The Dream Dividend
Podcast: The Dream Dividend
Host: Kevin Patrick, Trinity One Consulting
Episode: Season 2, Episode 8 – The Currency of Trust
Date: January 5, 2026
Episode Overview
In “The Currency of Trust,” host Kevin Patrick tells vivid, interconnected stories showcasing a radical idea: when organizations and communities invest in personal relationships, trust, and the dreams of their people, they create value far beyond traditional economic measures. Through the inspiring journeys of a food vendor, a laid-off trainer, and a struggling repair shop, the episode explores how trust outpaces money as the true engine of sustainable success—both for businesses and communities.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
1. Challenging the Standard Economic Paradigm
- The episode opens with the assertion that modern business obsesses over productivity and efficiency, missing the deeper driver of success: trust and investment in people.
"The business world is obsessed with productivity hacks, efficiency models, and the next big framework. And it's all missing the point because the real edge ... has been dismissed as soft, irrelevant, unprofessional."
— Kevin Patrick [00:44] - It provocatively asks: What if money isn’t the real currency? What if it has always been trust?
2. The Empanada Vendor: Trust as Business Model
- A vendor, new to Austin with $500 and his grandmother’s recipe, starts selling handmade empanadas directly in office lobbies, risking confrontation with security.
"He started walking into office buildings with hot empanadas and a promise. Free samples. If you don't love them, you don't have to pay. If you do love them, tell me when they come back."
— Kevin Patrick [03:03] - Security guards and office dwellers soon become regulars, with the vendor not only providing food but remembering names, dietary needs, and life events.
- The vendor’s true promise isn’t just food—it’s reliability and personal connection:
"The promise isn't empanadas. The promise is him showing up every Tuesday, remembering everyone."
— Kevin Patrick [04:55] - Eventually, the community invests $52,000—not for equity, but to ensure the tradition (“Tuesday empanadas”) continues.
"We're not paying for lunch. We're investing in reliability. Do you know what Tuesday means to this office? ... You're not food, you're culture."
— Law firm partner (paraphrased by Kevin Patrick) [13:16]
3. Skill Swap: Creating a Trust Token Economy
- After being laid off, a corporate trainer starts “Skill Swap”—a barter-based microeconomy where each person must both teach and learn.
- What starts as informal knowledge sharing quickly turns into a web of mutual dependencies:
"They're not just teaching, they're trading. I'll teach you Excel if you fix my website. I'll do your taxes if you teach me Spanish and yoga for cooking lessons."
— Kevin Patrick [09:22] - To counter freeloaders, she creates “trust tokens.” Teach for 30 minutes, earn tokens; spend tokens to attend sessions. This innovation spreads rapidly, even to landlords and local businesses, and becomes the foundational exchange unit.
4. The Repair Shop: Knowledge as Value
- A failing repair shop pivots from fixing devices to teaching customers how to do it themselves, charging “what you think the knowledge is worth.”
- The approach leads not only to higher earnings but also to a repair network where people begin trading help:
"The people he teaches start teaching others. Not for money, but for something else. I'll fix your toaster if you teach me Excel."
— Kevin Patrick [11:27] - This repair network also integrates with the Skill Swap and the empanada vendor—value circulating without a cent exchanged.
5. Institutional Response and the Irreducibility of Trust
- As trust tokens spread, authorities and banks try to intervene:
"The IRS notices, tries to tax it. Of course it's income, they say. Prove it, she responds. What's the dollar value of Learning Excel in exchange for teaching yoga? ... They can't answer because trust tokens aren't money. They're crystallized Reciprocity."
— Kevin Patrick [15:41] - Attempts to “platformize” or co-opt the system fail:
"You can't platformize trust. You can only practice it."
— Kevin Patrick [17:48]
6. Redefining Wealth, Value, and Happiness
- Traditional economic measures (GDP, income) fail to capture what's happening:
"GDP measures transactions. But trust economy transactions, they're unmeasurable ... What's the GDP of that? Anybody I know? You can't answer me, but it's zero. What's the value? It's infinite."
— Kevin Patrick [19:55] - Happiness and effective wealth soar in trust-based communities, even as cash income falls below the norm.
7. The Larger Implication: Trust as the Real Currency
- The episode closes with a powerful thesis:
"They proved that money is just a proxy for trust. And when you have actual trust, you don't need the proxy. The old economy runs on printed promises backed by violence. The trust economy runs on kept promises backed by community."
— Kevin Patrick [22:00]
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On the meaning of “Tuesday”:
“Faith that Tuesday will come. Faith that knowledge will be shared and faith that repairs will be taught. And finally, faith that community will continue.”
— Kevin Patrick [18:59] -
On resisting the old system:
“We're not evading taxes. We're evading the system that requires them. ... Trust can't be printed. It can only be earned Tuesday by Tuesday. Skill by skill, repair by repair.”
— Kevin Patrick [21:00] -
On scaling trust:
“Some things just don't scale. They deepen.”
— Kevin Patrick [21:33] -
Closing challenge to listeners:
“If this episode made you uncomfortable, good. That means you are paying attention. The future belongs to leaders who stop managing people like assets and start investing in them like humans. ... Dreams aren't frivolous. Ignoring them is.”
— Kevin Patrick [23:00]
Timestamps for Key Segments
- Introduction to the episode’s theme: [00:44]
- Empanada vendor story begins: [01:21]
- “Tuesday” as a business model: [04:55]
- Skill Swap and the creation of trust tokens: [09:22]
- Repair shop pivots to teaching: [10:50]
- Trust Token economy and systemic impact: [15:41]
- Attempts to tax and platformize trust: [17:48]
- Economist perspective on measuring trust: [19:55]
- Conclusion: the triumph of the trust economy: [22:00]
- Closing challenge to listeners: [23:00]
Tone & Style
The episode unfolds like a story, with vivid detail, emotional resonance, and a sense of hopeful provocation. Kevin Patrick adopts a warm, narrative approach—equal parts anecdote and manifesto—challenging business orthodoxy while inviting leaders and listeners to imagine economic systems rooted in community, generosity, and trust.
Summary for Listeners:
This episode reveals how putting trust at the core of business and community results in unmeasurable yet transformational returns—demonstrating that the true “currency” of any organization is the strength of its promises, not the size of its balance sheet.