Ep 41. How to build trust with people who don’t know you yet

A question I got in my DMs recently was, how do I build trust with people who don’t know me yet through my content? Let’s talk about it.

If you’re new here, hello and welcome to Quiet Confidence with myself Anita Popat.

I’ve got three things to share on this today, and they layer upon each other.

You have to have that inner conviction and really believe in what it is that you’re offering. When it comes to building trust, it’s not just about building trust with other people. I think it has to start with you first before you can get other people to trust you.

Stay with me before you roll your eyes and think, oh, here we go, another person telling me just to believe in myself. That’s not what I’m saying at all.

Conviction isn’t a mindset switch you’re going to flick. It builds and I know it comes from doing the work, getting the results and then actually stopping long enough to notice them.

I know that because for me, my inner conviction came with experience. The more I worked with introverted women in business and saw my way of mentoring got them real, tangible, life-changing results, the more I felt this deep drive to help more of them.

If you see your way of doing things work enough times, you’ll stop questioning whether it will work for the next person and start focusing on who it is that needs it next.

That’s the thing about conviction. You don’t have to write a post saying, Oh, I’m really good at what I do. Look at me.

It just comes through in the way you write because there’s going to be that underlying certainty behind your words, and you’re not going to be apologising for your opinion – you’ll be owning it and people can feel that difference.

You can tell the difference between someone who’s performing confidence and someone who’s actually rooted in it.

As introverts, we’re actually really good at sensing that in others, which means our audience are sensing that in us too, so if your content feels a bit wobbly or uncertain right now, before you change your strategy/niche/content themes, just ask yourself, do I actually believe in what I’m doing and who I’m doing it for? Because that’s always where we start.

If the answer is “not quite yet”, that’s absolutely fine. Conviction builds through doing so keep working, note the results, keep a smile file with all of the messages and breakthroughs and the moments where your clients were like, oh my God, this is it.

That file isn’t just for the bad days when you’re like, what the hell am I doing this for? It’s evidence that builds your belief in your work over time.

Once you’ve got that inner belief, that what you do is absolutely amazing (because it is) the next layer is showing proof from other people. This is where a lot of introverts get stuck because sharing results and reviews can feel really uncomfortable.

Clients often tell me it feels like they’re showing off or being salesy, but here’s a reframe I want to offer you. The same evidence that built your conviction (the results your clients got, the breakthroughs they had, the messages they sent you) that’s exactly what your potential clients need to see. It’s the same evidence just pointed to a different group of people.

What matters to me is that your potential client sees themselves in your client’s story. You want them to think, oh, that sounds like me. That’s my situation, and if it worked for them, maybe it could work for me too. So when you’re sharing client results or reviews, think about the person behind the transformation.

What were they struggling with before? What shifted? and how do they feel now?

That emotional journey is worth so much more than any revenue figure, in my opinion. Obviously we need the revenue figures as well, but I think the emotion side of the scale always sways it for me.

I’ll give you a real life example.

I have a group chat with my besties – as we all do. We’re constantly sharing screenshots of different products, restaurants and all sorts of things to ask for their opinion on whether they’ve used it or not and what they thought of it.

I guarantee every one of us takes that recommendation from our bestie way more seriously than any ad we’ve ever scrolled past.

Why do we do that? Because they’re one of us. We have similar lifestyles, the same values. We trust them. And that’s exactly what your client stories are going to do for your potential clients.

Think of them as your bestie in the group chat saying, I tried this and it worked. And when your potential client reads the story from someone who sounds like her, thinks like her and has the same struggles as her, she’s not going to need convincing. She’ll think, oh, if it worked for her, maybe it can work for me too.

(And if my girl in the group chat said, it’s good, then I’m buying it, right?!)

Reviews don’t have to be formal testimonials either. A screenshot of a voice note, or a DM someone sent you in the middle of a program still counts.

Don’t wait until the end of your working relationship, because there’s going be so many amazing nuggets infused with that in-the-moment energy you can capture there and then rather than waiting till the end. All of that counts and builds trust.

The key is to share it consistently, not just when you’re launching something. Weave them into your regular content so it becomes part of how people understand what you do and who you do it for.

Then the third piece, (please don’t run away now) is showing your face.

Now I know not all introverts are scared of showing our faces. And this isn’t about being camera shy. It’s about finding a happy medium that feels really natural to you, so it doesn’t cost you more energy than it needs to. But what I want you to know is that as humans, we’re wide to trust other humans.

Building that familiarity with your face is going to build connection. When someone can see you, hear you, and experience you as a real person, it shifts how safe they feel around you and your work.

So think of it as a ladder and you can start wherever you currently are and then take the next step when you’re ready.

The first step of the ladder is to put a face to the name and just share a photo. So it’s your face, it’s static, low stakes. You’re just getting people to see you so you’re not a faceless brand, and this alone will make a massive difference.

The next step up from that might be to use your voice. That could be a podcast, but it can also be as simple as a voice note in your stories or voiceover on a B roll video of you drinking your coffee or going for a walk so people can hear you, but you’re not on camera in the traditional sense.

Your voice is really personal. I really feel like it conveys warmth and personality and realness in a way that written word sometimes can’t.

I guess this podcast is me “showing my face” in a way that you can’t see me, but you know me. You know how I think, how I speak, what I care about, and that still builds familiarity and trust.

Then the next step on from the voiceover is to put your face on video so you can prerecord it. You can either do a reel or a short talking to camera piece, something where people actually see you speaking.

I know this feels the most vulnerable for everyone, but if you start by sharing a picture and then a voiceover, then this is the natural next step because they already know your face and your voice and with the video, you’re just putting them both together.

Once you get comfortable with pre-recorded videos, the next step is to go all out and just go live.

You can start small by doing off the cuff stories on Instagram, and as there’s no edits, it builds the highest trust because you’re speaking off the cuff.

I used to go live every week, and I honestly loved it because it’s the closest you can get to creating that in the room experience with your audience without actually being in the room. They get to experience your personality in real time and you can riff on things with them real time if you want to.

I’m not telling you to go live if that makes you feel sick though! The point is, you have to start somewhere on the ladder and then take the next step when you’re ready, because every time someone sees your face, hears your voice, and experiences you as a real human being, that trust compounds.

The more you show up as who you actually are, whether that’s through writing, your voice or your face, the more the right people are going to find you. They’re the ones who already get you before they’ve spoken to you and will be an absolute joy to work with.

So if you bring it all together to build trust in your content, you need that inner conviction. You need to share proof from others, and you need to share your face. Simple, right?

Notice how they all connect. Your conviction gives your content its authority. Your client results give your audience permission to believe in you. And showing your face makes it personal enough to make them feel like they know you.

None of them are about pretending to be more confident than you are, or shouting louder, or doing things that drain you.

If you don’t show or tell them, then they’re not gonna know what that work is.

Whatever your next step on the ladder is, make sure you take that, because trust doesn’t build in one big moment. It builds in all the little small actions you consistently take over time.

Keep showing up with your quiet confidence so you can make that loud impact, and I shall see you next time. Speak soon.