The Business of Authority

Do you know the difference between branding and positioning?Talking PointsUnderstanding brandingStories, actions, and visualsNarrow or broad focusPositioning as a first stepNot being limited by your existing skillsLearning new skillsWhen branding becomes criticalBeing intentional about your brandingTelling your story your own wayPersonal brandsFiguring out which stories and visuals will advance your brand with your audienceConsistency in brandingThe importance of the markDefining what makes your projects great or terribleThe value of storiesQuotable Quotes“To me the brand is what people say about you behind your back.” –JS“Literally everything that you do telegraphs a message to the people who are watching.” –RM“You can build authority without having had 25 years doing one thing.” –RM“If you keep at it, they get imbued with meaning, and it becomes meaningful to other people too, and before you know it, you’re leading a movement.” –JS

Are you making time to write?Talking PointsJonathan’s plans for 2020Doing more work without being a workaholicWhy Jonathan created a Slack channelMaking the time to writeWriter’s blockDeveloping and sharing your point of viewHoning your ideas and your audienceFocusing on the transformation of your ideal audienceMaking a commitment to writeThinking of writing as givingThe importance of editingStriving for excellenceGetting into the habit of daily writingQuotable Quotes“I started to feel myself going back to letting my brain stop. Like, check out.” –JS“I know that in order to write ten books that don’t completely stink in one year, I’m going to need a lot of help.” –JS“We need to have a challenge in our own mind about what we’re going to do.” –RM“You can’t say, “Oh, I’m blocked.” Just write. Just write something. Write anything.” –RMRelated Links10 in 2020 Slack

Explore efficient time management strategies for solo professionals, emphasizing task organization and balancing free time. Learn the importance of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for delegation and email management. Discover a structured approach to launching and clearing old tasks to boost productivity.

Can you be an introverted authority?Talking PointsAdam Grant’s bookGiver and taker personalities in salesWhy givers make more salesWhen people want someone to be dominant and when they want authorities to connect as humansAuthenticityPutting ego asideMethods of giving things awayThe evolution of business practicesOtherishFinding a way to give while also getting your own needs metQuotable Quotes“The power is all with the givers in the sense that you can create what you want by helping other people.” –RM “If you’re an authority and you’re leading people to this new vision, you need to sell them on the idea, if nothing else.” –JS“We’re looking for cues that the people that we really respect as authorities or experts, authorities in the making, that they’re real people.” –RM“Another way to put it is you’re giving in a way that’s going to energize you immediately.” –JSRelated LinksGive and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success by Adam Grant

Are you in the best position as a soloist?Talking PointsThe definition of positioningApril Dunford’s components of effective positioningPositioning people vs. productsFocusing on the clients that already love youHow a soloist can think about forming a positioning teamPositioning vocabularyCharting your point of viewAlternatives and competitorsListing your true competitive alternativesTaking inventory of major life experiencesPositioning exercisesMapping attributes to value themesFinding a market frame of referenceChanging your positioning in every place where you exist publiclyGetting your sound bites down on a single documentQuotable Quotes“I think what happens a lot of time when soloists struggle with this is that there hasn’t been a deliberate defining of that market.” –RM“People either get you energized, or they suck it out of you.” –RM“You want to take financial advice from Warren Buffet, not your buddy who blows his whole paycheck on Keno.” –JS“If you’ve got some feature or attribute that is unique between you and the alternatives that someone might choose, you still need to translate it for your buyer, who is not your peer.” –JS

Do you know how to sell confidence?Talking PointsWhen clients are buying confidenceThe availability of ideasThe link between trust and confidenceChoosing who is going to be a good fitWhen clients don’t have confidence in themselvesHow trust factors inBuilding your authority so that they know who you areCorporate coachingParachute consultingBuilding trust without face-to-face meetingsUnderstanding the points that inspire confidence in your ideal audienceQuotable Quotes“What I realized was that the people who bought me and my services for this were really buying confidence.” –RM“Every thought that comes out of my brain, you can get for free on my mailing list.” –JS“You’re not going to share things or be vulnerable with someone you don’t trust.” –RM“If somebody needs that in-person experience to feel like they’re getting their money’s worth, they’re not a good fit.” –JS 

Listen to Joe Jacobi, winner of our five in five challenge, talk about the art of a good start!Talking PointsJoe’s backgroundWhitewater canoeingThe progress from winning a gold medal to performance coachingHow lingo can obstruct a good dialogueTranslating your belief system to client transformationsWhen Joe started writing and coachingWhat Joe liked about the five in five challengeWhether Joe will continue writing going forwardFinding value in the process of creatingThe feedback Joe got from LinkedInJoe’s advocacyGetting out of your comfort zoneDetermining what you want out of lifeJoe’s feedback for people who didn’t take the challengeQuotable Quotes“I’m not scared of slow growth. In fact, I’m a big advocate of it.” –JJ“What I liked about five in five the most, even more than connecting with people and seeing the content do well, is what you guys are advocating for in the daily communication: it helps you find your voice.” –JJ“I think people enjoy when I find ways to take them into Catalonia or share Catalan values.” –JJ“I want to be one of those people that really squeeze the orange dry.” –JJRelated Links:Joe JacobiTwitter List of Participants

How well do you know your audience?Talking PointsTranslating what you do into the language of your audienceKnowing your goalPicking an audienceLearning what your audience is talking aboutSpeaking to your audience in a way that gets your message acrossWhere to find audiences who are talking about the problems you want to solveLocally focusingConversations in service of a missionUsing the vocabulary that your audience understandsThinking about clients as an audienceQuotable Quotes“A lot of people just think about their skills, they think about what their capabilities are, they’re very much thinking about themselves in sort of an employee/resume type mindset and not what they can do for their clients. And when I say do, I mean transform.” –JS“You want to start with this idea, this picture in your head of who your audience is.” –RM“If you want to know what your clients are thinking or you’re trying to pick a niche or whatever, go online and find where they’re talking.” –JS“It may strike fear in your heart, but you have to do it anyway. If you can’t bring yourself to do it anyway, yeah, rethink leaving the salaried job.” –RM

Is selling subscriptions for you?Talking PointsHow subscription services became mainstreamApplying the subscription model to a services firmThe Porsche passportConsider what the buyer is actually buying with a subscription serviceBuying an experience instead of a productThe types of clients who would be interested in a subscription serviceThe safest type of service to sell by subscriptionSelling accessLooking at the big picture when it comes to profitabilityThinking about which services you’d like to pay by subscriptionGetting a sense of what your clients value about your work and whether they’d be interested in a subscription version of thatQuotable Quotes“I think it’s pretty clear that the idea of subscribing to things that we used to own has become fairly mainstream.” –JS “I think that our audience has an advantage because most of the people in our audience are solos. If you were trying to do this as part of a firm, it’s a lot more complex.” –RM“The amount of money I would have paid to not have to go to the DMV was in the low four figures.” –JS“If you created this subscription service in a certain way, you might find that it’s not your current clients that are interested in it. It’s a different kind of client.” –RM Related Links:Implementing Value Pricing by Ron BakerThe Soul of Enterprise

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