G.E.T. Authority as a Premium Business Author with These 3 Power Play Tactics
Positioning yourself as an authority in your industry or niche is a high-impact approach to business success.
First, let’s be clear…
There’s nothing new about the authority power play.
Think David Ogilvy and marketing. Dan Kennedy and copywriting. Or Napoleon Hill and personal finance.
People have been building empires on the back of their authority for as long as there have been empires to build.
That’s a long time!
And this is important to recognise. Because you may have told yourself that you’ve missed the sailing on the Good Ship Authority.
What’s is new — and what remains untapped to such a surprising extent even today — is the route to authority that’s been democratised by the internet and technology.
”But,” I hear you say, “Isn’t there already an authority for everything?”
Well, probably. But also: so what?
Remember, there’s space for more than one authority in any industry. You can:
- take an angle
- explode a niche
- innovate an approach
- capture a geographic subset
…you get the idea, right!
Did Seth Godin keep a low profile because David Ogilvy had already captured the attention of the world as a marketer?
Nope.
Did Russell Brunson shrink from pursuing his route to authority status as a copywriter because Dan Kennedy was already The Man?
No dice.
Should Robert Kiyosaki have kept the wisdom of his two dads all to himself simply because Napoleon Hill already cornered the market on personal finance?
Not. A. Chance.
The opportunities to position yourself as an authority — in that subject you’ve spent years mastering or that lights a fire beneath you — have never been greater than they are right now.
The G.E.T. Authority Model
Authority is a strategic approach to business success — that very business success being your ultimate objective, and authority being the model of choice to get you there.
But what are the tactics you can employ in pursuit of that?
I’ll be exploring this model deeply in the book I’m currently writing for people seeking to strategically position themselves as an authority by becoming Premium Business Authors.
It’s the process we share with clients who author books with us in our publishing company, where we work with aspiring and established executives and high performance entrepreneurs.
But let’s begin to unpack it a little here.
The G.E.T. Authority Model is a three step approach to building and then harnessing influence for positive outcomes in your life and that of your audience.
There’ll be no talk of influence for nefarious intent on this fine ship.
Step 1: Give away your knowledge
If you have something to say, then you need attention.
You want eyes on your ideas so that they can begin to build that attention over time.
You’re playing in a big ocean.
But diving right in and expecting your expertise to be acknowledged at once simply because you showed up in your cool swimwear and fancy goggles is…not going to happen.
This is why so many fail after signing up to online courses or watching YouTube videos from their favourite creators.
They don’t see in that instant the dedication that got those creators — those authority figures — into that position in the first place. Nor the amount of free content they’ve given away that positions them perfectly to charge for the digital products that make everyone so envious.
Write this on the mirror of your bathroom:
You’re not putting out content for today. You’re not even putting out content for next month. You’re putting in the repetitions, learning the game, and building assets that will compound in time.
(That’s a pretty big mirror you got there!)
I write this article not for what it can achieve for me tomorrow, but for how it positions me 18 months from now.
To get attention, talk about your ideas as they relate to your specialist field, and as they affect your audience.
To drive that home, give your best ideas away for free.
Let people know that you’re the real deal.
Step 2: Educate your audience
Authorities educate the people they seek to influence, to get across their point of view and position themselves as thought leaders.
Education comes in many forms:
- about trends within the market
- about the value of their products
- about the intricacies of their niche
- about industry-specific methods & processes
And you can deliver education in many ways, too:
- inspirational
- entertaining
- empathetic
- narrative
…again, the potential combinations are endless.
But remember always to keep that educational mindset front and centre as you create your content.
Educational content that entertains, for example, is a perfectly good route to authority — and happy days along the way.
But content that entertains without any educational value will sink without trace when you try to cash in that authority cheque down the line.
Just be sure to be intentional about that as you go.
And remember the mantra:
People are not necessarily recognised as teachers because they’re experts. They’re seen as experts because they teach!
Step 3: Transform their lives
You’ve given away your knowledge and educated your audience.
But the clincher on your journey to authority will be the transformation you make in their lives.
Depending on your particular niche this transformation might take various forms. But it’s likely to be something along the lines of:
- your course gets them closer to their dream career
- your product makes their life a little easier
- your book shifts their previous mindset
- your coaching lifts their sights
- your advice makes them money
This is where all of the knowledge you’ve given away…all the education you’ve delivered…will pay off.
Because it’s when you make that transformation in someone’s life that they’ll become an evangelist for you.
Driving more eyes to your content.
And setting the flywheel in motion all over again with ever less of a push needed from you.
You don’t need to know what that transformation will ultimately be when you set sail on your voyage to authority.
But you must be aware as you set sail that your ultimate success will depend upon delivering it at some point.
Which is why the time you spend struggling through your thoughts, developing them ever so imperfectly, and shunning the shortcuts, is such an essential part of it all.
It’s those very rough waters — to stretch this high-seas metaphor beyond anything it ever signed up for in the first place — that will bring you safely into port.
Recapping the G.E.T. Authority Model
Let’s look over those three steps again:
- G: Give away your knowledge
- E: Educate your audience
- T: Transform lives
Authority will flow from this.
G.E.T. Authority and watch your vision unfold.
I’m writing the book to help people like you publish the ultimate authority book online. I’d love your contributions. Check out the post here.
