Life Unsettled

Today business opportunities are growing, and they will explode over the next year. Let me explain this a little bit. First, I did postpone, I apologize for that. I postponed a few days for this episode to come out because I wanted to wait until the dust settled after the election. At the end of this episode I want to wrap everything up together so you understand why this opportunity is so big, literally for everybody who wants to start and build a business. It doesn’t mean business is easy, but at the end I’ll wrap it up and put it into a tight package. At the end I will go and explain a little bit more about how growth really happens, and why you can count on it and why you should feed into it.

Business is expected to boom for 2017. Get ready!

First, this is a great opportunity to start a business or to look at expanding your current business. Why? Because the economy in 2017 at some point should start growing fairly well and fairly rapidly. There’s going to be a lot of changes, and the changes are all towards the growth of economy and growth of business. I’ll discuss that a little bit more and I’ll discuss some of the things that are happening in specific industries, but more importantly, it doesn’t matter where you are because whatever you’re doing there could be opportunities that are expanding now and you could be one of the ones to fulfill that demand. (see episode 67, 'Developing Business Ideas')

Back to the episode. Whenever there’s great change, there’s always opportunity, and that’s what gets into business ideas and business opportunity. It is a unique opportunity today in America because of the change. Whether you like or don’t like the candidates, who cares? Let me remind you of something that happened to me a long time ago. I want to give you an opportunity, get off the Xanax or whatever anti-depressants you might be taking, and just move forward. Remember that all of this is done and then it’s over.

Focus on your Future Business Opportunities, Leave Past Behind

What happened to me in high school was during my last year, my senior year. We were had Shakespeare in English class, so the whole year was devoted to Shakespeare. During that time, I was always wondering, because I would take an exam and of course, like most people, after the exam you start thinking: “Oh, gee, I wish I had thought of this, or if I did that, or had wrote that. Or I should have done this a little better,” or something like this. You end up literally wasting a lot of time after the fact when you should really be studying for your next exam. You don’t dwell on what’s already done. What I ran across in one of Shakespeare’s plays was: “What is without remedy should be without regard. What’s done is done." So whatever is done is done, it’s without remedy, there’s nothing you can do about it. Move on, get going. I wrote that exact quote on an index card, posted it on the wall right in front of my desk. Whenever I started to think about what had happened, rather than focus on what I was doing for the next event, the next exam, or the next career goal – I just looked at that and immediately refocused myself. Do it, take that as a little bit of advice for yourself. Put it down on something so that you can use it the same way.

As I mentioned, and I’ll repeat: Change brings opportunity. Why? Because everybody is acting a certain way, and as the tide shifts, and the seas ebb or flow, you have new opportunities that come up, particularly with this particular change. It is very different. We’re embarking on a grand opportunity, particularly for small business. Small businesses potentially have a great deal more opportunity. There'll be a lessening of regulation, there’s no question about that. That includes on banks. How does that help an individual? Well, the intent of some regulations were to rein in banks. But what happened without realizing what some of the effects would be is it put a lot of pressure on the small banks and the ...

Today business opportunities are growing, and they will explode over the next year. Let me explain this a little bit. First, I did postpone, I apologize for that. I postponed a few days for this episode to come out because I wanted to wait until the dust settled after the election. At the end of this episode I want to wrap everything up together so you understand why this opportunity is so big, literally for everybody who wants to start and build a business. It doesn’t mean business is easy, but at the end I’ll wrap it up and put it into a tight package. At the end I will go and explain a little bit more about how growth really happens, and why you can count on it and why you should feed into it.

Business is expected to boom for 2017. Get ready!

First, this is a great opportunity to start a business or to look at expanding your current business. Why? Because the economy in 2017 at some point should start growing fairly well and fairly rapidly. There’s going to be a lot of changes, and the changes are all towards the growth of economy and growth of business. I’ll discuss that a little bit more and I’ll discuss some of the things that are happening in specific industries, but more importantly, it doesn’t matter where you are because whatever you’re doing there could be opportunities that are expanding now and you could be one of the ones to fulfill that demand. (see episode 67, 'Developing Business Ideas')

Back to the episode. Whenever there’s great change, there’s always opportunity, and that’s what gets into business ideas and business opportunity. It is a unique opportunity today in America because of the change. Whether you like or don’t like the candidates, who cares? Let me remind you of something that happened to me a long time ago. I want to give you an opportunity, get off the Xanax or whatever anti-depressants you might be taking, and just move forward. Remember that all of this is done and then it’s over.

Focus on your Future Business Opportunities, Leave Past Behind

What happened to me in high school was during my last year, my senior year. We were had Shakespeare in English class, so the whole year was devoted to Shakespeare. During that time, I was always wondering, because I would take an exam and of course, like most people, after the exam you start thinking: “Oh, gee, I wish I had thought of this, or if I did that, or had wrote that. Or I should have done this a little better,” or something like this. You end up literally wasting a lot of time after the fact when you should really be studying for your next exam. You don’t dwell on what’s already done. What I ran across in one of Shakespeare’s plays was: “What is without remedy should be without regard. What’s done is done." So whatever is done is done, it’s without remedy, there’s nothing you can do about it. Move on, get going. I wrote that exact quote on an index card, posted it on the wall right in front of my desk. Whenever I started to think about what had happened, rather than focus on what I was doing for the next event, the next exam, or the next career goal – I just looked at that and immediately refocused myself. Do it, take that as a little bit of advice for yourself. Put it down on something so that you can use it the same way.

As I mentioned, and I’ll repeat: Change brings opportunity. Why? Because everybody is acting a certain way, and as the tide shifts, and the seas ebb or flow, you have new opportunities that come up, particularly with this particular change. It is very different. We’re embarking on a grand opportunity, particularly for small business. Small businesses potentially have a great deal more opportunity. There'll be a lessening of regulation, there’s no question about that. That includes on banks. How does that help an individual? Well,

We’ve all heard people talking about work-life balance, and: How are you supposed to have it? It’s a choice. Let’s talk a little bit about work-life balance versus the hustle, that is you hear people saying: “Work smart, hustle, keep going,” etc. and then you have these other people trying to tell you about work-life balance. Let’s take a look at the two, because there’s really a lot to each story.

Some gurus preach Work-Life Balance while others lecture the importance to hustle. Balancing work and life is a personal preference with consequences

First, work-life balance, as defined by Wikipedia, it’s listed as a concept including the proper prioritizing between work, which they include as career and ambition, and balancing with lifestyle, meaning health, pleasure, leisure, family, spiritual development/meditation. So what does that all mean? I’m not going to say that one is better than the other, but I am going to say that whatever you make as a choice, it is your choice. Don’t be jealous of the person that hustles and doesn’t have a proper work-life balance, but has a lot of success in whatever they’re doing. That was their choice, you choose something else. That’s okay. But it’s just we each have our own priorities.

Now, if you want to have a little bit of both, that is you really want to have that work-life balance as well as be very, very successful, the only way you’re going to carve out that bit of extra time is through better time management. Go to www.LifeUnsettled.com/time and get some of my suggestions there so that you can get more time out of life. But I’m not saying you have to do that either. These are two really important topics to think about.

One of the reasons that life-work balance comes into play a lot, some it has to do with the fact that you should have fun, and that’s good, but a lot of it has to do with pressure. Just like you have the pressure to hustle, you have the pressure in a sense to devote more time to your family, more time to other things/activities that you’re supposed to be involved in. In either way, there’s stress going both ways. Where does it all stem from? Many years ago, not too many, but many years ago there was that one person in the household, usually the guy, (almost always the guy) who was working and he was supporting the family. That meant that whatever school, house they bought, place they went, whether they had a vacation or not, what things they were able to get, how they were able to live was all determined entirely on how he performed, and everything that he did at the job he was captive at in order to get the most income he could to provide for the family the best he could. The pressure was all on him.

Then what happens is, and sometimes it’s featured in movies and you see the movie shows some guy that: “He’s not putting in his time with his family. His kids are less involved with him, they don’t appreciate him because he’s never around.” Part of that is the job of the female in this case (right now it can be switched around; it can be the guy staying home and the woman working), but in either case, the one who is staying home, it’s part of their responsibility to make sure that the kids understand what’s going in, why dad has to work late, etc. and that yes, he would like to be home, yes, he would like to go to some game or something else. I hope he would anyway. But there are those kinds of pressures that if he doesn’t he’s not going to get the next promotion, he’s not going to get the bonus, he’s not going to get whatever.

So what you really have is a situation which society has turned upside down in essence because the pressure was all on the man many years ago that would determine everything about their family’s lifestyle, etc. Now there’s much more of dual income or in some cases, in many cases the woman making more money. That doesn’t matter. Actually, when I was in college I used to say: “Quite frankly,

We’ve all heard people talking about work-life balance, and: How are you supposed to have it? It’s a choice. Let’s talk a little bit about work-life balance versus the hustle, that is you hear people saying: “Work smart, hustle, keep going,” etc. and then you have these other people trying to tell you about work-life balance. Let’s take a look at the two, because there’s really a lot to each story.

Some gurus preach Work-Life Balance while others lecture the importance to hustle. Balancing work and life is a personal preference with consequences

First, work-life balance, as defined by Wikipedia, it’s listed as a concept including the proper prioritizing between work, which they include as career and ambition, and balancing with lifestyle, meaning health, pleasure, leisure, family, spiritual development/meditation. So what does that all mean? I’m not going to say that one is better than the other, but I am going to say that whatever you make as a choice, it is your choice. Don’t be jealous of the person that hustles and doesn’t have a proper work-life balance, but has a lot of success in whatever they’re doing. That was their choice, you choose something else. That’s okay. But it’s just we each have our own priorities.

Now, if you want to have a little bit of both, that is you really want to have that work-life balance as well as be very, very successful, the only way you’re going to carve out that bit of extra time is through better time management. Go to www.LifeUnsettled.com/time and get some of my suggestions there so that you can get more time out of life. But I’m not saying you have to do that either. These are two really important topics to think about.

One of the reasons that life-work balance comes into play a lot, some it has to do with the fact that you should have fun, and that’s good, but a lot of it has to do with pressure. Just like you have the pressure to hustle, you have the pressure in a sense to devote more time to your family, more time to other things/activities that you’re supposed to be involved in. In either way, there’s stress going both ways. Where does it all stem from? Many years ago, not too many, but many years ago there was that one person in the household, usually the guy, (almost always the guy) who was working and he was supporting the family. That meant that whatever school, house they bought, place they went, whether they had a vacation or not, what things they were able to get, how they were able to live was all determined entirely on how he performed, and everything that he did at the job he was captive at in order to get the most income he could to provide for the family the best he could. The pressure was all on him.

Then what happens is, and sometimes it’s featured in movies and you see the movie shows some guy that: “He’s not putting in his time with his family. His kids are less involved with him, they don’t appreciate him because he’s never around.” Part of that is the job of the female in this case (right now it can be switched around; it can be the guy staying home and the woman working), but in either case, the one who is staying home, it’s part of their responsibility to make sure that the kids understand what’s going in, why dad has to work late, etc. and that yes, he would like to be home, yes, he would like to go to some game or something else. I hope he would anyway. But there are those kinds of pressures that if he doesn’t he’s not going to get the next promotion, he’s not going to get the bonus, he’s not going to get whatever.

So what you really have is a situation which society has turned upside down in essence because the pressure was all on the man many years ago that would determine everything about their family’s lifestyle, etc. Now there’s much more of dual income or in some cases, in many cases the woman making more money.

Hustle versus the Four Hour Work Week shows two competing paths to your success. This episode was motivated by a conference I went to where Ryan Deiss, one of the Co-Founders of Digital Marketer, and Gary Vaynerchuk both spoke. It was the Digital Marketer Conference.

Don't believe the myth of the 4 hour work week. Hustle to the extent you want, not someone else's opinion

What happened and the idea is: Hustle versus the four-hour workweek. We hear, and so many people are following the four-hour workweek, and we also hear about how important it is to hustle. So, what should you choose and what do you want in life?

You’ve heard me many times talk about the importance of investing your time and effort, and really working a lot harder than just the average person, that is you put in the extra time, the extra effort in order to invest in your own future. I just laughed when Ryan Deiss got up on stage and he was introducing something, and he put up a picture of Tim Ferriss and the beach scene, sitting in the chaise lounge under an umbrella as if that’s his life. First of all, if you’ve seen and followed it, he is a hustler, he does work hard. But the key was people have this image of Tim Ferriss basically working four hours a week, and that everything else is running through VAs, through people in India, etc. doing a lot of the work for him.

There is a lot of outsourcing and stuff, but Ryan turned around, looked at it, pointed to the picture and said: “If that’s the way that guy works, I will eat his lunch.” It’s true. You can’t compete in the world today in a growing, thriving, aggressive business working a very small amount of time. Gary Vaynerchuk got up a little later, he said some of the same things about the importance and how somebody doing something like that, and believing in the four-hour workweek was not going to be able to keep up.

Let me put that a little bit in perspective. First of all, The 4-Hour Workweek was a title chosen by sampling and testing things in Google, looking for what the searches were and what was going to generate the most traffic, and what was going to be picked up the most. That’s really where it came from. Originally, I’ve heard all kinds of stories about what it was. Actually I think the stories changed a little bit, because originally I heard and I thought it was from something that Tim had done, said that he had some title and actually the publisher changed the title, but whatever it was, it was tested. The original title had no relevance, in a sense, to the concept of just a four-hour workweek, but the content was still there.

People need to know that that investment in energy and effort that you have, that’s what’s going to drive your success. That doesn’t meant that you can’t have a leisurely style, but you might be trading off a little bit of the present for the future, so that what you might be doing is you might be pushing more effort now in order to have and build an income stream, which by the way is not easy. Too many people are buying into the concept that they can find income streams all over the place or residual income everywhere.

Keep in mind, as I’ve mentioned before, MLM turns around very often and talks about their residual income. Very few of them are going to really generate ongoing residual income for you. It’s actually very rare. It may generate income for you, you may even make a very good amount of income, but in the product-based world, generally it’s described as 80% of customers will leave within three months, so that auto shipping that’s going and taking place isn’t going to keep up, so there goes your… Imagine your income is going to drop by not just 80%, but by more than 80%. Why? Because not only 80% of your customers, but then your rank goes down so you would leave even more. That’s not necessarily the thing for an income stream, but as I say, there are some. I’m not condemning them. There are some, but just be careful.

Hustle versus the Four Hour Work Week shows two competing paths to your success. This episode was motivated by a conference I went to where Ryan Deiss, one of the Co-Founders of Digital Marketer, and Gary Vaynerchuk both spoke. It was the Digital Marketer Conference.

Don't believe the myth of the 4 hour work week. Hustle to the extent you want, not someone else's opinion

What happened and the idea is: Hustle versus the four-hour workweek. We hear, and so many people are following the four-hour workweek, and we also hear about how important it is to hustle. So, what should you choose and what do you want in life?

You’ve heard me many times talk about the importance of investing your time and effort, and really working a lot harder than just the average person, that is you put in the extra time, the extra effort in order to invest in your own future. I just laughed when Ryan Deiss got up on stage and he was introducing something, and he put up a picture of Tim Ferriss and the beach scene, sitting in the chaise lounge under an umbrella as if that’s his life. First of all, if you’ve seen and followed it, he is a hustler, he does work hard. But the key was people have this image of Tim Ferriss basically working four hours a week, and that everything else is running through VAs, through people in India, etc. doing a lot of the work for him.

There is a lot of outsourcing and stuff, but Ryan turned around, looked at it, pointed to the picture and said: “If that’s the way that guy works, I will eat his lunch.” It’s true. You can’t compete in the world today in a growing, thriving, aggressive business working a very small amount of time. Gary Vaynerchuk got up a little later, he said some of the same things about the importance and how somebody doing something like that, and believing in the four-hour workweek was not going to be able to keep up.

Let me put that a little bit in perspective. First of all, The 4-Hour Workweek was a title chosen by sampling and testing things in Google, looking for what the searches were and what was going to generate the most traffic, and what was going to be picked up the most. That’s really where it came from. Originally, I’ve heard all kinds of stories about what it was. Actually I think the stories changed a little bit, because originally I heard and I thought it was from something that Tim had done, said that he had some title and actually the publisher changed the title, but whatever it was, it was tested. The original title had no relevance, in a sense, to the concept of just a four-hour workweek, but the content was still there.

People need to know that that investment in energy and effort that you have, that’s what’s going to drive your success. That doesn’t meant that you can’t have a leisurely style, but you might be trading off a little bit of the present for the future, so that what you might be doing is you might be pushing more effort now in order to have and build an income stream, which by the way is not easy. Too many people are buying into the concept that they can find income streams all over the place or residual income everywhere.

Keep in mind, as I’ve mentioned before, MLM turns around very often and talks about their residual income. Very few of them are going to really generate ongoing residual income for you. It’s actually very rare. It may generate income for you, you may even make a very good amount of income, but in the product-based world, generally it’s described as 80% of customers will leave within three months, so that auto shipping that’s going and taking place isn’t going to keep up, so there goes your… Imagine your income is going to drop by not just 80%, but by more than 80%. Why? Because not only 80% of your customers, but then your rank goes down so you would leave even more. That’s not necessarily the thing for an income stream, but as I say, there are some.

To stand out in the world, master a skill. Yes, become the master in a niche! In this episode I want to talk and follow up from last time. Last time I talked about becoming an authority. I mentioned that to become an authority you’re going to have to have some special skill, trade, whatever it is. Not only a niche, but you’re going to have to become a master. That is, you’re going to have to be that person that somebody admires and other people want to gain your information. That also puts you in an excellent competitive situation when it comes to other people around you trying to do the same things.

Set yourself apart by becoming a Master in your niche

Why do you want to do this? Sometimes it might be self-esteem, it might be a feeling of adequacy, a feeling of need that other people have for you or towards you. It may be that you want to escape from the humdrum of your daily life, you want to be something special. One of the least important ones actually is probably money. Yes, you want it, you desire it, you would like to make more, and you’d like to be more secure (and that last one, secure, is the key). But all those get satisfied by what you do, how you do it, and how well other people think you are doing it, and that you have the confidence because you know you do it well. It’s not something easy, and it can be overwhelming.

So, what do you do? First of all, whatever it is, deconstruct it. That is: Break it down into pieces so that you can learn parts of it at a time, and commit yourself to realize that it’s going to take many, many hours, days, weeks, months, whatever, to get to the level you want to be at. That’s the overwhelming part. You break it down, you put in your time, and you slowly get it into pieces and chunks. The multi-year project of doing a dissertation when I was at Berkeley, it is overwhelming. As you’re doing it, what you’re trying to do is trying to break down: How can I get this monstrous thing done? And you have the pressure because you also want to graduate, get your degree, and all that other neat stuff. So, what do you do? You break it down into the parts and the research, and you break that into different pieces. Then even when you get to the writing you do the same thing. When I got to the writing it was little bits and pieces, little chapters or sections that were going to be written, and I would commit to just drive it right down inside two hours, get that one section written no matter how it was, just quickly brain dump it from my notes. Then take a 10-15 minute break, do something else, go back to that section the next day when it’s gone through my mind, I’ve refined it, and get it better and better.

What happens is you’re breaking these things up, and you’re looking back on them, saying: “Gee, I had a success. I did that chapter, that one, and that one,” so that you’re having repeated successes, and that gets you down to the point that you can master the topic. Why? Because you’ve had 17, 1700, whatever it is, successes along the path of developing that skill. Visualize yourself actually doing it, that is gain yourself some confidence. As you gain that confidence, make sure that you have that confidence with humility. The reason I say with humility is because realize that things are changing, they’re always getting better, bigger, faster, whatever, and that humility gets you to learn more and keep on refining your skill. You’re going to have to weather classes, courses, and all kinds of other things that you’re going to have to go through in order to feel very comfortable.

Best of all, of course, is to find a mentor, somebody that is already truly a master. Because what’s the key that I tell people open and have said many times? Master what the master has already done. If you can do that, then you’re well on your way. Questions are really good, and you should feel free to ask questions. Actually a good example, I was a little cautious of this at first and figured: “Oh no...

To stand out in the world, master a skill. Yes, become the master in a niche! In this episode I want to talk and follow up from last time. Last time I talked about becoming an authority. I mentioned that to become an authority you’re going to have to have some special skill, trade, whatever it is. Not only a niche, but you’re going to have to become a master. That is, you’re going to have to be that person that somebody admires and other people want to gain your information. That also puts you in an excellent competitive situation when it comes to other people around you trying to do the same things.

Set yourself apart by becoming a Master in your niche

Why do you want to do this? Sometimes it might be self-esteem, it might be a feeling of adequacy, a feeling of need that other people have for you or towards you. It may be that you want to escape from the humdrum of your daily life, you want to be something special. One of the least important ones actually is probably money. Yes, you want it, you desire it, you would like to make more, and you’d like to be more secure (and that last one, secure, is the key). But all those get satisfied by what you do, how you do it, and how well other people think you are doing it, and that you have the confidence because you know you do it well. It’s not something easy, and it can be overwhelming.

So, what do you do? First of all, whatever it is, deconstruct it. That is: Break it down into pieces so that you can learn parts of it at a time, and commit yourself to realize that it’s going to take many, many hours, days, weeks, months, whatever, to get to the level you want to be at. That’s the overwhelming part. You break it down, you put in your time, and you slowly get it into pieces and chunks. The multi-year project of doing a dissertation when I was at Berkeley, it is overwhelming. As you’re doing it, what you’re trying to do is trying to break down: How can I get this monstrous thing done? And you have the pressure because you also want to graduate, get your degree, and all that other neat stuff. So, what do you do? You break it down into the parts and the research, and you break that into different pieces. Then even when you get to the writing you do the same thing. When I got to the writing it was little bits and pieces, little chapters or sections that were going to be written, and I would commit to just drive it right down inside two hours, get that one section written no matter how it was, just quickly brain dump it from my notes. Then take a 10-15 minute break, do something else, go back to that section the next day when it’s gone through my mind, I’ve refined it, and get it better and better.

What happens is you’re breaking these things up, and you’re looking back on them, saying: “Gee, I had a success. I did that chapter, that one, and that one,” so that you’re having repeated successes, and that gets you down to the point that you can master the topic. Why? Because you’ve had 17, 1700, whatever it is, successes along the path of developing that skill. Visualize yourself actually doing it, that is gain yourself some confidence. As you gain that confidence, make sure that you have that confidence with humility. The reason I say with humility is because realize that things are changing, they’re always getting better, bigger, faster, whatever, and that humility gets you to learn more and keep on refining your skill. You’re going to have to weather classes, courses, and all kinds of other things that you’re going to have to go through in order to feel very comfortable.

Best of all, of course, is to find a mentor, somebody that is already truly a master. Because what’s the key that I tell people open and have said many times? Master what the master has already done. If you can do that, then you’re well on your way. Questions are really good, and you should feel free to ask questions. Actually a good example,

How do you establish authority in your field? I don’t care whether that’s internet authority, or workplace authority, or as a business expert.

Learn to become a recognized authority

One quick note just before I get into the episode. As soon as I finished the episode, within two hours I ran into two different situations, two different people (not related) both claiming authority, talking about it as if they have it, and I know they don’t. They couldn’t answer some of the very basic questions. So, be careful, make sure that whatever you’re doing, whoever you’re listening to is not somebody who’s just selling it and their career is based on selling you that product, but that they’ve actually done it. If it’s a coach, somebody who is successful in business over and over again in companies, etc., not somebody who just decided that they don’t have a job, or somebody who’s selling something that’s supposed to be performing. Make sure you see things that they’ve done. Now to the episode.

How to Establish Authority

Today I want to discuss how to establish authority. Clearly, the more you’re approached or have the presence of authority, the better your position, the better your following, the more money you’re going to make, the more satisfaction you’re going to have, and the family you have will have in you.

OK, now, how do you establish authority in your field? I don’t care whether that’s internet authority, or workplace authority, or as a business expert. The idea is that you are regarded as the go-to person or highly regarded, the key is: Without saying it. First of all, you’ve got to get to the point where you can develop the confidence, that is you stand tall and you don’t categorize yourself, you’re driven. You don’t say that you’re an expert. You have to have it reach out from you, from what you’re doing, what you’re saying, and how you’re acting to be recognized and thought of as that expert. That is you demonstrate it and you let other people say it. Don’t say it yourself.

Some of the things you do is make sure that when there are topics or things that are being done, you make the topic of conversation, that is that you have and develop the innovative ideas that are the discussion. You don’t want to just be part of the group or in the discussion. That’s not going to do enough. Just being that is just being one of the masses, one of the people, which can be a wonderful thing if that’s what you want. But if you want to be recognized as an authority, how do you get it and how do you separate yourself so that you’re appreciated and recognized?

First, while I say don’t say it, do acknowledge your accomplishments, whatever they are. You don’t state them, but you do acknowledge them. Thank the other person for stating it or something. Join with an associate, with other leaders in your field, you both learn from them as mentors. Think back to the chapter in the book, but also that episode where I discussed your five friends, the people closest to you, and how your family, friends, and acquaintances can actually be harmful to you. Why? You want to establish that broader reach of people who really are recognized, that you start to be recognized with them and then even amongst them. In order to do this, you’re going to have to do whatever it takes to get the knowledge that you need. In the next episode I’m going to be talking about mastering a topic, mastering a skill. It’s a little different than you’ve established, you know it, you’re very good, but you haven’t established an authority, that is that you’re not recognized. This assumes that you already really know the stuff, whatever the field, whatever the business is, but you want to be recognized for it.

Just think about it. If you’re recognized in your field or in your expertise, that means you’re more in demand, everything from your pay to your happiness is going to be increased. It also means, though, in order to do this, because it’s not static,

How do you establish authority in your field? I don’t care whether that’s internet authority, or workplace authority, or as a business expert.

Learn to become a recognized authority

One quick note just before I get into the episode. As soon as I finished the episode, within two hours I ran into two different situations, two different people (not related) both claiming authority, talking about it as if they have it, and I know they don’t. They couldn’t answer some of the very basic questions. So, be careful, make sure that whatever you’re doing, whoever you’re listening to is not somebody who’s just selling it and their career is based on selling you that product, but that they’ve actually done it. If it’s a coach, somebody who is successful in business over and over again in companies, etc., not somebody who just decided that they don’t have a job, or somebody who’s selling something that’s supposed to be performing. Make sure you see things that they’ve done. Now to the episode.

How to Establish Authority

Today I want to discuss how to establish authority. Clearly, the more you’re approached or have the presence of authority, the better your position, the better your following, the more money you’re going to make, the more satisfaction you’re going to have, and the family you have will have in you.

OK, now, how do you establish authority in your field? I don’t care whether that’s internet authority, or workplace authority, or as a business expert. The idea is that you are regarded as the go-to person or highly regarded, the key is: Without saying it. First of all, you’ve got to get to the point where you can develop the confidence, that is you stand tall and you don’t categorize yourself, you’re driven. You don’t say that you’re an expert. You have to have it reach out from you, from what you’re doing, what you’re saying, and how you’re acting to be recognized and thought of as that expert. That is you demonstrate it and you let other people say it. Don’t say it yourself.

Some of the things you do is make sure that when there are topics or things that are being done, you make the topic of conversation, that is that you have and develop the innovative ideas that are the discussion. You don’t want to just be part of the group or in the discussion. That’s not going to do enough. Just being that is just being one of the masses, one of the people, which can be a wonderful thing if that’s what you want. But if you want to be recognized as an authority, how do you get it and how do you separate yourself so that you’re appreciated and recognized?

First, while I say don’t say it, do acknowledge your accomplishments, whatever they are. You don’t state them, but you do acknowledge them. Thank the other person for stating it or something. Join with an associate, with other leaders in your field, you both learn from them as mentors. Think back to the chapter in the book, but also that episode where I discussed your five friends, the people closest to you, and how your family, friends, and acquaintances can actually be harmful to you. Why? You want to establish that broader reach of people who really are recognized, that you start to be recognized with them and then even amongst them. In order to do this, you’re going to have to do whatever it takes to get the knowledge that you need. In the next episode I’m going to be talking about mastering a topic, mastering a skill. It’s a little different than you’ve established, you know it, you’re very good, but you haven’t established an authority, that is that you’re not recognized. This assumes that you already really know the stuff, whatever the field, whatever the business is, but you want to be recognized for it.

Just think about it. If you’re recognized in your field or in your expertise, that means you’re more in demand, everything from your pay to your happiness is goi...