This week's episode answers the question that I often get when I am speaking to freelancers/consultants and service providers doing 1:1 work. 

Most often, the conversations are from people who have a great depth of experience in their field and are trying to figure out how to leverage what they do without always taking on new hourly gigs or projects. And build an alternative to continuously starting over with new projects and assignments.

And let's talk about Legacy. It is never too early to build an asset that will allow you to cash flow your second act. To be able to leave a legacy and impact (and continue to provide income when no longer interested in actively 'working'. Learn the strategies to deploy to continue to make an impact, share expertise, and step into a bigger game -- while not being chained to your computer. 

The great news is that there is a way to easily transition your work to be scalable and separate what you know from the time you spend doing it. This episode will explore why now is the right time, how to get started, and ultimately the potential that it can bring to your life. 

About Me:

My name is Tara Bryan. I help business owners break into the next level of success by packaging their expertise into an online business. It's my passion to help you find the fastest path to results to create a greater impact and income for you and your tribe.

This podcast is 100% focused on support, tips and example sharing, and building a community of online business owners who are passionate about building awesome learning experiences.

We do that by building engaging, motivating, gamified, and learner-centered online experiences. We come up with ideas and strategies to ensure that our learners can thrive and succeed using our packaged products.

To learn more:

Find us at https://www.taralbryan.com

Here are two ways we can help you grow and scale your online course-powered business:

1. NEED TO CREATE AN ONLINE EXPERIENCE BUSINESS? (Course, Program, Digital Delivery)

Join LEARN ACADEMY MENTORSHIP - Learn Academy is the best done-with-you On-demand and cohort implementation program that will help you create, sell, and launch your online business. 

2. ALREADY HAVE AN ONLINE BUSINESS & READY TO INFINITELY SCALE?

Schedule a 15 minute call with Tara to talk about our offers that will help you master the game.

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.

Tara Bryan: 00:00:05

Hey, everybody, welcome to today's episode of

Tara Bryan: 00:00:08

the course building secrets podcast, I am thrilled that

Tara Bryan: 00:00:13

you're here. Hey, in this episode, I want to talk about

Tara Bryan: 00:00:17

something that I don't talk about a lot. But But I think

Tara Bryan: 00:00:21

it's a great conversation, especially some of the

Tara Bryan: 00:00:25

conversations I've been having lately have led me to want to do

Tara Bryan: 00:00:30

this episode. And the question becomes, what is the income and

Tara Bryan: 00:00:34

impact driver that you're using long term to build your

Tara Bryan: 00:00:39

business? Now, let me explain what that means. Because that's

Tara Bryan: 00:00:43

a mouthful, is that like, you know, if you're a freelancer, a

Tara Bryan: 00:00:48

consultant, a service provider, doing one on one work a coach,

Tara Bryan: 00:00:53

whoever you are, doesn't really matter. In one way, shape or

Tara Bryan: 00:00:57

form, you're probably doing one on one services with your with

Tara Bryan: 00:01:02

your customers. And my question is always around like, okay, so

Tara Bryan: 00:01:07

what happens when you either are maxed out working with those one

Tara Bryan: 00:01:12

on one customers, or you get to a point where you're like, huh,

Tara Bryan: 00:01:17

something isn't working, right, like you're on the revenue,

Tara Bryan: 00:01:21

roller coaster, you are, you sell and then you get get

Tara Bryan: 00:01:26

customers, and then you're working with the customers and

Tara Bryan: 00:01:30

then something changes, and then you have to sell again, right?

Tara Bryan: 00:01:35

Like you're just just constantly in this wheel, you don't own

Tara Bryan: 00:01:39

your time, you don't own your impact. And or if you're a

Tara Bryan: 00:01:44

freelancer or consultant, you're taking projects, right, you're

Tara Bryan: 00:01:49

you're constantly working in an hourly capacity, helping other

Tara Bryan: 00:01:53

businesses do whatever it is that you do, or consumers do

Tara Bryan: 00:01:58

whatever it is that you do, or you're doing a project for them

Tara Bryan: 00:02:03

or whatever, but it's a it's a, you know, specific time based,

Tara Bryan: 00:02:07

you know, gig that you're doing. And what hap starts to happen

Tara Bryan: 00:02:12

after time, is, you know, you're either growing the capacity and

Tara Bryan: 00:02:17

you can't handle it all yourself. Or you are trying to

Tara Bryan: 00:02:21

stay doing it yourself, and you just constantly kind of get in

Tara Bryan: 00:02:26

this this place of starting over, right? And so one day, you

Tara Bryan: 00:02:31

wake up and you go, Okay, wait a minute, like I literally am

Tara Bryan: 00:02:35

doing the same thing that I've been doing for 20 years. And,

Tara Bryan: 00:02:40

and why is that and, and I feel like I am, you know, bound to do

Tara Bryan: 00:02:45

something different, or I'm ready to stop working quite so

Tara Bryan: 00:02:49

hard, right? Like, these are questions that you may be asking

Tara Bryan: 00:02:54

yourself at this point, or kind of down the road, when you think

Tara Bryan: 00:02:59

about your future. It's like, well, wait a minute, like what

Tara Bryan: 00:03:03

happens when I don't want to be, you know, on a project or, you

Tara Bryan: 00:03:08

know, have somebody else dictating my time. And, and so I

Tara Bryan: 00:03:13

want to talk about that today, because I think that there's you

Tara Bryan: 00:03:17

know, kind of three different buckets of of, of phases that

Tara Bryan: 00:03:22

you go through as you start your business. And so I want to just

Tara Bryan: 00:03:27

kind of reflect on that and share a little bit of my story

Tara Bryan: 00:03:31

around this. And then the transition forward, like what is

Tara Bryan: 00:03:36

the opportunity that's out there for you to look at what you're

Tara Bryan: 00:03:41

doing a little bit differently. So if you're a freelancer or a

Tara Bryan: 00:03:45

coach or consultant, a service provider, anyone who's doing one

Tara Bryan: 00:03:50

on one work, this episode is for you. Okay, so the very first

Tara Bryan: 00:03:55

kind of aspect of this is really understanding how much of your

Tara Bryan: 00:04:00

time you can you control. So if you're already you know, you're

Tara Bryan: 00:04:05

you know, well into, you know, running your business, whatever

Tara Bryan: 00:04:09

that whatever that is, you understand sort of the time

Tara Bryan: 00:04:13

money. conundrum, right, is that when you're an employee at a

Tara Bryan: 00:04:18

company, you are trading your time for a paycheck, right? So

Tara Bryan: 00:04:23

they're controlling your time they're controlling when you're

Tara Bryan: 00:04:27

there when you're not there. That's the definition of a an

Tara Bryan: 00:04:32

employee versus a contractor right like your employer can

Tara Bryan: 00:04:36

tell you what your hours or they can tell you where you need to

Tara Bryan: 00:04:41

work and how you need to work. So it's pretty clear when you're

Tara Bryan: 00:04:46

an employee who was actually like controlling your time. Now,

Tara Bryan: 00:04:51

a lot of times when people leave their, their job or their career

Tara Bryan: 00:04:56

in wherever they are, they're looking for more freedom, more

Tara Bryan: 00:05:00

time, freedom, more financial freedom, more impact, feed,

Tara Bryan: 00:05:05

freedom, whatever that looks like. And so, you know, you go

Tara Bryan: 00:05:09

out and you do your own thing, maybe you go out and you are a

Tara Bryan: 00:05:14

contractor, or freelancer or consultant, kind of when you

Tara Bryan: 00:05:18

first get started to learn how your expertise translates into,

Tara Bryan: 00:05:23

you know, more project based work, or hourly work or

Tara Bryan: 00:05:27

whatever, that's kind of a common path that people take.

Tara Bryan: 00:05:31

And, and the, the challenge with that is that you're still not

Tara Bryan: 00:05:36

actually controlling your time, right. So you're either coming

Tara Bryan: 00:05:41

into that company as an extra pair of hands, or you're coming

Tara Bryan: 00:05:46

in, and, you know, kind of running them through a

Tara Bryan: 00:05:49

methodology so that they can get the result that they're looking

Tara Bryan: 00:05:54

for. But you're really still, you know, your time and your

Tara Bryan: 00:05:59

income is really still tied together, right? Like, you get a

Tara Bryan: 00:06:03

project you're working on the project. And, and your, your

Tara Bryan: 00:06:08

output is not separate from the, the financial rewards you're

Tara Bryan: 00:06:13

getting for that right. And so, this is what happened to me,

Tara Bryan: 00:06:17

when I started my agency is when I first went out on my own, I

Tara Bryan: 00:06:22

was contracting. And so I took a six month project as my sort of

Tara Bryan: 00:06:27

bridge from my, my very, you know, safe corporate job to

Tara Bryan: 00:06:31

started my own business. And, and then did that kind of work

Tara Bryan: 00:06:36

for a while and realize, oh, wait a minute, like, I actually

Tara Bryan: 00:06:40

don't control my time, this is just, I'm actually working a lot

Tara Bryan: 00:06:45

more hours a lot harder on and doing the same thing that I was

Tara Bryan: 00:06:50

doing in, in a job right, in a J, OB. And, and so you start to

Tara Bryan: 00:06:55

go from there, go Okay, so now how do I start to buy my time

Tara Bryan: 00:06:59

back. And and that's where then you know, you can hire a team or

Tara Bryan: 00:07:04

you can put together systems, you can do all the different

Tara Bryan: 00:07:09

things. But if you're keeping them one on one model, you're

Tara Bryan: 00:07:13

keeping kind of the project based model, where you are

Tara Bryan: 00:07:17

delivering on a service. You never actually like leapfrog

Tara Bryan: 00:07:22

past that time money challenge, even if you add other people to

Tara Bryan: 00:07:27

the business. And so and so that was sort of the the next phase

Tara Bryan: 00:07:31

that I went into is okay, so how do I scale this beyond me? How

Tara Bryan: 00:07:36

do I help people? How do I get help for the capacity challenges

Tara Bryan: 00:07:41

that I was having? Right, like, I had too much work, I didn't

Tara Bryan: 00:07:46

have enough time in my day to do it. So then I would hire other

Tara Bryan: 00:07:51

people to take it on. But I was still managing the work I was

Tara Bryan: 00:07:55

still involved in, in the process. And, and so as we got

Tara Bryan: 00:08:00

more projects than the expenses went up, in the same way, right?

Tara Bryan: 00:08:05

So the company grew, but it was growing in a, you know, in the

Tara Bryan: 00:08:09

same with the same things, right? Like revenue was growing

Tara Bryan: 00:08:14

expenses were growing, we never quite could leapfrog past that

Tara Bryan: 00:08:19

to increase profitability. And to make it into something that

Tara Bryan: 00:08:23

was a viable solution. Even if I wasn't actively there right now,

Tara Bryan: 00:08:28

like, I could take vacations. I could I could check out for a

Tara Bryan: 00:08:33

while. But, but the business ultimately did not run without

Tara Bryan: 00:08:37

me. So that was the next sort of phase that I got through as I

Tara Bryan: 00:08:42

was like, okay, so what does this look like? Then I kind of

Tara Bryan: 00:08:47

got to a point where I was like, okay, so this is this is great,

Tara Bryan: 00:08:52

but what, what's gonna happen when I don't want to actively be

Tara Bryan: 00:08:56

doing this anymore, or I want to step away, now I could sell the

Tara Bryan: 00:09:01

business, that would have been an option. But I still had this

Tara Bryan: 00:09:06

desire to create an impact, create an income outside of, you

Tara Bryan: 00:09:11

know, kind of the work that I was doing, and have something

Tara Bryan: 00:09:15

that was sort of a legacy builder for me, right? Like,

Tara Bryan: 00:09:19

what was it that I was able to,

Tara Bryan: 00:09:24

to sort of leave or our impact with all of this expertise and

Tara Bryan: 00:09:29

knowledge and, and growth that I had done in my lifetime and one

Tara Bryan: 00:09:33

of my biggest things is, I have a high desire to continuously be

Tara Bryan: 00:09:40

learning all the time. So like, what what was eventually going

Tara Bryan: 00:09:43

to happen with that? And and so because of that, I moved into

Tara Bryan: 00:09:48

phase three, which is like how do I package and productize my

Tara Bryan: 00:09:51

service my expertise, so that people can learn from me and I

Tara Bryan: 00:09:57

can help people build their in this case builder businesses so

Tara Bryan: 00:10:01

that I'm able to help make an impact based on my experience,

Tara Bryan: 00:10:07

right? So how do I shorten the learning curve for people? How

Tara Bryan: 00:10:11

do I help people get over obstacles and hurdles that

Tara Bryan: 00:10:13

they're going to run into as they're going through this

Tara Bryan: 00:10:14

process that I went through? And and how do I build? Build a

Tara Bryan: 00:10:23

business that allows for it to grow, even if I am not feeding

Tara Bryan: 00:10:29

it, right, even if my time is not involved in it. So how do I

Tara Bryan: 00:10:32

create something once, and then sell it over and over and over

Tara Bryan: 00:10:35

again, and have it expand, regardless of the amount of time

Tara Bryan: 00:10:40

I'm putting into it? So that was phase three. So I got to that

Tara Bryan: 00:10:44

place where I was like, okay, great, like, like, I'm going to

Tara Bryan: 00:10:46

package my expertise, I'm going to productize my service. And

Tara Bryan: 00:10:49

therefore, then I can deliver that, because I own my own

Tara Bryan: 00:10:54

intellectual property, I own my own signature framework, I can

Tara Bryan: 00:10:57

deliver that in an infinite number of ways, right, I could

Tara Bryan: 00:11:00

write a book, I could do signature talks, I can have a,

Tara Bryan: 00:11:05

an online or automated program that allows people to come in

Tara Bryan: 00:11:11

and learn what they need and get the tools and techniques and all

Tara Bryan: 00:11:13

the things, I could have a coaching program, I could I

Tara Bryan: 00:11:18

could do a retreat, I could do a mastermind I could do all sorts

Tara Bryan: 00:11:22

of things, right? Because I was able to package what I had

Tara Bryan: 00:11:27

learned and what I had done in a way that was scalable, that

Tara Bryan: 00:11:32

could survive and grow without me and my involvement. And that

Tara Bryan: 00:11:38

was the turning point where I really started to realize that

Tara Bryan: 00:11:42

not only was I had, I kind of recruited myself into a job, but

Tara Bryan: 00:11:48

I also wasn't offering my highest level of service, either

Tara Bryan: 00:11:55

because I was just, you know, in one company helping them out or

Tara Bryan: 00:11:59

in, you know, 10, or 15, or 20, companies working on

Tara Bryan: 00:12:03

implementing our proprietary framework, versus being able to

Tara Bryan: 00:12:08

impact at a greater level. And started having conversations

Tara Bryan: 00:12:13

after I had started this, I started having conversations

Tara Bryan: 00:12:15

with a lot of my colleagues, freelancers, consultants, other

Tara Bryan: 00:12:20

people who were in various, sort of degrees of business, when

Tara Bryan: 00:12:27

they went out on their own outside of their job. And one of

Tara Bryan: 00:12:31

the biggest questions that I always got, or kind of the

Tara Bryan: 00:12:34

conversation points that that always happened was, like, what

Tara Bryan: 00:12:39

happens when I don't want to take on projects anymore? Like,

Tara Bryan: 00:12:43

what's next? Do I move into a job? Do I try and find a

Tara Bryan: 00:12:49

leadership role? Do I go and do something totally different?

Tara Bryan: 00:12:52

Like, one person was like, well, maybe I should just like, open a

Tara Bryan: 00:12:56

coffee shop or do something completely different. And so

Tara Bryan: 00:13:02

that was where the conversation started to go. And, and they

Tara Bryan: 00:13:08

felt really trapped. And so I don't know, maybe you feel like

Tara Bryan: 00:13:11

this, maybe you don't at this point. But like, they were just

Tara Bryan: 00:13:15

like, well, I just don't know what else to do. Right? It

Tara Bryan: 00:13:18

doesn't feel like I can do anything else. So I should just

Tara Bryan: 00:13:22

keep taking on projects. Or I'm so busy, I can't possibly do

Tara Bryan: 00:13:29

anything else. But I want to, I want to take a break, I want to

Tara Bryan: 00:13:33

spend more time with my family, I want to be able to do other

Tara Bryan: 00:13:35

things, and not just constantly be working at new companies all

Tara Bryan: 00:13:41

the time doing projects. The other conversation that came up

Tara Bryan: 00:13:46

quite a bit was like what happens when I no longer want to

Tara Bryan: 00:13:50

be doing this? Right? Like so when you want to retire? Right?

Tara Bryan: 00:13:54

What? What happens, like, what happens to my business? What

Tara Bryan: 00:13:58

happens to all of these things that I've been doing for the

Tara Bryan: 00:14:01

last 30 or 40 years? Like, where does that go? Is it? Do I just

Tara Bryan: 00:14:06

like, shut the door and walk away? Or is there something else

Tara Bryan: 00:14:10

that I can be doing and not really having clarity on what

Tara Bryan: 00:14:13

that looks like? And so, you know, for me, it's an easy

Tara Bryan: 00:14:20

conversation, right? Because it's like, well, we need to get

Tara Bryan: 00:14:23

your, your intellectual property packaged, so that you can

Tara Bryan: 00:14:29

continue to make an income and impact beyond your hours that

Tara Bryan: 00:14:33

you're working right beyond how many hours you're sitting at the

Tara Bryan: 00:14:36

computer. And, and so, you know, I was involved in those

Tara Bryan: 00:14:39

conversations. At the time, I was still building the agency

Tara Bryan: 00:14:43

and I was like, Yeah, you know what, I totally get that. I need

Tara Bryan: 00:14:46

to be thinking about that too. I had built you know, kind of

Tara Bryan: 00:14:50

these this online business, but still wasn't really in that

Tara Bryan: 00:14:56

place of like, what does this look like? Like what is The

Tara Bryan: 00:15:00

bigger picture. And and so, you know, this year I turned 51, I'm

Tara Bryan: 00:15:04

just gonna say that out loud. Most of the time I say I've

Tara Bryan: 00:15:07

turned 28 Like a number of times. But but when you turn 50

Tara Bryan: 00:15:12

or 51 in this case, like, there are some questions that you

Tara Bryan: 00:15:16

start asking yourself, right, like, what does this look like

Tara Bryan: 00:15:19

as we move into the future? And, you know, physically, I'm not

Tara Bryan: 00:15:24

really interested in sitting at my computer 16 hours a day is

Tara Bryan: 00:15:27

day anymore, nor can I. And so what does that look like? How do

Tara Bryan: 00:15:31

I continue to grow my income and my impact? And really step into

Tara Bryan: 00:15:35

my zone of genius? What does that look like? So asking myself

Tara Bryan: 00:15:40

those questions. And in having something infinitely scales

Tara Bryan: 00:15:47

beyond your ability, or need to feed, it is such a powerful

Tara Bryan: 00:15:54

position to be in because you're able to get time freedom,

Tara Bryan: 00:15:59

impact, freedom, income, freedom, and you have choice.

Tara Bryan: 00:16:03

And I think for me, that's the biggest thing is like, being

Tara Bryan: 00:16:06

able to have choice I have, I can take on any projects that I

Tara Bryan: 00:16:11

want to. But I don't need to because I have that income

Tara Bryan: 00:16:17

coming in, that allows me to not have that revenue rollercoaster

Tara Bryan: 00:16:24

not have that feast or famine, not have that fear of what's

Tara Bryan: 00:16:29

coming or what's not coming. And, and so if you're in that

Tara Bryan: 00:16:34

place, like I just encourage you to get curious about what it

Tara Bryan: 00:16:39

would be like to package your expertise, get it out there in a

Tara Bryan: 00:16:43

different way, so that you can deliver it and make it into an

Tara Bryan: 00:16:49

asset. Maybe it's a legacy asset that continues to serve you. As

Tara Bryan: 00:16:55

you move forward, as you move into being able to build your

Tara Bryan: 00:17:01

empire, being able to take on more things that are outside of

Tara Bryan: 00:17:09

maybe the hours for dollars that you were working before. So if

Tara Bryan: 00:17:13

you are interested in learning more about this, or if you need

Tara Bryan: 00:17:16

help, or if you're just not really sure where to get

Tara Bryan: 00:17:19

started. Definitely reach out to me we'd have a conversation. And

Tara Bryan: 00:17:24

and sometimes it's just about like, uncovering what it is that

Tara Bryan: 00:17:31

is your secret sauce, that, that that differentiates you from

Tara Bryan: 00:17:36

someone else. So there you go. Hopefully this episode is

Tara Bryan: 00:17:39

helpful. If you are in that place where you're thinking

Tara Bryan: 00:17:42

about legacy or you're thinking about like how on earth do I

Tara Bryan: 00:17:47

start to package what I'm doing so that I can make an income,

Tara Bryan: 00:17:51

either a full time income, or maybe it's just that that you

Tara Bryan: 00:17:55

know, that money that's coming in month after month. That just

Tara Bryan: 00:18:02

keeps you sort of in that choice zone. Give me a shout and I'm

Tara Bryan: 00:18:07

happy to help you through this and, and go as we move forward.

Tara Bryan: 00:18:11

Alright. Have a great day.