The TRUST Show

Often viewed negatively, procrastination is typically associated with last-minute stress and missed deadlines. However, could there be positive aspects to this common habit? Join us as we explore both the potential downsides and the unexpected benefits of procrastination, and consider its impact on creativity, decision-making, and trust dynamics across our personal and professional lives. Tune in...

Explore the intricate role of trust in consumer behavior in this podcast episode. Delve into why consumers often pay a "trust premium" for familiar brands, how trust influences purchasing decisions, and the psychological underpinnings of brand loyalty. Learn about the impact of trust on business success through expert analysis and case studies. Discover strategies businesses can use to build and m...

Last Sunday on McCuistion TV, the second part of a series on lying aired on PBS/KERA Channel 13. Hosted by Jim Cathcart, the episode featured Prof. Christian Hart from Texas Woman's University and me. We discussed topics like cultural differences in lying, salespeople's honesty, the relationship between confidence and trust, and the consequences and detection of lying. The insightful episode is no...

The first episode I recorded for The Trust Show podcast was done almost three years ago and was titled “Does (Team) Size Matter (for TRUST)?”. In this episode, I revisited the topic of trust in teams because I get asked about it a lot. In this episode, I’ll talk about the importance of trust in a team. I’ll talk about team size. I’ll talk about building trust in a team and what to do when you have...

In this episode, we dissect why cold calls fail—trust starts at zero. With scams rampant, we’re wary of unknown callers. Trust is key; it’s what drives purchases, even at a premium. But how do we gain trust from the start? Research helps, but it’s out of our hands. The answer? Referrals and transferable trust. Joining us is Bill Cates, referral expert, and author, to discuss his system used by tho...

Are you considering hiring a coach? The struggle is real! On one hand, a skilled and trustworthy coach can transform your life. But beware—the coaching landscape is teeming with imposters. Tune in as we dissect the chaos, revealing tools to spot genuine coaches who truly have your back. In this episode, I’ll guide you through identifying and screening a coach you can trust. Drawing from my 8 Laws...

Today’s podcast episode delves into the intriguing world of bi-directional trust. Dispelling the myth of symmetrical and reciprocal trust, it reveals that trust is, in fact, asymmetrical. The 4th Law of trust highlights this fascinating phenomenon. Throughout the episode, I will explore why trust doesn’t always follow a straightforward give-and-take pattern. Furthermore, this episode sheds light o...

Join me in this episode as I explore the intricacies of trust, particularly its personal and relative nature. I challenge the myth of being trusted by everyone and pose the question: Can you truly be trusted by everyone? Spoiler alert: No. But fear not! I share practical insights on how to broaden your trustworthiness by showcasing different facets of yourself authentically. Discover how small beh...

There is a “shortcut” that some people use to become “Amazon bestselling authors.” This practice is problematic and, in my opinion—unethical. I don’t believe those who do it are intentionally trying to mislead. I think they are caught by the “everybody is doing it” or misguided by someone who doesn’t care about the unethical consequences. There is a lot of sarcasm in my tone of voice in this episo...

Symmetry (including fairness) is a component of the “who you are” component group in my Relative Trust™ model. It is the situational component. It’s a given, but it causes us to trust (or distrust) people in a relationship simply based on where they are relative to us. To trust someone, you must be on the same side of “the wall.” There has to be an equal contribution level (from you and them to th...

When you fly, you must trust. As a passenger, you must trust the pilot, the plane, and the people who designed, built, maintained, tested, and certified the plane. You must trust God, the weather, birds, and other things outside human control. If you are the pilot, you must also trust yourself and the plane’s instruments. In this episode, I will apply my relative trust models and the laws of trust...

You thought ChatGPT was wild? Wait until you hear this episode. Initially, it includes a conversation I held with an artificial intelligence assistant. Not only will her tone of voice blow you away, but she actually has an accent… This episode will discuss the technology that enables artificial intelligence to be human-like. It will continue and discuss deep fake of both voice and image. While AI...

After one of my keynotes, someone approached me and asked me for advice. He described a toxic work environment within his team that he couldn’t stand anymore. Should he try to fix it with the team myself? Should he speak to his boss? Should he just leave? What should he do? So, I gave him advice, and decided to share it with you here. No names. Just the advice. And, as you can imagine, the word TR...

Politicians are among the most distrusted people. It didn’t use to be that way, but it is now. This episode will explain why we rank politicians’ trustworthiness so low using my Relative Trust™ model. The main reasons include the change in their behavior during primaries and after a party nominee was selected, the pledges they make that they know they can’t keep, the level of political polarizatio...

Part of my Trust Premium research is more general and relates to our overall attitudes toward trust. In this episode, I will tell you what I found so far about the relationships between risk-taking attitude, perceptions of trustworthiness, willingness to start with trust, and our belief that “you get what you paid for.” Some of my findings are more obvious, while others are more surprising.

Time is one of the components of my relative trust model. But it has additional roles in trust. You’ve heard that “timing is everything” and that “the early bird gets the worm.” What happens when two peers in an organization cannot resolve a disagreement themselves and must go to the boss? Does it matter who gets to speak to the boss first? The short answer is that it does. In this episode, I will...

Artificial Intelligence goes beyond ChatGPT and textual content generation. Today, it can generate lifelike videos of you. Deep fake is a bad usage of those, causing viewers to think they see one person when, in fact, they see a graphic generation of that person. But can it be used for good? We use “Mail Merge” features to customize emails, but how about increasing trust by increasing message inti...

This is not an episode about trust. Instead, I'm sharing why I don't do strategic planning in the last two weeks of the year. Companies often consider this time downtime because many people take this time off. But is it really the best time for strategic planning? Is there really something so magical about the end of the year and the beginning of the following year? In this episode, I’ll explain w...

Last week, we witnessed another example of the vicious cycle of hurtful actions (or words) and insincere apologies driven by the wrong reasons. This time, it was the congressional hearing about antisemitism with the presidents of three Ivy League universities and the “clarifications” (apologies?) that followed. In this episode, I will discuss this vicious cycle and how it’s related to trust.

There are two types of negotiations: win-win and zero-sum-game (or win-lose). You don’t need trust for the latter, but for win-win negotiations, you do. In this episode, I discuss the two types of negotiations and how trust helps reach the best outcome for both sides in win-win negotiations. It will use the relative trust model components such as personality compatibility, symmetry/fairness, posit...

S. Lewis said, "Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” One of the components of my relative trust model, one of the components of the “what you do when you interact with me” group, is Positivity, specifically NoBS. One of the examples of NoBS I gave in The Book of TRUST is when you do something “for show.” When you do things just so that other people see. This correlate...

Previous episodes discussed the Trust Premium research, but in this episode, I want to explain how it can help you get more customers and get them to pay a premium for what they buy from you, whether it’s products or services. This is far from theoretical. This is how you apply the research. I will talk a bit about the research itself, but then the three steps of turning this research into a sourc...

A few years ago, I was asked, “why do you need to write another book about trust? What’s so special about it?” When I teach my students entrepreneurship, I tell them that the only way a new entrant to a market can succeed is by doing something different. Unique. And I live that advice. I wouldn’t have started pursuing the topic of trust if I didn’t have a unique approach to it. In this episode, I...

An EFMD study found that leadership was the number one topic pursued by more than 90% of corporate buyers of education. Training Industry Inc. believes the leadership development industry is worth over $366 billion globally. SHRM found that 84% of companies rated leadership development as important or very important. We are obsessed with the word leadership, and this obsession has costs. I will sh...

Today, 56.5% of emails are spam, for which 73% is identity theft, and 36% is marketing/advertising for things we don’t need. The U.S. alone generates 8.6b spam emails every day. You get those emails. Spam folders try to block most of them but occasionally allow false positives (credible emails that get caught up in spam folders) or false negatives (spam emails that pass through the filter) to go t...