On this episode of the Massimo Show

Rod sits down with CEO David Horsager. 

David is a business strategist, keynote speaker, and author of the national bestseller, The Trust Edge: How Top Leaders Gain Faster Results, Deeper Relationships, and a Stronger Bottom Line and his new release, The Trusted Leader: 8 Pillars That Drive Results. Additionally, David is the CEO of Trust Edge Leadership Institute and a global authority on helping leaders and organizations become THE most trusted in their industry. David’s work has been featured everywhere from Forbes to The Wall Street Journal. He has taken the platform to 6 continents and advised everyone from IBM, Toyota, and global governments to the New York Yankees and FedEx.

Learning from the best 

David grew up on a 1500 acres bean farm.  8 miles from the nearest town of 500 people.  He grew up loving all sports and working on the farm.  David became All-State in football under the winningest coach in the state of Minnesota.  “Working on a farm taught us how to work. I learned a lot about trust and leadership by working under who I think is the best leader of all time – my dad” David tells Rod.  

David didn’t leave his love of sports back in high school. Out of college, he went to work for the biggest Christian sports camp in the country.  He then became director of a youth and family organization building some of his leadership curriculum along the way. In 1999, David and his wife moved back to Minnesota and started their first business.  David spent a lot of time speaking to youth and was even given the opportunity to teach at the Coast Guard Academy.   

While He was doing graduate work, He had an epiphany about trust.  David realized all that time he had been working on the leadership curriculum there was a nagging feeling that the core issue wasn’t a leadership issue at all – it was a trust issue.  “My graduate work was based on the lack of trust being the biggest cost to an organization’s bottom line,” David explains “Twenty years ago, no one was talking about trust in organizations.  It was unique for me to prove that a lack of trust in an organization was their biggest cost. Trust changed me – my parenting, being a better husband, friend, that is why I am even more passionate about it today.” 

Trust and your Small Business 

How does trust work for a small business owner?  The first thing to do is to see trust as the cause.  Increase trust in the message.  Then you move to the 8 pillars of trust. Trust impacts the bottom line.   If a boss doesn’t trust you he is going double-check your work and that takes time.  Ultimately there is a massive cost  – mental and monetary –  to a lack of trust in any business. If we take a look at the metric of the most successful leaders, brands, and organizations we can see that every time trust increased, attrition went down – retention went up the cost went down and efficiency sped up.  The question isn’t if but how do you increase trust with key people to further success in your business? 

Listen in as David and Rod catalog the 8 pillars of trust and how to implement them in your own business.