SPI 861: How to Make People See You as the Authority (Even If You’re Not Famous Yet)

SPI 861: How to Make People See You as the Authority (Even If You’re Not Famous Yet)

Pat Flynn: This is going to become the authoritative podcast episode on building authority. This is something that I want to offer to you and to everybody else who is trying to create content online, who is trying to build an audience, trying to build loyalty, trying to build fans, trying to build a business because 99 percent of people are approaching it wrong.

And thankfully throughout the years that I’ve been an entrepreneur, I discovered this kind of through a lot of mistakes and by happenstance, and I wanted to package this episode together in a framework with specific strategies to help you as you are creating content, writing content, while you’re up on stage, while you’re conducting your podcast episodes, while you’re recording videos, so that you’ll have more people listen to you, follow you, like you, know you, trust you, share you.

So if that doesn’t sell you on listening to this entire episode, I don’t know what will. To start though, and to set this up, I want to tell you about the white coat effect experiment. You might have heard about this before, but researchers had a person and gave them the same advice to tell two different groups of people.

The only difference between those two groups of people is that in one scenario, the person giving the advice wore a doctor’s white lab coat, and in the other they wore casual, just kind of regular clothes, and what happened was pretty remarkable. The participants who received the advice from the person in the lab coat rated the information as more credible.

They were more significantly likely to follow those recommendations and even perceive them as more knowledgeable, despite the fact that it was literally the same person giving identical information. Now I’m not saying that in order to win online, you need to be wearing a white lab coat inside of your photos, but there is something to be said here.

And that is authority isn’t something that you wait to be given after years of experience. It’s something that you can strategically build through deliberate positioning and communication. That is the key that it is it’s positioning. It’s how you put yourself out there. It’s the way you frame the information and things that you share around it that matter.

It’s not just about the information alone. Because think about this. How many people are also sharing the same kinds of information out there? Yet some are able to build extensive, loyal, huge brands. And others just kind of fall flat, even though it might be the same information. So what is it? Is it luck?

No. It’s the authority that comes with these signals and the positioning that they place themselves in the market that they’re in. So we’re going to talk about exactly how to do this. I will also be sharing some specific frameworks, plenty actually, that are going to just inherently position you as more of an expert, but I think before that we need to talk about your mindset and approach when it comes to being authoritative.

The most common thing, and this is very, very common for those of you especially just starting out, is to feel a sense of imposter syndrome. This idea that you’re not good enough, that you are not expert enough, that you don’t have as much experience as others. Therefore, why should people listen to you?

And even though you are trying to create content, when you create that content with imposter syndrome in the back of your mind, it’s never going to come across as confident. And if your content does not come across as confident, how could a person confidently learn from you or want to learn from you or hire you as a coach or buy your products?

It’s not going to happen. So what do we do? Do we fake it till we make it? Not really, but there’s something similar that’s going to help you understand how to wrap your head around this authoritative approach that you should be having even as you are just getting started. Instead of trying to become the expert at something before claiming authority, the truth is, authority is just claimed and then earned through consistent demonstration. Say the thing, and then demo it, prove it. And when you do that, when you take this authority is claimed approach, and yes, you can claim it ahead of time, but when it’s claimed, and then you demonstrate, you put yourself in a position, or you help others through, so that you can actually demonstrate that this thing that you’re talking about is in fact real, that does the speaking for you.

And this is great, especially for those of us, myself included, who just have a hard time kind of selling themselves. They don’t, or you don’t, want to pitch too hard. You don’t want to come across aggressive. Well, great. Aggressively prove that what you’re talking about is real. And let the results do the selling for you.

And of course, let those who you serve your students, your customers, your audience speak on your behalf. That has been my number one approach for business is to let others speak for me. And I’m just going to show up, talk about something and then demonstrate it. So when you ask yourself, who am I to position myself as an expert?

You say, instead, I am positioning myself as an expert because I’m doing it. I’m right in the middle of it right now. And look at what I’ve learned. We’re going to hear from Daniel Priestley in the future here, but an amazing CEO who wrote a book called Key Person of Influence. And he talks about, in that book, this idea of not being an influencer, which is, look at me, look at me, look at me, right?

That’s very influencer. It’s all about me. Versus a key person of influence, which is, hey, look at this. This is what I discovered about this and how it can help you. Look at this. Look at that. Here’s what I’ve noticed about these things versus look at me. And I love that positioning and that positioning puts you in more of a guide like position versus more of a look at me, self centered kind of position.

So that’s number one. That’s your mindset around this authoritative approach and why, even if you’re not famous, you’re able to move people. You’re able to get people to buy things. You’re able to get people to click on things. You’re able to get people to trust you. Even early on. And there’s sort of an authority triangle framework.

There’s three parts to this. Three C’s. Clarity. This is important when it comes to authority. It’s being specific and having a specific expertise in a defined area. If you just tell everybody, Yeah, I’m an expert at most things, which is why you should listen to me. That’s not going to help. Who cares if you’re an expert in all these things?

Are you an expert on this thing that matters to me? That’s clarity. Number two, we’ve talked about already, and that’s confidence demonstrating certainty in your knowledge. Now you don’t always have to be correct and get things right. There is in fact, vulnerability, which helps a person earn trust toward you as well.

Sharing what you’ve learned from these failures is really key. Take in point my income reports. Back in 2008, starting in October, I wrote an income report on the Smart Passive Income blog every month, about how much money I was earning, and exactly where it was coming from. In the beginning, it was just the architecture business that was bringing in revenue.

And I shared how many books I sold, how many refunds I had, all the things that were working and all the things that were not. And over time, I started to add the affiliate earnings from Smart Passive Income, the iPhone app earnings from my app company that I eventually sold, and so many other inputs that it just became this open book about the business.

And it was helping others, not just through inspiration, but through lesson. Because as I was building new businesses, I was very clearly saying, I don’t know what I’m doing, I’m not the expert here, but I’m learning and I’m sharing this information as I go. And guess what happened? As a result of that, I became the expert.

Because I was just a few steps ahead of the other people who were following along. Especially when 2010, 2011, 2012 came by and I was doing the niche site duel. I was building websites from scratch about topics I knew nothing about. Hiring writers, doing the right research, building those things live and in public.

And as a result, because I was a few steps ahead of people in demonstrating this and showing up consistently and confident in the fact that, yeah, I did this and here’s what happened and here’s what I should have done differently, authority came. So clarity, confidence, and then number three, also spoken about already, is consistency.

You need to show up consistently in order to build authority. If you’re trying to build trust and earn trust with anybody in real life or online, you think about it. If they tell you one great thing and they help you, but then they never show up again, or they show up kind of only when they want to, it’s going to be very difficult to connect with them.

And in this world today, trust and connection, engagement that is the currency of online business. So, clarity, confidence, and consistency. Alright, now that we’re about 10 minutes into this episode, I want to move on to a number of different frameworks of content that are going to help you build more authority.

Even early on, again, you do not have to be famous. These things inherently position you as somebody who is an authority, as an expert, just by the nature of it. And this first one is what I like to call the Case Study Acceleration Framework. The keyword being case study. Step number one, document your own process and results.

Very simple. You don’t have to share just the end result. And from a marketing perspective, it would be a shame to wait until the end to share everything as it’s happening, or after it happened. You can market the thing that’s coming as it’s being built or as you’re thinking through it. So number one, document your own process and results.

Number two, here’s the structure for that. You have a problem. You take an approach, you have results, and you share the lessons. The problem, approach, results, lessons. You need to target a problem that matters to your audience. If it doesn’t matter to them, then none of this is really going to matter afterwards.

Your approach, your hypothesis, the steps that you are taking to try to get a result of some sort. And then you share the result, one way or another. And through that, you share the lessons learned. There’s authority built into that. And you doing it, you being the guinea pig of your own thoughts and your own instruction, again, paints you in a position of authority. Real experiences trump theoretical knowledge. And too many of us are just regurgitating theoretical knowledge or sharing somebody else’s case study, which again, can help, but doesn’t come along with the same kind of proof and understanding that, Oh, you did this?

Okay, now I trust you. You can learn to tell story or be an interviewer and pull things out of somebody and therefore in association become an expert. That is possible too, but it’s much harder. This is the accelerated approach. Your real life experiences trumping theoretical knowledge. Your action step from here is to create your first case study, and you could probably do it this week.

In fact, you might be in the middle of one already that you just haven’t been consciously thinking about as something that you could share more openly. And again, people love to hear the journey about how something is made. They love to hear what parts aren’t working. That is okay, and in fact required to share, because if it’s too perfect, if you claim that you know everything and that you’re doing it perfectly, then people don’t want to follow you because that’s fake.

That’s not going to work, so show up, create a case study, and learn how to tell that story. When you learn how to tell story, which I’ve talked about so many times before, we’re going to go into a storytelling workshop at some point in the near future here on the podcast. The members of the SPI community already have access to a workshop that I’ve created, but I’m going to re film and re do another podcast episode.

For those of us listening to the podcast, story is that important. Learn to tell and share your case study. In a way that gets people emotionally connected. Like, this could be where the episode ends for you. Just case study after case study, you proving yourself, you going through the motions first. Nobody likes to be first, and if they see you, with the machete, cutting through that jungle of whatever struggles those people are going through, but you are there with that machete going through, you’re carving a clear path behind for everybody else, well, I’m gonna follow you. That’s the Case Study Acceleration Framework.

Next. The second content framework that we’re going to share today is the contrarian content method. The contrarian content method. So here are the steps to take advantage of this opportunity. Again, to create a level of authority. Number one, identify a commonly accepted truth in your industry.

So you might take some time now to just brainstorm what seems to be true or is usually true in the space that I’m in. So related to my book, Lean Learning, I’ll use Lean Learning as an example. Lean Learning, again, get your pre order. My new book comes out in June. But in most cases, people think learning is a great thing.

That’s the truth in the industry of learning and education. Yeah, learning is great. So step two here is build evidence for why it’s incomplete, or situational, or, in fact, not actually true. Now, what are we doing here? We’re creating a contrarian view, not just for the sake of, let’s cause a stir, let’s create some controversy, but rather, people look to those who are going the opposite direction.

If everybody is saying this, then how can you, in fact, lead by telling everybody else to go there too? No, you’re just telling everybody else to do the same things as everybody else. Versus if there is, in fact, some sort of thing that most people think, and you come in and go, no, that’s actually not true, and here’s why.

Well, you are building authority. So let’s take Lean Learning for example. The subtitle for Lean Learning is How to Achieve More by Learning Less. Wait, what? I thought we needed to learn more. No, in fact, learning more causes overwhelm. It causes you to get distracted. There’s a thing in the book that I talk about called a junk spark.

How many times do you come across new inspirations every day that pull you away from the things you’ve already said yes to? It’s a junk spark. How do we filter? How do we know which one’s which? Well, go get my book. LeanLearningBook.com comes out in June. But you can see how I’m now able to, using evidence, using relatable instances in our daily lives, to have people go, well, actually, you know what?

You’re kind of right. Tell me more. And, again, I’m not an authority, per se, in the world of education and learning, but through the stories that I tell, through the examples and case studies that are happening as we speak, to go back to the case study acceleration framework, Deep Pocket Monster, and more recently my Shorts channel, stuff that I’d never done before, is now blowing up.

I learn how to do those things quickly, and I’ve been able to drown out everything else that would get in the way. And it’s working. And so this book is a way to help show that framework and again, position me as more of an expert. So I can get more onto stages that talk to not just entrepreneurs, but other people who can help have an impact in the world, which is my ultimate goal.

The reason this works so well, again, is the contrary point of view stops people in their tracks. It makes them question, and then if you can again support that with the next part here that you need, which is not just the alternative perspective, but with supporting evidence, then it’ll work. This works because you’re standing out by being different.

Now don’t just be, again, contrarian to be contrarian, but think about what everybody else is doing, and then think about something that is an opposite point of view. Can you support that? Do you share values that are opposite? Do you do differently? This is a great way to not just get attention, but gain authority.

Next, number three framework, let’s talk about the signature framework technique. The signature framework technique. Case in point, whenever it comes to building superfans, often times I’m brought up in conversation. I have become an expert in building superfans because I took the idea and put it into a framework with taking this complex process, breaking it down into steps, and giving it a name.

Snapping a name on it. Building superfans using the pyramid of fandom. Which is very easy to recall once you’ve read the book. The bottom you have your casual audience, people who’ve just found you. That’s not the end, that’s the beginning. You want to convert them into an active audience member. They’re now a subscriber, they’re now a follower, they’re paying attention to what you’re doing, but they’re not a fan yet.

From there, you take them into a community, where they can see they’re not alone, there’s other people like them, and then some of them will become superfans, and there’s some strategies in the book as well, to get people over the fence, and to have people become super fans of what you do. This is a framework, and it’s become signature for me this presentation the superfans presentation, which again later became a book has been spoken on stage by myself over 30 times over the last decade.

I’ve been on stages in front of hundreds of thousands of people cumulatively, which is a hard word to say all together And I’ve been able to share that message and that again positions me as an expert. Did I go to school for how human psychology works to be able to support creating superfans? No, I was an architect.

I built buildings. But I also build fans. The foundation, again, being the moments that you create for people over time. And again, this signature framework has positioned me as an expert. So you take a complex process that you use and you break it into steps. You name this thing and you name the steps within it, just like I’m doing today.

The contrarian content method, the signature framework technique. You can make these things up. It is authoritative to create little frameworks like this and give them a name. And it’s only when you give them a name and they have an easy to follow process or understanding that then people share them.

And when people share them, they go, Oh, where did you get that from? Oh, from, from Pat Flynn. He’s the Superfans guy. If you can, within the Signature Framework technique, create a visual representation, then reference it consistently across your content. I mean, I spoke about another one earlier, that Authority Triangle Framework.

Easily could create a little Venn Diagram or a little triangle to support that. With Superfans, it is the pyramid of fandom, so sort of a version of a triangle. For you, it might be a particular process. In fact, I’m just remembering this now. I spoke at an event called Advance Your Reach by Pete Vargas, and he taught the 3S strategy.

This was his framework, and I remember it. It was very authoritative. I look to Pete for advice on public speaking and selling. And his approach, the 3S approach, was one, you need your signature story. That’s the first S. Right. You need a signature story and then he unpacks that. We talked about it for half a day.

The next S is you need a stage to tell that story on. So it might be a podcast. It could be how to get on other people’s stages at events, right? So you need a signature story, a stage, and then finally scale. How do we sell our program and get in front of more people outside of that stage, right? The three S approach.

I like, I still remember that that was nearly a decade ago and it’s still stuck with me today. That’s how authoritative creating a signature framework can be. So I just wanted to share that with you and give you an example as well. So those three frameworks, Case Study Acceleration Framework, Contrarian Content Method, and the Signature Framework Technique.

So now might be a good time to sort of think about those a little bit. Now, beyond these frameworks, there are some mandatory things, I would say, that you need to understand in your approach with this kind of content, and other content that supports your authoritative voice, to ensure that you’re giving yourself the best chance possible to succeed.

So, here we’re gonna talk about communication. Communication tactics to help support your authority building. So first, let’s talk about conviction. This is how well could a person on the other end receive. And understand that you are somebody who knows what they’re talking about. So how do we do that?

Number one, eliminate hedge words. Words that are just filler or not required or in fact work against you when it comes to building your authority. For example, words like sort of, kind of, maybe, perhaps. That’s a big one that I often use that I know I need to get rid of, perhaps. Use definitive language.

Will, instead of might. The idea of, this will help you generate more money. Versus, well this might work. It might help you make more money. It’s a completely different reception, will instead of might. You want to back statements with specific evidence. Sometimes evidence is in the form of you just talking about and telling your story with relation to this thing that you’re teaching.

You might also want to back things up with empirical knowledge and as well as data from others. If you have numbers to go along with this, this is really, really important. This is especially helpful if you are on stage trying to present something as well. And then you want to practice. If you can, just similarly to what they do at Toastmasters, where they count the number of ums and filler words and things like that.

See if you can go back to a transcript that you have, or maybe take a podcast script or a YouTube video or just record into a tool like Descript that will automatically transcribe that for you and count your hedge words. Remember, look for words that aren’t as definitive as they could be. It just might work for you.

Actually, it will work for you. You see the difference? Next and kind of now we’re in that point of the conversation where I’m just kind of giving you really good advice to make sure that you stay an authority and that you stick with the plan here. It’s not just the frameworks, but it’s the delivery of that as well.

And that involves the positioning of yourself as an expert by telling stories, stories, stories, stories. I probably. We’ll tell you until the day I die that stories are the most important skill that you could ever have storytelling. So tell specific stories that demonstrate this expertise, right? It’s not just like, hey, I’m an expert.

It’s, here’s what happened. Which happens to also portray how I’m an expert in something, right? Reference relevant data and research that’s always good for supporting the cause. I think it’s also important as an expert to not position you as a know it all either, right? You want to acknowledge limitations transparently.

You want to be sure that you let people know where you might be a little weak in something. That actually makes the things that you say that you are stronger about or stronger with much, much stronger and more believable, right? So keep that in mind next, when it comes to, this is going to be a little bit more nuanced here, but again, I want to share all of this for you, especially if you are a podcaster or on YouTube, as far as pace, sometimes when you speak really fast, not only do things get brushed over, but it almost feels like you’re a little bit nervous about what you are saying when you slow down a bit.

Just like I’m slowing down right now. And your points hit home much better, with much more force. On social, you might have heard of this before. I’ve seen a lot of people speak about this. This idea that when, at the end of your sentences, if you keep going up in pitch, just like I’m doing right now, then it almost sounds like you’re a little bit nervous.

Because everything you say is almost like a question, versus being more authoritative with the direction of that last part of that sentence. You see how when I talk and at the end point of the sentence, it just seems more clear. It just has more authority. So keep that in mind when you’re speaking and when you’re on a microphone.

It doesn’t mean that everything has to be low, but it just means that the points you make, you gotta think about. How you’re delivering it. I’m thinking a little bit more deliberately about it in this moment, which is why it doesn’t sound natural. So, of course, you want to still have it sound natural, but it does take some practice.

Using pauses can be really great. I find that especially when speaking on a stage that when you pause, especially after a point that hits home, perhaps a celebratory moment. Or even more so a heartfelt emotional moment when you pause, that says a lot. So I think speaking on a microphone, speaking to the camera, and especially speaking on stage, all of those moments are opportunities for you to practice the authority in the voice.

And your voice is of course your delivery mechanism. Now, finally, let’s talk about some ways that you can also accelerate your authority. So this is something that a good friend of mine, John Lee Dumas, did very, very well. Probably the best example of this. And there is no shame in this. There are people out there who do it incorrectly and try to quote unquote, ride the coattails of others.

But John did this in a very graceful and expert like and authoritative way. He interviewed experts in his field as entrepreneurs, right? And he was very clear in the beginning. He didn’t, he didn’t say, Hey, I’m an expert and I’m interviewing other experts. He’s like, I’m here to learn from you. And by doing that, and by showing up again, repeatedly, daily, and building a personality and a personal brand around that Entrepreneurs On Fire blew up.

In such a great way. Thousands of interviews now and relationships built through that podcast, just like another plus one for why podcasting is so powerful. But the listeners see John talking to these experts and therefore borrows some of their authority. Because no, not everybody’s interviewing those people, but he is.

Therefore there is a little bit of authority there. So your job is to find the other authorities in your space to help you accelerate your expertise. Of course, it’s about who you know. And they say, you are the average of the five people you spend most of your time with. Well, your authority is also the average of the five people that you also spend time with online.

And showcase, and share, and collaborate with. It’s not exactly the same, but you get my point. Contributing on those other platforms, and being a guest on other people’s shows, is a great thing to do too. I’ve always been a huge proponent of guest podcasting, similar to how guests blogging was very important to growth back in the day.

We’ll guess podcasting is even more so. Why? Because when you are interviewed by somebody who’s already spent the time and has put in the effort to build a relationship with that audience, well, they’re essentially saying by having you on their show or on their platform, they’re voting with confidence and basically vouching for you.

And that comes with a lot of potential authority. So one thing that you can do from this point forward is to make a list, make a list of the 10 people that you would love to potentially collaborate with that. Yes, of course, it would be great to have those relationships. Yes, you could potentially one day partner with them, but more so you could borrow a little bit of authority and in a way, give back for that borrowing as well.

Right. You don’t just want to take, you also want to give back. And finally, when it comes to your core content, right? Creating an ecosystem, a deep ecosystem of content within your realm. And it doesn’t have to be written. It doesn’t have to be all podcasts or even video, but just thinking about the pieces of content that you’re creating, how surface level are they out of all the things you create, what percentage just kind of scratched the surface on things.

When you go deeper, you start to create what they call pillar pieces of content and they again don’t have to be just written on a blog or published in a podcast or video that you can have pillar content on social on X on Instagram, but things that go deeper that showcase your expertise that show that you are willing to go a little bit further than others.

We had a guest here on the show. A while back, a YouTuber, who was just starting her expertise, Aprilynne, and she was creating videos about how to do YouTube, but she didn’t have a ton of YouTube followers yet, however, she quickly became an authority because she, more than anybody else, Aprilynne goes so deep on these concepts that you can’t help but see her as an expert on these things because she went further than anybody would.

She did the time. Same thing with Derek Halpern when he first started over from Social Triggers. He went deeper into email subscriber psychology than anybody. And he then almost kind of coined himself as the expert in that. I mean, we coined it for him because he just showed up and delivered value. He showed up on my doorstep.

Offering me real value right from the beginning. Derek said, Pat, on your about page, if you do these things, you’re going to get this many more email subscribers. I was like, really? Well, okay, I’ll give it a shot. And it worked. And then he became the psychological expertise in the world of entrepreneurship, the sort of psych guy.

Any smaller pieces of content that you create should point back to and link to, especially on a website. Those core pillar pieces of content. I think also building a relationship with your audience and having discussions is going to be really key too. And that’s a tough thing to navigate for somebody who is a first time authority builder, right?

You are starting to establish yourself as an expert and you are now open and prone and vulnerable. to other people poking holes in what it is that you’re talking about. But I think that that’s where expertise comes even more into play. You start to, in real time, build your portfolio, build your value promises, and you’re even figuring it out as you go.

And having other people there to poke holes in things, but also reinforce things too. And if you can find a great community to have real, respectable, valuable conversations that is gold and those are things that can happen on social media platforms and there’s also the opportunity of course for you to run into a bridge full of trolls who want to knock you down that’s going to happen too, but an expert also doesn’t say, I’m scared and I’m not going to talk anymore.

An expert also doesn’t say, you’re probably right. I’m going to retract what I said. No, you come back with real arguments and real proof. And if you are wrong, great. You admit it and you talk about why and you are better because of it. And other people will respect you more as a result. So there you go.

Implement that. Do those things. Be the expert, but not by just saying it, but by demonstrating it and using a lot of the frameworks and the approaches that we talked about today. Let me know what you think about this episode. Hit me up at Pat Flynn on Instagram or X. Send me an email. I’d love to know a little bit more about what you thought about this.

I’m trying to go a little bit deeper and more structured in these episodes to really help you with things that I know are maybe even not on your mind, but I know that need to come across your plate and I value your time. I hope this was worth it. Thank you so, so much. These are the kinds of things we talk about and the kind of workshops we hold inside of our community. Well, we recently ran a storytelling workshop and I will be relaying a lot of that information here for you later. But if you want to get that in real time and be able to ask questions, join the community, SmartPassiveIncome.com/community and join us. We’d love to have you. We’d love to hear from you as well.

So thank you so much. I hope this helps. And actually, you know what? I know this helps speaking of authoritative content. Thank you. Cheers.