Six Keys To Influence Almost Anyone [Part 5 AUTHORITY]

Be the trustworthy expert people seek out!

Hey there readers. In today’s PROTips I’m tackling principle number five in our series on wielding influence: Authority.

Principle #5 / Authority

When Frank Abagnale, Jr was just 17-year-old he decided to do something most 17-year-olds don’t do. He got himself a Pan Am uniform and began to impersonate a pilot. As crazy as this sounds, Abagnale was able to get away with the con and fly across the country on numerous flights. 

Years later Steven Spielberg would make a movie about Abagnale titled Catch Me If You Can.

Now, how can a 17-year-old be able to pull this off? The answer is simple – Frank Abagnale, Jr realized even at an early age that people are hard-wired to listen and believe in figures of authority. 

Welcome to the fifth principle.

Of all that we have analyzed thus far, this may be the easiest of the principles to understand. And another very popular principle being used today.

Let’s look at just one recent phenomenon of authority in action: influencer marketing. 

As social media continues to become a larger portion of our lives, influencer marketing has also grown. Brands are shelling out big bucks to connect with influencers to grow their business and stay relevant to a new generation of buyers. 

Why is this happening?

According to Influencer Marketing Hub: influencers are viewed by their followers as trustworthy experts in their field, and they can effectively impact their audience’s purchasing decisions. 

Trustworthy experts – those are the keywords in that sentence. 

And how much trust is being given to influencers? If we look at dollars being invested into this segment as an indicator we can see – influencer marketing is on fire.

In 2016 – just eight years ago, the market size was estimated at $1.7 billion. In 2023 that number is now at a staggering $21 billion!

What the heck is going on here? It’s this, our belief in more “traditional” roles of authority e.g. police, clergy, big business, etc…has gone down over the years, and taking its place are the influencers. 

So, are you an influencer? 

What I’m building toward is this: by becoming an influencer you get to ascend to a level of authority. People over time will be more likely to trust you because you are an expert. And experts are valued. Experts make more bank.  Experts don’t need to be a charicature of themselves, just put out the real deal and share value.

There are numerous ways you can build your status and expertise. Just put in: “How to become an influencer” into Google and you’ll get a heapin’ helpful of ideas.

But here’s the key…

To become an authority…you need to two ingredients. And they are focus and time. Let’s start with focus.

As an advisor, you can’t own travel. That’s too big of an ocean…you have to narrow it down. 

Here are some questions to think about it. What can you own that:

1. Has little or the fewest number of competitors serving a given sector?
2. Is something you want to work on and that interests you?
3. Is something that people are looking for?

If you’re a regular to the newsletter you know I’ve written about this topic A LOT. I’ve done it because I believe it’s the key that separates good advisors from great advisors. 

If you think you can be an authority/expert on, let’s say, Europe, good luck! That’s too big. Too much competition. But if you want to be the expert on bicycle trips throughout Provence, France for people 50 plus – now you’re talkin’!

There are other tactics to help build up your reputation and authority in your field of business. They are:

• Use testimonials 
• Awards you have attained over the years
• Key stats e.g. how long you have been in business, how many customers you have served, how many times you have been to a given destination 
• Boards that you have served on or other businesses you help/support 

Some of these tactics will already be familiar to you because we talked about them in our last newsletter (Social Proof). All of these can work together to help establish you as an expert and influencer. 

The second part is time. Becoming an expert requires time. The path to becoming a true expert in a space requires you put in the time. There are no shortcuts. Oh, you’ll see a lot claiming they are experts online – but few really are.

So, as you move forward keep both points in mind.

That wraps up the fifth principle in our series. Next week we bring it all to a close with the final principle…scarcity. You’re going to love it!

Thanks for the time, and if you enjoyed, please share with other like-minded folks.