Why do experts struggle to scale even when they’re highly capable and customers love them?

In this episode of The Scalable Expert Podcast, Tara shares the story of a client who could do everything. She solved problems fast. She delivered great results. Her customers were thrilled.

And she was exhausted.

If you’ve ever felt like your value comes from how much you can do for your customers, this episode will hit home. Many experts struggle to scale not because they lack skill - but because they’re solving too many problems at once.

Instead of leading customers down one clear path, they become the one-stop shop.

And that’s where scaling breaks.

In this episode, Tara breaks down:

1. Why being a “jack-of-all-trades” keeps experts stuck
2. The hidden cost of offering too many services
3. Why hiring doesn’t fix the problem
4. The shift from “How can I help today?” to “Here’s the path to your result”
5. How focusing on one consistent problem creates leverage

If experts struggle to scale, it’s usually because their business is built around doing everything -not leading one clear solution.

This episode continues the conversation from last week and shows you what it actually takes to move from doer to scalable expert.

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction and today’s focus

00:45 – Meet “Chris”: the expert who can do everything

02:03 – Why hiring didn’t solve the scaling problem

03:00 – When clients value the wrong things

04:36 – The crossroads: do everything or lead differently

05:00 – The real goal of becoming a scalable expert

06:00 – From problem-solver to path-leader

07:23 – Identifying the consistent path you already use

08:00 – Changing the language changes the relationship

09:00 – The cost of starting over with every client

10:25 – The danger of shiny projects

11:00 – Seeing the path only you can see

11:40 – Take the Scalable Expert Quiz

🎯 Your Next Step

If you’ve been feeling like you can do anything - but you’re not sure how to scale it - start with clarity.

👉 Take the Scalable Expert Quiz to discover where you are in your scalable journey and what to focus on next.

Scale Your Business, Not Your Calendar.

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

Hey everybody.

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Welcome to season three of the

Scalable Expert™ Podcast, the show

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for 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, because it's not about working

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harder, it's about building smarter.

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All you need is one signature

expert framework and you can

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deliver an infinite amount of ways

to be able to scale your business.

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Alright, let's get started.

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Hey everybody.

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Welcome to today's episode of

the Scalable Expert Podcast.

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I'm thrilled that you're here.

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Hey, in this one I wanna talk about one

of my clients, I'll just call her Chris.

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And Chris is a service provider

who is trying to shift her

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business to being more scalable.

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And one of the biggest advantages that

she has is that, as an expert, she loves

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to solve all of the problems, right?

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Her clients come to her and they are

thrilled because anything that they have,

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she can jump in and solve their problems.

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She can figure it out and she does a great

job and she provides insights that they

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wouldn't even think about themselves.

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She loves the work and her

clients love her, they stay, they

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refer her, everything is great.

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The problem is that Chris

is exhausted, right?

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Chris loves the work that she does, but

she's so bogged down in the minutiae of

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sort of the other administrative things

that happen with clients that she isn't

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able to show up as her best self every

single time she has a client, right?

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So the client comes in and maybe they

need a project done, and so there are

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times when, if you have ever worked on

a project, right, you know that there

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are times that you're coming in and

offering your best and highest, level

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of yourself and your skills, and there

are other times that are just sort of,

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like, you're going through and doing the

things that you need to do as part of

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the project, but they're not actually

targeted in terms of your zone of genius.

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So that's sort of the struggle that

she's in, right, is that she's trying

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to do everything from top to bottom

in a project and she's not really ever

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able to show off her expertise, right?

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There are glimpses of it but the clients

don't actually see it because there's

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so much more involved in the project.

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Now, she has a choice.

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She could hire people to actually

do all of the work, right?

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She could hire project managers,

she could hire people to do parts

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and pieces of the project, and

then she comes in and just does her

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thing, and she's tried that before.

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But here's the problem is that she ends

up like just managing them and then

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doing everything else, and trying to

grow and build the business, so she gets

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more clients and then there's just more

complexity that she's trying to deal with.

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And she really just has this wish in her

head, like, if I could only just show up

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and do my thing and then leave and have

clients really value me for that and not

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for all the rest of it, that then she

could actually grow and scale a business

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around her true expertise instead of, you

know, trying to do everything and all the

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things for her clients because, in fact,

she just shared with me a story the other

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day where it's like she was working on

this project and they really loved that

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she did some graphic design work right?

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Like she created some, some graphics

that she knew would support the

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project that she was working

on, and they loved the graphics.

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And she's like, well, that's great,

like, I'm glad that you love the

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graphics, but that's not really

like the reason why you hired me.

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And, and so then she gets just

secretly like, not resentful, but just

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secretly like, well, wait a minute,

I think they've lost the reason,

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like they've lost my expertise.

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And so again, like all of these things

are sort of going on in her head and

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she wants, to do things differently,

she wants to show up differently,

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she wants to spend most of her time

actually being an expert and being

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out in this space as an authority in

this expertise, and less about kind

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of the minutia of like, doing graphics

or doing project management or, um,

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even some of the more

technical parts of the work.

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And so she's sort of at this crossroads

of like, well, how do I do that?

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And so one of the things that

she has been trying to do is just

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put more offers out there, right?

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Like, oh I can do this, or I can do

that, or I can do this other thing,

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which is great, her clients love

that, but then they want her to do

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all of the things, and again, it just

distracts from what she's trying to do.

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So when she came to us, one of the things

that I helped her focus on was, okay, so

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the goal of becoming a scalable expert

isn't actually to have an expertise in

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all of the things, the goal is to focus

on what problem you are solving better

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than anyone else, that your clients also

have a desire to have solved, right?

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So they have a problem and they're

looking, actively looking, for

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a solution, and you can come

in and solve that problem.

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And once you can do that, focus on that

one problem, the solution and, and the

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sort of the bridge from the problem

to the solution, that is where you

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become the scalable expert because you

can package that into something then

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that moves you from the doer of all of

the things, the expert in all of the

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things to leading your customer from

the problem they have to the solution

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that they desire, because you have the

path that is gonna help them get there.

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And honestly, the fastest path, right?

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Like when you are an expert, you

have the experience to help them

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along their journey like no one else.

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And once you package that, once

you own that, then you can start

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leading from that path and not

from the doer of all of the things.

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So your value stops being, how can I

be the one-stop shop for everybody?

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To how do I help lead them down this path

that they are trying to, trying to get to?

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Right?

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So they're trying to get

from, from point A to point B.

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Once you do that and you commit to

focusing on that, that is where you

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can start to scale your expertise

in a completely different way.

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So when you show up, once you've packaged

that, once you have that path, then

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when you show up, you are able to show

up and help them overcome obstacles and

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hurdles along with our path in a way

that highlights your expertise because

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you can see it so much better than they

can as they're going on the journey.

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And that allows you to grow and scale

and leverage your expertise without

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the complexity of all of the other

things that go along with building a

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service-based business building, that

infrastructure around you being able to

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be the one-stop shop for your clients.

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So I challenge you, and this is what

happened with Chris, is challenged her

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to just stop for a moment and look at

the consistent path that she uses to help

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her customers around a specific problem.

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And once she was able to do that and

see that, like, you know what, 80% of

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her clients that she was working with

had the same problem and she more or

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less took them down the same path to

solve that problem, once she saw that,

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then she was able to start shifting

the way that she showed up, even with

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her current clients that she had.

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Instead of saying, well,

how can I help you today?

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What can I do to make your life easier?

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She actually was able to say, here is how

I can help you get the result that you

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are looking for, and even that language

change, changed the relationship that she

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had with her clients, so they started to

look to her for the path, instead of like,

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well, can you just be here from eight to

five and help us with whatever it is that

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we need help with, and you know, then

we'll pay you by the hour to do that.

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It shifted the way that she showed up

with them and it gave her a different

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level of confidence in how she was

showing up to be able to help her

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clients and new clients as they came in.

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It eventually started to shift the

way that she was spending her time.

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So if you are in that place like Chris

and you're just like, you know what?

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I can do anything.

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And, I love to do all of the things to

help my customers, whatever it is that

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they need, my value is in how much I

show up and help them, I want you to just

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think about like how much time that's

taking up for you and how much energy

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that's taking up for you to show up

for all of your clients in whatever way

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that they want you to show up, right?

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Or every time you get a new client,

you're starting over from scratch, right?

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You're repeating everything that you're

doing for every single customer, and I

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want you to just evaluate how much time

and attention that's taking for you.

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And think about if you had one way

that you were helping your customers

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go from the problem they had to the

result that they were looking for, what

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that would free up for you in terms

of just even capacity to, to know when

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to show up and when not to show up or

when to take a new, fun, shiny project

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or not take a new, fun, shiny project.

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You know what I'm talking about?

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The one that sounds really good,

that's new and, and sort of flexes

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your expert muscles, sometimes is

not gonna help you get to building

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a scalable business, right?

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It may be fun, but it sort of takes you

off script so that you can't actually

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grow exponentially in your business.

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And so just think through that, in

terms of what you're doing today, and

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if you're like Chris and you're just

like, I love what I do, but I'm burnt

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out and I'm exhausted and I really feel

like there's a different way to help

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customers that help my expertise grow

and scale, then start thinking about that

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and what is that path that you have or

that you can see around your expertise.

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I promise you other people won't see it.

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They won't be able to see it because

they don't have your expertise.

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So there's a path that you can

see that no one else can see.

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Try and uncover that.

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I would love to hear your journey

around this and if there is a

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path, or if you can see that path,

I would love to hear about it.

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In the show notes, you will see that

my contact information is there.

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You can schedule a discovery

call, we could talk through that.

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I also encourage you to take

the Scalable Expert Quiz.

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It helps you find out where you are

in your scalable journey, and, and

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it's a very easy quiz, that allows

you to start moving in that direction.

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So, until next time, thanks for

listening to the Scalable Expert Podcast.

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If you love this podcast, I would

love it if you would tell a friend

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or colleague and give us a rating so

we can continue to design and develop

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awesome episodes for you each week.

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Alright, until next time.