5 Exclusive Tips To Help Conquer The Curse Of Knowledge
Via Kyle Musser
Ever been in a situation while growing your business where you’re meeting with prospective clients and they look up at you after your presentation only to have them stare at you like you just did your whole pitch in a foreign language?
Whether it’s during an in-person meeting during a client meeting, presenting on stage in front of an audience, steaming on a Facebook Live, sharing something on a Periscope, or even while doing a webinar. The common threads among all these experiences involve two things…
People…
And the communication of ideas…
When it comes to getting the message out about your brand, it’s the communication of your Story Labs Script that’s the real connector between your business and your customers.
But what happens many times is that a lot of people (including you reading this), fall victim to your own Curse of Knowledge.
You might have never heard of this, but there’s this idea called The Law of Specialization and Exchange that states…
“All God’s children should spend time doing what actually matters by investing time, energy, effort, and resources into what you’ve been called to do.” 💭
Whatever your spiritual beliefs, the fact is we all should be investing our time, energy, effort, and resources into the things that will propel our lives and businesses forward in a positive direction.
And once you really understand this principal, you then open up your business to receive the financial rewards that come when you properly communicate your message to your specific audience.
It’s also an interesting spot to be in because with mastery of your calling comes new levels of expertise and experience that lead to new business opportunities.
But with those opportunities and your continuing level of mastery, comes the warning that just because you know something… that doesn’t mean the people in your audience will as well.
So while you might not realize it, many people that are following you and consuming your content are doing so because you are a few or even many steps ahead of them in their own journey.
They (your audience) are looking for a master to help guide them along the pathway to mastery of their own calling. And this is where you have to be conscious of the fact that the people reading your content, buying your products, etc., most likely don’t have the expertise that you have in your chosen niche.
Take golf for example…
I love this game, but I am nowhere near pro status.
But what I do know was that if I wanted to become a pro golfer, I’d first seek out and hire the best golf coach to help me achieve this goal.
Now imagine you’re in the same place and you are trying to become a master at golf yourself.
Where do you start? Many would go out searching the best coach or person with the most experience that they could find. Someone like Rory, Phil, Tiger, etc.
After you do that, you’d head off from your oceanside resort to meet one of them at TPC Sawgrass near Jacksonville (which is a great course btw). Only to quickly realize…
“I might be in way over my head.” 💭
It’s early morning, the mist is still sitting low on the course, and there’s a nice crisp chill in the air still lingering from the night before.
You hop out of your car, grab valet, and waiting there to greet you is your chosen coach.
You each spend a few minutes getting to know each other, and then…“Let’s hit the course!”
And while I know it wouldn’t happen exactly like that, the fact is that if you an amateur showed up to learn from a pro like this… there’s a good chance that there would be a complete disconnect because their level of mastery is far beyond the fundamentals you need to start to master you own game where you’re at.
See with mastery comes a level of experience and perspective that to amateurs can be quite overwhelming when compared to where you (let’s say) are currently at in your chosen calling.
That’s why it’s important to understand how your mastery needs to be approached, positioned, and utilized in ways that provide the right insights, information, knowledge, and perspective to your customers and prospects based on where they are currently at in their journey.
So whether you’re a coach, speaker, author, thought leader, business leader, etc., you need to understand not only why this is important. But also how to avoid the Curse of Knowledge.
And interesting enough, if you’re reading this article… you might not even know what that is! (Point proven) 😂
So what’s the Curse of Knowledge?
I found this article on Life Hack which shared it perfectly…
“You are suffering from the curse of knowledge when you know things that the other person does not and you have forgotten what it’s like to not have this knowledge.” 💭
To follow that up, here’s what happens when you are trapped in your own curse of knowledge…
- Your communication suffers.
- Your perceived authority suffers.
- Your social proof suffers.
- Your brand suffers.
- Your leadership suffers.
- Your credibility suffers.
- Your influence suffers.
So while there’s a myriad of reasons I can keep going on how this can affect you, the most important thing to realize for you and your business is that it affects how your customers see you and whether or not they choose to buy from you.
Or simpler put…
K.I.S.S — Keep It Simple Stupid
And luckily for you, I’ve put together 5 Exclusive Tips To Help Conquer The Curse Of Knowledge…
Tip #1 — Seek to understand your audience.
When it comes to building a profitable brand and a sustainable business, it always involves one thing… PEOPLE! 👥
In business (and life), people are everything…
“For service to many, leads to an abundant, prosperous and plentiful life.” — Rabbi Daniel Lapin 💭
I know this because I’ve experienced this shocking phenomenon first hand.
Every time you engage in a transaction, you are exchanging value in return for value. As the needs of your customers are fulfilled, so shall yours.
But when you’re first starting out, I also understand that for some of you reading this… there comes a time and place when the focus is on you.
And I get that when you first start your business, many times you are scrambling just to keep you head above water. The saying “Cash is king” ring a bell??? 💸
However, when it comes to actually growing a sustainable business… this mindset is a dangerous place to be in. As focusing on self over the needs of your audience, prospects, and customers can lead to complete disaster for you and your brand.
So how do you overcome this?
Well it first starts with your overall intentions and understanding what a business actually is.
I’m listening to this audiobook right now called “Business Secrets of the Bible” via Rabbi Daniel Lapin… of which you might remember me sharing about the Law of Specialization and Exchange at the beginning of this article.
Now I’ve been in both places of service and times of self-servitude throughout my own entrepreneurial journey. And what I find fascinating is the balance and constant pull between the two.
As I grow more as a biz leader, I’m realizing more and more that if you want build a great business… you’ve first got to put the needs, wants, desires, goals, ambitions, etc. of your customers first.
A breakthrough, idea I know. But it’s a reminder that many of us forget to re-focus in on along the profit pathway.
I see way too many people leading their brand’s with a focus on themselves vs. the wants, needs, and desires of their customers.
And trust me, when this happens it will only leave you spinning your wheels wondering why people aren’t buying your ______ (thing).
So since I’d rather not see you in this spot, here’s tip #1…
Don’t fall victim to your own mis-guided intentions and instead make it your priority to keep the focus on your customers so that long term you’ll be able to build a dominant brand based on actually satisfying your customers needs.
ACTION ITEMS:
If you want to break the cycle of mediocre sales and brand growth, then just start by asking yourself and your team…
- What does our customer really want?
- What does our customer really need?
- What does out customer really desire?
- What ideal world or transformation does our customer dream of?
- Who is our idea customer profile?
- How can we best serve that customers’ wants, needs, desires, and dreams?
As one of my business coaches, Nick Unsworth of lifeonfire.com always reminded us…
“Give them what they want. And then follow up by serving them what they need.” 💭
Tip #2 — Aim to use your audience’s language.
Little case study…
Funnels,
Conversion Coefficients,
CPC,
Vitality Coefficient,
Campaigns,
A/B Testing,
Marketing Dashboard,
API,
Bounce Rates,
Buyer Persona,
Deliverability Factor,
CTA,
Churn Rate,
MRR,
Ok, ok… I think you get my point.
When we’re in our own zone of genius, it’s easy to get caught up in the assumption that because we know a certain thing… that others do as well.
Perfect example is that which I just shared.
See as founder of Digital Conversion Labs, I’m used to the agency and digital jargon, langauge, acroynym’s, etc. But to you, when I opened up this tip #2 with that list, there’s a good chance it was like I was speaking a foreign language.
I know this because I’ve had experiences working with clients (and my team), where they give me that “What planet are you from” look.
And depending on what your intentions are, this can be both good and bad.
If you are trying to confuse a prospect to the point of conning them into buying from you, then that’s just a you know what move.
But on the flip side, if you’re presenting your expertise on lets say a webinar and you share it through stories, real life examples, and you offer something of value that serves your prospects pain points… well then that’s a different story.
When you’re speaking to your prospects, you have to understand where they are at in the Conversation to Conversion Sales Cycle if you want to avoid getting caught in the curse of knowledge trap.
Which leads us back to tip #1 of understanding who you customers actually are. And what’s cool is when you know this, you are able to create some pretty ninja marketing and communication plans that attract and provide value to your prospects in ways that lead them directly into buying from your business time and time again.
A perfect example is if you’ve ever put out a piece of email marketing or created a launch video series where your prospects say this…
“I felt as if you were speaking directly to me right at my pain points.” 💭
Once you get to this level of communication mastery, you know that you’re onto something that works.
ACTION ITEMS:
Ask yourself and your team these questions…
- What industry language do we use on a consistent basis?
- What language do our prospects // customers use on a consistent basis?
- What can we do starting today to find a mix of those two?
Tip #3 — Get feedback from your audience.
Ah, customer feedback… the holy grail of business!
Think I’m kidding, just ask Marc Andreessen from VC firm Andreessen Horowitz as he advises startups and entrepreneurs to do this one activity as soon as possible…
But how do you get PMF?
Well, you start by ASKING!
Oh, insider language… PMF — ‘Product Market Fit’. Or simply put, people buy your stuff and validate your business model.
I don’t know why so many of us miss this, especially when we first launch our businesses.
Maybe it’s pride, ego, fear, etc. But whatever this is, the fact is that our prospects and customers are most of the time telling us exactly what it is that they want.
You just have to be in a place mentally where you are looking for feedback, choosing to listen to the feedback that they give you, and then taking action decide which feedback you can best iterate and improve your service or product on.
And while that doesn’t mean you have to do everything that they wish or ask for. But the fact is they (your customers and prospects) are telling you exactly what they want and don’t want much of the time, you just have to choose to listen.
Technology is amazing because so much of what we do as creatives has been digitized in a way that allows us to track, analyze, and iterate our _____ (thing) on the fly.
It wasn’t until much recently… last 10–15 years that this type of ability was made accessible.
So whether it’s feedback from your audience in the form of surveys on subscriptions like Typeform or it’s looking into your email marketing automation’s to see what opt-in offers are getting the highest opens, downloads, and conversions…
The fact is you NEED and MUST acknowledge feedback from your customers otherwise you will most likely fail because you’re not really serving your customers what they actually want.
In which case, they’ll most likely find it somewhere as the market can be a competitive pain in the (bleep) sometimes.
ACTION ITEMS:
Ask yourself and your team these questions…
- What metrics should we be testing, measuring and using as a baseline to customer feedback on a regular basis?
- What form of customer feedback loop in the form of a survey funnel or a one-off broadcast email survey can we start using this week?
- What questions could we ask current and prospective customers to get feedback on how we could best serve their needs?
- What strategic changes to your brand’s products, services, and offerings do we need to make to best fit the needs of our current customers?
Tip #4 — Create, run and test more experiments.
This is probably my favorite tip as one of our core values here at DCLabs is the…
Committment to Continuous Experimentation 💭⚗
In fact, we believe that business is just a series of experiments and it’s your duty as a business owner, thought leader, and creative to constantly live in a state of continuous experimentation on your pathway to mastery.
I’m a huge advocate of this approach for many reasons because not only do people learn more when they are running creating, running and testing experiments in real life… but you also get more feedback faster!
Which for any small business, new entrepreneur, and startup… feedback is the holy grail on the Pathway to Unlimited Profits.
Some people also refer to this type of mindset as “Growth Hacker Mentality”.
Which in today’s digital world, is probably one of of the best mindsets that you can look for in any potential team member or partner.
Aaron Ginn likes to put it this way,
That said, ‘hacking growth’ isn’t just about the amount of Facebook Ad Spend or money in your venture funded growth account, it’s about much more than that.
It comes down to your mindset as…
“How you approach anything is how you approach everything.” — Kyle Musser
Example, let’s say you’re team has a small marketing budget which most likely makes me assume that you don’t have a large (if any) team in place.
So how are you to grown an organic audience with little to no resources???
Well without giving you a play-by-play formula, the simple answer is you get creative!
There are literally endless ways to grow your authority as an influencer and build a brand in today’s digital world. You just to be willing to adopt the experimenters guide to learning through experimentation.
Here’s a quick example that someone (possibly even you) could you use to grow your authority and communicate you influence…
- Post 1 article on Medium 2–5 x weekly (Free)
- Post 1 quote or thought in Instagram daily (Free)
- Link all those back to a landing page were you’re offering something of value in exchange for someone’s email address and name (Use Leadpages <$50 Month)
- Send 1–2 weekly emails providing only valuable insight, information, and knowledge to your list (Use Convert Kit <$30 Month)
- Ask your audience “What are you most struggling with when it comes to _____ (whatever problem, audience, or niche you serve)?”
- Then presell an idea to your audience with the thought that if I created it to serve that problem, they would be the founding customers.
I also talked about this here in 6 Tips to Help Your Brand Stand Out in the Digital World…
For a couple hundred bucks, if not close to nothing per month other than email software, landing page software, free accounts on social (Instagram, Twitter, Medium, Periscope, YouTube, Facebook, etc.), access to a smartphone, and some creative hustle… you can have yourself a profitable business with potentially unlimited upside in the making!
Does it mean you’re going to know everything or have it all figured out?
As humans we tend to complicate things. But the great news is that when it comes to business, it doesn’t have to be complicated!
You just have to start your experiment, learn from your mistakes along the way, and grow your creative thinking abilities in the process.
Ditch the complication and just get to work utilizing all the tools we have at our fingertips here in today’s digital world.
Whatever medium you choose, becoming a masterful communicator requires that you just practice and put the reps in.
Tim Ferriss, 3 Time Best Selling Author, Speaker, Investor, Entrepreneur and all around life experiment hacker says it best…
“Just write two crappy pages a day.” — Tim Ferriss via Daniel Rodic “The Power of Writing” Medium post
ACTION ITEMS:
Ask yourself and your team these questions…
- What is your growth (hacking) experimentation plan?
- What free resources can you start utilizing today to start attracting new prospects and customers?
- What fears are holding you back from running more experiments?
Here’s some more on Growth Hacking from another one of my latestMedium articles…
Tip #5 — Use mastery of self to your advantage.
Achieving mastery is a beautiful thing and not because of the money, fame, wealth, etc. And while all those things are amazing, the wealth of mastery comes down to…
who you become in the process of mastery.
If you take a second and step back from your life, you’ll quickly realize that you have more experiences, perspectives, themes, etc., that drive your decision making and create the foundation for your chosen expertise.
But the most important part of influence is your story.
Why is this? It’s because…people were designed to connect with other people and people connect with stories.
For thousands of years, we’ve relied on stories to share our ideas and to provide a medium to communicate with others.
Great stories have stood the test of time, language, and culture for millennia.
In a Harvard University Harvard Innovation Lab article by Chip and Dan Heath, they mention why the concept of story telling is so important to the success of your brand.
So the only thing that’s different in the digital age is just the way through which we share our stories.
No longer do traditional mediums such as TV, Radio, Newspaper, Phone, etc., rule the world of storytelling and marketing.
Whether it’s blogging, podcasting, social media sites, photography, video, live streaming, and now VR, the means through which you have at your fingertips (literally) are allowing for a whole new level of expert and brand influence.
The endless disruptions and the ones that we’ve yet to even come up with are the reasons why you are seeing people go from obscurity to influence in what seems like overnight fashion.
That being said, the thing that has and always will distinguish you from average and your competition is your ability to communicate your ideas in a compelling and purposeful way.
I challenge you to embrace every single opportunity as a chance to learn from others around you. Whether it’s your team, your customers, prospects, etc.
Your opportunity to engineer success in a creative marketplace stems from your ability to effectively use stories at just the right moments in your customers journey.
Whether it’s a live stream, in the middle of a presentation, or in any aspect of writing…
stories influence others to action.
ACTION ITEMS:
Ask yourself and your team these questions…
- Where can I keep a journal or digital record of customer stories, testimonials, etc.?
- What should I be doing to increase my ability to tell better stories?
- What themes or major lessons from my own life can I use as a way to connect and influence my prospects?
TAKEAWAY: Which one of these 5 Tip to Help You Avoid the Curse of Knowledge did you find most useful?
Be sure to leave your comments below and share it with a friend if you’ve found any of these helpful…
And if you’ve found this valuable, I’d be much appreciated if you could leave a HEART below… 💙
I’m Kyle Musser,
Founder and CEO (Chief Experiment Officer) of digitalconversionlabs.com. Come check out what we’re up to and be sure to check out our FREE RESOURCES by clicking on the link below the image…
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