In this episode of Getting to Aha!, host Darshan Mehta sits down with Tru Pettigrew, award-winning marketing executive and Founder of Tru Access, to explore how authentic communication and human connection drive lasting success. Tru shares how insights, both quantitative and qualitative, fuel personal growth, leadership, and trust-building. Together, they uncover why true impact in business comes not from chasing profits but from solving problems, creating meaningful relationships, and leading with empathy, purpose, and understanding.
Tru Pettigrew is an award-winning marketing executive, author, and public speaker with over two decades of experience in advertising and marketing. As the Founder and Chief Bridge Builder of Tru Access, he helps organisations foster trust and understanding across divides. Formerly the first Chief Impact Officer for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Lynx, Tru led community healing after the George Floyd tragedy. He is the author of Millennials Revealed and We Could All Be Bridge Builders, and a recognised leader in inclusion and community impact.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
👉 Uncovering Your Core Gift: The Power of Transferable Skills - Tru shares how his core talent, connecting and influencing through words, fuelled success across careers as a rapper, marketer, and speaker. For marketing leaders, the takeaway is to identify and leverage core, transferable skills within teams. Recognising these underlying strengths helps professionals adapt to new challenges, innovate across roles, and unlock greater organisational potential.
👉 The 95% Rule: Emotional Decision-Making in Marketing - Tru explains that 95% of consumer decisions stem from emotion, not logic. For marketing executives, this means prioritising emotional resonance over rational persuasion. By designing multisensory brand experiences that engage feeling as much as thought, leaders can build stronger audience bonds, deepen brand loyalty, and create campaigns that truly move people beyond features and functions.
👉 The Business Success Multiplier Framework - Tru reveals that business success multiplies when brands help customers save time, save money, or make life easier, enhanced exponentially by emotional connection. Marketing leaders should assess value propositions against these levers, ensuring campaigns deliver tangible utility and emotional reward. This framework gives CMOs a simple, strategic lens to drive growth, satisfaction, and brand advocacy.
👉 The Frequency-Familiarity-Trust Model for Building Relationships - Tru introduces a relationship model where frequent, consistent engagement builds familiarity, which naturally develops trust. For marketers, this highlights the importance of continuous customer connection rather than sporadic outreach. By creating meaningful, ongoing touchpoints, brands can strengthen loyalty, foster advocacy, and cultivate long-term equity rooted in genuine human connection rather than one-time transactions.
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And connect with the host and guests here:
Darshan Mehta on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/darshan--mehta
iResearch Website - https://iresearch.com
Tru Pettigrew on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tru-pettigrew-100aa62/
Tru Access Website - https://tru-access.com/

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Previous guests include: Luca Popovac, Senior Executive, Abhilasha Sinha of Open Secret, Laura Beavin-Yates, Stephen Griffiths of Level 2, Kristin Luck or ScaleHouse, Melina Palmer of The Brainy Business, Nicolas Zeisler of We’re Doing CX Wrong and How To Get It Right, Pricilla McKinney of Little Bird Marketing, Brooke Sellas of B Squared Marketing and Joseph Michelli of The Michelli Experience.
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