What Will Your Book Teach About Your Expertise, Your Philosophy, or Your Life?
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 Seven. Read the entire Authority Philosophy book here.
At Books for Experts, we believe that every book we craft for a professional must provide their audience with insight into their expertise, their philosophy, or themselves. We call this the Authority Triad™.
Every book will contain each of the elements, but should be focused on primarily answering of the three big questions each client has before they work with you: who are you, what do you believe, and what do you know?
We then take our own client’s Authority Philosophy™ and masterfully translate that into a book or other authority asset that helps answer these three core questions.
I believe that every professional should have at least three books, so that each question is answered. My first book, The AI Content Paradox: Winning Referral from Humans and AI shows that I know my stuff. It is an expertise book, with me looking into the near future to advise current professional clients on how to shift their practices now to future-proof them from AI. The major thesis of the book is that not only will humans soon value real human-written words, but so, paradoxically will AI.
My second book Authority Philosophy is what you’re reading right now. I am writing it and posting it one chapter at a time, just as we do for our clients at Books for Experts. You see here a live, Book Factory, producing this seminal book about my business philosophy.
My third book is a more collaborative effort, but answers the question of who I am. I am producing this one out of site, as it features profiles from some of the most dynamic lawyers in the country. This book is called Humanizing Lawyers: Defending a Profession That Won’t Defend Itself.
After that, I know that my next book will discuss writing and publication for experts, as I attempt to make this process more transparent. I will be back in expertise mode. The rest of my career I will bounce between the Authority Triad™, as the core of our business is to treat it as a lab to better serve our own clients.
In 2017 I released Happily EVEN After: The Guide to Divorce in New Jersey, an expertise book about the New Jersey divorce practice that also happened to weave in a healthy amount of my philosophy as a lawyer. My second book was about my philosophy of running a divorce law firm, and my third should have been about my career if I knew then what I know now but instead was back in expertise mode: Personal Divorce for Business Owners.
The books that I wrote for my divorce practice helped change my career, and eventually had enough other lawyers asking me how it was done to spur me into creating Books for Experts. Since then, I’ve been hard at work creating books and other authority assets for my own business, same as we do for our clients.
But why the Authority Triad™? What makes me so certain this is the proper way to go about creating authority asset books for professionals, and what order should the books be in, anyway?
Why the Authority Triad™?
The origin of the Authority Triad™ started with my equation for authority:
Authority = Expertise + Narrative + Authenticity
As I’ve mentioned earlier in this book, I do not believe any marketing should occur unless all three elements are present.
That meant I had to be certain that every book infused each. In time, I realized that there was a direct correlation between the three types of books I wanted to help clients create, and the three elements of authority. It became clear to me that three books, not one, is the knockout punch for any professional trying to scale authority, though each book should incorporate all three elements required for authority.
It works like this:
Expertise = The How To Books – Books showing the nuts and bolts of how things work, what clients can expect, the process, the action steps, the likely results.
Narrative = The about the professional, biographical books. Clients want to be certain that you’re not only knowledgeable, but that they would like to work with you. They want to know who you are, as that helps inform their decision. Most professionals are taught to hide their true identity. Client satisfaction says otherwise. Be relatable, and you open up a whole new stratosphere of revenue.
Authenticity = The philosophical books. Not just who you are, or what you know, but what you actually believe. For instance, in my book Happily Even After: The Guide to Divorce in New Jersey, and on my law firm website, I held out my philosophy of being the “dolphin,” not “the shark.” I believed then, and still do, that too many people getting divorced (and their children) wind up in a far worse spot than they otherwise should because they think being “aggressive” is the way to go. By thinking of a divorce like a business transaction, much time, money, and hurt could be saved. That was my philosophy. Those clients who responded to that philosophy were the ones I wanted as clients. The rest, who craved “sharks,” were those I wished to repel. And this worked, and helped build up a practice that thrived, and which I enjoyed, and not just because of its high revenue.
Upon further reflection, the English major in me began to pick up on an even larger heritage for the Authority Triad™, one that extends all the way back to the Ancient Greeks.
Logos, Pathos, and Ethos
I was thinking of calling the Triad Law, Doctrines, and Myths but that seemed a bit weak for a business priding itself on creativity. I wanted something timeless, something that would work across all verticals of our business, not just for lawyers.
It eventually struck me that these concepts closely related to another trio: Logs, Pathos, and Ethos, concepts that originated in Ancient Greece, specifically Aristotle’s framework for Rhetoric.
The type of persuasion we are creating with our authority assets is similar to that written about in Aristotle’s rules of persuasion.
Ethos represented credibility, the “who.” In other words, what about the speak and their reputation lends or discredits them. This is one of the primary things jury’s and judge’s look to for witnesses in a trial, by the way.
Logos is logic and reason – what exactly is known, or can be known, what data exists, does this appeal to the brain rather than the heart? Think the expertise piece of the equation.
Pathos is the appeal to emotion. The narrative and storytelling piece that brings any argument or attempt at persuasion to life. If you cannot appeal to emotion, then you’re argument is dead. That is why expertise without narrative is just a boring white paper that persuades nobody, even if it’s technically correct.
So today, we offer our clients books that speak predominantly to either Logos, Pathos, or Ethos, while internally knowing we need to weave elements of all three into every book.
Pathos is authenticity, the philosophy books that we craft for our clients. The “Doctrine” section of our Triad. Such books help build trust, and help author and reader connect with what is felt and why it matters. Here emotional truth, vulnerability, and philosophy shine.
Ethos is narrative, the biographical books that speak to author’s reputation and accomplishments, and demonstrate why the author should be listened to. Ethos books build lasting influence, and help translate to your audience exactly what you believe in, and precisely what you stand for, or against. The moral stance takes center stage in this section of the triad.
Logos – is expertise, the rational, provable, technical knowledge that you can share with others. These are the “how to” or “about” subject matter books. The more narrow you can define the niche of your writing, the more effective it can be to find a receptive audience. Logos books demonstrate what you know, and what you can defend, and they help to anchor credibility.
Together, all three form the Authority Triad, each related to both Artistotle’s rhetoric and Taylor’s Authority Equation, two equally important works of scholarly endeavor, no doubt.
As for which order? I’m going to answer like the lawyer that I am: “it depends.”
Who or what does it depend on? You.
What are you most excited about? What most drives your Authority Philosophy? What are your goals for the book.
An argument can be made with starting with any leg of the Triad, but what really matters is what you’re hoping to accomplish, who you’re hoping to persuade, and what you’re most passionate about.
Then, you move on to the second section of the Triad that most interests you, and finally the third, until you have the perfect tripartite of Authority.
The goal is to hold this three-legged stool in equipoise, because otherwise your practice will teeter, as you can no doubt witness by looking to the marketing plans of most of your colleagues.
Two Out of Three Is Bad
Most professionals hammer their expertise. It comes as second nature and requires no vulnerability. The perfect recipe for any bunker-dwelling professional, but a huge misstep for anyone trying to become an authority or effectively market a professional service, coaching, consulting, or expert witness practice.
By focusing only on expertise, the “logos,” elements such as credentials, you leave yourself vulnerable to commodification.
Meanwhile, “pathos” is what you’ll see many sludge marketers fake or manufacture. The oversharing, the trauma-dumping, the inauthentic theatrics that accompany their marketing. Notice how this is usually topical: the latest manufactured issue. People jumping on to kiss cam Coldplay theatrics to be visible and engage with no real insight, for instance. And if you don’t get that reference by the time you read this book then good, it shows how overblown the current news cycle is. We’re over here quoting Aristotle but most marketers have the memory of a goldfish.
Finally, “ethos” is all but ignored in today’s marketing. Which is fatal.
Without all three balancing that three-sided stool, your business (and you) are either forgettable, manipulative, or unmoored.
Those who have two out of three are likely in a plateau. For instance:
Logos + Pathos = Likable but unconvincing
Ethos + Pathos = Persuasive but lacking credibility
Logos + Ethos = Impressive but cold.
The full Triad is the only formula that produces enduring authority. And the only marketing that should be regularly done is that which produces authority.
Authority = Expertise + Narrative + Authenticity. Hit them in the head, the heart, and the soul, and then you’ll attract the types of clients worthy of your practice.
Logos will give your authority assets gravity, Ethos shape, and Pathos soul. The Triad isn’t abstract, it is a diagnostic tool and creative framework.
It’s also a big leap forward into not only discovering your Authority Philosophy, but implementing it.
Auditing Your Own Triad Authority
Take some time now, as this chapter comes to an end to consider your own performance against these metrics. Is your marketing implementing all three legs of the stool? Are you being consistent across logs, pathos, and ethos? How do you utilize all three elements to inform your authority philosophy?
The answer to exactly how you may implement your Authority Philosophy will come in our next chapter, which discusses the Authority Archetypes.