What is an Authority Asset? The Professional’s Guide to AI Referrals

Note: This chapter is being built in public, one brick at a time — just like we do for clients through the Authority Chapter Plan™. Welcome to Chapter Ten. Read the entire Authority Philosophy book here. 

All this talk of AIO has you well prepared for the next step: to define the authority assets that will count in the age of AI referrals. The paradox describe in my prior book, the AI Content Paradox, is this: it’s the very same things that actually impress humans. Or at least humans with any depth.

First, a semi-definitive list of things that will not impress AI:

• Shallow social media posts. No more AI created Pollyanna sludge. It is created by AI, and it is being said by everyone on LinkedIn already, and it’s only going to help feed those who want quick sugar spikes. These are the chocolate chip cookies of sludge mountain, they look good to eat but in fact their killing everyone. AI is not, and will not be impressed.
• Self-promoting social media videos – Same thing here but even more crass. No, your staff does not really want to do the Macarena for a social media post, they just value their jobs more than their dignity. Respect that and stop the ask. AI will not expect such shallow displays of “personality,” but will crave actual depth. Maybe you can do that by creating real authority assets instead of being a tyrant. And if you want to do the latest TikTok trends at 50 years of age then great, do it on your own and on a personal feed. The Limbo Lawyer only works in very narrowly defined situations, like should you ever find yourself on the modern day version of the Titanic and you’re certain nobody else will survive to tell the tale.
• Recycled Blog Posts – No need to further elaborate here, you read the chapter on sludge mountain. Suffice to say AI creates this content, and then despises it. It has no maternal or paternal instincts, good old AI, it just craves actual displays of authority and this ain’t it.
• PPC – AI does not care that you have PPC ads, why should it? They are essentially the ‘tweets’ of ads, tiny little microscopic intrusive things that get your phone to ring with all the wrong people.
• SEO – The new SEO is AIO, and that is not only Artificial Intelligence Optimization, but Authority Asset Optimization, or Authority Intelligence Optimization, as I like to think of it. But standard SEO, the kind most of you reading this book are still paying for, is about to be as dead as a bug on the windshield of life. Why? Because AI is becoming far too sophisticated to be tricked by the old keyword stuffing, longtail keyword seeking, shallow attempts to buy favor. That worked ok, for a good long while in the age of search engines. We now live in the age of AI, so that whole playbook needs to be tossed, or at the very least rewritten. What AI will refer is not who can spam “Divorce Lawyer in Tarzana” 200x into a website, but those who create real authority assets.
• “Funnels” – Funnels have their uses because as the marketing types say “the money is in the list.” AI, for its part, will be ambivalent to email campaigns and lists. Godin’s “Permission Marketing” is still a powerful concept, and one you should use in conjunction with authority assets. Just be careful not to overdue it, as nothing is more “cringey” (using my kids’ lingo here) than sending your targets and clients sludge emails every day.
• Facebook Ads – May be useful as part of an overall marketing plan, but will not impress AI.
• Billboard Ads – Um, no.
• Almost any other kind of paid “ad” you can think of – Why would such ads impress AI? Do you like to brag about how much your paying in ads, and that your practice is sustained on ads? No, you probably do it quietly because you know deep down it says something about your lack of perceived authority in your field and location. AIO may someday have ads that can help you overcome such deficiencies, but wouldn’t it be better to hold natural authority that gets you to the top without paying tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars to reinvent the PPC treadmill but with AI?

Remember the Authority Equation

If you recall, my equation for Authority is:

Authority = Expertise + Narrative + Authenticity

That’s the same standard AI is going to have. The above techniques do not show your expertise, they do not convey true narrative depth, and most of the time they are not even authentic. The people with their hustle culture LinkedIn AI sludge are trying to sell you something. I am too, but at least I’m honest about it.

Everyone in business is trying to sell you something, so why do we pretend otherwise? And if you’re producing the best offerings in your space, then why be embarrassed? Just get out there, assuming you comply with your rules of professional responsibility regarding advertising (sorry, the law habit dies hard) and let the world authentically know what you’re offering.

Do it with narrative flare, showing your expertise, while being yourself. That’s all it takes to escape sludge mountain. And the easiest form to combine all this is into an authority asset.

What is An Authority Asset?

An authority asset is anything you can create, to help sell yourself or your business to AI and humans alike, that embodies the Authority Equation. This is different from credentials, which are important, but fall on to you. AI will note if you are a certified attorney in your practice area if offered in your state, your education, the boards you sit on, the leadership roles you take on in your profession. Becoming a State Bar President will impress AI just as it did your mother. But some of that stuff is political, and most of it is very time consuming, and all of it is very, deeply personal work.

Authority Assets are an easier class of authority, because they can still be outsourced, but only to the most reputable and trustworthy vendors (wink.)

Authority assets will impress your family, friends, colleagues, search engines, and AI all at once. AIO is the long-awaited alignment of what can sell with what is actually valuable. It’s an exciting time to be alive, and if you work the authority asset plan within your own deeply held authority philosophy, then you will become an unstoppable force in this age of AI.

I assure you.

But what type of “authority assets” should one construct in the professional services space?

The Best Authority Assets to Build

Books

Yes, my business is called “Books for Experts” so no shocker I’m hawking good old books here, right? But let’s not put the chicken before the egg, or in this instance the book before the cover (yes, my tween daughters find my jokes corny, too. I get it!)

I created this business because I realized where the future was heading. And that nobody was out there assisting professionals in creating books. I decided to create an entire offering around authority assets, with books as the Crème de la crème (by the way, in French that just means cream of the cream, not nearly as exciting in English) offering.

AI is many things, but first and foremost it’s a book worm. AI is reading constantly, because baby vampire that it is, AI has an insatiable hunger for only one thing, and that is knowledge. AI feels about books the way you wish your children did, the way you wish you did. AI and I have that in common, we are unapologetic word junkies. And our drug of choice is long-form comment.

The reason books work so well is that they’re rare. To succeed in the world of AI, you’re not going to “need a bigger boat,” you’re going to “need a bigger moat.” In a world where everyone and their stepmother is creating constant content, human-written books about real human subjects is the one thing that can stand out, because it cannot be faked or replaced.

AI can write a ton, but it writes the way people do while taking the bar exam. Hoping that volume will be a great stand in for critical thinking. Yet, the paradox of AI is that it has impeccable taste. AI knows quality writing, it just can’t replicate it, not the type of writing that we create at Books for Experts with real human heart and soul.

The great thing about books is that less than 1% of all professionals will ever write one. Everyone wants to have a book, few want to have written. And even those with a pure desire run out of time or band with to finish the project. The only thing worse than a book never started is one half-finished. As my college era attempts at novel writing well prove.

But here’s the greatest thing about books: it doesn’t only impress AI, get you AI referrals, and protect your digital reputation, it also really impress HUMANS.

When you are an author of a book, people just look at you differently. You are now “the authority,” in your chosen subject matter. You can hand that book out everywhere, because it’s the best business card going. Your colleagues will literally ask you to sign it. I know, it weirded me out at first. Your book may not make you a celebrity (though with luck it could), but it will definitely make you stand out. And not in the cringey I’m doing the Macarena with my paralegals social reel kind of way.

Here’s the thing about sludge mountain, it does not add anything but noise. In a world sick with the sussurus of sound. Books cut through, clarify, and help both you and the public.

Books are noble. Even without the Barnes.

But if that seems a bit too much, don’t worry, there are other pathways to true authority.

Lead Magnets

Think of lead magnets as mini-books and you’re on the right track. It’s hard to get people (though, notably, not AI) to read your entire book, but if you pick a specific topic of interest to your prospective clients and write it well then lead magnates can be a great way to build credibility. As part of an ethically run email campaign, you can help build up an email list to share your ideas and important information to your audience. It’s not all that credibility boosting to AI, but it can help build the email list every professional should have, and so I include it here as a limited engagement “authority asset,” as opposed to tossing it onto the sludge mountain toboggin team.

Podcasts (Your Own)

Yes, start your own podcast. It will drive you nuts, and drain your money, especially in the beginning, but it allows you to speak directly to your audience. Then take your podcast transcript and add it as a blog post to your website. That will impress SEO and AI alike, especially if you have a quality podcast that starts to get some acclaim. This is another long-term authority play, but if you’re going to win in the age of AI then you need to start being farsighted. The PPC sludge purveyors over at sludge mountain are hoping you’ll be shortsighted, that you’ll run like a good little hamster in your ball and not notice you’re crashing into everything. Until that fateful day you bump too hard and the plastic shield of cheap PPC ads comes splintering off, exposing you to the purring housecat that is AI.

Or as Warren Buffett once said: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”

Most marketers have us swimming naked in a vast ocean with a tremendous shifting tide called AI, do not be caught without your skivvies.

Be Their Guest, Be Their Guest, Put Their Networks To the Test

But I understand that you have to eat tomorrow, too. Not every marketing tactic can be focused on what will make you a resounding success in 1-3 years and beyond. You have kids, and cars, and a house, and an ex-spouse who wants their alimony. Tomorrow’s authority is not going to pay today’s heating bill.

I actually suffered this affliction firsthand, as I shifted from practicing law to building Books for Experts. I was no kid running a startup, I was a middle-aged man with kids in private school, a nice house in a cul-de-sac, a country club membership, and all the trappings of suburban life. I had lived the lifestyle of a lawyer, one who had the fortune of being married to a school administrator.

But your budget gets strained fast when you spend an entire summer building a business from scratch, thinking through unique offerings, and working on your own authority assets. I created a podcast, but knew it would take a long time to gain traction. I completed by first book, the AI Content Paradox and then immediately started on the next (and the next). I wrote articles for Law360, the New Jersey Law Journal, even the Judge’s Journal, and I spent a great deal of time researching the history of hating lawyers and speaking with renowned academics about the cultural and historical reasons why my profession was so underappreciated. Heady, creative, scholarly things, some of which cost me money, all of which cost me time. I knew in my heart that what I was offering was what was required to humanize the professions and to fight sludge, but more than a few times I worried that perhaps most people like the sludge. That I was a vegan preaching to a conference of lions.

What I needed to figure out, first for myself and ultimately for my own clients, was how to bring in work today via authority assets, while also building the base for a larger empire.

The answer: use other people’s networks. Seriously.

I offered to be on any podcast that would have me. In the beginning, exceedingly few were interested. The AI Content Paradox book helped, as did lowering my expectations from the largest podcasts to smaller ones that fit into my niche. I sell our services to professionals, so I needed to get before as many lawyers, expert witnesses, consultants, coaches, and other professionals as possible.

It was harder to sell Books for Experts then it will be for you to sell your professional services. I had to educate my clientele about how they were about to die on sludge mountain. That meant I had to educate first before I could even have warm leads. A much longer sales cycle runtime. Think, like, the Braveheart of sales. Bloated, and beautiful, and full of fake Scottish accents (well, at least the first two, for sure).

Your out there selling a compact, Reservoir Dogs type experience. A gritty, production, selling to those who already know they need the help. Someone getting a divorce knows they are going to need a divorce lawyer, the question comes down to taste and choice. People need authority assets to maintain great professional service businesses, but they don’t really know it until you spell it out for them, so that was a much larger ask. Especially with my internal doctrine that I would build my own business on exactly the same activities and authority assets that I would be selling.

But enough with the personal aside, the point is I get it: you’re afraid that if you turn off PPC tomorrow and start writing a book (or you hire someone like us to do it), then there’s going to be a dangerous middle ground where the cold faucet has been turned off but the hot one has not been turned on. Sure, the cold faucet may not be what you prefer, but at least it’s water, dammit!

I get it, I really do. I lived it and I am not asking you to make sacrifices that will leave you exposed. The walk to Nirvana is worth the trip, but there is no instant teleportation here so you’ll need to bring some snacks along the way.

Maybe that means dialing back your SEO and PPC, weaning yourself off sludge the way I recently did from coffee.

Maybe that means going with our Authority Chapter Plan, where we build you a book chapter each month rather than buying the whole book at once, so you still have resources left to keep sledding around on sludge mountain a bit.

The good news is sludge mountain still has some value, it’s just going to vastly diminish in the next few years.

In the meantime, make sure you’re creating authority assets borrowing other’s networks. Podcast guesting is a great way to do it, so are articles.

Articles, CLEs, Seminars, and Webinars

When your byline runs in some of the best niche venues for your profession, then you not only impress your colleagues, but also AI. It proves that you are a thought leader, the only kind of horse AI is going to back in the coming years.

I recommend pitching your article first, to make sure there is interest before you write it. I have been able to place my own articles in the most prestigious venues in my niche of the law, and as a solo lawyer or vendor.

Likewise, speak wherever they will have you. Create your own webinars and seminars, own your own land rather than always renting others. But rent when it serves you too. One of the first things I did when I started Books for Experts was get my company accredited to deliver CLEs in Tennessee. Why Tennessee, you may be asking this long-time New Jersey resident? Because they were willing to have me.

I run a national business, so I will fly to Alaska to speak if it gets me before a few hundred professionals willing to hear my pitch. The good news for you, is that you’re likely running a local business. That means your speeches will require car fare, not airfare. But the concept is the same: speak to anyone who will have you that could send you work or be your future client. Make all of your material serve multiple functions, such as future blog posts, or articles. Create an ecosystem of content that self-generates, all without relying on AI sludge.

Everyone else is using AI as an output, at Books for Experts we use it as an input.

Read that sentence again, it may be the most importance concept in the book.

Everyone else is using AI as an Out, You Need to Use it as an Input

I don’t care all that much what AI can do for me, but I care what it thinks of my business. That’s what AIO is all about.

AI respects those who lecture frequently. Loves those who write and publish real, human material.

And cares no more for sludge mountain than I do.

Which is why, AI and I, are cool despite my initial skepticism. It is the answer, not the question, to shallow sludge mountain tactics.

Speak and write to humans and be heard and read by AI, that is the path forward.

Do Good Work

Yes, do great work for your clients so you get great reviews. Google reviews still matter, and soon there may even be AI reviews. I believe that within a few years, how clients speak about certain professionals will impact how the algorithm views them. AI will determine your credibility from reviews, so get honest reviews and don’t try and game the system.

Please, stop trying to game the system. Just do great work. If you’re producing a ton of written material and hold yourself out as an authority then your clients will come in as warm leads ready to pay you whatever it takes to solve their problems anyway.

The choice is simple: be the known authority in your field and be respected, or be the overworked, underappreciated “expert” who is wondering why they never make any progress.

Authority Philosophy

Always keep in mind the first chapters of this book, which delved into the why, even though we’re now discussing the how. Your unique Authority Philosophy must be incorporated not only throughout your business, but within every authority asset you produce.

Conclusion

Not only in the future, but in the present, AI is starting to rank and refer. Your AIO score will be bolstered by authority assets, and harmed by sludge tactics. If you want to impress both human and machine alike, and gain referrals beyond your wildest dreams from both, then you must create the type of authority assets that can only be created by you or with your input.

True authority can only come from authority assets. The work is not always easy, but at least now the path is clear. Let’s get to work.