The Dried Mango Principle: Creating Wisdom That Sticks

Have you ever sat through a webinar that felt like drinking light beer - watered down and leaving you somehow less satisfied than when you started?

In a world drowning in information, most of what we consume is like fast food - quickly made, consumed, and forgotten. But we should ask for more from ourselves.

When I think about the lessons that have truly transformed my life, they're more like dried mangoes - concentrated, naturally sweet, and carry a potent essence.

They stick with you, both in your memory and sometimes literally to your teeth.

If you want to have your work feel this way here’s what you need to do:

1. Start With Your Thesis (The Mango-Picking Phase)

Before you can create dried-mango wisdom, you need to know exactly what fruit you're trying to dry. This is where having a clear thesis comes in.

When I created the Coaching Dojo my thesis was simple: most coaching programs teach too much information and don't emphasize practice enough. It's like trying to learn swimming by reading about it - at some point, you've got to jump in the damn pool!

And I built the program around this idea. I focused not only on quality lessons but on the quality of the practice and feedback. The result was a program that blew people away when they experienced it.

If you start with a good mango, you’re going to have a good dried mango too.

2. Focus on the Essentials (The Mango-Drying Phase)

Once you have a good mango now it’s time to dry it out perfectly. Every time I create a program, I sit down and ask myself:

"If I only had one day to teach someone everything I know about this topic, what would talk about?"

It's like packing for a weekend trip in a carry-on (or even better a backpack) - you quickly figure out what you actually need versus what you're bringing "just in case."

Often when I think about doing this I reflect on the book: The Prosperous Coach by Rich Litvin and Steve Chandler. They boiled the entire process of building a coaching business down to four steps:

Connect, Invite, Create, Propose. That's it.

No 47-step manifestation process. No secret handshake. Just four steps that actually work.

It’s how I build my coaching practice. And I’ve applied this idea of focusing on the essentials to every program I’ve created.

Basically if you dry the mango well you’re going to get more of that tasty mango flavor. If you half ass the drying process, your mango might be a little too mushy or too chewy.

3. Make it Honest (The "Don’t Over Sugar Your Mangos" Phase)

Most people when they create a program or a post pretend: they pretend it’s simple, that they’ve got all the answers, that the hard parts won’t be that hard, and that you can half commit and still get great results.

This is like covering a crappy mango with a bunch of sugar to hide what’s underneath.

But that isn’t the truth. The truth is usually that success takes work, luck, and persistence through hard times.

If you want to make your teaching better than 90% of what’s out there, make sure it’s honest to the core.

1. Tell people exactly what you’ve figured out and what the gaps are.

2. Tell people exactly what is easy and hard about what you’re teaching.

3. Tell people exactly how much work and commitment it’s going to take.

4. Tell people exactly how much luck is involved.

Even if sugarcoating a crappy mango might fool some people, nothing is as powerful as the raw sugar in a perfectly dried mango.

4. Don't Hold Back (The "Share Your Best Mangos" Phase)

Perhaps the thing I hate most about most blogs, webinars, and free online courses is that they hold things back. And I get it - you don't want to give away all your secrets for free.

I can’t tell you how many webinars I’ve been to that build up to this big outcome and then you can only get the payoff if you buy something else. Doing this might feel strategic, but it actually tends to erode trust with the people around you.

The truth is, there's no shortage of information out there. It's very likely that every single thing you're going to teach is available somewhere online.

What's valuable isn't the information - it's the transmission. It's like the difference between reading a pizza recipe and having an Italian nonna show you how to make it in her kitchen. Same information, completely different experience.

Not to mention that once you watch nonna make pizza you’ll probably want to join her cooking class so you can learn how to make an amazing tomato sauce and some fresh bruschetta as well.

When you share your best mangos, people want more mangos, so don’t be stingy with those tasty golden flakes of sweet sweet goodness.

The Art of Sharing Your Wisdom

Remember: your wisdom is like that dried mango - it doesn't need artificial sweeteners or fancy packaging.

It just needs to picked from a clear thesis, dried to it’s essential, lightly seasoned with honest, shared generously, and packaged simply. When you do this, you create something that not only nourishes but transforms.

At the end of the day, it's about how it feels to teach. When I share something and I've taken the time to be honest, focus on the essentials, and hold nothing back, I feel like I'm living into and creating the kind of abundant, generous world I want to live in.

It's so much easier to complain about posts that don't hold any real information or time-wasting webinars that are light on teaching and heavy on sales pitches. But I don't want to just be someone who complains about the things in my industry or the internet I don't like.

I want to be the kind of person who's creating the things I want to see. For me, this is the path to sharing wisdom with the most impact possible, and I think it's the way to build the kind of online community that actually serves more than it takes.

And hey, if some of your wisdom gets stuck in people's teeth like a real dried mango slice? Even better - they'll remember it longer that way.