Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: What's up, everybody? Welcome to the Amerilife Marketing Mentors Podcast. My name is David Belville.
[00:00:04] Speaker B: And I'm Joe Barker.
[00:00:05] Speaker A: And today we are talking about how to establish yourself as an authority figure, why this is so important in 2026, and provide some actionable steps that you can start taking today.
So, just a level set, Joe, what does it mean to be an authority figure in 2026?
[00:00:23] Speaker B: Yeah, so I think when. When people hear that, sometimes they overthink what it means. But I think as if you. If you look at it and you say, hey, who is my target audience?
It could be your local audience. So say you're a Medicare agent and you're in the Clearwater area, which is where we are. Well, being an authority figure in that area is producing content where you're providing value and you're providing the thought leadership to your target audience. It doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be at the top of all of the, you know, YouTube channels for all of Medicare across the United States. It's. It's coming into your current area or your current wheelhouse, and it's just coming out and saying, hey, I'm an expert in this area. I can help people. And it's providing the value and getting yourself that status of, hey, this person knows what they're talking about about this subject.
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Right. And establishing that trust is going to give you much more of a likelihood that you're going to get chosen over your competition. If your audience believes that you are the expert and that you are going to be the safest choice to help them make those important decisions, then they're going to go with you.
So we know, too, that in 2026, trust is fragile. And with the rise of AI comes a level of skepticism that appears to be growing. And so that's just another reason why establishing yourself as that thought leader in your space is so important. Because right now, consumers are questioning what's real and what's not. Who can they trust? And so by establishing yourself as that expert, you're kind of overcoming that first objection that could be out there.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, if you look at everything that we're doing here, we're doing that exact same thing. So what we're doing is our target audience is agents, advisors, FMOs, and it's all about marketing within that space. So that's our niche. Our niche is that industry, those specific people, and it's all about marketing. And so this is what we do, is we come out and we try to provide as much value and we Give our own opinions to it. So anybody can go on the Internet and learn about marketing in this industry.
What we do and we bring to the table is we're now sharing our aspect, like our thoughts, our experiences, our results, and we're sharing it with everybody. That's no different. If you are an advisor working with somebody and say you're in the local area. Imagine if you are about to near retirement and you're worried about retirement and being able to afford it, but then all of a sudden you see that a YouTube channel where somebody is sharing that exact same scenario and, and it's almost like they're talking to you directly. You start to connect with it. That's where you really start to build that brand and build that authority is when you're providing that value and people feel like, wow, they're talking to me like this is the exact situation I'm in right now, or this is the exact question I have. And you just answered it for me.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah, and you said it at the top. This is a space where a lot of people may tend to overthink things, but you're already out in the field every day speaking to these objections that your, your clients have, or addressing pain points that your solutions can really solve for them. You, you don't have to know everything and be everywhere all at once. What you're doing every single day is enough. You're just amplifying that message and meeting your audience where they spend their time, whether that be on social media or, or being discoverable on Google. They're. By showing up where they are and then delivering that information there, you're already establishing trust before they ever make that phone call. And so, Joe, that kind of leads me into what establishing yourself as an authority does to the early stages of that consumer journey.
[00:04:00] Speaker B: Well, yeah, I think what it does is it helps the consumer connect with you before they ever even meet you. So the easiest way I think to approach this or to picture this is imagine that you meet with clients every single week. I have, I have to imagine that, that there's probably those frequently asked questions that you hear consistently. Just like us in our industry, we, we consistently see those same questions being asked. So our, our answer to that is to go make a video.
So if you're asking it, most likely there's a lot of other people who are asking that same question. Let me go ahead and go answer that for everybody. Let me put that out there. I'll put it in a post on social media. I'll put it in a video on YouTube. Let me help. What ends up happening is as people are searching or as they're utilizing AI or even going to YouTube and they start searching for those, they start searching those questions or trying to learn more, your information pops up. They start connecting with you, and you're teaching them before you ever even meet them. And what that does is it just starts to build trust and build credibility of like, hey, these are the real questions I have. And you didn't even ask me for anything. You. You're just giving me value and you're helping me make an informed decision. Who are you going to call when it's time to make that phone call, which we all want to do? We all want to make that phone call to get that. That confirmation that we're making the right decision. Who are you going to call? Are you going to go to the, you know, Google and go look up somebody new? Or if you have your contact information on the video that you've been telling them, are you going to call the person who has been guiding you the whole time without you even, you know, without actually being there, live with you?
[00:05:27] Speaker A: Right. Especially because in these industries, in health and in wealth, we are talking about people's livelihoods. We are talking about some of the most important decisions that these folks will make when it comes to their future and their family's future. So trust is paramount, especially in this industry. And so that's just another reason why establishing yourself as that thought leader goes so far, because people want to know that you know what you're talking about. And, and that can be your d. Your key differentiator.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: I think another thing to keep in mind is, you know, businesses are out there and they're putting out information, but people trust people. They don't always trust businesses, which is what makes it even more vital for people to, you know, to put their brand out there and grow their authority, knowing that if somebody is looking up something, if they get a business profile, it's going to automatically kind of make them a little hesitant of, are they just trying to sell me, Can I trust this person? Where if you hit a personal profile or a personal YouTube video, then you start to see, oh, okay. They're, you know, like, they're. They're just helping. They're very educated on this topic. They're. They're speaking about things that I haven't even told them that I wanted to know about, and they're providing more. And hopefully you get to a point where you're. You're warning them or you're telling them of things that they should be thinking about that maybe they're not.
[00:06:44] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:06:45] Speaker B: And so now they're trusting you more and more and more with each piece of content that they're consuming.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: One thing I want to mention as our audience listens to this conversation is that you don't need to put on the professor's coat and get in front of a whiteboard and give an hour long lecture either. That's not what we're talking about. Making these complex topics easy enough to understand for when people are searching for help. That they find you and they're understanding what you're talking about is all you need. You don't need to be teaching, you know, the ins and outs of Medicare from top to bottom to ensure that you're establishing yourself as a thought leader.
It's really about breaking down those complex topics so that they're digestible and they're in the areas where your audience is looking for those answers. And those could be Facebook groups, Reddit threads, you know, YouTube comments. There's a lot of places that people are asking questions and finding answers. And so if you're in those spaces and you're giving your own takes and providing your own experiences, that's what we're talking about. Not necessarily, you know, putting on a full on lecture here.
[00:07:50] Speaker B: Absolutely. No, I completely agree. And I, I laughed kind of inside what you said about you don't need to be wearing the suit. And I'm like, well, I'm on camera today wearing a T shirt. It know, but we're real, we're real people, you know, with real experiences. And we're, we're not scripted, we're not coming out here and saying, well, here's my script. This is what I'm going to say today. We're answering the questions that people have within our wheelhouse and our, you know, our world. And we're trying to be helpful. That is, and that's all it is. It's just trying to get ahead, trying to be helpful and put the content out there for the things that you hear on a daily basis anyway. Yeah. Or if you learn something and you're like, oh, wow, this would be really valuable for my target audience to know. Let me go put this out here so that way I can share it and I can be that source of knowledge and that source of, oh, well, this is where I go whenever I want to hear about financial planning or Medicare or whatever that topic may be.
[00:08:38] Speaker A: And I think that you're starting to get into what building a niche audience does for you. In your business because there's a lot of ground that you can cover in the health and wealth spaces to establish yourself as a thought leader. But that is going to lead to overwhelm and burnout. And, you know, there's no way that your audience has the capacity either to take all of that knowledge in unless they're very, very intentionally looking to, you know, gain that knowledge. And so the importance here is have a niche audience and only speak to that audience with a few key topics in mind. So you mentioned earlier, what are the most common objections that you hear in the field? What are the most commonly asked questions that you get? Pick, like, a handful of those and then just stick to speaking to those topics every single time that you're getting in front of a camera or, you know, typing on a keyboard. That way you're staying focused. Algorithms start to recognize who you're talking to and what you're talking about. And you're avoiding overwhelm at the same time.
[00:09:38] Speaker B: Yep, absolutely. And we've talked about it before. You know, just have somebody in mind that you're speaking to and just picture that person and the questions they may have or the concerns they may have or. Or anything that they may not even be thinking about. Because a lot of the times, that's what it comes into us every single day are dealing with our industry. We're dealing with. With compliance. We're dealing with all these different things from the consumer's perspective or our target audience's perspective, there's a lot that they're not aware of. And this is where as an authority figure or as somebody who's. Who's building their brand, this is where you can come out and you can almost. It's almost like you're trying to protect them and you're saying, like, hey, I've seen this before. Here's the five things you're not thinking about when you're selecting this plan or something along those lines. Um, and that's where I. I think people can really just keep it simple and just start building and. And keep it even. If you're just posting without creating a video, just start posting and start putting your true thoughts in everything that you write. So it's not going to AI and just taking the script. Put what you truly believe or what you truly think goes with that or why it's important. Put that in there and. And make sure that it always is you. You know that who's producing that.
[00:10:46] Speaker A: And that is how you distance yourself from your competition. That is how you set yourself apart.
Key differentiator. And if you can identify that and then commit to that like it's your life mission, you're gonna go far and really carve out a nice sliver of real estate. When it comes to online digital marketing,
[00:11:07] Speaker B: I think that's what it is. It's, it's deciding what, what it is that you, you know, that, that you want to own or that you want to be known for. And so a lot of times when we work with agents and advisors and, and they, you know, they're like, oh, I want to run ads or I want to do whatever it is, it's like, okay, but let's start with your area. Like, do you meet with people in person? Okay, yes, you do. Let's start with your city. Let's really get you into that city and let's get your name known there. Get into the Facebook groups, get into the Reddits if they're in there. Get into the next door neighbor apps if they're, if they're there. And those are the type of ways that you can really start with your local community and then you begin to bridge out. So start with the city, then go to the county, maybe then you go to the region of the state, whatever that may look like. But you have to start somewhere and decide what is it where people say, hey, that's my guy or that's my girl. What is it that you want them to say it for? Like, hey, that's my marketing girl. That is, you know, that's the person who specializes in that. That's kind of the goal of it is to have people start to say that of. Nope. If you're going to get involved in Medicare, you have to select a Medicare plan. This is the person you want to talk to.
[00:12:08] Speaker A: Yeah, that's fantastic advice. I also want to bring up AI into this discussion because with the development of AI comes new ways for your audience to find you. And it's truly no longer humans just searching for information. We have AI chat platforms that are also searching for you and looking for you. And the way that you get discovered by those AI platforms is by further developing your credibility and establishing yourself as a thought leader. And without getting too, too inside baseball from some of these discoverability strategies, can you speak a little bit to how you can use AI to show up where your audience is searching and how that all leads into this conversation today?
[00:12:50] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So if you're building out content and it's all about that niche market that you're going after, then, you know, on Google, it's going to be your website, social media pages, everything showing up there. When you move over to the AI chat platforms, there's so many more sites and so much more intel that comes in before they make that that recommendation is basically what AI is doing. Yes, they pull websites. Yes, they see that there's social media links out there, but then they're going to your Google my business. What are the reviews? Yelp or any of the review channels. What are the reviews on that, whatever the word is that they put in there. They're trying to find that across, you know, all of the Internet to see. Okay, well, if you really are looking for the best financial planner in Clearwater, it's gonna go search for that and it's gonna go look who, who does have good reviews. Cause that's what the best means. Best means they have really good reviews.
[00:13:41] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:13:41] Speaker B: Who has the content about being a financial planner in Clearwater area? Here comes the website coming into play. So you've gotta start connecting all the do entire online presence to understand what goes into AI making those recommendations. And if you want to show up to be the best, then you've got to have good reviews that are, that are following behind you, where it's people saying, no, this, this person is five stars. This person really is the best.
All of that comes into play.
[00:14:10] Speaker A: Let's talk about that a little bit more reviews and testimonials. Because it's hard to establish yourself as a source of trust if you don't have that credibility to back you up. And so lean on your current clients or those success stories to help establish yourself in your communities. As that go to go to source of trust.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: Not only is that going to drive more traffic to you and drive more interest in your business, but it's going to give future clients that peace of mind that, oh, if they helped my neighbor Cheryl and she gave them five stars, then I should at least consider them when I'm considering all of my options. Reviews and testimonials are huge. They can also lend themselves to content opportunities. You can highlight quotes that were left as reviews and share those on social media. So as we're having this discussion, don't be afraid to ask your clients that, your happy clients, especially for reviews and testimonials, they can go a long way.
[00:15:07] Speaker B: No, it should actually be built into the platform. So if you, you know, you're providing a great service, you're providing a lot of value. And so once that, you know, once that is done, asking them for a review should absolutely be built into the entire process of the journey, and then you get the review and now you're still working with them and you're still trying to help them for whatever it is, you know, within your area that they may, may need help with next.
[00:15:29] Speaker A: And, and in my experience, I often see people who leave reviews are, more times than not people who are unhappy usually. Yeah. Yeah. So I always take reviews with a grain of salt with that in mind, because you're more inclined to leave a bad review than a good review. And so that just highlights the importance of asking those clients if you were pleased with your service today or pleased with the decision you made or the product that you received, please reach out and leave a review. Because that, that can often be the deciding factor for someone choosing you. Joe, as we wrap up this discussion today, is there anything within this conversation that we haven't talked about that you think that we should?
[00:16:11] Speaker B: No. I mean, I think it's just a matter of, of getting started and just not being afraid to put yourself out there. And then, you know, pick your channels, pick, pick that topic, get down to that niche topic that you, that you talk about that you want to be the authority figure in and then figure out, you know, where is that authority to live? Is it in that local community? Is it in a local industry or a niche of an industry?
Focus in on that and then just start the plan to start building upon it. The fact is, is the way to do it though, is you have to put yourself out there and you have to be, you don't try to look at other channels and be like, oh, well, they're really good and I kind of want to mirror them. Don't mirror them. They are them and, and they're going to connect with people. The fact is, is if you pretend to be something that you're not and you put yourself out there and then you go meet with people in person and you're a different person that is going to drop trust. So just be yourself, get out there, provide your value, say it your way, and it. You will connect with the right people that want to work with you.
[00:17:08] Speaker A: That's such a great point, Joe. The last takeaway that I'd like to share is don't be afraid to fail here. Yep, absolutely. And if you're gonna fail, fail forward. This, this can be daunting at first, and we, that's why we're having these conversations, to take a little bit of that overwhelm out of the picture. But realistically, it is a little scary to, to, to get started and, but to put yourself up there, there's a level of vulnerability. But if you can get past that and not be afraid to fail, then you're already ahead of most agents and advisors out there. And I always like to say that there is no such thing as a bad post or a bad communication or a bad email because you're always garnering some sort of a data point. So once you probably find a bad one, Just kidding.
You got to look at the silver lining though, of course, the glass half full. And you know, if you can always be learning a lesson, then there really is no failure and you can use that data to guide your future decisions and you'll find, you'll find your niche and you'll find where you excel.
[00:18:05] Speaker B: Just get out there, start doing it. If you have any questions, if you're unsure, even if you're, you know, there's certain points where I, I think people even feel unsure about. Well, I do a lot and I, I offer a lot of products and I don't really know the mix of how I should be posting. Get a 15 minute call with us. Let's have a conversation and then we may be able to help guide you into the direction that if you are feeling lost because it can feel overwhelming of I don't know where to start. So that would be my only advice is if you truly are feeling lost, you're not quite where to begin. Are sure where to begin, go to the amerilifemarketingmentors.com and just set up a 15 minute call with us and let's chat about it and then we can hopefully help you feel that much more confident as you move forward.
[00:18:47] Speaker A: That sounds great. We hope to see you at our next podcast episode. We hope that you'll take advantage of these consultations and if you're not already, be sure to like and subscribe to the Amerilife marketing mentors because we're producing value for you all the time. And until next time, I'm David Belville.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: And I'm Joe Parker.
[00:19:04] Speaker A: Take care.
