How to Build Credibility with Your Marketing
Patrick McFadden • November 7, 2013
When prospects are making a decision about whether or not to buy, their “shields are up.” And with shields up, having the lowest price in the market won’t help you much if your prospect doesn’t trust you in the first place. Offering the biggest selection and the most convenience won’t help your cause if your prospect thinks you’re a jerk, a crook, or just not able to deliver on your promises.
In fact, the number one factor in influencing purchase decisions is confidence. The road to confidence is paved with credibility.
Now, this doesn’t have to be a daunting task. It just takes a keen eye to detail and a new mindset. Here’s how to build credibility with your marketing :
- Develop a new mindset. Think in terms of getting down to the business of achieving and deserving credibility. Absolutely everything you do or say is marketing and it influences your credibility. Be aware of it the moment you start your business, and if not then, right now. Begin the journey with the name of your company, your logo, your tagline, location, note card, business card, package, brochure, business forms, interior decorations, website, marketing partners, even the clothes you and your people wear.
- Communicate even more credibility. Communicate even more credibility with the building your business is in, the people you hire, the technology you use, the follow-up in which you engage, the attention you pay to customers, the testimonials you display, your trade show booth, and your signage.
- Credibility is not automatic but it is achievable. Give a workshop, webinar, seminar. Work hard for a community organization. Influence customers into referring your business. Word-of-mouth is indispensable in the credibility journey. The idea is for you to establish your expertise, your authority, your integrity, your conscientiousness, and your professionalism, which is your credibility.
- Use PR the right way. When you get into the newspaper, make reprints of the article and frame them, include them on your website, into your marketing communication, insert them into your newsletter, put them on your counter, stick them in your store window. Cost? A bit of time. Result? A lot of credibility.
- Enhance your credibility. Trade shows, free demonstrations, and free consultations can enhance your credibility and so can free samples.
- Want a shortcut to credibility? Run a full-page ad in a regional edition of a national magazine. Just running the ad won’t capture much credibility, but the reprints you display, mail, incorporate into other marketing, and proudly circulate will. They’ll all proclaim “As advertised in INC. magazine.” And if they don’t say, INC., they’ll say some other distinguished publication.
- Even this!!! The way your phones are answered can gain or lose credibility for you. Last month, I decided not to make a purchase from a store I called simply because they put me on hold for too long. Minor detail? Maybe, but somebody else now has my business.
You gain credibility with your advertisements, listings in directories, columns, articles, and blog posts you write, and presentations and speeches you give. You gain it with your newsletter. You gain even more by your supporting causes. All these little things add up to be your reputation.
About the Author: Patrick McFadden is a marketing consultant/coach and American Express OpenForum Advisor. He works with small businesses and organizations helping them develop a marketing plan and strategy for attracting, obtaining, and keeping clients using low-cost but effective methods.
Everyone is scaling outputs. Almost no one is scaling judgment.
Ask anyone in tech where AI is headed, and they’ll tell you: “The next leap is reasoning.” “AI needs judgment.” “We need assistants that think, not just answer.” They’re right. But while everyone’s talking about it, almost no one is actually shipping it. So we did. We built Thinking OS™ —a system that doesn’t just help AI answer questions… It helps AI think like a strategist. It helps AI decide like an operator. It helps teams and platforms scale judgment, n ot just generate output. The Theory Isn’t New. The Implementation Is. The idea of layering strategic thinking and judgment into AI isn’t new in theory. The problem is, no one’s been able to implement it effectively at scale. Let’s look at the current landscape. 1. Big Tech Has the Muscle—But Not the Mind OpenAI / ChatGPT ✅ Strength: Best-in-class language generation ❌ Limitation: No built-in judgment or reasoning. You must provide the structure. Otherwise, it follows instructions, not strategy. Google DeepMind / Gemini ✅ Known for advanced decision-making (e.g., AlphaGo) ❌ But only in structured environments like games—not messy, real-world business scenarios. Anthropic (Claude), Meta (LLaMA), Microsoft Copilot ✅ Great at answering questions and following commands ❌ But they’re assistants, not advisors. They won’t reprioritize. They won’t challenge your assumptions. They don’t ask: “Is this the right move?” These tools are powerful—but they don’t think for outcomes the way a strategist or operator would. 2. Who’s Actually Building the Thinking Layer™? This is where it gets interesting—and thin. Startups and Indie Builders Some small teams are quietly: Creating custom GPTs that mimic how experts reason Layering in business context, priorities, and tradeoffs Embedding decision logic so AI can guide, not just execute But these efforts are: Highly manual Difficult to scale Fragmented and experimental Enterprise Experiments A few companies (Salesforce, HubSpot, and others) are exploring more “judgment-aware” AI copilots. These systems can: Flag inconsistencies Recommend next actions Occasionally surface priorities based on internal logic But most of it is still: In early R&D Custom-coded Unproven beyond narrow use cases That’s Why Thinking OS™ Is Different Instead of waiting for a lab to crack it, we built a modular thinking system that installs like infrastructure. Thinking OS™: Captures how real experts reason Embeds judgment into layers AI can use Deploys into tools like ChatGPT or enterprise systems Helps teams think together, consistently, at scale It’s not another assistant. It’s the missing layer that turns outputs into outcomes. So… Is This a New Innovation? Yes—in practice. Everyone says AI needs judgment. But judgment isn’t an idea. It’s a system. It requires: Persistent memory Contextual awareness Tradeoff evaluation Value-based decisions Strategy that evolves with goals Thinking OS™ delivers that. And unlike the R&D experiments in Big Tech, it’s built for: Operators Consultants Platform founders Growth-stage teams that need to scale decision quality, not just content creation If Someone Told You They’ve Built a Thinking + Judgment Layer™… They’ve built something only a handful of people in the world are even attempting. Because this isn’t just AI that speaks fluently. It’s AI that reasons, reflects , and chooses. And in a world that’s drowning in tools, judgment becomes the differentiator. That’s the OS We Built Thinking OS™ is not a prompt pack. It’s not a dashboard. It’s not a glorified chatbot. It’s a decision architecture you can license, embed, or deploy— To help your team, your platform, or your clients think better at scale. We’ve moved past content. We’re building cognition. Let’s talk.
In every era of innovation, there’s a silent bottleneck—something obvious in hindsight, but elusive until the moment it clicks. In today’s AI-driven world, that bottleneck is clear: AI has speed. It has scale. But it doesn’t have judgment . It doesn’t really think . What’s Actually Missing From AI? When experts talk about the “thinking and judgment layer” as the next leap for AI, they’re calling out a hard truth: Modern AI systems are powerful pattern machines. But they’re missing the human layer—the one that reasons, weighs tradeoffs, and makes strategic decisions in context. Let’s break that down: 1. The Thinking Layer = Reasoning with Purpose This layer doesn’t just process inputs— it structures logic. It’s the ability to: Ask the right questions before acting Break down complexity into solvable parts Adjust direction mid-course when reality changes Think beyond “what was asked” to uncover “what really matters” Today’s AI responds. But it rarely reflects. Unless told exactly what to do, it won’t work through problems the way a strategist or operator would. 2. The Judgment Layer = Decision-Making in the Gray Judgment is the ability to: Prioritize what matters most Choose between imperfect options Make decisions when there’s no clear answer Apply values, experience, and vision—not just data It’s why a founder might not pursue a lucrative deal. Why a marketer might ignore the click-through rate. Why a strategist knows when the timing isn’t right. AI doesn’t do this well. Not yet. Because judgment requires more than data—it requires discernment . Why This Is the Bottleneck Holding Back AI AI can write. It can summarize. It can automate. But it still can’t: Diagnose the real problem behind the question Evaluate tradeoffs like a founder or operator would Recommend a path based on context, constraints, and conviction AI today is still reactive. It follows instructions. But it doesn’t lead. It doesn’t guide. It doesn’t own the outcome. And for those building serious systems—whether you’re running a company, launching a platform, or leading a team—this is the wall you eventually hit. That’s Why We Built Thinking OS™ We stopped waiting for AI to learn judgment on its own. Instead, we created a system that embeds it—by design. Thinking OS™ is an installable decision layer that captures how top founders, strategists, and operators think… …and makes that thinking repeatable , scalable , and usable inside teams, tools, and platforms. It’s not a framework. It’s not a chatbot. It’s not another playbook. It’s the layer that knows how to: Think through complex decisions Apply judgment when rules don’t help Guide others —human or AI—toward strategic outcomes This Is the Missing Infrastructure Thinking OS™ isn’t just about better answers. It’s about better thinking—made operational. And that’s what’s been missing in AI, consulting, leadership development, and platform design. If you’re trying to scale expertise, install judgment, or move from tactical to strategic… You don’t need a faster AI. You need a thinking layer that knows what to do—and why. We built it. Let’s talk.
