Overcomplexity in Business: The 5 Hidden Problems Blocking Your Growth and the One Solution That Fixes Them.

The number one reason most programs fail isn't what you think. It's not sales, it's not even marketing. It's over complexity and the scary part, most business owners don't even realize they're doing it. In this episode, I'll show you how complexity kills results and what to do to fix it. Hey everybody. Welcome to season three of the Scalable Expert Podcast, the show for established expert business owners who are maxed out in 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. 'cause 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. All right, so let's get into the episode. One of the things that, causes over complexity is some common false beliefs that a lot of business owners and, creators come to the table with as they're building their products and programs. The first one is the belief that more equals better, right? More equals more value. And the more that you can give somebody, the better off it is, right? Feels like it's a lot of stuff, right? It's like going to McDonald's and getting the, whatever it's called, right? Like the mega, mega, soda and, and all the things, right? You feel like you're getting a better deal because you're giving them more. That's a perception that we have at when we are building our programs, as you just keep layering new and new on top of it so people feel like they're getting a deal. But here's the reality is that people don't need more. They need the fastest path to results, right? Your job as the expert is to provide people with a simplified and fast path to results, right? That's what people want, is they want something different to happen, right? They want a result. They want to, increase something or decrease something, or make things happen. That's what they're paying you for. They're not paying for you to give them more and more and more. They're paying for that result. So always keep that in mind is like, what's the fastest and easiest path you can put someone on? In order for them to get results. So more is not necessarily better. A different way to think about it is what do they need to be able to get to the finish line? Right? What are, what's like the absolute minimum that they need to get there? But you're providing them with all of the different steps. So that's the first false belief is more equals, more value, more wonderfulness, which is not necessarily the case. So with that, the kind of the secondary false belief that people have is like, well, if I simplify it, it'll make it seem like it's too easy. And so the, the false belief is my expertise is really valuable because it's complex. If I make it simple, people won't think they need me, right? So if it looks too easy, if it appears too easy, then you know, there's no smoke and mirrors around my expertise and what I provide. This is a really, really common one, and this is one that people trip up against all the time. The truth is, is that your expertise provides you with the experience to be able to really simplify everything because you've already gone through all of the hoops and hurdles and obstacles that they may encounter on their path to success or to the results that they're looking for. And so that's what they're paying you for, right? They're paying for you to simplify it. So honestly, when you launch something, it should seem so simple to you that you're like, why? Why would people pay me for this? Because it's so simple. That's the level of, simplicity that you need to lead with, because here's the thing is because it's simple to you, because you are the expert, you already know the answers. You already know how the step-by-step path for how to get there, you need to distill it down for people who don't have that path, right? So for them, it's not simple. For them what they're like, oh wow. Like they really know how to do this because they're able to lay out a path that seems like it's realistic for me to be able to get the same results. So reframe that in your mind, because the truth is really that simplicity is the highest form of mastery. Think about it. You don't really know what you're doing if you're not an expert, right? You're kind of, you know, doing trial and error, you're trying to figure things out. You're going through, all of the, the starts and stops and trying to figure out how things, how things work. When you are able to be, guided by an expert who has done it, who has the fast track, then, everything becomes more simple. So the way that we always recommend doing this is to create your signature framework, right? Create your authority framework where you're, you are just taking them on a journey from point A to point B and providing them the fastest path to results, which is that where that framework fits in because it's the step-by-step path that you've developed. You've been there, you know how to go from point A to point B in the fastest way possible so that you can get results, your clients can get results, and other people can see that you have the authority, you have the expertise to be able to guide them down the path. So that is a really, really strong false belief. But if you can switch that around to be like, the more simple that I could create this, the higher level of confidence and the highest level of success your people are gonna get because they're able to follow it, because you've done the work to make it more simplified. A lot of times this shows up when I'm working with people and they just wanna dump in all of the content, right? Like all the information, all of the things. They start with you know, in my youth I did this and then I went on this and, you know, all of the, the different, paths and all the things that went through or all the information and, and that it is just giving them information so that they can do something with it, right? It's not helping them actually get to that result in the fastest way possible. So reframe that. You do the work to simplify your expertise and then that, is what leads you to be able to deliver at the highest level. So the next one is every client is unique, so the program has to be unique. Everything has to be, you know, you've gotta have something for everyone because everyone is unique. And the way to flip that again, is to go back to our signature framework. Lead from your expertise, lead from your framework. Take them on the path to point A to point B, because you know how to get them results. When everyone is unique, what's happening is they're all coming in with their own ideas of how they wanna do something because you haven't. Set that path in front of them so they don't even know, right? So they're sort of just making up like, I wanna do it this way, I wanna do it this way, I want this, I want that, I want you to go down this rabbit hole. And that's not leading then from your expertise. So you gotta flip that around, because the truth is that 80 and 90% of your client's challenges follow the same pattern. Find the pattern. Figure out how to deliver on that pattern. And then yeah, you may just have some nuances here and there, but a 10% nuance is way different than 90% nuance, right? So lead from your framework. It will change the game for you, even if right now you're not actually packaging your expertise, you are just delivering services, this will change it for you. Figure out what the pattern is. All of your clients, how are you taking them from point A to point B? Put them all on the same path. And then see how when you lead, when you are in the driver's seat versus your client being in the driver's seat, see how that changes their level of confidence, your ability to be able to lead that project or the program or whatever it is that you're doing. And it starts to change the ability for your people to get results, number one, but your ability to deliver without having to customize everything. That will be a game changer. So flip that false belief and see how that starts to change your business. And then the other one I think that is really strong in over complexity is automation's gonna ruin the personalized experience for the customer, so all my customers have to have a personalized experience. They all have to have something different based on their unique needs. Again, if you can flip that and figure out what the experience is, what is the customer journey, the consistent customer journey that you want to create and you want to deliver, then again, the level of confidence that your customers are gonna have will increase because their needs are taken care of. Right? They are not asking for things that are ad hoc or random. And they're not asking you for all of your time because you have already designed and orchestrated that customer journey. Then the amount of time that you can spend with somebody is so much more personal because then you can really dive into their particular obstacles and hurdles that they have, because everything else is taken care of. So it is not about a less personal experience. In fact, I would argue that you could actually create a better, more consistent personalized experience through automation, but it actually will free you up to be able to really work on those higher level problems that you want to work on with your clients or your, customers that you have in your programs. So consider, if you are bogged down with all the day to day, right, the onboarding, the questions and the answers, and just the general, like helping people all the time, and you think that the best personalized experience that you can give is that one-on-one experience, but if you could actually dive into somebody's business or somebody's problem that they're having as they're working through your framework, that elevates that personalized experience so much more because you're able to really get in and help them through their specific problem versus just sort of like the mechanics of all of the details that they're going to get into, so you don't get into sort of the 50 First Dates conundrum, which is that every single time you have a new customer, you're reinventing the wheel, right? You're repeating the same thing you're doing all of the experience over and over and over again for every single customer, it's very hard to scale that way, right? Like, imagine if you went from ten customers to a thousand, you can't provide the same level of personalized experience if you don't have anything already set up. So that's part of designing that customer journey. What's the experience that you wanna create for them? Consider like the best shopping experience that you've been to. Maybe it's Nordstrom's or somewhere else, and you walk in and you feel that you are seen and taken care of, right? That's a personalized experience that's actually already designed, right? So you're not just making it up for every single customer. There's a method to the madness, right? So flip that one. Those are the big false beliefs that, that a lot of times our clients are tripping up against that, if we can just shift those, it shifts the game. So simplify, create your signature framework, lead from that, and then it frees you up to be able to really connect and solve problems for your customers. Okay, so why, why is over complexity the hardest thing, right? Like why is that the thing? More than sales, more than marketing, more than anything else that makes the biggest difference in your business. There's a number of different reasons for that. I'm gonna cover a couple of them just to kind of frame out what, like, why, why is it over complexity, right? Like, who cares if we just throw a bunch of videos in a membership site and call it a video vault and 400 videos for people that provide them with all of your knowledge, right? The biggest thing that it does is it confuses people. So, a customer comes in because you've promised a result, right? Your sales page is wonderful and they are coming to you to do something different than what they're doing today. That's why they're coming to you. So if you just throw them into an experience that has lots of layers, lots of steps, lots of videos, lots of this, lots of like all over the place then they get confused and a confused customer can't get through and get to a result, right? Remember, your job is to give them the fastest path to success so that they can get the result that they want. That is the whole goal, and that is the only goal. And so when you put somebody into an experience that's not, doesn't have a clear customer journey, doesn't have the fastest path to success, clearly identified then they come in and they're like, oh, this is great, there's so many things. This is wonderful. Then they dive in and very shortly after, going through hundreds of videos, they were like, well, I don't, this isn't giving me what I need. And then they leave so that you know, you're, you're not engaging them, you are not retaining them, and you're certainly not ascending them into additional offers because you haven't created the experience and a simplified experience for them to go through. So confused participants, the same concept as like confused prospects don't buy, right? If they don't know what your offer is, if they don't know, how this is gonna work for them then they're gonna bounce. They're not gonna stay. Same thing with confused participants, especially now in this world where everyone is inundated with. Notifications and content and information and AI and all of the things, it's even more important to provide a simplified, simple solution for people to be able to go from point A to point B as fast as possible to get their results. You think about yourself as a mentor and a guide that's guiding them down the path, based on your experience. That's really the way to think about it versus like, how can I put all this content into a membership site or into some sort of delivery system. Okay. Low completion and retention rates, that's sort of similar to the confused participants, right? So they're confused and then they leave, right? So you don't have people finishing. You don't have people getting results, which means you're not getting testimonials and they're certainly not buying from you again, which is very hard to build a business if you do not have your customers that you have acquired staying and referring and ascending to your next offers. So it makes a huge difference. People are confused. It requires too much work for them to actually go through and do what you want them to do. They're going to leave and they're not going to recommend you to other people. On the side of the business owner, it's really hard to deliver consistently over time, right? So if you have a membership site and you've promised to deliver new content on a regular basis that doesn't fit within your expert framework, it is really hard to continue that process. Either you're trying to figure out new content ideas or you feel like you need to put something else in there and then people aren't watching. They're not participating, they're not showing up for live sessions or whatever else. It's just really complex to keep that momentum going every single week, every single month, every single year, whatever that looks like for you. It's really hard to manage, which means it's really hard to scale, right? It's not a scalable model when you are just trying to continuously put information in and come up with new topic ideas that are not necessarily related to the path that gets them from point A to point B. So often when I'm talking to people, they're like, yeah, but I need to constantly be giving them new content or they're not gonna stay. And here's the way to flip that, that you may have thought about before, but you may not, is that instead of just giving them new content, like new information or topics or random things that you can think of, what you're doing is you're just keeping them on their path to transformation and results. So if you are trying to get somebody from point A to point B, right, like that's why they're paying you, then everything on that signature framework becomes the content that you're giving. Then when somebody gets to that result, then there's gonna be a whole nother point A to point B, right? They're moving to another level where then they can keep going, they get to that next result, and then they keep going. And so instead of just putting in new topics and new, you know, videos, for lack of a better term, consider where they are on the path and what they need to move forward. Again, remember we're going with the concept of simple is better, right? We're not gonna put in a ton of content, so how do you put content in based on where they are from a levels perspective, and then simplify everything else? Even a membership site, people don't want new topics and content all the time 'cause they can't keep up. They can't keep moving forward. They still want to get a result. So whatever your reoccurring membership site is, keep that in mind as you're adding new content. It should be strategic content that continues them on the path from where they are to where they wanna go. So that's how you end up with less complexity in your business and you move into being able to scale your expertise is by keeping your customer on their customer journey. All right. There you go. That was a couple of ideas for you to start thinking about when you are looking at scaling your expertise as a Scalable Expert. Really think about how you can simplify your framework so much that it seems so simple. The more simple it looks to other people, the more they're like, oh, I can do that and I have a guide to help me. That my friends is when you know that you have reached that point of being able to start to scale your expertise. So that is my message for you today. If you love this episode, I would love for you to give it a rating and share it with a colleague or a friend that you think may benefit from this. Alright, until next time. 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.