Saturday Surprise and Spotlight: Authority, Audience and Influence

Level 4: Serious Player

Future Guardian,

This is an impromptu Saturday morning post. Our regular posting schedule is every Monday and Friday, at minimum.

There are themed days in the unofficial Guardian Academy Facebook group and the Guardian Academy X (we still call it Twitter). Tomorrow, for example, is Sunday. Sundays are for giving and gratitude.

Housekeeping

We’re always striving to make YOUR experience better. So we rebuilt the “onboarding” features. If you would like to get the full experience of being a paid subscriber, please make sure that you have onboarded yourself fully.

If you’re a Paid Subscriber, make sure that you have gone through the paid onboarding page.¹ Bookmark it, as it will be updated often.

If you’re on a Founding Member plan, your onboarding page is here.² You can skip the page above.

Note that the onboarding form is optional. We realize many of you wish to stay anonymous or not share any of your information - and we respect that. In an increasingly disconnect and digital world, we place a high value on in-person connection and tangible benefits. From time to time we will send interesting, helpful and limited things via direct mail - if you’re not onboarded you will miss them.

Saturday Spotlight and Surprise

We haven’t put much time into letting you know about our referral program. Still, Dr. Nick Sotelo has clearly figured it out. He’s well on his way to a a free year.

You Can See This By Clicking The “leaderboard” Tab at the top of this post

Since he is the top referrer, by a long shot, we are also going to set aside and entire day to spend with him to craft a custom plan, based on TGA principles, to help him reach his goals.

Here’s why this might matter to you…

In this example, he sent 51 people to the Guardian Academy Substack - but forget the details for a minute. The important think to note is that he made a recommendation and people:

1. Actually saw the recommendation (distribution)

2. Actually took action on the recommendation (influence)

3. Got something valuable from him for free (goodwill)

That’s distribution, influence and goodwill.

And, he did it in a way that would continue to grow his distribution, influence and goodwill. It’s a beautiful flywheel of brand building.

Here’s how he did it:

How to Quickly Build Authority, Audience and Influence

The Two Step

The two step is not “new” - it’s been around for a while. But, marketers, being the lazy f*cks they are, tend to miss the nuance - of the point of it all together. Below, I’ll break down the two step Nick used and add some commentary to keep you out of the weeds.

Here’s the original post³: