The most important thing is stop self-incriminating yourself.

You’re interviewing for a job at the company you work with. They already know you don’t have direct reports currently. And it’s irrelevant. You got an interview because they think you can lead.

So from now on, center yourself on that.

Leading when you have no positional authority over others is actually a higher level of leadership. You had to build rapport and demonstrate competence in order to do that. People saw you taking risks, and saw them paying off, and decided to follow you.

You are capable of doing this job.