There's no simple “one size fits all” step-by-step process for becoming seen as an authority. But there are things almost all authorities do that will massively increase your chances of becoming seen as one if you do them too.

In this episode of More Clients TV we look at what really lies behind becoming seen as an authority and what I've found is the most important thing you can do to get there.

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The #1 Thing Almost All Authorities Do

It's pretty well established that one of the very best positions to be in as a consultant or coach or trainer, a lawyer or any kind of professional advisor is to be seen as an authority or leading expert or go to person in your field.

What's much less well established is how you get there and how you can get there fast.

Now, of course, it would be ludicrous to suggest there was a simple step by step approach that everyone could follow and they'd suddenly end up as an authority. However, there are a number of things that almost all authorities do. And if you do them, you'll increase your chances of becoming seen as an authority massively.

In particular, there's one thing that almost all authorities do that will make a huge difference to whether you're seen as an authority yourself.

In order to understand why it's so effective we need to wind things back a little and look at what it is that establishing authority really means and why it's valuable.

The key thing about being seen as an authority or an expert is that when your potential clients come to make a buying decision, you're the person they remember. And they remember you positively. They remember you as being an expert in the thing that they want to get done.

So being seen as an authority is all about establishing a memory.

It's great if you watch this video, and you think “oh, Ian really knows his stuff. He's a real expert”. But then in three months time when you're looking to hire someone or go on an online training course to get more clients, if you've completely forgotten me, then it's of no value whatsoever.

So if you want to be seen as an authority it's all about establishing the perception of you as an expert in someone's memories.

So how do you do that? How do you establish memories?

In truth, you already know the answer. Because it's the same as the strategies you use when you're trying to revise for an exam or you're trying to remember someone's name or or a phone number.

One way to establish a memory is to do something exceptional, amazing or shocking. That's the way we often try and remember people's names by associating their name with a big, bald visual image associated. Like imagining Mr Gardener sitting in a beautiful garden overflowing with flowers.

In the field of establishing expertise that comes from the magnitude of your discoveries. If you were able to create the equivalent of the theory of relativity or crack the secret of DNA, people are going to remember that no matter what else you do.

Unfortunately for most of us, that's not so easy to do. So a much easier route for us to be remembered as an authority is to look at other ways that people remember.

One of the most successful ways people remember when they're trying to revise things or when they're trying to remember a phone number or a name is simply repetition.

If you're trying to remember a phone number you repeat it yourself again, and again. If you're trying to revise something for an exam, you'll write it down again and again until it sinks in and you remember it.

That same repetition works for you when you're trying to be seen by someone as an authority. In essence, you need to demonstrate your expertise consistently and repeatedly.

Going back to our earlier example, if you watch this video you may have forgotten it in three months. But if you watch five or six of my videos and if in each one of them I do manage to say something sensible and establish myself as a bit of an expert in what I'm talking about, you're probably going to remember me.

And that's the secret, the thing that authorities do is they're consistent.

They make their expertise visible on a regular basis.

Now that could be on YouTube like this video. It could be in an email. It could be writing for a trade journal their clients read. It could be anything where they get their expertise visible, again, and again and again. You see them in multiple places, or you see them in the same place repeatedly demonstrating their expertise.

Over time that how memories get formed and strengthened. A new memory of you establishes a new neural pathway. Then every time they see you in similar circumstances demonstrating your expertise it reactivates those pathways and they get stringer and stronger.

So that in three months time, in six months time, in a year's time, or even five years time, that memory is still there. And it signals to them that you're a genuine expert in what you do.

So that's really the key secret that almost every authority does. they consistently demonstrate their expertise visibly.

It doesn't really matter which method they use to get their expertise visible. As long as they're consistent in doing it. And as long as what they're doing is interesting enough that their ideal clients pay attention.

Attention is vital. It's no good having a YouTube channel if no one watches it because they don't find it interesting. it's no good writing a regular email newsletter if no one reads it because they're just don't find it interesting enough.

If they don't pay attention they're not going to build the memories you need to be seen as an authority. We'll cover how to get attention in our next series of videos.