How To Build Your Authority Machine From Scratch
If you want to build authority, but you have zero posts or any online presence, and need to start from scratch, what do you do?
Last week, I talked about the difference between networking and outreach and building authority as two different marketing mechanisms for getting clients and building your business.
I talked about when to do the outreach and when to do the authority and how there's a time where there’ll be a lot of overlap.
So let's say you're there, and you're ready to get started building your Authority Machine. What is the first thing you should do?
This is a constant hot topic with my students in the No BS Agency Mastery Program. I can give you more details about how to join that conversation at the end of this post, but for right now, let's talk about what to do when you're ready to start building.
Getting started with your Authority Machine
So, you want to become an authority online and you want to build a presence.
But you have nothing.
This can be an incredibly daunting task.
In life and in business, I normally would say that the most important part is showing up and just doing it.
But here's why I caution you against approaching authority building that way.
That's what most people do online - they feel like they need to be seen, they need to market, they want to be seen as an authority.
So, they just start producing and putting out content.
There's nothing wrong with that, except that it can be a really exhausting thing to do.
And you tend to burn out pretty quickly if you don't have a strategy.
Now, let me frame this conversation quickly. I’m talking about building authority, not just being seen and doing marketing. These are two different things.
There are plenty of industries where you can do dances on TikTok or Instagram and get a ton of followers and probably even squeeze a bunch of sales out of it.
For example, in the fitness world, there are so many people doing all kinds of dances and fun, engaging posts that garner a big following. And frankly, if you created content like that over a period of time, and did it really consistently, you would probably also be able to build a following.
However, the question is, is it the right following based on the right ideas?
In our space in the small branding agency/marketing agency world, we want to build authority, because we want to be trusted as strategic thinkers.
We want people to trust that we know what we're talking about.
That's the reason they're going to pay us $20k, $30k, $40k, $50k for a project to help them brand their business or build their website, because they inherently trust us.
They've seen what we think, and they like our point of view.
And they're interested in handing over the keys to their castle, really, and showing them the way.
And that requires a little more thought.
Now we do want to be engaging and entertaining, because when it comes to content online, it's not just about information, it's about infotainment.
How can you give this information in a way that is going to hook people and engage them and keep them wanting more?
Bottom line - I don't think starting to build your authority online starts with just posting, or just making a bunch of content.
I think that although that can be a good approach, I think very few to zero people can actually stick with that.
So what do you do instead? Well, first, you make sure that you have a cushion.
Create a cushion
The reason I don't recommend starting building your Authority Machine in the very beginning of your business is because you don't have a cushion with clients or cash.
So if you start to create content, but you don't have enough cash or time, it's going to be this constant stressor on you.
You're going to always feel like you're not doing enough, because you could always be doing more, and you're never going to have enough time to do it.
It's not going to be bringing you clients in the beginning.
And you should really be spending all of your time looking for clients, because you don't have them, and you haven't had enough clients in your past that can give you that really solid authority foundation.
I remember talking to somebody a couple of years ago who was just getting started in her business and she said ‘I really want to charge authority prices and expert prices’, and I said ‘How many clients have you had?’ She said, ‘I haven't had any yet.’
So I said, ‘You're not an expert yet, so how are you going to charge expert prices? And how are you going to be seen as an authority, if you haven't even had one client yet?’
That's the hard truth. You want to build authority online and while you're doing that, you’re becoming better and better at what you do.
That’s another reason why I wouldn't just jump into creating content.
You're going to have a hard time getting clients from it, and there's also a little bit of a ‘chicken and egg’ situation when it comes to building that authority when you're still very new in business.
Instead, do the marketing that's going to bring you clients now. Build your skills, learn from each new client, raise the prices, hone your systems and processes, build up your price point a little bit more, get it a little more profitable, build a solid network of people who know, like and trust you so that you have the experience and the network to keep feeding your clients, and then start doing this.
I'm saying all of this is because here's what I want you to do first. Take a step back and do a deep dive process on your own experience, what you know, and what you think.
Look, there is so much information online.
A novice approach to content creation is just to regurgitate that info, and that's when you end up spinning your wheels and creating a ton of content, but nobody's really paying attention to, so you're driving yourself crazy and nobody wins.
Instead, take some time to evaluate what you've done, what you think and figure out what your specific point of view is, and along the way, develop what your brand voice is going to be.
I'm in the branding space (and there's so many people in this space) - so what's my specific point of view?
Am I the person who thinks it's all about being mission-driven, heart-centered, connecting with people and doing good in the world? Is that my brand?
And what is my point of view on that positioning, because there's a lot of people who feel that way?
And a lot of people center their brands around the idea of being mission-driven and heart-centered - it's great positioning. But it means more than that, because if you just stop there, you're going to fade into a sea of sameness with everybody else who is saying that.
So it requires going a little bit deeper.
You see, even though that's how I feel, I'm really against how people use that positioning in a very superficial way.
I'll tell you something - this is not part of my brand.
But if I were to go in that direction, I would talk about how I really don't like how a lot of businesses out there talk about their mission, but they're not necessarily putting their money where their mouth is.
So I know a lot of people will say that they support some sort of cause. And maybe they even put a small percentage of their revenue towards this cause.
But that cause is very disconnected from their brand. And it feels a little performative, frankly.
Do you see how that's adding a layer of depth to the positioning of a business that is all about being mission-driven?
Why should anyone listen to you?
One of my favorite questions that I started asking when I was building brands is instead of asking, ‘What do you stand for in your brand?’ (which everybody asks, and the answers are pretty generic) I like to ask, ‘What are you against? What do you dislike about your industry? What do you hate about your industry that you're trying to fix?’
So when it comes to looking for our positioning of our brand, our voice and our point of view, I would ask myself the same question.
OK, this is who I think I am.
This is what I am all about.
This is what I think.
And also, what do I not like that somebody else who has maybe a brand in a similar positioning or a similar space, might think?
Start to ask yourself those questions to figure out where your specific space can be.
This is obviously a very deep and high level conversation. It's something we spend weeks and sometimes months on in the Authority Module inside the No BS Agency Mastery Program.
We get really deep, because the deeper you go, the more you're going to find something that is unique, specific and really true to you.
And when you find those areas that are true to you, that are combining all these different aspects about what you think and your point of view, it is going to make the content creation so much easier.
Not only that, but also what you create is going to be so much more interesting.
And it's going to be so unique to you.
These are the things that we want to do when we eventually start creating that content.
We want to have clarity around what we do and don't think, and what kinds of ideas we want to own as our brand pillars.
I'm sure you've heard of this idea of having pillars of your content, right?
So what are the main things that I talk about? What are my pillars?
Well, it's not just that I talk about profitability, client acquisition, and intensives. It's a layer deeper than that.
And my point of view is specifically this not that.
If you can flush that out in the beginning, that is the first step to building an Authority Machine.
And by the way, you're not going to figure it out 100% because the process is pretty cyclical. You do this work first, but you're not doing it at the beginning of your business - you're doing it after you've worked with quite a few clients, you've been in the industry for a certain amount of time, you've connected with tons of people - you’ve basically been doing organic market research.
You’ve come to some conclusions about what your point of view is and what you think, then you do this work, and this is the beginning of the authority process.
You uncover some ideas that you have developed over time that you weren't aware of consciously, but you've been developing unconsciously.
And then you flush this out into content, and then take that content and use systems and methodologies that are already in place.
That's why we built the Authority Machine training in No BS agency Mastery as the third phase, because there's no reason for you to reinvent the machine. The core piece, which is all about who you are and what you think, has to be authentic to you.
But the machine itself doesn't have to be authentic, because that's not what anyone's seeing. That's just the vehicle that you use to communicate all the things that you think.
So flush out your point of view, your brand, your voice, and then create some core content pieces. That's the next step.
The core content pieces are almost like your manifesto.
They’re the main things that you think and feel very strongly about.
Create some pieces of content that really summarize those things, and then go deeper into them.
And then from there, you can multiply that information hundreds of times, in different pieces of content, that are going to look at each idea from different angles, and uncover them and dissect them in different ways.
And then you can take those pieces of content that you create, chop them up, split them up, multiply them into all kinds of assets that can be deployed on a lot of different platforms, to get in front of a bunch of different people over and over and over again, without you being there.
That's really the heart of building an Authority Machine.
Eventually, you'll have all of this stuff in a machine that is doing the marketing for you.
But the very first thing you need to do is figure out why the fuck anyone should listen to you.
To put it bluntly, why should we listen to you when there are so many other people out there?
And yeah, that's harsh. I know a lot of people who shy away from creating content because they think ‘Well, everything's already been said, and I don't have anything new to add.’
That’s not true. You do have something new to add.
Everybody has something special and unique to add. And that thing that's going to make it special requires a little bit of digging deep.
If you do this, your efforts moving forward are going to have a much bigger effect.
They're going to connect more deeply with the people you want to connect with, and they're going to bring those people closer to you more easily and they’re going to know, like and trust you.
You need to be seen and then we need to like you and trust you.
If you're just regurgitating the same things that everybody else is saying, and you're staying on the surface, we might see you, but we won't necessarily have a reason to really like you.
It's not easy, and it's not natural, necessarily, to communicate that when you sit down to write a Facebook post. That's the kind of thing that takes thought and effort over time.
It’s a skill that can absolutely be learned with practice.
And by the way, the act of doing all of this is going to inform that voice and that point of view even more.
So the first step is to uncover where you're even starting, then it's to create some of this content. And then, as you're doing that content, it will inform what you did in the beginning and make it even stronger.
But you’ve got to start somewhere.
Bringing it all together
My own experience was that I just started writing. The first content that I created was back in 2013 - two years after I started my business.
I didn't share anything, I didn't post anything on Instagram - I don't even think Instagram was a thing.
I didn't post anything on Facebook for years, even when I started creating content.
I didn't post much of anything online or on any social media for another couple of years.
So I just started with my blog, and I didn't do any of this work that I'm telling you about, because I didn't know how to do it.
So instead, I just started writing, and oh, my goodness, those first blog posts were absolutely horrible!
They were so bad. I don't know what they even said - they were superficial.
I remember feeling like I was brilliant, that I was going to explain how brands aren't just your logo, there's so much more - that was one of my first articles.
It’s an important article, right? Because so many people still don't know that.
But I thought I was splitting the atom explaining this.
I kept it really superficial, and that’s OK, because it was a couple of years before I started to really get into understanding what my point of view was.
And through those couple of years of writing those articles, I had so much practice in writing that I became a better writer.
So I basically did what most people think you should do - I just showed up.
I didn't have a plan - I just created stuff.
I wrote and I wrote and I stayed consistent.
And the reason I'm telling you not to do that is because it was very challenging. I had no roadmap, and it took for-frickin-ever.
It was years of creating that, and I wasn't getting anything from that in the beginning.
I wasn't getting any traffic and it wasn't bringing me clients.
I was still networking my face off, or I was beat from getting in front of people in different ways through my network and my outreach.
But the biggest value that I got by doing that was that I figured out all this stuff I'm telling you to figure out in the beginning, just through the process of writing and communicating what I thought.
I flushed it out myself, and it took me years.
While you could do that, a lot of people don't stick with it for years.
I wrote an article every other week. And then every week for almost four years before I really started sharing anything on social media.
And before I got my Forbes column, four years of doing that - that's a long time.
Do you have four years in you to just create content to figure it all out?
Probably not, you probably want to do it a lot sooner.
So having gone through that process already, if I were to go back and do it again, this is what I would do.
I would make sure I had a consistent outreach plan to generate clients now, and cash to create the space and time to be able to go deep, uncover some of these ideas.
Then, I would create some foundational content that I could multiply, and then use that process much more quickly and more intensely to feed that point of view and that brand.
If you do all of that pretty intensely, in 6 to 12 months (and I've seen it happen in less) you can have a solid Authority Marketing Machine for yourself.
You’re not throwing spaghetti at the wall, but being intentional and strategic.
It all starts with that first part - figuring out what you have to say that's different, and learning about how to craft content that is going to make you different.
We don't need another person dancing and pointing to things on TikTok regurgitating simple ideas.
We want to hear from you. We want to hear your point of view. And we want you to go a little bit deeper, because that's really what's going to connect with people.
It's easy to make stuff and throw it up and post here and there. It's really not easy to do it in a strategic way and do it consistently.
In fact, as I’ve been coaching so many people through this process, I’ve found that one of the most powerful parts is showing up consistently over time.
And it's also one of the hardest, which is why it is so powerful to do it with a group of people.
When you are supported by other people who are doing this work, who you can bounce ideas off of, and who can keep you motivated, you can keep your eye on the prize for the long term outcome, which is a business that feeds you clients that you want, who want to work with you, because they get you.
And they like what you have to say, they want to work with you over everybody else.
That's what an Authority Machine does.
I don't talk to a lot of prospects for my branding agency, Worstofall Design.
I don't have to talk to them, because I have so much authority out there, that the only people I talk to are already ready to buy, and they want me over anybody else.
And man, I just can't tell you how powerful that is.
Yes, it takes some time to build, but it doesn't go away.
That's what's so cool about it.
In my opinion, it's one of the most valuable and important things that you can do for your business.
It is also the most valuable asset you can build for yourself - your own authority.
This is the third phase of the No BS Agency Mastery Program, where I help one to two person branding agencies scale to $30k-$50k months.
And this is a piece that you can do by yourself or with a partner, and even have months without working that many hours once you build authority.
But it’s Step Three - there's still Step One and Two. All of this together is how we build that business.
So when you're ready to take the next step, and you're ready to start scaling to maybe $10,000 then $20,000 and then $30,000 a month, go to nobsagencies.com/apply.
You can apply, risk free, to talk to my team, to make sure that this is the right program for you. You’ll get to surround yourself with a community of people who are doing this work, who are motivated and hungry to build this business for themselves and for their families.
Because that's really what our community is about. It's about building this business to support entire families in their dreams, being able to make more money in less time.
It's not about the money. It's about the time that you free up to spend with your kids. It's about the time you free up to be able to work on that creative project that you keep putting aside because you have to make cash.
It’s about getting back to your art, getting back to your other ideas.
I work with so many creatives and we all have a book full of ideas that we just can't wait to get to. Instead of trying to do all of these things at once and not really doing any of them well, build a business that supports your ability to do all of those other things you want to do.
Go to nobsagencies.com/apply and let's see if now is the time for you to take that really impactful next step.
Here’s what you need to get…
Building an Authority Machine isn’t just about ‘getting out there and posting stuff’.
It’s about being intentional, strategic and consistent.
Anyone can regurgitate a bunch of ideas, but what will really get you standing out and building authority is taking the time to figure out what your unique take is, and not just what you stand for, but what you stand against.
By delving into that extra layer, and then multiplying your content, you’ll be building an incredibly valuable asset for your business.
P.S. You can always jump on a call with my team if you want to fast-track your Authority Machine, and learn all my other tools and strategies to scale up your agency - just go here to get started!