Earn Trust Over Money: The Secret to Solopreneur Success

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This morning, I was grabbing a coffee and saw a woman sitting a few feet away on a virtual call.

A few moments of eavesdropping later and I was assured that she was a CEO who was personally handling a call with a social media contractor that was “missing deadlines”, “not delivering as promised”, and “dealing with a lot in their personal life”.

I only listened to a few sentences while I was waiting in line but all I could think about was telling that woman that she needed to fire the contractor and move on.

In my experience, if you have to tell a contractor how to do their job more than once, you are never going to get the work out of them that you need or expect.

This CEO was put together, kind, warm, firm, a solid communicator, and not afraid of confrontation. She had no idea but I was getting a little emotional listening to her try to remedy this conversation with humanity and authority.

Why? Because I have had this conversation so many times over the years with clients, except that I was asking the client to be better, to meet their deadlines, to communicate effectively, and to stop putting a ceiling on the level of excellence that I wanted to deliver.

I started thinking about how mortified I would be if a client ever had to sit me down (especially more than once) and ask me to deliver something on time or meet their expectations better.

I remember three instances where I was behind on a deadline or made an error that caused the client to check in on me. All three were in the first year of the pandemic when I was working 80-hour weeks and trying to keep up with a world that was moving completely to a digital way of life.

My reaction? I was horrified at missing my standard.

The result? I started letting go of clients to give me more time.

I would rather have fewer clients and make less money than deliver my B game instead of my A game. Had I not done that, the exhausting years that followed would have been so much harder and definitely filled with more errors.

What this all comes down to is one thing: trust.

My biggest motivation with any client is for us to establish trust with each other. I know that if I can’t trust them, I can’t do my job. Because my work is public and visible, I know that it will end in disaster if I am not set up for success.

On the other hand, if my clients can’t trust me, everything will fall apart and I will sacrifice my freedom and creative control. There will be check-ins, and standing meetings that fill up my calendar to make sure I am staying on track. There will be emails and texts checking status.

I stay ahead of all of that. I learn the client — their personality, strengths, weaknesses, and professional rhythm.

I do everything I can to not waste their time or cause a problem.

When I send an email, I read it three times before I send it to make sure it is effective. I am also thinking ahead about any questions they might have and answering them ahead of time. I am doing things that they need before I am asked.

Trust tells them to refer me to someone else.

Trust enables me to be paid more and more each year.

Trust allows me to tell the story of their brand without asking for permission each day.

Do I show up on time? Do I keep my word? Do I meet deadlines?

All these questions really come down to one question: Do people trust me to do my job well?

When you earn trust, you don’t have to worry about earning money.

One always follows the other.

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