When I began my career working in talkback radio, it became apparent very early on that there was a relationship between the host and the audience that had a key factor attached to it: Trust.
That single word – trust – has shaped everything I’ve done since, including founding Podcasts Done For You and creating the Biz Bites For Thought Leaders podcast. Because here’s what I’ve learned: you can have the best product, the most innovative service, or the most competitive pricing, but if people don’t trust you, none of it matters.
A recent conversation on my podcast with Dr. Darryl Stickel, founder of Trust Unlimited and author of “Building Trust: Exceptional Leadership in an Uncertain World,” drove home just how critical trust is for business success – and why so many businesses are getting it wrong.
The Trust Crisis We’re All Facing
“Trust is at some of the lowest levels we’ve ever measured,” Darryl told me during our conversation. “We’ve seen pandemics, changes in norms and values, technological changes at an increasing pace, political instability and conflict around the world. These massive fluctuations in uncertainty make us incredibly uncomfortable.”
Think about that for a moment. We’re living in a time when trust should be more valuable than ever, yet it’s harder to build than it’s ever been. Your potential customers are more sceptical, more guarded, and more overwhelmed with choices than at any point in history.
So how do you break through?
The answer lies in understanding what trust actually is and how to build it systematically. And surprisingly, podcasting might be one of your most powerful tools for doing exactly that.
The Vulnerability Paradox
One of the most striking moments in my conversation with Darryl came right at the beginning when I asked him to introduce himself. Instead of giving me the typical 15-second elevator pitch about his credentials and achievements, he shared something far more powerful: his story.
He told me about growing up in Northern Canada, about being attacked by a fan with a club during a hockey game at age 17, about stopping breathing three times on the way to the hospital. He shared his journey of losing his sight due to a hereditary retinal disorder, his struggles with brain injury, and how these experiences shaped his understanding of trust.
“How much of building trust is emotional?” I asked him after hearing his story.
“It’s a really big part,” Darryl responded. “One of the things that really differentiated most of the 99% of the trust research is that it treats people like they’re rational actors. And you’ve met people before, right? We’re not always rational, and the more emotional we become, the less rational we are.”
Here’s what fascinated me: by being vulnerable, by sharing his struggles and challenges, Darryl immediately created trust with me and with our listeners. I could feel it happening in real-time. As I told him during the conversation, “I feel like I want to trust you already.”
This is the vulnerability paradox: we think showing our imperfections makes us weaker, but it actually makes us more trustworthy.
Why Podcasting is the Perfect Trust-Building Platform
This brings me to why podcasting has become such a critical tool for business growth. Unlike traditional marketing that tries to polish everything to perfection, podcasting allows you to be human. It gives you the space to share your story, to be vulnerable, to let people in.
As I mentioned in a recent LinkedIn post: “It’s about how you build a relationship with your audience, letting people in, and not just going straight for the sale.”
Think about the difference between a webinar and a podcast. A webinar is often: “These are my learnings. This is what you’ve got to do. Come buy from me.”
A podcast is: “Get to know me. Let me share some things. Let me share how I’ve gone on this journey and these different things along the way.”
Darryl put it perfectly when he said: “When I talk to people about pulling these levers, the ability lever tends to be our favorite lever. And so we’ll say, I have this much experience, these credentials, this position in the world. But if I really wanted to know what good looks like, I’d actually include you in the conversation.”
That’s exactly what podcasting does – it includes your audience in the conversation.
The Three Pillars of Trust (And How to Build Them)
During our conversation, Darryl broke down the three core levers you can pull to build trust:
1. Benevolence: Having Someone’s Best Interest at Heart
“Benevolence is the belief you have got their best interest at heart,” Darryl explained. This isn’t about saying you care – it’s about demonstrating it through your actions.
He shared a powerful framework for showing benevolence:
- Start by thinking about what matters to the other person
- Ask them what success looks like for them
- Then explicitly connect your actions to helping them achieve that success
“When people hear that we’re gonna do trust training, they often think about hot coals and blindfolds and falling off of things,” Darryl said. “Trust building is a skill that we can all get better at.”
2. Integrity: Following Through on Commitments
Do your actions line up with your values? Do you follow through on what you say you’ll do? This seems simple, but in a world where norms and values are constantly shifting, maintaining integrity is harder than ever.
3. Ability: Having the Confidence to Deliver
This is the lever most businesses focus on – credentials, experience, results. But here’s the catch: “If I really wanted to know what good looks like, I’d actually include you in the conversation,” Darryl reminded me.
Your ability means nothing if you’re not demonstrating benevolence and integrity alongside it.
The 95% Problem
Here’s a sobering statistic Darryl shared: “95% of us believe we’re more trustworthy than average, and that’s not just statistically impossible, it’s problematic.”
The biggest gap? Between how much CEOs and senior executives believe they’re trusted and how much they actually are.
“If something came up between you and I, we would both be thinking it’s the other person’s fault,” Darryl explained. “It means we’re not able to resolve those conversations or challenges that we run into.”
This is where vulnerability becomes crucial. As Darryl powerfully stated: “I think it’s actually a sign of strength to be able to be vulnerable, to ask for help.”
He shared a story about working with senior executives who told powerful stories about times they’d helped others. The room was buzzing with positive energy. Then he asked them: “Why are you so effing selfish?”
They were shocked. He continued: “Even years later, you describe how powerful a moment it was for you to help somebody, to show up when they needed you. But you never let anyone have that experience with you. You never ask for help. You never admit you don’t know something.”
How to Share Your Story (Without Oversharing)
One question I often get asked is: how much should you share in a business conversation?
The boundaries of what people are willing to share vary hugely, but here’s what I’ve learned: the key is sharing something that will resonate and tap into the emotional responses that connect us as humans.
If you want people to buy from you, building trust is important. Trust comes from sharing ‘you’. It’s about sharing an aspect of your life that helps you connect with the other person.
Often, the most powerful way to achieve this is to share the story of what has driven you to do what you do.
When Darryl shared his incredible journey at the start of our episode, it drew me in immediately. I asked him about that choice, and his response was illuminating: “Until you just asked me that question, I hadn’t thought about the reason I tell the story, but part of what I do is I make myself vulnerable and that initiates a norm of reciprocity in others. They feel like if Darryl’s willing to be vulnerable with me, that it’s okay for me to be vulnerable back.”
The Podcast Advantage: Being Everywhere Without Being Everywhere
Here’s why podcasting is such a powerful tool for building trust at scale: consistency and reach.
As I wrote in my LinkedIn post: “Not only do you get the chance to talk to your audience (from current customers to new ones) consistently on the podcast itself, but the content also allows you to reach across multiple channels in a variety of formats.”
You can’t be everywhere all the time, unless you have a podcast.
Think about it: one conversation can become:
- A podcast episode that people listen to during their commute
- A blog article that ranks in search engines
- Social media clips that reach new audiences
- Email content that nurtures your list
- Video content for YouTube
But more importantly, it’s the consistency of showing up, sharing your insights, being vulnerable, and demonstrating your values that builds trust over time.
“The best podcasts are a conversation where the people that are listening feel like you are talking to them,” I explained to Darryl. “I’ve worked in radio for a long time. I’ve built large audiences in radio, and the key thing that I learned very early on was you don’t think about the thousands and hundreds of thousands of people that might be listening. It just has to be one person that is sitting there going, ‘they’re talking to me.'”
The Relationship-First Philosophy
You want more business, so your brand is more successful. That means you want more from existing customers as well as bringing in some new ones.
As a business owner or CEO, you realize the role relationships play in your success, but what are you doing about it?
The answer isn’t more aggressive sales tactics. It isn’t more polished marketing copy. It isn’t even better products (though those help).
The answer is building genuine relationships based on trust. And that requires:
- Vulnerability – Sharing your real story, including the struggles
- Consistency – Showing up regularly to build familiarity
- Benevolence – Genuinely caring about your audience’s success
- Transparency – Being open about your intentions and methods
- Patience – Understanding that trust builds over time
A Practical Framework You Can Use Today
Darryl shared a brilliant framework during our conversation that you can use immediately to start building trust:
Step 1: Tell someone you were listening to a podcast about trust and heard that benevolence – having someone’s back – was really important.
Step 2: Say “I think I do that, but it doesn’t always seem to land that way. Have you ever experienced that?”
Step 3: Get curious about their experiences. What did they try? How did it not work out?
Step 4: Ask: “Have you ever had a time when somebody really had your back? What did they do? What did it feel like?”
Step 5: Narrow the funnel: “What is success for you? How do I help you get there? What would it look like if I had your best interest at heart?”
This creates transparency and gives you a roadmap for demonstrating benevolence in a way that actually matters to them.
The Bottom Line
If you want business growth, you need to build trust by building quality relationships.
Trust isn’t built through perfect marketing copy or polished presentations. It’s built through genuine human connection, vulnerability, and consistently demonstrating that you have your audience’s best interests at heart.
Podcasting gives you the platform to do exactly that. It allows you to share your story, demonstrate your expertise, show your values, and build relationships at scale – all while being authentically you.
As Darryl reminded me: “We need to be more intentional about building trust now than we’ve ever had to be in the past. Our relationships tend to be a mile wide and an inch deep, and we’re losing the ability to build deeper, more resilient relationships.”
Don’t let your business fall into that trap. Start building trust today. Share your story. Be vulnerable. Show up consistently. And watch as your audience transforms from sceptical strangers into loyal advocates.
Because at the end of the day, trust isn’t just nice to have – it’s your business’s most valuable currency.
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Want to learn more about building trust through podcasting? Listen to the full conversation with Dr. Darryl Stickel PhD on Biz Bites For Thought Leaders, and discover how Podcasts Done For You can help you create your own platform for building lasting relationships with your audience.
