In this episode of The One Small Change podcast, Yvonne McCoy is joined by Tracy Repchuk, a pioneer in digital innovation and authority marketing. Tracy shares how entrepreneurs can move beyond outdated information-age tactics, leverage their unique strengths, and thrive in the new “Authority Economy.” The discussion covers actionable strategies for positioning, premium pricing, building lasting trust, and designing your business intentionally around your ideal life and legacy. Tracy provides both a mindset reboot and practical next steps for listeners ready to stand apart and simplify their pathways to impact and fulfillment.

Guest Bio:

Tracy Repchuk is a globally recognized authority architect, best-selling author, and entrepreneur with over 40 years of experience at the cutting edge of technology. Renowned for developing million-fax-per-month systems in the 1980s and for her current work in redefining the authority economy, Tracy helps clients build standout brands and premium offers that position them as the obvious choice in their markets. Her practical frameworks empower entrepreneurs to simplify, increase their value, achieve lifestyle freedom, and create a lasting legacy.

Chapters:

00:00 Founding the Authority Economy

05:31 Breaking free from conformity

08:49 AI strategy and client differentiation

12:06 Aligning authority to attract clients

15:27 Creating a personal money map

17:42 Building a focused growth strategy

23:07 Balancing work and family rewards

24:28 Introducing the Legacy Life Wheel

28:02 Understanding the authority economy

31:30 Show wrap-up and final thoughts

Quote from the Guest:

"Trust is the new currency."

Link:

http://authorityalignmentquiz.com/assessment

Welcome to The One Small Change. I am thrilled that you're taking time

again to embark on this journey of exploration and transformation with

me. And I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy. And if you don't know, I bring

almost 30 years of entrepreneurial experience. But the thing is, I

have a passion for discovering growth through the power of

seemingly small change. And every week I try

to bring you an amazing guest that will show you

something that they did or happened to them

that was small, unexpected, or insignificant. Sometimes it's really

big, but it sparked a remarkable transformation in what they do

and why they do it better than anybody else. And

this week we have someone you are really

going to enjoy, Tracy Repchuk.

Tracy, thank you so much for being here. I know

because I followed you, that what you have to share is

going to be amazing. Well, thank you, Yvonne, for

having me. I'm super excited to be really sharing what's

happening right now in the industry. So I am not going

to— I'm just going to let you rip. So tell us what you do and

tell us what got you into doing or made you aware that this was like

an important thing that people were not doing. Well,

what got me into it, of course, is over 40 years of, of

really being at the, what I used

to call the, the bleeding edge of, of

discoveries, right? So when, when the computers were getting on

the, on the desk of offices,

I was there, right? And so I was implementing computers

way back when they were $25 grand for a computer and

$8,000 for a printer, and no homes had them. And then

along came, you know, fax technology and then email technology.

Mm-hmm. And then, um, and then, you know, the

internet way back in 1992, I started to develop things

for the internet. So it, it has been a driving force

in me to always be at that forefront. And, and I

was there, of course, for the internet and social media and Of course,

ChatGPT and AI. But what has really

been the game changer and where I am today

is instead of being almost

just at the bleeding leading edge,

I'm actually culminating the entire framework

for this new economy, which

I call the Authority Economy. And what's really interesting, and

you and I had this discussion, is that, you know,

information age is dead. Let's put

our cards on the table. When we can get, you know, ChatGPT and when

we can get Google and when we can get YouTube to give us any

information we're kind of looking for in the world, that era is

gone. And of course, we surfed. I was here for 25, 30

years of that in the digital economy.

But what started to happen, of course, is I saw this major

shift in what was happening to coaches in particular.

They were doing more marketing, getting more certifications, more content, more strategies, more

programs, more traffic, more leads. You know, it was

never-ending, almost that world of

hustle. And so I took a step back and I

said, you know, what's that one small— you talk about that one

small change and that shift. And I stopped asking

for myself and for the clients. I was like, instead of

asking how do I get more clients, I started asking how do I

become the obvious choice? We need to move ourselves

from that sea of sameness, from that, you know, expert

level, because Google's the expert now, right? We

need to, to define our positioning to where

AI can't replace us. And that one question

really changed everything. So it shifted my focus from chasing

attention to building authority. And then again,

instead of trying to be everywhere, I became very intentional

about where I showed up. And instead of creating more offers, I have one

premium transformation. And instead of convincing

people to work, uh, with me, I really started to focus

on the clarity and trust as clients arrive

so that they already know about me before they even

reach to that point of working with me. And again,

yes. No, I, you know, I'm listening to you and I'm trying

not to talk. And one of the things that I had to

laugh is I went through all those changes to the computers. And you said the

fax machine. I just remember so vividly when they would call for

reports from corporate and used to be able to say, oh, it's in the mail,

right? And then they would go, can you fax that to me right away? I'm

like, oh my God, no. The fax machine was

absolutely stellar technological

advancement for all of us. You know, it was the, the email

of the day. But each one of these technology

things speeds up the demand. Yeah.

I mean, and it just, it used to be, you know, if, you know, we

got a letter in a couple days, we were happy. If we got the fax

in an hour, we were happy. Now when our computer doesn't give us the

answer in a couple of seconds, we're like frantic. Yeah. And

that in itself puts you in a state of mind that you,

you feel like you're on a treadmill that you can't keep up. And

so part of what that does, I think, is

it homogenizes us. Right. And

one of the things I talk about all the time is you have strengths that

you were born with, that were educated out of you,

that, you know, people— because our education system was

basically built to make you a follower so you could follow instructions.

Not to be unique. And that's exactly

what you need. And the thing that you said about

information is everywhere— if you are an authority now,

if you are not helping people figure out what information they

actually need so they can get out of the information overload

and how to implement that, then you are missing the boat.

Because that is what all your clients need.

I mean, I can't say that enough. And I think the other

piece to that that I try to do

is to stand in their shoes, not what I

think they need, but what is it they're asking for? So when I

speak to them, they do exactly what you say. They

recognize that I'm the solution they need. I have, I mean,

This is like, I think,

brown— groundbreaking, groundbreaking stuff.

I mean, I think this is a total shift in the way that people look.

It is not about doing more.

It is about helping people

to trust the person that you actually are so that you're not putting on that

false veneer. I call it the false veneer, right?

Right. I actually had that slap me in the face, and I was

happy that it did because it totally changed the way I did things. I had

somebody who was a client who had never come to my workshop

and said to me, I don't know who that person was in

the workshop, but they were not the person I like working with.

And I had that workshop, I had it so timed and

so And it was—

and it wasn't me. So I'm sorry, but this is like

such an important thing that I think people need to take a pause and

listen to it. So please tell us, tell us some of the things

that you've seen or some of the things

that surprised you, I guess, as you made that shift.

Well, of course, over a 40-year history,

there's been a number of shifts because technology You know,

more of them. You talked about, you know, you referenced the fax

technology way back when. Well, when I started my company, it

was 1985. I was 19 years old. I

opened a software company, which of course there were no women in that field

at all. But what's interesting about the fax

technology is I wrote a fax

system that could send a million faxes a month.

And major corporations were doing this for their invoicing, for their follow-up, for their AR

reports. Arts, all of it. And,

and that's, you know, taking technology to that nth degree. And

that's why, you know, AI and

ChatGPT, you know, before it even launched, before it was on the tongues

of people, I'd already written 140 books on

ChatGPT, um, all of the prompts for every

single aspect you would ever need for your business. And so

I— that's where, that's where it started to become clear that, you know,

We no longer need to be the purveyors of the

information. We need to be the strategists, the architects

of what is, of course, extremely unique about that

person. What can we build authority around? We need

to make them the obvious choice, and then we need to build them

around a category of one. And that's exactly

what, what I do with people, with clients right now.

Because then AI can't replace you. And that's the

game we really need to be playing right now. And then you

mentioned that other thing about, you know, where we're

going, knowledge, power, the education system,

you know, all moved to the side now. Trust is the new

currency. And so this is why

we are, you know, meeting each other and building

communities and, you know, like, like what you're

doing here yourself, right? We're coming together in a

closer-knit way, as opposed to the

digital era where everyone was just spewing information at you

and putting you into funnels and hoping that you landed

somewhere at the other end. Those,

those are now becoming very strategic technologies that

must support your, um, positioning.

So when you, when you work with somebody, what are some of the

things that people

kind of— some of the either limiting beliefs or some of the barriers that they

give themselves to being themselves, to being that,

you know, authority of one? Well,

uh, the biggest, the biggest barrier, of course, because one of the things I do

specifically is we position you where you belong

with a premium-priced offer. That means we're not playing

a small game anymore. We're putting you where you belong. So let's say the

offer is $10,000 and up. The biggest,

biggest myth they have about themselves is, I'm

not worth that. I can't charge that. Nobody's going to pay me that.

And I'm going to lose all my business. All

completely untrue. And so it actually gets to

a point where that's That's where we begin as we're setting

your pricing. And once we build that offer, what I call that

transformational offer, that's when they

start to get more belief in themselves because they're like, oh my God, yeah, I

can do that. And I can do that. And I can do that. And wow,

yeah, I've been charging way too less for that.

When we package their uniqueness

together, that's where they start to say, okay. And then they

get over that confidence barrier. Then we have to hit the next

limiting belief that they're going to start to encounter. And

that's connected to, how do I

attract these people? I've tried this before. I've

raised my prices. Nobody's ever come to me. Well, the

reason comes down to what I call an authority alignment.

We need all 3 pieces to come together, and that

is your pricing, your packaging, and then your positioning.

Then we need to eliminate what I call the authority

gaps from the marketplace seeing your value. And

then that moves, of course, through ensuring that we

identify the markers for your, your

buyer fit. We ensure that you, what you're

saying, what you're offering fits that, you know,

premium purchaser. And that's who we're going to go after. And then

we, of course, move it Once we get that in place, we then move it

to the amplification stage, which is visibility. That's

another barrier that I always address because

everyone says, I'm out there. I'm doing everything. I'm speaking. I'm

on Zoom. I'm on podcasts. I'm doing all these things and nothing's converting.

Well, it's because you're operating under the old information

economy and you're positioning yourself as the expert. We

don't pump out more visibility Until

we've had the authority alignment. Because then now what you're

saying to people is positioning you in the category of

one. Now what we're saying truly matters. It's going to make

that impact that it needs to. It's going to land and attract

your ideal client. And then of course, the last

gap that we fill is the, um, architecture, which is

your systems. Well, you know, the thing that I think people

Miss so much, and and it's like the thing that I see

immediately is you say what do you do? And they go hi,

I'm so and so. I help so and so. I do this. I do this.

I do this. I do this. I do this. And I go no,

too many things. I'm not interested. First of all, I'm not

interested in who you are until I know that you can fix my problem,

right? Or at least make me aware of the problem I have.

And 2, by the time you've gone through your list, I no longer

know what it is you do. And so, you know, one of the things that

I say all the time is pick one thing,

pick the thing that you love, that you want to do, that you're really good

at. Because what happens is you do

all these different offers, you know, and there are different price

points and all this stuff. Right. It's like I said, if you have a mobile

store and it's on one corner on Monday, somebody walks by and goes,

Huh, I'm really interested in that. Maybe I'll come back on

Wednesday. But by Wednesday, you, you know, Tuesday you've moved it,

Wednesday you've moved it, Thursday they can't find you, and you're selling

something different in every store. So, you know, if, if the old

adage is that you have to be out there like 12 times before somebody, you

know, can fixate on you and you have 5 offers, that now

means you have to be out there 60 times. Wouldn't it be much better

to be out there 20 times with One thing where you can—

100%. Yes. Do you know? And that's the thing that

I find people, you know, one of the things that I do with people is

I do a money map with them. Give me all your, give me all your

products that you've got. Let's take a look at how many people you have to,

you know, what's your conversion rate, that kind of stuff. You know, how much money

do you want to make? And, you know, it's kind of, even though

I could say, if you want to make $1 million and you only charge a

dollar, And you need a million people, right?

It, it doesn't resonate. But when I show you with your own,

your own programs, how many you would have to get

at that price and how many people you'd have to talk to and stuff,

it really is like, oh, maybe this does make sense.

Maybe it does make more sense for me to price my, you know, what I'm

worth. And I think the other thing that's scary

is Again, I go back to the education thing. There's like,

you know, and the marketing thing. There is a whole

process that people have sold you on, right? Yeah.

That doesn't work for most of us. I don't know. And,

and it's not working anymore again because we have shifted

and people haven't. What's getting pitched out there still is

information economy. um, knowledge, right?

Build your funnel, have a product, have another product, have another product, upsell,

downsell, bumps, offer bumps. Then you have your master

program and then this, this, and this, right? That was the

information economy and that is no longer working. And as you say,

let's go back to simplicity. And that's exactly what has to happen

in the authority economy. You need to be known for that one thing. You can't

be everywhere to everyone. And we're going to position

exactly, um, into that, um,

high-quality buyer, as I call it, uh, and speak

directly to them. The other thing you brought up, which I love, and I talk

about this all the time, I call it the math, not magic

calculator, right? So what does that mean? That means that

I don't even, I don't even go back and look at anything except we're

gonna set a $10,000 program. We're gonna get 10 people

and that's $100,000. Mm-hmm. You wanna grow more? Then we'll get

more people. But first you have to get the 10, right?

And that's our— that's the focus kind of, of, of the program

is first we get 3, what I call the founding members. When

you break the barrier for a new level of a program

or one that is now in line with

your priority positioning for

your authority, then it becomes so much

easier to talk about the exact same thing to the exact same

people. Your conversions will then go up. You'll start to attract more people because

the clarity in the marketplace is going to be there on what you

offer that kind of exact prospect.

And it eliminates the need— you said, you know, you have to be out there

60 times if you have multiple programs. That's exactly true.

We go for one funnel, which means one way

in, right? However that's going to be. And then

it moves through the exact same customer experience

to lead them through to your pinnacle

product, to your, you know, the one you want to be that

authority on. And this has made life

so much simpler. I reduced my work week from 60

hours a week you know, kind of doing, doing, doing, because

I was caught in the information era for decades,

to now my life is so simple. I show up 2 hours

a week on a Tuesday for my

clients. I show— actually, I don't show up. I have somebody

else show up on a Friday for what's called the

Productivity and Power Hour. And then

that's what my work week is now. So I went from 60

really down to that magical 4-hour work Now,

do I work more than the 4 hours? The answer is

yes, but that is a desire. That is a, that is a

me thing now. And that's the beautiful part about choice.

So, there are a couple things that you hit on that we need to

talk about. One is,

one of the things that I found when I first started talking about this about

focusing and narrowing down and that kind of stuff.

So I have the entrepreneur squirrel brain.

I want to try this, I want to try it, you know. Mm-hmm. And so

when it was first suggested that I do one workshop, the same work, you

know, I do one workshop a month and the same workshop,

my brain just went, you gotta be kidding me. People are

gonna be bored. Why would they come? Why would, You know,

but what I learned was, by doing the same

workshop, I actually got better. I got rid of the

stuff that didn't work. I got feedback. You know, you can

feel that the workshops are different every time because one,

different people are coming, and I have people who come multiple times too.

Mm-hmm. In between each workshop, I find out something

new. And I'm like, oh my God, I, you know, I need to put this

in. So I'm not going wider, I'm going deeper.

And so I am meeting the needs so much better. And

because I know what I'm talking about, because I've done it so many times,

I can really connect with the people that are there. I don't have to worry

about the script and the this, and am I going to get it right? And

do I— I mean, I have the same— like when I first started, I had

25 PowerPoint slides. Mm-hmm. And I hired somebody to help

me with the presentation, and I ended up with 52. And

I was like, good Lord, you know, and then something else in there.

And, and I finally ended up with 13 slides. I've had the

same 13 slides with the exception that,

you know, kind of as my message changed, I may have diddle with the wording

a little bit, or, you know, change the title on the slide, but the slide

still serves the same purpose. Right.

So that's one thing. When you focus on what you're

doing, you can get so much better. The other thing I will

say is imperfect action.

If you are afraid to charge for what you do, get somebody

to take it. And when you actually go through it, you will

go, oh my God, I can't believe how much work I'm doing. You know,

because we don't realize how much work we're doing. This is worth so

much more. I am working so hard to

deliver this. So I think that's the other part of it is we

don't realize even— I mean, that's one

of the reasons I don't do these tiny little things because it takes me—

the delivery is just too much. Do you know?

Yeah. So anyway, so the other part I think has to do with

that very few people talk about And that's what kind

of life do you want? Right?

You know, I know that the ongoing tension in my life

is that my husband's been retired for 6 years. And he's like, when are you

going to retire? When are you going to retire? And I'm like, babe, I'm just

hitting my stride. Yes. So the

balance is to make it work with not as

many hours. Right? Yeah. And also, I

see— also, I see the carrot. I, you know, I took my husband, I said

to him, when I get to this level in my business, I'm going to take

you on a jazz cruise, which is his thing. So I've done it

once, and man was so happy, you know. So now when

I'm working and he goes, when are you going to retire? I'm going, do you

want another jazz cruise? He goes like, you go, you do what you're doing,

you know. So that's— but we don't talk about that. We don't

talk about You know, really being involved

in our families and, and the things that are really important. When you die,

people are not going to say she spent 60 or 70 hours a week,

we're so proud of her. Yeah, yeah, that's right. You

know, you know, and it brings me to where

what I've been working on now for the last 8 years,

which is called the Legacy Life Code, right?

And what you're talking about is the exact framework to

ensure that your lifestyle is incorporated

into what it is that you're doing. And

it's funny, as the lifestyle got bigger, as the

Legacy Life Code, you know, really

symbolized and got

solid and was working and it was super

simple. And it's a flywheel, so you keep going around. Yeah.

Um, that's where the Authority Architect came in at the

beginning of it, because it is so much simpler when we put

this framework at the front and then carry it through.

Um, and that was kind of a major pivotal change. So a

legacy life is, is something where you can do what you

want, when you want, where you want, with who you want, and you can

give philanthropically from your overflow.

So it's not hard to give. If you choose to, you can. If you

want to give your time, you can. All of these, again, back to that

power of choice, is the last 2 spokes of

the Legacy Life Wheel. And the first ones are like clarity

on your, um, offer, right? Back, back to

that, which the authority handles as well. Then the second one

is focus on your high-quality buyer. Again, we're

we're pounding in on authority. The third is community. Fourth is

visibility. That is the entire authority framework as well,

ensuring that now we're getting even more aligned to that

category of one. Then it moves over to systems, and then

it moves to scale. Then it moves to philanthropy

and legacy. And that's the whole— that's the whole

phenomena. And, and that's how you ensure that you

work from the back. What do you want your life to look like? Well, great.

Now let's build the business around it. So, you know, one of the

things that I say is I— one of the things I teach is called dead

reckoning, which is a weird sailing term, but it's kind of like you can't

get— when you're sailing, you can't go in a straight line. And so

that helps you to pack. Yeah, that helps you to build confidence.

How do I overcome this detour, this delay, this whatever?

If you know where you're headed and then you hit on some of the things

that I do in my Be Found framework, which is focus.

you know, on the thing that you do well, outreach where the

people are going to be that you want to be, you know. And

I think the other part is you're building a legacy whether

you are doing it— Know it or not. Right, exactly.

Yeah. And so why not, why not be intentional

about it? And, you know, so for, for instance, I'm working on

a passion project that,

that is a podcast that's called The Curious American Chat.

And it just has to do with the fact that my

husband and I, who've been married 55 years, had a conversation. It

was like, I didn't know that about you. Mm-hmm. And he was like, I didn't

know that about you. It was like, oh my God, you know. And in this,

in this, you know, I won't go political, but in this environment,

there's so much we don't know about each other that we assume. And therefore,

so it kind of takes a historical bent, takes us from before

we were a nation. It's going to go until the election,

and it's going to talk about what, how did the systems that were, the

societal systems that were there affect your family.

I found out yesterday that my

great-grandfather was born a slave. Hmm.

I did not know that. And my brother told me. So

anyway, we gotta stop. We're having

too much fun. You have said more than 3 things. You talked about

focus, having a, you know, a one

program that you can really dig into. Is there anything else that

they can do right now so that—

That they can do right now? Well, there's a lot you can do right now

if you're talking about, you know, hey, that practical action

step that, that people like to draw from. I have a

couple that I'm gonna bring up. One is, uh, go to my

YouTube channel, Tracy Repchuk. Go watch, no opt-in

required, and take a look at, um, uh,

my recordings on trainings on,

you know, what is the authority economy? What are the, uh,

5 gaps that you need to work with? What are the

expert traps? Because when you get a fundamental

understanding of the shift from the information and digital

economy to the now authority economy, it is going

to just shatter all of these

limitations and it's going to free you from

what you've been doing. You're going to say, okay, I got it.

This was working for me. It no longer is.

Here is why. Now let's move forward. All of that

is, is kind of available in that environment.

And the other thing I want to provide

your listeners with is

something even better than like a free gift, because I don't want

you to have another ebook or a guide

that's buried in your downloads folder. That was the information

economy. Yes. What I'm going to give you today is, is

something I actually charge $197 for. It's called an

Authority Assessment Blueprint. It's completely free.

What you're gonna do is you're gonna answer a few questions, and then in minutes

you are gonna get that one authority gap that's holding your

business back. You're actually gonna get way more than that. You're gonna get the habits,

the challenges, um, and you're going to get a, a

full personalized 6-step strategy on

what do you do next. You're gonna understand what it's

costing you to not position yourself properly

with your premium clients. It's going to give you the opportunities

that you can take advantage of now through this

shift in particular. Because if you get ahead of this right now,

you're going to be one of these surfing up

the scale of adoption, right?

And when you are, that's where it's going to be easier to

become that known-for category.

Because in whatever, 1 year's time, 2 years' time, 3 years' time, when

this has become the adoption, the

authority economy has become fully adopted.

If you're now attempting to break into markets, it's like breaking into

markets in the information era was and the digital era was

for us a decade ago. It's going to be that difficult.

So I can't tell you. Yes. How generous this

is. You're welcome. And I want to talk to you about it more,

but I can't. So just very quickly, if you can

think of it, when was the last time you did something new for the first

time? Well, last time I did something new

for the first time was to really framework the

entire authority economy. I, I have seen all the

evolutions. But this time I was like, wait a minute, I

have 40 years of experience. So we're going to benefit from that. Yes. I'm going

to tell you, you need to get this. All right, guys, I

hate to do this because I am learning so much as well, but we

are out of time. And so the commercial you

already know is, you know, make sure you subscribe, share with friends,

engage on social media. The reason I do this is it's my way

to give back. So that it'll open, you know, and introduce you

to people that maybe you may not have run into. And I

hope that you'll continue to join me for the One Small Change, because the

smallest shift can make the biggest impact if you keep doing it

over time. And I want this to help you to

have a bold vision and innovative possibilities.

Tracy, give me your words of wisdom, because we gotta go.

Adopt or perish. Oh, that is

good. I love that. I love that. Okay,

so remember, change is simple, but it's not always easy. It requires

courage and resilience and a willingness to step out of your comfort zone.

If you are not uncomfortable, you are not changing.

You are not, you know, innovating. You are stagnating, and the

world will pass you by. So join me again for The One Small Change

and Until next time, stay very, very curious.

Tracy, thank you so much. Thank you.

Bye, everybody.