The Relationships Your Company Is Throwing Away

Last week, my wife and I spent five days on the Norwegian Aqua, cruising to Bermuda. It was a fantastic experience. Great food, good service (except the drink lines), and some of the best entertainment I’ve experienced on a cruise ship. And that’s saying something because I’ve been on my fair share of cruises.

Two shows in particular stood out. One was a tribute to Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours. The other was a Prince tribute show that absolutely blew us away. The singers, dancers, musicians, and overall production were incredible. I’d put the Prince show up against just about any live performance I’ve seen.

There were two performers we couldn’t stop talking about. One was a female singer with an unbelievable voice and stage presence. The other was a male singer and dancer who also happened to be an outstanding piano player.

We were so impressed that, after the show, we decided to learn more about them.

That’s when things got interesting.

The People Behind the Performance

Outside the theater, Norwegian displayed information about the cast, including short biographies. But there was something strange about how they introduced these incredibly talented people.

First name. Last initial. That’s it.

No full names. No Instagram handles. No TikTok accounts. No websites. No obvious way to follow these performers or find out where they might be appearing next. We read the biographies, hoping to learn more, but left disappointed.

Think about that for a second. Norwegian had just created two enthusiastic fans of these performers. We wanted to know more about them. We wanted to follow their careers. We might even consider another cruise knowing that one of them was performing.

And Norwegian made it remarkably difficult to do any of those things.

From what I could gather, many of these performers work across Norwegian’s fleet. What an opportunity to introduce customers to talented people they could follow from ship to ship. Instead, the relationship ended after the performance.

A few nights later, something similar happened, but this time it involved naan bread.

The Most Interesting Person in the Restaurant

We were having dinner at Indulge Food Hall, a market-style dining venue on the Aqua. Our seats happened to overlook an open kitchen area where a man was making fresh naan bread using a specialty kettle oven.

We spent much of dinner watching him work. He was smiling, interacting with guests through the window, and clearly enjoying what he was doing. At one point, a guest stopped and asked if he could demonstrate the process. He happily did so.

He took the dough, flattened it, added spices, and used a special tool to attach the bread to the inside wall of the hot oven. The guest was delighted, and so were we.

Norwegian had thoughtfully included information explaining the specialty oven but nothing about the person using it. No name. No background. No story about how he learned his craft. No ways to connect.

We knew more about the oven than the person making the bread.

Your Employees Are Your Greatest Untapped Media Assets

I’ve been talking quite a bit lately about something I call the ​Trust Portfolio​.

The idea is simple. Instead of concentrating all your marketing around one corporate brand or one prominent spokesperson, you develop a portfolio of trusted people who create ongoing relationships with your audiences.

Those people might be executives, subject-matter experts, employees, partners, or creators connected to your organization.

The important thing is that audiences connect with individuals. And those connections create trust.

Norwegian has thousands of opportunities to do this across its ships.

Imagine if the company encouraged its performers to create Instagram or TikTok content, share behind-the-scenes stories, and build audiences around their talents. Imagine if guests could discover which ships those performers would be appearing on next.

Or what if that wonderful naan bread specialist had a name, a story, and a recurring video series highlighting his craft?

Suddenly, Norwegian wouldn’t just have passengers who enjoyed a cruise. It would have customers maintaining relationships with five, seven, or ten different people long after returning home. Those are additional reasons to choose Norwegian over another cruise line.

And the benefits go beyond customer loyalty.

Imagine you’re a talented performer deciding between two cruise companies. One offers you a paycheck, a schedule, and a stage. The other offers those things while actively helping you develop your following and advance your career.

Which company would you choose?

Of course, some employees will eventually leave. But wouldn’t supporting their ambitions also give them more reasons to stay? And wouldn’t a reputation for developing talent help attract even better employees?

That’s another benefit of a portfolio strategy. You aren’t depending on one superstar. You’re helping many people become known, building multiple relationships that strengthen your organization.

Where Are Your Missing Connections?

Here’s a simple exercise I’d encourage every organization to try.

1. Find your memorable moments. Where are employees doing something customers genuinely appreciate? Look beyond executives and salespeople. Think about customer service, operations, events, and the people delivering your actual products.

2. Identify your hidden stars. Who gets mentioned in reviews? Who do customers ask for? Who has a special talent, unique perspective, or story worth sharing?

3. Make connections possible. Introduce these people by name. Give willing employees the tools, training, and support to build their own content platforms. Create recurring formats that customers can follow.

4. Measure who comes back. Track returning customers, referrals, engagement, subscriptions, and stronger relationships. Reward those employees for hitting agreed-upon goals. The goal isn’t simply more followers. It’s creating more reasons for people to stay connected.

You’ve already hired these people. You’ve trained them. They know your products, your customers, and your culture. In many cases, they’re already creating the moments customers remember most.

Why spend so much money trying to manufacture trust through marketing while overlooking the people who are earning it every day?

Norwegian gave us a wonderful vacation. But it also gave me a reminder that some of the greatest marketing opportunities aren’t about creating something new. They’re about recognizing something valuable that’s already happening.

Sometimes it’s on a stage in front of hundreds of people. Sometimes it’s a person making naan bread behind a glass window.

The connection is already there. The opportunity is to help it last.

P.S.: ​A reminder that I’m giving away my book, Burn the Playbook, for free​. Please share it with a friend. I’m finding more and more parents are reading this and then sharing it with their kids.