The Trust Chapter

Over the past twenty-five years, I’ve built my brand not just on visibility, but on trust. That’s because the biggest opportunities in my career didn’t come from ads or outreach. They came from the trust I built over those years.

Trust Is Your Most Valuable Asset

Trust isn’t something you can buy, fake, or rush. It’s built in layers—earned through action, reinforced by consistency, and multiplied by reputation. It doesn’t happen overnight but it can be destroyed in an instant. The reason it’s so powerful is because it’s so scarce.

Mindset → How you see yourself and how the world perceives you.

Authority → The credibility that proves you’re the real deal.

Groundwork → Your positioning, visibility, and online presence.

Network → Strategic relationships that extend your influence.

Execution → Consistent, high-level action that builds reliability.

Trust → The outcome that makes people advocate for you.

The Core Pillars of Trust

There are three core pillars of trust in networking that are sometimes overlooked in the rush to make an impression, shove a business card in someone’s hand, and land that referral:

1. Consistency.
If people don’t know what to expect from you, they won’t take the risk of referring you. Trust is built by showing up, following through, and being dependable—in every room.

2. Competence.
Being likable isn’t enough. People need to believe you can deliver. Trust grows when you have a track record of results, proof of work, and quiet confidence.

3. Character.
It’s not just about being good at what you do. It’s about being the kind of person others want to associate with. Integrity, reliability, and shared values matter more than you think.

If any of those are missing, trust erodes, and whatever connection you had can be erased. Even good people, those who usually are reliable and produce excellent work, can see this happen if they go through a bad patch, for instance. The good news is that someone who has an overall great track record as a business partner can easily recover that trust by going back to the foundational lessons of MAGNET.

How Trust Is Broken

So many of us are overachievers who want to bring success to the table quickly. That can lead to poor decision-making that rushes the process. How?

Overpromising and underdelivering

• Focusing more on visibility than credibility

• Prioritizing quick wins over long-term relationships

Trust isn’t just about what you do. It’s about what people believe you’ll do, how you do that work, and the priorities you have in the transaction. Every time you show up, you’re teaching people what to expect from you.

The Difference Between Like and Trust

So why do some people get constant referrals and high-value opportunities, while others keep spinning their wheels?

Your Network Is Essentially a Bank Full of Trust

Your network isn’t just who you know, because it’s not exactly helpful to know thousands of people, as I mentioned in the beginning, if you aren’t the one they think of first when they want to make a referral. A true, powerful network is filled with people who trust you enough to bring you into their circle.

When your Mindset is positive, your Authority is clear (without bragging), you have laid the Groundwork in the relationship, you have built a Network of people who know you will always Execute on time and with high quality, their Trust is a natural byproduct.

You can’t create a social media campaign that builds a MAGNET. There is no full-page ad that can do that, either. It’s not about how much attention you get or how big of a splash you make; it’s about positioning yourself as someone people trust enough to advocate for when they make an introduction.

When you get that right, networking stops being about chasing opportunities. Opportunities start coming straight to you. In fact, I believe in this so strongly that I created KLTScore.com where you can take a free personal assessment and benchmark where you stand—Known, Liked, or Trusted—in order to unlock that next level of opportunity.

If you’ve made it this far, it’s probably because of how this chapter began. I mentioned some big names—household names—that dropped into that first paragraph, hopefully with a little wow factor. Or maybe someone recommended this book, and my name came with it.

As you read past that first chapter, you probably picked up something that made you trust that I had something worth saying. You didn’t know me. You didn’t (yet) like me. But you gave me your attention and I think that reason has nothing to do with the names I dropped.

Hopefully, you saw that I was being honest and open. I wasn’t trying to wow you for five pages, I was simply mentioning my Authority, and then laying a Groundwork of concrete tips that anyone can implement.

When you’re done with this chapter (and this book), you should have tools that help you create an air of Trust around who you are and what you do.

That same trust is what moves conversations forward. It’s what opens doors. It’s what makes people lean in, saying, I want to know who this person is.

And now, you know me. Maybe you even like me. And hopefully, I’ve earned your trust too.

Trust isn’t just part of networking. It’s the reason networking works in the first place.