We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yoram Solomon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yoram below.
Alright, Yoram thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?
The most considerable risk I took was starting my own business. The statement “no risk, no reward” is definitely true. You don’t just take risks; you are doing it because there is a reward that you expect. The reward I wanted was the feeling of standing in front of a large (or small) group of people and teaching them something they didn’t know before, specifically about trust. The reward was (and is) seeing their reaction when they learned that trust is not what they thought it was and when I gave them a set of tools that will allow them to build trust, be trusted, and know who to trust. But when I started the business full time in 2015 (I started the company in 2005, but didn’t work in it full time until 2015, and only started my research that led to what I do today in 2008).
I knew I had a strong enough financial safety net to do it, but I was brought up learning that you never spend more than you make, no matter how much money you have in savings. In 2017, I had to pull money from my savings, which didn’t sit well with me. But since then, I started reaping the rewards I was hoping for. Since then, I’ve put much more money back into savings than I ever took out. And I enjoy every moment of it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I research trust. I started by reading everything there is to know about trust, including research that very few people ever saw. Before embarking on my trust path, I asked myself what is unique about my trust perspective. I wasn’t going to go down that path if I was going to do what everybody else was doing. However, I realized that my perspective on trust is unique in several ways. First, unlike the standard approach to trust, which assumes that there is a universal and abolute set of behaviors that makes people trusted, trust is relative. The same behaviors that would cause one person to trust you could cause another person to distrust you. Take risk-taking, procrastination, attention to detail, specialization vs. generalization, for example. The second uniqueness is the understanding that to be trusted it’s not enough to be trustworthy. The other person must be willing to trust you. They must have trustfulness. We are the sum of our experiences, and some people are unwilling to trust others, no matter how trustworthy they might be. Another uniqueness of my approach to trust is that it’s not enough for me to tell you what you must do to be trusted. I must help you form new habits that change old behaviors and make you trustworthy. I created a 7-step process that I use in my workshops called Trust Habits®. Finally, I believe we can affect other people’s trustworthiness simply by first trusting them. Recently, I started a new branch of my work. I realized that people will prefer to buy from a salesperson (or brand) they trust more than from a salesperson (or brand) they don’t know enough. Not only that, they are also willing to pay a premium. I started
Where can you find out more about me or access my content? You can check my website (https://www.trusthabits.com), my podcast (The TRUST Show), any one of my 19 books (mainly “The Book of TRUST®”), my Relative Trust Inventory™ assessments, and more.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
My original research was in the first of innovation and creativity. My first keynote at a conference was, “Why do we get our best ideas in the shower?” I consider myself very creative. And I have the certificates for that… When I worked at Texas Instruments, they created a brochure for me called “TI’s Great Innovator…” I have nine patents to my name and many books and articles. My doctoral research in 2008-2010 was answering the question, “Why are people more creative when they work for small, startup companies than when they work for large, mature companies?” For years, I delivered workshops on building a culture of innovation. But over time, I learned that the foundation for innovation was trust; without it, there would be no innovation or productivity. I started researching trust. I wanted to see if I could come up with a unique approach to looking at trust that is different from anything that was already published and known, which I did. I wanted to develop a pragmatic and actionable way to build trust, and I did. At that point, I asked 20 of my closest friends and family members if I should stick with innovation, my then-current topic, or switch to trust. Nineteen of the 20 suggested I stick with innovation, so I pivoted to trust… They wanted to keep me in my comfort zone. They had my best interest in their minds. But I needed to stretch myself. I never looked back.
In my personal life, I had to pivot when two friends and I had to take a sofa up the staircase of the building. I had to yell at them, “Pivot! Pivot! Pivot!” Oh, wait, that wasn’t me. Never mind…
Where do you think you get most of your clients from?
Undoubtedly, it’s my marketing, focus, and word of mouth. One aspect of my business is called Trust Premium™. I learned that people will buy from someone they trust. Not only that, but they are willing to pay more when they buy from someone they trust. I conducted (and continue to conduct) research on that. With the increasing levels of spam and scams, people are less willing to trust someone who called them out of the blue. So, I firmly believe that cold calls simply don’t work anymore. Not today.
So, let me break down the three elements:
My focus: If you had asked someone who knew me eight years ago what my focus was, they would probably not know. Is it innovation? Creativity? Technology? Someone even thought I was an expert on artificial intelligence. Over time, I made it very clear that my focus is on trust. Trust, inside and out. Inside (within an organization or any relationship) and out (trust in the organization, its salesforce, products, and services). Everything I say involves the word trust. I got to the point in which when someone who knows me hears the word trust, they look at me. Often, I’m referred to as “the trust guy.”
My marketing: Having that maniacal focus on trust, my marketing follows. From my collaterals to my websites, to my apparel (I only wear custom apparel with my brands), the trademarks I keep applying for (The Book of TRUST®, Trust Habits®, The Trust Show™, The Relative Trust™ Inventory, Trust Premium™, and more). My messages are consistent. I don’t let anyone get confused about what my focus is. Whenever I use the word “trust” on social media, I use a hashtag. One important thing about marketing is to understand that things don’t happen overnight. I did the same things over and over and over again for years until they started bearing fruit.
Word of Mouth: possibly the most substantial component of my new client strategy. I use referrals, and almost 100% of my new clients come through an existing or a prior happy client, or they attended a conference where I spoke. With the declining trustfulness today, there is nothing like a firsthand impression or a recommendation by someone you trust.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.yoramsolomon.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/yoramsolomon/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yoram.solomon/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yoramsolomon/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/yoramsolomon
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTrustShow
- Other: Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-trust-show/id1569249060 eSpeakers: http://www.espeakers.com/marketplace/profile/29339 TEDx Talks: https://www.ted.com/search?q=yoram%20solomon Books on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Yoram-Solomon/e/B002D61T90