Are you giving away your authority without realizing it?

In this episode of The Scalable Expert Podcast, Tara tackles a critical question that could be holding back your growth: Are you the expert or just the messenger for someone else’s framework?

If you’ve ever found yourself referencing another expert’s book, system, or certification more than your own insights, you might be unintentionally giving away your authority. Tara breaks down how to use tools, models, and certifications without diminishing your own expertise and how to build a proprietary framework that positions you as the clear leader in your space.

Whether you're certified in someone else's methodology or piecing together ideas from different mentors, this episode will help you stop diluting your value and start owning the approach that’s already yours.

🎯 Key Takeaways:

• The difference between being an expert and an ambassador
• How to reference others without giving away your authority
• Why your unique experience is your proprietary framework
• How to position your framework as the foundation of your business

📌 Chapters

• 00:00 – Intro: Are you giving away your authority?
• 00:25 – Using industry models inside your own work
• 01:01 – Why your approach is already unique
• 01:43 – Referencing others vs. claiming your method
• 02:30 – The danger of deferring authority
• 04:04 – Case study: Certified coach stuck behind someone else’s method
• 05:24 – How we helped her frame her unique contribution
• 06:40 – Women, confidence, and over-referencing others
• 07:12 – Anchor your expertise in your proprietary framework
• 08:00 – Expert vs. Ambassador: Know the difference
• 09:04 – A John Maxwell coach example (and why it fell flat)
• 10:25 – What owning your framework actually looks like
• 11:11 – Invitation: Let’s define your framework together

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

Tara Bryan: 00:00:00

Welcome to The Scalable Expert, the podcast where we unlock

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the secrets to building a business

that grows with you, not around you.

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I'm your host, Tara Bryan, business

strategist, mentor, and creator

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of the INFINITE SCALE Method.

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If you're a coach, consultant, or

service provider who's maxed out

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with one on one work, overwhelmed by

the grind, and ready to scale your

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expertise into a business that works

for you, then you're in the right place.

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Each week I'll share actionable

tips, inspiring success stories,

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and proven strategies to help you

reclaim your time, grow your income,

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and create a business that delivers

results without sacrificing quality.

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Let's dive in and make your

business INFINITELY SCALABLE.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome to today's episode.

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Let's talk about giving

away your authority.

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So one of the biggest things as you are

setting your proprietary methodology

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is really looking at like, what is your

approach and how do you help people

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in a way that's unique to you and

your expertise when you are helping

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them go from the problem they have to

the result that they're looking for.

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So one of the things I wanna talk about

is, you may actually use a different, you

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know, like an industry standard approach.

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You may have gotten some parts and

pieces of the way that you help

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customers from different books that have

been written by other people, right?

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And so you may reference their

methodology, you may reference

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the book that they've written.

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You may reference industry standard.

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Sort of framework that you

have as, a, it's a standard

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approach that's in the industry.

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However, at the end of the day, you

have developed a unique way to put

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those together to be able to teach or

help your customers go from point A to

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point B in, the fastest way possible

based on how you've done it in the

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past, based on your expertise, based

on how you uniquely look at how to

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solve that problem for your customers.

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So first and foremost, you really

need to believe that you have a

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proprietary methodology that's unique

and different from someone else.

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And so that's the very

first thing to look at.

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The second thing is if you are using

other resources, other books, other

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systems, other approaches, and you're

bringing them all in to your own unique

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methodology, that's fine, but then don't

spend the rest of the time giving away

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your authority by giving that author all

of the credit for your whole methodology.

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So I have a customer and she is,

building out a full program where

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she's helping people and as she's going

through and teaching it, she's saying,

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well, I, I, I took and I browed this

approach from this person in this book.

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And so, I mean, I took it, I kind of

tweaked it and made it my own, but

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it's really this person's framework.

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And so I encourage you to be really

careful around that because the way that

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your customer's hearing that is that

they're hearing that it's not yours and

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that you haven't done anything unique

with it, and you've just stolen someone

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else's intellectual property and put it

into your program and called it your own

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right, which is not usually ever the case.

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I mean, there are some people who just

copy other people and just use their

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approach and move forward, but in most

cases, if you are an expert and you've

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created your own proprietary framework,

you have used somebody else's model or

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framework in your approach, and you've

been able to put together a unique way

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that you're helping your customers.

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So if that's the case, like just reference

that person, don't claim that it's your

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own model, that's totally fine, but don't

give away your authority in the process.

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And so reframe the way that you're

talking about that and say, I learned

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that initially from this book, or this

author, or this expert, and I've been

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able to incorporate it into my practice

and help my customers by doing X, Y, Z.

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That's unique from kind of the,

you've taken that initial model and

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added onto it or made it your own or,

you've created something else on top

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of it based on your own expertise.

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And so just really think about that

if you are giving away your authority.

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Like I have another client who's

certified in someone else's approach.

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That's amazing, right?

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That is a tool that she's used to

build her business but she has way more

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expertise than just this one approach.

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So when she started and she was like,

this is what I'm teaching, and it's

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just taking this guy's methodology

and implementing it for her customers.

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She was diminishing her own

expertise that she was bringing

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to the table around this model.

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So as we built out her authority

framework, she realized that there is a

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whole section that is unique to her and

her experience and how she can help her

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ideal customer not only, apply this model

that he's teaching, but really take it

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to the next level with her unique way of

viewing the model, how she incorporated

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it into her business, and then what

results she actually got from it.

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And so instead of saying, well, this

is this, she was able to say, this is

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a tool that I use as I was building my

business, and so I'm gonna help you.

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Start with the tool so that you can make

the same decisions that I made and then

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we're gonna talk about how to, incorporate

those decisions in your business to get

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to the result that you're looking for.

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So it becomes a part of the

process, not the whole thing.

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And so if you are using other

people's models or approaches,

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again, reference them.

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Don't take them and call them your own,

reference them, but then talk about

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how you've been able to take it to

the next level, apply it differently,

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your experience in how you took it

and made it into something else, that

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is your unique approach, your unique

way of doing it, and how you are

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adding value on top of that approach.

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Don't tell me that it's this approach

so that I can go and just buy

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that approach over there, right?

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There's something else that's unique

that you are bringing to the table.

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Call that out and always call it out when

you're mentioning different resources.

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I think especially for my women viewers,

this is something that we tend to do

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is because we don't want to, we don't

wanna, brag is not the right word, but

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we don't wanna stand confident and brag

about our own expertise, we wanna like

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help raise other people's expertise.

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But that is what's gonna make

you stand apart and give your

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customers the confidence that you

have what it takes to help them.

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And so just remember that if you find

yourself always referencing other experts

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as you're going through your proprietary

framework, just recognize your unique

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view on that, your expertise that you've

brought to the table or what that looks

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like and don't just naturally say,

oh, I took it from here and how I was

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able to just add it into my program.

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There's a reason you're adding it in the

order, in the way that you are adding it.

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Again, go back to the bigger framework

of anchoring your authority, not theirs.

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So hopefully that helps if you are finding

yourself not sure how to incorporate

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someone else's framework into your work,

it's a tool that you've used to grow or

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transform your business or whatever it is

that you are helping your customers with,

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it's a tool within the bigger approach.

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It's not the only thing that

you've used to become successful.

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If it is, and you in fact have only

done that one thing, then great.

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You are an ambassador

of that other expert.

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You are not an expert yourself.

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And so know the difference because the way

that you show up, you may think that you

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are helping, or giving yourself authority

by talking about the other person, but

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your customer is perceiving it as you

don't have that authority yourself.

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So let me just give you one example just

to bring it home I was at a presentation,

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oh geez, about six months or so now ago,

and this woman was a John Maxwell coach.

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And so she was speaking to a room full

of people and she mentioned John Maxwell

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and she was a John Maxwell coach.

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And she talked about John Maxwell's

approach and how she goes out and

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helps her customers, and in John

Maxwell's approach and all the things.

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It was all about John Maxwell.

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And so my question was like, why would

I hire her when I can just go to John

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Maxwell and get coaching from him?

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What is she bringing to the table

that's different than John Maxwell?

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And I'm sure she was very talented and

she had a growing consulting business and

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she probably had something that was her

own that she brought to the table when she

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became certified as a John Maxwell coach.

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However.

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The entire hour, all she did was give

away her authority, she kept talking about

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him and his approach and all the things.

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And so don't do that.

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You are an expert in

and of yourself, right?

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So if you're a John Maxwell

coach, that's amazing.

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What is the uniqueness that

you bring to his methodology?

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That's your expertise.

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That is your, ultimately,

your authority framework.

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It's not John Maxwell's certification

program that makes you who you are.

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What makes you who you are is how

you've taken his approach and how you've

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actually helped customers with it.

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And I guarantee that the way that you

do it is slightly different than the

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way that he shows up or the way that

all of his other coaches show up.

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Your job is to identify what that looks

like and then create the bigger framework.

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So when you are going on this journey,

if you've been certified in someone

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else's approach, if that's where

you've started or you've read lots of

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books and you have lots of different

approaches that you use to implement

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with your clients, really think about

how you've knitted those together.

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Really think about the unique value

that you provide when you show up.

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Because I guarantee that what you are

doing, how you're thinking about it,

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how you've gotten results, how you

help your customers, how you show up

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for your customers, whatever it is,

is unique and special and is something

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that sets you apart from someone else.

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Your authority framework is just

being able to articulate that and

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then use it to help other people.

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You know what I would've loved to

have seen in that presentation is for

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her to own her expertise, own how she

shows up and say, and I got my start

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by becoming a John Maxwell certified

coach, 'cause it gave me the tools and

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resources to be able to start helping

my customers, and then from there I

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was able to evolve into my own way that

I showed up uniquely to help people.

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That's a different expert statement.

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That is a different way to show up

as an expert and represent yourself.

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And so again, if this is you, I

challenge you to go through that.

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If you are struggling with that and

you're like, I know what you're talking

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about, but I'm not exactly sure how that

would work for me, in the show notes

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is a link to a free discovery call.

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Jump on a call with me.

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Let's talk through that a little bit.

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Because my goal is to help you elevate

your expertise, not grab somebody

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else's and use their expertise,

which just increases their authority.

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Let's increase yours as you start

to grow and scale your business.

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If you loved this episode, please feel

free to share it with someone else.

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Give us a rating or subscribe

if you are watching on YouTube.

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Until next week, have a great week.