Many people assume that because you are an attorney you know what you’re doing. You’ve got a license, you’ve been vetted, you don’t have anything to prove.

Clearly, not everyone feels that way.

Your colleagues, sophisticated clients who want to hire the best of the best, business leaders who can send you referrals, promote you, and open doors for you, usually want to see more.

If you want them to see you as an authority, you can’t rely solely on your license.

To build your authority and achieve “expert” status, you typically need to do the kinds of things experts do–write for authoritative publications, speak to important groups, get invited to corporate boards, and represent top-tier clients.

You start by writing and posting authoritative information on your blog or website, along with success stories of clients you’ve helped.

You write guest articles and posts for blogs and newsletter in your target market.

You get interviewed by smaller publications, podcasts and channels, building your speaking skills, making new connections, and driving additional traffic to your website.

You teach CLE courses, serve as an arbitrator or mediator, join authoritative organizations, do charitable work and volunteer for their committees, and build your contacts and your bio.

And you use your existing contacts to meet other professionals and centers of influence in your niche, building strong relationships with key people who can help you get to the next level.

You can do these things, and you should, but it can take years for these things to bear fruit and, well, you’re in a hurry.

There is something you can do, right now, to dramatically speed up the process.

You can write a book.

Experts write books. You can, too.

You don’t have to wait years to become qualified to do it, or to be asked to do it, You can write it and self-publish it in the next few weeks.

Your book will position you as an authority. (An “author” is, by definition, an “authority”.) People will hire you and refer you and invite you to speak and write and join their group or cause because you wrote a book and other attorneys didn’t.

Writing a book is the quickest way to build your authority, and a smart way to build your practice or career.

Once you’ve written your book, promote it. Give it away, send it to everyone you know and everyone you want to know. Make sure your clients have copies for themselves and to give to friends, offer it to prospective clients, bloggers, editors, meeting planners, and influential people in your niche.

When you talk to someone who wants to know what you do and how you can help them, their clients, or their readers or listeners, stop talking and send them a copy of your book. Your book will tell them everything they need to know.

What to say when someone asks, “What do you do?”