247: The “Alpha Release” Method For Course Creators & Coaches - #GrowYourLife

Hey everyone, thanks for listening to the Grow youw Life podcast. My name is Jeremiah Krakowski and on this podcast I talk about ways for you to grow in your life and in your business as a coach, course creator, mentor, trainer, somebody who wants to make six, seven and even eight figures like our clients have selling digital courses or coaching online. We're one of the best resources that exists on the Internet and this podcast is one of the best free, free resources that exists. We are over 240 plus guys. I don't even know what the number is on this episode, but we have a lot of episodes and they're all made for you. If you want to make a hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, a million dollars like I have and my clients have in a coaching course, digital product, you want to write a non fiction book, you want to pass on information to people and you want to build a brand to become an authority in your industry, in your niche. This is the podcast for you. And this episode is going to take you from just having a spark of an idea to actually possibly taking action for the first time in your life. So sit back, enjoy, and let's dive into the podcast. I'm excited today. So the format that this podcast works is a little bit different than other podcasts. It's literally basically just me rambling on camera for about 20 to 30 minutes. But it's thoughts that either I'm still processing, have processed, have taught, but I know that are impactful that I need to make out in the open for people. And one of the number one things that I realized that I tapped into this week is that most people don't put themselves out there with a course or coaching business because they don't know what's going to happen. And that can be the worst possible thing. They don't want to disappoint people, they don't want to upset people, they don't want to waste time, they don't want to lose money, they don't want to lose energy, they don't want, they don't want things to work out how they want them to. Okay, we've, we've talked about that in like dozens of podcast episodes in the past. But I realized this past week I haven't talked about something until just this week with a number of like a couple hundred people I've shared this with and they were all like, oh my God, this is, blew my mind. And so that's what I'm going to, that's what I'm going to share with you is what that is is you have to take an iterative experimentation, what I call an alpha release approach to your course or coaching business. Okay, we can use chat, GPT Incredible resource. AI is changing the game to be able to dial in. We gonna be drinking sewage water. This is what happened. Whoops, click the link on my phone. And then something pulled up about sewage water. Anyways, it's funny, we could spend all this time, work with AI to dial in our topic and our modules and come up with it. The problem that I see that happens with people is they sit there and they make it better and better and improve it and improve it on paper, but they don't actually put it out there to people. They don't actually put it out there in front of the public to be scrutinized, judged. And I know it's gosh, it's a. That's uncomfortable. That's why it stinks. It hurts. People are mean that are out there. And so if we could just do everything perfect and it's excellent at the moment we put it out there, then we lower the risk of the negativity. The problem with that is for most people, and I've worked with thousands of course creators and coaches on this, their course or their coaching programs, never at the level that they feel like it's good enough to put out there, that there's always more that they could do to improve it, to make it better before they actually put it out there. They never make money, they never impact people because their perfectionism keeps it inside. They don't share their gift with others. A gift is something that you give away to other people, not something that you hold into yourself. I would be doing a disservice and not following my calling to not record this podcast, to not coach people, to not sell my coaching, to not generate millions of dollars in business. And yet there are people to this day that think that I am wrong for doing all of that. They send me emails breaking down why the 10 tenants as to how horrible I am of a person. And what I do is I just throw it in the trash and I ignore it and I literally ignore their opinions. And some of you might be saying, well, gosh, isn't that rude? No, it's not. Oftentimes we want other people to take our opinions so much that we take in all the trash that people try to dump on us, when in fact it's better just ignore it. To put yourself out there and to not care what anybody thinks about it, period. Even if people don't like it. Even if they're disappointed, even if they say, you could have done better. But most people won't do that because their need to make everything perfect is greater than their actual desire to be successful and to impact people and to make the kind of money that they could possibly make. Their need to be right and to, quote, unquote, do it right is more important than actually doing anything at all. And that's just, I, I, I've gotten to the point now I, you know, and I might, I might lose some subscribers, some followers. You may turn off the podcast after what I'm about to say. I no longer have tolerance for lazy people like that at all. People who are all talk, all dream, never do anything. Oh, yeah, we're gonna do it. We're gonna go ahead, we're gonna start to do that. Yeah. And then a year later, nothing. And then New Year's rolls around. They're like, oh, yeah, we're gonna do it. We're gonna do it in the new year. And then nothing ever happens. And then they come up with their list of why they were doing things. 50 other things that were more important. Sure. And I know that that might sound harsh, but that's why this is on this podcast, and that's why, you know, I think you should share this episode with some people that might need a little bit of a swift kick in the pants to realize that maybe that's been their pattern, maybe that's been their behavior, maybe that's been what they've been doing. And they have a dream and they have a calling and they know where they're supposed to go, yet they're sitting around waiting for the clouds to part, for them to, quote, unquote, feel peace in their heart about it instead of just doing something. You know, when it comes to actually doing something, you're often not going to feel peace about it when you're about to do it. The peace actually usually comes later by doing it. Scared. And choosing to sit on your butt and do nothing is a choice. It's not a passive activity. And some people say, well, I'm not doing nothing. I'm doing this and this and this and this and this. And yet they're doing everything but putting their stuff out there to other people. Well, it's not ready yet. It's not bending up. So that's why I'm saying, take an alpha, an alpha release approach. What is an alpha release? An alpha release is a term in software. An alpha release is part of software testing. And if you're on the podcast on YouTube. You can see I'm pulling up the screen here to explain a little bit about how an alpha release works. So an alpha release means that the features are still incomplete and continuous testing is needed before it's officially released to the public. It's tested and released to a small subset of people. And this is what coaches, course graders, mentors, trainers, and authors need to do. And oftentimes what this looks like is it's. It's your first book, it's your first course, it's your first program, it's your first event, it's your first thing. It's not perfect, but it's part of the iterative process. And I bet you can look in your life at the last 10, 15 years that you actually do this in other areas of your life and have been very successful because you finally have gained the courage to be okay with not caring what other people think and learning to let go of it, needing to be perfect. And yet, when it comes to your course business or your coaching business, or you're writing a book or you're mentoring, or you're growing a church or you're building a college or something like that, like, waiting for things to happen, waiting for situations to change instead of being the change is where people go and they take a passive role, a backseat role on their calling. And I really can't stand it when people use God to justify this. Well, I'm just waiting on the Lord, waiting on his timing. And listen, I've been called a wolf in sheep's clothing for what I just said. I have had pastors walk me out of their church and tell me that I have a spirit of Antichrist for encouraging people to not wait on the Lord and take action and actually step up and do something. Here's the thing. I. I truly believe this. Pray like you are not responsible. Ask God, trust, then take action like you are responsible and do your very best. Here's the thing. You know, when my wife and I, we were praying for a baby, we had to do some things to make it happen. We couldn't just talk about it. Not going to go into details, but like, you know, you know what I mean? And part of that was we, I had to get my health in order. We had to take action. We couldn't just take a, a backseat role and say, we're just waiting on things to change. We prayed, we trusted, but we also did as best as we could when we bought this house. When I built my business, I trust God, but I also act based around my own responsibility. All right. And so again, I'm not getting into a theological debate on that. You've been waiting long enough. There is this lie that people believe called that says, well, you only have one chance at a first impression, so you might as well set it right. And I'm sorry, but that's a load of crud. It really is. Because you can put something out there and then improve it later. Sure, will you lose a few people, of course. But who cares? What, like stop trying to control everything so much. Our need to control everything is why we can't actually get things going. The need to control things is the fastest way to make sure that nothing goes how you want it to, or how you dreamed or how you feel called. And I'm not just saying this, flapping my jaws about my an opinion. This is literally my life story that I've been living for the last 10 years is realizing this. It's why in the last year my business has grown to be a million dollar business. It's why we're impacting more people than we ever have our business. It's why my relationships with my family and my wife are better than they've ever been. Because I stopped taking a backseat role and hoping things would change. And here's the other thing. If we're waiting until the perfect circumstances where everything calms down, where, okay, I finally have room in my schedule to do those things, that's the worst time to do it. The best time to start is when you don't have time, when you don't have a clear schedule, when it looks like everything is against you, that's actually the best time to start. Why? Because you figure out how to make it work in the toughest times. Because that's what allows you to sustain it. That's what allows you to build it. That's what allows you to continue it. Now, of course, I believe in praying, discerning, listening to what God is calling us to do. But then you gotta do something. And way too many people are just waiting for things to change in their life, waiting for situations to change and nothing ever changes. They've been waiting on the Lord for 10, 20 years. Again, I. I get it. Some of y' all might completely disagree with this. I'm not here to win a popularity contest. And I am okay with the hate mail because I want those that are ready to hear this to change their life. I'm not talking about burning yourself out. I'm not talking about stressing yourself out, pushing, striving in fact, success happens by pulling back and resting. Not striving so hard, but actually pulling back and resting and learning to. To relax and to calm your nervous system down, to calm the fight or flight response, to calm the trauma response, to be able to discern clearly and to know what strategic moves to make. Creativity in our brains is unlocked when we actually learn to let go of trying to control everything. And so holding these two ideas in your mind at the same time, letting go and controlling what you can control. And really, what I see it as is almost like a roller coaster. You're at the top of the roller coaster. You have this break in your hand. You have to learn to literally let it go and go down the hill and accept whatever happens, happens and be okay with it not being perfect. Be okay with people being disappointed, be okay with people being mad at you, being okay with people judging you harshly and even people telling you and even people trying to stop you. I've experienced all of this. I have had people literally call me up and tell me, jeremiah, it is my mission until the day that I die to make sure that you never succeed. Seed and they went out there and they contacted everybody that we had in common and told them lies about me, to never work with me, all this kind of stuff. Did I go out there and try to defend myself and change it and control it all? No. What a waste of time. Those people are going to believe that person. I don't need to convince them. I'm focused on those that absolutely love what we're doing. They absolutely connect with us. It. And that's what you want to do. Sometimes shifting into the new season means you're going to shift into a different audience, a different group of friends, a different atmosphere, and it feels different. And that's why it might feel chaotic. That's why it might shake some things up. That's why it might shake the boat up. But in the end, it's 100% worth it every single time. And so I want to encourage you. Don't let the fear of things not working perfectly stop you from even taking the first step. Because here's the thing I don't believe. See, I see people do this. I'm planning. I'm setting the foundation. I know, I know a wonderful lady. I'm sure she's an incredible lady. She's been planning the foundations for her coaching business for 10 years and hasn't put anything out there because she's making it perfect. And I feel sorry for her because I bet there's some trauma and things like that, she's dealt with. She's dealt with some hard stuff. She listens to my stuff too. And I. And I understand that and I feel for her because I know the potential of what could be accomplished. But she doesn't see it. She's so caught up in the weeds of survival mode that she won't step into thriving mode in her life. Thriving mode happens by doing things that we know will move the needle forward in the trajectory when it's not convenient for us. We have to stop waiting for things to be convenient for us to start moving forward. And that will unlock massive levels of growth. Growth for you. We have to stop waiting until we have a guaranteed how things are going to pan out. What absolute stupidity. And some people think it's stupid to not do that. Okay, maybe in other industries, maybe in other businesses. Stop worrying so much what other people think about you and trying to control their perceptions of every single move you make. Let them hate you, let them dis, disown you, let them misunderstand you, let them think the worst about you and just keep doing it. And that will make you more successful. Keep putting yourself out there, keep showing up. Eventually they'll come by and ask, how did you start doing that? How did you get started? It's about being resilient when you take the hits. To not get knocked down and not stay down and to keep getting up and to keep moving forward. Life is not all sunshine and rainbows. And yes, I just paraphrased phrase, the line from the movie for Rocky. I understand that because I love that line from it because it's so good. Life will beat you up, beat you to a pulp and try to convince you to stop. But it's not about avoiding the hits. It's about taking the hits. And you keep getting up. And that's what winning is. You keep moving forward. I believe in you. Learn to develop thick skin. Learn to strengthen your ability to do that. That's why I talk to a therapist. That's why I've worked through the things that have stopped me from being successful. Because I know what direction that I'm going and I know the calling that I have on my life and I know what I can do and what God expects of me. And for me to sit by idly when people try to stop me and make it their mission to destroy me and write me in nasty letters, tell me how horrible I am. I had one last week come in. Somebody wrote me telling me that they. They listened to a message where I talked about how I struggled with. I struggled with alcohol 12 years ago, and I don't drink alcohol at all anymore. And this person wrote me and said, you know, I can't trust you anymore, Jeremiah. You went to jail. Can't trust a person who's a criminal. So sorry. Sorry. I'm not perfect. Never claimed to be. The only perfect person that there ever was is Jesus, and they hung him on a cross. What I can do is help you succeed. What I can do is help you get results. Stop waiting for perfection. Keep moving forward. Put yourself out there. Even if it means that things aren't going to work out perfectly the first time out, even if it means it might make you look dumb to some people, even if it means some people might laugh at you and tell you you're a joke. Keep doing it. Keep showing up. And that, my friends, is what will make you successful. All right, listen. I know this podcast offended some people. I hope they never listen to me again. But I know some of y' all really connected with this and resonated with it and that that's. That's the case. Make sure to plug into the other episodes and pass this on and share it with some. Somebody. Share it with one person that, you know, needs to hear this this week. Great life, everybody. We'll talk soon. Have a good.