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It's Not About You! Reframe Your Expertise Into A Customer Journey
Episode 3677th January 2025 • The Scalable Expert • Tara Bryan
00:00:00 00:15:45

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In this episode, Tara reveals a fundamental shift every expert must make to scale their business—it's not about you; it's about guiding your customers through their transformation. As experts, we often focus on showcasing our knowledge and authority, but once a customer steps into your ecosystem, the focus must shift to their journey and success.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

  • Why your expertise should serve as a tool, not the focus.
  • How to transition from being the "expert on stage" to the "guide by the side."
  • Strategies to package your knowledge into offers that prioritize customer outcomes.
  • How to create a customer journey that leads to transformation and retention.

⏱️ Chapters: 

00:00 – Why It's Not About You

01:17 – When Expertise Should Shine (And When It Shouldn't)

03:06 – Designing Offers for the Customer Journey

06:33 – Simplifying Your Framework to Match Client Needs

11:05 – The Power of Guiding Instead of Overwhelming

13:47 – How to Build Scalable Offers That Focus on Client Results

💡 Key Takeaway:

Your success as a scalable expert depends on your ability to create offers that prioritize the customer's journey. Tune in to learn how to reframe your expertise into solutions that deliver real, lasting results.

👉 Ready to shift your mindset and scale your business? Hit subscribe and leave a review to help more experts like you!

🔗 For more resources and tools, visit taralbryan.com

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?

Download our free 50 Ways to Engage Your Customers guide or Schedule a 30 minute call with Tara to talk about our offers that will help you master the game.

Thanks for listening!

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Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

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Mentioned in this episode:

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

Transcripts

Tara Bryan:

In this episode, I'm going to share a hard truth with you.

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Here's the deal.

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Your business assets, your offers,

your package programs, whatever it

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is that you have, is not about you.

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And as a scalable expert, it's

so hard to remember this, right?

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Because it's about our expertise.

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It's about our intellectual property that

we have been working so hard to build

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over our entire career, over all of the

things that we've been doing, that it's

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hard to remember that it's not about us.

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When we go live on Facebook or we

are out really sharing our authority

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with our potential customers as we

go out and become the go to expert

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in our space, our goal there is to

show people that we actually know

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what the heck we're talking about and

that we are an expert in this space.

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That is the time for you to shine

as the experts, show your ability

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to help people get results, to show

them that you've put in the reps and

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that you know exactly what's going

on, and that you can help them solve

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the problem better than anyone else.

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That is your time to go out and

be the expert and show that you

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are the authority in the space.

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Show that you know what the heck

you're talking about, right?

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That is your job.

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However, when they become a customer,

it is no longer about you and

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your expertise or your authority.

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What it is, is all about that customer

and what they need to be able to

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solve the problem that they have.

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So often when we're building an asset

or a solution for somebody, right?

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So somebody is coming to us because

they have a problem and they can, they,

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they see the solution that we have that

will help them get to the result that

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they're looking for, right, that's why

people hire us, so they've, they've seen

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that you have the solution as the expert

and now they've come into our world

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and now it becomes about their journey.

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It becomes about how do you help

them go through your solution, right?

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How do you help them show up

and solve the problem that

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they have using your solution?

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Here's where the rub comes in, is we're

used to kind of being out in, in, in, you

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know, internet land and out in the world

saying, hey, I'm the expert, you know, I

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know what I'm talking about here, all the

things, here's my model, all the things.

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And then we have a customer come in and at

that point it becomes about their journey.

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It no longer is about

you and your expertise.

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You've created the system, you

have created the step-by-step

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path for them, right?

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That's what they signed up for when

they, when they heard you talk about

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it out before they were a customer.

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And now it becomes about the journey

that they're going to take to go

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from, from the beginning of your

solution to the end of your solution.

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That is your whole focus when you

are building that package solution

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for your customers is what does my

customer need, and when do they need

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it, and how can I help them overcome

any of the obstacles and hurdles that

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they're going to have along the path.

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So sometimes you have built your

business, because you're the one who

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has gone through kind of all of the, the

trials and tribulations of getting to

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the outcome, and now you're like, okay,

great, now I've figured out how to do

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that, now I'm going to help people get

to where where I know that they want

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to go without all of the crazy that,

that you had to go through, right?

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That, that's usually one

approach that people take.

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Or they're an expert at something that

have the, the simplified path and they

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can you know, help somebody go down that

path and be able to kind of navigate

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them through all of the various things

you know, a little bit different nuanced

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there, but usually that's how it works.

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Where people get really tripped up and

I would say like one of the biggest

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mistakes that people make is to think

about the content, to think about all

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the things around their topic or their

expertise that they want to talk about

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that are more just sort of either

things that they're interested in or

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things that help them kind of elevate

their, their expertise even more.

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And that's not a good place

for your customer to come into.

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So let me just break this down

just a little bit further, which

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is there's, there's a, something

that we call the expert conundrum.

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And here's the biggest

problem you're going to have.

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One is, you don't really remember

what it's like to not be an expert,

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and it's very, very hard to kind of

unravel that, so I, you know, in, in the

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instructional design sort of curriculum

design space where we go out and help

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corporations, they literally are hiring

us for this, to solve this problem.

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Because there's lots of

subject matter experts.

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There are a lot of people out there

who know all of the nits and nats of

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everything around their job, but they're

not able to help somebody who doesn't

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know all of the different things be

able to learn it to get to that expert

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status and and honestly, that's that's

why they hire hire us to do that.

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And so there's a, there's a, like

a whole discipline of people who

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are are helping, you know, kind of

get the expertise out of someone's

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head and put it in the right places.

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But here's the conundrum.

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As an expert, you're like at a level

10, you know, all the things you're

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super passionate, you're super

interested, you know like, way more

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than anyone in the world needs to

probably know because you're so excited

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and passionate about your expertise.

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Or even if you're not, you're still

at a level 10, you know, you've

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gone through the reps, you've done

all the things, you've made the

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mistakes, you're at a completely

different level than your learner.

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Your learner is usually at like a 2 or

a 3, so if you're looking at a line and

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you have zero on one side and 10 on the

other, your learners are usually at a

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2 or a 3, your customers are a 2 or a

3, and you're usually at a level 10.

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And so when you build a, a, a training,

a course, a program, a coaching program,

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whatever it is, you build your solution.

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At a level 10, you've just lost all of

the people that are coming in who need

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you to solve the problem with them, right?

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So when you're building something,

you want to build it at a level two or

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three, which means you have to go back

and be like, okay, well, so what, you

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know, where are they right now, right?

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Like, what is their level of

experience with the step-by-step

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methodology that you are giving them?

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And that means a couple different things.

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One, it means, like, you've

got to remember where you were

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when you weren't an expert.

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Number two, how do you simplify

something to the point that somebody

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can just, like, be in action, right?

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Like they don't need to do all of the

things, they just need to take the

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first step in order to get them to

that next level of knowledge, right?

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Like you're never going to get

somebody from a 2 or a 3 to a 10.

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You, you gotta, you gotta

baby step them in, right?

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And the opportunity is, it allows

you to grow your business because

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people are going to go from 2 to 3.

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Then they're going to be, you know,

interested in getting up to level 10,

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some of them but you got to start there.

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The other thing is, is the amount

that you need to give them in terms of

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content is much less than you think.

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Right.

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So often we're like, ah, level 10, we

need to give them all these things.

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And we actually, we actually

give them a lot less.

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So I always illustrate this with one story

and I will just briefly tell you what,

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what the story is because it's, I think

it's the best illustration of this concept

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is so if you are a skier or you're not a

skier, imagine that you were learning how

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to ski for the first time and you went

out west to the mountains and and your

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your job, your task was to ski down one of

the mountain passes to learn how to ski.

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Okay, so that's, that's the task

that you have in front of you.

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Now you've been given two instructors.

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One instructor is a very nice

gentleman who is a top skier and

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is, is amazing at all things skiing.

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And and then you have a gal next to

you and she is also an amazing skier.

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And and a different type of instructor.

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So you have both of them next to you.

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You're going up the chairlift and

you're looking around and you're like,

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I don't even know what is happening

right now, but I'm going up a chairlift

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and I'm seeing myself go higher and

higher and higher on this mountain.

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What in the world is happening?

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Right?

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So you're maybe a little panicked

because you don't know what you're doing.

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And the, the gentleman is talking

about the history of skiing.

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He's talking about how skis were made.

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He's talking about all the ski

resorts in the United States

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and maybe some in Europe.

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And and all of the things like he's

just getting in and telling you story

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after story after story after story

of all of the things around skiing

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because he's an expert at skiing.

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He knows all the things, and he's

going to tell you all of them.

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So you're going up the chairlift,

he's talking about all of the

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things, and you're, you're, again,

higher and higher and higher.

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The gal on the right is, is, you

know, talking to you about what

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it takes to get down the mountain.

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She says, you know, pizza is to stop,

french fries is to go, and if you just

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remember those two things, then I am going

to help guide you down the mountain, and

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we are going to go down you know, in a,

in a slow methodical way, but you know

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pizza is stop and french fries is go.

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And that's all you really need to know

at that, at this moment for you to

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get down the mountain safely, right?

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So you've got.

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Two different perspectives, two

different people who are helping

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you get to the same outcome.

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So now you're at the top of the

mountain, you're looking down

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and and you know, do you want to

hear about the history of skis?

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Or do you want to hear

how you can stop or start?

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Do you want to have the confidence

that someone is going to guide

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you down the mountain and tell

you exactly how to get there?

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And you know how to start,

and you know how to stop.

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Okay, I don't know about you, but

that's what I want to make sure that I'm

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getting down to the bottom of the hill.

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Because then, when you're down at the

bottom of the hill, then you're in the

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chalet, you're enjoying a soda or a beer

or whatever it is that you like to drink,

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then you're going to be interested in

listening to all of the the other cool

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things about skiing, you're just not ready

yet to hear all of that when all your

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head is doing is like, I just need to

know what I need to know in order to get.

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to to the outcome.

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In this case to make sure that I don't

die on the mountain as I'm going down it.

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And so remember that story when you're

thinking about what you're going

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to to create in terms of content.

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And And for some of you, this should

just like free you up to not worry about

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filling your whole solution with tons

and tons and tons and tons of content.

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Keep track of where your

person is and what they need

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just to take that next step.

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And usually it's a lot

less than you think it is.

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Right, so think about those two stories

as you are building because when

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you're building to your customer and

thinking about your customer and looking

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through the lens of your customer,

you can see where they are, right?

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Like, read the room.

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This, you know, you're at the

top of the mountain freaking

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out hoping that you don't die.

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You don't care about the history of skis.

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You don't care about the resorts in the U.

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S.

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Right?

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You don't care about any of that.

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You just wanna make

sure that you don't die.

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Your customers are feeling that same sense

of, I just wanna get through some success

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so that I know that I can keep doing this.

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Right?

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Like if, if your customers are coming

to you because they have a problem.

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They want to solve that problem.

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They don't want to take the windy

route to fix that problem.

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They want to put themselves in

action so they can be successful.

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So when you think about it from a

customer's point of view, your job is to

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guide them to the result and give them

exactly what they need when they need it.

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That is, is the gift that you have as

the expert is you can see the whole path

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and how to navigate through that path

without hitting the dead ends, without,

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you know, ending up in the toboggan, in

this, in this in the hospital, right?

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Like you, you already can

navigate them through that.

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And that is your job as the expert.

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So when you're putting together your

assets, always remember that when

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you're putting something together,

because when you're out in social

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media, yes, it's about you showing that

you're the go to expert in the space.

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When you have a customer, it is all about

that customer and what that customer

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needs in order to, to go on the journey

from their problem to the solution.

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And that, my friends, is where the

beauty of you know, helping them

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stay accountable, helping to support

them through all the obstacles and

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hurdles that they're going to have

and giving them the context and and

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examples and activities that allow

them to keep moving on the path.

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That is where you're going to be

successful as a scalable expert.

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So hopefully this episode serves you.

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I would love to hear your

feedback on this episode.

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Go ahead and give us a review if

you are inspired to do so, share it

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with a friend, and as always, go on

out to taralbryan.com for free tools

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and resources that will help you

build a thriving, scalable business.

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