740 - Trust Recession: How to build trust when no one trusts anyone

Welcome to the Next Level Life podcast with Christine Corcoran. This podcast is made for the powerhouse business women who are ready to ignite their fullest potential. This is where we will dive deep into the mindset breakthroughs and sprinkle in some kick up the butt motivation so you can scale your business with confidence and clarity. Whether you're craving more income, impact or inspiration, this podcast will be your ultimate resource for all things next level. Listen in as we have authentic conversations with game changing female entrepreneurs as we reveal the secrets of what it takes to rise and thrive. So go ahead, ignite your inner fire and let's get you taking massive aligned action. Are you ready to elevate? Let's go. Okay. Welcome back to the podcast. I have so many updates for you today. I cannot wait to share these new updates with you if you have missed them because I've got some goodness coming up for you in February and you're not going to want to miss out on any of these. So first and foremost I have a brand new masterclass and an incredible resource for you, especially if you are a creative. So if you are someone that spends a lot of time in creative client delivery or working on stuff for your clients and that's costing you a lot of time and it causes you to question your capacity. So if you are like a creative, a graphic designer, a website designer, a marketer, someone who spends a whole bunch of time in client work, then this is absolutely for you. I've got a brand new masterclass as well as this resource which is a capacity calculator to help you determine when you're at capacity, what date you're up to with regards to your capacity, when you can take on new clients, how to determine how long certain projects will take you, and how to map out your services to support the profitability of your business so you can have stable income in your business. So I decided to do it as a resource as well as a masterclass so I can teach you how to use it so I can also see how well you're using it. So if I need to make any updates, I will. And also the masterclasses to help you stabilize your income and to master a revenue flow that actually benefits you and your business. So if that sounds like it's something you're keen to be a part of, it's going to be hosted live on the 11th of February at 10am AEST and you can register via the show notes below. Okay. Announcement number two. I have an event coming up in a few weeks in Brisbane So if you are keen to map out your goals and get super clear on the strategy in order to hit those goals, then come and join me for an in person workshop which is all about your 2026 planning for success. So we're going to take your goals for 2026 because I imagine you already know what they are. I'm going to take your goals, we're going to make a yearly plan and then we're going to get really nitty gritty down to your 90 days and then and if your sales strategy, your lead generation, your visibility activities, so you know exactly where to be spending your time for the next 90 days in order for you to execute effectively on your goals. And so with that strategy you'll then be able to take that 90 day plan and then stretch it out then to do your rest of the year as well. So, and I always run one in the middle of the year anyway. So even if you just come along, if you're feeling like talking about one year is overwhelming, don't stress. But we also need to go bigger, as in like think blue sky in order to then get down to the nitty gritty to make sure that you know what you're working on for the next 90 days. Okay? So feel free to come along. It's going to be an incredible day. I've got it from 9am till 3pm at the Newstead Studios in Newstead and lunch will be included and it'll be great opportunity to network and connect and it's also a great opportunity for market research. So there's a section of the day that I do around your lead generation because lead generation has changed a lot and if your lead gen sucks, it's very hard to get genuine and good leads coming to your business. So if you work with other business owners, it's a great way to actually test these ideas that you have for your lead gen. So that way you've got something worthwhile creating and you've got the markup research already done in the day and that way you can head home and then create it. So that's going to be happening the 20th of February, which is a Friday. Come along again, the link is in the show notes. Tickets are $109 including GST and they include lunch, your workbook and your planner for the year, as well as obviously time to connect with other beautiful, incredible women in business. And then announcement number three is my favorite, which is Unstoppable Women 2026 has been set, so I have some new additions this year. I'm so incredibly excited for this event. This year I've changed the location. It's going to be at the incredible QT Hotel on the Gold Coast. I decided to change the location because I had so many people fly in last year and people really want to spend that extra time to really connect with more people and also just make it an experience. So the QT is absolutely going to create that experience. We're also going to have it catered, so lunch will be included this year and I've also got an additional day two VIP experience. So if you want to really make the most of it. So if you really want to make the most of it and actually book the hotel as well and stay, you can do that. I've got an incredible deal with the hotel for you to do that. So oh my gosh, it's going to be so incredible. I've locked in a couple of the speakers. I'm so freaking pumped to announce them, but I'm not going to announce them yet. But this is the cheapest you're going to get your ticket. Also the best payment plan options for you. So if you jump onto the link in the show notes or just head to www.unstoppablewomen.au there's no.com you will find all the details and all the extra inclusions and all the. Yeah, all the yumminess of what this day is going to be. It's going to be set for the 10th of September and then the day two will be on the Feb on the Friday the 11th so it's a Thursday and a Friday and so incredibly excited for this. Also have the VIP after party on day one as well, which you have the option that if you book a general ticket you can opt to actually add the VIP party on at night or if you just do, the VIP experience includes both days, lunch on both days, all the VIP extra bonuses as well as the VIP after party all in the one ticket. So go check it out. Book your spot now because you're going to get one at the best price. There's only a certain number of tickets available if the first early bird allocation and once they're sold out they're gone and the price will go up and then the payment plan options will change. So if you want it to be at the best price, it's time to grab it now, lock it in, put it in your calendar and make it happen. It's this is the time of year to actually choose the events you're going to be attending anyway. So go check it out link is in the show notes. All right, today I want to talk all about how to build trust in a trust recession. So if you've never heard this term before, I'm just going to explain what I mean by trust recession. But I guarantee you will have experienced it already. Already know what I'm talking about when I start explaining it. So what is a trust recession? Over the last few years, right, a lot of trust has been eroded in the online market. It has also been eroded in all traditional businesses as well. It's just normal evolution of customer experience because our trust has been eroded in so many different ways. It has been eroded in ways that we've often purchased things that were promised all these things and we didn't get delivered on what the promise was. Especially in the coaching industry. That was really crazy in the way that people were bolstering their packages or their offers with all this stuff, which actually was useless, not non valuable stuff. And then they were paying high price and they actually weren't getting what they were promised. Or they were buying into coaching programs where the coach wasn't even accessible. They were buying into coaching programs and saying they were going to get this amazing program, but there was actually just prerecorded masterclasses or old masterclasses that they were getting access to which were used as a funnel. Like it was just like absolute shit. And that means that people are becoming much more skeptical, skeptical in what they're actually buying. Plus there was the whole influencer trend, right? So influencers were going out and sprung all this stuff and promoting products that they didn't even know were, you know, toxic or there's just so much that's happened over the last few years. Plus now that we're stepping into 2026 and AI is absolutely here to stay, there is a whole new level of trust recession happening because we're now trusting. Is this actually real? Is this AI or is this someone? Is this something that we can trust? Am I going to be safe in making this investment? So I'm going to talk about it from the perspective of sales. Obviously building trust in your community, building trust in your audience in order for them to buy from you, right? So, you know, I love talking about sales and want to talk about this because it's so incredibly important to create lasting trust with your audience. Otherwise people are never going to buy from you. Especially in the high ticket market because people have been burnt in the past. We need to be, we need to be conscious of that and we need to overcome any hesitation in order for them to buy. So we've got to build trust. Trust is a new currency, right? If we're focusing on it, it's so incredibly important as part of your sales strategy in order to build that trust and nurture people in order to get ready to buy. And if we're not addressing it, then we're not overcoming that skepticism. And it's so incredibly high. Not just in Australia and New Zealand, even though we're very much a very skeptical country, but it's across the world, right? The trust has been broken and you know, even with the media, like the media has been a big eroder of trust, right? When even through Covid times we were told some things and that wasn't actually true. Like there's so many things that have come out since then that we're like, who can we actually bloody trust? We can't trust the government, we can't trust the doctors, we can't trust like all this stuff. And I think that we need to be conscious of that, that deep down our ideal clients are going to have a level of distrust and skepticism and we need to as business owners making sure that we're building trust as best we can. That then brings me to the sales element. Trust has been eroded in using disgusting tactics. And it's so funny about how much this is still being done. It blows my freaking mind. I've talked about this a lot, but I know I. You know what I'm talking about the bro marketing tactics of using fear and shame to tear people down to then only sell them something in order to try and build them back up and actually not delivering on what they're promising using urgency and scarcity, but in a fake way, like saying there's only this many people, only this many spots left, when it's actually not true. Or saying you've only gotten to this time to buy when really that's also again not true. And so we've got it. We've been so. It's been so done that we're so over it. So freaking over it. And even like, you know, in the coaching space, like NLP can be used in a really negative way. And my sister had an experience this week actually with this and she was telling me all about it and I was like wanting to vomit in my mouth. She purchased something online. It's online book and she was like, I'm going to go read this book, it looks amazing. She. She purchased it and I won't say who it's from, but like she purchased this thing and then two Days later, got a phone call, a phone call from some guy that was like, hey, ah, do you know who I am? And. And she was like, no, who am I talking to? Like, he wouldn't give her a name. And then finally gave her a name and then was like, you know, how you going with the book? Have you read it yet? And she's like, no, haven't even opened it yet. I'm in the process of. Of a really busy period. The kids are going back to school. I literally have not had chance to even open it yet. And then instead of reading the room and being conscious of that and being like, well, actually, okay, no worries, I will come back to you. Or is it okay if I call you back? He used pressure tactics. He also was like, tell us about what part of the book you're excited about. Like, really icky sales tactics. And she's like, I haven't even read the fucking book. Like, calm down. And he just kept going and kept going and then was like, great, when's a good time to call you? And she was like, I don't know, next month when I've had a chance to read it. And he's like, let me send you an audible version of it so then you can actually listen to it while you're, you know, cleaning the kids lunchboxes. Like, he was trying to, like, build rapport, but in a really inauthentic way. And then was like going down the avenue of not. Not letting her finish the conversation. So she was basically saying, I'm not ready to listen to anything more than you have to say. And he just kept pushing and kept pressuring and she was like, oh my God, how am I going to get off the phone with this guy? He just kept taking anything that she said and then turn it back into a question, not letting her get off the phone. And she was just like, are you serious? Like, how about never call me back ever again? And she's like, I'm saving his number, never going to answer that call ever again. And so when you think about that type of experience, right, like, she's never going to want to work with this guy ever. So he's completely eroded the trust there. He's not developed a relationship. He's not listened to anything that she has said and use pressure and scarcity and urgency and all this icky sales tactics in order to get her to buy something that she's not even ready for. Do you see what I mean? So this is happening out there and maybe you're not experiencing it. But I'm experiencing it with DMS and emails like it happens so much. And I think sometimes we just have to be conscious of, even if you're not the one doing these tactics, we need to be conscious of the fact that our ideal client is experiencing these tactics. And so the more that we can be aware of it, the more we can identify where we need to build more trust in order for our audience to get comfortable and feel safe to buy from us. And obviously, when it comes to encouraging people to buy from us, then trust is a huge component of that. So knowing that trust has been eroded, it's so important that you consider building trust as part of your content strategy, as part of your sales process, a part of everything that you do, really. So what is it that we can do to actually build trust or to increase our trust when it comes to our audience? So I spoke to a couple of different things already. So like, don't over promise results that you can't deliver. Don't under deliver the service that you're promising. Don't bolster your packages full of crap that people don't really actually want. Don't be too vague in the way that you communicate. Get really clear in the way that you communicate what you will do versus what you won't do, who you do serve versus who you don't serve and why. The more you can clarify that and really stand in your conviction of what you do do and what you don't do. It helps people build trust with you because it's like if you're willing to say things you're not willing to do, then that helps people be like, great, like they're being in integrity, they're communicating clearly and they're not going to promise stuff that they're not delivering. So people pleasers out there, this is a really interesting one, right? Because when it comes to being a people pleaser, often it feels like, oh, I just should say yes to everything. But that actually erodes trust. So if you're like, yes, I can do that, yes, I can do that, yes, I can do that, yes, it's all included. It's almost like that old tactic of like, yeah, and you get the steak knives too, right? And makes people feel like that's a crock of shit, I can't trust that. And they run the other way. So it's so incredibly important that you just communicate what you will do and what you won't do and what is included versus what's not included and why. Right. The other thing is your consistency. Like Building trust and reliability through your consistency and reliability of trusting in someone will show up is actually really key, especially if you're a service provider that someone really works specifically with you. If they can't trust that you're going to show up consistently, why would they trust to buy from you? And that goes to say as well with the consistency of your message. Because if your message is inconsistent again, it creates a lot of distrust. If you're selling one thing one, one time the next week, you're selling something completely different that looks out of place, then that creates distrust. If you are inconsistent with saying that this is what I believe in versus what you don't believe in and that's changed, like it's, it's okay for you to change your mind, is okay for you to change your messaging as long as you communicate with transparency. The other thing is talking at people versus with people. So when you think about your audience, if you're not listening and you're understanding their problem in a really deep way, but you're saying things of like, this is what you do and this is what you don't do and you're talking at them of like, this is what you have to do. You're not really with people, you're not building trust. Like, let's work on this together and I'm going to partner with you. It feels really inauthentic and almost like just too salesy, like you're just pushing the point instead of actually working with people to come to a conclusion or come to a result. So what's going to build trust in 2026? In my opinion, consistency in your voice and your messaging, showing up consistently in your content, transparency in the way that you talk about what you do. Like it could be the challenges that you're going through, the lessons that you're experiencing, the behind the scenes. Again, similar to what I was just saying as well. Like what you do do, what you don't do, who you work with, who you don't work with, the consistency in your content, consistency in your presence, clients, stories and case studies over testimonials that look fake. So this is another thing that eroded trust over a lot of time was people. You know, we don't know whether these testimonials that people are using are made up or not. Right. Whereas if you put a face, a name, a business name and a video to it, to that testimonial, then that can be trusted. Right. I can go find that person. I can even ask that person a question about what it was like to work with you versus using a faceless testimonial. Like, you cannot use faceless testimonials anymore. I'm sorry, you can't. It does not help build trust in any way, shape or form. And video is always going to be even better because it's harder to fake. And also it's a rif. It's a real person. Right? And that's the hard thing too is like stock photos and, you know, AI. Like, are people using AI to create these testimonials to make it look like this person is selling something that's so incredible that makes you want to buy from them, but is it trustworthy? And so you've got to consider that these are the things that people are really worried about. So it's important as well to make sure that you, when you're sharing case studies, you're sharing with permission. So whenever I create case studies and you'll see them on my Instagram, I do these beautiful little carousels and sharing the journey of a client, right where they came to me, what was happening for them, what we worked on together and where they're at now, and the results that they've experienced. And I even share screenshots of messages they've sent me or voice notes that they've sent me. And I know I need to actually create more of them because I haven't had post anything recently. So you might need to scroll back to like maybe November. But those real client stories do build a lot of trust. So they're full case studies and they're absolutely shared with permission. The next one is personal connections and relationships, like, relationships are obviously going to be so incredibly important. And building trust, if you build that trust based on the relationship first and then later down the track, if you have something that's going to solve a problem they're experiencing and you're selling them something, then it's okay because you've already built that level of trust that comes through with how you're also serving your audience. Right? So the way that you're already giving of your services, giving of what it is that you have in your knowledge, your expertise, in order to help people achieve a result builds a lot of trust. So I actually created a video on this for a real. I haven't posted it yet, but I will and I share in that video of like, we need to see so much more value from you than what you think in order to build a high level of trust in today's market. Because of the noise and the, the amount of content that's being created now with AI, we needed to see a lot more of it. So you know that old saying around, like with marketing, that for someone to build trust or to buy from you, they need to see your product or service, you know, seven to 10 times. That went up to like 21 times in the last few years. I can't even imagine what it would be now. I should do the statistics and look at that. But I'm sure it's like crazy through the roof now because of this level of, of a trust recession we're experiencing. Like, it's so key that you just become absolutely obsessed with delivering transformation before and after the sale, right? Like, before and after. So rather than going, oh, I'm only going to give my best stuff to people when they pay me and then I'm going to give them an amazing service, but then I'm never going to talk to them again or I'm not going to further serve them afterwards, like, is really creating a lot of distrust. And I can even, you know, count on a couple of fingers on my hand of people that I've worked with in the past that I will no longer work with again because they've actually eroded the trust. The way that they delivered or they didn't deliver or the way that they actually just dropped their relationship. Like, they didn't follow up, they didn't check into how I enjoy the service. They didn't say, like, hey, if you ever want to do this again, I'm always here for you. Like, there was none of that. Like, and I think sometimes people get so, so butthurt by not being used again as a service provider or, you know, buying a product. But that trust is earned. It's not just earned because you just did a service once. You need to build that relationship in order for them to trust you again. Right? Like, I think that sometimes we forget that. And if you're just ghosting people or if you're like, oh, I'm just gonna literally deliver their deliverables and say see you later and then never speak to them ever again because you're so fearful of, like, oh, if I reach out to see how they are, they're thinking I'm selling them something. Like, it's actually doing the complete opposite by you not showing that you care by following up. And like, for instance, like, if I was a photographer and I'm using someone's images that I've hired a photographer and I've shared those images, I would absolutely be commenting on those photos. Being like, this was such A fun session to do with you, loved working with you. I would be, if I'm continuing to share them over like the six months or whatever, however long I'd be checking back in and be like, hey, how are you going with those? Are you still loving your images? I love that you're still sharing them. I love that you're still using them. Like, continue the relationship. Don't just expect people to come back to you because you serve them once. So there's three key pieces that I would love for you to consider when it comes to building your trust and what you're doing within your business to support this. I want you to consider before the sale. How are you building trust with your audience before the sale? So think about the value that you're delivering, your freebies that you're giving out. Think about your content you're creating. Like, is it valuable or is it just trend chasing? Are you developing relationships? Are you thinking about how you're serving them and giving and communicating your message effectively? In order for you to build trust, that might be the first place for you to start. The second piece is while you're delivering the service, right? So while they're working with you, how are you continuing to build trust with them? How are you building out a safe space for them to have a beautiful experience with you? Are you delivering on what you actually promised? Are you checking back in with them? Are you having those touch points in between to be like, hey, where are you at? This is, you know, halfway through working together? How are you enjoying this? How can I improve this? And getting that feedback? And are you taking the feedback even when you finish that service? Are you taking the feedback? Are you even getting the feedback in order to then improve the service? And then you want to then consider beyond the sale. So what happens after the sale? And once they finish working with you, how do you continue to build that trust and relationship? And is there anything else you can do there to further build that trust and in order for them to come and buy from you again? So you just want to think about before, during, and beyond the sale. So those are the three areas you want to consider and I would just suggest starting in one. Like, honestly, if all of this feels really overwhelming, you're like, oh, gosh, I'm not really doing any of this. Then it might be just like, okay, which one do I want to start with first? And you might want to start with delivery first. You might want to go, okay, I want to put in some touch points for feedback. I want to measure something A little bit more effectively. I want to make sure that I'm having an open communication channel. I want to even make sure that I'm actually getting the testimonials and case studies. So then I have that for later down the track. Right. So if you're not doing any of that, it might be time to start firstly while you're in the delivery and then you might want to go, okay, what's easiest for me to start with? Do I want to do before, I want to do after, or maybe what's the necessity? If you're finding it hard to gain leads, then you might want to start with the first piece before the sale because that's absolutely huge. Like if you are not delivering a lot of value and giving people what they want and building that trust, it might be the key thing that's causing you to have lack of sales right now, lack of leads. So it start there and then start thinking about how you can really further building trust. Because it is incredibly important this year, not just, you know, not just to make sales, but also to develop a level of community and relationship with your audience, but also for the longevity of your business. Right. The more trust you build, the more likely it is that people will actually refer you and who haven't, haven't even bought from you. Like the amount of times that I get referrals from people that I've never bought from me only because I took the time to get to know them. I took the time to have, you know, to give of my knowledge. So it might be like, like I did that actually last week I was chatting to someone that I'd never worked with before in the past and she was saying something about a problem she was experiencing in a business and I asked her, would you be open to me sharing what I would say to a client in this situation? And she was like, yeah. And so I shared with her and she was like, thank you, that was extremely valuable. I hadn't thought about it from that perspective before. I know that that's actually helped build trust. Right. Serve people first, serve before you sell. And so I hope you take this episode and really think about how you're going to help build trust within your business because it will absolutely support you long term. All right, lovely. So remember, I've got that capacity calculator Masterclass happening on the 11th of February, or if you're around Brisbane and surrounds, you want to come along to the in person 2026 Success Planning Day book your ticket link is in the show notes for the 20th of February. And if you want to come along to Unstoppable Women and get the best early bird price for your ticket, definitely check out the link to Unstoppable Women. Otherwise lovely. I hope you have an incredible rest of your week and I'll speak to you soon. Thank you for listening. And if you found any value out of this episode, make sure you hit the follow button so you get access to the episod episodes as soon as they are live. And make sure you come hang out with me on Instagram. You can find me at Christine Corcoran Underscore Coach have an incredible week.