In this rapid‑fire, six‑question interview on the Winning at Business and Life podcast, HR executive Michael Trust shares his multi‑industry experience and a people‑first philosophy. He explains that profits stem from caring for employees, emphasizing culture, engagement, and retention as drivers of revenue and customer satisfaction. Trust highlights talent acquisition as a branding opportunity and cites a Seattle payment‑processing firm that doubled revenue during the pandemic by never laying off staff and rewarding employees. He describes HR as the conscience and nucleus of a company, linking pay, benefits, transparency, ethics, and servant leadership to business outcomes. Trust also refers two colleagues—executive coach Ashi Arora and I‑O psychologist Vanessa Vollmer—for future episodes, recounts his first job as a camp counselor where he built a first‑aid program, and provides his contact details (LinkedIn, Twitter @MichaelTrustSPHR, and michaeltrustconsulting.com). The conversation blends humor, practical advice, and concrete examples to illustrate how taking care of people creates a self‑reinforcing cycle of employee happiness and organizational profit.
Chapters
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Hi Pete. Thanks so much for having me. My name is Michael Trust. I'm a human resources executive that's worked in a number of industries, including healthcare, higher education, legal, local government, entertainment, and banking and finance. I've worked in all functional areas of HR. I consider myself to be an operational human resources person in that I really get into learning the business because without knowing the business, I can't provide the most excellent type of HR support.
Well, Michael, it's so great to have you on the show. Question number 2: What is something that makes you smile and/or laugh about working in your industry?
I think most people would smile or laugh at this. When you're in HR, you see so much good and bad that nothing really can shock you. So I just have to smile about the kinds of issues that I have to deal with on a daily basis.
I can only imagine the gamut, the full gamut of what you probably have dealt with at the different companies, industries, etc. Yeah, I could totally see that. That would be, that probably would be a book in itself, I would imagine.
Some of my colleagues in HR have actually written books about a day in the life of HR, and I probably will when I retire. Someday that'll be my retirement project, is to write a book about the pipe bombs and the prostitution rings and the drug cartels and all those kinds of things.
Oh, wow. I think I'm going to buy that book. Question number 3, speaking about a book, I have a fictitious one. With all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
In all seriousness, I think that you can't have profits without people. And so I think that the chapter that companies should start with is the chapter about people. Because if companies and organizations take care of people, the profits, the revenues, they flow from that. And without the people or without a great culture, without engagement, you don't really have a viable business at the end of the day. I mean, you may survive for a little while, but at some point you're going to have retention problems and those things cost money. Yeah, they impact customers, especially on the sales side when people keep getting shuffled from salesperson to salesperson to salesperson as an example, or vendors keep talking to a different project manager or whatever the case may be. And so it's all about the people.
And that is so insightful. I think about it from both as an employee in the past as well as, as you say, as a customer. And when you just keep on seeing the new rep or the, you know, you call up and especially if somebody's got an attitude because they're not happy at work, it just, it really hurts your brand. And you compare that to the opposite when somebody is enjoying their work, they're not stressed out, they're connected with the customer, it's a whole different experience that they generate for the customer base. And you're more likely to buy more, right? That's the It makes so, like, common sense, but how many companies miss out on that? It's just amazing.
Unfortunately, too many. And, you know, when I, when I look at, for example, talent acquisition and recruiting, right, that is another opportunity to market the company because those very people you're talking to are also potential customers in many cases. And there's a reputation and a brand that goes with that as well. And again, it goes back to how you've treated people.
Absolutely. Question number 4, other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice or insight would you give to other business leaders?
I think to follow up on our last question, take care of people. You know, there's a company up in Seattle that does payment processing that hasn't laid anybody off during the pandemic, has given people increases and bonuses, and has cut costs in other ways, and they have a wonderful brand. Everybody wants to work there because the CEO of that company takes care of his people.
So it's that, that CEO, he's walking the talk basically, you know, and I assume that, you know, having a leader like that in place who's really taking care of his people, that just builds that loyalty and is something where, as you say, people want to work there, and that obviously is going to be reflected in their customers as well because the employees want to take care of the customers because they're motivated by their company.
Right. And actually, uh, he just posted the other day on LinkedIn that his revenues are up 4 times during the pandemic.
Wow.
So he does payment processing. So as companies close and there's maybe less of a market, he's getting more of a market because he's delivering to his customers because his people are happy. You can't make everybody happy all the time. We know that.
Absolutely.
These aren't Pollyanna glasses, right? Rose-colored glasses that I'm wearing. But, but I think how you set the culture, how you set pay, how you set benefits, total rewards, ability for people to grow and develop, you know, transparency, ethics, how leadership leads, servant leadership, those things go a long way. And HR is sort of, in a way, the conscience of the company. And HR can help the CEO and the C-suite drive those things.
Absolutely. And, and, you know, you see that, that when HR takes, takes an active role in that, there, I kind of look at it as the nucleus of the, of the company, because, you know, they know what the stressors are and they they know what the wins are, et cetera. And ultimately they want to make sure that the people in the company succeed. So it's, you know, it's great.
Then the C-suite's happy because the revenue and the profits are there.
Absolutely.
Everybody wins.
Everybody wins.
It becomes just a self-feeding circle, right? The employees get better bonuses or better pay or better benefits because there's more profit. There's more profit because employees are happy.
Absolutely. It's a perfect world. It really is if it's done right. If it's done right. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
So I have a colleague that I've known for about 12 years. We work together. She just recently started an executive coaching business, iRISE. Her name is Ashi Arora. I'd like to refer you to her. And I have another colleague who I've known for about 5 years who's an industrial organizational psychologist, and he goes in and does these culture kinds of things. And, uh, can do nuts and bolts HR work as well, but really is focused in culture and team development and learning and those kinds of things. Vanessa Vollmer.
Wonderful. Well, I look forward to speaking with both of them. Thank you for those referrals. And, and our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
Sure. Camp counselor. Oh, so that's, that's an interesting way to learn about people and organization. And management and how to, how to influence. You know, you're young, everybody around you is young, none of us are terribly mature at those ages. And so we have to, we have to sort of figure things out. And I use that opportunity to get what I think is good leadership experience in a setting where the risks weren't very high. So I was able to fail and learn from those failures. And then also we had a lot of kids that took a lot of risks, and so there were a lot of kids that got injured. And so I took it upon myself to sort of develop a first aid program. You know, I'm, you know, 15 years old or 14 years old or something, and develop a whole first aid training program and sort of manage that program and make sure that, that sort of— I was the medic, if you will. And still, uh, and still supervise groups and all of those kinds of things.
Oh, what a great story. I love it. And I imagine another thing you probably had to learn in many cases was patience too, with a lot— having to, to herd a lot of of young adults.
Yeah, exactly.
Oh my goodness. Well, so Michael, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
So I'm on LinkedIn at Michael Trust. I'm on Twitter @MichaelTrustSPHR. And I have my own website at michaeltrustconsulting.com.
Perfect. This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
