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Hello fellow Relationship Capitalists,
I recently had a conversation with Aaron Marchbanks on Relationship Capitalists and one line has stayed with me:
“You can’t make a withdrawal from a relationship account that you’ve never funded.”
That idea applies far beyond engineering projects, technical teamwork and the rest.
In fact, Aaron explains that tech projects rarely fail because of one bad technical decision. More often, they fail because trust breaks down somewhere along the way.
The client stops trusting the team.
The team stops trusting the client.
People inside both organizations stop trusting each other.
And once that happens, every issue starts to look like someone else’s fault.
Misalignment is the Death Knell
Aaron puts it clearly: misalignment compounds faster than technical debt.
That matters even more in the age of AI. Tools can help us build faster, write faster and solve certain problems faster. But they do not automatically create shared understanding. They do not make people feel heard. They do not build the trust required to get through hard moments.
That still has to be done by people.
The 15-Minute Habit That Changes Everything
One of Aaron’s practical suggestions is simple: spend 15 minutes a day recognizing someone.
Send a note
Share an article
Make an introduction
Ask the quiet person in the meeting what they think
Genuinely find out what someone’s concern is before it becomes a bigger issue
That is how the relationship account gets funded.
Not through grand gestures, but through consistent deposits that show people they are seen, valued and trusted.
Build the Bridge Before You Need to Cross It
Aaron also reminds us that the real mistake is waiting until there is already a problem. By then, you are trying to build trust in the middle of pressure, frustration and blame.
The better move is to build the bridge before you need to cross the river.
That is relationship capital in practice.
And in a world where technical speed is becoming easier to access, the people who can build trust, create alignment and keep relationships strong will still have the advantage.
To building meaningful connections,
Jason Masciarelli
Name A Better GTM Resource
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