Unscalable actions that build credibility

Trust doesn't come from your accomplishments. It comes from quiet moves like these: For years I thought I needed more experience, achievements, and wins to earn trust. But real trust isn't built through credentials. It's earned in small moments, consistent choices, and subtle behaviors that others notice - even when you think they don't. Here are 15 quiet moves that instantly build trust 👇🏼 1. You close open loops, catching details others miss ↳ Send 3-bullet wrap-ups after meetings. Reliability builds. 2. You name tension before it gets worse ↳ Name what you sense: "The energy feels different today" 3. You speak softly in tense moments ↳ Lower your tone slightly when making key points. Watch others lean in. 4. You stay calm when others panic, leading with stillness ↳ Take three slow breaths before responding. Let your calm spread. 5. You make space for quiet voices ↳ Ask "What perspective haven't we heard yet?", then wait. 6. You remember and reference what others share ↳ Keep a Key Details note for each relationship in your phone. 7. You replace "but" with "and" to keep doors open ↳ Practice "I hear you, and here's what's possible" 8. You show up early with presence and intention ↳ Close laptop, turn phone face down 2 minutes before others arrive. 9. You speak up for absent team members ↳ Start with "X made an important point about this last week" 10. You turn complaints into possibility ↳ Replace "That won't work" with "Let's experiment with..." 11. You build in space for what really matters ↳ Block 10 min buffers between meetings. Others will follow. 12. You keep small promises to build trust bit by bit ↳ Keep a "promises made" note in your phone. Track follow-through. 13. You protect everyone's time, not just your own ↳ End every meeting 5 minutes early. Set the standard. 14. You ask questions before jumping to fixes ↳ Lead with "What have you tried so far?" before suggesting solutions. 15. You share credit for wins and own responsibility for misses ↳ Use "we" for successes, "I" for challenges. Watch trust grow. Your presence speaks louder than your resume. Trust is earned in these quiet moments. Which move will you practice first? Share below 👇🏼 -- ♻️ Repost to help your network build authentic trust without the struggle 🔔 Follow me Dr. Carolyn Frost for more strategies on leading with quiet impact

Do things that compound. YC's famous advice to "do things that don't scale" is too often misunderstood and misused. The goal isn't to do manual work. It’s to find activities that compound over time. In 2008, Airbnb's founders photographed every single NYC listing themselves. Unscalable? Yes. But those photos created a standard of quality that defined their brand for years to come. The photos themselves didn't scale. The brand trust they built compounded. Early startup actions fall into 3 buckets: 1/ Things that scale 2/ Things that don't scale 3/ Things that compound Scaling = doing more of something Compounding = doing something that grows in value over time When Stripe's founders personally helped their first 100 users implement the API, they weren't just "doing something that didn't scale." → They built deep user understanding → They refined their documentation → They shaped their roadmap → They created evangelists Each of these compounds year over year. A founder who manually onboards 100 users might help 100 people. A founder who learns from manually onboarding 100 users might help 1,000,000. Think of early startup work like compound interest: Scalable tasks = linear returns Unscalable tasks = one-time returns Compounding tasks = exponential returns There are a million things you could do, but a few of my fave examples of high-compounding activities: 1/ Building relationships with power users 2/ Creating detailed customer research 3/ Writing thorough documentation 4/ Establishing quality standards 5/ Defining clear processes You're not building for tomorrow. You're building for 10 years from now.

Everyone tells you not to do things that don't scale. But at Delve, we completely disagree.   The unscalable things are exactly what DO scale your business.   — When we turn every job interview into a full career consulting session, people think we're wasting time. But those candidates refer someone we end up hiring, or start companies and then become Delve customers. When we hand-deliver 10,000 donuts across SF, it seems like a one-time stunt. But it creates exponential brand visibility that paid ads can't match. When we show up to ping pong tournaments in custom Delve shirts, it feels like it'll be forgotten after the night ends. But people are still talking about it months later. — Things that look unscalable often compound into the most scalable growth. Here's what that looks like in practice: → Scalable approach: spend $1000 on ads = get some conversions → Unscalable approach: spend $1000 on something people can't stop talking about = create viral word-of-mouth that generates $XM in pipeline → Scalable approach: hire 10 people to do customer success and handle support tickets → Unscalable approach: in addition to the CS team handling tickets, have founders personally join every customer Slack channel and build relationships that turn into referrals → Scalable approach: send automated follow-ups to candidates = save time on recruiting → Unscalable approach: turn every interaction into genuine career advice = create advocates who recommend top talent and become future customers   —   Everything scales if you do it right.   And more often than not, those seemingly "unscalable" moments actually create the most scalable outcomes.

This advice helped me turn a side project into a $14m/year tech company: “Do unscalable things” Many founders have heard the same. And there’s a reason for that. Here are 3 "unscalable things” we did at Lawtrades: #𝟭: My co-founder and I used to walk from law office to law office with a mobile credit card reader. We pitched a $300/year subscription to be listed on our “ZocDoc for lawyers” That let us pay ourselves $1k/mo while we both lived with our parents. But we had a company. #𝟮: We built manually. When we pivoted the "ZocDoc for lawyers" into a marketplace: • Our database was a Google Sheet • We ran on WordPress • All matching & transacting was done manually behind the scenes Unscalable, but it was working. #𝟯: We created opportunities to spend time with customers in person: Hand-delivering checks and hosting dinner parties. The dinners had a ~90% close rate on new business. This also led to an aha moment: open our platform to legal departments. The outcome? Growing from $1M ARR to $14M ARR today. Doing "things that don't scale" is what got us here. And our process hasn't changed: • Try something new (unscalable) • Prove it out or ditch it • Figure out how to make it scale later If you're a founder, do something unscalabley laborious to get started.