"The Ace in Your Pocket”- How to Build Your Credibility and Own Your Expertise
By Aryn Banas '20 via Bay Path University's Student Newsroom
Let’s play a game; it’s called The Credibility Game! Think about this...
“Hello my name is_______. I’m an expert in_________ because________________.”
To fill in the blanks, you must ask yourself: What will make your credibility stand out against the other people around you (whether in a room, situation, or group). What is your own expertise? This expertise could be based on academics, work, personal, social, etc. What success in your life can separate you from others? What is your value? What is your ace in your pocket?
By using this method and game, you can figure out your own credibility in the world we live in. This game is the creation of Katie Orenstein, founder of The OpEd Project. She has been on a mission to inspire people, especially women, to build a confidence in their credibility when facing the world.
On September 25, Bay Path’s Strategic Alliances division, in partnership with The Women’s Fund of Western Mass, presented Katie Orenstein to students, faculty, and women in our community.
She began her talk with the question: “Who narrates the world?” Orenstein shared that this is a question she continues to ask -- especially as a journalist. Whose facts are we living by? Over the years of being a journalist, she noticed the lack of women reporters and wondered why that was. She came to realize that women just simply did not pitch or present ideas to be published as regularly as men in the industry. From that point on, Orenstein made it her goal to change history by changing who narrates the world.
You can use the game of credibility to find out the value of your own expertise and share it with others.
"We need to spread our success because it can separate us from our competition,” Orenstein said. “In our world, if women show confidence, she can sometimes be presented in a negative light. In the real world, we have 30 seconds to make ourselves shine and command attention. So we need to use everything we can well to maximize our influence -- which is driven by a maximum awareness of your value to others.”
By expressing our expertise, we are sharing our virtues to benefit ourselves. It is selfish to not share our differences for the “fear of self.”
Orenstein empowers women to use their knowledge to build credibility and success, thus becoming the narrators of their own lives and of the world. For more information, check out www.theopedproject.org.