Discover how small, intentional actions help you uncover your unique superpower, build confidence, and take meaningful steps toward your career goals.
In this inspiring Two Marketing Moms episode, Dr. Christiane Schroeter—TEDx speaker, bestselling author, and host of The Happy Healthy Hustle podcast—shares how small, consistent actions can help you uncover your unique strengths and align your life with your true purpose.
Dr. Christiane defines your superpower as the unique value only you can offer the world—something that energizes you, lights up a room, and leaves a lasting impact. Through reflective exercises like identifying your core values, defining moments, and personal legacy, she helps listeners pinpoint what makes them stand out.
Her Petite Practice Planner emphasizes progress through tiny, intentional steps—proving that sustainable success doesn't come from grand gestures, but from small, daily actions that reduce stress and build confidence. She reminds us that "big change starts with small steps," a philosophy that guided her all the way to her TEDx stage debut.
Dr. Christiane also encourages self-awareness and vulnerability—especially for students and professionals discovering their path. By reflecting on personal stories, she teaches how to connect passion and purpose into something meaningful and actionable.
Key Takeaway: Your superpower isn't something you have to find—it's something you uncover, one small, intentional action at a time.
Kelly Callahan-Poe: If you want to learn how small intentional actions can unlock your greatest strengths, this episode is for you. Welcome to the Two Marketing Moms podcast. I'm Kelly Callahan-Poe and today's episode is called Discover Your Superpower with Dr. Christiane Schroeter. Christiane is a TEDx speaker, bestselling author, college professor, and host of the Happy Healthy Hustle podcast who helps entrepreneurs achieve big results through small strategic actions. Welcome, Christiane.
Dr. Christiane Schroeter: I'm so glad we put all the big words right at the beginning because this episode will be all about small steps. And so I think we eliminated all the big words and from now on only small stuff will happen.
Kelly: Excellent. I've done a lot of research. I purchased your book—I purchased all of your books. And the one that we're going to talk about today is called Discover Your Superpower. And I did a lot of the exercises in this book. Your goal with the book is to help people turn their strengths into success. Let's take a step back first. How do you define a superpower?
Dr. Christiane: I define your superpower as a unique value that you want to share with the world as something that you and only you have, you do, and that makes you really special—that people seek you out for and that you feel good about sharing with the world as well. It's something that you're really passionate about. It makes the room light up when you do it. Think about how we all need that in our lives—that person that's just aligned with who they are meant to be.
Kelly: So what are the steps in the book that you need to take to discover your own superpower? I found the core values, the unique value proposition, and the defining moment exercises to be the most helpful. Can you take us through some of the steps to find your superpower?
Dr. Christiane: Yeah, so that exercise that you just talked about is a brilliant one. Think about what do you want people to say about you when you're not in the room? Sometimes that's really a moment of awakening—like, I don't think I'm actually sharing enough of my superpower with my friends, family, and acquaintances. What do I really want to be known for? What do I really want people to remember me by?
That even ties in with what legacy do you want to leave in this world? What do you want to be remembered by? Sometimes I even ask my clients, if you could envision your tombstone, what inscription do you think would be on there? That is your superpower right there. So all these exercises sometimes make us realize that we're not aligned enough or that we are not verbal enough in really sharing with the world what our unique values are.
Kelly: And the quiz on your website, can you just talk about that?
Dr. Christiane: Yeah, the Discover Your Superpower quiz shows us exactly that—how well are we aligned? Is it that you are vaguely aware about your superpower? Are you kind of on your way to really stepping into it? Or are you fully aligned and you feel super confident? Like, yes, my superpower is that. And you feel that confidence shows whether people talk about you when you're in the room, leaving the room, or leaving that legacy.
Kelly: I took the quiz twice. The first time I wasn't as clear. I think it might have been a couple months ago when we first talked and now I'm in flow. So I feel good—probably because I read your book.
Dr. Christiane: Well, I think that's the best testimonial ever! The fun part about the book too is there are quizzes and worksheets. It's not easy at the beginning to figure out what your superpower might be. But the book is playful enough that it feels like an exercise—something leisurely and enjoyable. Whether you do a word search, a quiz, or you're reading through what somebody else's superpower is, it taps into different learning styles. It's not just "read this book and then you know your superpower." You could listen to the book or interact with the book if you're a more kinesthetic learner.
Kelly: You're also a professor of marketing and entrepreneurship and you have taught over 10,000 students. What are the common mindset barriers that college students face in finding their own superpowers?
Dr. Christiane: I actually just got an email from a student who was so hung up on a homework assignment in another class involving a lot of math that she completely forgot to do my homework assignment. Sometimes we are very stressed out and focused on one thing and then everything else turns into the shadow. The self-talk is so negative that it carries into the classroom or into their behavior.
I frequently say, "I'm sure it's a challenge, but how do you think about that? This is not the first time in your life that you will encounter this. How in the future can you deal with these challenges?" It takes a lot to share that you're struggling with something. We don't want to be seen as being weak or having challenges. But the more I do that in the classroom, I think it teaches them that those are actually the best leaders—the ones that show that they have those little holes of knowledge.
Kelly: If you were guiding a student to find their own superpower—they don't have a lot of work experience—how do you help them find their thing that they stand for?
Dr. Christiane: We play a little game. We think about where the passions are—passion could be as simple as "I like playing computer games" or "I like skateboarding." But then we also think bigger—what's your purpose in life? What do you feel your personal story really ties in with?
Maybe you're passionate about skateboarding because you had a mentor in your life who introduced you to skateboarding to get away from computer games. That could be a product or service they innovate to help other young teenagers get outside with a mentoring program. So we really tap into the story—that's why the superpower book has a tree on it. The roots are just as important as the top of the tree. Your superpower might change over time, and that's all right. But you need to keep in tune with yourself and with your roots.
Kelly: You also wrote a book called The Petite Practice Planner and the framework emphasizes small consistent steps. Can you explain how it works in relationship to supporting your superpower?
Dr. Christiane: The petite practice is the name for these small steps. "Petite" meaning small in French, and "practice" that you progress but you don't exactly know how to do that yet. In the planner, you're progressing through your life in small steps. For instance, you might feel overwhelmed because you don't know what you're going to eat every evening for dinner. There's a meal planner that allows you to line out the meals you'd like to eat. Then you can reverse engineer and figure out what ingredients you need to buy.
Think about the challenges in your life that you can eliminate with these small steps. All of a sudden, that overwhelming project becomes much simpler because now you don't have to worry about dinner. The petite practice planner is really: what can I control in my life that will let the rest of my superpower really come through and make me feel more confident?
Kelly: You had some exciting news recently. You had an opportunity to step on the TEDx stage and talk about this topic. Your topic was called "Want Big Change? Start with Small Steps." Can you tell us about how it felt to share your own superpower and present your ideas to the world?
Dr. Christiane: That TEDx talk was always my own goal. I just didn't know how to get there. Then I used exactly my framework—I worked in small steps. I set aside some time every day to practice, to think about how I can be the very best speaker when I get on that stage. Some days it was just thoughts like "what am I going to wear?" and "how am I going to have my hair?"—all still important because it ties in with your superpower and how you can be the most confident individual.
When I stood on that stage, my first thought was "home." I was totally in line with myself. It felt so good. The only reason I thought that is because of all the preparation. There were definitely days when I was like "this is absolutely intense." Sometimes you feel like you learned something that this is not the way to do it—great! First attempt in learning, right? You failed. I love it.
Kelly: You said you also had a similar round rug that you could step on when you were practicing so that you could really feel like you were in the room.
Dr. Christiane: Yes! Being on the rug, on the stage—how can we replicate this at home? I bought the rug. Whenever I practice, I carry my rug around with me to different rooms in the house. Then I even started putting my shoes on at the end so I know how it feels with the shoes on the rug. I put on lotion so I had the scent. I saw the rug, I felt the rug. All this is so important because it's friction that you're reducing. When it becomes more comfortable, it feels just like home. Then you can just focus on what you do best—your superpower, the confidence speech.
Kelly: Thank you so much today for sharing how to discover your superpower. I think we've learned a lot. Please find Christiane's information at twomarketingmoms.com and don't forget to subscribe and share. Thank you for joining.
Dr. Christiane: Thank you.
