191: Unchain Your Voice: Craft AI-Proof Copy

Foreign welcome to the Creators MBA Podcast, your go to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destiny Kopp and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business without the need to be glued to their desk constantly live launching or worrying about the social media algorithms. I hope you enjoy our episode today and my special guest today is Dr. Susie Cater. Susie is an acclaimed conversion copywriting expert with a background as a prize winning researcher, teacher and former academic. Since starting her business in 2017, she's helped thousands of business owners and creatives worldwide to own the power of their voices, light up their inspiration, and pour the beating heart of their brands into unforgettable copy that sells. And Susie, I am super excited to chat with you today. I love what you're doing and just so everybody knows who's listening here, Susie and I got started in our online businesses around the same time. Took us into those same courses way back. Way back when.

Yeah, Fear the Doubt.

So we've had a very similar journey here. We're both from academics. But Susie, before we get into all the questions I have for you, can you tell the audience just a little bit more about you and how you help people? Yes.

And thank you so much for having me here.

Real honor and a treat to get.

To chat with you about all of this. Yes. So I am an expert in conversion copywriting and in messaging and I basically help entrepreneurs and creatives really leverage the power of their voices to create evergreen copy that strengthens that online presence, makes them so much more memorable, and also just enables them to sell with a lot more ease in their businesses because they have evergreen copy working 247 to basically convince people of their brilliance and really showcase their authority. I think for me at the beginning it was really hard to own my authority in my copy and in my messaging and to really showcase my expertise. I had a lot of kind of mindset issues about that. I think that many of us are conditioned growing up in our in our professional context not to own our awesomeness because it's seen as kind of braggy or voiceful. And I think you can do that in a really ethical way that is not salesy or braggy at all. And that is really important, especially for entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities to showcase why we're great and why people should work with us if we want to earn money as business owners.

And I think you're bringing up a very good point and it's probably something that we don't talk about enough as women in these online businesses, when we're out there trying to communicate our expertise and we all have a lot of brilliance to move to the world, what are some mindset shifts we need to make to kind of get over that so we can communicate our brilliance?

Oh, my goodness. So running. I could. I think that one. I think we're definitely, you know, many of us are kind of recovering or still people pleasers, and we. I think what I see a lot is issues with people really kind of claiming the transformational value and impact of the work that they do with clients. That's probably the number one thing. To the degree that, you know, I've. I've edited testimonials for my client's website that they're doing website copy or whatever with me. I put their testimonials in, and multiple times it has happened where someone said to me, susie, I think you've over edited this testimonial. You know, you're making it sound like the client's saying more than they are. And I said, actually, the bit that you think I've over edited, I have not touched. Like, those were actually the things that your client said about you. And then it's almost like whiplash for the client where they're like, oh, really? So my client really is saying such wonderful things about me. So that's probably the most obvious example that I could give to you. When it comes to website copy, I think it's very important, especially in your homepages at the very top of your website pages, to kind of give a big, sexy promise about the transformations that you can create for people who take your course or work with you one on one. And really nailing that big, sexy promise is, I think, a sticking point for a lot of entrepreneurs. And I've worked, yeah, I've seen that happen in my web copy boot camp hundreds of times. That's always the big thing. The big sexy promise is a bit of a tricky one for people to nail down.

Well, let's dig into that a little bit more because I can tell you even from my own perspective, you know, when I was working with my business coach and we were going through some of the stuff on my sales page, my webinar, just for this launch that I'm going through right now. And that's one of the things she's like, you got to, you know, bring out that transformation a little bit more. I'm like, well, is. It's making me a little bit uneasy because I know what they can do, but, you know, it can Everybody do it. Is the question, am I, am I making too big of a promise? I think is what kind of my hesitation was there? And what would you say to somebody like me in that situation?

Yeah, I, I would probably suggest two things. I think one thing is really looking, really getting clear on kind of not just the immediate impact that you're having on people, but the ripple effect of your work kind of going downstream. What happens six months down the line. And so just to give you an example of my own having great website copy, like, that's great. Your website's going to be so much more impressive for people who are interested in working with you. But also down the line, you're pitching for summits, you are trying to position yourself to get media features, et cetera, et cetera. Like, you are going to have so much more confidence with the words to articulate the amazingness of what you do. And so that's sort of a ripple effect. And because, you know, I know you've worked with so many people, Destiny, and you know, actually looking at what have your clients gone on to do, asking them for that feedback, that's always super helpful. I'm a big believer in using your client's words as much as possible because that also helps you feel like, I'm not exaggerating, this is possible and you can also, you know, you can call it out as a possibility. So that's, I really believe that it's very important to write with integrity in our website copy. So I often say things like, let's just take a minute to think about what's better. Whatever it is the person's doing can help you create or could lead to like, what might that lead to for you? And you can miss the possibilities. And then it's not like you're like, I am going to make this happen. But I think you just emphasizing these are potential ripple effects and they're really positive. I think is a great way to do it because I'm with you. I don't love it when people go straight from, you know, I'll help you with your Instagram, social media to you're going to have a seven figure business and be lying on the beach every day like that. That to me is a bit exaggerated as a poet.

Right. And I think that's, you know, there's so much of that out there. I want to stay as far away as I possibly can. But I like what you said, actually, I love what you said about thinking about the ripple effects of their transformation and what you're doing to help them and what that's going to mean to them three months, six months, a year down the road. So I think that's a very important point and I wasn't thinking about it that way. I love that, you know, it's changing my mindset. I mean, that's a nice one.

Thing I often say is it's kind of like you're a guide taking somebody up a mountain path and you've been up and down this path so many times and you know what's at the top of the mountain and you know, some things that might come up for people along the way. But if your client's coming to you and they've never been up the mountain, it's kind of your job to be like, okay, well this is, you want to incentivize them and say, this is what's waiting for you up there, like this, this can be possible. And sure, maybe there will be some other things along the way that might be, you know, that you might worry about. But you know, just kind of recognize that they, they sometimes really, they don't know what they don't know. Right. Like they really can't see it. And, and you're almost doing a work disservice if you don't paint the picture for them because otherwise how are they ever going to get up the mountain?

I love that I'm going to switch gears on you just a little bit. And you know, we've been in this online space for many years now and I do think some things have changed. Well, you know, especially here recently. Right. With the impact of AI. So can you walk me through your thoughts on what has changed and how AI is kind of changing the way that we communicate and do our copy and all that good stuff.

Yeah, gosh, great question. I think so many, you know, I'm, I'm a naturally very suspicious person of most technology related things. My husband absolutely loves them and is like super into chat gbc, but I am not. But nonetheless, I will say I do think AI can be very helpful sometimes for brainstorming. But when it comes to expressing your thought leader message, really owning the uniqueness of who you are, the story you're bringing to the table, the background you're bringing to the table, all those points of connection that your ideal clients are going to feel with you, like those things that AI can't do. And I think that that's why I often focus a lot on messaging, not just copy, because maybe the AI can write copy, but it cannot help you really own your Uniqueness. It cannot draw out of you the unique touch points, the unique experiences that you've had in your past that you're bringing to the table, that it's really time for you to own more if you want to connect with people and sell to people. I remember one of my clients, you know, she had. This was a while ago, but we wrote copy for her launch. She was a business coach. There are a lot of business coaches out there. And the thing that she told me that she took away most from our work together, it. It wasn't the copy strategies I use, even though it ended up being her most profitable launch. It was that she said, I really realized I wasn't souring enough of me in any of my copy. And I thought I was that. But there were so many parts of my story that I was never talking about, all my expertise that I wasn't showcasing, and that really made the hugest difference to me. So I think if people are relying entirely on AI for the copy, it almost makes it easier for the rest of us to stand out in a way, because that's where we can really bring in the power of our personality from. From our background, our story, our experience, to even small things like little celebrity references about TV shows we watch that our audience probably loves, too.

I love that. I want to dig into this a little bit more because I think this is important. I think probably everybody listening can learn from what you're saying here. So what exactly does being a thought leader mean to you? But let's take it a step further. How do we incorporate that thought leadership into what we're doing, whether we're doing a launch or just, you know, sending out our weekly newsletter? So what would you suggest to us? There's.

I talk about quite a lot, and one of the biggest things I always say, first of all, is thought leadership does not have to look like it did. Maybe for you traditionally, as you were growing up or having your career, thought leadership can be fun. It doesn't have to be heavy. It doesn't have to be serious. It doesn't have to be you making all these very deep and meaningful and heavy statements about the future of the entire industry. It can be something light, it can be something enjoyable. And sometimes even just showing up as ourselves can really inspire people. You know, I think what often actually, I know from. From my own experience, there were certain elements in my background that I had some shame around, like. Like moving from academia into starting my own business. You know, was I failing because I was bailing on this 12 year career that I'd had in academia. And I actually realized after it's a while of being in the online business world that so many people found that inspiring. That thing that I thought was kind of a failure. There were so many other people out there who've also left corporate jobs, academic jobs, other very high status jobs to do their own business, maybe because of caregiving responsibilities, maybe because they were burnt out, maybe for some other reason and just staring. Things like that can really mean a lot to your audience. So I hope that answered your question.

No, no, it absolutely did. And I love basically what you're saying is it's just really sharing our story, even if we think our story is not particularly exciting because look at my life. I'm like, my life is so boring. Why would anybody want to know anything about my.

I think 90% of us feel that way.

But I love what you're saying is basically just sharing the little thing that aren't necessarily that earth shadowy, but it just matching at people.

Yes, exactly. And I think that's opening so many doors and open it in people's minds about what can be possible. Oh, this person, you know, something cool for me was that another person who I'd been doing my PhD with and that I knew from academia, just from me sharing my story, she decided to do the same thing and start her own business. And I was like wacko. That's really cool that I got to inspire her in that way. And even, you know, I talk about being an introvert, being a highly sensitive person and even things like that I think to some people in my audience are very inspiring because I think sometimes us introverts feel as if we can't do a lot of things that you know, we see extrovert people doing. So it can be very nice for people to see you doing like a bit more of a chill, introvert, friendly business model. That can mean a lot to people too.

I love that and I'm going to put myself in that category. I'm definitely a very, very strong introvert.

So a long time. So good.

Now, Susie, before we wrap it up here, do you have any last minute tips for the audience?

Oh, last minute tips. Well, I think maybe one thing I will say is, you know, we were talking about those big sexy promises earlier, right. I think something I found super helpful. It's often easier to talk about pain points of our audience. I'm not a super big fan of doing, you know, having very pain point heavy copy. But a good way to start if you're feeling really stuck for talking about the promises and the transformations you can create is to make a list of pain points. Make a list of the pain points of your potential audience that you think are true. Then go through it carefully and scratch out any pain points that you actually don't want to be dealing with. Because almost all of us will do a pain point list for our ideal clients and then we'll be like, I don't want them to. I don't want to help people with this particular problem anymore. So go through, edit it and then once you've edited it, flip it to promises. So like, flip the pain points into promises. That can be a really helpful way to quickly make your language more positive. And another way to think as well with big sexy promises is you can do different ones, right? Like you can do tangible ones. You can talk about how people will feel, emotional ones. Or you can talk kind of big picture soul yearning, like what are their dreams that this is connecting to? And you will kind of intuitively be drawn to people who are, maybe I'm more emotional or maybe more tangible or maybe do you have that big picture yearning? And you can kind of hit all of that. But just think about your people. Like, who are you most attracted to? Are you attracted to working to clients who, you know, they want to make a quick ROI from that copy, or is it more they really want to own the power of their voices and their expertise and their authority and then you can kind of write more towards that person. I hope that makes sense.

It absolutely does. And I've never done that exercise before, but now I'm like, I really want to go do it. Like I want to drop everything. I'm can't go do it. So I think that's a really, really good tip. So thanks for sharing that. And Susie, can you let folks know where they can find you and you have a free gift for them also?

Yes. Well, thank you so much. So a great place to find me is my website, SuzieKater.com I will spell that S U Z Y C a t e r.com and you can take my I have a quiz which is hugely popular. What's your wealth Creating messaging personality quiz. And it will give you a customized messaging game plan that suits your intuitive messaging style. So you're not feeling as if you're shoehorning yourself into a messaging strategy that is not aligned with who you are. I also have my 4ps of personality packed copy cheat sheets, which is another very popular freebie that will help you corner more personality into it and have a bit more oomph using the power of who you are and how you like to talk.

And we I will make sure that all of those links are in the show notes Susie, so everybody knows where they can find you. And thank you so much for joining me today. I absolutely loved our conversation.

Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.

Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you love the show, I'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day and bye for now.