When you’re starting on in improv you learn a few simple tools that really help you to shine when you’re on stage with your scene partners. I want to share one them with you tonight. That tool is simply referred to as “You are an expert.”

In the improv sense, what that means is that no matter what you say, you are the expert. That’s right, everybody needs to believe it and treat it as though it’s the truth. That gives you so much power and so much confidence on stage because you can throw anything out there and you know that everyone is going to support you in that truth.

I want to tell you that you are the expert. Now you may ask, “Well Rob, what do you mean by that?” You are the expert because you have a unique experience in this life. You have a unique perspective that’s created from that experience. This means that you have a way of looking at things that brings a view and a perspective and an expertise to every situation. That’s what makes you an expert. As soon as you believe that, your level of confidence is going to go up and up and up because no matter what you do, you are an expert.

Let me give you an example. I have a friends of mine, actually from my improv troop, she owns her own company and she has a number of people that do inside support and inside sales for her. They actually are experts in what they do and what their company provides, but they still have trouble getting on the phone and having a conversation with the customer. They have tendency to default to using e-mail where they can hide behind the computer screen, where they don’t have to interact in real time with the person. If they would believe that they are the experts in their products, they would have no problem calling up a customer with a 100% confidence that they can help that customer out. This brings to my one other thing that I learned very early on in my sales career. Always, always be honest with the customer. That includes if you don’t know something, tell them you don’t know it but you always follow-up with one simple phrase, “I’ll get back to you with answer.”

There you have it. You are the expert. If you don’t know the answer, tell them you don’t know and get them an answer. You should have that confidence in what you know and go out there and serve the world because the world needs more people like you. The world needs more leaders. Thank you very much. Take up your mental of leadership and go out and lead the world.