TCC Podcast #387: Rethinking Your Client’s Experience with Jason Friedman

Most copywriters and content writers don't give much thought to the client experience beyond getting the information you need to start a project and handing off the copy at as you wrap up. But that's a mistake. The client experience you create can be a huge differentiator for you and your business. Our guest for the 387th episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast is Jason Friedman. And what he shared about creating a unique experience for your clients is a total game changer—especially if you want to work with high-end clients. Click the play button below, or scroll down for a full transcript. Stuff to check out: Jason's Offer for Copywriters The Copywriter Club Facebook Group The Copywriter Underground Full Transcript: Rob Marsh: When is the last time you thought about your client’s experience—that is, the experience of working with you from their perspective? What does it feel like to work with you? What are they excited about? Where do they get lost? What do they get and how does that feel? Most copywriters don’t give it a lot of thought to this beyond working out how to get the information you need to start the work and maybe what you deliver to your clients when you’re done writing. Although, if you just deliver a google doc, you probably haven’t thought about that at all. Hi, I’m Rob Marsh, one of the founders of The Copywriter Club. And on today’s episode of The Copywriter Club Podcast, my co-founder, Kira Hug, and I interviewed customer experience consultant Jason Friedman. We talked in depth about what it takes to make the customer experience special. And how it is one of the few things you can do to truly differentiate your business from the other two million copywriters out there in the world. I know this is a big promise, but this episode has several ideas that will practically guarantee clients work with you again and again.  But before we get to that, if you’ve been listening to this podcast for long, you’ve no doubt noticed a recurring theme… how do copywriters and content writers find clients TODAY. Shortly after we launched The Copywriter Club, we created a special report with a bunch of ideas for finding clients and shared it with the world. I recently took a week to rework and revise that report… it now includes more than 21 different ideas for finding clients… some of which you can use today and possibly attract a client in the next 24 hours. Some of the other ideas will take longer to bring in clients. But they all work. We’ve either used them ourselves, or know other successful copywriters who have used each one of these ideas. And we want to give you this report for free. This isn’t a one page pdf that will get lost in your downloads folder. It’s comprehensive… 36 idea filled pages… including the 4 mistakes you can’t afford to make when looking for clients—if you make them, clients will not work with you. It also includes more than 21 ways to find clients, several templates for reaching out to clients, and finally the five things you need to do to improve your odds of landing a client. If you want a copy of this report, visit thecopywriterclub.com/findaclient. And with that, let’s go to our interview with Jason. Kira Hug: All right, Jason, let's kick off with your story. Let's start with your time working with bands and touring with bands. Let's start there and then move towards today, because I really want to talk about your time working in the music industry. Jason Friedman: Absolutely. Well, yeah, so, you know, my background, I was a theater nerd, right? Like, so I went to school for theater. I started doing theater when I was like eight, nine years old at summer camp. And it was just, it was always backstage. So lighting, set design, things like that. And I remember I had just got the bug, like I wanted to be a rock and roll roadie for Rush specifically. And it was like, I remember I got introduced to them by a friend of mine and I was like that nerd. Like I opened the CD case, if you even know, people listen to this, but you don't even know what a CD is, right? But you open the CD case and on the album jacket, it said Lighting Box.  And so there was a company name there. I was like, I'm going to work for that company and I'm going to go on tour with Rush and I'm going to do this. And over the years, I've just been doing shows and doing performances of all these different things. And when I got out of school, I had the opportunity to do anything. Right. So what did I do? I sent my resume in and I went on an interview with that company and they hired me. And it wasn't all glamorous. I worked in the shop. I was coiling cables and washing things and just doing all the grunt work.  But one day came and they said, hey, you want to go out on the road? And I went out with Fleetwood Mac. And it was a small summer tour. It was only like 10 stops, but I was a roadie officially. Like I went out on a rock tour and it was awesome. And then I went out with Rush, which was my dream. And I also went out with Peter Gabriel as a tour and a variety of other smaller groups that probably most people don't know. But it was this culmination of setting that intention and having that kind of clarity of goal and just knowing that you're going to do it. And yeah.  And so it was a wild journey, being out on the road, doing those shows, like being in a situation where you are playing to an audience, right? We all do this in our businesses. We all have an audience. We have customers, we have prospects, but being in that environment where everyone is in a concert, we get there hours earlier, we're tailgating, we're sitting there, we're listening to the songs. We're so excited about what's going to happen.  What would happen if your customers were doing that with your business? They showed up early getting in the mood to learn from you or work with you or do something. And then when they're there, all the problems in the world fade away and they are so present and they're so involved and they're engaged and they're on their feet, they're dancing, they're jumping, they're singing along, they're sharing your words and singing your song for you. And then at the end, they go crazy with the standing ovation.  I grew up with that over and over and over again. It's intoxicating, right? And so being with these groups, you learn this. It's like the Mr. Miyagi, wax on, wax off. You start to see the things, the techniques, the tactics that you use that elicit that kind of response night after night with new people, different audiences, different crowds, how you get them that level of engagement. It was pretty cool. And for the people on the team, the employees, there's no better place to work than when you're creating that kind of joy and excitement and engagement with people.  So you see the front stage, what's going on with the customers and the backstage, what's going on with the team. And it was amazing. So I started there and then I went on to do some more legit theater. So Fiddler on the Roof, Jesus Christ Superstar, Man of La Mancha, same experience, right? Night after night, getting those audiences to have that kind of experience and have that transformation and playing a role, it was super fulfilling, super exciting. Rob Marsh: So while we're talking about that part of your career… that gets me thinking. Obviously, the experience is everything, but there's so much behind the scenes that goes into creating the experience. I mean lighting is just part of it, right? And as you're talking about it, I'm thinking about the message that we have as copywriters—or whatever businesses we're running—is a little bit like the music. We sit down, the musician sits down, writes a song, But then all of this other stuff has to happen to create an experience that is amazing. So talk just a little bit about the elements of how that all comes together. And obviously, the interest is in how you put together a rock concert for someone like Rush or U2 or whatever. But I really want to apply this to my business. What are those elements that I need to be thinking about in order to create an awe experience? Jason Friedman: Yeah. I love the question. Let me just start off by saying, like defining what I think experience is. So we have a frame of reference to level set, right? So, when I think of the word experience, experience is not something you do. Experience is something that someone has. It's not the cause, it's the effect, right? So experience in my mind, a customer experience, it's the result of all the things you've done, right? That allows the customer to feel something. So experience is a customer's perception of the interactions that they've had with your brand, with your business, with your copy, with whatever it is, right? It's a feeling and it's their perception of that feeling.  It changes based on where they start, right? If I come in and I'm having a horrible day, you're starting with me from a very different place than if I came just off that rock concert and I'm on a high, right? And part of understanding all of these things is how do we bring people in? What is that onboarding, if you will, that gets people in? And how do we look at our different customers or different avatars or personas who are going to be interacting with us, and understanding how to meet them where they are? It's not a one size fits all approach. And most businesses, most organizations, we kind of treat people that way, which is like, oh, here's the journey. And here's how people are going to come into our world. And we just assume it's going to be a fit for everybody.  So as we think about this, as you think about your copy, I'm not a world-class copywriter. I wish I was, but I know enough that I try to paint pictures with words. And I try to use as many senses as I can trigger and interact with. And I do that in my copy, but I do that in my business. And so I think about how do I?