How to Boost Your Authority and Become the Go-To in Your Industry

When you position yourself as an industry authority, opportunities will come to YOU. You attract clients, get more recognition and get paid, very well. But in a world full of competition and endless marketing messages, how do you stand out and why would someone choose YOU?

Today’s episode will show you the 4 drivers that define every industry authority and how to leverage them for your brand. You’ll learn how to be more sophisticated when talking about what it is you do, where to focus your efforts and how to evaluable your own credibility.

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Transcript

1:54  

Well, hey, friend, welcome back to another episode. I am so thrilled that you tuned in today because this topic you are going to fricking gobble it up, because it's going to help you elevate your authority and position yourself to be that go to expert in your niche. Now, if you are here, you're most likely an online entrepreneur, you are a coach or a course creator, maybe you are a an entrepreneur who's had a business for years, and you're shifting into the online space, whatever that looks like for you. I bet you're here because you have experience. This is one of the common things that I say with the audience that I attract is the people who come into my world are legit. They know what they're doing. They know they're experts. But the one thing that drives us batshit crazy, which it did for me too, when I joined the online space, is just because you're an expert, and you're damn good at what you do does not mean that other people know that. It doesn't mean that other people trust that. It does not mean that other people will pay for how good you are. And see this funny thing about the online space is your ability to be successful and create the business you want rest and falls on your ability to communicate and articulate that value. And so many entrepreneurs struggle with this, especially when it comes to a word like authority which is tossed out so much in this online space. 

5:10  

Let's be honest here. We can make this a drinking game. How many times this week have you heard somebody say elevate your authority, or you need authority, it comes down to trust and authority or authority, accelerator, authority this, authority that. I have to be honest with you before working in this online space, I rarely heard, I mean, I heard the word, obviously know what the word means. Kind of I actually Googled it because I was like, what does it actually mean? Like is the definition that we think it is? Is it actually that case? We're going to dive into that today. But what does it actually mean? Because it's become more of a marketing buzzword but it is a make or break it when it comes to other people trusting you, jumping at your offers and services and really being the one that says oh man, you are the go-to for this. We're gonna dive that into this today. We're gonna have a lot of fun. And actually, today's episode is pretty damn actionable. So as always, as you're listening, pull up a little Google doc on your phone or a notepad or just listen and come back to it later. You always have the show notes you can come back to if you go to heathersager.com/podcast. You always can get the show notes on these. One of the interesting and I would say pretty awesome things about our show is we actually do full show notes. And you can actually find transcripts of the episode so if you ever want to come back to it, if you head to heather sager.com/podcast, you always can find those more in depth shownotes. We don't do full on huge ass blog posts for every single episode. But for a majority of them we do but you'll always find transcripts and details to be able to probably talk about it action.

5:09  

 Side note, can I just say I love, love, love reading the reviews that y'all give for the show. One of the go-to things that I always hear back is y'all love how will, one, I bring it real. I mean, last week I mentioned the word sex toy on the show, and I didn't realize how many people messaged me dying of laughter. No, we weren't talking about sex toys. I was just talking about a piece of fitness equipment that I bought that happened to look like a sex toy, so there we go two episodes in a row that I am using that term. But y'all love how real I am. Hopefully that I'm inspiring you, that you don't have to be so prime and proper and professional. When you show up, you could actually have personality. But beyond that, you always tell me how much you love how actionable these episodes are. So in the spirit of that, if you are loving the podcast, it really would mean the world. If you haven't yet taken time to leave a review. Can I ask a small favor that this is the week that you do that? This episode is coming out in the month of Valentine's Day. I'm recording this the week of Valentine's Day. And if you want to show me a little cheesy, love, love, it really would mean the world if you head on over to wherever you're listening to this, but primarily Apple podcasts and that is the main engine. For people finding podcasts these days or Spotify. I don't know how to leave reviews there. But a review really, really mean the world to me and help me actually, with my go-to authority status. We're going to talk about how we can do that the same for you today. 

5:51  

So as we dive in here and talk about this idea of what the heck is authority? Why do we actually need it and how do you actually grow it? I googled the word authority just because I was curious what would come up and a lot of different things came up but this one was my favorite. I'm going to read directly from vocabulary.com. It says if you have authority to do something, you have the right power to do it. You are the big cheese. Or if you know more about a topic than most, you are an authority on that topic. What's funny is they actually give an example under this definition where they give the example of when you leave your kids with a babysitter. You give her the authority to put them to bed at seven o'clock no matter how much they whine or resistant. And then it says you would totally feel more confident. They don't say totally, I added that. You'd feel more confident leaving the babysitter in charge of bedtime decisions if she's written two books on the subject and is an authority or renowned expert on children's sleep habits. 

7:45  

Kind of a funny example here. But this idea around us placing our trust in other people. That's really what authority is about. And today we're going to define a little bit more but I want to bring in the context of business and thinking about how we make decisions. So earlier this week, I had to order some beauty supplies. I needed to get some more dry shampoo. I guess I just said dry shampoo. You ladies you know as an online entrepreneur, we work at home. For me, I've been getting my best work in right after, we have a new routine in our house, by the way. We just switched daycares for my youngest, Levi, he just got into a preschool program. This is very exciting life update. Hang on, we're going to take a detour. My younger son has been going to a daycare/pseudo preschool thing. It was an in home program, pretty far away from our house. We live just south of Portland and we had picked a place when my oldest was super young and it was halfway between our house and where my husband works, which he works, I mean, a good drive away from us. My oldest grew up, we put our youngest in that center. Life, like for many people has been very different the last few years, I promise I'm gonna get back to the dry shampoo and the you building authority here in a minute. We're just a little on a detour here. But we've been using this daycare center and as you all know, all of our schedules have been just completely flipped on their heads over the last two years. What that means in our house specifically is we have been driving one hour twice a day, four days a week for the last two years when my husband rarely goes into an office anymore. So every morning he would make the drive it's like 24 minutes to preschool you got to manage the drop off situation and then we drive home and then I would do that every afternoon. Well, finally we're like why the hell are we doing this anymore? So we found a an amazing Montessori Preschool center, very close to our home, and we were finally off the waitlist and we got into the program. This is the first week we're doing it. All of us to say, it's like a whole new world for me, because the boys all leave the house, everybody is out by 8:10. The house is quiet and I now have a window of time that I have to have everything done because that preschool ends and my workday therefore has to end much earlier than it had been previously. I say all this to go of my new habit has been instead of taking a shower and getting ready, maybe a TMI here, but I immediately walk upstairs still in my workout clothes for my morning workout, and I start working, which means I was very much facing the holy crap, I need dry shampoo, I am totally out. 

10:41  

So here we go back for dry shampoo, I log on to my little Ulta app, that's where I get a lot of my beauty products. And I log in and I find the dry shampoo that I had before. But then my eye wanders down and I start seeing other brands and I have that little tickle of a thought. Should I try something new this time? So I scroll through and as you do this too. probably when you're shopping for things, what's the first thing you look at? Click on the reviews. How many stars if it's under four stars, you know if three and a half stars, you'd like, you obviously four stars, four and a half stars, five stars for definitely. But if it's five stars only has one review versus four stars with like 3000 reviews, you're totally going with the for four and a half star, right? 

11:23  

We evaluate these things we look at other people on the internet to validate is this going to work for me? Can I trust that this product is going to work? And while I'm talking about this dry shampoo is $26 for the bottle, maybe expensive for a bottle of dry shampoo, maybe not, relatively speaking. It's a pretty inexpensive purchase and it's a product. This is how we make decisions. But digital products and services, let's take the little bridge here for a moment. In our world, let's say you're a copywriter and you sell day rate copywriting packages, or let's say you are a you're a marketing coach, and you work with people one on one for six weeks to help them develop their marketing strategy and then execute that strategy, create the process for that. Maybe you are a yoga teacher, and you have transitioned to teaching online classes over the last few years and you now have a digital program that you're looking to sell. Whatever it is that you sell, we have to recognize that these types of services and digital products are different than going on to Ulta or Sephora or wherever it is that you go and you look for a product and buy it. But that means different to different buying process, however, there are similarities in the buying behaviors. They just show up differently, so think about this. Think about more service based things maybe even in the real world versus the online world. 

12:49  

Let's say a friend or your sister in law comes up to you and says, hey, you know, I were actually looking at selling our house, dop you know any good realtors? You most likely have someone that you know, and you say, oh, I have an amazing realtors you really should use, or let's say somebody else's daughters getting married and they need a caterer for their wedding. If you know of a good caterer, you're going to be like oh man, you got to talk to Suzy, she's the best. For me, if you ever mentioned that you need gluten free food in the Portland area. I am going to scream, oh my goodness, you have to check out my sister's bakery. Bloomin Bakery. It is incredible. Everything is gluten free and it doesn't taste like it. In our real lives when we think services or things like that, when we know someone or know of a brand, we are quick to recommend them. It shines brightly on us because we love being able to be the person who's in the know but it really we were able to make that recommendation because we trust in that brand. 

13:46  

So now let's take it in the online space. If I were to ask you, oh, man, let's pretend you weren't listening to me on a podcast right now. And I said, hey, you know, I'm thinking about starting a podcast. Do you know anyone who has a course on that? There's most likely somebody who comes to mind for you. For me, it goes to my girl, Krystal Proffitt, who has been on the show before. Others, they might think oh, Pat Flynn. You gotta ylisten to Pat Flynn. Maybe I say hey, I really really want to try a challenge launch and if you are familiar with my show, you might go oh, you have to talk to Zach Spuckler. He is amazing at challenges. Shout out, we'll link Zach's episode and Krystal's episode in the show notes for y'all. We had a really great conversation both on podcasting and on challenges. But another person might think oh Paula Melissa Pruitt. You got to talk to them about challenges. Or if I were to say I really want to get in the game with YouTube, who comes to mind? For me,  Sunny Lenarduzzi comes to mind but I also know that her YouTube for Bosses, she no longer is hosting. So now I go who's the person I learned from for YouTube? I don't know. I heard about Sunny's course so please don't send me recommendations. 

14:56  

But the point that I'm making here, any of these topics you are in the online marketing space, I bet you're already formulating opinions for who is the go-to person for that. But let me ask you a question. Have you actually worked with these people? Maybe some of you have, maybe some you haven't. But let's broaden the horizon here a little bit. If I say who's the best at creating online courses, who do you think of? While most people off the top of their head go, boom, Amy Porterfield, because she's the most recognized brand. If I say who's the person that you learned from, from personal development, the person that comes to mind for me is Brendon Burchard. For a lot of people, it's Tony Robbins. For you, it might be someone different. Who's the person you want to learn from in personal finance? Who's the person you would learn from in macros nutrition? Who's the person you gotta learn from to learn how to do the splits? Yeah, I just had to learn how to do the splits. Do you have those ads right now stalking you on Facebook, telling you that you can in three, three workout stretches today, you can be doing the splits in 30 days? I'm seriously considering buying that course not because I want to do the splits but just because I'm curious.

16:01  

Back to it. The whole point here is when you think about you list a niche or a topic or industry, there is a name most likely that comes to mind. The question is, why are you recommending that person or why does their name come to mind? And the bigger question is, when somebody mentions your niche industry, are you the name that comes up? And the chances are in some circles, maybe, but the majority in terms of industry authority, probably not yet. And I'm going to heavy emphasize yet. And I want you to grab on that word yet. Super cheesy, but I want you to grab yet and I want you to hold it in your heart and say just because I am not at the place I want to be that vision I have for myself in my mind does not mean that I won't yet get there. It is possible for me and I can get there but you have to learn how do you play the game of marketing. And for some of you that might rub you the wrong way being like, I don't want to play the game of marketing. But hey, you're already in it, baby. We are in online marketing. And there are people out in your industry who are less qualified care far less about actually helping people who don't even have trained really, but they're really damn good at writing copy or showing up on Instagram, or figuring out the transition on reels. They are kicking your ass when it comes to marketing to your ideal customers. 

17:29  

So it isn't about like hiding from this idea that whether or not you're in marketing, you're already here. But you have to learn how to be more sophisticated at talking about what it is you do so that people see you as an authority, and they understand what authority means. And I'm gonna define that for you today. But authority, there is a level of competency that comes with it. So when you have authority, you instantly stand out from the fakers who are just really, really good at the online crap. All right, you got to be good at both. But you will stand out and elevate your authority status when you understand a few of these things we're going to talk about today. And what's fascinating. When I just speed round went through that list, right? Those different topics and who came to mind, I asked you the question, how many of those people have you actually worked with or how many of them are just names that you're super familiar with because they seem to show up everywhere? And everyone else seems to recommend them. So therefore, you now also recommend them. 

18:37  

You see, when you have experience with someone, we have sometimes firsthand experience where we actually engage in a service or product, we have results on our own or experience with our own and we can stamp that approval. But there's also secondhand where maybe a friend or a peer or your business coach or whoever else, they somebody you really know and trust. They had direct experience, that secondhand. So you said it worked for them, you still feel comfortable signing off on it. But there's this other thing that happens and I see it happen all the time. We all do it and it's third and fourth and fifth and six and seven hand. You didn't even know you had that many hands, right? But that experience that comes from the momentum that's created when you get people talking about your stuff. It's you see somebody else or many somebody's raving about a certain person in a Facebook group and you say man, I gotta check out the Heather Sager, and here yo are. That's a fun little example there. 

19:39  

I don't know how we met but I just imagined it something like that. Somebody, somewhere said something about my work. You were curious. You checked it out. Maybe the first time they said it, you didn't. But then I crept up on you with a Facebook ad and I just kept hounding or maybe you saw me speak somewhere and then you downloaded my freebie, but you didn't open my emails and then the 73rd email you finally open and here we are. I don't know where you came from but I do know that along the way the seed was planted. that I was an expert at some kind of speaking. It piqued your curiosity and now here you are which now in that little ramble and my slur right there you're wondering, well does she actually know how to speak? I promise I do. Trust me. it's just I'm also very authentic on this podcast and I'm not going to give you, this is not one of those podcasts y'all where I edit out. Well, really anything. We don't edit much of anything on this show because I want you to hear what true, real, raw speaking is. But back to it. 

20:40  

Thinking about you. You may at the top of this episode think okay, I have no desire to be the next Pat Flynn or to be the Budgetnista. I've read her book, Tiffany, it's really really good, by the way. It's personal finance book. You might not have this big desire to be the leading authority. The Brendon Burchard level, the the Success Magazine, Success 125 list came out last week and there are so many big names on it. I mean, talk about screaming authority. I'm just going to pull it up here real quick because this talk about authority. Screaming up on here you have Jasmine Star, you have Glen and Mindy Stearns, you have basilica St. John, Gary Vaynerchuk, Patrice Washington. Those are just five that come to mind. You have Anthony Trucks, Trent Shelton, Jay Shetty Swan Set, Will Smith. I mean, you're talking about peep, Ed Mylett, Marie Forleo, Cal Newport which by the way, his books are amazing. Mel Robbins, Tony Robbins, Molly Rangel from, what's that? I can't remember her. She was a cosmetics, beautician. Amazing. She's a really good keynote speaker high energy. Let's see here, I said Marie Forleo. Some of these names I don't even recognize, but clearly somebody does. Here's Jenna Kutcher, Aubrey Marcus. There are so many on here. I'm not gonna read the 125. But you know what I'm saying, when I say authority, we think oftentimes is the big, big name. And you might be sitting here going, I have no desire to become a big celebrity. 

22:14  

Well, the good news is, you don't need to have celebrity status but you do have to have authority status because here's what I want you to think about. Authority, let's simplify it to the word trust. Those two things go together, and you can replace that word with that. But trust doesn't sound very sexy in a marketing effort. So we screamed, you need to have more authority. But what you really need is trust. And if we think back, I had trust expert Andrea Howe. She is the speaker and author on the show. She was back in Episode 37 In May of 2020. I'll link to that here. She shared this. Wen you shift your focus from trying to get others to trust you to elevating your trust worthiness, that's where things start getting far more interesting. And so on that episode, we actually define what is the trust equation and how does that actually relate to online marketing. So that's a really, really good follow up episode for today. So again, I'll link it in the show notes. 

23:11  

But what we're going to do right now is I'm going to help you understand the four elements of authority so that you can evaluate where you are, and maybe where you could work on boosting up that trust and credibility factor in your marketplace. So number one, and I tried to make use an acronym and I couldn't get it to work. So it's a CRCR. That's the acronym CRCR, so you can remember this. CRCR. So I'm going to read them to you. Competence, Results, Conviction and Recognition. Competence, Results, Conviction and Recognition. These are the four ingredients for very, very strong authority so let's dive into them. 

23:57  

Number one, competence. So this is the baseline bar none in order for you to be seen as a an authority, ie, trusted person in your space. You have to have a depth of knowledge and expertise for your topic. That is a non negotiable. Somebody who has barely dabbled let's say, I'm going to use this really weird example here for a second. When reels, Instagram reels hit the scene, what was that a year and a half ago or so? It really took off I think late last summer is when most people, I don't even remember right y'all. I've told you this before. I did not get reels until like a month and a half ago. So I was a little bitter and blessed. But when reels hit the same, same with clubhouse when it hits the scene. I was laughing hysterically or after like a week or two or even a month. People were coming out with these programs for how to, I'm so sorry if you were one of these people. I don't mean this. I'm just gonna say, I'm sorry if I offend you if I say this, but for somebody to come out after two weeks of using a thing. I mean, like, I'm the expert on this, like this is the pro makers guide for monetizing clubhouse or monetizing reels. I just roll my eyes and say this thing is so new. We are not at that level to deem ourselves as experts on something we've been tinkering and I get it. Some of these people were on clubhouse for like 22 hours a day, probably for the first month, whatever, I'm sure there is some there. 

25:26  

But when I think about authority status, there is a deep level of competency. There is experience, there is training, there is work in that field doing the thing. Competence has a breadth and a depth to it that it's important when you think about those names. I read on that list earlier. These people have years of experience, and I'm not saying that yours is the only definition for that but you can't just dabble in something and be like, I started my new business on how to frost cupcakes and I've been doing it for three months. I'm ready to become the go-to cupcake decorator in the industry. You're not setting yourself up for success. Now, it doesn't mean that you cannot elevate your authority status. But it does mean you gotta wait a hot minute and you got to earn it. Keep a little bit, my friend, in order to become the go-to authority in your industry. 

26:24  

I think what we have to remember is there's length of time, there's also knowledge, there's a lot of factors that go into that but we have like the non negotiable is you have to know your stuff, like you got to know your stuff. There has to be competency there. So that is number one. And as I mentioned at the top of this episode, if you're hanging out with me, I know you have experience in what you do. So high five, you have that one going on. I'm going to talk to you about a nuance that I want you to really embrace when it comes to competency here in just a moment. But let's talk about number two results. Industry experts who have true authority, they have results, which means they have a track record that demonstrates not just their competency, but their effectiveness. So they've done the thing, they've gotten results for themselves for other people. The thing that they know like for me, I'll use me as an example. I am a speaker and speaking coach specifically working with online entrepreneurs to help them better communicate to their audiences, probably learn to communicate myself a little better that'd be a little more helpful.

27:30  

But for me, right, not only have I gotten results. I've booked myself on stages my keynote fee is I mean bang in. It's great. But I've also helped other people on stages. And I have private clients, I have students. I talk about those results all all the time, whether those results are somebody doing their first Facebook Live, and having the confidence to not pee their pants, or if somebody's booking their dream stage, or a client we had a couple months ago. She landed a workshop with Google or another client who just got her first paid speaking gig and I came through her website. She didn't even seek it out. I get results for people that elevates by authority status, elevates in your mind of going wait, her client got a gig Google or hey, wait her client last week just booked a paid podcast series like that's pretty freaking cool. So authority status, not only do we know, but we get results. There's effectiveness there. 

28:25  

Number three, people who have strong authority have conviction. And what I mean by that as assertive, confidence. You don't see these power players that I listed from Success Magazine. Those people are not quietly just waiting for recognition. No, they are up in it all. They are on the stages. They are they're demonstrating, look, I know what I'm doing. Let me talk about my book. Let me be on the podcast. I want to show up. This is what assertive confidence is. They know their shit and they're not like egotistical about it. But they know what they're talking about. They believe it so strongly, it comes out. Like for me right now on this podcast, the way that I'm speaking to you, the conviction in my voice, the the absolute nature of what I'm seeing right now, and I get that. And I say this with the humility to go I know that there's always going to be holes to poke in everything. But I'm not focused on that 1% hole poking factor. I am focused on the, these are the four things they're going to help you drive your authority. I'm not doing it wishy washy. I'm not making suggestions. I'm telling you with full on conviction and punch in my fist into my other hand with confidence that if you work on these four things, I know that you will elevate the perception your audience has a view, you'll improve the trust. You have to have confidence and that conviction has to come out in how you communicate. 

29:55  

Number four, for authority status to be achieved you have to be recognized. That recognition comes from other people specifically, many use this term other power players. So people who already have authority in your industry or authority in their own right, they are stamping their seal of approval on your work. They're saying that you have confidence. They're saying that man, this gal gets results. They're saying like she knows her shit. They're recognizing you for your work. This one here often comes up in the the conversation around how you need to be on the media, you need to have those as seen on stickers on your website, which I've talked about this before on the podcast, those things can help you but they are not the only way for you to get recognition. And for an online entrepreneur, especially in those early years, when you're a solopreneur, probably working with an executive assistant or a virtual assistant. You don't really have a team, you probably don't have a lot of time to be hustling and pitching and writing articles to pitch that may or may not be accepted or chasing new stories, and all those things can be fun and exciting and sure they can build street cred, at the same time, there are other things that you really have to be working on in your business that you might not have time for that. But there are ways for you to connect with your ideal audience and get more immediate results ie, leads from podcast guest interviews, speaking on other people's live streams, collaboration, speaking at virtual events. There are ways that you can get in front of your ideal audience, alongside trusted, respected authorities in your industry and get recognition from that. Other ways that you can do that is working with trusted authorities in your space, whether that's collaborations, whether that's you pitching yourself to have them on as a client. 

32:01  

Little quick story here, very, very early on in my business. I joined a program with Tarzan Kay. I've talked about in the program before. I love Tarzan. I learned email from her. Initially, when I joined the online marketing space. Tarzan had an event coming up and I'm a speaking coach. I'm really good at live events. It's what I did for 10 years is produce really large scale, incredible conferences that were a little bit business, a little bit personal development but I was really good at helping create these exceptional experiences and prepping the lineup of speakers being one of the speakers on the stage to bring that vision of the conference to life. So I reached out to Tarzan and pitched. Can I help you? I know this is a big event. I know your goals for this event are X,Y, and Z. How can I support you with this? And so Tarzan brought me on board to help her and her conference partner at the time and I helped them with the whole morning session of that event, helped them put together the schedule of the morning, help them design the first few session talks, and she was freaking stoked. And you know what happened, she talked about me like gangbusters on social media and told her email list and she recognized me the conference. And just Tarzan saying, true and nice things about that little exchange, it was two zoom calls that we had. It lit her up on fire that she talked about it. And then because of that, many people came to follow me. And because of that, I then had a launch a few months later, and I had a really wonderful launch. Was it all thanks to Tarzan? No, but was it thanks to my authority status. Heck, yes. And she had a part to play in that. For that I am entirely grateful. 

33:35  

And I want to pass that nugget for you is sometimes recognition can be one person where you work with them and do a really awesome job and their gratitude comes out in the form of talking really nicely about you online, so that's a very tangible example of that. It doesn't always have to be these really big logos, though those are nice, too. But these four factors come together and this is what creates authority. You don't have to be exceptionally high at all of them, however, you do if you're going to be the go to authority in your niche, but these are the levers to pull. Were you at with your competency? Where are you at with your results? Where are you out with your conviction? When you talk about your stuff, do you come across as confident or you come across as not quite sure? Part of that conviction, are you coming across where your your ideas are not really clicking with people? That all comes up. Conviction is how we communicate and how we hold our body, our voice, all those things together, it comes out with conviction and for that recognition are other people already starting to say that we are the person to trust in that area. 

34:41  

Now the through line for all of these, if you haven't got that sense by now and some of these examples I'm using, the through line that I see around how you truly make a big difference like the biggest lift in competence, in results, and conviction, recognition, the through line is exceptional communication. Hear me out on this, when it comes to competence and our depth of knowledge, it isn't about what we know and what we hold in our brain. It's what we're able to articulate out of our mouths to demonstrate and communicate that level of competence. And not just here's what I know but people who have extremely high authority status, those success, top 125 lists, they're able to take their expertise and take complex things out of their brains, and simplify it in a way that helps the audience. They don't dump their ideas on people, they seem to directly speak into what the audience is thinking, feeling and wanting at that present moment. They truly get that, oh, my gosh, they're in my head affect. Their competency serves a purpose. They don't tout look at me and all this knowledge, they use it for good.

35:53  

Now, there's one thing oh, I'm going to go on that in a moment. I'm going to give you some reflection questions for each of these but I'll elaborate that on just a moment. Number two results, let's tie this to communication. The key piece around somebody who has high authority status is obviously they have results. But here's what you might not realize but now you will be able to see it. People with authority status are not timid about telling you about their results. They're not sitting here going, Oh, what if I look too braggy? Oh, I posted too many testimonials or success stories on my sales page, or I don't want people to think that I think that I'm the shit. You are, you are the shit. Be more confident with it, we got to tell people about it. And here's the thing, if you're worried that people are going to think you're too full of yourself, you would benefit from talking yourself up a bit more by talking about your results. 

36:44  

Now you can tamper that around how you share testimonials, and how you share those results. You don't want to be like, look at me, I'm amazing. But you can be like, look at my clients. They're amazing. Look at these results they're getting. But what we have to be able to do is talk about our results more often. If you want to have authority status, you can't just have the results in secret hiding, you have to be showing people those results. Because it's one of those things that if they don't know they exist, they don't believe they exist, therefore they don't trust you and they will go somewhere else ie., back to that example about the dry shampoo. Think about all those wonderful products that have no reviews on there. I don't know, I don't know if people are happy or not, the quote-unquote, results ie, reviews of whether or not people use them or that awesome five star review which is one person. If I don't see the overwhelming evidence, ie, results, ie, the reviews, people, they're having to take a bigger leap of faith with trust so we got to talk about our results. 

37:48  

Number four, conviction. What does it have to do with your communication? Everything under the sun. Conviction is only communicated through your communication. Otherwise, how else would you say that person really has confidence or conviction. Confidence and conviction comes out in our body language. It comes out in our tone. It comes out in the power in which that we speak our words. Everything about this, your screaming, I belong here. And I think one of the most underutilized tools that every single one of us has that are discretion is looking as our voice, and our body language, and our facial expressions, and our our pace, and our hand gestures, and all these things. They are an instrument in which you get to learn how to play. The problem is most likely you're just letting that instrument happen and play on its own and you don't know actually what tune it's playing or if even if it's in tuned at all. 

38:49  

So conviction, you being able to say I know what I'm talking about, I stand strongly in what I do. I am the authority. I am the expert. Pay me as such, see me as such. You have to communicate in a way that screams, exudes in your face without being cocky, right? Tamper it down, but it has to come out. I will tell you bar none. This is the thing that has allowed me to exponentially grow my business. This allowed me to have such high conversion rates on all of my launches, to easily attract people when I speak out on stages. Yes, I'm a damn good storyteller. Yes, I'm really good at structure. Yes, I have a really good business funnel and I've worked hard on all of those things. But my delivery bar none it is the tool. It is the skill. It is the instrument I have worked and worked and worked on for the last 12 years. 

39:40  

Now, is it going to change for you overnight? No, but your awareness on it just skyrocketed. Now we can do something about it. I have some recommendations for that here in just a moment. But let's talk about how communication falls in that last pillar, and that's recognition. So how do we focus on using our voice for recognition like I gave you that example before around working with someone, that's an easy way, but other easy ways that you can leverage exceptional communication to build your authority. Speak on stages, show up on podcast interviews, do guest speaking gigs for events, you can do PR, that's totally great and fine and get published in a blog or in a magazine, you can look for those things. But the thing is the people who have the high authority, they are not hiding it. They're talking about those opportunities. They're not only getting in front of those audiences, but then they're exponentially getting more exposure by talking about, look, I just spoke on this stage, hey, look, I'm being interviewed today by this person. And then a couple weeks later, hey, look, my interview with this person just came out. They are not shy, talking about the recognition that other people are giving them. So whether that's someone else sharing your work, and then you re sharing it and saying, hey, look, this was a really awesome project with Tyler McCall, or hey, look, this was a really awesome win from one of my clients here. Sharing these things, right, similar to the results. But the recognition is really about people of people who already have a great sense of authority, them publicly declaring that you are good at what you do. All of these things we're talking about that recognition comes from that. So obviously, your voice plays a big picture in that. 

41:23  

So the question is, what do we do about this? So I came up with a couple of questions, I want you reflecting and asking of yourself for each of these. So I'm gonna give you four, how can I questions? How can I blank, I'm going to give you these four, and this would be a really good, but all of this right now I've just been giving you ideas to think about. Hopefully, your brain is, one, not overloaded. I know I talk real fast, y'all. But this is where, you can never listen to be on to 2x. Like that's just not a thing. But this is where all of this right now I want you thinking about okay, so we got to focus on competence, results, recognition, conviction. Competence, results, recognition conviction. You did not need to take notes on all the things I just told you. You're getting your feet wet into an awareness for what are the types of things that you can focus on to elevate your status. And here's the big thing, what happens when we elevate our status. If your thinking like, it's not just about becoming that go-to expert. When you're the go-to expert, people want to work with you. People come to you saying how can I work with you. People ask you, when is your program opening? Hey, when you're going to create a product around this? The demand is, is created by your presence, when you have authority. It also allows you to be more selective with who you work with. It also opens the doors to new opportunities, ie, being asked to speak on bigger stages, which then feeds a higher level of authority status. So your authority actually becomes the authority building envision to elevate your authority. You see how that spiral works. You elevate your competence, you elevate your results, you get a little recognition, and you show up with high conviction that gets your foot into one door. But then that opportunity, maybe it's a higher recognition, that one there boosts up your authority status, and then that opens the door to the next opportunity. The next opportunity and along the way with this, you're able to elevate your pricing should you choose you want to charge more for your services, you want to have a higher level program, you want to open up a $10,000 mastermind or whatever that is for you. Your ability to charge more your ability to command a higher fee, whether that's for your speaking or for your services, when you are a higher authority. It makes it easier because the higher they trust you and the more they see the value in what you do, the more they're willing to pay.

43:53  

So the question is, here are the questions you can ask yourself. And these four questions will be in the show notes. So you can head on over to heathersager.com/podcast. This is episode 137. You could check it out and get these questions but here they are. So for competency, the question is how can I showcase my experience when I communicate? How can I showcase my experience? Now one of the ways that I recommend you do this is through credibility boosters. Now I recently just came out with a brand new freebie, it's 19 magnetic phrases that you can use on stages, podcasts and live video to get your ideal customer running to your opt in page. And one of the sections in that free guide is specific to magnetic statements around credibility. So I highly recommend if you haven't grabbed that go to heathersager.com/magnet. And you can answer this question, how can I showcase my experience more when I communicate? Just grab some of the phrases from the credibility section that will help you because what you want to do is you need to pepper in some language to demonstrate that you have the competency and the experience, so that's number one. 

45:03  

Number two, results. How can I showcase my results authentically? So one question you got to really consider is, are you talking about your results that you're getting, that your clients are getting enough in your content? How can you do that in authentic way that feels good, that doesn't feel so braggadocious. But it feels like okay, you're showcasing the work that you do and the results that come from it. Number three, ask yourself, how can I get others talking up my work? Where can I speak? Who can I form an alliance with? There's that really funny Tiktoker. They are real right now around what you'd like to form an alliance with me? It's what I'm talking about here. Who could you do, like with I did with Tarzan? What could you do in your work? Is there somebody that you can work with? Is there someone who you have worked with that you can ask for testimonial or ask them to share your work? Where can you get a little bit more bold in getting that recognition? And then conviction, how can I demonstrate more confidence and competence when I speak? 

46:06  

This is the one I really want you to lean on because this is something that you can make changes with today. You can start working on your voice, your body language, how you communicate. And thinking about this and positioning yourself as authority, if the things we talked about today around you wanting to be seen as a go-to to maybe become the go-to in your industry or maybe just to position yourself in a way where it feels more exciting and you get higher results when you go to launch, when you send emails, people look at it, people actually are searching for you and finding you. If you want to be in that position where your authority status is elevated so that you can work with clients that you want to work with, you can have that recognition for your expertise, and you get paid well. If that is you and if you are the kind of person who is looking to grow your business this year and you see how communication can help you do that through your work. Well, friend, I want to invite you to join me here for the speaking workshops. If you're listening to the time of this recording, the workshops are coming up here in just a couple weeks. We kick off on March 3. We originally were going to do in February, and then y'all know I got super sick in January. So we just took her time a little bit with it. The speaking workshops are starting on March 3, and you can grab your seat today, If you head on over to heathersager.com/speaking workshops, that's with an 's,' speaking workshops. You can grab your ticket. There's an option for you to get the general admission or you can get a VIP upgrade and actually get some additional benefits to do some after hours coaching and hot seats with me. And then you'll have access to those recordings after the workshops end. You can head on over there, check it out right now. But in that series, we're really going to talk about how you can leverage your voice to make meaningful changes in your authority and how you can use your voice in a way that actually attracts leads. So not only do you build the skill of speaking, but you actually get results that are measurable back in your business. So I hope to see you at the speaking workshops. 

48:03  

And hey, if you're listening to this any other time of year, still head on over to that website, you can get on the waitlist for the next time we open that training or something similar to it. So we covered a lot of ground today. And as I mentioned before, there's a few other episodes that might be a really good fit to continue the conversation. So I will link to all of those in the show notes. Here's the main takeaway that I want you to think about. You know, when you hear some of those names, I mentioned the top of the episode, right? Jay Shetty, Anthony Trucks, Jenna Kutcher, Marie Forleo, Tony Robbins, Rachael Rogers, somebody whose names come up. And it's interesting, right? Depending on when you got into the online marketing game. Somebody's names might seem very new to you. Where there's that saying, nobody has an overnight success. Oh, my friend, a lot of times it's authority status, or almost every time this authority status, it's like an iceberg, where what we see is the very public spotlight of someone's work being recognized. The ultimate end result, even though it's still definitely not an end result of the competency results, the conviction, the recognition, is how they're showing up now. But beyond all of that, there were years and years and years of learning and work. And every single one of those people that either came to mind for you today or somebody has said out loud today, they all started out in a very similar spot to you and I. Whatever their pathways have been, all of us had to start somewhere. And the most important thing that we have to remember when it comes to authority status, is we can't just be chasing authority status for the sake of getting to that authority status so we can make money and do whatever we want. The through line when you think about those greats. When I say great, I'm going to put those people on that list that have really truly built brands that are well recognized. 

49:53  

A word that comes to mind is impact. The number of people they're impacting with their messages. that level is huge, and it's mighty, and it's powerful, and it's freaking inspiring. Whether or not you like that person or agree with their work or leverage their work, when somebody has built up that much trust and authority in their brand. We got to have mad respect for that. And I want you to start thinking about is the what is that brand? What is that level of recognition? What does that impact that you want to make? What's going to happen when more and more people know your name? What's going to happen when more people know your work? What is it really all about for you? Sure right now, it might feel very much in your face around, I just need more clients because Mama's got to order some more dry shampoo. Or it might feel like I just really want to have a sustainable business that's bringing money in and I don't want to have to think about it so I can spend some time with my kids. Whatever that looks like for you, just know how bad your picture will evolve and change over time and I think that's a beautiful thing. The last point here I want to make is those people on that list of those go-to experts, I would imagine the vision they had themselves and the picture they had for their work. It is drastically evolved. So can I encourage you just take a breath, give yourself a pat on the back? This is not a frickin race. Building an online business, building a Business building a brand this is far more than a marathon. So let's just slow down a bit and learn the things we need to learn along the way so that we can enjoy the ride. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I'd love to hear from you on Instagram. Send me a message or tag me in a post. I'm @theheathersager and I look forward to seeing you again on the next episode and hopefully coming up on the speaking workshops. Bye, friend.