Nathan Gwilliam discusses a three-tier service model: done-for-you, done-with-you, and do-it-yourself. He reflects on spending heavily on courses and the tension between time and money for entrepreneurs, arguing that coaching and accountability matter more than free content.
This is something that I wish someone would've taught me 10, 20 years ago because it took forever. I mean, I paid all these, you know, gurus, oh, over half a million dollars only to find out they cannot teach their way out of a paper bag. And they're still out there teaching nothing, you know? And as I like to say, there's no there there. You know, it's like, look at all the hype and, you know, look at my Lambo. In terms of monetization, your question, you know, it took so long to figure out because, you know, I'd buy their course and they, you know, spend, I I've given them all this money hoping they would give me something, right? Duh, that's kind of what you want, right? And they would give you maybe a little kernel of something, but the rest is just nothing. Yeah. And so anyway, what I finally, finally learned after all these years is that what I really enjoy now, you know, with my clients is to what I call one offer with 3 levels of service, right? So one offer, meaning that we're able to now offer 3 levels of service, which is done for you, Done with you and do it yourself. Oh, interesting. It sounds so simple. And it is simple. It's like, why didn't you tell me 20 years ago? You know? So frustrating. But anyway, so I'm hoping this will help somebody watching and listening to this program to, you know, cut through the heartache and awfulness that I had to go through. But basically, it's very simple, which is, you know, the first level, which is done for you, right? So in other words, let's say you're an agency, you know, whether you're doing funnels or ads, you know, Facebook ads, YouTube ads, whatever it might be, right? And you offer that done-for-you service because there are, there's a certain segment of your market. There's always the eternal battle between time and money, right? That's the eternal battle. In other words, you're always trading one for the other, right? There's no other way to go. You're either saying, okay, I'm going to take my time to do this, you as the entrepreneur, right? Yep. I'm going to do it myself, right? But what does that cost you? Your time. All right? So you say, okay, well, I'm going to put that money in my pocket But well, you're trading your time for money. So you're— it's a tough call, right? But then of course, you have money, right? So you say, okay, well, I'll invest that money and then I'll get my time back. See? So that's the eternal struggle. And, you know, like I said, it's not cookie cutter, one size fits all. We have to make those decisions really every day as entrepreneurs, don't we? So the done-for-you is for people who say, hey Noah, I just want you to do it for me. Here's the money. Just do it for me. other words, you know, I have the money, but I value my time, right? I place a premium on my time, which all of us should as entrepreneurs, right? And that's one of the big mistakes I see many, many entrepreneurs making is they don't value their time enough, right? And they are doing everything themselves, even the things that they shouldn't be doing. And that is absolutely going to put a ceiling on you, on your income, on your influence, on your impact. Okay? So that's the done-for-you level. The second is the done with you level. Now think about this, everybody. If information alone wasn't enough to cause transformation, everybody who has an internet connection would be a millionaire, right? Because think about that. If you go to YouTube right now and you type in how to be a millionaire or how to make money online or how to make money in real estate or how to make money in whatever you're doing, right? There's 10 trillion quadrillion, right, videos on that, right? Yeah. How to make money online. how to make money as an internet marketer, online marketer, whatever, right? So, well then why isn't everyone a millionaire? Well, the answer is because information alone is not enough to cause transformation, right? And so that's why a lot of people really like the done with you level, right? Right. Because they want that help, that accountability, that coaching, that support, you know, that you can really only get from that interaction with the thought leader, the expert. And then of course you have the do it yourself, which is basically an online course. And another mistake that I made is really staying too long in the do-it-yourself because I'm a very motivated person. I guess there's no other way to say it. I'm a very driven person. And, you know, if you say, hey, Noah, if you do this, you know, you'll get this result and I want that result, I'll go, okay, great. What do I do? All right. And I do it. What I realized is that I'm weird. You know, it's like most people are going to give a lot of excuses. Well, I've written all these books on how to not give excuses. So I'd be a hypocrite if I was giving excuses, wouldn't I? So I'd be like, no, I'll do it, right? But then I realized I'm weird. You know, most people are going to give excuses, hence, you know, I'll never be out of favor at all. But I mean, I'll always be needed, you know, by humanity because, hello, humanity is about giving excuses. My point of what I'm trying to get at is that do-it-yourself is exactly that. It's a self-paced course. The problem with do-it-yourself, however, is in many cases, you're competing with YouTube. You know, you're competing with free. There's even plenty of, you know, online universities, you know, big name universities that are giving away free, you know, MBAs basically at this point. And so it's tricky. I'm not saying you shouldn't do it. I'm not saying don't do it. I'm just saying you got to realize that, you know, you're— that's who you're competing with. You're competing with YouTube. You're competing with free. So, you know, You've gotta make sure that you set yourself apart. But that's why I really like the done with you level. I mean, that's my personal favorite 'cause I love coaching. I love helping people. I love seeing those light bulb moments and go, wow, you know, just something you just said, Noah, just, you know, totally turned the corner for me. So that, that's what I personally enjoy.
