Like you, I get a lot of unsolicited email inviting me to do business with strangers. Those messages are almost always immediately deleted or saved in the “How Not to Engage a Stranger”/“How Not to Ask for a Meeting” folder. (I really do have said folder.)

I brought a little improv comedy into a Trust-Based Business Development class I was leading last week, by way of simple warm-up games and exercises that I learned from expert Shawn Westfall. I was reminded of the power of humor to connect people, to defuse tension, and to create overall feelings of goodwill. Then I remembered a study that indicates humor also makes you more credible. That sounds like another trust paradox to me.

You may recall the retrospective from a few months ago on three extraordinary women (a new broadcaster, pop diva, and my mom) and what they can teach us about trust-building. Now it’s the men’s turn:

Charlie and I wrote about specific ways to accelerate trust-building in The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, and excerpted a list of 15 favorites. The last on the list, about which I’ve never before written here, might just be the most powerful.

While “new” is in the air right now, there are always messages that bear repeating, like the tip I share this time every year about what it takes to make personal change really stick. I’m going to boldly say (again) that this tip is your #1 predictor of success in 2017, whether your aims relate to building relationships or developing business or something more personal.

Do you know Dan Harris? He’s co-anchor of Nightline on ABC News, and the author of 10% Happier, a book about how he discovered meditation “after having a live, nationally-televised panic attack on Good Morning America.”