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Your Expertise Might Be Confusing Your Customers
Episode 4197th May 2026 • The Scalable Expert • Tara Bryan
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If you’ve ever tried to explain your expertise and watched your audience’s eyes glaze over… this episode is for you.

In this episode of The Scalable Expert™, Tara unpacks one of the biggest challenges experts face: communicating from a 10,000-foot view while their customers are still standing on the ground trying to figure out the very next step.

Because here’s the truth most experts miss:

Your customers don’t need you to teach them everything you know.

They need you to guide them from where they are to where they want to go.

Tara shares why experts accidentally overcomplicate their messaging, how jargon and “expert language” create friction, and why simplifying your communication doesn’t dilute your expertise - it makes your methodology more effective.

You’ll also hear real-world examples of how organizations unintentionally lose their audience by teaching from the expert perspective instead of the customer perspective, and how shifting from “explaining” to “guiding” creates better engagement, better transformation, and better results.

This episode is especially important for coaches, consultants, service providers, and experts who:

  • struggle to clearly explain what they do
  • feel like customers “don’t get it”
  • have a hard time simplifying their methodology
  • want to create a clearer customer journey
  • are building a scalable business around their expertise

Because the best experts don’t overwhelm people with information.

They create clarity.

They become guides.

In this episode, we discuss:

  • Why your expertise might be confusing your customers
  • The communication gap between experts and beginners
  • How experts accidentally overcomplicate their message
  • Why your customers don’t need the whole map
  • The difference between teaching and guiding
  • How to simplify your expertise without dumbing it down
  • Why customer perspective matters in scalable business design
  • Using AI to simplify expert communication
  • Creating a clearer customer journey and transformation path

Chapters:

00:00 – Welcome + What It’s Like to Be an Expert

01:14 – The “Level 1 vs. Level 10” Expert Problem

02:31 – Why Experts Lose Their Audience

03:46 – The Communication Gap Between Experts and Customers

05:00 – Your Customers Don’t Need to Become Experts

06:15 – Meeting Customers Where They Are

06:52 – How to Simplify Your Expertise Using AI

08:04 – A Real Example of Behavior Change vs. Information Overload

09:39 – Why Expertise Needs Translation

10:00 – Customers Don’t Need the Whole Map

10:21 – The Shift From Expert to Guide

10:59 – Closing Thoughts

If this episode resonated with you, make sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another expert business owner who may be overcomplicating their message without realizing it.

And if you’re ready to build a scalable business around your expertise instead of staying trapped in delivery, visit Tara Bryan Official Website to learn more about The Scalable Expert™ and the Infinite Scale Method™.

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.

Thanks for listening!

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Mentioned in this episode:

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

Transcripts

Tara Bryan:

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 podcast.

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I am thrilled that you're here.

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Hey, in this episode, I wanna talk

about what it's like to be an expert.

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And so what one of the things is,

and, and if you're listening, you are

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probably an expert or learning to be

an expert, whatever that looks like

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for you, and one of the things is

just naturally, as an expert, you know

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more about your topic and expertise

than anyone else out there, right?

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Just because that is your thing,

you're passionate about it, you're

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deep in the weeds of your expertise.

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And what happens is when we go out to

help other people with our expertise,

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we get into a little bit of trouble

because we're so comfortable with all

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of the terminology, all of the details,

all of the things around our expertise,

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that we sometimes forget that when

somebody is trying to learn something

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or, or gain something based on what we're

helping them with as an expert, they're

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not in the same place we are, right?

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They are not at the

same level of expertise.

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So I always think about

it on a continuum, right?

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Like, so, um, put like...

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imagine a horizontal line, and you have

zero on one end and 10 on the other end.

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As an expert, you're probably

in the 8 to 10 range, right?

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Like, you are immersed in your discipline.

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You're immersed in your expertise.

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However, your customers are usually

at, like, a one or a two, right?

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Because they're like, "I don't know

how to get from where I am today to

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where I want to go, and so I'm gonna

hire somebody who has that experience."

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That's what they're thinking, right?

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They're, "I'm not an expert at this.

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I need to hire an expert to help me."

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Now, the disconnect happens when

you as an expert sort of forget to

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look at where your customer, your

potential customer is right now, right?

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If they're at a one or a two,

they don't even understand the

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words that you are saying, right?

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Like, they're not there at all.

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And so what has to happen is you

as an expert is when you start

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working with other people, you

need to start to become a guide.

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You need to look at where

somebody is and then start there.

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You can't start with your expertise

because that person's like, "I don't even

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know what you're talking about," right?

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So I'm working with, a couple

of different experts right now.

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One group I'm working with, they

are in charge of pre-qualifying,

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um, different partners for projects

that they have in their company.

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And so they have a deep knowledge,

that is their thing, is their job is to

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pre-qualify these partners so that they

are ready and prepared and qualified

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to be able to do these large projects.

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Because if not, then there's all sorts

of consequences if that partner is not

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prepared, or can't support the work

that they've been hired to do, right?

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So this group is in charge

of making all that happen.

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However, they need to be able to

communicate to their end users how to

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initiate all of the different parts

and pieces that go with this, right?

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So there's a communication sort

of chain that's going on, right?

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That the person who is, it- wants to

hire a partner has to go to this group

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and, and there's a back and forth

to make sure that this partner is

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appropriately qualified to do the work.

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Okay?

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Seems simple, right?

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But here's the problem, is that the

group that's in charge of doing this

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pre-qualification only knows how to

speak about all of the things that,

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that play into pre-qualifying a partner.

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And the end user, the person that

they actually are dependent on

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to make sure that all the parts

and pieces are happening to make

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this whole thing successful,

are not experts at this, right?

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And they're not even

thinking about it, right?

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They're thinking about all the

things that they need to do.

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This is just one small piece

of what they need to do.

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So when this group, this pre-qualification

group, has been tasked to train the end

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user, the challenge that they have is that

they are trying to create training that is

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just about this pre-qualification process

and the rules and the, the structure and

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the this and the that and the other thing,

and they're speaking from their expertise.

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They're not speaking from that

end user who needs to make all

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these things happen in order for

this whole thing to be successful.

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And it's very, very common as an expert,

so you probably can put yourself in

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that position of like, "Wait, where am

I talking about my thing so specifically

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that I've just lost my audience?"

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Right?

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I've lost the, th- the...

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even focusing on them because

you're so stuck in what it is that

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you want to talk about and explain

and show and all of the things.

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And, and so the first step is really just

to recognize that your end user, your

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customer, whoever it is you're helping,

is not at the same level that you are.

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They're hiring you because they want to

go from where they are today to where

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they want to go, and honestly, most of the

time that's, like, at a level four, right?

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Again, you're at a level 10,

they're a level one or two.

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Maybe they just wanna go to a level four.

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They don't really want to be a level 10.

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They don't really want

to be an expert like you.

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They literally just want you to

help them solve their problem so

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that they are successful, so that

they can move on and do their thing.

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And, and so that's the rub that we

always have as experts is how do we

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really just look at our end user and

what they need, and look at it from

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their perspective and through their eyes

so that we can paint the picture of how

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they can go from point A to point B?

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And most of the time, again,

it's not to help them become

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experts like we are, right?

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It's to help them solve

that particular problem.

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So in this group, um, you know, we were

able to really look at it from that end

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user's perspective, fill in the blanks

in terms of what they needed and how

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they needed to engage this group, and

that shifted what they needed to focus

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on in terms of the training, made it

much more simple, took out all of the

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jargon, all of the, the complication,

and just really focused on how do

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you make this into plain language.

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Honestly, I would say this is one of the

best ways that you can leverage AI at this

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point, if that is something that you're

interested in, is, um, how do I make my

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expertise relatable or understandable

for somebody who's not an expert, right?

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Like, break it down in

a fifth grade language.

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Once I did that, when I was working with

this p- pre-qualification group, and I s-

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like break this down and, like, get rid

of all the jargon and break this down into

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something that's focused on this audience

and is something that I can understand

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from a non-technical perspective.

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And all of a sudden it was like, oh,

well, that's m- much more simple, right?

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And so we were able to build something

that bridged the gap from where they

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were to where they needed them to be

without over-engineering something,

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without over-complicating it with a

lot of expertise and a lot of jargon.

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So AI can really help with that,

especially if your gift is not to put

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yourself in your, your customer's shoes.

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Use AI for that and really get that

perspective that helps you sort

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of, just meet your, your customer

where they are on their journey.

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A couple other examples.

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One, um, I'm also working with a

group on driving more safely, right?

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And so the ask was, we really need to

work on how to reduce accidents and, and

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various things that could happen when

people are driving with company vehicles.

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And so the original training is more...

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is somewhere like, "Don't drink and drive.

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Don't drive when you're tired.

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If you see an animal,

you know, don't swerve.

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Don't pick up your cell phone."

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All the things, right?

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And it's like, all of that's great

and those are great rules to remember,

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but the question is like, okay, yeah,

we all know all of those things.

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Why are people not doing them, right?

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What is the problem that

we're trying to solve?

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And how do we go from where

we were to where we are, like,

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where we want them to go?

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And it's really about, the steps that

they need to prepare to take action

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while they're in the situation,

and then what to do after, right?

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It was less around the sound bites of

remember all these details, and more

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around what we wanted them to do.

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So again, that shifts from being like,

"Here are all the technical details.

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Here's like the, the policy and all the

things," to "Here's how this could help

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you change your behavior, your, what's

happening while you are out on the road."

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So, so it's just a shift in how

you're taking your expertise and

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relating it back to your customer.

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So hopefully that helps you as you're

thinking about your expertise and how

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you can really shape the experience

for your customers a little bit

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differently than maybe you are today.

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Because it's less about you going into

all the jargon and the details and making

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them become a level 10, it's more about

how do you shift your expertise to be

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able to help them not make the same

mistakes, not have the same obstacles and

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hurdles that you had as, as you were going

through this process, or somebody who was

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going through this process trying to do

it themselves or whatever else, right?

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How do you fast-track their process

by getting to where they are

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today to where they want to go?

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All right, so hopefully this helped you

as a small tip that you can use to shift

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how you're thinking about your expertise

so that you really put yourself at that

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same spot where your customers are.

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If they're all level

10s like you, awesome.

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But then that's a different conversation,

a different path that you're taking

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them on than, typically where your

customers are gonna be coming in when

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they know that you have the authority

to solve that problem for them.

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All right, if you love this

episode, give it a rating and

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share it with your friends.

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We will see you on the next episode.

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