Trust isn’t just a nice-to-have but the actual currency of business.
Trust isn’t just a nice-to-have but the actual currency of business. In this episode, Michelle shows why endless strategies fall flat without trust at the core. She digs into the difference between traffic marketing and relationship marketing, why saturated markets make trust matter more, and how collaborations can fast-track credibility without burning you out. It’s all about working smarter, not harder, by building a deeper well of trust that keeps opening doors.
Resources
Check out the full episode at TheMichelleWarner.com
Hi, I'm Michelle Warner, and I'm a business designer and strategist. And in the 15 plus years that I've done this work, I have noticed the same trend everywhere. Business owners are falling into the trap of centering strategies first, when they need to be centering sequence.
Because the reality is, the steps you take in your business, and the order in which you take them, is more important than how well you implement any single strategy. So on this show, my goal is to fix that by helping you find and trust your own sequence of actions, rather than blindly follow someone else's strategy. Welcome to Sequence Over Strategy.
It Matters More: The Pillar of Trust
In the first two episodes of this new season, you've heard me talk about the theme I'm taking forward through this year. And that theme is that it matters more. And it matters more just means that in a situation in markets where they're saturated, and where there might be a little bit of economic uncertainty, us doing a good job and understanding as much about our business as humanly possible, it matters more, can't get away with as much.
So today, I wanted to tackle one of the main pillars of it matters more. And that's the pillar of relationships and connection. And specifically why I'm focusing on them is to give you a cheat code for something even more important than relationships and connection.
And if you know me at all, you know that that's saying something a lot, because I believe in relationships and connection. But what is even deeper than that? What's even the root cause of why I care about relationships and connection so much?
It's trust. And specifically, the currency of trust. That's what we're going to talk about today.
Relationship Marketing and the Currency of Trust
But first, let's back up. You know me, relationship marketing, I'm all about it. I talk about it all the time.
And what I usually talk about when I'm talking about relationship marketing, when I'm explaining it, is that we start with where does your business model align on a relationship marketing continuum? Should you be relationship marketing? Should you be traffic marketing?
And I say all the time that service-based businesses align with relationship marketing. And so if you're out there as a service-based business, and you are putting out a ton of content, and you're putting a lot into your traffic marketing game, and you're not seeing gains, it's usually because you're unaligned. And you should be doing relationship marketing.
And that's all true. And that is very much a root cause analysis of why some folks are really struggling and feeling inefficient and frustrated with their marketing. But we can go even further.
We can go a step or two deeper. Remember our five whys. We can keep asking why and even find a root cause analysis of relationship marketing.
And this, again, is, you know, because it matters more. We want to understand as deeply as we possibly can so that we can do the best job that we possibly can. When we do that, we can start spelling out why.
Why do different business models align with relationship marketing versus traffic marketing? Specifically, why do service-based businesses align with relationship marketing? On the surface, and what we talk about all the time, is that, hey, if you don't need so many leads per year and you work in a higher conversion type of model, well, then it makes sense to be relationship marketing.
But the reason it makes sense is that the currency of trust is a thing. Have you heard that phrase before? I'm going to repeat it.
Trust is the currency of business. So many people have said this over the years that I couldn't even find out who was the first person to say it. But this is a very common phrase in business.
We hear trust is the currency of business. And to me, this kind of goes along with, like, you may have heard me say things in the past, like, the same way you, as an individual, are an average of the five people you spend the most time with, your business is going to be the average of the quality of your network. And I've watched that be true for years.
And it's true for years mostly because of this idea of trust and the idea that not only is the business the average of your network, what that's really saying is your business is the average of how much currency of trust you have. And so now the question becomes if your business is the average of your network and the average of your network represents the amount of trust currency you have, where does the trust come from? How do we find it?
Well, obviously it comes from relationships, right? Relationships come from your network. So it's a little bit of a circular thing, but we can break this down and talk about why specifically in service-based businesses, trust really matters.
And then we'll get into, you know, how do you build that? And like, how does this build into the relationship marketing models? What do you need to know?
But let's talk about why trust is the currency of the business. And it's because of like really obvious things. This is not going to shock you, right?
People do business with people that they trust. And that's even more true in risk-averse environments. So now you start seeing why I'm talking about this now.
When it matters more, trust matters more because people are going to rely on trust even more when they're in risk-averse environments. What does risk-averse mean? It means that maybe they're a little shy about spending some money right now, or maybe they're not sure if they have the budget they used to have.
They're a little risk-averse. So they're going to lean on trust even more. And it's triply true when we get into saturated markets, right?
So if you're in a saturated market like a lot of us are right now and your potential clients are feeling a little risk-averse, trust matters more. Trust matters every single day, but it matters more when the conditions are maybe not as favorable to you, right? What happens when you have conditions that aren't as favorable to you?
You want more things in your corner working for you. And so trust, if it's the currency of business, that's a really big block that can be working for you. And so we want to pay more attention to it, right?
I talk about it and we gloss over it a lot. We talk about a thing called the trust transfer, but I want to talk about this more because when it matters more, you really need to understand how you can build trust and how we get there and what it means. Because I feel like, again, everything that I just said, it's obvious, right?
Obviously, people do business with people they trust. I'm not shattering any myths here, but it's something that's important to remind you of. I probably don't have to do much more convincing, but I want to remind you of it because then, again, it gets interesting when we start understanding where that trust comes from.
And that's what I really want to talk about today, or more specifically, how you as a business owner build trust. Because building, it's a big job, right? Think about in your personal life when you're just trying to build trust with somebody that you have a relationship with.
Building Trust: By Yourself or With Help?
Like, that's a big job. It can take years, right? And you can make it either hard or easy on yourself.
Your choice. Through the actions that you take, building trust is never going to be simple, but it can be, you know, relatively easier or relatively harder. And that's because we hear all the time the saying that you need to know, or you need to build know, like, and trust in order for someone to buy from you.
That's another common phrase in marketing, right? Oh, sure, people need to know, like, and trust us. And again, of course, it's obvious.
But frankly, I've never really heard that to be overly helpful, and that's why I break marketing into different stages. That's why you hear me talking about awareness engagement sales, because that means more to me. Know, like, and trust are like, again, they're kind of these nebulous things, because when I sit down and say, okay, great, I believe you, I need to build know, like, and trust, or in this case, you know, I need to build trust.
When the rubber hits the road to do that, and I need to sit down and figure out how to create know, like, and trust, I kind of have a blank stare, and I'm guessing a lot of you do too. Like, I don't know how you actually do that. I can think through awareness engagement sales, okay, awareness, if that is how people need to know me, I can figure that out, right?
Know, like, and trust is a little bit different, at least in my brain, and that's why I've always separated those things, because how do you actually build trust? And this is where we're kind of missing a crucial step, because we have that moment where the rubber hits the road, and you sit down, and you say, okay, I need to figure out how to create know, like, and trust, and then you say, but how do I do that? And what most people are gonna do is they're gonna Google it, and you're gonna receive back like 47,000 responses approximately about how to build know, like, and trust.
And if you look at them closely, you don't even have to look at them that closely, it'll be really readily apparent, I'm gonna guess like over 90% of those things that Google returns to, or even like over 98%, are gonna be how to build know, like, and trust by yourself. And when I mean by yourself, what I mean is that you're kind of on your own, using your own platforms, whether that be social media, or a newsletter, or a podcast, something that you produce by yourself, on your own, right? This is where it gets interesting, at least to me, because when you just default to that choice of, hey, I have to go figure out how to build trust on my own, you're skipping an easy button.
And again, when it matters more, we don't wanna skip easy buttons, we wanna think through this, because if we back up and insert a question and a decision point between, hey, I know I need to build know, like, and trust, and okay, so this is how I'll do that on my own, now that I've Googled, and it's told me to start a newsletter and post on LinkedIn 47 times a day. If we put a decision point in between that, we're gonna find some really interesting options of how you can build trust, and probably build it a little easier. So let me walk you through this.
I'm gonna assume when I walk you through this, that we all agree that building know, like, and trust with your leads is a necessary, important step for a business. We're just gonna assume we're all on board with that. And so that's where we get to, again, insert this decision.
We're all on board. We need to build know, like, and trust. Specifically, we need to build trust.
Great, right? Now here's the decision note I was talking about that's new, because the next question is, again, how will I build know, like, and trust, and specifically trust? At this point, most people are gonna Google some strategies that I'll assume you're gonna build it by yourself from your platforms.
And here's the thing, and this is why I don't want you to fall to this. We have research that shows what that takes. The most common piece of that research has become known as the rule of seven, and that tells us that someone has to encounter your brand and marketing messages seven times before they buy at a minimum.
Collaboration as the Easy Button
Like, seven times. That's a lot. I mean, I understand that.
But wow, if you're a solopreneur, especially one running a service-based business, you probably don't want to try to engineer seven impactful encounters before somebody gets interested in a buying service from you. Like, if you're a big lot store and you have massive ad campaigns and this is just how you operate, great. Like, seven is no problem at all.
And by the way, like, we call that traffic marketing, right? And so if that traffic marketing, if the burden on you to complete those seven times doesn't necessarily take a lot, because you can put out some generic ads, you can hit these touch points at different points, okay, fine, because you have kind of a whole machine and a whole brand behind you. But if you are sitting behind your desk and it's just you or it's you and a few people, you know, a contractor here and there, and you're trying to sell, you know, significantly sized service-based contracts where real relationships are involved, seven is so many.
In a relationship marketing world, seven is a lot of contacts, right? Because each contact means more. Each contact has more impact in theory.
Each contact with somebody takes more effort. So I need to ask, are you stuck with that number, right? Research has shown that there's this broad time that, you know, people need to encounter you seven times before they buy.
Does that apply to both the relationship and the traffic side of things? And no, the answer is no. I'm gonna argue that that only applies to the traffic marketing side of things.
But if you are doing relationship marketing, again, as you probably should be, if you are a service-based business, that's where we can insert that decision node before you start building trust by yourself, before you take on that burden, and you can say, how will I build know, like, and trust? You can insert another question there. And the next question after that, again, it should not jump immediately into Googling strategies and being told you have to post on LinkedIn 14 times a day.
Instead, it should be, should I do this by myself or with help? Should I build trust by myself or with help? And my friends, here's the relationship or traffic marketing decision node, right?
That's really what we've gotten here, is when you realize you need to build know, like, and trust, and you realize that trust, you know, again, is like the currency of business, then you get to this point of asking yourself, how am I gonna build that trust? Am I gonna do it by myself or with help? And if your answer is by myself, that probably means you're gonna go down a traffic pathway.
Well, it does mean you're gonna go down a traffic pathway. So we would hope that your business model is aligned with traffic marketing. But if you wanna say, I wanna do it with help, well, welcome, welcome.
We do it with help over here. And that means you're gonna go down a relationship marketing node or branch, right, after you make that decision. And that is just gonna allow you, again, to build trust with help.
And what that means is that you're gonna use relationship marketing, and you're gonna use relationship marketing in a way that is going to quicken the pace at which you can build that trust. We're gonna throw out that rule of seven, or at least at minimum, we're gonna speed it way up. Because if you let go of needing to start from scratch each time, when you are building trust on your own, when you're building it from your platform, everybody that you encounter, you're starting from scratch.
They don't know you, and they have no reason to know who you are. They've just encountered your information. And so you're starting from scratch with them.
So you do have to go on a big journey in order to build that trust. The burden is high. But if you let go of that, if you say, I'm gonna do relationship marketing, and I'm going to build trust with assistance, and you open yourself up to collaborations that can bring you help, and can speed up the pace at which you build trust, the burden is so much less.
And that's, again, where relationships and this currency of trust come back into the picture. Because what if you build relationships with people who are in contact with your potential customers already? Those of you who know my work, we're talking about ideal connection avatars, right?
Multiplying Returns on Trust
How about you focus on building relationships and building up trust with people who your potential clients already trust? Well, then you can imagine a world in which the burden of building that currency of trust with potential clients is much less. If you put your eggs in the basket of building trust with people who are already in connection with your clients, and are in contact with them in such a way that your potential clients already trust them, and those people are in a position to introduce you, guess what?
You don't have to meet them seven times in order for them to trust you. They're gonna trust you right out of the gate. Because the person who they already trust is saying, meet this person.
They're good. They're transferring their trust over to you. And in a world like that, where you take that burden away, you don't have to start from scratch and be begging these people to like you and to trust you.
You're just somebody else is doing that job for you. In that world where you're pooling resources with each other, and you're all taking the trust and you're spreading it around, what you're doing is you're building more currency of trust, right? And you're doing it in a couple of different ways.
We're building that easy button because we're saying in a couple of different ways. We're saying, number one, I'm gonna build trust with a person who can introduce me to other people. And so what does that do?
They can continuously introduce you to your potential clients. What that does is over time, you're going to deepen that relationship. So over time, the trust is gonna get deeper.
And in a world where currency of trust is the business, the deeper the trust people have in you, the more currency you have, which means the more success you will have. And so when you can turn this burden, not only from having to start from scratch, but also put your energy into building trust with people who are gonna stick around for years to help you, right? When you kind of put the burden on yourself to build trust with a potential client from scratch, you either sell to that client or you don't, and then you start over with the next potential client.
So you're starting from scratch every single time. Not only are you starting from scratch, but it's every single time. If instead you say, hey, I wanna hit the easy button and I wanna build trust with someone else, I don't wanna build trust from scratch with a client, but instead I wanna partner up, then you can build it with somebody who over time, you're gonna both continue to have your businesses.
And so as six months goes on, as a year goes on, as you're working with this person and partnering up and collaborating with them for two years, the trust is gonna deepen and you're gonna have an opportunity to build more currency with them than you would ever have on the other side where you're starting over each and every time you need to bring in a new client. So you're building up additional currency. And when you're building up additional currency, the well is deeper.
You have more opportunity. You have better opportunities, basically by definition. And that's where relationship marketing gets really interesting.
Because not only do you have that going for you, where you have built this currency, this deeper well of currency of trust with collaborators and partners, but then the depth of trust that is given to you when they make an introduction for you is that much deeper over time. And so we're getting multiplying effects of trust. And again, I'm gonna keep repeating it.
When we set ourselves up to get these multiplying effects of trust, you're just getting more currency. And more currency is always going to pave the road to make life a lot easier for you. And that's, again, why I am such a fan of relationship marketing, right?
Not only am I a fan of it because I just want you aligned correctly and not doing traffic marketing if you shouldn't be, but I want you understanding how relationship marketing, while there is a little bit of work up front to build these relationships, it is a multiplying effect over time. And it's the original marketing. This is how marketing has always, always, always been done because at its root is building these deeper wells of the currency of trust.
Closing Thoughts and Invitation
And so we can see these examples, like you can look at them side by side. You look at a traffic marketing example, and let's say you're trying to sell an ebook to people and you're doing that, but you need to build that trust from the start. Well, then every single person who comes across one of your posts or one of your whatever you're doing to try to meet them, you're going to have to now go through this whole thing where you're trying to get them to trust you all on your own until they can ultimately buy something that probably doesn't cost very much because they don't trust you very much.
You don't have a deep well of currency with them. So you're probably going to have to start like with an ebook and then try to ladder them up into more expensive products. It takes time.
Whereas on the other side, if you're relationship marketing, then you can kind of skip all of that. You don't have to go through. You're trading jobs.
You don't have to go through this process of earning that trust and kind of laddering people up. Instead, you put that time and effort into building those relationships so that doors get open for you. Introductions get made.
You are presented as somebody who should already be given trust by default. And then you're in a position where you can just sell the thing you want to sell them from the start. And you don't have to start.
Part of your sales and marketing process doesn't have to be about continuing to build this trust. You just get it from the jump. And again, there are trade-offs here, right?
It takes a minute to build these relationships. You don't build them overnight, but they multiply over time in a way that the traffic stuff doesn't. The traffic stuff, you're always starting from scratch.
Every single new person who finds you, right, you're starting from scratch. And maybe there's a little bit of a well of trust that builds up just by reputation or whatever. But essentially, you're starting from scratch with everyone.
Whereas on the relationship side, if you're building that well, that currency of trust, then that's just gonna keep coming back to you over and over and over again. And it's gonna give you multiplying returns, right? And that's what I always like.
I'm always looking for what is going to give me multiplying effects. And that's why we really want to focus, again, on that currency of trust. Because, you know, just to summarize everything we've talked about, when I say we're in the season of needing to be better, that doesn't have to mean and shouldn't mean we're in a season of things needing to be harder and more time-consuming and more hustle.
In fact, it's the opposite. It means we want to be in a season of working smarter and not harder. And one of the best ways you can do that, especially if you're one of my service-based entrepreneurs, service-based small businesses who is aligned with relationship marketing, is to, number one, understand that trust really is the currency of business.
And number two, because of that, because trust in the depth of your well of currency is such a foundational thing, you want to be relentless about both making it easier to build trust and finding ways to find trust multipliers so that you're not always starting from scratch. That should be your goal. How do I make this easier?
How do I build relationships? How do I build anything with people so that my well gets deeper of the trust that I have? Because that's essentially what is going to drive the effectiveness of your relationship marketing.
And I hadn't spelled that out before, so I wanted to do that today just to really distill and to drill down how important trust is in the equation of all this and the fact that, really, everything that we're doing in relationship marketing is in the name of building deeper trust currency, building a deeper well full of trust currency that you can call on when you need to. Part of the reason that I'm doing this, and if you haven't heard, and you're not on my newsletter, all during the course of September of 2025, so if you're listening to this in real time, during September 2025, I am doing a month worth of events about reconnection and reconnecting to relationship marketing, reconnecting to your connections, and just getting you back up and running with your connection making. I'm feeling all the back-to-school energy, so we're having a lot of little live pop-up events and just some fun in terms of thinking through how do I make trust easier? How do I get back to relationship marketing?
How do I start reaching out to some folks? So I would invite you, if you are listening to this in real time, again, I would invite you to please come over to my website at themichellewarner.com, jump on the newsletter, jump on whatever live event the front page is talking about right now, because we're doing a lot in September totally free just to get you going and get you reconnecting and get you building your trust wells and your relationships and all the good things that we need.
So I would invite you to please come join us. We would absolutely love to see you there. Again, you'll see the information over at themichellewarner.com, jump on the newsletter, sign up for our live events. And you can even drop me an email or a message letting me know what you're thinking about in terms of reconnection. And we will talk about it here during the month of September. And in the meantime, thank you so much for being here.
As always, if this episode helped you, I would be so honored if you were to leave a review so that we can spread the message even further. Helps people find the show so much and share it with your friends. If this episode or any other would be helpful to anybody that you know, please go ahead and share it with them.
I hear so often from people who are like, hey, my friend shared this with me. It was so, so, so helpful. So we love getting the word out that way.
And I appreciate you transferring trust in this podcast to other entrepreneurs, other service-based small business owners who you know might get some help from here. And with that, I will see you back here in a couple of weeks to talk more about how to make it matter more without, you know, hustling more.