How Brands Earn Trust When The World Feels Unsafe

The mood has changed, and so has the way people buy. In this episode I'm discussing why bold claims and glossy certainty are falling flat, and how clarity, proof, and psychological safety now drive trust in a noisy feed and a fragile news cycle. We dig into tone and timing, the cost of silence, and how values and presence signal care without slipping into performative noise. And, I refer back to brand strategy and consumer psychology, to show how audiences carry wider distrust from institutions into every purchase decision, and why “trust us” energy fails when the world feels volatile. 

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Chapters

• 0:00 Naming The Moment And Mood
• 3:05 Confidence Fatigue And The Trust Economy
• 8:34 Why Certainty Without Care Backfires
• 12:46 Clarity Beats Confidence In Conversion
• 18:10 Make Trust Easy: Specifics And Safety

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:03

You're listening to Brandon Butter, straight talking, occasionally in your face, no BS, branding podcasts, modern marketers, and business owners. For those who want to understand the influence and power of branding and health caring associations, consumer behaviour and design thinking can impact what people say, think and feel. I'm your host, our life is sometimes funny, sometimes vulnerable, and often unapologetically blunt, founder and creative director of brand and design agency, your one and only. Hey, hey, welcome to this week's episode of Brand and Butter. Now, before I start, I want to acknowledge the moment that we're in. So this week has been a little bit up and down. We've seen another death in Minnesota in the US linked to ICE. And here in Australia, as I'm recording this, is the eve of January 26th, which is a day that represents mourning for many Aboriginal people, and something very different for others. Alongside that, we've seen gender-based violence play out across our news in the past year, and it feels like things aren't changing. But when harm, power, and trust are visibly broken like this, especially in systems, institutions, and in leadership, people become far more cautious about who and what they believe. The certainty stops feeling reassuring and starts feeling a little bit suspect. And I want to name something else. In moments like these, silence isn't neutral. When brands, leaders, or voices carry on as if nothing has happened, it creates distance, not safety. And people notice when you're paying attention, and they notice when you're not. This matters not just socially, but from a psychological standpoint. Because the way people experience the world shapes how they receive communication everywhere else. And something shifted in confidence, and more specifically in how it lands. The bold claims that used to work are getting, you know, scroll past. People don't really want to see them anymore. And if your brand feels harder to sell right now, if you're a founder or a marketer, it's well, it probably in most cases isn't you. Confidence used to be magnetic, used to see someone and want to be like that. Whereas right now it's making people hesitate because it feels weird to be overly joyous when the world feels a little bit doom and gloom. You can't mindset your way out of an external environment in most cases, especially this one. So most brands are still using the same, I guess you could call it like a confidence strategy plan outline like where the best, the big claims and the bold aesthetics, and a lot of trust us energy. And for a while, actually a really long time, that worked because certainty was read as I guess a credibility, but confidence doesn't land in a silo. Like it doesn't, it's not that. And it's always been interpreted through what people are already carrying. And right now, confidence without proof doesn't feel impressive. It feels a bit red flaggy. And I say that not only just as a marketer, but as someone that is deeply concerned about the environment that we're in as a neurodivergent, I feel hard. But also as someone studying behavior, like what's going on in the world, is impacting people on multi-level, you know, areas, depending on who you are. And just watching people skim through, yeah, you've got to understand the dynamic of where an audience is feeling at the moment. So the biggest thing right now, and what I would say it's not an attention economy. It is, but it isn't. It's actually a trust economy. And trust has become really expensive because we've lived through years of over-promising culturally, politically, commercially, and people have learned that well, I guess certainty is often masking something else, or it's performative, and that the loudest voice in the room isn't always the safest one to follow. I think COVID really showed that one. But when systems repeatedly demonstrate certainty without care, people learn that confidence alone is it's not a safety signal. In the absence of acknowledgement, that does the same thing. So when brands keep selling and posting and projecting certainty without identifying and recognizing the moment that people are in, it feels really disconnected. And it's I I guess as someone that is like watching what's going on and then watching people just rock up like nothing's ever happening. I'm like, are you are we living in the same world right now? But this is the important part, right? It's not that people don't want to trust, it's that they've been burned by that level of certainty before. They've been there, done that, and it didn't work. And we've watched this with the online space. This is what's happened with the coaching space, if anyone's been watching that. And it's starting to course correct. Not before we hit some kind of problem, but that's what's happening. And so why this matters for brands, but more specifically in terms of your communication. And I often call people out and trying to get them to at least identify what they're saying, because what we say now and how we say things is vastly different to how it used to be. Because we've evolved as a society, as a society. And so you need to understand that. And so this is where brand and consumer psych collide. Because people don't want to compartmentalize trust. The way that they experience institutions and leaderships and power, I guess, and authority, obviously, shapes how they experience brands too. It's so deeply aligned. And when trust feels really fragile in the world, people become more careful communicators and very cautious buyers. So they're scanning for nuance and tone. They look for signals and awareness. They're asking, and usually it's in their head, they're not really acting, a lot of people don't know. But does this brand understand the moment that I'm in? Now, if you've been following me or listening to me for a long time, you will know that everything I say is you need to stop talking, start listening. And when the answer feels like no, that they don't feel like you understand them, your best off I can still miss. It's acknowledgement first, then solve the problem. And a lot of people miss this part. So what people think versus what they actually think, right? Let's look at it like that is that what most brands got get wrong, okay? And they think that the solution is more confidence. Big messages, stronger claims, bigger statements, louder vote visuals, but it's just so not that. What people actually need right now isn't confidence, it's clarity and certainty. And that's baked in with safety. Confidence says, I guess, like, trust me, you know. Whereas I guess that clarity and that safety aspect is here's what I do, here's who it's for, and here's why it works. Brand 101. Confidence asks for trust. Whereas clarity earns it. And clarity means like specific, being very, very clear on who you are as a brand and what it is that you stand for. That's been the biggest thing that we've done over the past two years is get really specific on our messaging and who we are, and not just the messaging, because we needed to understand the identity aspect of what we wanted to do with the brand so that we could shape the messaging and the positioning. And after we did that, everything blew up. It went really well. And so it happens all the time, right? I see it play out all of the time. It's two brands that we usually do the same thing, usually more than two brands. And one's like, We're the industry leader. In fact, I did a well, an audit for one of my clients, not last January, January before. And I think I counted nine within the their own industry that said, We are your partners in. All said the same message. Like it was like consistent, like the industry standard. Zero differentiation. And so they'll say something like, We're the leaders in. And the other one will be like, here's exactly what we do, who it's for, and what you'll walk away with. And the one that gets that yes isn't the one that says we're the industry leader or where your partner's in. It's the one that made themselves easiest to understand. Don't make it cognitively hard. Reduce the mental load. People have enough crap they're carrying mentally. If you aren't carrying any mental load, you're only going to place yourself within the center of your communication. I say this happens so often. It's not happening to me. Therefore, this is how people think. It is honestly a lack of research. We have to uncenter ourselves and put ourselves in the audience's shoes, which means more than just asking a few questions to them because most of the time they don't even know what's going on. So the reality is over-certainty, overconfidence doesn't always convert that customer. And a lot of people think it is, you know, get up and shop online. But it either reads as well, it's not naive, but it can feel dishonest. And neither of those create trust. Being overly confident isn't the only thing that creates hesitation. But pretending nothing happening does too. And that's actually what's irked me. And I've had so many people message me because I'm very loud on my personal page. I talk about, I find it much easier to talk about what I want to talk about on my personal page because it's from me. And I give context and I write things and I share things. It's usually within stories because I'm sharing other content and giving my opinion. And other people will be like, I am so disappointed with other creators or other businesses that have not said anything. And I think people are wanting brands to take stands. They want to know. And a lot won't because they're scared, but a lot will who know where they stand on the right side of to be fair for where I am with my business. I could not give a crap if someone who does not line align with my values does not want to work with us. The end, I don't care. Because I stand for something that's right and good and believe in. And therefore, if you're in that space, we want to work with you. That's the value alignment. This is why I keep screaming that values are so important because it's a huge signifier of someone's identity. And so I guess your brand might feel confident to you, but that doesn't mean that it feels safe to the person on the other side. And so your confident brand, I put in inverted commas, might actually be triggering the hesitation that you're trying to overcome. So what can you do with this now? Right? Because it's all good to get told stuff, but it's like, help. First, I would stop asking, how do I sound more confident or how do I sound more convincing? Which is most cards. Everyone's like, I need to change my messaging. How do I get people to listen to me? I would say, start asking what might someone hesitate about here and have I already answered it. I like to say, if someone is reading my website, have I answered all of the things that that they are questioning? You know, it's it's fixing the objections before the objections happen. And second, look at your communication, a communication, look at your communication and ask, does this assume trust or does it earn it? A lot of people think that they're an authority, authority in their space, and they actually haven't got that title yet. I cannot tell you how many people I see get on and they're like, authority this and authority that, and they get on and they're super confident, and I'm like, this is not it. Like I could name 10 off the top of me, but I'm not going to. And the differences are I would rather, I would rather someone come to me and say, I feel so safe with you. And I often hear that. And that to me outranks anything. So the way that I'm trying to slow down because I talk really quickly a lot of the times, and it's like all of these ideas in my head. So I'm trying to slow down the way that I say things, especially when I'm talking about important subjects. What I would say is, am I leading with claims or with understanding? There are so many people that will communicate something thinking that they're being intentional with what they're saying, but it's ambiguous in the intention. Or it's ambiguous in the interpretation, is what I should say, I should say. When we're communicating with someone, if the receiver, so you know, basic communication is you have a signal, then you have interpretation, then you have the receiver. And if the receiver is not interpreting it as intended, the signal, aka the message, isn't clear. And a lot of the times I will see someone say something and they'll be like, that's not what I said. And it's like, well, that's how I read it. Therefore, you haven't been clear enough in what you've said, therefore, I have assumed. And that's if you're going to be direct, you need to be very direct. And the third is, and I guess this matters more than what most people realize, is to check whether your brand feels aware. I can't tell you how many brands that I know of at the moment. There's group chats going on, there's people talking to each other where they actually have no idea what the people are saying about them. They think they know, but it's a very, very different story. And you can try and tell someone, but until you can actually identify with that, a lot of people don't want to change. So it's not reactive, it's not political, it's just being present. So breaking those down again, first is stop asking how I sound more confident. Second, look at your communication and ask if it assumes trust or does it earn it? And three, it matters more than most people realize. So because awareness creates safety, right? And safety is what allows people to say yes. And the world needs safety at the moment. They feel so unsafe. It feels really turbulent. So this is a shift, but it isn't about being less confident, right? Don't misconstrue what I'm saying. But it's about moving from signaling confidence to demonstrating safety. And safety sounds like I understand your hesitation and I've already addressed it. Or this is what my work does. You know, this is what we do in blah, blah, blah. It doesn't hype and it removes the doubt. So you're being super clear, very intentional, very direct. Or the shift isn't about being less confident, it's about making your confidence legible. So giving it backing, giving them a reason to trust you, not just rocking up. And I think that that's such a big thing at the moment because there's so much disinformation that people aren't really sure what to believe, especially with the rise of AI. So I guess when you look at what can be possible, is when a brand feels safe to buy from, that friction disappears. So that hesitancy of whether you should buy or not disappears. And people stop comparing and they stop needing a bit more time. And the decision doesn't feel pressured, it's really obvious. And that's like once you've done that research and you know who you're going to work with, it's like that. You're eliminating that space. But this is what I mean by if you're removing the objections, you're able to get people to say yes a lot easier. And so when the trust is clear, people stop shopping around. So my opinion is that, and I always say this, especially if you're on my emails, is that the loudest brands aren't necessarily the ones winning. In fact, most of them aren't. They may have before, but they're certainly not now. But the ones that are super clear in what they're talking about and very intentional and very consistent, not jumping around with their messaging. They stay with who they are, they know with what they do. I also think that that's why we have done really well over the last 12 months is because from the get-go, we've always stood by what we do. We haven't really changed. We've kind of narrowed more into the space and become even more niche. But what we stand for and what we do as a brand hasn't changed over the almost nine years. Years we've been in business. So I guess I was gonna say I'm gonna say it. I was like clarity is the new Riz. So it's like clarity is the new, it's the new type of charisma. And I guess in 2026, the brands that win won't be yeah, the ones that are most confident. They'll be the ones who made choosing them super easy to do so. And that's why the rise of the personal brand has come up because you're seeing that human interaction. People can see the trust signals. And they'll be the ones who made choosing them the easiest decision, especially when the founder-led content comes out really well. But I'm going much deeper into these topics over the next couple of months. This is something that I've been talking about on the go, but really diving into now. It's just I'm super passionate about this. Especially when you watch all these people talking about what people need to be doing, what they don't need to be doing, and it's so much deeper than that. You're like, oh my god, stop picking a paint colour when you need to be talking about the personality traits and going to therapy. Do you know what I mean? Anyway, so that's what I'm talking about. The psychological safety in a brand, like the psychology work and consumer psych and identity alignment. And so if this one felt familiar to you or it landed with you, then that's where we're heading. This is why everything's felt so hard, is because you can't control people's emotions, and emotions are high, and people buy with emotion. So, again, as always, if you have something to say, you want to slip and ask a question, you know where to find me. And I hope that the world news isn't impacting you too much and you are feeling okay. Did you like that episode? I hope so. Because if you did, why don't you head over to whatever platform you listen on and rate and review? It's much appreciated and helps others know what we're about. If you want to follow us, you can find us at you on a knownly underscore AU on Instagram or head to www.youwananonly.com.au