How Do I Know If I’m Really an Expert (and How to Scale It)

Hey everybody. Welcome to season three of the Scalable Expert Podcast, the show for established expert business owners who are maxed out on time and ready to find the scalable impact of their work. I'm your host, Tara Bryan, founder of the scalable expert and creator of the Infinite Scale Method. If you built a business around your expertise, but feel stuck in the time for Money Trap, this podcast is your path forward. Each week, I'll share stories and strategies and shifts to help you step into a new scalable business model by declaring your authority, packaging your expert framework, and streamlining your offers and systems to ultimately become a scalable expert. Because it's not about working harder, it's about building smarter. All you need is one signature expert framework. And you can deliver an infinite amount of ways to be able to scale your business. Alright, let's get started. Hey, welcome to today's episode of the podcast, i'm thrilled that you're here today. Hey, today I wanna talk about, one of the things that I hear a lot about, when I talk about the scalable expert is people say, well, I'm not an expert. Like, who am I to claim my expertise and, and become an expert at what I'm doing? And here's what's interesting is, you may not call yourself an expert, however, if you are a coach, a consultant, a service provider, a business owner, whoever you are, right... you have an expertise because people are paying you or people are seeking you out for what you know how to do, or your knowledge, your framework, whatever it is that people are reaching out to work with you on, that is really your expertise. And, what's fascinating is when you are when you're a service provider and you're working hours for dollars, a lot of times it's true, you don't, you're like, yeah, I'm kind of an expert at a lot of things, right? Like, I, I know how to do a lot of things. I am known for this in my industry, but I, I just, I don't feel comfortable claiming that I'm an expert. And so my friends, I'm gonna tell you that if you have something that people want, you have an expertise. So your job actually is then to package that expertise into something that goes beyond your time and attention, right? So if you're a service provider, for example, people may hire you as a freelancer or a contractor, and they want you to come in and do, do a project or do some work because they know that you're gonna do a good job, right? Or you've told them that you're gonna do a good job and, and you do it. What happens is eventually you either get so busy that you can't handle any more clients and you get a little burnt out, or you're just constantly trying to position yourself so that you can get more and more projects, right? And so, either, either way, it's a difficult path, to maintain. And I've tried, as you know, if you've listened to my story. And so the sweet spot becomes when you can say, I own my expertise, right? And you package your expertise into your own proprietary methodology or your signature framework, whatever you wanna call it. But you're going from like just doing the work and, and billing as many hours as possible to saying, here's my approach. Here's how I go and do this work. And you own the methodology, you own the experience that customer is having as they go through and work with you. So it, it changes the dynamic of the relationship. It changes how you show up as an expert and authority in the space, and it allows you to package what you're doing differently. So instead of just clocking hours, you are saying this is what it takes to do the step-by-step path or framework. And so that's the first transition is that where you're able to move from just doing hours for dollars to packaging your framework into something that you can follow as you're helping your customers, to really looking at, okay, so how do you take that framework and package it in a way that you can deliver that same result without the hours for dollars work. And that is this the moment you move into becoming a scalable expert. And so that's the shift that you're sort of making as you go through this. You won't ever be able to control your time and your attention, and honestly, your income until you make this shift. And so once you make the shift into a scalable expert, you're able to take your expertise, package it, and make it into something that lives beyond you and your time. So if you are like, well, I don't even know if I'm an expert yet, right? Like, so keep helping people, keep figuring out what the path is, right? What is the fastest path that you take people to go from the problem that they have to the result that they're looking for, right? The transformation or the result. What is that path in between? That bridge, that path in between point A and point B is where your proprietary framework lives. That's how you deliver an amazing experience, a fast experience, a quality experience, whatever it is that you promise to your customer is happening inside of point A to point B. Then you start to package that, then you deliver it consistently. When we had the agency, I went from that contracting to freelance to owning my proprietary methodology where I could say with like 85% confidence, this is exactly how much time it's gonna take, this is how much it's gonna cost, and this is exactly the process that we're gonna go through, we were able to proactively manage every single step of the process because we had that proprietary methodology that I had developed. And then the next step in that was how do I help other people adopt that same methodology so that they can also experience the same level of success that we have experienced? That's the progression. And you know, when I first started, did I think I was an expert at that? No, absolutely not. I had to, had to get some experience so that I could start testing that, that model, testing that methodology that I had and then move it forward. So if you are not yet there where you're like, I'm an expert and, and that's what I'm gonna lead with in the industry, great, keep working on helping customers until you start to see the pattern of how you're helping people. You have a zone of genius. You have a way, and a unique way, of helping people that is totally different than the person next to you who's doing exactly the same thing. Your job is to find that, and once you do, then you can say, yep, I'm an expert, i'm gonna go out with my expertise and help other people. Whether it's you're delivering something or you are helping other people deliver that same thing, that is that shift that you're making. So declare yourself as an expert. I promise you, you have an expertise. Figure out the pattern. Find that step-by-step path, then go out and, and claim that expertise as your own. And then from there, you're able to step into a place of becoming a scalable expert, meaning you're able to deliver your expertise without it taking all of your time and attention. There are many, many ways to do that, which is not the point of today's episode, it's really about like, if you're questioning whether or not you're an expert, if you pick up the becoming a scalable expert book and you're like, well, I don't know if I'm an expert, so I'm not gonna read this book. Everyone has an expertise. It's your ability to scale your expertise that will allow you to get to the next level of income and impact and freedom in your business, which is why I'm so passionate about helping people become scalable experts and not just getting trapped in hours for dollars, or not even getting trapped in just owning your expertise. But it's how do you own your expertise and help, not one, not 10, not even 20 people, but how do you go out and help hundreds? Or thousands of people with your expertise with the gift that you were meant to give and help other people with. So there you go, my friends. That is the essence of the scalable expert. So if you're asking yourself if you're an expert, I highly recommend that you keep listening to the podcast, check out the book when it comes out, and start to just notice the patterns when you're helping your customers. What are those patterns? How are you getting them from point A to point B? What is working? What is consistent across all of your customers? And then start to focus on how you're helping people and the fastest path that you can help them get from where they are today to where they wanna go. Alright, there you go. That is today's episode. I hope that you enjoyed this small tip and start to transition yourself into becoming an expert and then eventually into becoming a scalable expert. If you love this podcast, I would love for you to give us a rating on wherever it is you're listening to your podcast and share it with a friend, somebody who you think would benefit from this content. Alright, in until next time.