Where Credibility Comes From

When was the last time your face was the unfamiliar one? You may have gotten a new job or joined a new team. Maybe you moved to a new area, joined a new network or gave a presentation to a new group.

How did it go?

If you had anything to say, share or contribute, chances are at some point you found yourself wondering, “how can I make myself credible to these people?”

The interesting thing about credibility is that it can never been attained for oneself. It can only be conveyed by others. You can only ever be as credible and others decide you are.

So what can you and I do? Quite a bit, actually. Here’s a sample of the ways I’ve noticed people gain credibility with others.

Trust Me

Leadership Profile: Cory Cotton

What’s the craziest basketball shot you’ve ever made? Multiply that by 100 and you’ve got Cory Cotton, one of the members of the YouTube sensation Dude Perfect. Perhaps you’ve been mesmerized by their trick basketball shots from airplanes, water towers, football stadiums, trains or cars. Or perhaps you’ve seen their brand featured on ESPN, Yahoo! or various daytime or late night talk shows. The simple truth is that Dude Perfect has inspired millions of people with their crazy shots, enthusiasm, and Go Big philosophy.

Dude Perfect1

But it wasn’t enough to just build a business based off crazy basketball shots. Cory Cotton took things a step further by putting the group’s contagious philosophy on basketball – and life – into a book: Go Big: Make Your Shot Count in the Connected World. In it, Cotton shares not only how the group capitalized on social media to become YouTube’s 3rd largest sports channel, but also how the average person can go big in their own life. Here are a handful of Cotton’s (and Dude Perfect’s) principles for going big: