1670: Authority Economy, AI Trust and Business Growth with Tracy Repchuk

Robert Plank 0:00 You can spend decades becoming exceptional at what you do, and yet still watch those louder competitors become the trusted choice. Well, that that ends today with the help of Miss Tracy Repchuck, who has spent over 40 years navigating disruption. She launched a software company at age 19, and now she is a part, and you are a part. I'm a part of today's AI revolution, especially as it comes to this idea of the authority economy and her new amazing book, 12 Laws of the Authority Economy, where she talks about alignment, choice, scarcity, transformation, trust, proof, authority, capital, credibility, impact, freedom, reinvention, and reputation to try to make sense of how to stand out in this noisy world and have AI work for you instead of against you and outlast and outgrow those competitors. So, Miss Tracy Repchuk, Fidua, how have you been?

Tracy Repchuck 0:54 I'm doing awesome, thank you. It's been a very fun journey.

Robert Plank 0:59 And doing what? What's the latest? What do you have to humble brag about?

Tracy Repchuck 1:03 Well, it's the authority, it's this Authority Economy, you know, being in business now for 40 years, I have been a part of every technological kind of shift that has occurred. Starting with the personal computers, they weren't even in businesses when I began. I was part of that, and then of course I was a major part of the internet transition. Then social media, and then along came you know email, faxing, all of this new technology up until most recently, you know artificial intelligence, which I totally jumped on board with, and have been having an absolute blast creating GPTs. But as I was doing that, I was like, you know, coaches. Everyone's complaining all of a sudden that I can't get any attention, and and I'm working really hard, and I'm never getting ahead. And I'm like, whoa, we have had an economy shift, and I'm going to define it this time, as opposed to kind of be a part of it. And I spent the last year and a half really digging in and saying and getting all of the elements in place to what is the authority economy, why it exists, and what we should be doing about it.

Robert Plank 2:12 Very cool, very exciting, and I love just thinking about the game that's being played because if you think about say chess or tic-tac-toe or monopoly or something-you can just be stuck in the middle of it, and you're just kind of surviving turn by turn. But then there is like strategies, right? And with chess, there's like certain openers, or in monopoly, there's like, well, you you sit, you do this, and you don't do that, and then that kind of leads to like a like a higher level overview, and it seems to be just like so important with this whole AI shift because even the way you describe it, it's like we're we're screwed over on the the beginning and the end, right? It's like if you you have a list or you have a following, it's like hey, I I've got this coaching to sell or this book or this course, and the question is, well, can't AI just help me for free anyway? And then when you're trying to get those customers to get warmed up or to know about you, it's like, well, there's all the AI noise also. So we're, we're so just turned around and and so overwhelmed in just a few short years, right? Like computers, internet seemed to it took a while to get popular, and AI just almost overnight ate our lunch. So with the authority economy that you've kind of been at the the forefront of here, like what can we do? What's some solutions?

Tracy Repchuck 3:26 Yeah, so you know, I, I think you brought it up there, we're at a really important moment in history. The biggest change is that, of course, artificial intelligence made information abundant. Well, in the decades of experience that we have been through information at that time was the trusted resource, so to speak. It was that scarce resource, and so everybody was who was knowledgeable. You know, we emerged at the top of the authority chain, but of course, along comes AI, and they're like, "I can give you whatever you want strategy wise in seconds, and and so that completely wiped out almost a coaching infrastructure for a lot of people, and so because they can access the information now so easily, we had to look at what became next. What is the new currency? And so the new currency right now is trust, and so that created this market shift that I'm terming the authority economy, and so it's not that our expertise doesn't matter; it's that it's no longer guaranteed to give us that differentiating factors. And so now buyers are asking very different questions.

Robert Plank 4:38 Oh, nice! And it's it's interesting and helpful to think about it in in these terms of the the levels, the quantities, right? You said that at first information was scarce and valuable, like you know gold. But now, now if gold is everywhere and gold is so commonplace, well then what has shifted? Maybe it's like platinum or something, and then you say that the platinum is this idea of trust, and so when you. Tell me about trust. What comes to mind for me, at least, is repetition. That if there's someone like you and you're talking about how to like get ranked in AI and differentiate, then there is a need to like record the content or to make things simple or to do the speaking or to get in front of people. Because sure, they can ask the AI itself. Well, how do I stand out? And they just they get a big list, but it's overwhelming and it doesn't really give us any kind of action to take. But someone like you, you're like, hey, let me make it simple for you. Let me give you a plank. Let me tell you what works. Let me meet with you one on one. But you tell me when you say like trust is the new valuable currency. Like, how does that express itself?

Tracy Repchuck 5:40 Yeah, so, what starts to happen now, or what needs to happen within your business, is you need to start focusing on authority building assets, and I call those kind of authority capital is what we're building today. So, trust now is the alignment almost of your pricing, your packaging, your positioning. It's taking your visibility, it's aligning your proof, your credibility, and it's taking all of kind of this assets that we have that most of us either don't talk about, don't promote, don't think they're that important because we know they exist. It's like, hey, I've been in business for 40 years. Everyone should know I'm awesome, right? But they don't, and so now we have to make a very conscious effort to position all of these elements so that somebody comes along and says, "Wait a minute, you know, this person has you know appeared in Forbes 27 times, and they've been on NBC, ABC, all of these networks, and they have you know 10 as of today number one bestsellers, and so it's all of these things that start to culminate that say this person isn't just the AI expert, which is what's been created now. People are you know emerging as coaches simply because of AI, but it's it's us that are very experienced and can now culminate and to gather our authority assets to create that impression that has to be culminated to really make you the trusted choice.

Robert Plank 7:16 Very good. Well, what really impresses me about speakers such as yourself is this culmination that you mentioned, like the the curated content and answers, right? And doesn't mean that you're like unauthentic. It just means that you've you're so experienced and obsessed that you kind of you you know all the problems, right? You've heard all the stories, and you have like the best possible way of answering things. And I always struggle with that, right? Because you you figure that these kind of signaling factors that you're mentioning, right? Like you you get on Forbes, you put out the best selling book, you get on NBC, CBS. Like it's not just a one click activity, right? AI could generate like 1000 articles, but you like go into all the trouble of like doing a book launch. That's rare. Not everyone does that, so you do that, and it like puts you one step ahead. But whenever I look at like speakers like you, and you have the every all the like the terms are there, right? You have your own unique like way of saying things, and the the lead magnet aligns with like the keynote speech and the website. But sometimes I look at it, and I'm so just like overwhelmed, and it it all looks so such a good end result, but how do the rest of us get there? What should we be paying attention to or looking into?

Tracy Repchuck 8:28 Yeah, this is where you do become extremely intentional on what it is you want to do because the the thing to understand is that visibility and authority are not the same thing, right? How many times have we heard somebody say, "Oh, I'm networking. I'm speaking. I'm going everywhere, but but I'm not getting further ahead. I'm not getting chosen. You know, my business isn't growing, because the truth is, with visibility, it magnifies reality. So that means that if you get a ton of visibility, but your message is off, or your positioning is off, or your offer pricing is off, then you're not going to get the results you were looking for. So all of that effort, which I think a lot of coaches are experiencing right now, isn't going to add value to, of course, this authority positioning. It's simply magnifying what's not working when your authority is aligned, though, that's when visibility magnifies the results you're looking to make you that valued and trusted choice. So it isn't about kind of posting more or getting seen everywhere. It's now about really positioning yourselves so that all efforts of visibility contribute to the alignment of your authority.

Robert Plank 9:48 And, and what does that look like? Are we talking about link backs, or being intentional with our keywords, or posting consistently, or like when we want to increase our authority, like what does that mean?

Tracy Repchuck 10:02 So increasing the authority; what I do with clients, for example, is we do a three-pronged approach that's called the Authority Economy Framework. The first is we diagnose, we identify the gap that they are experiencing, and that gap, of course, then is going to be found and in the infrastructure, we're going to plug it. We're going to fix that gap, and and gaps can be anything from pricing to your offer to your positioning to what it is that you're amplifying to all the way to your structure, your architecture, and so that you can grow, of course in scale. Then once we've identified and fixed the gap, now we move into authority alignment, and that involves the alignment of seven pillars. So that means you're going to take a look at your premium pricing, your offer, your positioning, your messaging to a buyer fit, and then ultimately, then we're going to leverage visibility, and now we're going to start to culminate and build trust assets. And then, last but not least, you actually mentioned it was the third part of that is the authority signals. Now we're about to broadcast those things that really matter, which are done through positioning your results, your recognition, your leadership, and your really your overall presence and alignment.

Robert Plank 11:30 So there is a method to the madness, right? It is scientific, and so as you explain that, seems I'm digesting it as well. You you you put out the fires, you fix the immediate bad stuff. Then you figure out the foundation, and then you kind of then you go out and get them, right? Then you go and and uh and and do do some hunting, right? And figure out who you want to get after. And so in this whole process, I can I can only imagine that like the the average business owner has all these blind spots, right? It can be painful to like go back and look at that website, and then kind of have a weird disconnect of like there's there's you as the the you know service provider coach whatever, but then there's the the prospects out there who like talk in a way that's different than you, right? Maybe they're looking for other things. So I can only imagine that how helpful it is, someone like you coming in from the outside and saying, "Well, here's what I think about your branding and your website, and here's also what I see about what your future customers are are thinking and doing and searching and saying and looking for. And you just you can have some fresh perspective to really to make this work and solve some problems.

Tracy Repchuck 12:38 Absolutely, and, and then the the best part about all this is, I I actually don't even come into the equation until you've done an authority alignment assessment, and that's actually this this free quiz that takes a look at all of your assets that you're building, asks you some some questions, and then assesses it for you and determines where are you on the authority gap scale, what is the assessment score, and what do you need to fix, and you get a free report from that, and then you can decide what you want to do. It might tell you one thing, and you take a look, and then you could be like, you know what, I need help getting an authority alignment, and that's where you can reach out to me if you want to take it a step further, but there, you know, that tool is the best place to begin because it stops the guessing. The number of times people will say, "Well, my problem is my pricing. When I take a look, it's actually the transformation. You're not communicating your value properly, or you have no positioning. You know, this is without even getting to what are called the trust assets, which is your websites, your social media alignment, all of that, we're dealing primarily at the beginning of the stages, which is your pricing and your offer and your transformation and your results connected to a buyer fit. So we're at the you know those those first elements before we even start to concern ourselves with with those additional capital assets.

Robert Plank 14:06 Amazing, so we need to be solving the correct problem, and this is so cool what you've built because I think about it like in in two parallel tracks. There's well, we need to take this quiz for sure and figure out where the problem is and get to fixing that. But then there's also this idea of like the we need to be putting out these assets so that way people can raise their hand for us and see how they can get some of these easy quick wins and say oh my gosh like I took this quiz from Tracy and even without her involvement I already learned some things and and plugged a few leaks and and now I'm so excited to find out more about her and talk to her about her coaching. And so, for those multitaskers in podcast land who are listening but also implementing at the same time, like where can we get that quiz to to take it while we're still listening to this?

Tracy Repchuck 14:53 Yeah, it's great, it's AuthorityIndexScore.com.

Robert Plank 14:59 Authority.IndexScore.com, so we can be going to AuthorityIndexScore.com, as we're still listening. And in these last few minutes here, I'm kind of curious about your own transformation because I mean I've known you for so many years. I don't even remember when where I first saw you. Maybe it was a a JV alert or I just I saw you speak every few years, and I'm curious about your own path because that that's such a cool thing to unpack, right? That like we you you and I weren't didn't emerge from the the womb the way that we are, right? We sometimes had to have these struggles and grow into things. So I'm curious about like how have you transformed or where did you struggle? Were you ever shy or did you struggle with the branding or just like you know how far have you come?

Tracy Repchuck 15:40 Well, for starters, I'm an introvert, okay.

Robert Plank 15:44 Okay.

Tracy Repchuck 15:44 I, I've spoken in 47 countries, 1000s of stages. People would not think that at all. So I am constantly outside of my comfort zone all the time. And then, and then in a 40-year history, there is no question. I think I've experienced every epic failure imaginable, you know. So, so that I have a very long string of experience of things. Don't do that, and don't do that. Well, the beautiful part is I can incorporate that, of course, into a lot of the training and things that I guide my people through. But I I think one of the biggest things as part of my journey is I graduated way back in you know 1985 when I started my first software company as a computer programmer. Well, this is why of course when the internet came along and I could be you know playing with websites and I was developing websites and and all sorts of things for you know Fortune 500 for banks for the lottery corporation for very major corporations, and then when AI came, I got to play in in my field again because I think my my best place in earth would be me in a back room playing right, but that isn't where I'm meant to be, and that goes back to purpose. And I think that's been one of the biggest things that has emerged throughout again my my journey is because I had a near death experience where I heard you're on a mission, you have a purpose that only you can do, and so for decades I've I've been out there making sure I'm fulfilling my purpose and mission, which is actually to help you fulfill yours. And so, I use the logic that I was born with, the marketing that I've kind of acclimated to, and I combine those two worlds to ensure that you can get your message out. And for decades, of course, I did this. Well, along comes AI though, and it changed everything. I mean, I have never seen such a rapid transition in in my history, obviously, to where we all have to now emerge rapidly to the top of the leadership board. It's time for those that are are ready to stand up and become the leader to become the leader, and and it needs to happen now.

Robert Plank 18:02 Of course, now is the time, and I'm glad that you made it through. And it's it's great that it took it took a bad to a bad event to figure out what your purpose is, right? And to say, okay, well, you know, every day is a gift, and the kids say hashtag blessed, or they have this gratitude, and we're we're just so lucky to be alive in this period in history, right? Like it, it feels like like 2011 to 2023 was like a weird gap, right? Where things were kind of like with like social media and smartphones and video, it was almost like too developed and it wasn't fun anymore. And then here comes AI in like 2023, and it's like, and ever since then, and now we can just like the we can experiment again, and we can move at such a rapid pace. And then even before that that period of time, before 2011, it just like internet just and the computers were kind of just like slow, right? Like if you ever dug out the old Commodore 64, you'd be so bored. It takes 10 minutes just to start up. So it's like you have the the nostalgia of like, well, there was so much possibility then, and then things were kind of maybe too evolved. But then now AI disrupting things-it's like just such an impactful time to, as you said, to discover your purpose and to take some calculated risks and to embrace getting out of your comfort zone and failure. Which, like, it seems to take somewhat of a retraining, doesn't it? Because like we have to like fight every instinct we have, which is to play it safe. But then it's like those who succeed, they they look at the the well the danger, but it's not really that dangerous, right? You're not fighting a a lion cub. You're just going out and doing a speaking engagement. But that's where the opportunity is, and that's where you've gone, and that's where we can all learn to go from you. So we've learned so much about you and what we should do, and what you've accomplished. And these final few minutes, I'm curious about what might be the missing question in our conversation. So, Miss Tracy Repchuck, what do you think could be the question that I should be asking you, I just don't know to ask you?

Tracy Repchuck 20:03 I mean, most people. I think the biggest question is, how do you survive for 40 years, right? And it really comes down to adoption. And so, what I think the people need to be looking at in their own worlds right now is, what are you willing to stand up for what leadership position are you willing to stand and and claim your stake? So it's becoming that category of of one. And as somebody who struggled myself personally to claim that space, it has actually been the greatest thing that I've ever done is to get that clarity on what I should be doing because I think most people are at a point where they know what should they should be doing. They either are shy, reserved, lack of confidence. All of these things they're struggling with. It's time to really stop that and step up because otherwise AI will obliterate kind of the the coaching industry unless a lot of us rise above it.

Robert Plank 21:04 Oh yes, and you mentioned this keyword diagnosis, and I I love that. So if we have our shyness, anxiety, hesitation, overwhelm, whatever, well, put the label on it, diagnose it, solve it, and then you can proceed forward, and you've just accomplished so much, right? If I if I search your name on Google, then I get all this stuff about authority economy, and if I search authority economy, I get all this stuff about you. So no matter which side of the spectrum we come from, if we have these problems about just being being known and visible and authoritative and and discovered and wanted and and valued with what we do, then we need to get some helpful training from you. And and it's such you said it's such a popular thing that you put out a book about the authority economy, and just by it being out there, it got all sorts of attention, didn't it?

Tracy Repchuck 21:53 It did, and, and what's interesting is I'm building the book about Authority Economy. It's actually a huge beast to put all the frameworks in place, but what I wanted to do was get out the 12 laws of the authority economy, which are the governing principles. Which means you can read these principles now and start to put all the pieces in while the you know the major framework comes out. the The framework exists, and I'm traiting my my clients on it, but I haven't had the time to document it for, of course, public consumption. So if people get the 12 laws now, you can be miles ahead and be organizing your business today on those 12 principles. And of course, I'd mentioned to you, I was I was so excited because I, I launched the book like yesterday. I haven't even promoted it yet, and it already went to number one in three categories. And so it kind of says to the the necessity for this conversation and to ensure that you really start to put this in place. And for me, this is actually stage one. All of this that I'm designing right now is for entrepreneurs. My next stage is actually for corporations. I've designed all the framework, even for them.

Robert Plank 23:05 Ooh, you're just getting started. Well, you're,

Tracy Repchuck 23:06 Just getting started.

Robert Plank 23:07 It's like, and that's it's so common, right, for someone to like make the book, make the website, make the video, and they say, "Okay, I'm done. And it's like, well, there's it's a crazy world out there, right? There's so much that there is to do, especially with like the feedback loop of seeing what's what's important and how you help people, and then you kind of evolve as a person and you you adapt, as you say. And so it's just yeah, it's so important to do. And even when you were talking about when when you we got into all this stuff and you're working for like the lottery corporation and working for banks, like you didn't discover that overnight, right? You make the mistakes, you do the experimenting, you adopt new technologies. It's it's like trying to cram for a test. If you say, "Oh, I'll figure out AI someday, and I'll figure out the positioning and the visibility and the authorities someday, well, then you'll just kind of the world will pass you by. And if you finally say, "Okay, well, I'm finally in the mood, or "The timing's right, then what's going to happen? It's going to change under your feet. So it's so important to take this seriously and to figure this out early. That way we can implement and get some results and do some adjustments and attract those people that are looking for us or should be looking for us. But you know, if we don't play by the proper rules or have the right foundations in place, then AI will send people elsewhere that are properly curated and configured instead. So we need to get this very helpful advice from the speaker herself, Ms. Tracy Repchuck, and to just get our authority economy in place, trust, credibility, proof, reputation, and recognized expertise increasingly determine who gets chosen, especially as information and content become abundant through AI. So, what are some next steps here, Miss Tracy? As far as the book, website, etc. where should we go now?

Tracy Repchuck 24:54 So, go and get the 12 laws at Amazon, that's a great place to start. And then you know I have checklists I'm giving away. I have my entire website has everything documented about the authority economy to get you started. And then you know I have everything from done for you authority alignment programs right to to your mentorships. And so reach out and and let's have a conversation to see where you are, how we can move you through that next step, and how we can rapidly get you to the top again before AI floods the marketplace with clones of us.

Robert Plank 25:35 Oh yes, and that's the next danger. But for now, we have to get to the top. So that book we mentioned is 12 Laws of the Authority Economy by Miss Tracy Repchuck R E P C H U K, and then to get those other resources like the alignment or the two year mentorship, where's the website for that?

Tracy Repchuck 25:53 So you can go to the authority index score for the diagnosis. You can go to TracyRepchuck.com, my site for links to everything else.

Robert Plank 26:04 Very good, well, pull over the car right now and pause the podcast and type that in your phone before you forget. Or we'll also have the links underneath this podcast to AuthorityIndexScore.com and TracyRepchuk.com. Now, before I let you go, Miss Tracy, it's time for the scary part of the podcast, where I try to stump you, I try to put you on the spot by asking you about a fun or interesting quote or lesson that has served you. So, what comes to mind as far as a fun or interesting quote or lesson?

Tracy Repchuck 26:34 I think one of the quotes that I really like is, "You have to let go of good to be great, and that's one of the things that I'm constantly working at, because you can get very comfortable at good. And even now, though, we need to let go of good because AI is great.

Robert Plank 26:55 Very nice, let's, let go of good, pursue the great, and get on that track by going to authorityindexcore.com. Take that authority alignment assessment. Discover the five authority leverage gaps limiting your revenue, freedom, and impact. Take it. You'll be so glad you took that test and got some results. Miss Tracy Repchuk, as always, you delivered 1,000% I had such a blast, thanks for doing this.

Tracy Repchuck 27:21 Thanks, Robert.