603: Crystal Adair-Benning: Connect, Convert & Catalyze Conversation through Copy!

In this episode, The Word Magician and Bestselling Ghostwriter, Crystal Adair-Benning, talks about effective copywriting. Today, Crystal talks about ways to improve your copy, pleasure copy versus trigger copy, and when to hire a copywriter. What is copy? Hear about the eight levels of perspective and belief, using love letter language, and get Crystal’s advice to her younger self, all on today’s episode of The Healthy, Wealthy & Smart Podcast. Key Takeaways “The best copy meets our clients where they’re at, so we can take them where they need to go.” “The world is triggering enough. We don’t need to see it in our copy.” “Your clients will tell you exactly what to write.” “Follow your zone of genius.” More about Crystal Adair-Benning Crystal Adair-Benning is the Word Magician, Story Supercharger, Copywriter & Ghostwriter for rebels, misfits and world-changing humans. She is best known for being not known at all. A secret weapon amongst successful entrepreneurs who covet her Quantum Copy Method - combining the science of writing with the spirituality of creativity. A multiple NYTimes Bestselling ghostwriter and former highly sought-after luxury event planner, Crystal finds joy in being an Intuitive Creative, digital nomad - free to explore the globe with her husband, dog and laptop. If you really want to know Crystal, here are some fun facts: - She never leaves home without her passport. - She saves trees with tech (her Remarkable is everything)! - She was truly embarrassed to call herself an empath for years and hid her genius because of it. - She met and married her hubbend (husband/boyfriend) in a month... because she was a smitten kitten. - She believe in LOVE above all else and will happily destroy the bro-marketing patriarchy word by word. Suggested Keywords Healthy, Wealthy, Smart, Copywriting, Beliefs, Perspective, Communication, Conversion, Storytelling, Resources FREE Copy Workshop. To learn more, follow Crystal at: Website: wordmagiccopywriting.com Instagram: @wordmagiccopywriting Facebook: Word Magic Copywriting Twitter: @WordMagicCopy Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: Website: https://podcast.healthywealthysmart.com Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healthy-wealthy-smart/id532717264 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6ELmKwE4mSZXBB8TiQvp73 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/healthywealthysmart Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/healthy-wealthy-smart iHeart Radio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-healthy-wealthy-smart-27628927 Read the Full Transcript Here: 00:05 Welcome to the healthy, wealthy and smart podcast where healthcare meets business with your host me, Dr. Karen Litzy. And just as a reminder, the information in this podcast is for entertainment purposes only, and is not to be used as personalized medical advice. Enjoy the show. 00:28 Hello, everyone, and welcome to the healthy, wealthy and smart Podcast. Today we've got a great podcast, which walks you through how to connect, convert and catalyze conversation through copy. And yes, this means how to get more conversions how to possibly make more money with your copy. So to bring us through today's episode, I'm really happy to have crystal Adair Bening, a word magician story supercharger, copywriter, ghostwriter for rebels, misfits and world changing humans. She is best known for being not known at all a secret weapon among successful entrepreneurs who covered her quantum copy method combining the science of writing with the spirituality of creativity, a multiple New York Times Best Selling ghost writer and formerly highly sought after luxury event planner, Crystal finds joy and being an intuitive creative digital nomad free to explore the globe with her husband, dog and laptop. So I met crystal a couple of months ago at Selena Sue's mastermind, and I am like in love with this woman, she is so good. She will walk you through what copy means how to make it your own and how to talk to your customers. Now, aside from all of this, wonderfulness, and you'll hear throughout the podcast on August, the last week of August, I think on the 31st She is having a free three hour master class word magician copywriting workshop. You guys, it's free. She's going to take you through everything. So you can head over to podcast dot healthy, wealthy smart.com. Go to the show notes for today's episode and click on for her free three hour workshop. You can also go to word magic copywriting.com. And you'll sign up it's like a waitlist, you'll sign up for the waitlist and you guys three free hours with a copywriting expert. I know I am no copywriting expert. So if you want to have better copy for your website, your sales page, your funnels, your social media, check out her free class, that is going to be the last week of August either the 30th or the 31st. Otherwise, enjoy today's episode. Hey, Crystal, welcome to the podcast. I'm excited to have you on today to talk all about copy. So thank you so much for coming on. My pleasure. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm excited. This is definitely an area where it is a weakness of mine. And dare I say weakness of a lot of people certainly in my profession of physical therapy, and I'm sure you hear that all the time. Not like that's anything new. But before we go on, I want you to define what copy is. 03:30 Oh, good question. So copy is literally the words that you use to market your business. So it can be your website, your emails, your social media, and ebook you use a book you write. It could be literally like an ad that you run on social media might be copy. So copy is all of those things. We think about the words that come out of our mouth when we're talking to our clients. But when we put it down on paper, it becomes coffee because it's something that somebody can refer to us. Perfect. And how important is that for business? Let's let's get into this. Essential, right. Super important, super important. And here's another question that might seem like a dumb question. But how can copy be used to make a connection with your audience maybe make that sale? What is the purpose? So when we write copy, the best copy that we write is naturally about us. It's for the humans that we're writing for. So I teach a lot of times about the idea of it being a love letter. So if you think about the average client that emails you and maybe they email you and say, Hey, I've got this problem and my back's sore and this and that and I need I'm struggling with this and how do I do it? You might immediately hit reply and you say yeah, but when appointment in my calendar, very good, right? Like that could be an option. What if we instead decided to treat it like coffee? 05:00 and use the love letter principle Love Letter language and say, Hey, I'm really sorry that your back hurts, that's awful. I know how challenging that can be. And we definitely want to take care of you, here's a link to my website, I would recommend we get you in within the next six to seven days, because that's probably when the pain is going to feel worse. And when we have the most opportunity to fix it. By simply adding words to the copy, you're still getting across the exact same message. But there's a level of I've got you that we feel in a love letter, if you think to honor the love letter you've ever received, what's the underlying tone, it's your magic, you're amazing, I love you, and I got you. And so if you can impart that into the language that you're reading, whether it's a website and email, your social media copy a book, your audience literally feels that vibration, and it starts to pull them in, because suddenly they not feel what they feel seen. They feel taken care of supported, they feel comfortable with you, they're willing to say, Hey, I may not know this human yet, but they're inviting me into their space, they're welcoming me. And that feels good. And so they will actually move toward you instead of against you. So that's one of the ways that I would highly recommend you use it. Yeah. And in the physical therapy, I'm a physical therapist. So in physical therapy, and in healthcare, I would say, a lot of people, when they're coming to see us, they're in a point where they're feeling vulnerable, where they may be in pain, they may not be at their best. And so I like how you describe it as a love letter, because we're trying to tell them like it's okay for you to be open with us. Do you have any other examples of how we might be able to convey that to someone who's feeling maybe at their worst? Yes, so absolutely. So what we need to do first and foremost, and this is where the psychology kind of takes over. So my work is a lot of science needs spiritual to kind of combine it all together and create what I call word magic. And this is the science piece of it. So each of your clients already comes in, they have a belief that they currently believe, right, they're living in a system, they have an understanding of the world around them, they have a perspective of their values of the beliefs that they believe in. So on a very basic level, because we've got a short window of time, I'm gonna give you the there's like eight levels. So I'm gonna give you the overview. So number one, we're basically survivors, these are babies. Oftentimes, if we're in a really traumatic situation, if you're a refugee, for example, if you're homeless, you might become this person, your whole goal is to get your basic needs met and actually survive, right? Your belief is just I need to survive period. In Level two, I call this cult cohesion, who ever desire to fit in, we're learning all about rules and how we fit into society, how we fit in with our families, how we fit in with our communities. These are the reasons we call it a cult cohesion is because often, if you've ever joined a call, not all of us have. But if you've been part of a cult, there's a very strong belief system around the rules of that cult and fitting into that cult people often don't leave because they're going to be excommunicated, right. And so that's kind of the second level, it's not real bonded Level. Level three, we go up and these are black sheets. Think teenagers, right? When we're teenagers think of that angst, right? But we're recognizing that we have special gifts, and we're different than those around us. For the black sheep of our family, you'll often hear that we're searching for our gifts and our talents and level three, so teenagers most often, but you'll also see it in a lot of musicians, artists, people that really don't fit the norm. Lady Gaga is a perfect example of a value level three or belief three, believe four, we move into family rules. So we return from I'm so special, I'm unique. I'm a I'm a black sheep and we move we come back to family. You'll often find mom's fit here really well. If you work with a lot of moms, you'll hear about family is the most important thing. And they're very selfless. They're very giving their marbles, right. They believe in process systems and steps if you're a strong family person, if you work in government, military, religion, schools, they all fit into this rule kind of category. Then we move into five, if you're an entrepreneur, like many of the PTS on here, maybe you are an achievement architect is what I call you. You're entrepreneurial, you're driven for money and achievement. You know, we associate words like hustle faster, stronger, easier, better. We're seeking a goal we're very goal oriented in this level. Grant Cardone, Gary Vee are examples that I can think of that are very achievement oriented. Then we go into level six, level six, we go from being very self motivated and as achievements to 10:00 Being very world motivated, we often have achieved a lot in our lives and fives were high achievers, who suddenly recognize that there has to be something else to this. We can't just achieve for the sake of achieving and doing it for ourselves, there has to be more to this. So we often come into spirit at this point. I kind of joke sometimes that this is often the people you'll find in Mexico doing Ayahuasca retreats, or going to Peru, and, you know, trying to find themselves trying to find God or their version of God. They often turn away from financial achievement at this point. So we achieved so much that we're like, I don't have to keep working for money anymore. And now we turn to like, what is spiritual like sound for us? John Lennon, Nelson Mandela are great examples of this. They're people who achieved a lot in their lives. And ultimately, we're like, it's not about the money. It's about how can I give back in my community? How can I impact then we go into sevens, sevens move again, from spiritual tools, it's about everybody. Sevens come back and go, well hold up. I haven't the money that I gave it away, and I found God. But now, why can't I find God and make money? 11:07 Why is that not a possibility. So they really want to make money, certainly with money, they really want to make money. And they want to have impact. They believe that they can do both. Tony Robbins, Oprah Russell Brand great examples of these humans. They're the ones that really have like, we have it all, and we're going to give it away in the celebration, it's affordable. So they're really trying to do better things with their money. And their opportunities and visions, number eights, these are harder to define. So the eights are the cosmic connections, these are Ascended Masters, these are the people that know and understand that we are living in quantum existence on multiple timelines, sometimes all at the same time, and that every single thing we do is affected by somebody else. So I'm in my hands. And this affects somebody else down the road, I write on an email, and like millions of people can be affected by the email I write. That's where the Cosmic Connection is. So what's important here, when we talk about making connection, and how does coffee really convert is, there's two things you need to understand what is the belief bubble that your client currently sits in? What is the belief bubble that you as the owner setting. And then just for bonuses, your business also sits in a belief bubble, your business has a belief system that it abides by, if you know those three things, you can write incredible copy, because we write to the client, and not to ourselves, which means that typically, so if I'm a five, if I'm a high powered entrepreneur, and I'm working predominantly with moms, and dads who are burnt out, they're family focused, but they are given at all for their kids, and there's nothing left for themselves. I need to write to them, I need to speak their language. I need to know how they speak about the problem, that they're experiencing, how they're experiencing it. And I need to reverberate those words back to them in the copy my language and their language may be different. We know this, right? A client may have a presenting problem they walk into your office with, and they use words like, you know, my back's sore, or my back's tender, or I can't lift my kids. And you might know that it's partially about those muscles in those numbers. But there might also be an emotional attachment that you have to deal with, there might be a traumatic injury that you have to deal with, or long term problem that you're trying to support, you know that the presenting problem is not the real problem. It's just what they're noticing. 13:47 We need to speak to the thing they're noticing, not to the thing they actually need help with what when we do that work is when they're actually our client, they trust us, they know that we understand them by speaking their language. And then the real work can be done. It's not lying to your client. It's called meeting them where they're at. So the best coffee meets our clients where they're at so we can take them where they need to go. Yeah, that was great. I took a lot of notes there. And so what I'm hearing the bottom line is know yourself, your business, your the values of your business, so that you're coming from a solid foundation, and then really understand your potential clients and really get deep into who they are, what they need. Maybe what they're fearful of what they like, dislike so that you can write to them from a solid from your own solid base. Exactly. You're using their language, your solid base is where they want to go. 14:53 We typically work with clients that are a belief below us or are just like during the same 15:00 We bubble but they're just, they're just underneath us in our beliefs, we have a belief and then we have a neurology. So what often happens is, for example, I tend to sit as I work with a lot of fives I work with a lot of entrepreneurs are really kind of trying to kill it in their business. But if I look at the five, their neurology is already in sixth, they're already starting to think more spiritual and about there has to be more to this, I'm thinking about impact. So they've got higher level neurology. But the problem is, their client is sitting in a poor potentially wanting to become a five, I have to meet them in the floor in the language where they first meet me. So the language where your client first meet to, in case you haven't figured it out yet, typically, it's your website and your social media, that's where your client first meets you. So it's super, super important that we speak their language, not necessarily our language, when we first meet them, once we get to know them, once they're involved in our processes a little bit more, once they've been part of things, I might offer a book that's more in my believable mind language for them. Because I know that they're going to work with me for a little bit, and we're going to get them there. But to start with, I have to meet them where they're at, they're not going to understand me, coaches are the worst for this, I'll use a great coaching example. Coaches will say things like I do quantum timeline therapy, or I'm somebody who does quantum releases or breakthroughs. Your client has no idea what that I was just gonna say. I don't know what that means at all. Exactly. And every coach who who does those things goes well die know what that means. But your client who has never worked as a coach has no clue what we're talking about. The same thing happens in PT, right? You have things that you know what this specific thing is, but if you said those words to client, a client, we go, excuse me, what? What is that? So we need to go okay, hold on to this, this complicated process that we do? How do we reframe it in a way that our clients can understand it? How, what is it in their life, and if it's as simple as a massage that releases your back pain, and allows you to functionally lift your children again, then that's the way you explain it, instead of a, you know, repetitive injury release tension system, whatever the whatever the phrase would be a BT, clearly, I'm not a PT, but you want to break it down to what are they saying? And how is this gonna relate to them. And the best tool you can do is if we go back to that love letter, languaging, rather than trigger them by being like, you're this problem. And this problem and this problem, if we then speak into the power of what they can create, by doing the work with us, that's better. So if I can say, I'm going to create the ability for you to keep up with your kids, lift them longer, have more energy and stamina to like, go three rounds in the bedroom at night, if you want. Whatever it is, if I use the language of what the outcome of working with you is, versus just the trigger of why they showed up in the first place, they're going to be much more likely to stay on board. The world is triggering enough. We don't need to see it in our coffee, we do need to show them that we understand them we feel their pain. But what we need to express more often than not, is what is the outcome of working with me, if you work with me, I will do X, you will feel x times better, you will have the ability to do X, Y and Zed that you couldn't do before. That is much more compelling than simply saying stop hoarding. 18:43 Right, right. 100%. Yeah, or just try and relax. 18:50 Right? That's another one that we hear a lot. It's like, never in the history of the world. Has someone relaxed by someone just saying we'll help you relax? Yeah, it's like, it's so like, What are you talking about? Is the ultimate oxymoron, right? Like, tell somebody the rocks and they're immediately gonna be like, 19:09 yeah, yeah. 19:13 I catch myself doing it too. Like, my like, word for kind of my mouth. And I'm like, Oh, that's not going to help the situation at all great. Just put in our coffee, we have a chance to be really clear and to really understand the belief system or climate, the understanding are going through. So if you're telling a busy mom to just relax, she's probably not going to be too receptive. However, if you tell her that she's going to be able to appreciate the moments with her family more by doing this work. That's a much more enticing and appealing approach to her. Yeah, no, that's a great example. Thank you for that. What advice do you have for folks who are trying to get there, whether it's their website 20:00 their social media or wherever copy may land. What advice do you have for them? If they're like, I just have no idea what to do here, like I? I am like, because, again, you'll hear again and again, I'm not a writer, I don't know what to say. So what advice do you have for people in that situation? 20:23 I mean, of course, the selfish thing to say here is, right, aside from hiring, right, right. Right from that, though, that the thing that I would say is this. Start with the understanding of the belief bubble that somebody's in, start by really listening to our clients, how do they talk about their presenting problem and mimic it back to them, the easiest thing you can do is your clients will tell you exactly what to write, because they're already telling you in clinical sessions with you, every single time, what is my problem? literally read it verbatim. And keep yourself a list. Oh, how many times did I hear mom say I can't look my kids. That's probably a problem that they're really interested in getting sorted out. How many times did I hear people say, I struggle to bend over and lift boxes? Okay, maybe I need to focus on the ability like functional movement and the ability to lift things. Functional Movement is jargon speak for us. But for client, the ability to lift boxes with ease? Are you kidding me, that's a great tool to start listening to your clients. If you want to write better. The second thing that you're going to do is honestly start following and paying attention to your numbers. How many of our emails get opened, how many things get clicks, how many people visit your website? How many people leave your website? How many people show up? Or how many people get your email and you get snarky responses back? Right? If you're finding yourself in a situation where a lot of your emails are short and snarky, you probably have a problem with writing love letters, you might want to check that out. But if we look at the numbers, the numbers don't lie. The numbers tell us important to the problem among our clients will literally tell us how to fix it. For me, there's two places I would always start, I would start updating your website, making your website in the belief bubble and language of your client. And I would have a look at your emails and see if there's a way that even with two or three sentences, you can make them more loving, kind and allow your client to be seen. And if you do those simple, two things are usually simple. But I obviously no, it's not recorded. But if you seriously take those things, and implement some minor changes to things, watch, your clients start to shift their ability to work with you their ability to show up to start being more vulnerable with you speaking more openly with you and really deeply connecting with you. And from there, they'll tell you exactly what to write. And if all else fails, then you come to somebody like me, and we start talking about the strategy behind it. But the simple solution to start emails and website, start there. I love it. And I love 23:19 that you said when you're listening to your clients, just jot stuff down, like make a list of things you're hearing over and over again, and then just put that on your website, or put that into an email. Yeah, I mean, it seems like a no brainer. But like, Why? Why did I not think of this? 23:41 And most of us don't, right? Like it goes in one way or the other. You might be doing an intake with a client and hearing them and they're talking about struggling to pick up their kids and you're busy reading, you know, they've got a lumbar problem or a back pain issue. You're putting it into your language, if you simply wrote down exactly what they said a few times over and you don't even have to do this for long like I'm talking like, take two or three days, like six or six or eight clients even and you'll start to hear repetitive patterns in your clients. You probably intuitively know then you've just turned them into PT speak. 24:18 So take them out of PT speak and put them back into client speak change site on your website. Make sure that your website itself is written like a love letter that it allows your client to feel seen and valued and heard. Give them the safe space it's not about you it's about them. So if your website has a lot of eyes in it, change it to WE ARE THEY ARE you it is not about you it is about them. So the number one tool after listening to your client is making a buy bomb. If your website currently is all about you and when you do, 24:50 flip the script, make it about them. 24:53 You are going to feel so much better when we work on your ability to 25:00 Let your kids know so much better than I help moms be able to lift their kids. Because that feels so impersonal. 25:09 Right? It was wanting to put that personality back into that love back into it. So if you do those couple of things, you're immediately going to start to see incremental conversion challenges where things are not challenging, but opportunities for you, where you're going to get more conversion. And then the next step is, of course, going in with a deeper strategy around how do we build all of your pieces together so that it's always about the client. It's always spoken from love. It's ethical, crappy, meaning that it's not triggering, it's really about pleasure for the person. So pleasure copy versus triggering copy is a great tool for people to be able to utilize. So pleasure copy is all about calling people in by giving them the real results and the inspiration that they're going to receive by doing the work with you. Because first and foremost, when we're purchasers, we want to know, what can you do for me? Not what's the like physical aspect, not the, like manipulation of my body, not the tools around mindset, we don't care about that stuff. It's not the how we're gonna get there. And so what am I gonna get? How am I going to do that? So that's what somebody actually wants. So I would say if you can go into pleasure, copy and writing pleasure, so don't trigger them, instead, inspire them, talk to them in Love Letter language, and speak in their belief system, not your own keys to converting and actually catalyzing conversation, which is truly the key to converting a man I mean, such great tips. I like I said before, I've been taking so many notes and thinking about Oh, does my website do this is it so now I'm gonna have to go do an an edit of my website. So thanks a lot for adding a little more work on to the plate. No, I'm just joking. It's good work. It's good work. It's good work. This was great. What? What would you like the audience to take away from this conversation concerning copy and how we can connect and how we can convert? And ultimately, because if we have a business, I mean, we do want to make money, right? We're not all in the world motivated, where, where we've made a whole bunch of money, and now we can give it away. But we do want to make money. And we do want to make an impact. So what what are the things that you want the audience to take away from? So I think the first thing is, know your beliefs. Know the beliefs of your client, know the beliefs of your business, right to your clients beliefs. First, knowing your beliefs is helpful, because it will, it will show you what the gap is between your beliefs and your clients beliefs. And that's important to understand because it's often about jargon or lingo, keep that out of your copy, speak to the pleasure, talk about the results you're going to create for their client and inspire them to live a life better than they currently have, by doing this work with you speak into that more than you speak into their pain, right? We're the life like literally triggering enough right now. Stop focusing on pain, instead, start focusing on the pleasure that they're gonna get working with you. And I finally move into love letter language. So love letter language is just taking a couple extra and this is rare for a copywriter to say, but add a couple sentences, show them that they're seen, show them that you hear them, allow them to be vulnerable with you by asking great questions that encourage that vulnerability from them. And you really utilize that and if all else fails after that, Kelly copywriter, that's what we're here for. But you can do this, it is completely possible to do your copy in a way that is fully aligned and a way that is loving to your client and immediately get to conversion. We only opt out by working with copywriters, but start doing it on your own. Everybody should do it on their own first and call us second. And speaking of hiring a copywriter where can people find you if they have questions or they want to hire you as their copywriter? Yes, sir. Absolutely. word magic. copywriting.com is my website. That's the best way to get a hold of me send me a smoke signal or a text message or whatever from Yeah, otherwise find me on Instagram at word magic, copywriting. Pretty simple. I'm always around. I've always got a free class coming up too. So there's usually a waitlist on my website to get into my next free class where I teach. And I talk about specifically how would you combine these things? And how do you how do you put it all together. So if you're interested in learning, you can always take one of my free classes. And then if you just want to hire me we can go that route as well. But I love it when people simply connect. And at the very least, I promise you if you sign up for my email newsletter, I send tips and tricks all the time. So if you 30:00 Want to do it on your own in small bits and pieces? That's a great way to perfect and we'll have links to everything crystal just said at podcast at healthy, wealthy smart.com under this episode, so one link, little quick click, and we'll take you to everything. So take her free class, follow her on Instagram and get the newsletter. Okay, Crystal last question. And so when I asked everyone, and that is knowing where you are now in your life and in your career, what advice would you give to your younger self? 30:37 Ooh, juicy questions, I would tell my younger self to follow your zone of genius first. And what I mean by that is I actually spent two decades as a live event professional. I was always a writer, I was a writer from the top, I could write, I won awards for it, I always wanted to write. And then I followed the money. And I wanted to advance and I kind of let my copywriting and my writing kind of slide a little bit. I mean, I was reading New York Times, bestsellers, and 16. Like it was brilliant. And I let it slide because the money was better in advance. And I slipped in and eventually became a zone of excellence. And I did it for two decades. But there was always a little piece of me that felt unfulfilled because I wasn't just a writer. And that's what I wanted. 31:29 And when I left the bounce, and just started writing, everything got easy. It was like I hit the easy button on my zone of genius and cerebral doing work, I was super passionate about stuff I loved. I got to you know, work in strategy and marketing, because copy is a lot about strategy and humans. So a lot of the work I did in advance actually magically comes into play and copy. But working in my zone of genius. I think from the get go, I would have changed everything for me, I would have felt so much more fulfilled, so much younger, and so much more let up by this work. 32:05 So yeah, I would have told my younger self to follow your love of writing. Follow your zone of genius first. What great advice crystal, thank you so much for coming on to the podcast and sharing all these tips and tricks to help us write better copy, whether that's on our website or our newsletters or our social media. So thank you so much. You're so welcome. Thank you and everyone. Thanks so much for listening. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy and smart. 32:38 Thanks for listening. And don't forget to leave us your questions and comments at podcast dot healthy, wealthy smart.com