenge, the ones who crushed it, they would come at it from, hey, I'm totally sorry you experienced that. Let me ask you a question. And they would just immediately go certain about, well, let me get you to the destination you want to get to. And back to your point, you know, they asked really good questions that had really strong intentions behind it, but they were certain that. in their tonality and the ones that would go, oh man, you know, Mr. Smith, why are you yelling at me?

19:35 Like I didn't do anything to you. This was the sales reps fault, or this was somebody else on the team who lied to you. I'm so sorry about, they would go inferior. They would go uncertain in their ability to help them. And so in customer service, to be able to turn people around, I mean, most of the teams that we're overseeing right now have a cancellation rate that's below 1%. How do you do that? Right. It's in that, in that framework of things, but I'd love to get your take on this. Cause I know this is something that's right up your alley as well. Yeah, I love what you said. And I think that a couple of things that I'll mention about this, especially, and this is overarching, but it's certainly true in the realm of customer service. To Brooke's point, oftentimes what happens is that when we run into a customer service issue, and by the way, customer service is both proactive and reactive.

20:18 It's both. But when we run into an issue, oftentimes we do that scramble thing. Our faces get red. We get all hot and bothered. We're scrambling to figure out what to do. We don't come across as certain. And here's the truth. When somebody has a problem, and that's only one side of customer service, by the way, but when somebody has a problem, they just want to know that you got them. That's it. They just want to know that you have a solution to their problem. Most people, guys don't want out of your program. They don't. They want you to help them have certainty that they can fix whatever the problem is. They want to feel heard by somebody, right? So to me...

20:59 Curiosity breeds certainty. Let me say that again. Curiosity breeds certainty, especially in a customer service capacity if I'm trying to solve a problem. And actually, I can use this on both sides of customer service. If I'm solving a problem, I just have to believe that there is an answer. That's it. And if I come to every customer service situation just believing that there is an answer... then there's a totally different energy about that. Like I'm not scrambling. I'm not freaking out. I'm calm. And guess what it boils down to at the end of the day? I always have the opportunity to default back to, you know what? I don't know the answer to that yet, but I can promise you we're going to figure it out. And it's either if you're working for somebody else, it's a situation where it's like, hey, I'm not really sure what we do in this situation, but I'll get you an answer.

21:47 If it's you, if it's your business, it's, hey, listen, you know what, right now, I know there's the right solution to this. And what I'd really like to do is just to take a moment to kind of breathe and really think this through because you matter to me. Making sure that you get where you want to go matters to me. We committed to each other at the beginning of this journey. And I'm going to figure out a way to make this right. I'm going to figure out the answer. So, ultimately... It's three things. Number one, certainty that you're going to make it right. Number two, certainty that you're going to find an answer that you'll get creative if needed. And number three, certainty that you will help them. Those are, you know, three big keys.

22:27 Yeah. I was going to add, can I add a fourth? Yeah, please. Is that allowed? Is it our podcast? Can we make our own rules? Make our own damn rules. Now I pattern interrupted myself. What the hell was the fourth one? The fourth one was certainty and the truth. Right. And I see this happen a lot, especially with salespeople. I know we just left sales to customer service, but there's a lot of salespeople that I've heard over the course of time that will say yes to everything because they think that's what the client wants to hear. And there's a lot of power in the certainty of telling somebody, no, no, this is not going to do that. No, we're not going to do that. No, we're not going to wash your car. No, you're not going to get alcohol when you come over to our events. No, you're not going to get free flights at all of our retreats. Like it's okay to tell people no. And to your point, it's also really powerful beyond measure being able to say, you know, I don't know the answer to that, but I am so committed to finding the answer on your behalf.

23:14 I'm going to do whatever it takes. Yep. Yep. 100%. One of the things that I just want to hit on really quickly is when it comes to customer service, there is the proactive side of customer service. And as this episode is being recorded, we are days away from a live event that we are super freaking excited for. And this is going to be one of the pieces that we're going to hit on inside of this live event. But we have the opportunity to proactive. actively go out and serve our customers, even when they're not asking for things, even when they haven't red flagged something. And I think that I want to just double down on the fact that curiosity breeds certainty in the proactive sense as well.

23:55 If I'm consistently asking myself what I can do better in my business, if I'm consistently asking myself how I can better serve my clients and or what they need, I put myself in a place of certainty because I feel prepared at the end of the day. When you're doing that consistently, you are anticipating what may come at some point down the road. And that in and of itself is going to breed incredible certainty. And your clients are going to feel that. So well said. Well, to that end, you know, in terms of our clients' feelings... Because I'd love to dig into just how our clients feel when we're certain versus when we're uncertain. And we've talked about the tonality because a lot of times for a lot of us, I don't know, to all of our listeners, I know we have a lot of people who listen to our podcast who are in leadership.

24:44 And I think what can get misconstrued at times is that they still see their clients as the paying people who come into an organization. Mm-hmm. versus their staff members. And so I'd love to get your inputs, Ryan, just as certainty, how it pertains to leadership and how we show up and how we play within an organization. Yeah. So... As always with leadership, this is a top-down issue. And Brooke was so eloquently painting the picture of the customer service person that has total certainty and how they sound and feel on a call with a customer. They get that because it starts at the top.

25:25 You are not going to get a team who is certain about your product, about your ability to deliver, about the others that they're playing with in the sandbox if you don't display that right out of the gate. So it's absolutely vital. And by the way, circling back to the top of the episode in this idea of certainty versus arrogance. A team does not need an arrogant leader. If anything else, I mean, those are the kinds of leaders that quite often create divisiveness amongst a team that end up, you know, creating problems that you can't see on paper that eventually end up splitting the business and, you know, a bazillion different pieces and sinking the ship. On the flip side, a truly certain leader is someone who is certain in themselves, which we'll hit on in a second, but they're certain in their ability to do the job.

26:14 They're also certain in the people that they bring into their organization. So I think it's vital because to expect someone underneath you to convey certainty to your clients, to other team members is insanity if you don't have that belief right out of the gate as well. I absolutely love that. And I think it's critical because we haven't said the words, but it's been the undercurrent of what we're talking about. Certainty is contagious. Right? So if you're in leadership and you've got team members, so if you're overseeing somebody on your team who does customer service, or if you're overseeing somebody who does marketing, you're overseeing somebody who's on your sales team, you're overseeing a coach or somebody else that's in your organization.

26:56 If you don't give them certainty... They're not going to give the clients certainty and the whole thing falls apart. So it's basically the same thing what you just said with the top down. And, you know, it does absolutely rolls top down, but it's it really is contagious. And this can't be done just once when you hire somebody. This is something that has to be given every single day, every single interaction. You have to give your team members certainty. Otherwise, they will go somewhere else where they feel more certain. Oh, amen to that. That's such a great point. And I think it's one that when we talk about leadership, we've really got to talk about the fact that sometimes certainty is saying, I don't yet have an answer, but let's get together and find one.

27:38 And sometimes certainty is biting your tongue and being willing to shoulder some things, you know, behind the scenes. I think there's a really delicate balance and dance that happens there from a leadership standpoint, where I feel like the best of the best is... really have the ability to be honest and forthright with their team when they need it. But they also have the ability to recognize when there are some things that they need to figure out on their side. And they can't just consistently be airing dirty laundry in front of their team. I think it's really a delicate balance. It's also, by the way, one of the reasons that we feel so strongly about having the right group of peers and mentors around you.

28:19 Because guess what? Man, if there is one thing that will torpedo a team, it is a leader who comes in and utilizes the team as its constant sounding board. Like brings all the shit, right? And we've all seen them. Tell me it's going to be okay, guys. Tell me it's going to be okay. Oh my gosh. It's seriously, it's painful to watch. And you can just see the dissension amongst the ranks when it happens. But it's one of the reasons why you need to be able to discuss those things with the right people in your life. If you don't have the right mentors, the right group around you, it's very difficult. And oftentimes you will default to trying to have those discussions with team members.

29:03 So I think that's really important as a leader as well. So you kind of mentioned it before we kind of dig into how to be certain in ourselves. What does it really mean to be certain in your clients? All right. So, oh, man, there's gonna be so many people that are going to hear this and go, they're gonna be flipping us the bird while they're driving. I'm about to say. I feel like this happens frequently. It's so true. Screw you guys. All right. So the amount of times we've heard our members or anyone in the space who's ever gone, where they start qualifying their clients. I don't know if they're going to be good for my program. I don't know if they're going to do the work. I don't know if these are my type of clients.

29:44 I don't know if these are my ideal clients. I don't know if they really are what it takes. I don't know if they're going to have enough money. I don't know. And I don't know. And I don't know. And I don't know. And I don't know. And as it pertains to having certainty in your clients, the way that I conditioned the heck out of myself to see my clients as creator beings and not victims of their circumstance. The thing that I fell back on was if this client has the ability to get a cell phone to get on a phone call with me. Like, think about that. If this client, who I'm talking to, if they had enough energy and wherewithal and resourcefulness to figure out how to get a cell phone, to be able to plug it in and charge it, to be able to use the buttons on the phone, to be able to accept my call coming in and use their thumbs and to be able to use their voice.

30:31 They have enough resourcefulness to get into my program and they have enough resourcefulness to do the activities I'm going to have them do when they're working with me. Hmm. Now, there's going to be that one person who's driving right now going, yeah, but I had somebody who called from a government issued phone and they were in the insane asylum. Yep, I had those too. However, 99.9% of the people that I've spoken with are the other person who has, and this is the key language. We have to see our clients as the highest version of themselves and we have to hold that. If we go below, we are doing them a disservice and we're bullshitting them because we're speaking to their limitations. We're not speaking to their potential. And that is our job as a coach is to have so much frickin certainty.

31:12 We have to see beyond our client's circumstances in order for them to see it as a reality. So that's all I'm going to say about that. I don't really have much to add than that other than to say, I think this truly comes down to cultivating a belief around the fact that most people truly do want to solve their problems and they're there for genuinely the right reason more often than not. It's just that their patterns and their limiting beliefs are getting in the way. And guess what? By the way, it's your job to unravel that. That... Is what a good coach does. And that's especially what a good coach does on a sales call. Love it.

31:52 So good. Okay. So last piece of the puzzle here. And by the way, it's the linchpin because literally all of this other crap falls apart if you don't have this. And it's certainty in yourself. So, guys, one of the things that we see all the time is at various points, and by the way, this is human nature. It's human nature to just find ourselves in positions where maybe we question, am I ready for this? You know, am I good enough? Is my solution good enough to solve the problem? Do I have all the right tools? All of those different questions that run through our minds, both as coaches, but also probably more importantly, as business owners and as people and entrepreneurs and people that are doing things that are scary and uncertain by nature.

32:39 It is so vital that I want to start here, Brooke, and I want to get your thoughts on this. But to me, certainty in yourself has to be cultivated at every step of the life and entrepreneurial journey. And what it simply is, is if I could distill it down to one thought, it's simply believing that you can find an answer in a moment. That's it at the end of the day. Because if I believe that, I can carry that certainty into any situation. Any other kind of structural certainty, in theory, could come from something that could be broken in one way, shape or form.

33:21 But that if I can hold that as an ironclad belief and apply that at literally every step of my journey, that is truly how winning is done. That's how to create a life of impact. That's how to create a business of your dreams. That's how to be able to draw people into your business and show that you've really got the goods to deliver for them. So tell me your thoughts on that. Yeah. First off, I'm giving you high fives. Yes to everything you just mentioned. And I think there's an element of this that can atrophy, okay? Because certainty in ourselves is a muscle. And so again, is there one part convincing ourselves? Is it one part lying to ourselves? Is it one part whatever? Like at the end of the day, it goes back to what you just mentioned. Do we have certainty that we're going to help find the answers for our clients?

34:04 Now, the other piece of that is, and this is where I see so many coaches spin out, they get uncertain because they don't have their ICF certification or their PCC certification, or they don't have enough letters after their name, or they don't have this much money in their bank account and their clients are making this much money and they start to spiral and thinking that they're not good enough, to your point, right? They're not good enough to help this client. At the end of the day, I can't tell you how many clients I've spoken to that are billionaires and they go, but this one area of my life is just not bringing me joy. I don't need to have more money than them to help figure out how to solve that problem. I just need to have enough certainty that I'm going to go get that problem solved on their behalf. And I need to convey to them that I'm going to do it. That's it.

34:45 But this, again, this goes back to the certainty component. And there's two great books that I highly recommend everybody check out. One is called The Go-Giver, right? And a great book. And the one that has been a huge like North Star in my world has been The Go-Getter. And the core ethos of the book and the go-getters, there's this gentleman who wants to get this job and he's given an impossible task. So you accomplish this impossible task and it's not told that it's an impossible task, but it's, hey, go do this thing. And he keeps being thrown different obstacles that would make it an impossible task to see is the guy going to give up or is he going to do whatever it takes. And that's what our clients want to hear from us, right? That's the certainty they need to have from us. But it's a muscle we have to cultivate.

35:25 We have to remind ourselves of our strength and our certainty in our capacities. We have to remind ourselves and condition ourselves to be resourceful for ourselves, for our family, our clients, that we're willing to do whatever it takes, that we have. We've literally made that declaration that we've burned the boats, that we're going to find a way to take the island. One of the things that I love about what you just said is that you talked about, first of all, reflecting back on a couple things that you said. First of all, resourcefulness and taking the island. Now, what do those two things have in common? They are rooted in action. Certainty is built by action.

36:05 right? So first comes the belief that we can find the solution, that we can find the problem, or that we can solve the problem. And then comes action. Because if we just hold the belief, but we don't actually act on it, we don't end up building the internal credibility that we need to actually believe at the end of the day in what comes out of our mouth and that we are truly certain that we can help people and solve a problem and get to the next level and create the life of our dreams and, you know, all of the different things and become the person that we really desire to become at the end of the day. So, man, that's so well said. I love it. So, guys, that's all the time that we've got for this episode. This is so good.

36:45 And truly, I think if you can take this episode and go back and break it down and apply the different ideas in both your business with your clients and also for yourself internally, you're going to find a whole lot of things in your personal life and in your business get a whole lot easier, a whole lot faster. And the beautiful part about it is that you don't have to go develop this over years and years and years. You literally can start claiming it right now by just exercising that muscle of curiosity, curiosity leading to certainty. Then we take action and we hammer that nail further into the board. Any last thoughts, my brother? My little shameless plug here for anyone who's listening.

37:27 And if you're going, man, I really need to have certainty in these core areas of my world. And if you're feeling like you're stuck and you don't know where to turn to cultivate that muscle, seriously, come check out Empire Partners. We have a number of ways, whether it's strategy, whether it's tactics or the psychological dynamics to help support you guys. So I know that we have the ability to help those that are helping. And I would be remiss if I didn't let people know that there's solutions and supports that are here to help them. Amen. Well, thank you for listening to this episode of the Coaching Equation podcast. My man, as always, it was amazing jamming with you. I cannot wait for this week and this killer live event that we're about to rip off this week. It's going to be amazing. And guys, we've got a couple of incredible guests that are teed up for the coming episodes as well.

38:11 So stay tuned for a whole lot more good stuff. And if there's anything in particular that you really want us to hit on inside of the Coaching Equation podcast, please send an email to podcast at EmpirePartners.io. And we would be happy to consider anything that you throw our way. Ultimately, we want this to be serving you and really helping you level up in your personal life and in your business. Until next time, Brooke. Later, brother. Good stuff, buddy. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Coaching Equation. Please hit subscribe wherever you listen to your podcasts. And if you got value out of this episode, we would be so grateful if you would share it out with a friend and leave us a review on iTunes or your favorite platform.

38:54 To learn more about Empire Partners or to inquire about working with Ryan and Brooke, please visit www.empirepartners.io forward slash go. .