When I leapt out full time and started this iteration of my business, I felt a little like Liam Neeson’s character in Taken.
I had a particular set of skills accumulated over time from corporate, McKinsey consulting, engineering, business school, learning how to build and market a life coaching business…
And for the first few years, I had a lot of skills and knowledge but wasn't being recognized for it outside of my personal network.
I didn’t have a structured way to demonstrate my expertise, build my authority in my industry, be recognized and sought out for what I do, and ultimately charge in line with that expertise and value.
If we do our job of positioning your firm well, you will be irreplaceable or non exchangeable, and that power translates into a pricing premium. Call it whatever you like, but we don’t want a prospect to find too many viable substitutes for your expertise. -
David C. Baker
I was doing everything for everyone (”You need help with anything related to strategy or ops? I can do that!” “You’re a big business? You’re a soloist? I can do that!”).
Posting generic Canva templates with generic sayings on IG.
Never sure what topics to pitch or what to say in podcast interviews or speaking gigs.
Struggling to even GET those invitations to speak, watching others get the spotlight.
So I dove in for myself: how do you create authority? How do you become recognized for the work you do, so that ultimately marketing and sales just becomes less hard?
You build an authority system.
An authority system allows you to go from an expert with a set of skills to an expertise-based business with authority, who is the obvious choice to hire when you need them.
This system requires two parts:
Defining your Expertise and Building Your Authority
This article reviews all of the components of an authority system that I’ve observed and researched and gives you a set of questions to assess your system’s maturity.
So let’s dive in.