Last week’s post on the perils of the “assumptive close” got me thinking about a real-life example of how a financial advisor’s robotic (and safe) cold call killed my trust and lost my business. Consider this another cautionary tale that’s not meant only for more traditional salespeople. I bet if you look hard enough, you’ll find yourself in the example no matter your role, if only a little … a little too risk-averse, a little too “professional,” a little too brief.

I was shopping for a Halloween costume the other day and I was reminded of a big sales no-no in the process—that is, if you want to sell the trust-based way. And while my experience was in the realm of retail, it’s also a cautionary tale for anyone in professional services.

Last week I focused on one of the greatest opportunities for us all to improve our trustworthiness: getting off our “S” (self-orientation). I wrote about Level 1 troubleshooting, which zeros in on the fundamentals (things like being curious, generous, and truly committed to doing right by them). This week we go deeper with Level 2 to deal with the sneaky parts.

One of the greatest opportunities for us all to improve our trustworthiness lies in the self-orientation variable of the trust equation. Fortunately, there are specific things we all can do about that.

I was talking to a friend/colleague just the other day who recently lost her father after many years of illness. It’s always so hard to know what to say in these moments, and I reached back to lessons shared from Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg after her husband’s unexpected death. Given all the turmoil in our world, and, in particular, the disasters befalling the U.S. in recent weeks, I thought a re-post was called for.

This week got off to a rocky start with the realization that my computer, which had been coughing and sputtering for several days, was officially on life support. So I scrambled to deal with this major productivity hit while of course muttering multiple times to myself, “Will it matter a year from now?”