From Expertise to Authority with Matty Dalrymple

Jennifer Hilt didn’t set out to become an authority on tropes. She set out to answer a question that had been nagging at her—and then just kept pulling on the thread. In this conversation, Jennifer talks about how a lifelong passion for language that her earlier career never fully tapped became the foundation for her Trope Thesaurus series, why she chose to forge her own path rather than pursue a PhD in the subject, what happened when she cold-queried Joanna Penn’s podcast before she’d ever done a single interview, and how she learned that persistence—not strategy—is what moves you up the food chain. She also shares why even her “play” feeds the work, and what she’s thinking about next.#ProfessionalDevelopment #SecondActCareer #SidelineCareer #CareerTransition #Sidehustle #FromExpertiseToAuthorityYou'll find audio on the From Expertise to Authority podcast.Find the article at https://substack.com/@mattydalrympleFind the video at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrympleAnd if you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority, and if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You’ll find video at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrympleYou’ll find audio on the From Expertise to Authority podcast.Most professionals hesitate to share their expertise not because they lack knowledge, but because they're measuring themselves against the wrong standard. In this episode, Matty explores the difference between the peer comparison trap—scanning horizontally to see how you stack up against colleagues—and the more useful vertical measure: what do you know, and is there someone who needs it? Drawing on a conversation with USA Today bestselling author Sara Rosett, who wrestled with this question even after publishing her first dozen books, Matty makes the case that you don't have to be the world's foremost authority. You just have to be a little further down the road than the people you're trying to help.#ProfessionalDevelopment #SecondActCareer #SidelineCareer #CareerTransition #Sidehustle #FromExpertiseToAuthority Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You’ll find video of my conversation with Sara Rosett here; subscribe to the From Expertise to Authority podcast on your favorite podcast app.Sara Rosett is the USA Today bestselling author of over 30 mysteries — but she didn't stop at writing them. In this conversation, Sara talks about the second jump in her career: from writing cozy mysteries to writing nonfiction books and hosting podcasts that help other authors do the same. We explore what it took to trust herself as a teacher after years as a practitioner, how she thinks about building a nonfiction side of her business without letting it overshadow her fiction, and the moment she realized she had genuinely achieved authority in the author-education space. Sara also shares what she wishes she'd known about the indie publishing revolution — and why she now takes comfort in knowing that whatever comes next, she's navigated change before.If you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority.And if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]’s Linkshttp://www.SaraRosett.comhttp://www.SaraRosettBooks.comhttps://www.instagram.com/sararosett]https://www.x.com/sararosetthttps://www.pinterest.com/srosett/https://www.bookbub.com/authors/sara-rosettTranscriptThis transcript was created by Descript and cleaned up by Claude; I don’t review these transcripts in detail, so consider the actual interview to be the authoritative source for this information.Matty: Hello, I’m Matty Dalrymple, and welcome to From Expertise to Authority, where I talk with people who have succeeded in building their professional presence for a sideline or second act. You can find out more about my perspective on moving from expertise to authority at TheIndyAuthor.com—and that’s Indy with a Y—where you’ll also find links to all the episodes of the From Expertise to Authority podcast, my Substack, my YouTube channel, and a downloadable worksheet you can use to track your own journey.MEET SARA ROSETTMatty: Today my guest is Sara Rosett. Hey Sara, how are you doing?Sara: Good. Good to see you. Thank you for having me on.Matty: It’s a pleasure. We’ve been seeing a lot of each other lately—we’ve been on each other’s podcasts. So, just to give a little background: Sara Rosett is the USA Today bestselling author of over 30 mysteries for readers who enjoy atmospheric settings and puzzling whodunits. She also writes nonfiction for authors, including How to Write a Series, How to Outline a Cozy Mystery, and Trope Thesaurus: Mystery and Thriller with Jennifer Hilt. Sara also hosts two podcasts—the Mystery Books podcast for readers, and the Wish I’d Known Then podcast for writers with Jamie Albright. I am enjoying so much talking to all these people who have made this jump from expertise to authority. And I guess it’s not that unusual, but it’s the first time it’s struck me quite this clearly that you’ve made two jumps—because I’m assuming you started out doing something other than writing cozy mysteries. So you made the jump to being an author, and then you made a further jump to being someone who offers that expertise to other authors. I’m curious: what did you do before that eventually led to you becoming an author?FROM ENGLISH DEGREE TO WRITING JOBSSara: I had always loved reading and loved mysteries in particular, and my dream was to become an author—but that wasn’t seen as very stable, and it wasn’t what you were supposed to go into. I was good at English in school and that was my major in college. I graduated with a degree in English language and literature—not a teaching degree. To my parents’ chagrin. They were like, well, okay, you’re going to do English language and literature—how are you going to use that? So I did a bunch of different jobs that involved writing, though they were all very nonfiction oriented. To get started and get some credits, I did some volunteer work at a base newspaper—my husband was in the military and we were stationed at a new base—and I worked there for free to get bylines. I found that very interesting because most of the time, even if I wasn’t interested in the story when it started, by the time I finished it and turned it in I had found something pretty interesting about it. I also contributed to some nonfiction anthologies. Then I went to work at a company that coordinated travel exchanges between professionals—a group of dentists in the US would go visit a group of dentists in China, or professors from Canada would go to Europe. I was researching both the travel and the professional development aspects of those trips. I loved it. It fed my desire to see the world, and I had my mental list of places I wanted to travel. But in the back of my mind was always the goal of writing a book. I knew it was such a long shot, especially back then, because indie publishing wasn’t really a thing. So I put that on the back burner.STARTING THE FIRST NOVELSara: Then I had kids and decided to stay home with them when they were young. That was when I started working on my first novel, because I thought: my life is not going to get less busy—it’s just going to get busier. So I’m going to snatch this little time during nap time, 20 or 30 minutes, and see what I can do. That was how I transitioned. I felt like if I never tried it, I could always have the dream of doing it. But if I tried and didn’t achieve it, I’d have to face that. I decided I wanted to try and just see if I could do it.Matty: That’s interesting—the idea that when you make the commitment to pursuing something like that, you’re really putting it on the line. There is a certain attraction to always having something be a dream and thinking casually about it. But it’s the person who’s willing to put it on the line who is the only person who’s going to make progress on something like that.Sara: Yeah. And it was a hurdle for me to get over—thinking, okay, if I actually do this, I could succeed, but I might not. And then what would my dream be if I couldn’t achieve this? That was a big hurdle.Matty: It’s interesting too that a number of the people I’ve spoken to have talked about a particular life event—like having children—being a kind of marker that made them finally make the decision to give it a try. Did you feel like there were other things pushing you in that direction in addition to that major change of circumstances?Sara: Well, I knew it was going to be difficult to coordinate going back to work. My husband’s job required us to move a lot, and I just knew it was going to be hard to make progress in a traditional career while moving frequently. I thought: if I can get the writing thing to work, that’s a perfect thing to do while we move around. That was part of it. Writing is not known for being reliably profitable, so income was actually part of the dream too—that I would be able to contribute to the household income.TURNING EXPERTISE INTO TEACHINGMatty: I don’t want to gloss over the fact that you’ve written many very successful books. But I’m also interested in this transition of going from writing novels to making the jump to saying, I know enough to instruct other authors in how to write novels, how to create series, and the other things you’ve written books about. What was that process like? When you had achieved this goal that you had—which could very validly be your arrival point, where you just keep doing that and it’s great—what prompted you to take this further step and become a mentor, instructor, or advisor?IMPOSTER SYNDROME AND AUDIENCE FITSara: I think there’s a point where most people, before they decide to tell somebody how to do something, think: do I know enough to teach this? I feel like I’m a lifelong learner and there are so many things I still don’t know. But if you’re familiar with Clifton Strengths, some of my top strengths are learner and input—I love gathering data, finding things out, categorizing it. Part of the desire to write these books and get it all down on paper is that it helps clarify things in my own head and organize them in a way that makes them easier for me to use. I like to help people, so I always thought: if I can write this book and it helps somebody through the difficult parts I had, then I’m helping them and it won’t be as hard for someone else. But I did struggle a lot with: can I actually teach? Can I be an authority in this area? When the cozy outlining book came out, I think I had 13 or 15 books out and I still thought I might not be authorized to do this—even though I did have experience and a process. I remember someone saying: you just have to be a little further down the road than the people who are starting, and you can help them. That helped me get over that hurdle. There’s no one who is going to tell you that yes, you are ready, you have enough experience, you can write a book. You have to find that yourself somehow, or just push past those feelings and move forward.Matty: I think a lot of people frame this idea of presenting themselves as an authority as: am I qualified to present myself as an authority to my peers? And what you’re saying is very important—it depends on the audience. If you got together with other award-winning bestselling mystery authors and tried to explain to them how to outline a novel, that would probably…Sara: I’d be taking notes. I’d be saying, how do you do it? You tell me.Matty: Right. There’s a difference between exchanging approaches as peers and a dynamic where the expectation is that the sharing of expertise is more one-directional—not that you don’t learn things from the earlier authors who act on your advice, but that’s not the primary dynamic. The primary dynamic is that they want help and you’re in a position to provide it.Sara: Yeah, because you’ve been along that road. I remember not knowing how to plot a mystery and trying to figure it out. Once I figured out the structure of it, the bones underneath the story, I thought: okay, this makes sense to me and I can pass this along. It may help some people and not others, but it will probably resonate with a certain portion of people who are trying to do this.Matty: I think there’s also something interesting about the difference between sharing expertise in an area where what you’re providing is an option people could pursue versus an area where there are essentially right and wrong answers—like tax law. In a field like that, it might actually be harder to present yourself as an authority because if you get it wrong, you get it wrong. Whereas with authorship, there are lots of good ideas and your approach to outlining might work great for one group of people and not for another. That doesn’t undermine your authority—it just means you’re offering an option, not a law.Sara: Right. Yes.OUTLINING FRAMEWORK AND HOUSE ANALOGYSara: I built that into my approach. When I did the cozy outlining book and course, I decided—especially because I’m dealing with outlining, where there are as many ways to prepare to write a book as there are authors—to say: this is what’s worked for me, and hopefully it’ll be helpful to you. This is a framework. There are some building blocks you need, but then I think of it like a house. Everybody knows what a house has: walls, floors, a ceiling. But think about how many different architectural styles and design choices are available. That’s how it is when you write a novel. I can say, here are three major building blocks, and then you take those things and make them your own. You choose the colors and the textures of your book.Matty: I love that analogy. When you decided you wanted to write a book for other authors, we’ve already talked about the fact that some of it was just having the experience and wanting to share the knowledge and save other people the pain you’d experienced. Did you have other, maybe more business-related goals as well—like creating an additional income stream, or paving the way to speaking engagements?DIVERSIFYING WITH NONFICTION INCOMESara: Yes. I wanted to diversify. I had my fiction income, but I thought I might as well go wide in a different way—not in format or retailer, but in a different type of audience altogether. I did want it to be another stream of income. Some people in the nonfiction author space lean into that heavily, but I wanted it to be a side hustle alongside my fiction. I always wanted my fiction to be the main thing I did, but I thought it’s only smart to diversify a little—to have an audience of readers and also an audience of authors. And that blends into what Jamie and I do on the Wish I’d Known Then podcast, where we’re talking about writing and craft and marketing. It’s another lane.Matty: And you need the credibility that having a large readership provides. If you had written one book that never got traction, it would be harder to convince people to follow your advice about outlining. Having a whole portfolio of books with verifiable achievements behind them is what makes the nonfiction offering credible.Sara: Mm-hmm.UNEXPECTED WINS AND RECOGNITIONMatty: Has there been any unexpected benefit from that? Anything that stands out as a pleasant surprise?Sara: Just hearing from authors that it’s been helpful—that makes me happy. I’ve also made some connections I might not otherwise have made. Working with Jennifer Hilt on the trope book was an outcome of having established myself in nonfiction for authors—I could suggest working together on that project. I’m not a big public speaker and I don’t love public speaking, so I wasn’t really looking for speaking engagements. But the nonfiction work has diversified things and given me new challenges and new things to do. I’m a learner, so I have to continually be doing something.Matty: Was there a moment when you realized you had achieved a level of authority in the area of writing for writers?Sara: Probably when I was at a conference and an author told me she had come specifically to meet me—and it was an author conference, not a reader conference. She said, I saw you were going to be here, and I had to come. That was… a little intimidating.Matty: That’s great.Sara: It was cool, but it was a little intimidating.WHAT SHE WISHES SHE KNEWMatty: And since you do host a podcast called Wish I’d Known Then, I have to ask: what do you wish you had known then, in either of these efforts—becoming an author, or becoming someone who advises authors?Sara: When I became an author, I wish I had known that the publishing landscape would change so dramatically. I had no idea indie publishing would become what it became, or that there would be any path besides traditional publishing. I had ideas for books that my publisher wasn’t interested in, and I could have been working on those. Friends of mine had books in their drawers that had been rejected, and they published those in the early days of indie and did great. I wish I had seen those changes coming. But sometimes the market changes and you just don’t see it. What that experience taught me, though, is that what it is now is always going to continue to change—it’s never going to be static. Having come from traditional publishing and transitioned to indie, I know I can transition to whatever comes next. As for the nonfiction side, I wish I had known that short books are okay. When I started thinking about that first nonfiction book, I kept thinking it wasn’t long enough. I also eventually figured out that people really want the audiobook in the author’s voice for nonfiction—I did release a narrated version of the How to Write a Series book eventually, though I still haven’t gone back and done the cozy book. The nonfiction landscape is just different from fiction in some of those ways.SHORT NONFICTION AND SECOND EDITIONSMatty: This is interesting because it’s something I’m considering myself—the From Expertise to Authority articles I’m writing on Substack will at some point become chapters in a book, spoiler alert. I do feel like I’m getting to the point where there’s a reasonable arc through the journey I want to describe, and I could keep beefing it up forever and never get it out. For a shorter book like that, do you think of it as simply: a shorter book is fine? And would you consider going back and doing a second edition when you’ve learned more?Sara: I might go back and do a second edition of the cozy book at some point—as time goes on you learn more and your thinking evolves. As a nonfiction reader, I get frustrated by padding: when I feel like someone is saying, I’m going to tell you this awesome thing, I’m going to tell you about it in just a minute, just hang on—I’m like, just tell me. Shorter nonfiction appeals to people like me who don’t want the extra weight. I just want the information, the how-to. So I think shorter is fine.Matty: That’s interesting in the context of the book I wrote with Mark Leslie Lefebvre on short fiction. We put out the first edition in 2020 and then I looked at it again in 2025 and realized it really did need some freshening—there were stats that needed to be updated, and between 2020 and 2025 there had been significant things that had happened in my own career with regard to short fiction. I had judged short fiction contests, written the foreword to a short fiction anthology, published a collection of short stories. So we added a whole chapter about judging short fiction contests from the other side, which I think was genuinely valuable. But you’re right that the choice is between adding a chapter to an existing book versus the new material being substantial enough to launch an entirely new book.Sara: Yeah, learning is a process. I’ll never learn everything there is to know about writing mysteries or writing a series, but you start with the knowledge you have. What I’ve learned since I wrote that first cozy book I would probably go back and revise—but I don’t think it would be different enough to warrant a whole new book. That’s the question: is it another chapter, or is it a launching point for something entirely new?FUTURE IDEAS AND CLOSINGMatty: Put on your futurist hat and look into the crystal ball—is there anything you might want to venture into, a new area you’d want to establish authority in?Sara: Well, we’ve already established I’m not very good at seeing the future. I do enjoy the nonfiction help-for-authors space, and I really enjoyed the deep-dive approach of the trope book with Jennifer. I might do something similar in the future. I have thought about doing a book on research, because I write historical mysteries now and that’s something that trips people up—how do you find the sources that will give you the details you need? So maybe that’s in the future. We’ll see.Matty: I think that’s an interesting note to end on, actually, because another theme I see frequently is people combining two seemingly disparate areas into a new area of authority. Writing mysteries and having experience in nonfiction writing and research—combining those things into ‘research for historical mysteries’—that’s a perfect example of taking things that seem different and bringing them together to create almost a new area of authority.Sara: And those are things you don’t think about until you hear the person’s story and think: oh, yes, that’s a perfect match for them, because they have this background and there’s a gap in the market that only they can see. You have to get in and do things, and then you realize where the knowledge gaps are that you can fill. And you think: hey, I have all this knowledge—let me show you how to do this.Matty: If anyone feels they might have a knowledge gap that could be filled by one of your offerings, thank you so much for chatting with me about your own journey from expertise to authority. Please let everyone know where they can go to find out more about you and everything you do.Sara: The easiest place to find me is my website, saraRosett.com, which has all my books. Or you can just search for my name on any platform and you’ll find me there.Matty: Thank you so much.Sara: Thank you. Thanks for having me. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You've published your content. You've made peace with the silence. Now what? In this episode of From Expertise to Authority, Matty Dalrymple explores practical ways to encourage the engagement that's already happening to become visible—and how to nurture it when it does. From being accessible at events and online to soliciting meaningful input from your audience, this episode tackles the honest reality of building dialogue with the people you're trying to reach, including what works, what doesn't, and why your audience's engagement rarely arrives in the form you designed for.You’ll find video of this article at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple.Subscribe to the From Expertise to Author podcast on all major podcast platforms.If you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority.And if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You’ll find this article this episode is based on at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple.You’ll find video, including the interview that inspired it, at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple.Subscribe to the From Expertise to Author podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/0NXESldHlQ9zCEQymorStO), Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-expertise-to-authority-with-matty-dalrymple/id1865211396), and on all other major podcast platforms.If you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority. And if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode, I talk with Andy Vasily—educational consultant, leadership coach, and host of The Run Your Life Podcast—about how a career in physical education, 30 years of international work, and a near-death experience in Cambodia shaped his path from expertise to authority. We discuss FOPO (fear of people's opinions), the power of a beginner's mindset, and why the greatest authorities never stop learning.You'll find a summary of this conversation and the full transcript at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple.You'll find video of this interview at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple.Subscribe to the From Expertise to Authority podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/0NXESldHlQ9zCEQymorStO), Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-expertise-to-authority-with-matty-dalrymple/id1865211396), and on all other major podcast platforms.If you'd like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority.And if you're an event organizer, I'd love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you'd like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You’ll find this article this episode is based on at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple.You’ll find video at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple.Subscribe to the From Expertise to Author podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/0NXESldHlQ9zCEQymorStO), Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-expertise-to-authority-with-matty-dalrymple/id1865211396), and on all other major podcast platforms.If you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority.And if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You’ll find this article this episode is based on at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple.You’ll find video, including the interview that inspired it, at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple.Subscribe to the From Expertise to Author podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/0NXESldHlQ9zCEQymorStO), Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-expertise-to-authority-with-matty-dalrymple/id1865211396), and on all other major podcast platforms.If you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority. And if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You’ll find this article this episode is based on at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple.You’ll find video, including the interview that inspired it, at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple.Subscribe to the From Expertise to Author podcast on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/show/0NXESldHlQ9zCEQymorStO), Apple Podcasts (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/from-expertise-to-authority-with-matty-dalrymple/id1865211396), and on all other major podcast platforms.And if you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority, and if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You’ll find this article at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple.You’ll find video at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple.Subscribe to the From Expertise to Author podcast on https://open.spotify.com/show/0NXESldHlQ9zCEQymorStO and on all other major podcast platforms.And if you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority, and if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

If you’d like to read the article this episode is based on, you’ll find that at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple. If you’d like to watch the full interview with Angelique Fawns that this episode is based on, you’ll find that on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

In our exploration of the journey from expertise to authority, we’ve established a framework for evaluating whether specific content you create based on your expertise is worth publishing: Does it align with your expertise? Does it serve your objective? Does it speak to your audience? Once you have content that passes all three tests, you’re ready to publish.But where?I’ve broken the available publication platforms into three categories: those you own, those you rent, and those you pitch. And for each type of platform, we’ll consider the criteria that will influence your decision: content, discoverability, connection, credibility, and income.Platforms You OwnJust as owning a home gives you complete control over renovations, landscaping, and house rules, owning your publishing platform gives you maximum control over your publishing presence.The most common owned platform is a blog on your own website. The advantages? When it comes to content, you call the shots. You can write with a bolder voice, stake out a more distinctive position, or explore emerging ideas that might be too niche or too soon for rented or pitched platforms. And whatever you publish, you own outright—the intellectual property is yours.In terms of connection, you can solicit contact information from visitors via a sign-up form or pop-up. You could go further and require sign-up to access your content, though most creators don’t — the added friction tends to deter casual readers, and managing gated access adds a layer of technical complexity that isn’t always worth it. Either way, the subscribers you do collect are yours: you own those relationships and can contact them directly.What are the downsides? When it comes to discoverability, there’s no algorithm choosing what to present to visitors—every reader you attract is through your own effort. And in terms of credibility, a platform you own carries only the credibility you bring to it yourself. There’s no borrowed authority from a recognized platform name or an established publication.I’ve experimented with owned platforms. Early in my writing career, I had a blog, mainly because it was the common advice regarding reader outreach at the time. I published when inspiration struck, meaning that sometimes months would pass with no new content. I didn’t have a clear goal; I just posted because I was supposed to.The lack of strategy showed in the results: sporadic traffic, no consistent readership, no clear authority building. An uninterested content creator is unlikely to attract the interest of readers, and that was the case for my blog. When I migrated my website from one host to another, I didn’t even bother carrying my blog content forward.Who is an owned platform best for? This choice works best if you already have a robust followership—fans who are willing to make the effort to navigate to a site specifically to read your content.Platforms You “Rent”When you rent an apartment, you don’t own the building, but you have your own space within it. The landlord maintains the property and makes decisions about renovations and policies, and you live with those decisions.The equivalent in terms of content publishing options would be platforms like Substack, LinkedIn, and Medium, where you can publish using their infrastructure.On most of these platforms, you retain rights to your content (but always check the terms and conditions of any third-party platform you plan to use). You have more creative latitude than on a pitched platform—no editor will push back on your take or ask you to soften a position—though the norms of the platform’s community may shape what resonates with readers.In terms of discoverability, these platforms offer meaningful advantages: people can find your content without knowing about you specifically since the platform’s algorithm can surface your work to new readers. And you benefit from publishing tools, email delivery, and analytics without having to build them yourself.When it comes to connection, many rented platforms allow you to collect email addresses when someone subscribes, and unlike owned platforms, where gating content requires additional technical setup, rented platforms often build this in by default.When it comes to credibility, rented platforms vary in what they confer: publishing on LinkedIn signals professional relevance; publishing on Substack signals membership in a community of serious writers and thinkers. Neither carries the editorial weight of a curated publication, but both carry more implicit credibility than an unknown personal blog.The downside of a rented platform is that you’re subject to its rules, algorithms, and policy changes. If Substack decides to adjust how it surfaces content to non-subscribers, your ability to attract new readers could shrink overnight. If LinkedIn adjusts what content it promotes, your reach changes. Just as a landlord’s decisions about property maintenance impact the renters who live there, so your presence on a “rented” platform will be impacted by the decisions that platform makes.My primary “rented” platform is Substack. I was prompted to experiment with it by the fact that when speaking on or consulting about authority-building platforms, I frequently got questions about it, and I didn’t like having to report second-hand advice.I found I enjoyed the experience, and the other content being posted there created a “neighborhood” I wanted to live in—thoughtful, long-form writing—unlike, say, X. My enjoyment of the platform provided incentive for me to post consistently, and the benefits of content ownership and discoverability trumped the downside of less technical control and being subject to the platform’s behind-the-scenes workings.Who is a rented platform best for? These work best for those prioritizing reaching new audiences.Platforms You PitchThe third type of platform are those you pitch: industry publications, established online journals, or guest posts on respected blogs. You submit a proposal or an article and wait for editorial decisions. You have no control over whether your piece gets accepted, when it publishes—or if it will publish at all. The only control you have is whether to submit a pitch.When it comes to content, editorial control belongs to the publication. You might withdraw content if the platform wants changes you’re unwilling to make, but you risk jeopardizing future opportunities with that outlet. You typically retain rights to your work after an exclusivity period (as always, read the contractual fine print), but publication timing and presentation are out of your hands.In terms of discoverability, pitched platforms offer access to established, often large audiences you couldn’t reach on your own. The publication has already done the work of building readership, and you benefit from that investment when your piece runs.Credibility is where pitched platforms shine. Not all platforms carry equal weight, and an article in a respected publication signals something different than a post on your personal blog, even if the content is identical. This is especially valuable if you’re establishing yourself in a new field.And pitched platforms are the only category that regularly offers direct income. While rates vary widely—and many smaller publications don’t pay at all—this is a meaningful distinction from owned and rented platforms, where income is usually indirect, flowing from the authority you build rather than from the content itself.Are there downsides? Besides the lack of control over the outcome, pitched platforms typically don’t give you access to readers’ contact information, limiting that route to connection. And pursuing pitched platforms requires willingness to craft content to editorial standards, work through revision processes, and play by someone else’s rules. You can choose to share your content on platforms you own or rent; you can only attempt to share your content on platforms you pitch.Who are platforms you pitch best for? These are best for those looking to gain credibility, access established audiences, and generate an additional stream of income.What’s Your Choice?When you assess the criteria for choosing a platform—content, discoverability, connection, credibility, and income—which of the three types seems best aligned with your goals?If an owned or rented platform is the best fit, narrow the choices by considering where your target audience already consumes content. Ask your followers and subscribers directly—even if you only have a handful. You’ll get direct feedback from people who are accurate avatars for your audience, and you’ll strengthen your connection with those fans by asking their opinion.If your audience consists of people who are already devoted fans of your work, they may be willing to seek out content on a platform you own. If they’re senior professionals building a second-act career, they’re likely already on LinkedIn or another rented platform. If your audience consists of retirees planning their finances, they may prefer the credibility of established “pitchable” publications.Pick one platform and commit to that choice for at least six months—long enough to learn the mechanics, build momentum, and see whether it’s serving your goals. Scattered effort across multiple platforms dilutes your authority rather than building it. You can expand later.Owned, rented, and pitched platforms each have their strengths and limitations. Knowing which trade-offs matter most to you is the first step toward publishing strategically rather than just publishing.Matty Dalrymple guides professionals in building their presence through her consulting services and her workshop “From Expertise to Authority: Building Your Professional Presence for a Sideline or Second Act.” Learn more at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You’re excited. You’ve started your journey from expertise to authority, and the ideas are flowing. Over the past few months, whenever inspiration strikes, you’ve captured it, turning thoughts into drafts. Leadership lessons from your corporate career. Your morning productivity routine. Industry trends you’re noticing. Reflections on work-life balance. Team collaboration approaches. That book that shaped your thinking.Six polished drafts now sit in your folder. You’re writing consistently. You’re building momentum.But here’s the problem: if you publish all six, you won’t build authority. You’ll scatter it.Why? Because you haven’t yet asked the strategic question: Does sharing this information support my goals for building authority?Not “Is the writing good enough?”—that’s a different question. This is about strategy and focus, and not every draft deserves to become public content.Each piece you publish either strengthens your expertise in readers’ minds or scatters it. And time spent on content that doesn’t support your goals is time you could have invested elsewhere.Before you start sharing your content with the world, ask yourself three questions.Question 1: Does This Align with Your Expertise?In the article “Which Area of Expertise Should You Build Authority Around?”, you identified your area of expertise—the one thing you want to be known for. Every piece of content you publish should demonstrate that expertise.This doesn’t mean you can only write about one narrow topic. But it does mean everything you publish should connect to your core expertise in some meaningful way. Being known for too many things means being known for nothing. Just as thinking that your offering is for everyone actually makes it compelling to no one, spreading your content across too many domains dilutes your authority. Someone looking for expertise in productivity routines is less likely to pay attention to someone who also writes about leadership, work-life balance, team collaboration, industry trends, and book reviews. The more scattered your topics, the less credible you appear in any single domain.Consider Marcus, a consultant who built his expertise in organizational change management. He wrote an article about effective meeting facilitation. It’s a good article. It’s helpful. But it positions him as a meetings expert, not a change management expert.The test: Could this article have been written by anyone with general professional experience, or does it require your specific expertise to write it well?When your article or post fails this test, you’re creating content, but you’re not building focused authority. Unfocused content can feel productive, but it doesn’t compound the way expertise-aligned content does.Question 2: Does This Serve Your Objective?In the article “How Does Your Objective Shape Your Pathway?”, we explored how different objectives—staying engaged, building influence, or earning income—require different approaches to authority-building. Your content needs to serve your objective.Consider Elena, whose objective is earning income through consulting. She wrote a thoughtful, engaging article about why she loves her field and the joy of lifelong learning. It’s authentic and well-crafted.But it doesn’t position her as someone organizations should hire. It positions her as someone who’s personally fulfilled by her work—which is wonderful, but irrelevant to her objective.The test: If someone reads this piece and wants to act on it, what action would they take? Does that action align with your objective?For staying engaged: Would they want to discuss this topic with you?For building influence: Would they want to share this with their network or invite you to speak?For earning income: Would they want to hire you or refer you to someone who needs your expertise?Content that doesn’t serve your objective isn’t necessarily bad writing. It’s just not strategic for authority-building.Question 3: Does This Speak to Your Audience?In the article “Who Actually Needs to Hear from You?”, you identified your target audience by asking two questions: Can you benefit them? Can they benefit you?Now ask: Does this content actually address their needs, challenges, or interests?Consider Rashid, who identified corporate HR leaders as his target audience. He wrote an article about the theoretical frameworks underlying talent development—academic, research-heavy, fascinating to other academics.But corporate HR leaders don’t need theoretical frameworks. They need practical approaches they can implement Monday morning.The test: Would your target audience recognize this content as relevant to them? Not might they find it interesting if they stumbled across it—but would they actively seek out content like this?If your audience is pre-retirees planning their finances, an article about cryptocurrency trends might be interesting, but an article about when to start taking Social Security is relevant.When content doesn’t speak to your audience, it might attract readers—but probably not the readers you need to build authority with.The Decision FrameworkNow you have three criteria for evaluating your content:Does it align with your expertise?Does it serve your objective?Does it speak to your audience?Here’s how to use them:If your content passes all three tests: Publish it. This content strengthens your authority.If it fails one test: Revise it. Often a piece that’s largely aligned can be adjusted.If it fails the expertise test, add insights or perspectives that only someone with your specific background could provide—turn general advice into expert guidance.If it fails the objective test, adjust what you’re asking readers to do: if you need income, end with how to work with you rather than just inviting discussion.If it fails the audience test, replace insider examples with scenarios your audience actually faces.If it fails two or more tests: Shelve it. This doesn’t mean the writing was wasted—you practiced, you clarified your thinking, you learned what doesn’t serve your goals. Sometimes the answer is “not yet” (you’ll revise it later when you’re clearer on your positioning). Sometimes it’s “not ever” (this piece doesn’t serve your authority-building goals). Both answers are valuable. The goal isn’t to publish more. It’s to publish strategically.Every piece you don’t publish protects the clarity of your expertise. Every piece you do publish should pass all three tests.Your Next StepPull out that draft sitting in your folder. Run it through these three questions:Does it align with your expertise?Does it serve your objective?Does it speak to your audience?You’ll know within minutes whether it’s ready to publish, needs revision, or should be shelved.Once you’ve determined your content is worth publishing, the next question is: where? Should it go on LinkedIn? Substack? Should you pitch it to an industry publication?In the next article, we’ll tackle the platform decision—how to match your strategic content to the right outlet.Matty Dalrymple guides professionals in building their presence through her consulting services and her workshop “From Expertise to Authority: Building Your Professional Presence for a Sideline or Second Act.” Learn more at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

Read the accompanying article on Substack > Matty Dalrymple. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

You've identified your area of expertise and you know what you want to achieve—but are you sure you're talking to the right people? In this episode, Matty introduces a two-question framework for identifying the audience that's the right fit for your expertise: can you benefit them, and can they benefit you? Using her own experience writing Podcasting for Authors as a worked example, she walks through five dimensions for assessing whether your expertise will genuinely serve a particular audience—topic, context, aptitude, goals, and experience—and explains how your audience's resources and authority need to match your own objectives. She also offers three simple tests for validating your audience choice before you spend months creating content for people who may not actually need what you're offering.#ProfessionalDevelopment #SecondActCareer #SidelineCareer #Sidehustle #FromExpertiseToAuthority #CareerTransitionYou'll find the text version of this content at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple.You’ll find video at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrympleYou'll find audio on the From Expertise to Authority podcast.If you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority, and if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

If you'd like to read the article on which this episode is based, you'll find that at https://mattydalrymple.substack.com/publish/post/183379678 Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

If you'd like to read the article on which this episode is based, you'll find that at https://mattydalrymple.substack.com/publish/post/183373810 Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

If you'd like to read the article on which this episode is based, you'll find that at https://mattydalrymple.substack.com/publish/post/183368873 Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

One article in Writer's Digest led to a judging role, conference presentations, teaching webinars, a connector role between WD and the indie publishing community, and years of opportunities Matty couldn't have predicted when she submitted that first pitch. In this episode, she traces that cascade from a single piece of written content through conversational content and into direct engagement—and makes the case that while she stumbled into this pathway by staying open to opportunities, you don't have to leave it to chance. Understanding how authority compounds lets you make strategic choices rather than hoping the right doors will open.#FromExpertiseToAuthority #SecondAct #ExpertiseToAuthoritySubscribe to the From Expertise to Authority podcast for this and more!You'll find the article at https://substack.com/@mattydalrymple.You’ll find video at https://www.youtube.com/@mattydalrymple If you’d like support developing a personalized pathway from expertise to authority for yourself, please check out my consulting service at https://www.theindyauthor.com/authority, and if you’re an event organizer, I’d love to share with your community a framework they can use to develop their own path. If you’d like to get in touch, just drop me a note at [email protected]. Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe

In this episode of the From Expertise to Authority podcast, Matty Dalrymple shares how her consulting work with professionals outside the writing and publishing world revealed a clear, repeatable framework for transforming expertise into recognized authority.Drawing on real-world client needs, she explains how activities like writing, podcasting, speaking, and consulting aren’t isolated tactics—but progressive stages of relationship-building. You’ll learn how these stages work together, why objectives matter, and how professionals can choose the pathways that best support a sideline venture, second act, or broader influence.Prefer to read? This episode is based on an article you can find here: https://open.substack.com/pub/mattydalrymple/p/how-real-world-needs-shaped-a-universal Get full access to From Expertise to Authority at mattydalrymple.substack.com/subscribe