What happens when your business grows… but you quietly lose the part you love most?

In this episode, Tara challenges one of the biggest challenges in scaling as an expert: that success means stepping away from your expertise.

It starts with a simple question:

What do you miss?

Because somewhere between landing more customers, building a team, and “stepping into the CEO role”… many experts find themselves disconnected from the very work that made them successful in the first place.

And the worst part?

They think that’s just how it’s supposed to be.

In this episode, Tara shares a pivotal moment from her own journey - building a successful agency, stepping out of delivery, and realizing she had created a business that no longer aligned with what she loved.

The truth is:

You don’t have to choose between scaling your business and staying connected to your expertise.

There’s a different way.

If you’ve ever felt pulled away from your zone of genius, this episode will help you rethink what growth can (and should) look like.

✨ In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why traditional scaling models often disconnect you from your expertise
• The hidden cost of “stepping into the CEO role”
• How to recognize when you’ve drifted away from what you love
• Why burnout isn’t about doing too much - but doing the wrong things
• A different approach to scaling that keeps you in your zone of genius
• The foundation of building a scalable expert business

🔑 Key Takeaway:

Scaling your business shouldn’t require sacrificing the work you love.

When you build around your expertise - rather than away from it - you create a business that is not only scalable, but sustainable and fulfilling.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Welcome + The Email That Sparked This Episode

00:23 – The Question: What Do You Miss?

01:22 – When Growth Pulls You Away From What You Love

01:54 – The Overwhelm of Trying to Do Everything

02:30 – Missing the Simplicity of Your Early Business

03:13 – Tara’s Agency Story: Building a Team and Stepping Away

05:22 – The Moment of Realization: “What’s My Role Now?”

05:48 – Burnout, Misalignment, and Walking Away

06:42 – The Turning Point: There Has to Be Another Way

07:25 – Rethinking the Traditional Path to Scaling

08:18 – The Foundation: Packaging Your Expertise

08:46 – Building a Signature Pathway for Scale

09:09 – You Don’t Have to Choose Between Growth and Fulfillment

09:46 – Final Thoughts + Reflection Question

🚀 Want to Build a Scalable Expert Business?

If you’re ready to grow your business without stepping away from your expertise, start by focusing on your signature pathway - the foundation for scalable offers, systems, and long-term growth.

👉 Learn how to package your expertise and scale with intention - click here to find out how a Scalable Expert Breakthrough session can help you get on the path to Infinite Scale.

About Me:

Hey, it’s your host, Tara Bryan. And I am on a mission to help more business owners learn to infinitely scale their businesses by leveraging the power of online without sacrificing the customer experience or results.

I like to geek out on all things business strategy, marketing, interactive digital and user experience. This podcast is all about what is working, lessons learned and actionable tips to create and grow a thriving online business.

Join us each week as we dive into different strategies, tactics and tips you can apply immediately to your business.

To learn more:

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

Here are two ways we can help you create, grow and scale your business:

1. Want to package your expertise or become a Scalable Expert? Take our free quick assessment to see how close you are to creating a scalable business.

The Scalable Expert Assessment

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

Schedule a 30 minute call with Tara to talk about our offers that will help you master the game.

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Mentioned in this episode:

https://taralbryan.com/step/15-learn-to-scale-call

Hey everybody.

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Welcome to season three of the

Scalable Expert Podcast, the show for

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established expert business owners

who are maxed out on time and ready to

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find the scalable impact of their work.

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I'm your host, Tara Bryan, founder

of the scalable expert, and creator

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of the Infinite Scale Method.

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If you've built a business around

your expertise, but feel stuck

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in the time for money trap, this

podcast is your path forward.

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Each week, I'll share stories and

strategies and shifts to help you

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step into a new, scalable business

model by declaring your authority,

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packaging your expert framework, and

streamlining your offers and systems

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to ultimately become a Scalable Expert.

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Because it's not about working

harder, it's about building smarter.

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All you need is one signature expert

framework, and you can deliver an infinite

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amount of ways to be able to scale your

business, your impact, and your income.

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Alright, let's get started.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome to this week's

episode of the podcast.

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I am thrilled that you're here.

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I received an email this weekend

and I thought it was brilliant, so

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I had to come on and talk about it.

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The subject line said, you miss coaching,

and I was like, huh, so powerful.

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Right?

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So as a Scalable Expert, what do you miss?

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Do you miss being able to

connect with your customers?

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Do you miss being able

to solve big problems?

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Do you miss, not being able to show up and

give your customers your full attention?

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Like, what is it that you

miss about where you are now?

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You have grown to a certain size where

you can't do all of the delivery.

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You can't show up on all the client calls.

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You can't serve in the same

way that you were serving

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when you first started, right?

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Nor is it your goal, right?

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Your goal is actually to become and

stay a Scalable Expert, meaning you've

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packaged your expertise into something

that's tangible and can live outside of

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you, but, you're still able to deliver

at the highest levels using scalable

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engagement and scalable delivery.

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Those

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pieces allow you to be able

to continue to grow and scale.

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But I loved this message because it was

so powerful in the sense of like, when

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you are in that place where you're just

overwhelmed and you are maxed out, your

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calendar's maxed out, you're doing way

too many things, you are trying to be all

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things to all people, and your attention

starts to go away from what you love

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and, and probably the reason that you

started your business, whatever that

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is, in the first place, because you're

bogged down with all of the other things.

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And this happens because we're

trying to do too many things, right?

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We're trying to add all these services.

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We're trying to, you know,

have so many different offers.

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We're trying to, to chase what's

happening out in the market.

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We're trying to run our business.

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We're trying to get new clients.

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We're trying to fulfill on clients.

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We're trying to build systems.

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We're trying to build ai, we're

trying to do like, we're just like

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overwhelmed with all of the things.

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And so what happens is that it tends

to shift us away from what we do best,

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which is really being able to show up

and help people with our expertise.

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So when that message came in, I was

like, wow, that's powerful language.

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Right?

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Because it was drawing out that person

who missed just, at the essence, what

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they did, which he is, he coaches coaches.

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So he's like, do you miss coaching?

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Yeah.

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I miss just showing up and being

able to coach that I could do when I

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was younger, or not younger, when I

had a smaller business, I was first

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starting and I was growing my practice.

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I could just go and

show up and do my thing.

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But as you get more successful, as

you have more customers, as you build

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more infrastructure, that starts to go

away and you're like, oh, I miss that.

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I missed the, the simplicity of that.

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I remember when I was in my agency,

and I'll never forget, I've probably

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told this story before, but I'll never

forget it, is that I hired a team.

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I had a cool office, we had like a glass,

garage door, like it was super cool.

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And then I had this great team

that I had hired and they were

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awesome, like loved all of them.

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But I hired them to do all of the client

delivery which I, at the time, I was

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like, well, that's what you do, right?

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This is the traditional

business, is I'm the CEO, I don't

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actually do client delivery.

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I manage all of it, and that's my

goal is to be a founder and a CEO.

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And I was like, okay, yep.

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This is what I'm supposed to do.

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Yay.

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This is gonna be great.

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And I remember when, we were all in the

conference room and we were brainstorming

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on a client project and it was super fun.

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And we were, you know, throwing out ideas,

how are we gonna make it all happen?

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And, um, and then we, you know, my

project manager got in, started doing

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the project planning and they looked at

me and they're like, you know, you can

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go do what you do because we're good.

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Like, we don't necessarily

need you, to do this, right?

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Like, we're solid.

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And I was like, yeah, you're solid.

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You have everything that you need.

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I have complete 100% trust in you

and you can go and and serve this

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client and it's gonna be awesome.

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And I was like, okay, great.

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I'll go do my thing.

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And I left the room and I closed the door

and I was like, hmm, what's my thing?

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Right?

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Like, I wanna be in there, I wanna be

brainstorming and ideating and having

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like collaborative conversations, like

that's why I hired a team so I, I didn't

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feel like I was doing it all myself.

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But then I was like, oh, okay,

now they don't need me for

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that, what am I gonna do now?

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Oh, I'm gonna go off and, do some more

sales or do some, some CEO work, right?

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And um, and that was great.

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Like at the time, that was a

big milestone for me is that

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I let the team do their thing.

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They did awesome, represented the

business, and we continued to grow.

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But just in my heart, I just felt

like, well wait, like this is my

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passion, this is what I love to do.

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I don't necessarily wanna be so

disconnected to my passion, to my

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expertise, to what I love to the

customers I get to help and see how what

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the work that we're doing impacts them.

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And so in my heart, I just had this

like kind of gap or hole, but I

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was like, well, this is what I'm

supposed to do this, this is great.

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And and so fast forward.

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I don't even remember how many

years it was, but fast forward and

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I was like, yeah, I'm burnt out.

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I'm exhausted.

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I'm doing all of these activities to

serve this group of people who, again,

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were awesome, but they were doing the

stuff that I wanted to do and I wasn't

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in my zone of genius by any means

as I was doing that, and I was like,

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okay, so this isn't working for me.

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And as you probably have heard

in my story throughout the

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podcast, like I shut her down.

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Like I was like, nope, I'm done.

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Like I am, this is not working.

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So while we were successful, I was

like, I, it's, I've gotten so far away

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from my passion within this business,

that it just doesn't feel right.

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There's gotta be a different way

to do this and, and again, like we,

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you've probably heard my journey.

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But what's so fascinating about it

is that when I saw that subject line,

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I was like, yes, that is exactly the

moment that for me and maybe for you

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and for other Scalable Experts, that

we stood up to that line and we said,

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no, there's a different way to do this.

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It doesn't mean I need to shrink and

be smaller and expect less revenue.

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It doesn't mean I need to be a solopreneur

and do it all myself, but it also

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doesn't mean that I have to give up

all of my passion and my expertise

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in order to get to the next level.

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And so when, when I saw

that, I was like, yes.

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I'm so excited that this is part

of the conversation now that people

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are starting to talk about it.

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And, um, and so when I release my

book, you're gonna see, like, I have

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been talking about this for years.

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And, so that's why for me, it's, it's

so fun and juicy that this is coming

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out as a conversation, that it's

possible to actually grow and scale

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a business to a significant level

without kind of that traditional path.

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And for me, and for you, hopefully

as my listener, you have learned

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that as a Scalable Expert, you 100%

can grow a sizable business and also

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control your time and attention.

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And it is not only possible, but it

is something that people are doing

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over and over and over and over again

now, there's so many options and

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so many tools for how to be able to

do this, to maximize your time and

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maximize your effort and your energy.

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But it all starts by having the

right foundation, which is instead

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of trying to scale and, you know,

4 million offers, you're really

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starting with your, packaged IP.

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And then you're building a signature

pathway and then infinitely scalable

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assets on top of all of that.

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But foundationally, it's all built

on this one signature pathway, which

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is the way that you get your ideal

customer from point A to point B.

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If you are on this journey, like

hopefully that kind of email jazzes

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you up just like it did to me, right?

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Where it's like, do you miss the thing

that brought you here in the first place?

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Do you miss being able to help your

customers at the highest level?

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Right?

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It is possible for you to do that without

taking up all of your time and attention.

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If you're curious around that, if

you're like, whoa, wait a minute,

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you mean I don't have to just

sit in an office and, and do my

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books or do CEO activities, right?

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Like I can, instead of just standing

back and letting other people do

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the work, I can do it in a way that

serves me and serves my customers, and

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potentially serves my team if I have one.

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Yeah.

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Like it is so powerful when you step

into that role as a Scalable Expert.

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To see what starts to happen and how

you can build a business differently.

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All right, so if you are on the journey

similar to me, just so you know, there

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is a different way of going about it.

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So hopefully this episode

was helpful for you and just

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opened your eyes a little bit.

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But I love that subject line from

that email I got this weekend.

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And, and I, I think it's a

great reflection question.

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Are you missing the thing?

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Whatever it is.

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All right, until next time.