59. Boost your income by mastering your authority in 2024

Want to command higher fees and greater influence in your niche?

This episode is for you.

Discover how personal development giants like Robin Sharma, Mel Robbins, and Joe Dispenza have crafted unique, impactful messages that resonate deeply with their audiences, setting them apart as top earners. 

This episode promises to reveal their strategies, helping you understand how to develop a distinctive voice that turns followers into devoted clients and elevates your authority in a competitive market.

• Learn why merely creating content isn't enough, and how challenging existing ways of thinking can lead to innovative methods that make people say, "I've never heard it delivered like that." 
• We'll explore the importance of inner conviction and topic mastery, which are crucial for creating content that AI can't replicate. 
• The practical steps to build strong outer authority and highlight common blind spots that might be holding you back. 

Want to go deeper? Don’t miss our free training, "In Demand Authority," to get started on your path to becoming a true thought leader.

https://programs.femthority.com/in-demand-authority-free-training-2024/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Are you wanting to get paid more in 2024? If you do, you're going to want to listen to this video, because there is one thing that you need to be focusing on that the top earners have all established, and it is not focusing on finessing your content anymore. So stay tuned, because you are going to want to hear this. So, if you have a desire to really build whether it's a service-based business, a product-based business one of the things that you are going to want, in order to make that work, is to stand out. So, if you have a desire to become in demand, to become standout, to be the person that is leading your niche or area of interest that you teach on, then you are going to need to focus on a particular thing. This is the thing that allows people to be invited to speak on massive stages, on massive podcasts, and to be a real influencer in a particular area. It's the thing that allows people to charge a premium price for signature programs that people aren't willing to blink an eyelid at, because they just know that they trust this person to give them a result. I'm going to give you a couple of examples so you can really understand what I mean and the correlation between this thing that I'm going to be you a couple of examples so you can really understand what I mean and the correlation between this thing that I'm going to be talking about and making more money and really commanding influence. So there is someone called Robin Sharma. He is a leader in the personal development space. He has written the 5am Club, the Monk who Sold His Ferrari, a lot of really well-established, thought-provoking books that really changed the game and this is the reason that he can launch a program and people will very easily pay $3,000 for that personal development program. Yet you struggle to sell a personal development program for $500. There is a very defined difference between what they are doing and what you are doing. And no, it has nothing to do with follower size. If you know Mel Robbins another really big name in the personal development space she has written the five second rule, the high five methodology, whatever she calls it, and she has books about both of those. This is the reason that she is able to charge between 50 and 100,000 US dollars to literally have an hour of her speaking at an event. That is a huge amount of money and it is because she has focused on something very specific. If you are currently struggling to charge even $5,000 or be paid at all for your speaking, there is one thing that she has done, that you have yet to do, that will allow you to start charging more and be seen as that same level of influence as some of these people.

Speaker 1: 2:26

If you know Joe Dispenza, another really big person in the personal development space I am using a lot of examples in the personal development space because if you're listening to this, I'm going to assume that you are in the personal development space but he's the author of Breaking the Habit of being Yourself and he has a very specific method that he takes people through to help them get a result. Here's the reason that he can charge up to $3,000 for literally just coming to a content-only retreat. There's no accommodation, there is a little bit of food, but most people will charge $3,000 for an all-inclusive retreat. There's a reason that he can get so many people like literally hundreds of people completely sell out all of his retreats at that high price without having to pay for accommodation. Do you know what it is? Do you have any idea what it is? There are so many other examples that I could go into, but what we're really getting at here is when we have started a business, a lot of people will focus on creating content that converts and signing the first few clients, and that is important, and we need to be able to establish a good way of marketing ourselves so that we can be able to create an income, leave our full-time jobs and actually do this full-time. It's a really important aspect of what we're doing, so that's not to negate that.

Speaker 1: 3:40

I teach a lot of high-ticket authority content, because that is the thing that's going to make you money. However, it's not the thing that's going to allow you to stand out. It's not the thing that's going to get you invited onto massive stages and give you the opportunity to charge a premium price for your topic of interest. It's not the thing that's going to allow people to pay whatever it is that you desire. You could literally put any price tag on any of your programs and people would pay it. Content by itself isn't the thing that's going to make that a reality. What is is defined authority.

Speaker 1: 4:16

Now, there is a lot of misconceptions about authority and what it means. A lot of people will say I'm an authority, I've got so much authority, I'm an authority in my space, but when you actually get below the surface. They are replicating the same things over and over and over again. This is where this industry can become a little bit of an echo chamber, and people are just essentially copy and pasting what other people have said, but they are putting it through their own brand, through their own personal brand, through their own way of speaking. And although that's not necessarily a bad thing because you're putting your flair on it, it does mean that essentially, what we are entrenched in in this industry is a lot of people basically dragging and dropping other people's stuff, but saying it through their own energy. And although that can work and is probably transformational for some people, it will never and although that can work and is probably transformational for some people, it will never allow you to bring yourself into a new category of people that is being able to charge hundreds of thousands of dollars for whether it's programs, services or public speaking. It's not going to be the thing that's going to allow you to do that. We need to actually go a level deeper, and this is the part that a lot of people don't want to do, because it's really hard work.

Speaker 1: 5:32

True authority I call it integrated authority is where you aren't just thinking about the very small tip of the iceberg stuff, which is the content that you're creating, and a lot of the time, people are creating very short form, fast paced, easily consumable pieces of content that has a life shelf or a bookshelf bookshelf, life shelf you know what I mean of literally like two days. So it's not actually establishing anything deeper, it's not actually creating anything more robust than something that is very quick to consume and what people need to be able to do is go beyond just creating content that converts and saying you're an authority and actually build authority from the inside out that positions you as different, where you aren't just dragging and dropping what someone else is doing and putting your flair on it, but you have actually gone through the process of analyzing your own thoughts, processes and methodologies and ways of doing things and come out with something that is different. The way that you can always tell whether what you are teaching is different to other people is whether, if you do a training, you talk on your topic and people will always come back and say I've never heard it delivered like that. In all of my time, I have never heard this concept. I get this feedback a lot from people, especially people that are much further ahead than me in certain areas. When I talk about authority, especially inner authority, I get a lot of these comments where people say I have never heard it described in that way, and there's a reason for that. I've taken the time to really go deep on this topic so that I can understand how it processes through my own system differently, not just how I'm saying it differently, but how I embody the topic differently, how I have actually retrospectively gone back and looked at my own processes and ways of doing things and helping a client to get a result and actually created something very different.

Speaker 1: 7:23

Now this process is actually pretty uncomfortable and this is the reason that a lot of people don't like to do it, because a lot of people will come in and say I know what it is that I'm good at, I know that I'm really really good at this topic and they aren't really willing to look at potentially there may be other things that they haven't seen. It's actually quite a triggering process because what it does is it kind of puts you back in the beginner category, and so when a lot of my clients do this work with me, they call it shadow work for your content, because essentially I'm questioning every single thing that you knew to be true up until this point. I'm not asking you how is this different? Tell me more about this process. This doesn't feel defined enough. Go a layer deeper with me here. What does that mean? And often what that can initially bring up in initial conversations is I don't know. I actually don't know, and this is the issue is, most people don't actually know how their method is different from other people, because they haven't given themselves the time to think about it, because it feels very uncomfortable.

Speaker 1: 8:27

And what usually happens is, when you do do the deep work with this process and you actually go deeper into your authority and really find how you do things differently, there is a certain level of breaking down that can occur of what it is that you thought to be true in the first place, and it's almost like a dark night of the soul. People can suddenly start to become doubtful. People suddenly can start to question what it is that they're doing Now. That doesn't mean that it's wrong. It means that it's working. But in order for you to break through, in order for you to find something truly original, you kind of have to go through this process of discomfort in order to get out on the other side.

Speaker 1: 9:09

Think about any time that you learn a new skill. You will typically go through a period of discomfort. Now, the discomfort doesn't mean that it's wrong. It feels uncomfortable. It means that you are growing and learning. You are creating new neural pathways in your brain. You are building your muscles. If you go to the gym and you work a new muscle that you haven't worked in a while, you are going to get an achy muscle. That doesn't mean that something's wrong. That means your muscle is growing. When you try to learn something new, it feels uncomfortable because you've never done it before. And this is the same process with authority that most people aren't willing to go down, especially if they have already been established in a particular area for a while.

Speaker 1: 9:47

And the reason that we need to be focusing on this now is because AI is going to be continuously rising. This is not something that's going away. This is only going to be something that is going to grow larger and larger and larger, and what that is going to do is weed out the good from the great, because AI is going to be able to replicate the good very easily. It is going to be able to take the bog standard run of the mill, drag and drop systems that other people are teaching, and package it into different ways, and it's going to be able to essentially do that for anyone. The great are going to be the people that have unique ways of thinking, that have developed something that has not been developed previously, because then AI can't draw on that to create something new. If we want to stand out in a industry that is going to be saturated with AI, we need to create something new.

Speaker 1: 10:43

We need to crack the mold of what we're already doing and go five layers deeper than we have been previously to really understand how do I do this differently, not just who am I, not just what's the flair that I bring, not just oh, I like aliens, so I'll bring an alien flair into this, but really deconstructing how you think and bringing that into a clear model that people can consume that helps people to solve a problem faster. The thing that we want to be doing when we're building authority is essentially halving the time it takes people to get a result. So, whether it's a process that we take people through in a coaching conversation that allows people to find a root trigger faster, whether it's a way that I help people to build authority or whether it's something that's very specific to you. Maybe, if you are studying communication, you have a specific way that you help people to get to a good resolution in a conflict much faster, and there's specific way that you help people to get to a good resolution in a conflict much faster, and there's a process that you take people through. That has nothing to do with who you are as a brand.

Speaker 1: 11:47

Your personal brand has nothing to do with the topic that you're teaching them with topic mastery. Your personal brand sits on top of topic mastery, but topic mastery is created. It is something that intentionally, you have to sink deeper into and really understand how do I do this, not how do I present this, what's my unique flair? But how can I help people to reach a result faster? That is authority, that is topic mastery and that is the thing that is going to allow people to stand out and be the ones that are great. And it is the ones that are great that are still coming up with unique perspectives, that are going to be the ones that are paid more, that are in demand and that have flourishing businesses, irregardless of what is happening in the market, and this goes beyond just having loads of followers. Like you may look at Mel Robbins and all of the other people that I mentioned and think, well, they've just got a huge following now, but I want to remind you that one day they hadn't, at a period of time they didn't have a huge audience. The thing that created the huge audience was the showcasing and the demonstrating of their authority. It was of their unique perspectives that are different. They established those and developed those and presented them until they were picked up. That's what built their authority. Their following doesn't create their authority. Their unique ways of thinking does.

Speaker 1: 13:11

Now, in order for you to develop the unique way of thinking, you need to have a couple of things. So you need to be able to have a very strong sense of inner authority. This is a really big part of authority building. If you don't have inner authority, if you don't have conviction of what you say, if you don't have humility in the way that you are delivering it, if you don't have the confidence to be able to deliver the message, then you are going to end up either not delivering a message at all, feeling like you need to replicate other people, or creating something that potentially isn't unique to you. And a lot of these areas are actually the things that detract from authority in the way that we deliver a message.

Speaker 1: 13:48

Did you know that in sales calls, 80% of the reason that someone actually ends up signing is because of the level of conviction that someone delivers a message with? It's because of the level of conviction that someone delivers a message with. It's because of the level of certainty that someone can come to that sales call with and say I can get you a result and I believe in this. And that has nothing to do with the strategy. Nothing to do with the strategy. It has everything to do with how you feel on the inside.

Speaker 1: 14:13

If you don't have a level of conviction and certainty in your authority, in the way that you do things, if it is not embodied, if it is not integrated, then people will not believe you. And that is the heartbeat of sales, that is the heartbeat of public speaking. And the only way that you can get that is through developing inner authority and conviction in your messaging. And, ironically, as you develop the outer authority, you will develop more inner authority to believe oh, I know what I'm doing because you're embodying it. What a lot of people will do is they'll consume something, they'll consume a message, and then they will take that message. They won't fully embody it right, so they won't actually be like how can I make this different? How can I run this through my own system? They'll just go and teach it straight away. So it remains surface level. Right Remains up here.

Speaker 1: 15:02

I've learned this. I'm going to teach you this. I've learned this, I'm going to teach you this. But that's not embodied. What's embodied is I've learned this.

Speaker 1: 15:10

I'm now going to apply this to myself. So I'm going to go and do a load of work. I'm going to go and work with my clients and apply this and test, and I'm actually going to see how it works for me. I'm going to apply this to my social media. I'm going to apply this to my own methods and over a period of three months, I'm going to test, I'm going to see how it works and over that three months, I'm going to learn things about this. Do I agree with what I've been taught or actually do I teach it in a different way? Is it a completely different way? Because this is the thing People are going to learn and consume things differently.

Speaker 1: 15:42

People make up are completely different. This is why some people resonate with human design, some people resonate with side real astrology, some people resonate with regular astrology. None of them are wrong, but they are designed for different types of people and if someone had just copied this and taken it over there, we would only have astrology, you know, we wouldn't have something else. It required someone to be like hmm, that doesn't quite fit. Let me see how I can run this through my own way of thinking and really come out with something that is very unique. That's the thing that makes people stand out. That's the thing that really allows you to be considered a thought leader, and an authority is running it through that system.

Speaker 1: 16:22

So you need that inner authority to be able to fully embody your message and create that level of certainty and conviction. Now, when you have that inner authority, you then need to be able to channel that into outer authority. And if you kind of imagine, like an iceberg, the outer authority in your content and your brand, it's a very, very peak and your inner authority is like everything else that goes on beneath the surface. It's all of the energy that you're delivering your message with. Like. Both of these parts of the iceberg are required in order for the iceberg to be there. If it was just floating on the top, it would fall straight back under the part underneath. It gives it the security, it gives it the groundedness, it gives it the stability to deliver that first little section that we actually see above. So the outer authority is everything that you see and, yes, content is a part of that.

Speaker 1: 17:11

However, in order for our content to really go beyond just converting, and if you want to really become that thought leader, you need to go a level deeper. You need to go a level further than that and actually develop this authority identity, you need to create integrated authority, and so we really do that by now creating an authority identity that is consisting of four key aspects. Now, authority identity that is consisting of four key aspects. Now the four key aspects look like number one topic mastery. Now, we've spoken a lot about this just before. Topic mastery is essentially becoming such a master at the specific thing that you teach, and don't be afraid to go really narrow here.

Speaker 1: 17:53

A lot of people are like I'm a business coach. It's like, yeah, but what area of business are you specifically specializing in? Oh well, you know I can help everyone with a lot of areas of business. Okay, well, you're never going to stand out. If you're coming at it from that perspective. If you really want to be known for something, you've got to choose. Which part of business do you want to become a master at? Which part of inner authority building or mindset work do you want to become a master in? Which specific pain point do you want to be solving Like? Don't be afraid to be specific. The more specific, the more catered you can actually be to the way that you are delivering your message and the more resonance that is actually going to have. So when you have that, you really need to go deep, learn everything that you can about this topic and then that embodiment process that I spoke about previously. You need to be doing that. You need to go that layer deeper and really then that embodiment process that I spoke about previously. You need to be doing that. You need to go that layer deeper and really create that embodiment of this. Is how I do it now. This can take several years.

Speaker 1: 18:46

My understanding of integrated authority has been developed over the past four years and even just recently I changed the name of a very established topic that I had trademarks for and everything. Purely because it developed, it shifted, it changed. The models that I created a year ago have changed since then, and so this is like a process that you are going to be developing over a particular period of time that is going to allow you to stand out, and so you want to kind of like see it as a canvas, as something that you give permission to develop over time and to not have to have it perfect in order to start talking about it, and this is also why this should be your authority. Building should be a stream of work that you were doing alongside everything else that you were doing to make money. This shouldn't halt your business in any way. Like I do this work separate to what I'm doing in my business in my day-to-day, I do it separate to creating content that converts. It ultimately then will inform the content that I create, but it doesn't stop me from actually doing the day-to-day things that are going to generate income. This is a separate stream of work that I do alongside, and that's a really important thing to not go into the perfectionist and the eternal student of. I need it to be perfect in order to do anything. No, you moving forward in your business is actually going to allow you to create more stable and solid authority in the long run, but this should be something that you're doing alongside it.

Speaker 1: 20:08

So topic mastery is one thing. The second thing is then unique perspectives. So your unique perspectives are essentially the way that you view the world differently. What are the unique ways that you view your topic? What are the unique ways that you run it through your system? And this is another way to really deepen your craft and become a master in your topics. You really need to understand, like, how do I do this differently? How is the way that I present this and this can be a little bit with your personal brand as well the way that you present your ideas. But a bigger part of this is really going deep on how do I go through this process, everything that we've spoken about previously. So unique perspectives as another one.

Speaker 1: 20:45

The next part is then your authority story. So your authority story is a really really big part of your authority and also the method that you are teaching. Typically, if you go through any book that anyone has delivered, there is a specific authority story that talks about the origin of the method that they teach, and this is not your whole life story, and this is a really big mistake that I see people make is they try to squeeze their entire life story into talking about this one topic or their brand. It's not relevant, and so for every single authority topic that you have and you should have this even for programs is like some sort of authority origin story that you can really help to demonstrate why you have come to the beliefs that you have. There's lots of different ways that we can do this, but storytelling around authority is a really big part to demonstrate why people need the thing that you are offering, why you are so passionate about this topic.

Speaker 1: 21:41

And the last part of this and this is just the outer authority, not including the inner authority is you need to have a common enemy. So the common enemy is a standard marketing practice where it's essentially what you stand against, and when we create a common enemy that our program method brand can stand against, it allows people to kind of stand in unity with that thing, and this does and will inevitably create a slight division in your audience, and so there will be some people that agree with you and there will be some people that don't, and that's normal. That's what we actually want and it really shows good thought leadership. If you tune into everything that joe dispenser is talking about, there is a whole facet of people that do not agree with the science that he is putting forward. A lot of you know, regular scientists do not agree with what he's putting forward because it goes against everything that they know. Does that mean he doesn't um go and continue sharing his message? Not at all. It means he double downs on it, double downs, doubles down.

Speaker 1: 22:44

You know what I mean and that's a really important aspect to know is that in order for you to really stand out, you're going to have to stop being vanilla. You're going to have to heal the people pleaser in you that wants to fit in, and you're going to have to really fan the flame of the part of you that needs to stand out. You need to stand for something. If you are standing for nothing, you stand for nothing, and your message will blend in. If you don't have a common enemy, the same thing can be said for that as well. So a really important part. So the four aspects of creating very strong outer authority, specifically outer authority not even going into like content is topic mastery, unique perspectives, authority stories and the common enemy. Now, what we then do when we have all of these aspects, is we start to actually then weave that into our messaging. So we create methods, methodologies, way of thinking, diagnosis, models, and then we start to weave that stuff strategically into our content.

Speaker 1: 23:42

Now I call this high ticket authority content, where we are literally demonstrating our authority in our content. If we aren't demonstrating our authority, with the rise of AI, we are going to blend in. This is why the market today is so different to what it was even three years ago, because three years ago, people didn't need to really demonstrate their authority, because it was a smaller pool of people and people were just so enthralled with spending their money on anything that they weren't really putting it through a filter of do I need this? People are now doing that, and so people are now looking for authorities in order to make a purchasing decision. They want to know that you have integrated your authority and you know this topic so well that you will be able to get someone a result. If you don't have that, you will blend in. So this is a little bit about becoming an integrated authority is really starting to allow yourself to go a layer deeper on what it is that you're known from.

Speaker 1: 24:39

If you want to be someone that stands out and isn't just another voice in the crowd, if you want to be someone that has integrated your authority and is in demand and is able to make millions from that, this is the stuff you're going to need to work on, and I know that it's not potentially like the most glamorous stuff to work on because it is uncomfortable. It is something that makes you question things. It can cast doubt on what you're currently doing and can then put you in a situation where you're like shit. Everything that I've currently been teaching up until this point I now don't believe in and I've got to change and pivot. It can do that and that's uncomfortable, but I can promise you this, and I say this with my chest In the next two to five years, it will be the people that have gone through this process to establish clear, integrated authority that are the ones that are still making really good money.

Speaker 1: 25:29

The ones that have not gone through this process will fall to the wayside. Ai will weed out the good from the great and if you are not ahead of the curve, doing this stuff and really establishing that in-demand factor, then you will blend in, and that is just the reality of where we are right now. So if you want to build in-demand authority and you have been listening to what I've been saying you are really interested in the next process. I have a brand new free training, which is a three-part training which will be dropping very soon. I've included all of the details in the caption below, in the description below of this video, or, if you're listening to the podcast, it will be in the description as well.

Speaker 1: 26:13

In that free training, you will learn where your authority blind spot currently is and how to fix it. You will learn how to develop reputable authority that gets you noticed and in high demand so that you can charge more money for your services, and I'll be going into the biggest authority mistakes that repel clients. So make sure that you sign up for that free training. It will be something that you can binge immediately. If you're watching this for the future, then it's probably already made, but I really hope that you guys enjoy it because, as I said, I truly believe that authority is the thing that is going to allow you to achieve everything that you want to achieve. It is going to be the thing that allows you to stand out, to be seen and to get paid. So do not wait on this. Join us for this free training called In Demand Authority, and I will see you there. Bye guys.