You’re excited. You’ve started your journey from expertise to authority, and the ideas are flowing. Over the past few months, whenever inspiration strikes, you’ve captured it, turning thoughts into drafts. Leadership lessons from your corporate career. Your morning productivity routine. Industry trends you’re noticing. Reflections on work-life balance. Team collaboration approaches. That book that shaped your thinking.

Six polished drafts now sit in your folder. You’re writing consistently. You’re building momentum.

But here’s the problem: if you publish all six, you won’t build authority. You’ll scatter it.

Why? Because you haven’t yet asked the strategic question: Does sharing this information support my goals for building authority?

Not “Is the writing good enough?”—that’s a different question. This is about strategy and focus, and not every draft deserves to become public content.

Each piece you publish either strengthens your expertise in readers’ minds or scatters it. And time spent on content that doesn’t support your goals is time you could have invested elsewhere.

Before you start sharing your content with the world, ask yourself three questions.

Question 1: Does This Align with Your Expertise?

In the article “Which Area of Expertise Should You Build Authority Around?”, you identified your area of expertise—the one thing you want to be known for. Every piece of content you publish should demonstrate that expertise.

This doesn’t mean you can only write about one narrow topic. But it does mean everything you publish should connect to your core expertise in some meaningful way. Being known for too many things means being known for nothing. Just as thinking that your offering is for everyone actually makes it compelling to no one, spreading your content across too many domains dilutes your authority. Someone looking for expertise in productivity routines is less likely to pay attention to someone who also writes about leadership, work-life balance, team collaboration, industry trends, and book reviews. The more scattered your topics, the less credible you appear in any single domain.

Consider Marcus, a consultant who built his expertise in organizational change management. He wrote an article about effective meeting facilitation. It’s a good article. It’s helpful. But it positions him as a meetings expert, not a change management expert.

The test: Could this article have been written by anyone with general professional experience, or does it require your specific expertise to write it well?

When your article or post fails this test, you’re creating content, but you’re not building focused authority. Unfocused content can feel productive, but it doesn’t compound the way expertise-aligned content does.

Question 2: Does This Serve Your Objective?

In the article “How Does Your Objective Shape Your Pathway?”, we explored how different objectives—staying engaged, building influence, or earning income—require different approaches to authority-building. Your content needs to serve your objective.

Consider Elena, whose objective is earning income through consulting. She wrote a thoughtful, engaging article about why she loves her field and the joy of lifelong learning. It’s authentic and well-crafted.

But it doesn’t position her as someone organizations should hire. It positions her as someone who’s personally fulfilled by her work—which is wonderful, but irrelevant to her objective.

The test: If someone reads this piece and wants to act on it, what action would they take? Does that action align with your objective?

For staying engaged: Would they want to discuss this topic with you?

For building influence: Would they want to share this with their network or invite you to speak?

For earning income: Would they want to hire you or refer you to someone who needs your expertise?

Content that doesn’t serve your objective isn’t necessarily bad writing. It’s just not strategic for authority-building.

Question 3: Does This Speak to Your Audience?

In the article “Who Actually Needs to Hear from You?”, you identified your target audience by asking two questions: Can you benefit them? Can they benefit you?

Now ask: Does this content actually address their needs, challenges, or interests?

Consider Rashid, who identified corporate HR leaders as his target audience. He wrote an article about the theoretical frameworks underlying talent development—academic, research-heavy, fascinating to other academics.

But corporate HR leaders don’t need theoretical frameworks. They need practical approaches they can implement Monday morning.

The test: Would your target audience recognize this content as relevant to them? Not might they find it interesting if they stumbled across it—but would they actively seek out content like this?

If your audience is pre-retirees planning their finances, an article about cryptocurrency trends might be interesting, but an article about when to start taking Social Security is relevant.

When content doesn’t speak to your audience, it might attract readers—but probably not the readers you need to build authority with.

The Decision Framework

Now you have three criteria for evaluating your content:

Does it align with your expertise?

Does it serve your objective?

Does it speak to your audience?

Here’s how to use them:

If your content passes all three tests: Publish it. This content strengthens your authority.

If it fails one test: Revise it. Often a piece that’s largely aligned can be adjusted.

If it fails the expertise test, add insights or perspectives that only someone with your specific background could provide—turn general advice into expert guidance.

If it fails the objective test, adjust what you’re asking readers to do: if you need income, end with how to work with you rather than just inviting discussion.

If it fails the audience test, replace insider examples with scenarios your audience actually faces.

If it fails two or more tests: Shelve it. This doesn’t mean the writing was wasted—you practiced, you clarified your thinking, you learned what doesn’t serve your goals. Sometimes the answer is “not yet” (you’ll revise it later when you’re clearer on your positioning). Sometimes it’s “not ever” (this piece doesn’t serve your authority-building goals). Both answers are valuable. The goal isn’t to publish more. It’s to publish strategically.

Every piece you don’t publish protects the clarity of your expertise. Every piece you do publish should pass all three tests.

Your Next Step

Pull out that draft sitting in your folder. Run it through these three questions:

Does it align with your expertise?

Does it serve your objective?

Does it speak to your audience?

You’ll know within minutes whether it’s ready to publish, needs revision, or should be shelved.

Once you’ve determined your content is worth publishing, the next question is: where? Should it go on LinkedIn? Substack? Should you pitch it to an industry publication?

In the next article, we’ll tackle the platform decision—how to match your strategic content to the right outlet.

Matty Dalrymple guides professionals in building their presence through her consulting services and her workshop “From Expertise to Authority: Building Your Professional Presence for a Sideline or Second Act.” Learn more at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority.

Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe