Are You Building Real Authority OR Faking It For Business Growth?

“Confidence is inside, authority is outside.” Kim White

So you’ve set yourself up as an authority in your niche. But what’s below the surface? Is it confidence or insecurity?

Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs slip down the slippery slope of insecurity and the ‘fake it till you make it’ strategy.

Here are 5 questions to ask, and keep asking, on your entrepreneurial adventure to check whether your authority is based on true confidence or if you’re just dressing up insecurity.

1. Who Is All This For: You OR The Customer?

Stepping out as an authority can feel scary at times. A lot of emotions can come up, and combined with natural insecurities, it’s easy to put the focus on yourself and let your emotions take over as you’re taking that authority role. 

“If we're doing it for ourselves, that's where we can become insecure because our egos are involved. And then when we're doing it for others, that's where we gain confidence.” Jill Olish

When your business is about making an impact on people, then it will build confidence in you that allows you to be that authority in your niche. 

And how can you be sure you’re keeping the focus on others? By keeping an evidence file.

When you are making an impact on someone, you’ll get pieces of evidence to put in your evidence file of them succeeding, and notes from them thanking you. All of this is evidence that your business is succeeding. 

Your evidence file keeps you from letting your emotions and insecurities take over. 

You can see what the evidence file says about your impact. What your customers said about you, and how you helped them. Now you get to stand up as the authority and make more of an impact on other people. 

That’s authority based on confidence. 

2. Are You Rigid Or Flexible?

“It's like raw spaghetti. If you don't cook it and you try to bend it, it doesn’t actually bend. It just breaks.” Kim White

When you’re rigid, you’re defensive. You don’t like new ideas or methods different from your own. You get stuck making sure things are always being done a certain way. 

And that style might give an impression of authority, but it’s based on insecurities and fears.

But when spaghetti has been cooked for a while, it becomes soft, and it's easy to bend.  It’s the same in business; when you’ve been cooked for a while in business, all of a sudden, you're very flexible. 

When there’s flexibility,  you're able to move differently and accept things differently. It exudes confidence when you allow your business to run a new course that you aren’t hyper-controlling about.

“If you're not stiff and rigid, all of a sudden you have people who wanna learn more from you because you don't have that I'm right all the time attitude.” Kim White

Being rigid shows that you are desperately clinging to authority based on your insecurity. 

But being flexible shows that you are confident in yourself, and that is where being a genuine authority comes from.

3. Are You ‘All Knowed Up’ OR Open To Learning?

“I know, I know, I know…” That’s a typical response from someone who is all knowed up. You can’t ever tell them anything new, and you’re definitely not allowed to know more than they do. 

Being ‘all knowed up’ is an attitude that can sneak up on entrepreneurs trying to be the authority in their niche. 

You know how something worked before, so you’re sure it will work like that today and forever more. But that’s not how things work on the entrepreneur adventure.

“Every tool we use evolves. Every single thing we do evolves. Our businesses evolve. So if you don't evolve with it, it'll break you.” Kim White 

Being open to learning is a much better attitude to have when you’re growing a business, building confidence, and setting yourself up as the authority in your niche. 

If you’re open to learning, something incredible happens on the other side. 

After you’ve taken the opportunity to learn something new, you’ve had an experience, and you’ve learned something that others can’t take away from you. And that’s one of the most important ways that confidence is built.

And that’s where real authority has its foundations - on the confidence that comes from your own experiences. 

4. Are You Bragging Or Celebrating?

“If you hear someone bragging about something, you can know they're insecure.  Do you hear someone wanting to celebrate and giving credit to others, or deferring to others? That's actually a sign of confidence.” Kim White

Where are you pointing the spotlight when things are going well in your business? 

If you’re shining it on yourself and bragging about how you did something amazing on your own, it is actually an attempt to be that authority figure based on your own insecurities. 

When you celebrate with others who assisted you, and played a role in your success it doesn’t take away your authority. It lays another level of confidence in yourself and what you know. 

Want to be a true authority in your niche? Celebrate your successes by shining that spotlight around on the people who helped you get that success.

These questions are not one-off tests. They are going to come up regularly on the entrepreneur adventure. And you’ll have to pick which path to go down each time.

Where are you focusing your attention: yourself or your customers?

Which attitude are you going to have: rigid or flexible?  All knowed up or ready to learn?

Where are you going to shine the spotlight when you do experience success? 

And every time you make another right choice, you’re laying another foundation of confidence in your business. And that's what sets you up as a true authority in your business niche.

If you missed the conversation between Kim and Jill on their podcast Buckets and Boom Gates, you can listen to Episode #96 here.  

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Blog #158