Imagine you’re on stage with 3 of your heroes
Most of us think too small, including myself.
It’s not about getting more likes on your next tweet. Or describing your niche. Or introducing yourself at a networking event.
Those are short-term and micro. Personal credibility is about your body of work and legacy in your chosen field. How will your field be different after you, because of you?
When you have the answer to that macro question, ironically, you’ll write better tweets, confidently describe your work, and introduce yourself with more clarity.
Here’s an exercise to help you reset, carve out your legacy, and start thinking bigger.
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Imagine you’re invited to speak at a panel. Where? The biggest event in your industry.
You’re backstage and you can hear the audience rumbling. When you walk out, the lights are hot. Each panelist sits down. The audience looks like a sea of darkness.
The moderator starts to introduce the panelists.
You look to your right and left. Seated in a row on stage with you, are 3 of the biggest names in your field.
These were and are your heroes. You cited their work. You’ve quoted them in talks. And now you’re on stage with them. The audience wants to hear what all of you have to say (yes, including you—and maybe especially you).
Soak it in.
You’ve made it.
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Your personal credibility depends on choosing a scope that’s believable and defensible. Claiming “marketing” as your expertise feels weird because it’s hard to believe you could be an expert in a field that broad.
If you’re in a room full of marketers, you’d feel self-conscious just saying you do marketing, right?
If you’ve ever struggled to describe your work, here’s an exercise I created for clients. I call it the Heroes on Stage exercise:
Here’s how it works.
Imagine you’re invited to speak at a panel at the biggest event in your industry.
The other panelists are leaders who have shaped your field. Pick 3-4 people you admire, where you think “I hope to one day be on their level.”
Jot down what each person represents in the field. Then jot down what you represent. What’s a scope where you would feel comfortable debating with your heroes?
You are their equal
Pick the biggest names in your field. Don’t pick someone who’s a “near peer” and only a few steps ahead. Pick leaders where you can’t imagine being on their level (yet).
You’re on stage with them. Not as a moderator or audience member.
As an equal.
This part is key. You have to see yourself as their EQUAL.
This should feel like blasphemy. “So-and-so is a god. I couldn’t possibly be on stage with them as an equal!”
Suspend your disbelief for the purpose of this exercise. You need to see yourself as eventually someone who can stand on stage with them because your work had the same level of impact.
This is how you break through the usual noise in your head to think bigger.
Specific enough to differentiate from the existing giants
Your work isn’t just a combination of the people you’ve studied.
No, over time, you’ve borrowed, read, analyzed, studied. And you’ve lived, tried, failed, tested, walked, run, stumbled, experimented.
You have your own approach. You have your own texture. You have your own instincts.
In my experience, we spend a lot of time wishing we had someone else’s skill set. The Heroes on Stage exercise is about leaning into what you already do better than others.
Stop fighting your instincts. Go deeper into what you’re naturally drawn to.
For example, let’s say your thing is negotiation.
So on stage will be:
You
Chris Voss (Former FBI negotiator with Masterclass ads all over your newsfeed)
William Ury (Author of Getting To Yes. A backlist book, meaning everyone in school has to read it. I read it more than a decade ago in college.)
Stuart Diamond (Author of Getting More)
Voss’ background is different from Ury’s who is different from Diamond’s which is different from yours.
Now, ALL the panelists on stage are in your self-described field. So you can’t just say your thing is negotiation.
You want to be able to say, “Ah, I hear you, Chris. But the thing is, we have to think through the lens of X. We have to consider Y.”
No topic is “taken”
Maybe your thing is irrationality, emotional intelligence, or habits. You probably have a friend who says, “Yeah but when I think of that, I think of Dan Ariely. I think that topic is taken.”
Taken.
TAKEN.
Man. That sounds final. Claimed. No longer available. Done.
The good news: Your friend is wrong.
How do we know that? Because since your friend said that, you’ve seen someone else rise up in that field.
You’ve seen someone else tackle this topic. They popped up on your Instagram feed or you saw them on LinkedIn or they came out with a new book.
And you felt bitter and resentful.
Very normal.
The next time this happens, think of the Heroes on Stage Exercise. Each of the people on stage with you wouldn’t be there if they stopped because their topic was “taken.”
There was room in the market for each person—and there’s room for you. And one day, maybe even one day soon, people will cite your work just like you’re citing theirs.