This is episode two in a series on what it actually takes to build a business that scales. Last week, we tackled the most dangerous phrase in your business vocabulary - "it depends" - and why a custom-everything approach keeps you locked in as the product. This week, we take the next step: the identity shift from practitioner to architect.

A practitioner delivers results. An architect designs the system that delivers results. If your calendar is maxed out and your success has started to feel like a trap, that distinction is everything.

This episode walks you through what it means to build your business by design, starting with the one move that changes everything: packaging your expertise. Your methodology already exists. You're probably just not using it in a way that travels without you yet.

In this episode:

• Why success as a practitioner eventually becomes a trap
• What it means to become the architect of your business
• How to package your expertise and make your methodology tangible
• Why leading with your IP changes the dynamic with your customers
• How to deliver results without your time and attention being the bottleneck
• Why this shift is an evolution, not a restart

Next week: Most experts skip straight to building the solution without diagnosing the actual problem first. Next week I'm sharing the assessment that changes everything: the specific structural questions that reveal exactly where your business is stuck. You don't want to miss it.

Download the FREE Infinite Scale Guide - Scale Your Business, Not Your Calendar: www.taralbryan.com

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.

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The show for established expert business

owners who are maxed out on time and ready

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to 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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Hey everybody.

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In last week's episode, we talked

about the most dangerous phrase in

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your business vocabulary, so if you

didn't listen to that one, go back

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and check out the episode prior to

this one to find out what that is.

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All right, so to continue our conversation

around how do you start thinking about

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becoming a Scalable Expert, we are gonna

talk about how to go from practitioner

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to a business architect and what the

pathway is to be able to do that.

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So when you're a practitioner, you are

helping your clients and customers with

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the services that you offer, right?

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Whatever your expertise is.

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You help them, maybe you help them fulfill

on a project, maybe you help them build

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something, maybe you consult with them

on some sort of strategy that they need.

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Whatever it is that you are doing,

you're acting as a practitioner, right?

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You are saying, "I am an expert, and

I am going to help you fulfill on

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whatever this service is that you have."

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And that's amazing and that's great,

and, and you could stay there, right?

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Like, you could build your entire

business where you are doing one-on-one

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or consulting work, and, um, as a

practitioner the challenge becomes, and

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as you know from if you've listened to

this podcast before, the challenge comes

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is at some point you get maxed out.

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Your calendar's maxed out, your

energy is maxed out, you, your

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client roster is maxed out, right?

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Especially as you become

more successful, right?

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Like, your success sort of becomes

a trap because the more success

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you have, the more clients you

have, the more time it takes up.

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So that's the, that's

our challenge, right?

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Like, that's continuously the,

the thing that we trip up against.

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And if you haven't tripped up against

it, you will as you, you get more

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experience, as you get more clients and,

and try and navigate through what does

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it look like when you're at capacity?

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What does it look like

when you're maxed out?

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And again, you may want

to just stay maxed out.

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You may get to a ceiling

and you're like, "I'm good.

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I don't need to do anything else."

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Great.

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This episode then is not for you.

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But for those of you who are maxed

out or kind of getting to that

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point and you're like, "What's next?

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What do I do once I get to that point?"

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Or you may be thinking, "Ugh, I

don't wanna continue having every

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single minute of every single day be

filled with activities and business

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consulting gigs that I don't have

any time for anything else," right?

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Most of us started our business so that we

would have freedom; freedom of, of choice,

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freedom of time, freedom of other things.

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And so that's the conundrum

that we end up in, right?

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So that's being a practitioner.

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So how do we start to shift into being

able to become a Scalable Expert?

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And what we need to do is start

building our business by design.

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We need to become the

architect of our business.

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We need to look at, like, how do

we build something that will be

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able to sustain, our growth without

it taking up all of our time?

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And as you shift from, you know, showing

up and doing the thing to looking at

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how you can build something that, that

still works even when you're not the one

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who is showing up and in the engagement.

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So as we start looking at how do

we build our business by design, we

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look at it a little bit differently.

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The very first thing to do is to package

your IP, package your methodology.

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So what that means is just

like, what is your expertise?

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And when you, you lead with

your expertise, what is it

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that you wanna be known for?

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What is it that you're an authority in?

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How do you help your customers today?

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Because most, most often, as an expert,

you have a way, you have an approach

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of how you do something, right?

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How you help your client go from point

A to point B, the problem they have

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to the result that they desire, right?

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You don't just show up and say,

"Well, hey customer, I can help you

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by just doing this thing," right?

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There's some sort of tangible, um,

result that they're looking for.

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In some cases, it's just your hours,

but hopefully you are at the place in

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your business where you're starting to

build something beyond just your time,

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and, and so you have an approach that

you're using one way or the other.

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Sometimes people borrow an approach until

they feel comfortable, or they discover

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their own unique way of doing things.

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But at some point in your, your business

growth, you're gonna have sort of some,

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some method to the madness, right?

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You're gonna have an approach

that you use with your customers.

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The goal is to start to package that

and make it tangible and put it into

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a, some sort of system that allows you

to deliver it without it being always

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taking up your time and attention.

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So you think about that and

you're like, "Okay, great.

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So how, how do I start

packaging my expertise?"

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I've talked about that a lot on this

podcast, and it's one of the core

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tenets of how we operate, right?

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With the INFINITE SCALE™

Method is you first have to

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package what your expertise is.

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So you take kind of the,

the w- what's the bridge?

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What's the thing, the pathway that you're

helping somebody go when they go from a

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problem to a, to a result or a solution?

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Which is why we talk about how do you

dial in who it is you're helping, what

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problem you're trying to solve, and what

the result is that you're looking for.

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Because that's the very first thing is

if you don't know exactly who it is that

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you are best or most, most qualified

to help, then that is your very first

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assignment is to figure that out.

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But, once you package your, your

methodology, then you can give

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it a name and actually make it

into something that is tangible.

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That is where you start to lead in your

industry, in your niche and become more

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visible and, and own that authority.

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Then you start looking at

it, you say, "Okay, great.

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Now I've got something packaged."

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And you can use that with the clients

that you're doing services with, right?

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Once, once you start leading

with your expertise, something

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super powerful happens.

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Your client stops just asking

you to do things, right?

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They just, they stop leading because

they're looking to you to become

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the expert and give them the path.

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Once that starts to happen, even in

your service based business, something

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magical starts to shift and you can start

doing things more consistently, which

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means that you can show up differently.

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You can consolidate some of

the time that you're spending.

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And it allows you to create some,

maybe some tools and resources to

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help you streamline the process.

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And that is a very first level.

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And then you start looking

and you say, "Okay, great.

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So I'm doing that.

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Now, how can I go from helping and

sort of being capped at helping these

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people and start to grow and scale

at a completely different level?"

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And that's where you take your,

your signature methodology, you take

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your tangible asset that you just

created, and you can deliver it in

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a, you know, infinite number of ways.

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And so you start to deliver it

in a way that doesn't require

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your time and attention.

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You show up and you help

overcome obstacles and hurdles.

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You don't show up and teach and

reteach and, um, have one-on-one

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conversations and let the client lead

you down a different path, right?

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You start, you start to really

look at the scalable systems.

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How do you engage from a scaling position?

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Meaning, how do you still create an

awesome experience for your customers

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and clients where they feel totally

supported, but in a way that doesn't

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require your time and attention?

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That is the powerful shift that

will start to happen as you make

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your expertise more tangible.

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And then from there, it gives you the

opportunity to not only add 10 more

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customers, but 100 more customers or

1,000 more customers or wherever it

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is that you wanna take your business,

because what you've created is a way for

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you to show up and, and deliver a result

without it maxing out your calendar.

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And that's where you go from

practitioner to architect.

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Once you start architecting the, the

scalable engagement, the methodology,

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the systems, then you've created a

whole ecosystem of your expertise

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that starts to grow exponentially and

leverages your time and attention in

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a way that you could never do before

when it was just based on your time.

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And then the, the most dangerous phrase

in the business, right, which I talked

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about last week, is that's when you get

out of that trap, you get out of custom.

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You get out of trying to do all different

things for anyone who asks you to do them.

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And once that starts to shift, the power

of leverage starts to take place, right?

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The power of, of really growing

something that starts to grow beyond

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you, that's when that starts to happen.

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But it all starts with packaging your

expertise and taking what you are, you

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know, uniquely qualified to help people

with, turn it into your IP in a tangible,

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packaged approach, and then start to

look at how do you deliver that in a

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way that provides your clients with an

amazing experience where they get results

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and it's not taking up your time and

attention in the very same way that it

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was when it was maxing out your calendar.

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So hopefully this episode gave you

just a little bit of a nugget of how do

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you go from practitioner to architect.

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And, and the, the last thing I'll say

about this, just because for most people

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who are in a practitioner role, it's not

a, it's not a like you shut this down and

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start this and then, you know, like, it

starts to grow to 1,000 people in a week.

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It doesn't work that way, right?

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Part of it doesn't work that way because

as an expert and a practitioner, somebody

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who's been doing services and helping

customers one-on-one, you sort of need

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to go through that mental shift of what

does it look like to help people when

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I'm not with them all the time, right?

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What does that start to look like?

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And you go through that process.

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When we have somebody new in the

mentorship program come in and go through

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the INFINITE SCALE™ Method, what starts

to happen is not only that belief shift,

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but the systems that we've set up to help

people go from practitioner to architect,

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keep them in a position of, of moving

forward and, and transitioning from,

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having everything be with your calendar

to really being able to create something

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that lives beyond your time and attention.

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It is a, a transition, right?

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It is something that takes time as

you're rebuilding your expertise

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in a completely different way.

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The exciting part is, is that it's not…

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Like I said, you're not, like,

ending one and, and starting another.

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It's more of an evolution than that,

which helps, experts and expert business

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owners, I see you, it helps make the

transition a little bit easier and

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quite honestly helps you make sure

that you're supporting your customers.

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Because all of you have businesses

already, and you're not gonna just, like,

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shut it down and start something new.

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Some of you maybe.

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I did back when I went

through this process.

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But my, my hope for you is that you're

not at that point yet, and, and we

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can get you transitioned to really

start to look at leverage in your

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business in a completely different way.

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So if you're in that spot, reach out.

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Somewhere in the show notes is

a way to get in touch with me.

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I would love to have a conversation with

you about this if this sounds interesting

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to you, of how do you go from practitioner

to architect without having to just

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like, you know, start completely from

scratch, because that is not the case.

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I promise you what happens is when you

uncover your methodology, and really

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look at your signature framework, your…

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the way that you do things, what starts

to happen when you can name it and really

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claim it, is that not only are you more

clear yourself, but your customers become

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more clear, the current ones that you

have that you're providing services for.

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And then all of a sudden it starts

to take shape and have a life of its

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own, which becomes really exciting.

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So I'm excited for that journey

for you if you're on it.

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If you are interested or have questions

about it, again, reach out to me.

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In the meantime, if you love

this episode, give it a rating.

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Share it with your friends and

colleagues and we'll talk soon.