It's Not About You! Reframe Your Expertise Into A Customer Journey

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.

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Episode Transcript

Tara Bryan (00:00):
In this episode, I'm going to share a hard truth with you.

(00:02):
Here's the deal.
Your business assets, your offers,your package programs, whatever it
is that you have, is not about you.
And as a scalable expert, it'sso hard to remember this, right?
Because it's about our expertise.
It's about our intellectual property thatwe have been working so hard to build

(00:23):
over our entire career, over all of thethings that we've been doing, that it's
hard to remember that it's not about us.
When we go live on Facebook or weare out really sharing our authority
with our potential customers as wego out and become the go to expert

(00:44):
in our space, our goal there is toshow people that we actually know
what the heck we're talking about andthat we are an expert in this space.
That is the time for you to shineas the experts, show your ability
to help people get results, to showthem that you've put in the reps and
that you know exactly what's goingon, and that you can help them solve

(01:07):
the problem better than anyone else.
That is your time to go out andbe the expert and show that you
are the authority in the space.
Show that you know what the heckyou're talking about, right?
That is your job.
However, when they become a customer,it is no longer about you and
your expertise or your authority.
What it is, is all about that customerand what they need to be able to

(01:31):
solve the problem that they have.
So often when we're building an assetor a solution for somebody, right?
So somebody is coming to us becausethey have a problem and they can, they,
they see the solution that we have thatwill help them get to the result that
they're looking for, right, that's whypeople hire us, so they've, they've seen

(01:52):
that you have the solution as the expertand now they've come into our world
and now it becomes about their journey.
It becomes about how do you helpthem go through your solution, right?
How do you help them show upand solve the problem that
they have using your solution?
Here's where the rub comes in, is we'reused to kind of being out in, in, in, you

(02:13):
know, internet land and out in the worldsaying, hey, I'm the expert, you know, I
know what I'm talking about here, all thethings, here's my model, all the things.
And then we have a customer come in and atthat point it becomes about their journey.
It no longer is aboutyou and your expertise.
You've created the system, youhave created the step-by-step

(02:33):
path for them, right?
That's what they signed up for whenthey, when they heard you talk about
it out before they were a customer.
And now it becomes about the journeythat they're going to take to go
from, from the beginning of yoursolution to the end of your solution.
That is your whole focus when youare building that package solution

(02:54):
for your customers is what does mycustomer need, and when do they need
it, and how can I help them overcomeany of the obstacles and hurdles that
they're going to have along the path.
So sometimes you have built yourbusiness, because you're the one who
has gone through kind of all of the, thetrials and tribulations of getting to

(03:15):
the outcome, and now you're like, okay,great, now I've figured out how to do
that, now I'm going to help people getto where where I know that they want
to go without all of the crazy that,that you had to go through, right?
That, that's usually oneapproach that people take.
Or they're an expert at something thathave the, the simplified path and they
can you know, help somebody go down thatpath and be able to kind of navigate

(03:39):
them through all of the various thingsyou know, a little bit different nuanced
there, but usually that's how it works.
Where people get really tripped up andI would say like one of the biggest
mistakes that people make is to thinkabout the content, to think about all
the things around their topic or theirexpertise that they want to talk about

(04:01):
that are more just sort of eitherthings that they're interested in or
things that help them kind of elevatetheir, their expertise even more.
And that's not a good placefor your customer to come into.
So let me just break this downjust a little bit further, which
is there's, there's a, somethingthat we call the expert conundrum.

(04:24):
And here's the biggestproblem you're going to have.
One is, you don't really rememberwhat it's like to not be an expert,
and it's very, very hard to kind ofunravel that, so I, you know, in, in the
instructional design sort of curriculumdesign space where we go out and help
corporations, they literally are hiringus for this, to solve this problem.

(04:44):
Because there's lots ofsubject matter experts.
There are a lot of people out therewho know all of the nits and nats of
everything around their job, but they'renot able to help somebody who doesn't
know all of the different things beable to learn it to get to that expert
status and and honestly, that's that'swhy they hire hire us to do that.

(05:07):
And so there's a, there's a, likea whole discipline of people who
are are helping, you know, kind ofget the expertise out of someone's
head and put it in the right places.
But here's the conundrum.
As an expert, you're like at a level10, you know, all the things you're
super passionate, you're superinterested, you know like, way more
than anyone in the world needs toprobably know because you're so excited

(05:30):
and passionate about your expertise.
Or even if you're not, you're stillat a level 10, you know, you've
gone through the reps, you've doneall the things, you've made the
mistakes, you're at a completelydifferent level than your learner.
Your learner is usually at like a 2 ora 3, so if you're looking at a line and
you have zero on one side and 10 on theother, your learners are usually at a

(05:53):
2 or a 3, your customers are a 2 or a3, and you're usually at a level 10.
And so when you build a, a, a training,a course, a program, a coaching program,
whatever it is, you build your solution.
At a level 10, you've just lost all ofthe people that are coming in who need
you to solve the problem with them, right?

(06:14):
So when you're building something,you want to build it at a level two or
three, which means you have to go backand be like, okay, well, so what, you
know, where are they right now, right?
Like, what is their level ofexperience with the step-by-step
methodology that you are giving them?
And that means a couple different things.

(06:34):
One, it means, like, you'vegot to remember where you were
when you weren't an expert.
Number two, how do you simplifysomething to the point that somebody
can just, like, be in action, right?
Like they don't need to do all of thethings, they just need to take the

(06:55):
first step in order to get them tothat next level of knowledge, right?
Like you're never going to getsomebody from a 2 or a 3 to a 10.
You, you gotta, you gottababy step them in, right?
And the opportunity is, it allowsyou to grow your business because
people are going to go from 2 to 3.
Then they're going to be, you know,interested in getting up to level 10,

(07:16):
some of them but you got to start there.
The other thing is, is the amountthat you need to give them in terms of
content is much less than you think.
Right.
So often we're like, ah, level 10, weneed to give them all these things.
And we actually, we actuallygive them a lot less.
So I always illustrate this with one storyand I will just briefly tell you what,

(07:41):
what the story is because it's, I thinkit's the best illustration of this concept
is so if you are a skier or you're not askier, imagine that you were learning how
to ski for the first time and you wentout west to the mountains and and your
your job, your task was to ski down one ofthe mountain passes to learn how to ski.

(08:11):
Okay, so that's, that's the taskthat you have in front of you.
Now you've been given two instructors.
One instructor is a very nicegentleman who is a top skier and
is, is amazing at all things skiing.
And and then you have a gal next toyou and she is also an amazing skier.

(08:33):
And and a different type of instructor.
So you have both of them next to you.
You're going up the chairlift andyou're looking around and you're like,
I don't even know what is happeningright now, but I'm going up a chairlift
and I'm seeing myself go higher andhigher and higher on this mountain.
What in the world is happening?
Right?
So you're maybe a little panickedbecause you don't know what you're doing.

(08:54):
And the, the gentleman is talkingabout the history of skiing.
He's talking about how skis were made.
He's talking about all the skiresorts in the United States
and maybe some in Europe.
And and all of the things like he'sjust getting in and telling you story
after story after story after storyof all of the things around skiing
because he's an expert at skiing.

(09:15):
He knows all the things, and he'sgoing to tell you all of them.
So you're going up the chairlift,he's talking about all of the
things, and you're, you're, again,higher and higher and higher.
The gal on the right is, is, youknow, talking to you about what
it takes to get down the mountain.
She says, you know, pizza is to stop,french fries is to go, and if you just

(09:41):
remember those two things, then I am goingto help guide you down the mountain, and
we are going to go down you know, in a,in a slow methodical way, but you know
pizza is stop and french fries is go.
And that's all you really need to knowat that, at this moment for you to
get down the mountain safely, right?

(10:03):
So you've got.
Two different perspectives, twodifferent people who are helping
you get to the same outcome.
So now you're at the top of themountain, you're looking down
and and you know, do you want tohear about the history of skis?
Or do you want to hearhow you can stop or start?
Do you want to have the confidencethat someone is going to guide

(10:24):
you down the mountain and tellyou exactly how to get there?
And you know how to start,and you know how to stop.
Okay, I don't know about you, butthat's what I want to make sure that I'm
getting down to the bottom of the hill.
Because then, when you're down at thebottom of the hill, then you're in the
chalet, you're enjoying a soda or a beeror whatever it is that you like to drink,

(10:45):
then you're going to be interested inlistening to all of the the other cool
things about skiing, you're just not readyyet to hear all of that when all your
head is doing is like, I just need toknow what I need to know in order to get.
to to the outcome.
In this case to make sure that I don'tdie on the mountain as I'm going down it.
And so remember that story when you'rethinking about what you're going

(11:10):
to to create in terms of content.
And And for some of you, this shouldjust like free you up to not worry about
filling your whole solution with tonsand tons and tons and tons of content.
Keep track of where yourperson is and what they need

(11:30):
just to take that next step.
And usually it's a lotless than you think it is.
Right, so think about those two storiesas you are building because when
you're building to your customer andthinking about your customer and looking
through the lens of your customer,you can see where they are, right?
Like, read the room.

(11:50):
This, you know, you're at thetop of the mountain freaking
out hoping that you don't die.
You don't care about the history of skis.
You don't care about the resorts in the U.
S.
Right?
You don't care about any of that.
You just wanna makesure that you don't die.
Your customers are feeling that same senseof, I just wanna get through some success

(12:13):
so that I know that I can keep doing this.
Right?
Like if, if your customers are comingto you because they have a problem.
They want to solve that problem.
They don't want to take the windyroute to fix that problem.
They want to put themselves inaction so they can be successful.
So when you think about it from acustomer's point of view, your job is to

(12:35):
guide them to the result and give themexactly what they need when they need it.
That is, is the gift that you have asthe expert is you can see the whole path
and how to navigate through that pathwithout hitting the dead ends, without,
you know, ending up in the toboggan, inthis, in this in the hospital, right?
Like you, you already cannavigate them through that.

(12:58):
And that is your job as the expert.
So when you're putting together yourassets, always remember that when
you're putting something together,because when you're out in social
media, yes, it's about you showing thatyou're the go to expert in the space.
When you have a customer, it is all aboutthat customer and what that customer
needs in order to, to go on the journeyfrom their problem to the solution.

(13:23):
And that, my friends, is where thebeauty of you know, helping them
stay accountable, helping to supportthem through all the obstacles and
hurdles that they're going to haveand giving them the context and and
examples and activities that allowthem to keep moving on the path.

(13:44):
That is where you're going to besuccessful as a scalable expert.
So hopefully this episode serves you.
I would love to hear yourfeedback on this episode.
Go ahead and give us a review ifyou are inspired to do so, share it
with a friend, and as always, go onout to taralbryan.com for free tools

(14:05):
and resources that will help youbuild a thriving, scalable business.