What the Learning To Fail Professor from Duke University Can Show You About Scaling Your Expertise
Most expertise never leaves the room it was created in.
It stays inside client work.
Inside classrooms.
Inside one-to-one delivery.
But every once in a while, you come across an example that breaks that pattern.
A professor at Duke University created a course called Learning to Fail where students are intentionally put into situations where failure is likely, uncomfortable, and unavoidable.
One assignment? Sell a Jolly Rancher for $100.
Not because it’s realistic.
Because of what it forces you to confront.
And the moment you hear about it, you don’t just understand it – you want access to it.
That’s where this shifts from a class to something much bigger.
When Expertise Outgrows Its Original Container
What started as a university course didn’t stay confined to a classroom.
As soon as the concept became visible, people outside of Duke began to take notice. Not because they were students – but because the idea itself was compelling, relatable, and immediately valuable.
It’s a perfect example of what happens when expertise becomes visible in a way that others can connect to.
People start asking:
“Is there a way for me to experience this too?”
That question is the beginning of scale.
Because when demand shows up outside your current environment, it’s a signal that your expertise has outgrown where it started.
The Shift: From Teaching a Room to Reaching a Market
There’s a big difference between delivering expertise and scaling it.
In its original format, this course was limited:
- A fixed number of students
- A single location
- A set schedule
Impact was real – but contained.
The shift happens when you take what’s being taught and package it into something that doesn’t require you to be physically present every time someone wants to learn from you.
That’s the move from expert operator… to Scalable Expert.
It’s not about changing what you know.
It’s about changing how it’s delivered.
Why This Works (And Most Offers Don’t)
What makes Learning to Fail so effective isn’t complexity – it’s clarity.
The idea is simple:
You’re learning how to navigate failure by experiencing it in real time.
There’s no confusion about what it is.
No long explanation needed.
No layered positioning.
And because of that, people immediately see the value.
Most experts miss this.
They build offers that require too much explanation, too many steps, or too many options.
But the more someone has to figure out, the less likely they are to move forward.
Clarity creates momentum.
The Simplicity Most Experts Avoid
When this concept was turned into an online offer, it didn’t become a complicated ecosystem.
It became one clear entry point:
A single course, at a single price, that mirrors the core experience of the original class
That’s it.
No overwhelming funnel.
No multiple pathways.
No decision fatigue.
Just a simple way to step into the world of the expert and start learning.
And that simplicity is exactly what makes it work.
Because when people know what to do next, they take action.
Where Experts Get Stuck
Most experts don’t struggle with expertise.
They struggle with how they present it.
Instead of simplifying, they:
- Create multiple offers at once
- Try to speak to too many audiences
- Overbuild before validating demand
And in the process, they make it harder-not easier-for people to engage.
The result?
Confusion replaces clarity.
And hesitation replaces action.
What This Looks Like When You Apply It
Scaling your expertise doesn’t start with building more.
It starts with identifying what people already respond to.
Ask yourself:
- What’s the idea people immediately “get”?
- What do people naturally want more access to?
- What experience or transformation is clear and compelling?
From there:
- Package it into a defined experience
- Create one clear entry point
- Let that be the starting place
You don’t need everything built out.
You need a way for people to begin.
The Real Shift
If this course had stayed inside Duke, its impact would be limited to the students who happened to be enrolled there.
Instead, it became something more – because it was made accessible beyond that environment.
That’s the opportunity most experts are sitting on.
Not more content.
Not more complexity.
Not more effort.
But taking what already works…
And making it available in a way that more people can step into it.
Our Host
Tara Bryan is on Instagram | Facebook | Linkedin
Website is: www.Taralbryan.com
Hey, it’s your host, Tara Bryan. And I am on a mission to help more business owners learn to infinitely scale their businesses by leveraging the power of online without sacrificing the customer experience or results.
I like to geek out on all things business strategy, marketing, interactive digital and user experience. This podcast is all about what is working, lessons learned and actionable tips to create and grow a thriving online business.
Join us each week as we dive into different strategies, tactics and tips you can apply immediately to your business.
Key Topics:
Scalable Expert | Learn To Fail | IP Business
Highlights
- Simplicity converts better than complexity
- Visibility creates demand – structure captures it
- Your expertise has value beyond your current clients
[00:00:00]
Hey everybody, welcome to today’s podcast. Today I wanna talk about a great example of how somebody has turned their expertise into a Scalable IP business, and I wanna share that with you today. So I was scrolling through Instagram, of course, and came upon a professor from Duke University who has a course called Learning to Fail, you may have heard of it because he’s all over the place, but if not, go check it out.
So the course itself is great. It’s a course that all the students, I assume in the business program, need to take because it’s teaching them how to do things that are out of their comfort zone so that when they get a job, when they’re out in the world, they actually are able to learn some of those skills of taking chances, but also then learning how to work through them. So it’s a great concept. I’m always intrigued by [00:01:00] niche things like that. Like, everyone should learn how to fail. That’s a great concept. So I’m not sure how he came up with the concept, if it was something he went to Duke and said, hey this is what I wanna teach, or if it has happened to him. But he has definitely embraced that expertise in terms of being able to teach students how to go through that process.
So anyway, I was watching one this morning and he was talking about having his students go out and sell a Jolly Rancher for a hundred dollars and so it’s such a great activity because, you know, it puts you in a position where you are most certainly going to fail because nobody really wants a Jolly Rancher for a hundred dollars, but the lesson was how do you use something like that to show connection and whatever else.
What’s important is when I was watching [00:02:00] that I was like, it would be so cool to be in that class and learn some of those techniques even for me at my age or have my kids be in that class. And so it got me thinking in that moment, I wonder if he has some sort of program outside of the Duke class that he’s teaching? And as myself who really works with experts to help them package their expertise and get it out to the world in a bigger and broader way, he would’ve been a perfect candidate because he really could make such a bigger impact than just helping students at Duke, right? So many people outside of a university setting would be interested in that class. And so I went out and did a search, and lo and behold, he has a program. And what’s fascinating about the program [00:03:00] is — and you can go and check it out, his name is Dinin, D-I-N-I-N, Learning to Fail — literally the first paragraph is like, hey, you may be interested in also learning this outside of Duke University, here’s how you can do that. And then he shares his story about how he’s for years fought doing it and then finally made it available. So he does have an online course or program that he sells. Which is great.
And it is such a great example of being an expert, being visible and out there talking about your expertise and then just a natural transition for somebody to be like, oh, I’m super interested in what he has to say and [00:04:00] what he’s teaching and the activities, I wanna be a part of his world. And so that progression is, as you start stepping into becoming a Scalable Expert versus an expert operator where you’re kind of behind your desk doing all the things for your clients, is you make that shift to really being able to start to get your messaging out there in a bigger way. Start to package what you’re doing so that other people can see it, so you can make that bigger impact.
So I don’t know his backstory and how he went from being a professor at Duke to starting to talk about this online to building a sort of a backend business, so maybe he’ll be on the podcast someday. I [00:05:00] will keep you posted on that. If anyone has a connection to him and wants me to interview him, just reach out to me because I’d love to be able to hear more of his story.
But the second thing I wanted to cover is how simple his funnel, his way of bringing customers in, is. Now he may have a complete backend to his business. He may do coaching and live events or a mastermind. But what’s fascinating is how clear and simple entry is into his world. And I think as experts, that’s the other thing that we sort of struggle with is, how do we keep our message simple so people can hear it and people know what to do in order to be able to work with us. We tend to know our topic so well that we over-educate, [00:06:00] we over-design what we wanna do, like we could do it this way or this way, or this way, or this way. And so we put all of those out there and it starts to confuse our audience immediately.
So you’d step into his site and it gives you one option, which is the one online course for $197, and that brings you into his world so that you can start to experience his course. Now, I assume that he’s got some sort of backend. If not, he should call me and I’ll help him build that. But what I wanna do as a customer is I wanna take the first step, right? The first step is taking the class that mirrors or matches the Duke University course. And then from there I may wanna work with him more because I’m still struggling to learn how to fail. But that comes after I have done his initial course, [00:07:00] and if you check out his page, he talks about that he has a framework for how he teaches this in the university. He has a framework for how he leads with this in online courses, and so he’s literally done exactly what should be happening when somebody goes from expert operator to moving into becoming a Scalable Expert, which means that you have a way for people to actually learn from you that doesn’t require you to be physically present in front of them all of the time.
So if you think about it, and go and look at how simple it [00:08:00] is that he has sort of brought people into his world, that is where the simplicity of being able to package your expertise for your customer, for where they are in the customer journey, and not overloading them with a million different options for them to take.
I wanted to share that example with you because it is a great example of becoming a Scalable Expert and what that starts to look like. We look at examples like Donald Miller, we look at Mike Michalowicz, we look at Brene Brown. We look at all sort of these thought leaders and people who have a scalable expertise brand, right, they’ve created a scalable IP business, we look at them and we say, oh well they were able to do that because of X, Y, and Z. And they started exactly the same way that all experts start. They had an expertise. They were doing it for clients and customers. Then they looked at it and said how do I package this and make a [00:09:00] bigger impact in the world? And they started from there. That’s the foundation.
So think about it like if Dr. Dinin only was teaching at Duke University no one else would even know how impactful his framework is for learning how to fail and embracing failure or taking steps to learn how to actually do the things that will put you in a position to get to the next level. Only students at Duke University would know about him and only students at Duke University would be able to benefit from his expertise.
And so when you [00:10:00] look at it and you shift it and you say, how great is it that he is able to make an impact with more students, with more people than the amount of people who could be admitted at Duke University, you start to think about, what does that look like for you? What does that look like when you are packaging your expertise? Who else may benefit from your expertise versus just the people that you can serve today?
So I challenge you to start looking at examples like that out in the wild and start to think about how do you package your expertise into something that allows you to get it out there in a bigger way so you can make a larger impact in the world.
All right, there you go, that is my example for today. If you love this episode, please share with other people give us a shout out, give us a rating, and when you are ready to start thinking about taking your expertise and moving [00:11:00] it into packaging it and then moving it into a scalable IP business, give me a shout we’d love to talk to you and see how we can work together to make that happen.
