What's really behind your customer retention problem? In this episode of The Scalable Expert, Tara Bryan shares a candid observation from inside another expert's high-level program — and the "aha" moment that reminded her why a clear customer journey isn't optional. When customers can't see the path they're on, they drift. They disengage. They don't ascend — not because your training isn't valuable, but because they've lost the plot.

Tara breaks down the difference between random acts of training and a true Signature Pathway, and why designing the customer journey first is the foundation of real customer retention and scalable growth.

In this episode:

• What "random acts of training" reveal about your business structure
• Why customers stop ascending even when they love your content
• How the customer journey (not the content) drives retention
• The Signature Experience Map: designing the path before you build the delivery

Ready to find out if your customer journey is holding back your growth? Take the free Scalable Expert Audit → https://thescalable.expert/scalable-expert-audit

Tara Bryan is the creator of the Infinite Scale Method™ and host of The Scalable Expert podcast. She helps expert business owners, coaches, and consultants turn their expertise into a scalable business built on a signature framework and systems that deliver results without requiring more of their time.

Learn more at www.thescalable.expert and www.taralbryan.com

Ready to build a business your expertise deserves?

The Scalable Expert Audit reveals exactly where you are in the Infinite Scale Method and what to do next. Five minutes. Instant results. Take the Free Scalable Expert Audit →

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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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All right, let's get started.

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Welcome to today's episode of the

podcast, I am thrilled that you're here.

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Hey, I had this happen today and I

had to jump on and record this right

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away because it was such a good

reminder, and so it may be something

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that's helpful for you as well.

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So I was attending a training with one of

the coaches that I have and, and she's a

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very successful business owner, I would

say she's high seven figures, maybe low

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eight figures at this point, teaching

her version of Signature Frameworks.

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And hers is, was, slightly different but

it was fascinating to me because I was

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listening to her, and it's a multi-day

training that she's doing and, and so I,

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I love listening in to this kind of stuff.

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Anyway, she started talking about

signature frameworks and how to put

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them together and what to look at.

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And I'll tell you that one of the

things that I struggle the most in her

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program is that I feel like I'm not

exactly sure where I am on the path.

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Right?

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You, you know, you've heard me talk about

the customer journey and how important

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it is to be really transparent about that

signature pathway for your customers,

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so they know exactly where they are.

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They know how they're getting

from point A to point B.

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You're showing them the steps

for them to get there, right?

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It's like when you're driving across

country, you don't just jump in the

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car and go, even if somebody in your

ear is saying, turn here, do this, go

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to this town, do this stuff, right?

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You still wanna have the map, right?

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Adults like to see the big picture.

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They like to know what is happening.

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It builds trust, it builds transparency,

and it builds confidence that not only

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do you have what they need, but that they

believe that they can do what they need

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to do to get from point A to point B.

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I've been in her experience for

a while, and one of the biggest

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things is like, where am I?

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And she's doing this training and she's

doing that training and she's introducing

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this and she's introducing that and

she's all, always present, right?

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She's always doing some type of training.

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The challenge is, I call it

random acts of training, right?

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Because I show up and I'm like,

this is super interesting and super

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helpful and I could apply this.

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But what happens is I

have lost the big picture.

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And so anyway, so she's teaching about how

to think about your signature framework,

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how to create it, how to take your

genius and really build the foundation

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that helps your customers go from where

they are today to where they wanna go.

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All of that's great.

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All of that is exactly on point for

how I would describe what somebody

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needs in order to really have a

strong foundation for their business.

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What was interesting, however, is

that she was teaching people how to

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reverse engineer the whole process.

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So she was starting with the detail

and then, helping people use AI to have

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AI create the bigger picture based on

all the detail that they have used.

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And I thought it was fascinating, not

because it's the wrong approach, but

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I thought it was fascinating because,

when she finally revealed that this

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is the way that she was doing it, I

thought, huh, that is fascinating.

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So she took her expertise and what she

focused on in terms of, she calls them

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her authority codes, and so taking her

sort of intellectual property that she's

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created around these different topics that

she is an expert in or she's developed an

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expertise in, what she was saying was take

all of those and then see what happens.

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See how the big picture

starts to formulate.

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And then create a big picture around

all of these things that you've created.

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Which is fascinating, right?

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So it's really reverse

engineering the process.

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So if you're a detailed person and

you are in the weeds, this may help

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you get out of the weeds and see what

you're doing from a 10,000 foot view.

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So it, there, it's not

necessarily the wrong activity.

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The challenge is that very easily you

lose sight of the customer, right?

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Because really the whole thing is

really about the customer's journey from

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point A to point B, and you've defined

that you are the expert to help that

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customer go from point A to point B.

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So it's really about the person that

you're helping and the journey that

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they're taking to get to that result,

regardless if you're doing it for

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them or they're doing it themselves.

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And so I would argue that

you start with a customer.

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You identify your ideal customer.

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You identify that ideal customer's

biggest problem and the result

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that they are searching for, right?

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What's that transformation that they want?

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What's on the other side of that problem?

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That becomes your

signature pathway, right?

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You're the bridge from that

problem to that solution, and

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then everything inside of that is.

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The progression or the pathway or

the steps that you take them to go

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from that problem to that solution.

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That's where your

expertise comes into play.

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So it's really not about packaging

all of the random things that

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you've done and hope that there's

an overarching sort of theme to it.

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It's really looking at it from

that customer's point of view and

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then connecting how you can best

deliver that step to them so that

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they can keep moving forward.

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So I thought it was fascinating

because, so often I get one or two

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sort of ways that people think of this.

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One is, oh, it's so easy.

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I already know what my thing is.

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Great.

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Most of the time you have an idea of kind

of that through line, that pathway that

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you create for people, and maybe you've

been testing it over time, right, I mostly

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work with people who have established

businesses, and so they have some sort

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of method to the madness of how they do

things, so it's a little bit easier for

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them to identify what that looks like.

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But if you are in that place where

you're just like, I do all these things

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and some of them are connected, some

of them aren't, I don't really know

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how I do what I do most of the time.

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It's just like I pick a topic

and I go with it, or I create

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an offer and I run with it.

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And then you end up with lots of offers,

lots of ideas, lots of ways you're helping

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people, but not one cohesive pathway.

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And so it, and so I am just

fascinated 'cause I, I, this

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again, this just happened today.

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I really wanna reach out to her and just

be like, you know, that there's an easier

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way, than sort of this approach of trying

to find out what your genius is based on

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all of the random things that you've done.

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I bring this up for that, right?

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If this is something that you're

struggling with, if this, if you

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are, weeds and then you get back

to the big picture kind of person.

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Great.

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That may help you identify what it

is that you're doing and all the

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parts and pieces and see if you

can find that 10,000 foot view.

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Or if you're like, okay, so I

feel like I have the big picture.

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I have all the parts and

pieces that fit in there.

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I'm not sure the order, I'm

not sure how that all works.

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Go back and look at your ideal

avatar and put them on the path.

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And what are the, what's the way,

the best way that they need to go

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through that so they can get through

it easier and faster and better, right?

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That's why they hire you

is for your experience.

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So you're kind of putting your

little character on the path and, and

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looking at it from that perspective.

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That will help you simplify and

get yourself out of the sort of

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random acts of training, random

acts of unconnected offers, right?

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And if none of that works, give me a

shout because that, again, this is my

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superpower, this is what I do every

single day for people, is to help them

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sort of take it out of their head and

put it into a structure that really

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is simplified for themselves, for

their business, for their team, and

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most importantly, they're customers.

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Because here's what happens.

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Here's the second thing I wanna say

about this, is that, and I'm seeing

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it in her program, which is why I am,

I'm mentioning it, but what happens

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is when I go to the training, I'm

like, these, this training is great.

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This is super valuable.

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All the AI stuff she's

giving us is super valuable.

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There's all sorts of

value that's happening.

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But at the end of the

day it's not connected.

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And so I keep saying, okay, this is great.

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And then I do, and then I do that, and

then I do this activity, and then I

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do this other activity and I'm like,

all this is really great, but I don't

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know how they're all connecting.

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I'm, I've lost the plot and

so when she said that today,

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I was like, of course I have.

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Because she's not thinking about it

as the journey that I'm going on.

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So what happens with that traditionally

is that then people don't ascend.

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People don't continue in your world

because they're like, this is all

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great and I'm taking up a lot of

time doing all of these things, but

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I'm not getting closer to my goal

because I must be doing something

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wrong, or I must be missing something,

or I must need this other thing.

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And while that's great for initial

ascension, right, somebody may say,

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oh I need to be in her inner circle

so I get more information, or I get

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more of what it is I should be doing.

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But what happens is it leaves that

bad taste in people's mouths, right?

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Because they're like, okay, I joined this.

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It's not any different.

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I joined this other thing

and it's not any different.

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Because the piece that's missing is

the game board, the map, the pathway.

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These are the things that

I've been talking about on

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the podcast for a while now.

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But that's what's missing.

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And so if I can see myself in the journey

and I can see how this training relates

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to where I am on the journey, and I

stay focused on my, my personalized

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journey, then I'm going to get to my

finish line, and then I'm gonna ascend.

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Then I am going to keep working

with this woman and she is

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gonna help me go to the moon.

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But if she doesn't capture where I am

at the time that I am there, and help

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scooch me forward on my path, then I

am not gonna continue working with her

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because she's lost the plot for me, right?

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She has her various things that

she's doing and she's making a lot of

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noise and she's doing a lot of random

acts of training, which are great,

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but they're not aligned to my path.

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That is a difference between somebody who

comes into a program or comes into some

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sort of experience and someone who stays.

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So it's a really, it's a really fine

line, but from your perspective as a

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business owner, from your perspective

as an architect of how you create this

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experience for your customers that

the more you can dial in the, customer

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journey, the better off you're gonna be.

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Because that's when you

can really become scalable.

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When everybody can drop in wherever

they are at the right place and go

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on their path to get to the result.

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But if you, if it's just like this

like noise, noise, noise, noise, noise.

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It's like marketing, right?

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If you're just marketing by showing

up and making noise, people will

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see you, people will attend, but

they're not actually gonna take the

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action that you want them to take.

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They're not gonna get those results.

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They're not gonna get to the goal or

the transformation that you've promised.

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They may have some wins, but

they're not gonna get to the goal.

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They're not gonna continue to

ascend with you because they

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don't know how to get there.

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And you'll see it in a

couple different ways.

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One, you'll have turnover.

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People will leave because they're

like, this is great, but it's.

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A lot of time and I'm

still not doing anything.

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You're gonna have, another group of

people who want your time and attention

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and then you're gonna meet with them

potentially one-on-one or in a group,

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and they're gonna continuously be asking

you the same questions and they're not

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gonna continue forward on their path.

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As an expert, this is very maddening

for, for all experts, right?

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When you've answered the same questions

12 times and people aren't taking action.

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They're not taking action, not because

they don't want to, but because they don't

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see a, the clear path forward, right?

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If you give them the game board

and the, and a pair of dice,

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they know how to play the game.

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But if you're not giving them those

things, then they're either waiting for

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it or they're gonna say, I don't get it.

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And then you have to

repeat yourself, right?

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Which is what you don't wanna do.

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Or they'll ascend and and then

just not actually do anything.

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Which then distracts the other

people who are doing things.

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So when you do this, it's so important

to get that 10,000 foot view correct.

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So whether you come from the bottom

up or you go from the top down, it's

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really recognizing that it's probably

actually somewhere in the middle, right?

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But it's really looking and starting

with who your ideal customer is

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and then building their journey.

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That is where it starts, and that's

where, if you can stay focused on the

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journey that person has, that is when you

really start to transform your business.

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If you love this episode, give me a shout.

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I would love to hear what your thoughts

are on this, and whether or not you've

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been in any of these experiences, right?

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Either the random acts of training

where you feel like you're getting lots

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and lots of stuff, but nothing that's

leading you, directly down a path or a

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really great experience where you feel

completely supported and you're able to

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go from point A to point B very, very

quickly and with purpose and with all of

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the support that you needed, either one.

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I would love to hear about it.

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All right, until next time.