Anyone who's had a dog knows they don't care about your track record. They don't remember that you were a great owner two years ago, or that there was an incredible hike last spring. They care about today. Did you show up. Did you follow through on the walk you promised this morning. Are you actually paying attention right now, not last quarter, not last year.
Clients operate a lot more like that than most of us are comfortable admitting. A great quarter two years ago doesn't buy much goodwill if this week has gone quiet, a follow-up's been missed, or a small commitment slid. Trust in this job isn't a balance built up once and slowly drawn down over time, the way it sometimes gets talked about in account planning meetings. It's closer to something re-earned in small, consistent deposits, on a schedule the client can feel even if they'd never articulate it that specifically.
Trust Re-Earned, Not Banked
Mornings in Austin tend to start the same way here: coffee, two very insistent dogs at the door, a walk before anything else on the calendar gets to matter. It's a small, unglamorous routine, and it teaches more about consistency than most professional development courses do. Dogs don't grade on a curve. They don't average good days against bad ones. They just notice, immediately and without cynicism, whether you showed up the way you said you would.
What Consistency Actually Looks Like
Client relationships obviously aren't as simple as a dog's sense of time, and they don't map onto it perfectly. But some of the best account management instincts come from unglamorous, non-corporate places: showing up on time even when it's inconvenient, being honest even when the truth is annoying to deliver, and remembering that consistency is its own form of respect, maybe the most underrated form there is. It's worth asking the same thing of every account you manage: don't be great for a quarter and then quiet for two. Just show up, the same way, every sprint. Dogs have never read a single book on stakeholder management. They still understand the fundamentals better than most vendors do.
