Chapter 4
Establish Credibility—People Want to Work with Trustworthy Experts

In the end, you make your reputation and you have your success based upon credibility and being able to provide people who are really hungry for information what they want.

—BRIT HUME

YOU SHOULD SEE my father’s basement. He’s an antiques dealer and appraiser. This means that my parents’ house is basically a museum housing his antiques collection. His basement is filled to the brim with incredible artwork—everything from Mexican wedding vases to brightly colored quilts to this strange square piece of wood with half of a bowling ball on top and a dozen metal holes of various sizes. Can you guess what that is? It’s a device to measure your thumb size for a bowling ball. How would he have ever known that there was some value in a piece like that? Over the years, he educated himself and has become an expert on art and antiques. He has found highly valuable paintings and sculptures at household sales that later sold at major auction houses all over the world.

I once asked my dad, “When you’re sorting through a ton of stuff at garage sales and antiques shops, how quickly can you tell if you’re interested in pursuing something?”

“Instantly,” he said.

“You mean in a matter of minutes?”

“No, less than that. Seconds. Probably less than a second.”

“And then what do you do?” I asked.

“It depends if I have time. Often I have to make an immediate decision. If I have the time, I focus on the sensible things to look into—quality, artist, signature, and so on.”

Similarly, his clients make immediate decisions about whether or not he has credibility as an art and antiques appraiser and dealer to be entrusted with their valuable collections. We all do this. Every day we’re forced to make immediate decisions about whether or not something is credible, relevant, or valuable to us. Credibility is the basis for all relation-ships—without it, people will not take the time to listen to us, trust our message, or want to do business with us.