October 11, 2026

Expert vs Authority

Back when Rochelle and I were doing The Business of Authority, we defined authority as being a recognized expert, not just someone who has mastered their area of expertise.

In other words, if you want to build a business around your expertise, it helps quite a bit to become well-known as the “go-to” person in the marketplace you want to compete in.

At a certain point, it’s just not enough to keep getting better at what you do (e.g., writing software, designing websites, etc).

Improving your skills begins delivering diminishing returns once your ideal buyer can’t tell the difference between good and great.

_(And by definition, someone who needs to hire an expert can’t tell the difference between good and great.)

So what do you do instead?

Start doing what authorities do.

And what do authorities do?

They write books.

Author <-> Authority.

It’s right there in the name.

Yours,

—J

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