Why Building A True Authority Business Makes Sense

When meeting newly-minted expertise entrepreneurs, I’m often asked why they should invest time building market authority beyond the people they already know.

It’s usually a pretty short discussion after I ask how full their pipeline is for the next few months. 😉

For an illustrative second, let’s take a look at real estate agents.

The National Association of Realtors has about 1.5 million members in 2025 (pretty much unchanged since the last time I looked in 2020).

The only problem? At the end of September 2025, there were only slightly more than two million homes for sale. No matter how you do the math, that means a whole lotta agents are selling a whole lotta nothing.

And yet, like in any profession, there is the top of the heap—the super agents. They’re the ones commanding multiple pricey listings and perhaps a sub team of agents working on their deals.

They’re raking in plenty of clients and commissions because they’ve positioned themselves as go-to authorities.

They’re not so worried about limited housing stock because they’re getting first look at the deals and often being chosen without competition.

All that’s to say that even in a tight market—especially in a tight market—those with demonstrated authority outperform everyone else. And we’re not talking about a few bucks either, but by 5-10X—or even more.

The downside for realtors is that they’re stuck with their geography.

Sure, they can niche down to a specialty, but ultimately they are tied to a local market 100% beyond their control.

You have it waaaaaaaaay better than even high-end realtors.

You can make geography irrelevant by digging into a niche that has nothing to do with where you—or your ideal clients—actually live and work.

You can work virtually if not 100% of the time, then certainly a hefty percentage. You aren’t tied to showing properties and walking through open houses.

You aren’t locked into an industry standard payment that makes discounting the only alternative pricing option. Because you can tie your services to value, you can literally build a business without upper limits.

You don’t feel like you’re playing a zero-sum game. By focusing on client outcomes vs. competing for a transaction, you aren’t thinking about competition—all your attention is on your clients and buyers.

You can collaborate. You don’t have to hire a pyramid of people (although you can), you can simply build a set of relationships with those you need to do great work (like designers need developers).

There are so many benefits you can reap from building a true authority business—perhaps the proliferation of AI alternatives makes now the perfect time to step up your game?

p.s. If you’re ready for some help getting unstuck, schedule a coaching call with me here to position yourself firmly for 2026 success.