The Guru Glossary

These are the words. Here is what those words mean.

INITIATING_TRANSMISSION
AUTHOR: Arturious Castillo 
CLASSIFICATION: LINGUISTIC_AUDIT // GURU_GLOSSARY // FIELD_DEFINITIONS 
STATUS: Operational 
ORIGIN: Every webinar you sat through and couldn’t get the hour back

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//FOREWORD

The guru industry has its own language.

It sounds like English. It uses English words. It is not English.

It is a proprietary dialect designed to make the absence of specific information feel like the presence of profound wisdom. You walk away from the content feeling like something was transferred. You think about it for twenty minutes and realize your hands are empty.

This glossary exists to translate.

I compiled these definitions after extensive field research. Seventeen months. That’s a year and three months of newsletters, webinars, masterclasses, and one very informative conversation I overheard in the Walmarts between a man with tuxedo t-shirt and Montgomery, who was holding pickles he hadn’t decided on yet.

These are the words. Here is what they mean.

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//THE_GLOSSARY

Abundance:

The spiritual reframing of wanting more money without saying you want more money. Abundance is not greed because abundance comes from a place of gratitude and greed comes from a place of lack and these are different places even though the destination is identical. You cannot access abundance while in a scarcity mindset. You can access it immediately after purchasing the course on abundance mindset. The course is $297.

Aligned:

The state of doing exactly what you were already planning to do, spiritually justified. When a decision is aligned it means your gut, your values, your higher self, and your business strategy all agree. When they don’t agree it’s called misalignment and there’s a program for that. Everything is aligned until it isn’t and when it isn’t that’s content.

Authentic:

The strategic performance of not performing. Authenticity in personal brand contexts means sharing the parts of your real life that have already resolved. The mess is authentic. The unresolved mess is too authentic. There is a line. The line moves depending on engagement metrics. If the vulnerable post did numbers, be more vulnerable. If it didn’t, pivot to authority content and never speak of it again.

Awaken:

What happened to you every morning and before you started selling things about what happened to you. The awakening is the origin story in spiritual packaging. You were asleep. Something woke you up. Now you help others wake up for $497. The alarm clock is the offer. You are the snooze button they needed to stop hitting. Montgomery has been awake since 1987. He charges nothing. He’s not verified.

Bandwidth:

What you don’t have when you don’t want to do something. Bandwidth is the professional spiritual way of saying no without saying no. “I don’t have the bandwidth for that right now” means no. “I’m protecting my bandwidth” means no and also I read a book about boundaries. Nobody has ever measured their bandwidth. It is infinite when the opportunity is good and depleted when it isn’t. The depletion is instantaneous and suspiciously selective.

Blueprint:
A document that would be called instructions if instructions were sellable at $297. The blueprint contains the steps. The steps are the things you did once, maybe twice, under specific conditions that may not apply to your situation, packaged into a transferable sequence with a name. The name usually contains the word “proven.” The proof is the testimonials. The testimonials are from people who bought the blueprint.

Calling:
The thing you were put on earth to do that happens to be monetizable. Your calling is specific enough to feel personal and broad enough to serve an audience. If your calling is something that doesn’t scale it’s a hobby. If it scales it’s a calling. The universe doesn’t call people toward things with low conversion rates.

Clarity:

What you sell to people who are confused. Clarity is the product underneath every other product. The coaching is really clarity. The course is really clarity. The retreat in Tulum is really clarity with better weather. Clarity is always one investment away. Once you achieve it, it’s called alignment and you move to the next section of the glossary.

Community:

The audience, legally rebranded. Community sounds like belonging. Audience sounds like performance. They are the same group of people but community implies a relationship and relationships retain better than content consumption. Your community is your people. Your people are your list. Your list is your asset. Your asset is your community. This is not circular. This is ecosystem thinking.

Conscious:

The adjective that makes a regular business a movement. Conscious capitalism. Conscious leadership. Conscious content. Adding conscious to any business term means you thought about the ethics for at least one meeting and decided to proceed anyway but with intention. The intention is the difference. Without the intention it’s just capitalism. With the intention it’s a brand.

Content:

Everything you produce and everything you are simultaneously. Content is the work and the worker. You are a content creator which means you create content which means you are the content. The line between the person and the product dissolved sometime around 2019 and nobody filed a report. You are now both the factory and the inventory. This is called personal brand. It is also called exhausting. The glossary does not have a word for the exhausting part yet.

Curated:

Chosen with intention, which is different from chosen, in ways that justify a higher price point. A curated experience is an experience someone selected the components of. A curated feed is a feed someone decided to control. A curated life is a regular life with better photography and strategic omissions. The omissions are not inauthentic. They are boundaries. See: Bandwidth.

Deep Dive:

A YouTube video longer than twelve minutes. Also: any newsletter that exceeds 400 words. Also: a conversation where someone asks follow-up questions. The deep dive implies depth. The depth is relative to the standard content which is shallow by design because shallow content is more consumable and consumable content builds the audience that you then invite to the deep dive which is the paid thing. The shallow is the funnel. The depth is the offer.

Ecosystem:

Your stuff, collectively, presented as an environment. The ecosystem contains the newsletter, the course, the podcast, the community, the coaching, and the book you’re writing. Each element feeds the others. The newsletter feeds the course. The course feeds the coaching. The coaching feeds the testimonials. The testimonials feed the newsletter. Nothing feeds Montgomery. Montgomery is outside the ecosystem. He finds this sustainable.

Elevated:

More expensive. Elevated also means refined, premium, intentional, and conscious. It does not mean different. The elevated offer is the same service with better branding, a higher price point, and the word elevated somewhere in the sales page. You cannot offer elevated services from a place of lack. You must first elevate your mindset. The mindset elevation course is $197. It is the prerequisite for the elevated offer which is $2,000. This is called a value ladder. The ladder is elevated.

Embodied:

When the thing you teach has allegedly entered your body and become part of how you operate rather than just something you read about and then explained to other people. Embodied wisdom is the highest tier. It means you don’t just know it. You are it. You can tell who is embodied because they say embodied a lot. The word is doing the work the practice is supposed to do. This is efficient.

Evergreen:

Content that doesn’t expire, theoretically. Evergreen content is the dream because you make it once and it sells forever. The evergreen course. The evergreen funnel. The evergreen webinar that says “live” in the title but has been running since 2021. Evergreen is the passive income of content. Most content is not evergreen. Most content is deciduous. It falls off the feed in seventy-two hours and decomposes quietly while you make more content.

Flow State:

Working without noticing you’re working, which happens approximately four times a year and is then described in content as a daily practice. The flow state is real. The frequency at which gurus claim to access it is not. You cannot manufacture flow state. You can manufacture content about flow state. The content about flow state performs well because everyone wants it and almost nobody has it and the gap between wanting and having is where all the products live.

Framework:

A process with a name. The framework is what separates the expert from the person who also knows the thing. Anyone can know the thing. Only the expert named the thing and put it in a PDF with a logo. The framework has steps. The steps are numbered. The numbers go up. At the end of the numbers is the transformation. The transformation is the promise. The framework is the container. The container is the product. Montgomery’s framework is a pamphlet. It is written in mustard. It has no steps. It has one sentence. He’s sold it twice.

Freedom

The stated destination of every funnel. Freedom means different things depending on the funnel. Financial freedom means enough passive income to not need a job. Time freedom means enough systems to not need to be present. Location freedom means enough WiFi to work from Bali. What it always means is the specific version of not having to do the thing you’re currently doing. What it never mentions is what you do after you stop doing the thing. That’s a different course.

Frequency:

Vibes, with more syllables. Your frequency is the energetic signal you broadcast into the universe and the universe responds with matching circumstances. High frequency attracts abundance. Low frequency attracts lack. You raise your frequency through gratitude, meditation, and purchasing things that claim to raise your frequency. The irony of spending money to attract money has a frequency too. Nobody has identified it yet.

Fulfillment:

What you sell to people who have everything the previous products promised and still feel empty. Fulfillment is the final boss of the personal development glossary. It lives past success, past freedom, past abundance. It is the thing that makes all the other things worth having. It is always one more thing away. The one more thing is the offer. The offer leads to fulfillment. The fulfillment leads to a testimonial. The testimonial is the content. The content is the funnel. The funnel leads to fulfillment. See: Ecosystem.

Funnel:

The architecture of inevitability. A funnel is a system designed to convert strangers into customers through a sequence of increasingly intimate asks. You enter at the top with a free thing. You exit at the bottom having purchased the expensive thing. The funnel is not manipulative because every step is voluntary. You chose to download the free guide. You chose to watch the webinar. You chose to enroll. The funnel just made choosing feel like arriving somewhere you were already headed. Montgomery calls it a tube. He’s not wrong.

Game Changer:

Everything, according to the people selling everything. The game-changer is the product that changes the game. The game being changed is never specified. The change is never measured. The testimony confirming the game was changed arrives within forty-eight hours of purchase and reads like it was written during the checkout process. This is not because it was written during the checkout process. It is because transformation is immediate when the offer is aligned.

Grounded:

Stable enough to charge more. Grounded means you are rooted in your values, clear on your purpose, and unbothered by the opinions of people who aren’t buying. Grounded people don’t chase. Grounded people attract. The attraction is called magnetism and it is a direct result of being grounded which you become after the retreat or the breathwork or the $300 course on nervous system regulation. Your nervous system is the foundation. The foundation must be grounded. The grounding is the product.

Growth Mindset:

The belief that you can improve, sold back to you as a discovery. The growth mindset is real. Carol Dweck researched it. It is a legitimate psychological concept. It is also currently on 4 million LinkedIn posts, 800 courses, and a poster in every WeWork that closed in 2023. The growth mindset has been so thoroughly processed by the content machine that it now means approximately nothing while sounding like it means everything.

High Ticket:

Expensive, but make it spiritual. High ticket means the price is high enough that buying it requires commitment and commitment signals readiness and readiness is a prerequisite for transformation so the high price is actually part of the transformation. If it were cheap you wouldn’t value it. If you don’t value it you won’t do the work. If you don’t do the work you won’t transform. Therefore the $5,000 is the first step. The first step is the investment. The investment is the transformation beginning. This is called price anchoring.

Holistic:

All of it, at once, for more. Holistic means the approach addresses the whole person. Mind, body, spirit, business, relationships, morning routine, nervous system, inner child, and revenue. The holistic practitioner doesn’t just fix one thing. They fix the ecosystem. The ecosystem fix costs more than the individual fix because it’s more of the fix. This is logical. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts and the sum of its parts is already $297 each.

Impact:

What you’re making when the money hasn’t arrived yet. Impact is the currency of the pre-revenue phase. You’re not building a business. You’re creating impact. The impact will eventually convert to income once the audience grows and the offer is ready and the funnel is built and the energetics are aligned. Until then: impact. Impact is also what you’re leaving when the business works. Legacy is impact with a longer time horizon. See: Legacy.

Intentional:

The adjective that makes a regular choice a brand value. Intentional living. Intentional content. Intentional rest. Intentional purchasing. Adding intentional to any activity means you thought about it before doing it, which is the baseline definition of being awake, but in the current market it’s a differentiator. The intentional brand is more trustworthy than the unintentional brand. The unintentional brand is called most things. The intentional brand is called premium.

Journey:

What your audience is on so you don’t have to say they’re in a funnel. The journey is the funnel with nice music. You’re not being moved through a conversion sequence. You’re on a journey. The journey has stages. The stages have names. The names are the content pillars. The content pillars are the funnel steps. The funnel steps are the journey. Everyone is on a journey. Some journeys end at checkout. This is called completion.

Launch:

A product release, performed as an event. The launch is not putting a thing for sale. The launch is a sequence of content designed to make the thing for sale feel like the thing you’ve been waiting for without knowing you were waiting for it. The launch has phases. The pre-launch builds anticipation. The open cart creates urgency. The close cart creates panic. The post-launch creates FOMO for the next launch. The next launch is already being pre-launched. The calendar is the strategy. The strategy is the launch. Montgomery launched a pamphlet once. He handed it to someone in the parking lot. It had no phases. It converted immediately.

Legacy:

What you’re building so you don’t have to say you want to be remembered. Legacy is impact across time. You’re not just helping people now. You’re helping people who haven’t been born yet through the systems you’re building today. The legacy business outlasts you. The legacy content keeps selling after you’re gone. The legacy is the evergreen funnel of existence. Nobody has confirmed their legacy was successful because confirmation requires being dead. This has not slowed the legacy content down.

Leverage:

Doing less while earning more, described as a philosophy. Leverage means your systems work while you rest. Your content attracts while you sleep. Your funnel converts while you’re at the farmers market being intentional. Leverage is the goal underneath every other goal. The course teaches leverage. The coaching teaches leverage. The mastermind teaches leverage. None of these are leveraged because they require your time to deliver. This is called irony. In the glossary it’s called a premium live experience.

Manifestation:

Wanting something hard enough that the universe feels obligated to provide it, with the caveat that you also have to do the work. Manifestation is the productivity system for people who find productivity systems too linear. You visualize. You align. You release attachment to the outcome. The outcome arrives. The arrival is the manifestation. The work you did between the visualization and the arrival is not mentioned because the work is not the brand. The manifestation is the brand. The brand is the content. The content is the funnel. See: Funnel.

Mindset:

The variable that explains every outcome. Good outcomes come from good mindset. Bad outcomes come from bad mindset. The mindset is always the lever. Pull the right mindset lever and the results follow. The mindset course teaches you which lever. The lever is $197. If the lever doesn’t work your mindset about the lever needs work. There is a course for that. It’s the same course repackaged with a different cover. This is called an updated edition.

Mission:

The reason you do what you do that sounds better than the actual reason. The mission is the why behind the what. The what is the product. The why is the story. The story is the content. The content serves the mission. The mission justifies the price. The price funds the mission. The mission is ongoing. Ongoing missions don’t end. Missions that don’t end don’t have exit conditions. See: Self-improvement audit.

Monetize:

Turn the thing you love into a thing that pays, and then spend the next three years trying to remember why you loved it. Monetize is the bridge between passion and income and also the thing that sometimes burns the bridge once you’re halfway across. You monetize your expertise. Your expertise becomes a product. The product requires marketing. The marketing requires content. The content requires consistency. The consistency requires systems. The systems require investment. The investment requires revenue. The revenue requires monetization. This is the ecosystem. You live here now.

Niche:

The specific corner of the market you’ve claimed as your corridor. Your niche is narrow enough that people feel found and broad enough that you never run out of things to sell them. Finding your niche is Module 1 of every course ever made. Niching down is the advice everyone gives and nobody takes because taking it feels like closing doors. The doors are the problem. The niche is the door that matters. Walk through it. Montgomery’s niche is unclear. He operates in all aisles. He seems fine.

Offer:

The thing you’re selling, described as the thing you’re giving. The offer is not a product. The offer is a transformation opportunity. The offer has a value stack. The value stack lists everything included and its individual retail value, which adds up to far more than the offer price, which makes the offer price feel like a gift. The gift is the offer. The offer is the gift. The price is the investment. The investment is the first step. The first step is the offer. Buy the offer.

Passive Income:

Money that arrives while you sleep, after several years of not sleeping to build the system that makes the money arrive while you sleep. Passive income is real. It is also the most active thing you will ever build. The course is passive once recorded. The recording requires scripting, filming, editing, platform setup, email sequences, sales pages, and a launch. After the launch it’s passive. Passive means it runs without you. It also means you check the dashboard seventeen times a day. The checking is not passive. The income is. This distinction is important to the brand.

Pivot:

Changing direction, announced as evolution. The pivot is not a mistake. The pivot is a realignment. You’re not abandoning the thing. You’re expanding your capacity to serve. The old thing prepared you for the new thing. The new thing was always the destination. The destination was always aligned. You just needed the old thing to get here. The old thing is now a case study. The case study is the content. The content serves the new thing. The pivot is complete. You are evolved.

Positioning:

Where you stand in the market, manufactured. Positioning is the story you tell about yourself before anyone can tell a different story. The positioned expert is the go-to person for the specific thing. The positioning is the niche with authority attached. Authority comes from content. Content comes from positioning. The positioning says you’re the authority. The authority makes the content credible. The credibility builds the positioning. This circle has been spinning since 2014 and shows no signs of stopping.

Purpose:

The reason you exist, currently available as a course. Your purpose is the intersection of what you’re good at, what the world needs, what you can be paid for, and what you love. This intersection is called ikigai. Ikigai is a Japanese concept. The concept has been processed through the content machine and is now a $397 workshop in a Zoom room with forty people who also don’t know their purpose yet. Finding your purpose is the purpose of the workshop. The workshop is the purpose business. The purpose business has found its purpose.

Scale:

Do more of the thing without doing more of the thing. Scale is the goal after the thing works. You scale by removing yourself from the delivery. Systems replace presence. Automation replaces communication. The scaled business runs without you. You are free. Freedom is the goal. The goal was scale. The scale achieved freedom. The freedom is lonely in a specific way nobody mentions in the scale content. The loneliness is content for later. When you’re ready to be authentic about it. See: Authentic.

Serve:

Sell, with spiritual framing. To serve your audience is to give them what they need. What they need is available for purchase. The purchase is the service. The service is the offer. The offer serves the mission. The mission is to serve. The service generates revenue. The revenue funds the mission. The mission is to serve. You are of service. The invoice is enclosed.

Signature System:

Your process, named and laminated. The signature system is the framework with a logo. It is the thing you do, described in steps, given a name that sounds proprietary, and offered as the core of your high ticket program. The signature system is what separates you from everyone else doing the same thing. The separation is the name. The name is the brand. The brand is the positioning. The positioning sells the signature system. The signature system is the offer. The offer is $2,000. The $2,000 includes lifetime access to the name.

Transformation:

The before and after, sold as a journey. Transformation is the product underneath every product. You’re not buying the course. You’re buying who you become after the course. The becoming is the transformation. The transformation is guaranteed by the testimonials. The testimonials describe the transformation. The transformation described may vary. The variance is your mindset. The mindset is available for upgrade. See: Mindset.

Visibility:

Being seen by people who can buy from you, described as a spiritual act. Visibility is the cure for the business that isn’t growing. You need more visibility. More visibility means more content. More content means more consistency. More consistency means more visibility. The visible brand attracts. The attraction is the magnetism. The magnetism is the frequency. The frequency is the energetics. The energetics are the visibility. You need to be seen. The seeing is the selling. Show up. See: Show Up, which didn’t make the glossary but you already know what it means.

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SYSTEM_LOG: GURU_GLOSSARY
DEFINITIONS_CONFIRMED: More than 10
DEFINITIONS_THAT_MEAN_WHAT_THEY_SAY: Yes
MONTGOMERY_APPEARANCES: Correct
FUNNEL_REFERENCES: Recursive
TRANSFORMATION_GUARANTEE: Varies
EVERGREEN_STATUS: This glossary will outlive the words it defines
PASSIVE_INCOME_FROM_THIS_PIECE: Pending
RECEIPT_USED_FOR_NOTES: The humidifier one. Front and back now.
STATUS: Served. You're welcome.

There you have it, my “community”.,,.

//END OF TRANSMISSION

-Profit