Editor’s Note: Kindly play the audio below to begin listening to Swatee Deepak, founding partner of Shake The Table and Closer Than You Think, and Co-Chair of the Global Fund for Children, unpack how trust is built, broken, and rebuilt and how it gives communities the courage to stand together on this week’s episode of the Women Emerging Podcast. Then continue reading below:
Trust rarely announces itself. You only notice it when people begin to speak more freely, stay a little longer, and take risks they wouldn’t take alone. On the Women Emerging Podcast, Julia Middleton speaks with Swatee Deepak about a powerful idea at the heart of her work: that trust is what allows communities to become brave. Swatee’s work spans philanthropy, gender equality, academia, the arts, and community building. Across her roles — from advising governments, corporations, foundations, and families of wealth to co-founding initiatives that centre solidarity and shared power — she has spent years observing what happens when people gather with purpose. What becomes clear very quickly is that how to build trust within a community is not a soft question. It is the condition that determines whether people show up fully, speak honestly, and stay when things get uncomfortable.
Many of the communities Swatee works with are cautious by design. As Julia notes in the conversation, these are people who have been burnt before; alert to flattery, wary of extraction, and highly attuned to the manipulation of power in leadership. In that context, trust being important in business and community is not an abstract value. It is the difference between participation and withdrawal, between solidarity and silence.
Tips for building trust: clarity, friendship, and mutuality
Clarity: When asked for practical tips for building trust, Swatee does not talk about authority or influence. She talks about clarity. Clarity of purpose. Clarity of expectations. And clarity about what the exchange really is when someone chooses to belong.
Friendship: She also introduces a concept she calls friendship as method — an approach that reframes building community through the ethics of real friendship. Trust. Mutuality. And the recognition that what holds people together must be bigger than any one individual. Communities, Swatee explains, do not grow when they are organised around a single agenda or personality. They grow when there is room for people to arrive as whole human beings. This is where building friendships when leading becomes essential — not friendships built on access or advantage, but on equality and care. Mutuality matters here. Everyone enters as both giver and receiver, regardless of experience, power, or position. Even the person convening the space must be open to learning, being challenged, and being changed. Without that, trust becomes performative — and people sense it quickly.
The effect of manipulation on trust
One of the most striking parts of the conversation is Swatee’s clarity on what breaks trust. The effect of manipulation on trust, she suggests, is immediate and lasting. When people feel used, manipulated, unrecognised, or unvalidated, trust does not erode slowly, it fractures. This is where the question what is the difference between power and trust? becomes unavoidable. Power can compel participation. Trust cannot. Swatee speaks candidly about how easily power can be misused in communities by gatekeeping access, leveraging proximity, or placing people in situations they did not fully consent to. For communities shaped by trauma and trust, these dynamics are not theoretical. They are deeply felt.
Here, vulnerability becomes a double-edged force. Shared with care, it deepens connection. Exploited, it destroys trust entirely. Swatee suggests that one of the strongest safeguards against this is mutual exposure: when everyone has shared something personal, the cost of misuse rises. People behave differently when they know they have just as much to lose as they have to gain. To hear Swatee Deepak unpack how trust is built, broken, and rebuilt and how it gives communities the courage to stand together, listen to the full episode of the Women Emerging Podcast.
About the Author
Kavya Misra is a writer and producer with a background in adfilms and digital content management. Her master’s in English literature forms the foundation for all her creative and corporate projects. In addition to this, Kavya has an extensive background in theatre. She has written and produced plays. She has also performed at festivals like Bharat Rang Mahotsav by National School of Drama and International Theatre Festival of Kerala. Her diverse experience across theatre, media and digital content reflects her passion for storytelling and production.
