How to Be an Authority in Your Niche

Sasha: 0:00

{Ad} Are you ready to go from a struggling solopreneur, who's winging it to a savvy CEO with a solid business structure and focused strategic action to grow to consistent 5k months? Then you want to check out The Strategic CEO group program. With this program, you'll start thinking like a CEO and creating big picture goals with the action plans to make them a reality. You'll start generating consistent 5k months, create brand messaging that showcases everything you offer, and have systems and workflows and automation that allow your business to run smoothly, so you're less stressed with more time. You'll be able to do it all without struggling to manage all the things feeling unorganized with processes that are all over the place, and hating content creation and marketing. Check out The Strategic CEO group program at by-sasha.com/the-strategic-CEO. {Ad} {Ad} One thing that I talk a lot about on this podcast is the balance between self-care and business. And that's because if we don't take care of ourselves, we won't be able to effectively run our businesses. We can't ignore the conversations that happen around being a business owner, and how that affects our stress levels and mental health. I've seen firsthand how running a business can put a strain on our mental health. And what happens if there's no one to talk to that can help. If you've reached a point where you might be feeling stressed, anxious, depressed or overwhelmed, then my sponsor BetterHelp is here to help you. BetterHelp offers licensed therapists who are trained to listen and help you. You can talk to your therapist in a private online environment at your own convenience and with a broad range of expertise and better helps 20,000+ therapists’ network, you can find access to help that may not otherwise be available in your area, and request a new therapist at no additional charge anytime. Simply fill out a questionnaire to help assess your specific needs, and get matched with a therapist and under 48 hours, schedule secure video and phone sessions. Plus, you can exchange unlimited messages and everything you share is completely confidential. Join the 2 million plus people who have taken charge of their mental health with an experienced BetterHelp therapist. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/strategy. That's betterhelp.com/strategy. {Ad} Welcome to Strategy for Creatives: Business Minus the Bullshit. Whether you're new in business or find yourself in a season of change, get ready to build a strategy, create an action plan and crush those goals. I'm Sasha, host a strategy for creatives. And I help female led businesses grow their brands in authentic, measurable and meaningful ways, without the stress. There's no sugar coated here, I'm serving up real tips and actionable steps you can take to help get you organized, get off the path to burnout and grow your brand like a boss. So go ahead, pull up a chair, grab a notepad, and let's talk business. Welcome to Strategy for Creatives: Business Minus the Bullshit. I, of course, am your host Sasha and today, we are going to be talking about how to be really the authority in your business. A lot of those times when you are able to place yourself as an authority figure in your industry and in your business it really does help to grow your brand and place you at kind of the forefront and really get people to follow you and be interested in what you're doing. And so today to have that conversation with me, I'm talking to Beate Chelette, who is a Growth Architect and Founder of The Women’s Code, and she provides visionaries and leaders with proven strategies, blueprints and growth maps that provide clear systems to improve business systems strengthen leadership skills of teams, and so that our clients and audiences can maximize profits and scale their impact. So thank you so much for being on the show today. Welcome.

Beate: 3:57

I'm excited to be here, Sasha. Thank you for having me.

Sasha: 4:00

Thank you. So let's kind of just get right into it. I am a very big believer that when you do show up as kind of an authority figure in your industry, it opens a lot of doors, but it helps build what I call this "like, know, trust factor" of people really liking and knowing your brand and believing what it is that you're "selling" them or that you know what you're talking about in your business. So how do you kind of become an authority in your business industry?

Beate: 4:30

Yes, that's the million dollar question. Right is like how do I take my idea and how do I make other people believe that I am having a right to be here? And how do I have others listen to what I have to say, buy from me, and then help them to transform their lives. This is the tallest order of course for all of us, coaches, consultants, experts. And the basically the idea of growth architecture is that there are a couple of elements that you need to be building to make sure that people understand why you have a right to be here, right and why they should be listening to you. So we developed some things called the Five Star Success Blueprint. And in this Five Star Success Blueprint, you are methodically just going through the markers, the pieces, the elements that you need to have to make sure that everybody knows what it is that you do. It's like the basics of everything, you know, branding, marketing, you know, we start with the idea, that's the first star. Who are you? What is it that you're doing? Who are you serving? And what is the problem that you're solving for your clients? From there, you go to the second star, and the second star is about the offer. Now, you can only build an offer, once you know, who you're serving and what their problems are. And a lot of people already get that wrong at that point, then we move into the third part.

Sasha: 5:52

Your first that was so basic to it's like, so many people miss that one.

Beate: 5:57

Yeah, I mean, unless you know who you are serving and what the problem is that they're having that you can solve, you can build the offer. And then once you have built the offer, which solves this problem, you go to the next one, then and only then are we building the systems. Once we build the systems, then we hire the team. And then when we have the team because the team needs to operate the systems that provide the offer. So we can generate solutions. And then finally, we're talking about you as a leader, what kind of leader do you need to be to lead the team that manages the systems that handles the offer that serves clients problems. And, you know, I start talking such fundamentals and so such basics, because I find that a lot of people, while they understand the steps that don't do them in the right order. And if you are not moving in the right order, you have gaps. And if you have gaps, then that's what causes the cracks. But clients go like, well, she seems to be an okay person, but something's off, I can't quite put my finger on it. So you can throw advertising money, you can throw all your social media at the issue. But unless you have these fundamental issues in place, you cannot become an authority. And authority is not a celebrity.

Sasha: 7:20

Yeah

Beate: 7:20

I was scrolling through Instagram yesterday, you know, Sasha is laughing here. I was scrolling through Instagram yesterday. And so it's it's a talking head, it's a talking head, it's a talking head in the three seconds, right, it's like three things that - the two things nobody will - here is how you... you know, and so it's like, it's like all marketing, marketing, marketing, marketing, it's so obvious at this time. And then there is the cat, the skiing cat, that's where I'm going to help make that cat viral because at least you know, I get a reprieve from my life, I see this cat and it's a skiing cat. I mean, it's never seen anything like this. So unless you want to make your cat a celebrity, you know, you need to make sure that the stuff that you posting and the stuff that goes out there is congruent with the message. The message can only work if you've done all the five stars. With all these pieces in place, now you can start to really establish what is the thing that you do different than other people. That's how you become an authority, which is an expert in your industry and expert in this particular type of category. So I'm going to give you a couple of examples. So when we look at our brand, we determine that we are growth architects, because we like the visual of the building, you know, unless you pour the foundation, unless you put the cement, unless you know you use a proper blueprint, unless you build the house. You got really nothing much to work of. I mean, just look at you know, houses that were built on sand and the hurricane, it's gone. It's over in a nanosecond. So we prefer you not to do that. And then what you put in that house, that's entirely up to you. You can have green walls, blue walls, red walls, right. I mean, I bet Sasha you don't really care either on once as long as it fundamentals.

Sasha: 9:35

Yeah, I would definitely agree with it. And I liked that you actually phrased it that way because that visual even within your own branding and your business that visual of like, yeah, we have to have a solid foundation before we worry about whatever is inside because it doesn't really matter what's inside if it's not strong enough to hold itself.

Beate: 9:57

Yes, and it's interesting to me that, you know, as we talk about sort of what are the shortcuts here? And how do you really build authority, then what you build authority on, is because you know that you tested your idea, you know that you are solving people's problems. You've now got clients that you've done this for, that are raving, they say, "Oh, my gosh, this was amazing Sasha, I couldn't have done this without you look at that. I love it, it's so much easier. I know exactly what I'm posting, you know how often I need to be posting". I'm, you know, getting some, some feedback, some response. So now you have that. Now, what you need to do is you need to go to this next level of growth architecture, and that is the three pieces. It's our triangle. It's the strategy, the systems, and then the authority platform building part. And the strategy is, where are we going to with a business? What's the business model? Number two, what are the systems that we need to run this machine? And the third one, and here is the most important thing about authority. Authority really is a client attraction system. Because that's what we use all of this for. If you want to be well known, right? If you want to be a celebrity, and you know, the Kardashians and whoever influencers, there are out there chances for anyone who is a coach or a consultant are very slim. Even Gary Vee, he's got I think, a team of what 20 that post 24/7?

Sasha: 11:38

Yeah

Beate: 11:38

So it cost him millions of dollars. That's not feasible, and probably not advisable for most people.

Sasha: 11:45

Nope.

Beate: 11:46

So if you want to be an influencer, or a celebrity, that's a completely different model than an authority platform. Authority platform is, I know your mom. So let's make that real, right. So Sasha is a mom. So Sasha has constraints to her time, because your son still needs you. And so that means that you have to leave at a certain time in the morning, to get your son to school, you have to leave at a certain time to pick your son up from school. I bet your son wants to eat. So you have you know, so that there's hard markers in your ability to do things that are dictated or determined by the choices that you made that built this life that you're living?

Sasha: 12:38

Yep.

Beate: 12:39

So now we need to build the business model around that. Because we cannot tell your son, "Sorry, sorry, little one you're not eating today, mommy needs to go on an Instagram live right now, to feed her celebrity machine". And you may or may not like your son being on your Instagram for, you know, other reasons.

Sasha: 13:02

Yep.

Beate: 13:03

And so now, the authority that you're building, is your mom, you have a family is most likely, and I'm making an assumption here around creating a lifestyle where you do something you love, where people pay you, so that you can live the life with your family, go on vacations, you know, support your causes, and do these things. So now we look at in growth architecture, we look at what does this authority platform system need to look like for you to work?

Sasha: 13:40

I'm really glad that you put it that way. And that you that you structure it in that way, because I see so many, and you got it exactly right about me. Obviously, everything in my life has to be structured around my son, he's five, he can't do too much for himself at this point. So mommy has to pick up the ball for a lot of things. But I'm a big proponent of your business has to work within the lifestyle that you have. And so you have to do it. If you try to do it the other way, you're going to burn yourself out, it's not going to work. And so your business should work for you. And so growing your authority around the type of lifestyle that you have, and the business that functions within that makes the most sense. I can talk very easily and clearly about how it is to manage time between being a mom and running a business. And then the things that I do to make that easier for other women and how they can do that. And those businesses, I can speak to that very easily because that's my life. And so I'm glad that you pointed out that. You know you have to to look at the life that you have and how your business is structured around that in order to then go on to build your authority and speaking in that way. I think that makes a lot of sense.

Beate: 14:52

Yes, it does. Because otherwise you are either going to look at your family being in the way of your business success, which is really bad. Or you look at your business, as an anchor, or as something that you are in a slave relationship to where the business is the boss and the master and you are the slave, and whatever the business needs you do, and you can't do anything else. And if you really think about it doesn't even make any sense. Because I mean, it's your business. I mean, technically, you should be able to do what you want. So how do we get into these things? So let's get back to the authority platform building. So now now that we have this concept identified and said, okay, so then if we eliminate influencing, and if we eliminate celebrity, right, I mean, that's 99% of people that are just not in that category. And the sooner you are okay with that, the more successful you will be and the more fun in your life you have. Because how good is it if you have 5000 likes, but neither your partner or your children speak to you?

Sasha: 16:03

Yeah. Or you're not doing anything in your business. On top of that, just, you know, the celebrity doesn't necessarily translate to money either.

Beate: 16:11

Exactly. So now we look at this. And that's just stay with the example of you, Sasha. So now, I know you're a podcast I had a conversation with a client of mine, just last week, host because I am on your podcast. So then I would come in and I would say, alright, so how do you utilize this to create a client attraction system? Then you say, Well, you know, I'm thinking about monetizing the podcasts, I'm growing the podcast until eventually, you know, I can monetize it, maybe have advertising. Then we would look at that and we would say, Well, the reality of it is that that's really not a lot of money. Unless you are, you know, Joe Rogan, and your on Sirius XM, you know, again, here's another carrot, what they don't really tell you, right? Is that, so okay, so fine. So you get an extra, let's say, it's a lot, let's say you get an extra $1,000 a month, you can't pay your rent on that, or your mortgage. And you certainly, you know, it barely covers private school, and childcare. And so, so now all of this for an extra $1,000 a month. Alright, so that's not the way to go. I mean, that's like one way. So how else can we monetize the podcast? Well, that means that we have to be very diligent about who are the people that we're speaking to on our podcast? Because those are the people now that are maybe our potential clients. So how do I build that into into my business model. So that's what we do in client attraction Authority building. You build the authority, because you're and she is an immigration attorney. And she does serving more and more people. That's the goal of authority of immigration and visas for a lot of technology companies. And she says, I don't want to be on TikTok. I don't like the Chinese expert status. That's how you get more people to listen to you thing. That's, you know, so questionable about it in the data, especially in the sensitivity of where I'm at. And by taking the actions that you're doing today. And I don't think that me dancing on TikTok is going to attract identifying how you can maximize attracting clients with the immigration clients that are primarily from India that are on systems that you're using. So using Instagram, you're using HB1 visas for Silicon Valley technology companies. So now we Instagram. Are you using that as a client attraction system? Is have eliminated a complete time suck for her and say well, where that tied in with a podcast? And if it's tied in with a podcast, are your clients? So now we building her authority platform, her client attraction system on LinkedIn, and Instagram, because then how do you use your Instagram? Does that work for those are the places where her clients are. So that is in the, attracting that caliber of clientele that you're trying to you know, in the original questions like how do you become attract? That's what we do. You know, we build the authority by an authority is you cut the fat on the staff that is time sucking, soul sucking and not successful. You focus on a few really looking through all these different pieces and say, Well, pieces where the clients are remember the Five Step Success what do you even want to do? Blueprint and that's how you built it.

Sasha: 19:49

That's a very, very thorough model, but I think it makes sense. I'm a big believer, a big proponent of not doing anything in your business that doesn't serve you and like yYou know, for your example, as soon as you mentioned what she does, I was like, oh, LinkedIn is probably where she would best be served to find her people. So I guess, kind of when it comes to building up this authority, I know a lot of people will ask how do you how do you do that in crowded spaces, though? So like, you know, let's I'll use myself as an example. I'm a business strategist, there are plenty of business strategists, right. There are plenty of business strategists who are also serving the same type of women that I'm serving, creative entrepreneurs. I know where my zone of genius lies, I know what I'm good at. But how, for those who might struggle with answering those kind of thoughts, how do you figure out or really zero in on what your authority is, when you're worried about what everybody else is doing just like you?

Beate: 20:51

Yeah, so the answer to that is a much much simpler than you think. This is something that we've really been been doubling and tripling down over the last two years, because we find that this is the really the piece that that blows it out of the water, and it's called your signature growth system. It is what sets you apart from everybody else. Other people are consultants, strategist, experts, and coaches. If you go down that road, then what happens is that you're going to be compared to other experts, coaches and consultants. So if you are business strategist, then why would I go to you and your fee is, let's say $10,000. And I can get a business strategist for $2,000. So now you are in a precarious situation where you then go back into marketing materials as well, but we have to, we have to identify the value, but you're struggling identifying the value because it sounds like everybody else. So in the signature growth system, which is our mastermind, you know, it's a program that we launch a couple times a year, where we literally go in and we do a brain dump, we take everything that's in your head, and we put it out, we bake it in a piece of a loaf of bread. And then we take a bread knife, and we cut it into slices. And this becomes the transformation journey of your customer. Now, when you have a signature growth system, you have a diagnostic tool, because you can help people where in the journey that they are, you know, the Five Star Success Blueprint is one of is our diagnosis, you have different entry points. So according to our Five Star Success Blueprint, somebody could hire us to help them with the positioning, you know, the first somebody can say I need systems, they hire us for that. Someone says, I know I am a sucky leader, we can develop a leadership strategy, or somebody says, I have all the kinds of pieces but they're not connected, then we can put together the growth plan. So now suddenly, instead of being a strategist, you having a mutually beneficial conversation, in your intake, in your sales conversation with your client. When you say to them, Well, I don't even know if I can help you. Let me first run you through the diagnosis and find out what even the issue is, well, I need a business strategy as well. So say many people, but what kind of business strategiest, and what do we need to solve? Let me take you through the diagnosis. So now if I take him through the diagnosis, right, and so you said, How do I you know, how do I tell people now how do them set themselves apart? In my system, that is the third star - the system. So I can say congratulations, you mastered step number one, congratulations, you mastered step number two. But you are now on step number three, where you have to create this differentiation factor. So now they feel good, that they have mastered these other two that they're not at the very beginning. They are not losers, failures. But they simply have arrived at that next step. And so in the same token, I'm pre-selling my other steps. But they're not ready for that yet. So this is the differentiation factor that I think most businesses do not understand. Because it's so difficult to do this by yourself. People say, Well, you have to have a signature system. Well, what's that even mean? Well, we help our clients to do the signature systems and then they go out and they write five, six figure contracts, like within days, sometimes, because they're finally able to articulate the journey and the transformation and the outcomes in each one of those steps. And now they're selling and then selling more often. That's how you do it.

Sasha: 24:45

Wow. I think you you've been able to give so many useful little nuggets of knowledge that I think will really help the audience. I do think becoming an authority is such a good way to really bring more people to you and can really kind of hijack your business to a different level when you are able to show that you have this certain skill set, and that you know what you're talking about, and that people can come to you and expect to get certain things from you just because you built yourself up as an authority in the industry. So I really appreciate that you have been able to kind of so succinctly lay it out for people and how they can go about going on that journey and becoming more of authority in their business. So where can people find you at?

Beate: 25:32

Yeah, so the first thing I would recommend anybody who's listening to this and says, I don't even know where I'm stuck, or what my next thing is, go and take our quiz, where you are number one business growth blocker is go to growthblockerquiz.com. Check that out. The second thing that we have is we have a in the first step, you know who is your ideal target client, we have something called the airtight avatars go to airtightavatar.com. And it's it takes like, literally 15 minutes, we made it so easy. It's a bunch of checklists, all you have to do is, you know, take your pen printed out and then go through it one by one by one, and then you'll know exactly who your clients are within the next 15 minutes. So I recommend everybody to do that.

Sasha: 26:18

And I will make sure I put all of those, both of those in the show notes so that way everyone will be able to access those really easily. So it was growthblockerquiz.com. And then airtightavatar.com. So like I said, I'll drop all of that in the show notes. But thank you so much for being on the show today. I really think this was such a great conversation and you're just so knowledgeable about the growth architect and how do we get authority. So I appreciate you coming on today.

Beate: 26:45

Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I think that, you know, our job as strategist is to make it as simple as possible for people to recognize how to do this one by one by one. And that's our job. So I'm happy to help any way I can. And if anybody's heard anything here on this show, please make sure you go to Sasha's podcast wherever you pick it up. Make sure you like the episode, leave a comment, subscribe, and share this with one other person that needed to hear what we talked about today.

Sasha: 27:19

Thank you. Are you ready to uplevel your business? Join the five day be your own CEO challenge. All the details are available on the website at www.by-sasha.com. If you liked what you heard, make sure you rate and review. It really helps other people find the show. And of course, following subscribe on your favorite podcast platforms. Want to follow me on social? I'm on Instagram and Facebook at Strategy By Sasha. Make sure you tune in next Tuesday for more business tips. Part of the Boundless Audio Podcast Network