Is It Possible To Become An Authority Without Writing And Publishing?

A listener question got Jonathan and me discussing whether you can build authority with little or no publishing:

The traditional path to authority and how writing and speaking fit in.

Why you don’t need to write/publish to run a successful expertise business, although building authority gives you more growth options.

What to do when you’re better at speaking than writing.

Viewing writing as a practice vs. a natural talent that you have or you don’t.

Quotables

“If you run a chain of laundromats, you don’t need to be out there publishing books about it or doing a daily email list.”—JS

“The question is: Can you do enough to grow your business if you’re not writing?”—RM

“There’s almost an inherent built-in editorial process with writing that does not exist with speaking.”—JS

“The tried and true path to authority is writing and speaking, and for most people, that’s gonna be the fastest, easiest way to authority.”—RM

“This turns into a marketing question, like how am I gonna do my content marketing—is it gonna be an audio first workflow?
”—JS

“To go out and just talk, hoping there’s an idea in there is not doing you or your audience any favors.”—RM

“I feel like a big part of getting better at writing is just writing more. If you really can’t write, okay then, alternatives abound.”—JS

“You can work through this stuff by talking, but…don’t do that in front of an audience until it’s tight enough so that you’re not wasting their time.”—RM