Permission Granted to Be an Authority #214

Can you handle all of me? That question is what stops people from going big with their message. The big truth from this episode is if people don’t know how important your business mission is… that’s on you. We cover:

Table of Contents

What stops people from building a big, beautiful, and bold brand?
Reasons you want to turn off at least as many people as you turn on when building a personal brand.
What is the best way to share your business authentically?

Listen to this episode on:

Highlights in this episode:

[00:01:10] – I’m a chicken mama. A personal story to introduce the idea of claiming authority.

[00:03:09] – I’m the rooster of my vision and of my mission to get my message out into the world.

[00:05:21] – The reason most course creators and online businesses fail.

[00:06:16] – Sophie Lua’s post on Instagram about what women crave and how it’s applicable to content creators. According to her, it’s the idea of can you handle all of me?

[00:07:20] – How to build a brand with bold opinions.

[00:09:48] – Why most people never go far enough.

[00:11:54] – The ultimate question.

Blog Post

Some messages need to have a gloves-off feel, and this is one. All right, we’re going to go there, because I am giving you permission to be an authority. Do I think you need my permission? No, I do not. Actually, I think you’ve already got it. But every once in a while, we have doubts that creep in.

Here’s the big idea for this episode: If people don’t know how important your biz mission is… that’s on you.

Permission is now granted for you to stake your claim, to claim the authority status you need to help people and therefore execute that business mission.

Claim Your Rooster Status

Before we dive into all the reasons why you need that permission, and why you need to claim that authority status, I want to tell you a little bit about my chickens. Yes, I’m a self-professed chicken mama. We’ve got backyard chickens. We originally got them as therapy chickens for my youngest, but they’re really kind of therapy for all of us.

I mean, it’s just so fun watching the prance around. You can’t not see little pterodactyls out of them. And, you know, every afternoon, I go out with my basket, and I collect the most gorgeous, beautiful basket of rainbow-colored eggs, and I’m just happy. Chickens make me happy.

That was just a personal love story. What I really want to tell you is, while I love our chickens, we’ve got a little bit of an issue with one of them right now. We have three adults that we’ve brought over from our old house, and then we added a few babies this year, and they’re all now full-sized, laying chickens.

But we’ve got one of our adults that’s kind of pissed off at the whole situation. She’s acting like a rooster. Her name is Legend, and she’s doing the full like, I’m mounting the other chickens and pecking at them thing. She’s acting like a rooster, and the rest are now running from her, tail between their feathers.

When I’m out there, I see it happen. It looks like it’s really mean. I understand pecking orders, and I understand nature isn’t kind, but I’m a chicken mama. I don’t like seeing my chickens being attacked! So we asked people who know chickens at the farm store, and basically, what we need to do is go into the chicken run area and be the rooster. (I laughed when I first heard it, too.)

We have to go and be the rooster to Legend, so she understands she’s not the rooster of the pack. She’s most definitely a hen, and she will eventually stop acting like a rooster. She apparently filled that role in the flock because of various stressors, most likely all of the babies becoming adults and starting to lay and her realizing she might not have the natural pecking order status anymore.

Applying authority in your content and branding

And that whole “be the rooster” thing, that’s what we’re talking about in this article. You need to be the rooster of your vision, of your mission. You need to be the rooster for your audience. You need to be the one that says:

Hey, I’m here. I know how this works.
I can help you out of your problem and truly follow this advice.
I can help you not because I say it works, but because I’ve really done it. And I’ve done it for other clients, and I can do it for you too.
I do know what’s best.

That’s what I mean by permission granted.

It is time for you to step into your rooster status. If you believe that you have a message worth listening to, then you have a responsibility to get that message out into the world. That means planning that message. It means strategically applying content to build awareness, and it means being seen.

How to Use Your Strengths To Be Visible

I’m not going to sugarcoat things here. Putting together an authentic visibility plan–to apply a content strategy that actually builds brand awareness for you instead of just posting for the sake of posting–isn’t easy work. It’s simple, but it’s not easy. It takes effort.

When you really, truly put yourself out there–it can feel a bit wide open and terrifying that everyone is seeing you so deeply. Especially at first!

I spent years of my life feeling like the odd girl out. I’m an eight on the enneagram. And one of our weaknesses is feeling like we are too much. So if you hated middle school or any other typical rite of passage times, you are not alone. We are told our whole lives to be ourselves and, at the same time, pressured to fit in and be the same as everyone else.

It’s no wonder we become entrepreneurs and then fight against standing out! I hated high school, and nobody thought as much as me. Nobody felt as much as me. Nobody demanded as much as me. Being the most strategic, thoughtful, and smartest girl in the room was a lonely place when everyone else values fitting in.

However, it’s come full circle. Knowing how to be visible based on your strengths is very in demand in today’s online business world.

And that brings me to a section of an old episode of my podcast. I’m talking specifically about coaches in this episode, but it applies to anyone with a content-forward business, like course creators and content entrepreneurs.

Why Most Course Creators Fail To Use Content Well

The reason most coaches fail isn’t that they’re bad coaches or have a bad coach.

Many have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into training, but because they’ve never dared to step up and look the part of the best in their industry, they’re waiting for someone to give them permission.

Well, I’m giving you permission now. It isn’t necessarily that you’re bad at what you do. It isn’t that you haven’t invested time, money, effort, and sweat equity into your business. It’s that you’ve never dared to step up and stake your claim.

And that can take some bold bravery.

But first, I want to share a post on Instagram. Someone following me had a lovely post that spurred me onto this permission-granted idea. Her Instagram handle is bysophielua (and sadly, it’s now a deactivated account), and she wrote a post about what women crave.

That is, according to her, the idea of “can you handle all of me?” I immediately thought, isn’t that what stops people from building a big, beautiful, and bold brand? They wonder, can you, my audience, handle all of me?

Sophie continues in the post, “Here it is this deep, profound hunger women have. It is so sexy to feel someone who shows up, really just shows up for life.”

Her post, of course, is all about men and women and bringing real attention between them to the table. But if you substitute the words men and women for client and brand, it makes sense in both kinds of relationships. Each party needs to know that they’re enough and also not too much.

It all boils down to vulnerability. I’m not going to go all Brene Brown on you here, but I am leaning in that direction.

How to stake your claim

Let’s break this down so you can come away with this episode with those tangibles.

Your personal brand is making sure everyone knows who you are, who you serve, and how you serve them. That’s brand awareness, building brand visibility.
It requires consistency and repetition.
You need to turn off at least as many people as you turn on, or you don’t have a brand. You have an advice column with a lackluster personality.
Turning people off means you have to be polarizing, like cilantro. If you’re on my email list, you will remember that email.
Being polarizing means, some people won’t like you. And that’s not only OK, it is the goal.

Now, I realize I broke that down in my typical, blunt, challenging way. And you might not be a fan of confrontation due to your personality type. I want to point out here you don’t have to be confrontational to turn people off. You just need to have clearly stated opinions and methods.

There will always be people who disagree with you even if everything you say is done in a super sweet, non-confrontational way. This, right here, is where vulnerability can get messy because we all have different personalities and we all experience different feelings. The common denominator is knowing who you are and being willing to show it clearly, confidently, and boldly.

I’m reading a book by Ben Settle at the moment. It’s called Brand Barbarian, and let’s just say it’s not for the faint of heart. It is very controversial. It’s also packed with good tidbits that aren’t dressed up. It’s not a bunch of fluff. It’s basic information stated very, very clearly. It’s repetitive.

In the book, he says, be the one who talks about personal things nobody else does, that people feel they know you personally even if they never met you. Most businesses never give anything personal or intimate. Later he says, get personal and realize you don’t know what’s too far until you’ve gone too far at least once.

Most people will never go too far. They’re too scared or too professional, or too concerned with what their Facebook friends think. This is powerful if you apply it because Ben is right. Most businesses only want to project a veneer of themselves. It’s when you show what’s behind the polish that people actually connect with you.

And most will never let that happen for fear of going too far even once, which, as we just heard, is part of the process.

Speaking to your best client

We all want to know that when we show up, our audience will say yes to that question that Sophie posed, can you handle all of me? But that’s the wrong question. Or rather, it’s the wrong way to ask it. You don’t ask your entire audience if they can handle you. You only ask the buyers.

We’re going to have people in our audience that just can’t handle all of us. Sometimes they end up there by mistake. Sometimes they’re just there because they have too much time on their hands and don’t know how to edit their social media usage. And sometimes, they’re just scoping out the competition.

Those people don’t matter. Those are the people you want to turn off. Yes, even your competition! You want to bug the crud out of them. If you aren’t, then one or both of you haven’t differentiated yourself enough yet.

If you’re letting vulnerability stop you from showing up with a consistent content plan, with truly being visible, you need to know two things.

You’re only going to get over it when you realize you won’t ever be entirely comfortable.
If you don’t get over it, you limit how many people you can help.

The know, like, and trust factor as you build a personal brand

Embracing your vulnerability as you build a personal brand is part of the brand-building process. Asking yourself, “can you handle all of me?” is part of each stage in the know, like, and trust factor.

First, will I let my audience know all of me? Then will I give them the opportunity to like all of me? And then finally, deepening into, will they know and like enough of me to trust me?

The only way you’re going to know is if you try. In the great words of Don Draper, “If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”

The Vision Lives–And Rests–With You

Here’s the deal: you have to decide whether you are willing to embrace vulnerability and really put yourself out there. You must decide if you’re willing to take on the responsibility and get your message out there.

If not you, who? That, right there, is the ultimate question. Next time a client doesn’t book you, a post doesn’t resonate, don’t go into the land of imposter syndrome.

Instead, know this: it was never I am too much. Next time you think that say this out loud: “Maybe they’re not enough.”

You can create a content plan that honors your real self, that authentically shares your business.

Need help with this?
Visibility Accelerator is a done-for-you content plan and repurposing powerhouse, because I really, truly want to see you put yourself out there and start helping the people you are meant to help.