How to Build Credibility When You’re Not a CEO

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This week’s set up:

🆘 Problem: You’re not a famous CEO so you think your voice isn’t worth sharing.

💡 Solution: Accept it’s not about your title. It’s about building skills and relationships around a topic you care about.

🗺 Next play: Find out what makes your story unique and start sharing it; the credibility and Forbes mentions will come later.

Intro

So you’re not a million dollar CEO, Forbes 30 under 30, Thiel fellow, Disney employee, ex-Google or FB alumni that’s interned for Bill Gates, Elon Musk or Steve Jobs?

🔹 Firstly, it’s okay. 

🔹 Secondly, this should never hold you back from sharing your voice.

You might think you need social credibility before you hit that post button. But to be honest, it’s overrated.

Your goal should never be to WAIT until you're a sold-out keynote speaker or tech CEO to share your thoughts on your industry.Learn from them? Yes. But wait till you're in their shoes to share your voice? No. Instead, be inspired by their life, channel your learning, and create something of your own 💬 

Your goal is to be YOU: your first and last name online sharing things you care about and building community around topics you’re interested in

If you wait till you're a Fortune 1000 leader to share ideas, you'll miss all the fun parts about sharing your story.

Storytime:

When I was a business student and had some time on my hands, I decided to start interviewing founders/CEOs that inspired me. I’d ask them what their 1 piece of advice was to young professionals, hit the film button on my iPhone, and share my takeaway with my Linkedin community.📱

Did I have a fancy work title? No

Did I have a million followers? No

It was just a combination of:

🔑 Shared interests (entrepreneurship),

🔑 Clever question asking (twitter, IG, email, LI),

🔑 And a splash of student charisma (smile/being creative)

Those interviews launched my love for interviewing and storytelling. And in some ways, taught me things about my career that a business class never would 📊

Successful folks like the founders and executives of Herschel Supply Co, Salesforce, Hootsuite, O2E Brands, Tentree, MEC and A&W opened their doors to share their advice with me and I was always blown away they said yes.

…

Find out what to avoid and what to do to build social credibility in the rest of this article.