How to Show Authority and Authenticity in Your Business

This week I’d like to talk to you about how to show authority and authenticity in your business. Did you know there is a way of BEING that literally makes or breaks your ability to truly succeed in business? Many enlightened entrepreneurs such as coaches, authors, speakers, trainers, leaders and experts, (what I love to call: Enlightened C.A.S.T.L.E.), don’t use it and, as a result, are literally struggling and still surviving to make a living with their gifts instead of thriving and being truly successful doing their labor of love, day in and day out–even if they have done a lot of social media promotion and networking, and even if they have lots of people interested in working with them.

To stop surviving and start thriving in your business, you need to be an authentic authority when you talk about what you offer and how you can help people. If there’s no passion, no enthusiasm, no excitement on your end, then a potential client is simply not going to be confident and excited either that working with you is the answer to their “waking-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night” prayers. They’ll question two things: one, whether you are really good at what you do in the first place, and two, whether you truly care about helping them, and then if they don’t feel your authentic confidence they may decide to keep looking somewhere else.

In my article this week, I walk you through an example of how one professional lost me as a client simply because she didn’t show me passion and confidence in her services–and as a result she let lots of potential clients slip through her fingers. It’s an important topic and a life lesson to learn from. Then I’ll show you how you avoid this unintended mistake and instead enlighten others with your energy, enthusiasm and commitment when talking about your services so your ideal clients – the people you are here to serve, support and help, what I love to call your authentic audience, will not only want to work with you, but also become your raving fans because they love to work with you.

Here’s an example of what happened to me a few years ago, after going to one of my back massage sessions. For weeks, I’d been researching some good stress-free and relaxation massage therapy done to improve my health and well-being. During my sessions with the massage therapist, I asked “Mary” if she performed full body massage therapy. Now, before I tell you what happened, let me explain her typical behavior. She was naturally very outgoing, friendly, and did good work (as far as I could tell from my back massage sessions.) She was warm, welcoming and seemed pretty confident all around. But something happened when I asked her if she did full body massage therapy.

Mary’s behavior changed, almost instantly. She looked away, talked about being in business for over five years and of course she did full-body massage therapy, and that she did it well. And then that was it. She stopped there, and didn’t say anything else about it. The strange thing was her words were no longer enthusiastic and confident. They turned empty and uninspiring, she was quiet and didn’t seem excited about it at all, and I wasn’t sure how to read the situation.

Whatever had happened, my intuition, my inner wisdom told me not to work with her. Right then and there, in just one moment, she let lots of potential business slip through her fingers. I knew by the manner in which she spoke that if I was to go forward with the full-body massage therapy, I wasn’t going to be using “Massage Therapist Mary”. She simply had not inspired me to go and do it, or shall I say? Apply the Law of G.A.D.I. (Go And Do It!) —not even close. In fact, quite the opposite happened. I stopped using her services for good.

Here’s what I have discovered from that experience and countless other experiences I’ve had, just watching entrepreneurs talk about their services:

Clients want to work with professionals who are PASSIONATE about their unique abilities, talents and gifts. (Are you?)

Clients want to work and learn from an AUTHENTIC AUTHORITY on a subject, topic or area of expertise. (Are you?)

Clients are looking for someone who is CONFIDENT and GENUINE about the transformation, the outcome they offer. (Are you?)

Clients want to work with someone who is ENTHUSIASTIC and EXCITED about the results they provide. (Are you?)

Clients are silently begging to be INSPIRED and EMPOWERED about moving forward towards where they want to be! (Are you?)

Clients deeply desire to be LED, TAUGHT and SHOWN the best and most practical ways to solve their specific situation. (Are you?)
Your Authentic Business Success In Action

From this moment forward, you cannot afford to be uncommitted about sharing your passio
AND leading with authentic authority when you talk about your business and how you can help people. It’s time to be a passionate authentic authority when offering people your services. Now it’s your time to enlighten others with your energy, excitement and enthusiasm when inviting them to work with you. Not only that, when you do it, you need to express that inspired confidence in a way that makes your potential clients feel empowered and excited about working with you.

You see, your labor of love is to serve, not to sell. Your labor of love is to be so PASSIONATE about sharing your message that you empower potential clients to get out of their own way to work with you. The way you do that is by being authentic, feeling passionate, and showing enthusiasm about your expertise so that you can build the “know-like-and-trust” factor, show authority on your topic, and express your unique abilities about the transformation they’ll get from working with you. And that’s all in your way of BEING.

Now, there’s a caveat here. This doesn’t mean that you become obsessed, ‘pushy’ or over confident. That’s just a big turnoff and it would send potential clients running in the other direction. Just be your best authentic self, but speak with passion, enthusiasm and authority.

One more thing, I would recommend that you not promise a potential client you can do something that you cannot, just to succeed in your offerings. Some inauthentic sales advisors out there will tell you to do this, and then figure it out later, but I disagree entirely. It’s out of integrity, incongruent and not aligned with your values and big vision for your business. And remember, we are looking for authentic business success here. It’s better and more enlightening to gently turn away that potential client and move on to the next one. Eventually, we’re going to truly succeed in business with confidence, congruency and authenticity.

So, be the best version of who you truly are. Be an inspired leader, an empowered creator and an enlightened entrepreneur, and start speaking with authenticity, passion and confidence from this moment forward. It doesn’t take much to enlighten others with your energy, and yet I guarantee you’ll start thriving on everything you do to connect with your authentic audience and attract more ideal clients than you are now. It works!