The Power of Authority In Business and Peer Groups with Adam Witty
In this episode of the Mastermind Mastery podcast, host Tina Corner Stolz interviews Adam Witty, CEO of Forbes Books, about the concept of authority and how it fuels success in peer advisory councils (PACs) and mastermind groups. Adam defines authority as influence rather than positional power and explains why greater authority attracts members, justifies higher pricing, and drives renewals and referrals. He outlines practical ways to build authority—writing articles, blogging, podcast appearances, publishing books, speaking engagements, and media interviews—emphasizing a mindset of abundance and the importance of sharing knowledge. The conversation highlights that authority is a powerful business‑development engine, especially in today’s research‑first buying environment where prospects first Google, watch YouTube, or browse Amazon. Adam warns against a haphazard, unfocused approach and recommends a strategic plan that starts with a clear niche, a target audience, and the specific problems you can solve. The episode also promotes the upcoming Live Exchange 2024 conference in St. Petersburg, Florida, and provides contact information and resources for listeners who want to deepen their authority‑building efforts.
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Welcome everyone to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. This is the podcast for you if you are wanting to create or already running peer groups. It's what we call PACs, Peer Advisory Councils. They might be known as mastermind groups, CEO peer groups, all the same. But this is the podcast if you want to run better PACs, that you want to be better at being a moderator, you want to up your game, learn advanced techniques, hear from myself as well as guests, what works, new concepts, trends, techniques. Also learn content, things you could take back to your meetings, different ways to do different things to solve problems that we all have when we're running groups. It will increase your retention, reduce your attrition, get you more members, make you more money. This is the podcast for you. I'm Tina Corner Stolz. The host. I've been doing this since 2005. I built a territory of 10+ groups, sold for a multiple, started Ellis Council, Leader Exchange Council, in 2012. We are a licensing model. We are the leading educator in the peer advisory council space. We have the podcast. I have a licensing program with certification. I've written 2 books. So today, when you hear this episode, each and every week it's a new podcast where we dive deep into a topic for 15, 20 minutes. One week it's me doing a deep dive on all the experience and insights from not only today with our entire licensed partner community or the past, what I've learned along the way, but we also have guests that are out there doing groups today that share their insights and new concepts. So let's get started with today's episode.
Welcome everyone to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. I am your host, Tina Corner Stolz, and today We have a great topic that I believe you don't hear enough about and can make all the difference in the world to you in regards to creating and running your peer groups. And the topic is about authority and building your authority. And there couldn't be a better guest today to have that I am thrilled, and we are all privileged to hear his words of wisdom, which is Adam Woody. So, Adam, welcome to the show.
Tina, thank you. I wish that my wife and my mother could hear that introduction. I don't think they would believe it. But thank you for the very, very kind words and really glad to be with you.
Of course.
Well, I need to do a little bit of an intro here for the audience because, Adam, you are the CEO of actually Forbes Books, which is a part of Forbes Media.
That's right.
You are an author yourself. And 6 books, I think. Is that right?
Yeah. But who's counting? Who's counting?
Who's counting? Exactly. But so his books, one is on authority marketing and another one like Lead the Field, et cetera. So very relevant to today's topic. I have to point out 2 other things that I think are important. One, you're an Eagle Scout. That's a big deal. Okay, so I love that because it tells a lot about someone and their integrity and all of that and your character. The other thing is, for everyone in the listening, our listeners, is that you understand the peer group model really, really well. You've participated in groups. I think you're still in groups, right? And so for everyone out there, Adam gets it. So today what you're going to hear is his insights and wisdom on authority, and particularly also in how it relates to running groups, building groups. So you ready to get started?
Let's do it.
Well, I want to start with how did you become passionate about this topic? Like, where did that come from?
Yeah, well, on the publishing side, no one grows up wanting to be a publisher. Yes, we want to be astronauts, we want to be, you know, star basketball players, but we don't want to be publishers. And candidly, I had no dreams or aspirations to be in the book business as a kid growing up. And I, I fell into it, I suppose you might say. So I'm a kid in high school in Central Florida, which is where I grew up, not far from you, Tina.
Yes.
And my parents said, Adam, you've got to get a summer job. And I ended up interning. It was a paid internship for a book publishing house. Because our next door neighbor worked there and he scored me an opportunity. And what I thought I would find just moderately interesting, I found really interesting. And I determined that I really liked the idea of how books were created and how they were published and how they were marketed, marketed and promoted and sold. And when I went off to college, I, studied entrepreneurship, and I knew that I wanted to try to do something on my own. And with the help of a mentor who really pushed me down this path, I started Advantage Media in 2005. We partnered with Forbes in 2016 to create Forbes Books. And so next year will be my 20th year helping CEOs, entrepreneurs, and leaders build their authority, write and publish books and really be seen as the thought leader in their field.
Excellent. Well, congratulations. Happy early 20th, right? Thank you. And I have to remind my audience too, real quick, is that I was blessed that you all were my publisher for my most recent book. So thank you very much because of everything we're going to talk about today about authority. So that's how you got started.
Yes.
Excellent. And so for our listeners today, what do you think about the whole peer group space and how does authority play into that?
Yeah, it's a great question. So the first thing that everybody should know is the more authority you have, the more doors you will open. To put it another way, the more authority you have, the more your phone is going to ring. And it's really not possible to have too much authority, right? It's kind of not possible. But the more authority you have, the more you're seen as the expert, the thought leader, the go-to guy, the go-to gal for whatever it is that you're an expert on. Right? And the more, the more authority you have, if you're running a peer group, the more interest you're going to have from prospective members, the more you're going to be able to push the envelope on the price that you charge for people to be a part of that peer group that you're leading. The more authority you have, the higher your level of renewals are going to be, the higher the level of referrals are going to be. So the more authority you have, it's like an incoming tide that lifts all boats. And at the end of the day, when you're leading a peer group, in many ways you're selling yourself, you're selling your authority, you're selling your expertise on a topic, right? And the more authority you have, the more people are gonna be attracted to wanting to be connected to you by being a part of your group.
While you were speaking, Adam, I was thinking, Can you describe what the word authority means? Like, what is— what I, I recognize it's kind of probably intuitive for most, but now I'm kind of wondering if our listeners, like, when you think about authority, sort of, you've already explained a little bit about it's like you're, you're showcasing your expertise, etc., but is there anything else you'd kind of add to that definition?
Yeah, so sometimes when people hear the word authority, they might think of the police, or they might think of, oh, my boss who's able to tell me what to do. And that's not the way that we see authority. We see authority as influence. The more authority you have, the more influential you are, the more people look to you, the more people turn to you for your advice, for your thoughts, for your insights. And really, authority is all about strategically positioning yourself as a thought leader so you become the preferred choice. You become the go-to person that people look to when they need advice, when they need information, when they need guidance. And of course, you know, what are you an authority on, right? Like for me, I'm an authority on building authority, right? Tina, you are the authority on building, managing, maintaining, and having prosperous peer groups, right? We just published a book yesterday on artificial intelligence. And so the author of that book is an authority on AI and the tech revolution that's coming behind it, right? So we all have a niche. A topic that we've probably dedicated much of our career to. And logically, that is probably the place where we should be building your authority. And everybody has authority. It just may, for some of us, be latent. Latent, meaning we don't talk about it. We don't really market and advertise it. We just kind of like push it to the side and pretend it doesn't exist. But probably speaking to most of your peer group leaders, I mean, the reason they're able to have a peer group is because they have authority, right? They have probably advanced degrees. They probably have decades of experience. They probably have lots of career success, if you will. And some of them maybe have written books. I'm sure many of them have been interviewed on radio and television. Probably many of them have done lots of speaking. All of those things are pieces of building and presenting authority. But if it's not strategic, if it's done just haphazardly, it doesn't create the impact and effect that you need in order for it to be a tangible business benefit for you.
Good points. So thank you for explaining that difference about authority and the fact, I think one piece I hope that our listeners have already taken away is everybody has authority. They have it. It's there. It's a matter of, right, bringing it out. And so how do you suggest some of the best ways for people to build their brand in regards to being an authority?
Yeah. So as you just said, everybody that we're talking to, everybody that's listening to this podcast, they have deep expertise. And if they didn't, they wouldn't be paying attention to you, right? You have attracted a group of people that have deep expertise that now want to leverage that into creating and running peer groups. So the expertise is there. None of this is fake. None of this is manufactured. But there's a lot of people that are experts in authorities on a topic, but they're ghosts. Nobody really knows that they're out there. So what is the first step that you can take? The first step you can take is start talking about what you know a lot about, right? That could be simply writing articles. That could be creating and having your own blog. That could be starting or at least being interviewed on other people's podcasts. It could be writing and publishing a book, right? I've got my book right here. I've got your book that I can see right behind you. It could be speaking and addressing audiences. It could be being interviewed or sourced for an article in the news media. All of those things build your authority. But anybody that has expertise can start today. And the best way to start is start sharing with others what you know a lot about with the idea of how can I share and let that information be of value to someone else. And probably that someone else, Tina, is your target customer. The person that would want to be a member of your peer group is somebody that's looking for help. They're looking for information. They're looking for advice. They're looking for guidance. They're looking for consulting support on probably the thing or things that you know a lot about. So start talking about it.
I, I love this example because being in a peer group and developing the group is such a relationship-like process. It's not transactional, as you know. And so building your authority goes hand in hand with relationship, right? Um, but the other thing that I hear you talk about that I find interesting is is one of our core values at LX Council is abundance. So abundant mindset, et cetera. And you, to me, you just indicated that by the key is like share your knowledge. It doesn't mean give away all your intellectual property. That's not, I don't, not what you're saying.
I read. That's right.
That's right.
Yeah. Yeah. So, so, um, on the back of the book, the headline on the back cover of the book is are you a thought leader with something to teach or are you an operator with something to sell? And that is really the big idea here, right?
It is the big idea.
You are an expert. You have a lot of deep knowledge. You need to share that with the people that need your help. And you do that with a mentality and mindset of abundance. And you do that with a genuine desire to help people make better decisions. Right? And when you do that, when you share, when you teach people that are engaged with it, they're going to come to you and they're going to say, Tina, I want more. What else do you, what else do you have? You know, I read your book, but what else do you have? Do you do consulting? Is there a peer group? Is there a mastermind? How can I get more of you? Right. And one of the things that I hear people say sometimes, they're like, you know, I'm really afraid to write a book because I, if I give it all away in the book, then, well, they won't need me. Don't worry about that. Number one, there isn't a single person that's gonna read everything in the book and say, you know what? I got it. I'm good. I don't need Tina.
Yeah.
And if for some reason they do, God bless them.
Good for them. Exactly.
But 99 out of 100 people, they're going to read your book, they're going to read your article, they're going to listen to your podcast and say, you know what? That's really good. I need more. I need her to help me do it because I can't figure this out on my own. And so what we have found and what our authors and our authorities have found is that the more they share their authority, the more doors they open. And for a lot of people, the doors that they open are new leads, prospects that convert into clients and customers, clients and customers that renew and stay, you know, that they retain their customers for longer. And so it's really probably the best business development tool known to man.
Correct. And especially in today's environment where that has changed how people buy, they do all this research, right? First they— so to your point, when you're putting your knowledge out there, they're already digesting it, getting to know you, and then by the time they probably get to you, they're ready to buy.
I'm so glad you said that. Consumers today, whether it's a B2C purchase or a B2B purchase, it doesn't matter. The first place they go is either Google, number one, YouTube, number two, which is owned by Google.
Yep.
And number three is Amazon. Okay. And so here's the thing. If I Google your name, what am I gonna find? Are you a ghost? Nowhere to be found? Or am I gonna have to pack a lunch? Because I'm gonna get hungry because there is so much that I found out about you. And think about it. Who do you want to do business with? Do you want to do the business where there's pages and pages about you on Google? Or do I want to Google your name and think that you're in the witness protection program?
Right.
Right. Who do I really want to do business with? And so that is the big idea that anybody that wants to start and grow a prosperous peer membership group or a council, the more authority you have, the more success and prosperity your council is going to have. The two are inextricably linked.
Yes. This is such, I hope, eye-opening for the audience because one of the questions I get all the time is, you know, I'm having a hard time finding members or getting their attention and etc. And this is really a flip. It's a 180, right? You have to put it out there.
It's 180. And here's the deal. Nobody likes to be sold. Nobody. But everybody loves to buy. And so most businesses, whether it's a small business or whether it's a big business, they're advertising, trying to beat people over the head to say buy, buy, buy, buy. And that's being an operator with something to sell. But when you're a thought leader with something to teach, the message is, hey, what are your problems? Because I might have information that can help you. It might be, hey, get a copy of my book. It might be, hey, go, go to YouTube because I've done a bunch of podcast recordings on this very topic. It might be check me out on LinkedIn because I have a bunch of LinkedIn articles on this very topic where I answer these questions. And then your prospect isn't being beat over the head to buy something. They're simply saying, hey, here's free education and resources available to you. And when people start consuming that, they get hooked and they say, okay, what else do you have? And they then come to you and say, okay, I want to buy something. What do you have for me? That's a very different dynamic than the previous mentioned of beating over the head to buy today, buy today, buy today. That's what turns people off.
Yes.
But when you say, hey, I want to teach today, that turns people on.
And it's way more fun. It's more fun. I know, like, sitting on my side and somebody schedules something on my calendar. I don't even know who they are. And it's because they've listened to the podcast or the book or whatever. And then that just escalates our conversation. The level of the call goes up and it just makes it a lot more fun.
Yeah, it's this idea of going from an unwanted pest, right? So the unwanted pest is I got to sell something, so I got to chase after my prospects, whereas A welcome guest is Tina's an expert on this. I need to get a call with her to learn more. I read her book and I'm intrigued. And how do I get more?
Great. So as we kind of come towards the end here, how about the reverse question, which is what should someone be aware of not to do? When they're trying to build their authority? Is there anything that they should not do?
Yeah. So what you should not do is take— have a haphazard approach.
Okay.
Just start randomly doing things. Oh, you know, I'm going to go write a book and I'm going to go do LinkedIn articles and I'm going to do a podcast. And oftentimes it's all on different things and different topics. What you should do is have a strategic plan, and that is to first say, I want to be an authority on what, right? You know, what, what do I want to be known as an authority on? Who is the target person I'm trying to reach? Now, for many of us, it's probably that ideal customer to be a part of our peer group, right? Okay. And then we have to say, what's keeping them up at night? And what answers do I have to help them sleep more sound? Right? So we're connecting this golden thread between what am I going to be an authority on, who is that target person that I want to reach, and what information do I have to share with them that can really make their life better? Yes. Right?
Yeah.
And once you get those 3 pieces connected, once you connect those dots, that then informs your entire strategic plan of how you build your authority. So the one thing that you should not do is just haphazardly start doing things. Instead, take a step back, take a deep breath and say, what is it that I ultimately want to achieve? Begin with the end in mind. right?
Yes.
And then work backwards to build a plan and, and execute that plan. And obviously, you know, the company that I've built, we have over 100 people inside our organization, and this is what we do day in and day out is we help thought leaders who are CEOs and entrepreneurs. We help them strategically build and manage their thought leadership and help them use that authority to open more doors and to grow their business as a result of that.
Yes. And I want to underscore that because you all were very helpful for me. And then also, it's why you are one of our featured speakers at our conference coming up in October, where you're going to lead, like, a workshop for everyone on how to do what you just talked about. Get clear, what's the path, right?
That's right. So, so my bestselling book, The Authority Advantage, was released last year. And what I'm doing is I'm turning the book into an executive 2-hour workshop. And so everybody at your event that's a part of this, they're gonna leave that session with not only great knowledge, but they're gonna actually have an action plan of what to do Next.
Yes. Abundant mindset. So once again, start—
it starts with that. That's exactly right. And, and remember, the more authority you have, the more success you will have with your peer group.
Yes.
Those, those two things are directly connected. And so if you're saying, well, how am I going to market my peer group? You really need to say, how am I going to build my authority? Because the more authority you have, it's going to be that magic potion that opens doors, gets your telephone to ring where people are saying, hey, I hear you have this peer group. Tell me more about it.
Well said. Well, as we end every episode is with our guests to share any piece of wisdom you would give the audience, and it could be on anything. But what would you love to share with the audience today?
Well, so there are many great pieces of wisdom that I have learned over the course of my life. And I will share this piece of wisdom. And that is one of my favorite quotes is Mark Twain. And he said, the object of life is to make your vocation your vacation. And this directly ties into what we have just been talking about for the last 20 minutes. And that is when you love what you do, it shows. There's passion, there's excitement, and you could talk about it for days on end. I am passionate about helping people build their authority. You, Tina, are passionate about helping people build successful peer groups, and it shows. And so the idea of writing a book about it, you know, yeah, it's a lot of work, but it's easy because this is what you love. And so it's all about in building authority, helping take that vocation, making it your vacation by channeling your passion and energy into content that can help people make better decisions. And the more people you help with your insights and your advice and your teaching, the more you and your business will prosper.
Yes. It reminds me of Tony Robbins. He ends everything with live with passion. Right. And that's what we're talking about. Well, Adam, really, really good insights for everyone. And I know a topic that most of the listeners just— you don't hear for them and they don't think about it. And if there's that one takeaway, is really re-listen to this podcast because there's so many great things in it and action. And you can almost just get clear on what that is and how you're going to go about it. And I can't wait to participate in the workshop, but also our entire community to benefit from that when you're here in October. So thank you. And thanks again for being a guest. And so if anyone wants to contact you, how's the best way to do that?
Yeah, so a couple of different ways. You can visit us online, books.forbes.com, adamwitty.com, awitty@forbesbooks.com. Or you can look me up on LinkedIn. I'm very active on LinkedIn and connect with me there.
Excellent. Well, if I was listening, I'd be doing that. So. All right. Well, thanks again. And for everyone out there, I trust that you really enjoy the show but are walking away some excellent takeaways. And as we always say, until next Tuesday, go make it happen.
Hello, listeners. And this is a quick promo because we have our national conference Live Exchange 2024 coming up in October in St. Petersburg, Florida. One day you can attend for a mere $500 and interact with your peers, others that are running groups, network with them, find out best practices, all those challenges that you're having, get insights that can help you personally in addition to hearing a phenomenal list of speakers. I will open up that day with some insights in regards to moderating, and it will turn it over to Vern Harnish, who, if you do not know him, you know, he's the one who founded Entrepreneur Organization. He understands peer groups extremely well, and he runs Scaling Up. You will take away phenomenal information that will help you run your groups, not only to scale your own practice, but to help your business owners in those groups with the content Vern is going to share. You will also hear on two other subjects, one about the importance of preparing your members for exiting the business, whatever that transition may be, and how do you do that. You will also hear about making change. How do you manage change? How do you facilitate change? Which is required in today's environment. Again, content you're going to be able to take back to your groups and use yourself. And last, we're going to end it with Horse Soldier and 12 Strong. So if you don't know that story, that is the 12 soldiers that went into Afghanistan on horseback prior to us invading Afghanistan. You will hear their story about leadership, and how they have transitioned that into a phenomenally successful bourbon brand called Horse Soldier. And you will hear how they have scaled that business. And we will end the conference with bourbon tasting. Again, a very packed day. I encourage all of you, if you are serious about your own personal development, I will see you and I will love to meet you personally October 18th in St.
Petersburg, Florida.
Go to our website and you can get all the details, see the details of the agenda, and register. Thank you everyone for listening to another episode of Mastermind Mastery. And to get access to today's episodes, not only the show notes but any tools and resources, encourage you to— not only will you find them in the episode show notes, but also you can go to the website www.lxcounsel.com. So LXCouncil.com, and you will find a plethora of articles and content and tools and resources and worksheets and things like that that can be helpful to you in creating and running successful packs. I want to leave you with one thing that we end and teach to do in every single meeting, and that is the very last thing is to ask, what is your takeaway from today's episode? I encourage you to give that thought. Take advantage of the time you just invested in listening to the episode, and what can you do to move one step closer to the vision that you have and the goals that you're trying to achieve with your groups. So again, take a step back.
What's your key takeaways?
What can you actually act on? And I leave this with one note, and those of you that have read my book, Your Seat at the Table, you know that I ended the book with a story about my mentor. He always, when he met people, had a pebble in his pocket that he passed to them when there was knowledge shared. And so I ask you today to think about that Pebble concept and to pass what you learned today on to someone else, which could be your members, or take it internally to yourself and act on it. So now go do something with those takeaways.
