[00:00:00] I want to start today with a question that might sound a little strange. Have you ever bought a new app for your phone, something everyone was raving about, something that was supposed to change how you work, and it just didn't work right? It crashed. It was slow, the features wouldn't load, and you thought there is something wrong with this app, and then you realize the problem wasn't the app. The problem was that your phone's operating system was out of date. The app was fine. The operating system underneath it couldn't support it. And the moment you updated the os, everything started working just exactly the way it was supposed to. I've been thinking about this a lot lately because it describes a pattern I see with almost every expert and thought leader I work with. They invest in great programs. They hire coaches, they take courses on content strategy, LinkedIn podcast, guesting, email marketing, good programs. Some of them are really great programs. But then the results don't match the investment. [00:01:00] Things still feel harder than they should. The strategies that work beautifully for other people still feel like they're fighting against something inside of you. Here's what I've come to believe. The problem is not the programs, the problem is in the tactics. The problem is that most experts are trying to run powerful applications on an operating system that either hasn't been installed fully or was designed for someone else entirely. So let me tell you what I actually see happening, because I think naming the problem is the first step to breaking it when something in our business isn't working, and I mean when we can feel it, that gut sense that something is off, most of us start to try to fix it at the surface. We start with the most visible layer. We think my website doesn't sound like me, so we hire someone to overhaul it maybe for the third or fourth time, or we think, I'm not showing up consistently on social media. That's the problem. So we buy a content strategy program and we post every day, and it lasts for two weeks before we're right back where we started. Or maybe we think I need to be in [00:02:00] more rooms. I need more connections. So we join a mastermind or a networking group, or we go to an event and we spend the whole time feeling like we're in the wrong room. Those are real problems and those are real investments, but they're all surface layer fixes. . They're all trying to solve the visible symptom. Now, some people might go a layer deeper. They start to look at their offers. They think maybe my business model is the problem. Maybe I need to restructure how I deliver transformation. Or they look at their intellectual property, their frameworks, their methodology, and they think, oh, I need to develop something that's truly mine, something I can teach and scale. And that's closer. That gets us closer to what actually matters. Because your offers and your IP are vitally important. They absolutely need to be there for an authority driven business to work. But even that layer, the offers, the content, the ip, the business model, even that doesn't work as well as it could if the layer underneath that isn't solid. And the more I do this [00:03:00] work, the more I'm convinced that this thing that I refer to as core resonance is the nucleus of all of this. It's the center of the operating system that makes everything else run seamlessly. Lemme say that differently. Most people build from the outside in. They start with the visible stuff. Their website, their social media, their audience growth strategy, and they work inward. Some people get to the middle layer, their offers, their ip, their business model, but I find that very few start where I believe the work actually begins, which is at the center, who are you? How are you wired? What have you actually lived through that gives you the authority to teach what you want to teach? How do you naturally express ideas and guide transformation, and are you living what you're teaching? Core resonance, and when it's clear and it's strong, everything built on top of it works better. It's more magnetic. Your content strategy actually produces content you sustain because it's built on how you naturally think. Your website finally sounds like you, because you're clear on what you actually sound like. And your [00:04:00] offers convert more effectively because the signal people receive from your marketing is the same signal they get when they actually work with you. There's no gap, there's no disconnect. There's alignment all the way through. But when core resonance is off, when that center isn't clear. Everything on top just struggles. And that's the pattern that breaks my heart. 'cause I've experienced it and I see it constantly. Brilliant people with incredible expertise trying to fix the outer layers. They think the problem is the content strategy or their website or the sales process. So they go invest in another program, another course, another overhaul that's going to work this time. But they're just stacking new applications on a maybe not fully installed or slightly broken operating system, and they're wondering why none of these things are running the way they should. This is a deeper version of what I've been referring to as the copy paste trap. It's not just that people are copying someone else's strategy, it's that they're starting in [00:05:00] the wrong place entirely. They're trying to solve an alignment problem with surface level tactics. Let me give you an example for my own life because it's helped me see this pattern more clearly. About three years ago, I had a chance to go through my friend Dustin's podcast, guesting Accelerator. This is a stellar program. He teaches you how to use strategic podcast appearances to build visibility and build authority. Now, I was working at another organization full-time at the time, and I went through it on behalf of that organization. But in the back of my mind I thought, man, if I have something I wanna teach someday. I'm so excited to learn all of these things in case there's something I want to talk about on my own. But I didn't know what that was yet. Now, in this accelerator, learned a lot of great things. The strategies are solid. He's teaching this in a way that no one else is. The coaching was excellent, but for me personally,, I finished that experience and didn't get exactly what I hoped for from that accelerator around podcast guesting itself. And that is completely on me. It has nothing to do with the program. The [00:06:00] program did exactly what it was designed to do. I still work with Dustin to this day. I am in his mastermind. I love the way he thinks. I love the way he works, but with that specific program, I didn't have my own operating system installed yet. I didn't have clarity on my signal, so how was I supposed to go on someone else's podcast and talk about something and be clear? I didn't really have a full understanding of how I was wired to express ideas. I didn't have the full frameworks that were mine to teach. The application was great, it was wonderful, but my operating system underneath wasn't ready. So fast forward to now. I have built this resonant thought leadership system and I'm working on it for myself. I've done the work to understand my own core resonance. I do it every day. My wiring, my archetype blend, how I show up and guide transformation. And I've been able to go back to Dustin and say, I really need some specific coaching on how I can use podcast guesting as a strategy. You know my wiring, [00:07:00] I know my wiring, my point of view, I have a clear signal to send. Now what do we do? And Dustin totally over-delivered, and you're going to hear me guesting on more podcasts this year. You'll hear me do things like walk a hosts through their own archetype results live on air, showing them how their own individual wiring shapes their signal and how knowing that with their audience members can help them and can help their audience members show up more effectively. I go into those conversations with a completely different level of confidence and clarity. And it has nothing to do with the program that I went through on learning how to be a podcast guest. That strategy is still just as awesome as it always was, but I changed the operating system underneath, and that has made the difference, that has made that run more effectively for me. I think this is true of most of the investments we make in our own thought leadership. The program isn't usually the problem. It's the foundational operating system that needs attention. So since it sits underneath the surface, how do you know if it's the operating system [00:08:00] that needs attention? I think it's hard to diagnose this on your own, and for me, I think if I could have diagnosed it on my own, I would've done it already instead of continuing to invest in time and money and programs that I was trying to solve. Surface level problems with. I think though, by recognizing the symptoms, we can start to figure out what the real problem is, and that's usually the first step. So if you keep investing in content strategies, but still can't create content consistently, consider that. That might not be a discipline problem. It might be an operating system problem, or if you've overhauled your website multiple times and it still doesn't sound like you, that's probably not a design problem. It might be an operating system problem. Maybe you've joined lots of programs that produce great results for other people, but it didn't quite work for you. It's probably not because something is wrong with you and it's probably not the program that is a great application that was running on the wrong operating system. If you've built [00:09:00] offers that work on paper, but you dread in your heart delivering them and showing up for them, that's not a motivation problem. That's likely a wiring mismatch at the foundational level. And if you're working way harder than you should have to for the results that you're getting. If there's a persistent friction in your business that you can't quite name, that's the signal I want you to pay attention to because friction almost always points to misalignment. And misalignment lives at the operating system level, not at the strategy level. Now I wanna be honest about something. I know firsthand how hard this is to see in yourself. I built this system because I needed it. The resonant thought leadership system that I teach isn't something I created in isolation in a lab, and then went looking for customers to sell it to. I built it because I was the person running the wrong operating system, which is a little bit confusing on the surface because I've been in the thought leadership space for almost a decade. I was the senior director of StoryBrand Guide Program, helping hundreds of experts [00:10:00] inside that program build businesses. I've helped launch multiple New York Times bestselling books. I've launched podcasts. I've created seven figure programs for clients. I've worked as a strategist for an eight figure personal brand business. And when it was time to build my own platform, I did what everyone said to do. I started at the surface, though. I, I built a course or I tried to build a course. I created my own frameworks. They didn't really land. I systematized my knowledge. I tried to scale it. That's what I had taught. That's what everyone says to do, but I couldn't finish any of it. I sat down to write curriculum and I would hit a wall. Every single time I had a whiteboard full of ideas, none of them landed, and I thought I had a discipline problem and that I just needed to try harder. But the real problem was that I'm wired as a transformational guide, a resonant orator, and a strategic advisor. My ideas don't come from sitting alone writing curriculum on a whiteboard. They come from being in conversation with real people, seeing patterns in real time, and naming what I'm observing while I'm [00:11:00] observing it. I was trying to build a business from the surface instead of looking at the way I was designed, which is for facilitation and conversation. The moment I gave myself permission to start where my wiring actually works to coach, to facilitate, to speak, everything started flowing. It started coming together. The framework started to emerge from conversations not before them. The content came from the transformation work, both my transformations and others not the other way around. And the thing I'd been trying to force into existence for years. Came together in months once I stopped fighting my own wiring and started building from the inside out. And here's the thing. I've also learned from watching clients go through this. When practitioners stop trying to fix the outer layers and go back to that center, when they get clear on their wiring, get honest about their embodiment and apply their methodology to their own businesses, results follow fast. It is really swift. I've watched multiple clients book new business within a week of completing [00:12:00] their own process, their own frameworks on themselves. Not because they learned a new sales technique, but because they close the gap between what they teach and how they operate. The cobblers children finally have the best shoes in town 'cause they're using their methodologies on themselves. So here's what I want you to take away from this. Before you invest in another program, another course, another strategy, I want you to ask a different question. Not what strategy should I try next? But is my operating system actually fully installed? And if you're not sure if any of those symptoms I described felt familiar to you, I would encourage you to start with this. Take the free thought leadership archetype assessment@macyrobinson.com slash quiz. It takes about 10 to 20 minutes, and at the end you'll see your primary archetype, which tells you something really important about how you're naturally wired to express ideas and guide transformation. It measures a part of that operating system, specifically how you send your signal out into the world. You [00:13:00] can't clarify a signal you haven't identified, and the assessment gives you language for something you've probably been feeling but haven't been able to name. And if you want to go deeper, if you want to understand more about your full wiring and how to build from that center out, your assessment results page will show you the different ways we can work together. And if you're on my email list, that's where I share the most about this work and how to apply it. Your expertise matters. Your voice matters, and the people who need the transformation that only you create, they are out there ready to resonate with you. But let's make sure you're building from the center, not from the surface, because when the operating system is right, everything else starts to run.