5 shifts every modern leader must make to build trust in the age of skepticism

Trust used to be the benefit of the doubt. Now it is the battle to be won.

Recently, I asked a CEO client why she didn’t want to speak on a panel her team had been invited to. Her answer? “I’d rather the company speak for itself. I don’t want to make it about me.” That hesitation is common. Many leaders assume visibility is self-serving. But today, staying behind the scenes isn’t humility. It’s a risk.

When nearly 70% of people believe business leaders intentionally mislead the public, credibility and trust, not marketing, has become the new currency. We are leading in an era when silence is interpreted as indifference and visibility is mistaken for vanity. That tension has paralyzed many executives who want to do the right thing but do not want to appear self-promotional.

I have spent more than a decade helping CEOs, founders, and entrepreneurs turn visibility into a strategy rather than a stunt. The most successful ones have mastered five internal shifts that rebuild trust from the inside out. None of them requires a massive budget. All of them require courage.

1. Step out from behind your business and stand beside it

Many leaders still assume that the company should speak for them. That used to work when audiences trusted corporations implicitly. Today, people look for the human behind the logo. According to Edelman’s 2025 Trust Barometer, business remains the most trusted institution, yet that trust is now tied directly to individual leaders.

Visibility is not about ego. It is about accountability. When you put your name to your mission, it tells employees and customers that you believe enough in the work to represent it personally.

Start small. Write one LinkedIn post each week that connects your leadership values to what your team is building. Share a story from the trenches, a tough call you made, a lesson you learned, or even a mistake that clarified your priorities. Authentic leaders do not curate perfection. They clarify purpose. The goal is to stand alongside your company, not in front of it or hiding behind it.

2. Define your ‘Influence ID’ before you define your strategy

In every workshop I run, I ask leaders one question: Who are you in addition to being a CEO or founder?

That question is often followed by a long pause. Most can rattle off quarterly goals faster than personal convictions. Yet your ability to articulate who you are shapes whether people trust what you sell.

I call this your Influence ID. It is the unique mix of values, experiences, and strengths that differentiates you from every other leader in your industry. It is not a tagline. It is a compass.

Try this exercise. Write down eight aspects of your brand wheel: skills, stories, causes, or passions that make you who you are. Notice where they overlap. Maybe your financial discipline fuels your advocacy for small business transparency. Maybe your love of coaching kids’ sports mirrors how you lead teams. Those intersections reveal your authentic narrative.

When you know your Influence ID, every decision, from interviews to investor decks, aligns naturally. You stop performing a brand and start embodying one.

3. Turn your visibility into a trust engine

The loudest leaders do not necessarily win. The most trusted ones do.

The 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer found that 61% of people believe both business and government are “failing people like them”. In that environment, communication has to shift from promotion to education. The leaders earning trust today act less like advertisers and more like teachers.

Start by reframing every outward communication with one question: What value does this give my audience? If you are announcing a product, explain the problem it solves. If you are celebrating a milestone, share the lesson that others can apply.

Use the three-to-one rule I teach executives: three insights or resources for every one piece of company or product promotion. This ratio forces you to build goodwill before you ever ask for attention. Over time, consistency compounds into credibility. People stop seeing you as a marketer and start seeing you as a mentor. That is the moment visibility becomes trust.

4. Treat thought leadership like a business asset, not a marketing hobby

For most organizations, the real decision-makers are not the ones sitting in sales meetings. They are the unseen influencers in legal, finance, or operations who quietly determine whether a deal moves forward. Edelman and LinkedIn’s 2025 B2B Thought Leadership Impact Report calls them “hidden buyers.” They read deeply, think critically, and use high-quality thought leadership to decide whom to trust.

That means every article, podcast or op-ed you publish is more than content. It is collateral in the trust economy.

Audit your digital presence the way you would a financial statement. Ask yourself:

• Is your expertise visible where those hidden buyers are researching?
• Do your insights challenge assumptions rather than echo trends?
• Does your tone invite dialogue instead of demand attention?

Pick one platform, such as your newsletter or LinkedIn. Commit to showing up consistently for 90 days. Measure success not by likes but by opportunities: invitations, partnerships, and client inquiries. Those are the new trust metrics.

5. Build a brand that outlasts your business

Many founders sell their companies and then realize they sold their voice along with them. I have watched brilliant entrepreneurs exit successfully only to feel an unexpected emptiness. Their entire network, data, and even audience list transferred with the deal.

Your business is an asset. You are the equity.

Start protecting that equity now. Maintain an email list, personal website, or professional profile that belongs to you, not just your company. Capture the lessons you are learning in real time through a blog, internal newsletter, or short video updates, and keep those archives. When the next chapter comes, you will have a built-in platform ready to launch whatever comes next.

Think of it the way Sara Blakely did when she sold a majority stake in Spanx but announced it from her personal Instagram rather than a press release. Her audience followed her, which meant every future venture started with a foundation of trust already built.

The modern trust equation

You do not need millions of followers to be influential. You need the right 500 people who are in your target audience and believe you stand for something real. You want to create raving fans out of those 500 people.

Leadership visibility is not about spotlighting yourself. It is about directing attention toward a mission that matters. The skeptics will always ask, “Can’t CEOs just lead quietly?” They can, but quiet leadership is invisible leadership, and invisible leadership no longer earns trust.

So stand beside your business. Define your Influence ID. Teach, not preach. Publish with purpose. Build a reputation sturdy enough to outlast any logo.

In the age of skepticism, the most powerful marketing strategy remaining is the truth spoken by a leader who is willing to show up and stand by it.

Adapted from The Strategic Business Influencer: Building a Brand with a Small Budget. Copyright © 2025 by Paige Velasquez Budde. Available from Matt Holt, an imprint of BenBella Books, Inc.