Projecting Situational Gravitas

One way to project situational gravitas is to establish your credibility early in a relationship.

This is especially the case when you’re giving a speech to an audience that doesn’t know you, or you’re interacting with prospects or clients that don’t know you.

Because no prior relationship exists, you’re starting from scratch.

In these situations, you want to figure out which aspects of your background qualify you to be speaking to your audience, and why they should bother listening to you.

This is one of a dozen secrets I share in my Gravitas program on how to get people to take you seriously.

For example, when I give a speech to a CEO organization, I always want to know who will be introducing me. I then give them the exact bio I want them to use to introduce me.

(It is always better if you have someone else brag about your credentials than if you do it yourself.)

In a moment, I’ll show you the bio that I use.

But first, I want to point out a few things.

When you see my bio, you’ll see that I’m not at all shy about highlighting my achievements and establishing my credibility. I mention every big brand name organization that I’ve worked with. For those of you that have my course on how to write an effective cover letter or resume, you’ll recognize the importance of highlighting “big brand names” in your communications.

Needless to say, I practice what I preach.

Second, notice the overwhelming number of what I call “social proof” points in my bio. Notice references to how I’ve been quoted repeatedly in the Wall Street Journal, Inc. magazine, Entrepreneur, and TIME magazine. Notice the video clips of me appearing on live national television.

These are “proof points.” Your individual proof points will vary, of course, but you must have at least one significant proof point.

(This is one reason I recommend working for a well-known company early in your career; it can serve as a proof point for the rest of your career.)

Finally, you want to establish your authority via proof points very early when interacting with an audience that may not be familiar with you.

This is one of the 12 secrets to establishing gravitas.

You can Click Here to see a copy of the bio I use to establish gravitas. To learn more about my Gravitas program, Click Here.  And to be notified when my program is available next, just complete the form below.