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The 4 Step Authority Formula Every Solopreneur Needs · The Life-First Solopreneur

• 0:00
  Carly Ries: What if the secret behind people like Tony Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki wasn't a perfect plan, but a simple habit of saying yes and figuring it out later? Today, sit down with George Wright III, founder of Authority Media Network and host of the Daily Mastermind, which is a top entrepreneurship podcast. George has spent over three decades building brands, and he's here to tell you that you don't need more content. You need more authority. And we're getting into his four step authority formula, how to turn one ten minute recording into a whole week of content, why even introverts can build a media company, and the one question that changes how you build your entire business.
• 0:38
  You're listening to the Life First Solopreneur, the podcast for those in pursuit of a life first business. I'm Carly Ries, and my cohost, Joe Rando, and I spend every episode with solopreneurs who are proving there's a better way to run a one person business and experts who are helping make it happen. We like to say life first, then business. So let's get right to it. George, oh my goodness.
• 1:02
  There is just so much I want to dive into today. I love and hate that we have, like, thirty ish, forty five minutes together because I feel like you're the type of person that I could talk to all day. We'll get a lot of good content in the next thirty, forty five minutes. But man, Listening to your show, following what you do, I mean, We usually save this for the end. But definitely go check out the show. The link is in our show notes.
• 1:29
  I don't know. I feel like listening to your show can become a daily practice, and you said you started it for a daily practice. So it's just a win win across the board, but thank you so much for coming on today.
• 1:39
  George Wright: Yeah. I'm excited. I appreciate the opportunity. Looking forward to bringing some value for the audience. So, Carly, I appreciate you having me here.
• 1:46
  Carly Ries: Yeah. It'll be great. Well, I was kinda chuckling looking at, like, when I was doing my background research on you and everything, I saw that you've worked alongside people like Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, Brian Tracy, you know those up and comers.
• 2:01
  George Wright: Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:04
  Carly Ries: This is gonna be our icebreaker question. What is one small behind the scenes lesson you picked up from that, that most people would never guess?
• 2:13
  George Wright: You know, it's interesting because, yeah, I was in my, like, twenties and thirties when I was working with all these guys. I was just soaking it up like a sponge. And I thought about that a little bit because I'll be honest with you. I think there are so many lessons and things I've learned, but There's one thing that I never realized was the case.
• 2:35
  So this is the lesson that I learned. I always thought these guys had these big teams and all this money and all this stuff and they had it all figured out. And the number one basic principle I learned from most of them is that they just say yes and then figure it out. They almost entirely never have the plan put together. They just say yes, do it and then the team will figure it out.
• 2:56
  And it's that forward motion that constantly creates all the scale they have rather than they've got an incredible plan and product and they go out and try to execute on it. So I've just found it time and time and time again, I'd be sitting in a room, a board room in Trump Tower, I'd be sitting over in some planning session with an event we're doing with T R Becker or you know, athletes and they'd be like, let's just do this. And we're like, oh my gosh, I don't know how we're gonna do that. They're like, go figure it out. And so that little strategy is what's pushed me to do more and more.
• 3:28
  And so I thought that was a pretty common trait that a lot of people probably think they have it all put together and they don't.
• 3:33
  Carly Ries: That's kinda even what you do with the show. We were just talking about that offline. They were like, well, I bought a course, I had a ten minute conversation, and then I just started building it.
• 3:41
  George Wright: Yeah. make the decision, and then you figure out all the detail because without that intention, you know, you don't need to go figure it all out. So, yeah. That's so true.
• 3:48
  Carly Ries: That's such good advice. I feel like so many solopreneurs get into analysis paralysis, and impostor syndrome gets in, and they can convince themselves that they're busy, which maybe they are, but not productively busy. And I think this is a great way , just get it done. Just go for it. Well, your core message is... And I'm kind of pivoting here, in a big way, but I really wanted to dive into the meat and potatoes of today because we have a lot to cover. And your core message is you don't need more content, you need more authority. And I just want to know for a solopreneur who feels like they are on a content treadmill, especially now with AI where people are just like cranking it out nonstop, What's the difference between being visible in your opinion and actually having that authority?
• 4:37
  George Wright: Yeah. I think the number one myth that people have and you're a marketer, right, is that I need views or I need visibility. And look, I've been building global brands for thirty five years. I'm 55 now. I got eight kids, seven grandkids and it's like I have learned a couple things and what I've learned is having done events, financial education, personal development, all these things.
• 5:00
  The marketplace right now is extremely busy, it's extremely crowded, it's hard to cut through the noise and everyone sounds like a rock star. So everyone that's getting views sounds like an expert. So how do you cut through the noise? And that's the reason now I've really sort of focused on authority because authority is building the trust with your audience that allows them to want to do business with you. But as a marketer, because my commonality is marketing as well, I believe it's not just about authority but authority marketing.
• 5:32
  so when you build authority in the marketplace, you actually will get your content, you will get all of these other things, but without it, for example, if you just got views and content and people go search you and you're not optimized, they're gonna see your competitors and buy from them. So driving people visibly to a brand that doesn't have a strategy or a brand that doesn't have an actual plan and also credibility and authority in the marketplace, that visibility is gonna work against you.
• 6:02
  Carly Ries: Absolutely. And I think it's also just refreshing to hear that you don't have to be posting five times a day and just trying to get visibility. When you think of yourself as the authority, it dictates strategy. It really has you look inward and think, oh, what can I actually share? Where is my value? And then go from there. It's just a huge weight off your shoulders.
• 6:23
  George Wright: Well, and Carly, just to be honest, attention is important. It is important to get visibility because without that, you're not gonna get leads and you're not gonna grow your business. But that is not the first thing you need and most business owners don't have what they need in place first to then go get the visibility. Traffic is not the first step to going forward.
• 6:42
  Carly Ries: It's visibility for visibility's sake that we're trying. Visibility for the actual North Star building authority
• 6:48
  George Wright: Right.
• 6:48
  Carly Ries: And going out of it that way. Totally agree. Well, and you even say being great at what you do isn't enough. I mean, there are so many people who are so talented, and they just stay invisible.
• 7:00
  I can think of a friend of mine. She has to quote anchor man, or not anchor man, stepbrothers, the songbird of our generation. Like, she has this most beautiful voice. But she doesn't perform. She's a stay at home mom. She's lovely. She's wonderful. But from a talent standpoint, nobody will really know this. So moving that over to the business side of things, for these talented people, why do they stay invisible?
• 7:24
  And what do you think the gap is between expertise and that authority we're talking about?
• 7:29
  George Wright: Yeah. I mean, this is the problem. We deal with founders and entrepreneurs and business owners all the time. And these are people that have massive backgrounds.
• 7:37
  They have great credibility. Maybe you're the best at what you do or maybe you actually have great testimonials and maybe you have a strategy that consistently helps people but you're invisible. and it's really hard to cut through the noise because influencers are out there eating all the views and people that have more money can outspend you as far as ads. And so it is really, really difficult to get attention. But I think the real problem that most people have is they don't have a strategy around there.
• 8:06
  They need to learn to control the narrative. So what they haven't done is crafted first and foremost their message of what they do and how they do it and they don't have an actual strategy to get that out there. I tell people all the time, because most people, one of the challenges they have is they don't want to be a celebrity. Well, if you really look at the definition of celebrity, a celebrity is really just for business owner being the most well known person for what you do for the market you're going after in the area you're at. So in that case you do want to be a celebrity, but people have to know what you do, how you do it and why you do it, why they should work with you. And if you don't have that narrative put together, that strategy put together, it's gonna be very difficult to be consistent in the marketplace even if you're doing content.
• 8:53
  Back to your point, you could do all kinds of content, but it's fragmented and people don't understand exactly who you are and what you do.
• 8:59
  Carly Ries: Yeah. Well, okay. So We're talking about a strategy behind it. You actually have a four step authority formula.
• 9:06
  Could you kind of walk us through that? And specifically as it relates to one person business owners.
• 9:12
  George Wright: Yeah. You know, over the years, because there are so many different things. Like, we've done millions of pieces of direct mail, digital marketing, paid ads, blogs, SEO, now AEO. We do these things for some of the biggest brands in the world, including content and social. But we've always found it comes back to four steps.
• 9:31
  And just real quick, the four steps are this. It starts with strategy. You do have to have a very specific narrative and strategy for who you are and what you do and how you do it. Then you build authority, and you build authority right now in today's day and age with legacy content like podcasts, blogs, YouTube, stuff that's gonna live. You know, nobody remembers what you posted on social media yesterday.
• 9:53
  But you'll keep getting views for blogs and podcasts and videos. So strategy then authority, then you implement technology and automation so that it will create more leverage for you and you can do more with less time and you can become omnipresent. Then the fourth step is distributional marketing. Once you have your authority or your strategy, you've developed some credibility and authority and you use technology automation to get out there, now you go do the distribution and marketing and that's when you can start to convert, Capture convert and and create lifetime value of your leads. Those four steps are really the way to do it in.
• 10:30
  Carly Ries: So let me ask you this. For these people, we really encourage people to hire contractors, outsource VAs, yada yada yada. But, Especially with distribution, that sounds like a lot. And a lot of these people are solopreneurs. What advice do you have for them if they have limited time?
• 10:47
  George Wright: Yeah. You know, depending on who it is, so we have different type of targets. If you're a thought leader, an author, a speaker, a coach, consultant, or whether you're a... This works for professionals like legal, financial planners, wealth managers, or usually solopreneurs, or even standalone service businesses.
• 11:06
  It's always the same. How do you create leverage? How do you create some core pillar content that will establish who you are and what you do and people can gravitate to you, but you can use that core piece of content to create everything else. I like to tell a lot of our founders because my goal is to with less than an hour a week, get in front of a million people. But you gotta do it in the right way and you've gotta do it in a way that creates contacts, captures and converts at the same time.
• 11:37
  And so usually what I want people to do is establish what their pillar content topics are. And when I say content, you could be an HVAC operator, you could be anybody. But people want to know that you're great at what you do. So whatever your individual business is, you want to be able to establish what your narrative is and what your topics and your core expertise is and then you have to find a way to put that out there and leverage and create omnipresence without spending a lot of time and energy yourself, which is why we talk about having, a content engine.
• 12:09
  Carly Ries: So let's go with the HVAC guy. I've seen these reels. I don't know if these are in your algorithm or anything, but I keep getting targeted with reels that are like, I just wanted to own a baking business and now I have to be a content creator. And it's like you have your core functionality and now you also have to a content creator.
• 12:28
  But you argue that people shouldn't look at themselves as content creators alone.
• 12:32
  George Wright: Right.
• 12:33
  Carly Ries: But they should actually think of themselves as media companies, which for the baker, the HVAC guy, they're like, I have to be a media company? What does building your own media company look like for these small one person businesses without a genuine team? Again, contractors we encourage, or even a big budget.
• 12:52
  George Wright: Yeah. So There are a couple of different ways and everybody's a little bit different, but, podcast is a great way to do that. And the reason I bring this up is this, you can go out and do social media content and, it disappears tomorrow.
• 13:05
  You can go guest on other things or you can go get in front of networking events and stuff. And it's like James Clear, who's the author of Atomic Habits said recently, he said, I don't even like speaking. He gets paid a $250,000 to speak. He says, I don't like speaking because the minute I'm done with the event, my content dies in the room. He loves podcasting because he will put a message out there and it will just continue to get views and continue to be heard.
• 13:28
  That's why YouTube videos for ten years will get seen. So the question isn't so much being a content creator it is how do you create some messaging that will continue to be legacy and evergreen and get you traffic and business? And one of the reasons I like podcasts besides the fact that it's such a fast growing trend is you can do content, but you can also interview local businesses. So for example, we've got an AllState insurance agent that I was working with and he's like, how do I grow my business? I go, go do interviews of the top contractors, Christmas light installation companies, the local chamber of commerce.
• 14:04
  When you are visible and here's the key, frequently but then consistently and predictably, then you're going to be omnipresent in a way that you can turn into a strategy.
• 14:19
  Carly Ries: And you can repurpose that content. I mean, You do the interview and then all of a sudden it's six fifty second stories, and this and that. It just multiplies.
• 14:29
  And that's also great for solopreneurs because they don't have to reinvent the wheel every single time. So my question for you, some solopreneurs want control over their schedule. They want to call their shots. Some people are also very introverted. And they just kinda like to stay in their lane.
• 14:47
  Podcasting is not their comfort zone. Interviews, reels, all these things, not their comfort zone. Is there any other owned media that they can focus on? Or are you like, you just need to get over that and get in front of the camera?
• 14:59
  George Wright: No. No. No, look, here's the thing.
• 15:01
  You'll hear people say, go to your comfort zone, whether it's audio, video, written word. Let me tell you how I started the Daily Mastermind. The Daily Mastermind was for me. It was a daily ritual so that I can have some inspiration, motivation and education. So what I did is, early on, I took my own advice I didn't know at the time.
• 15:21
  I would just get on my computer and record myself. I would talk for ten minutes. And I would do it on video, that's very key because even if you don't like video and you're not comfortable with video, you don't have to use it. You could just pull the audio or you could just transcribe it and make it a blog. But this is the whole point around this content engine. So put podcast aside, put everything aside.
• 15:41
  If you were to say, hey, I got some ideas and I'm just gonna record them. And you were to get on and you were to consent once a week or whatever you want to do, you record content. So whether you're recording some of your ideas or whether you're doing an interview or whether you're doing other things is irrelevant right now. But the point is if you were to record this one video, and this is why we call this our content engine strategy. You record one video and let's just say you are an author and you've got a book and you take your five or six chapters and you just record something about your chapter.
• 16:14
  You can take that video and you can turn it into an audio for a podcast that gets syndicated 20 places. You could turn that into a YouTube video to grow a channel. You could transcribe it and make it a blog on your website but then the video can be cut into three to five reels and put on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube and if you don't like your video, make it an audiogram. The point is, this one piece of information does a bunch of things for you. Number one, it allows you to sort of practice through crafting your message.
• 16:42
  Number two, it gets your ideas out there. And then number three, it gets you omnipresent because like you said, you can repurpose it everywhere. So what I think a lot of times we get caught up on whether it's a podcast or it's social or it's content, whatever else. It's just about taking your core message. And if you're an HVAC operator, you're like, I'm gonna go ...
• 17:03
  This is another thing we do with some clients. They'll go Google the top 10 search things around HVAC. Take those 10 questions and record answers to them. All you'd have to do is record answers to those 10 questions and you have content that you can use to get a message out that people will see you know what you're talking about and they want to be around you. But unless you put it out there, nobody's gonna know you exist, and so that's the key.
• 17:25
  Carly Ries: Quick question before we get back to the show. Did you leave your job for freedom only to build a business that bosses you around more than any manager ever did? Well, we call that the ownership trap, and it's why we built Lifestarr. Join us in Lifestarr intro, and you'll gain access to the Lifestarr Academy, which is full of free courses and videos on building a life first business, including topics on marketing, sales, AI, money, we also have routes that walk you through each topic step by step. As part of Lifestarr Intro, you also get the Lifestarr app, which keeps track of every promise in your business, the ones you made and the ones made to you.
• 17:58
  And of course, there's the community. Monday meetups, live sessions, and people who actually get it and are also trying to build a life first business. So the Academy, a free version of the app, and the community, they are all free. I don't know how many times they could say that. They are free forever.
• 18:14
  Of course we have paid tiers too where you can get some extras. But you guys, that is all free. So here's my question for you. If you designed your life first, what would your business look like today? Come find out at LifeStarr Intro, and that's at lifestarr.com/intro and sign up.
• 18:33
  It's quick. It's easy. Can't wait to see you there. I keep trying to think of a question just to get into our audience's mind. And again, with the repurposing, AI could be really helpful.
• 18:45
  AI and automation to get all of these things cut down, public distributed everywhere. But on the AI note, It's easy to lose your authenticity if you just rely on AI. So the nice thing about doing a podcast or a video or something is your authenticity is front and center. I mean, it's you. You're recorded. But if people are looking at other forms of content, how can they use AI in their content engine without losing that authenticity?
• 19:16
  George Wright: You know, I think there are several places. I think the key here is this. A lot of business owners, founders, entrepreneurs, individual solopreneurs, they try to replace themselves with AI or they try to have it do it for them. That's not the best way to grow, scale or even build a business. I'll give you some examples.
• 19:35
  You can use it on the front end. So if you were to use AI, if you were to go to ChatGPT or Gemini, any of these and say, I want to talk about stuff. This is who I am and what I do. Give me some ideas of what's searched out there that people are looking for. It'll give you an outline.
• 19:49
  So now you don't have to worry about creating the content.I right now can have my AI go into 1,350 episodes and come up with ideas to give me so that I can then be the one to give the ideas and I'm still authentic. But it saves you the time. Like you said, a lot of people procrastinate, they overthink, they're over critical. You could say, I am an HVAC, I am a med spa, you know, physician, whatever it is.
• 20:15
  I want to create a podcast and give me some topics around my audience that would see value. So on the front end, you can use it, or once you do some stuff, you can use it on the back end to create the reels, to create the content, to post it for you. So there are so many ways, but the goal is to use AI to help create more lifestyle for you and leverage your time, not replace you because then you lose your authenticity, if that makes sense.
• 20:40
  Carly Ries: So glad you said lifestyle because you also talk about the inner game and the outer game of success. And then You have like the 12 prosperity pillars, I believe.
• 20:50
  George Wright: Yes.
• 20:51
  Carly Ries: How do you build off authority and grow without sacrificing that life, the health, the relationships, and the freedom?
• 20:59
  George Wright: Well, it's a great question because that's the reason. So if you think about George Wright III, my company Evolution Group, at my core, my brand is all about creating a lifestyle and to do that I feel like you have to really optimize and grow in your mind, body, money and business. And then I have my businesses, nutrition company and apparel and a marketing company. But at the real high level, over the last thirty five years, I've been around some of the biggest names out there and I don't say that to impress you, it's more just to impress upon you that I've learned some things and I kinda took the best of the best and I put them all into like 12 pillars, which I call the prosperity pillars and it's things like, I create my life, I take personal responsibility, I surround myself with positive people, I create an attitude of abundance.
• 21:45
  And so the answer to your question is when you set your most important principles and values in place, and you use that to drive your business, and you use that to drive things that you wanna do, then you always have your health relationships and freedom as the litmus test that you make decisions against. And then because of that and it's never been easier than ever, you can still grow your authority because if you say, I don't want to spend a ton of time on this, well AI will help you to automate that. If I want to be able to do one thing that will create 10 results, well then I'm gonna do one interview and I could be in front of their audience, my audience, I can have content, I can have all that stuff from one piece of time. But it's because I'm trying to do it in a way that will create the lifestyle I want and so that's why these pillars for me are a way that I remind myself of what's most important to me, you know, mind, body, money, business, family, relationships and creating a lifestyle legacy and then I apply my business to it.
• 22:47
  Most entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, are running their business and trying to figure out how to create the lifestyle, and it needs to be the other way around.
• 22:54
  Carly Ries: That's why we started the life first solopreneur because we couldn't agree more. And after three decades as an entrepreneur, like you said, what does an extraordinary life mean to you today after all that experience? And what would you tell a solopreneur who's building a business but losing that life part?
• 23:11
  George Wright: You know, I had a mentor early on teach me something that really helped. And, a lot of times we all ask ourselves, what do we want to do? What do we want our business to be? How much money do we want to make? And that's not the question.
• 23:24
  Questions are the most important thing. The question you need to ask yourself is what do you want your life to be like? What do you want your life to be like? And my advice is that no matter what that answer is, and in my life, I want to make more money working less time and have more quality memories. So it's never been easier to do that with technology than now, but when you start with that question, everything you do in your business will be built around it.
• 23:49
  You don't look for ways to hire more people to take more time. You don't look for ways that will require more of your time. You look for ways to leverage your time. And when you start with the right question, what do I want my life to be like? Then you can find, because what you look for you'll find, you'll find ways to create more revenue and
• 24:08
  I mean, I can tell you right now, there are ways to make more money spending less time and it's never been easier than now. And that's why I'm a big fan of building your brand and your authority because when you have a brand and authority, it grows over time. Pretty soon, you'll start attracting opportunities to you instead of having to go out looking for them. And that's one of the advantages of a personal brand.
• 24:28
  Carly Ries: And like you were saying, you do have the opportunities. A story that I always try to think about when I'm like, directionless or whatever, is back in 2014, I was working remotely. I was in my mid twenties. I was an adult, but I still loved my parents permission, not permission, but just approval.
• 24:46
  I'm close to my parents. I liked when they liked what I was doing. And I was gonna leave my job to get a remote one, and I was gonna travel the country with my boyfriend at the time, now husband. And in their minds, they were like, I'm gonna quit my job and travel the country with my boyfriend? Like, I didn't want it to come off like that.
• 25:02
  George Wright: Right. Yeah.
• 25:03
  Carly Ries: So I put a PowerPoint together, presented it to my dad, I was like, here's my plan. I grew up with the never leave a job without another lined up, 401k, blah blah blah blah. And I presented it to my dad, and I was like, here's my plan. I'll be fine. I can support myself. I have this much in savings. And he was like, why are you so scared? He goes, if I had this ability in the eighties when I was building my career, I would have.
• 25:29
  He was like, the technology didn't allow for it. And so now that the technology does allow for it, we have to take advantage of that. It's up to us to create that business because this is the best time in history to do that, and really put that life first.
• 25:44
  George Wright: Yeah. I agree. I agree a 100%. That's a great story.
• 25:47
  Carly Ries: Yeah. We're no longer in the RV. But always in the back of our head. Well, so you just kinda gave a big life first piece of advice. But we always end the show with a life first piece of advice question. Do you have any one tangible takeaway you would give our listeners that they could apply today for a life first business?
• 26:05
  George Wright: Yeah. You know, I really believe, and I think people are gonna have to really put some thought into this, but I really believe that if you create a personal brand, it does not require you to be an influencer, to spend more time. I think if you create a personal brand like you're creating an asset, it will grow for you over time and it will allow you to get more and more freedom for yourself because it won't be tied to businesses and products and things like this. A personal brand is something that I believe if you build it right, will give you opportunities to do whatever you want to do with your lifestyle, and obviously a personal brand can be remote, it can be leverageable, and there's all kinds of things you can do with it. So that's one of the things that I believe is a strategy that sort of kills three birds with one stone, but it's something that you can do to build a lifestyle business.
• 26:57
  And it doesn't require you being an extrovert, and it doesn't require you doing a lot more work. It just requires you creating a strategy around it, and that's what most solopreneurs are in business to do anyway, is find a strategy that can provide them an ROI long term.
• 27:12
  Carly Ries: So to steal from field of dreams, if you build a personal brand, they will come.
• 27:16
  George Wright: Yeah. If you do it right, For sure.
• 27:19
  Carly Ries: The pieces will fall into place. Well, George, this has been so motivating and so helpful for myself and for our audience. Where can people find you if they want to learn more? Give us all the links.
• 27:31
  George Wright: Yeah. I mean, my podcast and personal brands at dailymastermind.com. We are excited about all the stuff that we do there to help founders and entrepreneurs. But if you're looking to grow your personal authority or brand, you can go to authoritymedianetwork.com, and they have the opportunity on there to get featured in one of our magazines for free. I mean Valiant CEO has got 100,000 online readers alone, and so if you want to feature your business or your personal brand, you can do a free interview in Valiant CEO Magazine,
• 27:59
  But we're just here to serve, so if there's anything we can do, feel free to hit me up. You can follow me on all the channels at Daily Mastermind or George Wright III.
• 28:07
  Carly Ries: it's funny because if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see to George's side all the issues From the publications
• 28:14
  George Wright: Yeah, in my the studio.
• 28:15
  Carly Ries: I was like, this is fascinating. Well, George, thank you so so much for coming on the show today. I just really appreciate your time and have really enjoyed this conversation.
• 28:24
  George Wright: Thanks, Carly. I appreciate it. Let me know. And anybody that has any questions, happy to help. So thanks. I appreciate you being here with me.
• 28:32
  Carly Ries: Awesome. Thank you. And listeners, thank you so much for tuning in today. As always, please leave us that five star review. It help really helps us spread the word to those life first solopreneurs who are needing some of this direction and help with authority.
• 28:42
  Share this episode with a friend that you think could use some of this advice, and subscribe to our show on your favorite podcast platform, including YouTube. And we'll see you next week on the life first solopreneur.