Beyond the Guru Era: The Shift to Authentic Business and Creative Expression

INTRO: [00:00:00] After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host Katherine Thompson, takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you are ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you are in the right place.

Be The Sought After Entrepreneur podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter one size fits all approach to marketing, and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life.

Welcome to Be the Sought After Entrepreneur podcast, and here's your host, Katherine Thompson. 

Kathryn Thompson: Hey. Hey, super stoked that you're tuning this week's episode, and I cannot wait to dive in today's [00:01:00] topic because I wanna share with you some insights or knowings that I've been receiving on the direction in which.

Business is headed and the way in which we do business and how that is shifting and changing. But more specifically how the online coaching, consulting knowledge base industry is shifting and how those shifts are sort of going to start impacting and rolling out now. You can call it forecasting, you can call it predictions.

A lot of my clients call it predictions. They're like, what are you predicting, Katherine? I wanna know what your insight is. I wanna know what your perspective is around that. And I think oftentimes when we look at business predictions, they're very tangible and very strategic, right? It's like, you know, social media is gonna change and Instagram's gonna roll out this new thing called reels or whatever, and we're gonna have to adopt that and then and adapt to that as a business owner.

And that's not. What I'm going to share with [00:02:00] you here today, it's not going to be these strategic moves that we wanna look at, or these tactics that quote unquote, are no longer working. They're more high level insights that will then require you to make practical decisions on how that rolls out in your business.

And what I will also say is, is that. As my clients say that they're my predictions. I'm not sitting here with a crystal ball and this psychic predictions happening of like when it's gonna happen and how it's gonna happen, exactly how it's gonna happen. They're just insights and knowing similarly to the insight and knowing that I received almost six years ago now that.

We were going to start pushing back against five step frameworks, my proven method, my method of success. Just follow these steps and you'll be successful. I started to get that sense and knowing like over six years ago, and that's what [00:03:00] inspired me to launch this podcast in the first place, which was five years ago pretty much.

And. Why I'm sharing this with you is because when I first started to come out and I started to share that insight with people, I got a lot of pushback. I got a lot of pushback from my coaches and mentors that were saying, well, no, this is how it's done, or, no, you can't sell, you know, experiences or containers.

That's like the ditch, the cookie cutter one side. So it's all because. How will you measure ROI? How will you measure success? Right When a lot of our metrics are aligned with very tangible definitions of what success is and very tangible ROIs and I. I'm sharing that with you because I got a lot of pushback.

I rolled it out and not a lot of people were talking about it, and then all of a sudden now it becomes sort of very prevalent that a lot of people talk about ditching the cookie cutter, one size [00:04:00] fits all approach to marketing, which is cool and great and awesome and all those sorts of things. But why I am sharing that with you is because I often get a lot of pushback when I start to share these insights with people because.

They're either not ready to receive it and or they're very ingrained into what they're doing and they've built success around the thing. And when I share the insight that kind of is counterintuitive to that, I. There's a lot of fear that can come up, and by no means when I share this insight with you, am I trying to scare you in any way, shape, or form.

It's just to share the insight so that you can take what you want from it and you can leave the rest, or you can take none of it. You don't even have to listen to me on it, but what I'm sensing, what I'm feeling, and the insight that I'm being pulled towards. And not just for me as an individual. 'cause sometimes that will come through as I'll get these insights of the direction I need to go in and it has nothing to do with the collective.

This has everything to do with the [00:05:00] collective and where we're shifting when it comes to business and how we do business, and what we value and what we don't value, and what we attribute to value and what we don't, and how we measure success and how we measure ROI and all the sorts of things. But I really want to predominantly focus on the online coaching, the knowledge space industry, because this is huge.

And if you've been sensing this at all in your business, where you feel overloaded with information and you feel overloaded with expert knowledge, and you feel overloaded with the gurus, right? You feel. Overloaded with the the availability to information, then this is going to be really relevant for you.

And if you don't and you're like, I love to learn. I love to digest and consume and all the things that I'm not even phased by it, that is cool too. But I highly suggest that you tune in because if you're somebody who's delivering a knowledge based. Program course experience, this is going to impact you.

What I'm about to share. [00:06:00] So the sense that I've been getting, and have been getting for probably two years now, um, maybe longer if I really kind of tune in to pay attention, is the fact that we are inundated with information. I mean, this isn't obvious, right? But we are inundated with it and people are very, very.

Overwhelmed by it. You can literally log onto social media, Instagram, for example, and there's a bazillion experts and gurus out there telling you that they know the secrets to your weight loss, your relationship problems, your money problems, you name it. And every process, and every method is proprietary, meaning the person selling you their method.

It could be five steps, four steps, three steps. It could be, you know, this thing, that thing, this thing. And there's no. How do I say this? There's no, um, consistency in what that is. They're all different, right? And we're starting to see creators start to sort of. Find this [00:07:00] comical, right? Which is sort of usually the first layer of things really starting to shift when people start to make comical or memes about it, right?

Where they're like, and I've shared this on other podcast episodes, like if you just stand on one toe and turn around in a half degree and eat a potato while you're doing it, then you'll lose weight. Like this is sort of the satire comical nature that people are having. Like there is no one size fits all, but also as a guru, as a mentor.

Unless I actually know you, I can't prescribe you a protocol or any sort of prescription to get out of whatever situation that you're in. So there's that component that people are finding comical now because I. Number one is we've been overloaded with that information for years and years and years now, right?

The ability to seek out and search answers and knowledge started to happen in the air of the internet, right when we came that much more connected to a world around us. So the internet came online. We could search basically for anything. [00:08:00] Social media keeps us that much more connected with that much more information, right?

And now we're seeing AI come on board and now we have information at our fingertips. Why I'm sharing this with you is 'cause number one, the collective is tired, right? Many, many, many people are tired of consuming information that promises something right, and typically a tangible result. Money love.

Weight loss, you name it, whatever it is, right? Promising, some sort of tangible outcome. People are tired and why are they tired? Is because they've probably tried to implement a lot of that information and haven't maybe seen the results of it, and or they're at a sort of breaking point in that process going like, I've done all the things.

I've read all the books. I've hired the coaches, I've done the things, and even really highly successful, highly motivated people [00:09:00] are at that stage. I've talked to many over the last couple months who have created crazy amounts of success, who still don't quite feel like they're in the place that they sort of need to be in.

And why I'm sharing this with you is because oftentimes when I share this with people I met with. Well, they didn't follow it the way that they should have. They didn't stick with it. Right? They weren't motivated enough to actually make the change. It's always about the person who invested in the thing.

That's the problem, and I. That is a very dangerous place to be in number one. Right? But we've sat in that, right? We've sat in that energy for a long time. Tons of information, tons of expert knowledge, tons of outsourcing our power to all of the beings outside of us to give us the answers that ultimately lie within ourselves and ultimately.

We are the ones that need to sort of make the choices around it. Love, money, business, you name it. So [00:10:00] what I've been sensing for years now is the inundation of information and expert knowledge, which means the way in which we share knowledge and the way in which we share information is changing. And the consumption of how we consume information and knowledge is changing, meaning people are becoming more and more, it may be intentional or they're gonna start to become more and more intentional.

They're gonna be more selective. They're going to be able to see through the. Hype, the facades, right? The half truths and half truths being, for example, in the personal brand space, right? We're often taught that authority and credibility comes from our own conviction of how great and amazing we are and how we're the best and only choice for people.

That is gonna start to fall by the [00:11:00] wayside. And by that I mean saying things like. This is an absolute game changer. This is like nothing else you've ever experienced in your life before. This is the only thing like it on the market. Those are going to start to hit differently for people. And when I say intentionality, I mean people are gonna be a lot more aware or in or intentional with that sort of language because I have seen that.

Probably 10 times over the last week by online course creators who are claiming that what they've created is the only thing like it on the market. They're the first to market and they're putting out something that is in relation to AI and am not saying that what they've created isn't unique. But I've been in the world [00:12:00] of AI for well over two years now when it comes to copywriting, and I've been in community with some of the leading copywriters, in my opinion, that are leading the way of bringing AI knowledge and information to other copywriters, messaging business owners.

You name it. First of all, they aren't on the internet telling people that they're the best in the industry and, and saying that they're the only ones doing it because they know that they're not. They know there are other people out there that are doing it. They're leading the way, in my opinion. And I'm sharing this with you again from not a place of judgment, but you can see where there is half truths that are being spoken, but there's also a level of grandioseness, right?

That is no longer gonna fre, like from a frequency perspective. Number one is not gonna hit the same way in the next couple years. And the reason for that is because [00:13:00] repackaging something that you've been taught. Marketing, sales, messaging, right? I. Doesn't mean that you're the first to market. And I've said this before, that marketing and sales and advertising and all of that, not much has changed over the last however many decades.

And yet there's lots of marketing people that say that they're only ones doing this. They're the only ones that approach things this way. And that sort of language or verbiage, the the authority, the expert, the guru, that stuff is going to start to dissipate. I'm not saying it's happening right now in this moment.

There are people out there that are hyper aware. I'm hyper aware to it. But over time it's gonna start to dissipate because we live in an information era and we live in a guru era, as I call it, or the expert era. That era is coming to an end, and it's already started. [00:14:00] And my insight around this, and why I'm sharing this with you is because if you're building your business from this place of the guru, of the expert of the.

I'm the pioneer in this area. I'm not saying that you, you're not a pioneer, but true innovation in my opinion, is things that have never been done before. Right. So building. A spaceship for humans to fly to space, right? It's the first time it was done. That's innovation, right? The first electric car. That's innovation.

I'm not saying that anyone that then builds an electric car is not an innovator. I'm not saying that, but to claim that you're the pioneer, you're the first person out there that's putting out an AI bot that's helping people write their copy is half truth. Because 'cause you're not, there's many people that are doing that and, and again, I'm not, I'm not saying that from judgment.

I'm just saying this is the insight that people are gonna start to [00:15:00] see through, right? So the way in which we create our offers, the way in which we language our offers, the way in which we show up on the internet, all of those sorts of things are gonna start to, people are gonna be seeking truth. Over the claims that are being made so highly.

Claimed marketing, right? That this is the only way to do this. I'm the pioneer. I'm the only one doing this. This is the only way you'll get to where you want to go. All of that sort of stuff is starting to dissipate, and the reason it is, is because more and more people are turning inward. More and more people have been inundated with the information and seeking outside of themselves.

For all of these solutions to these problems that they thought they needed to fix, are now realizing that the real answers actually live within them to begin with, and not that they don't need support [00:16:00] or guidance or someone to illuminate that for them. But they don't need a guru or an expert or somebody that's, I don't wanna say know it all, but that sort of energy, like this sort of superior energy.

And you might be in your business going, well, I'm not that, but I am really good at what I do and I am an expert at what I do and I'm gonna, I'm gonna claim that, you know, there's nothing wrong with claiming that it's just. Being very intentional about the words you're speaking and how you're speaking them.

That's gonna be so important in the years to come. And the reason for that is because of ai. Now we have this. Artificial intelligence that can literally create content instantaneously and it's so rapid. That truth is quite literally going to be the thing that people sense and feel. 'cause there's gonna be so [00:17:00] much I.

Is that real? Is that real? Is that person telling the truth? Because now someone can literally go into AI and say, Hey, I want to create a course around X, Y, and Z. And they, it pumps it out and then they sell it, right? So, so there's that, that coming through. I want to come back to though what people are gonna start to seek.

And that is guidance. That is a catalyst. That is somebody that's like holding and witnessing space for them, for their. Gifts, their artistry, whatever it may be, to emerge from them rather than them plugging into some methodology to learn intellectually. So I. And I don't know if any of you have sensed this, but we are in such an intellectual space, right?

Information, knowledge, experts, gurus telling us, right? I don't know which way is up anymore. What's coming [00:18:00] online is I. Tuning back into creating coherence within your own inner system. And that coherence can't just happen in the head. That coherence has to happen in your heart, in your body, in your spirit, in your energy.

It's all of it, right? And so it's tuning back into that. And so the value in which people are going to be seeking is going to be a lot different. I. It is going to be less tangible. So the word ROI return on investment and the traditional measures of success, those are all going to shift. So. For example, when somebody says, what's the ROI that I'm gonna get, right?

We've been conditioned for many years in the intellectual, the logical, the analytical, the very masculine, what's the ROI? How much money am I going to make, or how much weight am I going to lose? That is shifting the value [00:19:00] that is going to become so. Desirable is the right word that's coming through for me.

Desirable is going to be in the gifts and the genius that you ultimately bring to the table. People are going to pay you for your insight, your perspective, and less about. The deliverables of what you are giving. Now, this is probably where I'm going to get a ton of pushback, right? People are gonna say, well, no, people are always gonna want to pay for something, right?

Like, if I'm gonna pay you $50,000, I want to have of that car with that leather interior. Sure there's going to be tangible things out there like buying a house and buying a car and the things like that. But when I'm talking about the coaching, the online space, the knowledge base industry that's attaining knowledge is going to fall by the wayside is what I'm trying to say.

That people are going to wanna spend more time integrating the knowledge and more [00:20:00] time garnering wisdom and self-mastery. And self-mastery takes time. It's a process. It's not linear. It's not something that can be done in 2.5 seconds. So selling speed eventually is going to dissipate. I'm gonna get a lot of pushback for that.

I know I am. People are gonna say, no, I'm always gonna wanna, the quickest, the fastest, most efficient way to transformation. And what people are starting to wake up to and realize is that it's not an outcome. It's not a destination that you arrive to that all of a sudden now you're the happiest, most content human on.

The planet, like whatever you're after, it's not a destination. It's, it's the journey of being human, right? And so things like experiences, immersions, um, experiential things that allow people to tune into their senses, that allow people to filter things through their senses, those are gonna be so widely valuable in the coming years.[00:21:00] 

Rather than a curriculum based course and specifically in the area of personal development, self-mastery, that sort of thing. And why I say that is because there will still be a need for a. And maybe not necessarily in a course perspective, but there will still be a need for practical step-by-step things like how to build an IKEA desk, let's just say, right?

Like I'm, I'm using that as a reference, but things that require sort of step-by-step processes or digital products that are like. They provide a tangibility. For example, here's some code for customizing your checkout page is just another example. Those things are still going to be relevant. However, AI can do a lot of stuff and it's going to continue to evolve.

And so that's what I mean by knowledge, information becoming sort of a dime a dozen. And if you're building your business to optimize. The current reality that you're in. [00:22:00] For example, if you're creating AI bots to help people with their messaging, I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, I'm just saying that that's a, an immediate thing.

You're optimizing your current business model to adapt to current trends. And if we, as business owners continue to chase the current trends to stay ahead of the trend, fill the gaps, quote unquote, it's not gonna be sustainable, number one. Number two is you'll eventually burn out doing that. And number three is people will start to sense that.

I'm not saying it's your, not your zone of genius, but your zone of genius isn't something that you optimize. So the gifts that you were given when you were born are not things you strategically optimize. It's not something that you, that exists outside of you that you become an expert in. Right. Your zone of genius, something that you were born with, something that is innately a gift of [00:23:00] yours that only you bring in the way that you bring it, there's no curriculum around it.

There's no step by step. You're not teaching people how to be you and be that zone of genius. They're paying for that zone of genius. The problem is, and what we've, what I've discovered and what I keep getting sort of that insight and then through my own experiences is that. For many of us, we were trained out of the zone of genius, meaning.

We went to school to become an expert in a subject matter marketing and sales communication. 100% was my expertise that I was quote unquote trained in. It was a skill I acquired through education, through work experience, and you name it, right? Whereas I have these zones of genius. This g these gifts inside of me that, not saying that I'm not a good communicator or that that's not a gift of mine.

It absolutely is as a, as a communicator, but the gifts that, that I was sort of born with innately [00:24:00] were like I, I'm a pattern recognition expert in a lot of ways. I can spot in congruency, like instantaneously. It's often I can spot that incongruency in what people say they want and what they're doing and why they haven't achieved what they wanted and or I can spot incongruency with someone saying, I want this, and I can tell that.

Like, that's not really what you want. You just want that because you're trying to feed. The financial security perspective, right? You're building this business in this way because you think it's going to work or there's proof out there that other people have made it work. And so I can see that you're building that for financial security.

I. Not for the love of what you're doing. And what transpires from that often with people is, is that when things become hard and challenging, they give up. They don't want to do it anymore, um, because it's not actually the thing they want to do. But that's just an example I can spot. You know, if I, if I ask somebody how they're doing and they [00:25:00] tell me, good, I can tell right away the underlying energy there whether or not they, they actually are good or or not.

So I have an innate ability to spot patterns and. The congruency around that, what is incongruent and what isn't congruent? That's huge, right? That's a huge thing for me. I'm also somebody who thrives in direct experience, meaning put me in a room with people and I can probably coach and mentor them on various elements of their life in direct experience with them or online, right?

So. I'm very sensory in that capacity. I know how to create experiences that get the best out of people, right? So really, really valuable in a corporate culture. For example. Now you might say, well, there is some relation with marketing and sales and stuff like that. Yes, but marketing and sales was a skill I learned.

It's not necessarily something that's like innately within me that I don't even have to try [00:26:00] to do. Right? Cultivating relationships, cultivating harmony within groups. Conflict resolution, like not a skill, but I have a natural ability to even out conflict in the most conflict areas. Areas. So. These are just some of the things that I'm bringing forward for you, just to kind of give a sense of sort of what my zones of genus are, my innate ability is, but I'm sharing this with you because what's going to be.

Required of people is to step more into that zone of genius and be paid for that zone of genius rather than be paid for a skill that you acquired, that you then became a master of, that you then ended up teaching. It's, it's you're, it's less about teaching again, sort of curriculum, curriculum-based stuff, and more about showing up in that true essence of who you are, because that's not replicated, for example.

If you're [00:27:00] an astrologer and you learned how to do astrology amongst this information guru era, and, and that only sort of ramping up with the introduction of AI is, is that people are going to be sensing and feeling what is truth. What are your real true values? What is that genius that you're putting out there and is that actually fully embodied in what it is that you're offering?

And they're going to be paying people for the insight, the perspective rather than tangible deliveries. The value of insight and perspective from a human whose who's with sitting with you and holding space with you is going to be that much more valuable and people who are willing to speak truth to.

Uncomfortable situations or speak truth to what's actually going on are going to be far more valuable than this curriculum-based program where you can follow these steps and learn a skill. Because a lot of [00:28:00] the skills that we learned. Are transforming rapidly in the, in the age of ai and what we see right now is a lot of people trying to optimize their current reality, the thing they became an expert in and skilled in.

They're trying to optimize that. I. To stay ahead of the trends and fill the gaps. The problem is, is that, like I said, if we continually try to stay ahead of the trends and fill the gaps, a year will go by, two years will go by and you're, you're gonna be on this constant hamster wheel of having to optimize.

Whereas when your zone of genius and your inner like sense of being that isn't something you optimize, it's not, not a trend you have to try to beat. You know what I mean? And so that's what I'm saying, the shift of business happening, right, is like more and more business owners are gonna start to see that chasing the trends, trying to stay ahead of the curve, trying to fill these gaps to fill these market needs and demands is exhausting, but also is.[00:29:00] 

Nearly impossible to try to keep up with. Now in the era of ai, right? We're adding that into the mix. When the internet came online, right there, think of all the opportunity and possibilities that came as a result. Now with ai, there's that many more possibilities and opportunities available. It's like how are we using it and why are we using it, and is there an intention there?

Or are we just building on the business and optimizing our business? In order to stay ahead of the TRA trend and not be left behind. Because I hear that often if you're not using AI in your business, you're left behind. You're gonna be behind. And again, that's a, that's scarcity. There's a lack in scarcity there.

And that's the thing that I want us to sort of keep at the forefront as I share these sort of insights with you. So just as a summary. The forecast predictions, the things that I see is that the, the essence of what it is we're selling and how we're selling it is shifting. It's going, it's moving away from the expert era, from the information era, from the acquired [00:30:00] skill era, and more into sort of that zone of genius, that true authenticity.

What is your soul here to do and how do you get paid doing and sharing your gifts with the world? That's number one. In a way that's not. Playing into the information or consumption of knowledge and information. So more integration, embodiment. The other big one that's shifting is, is value, perspective, what we value and, and how we attach value to things.

Up until this point, I. Value was very much attached to a tangible ROI. How much weight am I losing? How much money am I making? When will I find the love of my life? In what timeframe? And will I find the love of my life? Whatever that might be. Right? Very sort of tangible ROIs. And if you can't guarantee me that ROI, then I'm not buying from you or I'm gonna just sell that ROI.

To sell what it is that I'm selling that is shifting. People are no longer seeing the value of that the way that they used to. [00:31:00] And the reason for that is because they've been inundated with those promises for so long. Now that we're starting to see this shift. We're starting to go. People are starting to wake up to the idea that certainty and guarantees are an illusion, meaning nobody can guarantee you when you're gonna find the love of your life and exactly, and what timeframe you're gonna lose weight.

Sure, they might have processes and systems in place that support you in the weight loss, but as a human, you're very nuanced and you come with very nuanced experience. You might be holding trauma in your body that won't enable you to lose weight in the way that this personal trainers. Having you do.

Work. Right? So it could be food related, right? There's the way the food interacts with your system and your body might be different than all of the other people they've serviced, right? Not saying that you can't get results from people. It's not what I'm saying, but people are starting to value and shift the way and what they value predominantly.[00:32:00] 

In sort of the tangibility piece of it, right? People are less going to be less attached to a number on a scale, less attached to a number in a bank account. The idea of success is changing. People are looking at success more from a place of like presence. Excitement for life, living life, the aliveness of living, right?

The, the human experience. People are craving that, um, more and more. And so that is huge. Is what do people value and what matters that is shifting and how we sort of look at that as shifting. So what we sell needs to shift and then what people are willing to sort of pay for as a result of what they value and what they no longer value.

And so those are kind of the big. Shifts that I'm seeing. And then the final one that I can't not share is sort of the truth in all of this, specifically in an era of AI and, and the way in which sort of the world is going, that more and more people are seeking truth. And so truth tellers, I. [00:33:00] And then truth sellers, right?

Those that are actually selling truth in what it is that they're doing and being very intentional with that. And not adopting strategies and tactics and ways of selling, because those are the ways that are, right ways are going to start to fall by the wayside. And I gave an example of what that was, right?

That I am the only one doing this or I'm the pioneer in this. Nobody has even come close to launching something like this or, um. I, I'm, I do this different than everybody else, but it's sort of a repackaged essence. Like sure, it's in your essence, it's a skill and a level of expertise that you've repackaged to be your own, but you've acquired the concepts and the knowledge from somebody else or a group of people, so.

Anybody in the marketing and sales space, right? To me, um, true innovation, like I said, is you're actually first to market, and it is actually true innovation to the marketing and sales industry. We haven't [00:34:00] seen that. And so anybody in the marketing and sales space that's saying, I'm the only one doing this, they've repackaged that knowledge to make it their own.

They've put it in their own words. They're not copying, they're putting their own spin and approach on it. However, we're starting to see. Through that, and that's what I'm saying about truth is that you're very intentional about if you want to sell marketing and sales, or you wanna sell life coaching, or you wanna sell relationship, right?

If you're using methodologies or modalities, or you've acquired information and knowledge from somebody else, that. The claims that you make about what you're selling, don't contradict the fact that you've acquired all of that knowledge and skill from somebody else or other teachers or masters in that area, is kind of what I'm saying.

So that is huge. And so with that, I hope that that is giving you some insight, I think, of where we're going and how to really look at. Your business. And then if you've had resistance [00:35:00] about your business of selling how-tos and frameworks and different things like that, that, um, you're starting to see this sort of in a, in a different way.

So with that, I hope you have a fab day. Cheers. 

INTRO: Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here next time. You can also find us on social media at creatively owned and online@creativelyowned.com. Until next time, keep showing up as your authentic self.