Building Trust as a Competitive Advantage with Natalie Doyle Oldfield

Summary

Business Bourbon & Cigars: Episode Summary Episode Title: Building Trust as a Competitive Advantage with Natalie Doyle Oldfield
Host: Scott Joseph
Release Date: December 19, 2024

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Introduction

In this insightful episode of Business Bourbon & Cigars, host Scott Joseph delves deep into the pivotal role of trust within organizations. Joined by Natalie Doyle Oldfield, an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and globally recognized thought leader on trust, the conversation explores how trust serves as a cornerstone for business growth, customer loyalty, and high-performing teams.

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Guest Background: Natalie Doyle Oldfield

Natalie Doyle Oldfield shares her professional journey that led her to become a foremost expert on trust in business. With a 25-year tenure in marketing roles within IT companies, Natalie transitioned into sales during the tumultuous period of the 2008 market crash. Despite initial fears and a lack of formal sales training, her focus on the customer during challenging times highlighted the critical importance of trust in business relationships.

Driven by a desire to understand why some companies excel while others falter, Natalie pursued further education. Her research culminated in the creation of a scientifically-backed framework centered on Trust Equity, enabling businesses to measure and enhance trust systematically. This led to the founding of her company, Success through Trust, over a decade ago, where she develops tools and systems to help organizations build and maintain trust.

Notable Quote:

"Relationships are the lifeblood of all of our businesses, and companies that are trusted outperform other companies." [04:44]

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The Importance of Trust in Business

Natalie emphasizes that trust is not merely a soft skill but a tangible asset that directly impacts both the top and bottom lines of a business. She introduces the concept of Trust Equity, a measurable indicator of how much customers trust a company, which in turn influences sales, customer retention, and referrals.

Key Insights:

• Customer Trust Drives Sales: Trusted companies can charge premium prices, with 54% of customers willing to pay more for trusted brands.
• Trust Enhances Retention: 80% of people worldwide choose to buy from companies they trust, leading to higher repeat business and customer loyalty.
• Internal Trust Affects Performance: Trust within teams fosters higher engagement, reduces sick days, and ensures deadlines are met, thereby positively influencing overall business performance.

Notable Quotes:

"When you have trust equity, imagine that... you get a comfort level that... I'm going to try them out." [13:46]
"If you look at it, the more trust equity you have, the more trusted you are, the better results you're going to get." [04:44]

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Building Trust Within Teams

Natalie outlines practical strategies for cultivating trust within organizations. She introduces her Trust Mastery Program, which focuses on equipping teams with the skills to build and maintain trust both internally and with customers.

Strategies Discussed:

1. Customer-Centric Culture: Start with understanding what's most important to the customer.
2. Empathetic Listening: Encourage teams to listen with empathy and compassion, ensuring that decisions are inclusive and considerate of all stakeholders.
3. Transparent Communication: Leaders should be open and honest, sharing necessary information to prevent misunderstandings and foster a supportive environment.

Notable Quotes:

"Listen carefully with empathy and compassion. Question and involve the other person in a conversation or a decision that affects them." [26:32]
"The more you share, the more vulnerable a leader is, the more open they are and authentic, the quicker you can build trust with someone." [36:53]

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Common Mistakes Leaders Make in Building Trust

Natalie identifies several pitfalls that can undermine trust within teams and with customers:

1. Lack of Sincerity: Leaders often fail to show their authentic selves, putting up a facade of perfection which can erode trust.
2. Intransparency: Not sharing essential information can lead to doubts and reduce the ability of teams to support each other effectively.
3. Poor Listening Skills: Leaders may listen without truly understanding, leading to miscommunications and disengagement.

Notable Quotes:

"If someone's perfect all the time, we start to wonder like, okay, when's a ball gonna drop?" [34:26]
"When leaders are not transparent, when they don't share everything that the other person needs to know." [34:26]

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Measuring Trust: Trust Equity

Natalie introduces Trust Equity as a quantifiable measure of trust within an organization. By assessing Trust Equity, businesses can identify strengths and weaknesses, allowing them to implement targeted strategies to enhance trust.

Implementation Steps:

1. Assess Readiness: Evaluate the current state of trust within the team through assessments and surveys.
2. Identify Gaps: Determine areas where trust is lacking and understand the underlying causes.
3. Develop Action Plans: Create strategies to address these gaps, focusing on transparency, communication, and customer-centric practices.

Notable Quotes:

"Trust Equity is a key performance indicator for a lot of companies I work with." [04:44]
"The more trust equity you have, the more successful you're going to be." [37:52]

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Case Studies: Real-World Applications of Trust Building

Natalie shares compelling case studies demonstrating the transformative power of trust-building initiatives:

1. Technology Company Transformation:

   • Challenge: Low customer trust leading to complaints and poor sales performance.
   • Solution: Implemented the Trust Mastery Program, focusing on empathetic listening and customer-centric practices.
   • Outcome: Within 60 days, customer complaints ceased, and the sales team began bringing in new business, significantly boosting revenue.

2. Manufacturing Company Turnaround:

   • Challenge: Flat revenue in contrast to industry growth, coupled with low employee engagement and missed deadlines.
   • Solution: Launched a "Regain Trust" initiative, involving guided discussions and training to rebuild trust internally and externally.
   • Outcome: Over six months, the company saw a resurgence in customer trust, increased sales, and enhanced employee morale, leading to substantial business growth.

Notable Quotes:

"Within about 30 days, my client saw changes. People on his team were bringing in business Scott. They were selling more to existing customers." [28:48]
"A year later, they have so many opportunities and their sales have gone up so much that they've had to invest in new capital equipment to fulfill all the orders." [45:57]

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Actionable Steps: Building Trust Today

For listeners eager to start enhancing trust within their organizations, Natalie offers a straightforward, actionable step:

Step 1: Connect with a Client

• Action: Reach out to one client and ask them, "What's most important to you?" [50:35]
• Purpose: Understanding the client's perspective fosters stronger relationships and demonstrates genuine interest and commitment.

Additional Resource: Natalie offers a free team trust assessment on her website, successthroughtrust.com, allowing businesses to evaluate their current trust levels and identify areas for improvement.

Notable Quotes:

"Start. Call one client, Connect with one client. Ask them what's most important to them." [50:35]
"It's amazing how sometimes we're afraid to ask that or make that call. It does so good." [51:17]

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Conclusion

Scott and Natalie wrap up the episode by reinforcing the indispensable role of trust in achieving business success. They emphasize that building trust is a deliberate and ongoing process that starts from the top and permeates every aspect of an organization.

Final Thoughts:

• Trust is akin to a culture of safety; it requires intentional effort and commitment from leadership.
• By prioritizing trust, businesses can unlock significant growth, enhance customer loyalty, and foster high-performing, engaged teams.

Closing Quote:

"It's about unlocking growth, both professionally and personally." [Podcast Description]

For more insights and resources on building trust within your organization, visit Natalie's website successthroughtrust.com and take advantage of the free trust assessment offered.

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Thank you for tuning into Business Bourbon & Cigars. Subscribe to our podcast and YouTube channel to stay updated with more episodes that challenge and empower you to grow your business with no-nonsense strategies. Until next time, build trust and make an impact!

Transcript

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

The most common mistake I see is leaders putting like a shield on to be, you know, perfect. And, and at the end of the day, if we really think about it, if someone's perfect all the time, we start to wonder like, okay, when's a ball gonna drop, right? I mean, none of us are perfect. So that would be one thing. The other thing that I would say which is equally as common is when leaders are not transparent, when they don't share everything that the other person needs to know.

[Scott Joseph]

Welcome to Business Bourbon and Cigars, the podcast for ambitious leaders who want to.

Backstage pay us to the top.

Every episode we're going to sit down with ultra successful industry leaders who have a proven track record and a deep understanding of how to grow a business. And we're going to learn the secrets and strategies that took them to the top. On this show, you'll gain access to exclusive insights and resources that'll give you what you need to achieve your most audacious goals. And of course, we may even sip on some fine bourbon and light up one of our favorite cigars while we chat. My name is Scott Joseph. I'm your host and this is Business Bourbon and Cigars.

Welcome Business Bourbon and Cigars listeners. And for those of you who might be watching, Whether it's on meplusaltra.com or YouTube, I'm your host, Scott Joseph. And today we're diving into a topic that is critical for success, literally in any organization. We're going to talk everything about trust. So I want you to think about that. That sounds simple but we're going to dive into actually what makes this work and how you can build trust in the right way. And I'm really excited about our guest today. We're going to talk about exploring how high performing teams use trust to build meaningful relationships that can be with your clients, your internal and external what leaders and also what leaders often wrong about people and how they can fix it. So joining me today is Natalie Doyle Oldfield. She's an award winning entrepreneur, she's an author, she's globally recognized thought leader when it comes to the topic of trust. Natalie works with business owners and leaders across all sectors helping them adopt her eight principles of trust so they can achieve incredible results. Her clients become some of the most trusted in their industries. She's an best selling author of the book Trusted the Proven Path to Customer Loyalty and Business Growth. If building trust, if building stronger teams, if increasing owner loyalty is important to you, this is the episode for you. And before we dive in, I want to make sure. Make sure you subscribe to Me Plus Ultra at me+untra.com. also make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel, Me Plus Ultra Network. That way you can get all, you know, all the valuable content. Never miss any future episodes just like the one you're going to experience today. So let's get started. Natalie, welcome to business Bourbon and Cigars.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Thanks for having me. It's great to be here.

[Scott Joseph]

My pleasure. We were talking earlier, and when I saw the word trust and team building, it's what stood out to me most. It's what got me so excited, why I wanted to have you on the show, because it doesn't matter how many hot seats we do with Me plus Ultra, how many in our live business Bourbon Cigar events, doesn't matter what our challenges are, the issues or the barriers we're trying to break through. At some point when we're talking about solutions and action plans, building stronger teams. Right. Building a stronger culture. It's. It's like we can't get rid of those topics no matter what we try to do. And so they always come up. And so this hits right at the heart of it. So I just absolutely love it. So thank you.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

It all comes down to trust. I know it's at the heart of everything and the foundation of everything we do.

[Scott Joseph]

It is. So talk to me. Like, what? Tell our audience. Like, what led you to become an expert when it comes to trust and focus your career really, on this essential product? On topic, I should say, you know, really what I want to know is what were the key milestones?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yeah. Okay. So I was working for a software company, and we. I was in a marketing role for 25 years. I had different roles in IT companies, and I was always involved and curious about how customers buy and how people tick and really always wanted to be involved in conversations that affected customers so we would have the best products. And so I had a lot of relationships with the customers. And my boss, the CEO, wanted me to take over the sales role, and I really didn't want to do that. I was quite hesitant because I know it's very accountable and, you know, it's, you know, it's very different than marketing. Marketing is about generating leads and activities and, you know, creating the best product and supporting. But sales is, you know, frontline. Anyhow, all this to say after several conversations, I decided, okay, I'll do it because it was the right thing to do for the company. I was terrified because, you know, looking back now, I didn't want to fail.

[Scott Joseph]

I love greater. I Love greater good people.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

I mean, yeah, I really didn't want to fail, and I really was terrified. But you know what? I trusted my boss and I just said, like, we'll see how it goes.

[Scott Joseph]

So.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

So that was in August 2008, which was a long time ago. But for folks that remember that time in September, the market crashed and we were selling software to the hospitality industry. So hotels stopped buying the, you know, recurring licenses and they put things on hold. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And I had a team of people and I didn't know what to do, and I never sold anything. I really believe that people buy from people they know like, and trust. I didn't know how to do sales. I had never taken a sales course. So I asked the people that were around me that were really successful in sales that I thought were really successful in sales, and they all said to me the same thing, which was just, focus on the customer, Natalie. Focus on the customer. So we did that, and within a few months, the market started turning around and our sales did too. We just focused on the customer. So fast forward a year, I got so interested in how is it that some companies are so successful and how customers decide to buy and, you know, like, what makes people tick, that I actually decided to go back to school. And as a grownup, that's what I used to say to my profs as a grownup, because I was, you know, same age or older than some of them to answer this question. And what I found out made my arms get goosebumps, made my jaw drop. It all comes down to trust. Relationships are the lifeblood of all of our businesses, and companies that are trusted outperform other companies. And I got so excited about this that I built a framework that is based on science and evidence and the scientific method, and a proprietary playbook and framework so that people can learn how to do this. And fast forward, I started teaching people this repeatable system because when things are built on the scientific method, it's repeatable and you get the same results. And tested it. And then I graduated in the middle of all this, continued to test out this over several years to create tools and a system and a measurement system and diagnostic for people to learn how to build, manage, and protect relationships of trust. And as you can imagine, I stopped working for that company and started my company, which is called Success through trust, over 10 years ago now, to teach people this repeatable system. Because what I found is that it was so exciting that when you have high trust, what I call high trust, Equity with your customers. You have all these amazing things happen. You have higher sales, you have more repeat business, you have referrals, all that good stuff. So that's how I got into it. And then I started writing books about it and articles and working with companies all over the world to teach them this repeatable system to build trustworthy people.

[Scott Joseph]

I literally, before this show, just got off as a guest of a podcast.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yes.

[Scott Joseph]

And you said something that really hit home and we, we touched on it a little bit. And listening to clients, listening to customers, making it all about them. Because first off, I went into a story where that had happened and it changed a little bit about our product. Right. Because you're sitting there listening to the client feedback and you're like, this is what's important to them.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Right.

[Scott Joseph]

And first off, and I'm assuming we're going to get down this road, I want to dig into this deeper. I'm assuming this helps build trust when you start actually acting on what they tell you and they trust you more to do stuff. But, but it also improves your, you, you talk because you did this during your sales managing role. Right. And so when that starts happening, you're doing it to improve the value proposition to your client. But at the same time, when you do that, when you improve value to your client, it works its way into your pitch, so to speak, because you recognize, wow, clients appreciate this. They really, they like it more. I need to tell them up front that we do this. And I loved what you said where you were looking for certain things by listening to clients that they did really well and that were. Could be repeatable and stuff like that. I think that is just a huge key and I wish all businesses leaders would pay attention to that. I want to dive into that later. But then you completely lost me and my mind went racing when you said you went back to school. Because I thought all I could think about is, man, I want to go back to school. That would be fun.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

It was fun. And you know what? It was really fun because I got, you know, I, I did graduate research to understand, like I said, why are some companies successful and others not? And, you know, how is it that we decide to buy? And what I learned is intuitively I knew that you buy when you know, like, and trust someone. I knew that intuitively, but I wanted to prove it out. And it was amazing because I did all this primary research looking at companies and then built this tool so that we can quantify the trust a customer has in us. And I call that trust. Trust Equity. So I coined that term years ago to really have a term that is measurable. It's a key performance indicator for a lot of companies I work with. And it's something that all companies can be striving is to build their trust equity. Because if you think about it, the more trust equity have, the more trusted you are, the better results you're going to get. Not only with your external customers, but, you know, as you mentioned in the introduction, with your teams too, it also drives engagement. So, you know, there's a very, very strong business case to become the most trusted. It's not just anecdotal that, you know, we buy from people we trust. There's a really strong business case for it.

[Scott Joseph]

Well, let's talk about how does it, you know, let's go to that. Right? Most business leaders, right, if they're gonna do this, yeah, they want the end result of what they feel like the trust will give, which at some point has to get to the bottom line. So let's talk specifically how it can directly impact that.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Well, when you have trust equity, imagine that, you know, you're gonna have a renovation done to your office, and, you know, you might do what I did. And that is, you know, I asked my friends, I asked people in the community, okay, who did your renovations? What was it like to work with this company? That referral, then I call the. You get the referral, then you call the company, and you have, you. You have a comfort level that. Oh, okay, well, my friend Lisa used this company, so I'm going to try them out. If I have a good experience, which I did when I renovated my office, then I go and tell someone else that company is trusted. So here's the business. Here are the hardened facts. So that's just one story, but we all have lots of stories of companies that we trust. When you are a trusted company, you outperform the market 2 1/2 times. 80% of people worldwide buy from companies that they trust. We also pay more for companies when we trust. And we all know this. You know, when we, when we have a trusted advisor or trusted provider that we deal with, we don't often ask for a quote or the price. Worldwide, 54% of people pay more.

[Scott Joseph]

Why do you think, why do you think that is?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Because we have a faith or belief that the company is providing more value. They're going to act in our best interest, do the right thing for us, and so we pay more. I mean, just think about, you know, are you. I see you have a cup. I Don't know if there's bourbon in there or coffee in there. But if there's coffee in there, the bourbon's over here.

[Scott Joseph]

The bourbon's back here. But there's coffee in this.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Okay, there's coffee. Okay, so let's just talk about coffee, right? There's lots of places that we can get coffee. Right? You can make it in your home. You can go to your local coffee shop. You can go to the Dunkin Donuts, you can go to Starbucks, the, you know, the local Joe's, whatever it's called. In Canada, where I live, it's Tim Hortons. Right. There's Tim Hortons in the US Too. Well, one of the most trusted coffee companies in the world is Starbucks. And they charge a premium.

[Scott Joseph]

Yeah, that's right.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

So we do pay more when we trust. And 46% of people purchase more when they trust. So there's a wonderful business case to focus on trust. And it's not. You know, I was talking to someone a couple weeks ago and he said it's kind of squishy. It's pretty tangible. It's pretty tangible.

[Scott Joseph]

Well, you brought up something. No one's gonna refer someone to a company they don't trust because they want the person they're referring to have a good experience, and they've gotta trust that that company's gonna live up to their brand.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yeah.

[Scott Joseph]

And so as a marketer, I've got a marketing agency. I'm not involved in operations, but fortunately I still own it. But we're always preaching about having multiple streams of referrals come in. Well, that only works. You can have all the processes to get referrals, having sales reps ask for them, having it on every communication, having different, you know, marketing things that you might do, trying to get them. Yeah, but none of it works if you don't have, if you don't live up to your brand promise, if your clients can't trust you. So that's the foundation of that. But the other thing, I'll tell you why I buy from companies I trust, okay? Because if I don't trust them, I, I. Same reason I would buy from, say, Doordash. Right? Convenience. I pay for convenience, by the way, if I don't trust a company to live up and do what they say they're going to do, I know down the road there's going to be a major inconvenience for me and it's going to cost me time and effort, which I'm willing to pay more because I trust this company just to do it right the first time.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yes.

[Scott Joseph]

Right.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

There you go. So that's a great example of paying a premium.

[Scott Joseph]

Yeah.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Because we trust. You know, there's sometimes, you know, I work with companies and they, when they ask me about the business case. And so what we do is we say, okay, well let's talk about some of the things you measure in your company, what some of the business problems you might have. And sometimes companies say to me, well, you know, we have declining revenues, or, you know, the revenues are soft or, you know, maybe they say it takes a long time to convert a lead into a customer. The sales, the negotiations are stressful. Or, you know, we do, we get leads but they slip away. Or, you know, here's one of my ones that, that I heard recently. Every quarter we're starting fresh, we're like zero. Like, it's like we have nothing in the pipeline. We have challenges with retention. Those are all what I would call signals or indicators of low customer trust. So I know, Scott, people are not, you know, waking up in the morning at Monday morning and googling trust. In fact, my husband reminds me that all the time people aren't Googling trust. No, I know that. However it shows up on the top line and the bottom line, you have.

[Scott Joseph]

To know what to look for.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yes. And it always comes down to trust. It's like you said in the introduction, it comes down to the culture, it comes down to the people. It comes down to trust. You can have the best product in the world with the most amount of patents, the best process, great workflow, great. But if you don't have the trust of your customers, they're not going to buy from you.

[Scott Joseph]

Well, I'm glad you touched on that because I wanted to get into how we measure it a little bit. But you know, let's get into specifics because it's not just, I think it shows up on the top and bottom line also. Not from just a lack of trust or a lot of trust, depending on which direction you want to go, I guess, with your clients, but with your own teams. Because let's say, for instance, I've got a. All right, you're back running your sales team, right?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yep.

[Scott Joseph]

Doing a great job. They're selling the heck out of stuff. But in the back of your mind, you don't trust that operations is going to be able to fulfill these things on time and, or with high quality and mistake free. That impacts your conviction, I would assume. And how you're selling.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

100%. 100%. Right. You're not as Confident.

[Scott Joseph]

Yeah, yeah. Well, I don't want to sell somebody something. And I'm like, if I do that, there's probably going to be a mistake here. Then I'm gonna have to deal with that. It's like. It's true. Yeah, yeah. So let's talk a little bit. How do we build. Let's get specific on how do we build trust within our own teams.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Well, there's lots of ways, I guess I would start with. And actually I'm doing a session with a company next week on this and it's all building trust within the team because it's actually very similar to what you just described. It's a sales team, an account management team and a team of sales support folks which are like sales engineers and project managers who support the process people who help with the proposals. And there's a disconnect there. And it's affecting the conviction. I love that word. It does. It affects the conviction and the confidence. And so we are going to focus on why we're all here. That's what they're going to focus on. And so we always start with focusing on a culture that is customer focused and it's all about the customer. So all the companies I work with, they are very customer focused. They all want to start with the customer and they know that trust is at the foundation of the customer experience. So we start with. Okay, what's most important to the customer?

[Scott Joseph]

Like, I'm so glad you're saying this.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Okay.

[Scott Joseph]

Because when you're saying it's making me think. Right. I think you've just nailed it. I think you literally have a mic drop moment here in this sense.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Okay.

[Scott Joseph]

Let's take the example we just talked about where sales doesn't trust operations.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yeah.

[Scott Joseph]

It is impossible to be a client facing organization, a client focused organization where you're all about the customer. The client and have operational issues that impact the mentality of your sales team. If you were really focused on your clients, you would have such a strong focus on making sure your operational processes had a great client experience. Were nobody's mistake free. But you know what I'm getting at? Always root causing issues. To me, you took an internal situation that I brought up and turned it right back to external focus, which you're right that you're 100% right on that. As I listen to that, I'm like, yeah, if the best way to focus at the core.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

And so this workshop that we're doing, I call it the Trust Mastery program. With this company, it's not just a Customer facing people that are going to be there. It's going to be people in operations and from different parts of the organization. Because when people get an appreciation for, you know, why they're doing what they're doing and what's most important to the customer, it changes your whole mindset. I mean, some people are in my trust mastery program, and honestly, it blows my mind the number of people that say, oh, yeah, I never thought of that. They're a person just like us. Or, no wonder that stresses them out. That would stress me out too. Or, no wonder this customer is overwhelmed. No wonder they need the data. No wonder we should really be delivering the product on time. And the truth is, we get desensitized.

[Scott Joseph]

Right.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

It's not that they came in thinking like that, but sometimes we don't think about the fact that we should be intentionally and deliberately thinking about the customer and building a relationship with a customer. So when I use the word trust, and, you know, companies that outperform, you know, companies that are trusted are the ones that do the best. It's about the people. Make no mistake. Right. Companies are made up of people. So everybody in the organization has a part to play in the customer's decision to trust that company. Everybody.

[Scott Joseph]

You're going into this company next week, you said. Right, next week.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

That's what I do all the time. But next week.

[Scott Joseph]

Yes, Right. But this company you're going into, and I'm sure you've already done your homework and started preparing for them, but you've alluded to this earlier. You've got this eight principle framework for trust. Right. All right, so I'm a new company, just like the one you're going into. New client. You're going in to help.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yeah.

[Scott Joseph]

Give me an overview of what you would come in and explain that. That eight principle framework to me, Explain why it works.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Well, what I would do is I would ask them to assess their. Their readiness first. Right. I might ask them some questions first about, you know, do they have untapped revenue potential? Does everybody know how to talk to customers? Is everybody confident sharing information with customers? Are people nervous to be in a customer meeting on their own? So I would do an assessment first, and then we would talk through how to build a relationship of trust. And we would start with. To get to the eight principles, we would start with principle number one. So principle number one is listen carefully with empathy and compassion question and involve the other person in a conversation or a decision that affects them. And so that's where we would start. And we would Walk through that and workshop that. So that at the end of a session, whether it's, you know, a one day session or they're in my Trust Mastery program, which is over several weeks, they know what empathy means. They are better listeners. They have the skills to connect with people and build mutual relationships.

[Scott Joseph]

Talk to us a little bit. Share a story or an example of how you've went into a company and transformed. Whether it's the team or the company itself. I'm sure depending on the size of the organization, sometimes you might work with just a specific team. Smaller, mid to small. I'm sure you might be working with the whole company. But talk to us, share an example of how you've went in and literally you don't have to give us all the details, but we only have so much time. But how did it transform this team or this company?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Okay, sure. So I'm going to tell you the story of a technology company. The manager who was the CTO of this team, Chief Technology officer, came to me and said, I have a bit of an issue. I have folks on my team that are not building confidence in customers. And I said, well, how do you know that? And he said to me, well, I was at a senior leadership team meeting and I was told that customers are complaining about some folks on my team and that I need to fix it. And I know that I'm not that comfortable them going to a customer meeting without me. In fact, I'm terrified because I don't know what they're going to say. So I said, okay. Anything else? He said, well, you know, I would love it if people on my team and I could be part of, you know, bringing business and revenue to the company because I really want to become an owner and I really want to stand out. So I said, okay. I met his team. Several of them went through his team of about 25 people that are all technical people. So I mean project managers, computer scientists, engineers, went into the Trust Mastery program. And I realized what was happening after day, I'd say day two. And that was they did not have an appreciation for what was going on at the customer site. They didn't have empathy. So we go through a lot of different exercises and tools and one of the things we did was we did a listening assessment and an exercise around listening. And at the end of the exercise, one of the folks said, wow, I didn't realize, like when people are talking, I'm actually working on the next project. I'm working at the same time. I had no idea this was turning People off. I'm just trying to be efficient. Another person in the group said, geez, you know, I didn't realize that me having my camera off was making people wonder what I was doing or if I was dressed. So there were several aha moments, which is what happens. So fast forward at the end of this program. Within about 30 days, my client saw changes. But more importantly, one of the clients who was complaining said, I don't know what you've done with these people. It's like, you know, it's like in golf when you go play with the same four people every. Every week, or the same three guys or gals in my case, and all of a sudden, like, they're driving it. In my case, if one of my girlfriends drives at 200 yards versus 100 yards, it's like, what the heck happened here? That's the same thing that happened. It's like, what happened? So not only did clients start to notice, but within 60 days, people on his team were bringing in business Scott. They were selling more to existing customers. So that's a real story of a company that transformed. And in my new book that you mentioned in the introduction, Trusted the proven path to customer loyalty and business growth. There are eight chapters. Each chapter has a principle, and each chapter starts with a story of a real client that I've worked with, what their challenge was and what they did to improve it. And then at the end of each chapter, I have a, you know, I have. In the middle of each chapter, I have frameworks. And at the end of each chapter, Scott, there is a section that I call making it happen so that you can put it into practice in your business.

[Scott Joseph]

The most important part. Yeah, yeah.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

It's all really tangible, practical things we can do if we intentionally focus on it.

[Scott Joseph]

You brought up something that made me chuckle because I can remember back the old Scott, the gosh, when I was involved in the day to day of stuff and you know, you're getting hit with it from every angle. Yeah, I remember people would come in and I open door policy. So I thought that was good. That was my demonstration of listening. But when they'd come in, they go, all right, I'd be like, just get to give me this, just give me. Because, you know, I need you to be direct and move on. And of course that kind of made people feel like. So that that has to be one of the mistakes. You've already brought it up and you know, that goes with working. While they're talking, all those things go into that one thing. I think it's easy for some people. Everyone learns differently. I think it's easy for some people to sit there and say, all right, tell me all the things I shouldn't be doing. What are the common mistakes? Because if I could just knock out a few of those, I instantly go up. Building trust. So what are some of the most common mistakes leaders make when it comes to building trust with their teams? So we can at least try to avoid a few of those, if not all of them?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

The most common mistake I see. Well, there's so many, but one of the most commons is not being. Not being sincere. So not being upfront, open, honest, you know, not. Not showing their true, authentic self. At the end of the day, we all just want to see the real Scott or the real Natalie. Right. We want to get to know that person. And the most common mistake I see is leaders putting, like a shield on to be, you know, perfect. And at the end of the day, if we really think about it, if someone's perfect all the time, we start to wonder, like, okay, when's a ball going to drop? Right. I mean, none of us are perfect. So that would be one thing. The other thing that I would say, which is equally as common, is when leaders are not transparent, when they don't share everything that the other person needs to know. I'm not suggesting that a leader needs to share everything. However, if it affects another person. The more open and honest you are, the more you share, the more someone gets to know you. And when. And if there is a doubt or there is something that comes up, a crisis, a mistake, an issue, the more someone knows you, the more forgiving they will be and. Or the more supportive they'll be. Scott. Right. So if you know that as an example. I don't know what's a good example. If you know that someone's been. Your leader has been out of the office for the last two days and they're late for a meeting on the Wednesday morning, you may not get so upset because you know that they're out at their son or daughter's graduation and they've been up really late the last few nights and they were traveling and maybe their flight came in late versus not knowing where they were those two days and someone's just late.

[Scott Joseph]

Yeah.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

So the more you share, the more vulnerable a leader is, the more open they are and authentic, the quicker you can build trust with someone.

[Scott Joseph]

Let me ask you this. How would you go about addressing a leader who might think soft skills like trust building exactly what you trust? This is Something you probably deal with when you're selling your services and products. Right. They just look at trust selling as less important. It's not as important as the technical expertise they need to train on or the financial acumen, whatever the job might be. Right. Selling skills, whatever it might be. Even though trust obviously is a major part of selling, so sales is probably a bad example, but everything else, what do you say to them?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Well, it doesn't come up, to be quite honest, because the companies I work with, they want to be the most trusted. However, when and if it does come up, I guess what I would ask them is like, who would you rather do business with? Someone that you trust or someone that you don't trust? I mean, the reality is first we decide to trust, and this is a fact, first we decide to trust, then we decide on a company's capabilities, first we decide to trust, then we decide on a person's capabilities. And if you look at, like I said, if we go all the way back to one of your first questions, you know, how did I get into this? I know that the higher trust equity you have, the more successful the company is. It is the key driver and the indicator of future success. What your trust equity is, the more trust equity you have, the more successful you're going to be. And I guess I would bring it back to again, if you can have the best product or the best technology or the best systems or the best location. But at the end of the day, if you don't have customers or employees or stakeholders or communities that trust you, they're not going to buy from you.

[Scott Joseph]

Yeah. Share with us some examples of how you've seen trust building strategies help, whether it's improve retention, whether, because I know your book's about owner. So this can go in two directions, right. It can be client retention, it could also be employee retention. So, or, and, or morale. So I share some of that.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Well, so I have a story in my book about very large manufacturing company, US Based, global company, US Based, that was having some of these indicators of low customer trust. And they also had very significant indicators of low employee trust. And those were lack of engagement, lot of sick time, deadlines being missed, and we measured their customers trust equity in them. So we got a trust equity score. And then what we did is start, we shared that information with all the employees and we focused some guided discussions, which is what we called it. It's really professional development sessions, guided discussions and training around how to rebuild trust with each other first and then with customers. Because it became a Real issue that was, you know, seeping out to the customer relationships, if you will. And it starts with the team on the inside and then build its, builds its way out. And so that's a real story of a company that was not doing well. And they, we put together a whole initiative, we call it a Regain Trust initiative. And within about six months it took longer. They have, it's a very large company, about 3,300 employees. So it took longer. And you know, it started with having.

[Scott Joseph]

The conversations, but within trust isn't trust, not instant. Right.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

It's not.

[Scott Joseph]

It's not.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

And, and it did take a little longer. But the customers started going back around and coming back around. They started increasing their sales and people started getting more involved because. And it started at the top, Scott, to be honest, it started at the top with the leader saying, we need to focus on this. You're important. Trust is the key ingredient to a high performance team. And he knew that.

[Scott Joseph]

Yeah, I just go back to your customer facing. To me, the key is your employees. Employees trust more when the leader lives up to their brand promise. Of course we're going to do this. We're going to improve our quality, we're going to improve our client experience. But if they never do anything, then you lose trust within your employees and that just oozes out the customers. Not to mention your product and service isn't building trust at the same time. So it's just like this downward spiral of trust that creates a problem versus the opposite of what you're talking about.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yeah. So trust starts at the top. It starts at the top with the leadership team. And you know what, Scott? It's a lot like having a culture of safety.

[Scott Joseph]

Right.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

When you are in a manufacturing environment or any type of environment where safety is important. It could be professional services, could be marketing agency where psychological safety is really important. And you have a culture of safety. You might have toolbox Tuesdays or toolbox Thursdays. You have a safety committee. When you focus on that, it cascades throughout the entire organization and you have a safer culture. Trust is a lot like safety in a company. When a leadership team, the CEO, the owner, the gm, focuses on having a culture of trust and is focused on doing the right thing for customers and acting in their best interest and doing the right things for employees and delivering on their promise and being trustworthy. Again, it cascades throughout the entire organization and they become more intentional and deliberate about it.

[Scott Joseph]

Yeah. So I know you mentioned in your. Now you're not allowed to say all of them, all Right. So you have to pick one. You said earlier and all the. There's eight chapters in your book, right. That you have a case study or story that you talk about with clients I've worked with.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

I do.

[Scott Joseph]

All right. I need you to give us the. Which one of those, in your opinion, you're gonna hate to do this? I know is the most. I'm like, the biggest prospect in the world. Like, I'm like your number one person you've got to convince to bring you on, and I need your help. Right. What's the one story out of that book they've got to read or know about?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Well, so here's an answer you probably wouldn't like. Okay, but I would say it depends, right? It depends on what's happening in your business. That's really the truth of what I would say.

[Scott Joseph]

It is the truth, but I'm not letting you do that.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

So. Okay, so the. So there are actually nine stories. Because the introduction starts with a story, too. And which story?

[Scott Joseph]

Like, for. Okay, let's say this. You were a horrible salesperson. You learned nothing about me. You don't know what motivates me, which is the story you're leading with out of that book.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

I think I would lead with the last story.

[Scott Joseph]

Love it.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

And the reason I would lead with the last story is it's a great example of an extremely successful company in. It's a manufacturing company that has a fantastic track record, a very small sales team, and they. Their revenue is a bit flat, and everyone else in their industry, the revenue was going up and they knew something was going on, but they didn't know what. And when the owner. I was just lucky. I sat beside a senior leader at lunch one day at a mastermind type event. And I was a guest there. And I sat beside this woman and she said, you know, I just wish everybody in the company cared as much about the customer as I do, and I wish everybody would be customer focused. And then she introduced me to the owners, and I would want everybody to hear this story if I was going to lead with one, because here's a company that. That they did measure the trust equity, and they had really strong trust equity. Their customers adored them. However, they only had a couple of people focused on the customer and the company, a couple of salespeople. And at the end, what we did is we did a series of workshops with a very large percentage of the people in the company, about 20% in multiple roles. Production sales, executive assistants, project managers, supply chain managers, people in all different types of Roles around how to build relationships of trust and show them the systematic way. And I'm so proud of this client because what they saw was that everybody does have a part to play in building relationships of trust. And then what happened, which was so exciting, is that a year later, they have so many opportunities and their sales have gone up so much that they've had to invest in new capital equipment to fulfill all the orders. And they're trying to figure out, okay, which types of projects should we do? Now they have 20 odd people that are what I would call sales sensitive, bringing in business because they all know that trust truly is the lifeblood of a business and building relationships of trust. And it all started because they wanted to be the most trusted and they really wanted to grow by having customer loyalty and having everybody focus on customers. So you made me, you made me choose. And that's the one. I love the first story, too, about Chris, who's the CTO and the owner. And you know what? It's kind of an exciting story that just starts.

[Scott Joseph]

Well, I'm glad you, you, you led with that one. And the reason I say that is because first off, in my opinion, it's much easier to grow, especially by percentage. A broken company versus one that's already cranking.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Oh, yeah, they're amazing. Yeah.

[Scott Joseph]

Bravo for them for recognizing. Because when you're rolling, it's also easy to just be like, things are good. We don't want to disrupt anything. Right. We don't want to change anything. What a great goal, too, to be the most trusted.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yes.

[Scott Joseph]

Imagine if that is your internal, your North Star, for your company to be the most trusted. All the things you would work on if that was truly a goal.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Those are my favorite companies to work with.

[Scott Joseph]

Yeah. Outstanding. I love that. All right, so if someone's listening or watching us, right. And wants to begin building trust in their organization today, what's one simple, actionable step that they can take right now?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Start. Call one client, Connect with one client.

[Scott Joseph]

And do what?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Ask them what's most important to them. Understand what's their perspective and why.

[Scott Joseph]

Why is it important to them? Right.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yeah, yeah.

[Scott Joseph]

It's amazing how sometimes we're afraid to ask that or make that call. It does so good. And what does that do for that one client too, by the way? When someone high up in the team's just calling them out of the blue, asking them that.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Scott Joseph]

Well, Natalie, I gotta tell you, thank you very much for joining us today, sharing what I think is incredible insights on trust and understanding. Its measurable impact on businesses. You've given our audience, I believe a lot to think about. More importantly to act on and for our listeners or watchers. If you want to take your team or organization to the next level, I want you to visit Natalie's website. Now I've got it here, but you might have an easier thing to say here. So Natalie, tell us what's the best way to reach you from a website standpoint?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

You can go to my website which is successthroughtrust.com you can also find me on LinkedIn under Natalie Doyle Oldfield and you can find me on Amazon. That's where my book Trusted is and that's another spot you can find me.

[Scott Joseph]

And we will have those links in our show descriptions. So if people go to meplusaltra.com and we'll have it very easy for them to access those links, click and go to. But if you don't want to wait till then, well, if you're hearing this, it's already up. So it's go do that. Whatever's easiest for you. But also if they go to your website they can take advantage of your. You've got a free team trust assessment.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

I do, yes.

[Scott Joseph]

Can you kind of talk to us just a little quick thing about that?

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Well, it's a very short two minute assessment where you can see identify the strengths and weaknesses on your team and you know, it takes two minutes, it's like red, yellow, green to look at your readiness of your team, where you are, where the strengths are, where the gaps are and where the opportunities are. And what I would add is if you fill this out and you want to have a chat about it, I'm very happy to set up a complimentary call to talk you through and give you some ideas of how to address either your strengths, like to strengthen even more or some gaps.

[Scott Joseph]

Well, everybody take advantage of that. Great tool to really help improve trust within your teams. You brought up bourbon earlier. Now we switched. We quickly got back to the coffee but going to the trust thing. So I don't know if you know how much history you know about bourbon now. Well, have you ever heard of bottled in bond? So there are bourbons now that are considered. They got the stamp on a bottled in bond and all of that came from legislation because way back in the day when people were making bourbon and everything, people were putting whatever they could inside of it, disgusting ingredients to change the color to make it look better than it was and some of that was poisonous and people got very ill and so obviously the bourbon industry could not have a lack of trust. So they created the bottle and bond stamp and certification, I guess, so to speak. But all of that was built around trust. So you gave this great segue into back into bourbon that aligns with the show. It was great. Wow.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Now we have to trust what's inside.

[Scott Joseph]

And, you know, especially when we put it, our bodies.

[Natalie Doyle Oldfield]

Yes, exactly. Exactly.

[Scott Joseph]

So I want to thank everybody for tuning in. And as always, if you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe to me+Ultra@me/Ultra.com visit Natalie's website, get that free assessment. Also, you could check out Me Plus Ultra Network on YouTube. Subscribe there as well for more episodes like this. Thank you for tuning in to Business Bourbon and Cigars. Until next time, take the lessons from today's episode. Build trust and make an impact. Thank you everyone.

Thank you so much for listening to Business Bourbon and Cigars. If you enjoyed this episode, share it with other business owners and friends. And if you haven't already, make sure you subscribe to the show on YouTube and your favorite podcast player. My goal is to bring you conversations each week that challenge you and give you a no nonsense approach to growing your business. Make sure to join me next week on Business Bourbon and Cigars. And for more information on our latest episodes, masterminds and events, head to business bourbon cigars podcast.com Again, that's business bourbon cigars podcast.com.