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The Online Course Crash of 2025: Why Frameworks, Not Courses, Win Now
Episode 40022nd October 2025 • The Scalable Expert • Tara Bryan
00:00:00 00:17:30

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The online course crash isn’t a rumor - it’s happening right now. After years of information-heavy programs flooding the market, buyers are demanding something more: transformation, not content. In this episode, Tara breaks down exactly why traditional courses are failing and how scalable experts are winning by shifting from information to implementation through proprietary frameworks. She shares how AI has accelerated this shift, why your value no longer lies in what you teach but how you help clients apply it, and how to redesign your offer so it delivers results - without maxing out your time. If your sales have slowed or you’re unsure how to evolve, this is your blueprint for thriving after the online course crash.

🔑 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

  • What’s really behind the online course crash of 2025
  • The difference between information products and transformation experiences
  • How AI has changed what customers value - and how to adapt fast
  • How to turn your expertise into a framework-based program that scales
  • The three steps to evolve from courses to scalable delivery systems
  • How the Infinite Scale Method™ helps you deliver consistent results at scale

⏱️ CHAPTERS

00:00 — The Online Course Crash of 2025: What’s Happening

01:15 — Why Traditional Courses Aren’t Selling Anymore

03:20 — From Information to Transformation

05:00 — How AI Changed the Learning Landscape

07:00 — Turning Your Expertise into a Scalable Framework

09:00 — Building Consistency Through a Proprietary Framework

10:45 — How to Personalize Without Maxing Out Your Time

12:20 — The Future of Scalable Delivery Systems

13:45 — Your Next Step to Becoming a Scalable Expert

🚀 Ready to Build Your Framework?

Take the first step and find a name for your framework - check out our new Framework Naming Tool!

👉 https://taralbryan.com/framework-namer-tool

Mentioned in this episode:

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

Transcripts

Tara Bryan:

Welcome to the Scalable Expert Podcast, Episode 400,

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The Course Crash of 2025 - Why

Information Alone No Longer Sells.

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Your course didn't fail

because the content was bad.

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It failed because the model is broken.

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In 2025, information is everywhere.

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AI can generate lessons faster

than you can record them.

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But transformation?

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That still requires humans.

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The online course boom is crashing,

not because people have stopped

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learning, but because they're

demanding more than content.

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They want you, not your Google drive.

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The future belongs to experts who package

their process into a proprietary framework

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and deliver it as an experience where

clients feel seen, guided, and supported.

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That's how you stand out.

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That's how you scale.

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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 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.

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And you can 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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All right, so let's dive in and talk about

how this transformation has happened and

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what's going on right now in the industry.

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So often I have people come to me

and they're like, oh, I'm, I've been

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trying to sell my course, and it's

different like things aren't selling

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or you look out at some of the people

maybe you've been following who are

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big names out in the industry, and

they're not selling the same way.

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They have transformed their

course experience, their packaged

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course into something that has

a more human element to it.

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So how do you do that without

maxing out your time, right?

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The fact that courses, traditional

courses and, evergreen, information

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products aren't selling is not because

what you have to offer isn't valuable.

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They're not selling because, a lot of

times they've been built just based on,

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you know, I'm just gonna give you all of

my knowledge, put it in your head, and

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then you go figure out what to do with it.

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And we need to look at that

model a little bit differently.

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So we're gonna talk about that, talk about

how you turn that into your proprietary

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framework, teach that as an experience,

which is a little bit different, while

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not like throwing it all out, right?

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So a lot of times what I'm seeing people

do right now is they're throwing out

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their online course, they're throwing

out everything they've created and

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moving to live events or moving to a

one-on-one, back to a one-on-one model.

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And my friend's dad is not actually,

going to get you anywhere, it's

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actually gonna set you back.

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So before you just throw it all out

because it's not selling the same way

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it used to, let's talk about how to

reposition what you have so that you

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can deliver on that transformation.

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You can deliver on the results that

people are asking for, that you are

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uniquely qualified to, to give them.

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So agAIn, as I talked about, early on,

it was that you could just take all

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of your information, an experience of

your expertise, package it into some

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videos in a course platform and then

sell it and give people a result.

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Some people get results,

some don't, right?

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So I dunno about you, but I have some

courses that are on my shelf that I will

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never pick up agAIn uh, that, people

had sold to me as, here's the answer to

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the question that you're looking for.

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And so, that was the early model, right?

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That was what was selling because

people just didn't know any different.

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And now with AI, with the fact that

there's so many, courses out there

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that are not necessarily, um, you know,

well, not necessarily good, right?

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We have to look at solving the

problem a little bit differently.

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So when we look at what we want to

do as business owners, we want to

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create and package, our expertise into

something that can sell at scale, so,

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something that we can sell and deliver

on without it maxing out all of our time.

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So you may have come from a services

environment where you have created custom

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work, you're doing one-on-one, and you've

moved to a one to many model where you're

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doing coaching and group, work and, and

so now you wanna package what you're

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doing, your group model into something

that's, that leverages your time.

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Still totally doable, right?

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Still is directionally

the way that you wanna go.

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If you have in the past have sold a course

and it's not selling in the same way, what

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I would recommend that you do is look at

how you've put the course together, right?

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Like, are you building

it based on a framework?

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Switch that around a little bit,

drive towards that transformation

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and not just delivering information.

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But you may need to wrap that course

into a, a greater experience that still

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allows you to leverage your time, but

also delivers an amazing experience and a

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consistent experience for your customers.

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So I'm gonna look and break down both

of those models because I think that,

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absolutely, there's a market opportunity

for both, it's looking at how do you

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reposition your course in a new way.

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So in 2025, because we have access to

more and more information and resources

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that distill information for us, right?

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So we've kind of gone from, having so much

information with Google and everything

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else that we just, we don't even know

how to filter it to now AI has given

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us a way to filter that information

into something that is meaningful based

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on questions we're asking or based on

how we want to kind of assemble the

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information, which I would say is the

coolest thing about AI, right, is you can

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take a ton of information and distill it

down into something that's meaningful.

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You, you and I can argue

whether or not it's accurate or

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not, that's not the question.

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It's, we've got tons of information.

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Now we can distill it into

something that's meaningful.

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And so the next, piece of that is,

okay, so great, we've distilled it down.

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Now how do we apply it

to what we're working on?

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How do we make it go from information

to application and that is still

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where having a course or a program

or some sort of experience for

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customers is helpful, right?

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Because they're still looking for,

how do I apply this in my world?

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How do I take this and

make it come to life?

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How do I have somebody guide me and help

me to actually implement these things into

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my work, into my practice, into whatever

it is that they're trying to learn.

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And so it used to be that we could just

take, we could take the information

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that we had as experts and put it

out there and give it to people.

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Then it was like, okay, I

got too much information.

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I don't know what to do with it.

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I don't need more information

from somebody else, right?

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You can do that in a book.

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You can do that in a different way.

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So then we went to, okay, great, we take

our ability to take that information

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and distill it into something meaningful

and then deliver it to people.

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Now, AI has taken that role, and so

we don't need to do that anymore.

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So now it's taking that distilled

information and helping people

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apply it into their world.

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So that is the process, the evolution,

of what's happening in:

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very quickly, but that is what's going on.

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So when you look at your course, you

look at your program, you look at

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whatever it is that you're delivering,

the question becomes how do you deliver

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an experience that helps somebody take

all of the information and personally

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add it to, their world, whatever that

looks like, so that they can apply it

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and implement it into their practice.

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And that is the game.

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That is, if you can do that, then

that allows you to get somebody that

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transformation and help them get to the

finish line that they're trying to get to.

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They will pay you for that all day long.

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Right?

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And that still leverages your time,

that still leverages your attention and

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it provides an amazing experience for

that customer because they're actually

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taking the model and applying it into

their world, which means they're gonna

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get some sort of, transformation or

result in their business, which then

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allows them to continue to grow.

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So the question is your

course delivering that today?

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Are you able to not only just deliver

information if your course is based

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on information, uh, my friends, I'm

sorry, you've, you've gotta start over.

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Now is the time to transform your course

into a path, a roadmap to take them

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from where they are today to where they

want to go, to that transformation.

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And you are creating the fastest

path for them to get there, right?

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Like that is that, that sort of, how that

information is distilled into something

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that's meaningful is you're creating

an action plan for them based on your

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experience, based on your expertise.

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So you are saying, listen,

don't do all the things.

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Just do these steps in this order,

and you'll go from here to here.

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That is you creating and identifying your

proprietary framework, your signature

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framework that allows you to take your

expertise and package it into something

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that provides someone a transformation,

provides them an experience to go

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through where they're just following

the step-by-step path, right?

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They're following that roadmap.

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They're going from this

destination to this destination.

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That is the sort of the next baby

step in an evolution of creating

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courses and programs, is creating

that proprietary framework, giving

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them that, that consistent roadmap and

providing that to all of your customers

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regardless of how you're delivering it.

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That is the piece that AI cannot

do, and that is the piece that

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really allows you to stand on your

authority to say, hey, listen, I've

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gotten other people this result.

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I've gotten this result myself.

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Now I can get it for you because I'm

eliminating all of the distraction

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and the crazy and the obstacles

and hurdles along the path, right?

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That's your job as somebody

who's delivering an experience.

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So that's the second thing.

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And then the third is how do you wrap

that into being able to really get

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targeted with each one of your clients

to really help them overcome their own

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hurdles, their own mindset traps, their

own, obstacles that they're running into.

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Because if you have everything else

defined and you are running based on

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what your framework is, then when you

get to show up with your clients you are

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laser focused on how to help them because

you're just running through your model

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and then you can get really specific

into their specific way that they need

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to implement that into their business.

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So you are not maxing out your calendar

'cause you're not doing all of the things.

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You're not making up custom

answers for every single person

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that's coming into your world.

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You are literally just helping them

overcome their own obstacles as

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they're going through your framework.

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That is the third step, and that is

when you see your business completely

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transform 'cause that allows you

to create a scalable experience.

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It's consistent, it's scalable, you

can deliver that to as many people as

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you want to in an infinite number of

ways, hence the Infinite Scale Method,

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and really get personalized in terms

of what somebody specifically needs.

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Because I promise you, if you have

your proprietary framework and you're

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like, here are the steps, go through

these seven steps, or these nine

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steps, or whatever they are, and if

you go through these steps, you're

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gonna get to this outcome, right?

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Like, that's your job is to get them

to the fastest path to that outcome.

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Every single person should

start here and end here.

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Start here and end here.

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Start here and end here.

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It should be so straightforward and

so boring to you because everyone

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is starting here and ending here.

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Where it gets personalized

and unique and custom is how

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people are navigating through.

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You may have five people and

they're all coming from a different

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starting point, but the steps that

they need to take are the same.

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Each of them are gonna have a

unique way that they're implementing

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this within their business.

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That is how you show up and help them

overcome the obstacles and hurdles.

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Honestly, that is the most fun that

you are gonna have is to help people

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kind of work through all of their

mess that they're going through

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in the middle of the experience.

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It's not in creating a custom

path for this person and a custom

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path for that person and a custom

path for that person, right?

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That's exhausting.

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That's gonna exhaust you.

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Being able to show up and uniquely help

somebody overcome an obstacle or hurdle

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that they're working through, within

your framework, is where the magic

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happens for you and for your customers.

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So that's the evolution of

courses and programs and,

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scalable delivery systems in 2025.

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And so if you are looking at your product

suite, your offers that you have, and

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you're like, how do I transform this

and maximize my time, that my friends is

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the way to create a scalable system that

helps you become the authority in your

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space and helps you consistently help

more and more people in your business.

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Imagine if you could take the kind

of where you're maxed out right now.

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Maybe you're maxed out at 20

clients and you take that and

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you add 200 or 2000 or more.

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How do you do that?

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Right?

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Answer that question for yourself.

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If I have to serve 2000 people

today, how would I do that?

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What would that look like?

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That's the question to ask yourself

as you're evolving your proprietary,

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framework or your expertise as you go

from just packaging information into

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a course that you can put into some

sort of course platform like Kajabi

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or whatever else, to creating an

experience that really is consistently

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getting your clients' results.

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That's the evolution.

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That's what's happening in 2025.

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That is how, my friends, you actually use

AI to enhance your business, to enhance

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the customer's experience, and allows you

to show up at a completely different level

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and honestly have more fun in your work.

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So there you go.

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That is the episode for today

about what is actually happening

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today in the online business world.

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Because, if you have seen other people,

industry leaders or other people who are

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in your niche start to talk about how

they're completely changing their business

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model, this is where they're going to.

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So don't throw the baby out with

the bath water and just get rid of

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everything that you've done in the past.

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Look at how you can connect it to

your proprietary framework and to that

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transformation and results that you're

getting for each one of your customers.

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If you love this episode, I would

love it if you would share it.

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Give us a rating and check us out on

YouTube too, or if you're watching on

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YouTube, hit that subscribe button so

you get access to all of our episodes.

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All right, there you go.

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