Many experts assume that packaging their methodology means building a course; fill it with videos, upload it to a platform like Kajabi, and wait for customers. But a content dump is not a signature experience. And when customers don't get results, it's rarely a knowledge problem. It's a design problem.

In this episode, Tara breaks down four diagnostic design questions every expert business owner should work through when building their signature experience. These questions shift the focus from information delivery to transformation delivery and they're the difference between a program customers abandon and one they complete, ascend through, and refer others to.

In this episode:

- Why information-first design fails customers and founders

- The four questions that reveal gaps in your delivery model before you build

- Why outcome-based pricing is only possible when your methodology is packaged as a true signature experience

- How to design a program another person, or your customer, can move through without you present at every step

- What scalable onboarding actually looks like at each milestone

If you're in the process of building or refining your signature experience as a scalable asset, this episode is essential groundwork.

Take the free Scalable Expert Audit and find out exactly where your business is still architecturally dependent on you:

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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Hey, everybody.

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Welcome to today's episode.

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I am thrilled that you're here.

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Hey, here's the deal.

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We have been talking this month about

how do you become a scalable expert?

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How do you take your expertise

and start to think about it

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a little bit differently?

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In today's episode, I wanna talk

about one of the biggest traps that

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people end up in when they start to

look at packaging their expertise.

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Because the reality is, is that most of

the time, when someone decides, "Okay,

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well, I'm just gonna, you know, package

something around my business so that

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I can start to grow and scale," right?

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That sounds like it's just

something that we can pick up and

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make a change and make it happen.

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And it's true, but most experts,

expert business owners, start by

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saying, "Okay, well, I'm just gonna

package what I do into a course.

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I'm gonna just, create a course, throw

it out there in Kajabi or Thinkific

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or whatever, and, um, and then,

you know, I'm gonna just charge for

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it and then, people are just gonna

come in in droves and, and that's…

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It's gonna be great."

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Unfortunately, that's not

actually how it works.

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In some cases, it becomes something that

starts to gain momentum, and you can

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use it as an asset in your business.

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So I'm not saying you can't use it,

and I'm not saying it's not effective.

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So it is an effective way of packaging

your expertise into an asset, right?

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So from a, a pure definition standpoint,

yes, a course, a program, all of

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those things are great because it

takes your expertise and packages it

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in a way that people can consume it

without you physically being there.

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Awesome.

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Great.

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It is fundamentally the way that

you start thinking about taking your

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expertise and, and s- and scaling it.

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So fundamentally, they

are the right thing.

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However, I will say that there is a right

way to do it and a wrong way to do it,

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and because I've been creating eLearning

my entire career, like 25 years, I have a

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little bit of experience with this, right?

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So there's really good eLearning online

courses, and there are really bad ones.

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If you haven't had the experience of a

really bad online course, I can point

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some out to you but, um, but most

likely, most of the online courses that

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you have taken have been poorly done.

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And the reason for that, and as you are

trying to figure out how do you take

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this great methodology that you just

created, this great signature framework,

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and package it in a way that really

effectively delivers on your promise and

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delivers a great experience that sort of

simulates what you can do in a one-on-one

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situation, is you st- need to start

with a couple of different questions.

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You need to start without just

dumping information into a course.

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Most often, what happens is that

because we have a lot to share, and

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we think about the content and the

information that we want to give

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to people, that's where we start.

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And quite frankly, the reason that

we think this way is because this

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is how most of us had school, right?

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Think about a paper or some sort of

presentation that you had to do in school.

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Your teacher taught you like we

start with Roman numeral number

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one, and it's an introduction, and

then Roman numeral, numeral two, and

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topic one, topic two, topic three,

subtopics, and all the things.

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So we sort of have in our brain when

we are putting together a presentation,

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when we are putting our thoughts together

around something, we need to, to,

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disseminate information or content in

a linear fashion based on an outline.

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So that naturally puts us in a place of

trying to share information and content.

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The problem with that is that's

not actually how people consume it.

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That's not how people learn or

actually take action to solve

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the problem that they have.

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So what we have to do is think about

it a little bit differently, and that

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starts really early in this process where

you're starting to figure out how do

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you deliver on this signature framework

and this pathway that you've created,

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and, like, how do you create this?

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'Cause it's not just throwing a bunch

of videos in Kajabi and calling it

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a video vault and, you know, having

people go through four million videos.

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That's not gonna work and

it's not gonna get results.

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What's gonna happen is your people

are gonna go, "Ugh, another course.

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This didn't work.

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This person didn't help me.

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Uh, they may be knowledgeable, but

they're not h- they're not for me.

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They're not helping me.

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I don't wanna take another course, blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah."

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Right?

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Like, you've heard all of the things.

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You've probably said all of the things

when you have, gone to someone who

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says, "Well, I can help you fix this,"

and then you get dumped into this really

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poorly designed experience that, that

you don't do anything with, right?

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So as we start looking at how do we become

Scalable Experts, how do we deliver on

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our promise not only to help somebody get

a result but have an amazing experience

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along the way, is that we need to

start by assessing a couple of things.

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So we need to ask ourselves a couple of

questions before we dig into what the

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content is that we'd like to share or

the information that we'd like to share.

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So I'm gonna challenge your brain a

little bit to stop thinking linearly

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up and down, and to start thinking

about the journey and the pathway

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that you're taking someone on.

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How are they walking

through your experience?

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There's a starting point, there's a middle

point, and there's an end point, right?

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The starting point is when they

have a reason to want to make

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a change, whatever that is.

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And then the end point is when they get

there, what does that look like, right?

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So that's a really easy way to start

looking at this, is, you know, you put

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together your methodology, which is

the step-by-step path to get somebody

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from point A to point B, right?

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So the problem that they have

to the result that they desire.

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That's your framework.

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That's where you are…

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Your expertise is the bridge for that.

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And, as you've started packaging

that, you're starting to

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think about, "Okay, great.

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How do I get somebody

from point A to point B?"

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And again, it's not just about

giving them a bunch of videos and

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a bunch of information and content.

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It's really thinking through some

strategic questions that will allow

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you to design something that will

move the needle for not only you and

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your business, but for your customers.

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So I'm gonna go through each

of these questions and talk

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a little bit about them.

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So, you can really get the tactical big

picture of what's necessary prior to just

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putting a bunch of information together.

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So the first question is, does your

client transformation have a defined

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sequence or does it vary person to person?

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So if you've listened to the past episodes

that I've done this month, you have a

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little bit of an inkling as to, you know,,

how you need to answer that question.

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But what…

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the key in your methodology

is that there's a sequence.

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Right?

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There's a step one, a

step two, a step three.

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Maybe there's a level one or a phase one.

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But you have a pathway that you're helping

somebody go from point A to point B.

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So your goal, first and foremost, is not

to think about your experience as a bunch

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of videos and a bunch of information

that you wanna share, but organizing

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it in a way that, that literally helps

somebody go from step one to step two

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to step three to step four to step five,

or however many steps you have, as you

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go from, help them go from the problem

they have to the result that they desire.

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Most of the time, you're probably

gonna have between five and

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seven steps, I'll be honest.

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That's usually what happens.

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If you have more than that, you

can organize them in levels or

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phases or something like that.

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But what are those five steps?

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What are those seven steps that

take them from here to here?

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It's not, what are the five steps

that they need to know, it's what

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are the five steps they need to do

in order to go from one to the other?

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It's a slight difference, but it will

help put you in a mindset of action.

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How do you help them take action versus

how do you fill their head with lots of

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content and information that they may

or may not ever do anything with, right?

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If you wanna be the expert that people

go to, you are helping them take

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the fast path from where they are

today to where they wanna go, right?

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Anybody can go on YouTube or

now use AI or whatever else and

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find the answers that they need.

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They're not looking for that.

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They're looking for support

and help guiding them go, to

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go from point A to point B.

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That's that first question.

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So really think about that.

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That's your first diagnostic question

is, is what is that transformation?

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What is that sequence?

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And really looking at putting

together your experience

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according to that sequence.

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The second one is one of my

favorites, and as a practitioner

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and, or a consultant or service-based

business owner, this is a big one.

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And, and a lot of times this is the

question that we blow off, because it

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seems so overwhelming to think about.

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And the question is, is your pricing based

on outcomes or is it based on your time?

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And I really want you, if you are in

this position where you are trading

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hours for dollars, I really want you to

think about this question because most

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often you are charging for your time.

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Or, you know, if you're thinking like,

"Well, how much is my time worth?

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How much should we, I be charging an hour?

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What's my hourly rate?"

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All of those things are indications

that you are charging for your

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time and not for the outcome.

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When you're charging for an outcome,

the question is, what is the

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result going to give them, right?

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So if you think about, um, and

we've had a lot of projects like

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this in the past, where there's

actually a dollar amount of change

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that happens when we get the result.

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So for example, we had, … we worked

with a client and he had about $250,000

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realized in efficiencies and process,

adjustments when he created his signature

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pathway, and that was hard dollar amount.

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So if you look at that and you're

like, "Okay, well, you know what?

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You had a $250,000 difference in your

books," that should be how you're, you're

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charging for that engagement, right?

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So what's the percentage

that you're charging based on

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what they're getting, right?

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So if they're getting $250,000, if

you were to say, "Well, my rate is

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$100 an hour," then they would be

thinking about, "Well, how many hours

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of time do I want to use of her time?"

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versus, "I'm gonna get

this outcome of $250,000.

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This engagement is worth this

to get to that $250,000," right?

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So 2,500 or 5,000 or 10,000 or 25,000,

whatever it is, you're talking like

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$100 an hour just for easy math, right?

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So maybe you take five hours, that's $500.

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But if they're saving $250,000, you

probably could charge $25,000 or

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even more because you're able to

show the outcome that's happening.

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So I, I don't know about you, but from

my perspective, to stop charging for my

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time and moving to outcome-based pricing

changes the game, just in and of itself.

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And you can start to do that when you

have a methodology, when you have a

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standard way that you're helping somebody

go from point A to point B, because

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they see you as the authority and

you're the one who can help them with

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that outcome that they're looking for.

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So super important question, but it's also

an important question when you're thinking

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about putting together your signature

experience because think about it.

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If you're putting together a course

where you're just like throwing a

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bunch of information and content

in there and you're like, "Here

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you go, learn it, and then apply

it at your leisure," the chances

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of them applying it are pretty low.

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But if you're helping somebody actually

apply it in a sequence and take action and

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then move forward, then what is happening

is you're getting them to that outcome.

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Then they're getting to that

dollar amount that they want,

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then you can charge appropriately.

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So there's a difference between a course,

like a bunch of information, and people

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are like, "Oh, I'm gonna sell it for, you

know, v- very little, so then I just get

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a bunch of volume of people in and then

they leave, and it doesn't really matter."

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When you can charge for outcomes

that, that what you can charge for

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a signature experience is much,

much higher because of the outcomes

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that you're able to get to them.

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So again, an important question to

think about before you get started, um,

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because so often most of us are still

thinking in terms of time versus hours.

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And so as you make the shift, that's a

really, really important one as you go.

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All right.

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Next question.

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Could someone else deliver your process

or does every client require you?

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So until you get to the point where

what you have is packaged in a way that

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not only can someone else pick it up

and deliver it, but your, your customer

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can go through it without you being

involved in every step, until you get

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there, there's no point in creating a

signature experience because you're not

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gonna be able to get to that level of

really being able to help a customer

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go through the journey because you

haven't articulated it well enough

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yet to be able to help someone else be

able to do it without you being there.

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So at…

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When you're reflecting on this

question, really think about

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how do you do that, right?

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The first step is, like, can you

give it to someone else to deliver

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live or in a workshop or in a service

or whatever it is, can they go

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through and actually get themselves

results or their clients results?

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Do that first.

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That's why we do a beta experience

in the mentorship, is we teach our

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students how to create a beta experience.

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So they're going through it live,

so they're really looking at,

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"Okay, so what's missing here?

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What needs to happen here?

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How do we move forward?

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What questions are people asking?"

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All of that happens first.

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So whether it's you're delivering it to

a group of people or you're handing it

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off to someone else or, what- whatever,

however else you're designing this,

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it's really, like, looking at it from

that perspective because until people

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can get results without you stepping

in and doing things, then you got a

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little bit of more work to do, right?

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You've gotta figure out how to, is it,

i- is it some sort of, action step?

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Is it a worksheet?

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Is it, a specific how-to video?

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Is it demonstration?

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Like, what is it that's gonna help

them continue forward on the path?

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Because I guarantee that when you show

up to help, help them tip over on that

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step, There's a way that you can do

that without having to show up live.

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So keep working on it, keep massaging

that until you can really look at how

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you, someone else can deliver your

sequence without you actually being there.

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That's the next question

for you to ponder.

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Okay, the last one I'm gonna ask on this

podcast is, um, when you take on a new

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client, does it require more of your time?

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So if you were to add one more client to

your roster today, is it gonna take up

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more of your time, or have you thought

about designing this in a way that doesn't

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require more of your time and attention?

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So that's part of how you're designing

this is- you, you know, so for example,

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you may have a new client, and the

new client comes in, and there's

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an onboarding process for them.

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Do, does that require you to show up?

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Or have you designed something that

can bring them in and welcome them and

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make them feel like they are unique in

your experience without you physically

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having to show up on that phone call?

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If not, that's a part to start to design

and architect and figure that out.

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How do you do that?

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How do you make them feel 100% welcome

and that, and seen within your experience?

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Start, start to think about that.

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Each milestone within your experience

can have that same level of

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attention as you're designing it.

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So those are four design questions that

really start to, to get you thinking about

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how clear and clean you need to, uh, you

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know, evaluate that path

from point A to point B.

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Once you do that, all of a sudden

everything starts to become clear

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because you can create an experience

that really simulates you and how you

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show up live in something that you

can turn into a scalable experience, a

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program, a cohort, a certification, a

whatever, whatever kind of infinitely

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scalable asset you wanna create.

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If you create it with these four questions

in mind, it gets you out of that mentality

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of just, like, the, the content dump,

um, that's not gonna help anyone.

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And, um, and it's the thing, the

difference between, like, you actually

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getting customers who stay and ascend

and are getting results in your business

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and the ones that come in and leave

and aren't referring you and aren't

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staying and aren't getting results.

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As expert business owners, we really

want to have the people who are

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engaged and being a part of our world

because we're able to help them.

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And so think about these four

questions as you're setting that

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up, and we'll continue to dive into

other ways for you to architect

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your new scalable expert business.

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All right.

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Until next time, I would love to hear from

you to see how this is resonating for you.

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What's coming up for you when you

think about these four questions?

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If you love the podcast, I would love

you to give it a rating and share it

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with your friends and colleagues so

we can continue creating the episodes.