Attention vs. Trust: Why Influence Needs Trust

Jay argues attention is insufficient and influence depends on trust, not raw follower counts.

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Episode notes

Before I went on my current podcast guesting hiatus, I sat down with Howie Chan. I met Howie in person earlier this year at Matt McGarry’s Newsletter Marketing Summit. I thought he was fun, friendly, and thoughtful — just like he is in his podcast, Influence Anyone.

This podcast is all about applied influence psychology. Each episode, Howie sit downs with experts and practitioners to uncover the hidden psychology that helps you influence yourself (mastering your mindset, habits, and decisions) and get buy-in from others (your team, clients, and audiences.)

In this episode, we talk about my recent topic of study: trust. We break down what I’m learning about how trust works, what it looks like to build a trust-first creator business, and why some creators frankly don’t care about that.

We also talk about personal branding — Howie dug up a cringe video I made in 2012 — and what I’d do if I were starting over in 2026.

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⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Full transcript and show notes⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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TIMESTAMPS

(00:00) Trust, Branding, and Starting Over

(05:39) Sentiment and Expectations Scatterplot

(12:01) Declining Trust in Modern Society

(19:49) Key Traits of Trustworthiness

(24:08) Building Trust Through Consistency

(27:37) Trust Over Manipulation

(35:18) Think Big, Stay Persistent