The Gap Between Information & Transformation

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Welcome back to another episode of Million Dollar Grit. Today, I want to talk about the gap between information and transformation. I about this on social media, and I think it's a really relevant conversation given what's happening in the market of online courses. One of the biggest threats to online marketing and online, you know, digital products and info products is AI. I mean, AI is now the. The whole of human knowledge in, you know, a little chat window at the. At the tips of your fingertips. And a lot of people will say, okay, well, you know, just enhance your info products with AI. And that's good. You should. And we do, and it makes things way easier. But that's still not really enough to inoculate you from getting run over by, you know, information becoming a commodity. So this idea of information versus transformation is really, really relevant. When you go to sell something digital, it's natural to think that what you're selling are, you know, the videos, the worksheets, the workbooks, the zoom calls, all of that. And that's what people are paying for, but they're actually paying to transform their identity in some way. And this is not just about certain types of courses, right? Even if I take a course on learning how to upholster a chair, I have a client, Wendy Chair Whimsy, and she teaches women how to upholster chairs. There's a transformation there because before I came in contact with Wendy, I didn't know how to do this. And now I am someone who has this skill. So there is a true transformation, whether it's in skill, whether it's in, you know, changing your. Your schedule, your body, your finances, what have you. And so transformation is really, really important. And I had a client over the other day, and I thought, this is such a good example. And so I want to explain what happened, and then I want to talk a little bit more about transformational products. A private client came over to my home. She needed to work on her ads, and the information that she needed, the actual information was, you know, she needed topics for power content. She needed the scripts for that power content. We were doing reels. She needed to know how to record the reels, how to edit the reels, how to publish the reels. She also needed to learn how to set up a business account on Facebook, to go through the verification process, set up her payment, and she needed to set up the ads. Okay, so those are all the things that she needed. That was the information. And all of that information already tucked away in several products that I have. Not only does she have the information, she also had me on voxer, so I was able to provide support. So it wasn't that she couldn't have gotten the transformation without coming to my house, but there was a gap for her specifically. And this is going to be unique to different people. Certain. Certain people and personalities and skill sets. You know, it all depends. Someone could take my information, could take the knowledge, could take the support that I provide and be able to achieve that transformation. But for her, there was still a gap. The difference between information and transformation, if I were to simplify it, is this. When you have information, the knowledge lives outside of you. When you have transformation, the knowledge lives inside of you. Meaning it's actually transforming who you are, how you behave, the actions that you take, versus knowledge, which lives outside of you. You may know it, but it doesn't mean that you have been transformed by it. How did coming to my house then actually create a situation where we went from knowledge into transformation? One of the things that happens in in person events, why I. I do think that in person events are really powerful, is that it can shortcut that gap, right? So if we go from knowledge to transformation and we do it digitally or over a long period of time, it's still effective. But if she were to come to my house, there would be. There would be a collapse of time and it would be shortened and she could achieve a transformation much more quickly. But there were a few things that happened at my home that I think were necessary for a true transformation. Number one, she needed a lot of emotional support. She had a complete fear of public speaking, fear of being on video. She needed a lot of emotional support, way more than I could even give her virtually, which is why she came over. The second thing is she needed someone to break down the info that I already had into the tiniest piece so that she could ingest it. And I noticed that, you know, one of the things we had to do is we had to record her on video. And I actually set up my phone and hit record before she even knew that I was recording. Because I knew that the fear that would. Would kind of get jolted in her once she saw me press the button was going to be too much. So I Just hit the button before she could even see it and had entire footage captured before she even knew she was being recorded. Okay. Number three, she needed reassurance that the execution that she was, you know, the recordings that she was making were correct and good. She, you know, said to me, well, oh my gosh, I'm sweating. You know, like, can you see that on the camera? And was that good? Don't tell me it's good if it's not good, you know. So she needed reassurance emotional. She needed it broken down. She needed reassurance. She also needed help discerning what was user error versus what was glitchy software error. So when we were actually editing the reel, you know, it can be a little tricky inside of Instagram. Sometimes when you touch it, it like accidentally reorders the clip versus splitting the clip. And if she were on her own, she would just mess something up and not know what she did. Whereas with me sitting next to her, I said, oh, that's just a glitch, or oh no, you actually tapped that hard. She also needed practice. These were the things that I had to provide for her and again, for someone else. This may not be necessary, but this is why it's so important to know what it is you need and as a business owner, to understand what it is your customers may need and are you willing to provide that level of support if that's what they need? If we kind of like break it down and say, all right, I know that the online course industry is getting chewed up by AI, and I want to make sure that I have transformation baked into my actual products. These are the things that I would say actually help you achieve transformation. It does not mean that you have to have all your clients over to your house the way I did. But how do we add these things into our products? The first is emotional support and nervous system bandwidth. When anybody is learning something, especially if you are in a high stakes market, you need to consider what is happening emotionally on the nervous system side and in their mindset in order to be able to achieve what you're asking them to do. The second thing is that tactical organization and teaching skills will become incredibly important. Even though AI can spit out the information, how someone in digests that information is really critical. Is that the first piece they need or not? AI is not necessarily going to be able to figure that out right away. Eventually it probably can, but that's a really important skill that you'll need to bring to the table. The third is wisdom. Wisdom is very much underrated but it is knowing the knowledge and being able to discern what piece is important when. Right. So when I was able to say, hey, that's user error, or oh, that's totally normal, or oh, that's a glitch, that's not really you, that's wisdom. That's wisdom derived from experience. People who have experience in the thing that they teach then carry with them wisdom. I see this all the time. AI is not wise. It will tell me what to do, but it doesn't have my experience baked into. Unless you get one of my GPTs. And then I do try to bake my wisdom in, but just a regular chat GPT is not going to have my wisdom baked in. And it's going to give me advice which is good on paper but isn't necessarily going to achieve the transformation that I'm really desiring. And then the last thing is repetition. Repetition in action is important. So these are the four things I want you to look at your online product suite, your services, and say, okay, where and how am I supporting people emotionally? Mindset wise with their nervous system? How am I organizing and tactically teaching this so that the information is truly digestible? Am I imparting wisdom? Is wisdom baked into my products and in my coaching and in my support? And do I have opportunities for people to practice repetition and action? That's how you are going to get transformation versus just giving somebody information. And you'll know, you'll know if you achieve transformation because it'll be apparent on your students. Not only will they accomplish what they set out to do, but you'll also notice a change in them. By the time my client left the house, she said, I couldn't believe, you know, she thought it was going to be worse than a root canal. That, that's what she told me. She said, I couldn't believe it wasn't as bad as a root canal. And then when I showed her the videos, she said, did you like raise me from the dead? Pull me out of cold storage? I mean, how, how did you get that? She did not. She did not realize that that was inside of her, that that was possible for her. And the, and the person reflecting back in the video seemed like a person that she wasn't until then. And that is the moment of true transformation when people realize that they can do it. And that is what you want to try to provide. And that will keep you in a position where people are paying for your services. They're your coaching, they're paying for your wisdom. And AI is not going to replace that.

And there you have it, folks. Another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time, embrace the struggle, harness your grit, and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.