You May Not Want Authority
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 Two. Read the entire Authority Philosophy book here.
Authority Is Not for Everyone
Lawyers and other professionals always say they want to be the “authority” in their practice area, but I’m not buying it. For every ten who say it, maybe one is sincere.
I get it, you’re busy, your education has taught you to “play it safe,” and if you don’t stick your head out of the foxhole, then it’s not going to get blown off.
But what if you’re not in a foxhole at all, but in a Plato’s Cave of inertia. What if holding your head high is the true path to dignity in your field. You’ll never know if you’re too busy cowering.
Lawyers pride ourselves on big egos, but the truth is our egos are not only large, but easily bruised. We can argue about anything you name, other than our own value. Then we suddenly shrink. It’s the same in other professions. And then we sell out our marketing to the vendors atop sludge mountain, who sell us data and “long-tail” keywords and we accept this because we would rather blend in then stand out.
Lawyers are always telling me they have a book in them, but very few put their keyboard where their mouth is. And that’s the good news, because if everyone was building true “authority assets” it wouldn’t be so damn easy to stand out.
People say they want authority, but what they usually really want is status, income, impact, and they don’t want to work any harder for it than necessary. What they really want is not to build authority assets such as books, delivering keynote speeches, or giving interviews, but shortcuts, validation, and safety in numbers.
Most professionals would rather spent $10,000 on Pay Per Click campaigns every month than $40,000 one time for a game-changing book. Because that makes economic sense? No, because the book would require standing out. Putting the ego out there to potentially be bruised.
Those who follow through and actually publish a book of their own know that it’s the number one asset at building authority, that it suddenly makes your clients see you as the expert you already were.
But something about the professions teaches us the following, incorrect formula: it is better to impress our colleagues, even our rivals, than our clients and referral sources.
Huh?
Are your rivals putting money in your pockets? Is it your rivals who put gas in your tank and money on little Jimmy’s school lunch card?
So instead of standing out you see professionals creating insane echo chambers. The same boring blog posts, data driven but soulless PPC campaigns, rudderless SEO plays. Sludge mountain, big and ugly and grotesque and we’re all scaling it, belaying our way up the sludge with brown stained ice axe in hand, and a vague feeling that maybe we’re being lemmings.
Even many of you reading this book on authority philosophy don’t really want authority, let alone a philosophy. That would be a lot of work. You’ll read this book, and maybe take away a good idea or two, but odds are you won’t actually implement these changes, even if part of you knows I’m right. Not enough time, too much money, I have nothing to say, nobody would be interested.
I assure you, I can make a self-important ornithologist interesting if you give me sixty minutes to interview them. It’s all about the packaging, baby, and it’s easy to make others look good. The hard part is making yourself palatable. Because you know the subject too well.
You may not want authority because then people will start expecting more of you, or demanding more of you. Reporters might call as they used to frequently in my law firm to ask your opinion about certain changes in the law. You may be invited to be a keynote speaker. You may even be asked to write another damn book!
You may not want authority because deep down you feel like an imposter. Get over it, we all suffer from imposter syndrome and we’re all partially right, who cares? The best way to cut imposter syndrome down with a stab to the heart is by actually doing shit that scares you. Like writing books, speaking to large groups of people, and inviting your in laws on vacation.
You may not want authority because you feel loyal to your sludge marketing vendors. Believe me, if it weren’t for your monthly green supply they would already be gone. There are some great marketing types, but few of them care about their clients the way you do as a lawyer. Just admit you’re comfortable, because change is hard, and that you would rather embrace your baseline then scratch for something more.
Even if that something more might change your life.
You may not want authority because then you’ll be made partner, and you’d have to miss more of your children’s soccer practices. You may become so in demand, so well known, that you become a rainmaker. You may even become such a bigshot rainmaker that you won’t get to practice law as much, and most lawyers actually like practicing law. They would rather hoard the legal work themselves then become the one who douses the ground for clients and then feeds others. If so, I can always respond that you reframe this as an opportunity to bring in more sophisticated clients. Authority helps your repel the wrong clients and attract the right ones, and that is truly powerful stuff. But you’ll never know that if you keep your head in the mud.
You may not want authority because you’d have to pay higher taxes.
You may not want authority because it will make you feel like a sellout, or a big mouth, or a self promotor. Better to quietly beg for work through micro little PPC campaigns, right? Yes, if you don’t want to stand out or be known as a bigshot in your chosen field of endeavor then certainly carry on.
And that’s just talking about authority, let alone philosophy.
Now you're Suggesting I Have a Business Philosophy, That's Even Worse!
Enough, Carl, you’re probably thinking. We get it, we’re weak little saltine crackers wilting in the soup of authority. But we’ll do better, we promise. Just please, please do not mention the real woolly mammoth in the room:
Philosophy!
Too bad, you picked up a book called Authority Philosophy and you started reading it, so no more sniffing around the edges and let’s get straight to business:
You think you have a philosophy, but what you probably have is merely a framework. A skeleton of a philosophy. A philosophy of mini-muffin proportions. Now it’s time to add extra yeast, or whatever the heck it is that makes muffins rise, and create a full sized muffin. Whether that be blueberry, cranberry, chocolate chip, or even bran is up to you, that’s why each philosophy is distinct.
But you would rather borrow your philosophy from a colleague, or a movie character, or, God-forbid, a TikTok influencer.
But you can’t borrow a philosophy any more than you can borrow Cameron Fry’s dad’s 1961 Ferrari 250 GT California Spyder, and if you go ahead and try and take one then you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do later when you try to reverse the mileage.
I recently interviewed a famous attorney for my book Humanizing Lawyers: Defending a Profession That Won’t Defend Itself. This famous attorney told me that he loved “small cases” built on “principle.”
Me, and most lawyers that I know, actively avoid such cases. But it was this gentlemen’s opinion that the system would only change if law enforcement started getting called out on tiny aggressions. That waiting around for aggression plus large injuries was letting them get away with too much. So this attorney would take every small value case that came his way that allowed him to call inappropriate actors to the carpet.
The famous, experienced lawyer has a philosophy. He doesn’t care if you disagree. That’s the power of a philosophy.
But we fear personal philosophies because that means making decisions, and today’s culture is all about optionality, right? But this is your business, your livelihood, not a dating app. Your philosophy will be a living breathing thing, nobody is saying you’re held to it, but trying to create authority assets or move toward goals without the proper philosophy is a bit like when my divorce clients claim they want to be divorced but have no idea what they hope to gain from the divorce other than making the other side suffer.
Without a philosophy, you suffer. And you suffer in the breach.
Wait...Now You Want to Combine the Two? Authority + Philosophy?
Then here it is, the big, scary, furry, monster at the end of this book, and it’s not “loveable old Grover.”
You need to combine Authority and Philosophy together. Philosophy without Authority means you’re grounded, you’re present, but you’re not convincing anyone else. And as a narrative strategist I assure you that is a lonely path.
You must take your philosophy and use it to create authority, and you do that through authority assets.
My equation for authority is this:
Authority = Expertise + Narrative + Authenticity.
Professional success requires Philosophy + Authority.
Philosophy, for its part is demonstrated in three core ways, what the ancients use to call Logos, Pathos, and Ethos. Your credibility (Logos), your humanity (Pathos), and your integrity (Ethos).
That is why each of the authority assets we create for our clients, or encourage our clients to create on their own if they think they have the talent and stomach for it involve either sharing their expertise, sharing their philosophy, or sharing themselves with potential clients and the corner of the public they wish to influence.
Embrace Your Authority Philosophy, or Become Beholden to Others'
Most people who say they want authority are lying, especially to themselves. Authority is not attention. It’s not followers or a bigger microphone. Authority does not do the Electric Slide on TikTok and it is easy to ignore because it puts on its boots every day and clocks in for a tough day’s work.
When you become an authority, you can no longer coast. You will be trusted, and that trust will need to be maintained. Perhaps that, more than anything, is what scares most professionals away from reaching their true potential.
Because when you live by the authority philosophy creed, you create a record, for yourself and for others. And the longer you live that way, the more you create grooves, the way a record player might. You reach a deeper level of sophistication, client outreach, and personal satisfaction. And if you have any hang ups about success, that is when you’re going to be vulnerable.
But the alternative is to remain asleep, until your professional corpse litters the false peaks of sludge mountain. And then it will be too late to head back to the comfortable basecamp that is true authority.
If you made it this far, you’re not like most professionals. You’re ready to stop scaling sludge mountain. Or perhaps you never even climbed it in the first place.