We’re not in a sales slump. We’re in a Trust Recession.
When you stop trusting the world, what do you trust instead?
Holy. Cow.
The world right now is just…. It’s just a lot, isn’t it? 😮💨
The ripple effect of Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and meddling in world affairs, bullying, scaremongering, bartering, threatening, civilians being killed in the streets….
We don’t know who or what we can trust.
The old world and what we thought we knew as ‘truth’?
Gone.
The work I do in international touring currently is also showing signs of this shifting sands too. Trying to set up a tour for an orchestra in a foreign country is making me feel like I need to be a member of a UN diplomatic mission.
Here I am, trying desperately to keep up with the twists and turns of which country is friendly with who and who’s fallen out and won’t invite the other… only for it to change, 1984 style, within weeks. Exhausting.
Naturally this is trickling down well beyond global political leaders. It’s affecting everything and everyone, no matter what their industry or walk of life.
So when I saw Collette Nichols from No Shame Sales Game share a Reel on Instagram where she talked about a “trust recession”, it gave a name to something we’ve all been feeling creep in for a long time.
There’s a trust recession happening in online business.
Fewer people are buying.
More people are questioning.
They’re questioning their mentors, their strategies, and maybe most of all, themselves.
It’s not just about money. It’s not just a drop in spending or financial wobbles in this weird old world.
It’s a dip in belief.
And I’m seeing it everywhere.
Inside my coaching sessions, in Instagram comments, in quiet DMs and open Substacks.
People aren’t just cautious. They’re tired.
We’re definitely tired of Trump and his rambling speeches and complete lack of consistency with anything…
But we’re also tired of advice that doesn’t work.
Of promises that didn’t deliver.
Of feeling like we should know better, but still don’t feel any closer to clarity.
And so this isn’t a Substack about marketing tactics or audience trends (it never is from me, if you’ve been here long enough to tell 😊).
It’s about what happens when trust gets thin — both in others, and in ourselves — and how we begin to build it back.
What is the Trust Recession?
I loved how Collette coined this ‘trust recession’ and I’ve no idea if she was the first or only one, but I’ll credit her with inventing the term, as it’s where I heard it first.
And when I think about what a trust recession means to me, it’s the name I’m giving to what so many of us are feeling:
Skepticism around big promises and glossy offers.
Exhaustion from hearing “This changed my life!” and “You just need this one thing!” on repeat.
Disappointment from past investments that didn’t move the needle.
And the deeper one: confusion about whether you can actually be trusted to lead yourself, your business, and your life (this came up big in my Crossroads Session at the end of last year, read more about that here:
This trust recession isn’t just about the coaching industry or online business.
It’s personal. Internal. And close to the bone – which as we know is what really affects our business outcomes: the inner world of stories and beliefs that dictate our actions and results.
I’m seeing brilliant, thoughtful women stall because they don’t trust themselves to make good decisions anymore.
They don’t trust they’ll follow through.
They don’t trust their instincts over what someone else said in a £27 download.
They don’t trust that it’s safe to be seen again after being burned by exposure once before.
And I get it.
Why the Trust Recession matters
Having been in this space of solopreneurship for nearly a decade now, what I’ve learned is that without trust, your business becomes something you cautiously manage and tip-toe around, rather than confidently lead.
You second-guess every post, every price point, every offer.
You spend more time researching what to do than actually doing it.
You get quieter — not because you have nothing to say, but because you no longer trust your voice.
You pull back from big shifts and changes and stick with the tried and tested income streams and ways of doing things
But without trust, the cost isn’t just slow sales.
It’s time lost in overthinking.
Ideas that never get shared.
Creative energy drained by spirals.
Support systems left untapped because you’re not sure who to believe anymore. Definitely not Trump, as if we ever could!
But also the online business gurus and leaders we used to turn to for the last 5-10 years… even they are dropping offers and evolving into new iterations of themselves and their work.
This work is not just strategic. It’s deeply emotional.
And it keeps too many women sitting on their best work.
How the hell did we end up here?!
As ever, we need to ladle loads of compassion and kindness onto this situation. Because the trust recession we’re in? It’s not your fault.
The coaching industry, nay the whole capitalist world at large, taught us urgency.
That if you didn’t jump now, you’d be left behind.
That if something didn’t work, it was your mindset, not the method.
We watched people sell templates and call it truth and the ‘only’ way to make it work.
We saw nuance disappear in the pursuit of being the one right answer.
Blueprints were the thing to follow to get the exact same result.
Except they didn’t.
And when it didn’t work, there was little support to figure out what next.
Only the next programme. The next course. The next framework. The next mentor with a bigger income claim or sexier branding or using more words like “manifest,” “mastery,” “wealth” and “activation.”
I’ve seen this first-hand in my own work.
Clients arriving hesitant, apologetic, guarded.
They’ve read the books, listened to the podcasts. They know their blocks.
They’re people with brilliant ideas… but a completely suppressed, pushed down, hardly listened-to belief that they could lead themselves through them.
And I’ve been there too.
Pivoting offers. Letting things go. Rebuilding how I want to lead and how I want to earn.
Stripping things back to make sure I actually trust what I’m teaching.
Because anything else started to feel hollow. I could see where I’d just been taught marketing tactics and what sells, rather than the deep shifting work I really wanted to be doing.
What builds real trust again
With the world as it is, let’s all be kind to ourselves and understand that there’s a reason we feel wobbly about taking leaps and trusting anyone, let alone ourselves.
But if we want to shift past this, have a think about:
Trusting in others
Look for people who offer nuance, truth and BTS, not just perfect winning formulas.
Trust those who leave space for your context and don’t sell themselves as the solution.
Choose mentors and guides who feel steady, not shiny. Who reflect your values, not just your goals. That ride and share the ups and downs, not just the wins.
Trusting yourself
Tune in and articulate the stories and beliefs you hold that make you wobble and hesitate.
Rewrite a new belief that gives you a little fizz in your belly, that shifts how you see things and makes you see possibility, not blocks.
Experiment – not with another bloody strategy. Experiment with your new belief. With taking a tiny action to prove that it’s true, that it’s your new truth.
This is what I teach in my coaching - find out more about my TRUST framework here:
I don’t get you to push through fear or fake confidence or squash down the voice that holds you back or makes you procrastinate.
What I support you through is how to build real self-trust — the kind that lets you lead, speak, create and earn in a way that feels like you.
You don’t need to perform certainty.
You need to learn how to support yourself through uncertainty. And boy is the world filled with uncertainty right now.
This is a life skill for our times.
To act without always needing proof it will work.
Because when you trust yourself, you become unshakeable — no matter what the algorithm, the market or your inner protective voice says.
Where have you stopped trusting yourself in this crazy old world?
And what would it look like to rebuild that — one quiet, courageous step at a time?
I’d love to know.
You can find out more about working with me here.
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