Episode 175: Selling Knowledge vs. Selling Wisdom
There are two roads to grow from: knowledge and wisdom. But your coaching business (more specifically - your signature offer) needs to build from wisdom, not knowledge.
Join me in this short episode as I distinguish knowledge vs wisdom.
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Episode transcript:
(00:03):
Welcome back FEM Nation and welcome to a new year. This is the first episode dropping in this new brand new year. I don't know about you, but I really feel that this year is coming in a little different. I don't know if it's with a little bit more optimism or a little bit more faith, a little bit more vision. I don't know. I'm not sure. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I welcome it with open arms as I hope you do as well. I'm going to dive into a topic today. I wrote a post about this not too long ago. It's called Wisdom versus Knowledge, and the thing about knowledge is that we live in a day and age where there is a ton of it. There is an open sea of knowledge with our digital era, with our learning capacities, with people taking up the opportunity to teach something in a rather new format, which previously had been held for institutions or education system or credentialed, right? And credentials are necessary to a degree, but there are so much opportunity to change the landscape with things that we know and changes that can be made and opening the door to so much more in possibility and growth and connection. This internet age that we have has knowledge at our fingertips. We have so much knowledge, so much knowledge, and for me specifically in the online digital world, the coaching space, creating opportunity for people to learn and creating ways for people to learn.
(02:04):
I find it fascinating that wisdom is what's lacking. There's a lot of conversation, a lot of opinion, but wisdom seems to be the one thing that is escaping mostly in the knowledge industry and by knowledge industry. Let me clarify this. I'm talking about taking what we know and putting it together in a digestible format and then turning around and building a business on it. Coaching to a degree, right? There's no way to say that. That's not coaching, so I'll use coaching as the reference for the knowledge industry essentially. That is what it is, but the knowledge industry is getting it wrong because they claim that it's, and yet while needing skills, the wisdom is being overlooked, and that is what's going to make the change. There's so many people out in this digital space. In fact, I've been connected with hundreds, if not thousands at this point, having had conversations or been in large area, large groups, large areas that they have, we have all been together in, right?
(03:27):
And I find that so many desire to make a true transformation, they seek to make an amazing transformation in people's lives. They want to make a difference with whatever their experience or their life has brought together, and so we go seeking, I say we generalizing the industry as coaches. We go seeking a way to put that together in a digestible format, be it chorus's, membership challenges, groups, whatever is in the online space, whatever's the catchphrase at the time, and there'll always be a new catchphrase because selling knowledge and telling you that you only need this one more thing in order to make it work is going to have new catchphrase, is those are going to evolve. So what was hot last year is not going to be hot this year. They'll repackage the same crap and turn around and give it to you again with a lot of motivation and hype and rah, rah, off to the side, that's okay too.
(04:37):
It's fine if that's your gm. I'm not here to say that that's not valuable. There is a lot of opportunity in gaining awareness that something exists, that there's a way to be able to move forward or to recognize what maybe was otherwise not known to you. That's knowledge, that's gaining knowledge, but the format of how you gain that knowledge is not the knowledge itself. That's a technical aspect of it. What's lacking in this industry, and hence the reason for my post is that the transformation itself that you seek to take people through is not based on knowledge, awareness of how to do it, the technical aspects of it, but the actual process that you create that's unique to you comes from wisdom because you are wiser for having gone through that time or that situation or reducing years into days or weeks or months, whate whatever the going phrase is, but it's your experience and understanding that you have pains and desires and you wish to help others with those same pains and desires to be able to speed up the transformation.
(06:10):
But what often happens is that in the process of telling you that it's knowledge that you are divulging to other people and leaving out, the component of wisdom is in the transformation. The process, the way you're going to take them through doesn't get center stage and wisdom is the center stage it needs to be. So instead of knowledge instead of one more skill or one thing you need to learn in order for this all to come together instead of one more tax tech stack or one more whatever, insert whatever you want to at that point, instead of knowledge, what is going to shift the tide for you is not that you are nicheing down or finding the right people for it or putting it together in a brand new unique format. There is nothing new under the sun. Your experience is unique, your journey is unique. The process you sifted into create the same outcome that you experienced is unique, and that's wisdom. That is what changes lives. That is what ultimately hundreds if not thousands of wouldbe amazing coaches are going to become derailed because they're stuck in this technical aspect, this technical world of just a bit of knowledge to get you there or get them there, and nobody focuses on wisdom. Let's go for an example on this.
(08:04):
I have, and in fact I've seen this example multiple times. There are many, many, many, many, many hundreds of thousands of people that have created a course only to abandon it and go back to their job or their nine to five or whatever it was that was previously producing income for them. We have to make money. Money is not the only reason why we do it, but we have to have it in order to continue our business, right? It doesn't make sense if we're doing it otherwise. It's just a passion product and while those are good, most of us are here to be able to transform that transformation and the time and the wisdom that we
(08:54):
Have going through the process in a much less eloquent way. To be able to put that into a process that we can see is more efficient, that's wisdom, not knowledge, wisdom and it's wisdom, and you leaning into your own wisdom that it's going to take you from knowing that it's not just knowledge you're regurgitating, but it's wisdom from your experience that sets you apart to be able to take people through that transformation this year, this coming year, this industry needs to be much more focused and the people that are going to be successful with it are going to be the ones that do smaller group, more intentional, grounding, much more efficient understanding and teaching, but who guide through wisdom.
(10:05):
There's going to be less of the low ticket offer opportunities. Sure, they have a place, but not as starting a coaching business. It's never going to work. Those fall into place when you know what the transformation is, you create the process, the process that you are taking people through that only because you walked it, you lived it, you went through it, and you can look back on that experience and say, you know what, if I would've known, then would I know now? I could have done this in half the time or a quarter of the time or in much less time. That's the wisdom that you bring into your process. That's the wisdom that is going to stand your coaching business apart from others. It doesn't matter how you put it together as much as it does what you put together and knowledge isn't part of that. I invite you if you have a course or you have a program or if you have a knowledge industry thing, challenge workshop, webinar masterclass, three day, this five day that I challenge you to look at what you have been spending your time creating.
(11:43):
Does the underlying process truly bring through what you know is going to create that transformation? Or have you just created something because the knowledge industry said that's what you needed to create? Understand the transformation. Understand that it comes from wisdom and not knowledge. Understand that that's going to set you apart. Understand that's what your people want and need, and understand that you are capable, you have it. The knowledge side of it, the technical side of it, the pieces side of it that's less important than getting to the root of your process. Let wisdom drive the process. Let wisdom own its moment and be the highlight for the transformation that you take people through for the content that you create, for the message that you share. Let wisdom drive your business and then you can put all of the pieces you've learned together behind it. Then your business will be able to be efficient and scale and grow in the right season, in the right time. But first and foremost, analyze the process that you've created. The pillars, do they flow? Are they intentional? Is the outcome available? Do you know that they can achieve that outcome? Or are you just hoping?
(13:34):
Do you know that the process that you've put together is going to maximize that change and start testing that? Start working with it. Just because you're creating content is not mean. You have a valid process. Pulling that process out, seeing what's available, what your genius is, and putting it together properly, and then taking people through that transformation is what's going to set your coaching business apart from all of the noise that's out there. Yes, it's noisy, but yes, there are people that wanna learn from you. Be wise, be intentional and be ready. Until then, keep moving forward.