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Short Summary
Main recommendation: Practice the "hot shot rule" weekly: picture a person you admire in your role, ask what one thing they would do differently, act on it within 24 hours, and then tell the people involved once it is in motion. Kat Cole argues that confidence is built through repeated action rather than existing before bold action, so this regular practice drives growth and breaks through complacency.
Key Points
- Confidence, as Cole defines it, is the reliance or assurance others place in someone's abilities or qualities, and people learn those qualities through actions, so "reps of action" build confidence.
- Complacency is a real risk even when things are going well, and it is easier to act boldly in hard times than when things are good, so the hot shot rule is meant as a proactive self-coaching habit.
- Cole developed the practice after her mother left her father when Cole was nine, and after realizing she lacked outside mentoring as an executive at 26.
- The rule was originally practiced quarterly, then monthly, and Cole now does it weekly, which she says over a year yields about 52 deliberate actions and builds a reputation for vulnerability and bias for action.
Details Worth Noting
- Concrete instructions:
- Ground your role: think about your current role, what you have, the challenges, and the opportunities. For Cole, this includes being CEO of AG1 and responsibility to customers and team members.
- Envision someone you admire in your role. Cole imagines the person sitting in her seat tomorrow while she watches.
- Ask yourself: "What's one thing that person I admire would do differently to make that situation better?"
- Act on the answer within 24 hours. Cole's examples include sending an email or scheduling a flight.
- Tell those involved once things are in motion, for example: "Hey, I could have or should have done this thing, but I didn't and now we are."
- Repeat weekly. Cole does it every Sunday, taking about a minute.
- Use it also as a technique in a time of need, though its power comes from regular, proactive use.
- Examples from Cole's practice include flying to meet a business partner to hold them accountable after excuses were made, apologizing for a situation she could have handled better, calling a friend who lost a parent, calling her mother, thanking her husband, and stopping a company initiative that had become comfortable but no longer served the business.
- Cole's childhood context: her mother fed the family on a meager budget, worked multiple jobs, and had no coach or playbook. Cole began working at 15 in malls, at 17 as a restaurant hostess, at 18 as a waitress, at 19 opening franchises worldwide, and was an executive by 26.
- Cole attributes the practice's origin to advice from a restaurant consultant to imagine someone else in your role to motivate action.
Bottom Line
The hot shot rule turns confidence into a habit: a short weekly reflection that forces one concrete action and an accountability update, so growth comes from doing rather than waiting to feel ready.
