I often say to clients no one really knows if you’re any good at what you do until they start working with you, do they?

They typically agree, but then I respond with, well no that is not always true, there is a way to establish trust before you work with someone, or even before you meet them.

Let me tell you a personal story.

3 years ago, I was invited by Xero to present to 4,000 of their clients across 16 locations in New Zealand.

Great for me right, but here’s the thing, the person that invited me had never met me, been referred to me, or seen me present before.

He invited me purely off being a subscriber to my content.

I should say I wasn’t paid, but neither did I have to pay to present, as is common practice at many conferences.

That, for him, was I think it a very courageous thing to do – put someone up in front of your clients, at your personal and employer’s reputational risk if it turned out I was a dud.

Now he was either a serious risk taker or he had established enough trust in me by the quality of my content to put me in front of his company’s most valuable asset –their clients.

The moral of the story?

If you get it right, this stuff really does work – trust me 😊

PS – it’s even more effective if you distance yourself from all the brand-based fluff and bubble out there