logged
Trust
Growing up, I always knew I was creative.
I could feel it.
Taking pictures. Filming videos with my friends. Running our own DJ radio stations. Etc…
But as a young adult, every time I got an impulse to make something… I also got a second impulse that arrived almost instantaneously.
Is this good enough? Am I sure about this? Who am I to…?
It wasn’t just self-doubt, it was something I’d be trained to do early on. Growing up in the 80s and 90s being told you had “ADHD”, meant being told a hundred different ways you were broken.
I was medicated, pulled out of class, and given “the look”.
And somewhere along the way, through all of that, I learned not to trust myself.
So for a long time I played it safe. Long enough that by the time I was in my early 30s I was still working jobs I didn't care about, not making very much money, and feeling like I was perpetually behind in ways I couldn't quite articulate.
I knew I wanted more. I just didn't believe I could have it.
But thankfully, at some point I got fed up enough to do something about it. That’s when I decided to start my own business. Secretly I wanted to build one of those online brands I’d been seeing and hearing so much about.
But since I knew next to nothing about starting a business, I figured I’d give myself a head start by starting a business in an industry that was in hot demand in the city that I lived in.
At the time, the city of Detroit was undergoing a major revitalization.
Tons of people moving in, renovating old homes, and looking for someone who knew how to swing a hammer. That was me. I figured I’d have no shortage of work. And I was right.
Even though I knew zilch about running a business.
I knew I’d learn fast if the money never stopped coming in. And that inkling was correct. You will learn more about running a business by running a business than you ever will by reading about it.
Over the next four or five years I hired employees, managed crews, handled estimates, dealt with clients, and figured out how to price, sell, and deliver a service.
Damn near everything I know about business, I learned swinging a hammer.
But even when things were going well, I knew carpentry wasn't the final destination. It was just a vehicle to give me more free time to pursue my real obsessions. Writing, technology, understanding human behavior, etc…
I was the kid who got hired by his school district to skip class and fix their computers in high school.
I wrote constantly even when no one was paying me.
And I was endlessly fascinated by statistics and human behavior even from an early age.
So when I finally decided to make the jump to building something online, I figured I needed to become a health coach, or a fitness guy, or some kind of personal development guru.
Because those were the things I was interested in.
I'm into health, I’m into fitness, I’m even Into some of the biohacking stuff. I love guys like Daniel Vitalis, Dave Asprey, and Mark Sisson because they got me on the right track in those early days.
But I'm not Dave Asprey. And I'm not going to invent the next mold-free coffee.
And trying to position myself as a fitness guy, or a biohacker, or a wellness coach… just felt like wearing someone else's shoes. Eventually I figured out what was actually obvious the whole time. I could surround myself with those people by serving those people and putting my actual strengths to use.
Writing, marketing, tech, helping people get their ideas out of their heads in front of their ideal clients.
Something I learned from Gary Vee, is that smart people double down on their strengths.
While the rest of the world spends their entire lives trying to compensate for the weaknesses, smart people focus on what their best at and let the people around them pick up that slack. That’s we all all get better together.
Now that I’m finally starting to understand that, things are changing.
Because I’d spent most of my life doing the compensating thing. Learning not to trust myself was the cause. Trying to be someone I wasn’t was the symptom. Learning to trust my strengths is the cure.
And that’s the reason I’m telling you this.
I heard something from marketing strategist Alen Sultanic recently that stuck with me:
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"The fastest way to build trust is to take someone back in time and make them feel as if they've known you forever. Tell your story. Tell your history. And they'll feel like they've known you for a lifetime."
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Simple as that.
When you tell your story, the real one, not the polished highlight reel, your readers stop seeing you as someone trying to sell them something. And they start seeing you as someone they know.
Someone they can trust.
So if you're ever stuck wondering how to build trust with the people on your list, start there.
Start with your story.
The winding, imperfect, honest version of how you got here.
If you want to learn a bit more about how I do that, the structure, the techniques, the way to tell your story in your content online, check out the 2 hours content system inside my community.
Here's the link:
Your pal,
Kevin Hood