The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.

The shortest route to seeming something is being it. Managing an impression is continuous work, and it fails in exactly the moments that matter, when you are tired or caught off guard and the real version shows. Actually becoming the thing removes the maintenance entirely, because there is nothing to keep up. It is slower at the start and cheaper ever after.

Where you have been managing how you come across, ask what would have to be true for the impression to be accurate. Then work on that instead. It usually turns out to be a smaller job than the performance you have been sustaining.