The Trust Tank

Your primary job as an artist and creative business owner is to build trust with your clients.  Without trust, your path will be difficult, if not impossible.  This much I have said many times.  But knowing it and trying to implement a process behind managing trust is two different things.  So I thought it might be helpful to re-conceptualize trust and think about it as if it were gas in a tank (which it is).  Looking at trust this way, you might find it easier to manage and focus on where you are with your client vis a vis trust.

When a client first comes to you, your trust tank with them is half full.  They read or heard about you, were referred by a colleague, saw your work, etc.  They are hoping to like you and your art, but they do not know for sure.  After a meeting or two, they do know for sure and decide to hire you.  Trust tank is full.

Here is where the concept really works:  you have to consciously spend trust so that you can build it back up again.  Whether it is the time between presentation and proposal, proposal and production, or purchase and delivery, it is only natural that a client will question whether or not you will be as good as promised.  This is trust getting spent.  It is also where you should most focus your process.

Spend too much trust and you risk unwelcome surprises and an unforgiving client.  Nobody (other than maybe Green Berets) likes getting woken up from a dead sleep and going straight into intense exercise or stressful situations.  When a client is working off of a months old proposal with little or no communication prior to delivery, I can only imagine that this element of (horrible) surprise looms somewhere inside them.

However, as bad as letting the trust tank go empty is not allowing any trust to be spent at all.  Make no mistake:  all creative businesses are about theater – the (big) opening, the build-up and the take-your-breath-away finale.  If you do not have enough of a build up, then the drama of the “reveal” is gone.  Examples: an interior designer installing as pieces come in instead of as one installation; or a stationer asking the client for a million proof approvals for sending the first sample.  In terms of your trust tank, it is like stopping off every ten minutes to keep the tank full.  Better to pay the rental car company the $10 dollars for the 2 gallons of gas than drive yourself batty.  Same thing with your creative business.

By thinking of trust as gas in a tank, my hope is that you will be able to better manage your entire relationship with your client – to know that there is a difference in building, spending and replacing the trust they have in you as both an artist and creative business owner.  Although the arc of your creative business’ story might the same as everyone else, how you tell the story (i.e., manage your client’s trust) is all that matters.