How to Turn Skeptics into Loyal Clients in a Trust Deficit Era

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:00]:
The biggest marketing problem today isn’t competition. It’s a trust deficit. So if you’re a solo business owner, how do you stand out in an era of skepticism? What brought this on? In this podcast episode, I’m going to give you a little background and also five trust building strategies that you can implement right away. Stay tuned. Hello. Hello. And welcome to another episode of Amplify Your Authority podcast. Before we get started, could I ask for a wee bit of a favor? If you’re a listener and you enjoy the podcast, would you mind going to Apple podcasts and giving me a five star rating and a review? I would really appreciate it.

Marisa Shadrick [00:00:44]:
I was looking at my, Apple Podcasts and I realized I don’t have hardly any reviews. I think I’ve had one review per year, which is horrible. It’s terrible. So I know there’s gotta be somebody listening out there because I see the the numbers. So if you wouldn’t mind, I would really appreciate it to kinda bump up this podcast to just leave a little review, and you can always use ChatGPT to try to formulate your ideas, but I’d appreciate it so much. And I’d love to give you a shout out on the podcast as well. So today, we’re talking about traditional marketing. So traditional marketing methods are losing their effectiveness.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:19]:
I don’t know if you’ve noticed that or not. If you’ve been online, you probably have. Things are different. The market has changed, and it’s been changing since COVID, and it’s continued to change. And that was in 2020, and we’re in 2025. So we’re seeing this happen online, and it’s making it harder for people to convert and get clients. So if this is happening to you, it’s not you. It’s everyone is being affected by this.

Marisa Shadrick [00:01:45]:
So why are audiences so skeptical? Well, I think we’ve seen it ourselves. There’s a lot of misinformation out there. There’s a lot of automation overload now that we have tools and third party tools. There’s constantly pushing out marketing pitches and messages, and it’s very, very aggressive. So this aggressive sales tactics has also made people feel a little skeptical as well. And the delivery of content has not met expectations. And so people are a little skeptical now, and they’re a little bit more reserved when it comes to even giving their email address. And that’s probably happened to you as well.

Marisa Shadrick [00:02:25]:
But when we’re solo business owners and we’re trying to navigate this marketing world, how are we we going to do this? And this is something I’ve had a look at too, how to shift my marketing to see what I can do differently because I’ve noticed it too. And things that used to be much easier five years ago is definitely not as easy and not as effective. We’ve seen that with webinars, and we’ve seen that with other types of content that’s out there. So people are pivoting. People are testing. They’re trying to see what works and what doesn’t. So here today, I’m going to give you some tried and true tips on how to continue to build trust because that is going to be your main asset. Because of this deficit, when you show people that you can be trustworthy, that you are honest about the content you create and the words that you speak, it’s gonna go a long way.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:14]:
Much further than maybe before, when people didn’t think they had to do all of that. So let’s go into the five tips. So we want to be very transparent. Now I know that is an overused word. People always say transparent, transparent, transparent. What does that mean? But you wanna be transparent in the way you prioritize data privacy. First of all, make sure that any of your pages that ask for an email, that it has your privacy policy, it has your terms and conditions. And nowadays, people are even adding how they use AI.

Marisa Shadrick [00:03:49]:
So that’s a first and foremost. We need to do that. We have to do that. A lot of times people will buy emails and they’ll blast emails to people to see what will stick. That’s not a common practice among solo business owner. We create valuable content, and in exchange for that content, if they wanna download, watch, listen, consume it, they will give us an email. So everyone in your email service provider has raised their hand saying, yes. I wanna hear more from you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:04:18]:
So we need to reassure people their information is private, that we will not sell their email, and that they can trust us with that. And being transparent, that’s just part of it, explaining the ins and outs behind the scenes of your business. Maybe your mission statement is part of being transparent, what your goals are, maybe what your five year goals are. Maybe that’s part of being transparent. Just depends on your business and what you wanna put on your website that would mean value to your audience. So they think, oh, wow. I’ve not seen this before and this person is being really transparent about what they’re doing and where they’re headed. So you wanna make sure that you offer a clear opt in and not a lot of false promises and also an opt out.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:07]:
So when you send an email, there needs to be a place for them to opt out. Oftentimes people kind of work around this where they create multiple lists and people will opt out of one list, but they’re still on another list. You wanna be clear. If they wanna opt out, you can give them an option. Opt out of this campaign or this promotion, but stay on the main list or opt out of all lists. And so you can modify that if you want to. If you want them to self select what they receive, you can do that too. Takes a little bit of time, but it gives them the opportunity and empowers them to be able to say, this is what I wanna receive from you and this is not what I wanna receive from you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:05:47]:
So don’t do those gimmicks where they unsubscribe from one list and then you’re blasting them through another list. Just make sure you give them options and it’s very, very clear. You should have one main list. And if you segment, then they can be removed from that one segment if they choose. The second way that we can improve trust is to create what I call a long runway. Now, when you think of a runway for an airplane, I think of the San Francisco Airport. And when we used to live on the West Coast in Nevada and also in California, we would have to often fly out of San Francisco. Well, that runway, the airplane, it would take off and in a few seconds you’re in vertical mode because there wasn’t a long runway and it always made me a little nervous because I knew it was down below, the nice big blue ocean.

Marisa Shadrick [00:06:39]:
And so you would take off and it would go practically vertical because there wasn’t much of a runway. The same thing coming back. As soon as it landed, it had to put on those brakes because that runway was very short. So when we’re looking at it for marketing, a long runway means simply that you’re going to have a lot of touch points to build trust. You want to communicate often with someone, especially if they opt in and they’re part of your email ecosystem. You wanna create touch points, and you want to give them a chance to get to know you and trust you. That’s what I mean by a long runway. If you’re doing something online on social media, you’re not gonna DM them like some people do on LinkedIn and immediately pitch the offer.

Marisa Shadrick [00:07:24]:
You wanna create some relationship. Maybe if you even get on a call, it’s just simply to find out about their business, or you can have some type of free coaching call that you’re offering that if they’re interested, they can sign up for that. It’s not a sales call. You can serve people. And so that’s what I mean by a long runway. What can you do to create multiple touch points? Not just one or two and then bam, you know, try to sell them something, but how many touch points will it take? Where are they in the customer journey? Again, if they’re not aware of the problem, it’s gonna take a lot of touch points. If they are and they’re pretty close to buying, it still requires some touch points because they don’t know you. Right? They may need the solution that you have, but they don’t know you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:14]:
And so this is where we share a lot of testimonials and case studies to build that trust. Of course, once they’re in your email service provider, you can email them. But if they’re not, you can create video messages. There’s ways you can use your phone on certain social media platforms. You can leave a voice message. You can put out content like podcasts and newsletters. It’s very value driven. There’s different ways to stay visible and create those multiple touch points.

Marisa Shadrick [00:08:41]:
You can also offer a high value resource that when they access it, they think, wow, this is amazing. Now maybe it’s a a little training, a mini training. You could look in your archives and see, did you have a webinar that you did at some point that had a lot of great teaching? Could you take a slice of that and create maybe a little video around that topic? Most webinars have, three misconceptions or three best practices. Maybe pull one of them and create maybe a seven minute, ten minute video that has some content to it, maybe a template with it. Just something very simple that they can consume that when they watch it and they download the resource that goes with it, they go, wow. This was really valuable for a free resource, and it actually taught them something that they needed. And so you can look at some of your archives and see, webinars aren’t converting as well either as great as they are. I’m not saying that this is the case all the time, but it’s much harder than it used to be.

Marisa Shadrick [00:09:40]:
Webinars are still effective. I love webinars or master classes, whatever you wanna call it. It’s still the same thing. It’s a webinar. And, you can create trainings, workshops, and those are effective too. And I think it’s a great way to get to know your audience. But just know it’s just a little harder. You want that nice long runway and to be able to bring people into that live training if it’s going to be live.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:03]:
And the best result would be if they come from your email list. So that’s why we wanna always be able to offer some kind of free resource to bring them there if we do want to have a webinar. But you can create some little mini training that has a lot of value. It’s just it packs a punch with value. It’s very quick to consume, almost like a video that you would see on YouTube, and you can put that in any part of your marketing funnel. So that’s the long runway. So so far, we’ve talked about being transparent, making sure that you’re very clear about privacy. The second is you create a long runway.

Marisa Shadrick [00:10:40]:
The third is content marketing, where you show more than tell, where you show more than tell. Now with content marketing, storytelling is huge. Right? Because that’s what case studies are in testimonials. They’re stories. But you can tell your own story of transformation too. So with content marketing, you wanna incorporate stories as much as possible. Remember the Chicken Soup for the Soul books? I remember I got published in one of those, and the whole concept was, we want the stories to make them feel like they just had a nice cup of chicken soup. That warm feeling inside.

Marisa Shadrick [00:11:16]:
Right? You can decide, you know, what type of content you wanna provide, whether it’s video, written, audio, but make it so that it’s helpful and they learn something, at least one, two, three takeaways from that content. Another way that’s helpful to show and not tell is to provide images, like any graphs or charts or maybe a blueprint. That’s really helpful. I just had a call not that long ago with a group and I said, you know, give them a visual like you see in a mall when you go and see the mall map, and you stand in front of that map and it shows a little circle, you are here. Maybe show them you are here, and to get the transformation that you’re looking for, you need these steps first. So maybe just start with this first step and then give them value with that first step. So there’s different ways that you can do it and sometimes these graphs or charts or blueprints are so valuable that people will take a screenshot of it so they can save it. So think of ways that you can create marketing content that shows and doesn’t just tell with stories, images, graphs, and that sort of thing.

Marisa Shadrick [00:12:29]:
The fourth way to build trust would be to deliver great customer service before they’re a customer. That’s just practicing good human skills and being courteous and following through. When you say you’re gonna do something, follow through. Right? If you meet someone at a conference, follow through if you make a promise or if you say you’re going to send them something. Treat that prospect like a VIP customer. So deliver great customer service before they’re a customer. So be helpful with DMs, emails, community interactions, and that goes a long, long way. It builds your reputation, and I’ll tell you, it’s going to stand out because a lot of people don’t do that.

Marisa Shadrick [00:13:15]:
And offer guidance without expecting any immediate transaction or return. One of the sayings that I have is take random out of random acts of kindness, because we need more of that. You don’t need to be random with acts of kindness. You can do it all the time. So be sure to take random out of random acts of kindness when you’re interacting with people. So another way of giving great customer service before their customer is to provide frequently asked questions on your contact page. Because sometimes people don’t want to schedule a call if they have one little question. So think of the obvious, maybe, objections that people might have or questions around whatever it is that you have on your, free coaching call or your contact page.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:01]:
What is on their mind and try to answer that? For example, some people might think, well, how much do you charge? What would you say in a frequently asked question? Or how long it takes to deliver this service? You know, those those type of questions that you can quickly answer in a frequently asked question. And, again, you wanna be clear and you want to provide it as a service to them before they’re a customer. So think of the frequently asked questions you would create on a product page. You would think of all kinds of things to make sure that they buy. You wanna do the same thing for these people that aren’t clients yet, answer some of those simple questions for them. The fifth tip for developing trust in this trust deficit era that we’re in is don’t embellish. Honesty sells more than hype. So be realistic about the products and services, what they can do and what they cannot do, who it’s for, who it’s not for.

Marisa Shadrick [00:14:57]:
I think that’s really important. Because, really, as I think back and I look at my own audience, a lot of them are in the beginning stages. They don’t need to invest in high ticket offers at this point. They can learn because there’s no lack of knowledge. I mean, to be totally honest, there’s no lack of knowledge. You can Google stuff. You could go on YouTube. There’s books that you can buy.

Marisa Shadrick [00:15:24]:
There’s things that you can study, right, without, you know, paying a lot of money for a high ticket. There’s so much to be done in the beginning, the fundamentals. Again, understanding you and what kind of business you want, right, and understanding the bandwidth that you have and the season of life, and then understanding your audience and understanding your business, what kind of business you want, having a business profile, and again, what type of products you wanna sell. All of those things take time, and so when people are in the beginning stages, I don’t think they should really think about investing in high ticket. Now, that’s my opinion, but, they can, but it doesn’t necessarily bring the results if they’re not ready. I’m talking about the 10,000 and above. I’m not talking about, you know, a thousand dollar program or a $2,000 program. I’m talking about the big bucks, 10 thousand, 20 thousand, 30 thousand.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:20]:
That’s what I’m talking about. Just wanna I just wanna cover that because I think there’s been a lot of disappointment, and I think that’s why there’s such a trust deficit. And I’ve fallen into that too, and I’ve paid for things that I wish now I wouldn’t have, but lesson learned. Right? I still learn, but I I learned other things other than what I thought I was gonna learn. But you have to just be careful with your resources. So be that person that is very realistic with the products and services that you sell, what it can do, what it can’t do, if it’s a right fit for that person. If they need a call with you, tell them, hey. We can get on a call to see if it’s a right fit for you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:16:58]:
Or if it’s out of your scope, let them know, you know, this is out of my scope of work, but let me find you a referral that I can refer you to. And I will make some calls, and I’ll let you know, and then follow through on that. Use real testimonials, no fake or vague or raving fan quotes. Use real testimonials from clients. Avoid high pressure tactics that create short term wins, but long term distrust. So we wanna make sure that we avoid high pressure. I know most of my listeners are not high pressure. Most of my listeners are very faith based oriented people, so am I.

Marisa Shadrick [00:17:37]:
I’m probably just speaking to the choir, but I felt it was important for you to be aware of the trust deficit, so that as you’re creating your marketing content, you keep that in mind, and you make sure that you go a little over and above to create that trust with people. So consider in every step, what can I do to add trust with this person? Because I’m a total stranger to them. What could I say? What could I offer? What could I do to eliminate that skepticism they may have? We have to do a little more these days than we had to in the past, but that’s okay, because we wanna make sure that we’re bringing in the right people. We wanna make sure that they are excited and ready to work with you. Right? We don’t want them coming in to then be disappointed. We wanna serve them well. So here are the five. Be transparent and share the privacy policy, the terms and conditions, and maybe if you use a lot of AI, how you use AI.

Marisa Shadrick [00:18:38]:
And let them know that you don’t sell their email address. Number two, create a long runway with lots of touch points. People don’t just go from, you know, from meeting you to buying, typically. They will especially if it’s coaches or consultants or service providers. Other businesses maybe so, but not when it comes to coaches, consultants, service providers. So you wanna create that long runway, more touch points, build more trust. So sometimes it takes five, six, seven, eight times, and then they’ll say yes. So just don’t give up and don’t think it’s anything about you.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:10]:
It’s just we’re living in this trust deficit, and so we wanna make sure that we give people ample time to be able to get to know us. Number three is use content marketing to show, not tell. Make sure you show them with testimonials, case studies, images, graphs, blueprints, show them. Number four, deliver great customer service before they’re a customer. And number five, don’t embellish. Be honest. It’s not enough to say, oh, these results aren’t typical. You know, just be honest across the board of what you offer, what it can do and what it cannot do, who it’s for, who it’s not for, and be very upfront and offer a call if they’re not sure if it’s a good fit.

Marisa Shadrick [00:19:57]:
But most, like I said, most of the people listening to this podcast are pretty honest and upfront. I feel like I’m preaching to the choir, but it is what it is these days, and I just the main thing I want you to know, it’s not you. I don’t want you to begin with the self doubt or imposter syndrome or any of that. I want you to realize that it is what it is right now. Same thing that we went through when COVID hit, when the recession hit, and we have this now. There’s always something. So we need to let that that fire inside of us, what caused us to wanna start our business, to to be able to burn bright, keep fanning that flame because that’s what’s gonna get us to the other side. That’s what’s gonna help us pivot and adjust and refine by remembering why we started this business, Keep that fire burning, keep fanning that flame, keep serving people, and you’re gonna do just great.

Marisa Shadrick [00:20:55]:
You’re gonna stand out because you are building relationships and trust. So until next time, take care. Bye bye.