Ep 239: Stop Writing Like Everyone Else: Copy Tips That Actually Get You Clients with Copywriter Emily Aborn

Emily Aborn’s writing journey started at age six when her grandmother gave her a blank book and told her it was for her first novel.  But Emily never wrote in it because she felt like that novel had to be perfect.  That’s a story that anyone who’s ever struggled with perfectionism in their content can relate to.

In this episode, Emily shares why copywriting success is not about perfection.  It’s about connection, clarity, and curiosity.

Emily Aborn is a seasoned copywriter, content creator, and podcast host who helps entrepreneurs craft messaging that reflects their personality and drives action. With over eight years of experience, she’s developed a unique process for helping clients find and use their true brand voice.

WE ALSO TALKED ABOUT

• The surprising difference between content writing and copywriting and why it matters for your business
• How to get people to stay on your website with clear, benefit-driven messaging
• The importance of curiosity in connecting with your audience
• Emily’s transition from content writing to persuasive website copy
• Tips for using AI as a collaborator, not a crutch
• How visibility through collaboration, not just SEO, boosts trust and reach
• Why niching is less about narrowing and more about clarity
• Using AI tools ethically while staying true to your own voice
• The power of coffee chats and real human connections for growing your business

Tune in and learn how to craft copy that clicks with your audience.

Get regular access to tips, techniques and advice from experts about growing your business
👉 https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• • Emily’s website: emilyaborn.com
  • Emily’s podcast: Content with Character
  • Donald Miller’s book StoryBrand (affiliate link)

My newsletter is for people who need a way to make money from home so they can build a better life for themselves and their families:
👉 https://onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter

_____________

Trudy Rankin is the host of the Online Business Launchpad Podcast, Director of West Island Digital and the founder of the Online Business Lift-Off program.

Affiliate Disclaimer: If you click on links on this page and then make a purchase, I may earn a commission (at no extra cost to you).  I am a proud affiliate of these resources because I use them in my own life and business.

TRANSCRIPT

Episode 239: Stop Writing Like Everyone Else: Copy Tips That Actually Get You Clients with copywriter Emily Aborn

Trudy Rankin: That moment says everything about Emily, Aborn’s lifelong relationship with words and the perfectionism that so many of us wrestle with as content creators. In this episode, we have a look at what separates content writing from copywriting and how understanding that difference can really improve your website’s ability to convert. Emily shares simple but powerful ways to get people to stick around on your site. Why benefits beat features every time. And how curiosity plays a key role in successful messaging.

Plus, we dig into how to use AI ethically and intelligently without letting it steal your voice. Now, Emily Aborn isn’t just a copywriter. She’s a storyteller who brings brands to life with words. With years [00:01:00] of experience writing for diverse industries and running her own podcast, she has a deep understanding of what makes people pay attention, take action and remember your message. So if you’ve ever struggled to make your writing connect, this episode is going to help.

Welcome to the Online Business Launchpad podcast. I’m Trudy Rankin and I help people who need a flexible work from home option grow the online side of their business so that they can earn more, stress less and have greater freedom in how they live.

Today I have Emily Aborn with me.

And Emily is a podcaster and a copywriter, and I have got so many reasons that I wanted to talk to her that I, when I reached out to her on PodMatch and asked her if she would be on my podcast, I was delighted when she said yes. So Emily, thank you for saying yes, and for being on my podcast. 

Emily Aborn: Trudy, thank you so much for having me and inviting me to be on your podcast.

I love PodMatch for this very reason we get to meet people all over the world and the best of the best. 

Trudy Rankin: Absolutely. PodMatch is great. I [00:02:00] won’t do an ad here, but it really is good. If you’re looking for podcast guests, PodMatch is great. But Emily, one of the reasons that I did reach out to you is that you, you are a copywriter.

And these days, some people who are in the copywriting space or in the writing space, freelance writing space, or even in the online business space, if they’ve been using their words to try and help support themselves in their business, it’s not that easy of a time at the moment. Can you just give us a little bit of a background to who you are, how you got into copywriting, and where you got to where you are today?

Emily Aborn: Okay, sure. My journey is a little rambly, but I, I know how to abbreviate it now. I’m pretty good at it. Funny enough, I actually did not go to school for copywriting. I went to school for something I was just curious about, which was human health and nutrition. And I think my goal was to kind of like be a teacher in that area.

However, I have always, like, writing has always been my thing. My grandmother, when I was like six years old, she gave me this [00:03:00] blank book and she’s like, this is for your first novel. You know, and like wanted me to fill it out, which I didn’t, ’cause I, it had to be perfect and I could never figure out the perfect first novel.

But fast forward to when I was actually in college, like writing papers, doing book reports, all of that, always my favorite. Did I listen to that call? No, I just kept on going on this health and wellness track that I proceeded to do virtually nothing with. I did do copywriting at a sports company for a little while and I didn’t even really know that was a role I was filling.

I just knew what my job was. So it’s all very humorous when I look back on it. When I started to get into like the actual career space, I started working for a lot of health and wellness practitioners. Eventually my husband and I opened a mattress store, which I justified it. I’m like, it has to do with sleep.

And sleep is so healthy for us, right? And it’s like it was all non-toxic and organic, like home products and stuff. So we did that together for [00:04:00] five years. And when we were deciding, okay, this is not actually the path either of us want to choose. I had to think about what I was going to be doing next. And I had a fantastic business advisor at the time who really helped me get outta my own way of being like stuck in that little store, which I went to day in, day out.

And that was pretty much all I did. And she really helped me to look at the things I loved doing. Like all of those threads that have followed me throughout my life. And it was really always like, it always had to do with writing and it was. In this instance like writing for marketing. So I just said, you know what?

I’m going to just try it. I’ll just put that out there that I’m offering to do people’s newsletters and blogs and social media. I started with that stuff, uh, ’cause it was comfortable for me and I, I started getting clientele and so I remember at one point my husband had been like, you know, you should probably start like looking for jobs and stuff.

I was like I have 13 paying clients right now, so I don’t think I’m going to be doing think, I’m just going to [00:05:00] see how this goes. So it, I will say the evolution of going from just like the, I I would call it content writing to actually copywriting, like switching gears to mostly website copy with some content mixed in.

But that’s like my primary focus. That was a little bit of a lengthier transition, but it all sort of happened in like, an eight year, I, I guess I’ve been doing this for eight years now on paper. Uh, that was a pun and serious. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, so, so you’ve been practicing your craft for a while.

That’s kind of interesting that you mentioned the transition between content writing and actual copywriting. ’cause they are two completely different things, and I don’t think everybody realizes that that’s the case. Do you want to just maybe just really quickly do a compare and contrast between the two?

Emily Aborn: Sure, and I’m so happy you asked because a lot of people, even some of my clients, they think that copywriting is like that little c at the [00:06:00] bottom of your website. So while what we create is copyrighted or copywritten due to subject to copyright, however that what you said, it’s a copywriter is the person who’s actually writing the words on your website, and they are very close, like both of the goal is to really create the bridge between the client and the business, but with copywriting, like a actual website copy, you’re really getting people to take some sort of action. Like that is the primary goal. Whereas content, there’s a huge, there’s kind of like nurturing content, educational content, right?

You’re not always trying to drive action. Sometimes you are. But, so that’s kind of the distinction there is like, we’re always thinking about (A), the end user and what action do I want them to take? How do I want them to feel? So it’s kind of like a lot of question asking. And it’s usually I can’t say it is shorter or longer because actually I’ve seen some sales pages that I’m like, this thing is [00:07:00] eternal.

Trudy Rankin: Yes. Yeah. I, I, I have to confess that writing website copy is not my strong suit. I’m much more into the newsletter side of things, so I’m curious whether you see that as falling on the content side or the copy side. 

Emily Aborn: Yeah, so that’s a great example of both because in a newsletter you’re trying to get somebody to take action, right.

But I think when it comes to like specifically website copy, there’s a very patterned way that we move through a website. Like we all are sort of doing very similar things when we move through people’s sites. It’s easier to just be like, okay, this is typically how people are going to use your site. In a newsletter you, it’s like your people, right? You’ve already got them in your world. They trust you, they’ve given you their email address, so there’s already some buy-in, and now you are looking to be really like conversational with them and just show them you while you also show them themselves. So I find in my emails.

And I would imagine you can relate that it’s a blend of [00:08:00] both. Like sometimes I’m like educating and then sometimes I’m like, here, do this thing. 

Trudy Rankin: So I’m curious because, ’cause we’re, we’re going to talk about a, a few different topics today, but one of the things that I think, perhaps maybe it’s just me that struggles with it, but what would you say is the number one thing that gets people to come to a website page and stay.

Emily Aborn: I think speaking right to the person who is on the page. And that means you have to know the person who is on the page. And actually, I’m not even talking about like high level, like, you know, I work with lawyers or doctors or veterinarians. Like, I mean, going a little bit deeper, like what keeps these people up at night.

And I love bringing in specific things that maybe get somebody’s like sense of humor engaged or it. Either way, it’s just very specific and they’re like, oh my gosh, I go through this too. Or I know exactly what you’re talking about. [00:09:00] So whatever we are writing, and even you and I on this podcast right now, I try to think of like, okay, I’m just talking to one other person because that’s at any given time, like unless there’s like a giant group huddled around your computer screen, which

it’s very rare, you are always only speaking to one other person. So I think that’s how we get people’s attention. We don’t say like, Hey you guys, hey everyone calling all veterinarians. We want to speak right, right to them. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah.

So falling on from what you said about, you know, you have to basically speak out to people in such a way that they, they sort of recognize themselves. Let’s assume that you do really deeply understand and know them. How do you actually get them to be, curious enough to go, yeah, I recognize myself.

Okay, now I’m going to stay and I’m going to see what they have to say. 

Emily Aborn: Yeah, so it kind of depends on the business, um, and what you’re actually [00:10:00] trying to get them to do. But this is where like headlines do a lot of the heavy lifting because people tend, this is typical, this is not every single person. I tend to read website copy very in depth, but I’m also, that’s something really interesting to me, you know?

But most people are just kind of like skimming a page quick and saying, okay, what is the benefit here, what is the outcome I’m going to get? Like what’s in it for me? So using your headlines to kind of guide people to where you want them to go and what they can expect in each section. That’s where you can actually have either a lot of fun or just be really, really direct and be like, this is for you if X, Y, Z, you’re going to get these outcomes. This is the benefit of this thing. And I always find that. While we love the features of what we offer, like I love, I could, I love all the 10 things that are in my website, copywriting package. I want to tell you about all of the [00:11:00] things you’re going to get when you work with me.

People don’t want all of that. They want to know the benefit to them. They want to know how they’re going to feel afterwards. So really thinking about that like, okay, do people need to know like the entire dissertation here, or do they just need to know how they’re going to feel after and chances are. You have people who are going to ask every single question and do want to know all of that.

And it just may not be that you stick that on your homepage, right? You may have an FAQ section or an about section or particular services page. So there’s just so many different places and you kind as the business owner, we have to think about like, okay, where am I taking people to next? Right?

Where do I want them to go from here? What’s the next step after that? And really kind of like user experience, backtrack it a little bit and think that through. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, so, I mean, I absolutely agree about the whole, you want to talk about benefits instead of features. It’s easy to say that, and it’s not always that easy to do.

How long did it [00:12:00] take you? Maybe it was quick. Um, but how long did it take you to make the switch between Okay, I’m describing all the features to No, no, no. I actually need to understand the psychology of this. Flip it on its head and then describe it in ways that people recognizes, okay, that’s going to be good for me.

Emily Aborn: I’d say that was the hardest part and, and probably the longest process for me. I don’t have an exact number, but I’ll tell you this. My, the evolution has been huge. I used to, I started with the book StoryBrand by Donald Miller, which is a fine book. Totally fine, but it’s a very distinct framework and it puts you into, while you are still making the customer the hero, you use a lot of pain points.

So you speak a lot to people’s pain points. I started kind of saying, you know what, that’s great and all, but right now, pain point marketing is so overdone and we’re like, yeah, we know. We get it. Like we’re in it so we [00:13:00] don’t want to feel any more of it. Please show us what it’s going to be like on the other side.

So I think it was in making that shift that I started to say, well, how is it going to feel on the other side? And a lot of my clients, they still want to include all of the features and they’ll push me and I’m like, you know what? This is not the spot for it. Like, I want us to include that, but we’re not going to put it here.

So I kind of show them like the advantage. And I just do it like every feature someone gives me or every, part of their course, we just ask ourselves, why does this matter? What is in it for me? What is in it for me? Every single bullet point in that, 20 bullet point checklist that they give you, why does this matter?

What is the person going to experience on the other side of this? And that’s kind of like, if you want to do it yourself, that’s kind of like the process I would go through. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, because for me, like I had a struggle going through that mindset shift as well, and I’ve discovered working with my clients that is one of the biggest things that [00:14:00] they struggle with because it’s so easy and so natural to go, Hey, I can help you this way, I can do this, I can do this, I can do, it’s all about me, me, me, me, me instead of being

actually, it’s all about you. How are you thinking about it? How can I reassure you that what’s there for you is actually going to be good for you? And that is, that’s tricky. It does get into psychology. It does get into kind of a little bit of a level of emotional intelligence that can be hard to get to.

Any tips for, for making that leap, that change, that switch? 

Emily Aborn: I, I want to touch on that. You gave me one other thing to think about or to throw in here too. While we’re talking about keeping people’s attention and sharing our services and our products, you want to keep it if I were to do an email, right, that was like, here’s all the 10, 15 different ways to work with me.

Like I, I would love to do that ’cause I’d love people to be like, wow, I didn’t know she did all of these things. But it’s important to remember to keep things like super simple and put them in the right [00:15:00] spots, you know, and that’s a common mistake. Uh, you want to have all 20 of your meticulous services listed out.

It’s like, just give them one thing at a time. Like one newsletter gets one call to action, right? One website page gets one call to action. But you talked about making the switch into emotional intelligence, and I actually think it ties in with something you and I discussed, which is curiosity. Like I would invite you if to get really, really curious about the people that you’re working with and really, really curious about yourself and how you kind of bridge that gap.

And curiosity does not come naturally to every single person. It doesn’t always occur to you to ask questions, but it is so super fundamental in copywriting. Like my poor clients, they know Emily is coming. When I have like 20 questions, I will ask them usually all in one. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. And I’m smiling a little bit because it’s the same for with quizzes, if, especially [00:16:00] the copy around a quiz.

If you want people to take a quiz, you’ve got to have something that’s going to pique their curiosity before anybody will even look at a quiz. So the copywriting around that curiosity based copywriting is really, really important. I think it’s critical. And like we said, I think it’s one of the hardest things to actually get to.

As a writer, as a copywriter, as somebody who’s marketing, however you’re doing it, if you’re using your words to try and attract people, you’ve got to make that mindset shift. Um, I do, I do have a couple of other questions. I’ll, I’ll get to this one first. Well, it’s going to introduce the next topic, but we all know that AI is here to stay. It has fundamentally shifted the ground. Things are, are very different these days, but one of the things that I’ve been learning about and talking to people about and explaining about to clients and in my newsletters has been that when it comes to being found through AI search,[00:17:00] 

you actually need to be really visible. You need to have high visibility. What are some of the ways that people, or business owners or people who use their writing to make a living can actually increase visibility and connect with people better? 

Emily Aborn: Ooh, I have so many, and some of them don’t even involve being like on search engines and social media and stuff.

But let’s start with your AI question ’cause I recently asked, I think it was Claude, I asked like, what do I, because I’m considering doing an episode on this. I said, what do I need to do to be like, recommended by you Claude, as a copywriter in let’s just say New England? ’cause that’s a nice small geographical area for me.

And some of the tips it gave back were things, you know, like having your Google Business Profile, having a really good message on your website that is consistent, having consistent messaging throughout [00:18:00] everything you’re doing. The other one, which Google likes this too. Is having interlinks from different people.

So when you share this episode, it benefits both of us. If I link out to your show from my website, it says, oh, Emily’s website is legit. She’s linking out to other legit websites. Let’s give Trudy and Emily like a little like boost, right? And the other one was being an expert or an excellent kind of business owner in one particular area, which comes to the dreaded word, which is niching.

And like, whether you do it or whether you don’t, there are all different types of ways to niche your business down. I personally niche by my ability to find brand voice. So like that’s kind of like I’m helping people who want personality and voice in their copy. That’s kind of my niche ’cause I’m like, I actually really like working with a lot of different industries, but being known for [00:19:00] something in your industry as the one who does it really, really, really well, you just want to keep talking about that thing over and over and over again.

That’s like one of the secret sauces, to getting found by AI. So that’s like just things I’m learning. I have yet to really go too heavy in that direction. But you asked some other ways that we can be more visible and I like, when I had that retail business, that mattress store. We sort of hit this point where I was like sales are not increasing.

And I don’t really know what else to do. Like I’m part of the chamber, you know, I got my blog, I have really good website, SEOI send an email newsletter. I’m I advertised in, news, newspapers and magazines. I just didn’t really know, like, alright, how else do I increase visibility? One of the things I learned in doing that was the power of collaborations to increase our visibility, which this, what you and I are doing right now is a [00:20:00] collaboration.

It’s, in my opinion, it’s anything one plus one equals bigger than one. Like you and this conversation has never happened before, and we’re coming together. We’re both giving something. So like after this episode goes live, I’m going to share the episode that helps your listeners. I’m hopefully helping your listeners with what I have to share.

And we’re all winning here. It’s actually win, win, win. So collaborations, they don’t just have to be podcast guesting. They could be joint what’s it called? Guest blogging or guest writing for somebody. They could be something where in your newsletter you are doing like an event or a summit with somebody and you’re both sharing about each other back and forth.

I love just like giving a spotlight to people on social media, like that’s a great way to collaborate. And then there are industries which lend themselves perfectly to brilliant collaborations that you can rinse, repeat, and do again and again and again. For example, copywriting [00:21:00] and website design or copywriting and branding, like those two go so hand in hand, a health coach and an acupuncturist, right?

A therapist and massage therapist for example. Like they’re always going to be doing things that are along the same veins and it gives them so much opportunity to collaborate. So no matter your industry, I would encourage you to think of like three other people who would make good collaborators for you and put your heads together and see what you can come up with.

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, I love collaborating because that, in my experience, you are so right. It’s a really great way, not just to make other people, more people aware of who you are and what you do, but it’s also a great way to learn new skills and to…

Emily Aborn: Oh, yeah.

Trudy Rankin: …learn stuff. It’s been really, it’s been a good thing.

I like collaboration a lot. It can, it can be a little iffy because if you don’t get the groundwork right for it, or if you pick the wrong collaborator, it can be painful. But if you can get it right, it’s really, [00:22:00] really good. I want to delve a little bit more, or before I do ask that, have you got any other ways you want to share, in terms of that whole visibility and connection?

Emily Aborn: Yeah. The other one I like to just touch on is just like good old fashioned coffee chats. I mean, I can’t even tell you. So I went through like this phase where I like turned all those down, left and right and when I started opening back up to it again, I was like, oh, right, this is why I did this. Because those can, whether it be, you know, it doesn’t have to be a one-to-one coffee chat, like everybody has something that makes them uncomfortable and uncomfortable.

I don’t love like really big events. I like small, kind of cozy group events. Or like a coffee chat or something like this where you and I are having a conversation and like, yes, other people are listening, but they’re not sitting right in front of us. Right. Or a workshop kind of setting.

That’s just like the connection bucket and it’s like, what other ways am I making connection with people out in my community, [00:23:00] out in the world, apart from like, I know in your intro you talk about wanting to help people build sustainable at home businesses without like making that be their entire, you know, they want more time to live their lives.

So how can I do this without posting more on social media, right. Without giving my life away to try to get the SEO on my website? Absolutely perfectly. Connection can happen at the grocery store. You can be in line without your phone in your hand playing your Wordle or whatever, and you can actually have a conversation with the person next to you and it can open up so much possibility.

So don’t discount simple coffee chat, networking event, you know, your kids’ soccer game, whatever the case may be. Those are really, really important. Places that I think we forget about.

Trudy Rankin: Actually that’s true. And that whole need for human connection, I think is even more important now than it was even just a few years ago.

Really, really important. And yeah, so, so I now want to move a [00:24:00] little bit deeper into into that wider context of where we are in the world of AI right now. Because as I mentioned to you, um, earlier, before we started recording, actually, one of my audiences is freelance writers, people who are trying to use their words to make a living.

And it’s been brutal. 2025 was a brutal year, just watching and listening to what was happening to people. And it was interesting to me to see that for some people it was actually a really good year, and then there was a whole lot of other people for whom it’s like their world crashed and ended and burned, and it’s like, what do you do to try and flip that situation? How do you find the opportunities instead of going, oh, woe is me, the sky’s falling? How do you change the situation around and actually take advantage of the benefits that are there from AI? So I’m curious for you as a copywriter, you already mentioned Claude, so I know that you use AI, [00:25:00] maybe just share a little bit about your journey of getting to the place where you are comfortable using AI. Mm-hmm. And maybe a little bit about how you use AI. 

Emily Aborn: Absolutely. And that is such a good question. And I think first… okay, I just want to speak right now to the person who is like, oh my gosh, 2025 took me out and I don’t know where to go from here because I was there with the fear in 2024.

And I said to myself, and I, I think that this is helpful. First of all, you are resilient and you can, you know, you will find out your path through this. And second, open up your horizons to the fact that like what you’re doing with your writing services. It may not look exactly like what you thought it was going to look.

So for example, if not website copy, am I, what else am I writing? Like, am I taking a more journalistic approach? Am I writing, you know, show notes for podcasters? Like what? There may be [00:26:00] room within the industry to say, oh, this is something that no one really is focusing on, or people aren’t focusing on a lot.

What am I going to do with this? So think a little open up a little to maybe, you know, if it’s not content writing or it’s not copywriting, it may be something else. And I have a friend who’s a copywriter and I remind her of this too, ’cause she’s like, I don’t know which which direction I’m going.

And I’m like, just be open to what lights you up in the writing because there, there are so many different ways to write and use your words to make you money. Maybe you ask AI, what else could I be doing? I use it primarily and it took me a while to even get comfortable, like wanting to use it at all.

I saw it as like the grim reaper of the creative world. And I started to realize that the people who are going to excel are going to be the people that use it well as a tool. One of your recent guests actually talked about [00:27:00] using it as a collaborative tool. And I do use it for that. I don’t use it ever to write copy for me. Like never, ever, ever, I use it to ideate. I use it to say, okay, if you were this type of client, what questions would you have for me? What would you be wanting for a feature right? Or sorry, a benefit I will use it to outline things for me. So sometimes when, like a podcast episode, I’m like, I have this great idea, but I just need an outline ’cause I know myself and I will go like, woo, any which direction.

So I’ll use it for outlines and then I also use it for just genuine curiosity on things I’m doing in my own business. So I also am very… I think this is important, like whatever side of the line you want to fall as a writer, as a business owner, being okay with your answer and disclosing that answer to your clients if they ask you is, that is the ethical response, [00:28:00] right? Like, if I use it and I don’t tell them, oh, this is how I use it, then I don’t think that’s very ethical of me. I forgot to say, the other thing I’ll use it for is to refine, like I will say to it, here’s the brand voice I’m going to be sending my client. I basically want you to

rate this on a scale of one to 10, pick it apart. Give me feedback. ’cause I get that first interaction between the copy and what the client is getting. This is like my preliminary step and I want it to be great. So it will sometimes give me feedback and sometimes I’m like, you don’t know what you’re talking about.

Like, that’s not good. You worded that way worse. And sometimes I’m like, oh my gosh, good point. I totally missed that. That was a run on sentence, or whatever the case may be. So it’s a really good partner. But it should not, and dear God, I hope it does not replace the creative industries because I still am a firm believer that we’re going to want to read real books.

You know, we want to listen to real music. We want real art. I [00:29:00] don’t want go create a robot that’s going to clean my house. I can write in my journal for myself.

Trudy Rankin: I think that’s really, really important. You know, what you’re saying is basically, decide how you’re going to use it, own how you’re going to use it, tell people how you’re going to use it and be upfront about that.

But I like I do, because I do a lot of writing myself. Like I said, I write a number of newsletters and for me, and I do use. AI a lot, and I’m learning even more every day about how I can use it to actually automate things, do things better, be more strategic, all that sort of stuff. I use it as a learning tool as well, but I’ve got to the place where I tell it, do not touch my words.

Here’s my story, this is my story. Don’t do anything with it unless I ask it to critique it. And sometimes I’ll ask it to critique it, but it’s so, it’s not a person, it can’t give you something that’s a human feeling thing. Without that context, it’s been given or, a whole lot of algorithmic and, analysis [00:30:00] and training and stuff like that. So anyway, that’s a personal choice I’ve made. But at the same time, I know that there are people who have chosen to do things a different way. And if they can do it in such a way that it resonates with people and people get value out of it that’s no skin off my nose.

That’s their choice. And they can do that.

Emily Aborn: I was just going to say on that point, I have heard even friends, say, oh yeah, it just has my voice. It found my voice. And I can also say that those same people have filled out a questionnaire of mine. Now this is like somebody I knew very, very well.

She fills out a questionnaire of mine and I’m like reading it. I’m like, this is the weirdest. This does not sound like her. And this is supposedly a chat or whatever that’s customized to her voice. It speaks her voice. In her words and I get to the end of the questionnaire and it’s like, I used ChatGPT to fill this out for me.

Ha. And I was like, okay. That confirms. I really, as I sit here right now, I really don’t think [00:31:00] it can find your voice. I think it can find a copywriting voice. I think it can find an online business space voice, but it has so many tells that like. I would just be very careful to copy and paste what Chat is saying and whether or not it reads in your voice because it has a number of things that I read and I’m like, every single time you can catch, and it’s not just the em dash.

Okay. You can use your em dashes safely. That’s not the biggest tell. There are a lot of groupings of words and particular ways that phrase these things that are just marketing bro talk. You know, it’s not actually your voice. 

Trudy Rankin: And just for that reason, you have to go back. So whatever you do use it for,

if you do use it for writing aspect, you might use it for writing transition sentences, or you might get it to write you chunks, small chunks that’s based off of what you’ve written. But if you don’t go back in and edit what it’s got to say, it’s just going to [00:32:00] sound wrong. It just won’t flow or work. 

Emily Aborn: Yeah.

Trudy Rankin: It’s, it’s not good.

Yeah. It’s been fascinating talking with you, 

Emily. I’ve really, really enjoyed it. If people were interested in reaching out to you, either to work with you or to find out more about you, where’s the best place for them to go? 

Emily Aborn: Okay. I think the best place is emilyaborn.com and fun fact, my podcast is also helping you build like a sustainable business that works alongside your life.

And I go pretty deep into a lot of brand voice and brand personality and copywriting topics over there. So you can keep on listening to Trudy and you can listen to mine. I think you’ll get super benefit of both. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, and I’ll put that in the show notes. So I encourage people to go and actually try out Emily’s podcast because I think that the more we listen to podcasts, the more we’re actually learning from other people, and I think that’s really important right now.

Yeah.

Emily Aborn: Yeah. It’s my favorite way to learn. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But thank you so much for being on the [00:33:00] podcast. 

Emily Aborn: Thank you for having me.

Trudy Rankin: If you’ve ever wondered why people bounce off your website or skim your newsletter like it’s yesterday’s junk mail, Emily just gave you the keys to fix it. So whether it’s shifting your focus to benefits, getting super clear on your audience, or simply using curiosity as a way of catching people’s attention, this episode was packed with strategies that you can use right now.

So if you found this conversation helpful, I’d love it if you’d subscribe, leave a review and share it with someone who could use a boost in their online business journey. And remember, I’ve got a newsletter for people building the online side of their business. You’ll get tips, resources, and real talk on making money from home.

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