The Trusted Guide Podcast with Mark Slatin

Technology can help organizations move faster.

But faster toward what?

Mark Slatin sits down with Dr. Gerard Athaide, professor of marketing at Loyola University Maryland, to explore why strategy must come before technology.

Gerard explains why leaders should begin with an honest assessment of where customers are struggling before investing in a new platform, automation, or AI solution.

He also introduces the 3A framework for digital innovation: acquisition, analysis, and activation.

Learn why technology alone will not improve the customer experience, how leaders can focus limited resources, and why human judgment and organizational culture remain essential.

Research referenced:

Marketing Innovations and Digital Technologies:

A Systematic Review, Proposed Framework, and Future Research Agendahttps://doi.org/10.1111/jpim.12741

Gerard Athaide’s Loyola University Maryland faculty profile:https://www.loyola.edu/sellinger-business/faculty-research/directory/athaide.html

Lead with trust. Change what matters.

Why Good Ideas Get Blocked: The Trust Equation for Change Leaders with Charlie Green
It pairs naturally with the thumbnail, names the recognizable framework, and makes the change-leadership application explicit.
WHY GOOD IDEAS GET BLOCKED: THE TRUST EQUATION FOR CHANGE LEADERS WITH CHARLIE GREEN
Why do strong ideas—with solid evidence and a compelling business case—still get blocked?
Because leading change takes more than credibility, data, and ROI. It requires trust.
In this episode, I’m joined by Charlie Green, founder of Trusted Advisor Associates and co-author of the landmark book The Trusted Advisor, to explore how the Trust Equation applies to change leadership.
Charlie explains why the framework should really be called the “Trustworthiness Equation” and breaks down its four components: credibility, reliability, intimacy, and self-orientation. We discuss why leaders often overestimate the rational elements of trust and underestimate the power of emotional safety, genuine attention, and making people feel heard.
I also share a costly leadership mistake from my banking career: I failed to fully explore one stakeholder’s reservations about a major initiative, and the resulting resistance sent our work sideways for three years.
If you lead change without direct authority—or struggle to secure support for ideas you know can make a difference—this conversation will help you approach resistance, influence, and stakeholder relationships differently.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
• Why trustworthiness matters more than simply asking others to trust you
• How the four components of the Trust Equation work
• Why intimacy and self-orientation can matter more than credentials and reliability
• How fear prevents leaders from asking the necessary follow-up question
• Why “Tell me more” can transform resistance into collaboration
• How to prepare thoroughly while remaining open to other perspectives
• What it means to “detach from the outcome”
• Why people need to feel heard before they will support change
• How an overlooked stakeholder concern can derail an initiative
• Why ROI and other rational measures rarely tell the whole story
SHOW NOTES :

ABOUT CHARLIE GREEN:
Charlie Green is the founder of Trusted Advisor Associates and co-author of The Trusted Advisor. He is also the author of Trust-Based Selling and co-author of The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook. His work has helped leaders and professionals around the world build stronger relationships through trust.
RESOURCES:
Charlie Green and Trusted Advisor Associates:
https://trustedadvisor.com/
Explore the Trust Equation:
https://trustedadvisor.com/build-trust/trust-equation
Learn more about The Trusted Guide Roadmap™:
https://www.empoweredcx.com/tgr
If this conversation helped you think differently about leading change, subscribe to The Trusted Guide Podcast and share this episode with someone trying to move an important idea forward.
Leading change starts with trust.

Most change efforts don't fail because of bad strategy. They fail because the people leading them are asking the wrong question.
Seth Godin has written 21 bestselling books. He's built movements, challenged industries, and spent decades studying why some ideas spread and others die quietly in conference rooms.
In this conversation, Seth cuts straight to what most change leaders get wrong — and what to do instead.
You'll walk away with:
A clearer way to think about strategy that actually holds up under pressure
Why chasing ROI may be the thing killing your credibility — and what to say instead
How storytelling works (and what has to happen after you tell it)
What it really takes to lead change when you don't have the authority to force it
This one stayed with me long after we recorded it. I think it'll do the same for you.
🎧 This Is Strategy by Seth Godin — linked in the show notes.

What if the real goal of customer experience isn't delivering better experiences at all?
In this episode of The Trusted Guide Podcast, Mark Slatin sits down with Joe Pine, co-author of The Experience Economy and one of the most influential thinkers in customer experience and business strategy.
Joe argues that we're entering the next stage of economic value creation—one where organizations create value not merely through products, services, or experiences, but by helping people become who they aspire to be.
At the heart of this conversation is a powerful idea: transformation requires identity change.
Together, Mark and Joe explore what this means for customer experience professionals, business leaders, and anyone responsible for leading change.
If customers are ultimately seeking a better version of themselves, how should that change the way we design experiences, build relationships, and measure success? And what can change leaders learn from this insight when trying to influence stakeholders and drive organizational transformation?
In this episode, you'll learn:
• Why transformation is fundamentally about identity
• The difference between experiences and transformations
• What organizations miss when they focus only on customer satisfaction
• How understanding identity can create deeper customer loyalty and engagement
• Why successful change leadership requires helping people become, not just do
Whether you're leading customer experience, organizational change, or business transformation, this conversation will challenge you to rethink what people are really seeking—and how leaders can help them get there.

After more than 160 episodes of The Delighted Customers Podcast, this episode marks an intentional shift.Over the past decade, I’ve had the privilege of learning from leading thinkers, practitioners, and authors in customer experience, leadership, and trust. Again and again, a pattern emerged:Even when everyone agrees on what needs to change… nothing changes.In this episode, I explain why I’m evolving the show into The Trusted Guide Podcast—and what that shift means for you.This is not a departure from the work. It’s a deeper focus on what actually makes change possible when authority is limited, stakeholders are misaligned, and progress stalls.Going forward, this podcast will explore how leaders, practitioners, and individual contributors can:– Navigate complex organizations without formal authority – Build trust that enables real movement – Turn insight into action when alignment isn’t enough If you’ve ever asked, “Why isn’t this moving forward?”—this show is for you.Welcome to The Trusted Guide Podcast.