Ep 247: Finding Clients as a Writer in the Age of AI with Copywriter Emily Aborn

SHOWNOTES

“It doesn’t have any friction with the real world. It doesn’t have the contact with the real world that we do, you know, to like immerse ourselves in experience.”

That’s how Emily Aborn describes the difference between AI and human writers and it perfectly sets the tone for this conversation.

If you’ve been wondering how freelance writers (or anyone who uses their words to make a living) can continue finding clients in today’s economy, this episode is for you. We talk about what’s actually working right now … from collaborations and in-person networking to brand cohesion and creating a client experience people can’t stop talking about.

This isn’t hype. It’s practical strategy grounded in lived experience.

Emily Aborn has been running her copywriting business since 2018, though writing has always been the undercurrent of her life. She works with entrepreneurs and small businesses to create clear, compelling messaging that reflects who they truly are. Beyond writing, she’s deeply focused on community, collaboration, and building long-term business relationships that lead to sustainable growth.

WE ALSO TALKED ABOUT

• Why collaboration is one of the most powerful (and underused) growth strategies for service providers
• How in-person connections can lead to unexpected opportunities and referrals
• The importance of cohesion between your online presence and your real-world personality
• How Pinterest can become a long-term traffic driver when used strategically
• Why your client experience is your most reliable marketing asset
• The role AI can play and where it still falls short

If you’re building a business using your expertise, your creativity, and your words, this conversation will give you practical ways to strengthen your visibility and client pipeline.

Tune in to hear the full discussion.

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

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• Emily Aborn’s podcast: Small Business Casual
• Pinterest (as a long-term content strategy platform)
• LinkedIn (for conversations and professional visibility)

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.

Episode 247: Finding Clients as a Writer in the Age of AI with Copywriter Emily Aborn

[00:00:00] 

Trudy Rankin: It doesn’t have any friction with the real world. It doesn’t have the contact with the real world that we do, you know, to immerse ourselves in experience. That’s what Emily Aborn said when we were talking about AI, and I think that’s an important distinction because if you are someone who uses your words to make a living, the conversation around AI can feel a little bit unsettling right now.

In this episode, Emily and I talk about what it really takes to find clients in this economy, especially as a freelance writer. We unpack collaboration and how to approach it strategically, why meeting people in person still matters, how cohesion in your brand builds trust, what platforms like Pinterest and LinkedIn can realistically do for visibility, and why your client experience is one of the most powerful marketing tools that you have.

This discussion is practical, thoughtful, and grounded in real world experience because Emily Aborn has been running her copywriting business since [00:01:00] 2018, and writing has always been the thread running through her life. She combines creativity with entrepreneurship and brings a steady, clear-eyed perspective to building a sustainable service-based business.

She’s paying attention to the shifts that are happening in the industry, but she’s also focused on what hasn’t changed. Relationships, trust, and human connection. And that’s why I wanted her to come back on the podcast.

Trudy Rankin: 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 they can earn more stress less, and have greater freedom in how they live.

Today I have got a guest with me who’s been on the podcast before and she was in episode 239, and it’s Emily Aborn and Emily is [00:02:00] somebody who uses her words to make a living. And for those of you who weren’t or haven’t listened to that particular episode, please feel free to go back and listen to it. There’s some great stuff there that we talked about and that Emily shared. But I asked Emily if she’d be willing to come back and talk with us about a topic that I know a lot of people really, really care about, and they worry about it, especially in this day and age, because I asked her if she would come back and share a little bit more about how she finds clients in this economy.

And so she said yes. And so Emily, thank you so much for being here again. 

Emily Aborn: Thank you for having me. I love being a repeat offender. We get to go deeper on what we talked about before. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. So it’s an interesting time in the world, like in quotes “interesting.” And for lots of reasons, and we don’t really need to get into those, but we do know, and I know because I’ve had people say this to me and I’ve read about it and listened to people talk about [00:03:00] it, that for people who use their words to earn a living, it can be quite difficult at the moment, partly because of lots of stuff that’s happening on the political level, international level, but also a lot of it’s to do with AI and how businesses are changing their relationships with the people who do help them with their content, and create that content, come up with that content, they’re starting to say, “Hey, I don’t need you so much anymore, we’ve got AI, AI can do it just as good.” I mean, I personally quite disagree about that at this particular point in time. Maybe someday it’ll get to the point where it is better than humans, but at the moment it’s not. It’s the human factor is a really important thing. But anyway. Burbling on here, people worry about how they can continue to make a living through using their words in whatever form that they use them. So [00:04:00] Emily, I’m going to just let you sort of take it away for right now. But before we do that, could you start by just, for people who haven’t listened to the previous said podcast episode, just share a little bit about who you are, what you do, and how you got there. 

Emily Aborn: Sure. Thank you for that. So my name’s Emily Aborn, as you said, and I live in New Hampshire in the United States. I’m a copywriter and I have been a copywriter on paper since 2018. But prior to that, I did it in my college years and before I even really knew what I was doing.

I wrote like copy for an outdoor sports company and I loved it. So, but writing has always kind of been like the undercurrent of my life like we talked about last time. And entrepreneurship. Like there’s always been that drive in me to start a business and create spaces and places that bring people together and connect people.

So now I do that with my words. And I want to tell you something kind of encouraging that I heard recently on the topic of AI. [00:05:00] Especially with the Gen Z and the next one, I think it’s Gen Alpha. I don’t know I’m past that, but I heard something kind of encouraging. A lot of them are not embracing it at all.

They’re not embracing a lot of this technology and the podcaster, I didn’t listen to the podcast. My husband had just kind of like shared this with me, but he was saying how, you know, when it was like electricity that was coming new to the scene, it took a really long time for people to get every single person to get on board of electricity.

Like people were really scared of it. Some people wanted to say, no way, we’re not doing that. Same with like the telephone and things like that. So, obviously today’s society is a little bit faster, but I don’t think we are, I don’t think we’re like two days away from AI taking all of the writing jobs. And I will say, as a reader, like a very avid, avid reader, there is something for me.

I’m sure that down the road it’s going to be able to be like formulaic and figured out how we do what we do with the feeling of [00:06:00] words. But right now it was still where it stands. Like AI does not give me those feels, you know, it just still does not have that. Because it doesn’t have any friction with the real world.

It doesn’t have the contact with the real world that we do, to like, immerse ourselves in experience. So its experience is just what it’s read on Reddit and online. So I think that has been encouraging for me lately. Because I’m definitely, you know, a lot of my clients will say, “Oh, we did all this research with AI and this is what we think the tagline should be,” or “This is what we think the SEO keyword should be,” or whatever. I started saying in my forms like, please don’t use AI to give me feedback, because that’s not, if you want to have a conversation, you and me, that’s great, but I don’t want what AI, I mean, I could do that, you know? So that’s kind of my 2 cents on that. But I’m going to table that because I think there’s a lot we can do even outside of that. And we don’t even know yet really the possibilities of what kind of new [00:07:00] careers could be in place for writers. And I think writers that know how to use the tools are going to be better off than the people that don’t. So don’t totally look away from it and just wait and hope that it goes away.

Know your stuff and know how to use it. And don’t shy away from using it when you need to, but don’t let it outsource your creativity. Don’t let it outsource your writing and do it for you. And sometimes when it’s like social content and it’s a business that does not have a super personal touch, I feel like some of them can get away with it better than others. You know? It really is so dependent on the business. But I don’t think like a website is the place to use it because that needs to stand for something.

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. I think that’s so true and it’s that human factor.

It’s interesting to me that you’ve used the term friction to differentiate between an AI experience quotes and a human experience because you said the AI doesn’t have that friction [00:08:00] where it’s having to rub up against the real world and but that rubbing up against the real world is what results in so many different variables can affect how things turn out.

And you would think that AI being a machine and a thinking, you know, like an algorithm based sort of a thing that it would be able to look through those variables and think through those variables, but for some reason it can’t, which is fascinating to me. Do you want to just talk about that just for a little bit more?

Emily Aborn: Well, let me give you an example and then I’ll tell you another thing I listened to recently that I was like, uh-uh. So my example is if I am talking to you, Trudy, and you’re telling me about something really hard and really painful that you’re going through in life, and I’m like, oh yeah, I feel you.

Like that doesn’t feel good. But if I’m like, oh my gosh, Trudy, I know, I understand. I am so sorry that that is happening to you. You see how there’s a, like I’ve had that, I can have that empathy because I’ve gone through maybe not that hardship, but I know what that is like. So I think that’s kind of [00:09:00] the, I don’t know if AI has ever said that to you.

Like, oh yeah, I totally understand. It’s like, no, you don’t. You’ve never done this, you’ve never experienced what I’m feeling right now. So it doesn’t understand that human experience, those emotions that we have, those struggles, like what it means to be challenged in life. But also I was listening, I mean, this is just as simple as I was listening to an article. It was about smart homes and why this guy, like he had a smart home and he like hated it. He was like, I want all the devices to go away. But AI read the article, which I actually found kind of ironic. I could not stand it. I was like, oh my gosh.

Had I known this was an AI reader, I would’ve not listened to this article. I just wanted to hear the actual writer’s voice, because even with that, it’s like when I’ve written something, like I write my emails every week and then I read them. If it was an AI voice, it does not have that same contact with me.

You know, it’s like [00:10:00] so distant. So that’s how I felt about the writing, that when I read the article, I was like, oh, I like him much better now as a writer than when I heard this AI voice reading it to me. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. Yeah. And I think that that’s a critical thing, and maybe we’ll get over that as humans, and maybe we never will.

It’s going to be interesting to see. So when you do the work that you do, I think that one of the things, like we said at the beginning is that people are worried the jobs are disappearing. And you did mention that you think there are going to be more jobs coming in the future.

I want to talk about that in a little bit. But for right now, when you are doing your work and you are reaching out for clients, can you share with us a little bit about what you do to be able to find clients in this world that’s being sort of made topsy-turvy by AI? 

Emily Aborn: Sure. And let me just make sure I don’t, I have no prediction on the job market and what this will do to jobs.

[00:11:00] And if we don’t come up with something like, this is not going to be good for society. So let me just say that. But what I was saying is that I don’t know the possibilities that could take place. So I don’t want to, even as a writer, I don’t know where my career will go. It doesn’t always necessarily maybe have to be website copywriting.

So I just want to say, I’m keeping myself open to possibilities in my career, that’s all. Because I cannot predict what is going to happen next pretty much on a daily basis. But, okay, let me start with what I think was a real game changer for me in growing my business. Like probably the number one thing, if you’re not already doing it as any kind of business.

You have to be doing this. It is collaborating with other people. It’s really easy to, like, I had a retail shop and I literally walked in that retail shop every day and stayed in my little four walls. And then went home and then stayed in my little four walls and went home and I did all the things online.

[00:12:00] I did social media marketing, I did the email campaigns, I did ads in the paper. You know, anything where I did not have to go out and talk to other people, that was great for me. That was my happy place. My business mentor at the time, she said, basically you need to find complimentary businesses and start partnering up with them and doing different things, like just experiment with it.

So I took her a little excessively and went all in on that. So I’m talking about collaborations, like what you and I are doing right now where two people are coming together and we’re creating something entirely new that did not exist before. But I’m also talking about building a system where you have like-minded business partners. So like I work with a ton of website designers, brand designers. If I find a brand photographer, I want to connect with them and collaborate with them any way we can, like I’ve done a content and photography day so that those two things are going together. So look for people who are [00:13:00] serving the same or very closely related clientele and figure out, okay, what can we create?

What can we come together and create together? It can be as simple as making a shout out for somebody else in a related industry a lot online, like I share. So I work very closely with several website designers and we’ve developed a relationship over the past eight years. But I will do a collaboration Thursday post, and I will often just pick either one of my clients or somebody I work with or like I will just highlight another collaborator. So sometimes it’s a podcast interviewer, but being the person that’s like, I shine a light on my collaborators is a very, very good way to be. It is a very, very give, give mindset, right? And that’s how you win, I think, at collaborations. But think about for yourself, especially as a writer, who are those three to five business owners that you know [00:14:00] who serve the same clientele?

Maybe they’re at a little bit of a different stage in their journey, maybe not. But you kind of work together with those people in your industry and see what you can come up with. See what you can create. Maybe it’s an event, maybe it’s a podcast, maybe it’s just guesting on each other’s platforms, talking to their community, that kind of thing.

It could be just you going in and giving a workshop to some other group. That’s a collaboration right there. And so I’ve found a lot of those kind of things over the years. Some are misses. Let me just say you learn the hard way when you go through collaborations because it’s like a group project in school.

You know, some people pull their weight and some people do not. And so I’m a person who pulls my weight and that can sometimes be like, now I’m doing all the things for everybody. So you do learn the hard way. But once you find those quality collaborations, I say stick to them because they are gold and you both lift each other [00:15:00] up.

Trudy Rankin: I think that’s interesting because the collaboration is one of the things that I really, really enjoy doing, and I have a number of collaborations going on in the background. They take a slightly different format than what we’ve been talking about just here though. They tend to be more long-term, a long-term relationship where we help each other, where we can help each other, and sometimes money changes hands and sometimes it doesn’t.

But it’s more about helping each other sort of build our businesses. Because I, my support tends to be fractional chief digital officer type, strategic advice and information about technology and quizzes and things like that. And there’s tends to be come across in different ways.

That’s really interesting. So you maybe just a couple of really, really, strong examples, because you’ve already mentioned some examples. Maybe just a couple more examples of what a collaboration could look like. Like if you were just starting to do a collaboration because you’ve talked about collaborating with people, you build up a relationship with them over a period of eight years.

Like what if, if you were just going to [00:16:00] do like your first collaboration, what would be one or two things to really focus on? 

Emily Aborn: Well, I can tell you what I did in that mattress store, and it was mattresses, so it was a very odd place to be doing collaborations. But I had a space and it was a really beautiful space.

And so what I did is I talked to the Chamber of Commerce and I was like, look, any workshops you want to host, you just bring the chairs and we’ll host it in my mattress store. Like it was, you know, it’s very cozy. It was very pretty in there. So I would host, like, I would just be the space that hosted people’s events.

So if you have a space, that’s a great one. I love CEO collaborative, CEO days. So, you know, a lot of times as a business owner, I book out my Fridays. Those are like my time for my business. Those are like my everyday standing or every week standing CEO day. But once in a while I will get together with like two or three other business owners and we’ll do like a collaborative CEO day where we are all sharing ideas with each other and kind of like [00:17:00] what you were just talking about, really supporting one another in different kinds of ways and those things, you never know who knows who, right? So just even being in that space with other people, it’s a positivity boost. And it also helps you get to places you just never even thought of on your own. So I really like doing that and being the person to curate that group or to propose that idea or to bring that group together, so fantastic. Another one I started doing recently is, we haven’t met yet, but I called it like a creative support group. So it’s web designers, copywriters, content creators, and graphic designers, and brand designers. And we’re all just going to like, get together and, I said, you know, you come, you share your challenges, you share what you’re working on.

We’ll kind of like celebrate each other, get to know each other and create new collaborative partnerships in that group. So, because I just want to bring people together and I’m going to be the one to hold that space for people. So that’s a really good one. And then the other thing I really like to do is just share like, right now I’m hosting an [00:18:00] event with a nonprofit locally, and we do this every year.

It’s for women entrepreneurs. They always give me an opportunity to do a little workshop at it, which is fantastic. But I collaborate with them by just sharing my platform with them. So I will basically like, you know, I’m promoting the event for the couple of months leading up to it. I’m talking about it in my newsletter, on my podcast, that kind of thing.

So it’s even things like that. But the other funny random thing I did at the Chamber of Commerce, which I swear was like a really great business building thing and you only could do it if you have a lot of time on your hands. So, well, I had like one extra day that I was like, I’m going to do this.

I would go interview Chamber business owners and then write an article about them and feature it on a blog that I called Tuesdays on the town. So this had three advantages. One, the Chamber got content and they didn’t have to pay for it. They didn’t have to do anything for it. Two, that business owner got a spotlight and they were like super happy [00:19:00] to be in a massive Chamber email.

And then I got something to put on my blog. Which had links to their website, right? And I’m the one that was writing all of those articles. They all had my name on them. They said, you know, they had links to my website. So it was a really truly three-way win. And then the person reading it gets to learn about all the businesses in their community.

So I would do that and then everybody got a thank you card. Everybody got a personal touch, you know, just like some sort of reach out so that we stayed connected after that collaboration. And I swear by that one. I met so many business owners locally, it was not even funny. It was a lot of work because I would go in, I would take photos, I would interview them, but if I had more time right now, I would love to do something like that again. 

Trudy Rankin: That is an amazing example of what somebody who’s just getting started out could do. 

Emily Aborn: Mm-hmm. 

Trudy Rankin: To get practice, get experience, build their portfolio, and have proof of 

Emily Aborn: Yes.

Trudy Rankin: What they can do. And not only that, I mean those are four things four powerful things, not to mention the [00:20:00] relationships and the future good will that you’ve built by doing something like that, and especially because local and hyperlocal is really powerful, really, really powerful.

That is a great idea. I love that. What would be some of the other things that you do to actually go and find clients? 

Emily Aborn: This is along these same lines, but the other one is just really connecting with the people in your own backyard. Like I, you know, here’s one thing I want to say.

I’m trying to help you think of things you can even do offline. Yes, there’s social media, we all get that, right? There’s, you know, online networking groups and stuff like that, but I’m trying to say, how can we get out of our little four walls and go actually meet people because guess what?

AI is not going out there and doing that. And I do really think there is something about that personal connection. And sometimes we can only have it online. You know, you and I live very far away from each other across a very large pond, and we get this opportunity to meet on Zoom and it’s fantastic.

But anytime we can, I love to [00:21:00] go meet people, in person. So, you know, it could, just look as simple. If you’re like a one-to-one person, which I love one-to-one conversations, coffee chat. If you’re more of like a networking person, there’s small networking groups, there’s large networking groups.

You definitely have to do some trial and error there. I always say like, give it three tries because sometimes your first one is really fantastic. Second one, maybe your like energy was off, or you’re tired, or you’re hungry, wasn’t so fantastic. Third one will always tell you everything you need to know. So give something three tries to make sure that you are in or out.

But really like going places and like finding those in-person events. And it does not have to be business related. A friend and I, a couple years ago, we wanted to do something locally to like engage business owners, but we didn’t really, we were like, well, we don’t really want to create something businessy, so we just, we live in a very like rural area.

So we were like, okay, we’re going to set up like a nature walk every Wednesday morning [00:22:00] and all these business owners, will meet at this park and we’ll all do a little nature walk. We all brought our dogs, you know, and everybody, I mean, people did talk business, exchanged business cards, but it wasn’t even about that.

It was just kind of like a time to get together. So I really cannot overemphasize the power of meeting with people in person and making that connection. And every single person you meet out in the world that is somebody that you should be kind to and polite to and not write them off. Because like I said, you never know who knows who, and you never know what is going to come of a single conversation at the grocery store.

Mine usually turn into newsletter fodder, but…

Trudy Rankin: That is a great way to get content ideas. People are amazing. People just really are amazing. They’ve had amazing lives. Even if they don’t think they’ve had amazing lives. They’re different to my life and it’s always fascinating to hear what people have to say.

What’s another way that you’ve used to [00:23:00] find clients? 

Emily Aborn: Okay, so actually I think this is, it’s not like a finding clients per se, but it goes a long way. So you’ve made those collaborations, you’ve got some connections started, right? Like things are starting to be moving and shaking.

Another thing that is really important is that your online persona matches your in-person persona, and I like to call this cohesion. Now, the other way to look at cohesion is you want all of the things online to look the same. And I don’t mean like, the exact same. I mean, you don’t want to have pink in one spot and dark brown in another.

You know, your brand colors have to all match, your fonts have to match. Like everything should look like you. And if you don’t have a formal website, it’s okay, but make sure that where you’re showing up, it’s the same image of you and it’s a professional image of you and everything goes together and matches who you are when people meet you in person. I don’t know if you’ve ever had these experiences, but I’ve had this experience where [00:24:00] either you read someone’s website and they sound, when people hire copywriters that are quote unquote personality copywriters, sometimes those personality copywriters are the copywriter’s personality and they will put their personality onto the page.

And I’ve seen it many, many times when they’re calling me like, boss babe, or hey girl, or whatever, and then I go meet that person in person. I’m like, that’s not your personality. So it’s about your words for sure. But the other thing is when you have like real old, outdated stuff, or your LinkedIn profile is from a company that you worked for, but now you actually have your own company, right?

So you want to make sure all those pieces are actually in place because they do make a big difference. Because then when you’re out there making those collaborations, making those connections, and people go look you up, you want to make sure it matches what they just met in the real world. And people are more likely to collaborate with you when your brand is very cohesive.

Like when they kind of know what you’re all about. You know, if [00:25:00] I’m talking on your podcast about copywriting, and then I’m on another podcast talking about like, I don’t know, business coaching or something, it’s a little bit confusing. So I think even with what we share and what we do in the collaborations, we want it to be real cohesive to our values and to who we are.

So cohesion is like this little overlooked thing that I think really actually goes a long way, and it starts with us. You know, it starts with like, well, okay, who am I? What do I want to call myself? What do I stand for? What do I want people to experience of me in person and online? So. 

Trudy Rankin: I mean, that’s interesting.

There’s a couple of things there. One is that, yeah, it is tricky for people who are just getting started to be able to answer those questions. Sometimes it takes a while to figure those things out and, sometimes by the time you figured it out, you have a lot of stuff out there that isn’t cohesive and you have to decide whether you let it go, or you take it down or you try to align it, whatever. It can be difficult to do, but it’s a process that you [00:26:00] have to go through where humans, you mentioned LinkedIn, which I find interesting because I, when I look at LinkedIn, I see a platform that’s changed a lot over the years. I started out on LinkedIn in 2009.

It was pretty new. It hadn’t been around that long. And I’ve just seen it morph over the years, and I think it is a tool that is a little bit underrated in terms of what it can do for people who try to use their words to make a living. Can you talk a little bit about your approach to LinkedIn and how you focus on LinkedIn?

Emily Aborn: I am so bad with LinkedIn. I don’t know what my problem is. I think because it doesn’t, I love commenting on people’s posts. I’ll say that I’m a very good commenter. I don’t like making my own posts and I don’t know why. It’s like when I go on there, my creativity just, poof goes out of my brain, like if I’m on Instagram, and the worst part is, Trudy, I don’t get as many views on Instagram as I do on LinkedIn. Sometimes [00:27:00] I’ll try a caption that I tried over on Instagram and move it over to LinkedIn. I’m just not quite so savvy with it. What I have been using recently. Loving and it is a long game. It is not social media really.

It is not fast, and you don’t even have to interact with anybody, is Pinterest actually for my podcast, I have not yet used it for my copywriting business. But I’ve been using it for my podcast, so I’m just practicing with like, okay. How can I condense things into tips and small clips and then send people over to my website where my podcast lives?

So I’m experimenting with that. Like I said, really participatory on LinkedIn. I am not very good at posting myself. I always post my podcast guest episodes, and other people’s, I share a lot of other people’s stuff on LinkedIn. I’ll say that. 

Trudy Rankin: I mean, it is an interesting thing. One of the things that’s really important is that you need to be really quite clear why you want to use it.

And for that reason, I’ve stepped back a little bit from [00:28:00] LinkedIn, not completely, but stepped back a little bit because I want to be absolutely 100% clear about what I want to achieve by using LinkedIn and, because I think that’s important. But that whole cohesion thing you were talking about that for anybody who uses words to make a living, that whole cohesion thing matters.

Your profile needs to be cohesive and things like that. And I’ve written blog posts about how do you actually do that? How do you make sure that your LinkedIn profile is as good as it can be. So it’s doing the job that it’s meant to do, but it’s interesting, to me, you’re saying that your creativity disappears when you post on LinkedIn and so I’m just smiling to myself because I think we all have got platforms where that happens and it’s like, maybe it’s because the vibe of the platform is just doesn’t sit with us or we’re not quite sure how to use it or whatever, but, I think that is an interesting one. And so if you are somebody who’s a writer and you’ve been experimenting with different platforms, it is worth having a look at LinkedIn because, it is absolutely possible to get clients through [00:29:00] LinkedIn.

Emily Aborn: You know what I like using LinkedIn for is starting a conversation about something I’m super curious about. So like I recently felt a lot of guilt for not being on social media. But then I’ll also feel a lot of guilt if I’m on social media too much. So I was trying to think of like, does anybody else feel this way?

And so I just posed the conversation because I actually want to turn that into a podcast episode and I got tons of comments and that’s really how I like to use it. I like to ask questions and maybe they’re for a podcast episode, maybe i’m just curious. But it is actually a nice way to start conversations with people and build on the connections that you’re already creating elsewhere.

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s really important because that is, there’s a concept I use called a flywheel, a marketing flywheel, a content creation flywheel. And it’s basically where do you come up with ideas on a regular basis that you can then use to build out all your other content?

And that sounds to me like exactly like that. That’s one of your trigger points. 

Emily Aborn: Yes. So good. You’re speaking, that is my [00:30:00] language. 

Trudy Rankin: That is really interesting. Can you talk a little bit more about Pinterest? Because Pinterest, for me is something that I’ve been experimenting with for a little while and I found that it’s a slow burn.

I think you mentioned slow burn. But it is actually really, really powerful. Surprisingly powerful. Can you talk a little bit about the process that you use for creating your Pinterest pins and what you expect to get out of doing that? 

Emily Aborn: I literally just learned about this at the beginning of this month.

And I learned from a woman named Andy Smiley. I think it’s called the Friendly Podcast Guide and she’s on Pinterest. She has a podcast on it. She was fantastic and she made it so incredibly simple. Basically, she said, make sure that your content is like, you can easily put it into tips and digestible pieces.

So make sure you have content that could be broken down into that form. So it won’t work for everybody. And then make sure that your audience type would be on LinkedIn, um, sorry, Pinterest, which mine are, [00:31:00] so those were the tips she gave. And also she recommends that you do have to do like a level of SEO research, which I haven’t gotten into that yet because I just wanted to get myself in the habit of consistently pinning.

But I am so curious to watch my, two things have already made a really big difference in my podcast downloads, which directly relate to my business. One of them was just changing the name of the podcast from what it was before to something that people are actually searching for in the search bar of podcasts.

And that is what I intend to do with Pinterest too, is like, what are people actually searching for? So I’m really curious to see how it affects my downloads and I can’t wait, but I don’t know yet because I just, just started. So she said, she reminded me that the most important thing is to be consistent with it.

So like if you go in and you post, you know, 20 pins all at once, but then you never touch it again, pinterest says, nah, no, I don’t like that. They want you to do it regularly. So I just [00:32:00] try to sit down twice a week. I create like two or three pins at a time. Usually they’re for the exact same podcast episode and then I step away and come back to it later.

I haven’t looked into the numbers yet or anything because I want to give it some time to breathe. But my strategy is really to create like, okay, what do I have related to the podcast? What do I have that are just my own sort of little, book nerdy word nerd, bibliophile geeky stuff.

And then what do I want to give people as actual copy and content tips that could be helpful for business owners? So those are kind of my three categories that I’m going to focus on. 

Trudy Rankin: I think that’s fascinating because I’m kind of at the same stage as you. I’m trying to develop the habits that are necessary to be able to sustainably and consistently create pins.

And I’m like you, I want to make them about my podcast episodes. But I have a lot of work to do on my profile. I know it’s not good, it needs work, but getting to the place where you can use SEO based [00:33:00] copy, but still human and it’s still based off of our own content. I think it is a journey.

It’s not an instant thing, but I can tell you I’ve been doing it long enough that even when you don’t have it 100% right, it still works. 

Emily Aborn: Yeah, exactly. And that’s a great spot for AI to be able to help you, like that is one thing it is good at is like, how can I turn this into a very quippy, catchy caption?

You know, you don’t have to use what it gives you, but you at least get the formatting correct of how you want to say something and what you want to say to lead people to the next step. Because Pinterest is, that is one thing I will give it a lot of credit for. It lets you take people other places.

No other platform does that. You know, we always have to like hide the fact that we’re sharing a link every other place that we’re sharing. And Pinterest is like, no, you can share your link. That’s what this is all about. It’s really nice. 

Trudy Rankin: That’s really, really good. Yeah. So yeah, and I think you’re right about the AI. I’ve just finished last week, actually, it was just last week.

I finished creating a GPT, [00:34:00] an automated process that basically helps me take my podcast episode transcript and turns it into a bunch of stuff. But one of the things that it turns it into is learning points. And then you take those learning points and it turns them into Pinterest pins, the text for Pinterest pins, and then of course you have to go do the images and stuff.

But it just makes the whole process so much easier. Now I just have to figure out how to automate every little step of that. 

Emily Aborn: And the other nice thing is Pinterest has a built-in scheduler, so you can just sit down, you can do it all in one day if you want to, and then pin, pin, pin, pin, pin away, so. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. Yeah. I actually use something called Tailwind. I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. 

Emily Aborn: Yes. Yeah. 

Trudy Rankin: It’s good. It is actually really, really super helpful. But you have to learn like everything. You have to learn how to use it. Yeah, so I’m just noticed the time. We could keep on talking about this for a ton of times, but we have just enough time left for you to maybe share one more way that you use to help you find and connect with clients.

Emily Aborn: I think you’re going to love this one, [00:35:00] and I know you’re the kind of person who appreciates this and probably also does this in your own business. I don’t think it’s ever too soon to think about your client experience and the customer service that you’re giving people, and I mean, every single step of the way because word of mouth is still the most powerful way to get new business and when you are the person that gives somebody like a wow worthy experience, when you build a really, really intentional customer client experience, people rave about that process because it’s really hard, especially for service providers. You never really know what you’re going to get.

You know, I’ve worked with website designers, I’ve worked with brand designers. It’s everybody has a different process. Everybody kind of, you’re like, do they even know I’m their client? Like, what is happening over there? You know what I mean? Will I ever hear from them again? I wonder. So being that person, I’ll tell you what I do. And I’m not saying everybody should do [00:36:00] this, but these are just the little touch points that I built in. Like, I like to make sure my client process, I don’t want them thinking I forgot about them or, because maybe it takes me three weeks to write their website, but I don’t want to disappear for three weeks.

I want them to be like, “Emily who?” You know when I come back with their stuff. So I always start before we even kick off, they’ve given me usually their mailing address. So I’ve shipped a gift to their house, and I’ve also shipped them a thank you card, which, or sorry, I’ve written a thank you card, which I’ll send them right after our kickoff call.

So they’ve gotten a little welcome gift from me. They’ve gotten a thank you card. They’ve seen my handwriting, right? Like it’s a very personalized thing. And then we do like a follow up like a little mini check-in. It’s not on Zoom, it’s just via email. And I tell them, here’s what you can expect and when.

And then there’s like two other built-in check-ins and then we do like an offboarding. At the end, sometimes I like to like surprise and delight people a little extra. Some people will write me Google reviews, which is the biggest gift [00:37:00] ever. And when they do that, one thing I did for a lady recently is I knew the coffee shop that she went to, like in her town.

So I called up the coffee shop and I loaded up her account with a couple, you know, a couple extra coffees. So like little tiny things like that are built into my client experience, but that makes it really, really easy and delightful for people to refer you. Also, if anything goes wrong in the client experience, which sometimes things happen, either you made a mistake or they don’t exactly show their true colors at first, and then they start showing ’em halfway through. That is your opportunity to really show them like integrity and that you do care and you’re here for their best interest. Like I always remember, you know, I never treat people rudely, like ever, but especially during that client process, because it doesn’t matter. They could just be mad about whatever happened because they’re having a bad day.

So, I sometimes it’s really hard and sometimes it feels like a direct attack on you, right? But really trying to be [00:38:00] patient and say, you know, I care about you. I have your best interest at heart. It goes a long, long way. I did it just recently to somebody like I could tell she was over there spinning her wheels a little and spiraling down and not really trusting, and I’m like, you know what?

I have been there too. I have also experienced service providers who didn’t follow through on their word. And I just want to let you know that is not going to happen here. And once I kinda leveled with her, she was like, okay, we can keep going. So I think just really always trying to do your very best with your clients.

And sometimes that means letting clients go too. If it’s not a good fit, I have no problem saying, you know what, this is not going to work. Our communication styles are too cattywampus. We’re not working out. And then you have to say, bless and release and let them go or refer them to somebody else. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, no, I think that’s really important.

That whole communication side of thing is absolutely critical. It can be like that. You get somebody to help you with something or you buy something and [00:39:00] it just disappears into the void and you don’t hear anything back from them at all, and you’re kind of wondering what’s going on.

So that’s really, really important. Really, really important communication and communicating with your clients because that referral, that whole customer journey and the referral network is actually really, really powerful if you can dial it in and build a reputation for somebody who does really great work and cares about their clients.

Emily, it’s been fantastic talking with you. Like I said, we could keep talking for quite a while. We could do a whole nother episode on what you need to put in place to be able to do great collaborations because there’s a lot of little things that you kind of gotta get right for a collaboration to actually work, but maybe in the future we might be able to do something like that.

But if people are listening to you for the first time and they would like to be in touch with you, or they’d just like to learn more about what you do, where’s the best place for them to go? 

Emily Aborn: Well, I think because you’re already listening to a podcast, the best place to go is just hop over to my podcast.

And, you know, you don’t have to abandon Trudy. You can listen to [00:40:00] both of them. It’s called Small Business Casual, and I talk a lot about these pieces, like individually on that show. We get into all of things small business, but with a really conversational casual approach. So thank you so much for having me again.

I loved this, and I am with you. We could talk all night, morning for you. 

Trudy Rankin: We could, we could. Well, I’ll put those things in the show notes, so that people can go and find them if they’re interested. And yeah, no, thank you so much. It’s been fantastic talking with you. 

Emily Aborn: Thank you, Trudy.

Trudy Rankin: If there’s one thing I hope that you take away from this conversation, it’s this. While the tools may be changing, the fundamentals of good business have not, because relationships still matter.

Trust still matters, and the way you make people feel during a project still really, really matters. Whether it’s collaborating strategically, showing up consistently, creating cohesion in your brand , or designing a thoughtful client experience, those are the [00:41:00] things that lead to referrals and repeat work.

If you enjoyed this episode, remember to subscribe so you don’t miss future conversations. And if you have a moment, I’d really appreciate it if you left a review. It helps other people who are building the online side of their business find the podcast too. And if you’d like practical tips and insights to help you grow your online business in a way that gives you more flexibility and freedom, I would like to invite you to join my newsletter.

You can sign up at onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter. That’s onlinebusinessliftoff.com/newsletter and thanks for listening, and I’ll see you next time.