Built Authority quietly launched on July 1.
This is the next step in my 25-year entrepreneurial journey, and I’m grateful you’ve been part of my journey over the years.
Maybe we met at a conference I keynoted. Perhaps you’ve read one of my books or listened to the podcast. Maybe we’ve worked together over the years or simply connected for a Zoom call after meeting in an entrepreneurial mastermind or on LinkedIn.
This journey goes all the way back to my sophomore year in college when a girl told me my punk rock band sucked and challenged me to do something with my life.
After the biggest show we played.
At the time, I wanted to impress the girl from an entrepreneurial family, whose father immigrated to the United States in the late 1950s. So on February 11, 2002, I became an entrepreneur after selling some of my band equipment to start a web design company.
The best part of this story is that this girl and I would eventually get married. For the past 20 years, we’ve walked the journey and ridden the rollercoaster of life, marriage, and entrepreneurship together.
Wedding day 20 years ago.
Along the way, we welcomed four kids into the world. Each one has shown an entrepreneurial interest in one way or another. From the youngest selling snow cones in our driveway to our oldest starting a power washing business this summer.
The Two Types of Freedom
I found myself reflecting on freedom as we celebrated 250 years of independence in the United States this past weekend.
At its core, I distilled freedom down into two buckets:
The freedom from
The freedom to
Grabbing ice cream from our favorite place before fireworks on the 4th of July.
As a 25-year entrepreneur, I know what it feels like to build a business that becomes a prison. The key to my escape was my son asking me a question that changed my life. After publishing my second book, Banking on Change, he asked me, “Dad, why do you always come home with a dark cloud over your head?” That question was the start of my own personal revolution, a journey to a new kind of freedom.
The Freedom to Become
It’s from this place I’ve been reflecting on the freedom from being known for something you have outgrown. The freedom from carrying a role that once fit but became too small, too heavy, or too far from the truth. The freedom from playing a game you no longer want to play.
I’ve also been thinking about the freedom to tell yourself the truth about who you are.
Or even deeper, the freedom to become who you are being called to become.
This is why I’m writing you today.
The Freedom to Become the Built Authority
In a world where what you do can be quickly automated, copied, or compared, how you think becomes your greatest differentiator. Your thinking is shaped by your experience — what only you have lived, learned, built, lost, solved, survived, seen, and felt.
Your experience is your most valuable asset. Your thinking is your biggest differentiator. And to leverage both, you must give yourself the freedom to review, reflect, and think. No person, institution, or AI can ever take your lived experience from you. And no one else gets to decide what you do with the wisdom you have earned along the way.
Kicking off a conference in Las Vegas with a keynote around my book.
You have the freedom now, more than ever, to become the Built Authority in your market who is known, trusted, and paid for how you think — not just what you do.
The Heart of Built Authority
Maybe you have built something valuable, but the market still does not clearly understand the thinking behind it. Maybe people trust you once they are in conversation with you, but that trust is not yet reflected in your message.
Perhaps you are in a season where you know there is more to say, more to teach, and more to build from everything you have experienced up to this point. Maybe you’re being called to do that by writing a book that becomes your signature keynote and creates an even bigger impact.
Signing books after a keynote in New York.
At the heart of Built Authority is helping entrepreneurs turn what they have lived and learned into wisdom, thinking, and authority that serves others.
If this sounds like you, I’d be glad to have a conversation about what it could look like to start defining your authority.
Two Questions to Build Your Authority
I’ll leave you with two questions that might help you declare your independence and begin building your authority by telling yourself the truth.
What would it feel like for you to experience a different kind of freedom by becoming known, trusted, and paid for how you think — not just what you do?
If you were fully free to be the person you’re being called to become, what do you want to be known and trusted for?