Talent is not enough. Hard work is not enough. Even expertise is not enough. What is enough is a deliberate obsession with the missing ingredients that predictably create the story of what’s next.
The professionals who rise to the top are the ones who consistently and predictably fixate on four simple, powerful pillars.
These four factors aren’t merely priorities. They’re obsessions. They’re the difference between hoping for opportunities and engineering them.
1. Visibility
You cannot become the person you want to be if nobody can see you moving in that direction.
Every future version of you requires evidence. Not talk. Not intention. Evidence. Most of us have pieces of our story, both past and present, that are invisible to the world.
Ask yourself: What do I need to make more visible today to become who I intend to be tomorrow?
A few places to begin:
- Reveal your iconic moments. We all have inflection points in our backstory that signal who we’re becoming. Most people hide them.
- Build your future résumé today. Don’t wait until you’ve arrived to demonstrate you belong.
- Break out of the box you put yourself in. Reinvent the story that built the box in the first place.
- Raise the floor. Most people try to raise the ceiling. Winners raise the floor—the baseline standard from which everything else grows.
Visibility is not about spectacle. It’s about empirical evidence.
Show me:
- You’ve done this before.
- You’ve done it for someone like me.
- You’ve done it recently.
Be seen doing the thing you want to be known for doing.
2. Credibility
Visibility gets attention. Credibility earns trust.
Your credibility is not a moment. It is a mosaic, built peg by peg, piece by piece. The challenge is that most people think credibility arrives in one big win. It doesn’t. It shows up in the tiny, often overlooked steps.
Re write your bio every three to six months. If you can’t, you’re possibly not moving quickly enough.
When does this stop? When you reach a one-word bio.
Think: Oprah. Beyoncé. Ronaldo.
That level of clarity starts with asking:
What is missing from my credibility that proves I am who I say I am?
Map the pegs. Identify the hundred tiny pieces that build your case. Then look at your daily activities and spot the peg-building opportunities already sitting in your calendar.
And remember: the reputation that got you here may not be the reputation that gets you there. Learn to park the old reputation so your new one has space to grow.
The credibility that matters most isn’t who you’ve been—
It’s who you’re becoming.
3. Authenticity
Real authenticity starts with deciding which problems you care about deeply enough to take responsibility for, even when you’re not getting paid. Even when nobody is watching.
Most people are more passionate about what they do than the problem they solve. That’s why they struggle to stand out.
But the leaders who create movements?
They care so much about the problem that the work becomes a natural extension of their mission.
Ask yourself:
What problems in the world do I care about enough to be in service of every day?
Let people hear not only what you do, but what you can’t stand to see continue. Sometimes you have to be loud about what you are authentically not.
This is where your so-called “elevator pitch” becomes an elevator rant, a clear, compelling expression of what frustrates you, why it matters, and how you’re committed to fixing it.
Ask yourself…
1 – Who are the people you are looking to serve?
2 – What are the challenges you are looking to help them overcome?
Then get to work doing exactly that.
4. Availability
Be easy to do business with.
People can start a conversation with you and see what you can do to help, but today I care more about what you do-do more than what you can do.
Do you have the right offerings at the right price points for each of the people you choose to serve.
Think about how people can access your help in these 3 areas.
Try – Ways people can get a step into your world. Typically low or no fee.
Hire – Fixed term easy to purchase packages that have a beginning, middle and end.
Join – Ways people can decide to come with you for the journey. This goes from your recurring emails and social content, right though to your employment opportunities and in person communities.
I can like you, value you and want to do more with you, but if you have not figured out how to make it simple for others to transact with you – they won’t.
What actions has this prompted you to take?
