“An artist carries on throughout his life a mysterious, uninterrupted conversation with his public.”
— Maurice Chevalier
Many people who want to establish their authority and become a Thought Leader write a book. It’s great to have a book, and it’s even better to sell a lot of books. Books are great.
But books are also a little bit problematic. Most of those problems can be solved, but here’s one problem that nobody can fix: once they are written, they are… what?
They’re written.
A book can only say what you wrote in it. That’s it. And that’s great — as far as it goes.
But in order to establish Authority, there must be more give-and-take than that. You need to establish an extended line of communication with your audience, where you can build a relationship and emotional connection. This is essential to being able to affect their beliefs and cement their compliance.
A book is a great stepping-stone to building authority, but authority sells a lot of books. That will create a feeder system that flows new people into your authority-building, which will sell more books.
And if you’re doing it right, you’ll carve out some real estate inside the heads of your audience. They’ll use the words you tell them to use, hold the beliefs you tell them are right, and they’ll act as you prescribe.
You’ll be a thought leader. You’ll have the status you desire, the impact you desire, and you will be rewarded as you desire.
It all starts with that conversation that never ends.