Building credibility

Building credibility

Dear Lloyd,

I’d like to learn how you can make your work something people appreciate. It can help me become better at my work.

Janine

Dear Janine,

In the book where I was featured, the author wrote:

“Credibility also isn’t built in a day, and it doesn’t grow overnight either. It takes a lot of time and dedicated effort to acquire it. More than that, it demands nothing less than the passion to ‘perfect’ one’s craft, to enhance it to the level of mastery one needs to practice it as a calling or profession, and, surely even more important to a lot of people, as a viable source of livelihood.

“To build credibility, of course, one has to develop contacts and nurture a continuing engagement with a trusted circle of colleagues, peers, and associates. Their collaboration and support can provide the network and exposure that can hasten one’s professional growth in the industry one has chosen to enter.

“Lloyd got one such very fortunate and huge exposure in 2006 when Joey Concepcion, founder of Go Negosyo, an advocacy group of the Philippine Center for Entrepreneurship (PCE), and his former vice president at RFM Corp. and now Department of Trade and Industry secretary Ramon Lopez got him as a website consultant. The group, which aims to demystify entrepreneurial success and popularize entrepreneurship, needed a website designer at that time. He got hired to do their website, and this gave Lloyd a great opportunity to experience high-profile meetings and discussions with many enthusiastic ‘negosyo’ advocates and entrepreneurs.

“The people he rubbed elbows with in Go Negosyo were no ordinary businessmen. They were highly energized leaders, trailblazers, pioneers, and trendsetters of the various industries they represented. And his extensive interactions with them gave Lloyd a front seat to learn intimately from their first-hand knowledge, expertise and trade secrets. 


“During his frequent lively discussions and exchange of opinions with those seasoned businessmen, Lloyd remembers thinking with private excitement: ‘I may not be like them for now, but here I am getting this rare and extraordinary chance to meet them up close and to learn from their every word, mannerism and gesture.’

“Indeed, getting the right connections at the right moment put Lloyd on track and allowed him to stay there to learn the ropes with great enthusiasm.”

I hope this helps.

* * *

The Public Speaking Institute runs public speaking training courses in 2023. The Certified Public Speaker (CPS) is a six-session program every first two weeks of each month, Monday, Thursday and Saturday, from 8:30 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. via Zoom, and the Public Speaking Fellow (PSF) certification program every two months with face-to-face sessions. If you want to improve your communication skills, please go to www.publicspeaking.ph. We’ll be happy to assist you.

Sgt. Lloyd A. Luna, PAFR, is the first registered speaking professional in the Philippines. He is an international leadership speaker, an author, a master communicator, and the founder of The Luna Group. Visit his website, theasianschool.org, or email him at [email protected].