The Exceptional Way

LEADERSHIP & LIFE

The Exceptional Way was written/published for Syracuse Women Magazine.

Trust isn’t something that happens to you. It’s something you build—on purpose, every day, in every room you walk into.

By Angela Moonan

Let me ask you something. When someone says your name in a room you’re not in, what do they say? What do they trust to be true about you—without you there to spin it, explain it, or defend it?

That’s your real brand. Not your logo. Not your website. Not your LinkedIn headline. Your brand is what people believe to be true when you’re not looking. And here’s what I know after years of working with businesses to build the kind of trust that actually moves the needle: you cannot engineer trust in your business until you’ve built it in yourself. These two things—your personal integrity and your professional credibility—are not separate conversations. They are the same conversation.

Accenture put a number on what we already feel in our bones: companies that focus their entire organization on delivering exceptional experiences grow their profitability at rates at least six times that of their industry peers. Six times. That’s not a marginal advantage. That’s a transformation. And the foundation underneath that transformation? Trust.

This is what I call The Exceptional Way. It’s a way of operating—in business and in life—guided by a framework I’ve developed called The TRUST Formula. Five principles. One unshakeable foundation. And it starts somewhere most people aren’t brave enough to begin.

“Trust is the new currency. And it doesn’t happen like the weather. It’s designed from the inside - out.”

T — Tell the Truth

The first step of The Exceptional Way is also the hardest: name what’s really happening. I call this the Elephant in the Room principle. Whether it’s a difficult conversation with a client, a team that’s quietly disengaged, or a personal pattern you’ve been avoiding—radical clarity is the beginning of every transformation.

We don’t trust people who are vague. We trust people who are willing to say the true thing out loud, even when it’s uncomfortable. Especially then. If you want to be trusted, you have to earn it with your honesty before you ever earn it with your results.

R — Remarkable Promise

Sara Blakely built SPANX into a billion-dollar company on the back of one clear, repeatable idea: women deserve to look and feel their best, and no one was solving that problem with dignity. She didn’t lead with product specs. She led with a promise—and she said it the same way every single time, until her customers started saying it for her.

That’s what a Remarkable Promise does. It’s not a slogan. It’s certainly not a ‘tagline.’ It’s something your team and your clients can say out loud and mean it—a one-line declaration of the transformation you deliver, the change you stand for, the reason someone would choose you over everyone else.

In life, your promise is your word. It’s what you show up as, consistently, whether anyone is watching. Are you keeping your own promises? Are you being your word? Because the gap between who you say you are and how you actually live is where trust quietly collapses.

U — Unite the Team

Success is not a solo act. I've long practiced something engrained in my brain through my mentor of many years that he dubbed "The OLIVUS Principle." All of us together, are better, smarter, than any one of us on our own. No great promise is fulfilled by one person alone. You cannot build an exceptional business, an exceptional life, or an exceptional reputation in isolation. You need your people aligned.

Think about the women in your circle. Your collaborators, your mentors, your team. Are they saying the same things you’re saying? Are they living your values, or are they quietly undermining them? Internal clarity drives external impact. When the people around you understand the promise and believe in it, trust radiates outward into every interaction, every client call, every handshake.

S — Serve Exceptionally

When Blakely launched SPANX, she personally stood in department stores and walked women to the fitting rooms. She wanted to understand the experience at every touchpoint—not just the product, but the feeling. I call these touchpoints “Moments of Truth.” And they’re what creates something I call a 6-Star Experience. Not meeting expectations. Exceeding them so memorably that people can’t stop talking about you.

Exceptional service isn’t a department. It’s a decision you make every day, in every interaction. In business, it’s the follow-up nobody asked for, the detail nobody would have noticed, the problem you solved before your client knew it existed. In life, it’s showing up fully for the people who trust you with their time, their problems, their hopes.

Exceptional experiences don’t happen by accident. They’re the difference between businesses that survive and businesses that thrive. Build yours on purpose.

T — Ten-X Mentality

This is the one that separates the women who build remarkable things from the women who almost did. Ten-X thinking isn’t about working ten times harder. It’s recognizing that while iterations and ‘solution after next’ are appropriate, there are also quantum leaps you must be willing to take… to think beyond incremental. It’s about asking: What would this look like if it were truly extraordinary? What would I do if I weren’t afraid? What’s the version of this that people remember for a decade?

SPANX didn’t tinker at the edges of the shapewear industry. Sara Blakely reimagined it. She built systems, protected her IP, turned down early buyout offers, and stayed the course when no one believed her. That’s Ten-X Mentality. It requires confidence—and the courage to change what isn’t working without abandoning what is.

You Are Your Word

Here’s the truth that ties all five steps together: you cannot build trust in your business that exceeds the trust you have in yourself. Your clients, your team, your partners—they’re always watching the gap between what you say and what you do. Every time you close that gap, trust grows. Every time you widen it, it erodes.

The Exceptional Way is first a way of being before it ever can become a way of branding. It begins with the radical act of telling the truth—to yourself, to your team, to your market. It grows from a promise you’re willing to keep, a team you’ve aligned with, an experience you’ve designed with love and intention, and a vision bold enough to be worth building.

Trust is today’s currency. Not likes. Not followers. Not press mentions. While so many of our old institutions are crumbling because they’re devoid of trust, be the unicorn. Be the builder. Be your word.

The businesses that will win—and the women who will lead them—are the ones building something people actually believe in because they’re worth believing in.

Trust starts with you. Be the very thing you desire from others. Show your employees, your customers, your patients, your neighbors, your family, what trust looks and feels like. I’ll meet you there.

Angela Moonan is a strategic brand consultant, corporate storyteller, and creator of the 6X TRUST Formula. She helps service companies transform from commodity providers to trusted market leaders. Learn more at angelamoonan.com.