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Own Your Impact equips experts and leaders to transform their expertise into meaningful influence. Host Macy Robison reveals how successful thought leaders use deliberate systems—not luck or volume—to amplify their authentic voice and create lasting impact. Through practical frameworks and strategic guidance, you'll discover how to build a self-reinforcing ecosystem of Core Resonance, structured Content, a Central Platform, strategic Connections, and intentional Commercialization. Whether you're just starting to share your expertise or scaling an existing platform, this podcast delivers the roadmap to turn your ideas into purpose-driven influence that resonates far beyond what you might imagine possible.
Unknown Speaker 0:00
Welcome back to own your impact. I'm Macy Robison, and if the description I'm about to share sounds like you, then this episode is specifically for you. You have a natural ability for deep interpersonal connection and can create profound personal shifts through individualized guidance. You're highly attuned to listening and perception, and you can hear not just what people are saying, but what they're not saying. You have an intuitive understanding of individual needs, and can hold space that balances support with challenge, as well as having the ability to equip people with what they need to move forward. But here's what might be exhausting you. Everyone keeps telling you that you need to scale that this personal delivery won't work for you when your genius is actually in personalized transformation, and that happens through relationships, not through curriculum. So if this sounds like you, but you want a little bit more confirmation, I would love to have you take the thought leadership archetype quiz at Macy robison.com forward slash quiz to see if you are what I call a transformational guide. So you're a transformational guide. What does that actually mean? I think the best comparison I can give you is to think about the difference between Mr. Miyagi from the Karate Kid, and Mary Poppins. Both are guides in their individual stories, and my background in story brand, I talk about guides a lot. Guides are someone who helps the hero win the day, but Mr. Miyagi gives Daniel individual tools and techniques so that he can learn karate quickly. It's all about specific practices designed for an individual, transformational journey. Now Mary Poppins, she walks into the banks family system and transforms the entire family dynamic through group experiences, she creates conditions where everyone transforms together. So as a transformational guide, you're more like Mr. Miyagi. You're creating individual transformation through deep personal connection. Now what energizes you is where you can read between the lines of what someone is actually struggling with. You probably love being able to adapt your approach to what each person needs, and you probably have this intuitive ability to see individual potential that other people might miss. And because of that, you have the ability to help people have breakthrough moments through personalized attention. You also serve as a mirror, helping people see themselves clearly often for the first time. And that diagnostic ability. It's incredibly valuable, even though you might undervalue it. I was thinking about other transformational guides that I've known of, and I Marshall Goldsmith came to mind. He's built his entire practice around individual executive coaching. When he works with senior leaders, he's not delivering a standardized program, even though he has them, he's using his ability to see what they can't see about themselves, and provides individualized guidance that creates profound shifts in how they lead their massive organizations. But from that, he is able to create books. He is able to actually take the practices and the processes that he learns from doing that individualized work, and he can still make sure that not everything he does is individualized. So if you're thinking, I just don't want to work with one on one people forever, I'll never make any money. That's just not true. More to come on that. But here's what probably drains you and where traditional advice probably fails you. A mass marketing approach that treats every single person the same way may not work as well impersonal systems that make people feel like a cog in the wheel or shallow group work that doesn't allow for individual attention. If you've ever felt exhausted by the advice that people give to scale through courses, it's because you're trying to systematize what is inherently intuitive and personal when you pre record a course, your ability to sense what someone needs in the moment, to be the mirror that they need, to provide the challenge or support that they need that can't fully be captured in a framework or a process. And that's not a bug. That's a feature. It's a common misalignment that might be hurting your impact trying to scale through things that other people are scaling through when your genius is individual transformation. I see it all the time. You need an online course to scale your business. You're not leveraging your time. And so they spend months building content that feels really flat compared to the work that they do with people, when they could perhaps just record themselves, live with someone and repurpose that. There's lots of ways to scale beyond the general advice that's out there. Another mistake that's pretty costly that I see with transformational guides is undervaluing their presence. I actually had someone ask me the other day, you're basically saying that I'm a mirror for other people. And I said, Yeah, that's right.
Unknown Speaker 4:40
Nick said, Well, how do I charge for being a mirror? And I just kind of chuckled, because true mirrors are incredibly valuable. Honestly, you will seek clear mirrors out that you feel like reflect who you are. If I can get a clear picture of what I actually look like in the clothes I'm trying on. That is.
Unknown Speaker 5:00
Worth it. And I think in general, we undervalue diagnostic ability and the personalized guidance that can come from that people remember that for years. So the impact is very deep, but comparing it to healthcare, for example, any process that is diagnostic, very expensive, drawn out, blood work, MRIs, none of those things necessarily cure a problem. They give a diagnosis, but they give crystal clear, wildly valuable time saving when it's a life or death situation. In some cases, diagnoses, it's very valuable to be able to mirror for people. It's very valuable to be able to sit and work with one individual and diagnose what's going on. You have to have the courage to charge for it. You have to understand the value that you create so that you can communicate that to someone. But those are different issues. Those aren't business design issues. Those are confidence issues. I actually have a lot of transformational guides that I've worked with as clients. I am one myself, and this is something that we come back to again and again. So knowing that, knowing that's something that is a potential stumbling block, let's talk about what your fastest path to results might be, as always. The fastest path to growth, to result, is to come back to where your strengths are and who you are, and the best thing you can do is perfect, the one on one transformation process that you actually get results through document what works and focus on becoming excellent at what you're already wired to be great at before you tried to scale it. So what that could look like in practice is this, after your next few client conversations, document the patterns in how you help people transform. What is it that you specifically noticed about the transformation that you're helping people walk through? What questions do you always ask? What shifts do you help people make that becomes the foundation of your methodology. Quite honestly, that's how I've developed the system that I'm teaching you on this podcast. I had a whole bunch of ideas. I was able to find some wonderful, willing people who trusted me based on previous engagements and work we had done together, who were willing to step into a one on one coaching container and pay me to walk them from point A to point B. I learned a lot from those engagements, and then I continued to iterate and develop until I got to the point where I felt like I had a system that I could talk about, which is when we started the podcast. And that's continued to grow from there. And you've heard the continued progress of what I have learned if you've been listening to this podcast from the beginning, so much of that comes from the one on one work that I do.
Unknown Speaker 7:46
But that's not the only way that I can continue to grow my impact through the business that I offer. I was talking with my friend last year, reflecting on my happiest working time to up to this point as an adult, and it's when I was in my late 20s, and I was teaching choir, and I was also teaching voice lessons after school, and I was also performing in musical theater. And so I would spend my day with groups of kids anywhere from 50 to 90 kids in my class, trying to teach them the fundamentals of how to sing. Because I deeply believe everyone can learn how to sing if they know the kind of three or four things you need to do again and again. Not everybody wanted to get it, but I was teaching one to many. And then after school, I had the chance to teach voice lessons to about 10 kids just over the course of the week, a few after school every day, where they wanted to go further and they wanted to go deeper, and they were willing to hire me to teach them voice lessons. It was so fun to be able to take the fundamentals that they were learning in their choir classes, in my choir class, with groups that they were in, in the musicals they were in, and apply stuff directly to them and their situation. And then best of all was when I also got to take the things I was learning about singing and be in musicals, go perform. I had a chance to do that quite often, as I was in this period of time. And so all of that to say, I have applied that same approach. Once I realized the similarities with what I'm doing now and what I was doing, then I have the chance to teach one to many through this podcast, through the workshops that I offer, I developed some of the processes and methodology that I walk people through by having the chance to work with people one on one. I've since added a group, a one on one and group component to that, which is very much like when I used to take voice lessons in college, and we had a master class. Every week, I would have a one on one lesson and a master class. And it's been so fun to work through my thought leadership learning lab this summer with about seven people who again stepped into this experiment. I decided to run to see if I could offer a different way of teaching that would still be true to who I was as.
Unknown Speaker 10:00
A transformational guide, and it's worked really well. So coming back to my foundation, coming back to what I am uniquely wired to do, has been the thing that has allowed me to scale in a way that feels true to me, and that has made all the difference.
Unknown Speaker 10:18
So take that and apply it to how you're thinking about your business, because your foundation, your core resonance, it's really important to understand your natural approach to guiding people and what your intuitive abilities are, and then your ability to connect to other people. Just lean in to the fact that your business will be built on relationship based strategies. I don't want to build my business any other way. I want to make sure I know people I am wired to build through relationship. I am thrilled to have a referral based business. Does that mean that I don't build an email list? No, I do. Does that mean I don't have a website? I absolutely do, but that means I'm not trying to build a crowd. I'm trying to build an audience of the right people paying attention to me, and that is really important, I believe, for the connection strategies. When you have transformational guide as part of your archetype for my platform, like I said, it's really all about personal process and individual change and not so much massive programs. I want to make sure I'm seeing impact in an individual level that probably comes from being a teacher. I like to be there for the transformation. To just give a talk and leave and not know it made a difference wouldn't necessarily energize me. That doesn't mean anything is wrong. If it energizes you, it just means that's how you're wired, and we've got to build accordingly. People need to understand when they come to your platform and they want to build a relationship with you, they need to know how you work with individuals. They need to know what that experience is like. They need to hear from people who have worked with you. They need to understand why your personal attention can create the transformation that they can't get anywhere else, and the way you position yourself in that way attracts the right individual clients. I don't want to appeal to everyone. I don't think it's wise from a business standpoint for anybody to take that stance. We want to magnetize people to come work with us. And a strong magnet, its ability to attract is inversely relational to its ability to repel. You've got to be willing to repel the wrong people for working with you so that you can attract the right people, and not to offend anyone, but just kindly to say, Man, I don't think we're a great fit, but I know someone who is, and connect them to that person and still provide value. And that leads right into connection strategies, having that referral system from past clients who have really experienced your guidance, knowing that you have an authentic approach to help people and can meet them where they are, and not be pressured to teach every single thing you know. And most importantly, those relationships don't have to just be with people who can buy. You can have really strong, strategic partnerships with other people who can amplify your work. There might even be people who can do both, you know people who can buy, people who can amplify, people who can do both. So keep all of that in mind as you're building your foundation and as you're building your business system, all of this stuff comes into play and can help you grow organically and well. And on the flip side, be aware of the critical mistakes that might be costing you your ideal clients. You don't need to feel pressured to turn your intuitive guidance into rigid, step by step practices and processes, they might flow that way, but like I've said before, I'm not really great at creating practices, and I think this is why having a general, repeatable approach that works for every person just isn't the way my brain is wired. My genius is in personalized application in in systems that are probably invisible at first, and then personalizing those systems to the individual. And so don't undervalue individual work by trying to make it cheaper or faster. There are lots of ways to compete to get people to line up doing business with you. I really love the book over subscribed. He talks a lot in that about the levers you can pull in order to get people to get people to line up doing business with you, and one of them is relationships. That was all the permission I needed to to just lean into that and not worrying about having millions and millions of people following me. I just need the right people who are interested in what I'm doing and who I feel equipped to serve as a transformational guide. Your superpower truly is seeing what other people miss and providing exactly what people need. And that is premium work that deserves premium pricing. So let's talk about pricing. The types of primary business models you can think about with this archetype. Is premium one on one, coaching or consulting small group intensives where you can still provide individual attention, like my lab that I was talking about, and methodology licensing. You can train other people to use your approach, if you have it dialed in enough, and then they can bring their individual gifts to the methodologies that you've created. Here's the breakthrough around pricing, though you need to price for the profound personal transformation you create, not the time that gets invested your ability to create breakthrough moments through.
Unknown Speaker 15:00
Individual attention is very valuable. Back to Marshall Goldsmith, he is so confident in his ability to provide transformation that as I've spoken to people who know him, who've worked with him, he charges premium rates for his stakeholder centered coaching, and he often does not charge until the end of the year that you spend with him as a CEO, and there's an actual return on investment that you can see, and then that's usually well into the six figures for the opportunity to work with him, because you can't get that kind of transformation at that level where the stakes are that high anywhere else. And so he's pricing for the breakthroughs that make all of that ROI possible, not the amount of time that he spends, because he'll spend whatever amount of time he needs to spend. So you might offer intensive VIP days, or you might offer an ongoing individual coaching relationship, or small mastermind experiences where you can really provide personalized guidance. I tend to work best in sprints, so that's how I have my offer set up, but it can look different depending on the transformational guide and how you're wired and how you want to set things up. But just know that the definition that you have of scaling of one to millions, if you're trying to figure out how to do that and you can't figure it out, there might be another way, and it might be scaling through impact. And I will even go back to say you can, sure create courses as part of what you do, especially if you have digital learning architect near the top of your scores, but they need to be designed to facilitate transformation, not just information transfer. And a lot of the things that I'm seeing right now with the rise of AI, if you're designing courses that are just about information transfer and not about transformation. We'll we'll want to look at your business model anyway, but that's a conversation for another day. Here's what I want you to do, to take action now that you know your transformational guide. And then now what do I do? I would love to have you start to document your natural guidance process. Think about some of the conversations that you've had that have gone well. What are the patterns that have emerged? If you have transcripts of some of your client calls, you could even partner with AI to pull out some of those patterns that you always consistently use with clients. Are there questions that you always ask? Are there principles that you always teach. Are there things that you consistently notice from person to person, and what are the shifts that you consistently help people make as you start to track these things that becomes your methodology Foundation, and you're able to systematize that without trying to systematize something that should be intuitive and personal and bring in a whole bunch of people to help you can scale the system without scaling the delivery. So if you're a transformational guide, but you also scored high in some other archetypes. It's really important to understand how those combinations shape your unique guidance approach, and it's really helpful for positioning and pricing your offers accordingly. I have a live workshop coming up next week, called Beyond your primary archetype, where I share some analysis around these patterns and a personalized report around your specific patterns that is only available to my clients and now to you if you attend this workshop. So go register at Macy robison.com, forward slash workshop. I'll have your email address when you register, and I'll be able to send that deeper analysis on the day of the workshop, so you'll have it when you attend. And just remember this, your voice matters, your presence creates transformation, and your individual guidance is exactly what certain people need to break through to their next level. So lean into that and help them transform you.