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How to Build an Authority Business Featuring Rochelle Moulton

Rochelle Moulton turns independent consultants into authorities. The author of The Authority Code: How To Position, Monetize And Sell Your Expertise, she has been called “an emotional Red Bull” for her balance of inspiration and practical advice.

In today’s episode of Smashing the Plateau, you will learn how to go from expertise to authority, along with big financial benefits.

Rochelle and I discuss:

  • Some of the differences between experts and authorities [03:18]
  • Patterns that emerge from experts that effectively market their authority [08:54]
  • The most important sales target when you market your authority [11:24]
  • How taking a stand can generate risk in your head [14:23]
  • How long it may take to build a financially successful authority business [19:11]
  • Business model differences between experts and authorities [20:55]

Learn more about Rochelle at https://rochellemoulton.com/.

Thank you to Our Sponsor: 

The Smashing the Plateau Community

https://smashingtheplateau.com/openhouse

Transcript
Rochelle Moulton:

You hear people say, "you need to work on the

Rochelle Moulton:

business", that's built into my day.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's baked into everything that I, my clients and anybody you'll

Rochelle Moulton:

encounter, who's an authority.

Rochelle Moulton:

They've baked it into their business.

Rochelle Moulton:

And by that, I mean that you're writing, you're thinking, you're speaking.

Rochelle Moulton:

You are connecting with influencers in the sense of people who

Rochelle Moulton:

influence your ideal audience.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Welcome to Smashing the Plateau.

David Shriner-Cahn:

We help consultants, coaches, entrepreneurs, and small business

David Shriner-Cahn:

owners build their business after a long career as an employed professional.

David Shriner-Cahn:

We believe you should be able to do what you love and get paid

David Shriner-Cahn:

what you're worth, consistently.

David Shriner-Cahn:

I'm your host, David Shriner-Cahn.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Today on Smashing the Plateau, I'm speaking with Rochelle Moulton.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Rochelle turns independent consultants into authorities.

David Shriner-Cahn:

In today's episode, you will learn how to go from expertise to authority,

David Shriner-Cahn:

along with big financial benefits.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Stay with us to hear all the detail.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Are you building your consulting, coaching or small business following a

David Shriner-Cahn:

long career as an employed professional.

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Come meet other consultants, coaches, and small business owners on Friday,

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We're having an open house so that you can experience a bit of what we do in

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That's smashingtheplateau.com/openhouse.

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At Smashing the Plateau, our mission is empowering high achieving professionals

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to do what they love and get paid what they're worth as entrepreneurs.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Now let's welcome, Rochelle Moulton.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Rochelle turns independent consultants into authorities.

David Shriner-Cahn:

The author of The Authority Code, how to position, monetize

David Shriner-Cahn:

and sell your expertise.

David Shriner-Cahn:

She has been called an "emotional red bull" for her balance and

David Shriner-Cahn:

inspiration and practical advice.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Rochelle, welcome to the show, great to have you on.

Rochelle Moulton:

Thanks so much, David, I'm really excited for this.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Me too.

David Shriner-Cahn:

So how did you end up becoming somebody who is an expert in turning

David Shriner-Cahn:

consultants into authorities?

David Shriner-Cahn:

It's an interesting niche and not something that a lot of people do.

Rochelle Moulton:

True.

Rochelle Moulton:

I spent most of my career building consulting practices

Rochelle Moulton:

inside big consulting firms.

Rochelle Moulton:

And at one point I even turned around the arm of a fortune 500 company, the

Rochelle Moulton:

consulting arm that was failing miserably.

Rochelle Moulton:

So I've spent all of that time there.

Rochelle Moulton:

And one of the things that I learned in the course of, particularly my longest

Rochelle Moulton:

in my 10 years with a big firm and partnership there was, the difference

Rochelle Moulton:

between people who were perceived as authorities and those who weren't.

Rochelle Moulton:

So it's been an interesting, 13 years now doing this.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Wow.

David Shriner-Cahn:

One of the things that you write about in The Authority Code, is the difference

David Shriner-Cahn:

between expertise and authority.

David Shriner-Cahn:

And I wondered if you could explain what is the difference.

Rochelle Moulton:

Yeah.

Rochelle Moulton:

So expertise to me is deep knowledge like an expert commands, deep knowledge, a

Rochelle Moulton:

lot and a lot about a particular area.

Rochelle Moulton:

Authority.

Rochelle Moulton:

Here's the thing about authority.

Rochelle Moulton:

I used to think that authority was just about building your

Rochelle Moulton:

expertise publicly so that people would hire you or buy your stuff.

Rochelle Moulton:

But it's really about value creation because when you have authority,

Rochelle Moulton:

which I think of as the power to reach and influence and impact your

Rochelle Moulton:

market segment, you get to choose.

Rochelle Moulton:

You have a whole bunch of choices.

Rochelle Moulton:

You get to choose who you really care about and who you want to serve.

Rochelle Moulton:

You get to choose the revolution that you want to lead.

Rochelle Moulton:

You get to choose how you want to work.

Rochelle Moulton:

So you can work in your genius zone, delivering your expertise the way that

Rochelle Moulton:

you want to, you get to really think about and balance growing revenue with

Rochelle Moulton:

also building time and flexibility so that you can create the life that

Rochelle Moulton:

you really want with this business.

Rochelle Moulton:

And then at the end of the day, you get to charge, if you want to,

Rochelle Moulton:

based on the value that you provide to your ideal clients and buyers.

Rochelle Moulton:

when you have authority, you're always building value for

Rochelle Moulton:

your clients and for yourself.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Rochelle, aren't those various attributes that you

David Shriner-Cahn:

just mentioned, attributes that most experts want to have, particularly,

David Shriner-Cahn:

like I'm thinking about consultants that start their business after a long

David Shriner-Cahn:

career as an employed professional, which is, a large part of our audience.

David Shriner-Cahn:

And I think about those folks and they've generally worked 20 to 30 years

David Shriner-Cahn:

or more in some mid to high level role.

David Shriner-Cahn:

And like not the entire career in a high level role, but they've ended

David Shriner-Cahn:

their employed career, usually in a mid to high level role.

David Shriner-Cahn:

And they frequently, leave the corporate or organizational world,

David Shriner-Cahn:

because they want more control over what they do and how they do it.

David Shriner-Cahn:

And it strikes me that what you just described is all about control

David Shriner-Cahn:

over what you do and how you do it.

Rochelle Moulton:

It is, but it's also more because the, what you

Rochelle Moulton:

say is exactly right, experts and authorities want those same things.

Rochelle Moulton:

The authority has built a system to bring it to them.

Rochelle Moulton:

That's really the difference because you can be an expert and have 20 people in the

Rochelle Moulton:

world know who you are and what you do.

Rochelle Moulton:

And you could create a really good business if you have the right kind

Rochelle Moulton:

of business model, but authority is about spreading it further and wider.

Rochelle Moulton:

And it's more about influence, because you can be the, this expert

Rochelle Moulton:

and I would argue you can't be an authority without being an expert.

Rochelle Moulton:

First authority is just adding some things on top of being an expert.

Rochelle Moulton:

But especially for someone who's been mid-career when you're going out on your

Rochelle Moulton:

own, any authority you've already built from your corporate life, say doing

Rochelle Moulton:

speeches or appearing on podcasts or interviews, all of that can translate into

Rochelle Moulton:

this next thing that you're doing and help you get all of those things that you want.

Rochelle Moulton:

And yeah.

Rochelle Moulton:

Control, is a big thing I know for myself, that's one of the big reasons I

Rochelle Moulton:

started my own solo practice was control.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Right?

David Shriner-Cahn:

So you can have a well functioning business that is making good money as an

David Shriner-Cahn:

expert, but you're not yet an authority.

Rochelle Moulton:

Yes.

Rochelle Moulton:

Absolutely.

Rochelle Moulton:

And there will be people who never want to become authorities who say, you know what,

Rochelle Moulton:

I'm not interested in writing about this.

Rochelle Moulton:

I'm not interested in being on podiums.

Rochelle Moulton:

I just want to do my thing.

Rochelle Moulton:

And you absolutely can do that if you've positioned yourself appropriately.

Rochelle Moulton:

So that you're attracting the right clients.

Rochelle Moulton:

And if you are regularly making sure that you are, you're building

Rochelle Moulton:

your pipeline, the future work.

Rochelle Moulton:

Cause sometimes what happens when people first leave corporate is they

Rochelle Moulton:

get two or three assignments and they're a hundred percent focused on that.

Rochelle Moulton:

And then when they're done, it's crickets, there's nothing else in the pipeline.

Rochelle Moulton:

So as long as you build the pipeline, absolutely, one does not

Rochelle Moulton:

have to become an authority to be successful in the expertise world.

David Shriner-Cahn:

All right.

David Shriner-Cahn:

So then what do experts seek when they want authority, that

David Shriner-Cahn:

they're not already getting?

David Shriner-Cahn:

If they have a well functioning business as an expert.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's usually pipeline.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's usually a pipeline they want to have more things that I hate to call

Rochelle Moulton:

them deals, but more opportunities in the pipeline so that they're not

Rochelle Moulton:

always having to go out and sell.

Rochelle Moulton:

And when I say pipeline, it's having those opportunities there

Rochelle Moulton:

and it's also not having to.

Rochelle Moulton:

Putting sell in quote marks, sell the way we tend to think of selling,

Rochelle Moulton:

which is convincing someone to buy us.

Rochelle Moulton:

So they don't want to do that.

Rochelle Moulton:

That's the most common thing that I see when people come to me the second,

Rochelle Moulton:

which might be true of some of your audience is where there's a mission.

Rochelle Moulton:

And yeah, they like to make money from the mission, but

Rochelle Moulton:

the first thing is the mission.

Rochelle Moulton:

And that might be someone who perhaps says, has retired in the

Rochelle Moulton:

sense that they have an income.

Rochelle Moulton:

And they've said, what I really want to do is I want to work more on X, an

Rochelle Moulton:

issue, a population, whatever that is.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's not a non for profit, but it's mission driven first.

Rochelle Moulton:

So those are the two things I, I tend to see.

David Shriner-Cahn:

And what are some of the patterns that you've seen in experts

David Shriner-Cahn:

that successfully become authorities?

Rochelle Moulton:

Okay.

Rochelle Moulton:

So the first thing, I write about this a lot in the book.

Rochelle Moulton:

I think of it as three things, right?

Rochelle Moulton:

You have to position yourself in particular and your business, right?

Rochelle Moulton:

So that you're, you've got the right positioning for the messaging

Rochelle Moulton:

that you're putting together.

Rochelle Moulton:

Then you have to monetize your business.

Rochelle Moulton:

And by that, I just mean you have to have the right mix of services and

Rochelle Moulton:

products at the right prices so that you can attract the clients that you want.

Rochelle Moulton:

And you can take care of yourself, whatever that looks like.

Rochelle Moulton:

You can build a hundred thousand dollars business.

Rochelle Moulton:

You could build a million dollar business.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's monetizing the expertise that you do have.

Rochelle Moulton:

And then the third piece is selling.

Rochelle Moulton:

And I use selling in a very broad way, in the sense that selling is also about

Rochelle Moulton:

letting people know that you exist and that you have a point of view.

Rochelle Moulton:

And so selling is about publishing and that's the single biggest difference.

Rochelle Moulton:

So if I've got my head down and I'm working on my business and I'm, I've got

Rochelle Moulton:

clients and everything is fine when I want authority, the first thing I'm going

Rochelle Moulton:

do is I'm going start publishing because that's how I'm going build an audience.

Rochelle Moulton:

And publishing can be, traditional in the sense of something written and, written

Rochelle Moulton:

is especially good for experts because it's an easy way for us to understand

Rochelle Moulton:

what you're saying and to react.

Rochelle Moulton:

And it can also be speaking, but it doesn't have to be speaking at

Rochelle Moulton:

conferences, which of course took a nose dive over the last two or three

Rochelle Moulton:

years, but it can also mean things like hosting a podcast or being a

Rochelle Moulton:

guest on a podcast where people can hear your voice and how you think

Rochelle Moulton:

about the things that are important.

Rochelle Moulton:

So it's, I think of it as becoming visible, is that first step where

Rochelle Moulton:

you become willing to take a stand for what you believe in the unique

Rochelle Moulton:

tenants of your consultancy, your belief system, and you start

Rochelle Moulton:

committing those to the public space.

Rochelle Moulton:

And the, almost the second you do that, even if the audience, you have

Rochelle Moulton:

an audience of one like your mother or your kids, the second you do that you

Rochelle Moulton:

start to invite comments and reactions.

Rochelle Moulton:

And so what happens, is your point of view gets tighter and it, when

Rochelle Moulton:

other people, your ideal clients and buyers, buy into your worldview,

Rochelle Moulton:

they start spreading it for you.

David Shriner-Cahn:

When you're selling your authority, who is the most important

David Shriner-Cahn:

sales target, particularly initially.

Rochelle Moulton:

I think ideal clients and buyers,

Rochelle Moulton:

that's how I would approach it.

Rochelle Moulton:

Later, then we can talk about, an authority circle, which are people,

Rochelle Moulton:

and when I say influencers, I don't mean like social media influencers.

Rochelle Moulton:

people who influence your clients and buyers to do the kinds of

Rochelle Moulton:

things you want them to do.

Rochelle Moulton:

So you start and I'll always argue, start with an email list.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's really simple.

Rochelle Moulton:

And it's the one thing that you own, you can create an amazing space

Rochelle Moulton:

on LinkedIn, for example, but if LinkedIn decides they don't like you

Rochelle Moulton:

anymore, that can cause you a problem.

Rochelle Moulton:

So start with email, start building a list, have a, an approach to

Rochelle Moulton:

build that list and start writing about, or you could video too.

Rochelle Moulton:

I have clients who've done video because.

Rochelle Moulton:

They didn't particularly care to write.

Rochelle Moulton:

So pick the medium, whether that's written video audio, or even better, still

Rochelle Moulton:

mix them up and just start publishing.

Rochelle Moulton:

Just start.

Rochelle Moulton:

That's the key.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Is there a frequency that you recommend sending stuff out by email?

Rochelle Moulton:

It really depends on your audience.

David Shriner-Cahn:

That's a question I hear a lot.

Rochelle Moulton:

I know.

Rochelle Moulton:

And it's funny.

Rochelle Moulton:

I just had a discussion recently with my podcast cohost about daily

Rochelle Moulton:

emails versus non-daily emails.

Rochelle Moulton:

It really depends on you and your audience.

Rochelle Moulton:

Generally speaking, you're going want to hit them at least once a month.

Rochelle Moulton:

I have a client who does that religiously and has very good

Rochelle Moulton:

success with a very small email list, but that's a particular audience.

Rochelle Moulton:

There are others, I would say generally weekly is good if only because it's

Rochelle Moulton:

helping you have a deadline and have some regularity, touching your audience

Rochelle Moulton:

still, it's better to do something, that's half baked, than nothing.

Rochelle Moulton:

And I'm going say that one more time.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's better to do something half baked than nothing.

Rochelle Moulton:

And here's why, because you might say, oh, if I'm going be an authority,

Rochelle Moulton:

everything has to be perfect.

Rochelle Moulton:

But the problem is it never is perfect and it needs to hit your audience.

Rochelle Moulton:

And so I'd rather encourage somebody to experiment than to do nothing.

Rochelle Moulton:

And what's interesting is sometimes the one that you worry about the

Rochelle Moulton:

most, and if you, your finger hovers over the send button because you're

Rochelle Moulton:

convinced people are not going like it.

Rochelle Moulton:

And they're going, hit back at you on something.

Rochelle Moulton:

Those are usually the ones that are that people go, wow, this is really great.

Rochelle Moulton:

I love this.

Rochelle Moulton:

So experimenting with how you express your point of view in any

Rochelle Moulton:

of those three mediums is really critical to start building that

Rochelle Moulton:

muscle of becoming an authority.

Rochelle Moulton:

So what's an example of something where the sender may have been

Rochelle Moulton:

hesitant to hit the send button that actually created this kind of

Rochelle Moulton:

groundswell of reaction that you just.

Rochelle Moulton:

if I can tell a story about myself this time, because it was interesting.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Absolutely.

Rochelle Moulton:

Cause I advise people to do this all the time and I think it's

Rochelle Moulton:

important that we take our own medicine.

Rochelle Moulton:

So I developed a program called Soloist Women, and I had no idea how many

Rochelle Moulton:

women there really were in my audience.

Rochelle Moulton:

I wasn't really sure I'd never developed a product or a service

Rochelle Moulton:

that was gender specific.

Rochelle Moulton:

And I just had this fear that because in, in our profession, it's generally about

Rochelle Moulton:

70% male, 30% female, and my clientele was heavily male, and I thought, okay,

Rochelle Moulton:

what's going happen when I put this out is I'm going have this whole slew of

Rochelle Moulton:

people who are going to unsubscribe.

Rochelle Moulton:

And that's it.

Rochelle Moulton:

My business is over my life is over.

Rochelle Moulton:

I that's the kind of things that we go through our head.

Rochelle Moulton:

And when I finally hit the send button, not only did that not

Rochelle Moulton:

happen, I had a couple people say, oh, please unsubscribe me from this.

Rochelle Moulton:

But it was the opposite.

Rochelle Moulton:

It was, it got to both the people that it was targeted for, soloist women,

Rochelle Moulton:

but also a number of soloist men who said, yeah, I have this same issue.

Rochelle Moulton:

Keep me on the list.

Rochelle Moulton:

So I don't know that I would call it a groundswell, but it was one

Rochelle Moulton:

of those things where I made it to be such a horrible thing in my

Rochelle Moulton:

head that I was taking this big risk and I had fear around it.

Rochelle Moulton:

And, there was no reason.

Rochelle Moulton:

There was no reason to have it at all, but that's the kind of

Rochelle Moulton:

thing that we have to get over.

Rochelle Moulton:

And I'm always going argue that as, authority builders let's call it that

Rochelle Moulton:

cause they don't want to feel like somebody sees this as like the mountain

Rochelle Moulton:

peak and you have to get to the mountain.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's that we're all building authority all the time.

Rochelle Moulton:

And in order to keep doing that, we have to keep experimenting with taking

Rochelle Moulton:

risk and it's not all going go well.

David Shriner-Cahn:

When is an example, when you may have tried

David Shriner-Cahn:

something that didn't go so well.

Rochelle Moulton:

Oh gosh, there are a lot of those.

David Shriner-Cahn:

You set yourself up for this.

Rochelle Moulton:

I know I did.

Rochelle Moulton:

I really did, as I said that, I'll give you an example.

Rochelle Moulton:

I came up with, it wasn't just one email.

Rochelle Moulton:

It was a series, but I violated the cardinal rule, which I will never

Rochelle Moulton:

violate again about eight years ago.

Rochelle Moulton:

I think I designed this program and it was, Basically to, so that people

Rochelle Moulton:

could get what I would do, one on one with clients in a group setting.

Rochelle Moulton:

And I put everything in that program.

Rochelle Moulton:

I love this thing.

Rochelle Moulton:

I had 35 videos.

Rochelle Moulton:

I had transcripts, I had this whole thing.

Rochelle Moulton:

I built this Mecca and I had three people buy it and I was hoping to get like 50, I

Rochelle Moulton:

thought would be good the first time out, I had three people buy it and I went, Ugh.

Rochelle Moulton:

And, yeah, that was not great.

Rochelle Moulton:

And when I played with it and I ran it a second time, cause I thought, I've

Rochelle Moulton:

put all this effort into it at, I'm just going try selling it differently.

Rochelle Moulton:

Let me play with this and see what I can do.

Rochelle Moulton:

Crickets.

Rochelle Moulton:

Absolute crickets.

Rochelle Moulton:

So yeah.

Rochelle Moulton:

Yeah, that was not pretty.

Rochelle Moulton:

I was not happy.

Rochelle Moulton:

And, and I learned from the experience, but I am glad I experimented, it

Rochelle Moulton:

taught me a very valuable lesson that apparently I needed to learn.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Which is?

Rochelle Moulton:

Do your research before you design a program and give

Rochelle Moulton:

your audience what they want to buy.

Rochelle Moulton:

As long as, it matches up with your zone of genius and how you want to deliver.

Rochelle Moulton:

Ask your audience and listen.

David Shriner-Cahn:

So Rochelle, those are actually two great examples.

David Shriner-Cahn:

And I'm wondering what was going through your mind right before you hit the send

David Shriner-Cahn:

button in both of those cases that enabled you to actually hit the send button.

David Shriner-Cahn:

In one case you had this great result.

David Shriner-Cahn:

In the other case, you had something that was a little disappointing shall we say.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Yeah,

Rochelle Moulton:

the disappointing one and it was a lot disappointing.

Rochelle Moulton:

What made me press the button?

Rochelle Moulton:

There was all the investment I had made and I don't mean just monetary.

Rochelle Moulton:

My psyche was in that I like my, I was wrapped up in my ego was wrapped up in

Rochelle Moulton:

that, so I ha I had to press the button.

Rochelle Moulton:

How could I have worked on this for, two and a half months, almost

Rochelle Moulton:

solid, and not press the button.

Rochelle Moulton:

So it was that pressure to press the button.

Rochelle Moulton:

On the one that went well, it actually, it, wasn't very hard to press the button.

Rochelle Moulton:

I, what I said was true, all those things went through my head, but it, I had

Rochelle Moulton:

also done a heck of a lot of research.

Rochelle Moulton:

I had, 13 individual calls with people in the space.

Rochelle Moulton:

They, I was getting the same message over and over again.

Rochelle Moulton:

I even got feedback that my price was too low, so I raised the price.

Rochelle Moulton:

So there was a part of me, and when I finally hit the button, what I

Rochelle Moulton:

said was if there's a lot of people who don't like it, that's okay.

Rochelle Moulton:

As long as the people I've designed this for do.

Rochelle Moulton:

And even if they didn't buy it, I wanted them to have a positive reaction.

Rochelle Moulton:

I wanted them to say, yeah, I'm not ready for this cause

Rochelle Moulton:

I had an income requirement, but I'm ready for the next one.

Rochelle Moulton:

So that it was easier to hit the button on the second one.

Rochelle Moulton:

But I didn't feel like I had to, the way that I did on the first one.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Rochelle, how long does it take to build a

David Shriner-Cahn:

financially viable authority business?

Rochelle Moulton:

Oh, good question.

Rochelle Moulton:

I think a lot of it depends on what you come in with and I'll

Rochelle Moulton:

give you a couple of examples.

Rochelle Moulton:

I've had clients where it's almost immediate and the reason I say

Rochelle Moulton:

almost immediate is they lined up a bunch of things for themselves.

Rochelle Moulton:

They had thought about it.

Rochelle Moulton:

They thought about consulting.

Rochelle Moulton:

They had lined up potential clients.

Rochelle Moulton:

Maybe they had consulted a little bit at some point in their

Rochelle Moulton:

career, or they operated their corporate job, like a consultant.

Rochelle Moulton:

There are a lot of people that do that.

Rochelle Moulton:

And when I say immediate, it's immediate in the sense that they're making money.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's not the business of their dreams yet, but they've

Rochelle Moulton:

started and they've made money.

Rochelle Moulton:

I worked with someone recently who struggled for almost three years,

Rochelle Moulton:

and we worked together to better position what he was doing, but this is

Rochelle Moulton:

someone who already was an authority.

Rochelle Moulton:

And this that's what was so interesting.

Rochelle Moulton:

He had built a lot of authority, but he had not monetized it

Rochelle Moulton:

in a way that made sense.

Rochelle Moulton:

And it turned on a dime.

Rochelle Moulton:

It was about, I shouldn't say a dime.

Rochelle Moulton:

I didn't, I'm sure it didn't feel like a dime to him.

Rochelle Moulton:

It was about six months in total, but part of that was that they had to get used

Rochelle Moulton:

to saying the message in a different way and not gulping at the price that, that

Rochelle Moulton:

they now were requiring from clients.

Rochelle Moulton:

And that incidentally that's a person who probably could break a

Rochelle Moulton:

million dollars in a solo consulting business, without leverage.

Rochelle Moulton:

And that's pretty rare.

Rochelle Moulton:

And when I say leverage, either you're selling products, that you don't have

Rochelle Moulton:

to actually deliver yourself or you're hiring employees to deliver services.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Yeah.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Rochelle, are there elements of your business model that are common

David Shriner-Cahn:

for authority businesses, and not common for expert businesses?

David Shriner-Cahn:

When you go from expert to authority, are there elements of your business

David Shriner-Cahn:

model itself that are likely to be new?

Rochelle Moulton:

I think the biggest difference is just that, you hear people

Rochelle Moulton:

say, you need to work on the business is that's built into my day, baked

Rochelle Moulton:

into everything that I, my clients and anybody'll encounter who's in authority.

Rochelle Moulton:

They've baked it into their business.

Rochelle Moulton:

And by that, I mean that you're writing, you're thinking, you're

Rochelle Moulton:

speaking, you are connecting with influencers in the sense of people

Rochelle Moulton:

who influence your ideal audience.

Rochelle Moulton:

And so you are spending, if not a portion of every day, then certainly a hefty

Rochelle Moulton:

portion of every week, thinking about those things and working on those things.

Rochelle Moulton:

That's the biggest difference.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Okay.

David Shriner-Cahn:

and when you say thinking about, or actively doing those things,

David Shriner-Cahn:

are you talking about time that you're not getting paid by clients.

Rochelle Moulton:

Yes.

Rochelle Moulton:

Yes.

Rochelle Moulton:

you really have to carve out some time.

Rochelle Moulton:

You can't do it without carving out the time to invest in building authority and

Rochelle Moulton:

it, you can design it a lot of different ways, so it can take the least amount of

Rochelle Moulton:

time possible to get the maximum result.

Rochelle Moulton:

But it is it, there is time that one must spend developing authority.

Rochelle Moulton:

The beauty of it is once you get to a certain point, there are

Rochelle Moulton:

lots of ways you can leverage authority and then it gets easier.

Rochelle Moulton:

I think it feels hardest at the beginning because we're so conditioned

Rochelle Moulton:

to, oh, I have to spend my time.

Rochelle Moulton:

I have to build my time, especially if you're billing by the hour, cause

Rochelle Moulton:

every hour has a dollar value on it.

Rochelle Moulton:

When you look at it that way, when you start to think about

Rochelle Moulton:

yourself as building authority.

Rochelle Moulton:

It's less about how much you're getting in that hour, but how much

Rochelle Moulton:

you are building for the future and where you want to take your business.

Rochelle Moulton:

Yeah, no, that's a great point.

Rochelle Moulton:

Rochelle, we have covered a lot of territory in a short amount of time.

Rochelle Moulton:

We could go on a lot longer, but I want to recognize that, people can

Rochelle Moulton:

also get in touch with you directly to access some material you have,

Rochelle Moulton:

get a copy of your book, and get in touch with you if they're interested.

Rochelle Moulton:

Where would be the best place for them to go.

Rochelle Moulton:

And, and is there something special that you wanted to mention

Rochelle Moulton:

with regard to this episode?

Rochelle Moulton:

Yeah, so the best place to go is my website, which is RochelleMoulton.com.

Rochelle Moulton:

There's a ton of free resources and downloads there's links to social media,

Rochelle Moulton:

and I've also put up the description of my Soloist Women mastermind, and

Rochelle Moulton:

I'm starting the next one in September.

Rochelle Moulton:

So if that's something of interest, check it out and, and you could

Rochelle Moulton:

reach me via email through there.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Great.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Rochelle, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to

David Shriner-Cahn:

join us today on Smashing the Plateau and share your insights.

David Shriner-Cahn:

My guest has been Rochelle Moulton, who turns independent

David Shriner-Cahn:

consultants into authorities.

David Shriner-Cahn:

Thank you again, Rochelle, for joining us.

Rochelle Moulton:

Thanks so much, David.

Rochelle Moulton:

I really appreciate it.

Rochelle Moulton:

When you visit the Smashing the Plateau website at smashingtheplateau.com, you'll

Rochelle Moulton:

find a summary of each episode, along with the links we mention on the show.

Rochelle Moulton:

On today's episode with Rochelle Moulton, we learned how to go

Rochelle Moulton:

from expertise to authority along with big financial benefits.

Rochelle Moulton:

Are you building your consulting, coaching, or small business following a

Rochelle Moulton:

long career as an employed professional?

Rochelle Moulton:

Are you tired of trying to build your business alone?

Rochelle Moulton:

Come meet other consultants, coaches, and small business owners on Friday,

Rochelle Moulton:

August 26th, at 12 noon Eastern Time.

Rochelle Moulton:

We're having an open house so that you can experience a bit of what we do in

Rochelle Moulton:

the Smashing the Plateau Community.

Rochelle Moulton:

You'll have an opportunity to think more critically about your work,

Rochelle Moulton:

meet colleagues who want to support your success and learn how a curated

Rochelle Moulton:

community can help empower you to make progress toward your goals.

Rochelle Moulton:

To register for the open house go to smashingtheplateau.com/openhouse.

Rochelle Moulton:

That's smashingtheplateau.com/openhouse.

Rochelle Moulton:

At Smashing the Plateau, our mission is empowering high achieving professionals

Rochelle Moulton:

to do what they love and get paid with their worth -- as entrepreneurs.

Rochelle Moulton:

I'm David Shriner-Cahn.

Rochelle Moulton:

Thank you for taking the time to listen to our show.

About the author, David Shriner-Cahn

David is the podcast host and community builder behind Smashing the Plateau, an online platform offering resources, accountability, and camaraderie to high-performing professionals who are making the leap from the corporate career track to entrepreneurial business ownership.

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