Earning trust before proof

Trust isn’t always logical. Sometimes we trust people because of what they’ve done. Other times, it just feels right.

There’s always a reason—but it’s often subtle.

Sometimes, it’s the little things at the earliest stages—the small cues that nudge people to trust us before there’s any real proof.

Take a business owner with a fresh deal. The real work hasn’t even started, but the way they’ve shown up—from thoughtful conversations to clean onboarding documents (scope, contracts, and invoices neatly linked through a tool like Fullgap), to well-written emails that anticipate next steps—begins to shape perception.

Before they’ve delivered anything, they’ve already raised the bar.

And once that expectation is set, it nudges our bias in their favor—making the good work that follows feel even better. (We like to think we evaluate things logically. But we rarely do so in full).

Trust starts before the facts line up—and that works in your favor if you obsess over the little details at every stage.