In this week's episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with the incredible Jason Friedman—serial entrepreneur and mastermind behind the CX Formula. Together, we dive deep into the art of flipping the funnel for unprecedented business growth.
Get ready to uncover the secrets of understanding your customers on a whole new level, crafting killer testimonials, and building a fiercely loyal tribe. Jason shares a captivating story of how he helped a boat tour company in Portugal completely revamp their business by focusing on the right customers and smoothing out their journey.
Expect a jam-packed episode filled with relationship-building gems, customer success tricks, and a healthy dose of entrepreneurial wisdom. You won't want to miss it!
P.S. You can connect with Jason at https://www.cxformula.com/
A little about me:
I began my career as a teacher, was a corporate trainer for many years, and then found my niche training & supporting business owners, entrepreneurs & sales professionals to network at a world-class level. My passion is working with motivated people, who are coachable and who want to build their businesses through relationship marketing and networking (online & offline). I help my clients create retention strategies, grow through referrals, and create loyal customers by staying connected.
In appreciation for being here, I have a couple of items for you.
A LinkedIn Checklist for setting up your fully optimized Profile:
An opportunity to test drive the Follow Up system I recommend by taking the
10 Card Challenge – you won’t regret it.
Connect with me:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiceporter/
https://www.facebook.com/janiceporter1
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Hi, everyone, and welcome to this week's episode
Janice Porter:of relationships rule. I'm very excited to welcome my guest this
Janice Porter:week, Jason Friedman. Jason is a former theater nerd, which I
Janice Porter:love because I'm all about the theater. So that's something on
Janice Porter:a sideline I want to talk about. So Jason was a former theater
Janice Porter:nerd who's now a serial entrepreneur and coach dedicated
Janice Porter:to helping entrepreneurs and small business owners grow and
Janice Porter:scale their businesses. With a flair for the dramatic and a
Janice Porter:Master of storytelling. Jason has founded and exited five
Janice Porter:successful companies. Now as CEO of CX formula. He's teaching and
Janice Porter:coaching businesses how to scale their businesses by flipping the
Janice Porter:funnel, using the power of their customers using his proprietary
Janice Porter:kinetic customer formula. He's also at the helm of spotlight
Janice Porter:brand services, guiding ecommerce brands to success on
Janice Porter:Amazon and beyond, and has earned many accolades like Ernst
Janice Porter:and Young's Entrepreneur of the Year, and propelled multiple
Janice Porter:companies to the top of the of Inc 5000. List. You've got a
Janice Porter:long resume of wonderful things that you've done, Jason. And I
Janice Porter:know at the heart, it's all about people. Right?
Jason Friedman:You know it, you know, thanks for having me on
Jason Friedman:the show, Janice.
Janice Porter:My pleasure, welcome. Thanks for being here.
Janice Porter:And what I love is actually that it was a, you were introduced to
Janice Porter:me through someone who was booking you on podcasts. And
Janice Porter:when that happens, I get these pitches all the time from
Janice Porter:people. And I read them. Sometimes I'm sure I'm not sure.
Janice Porter:And sometimes I'm like, Look, I've got nothing to lose to meet
Janice Porter:the person. So I will do an intro call with them before I
Janice Porter:ever book anybody onto my podcast. And you and I had a an
Janice Porter:intro column. We could never we never stopped talking. It was
Janice Porter:like, amazing. Right? So I knew that you were a people person,
Janice Porter:because that's what I am. And I can't help it right. But I
Janice Porter:listened and I listened to a podcast episode that you had
Janice Porter:done with the person that introduced us, Jeremy and it
Janice Porter:seems so far removed from what I thought until I talked to you
Janice Porter:okay, so he was digging back into your past about your, your
Janice Porter:days as a I would say rock and roll groupie. I'm not sure if
Janice Porter:that's the right term to use. rodi rodi That's right, a
Janice Porter:roadie. So that was a long time ago, right? Yep. Yeah. So you so
Janice Porter:you're a music person then obviously?
Jason Friedman:Yes. Um, music theater arts business, like the
Jason Friedman:whole nine yards. My I started in theater, right like, like the
Jason Friedman:very first exposure I had to it was when I was like eight, nine
Jason Friedman:years old. And my best friend at the time at summer camp wanted
Jason Friedman:to go audition for the camp play. He was nervous to go on
Jason Friedman:his own. So he's like, Hey, come with me. I'm gonna lend some
Jason Friedman:moral support. And I was the back of the Playhouse. He went
Jason Friedman:on stage to sing like Happy birthday or whatever to
Jason Friedman:audition. And there was this guy in the back. His name was Mark,
Jason Friedman:who looked just like Wolfman Jack, if you know that American
Jason Friedman:DJ, do you look to just like him. And he was like, doing some
Jason Friedman:lighting while they were on stage. And like messing with the
Jason Friedman:microphones and building like a set like a flat. Yeah. And it
Jason Friedman:was like just so taken by what he was doing. I just started
Jason Friedman:talking to him. And Billy got into the show, and I got onto
Jason Friedman:the stage crew. I loved it. Every single year, I just kept
Jason Friedman:doing more and more theater and I went to school for theater
Jason Friedman:lighting design specifically, but I and then I got into like
Jason Friedman:touring with those rock and roll groups and the whole journey.
Jason Friedman:Like I was also a trumpet player as a musician, so I didn't use
Jason Friedman:it in theater, like my whole life. And you learn so many
Jason Friedman:interesting things. Like it's that it's that kind of Karate
Jason Friedman:Kid Mr. Miyagi, wax on wax off experience, like, You're doing
Jason Friedman:all these things, and you're learning all these things, you
Jason Friedman:don't know exactly how they're gonna fit together at some
Jason Friedman:point. And for me, you know, just like you it's like, I
Jason Friedman:learned that engaging with people is, it's a skill, it's an
Jason Friedman:important skill, and some of us have a superpower, others of us
Jason Friedman:have to work a little harder at it. For me, I had to work a
Jason Friedman:little harder at it, you kind of it comes naturally seems to come
Jason Friedman:naturally to you. But I just watched people would come in
Jason Friedman:from their crazy busy day, or to a rock roll, they would rock and
Jason Friedman:roll concert, they'd get their hours earlier to get in the
Jason Friedman:mood, because they were so excited about the experience
Jason Friedman:they were about to have, they wanted to have last longer magic
Jason Friedman:clients loved you and your business so much that they
Jason Friedman:wanted everything to bat last longer. And so they would come
Jason Friedman:and they'd like tailgate and they'd like listen to all the
Jason Friedman:songs they're about to listen to again just to get excited. And
Jason Friedman:and then they come in and they have this amazing experience.
Jason Friedman:They forget about all the problems in the world. They have
Jason Friedman:a Novation at the end, and then they want to hang out even
Jason Friedman:longer after the show's over, and they can't help but to tell
Jason Friedman:everyone they know that they were at the concert They had
Jason Friedman:this amazing experience. Like, I grew up doing that I had like
Jason Friedman:that. And then I did more legit theater. It's the same thing.
Jason Friedman:How as businesses can we capture that time, that mindshare that
Jason Friedman:that focus, the attention, the time, the investment from all of
Jason Friedman:our customers? It's with storytelling. It's by creating
Jason Friedman:these amazing experiences. And I know you do it as well, in your
Jason Friedman:business. We've talked about that. So yeah, it's just it's so
Jason Friedman:much fun. So that's, that's my theater story.
Janice Porter:Well, we and I love it because because I guess
Janice Porter:when I was younger, I would go to concerts, but I now I'm like,
Janice Porter:don't get me near all those people. I you know, it's too
Janice Porter:much too much already. But, and you can tell when you're getting
Janice Porter:too old for it. When you go to a concert, you come out with a
Janice Porter:migraine headache, which happened to me the last time we
Janice Porter:saw Elton John, because we we knew the very good friend of
Janice Porter:mine owned the ticket company, and we got really good seats
Janice Porter:really close. But they were right near out. Oh, my God, it
Janice Porter:was too much. But anyway, that shows how old I am. But, but
Janice Porter:let's go to so I'm looking at your website, CX formula, that's
Janice Porter:your baby, your company. And what I'm seeing is a statement
Janice Porter:that says give your customers an unmatched experience and watch
Janice Porter:as you organically build a loyal tribe of customers who are
Janice Porter:raving, returning, renewing and recruiting for you. I love that.
Janice Porter:So are you tell me what that how you work with a client? Because
Janice Porter:I mean, obviously, we all want referrals. We all want people to
Janice Porter:talk about their experience with us. And so how do you bring that
Janice Porter:out in people? How do you? Well, no, here's the question, the
Janice Porter:question, the question is, do the people that get it come to
Janice Porter:you to to? Have you helped them build that? Or do they come to
Janice Porter:you and you teach them that this is what they need to do? Yeah,
Jason Friedman:really? Good question. So people come to us,
Jason Friedman:in our in our past life right before CX formula life before
Jason Friedman:CX. We've been doing the same thing for 20 plus years, 2526
Jason Friedman:years, we sold the company that we built to nine figures in
Jason Friedman:sales. And that's what we did. But we did it as a done for you,
Jason Friedman:people would hire us to do it for them. Okay. And I had a non
Jason Friedman:compete for five years, I call it my prison sentence where I
Jason Friedman:couldn't do what I love doing for five years. And when we
Jason Friedman:started CX formula, at the end of 2016, beginning of 2017, we
Jason Friedman:started doing it mostly with small entrepreneurial companies,
Jason Friedman:right. So we used to do it for big Fortune one, hundreds
Jason Friedman:universities, top tier businesses and smaller business,
Jason Friedman:but primarily the big ones. And it was for you, we want to help
Jason Friedman:more people, right. I love entrepreneurs, I love
Jason Friedman:entrepreneurship. I'm a serial entrepreneur. And so for me,
Jason Friedman:like I'm in the impact phase in my life, I want to help more
Jason Friedman:people, because that's what lights me up when I help people
Jason Friedman:have more success in their business, and they're able to
Jason Friedman:create more jobs and, and all that freedom. I love that. So
Jason Friedman:our model now is more of we teach you how to do it, or we
Jason Friedman:kind of do it with you through some deep dive workshops. So
Jason Friedman:that's, that's the way we do it now. But people come to us for
Jason Friedman:different reasons, some, like already understand it, and they
Jason Friedman:want what we're doing. And that's awesome, right, we can
Jason Friedman:move quickly to executing on it with them. Others come to us
Jason Friedman:with a problem, right? They they're spending so much money
Jason Friedman:on ads and whatever but they're not getting, they're not really
Jason Friedman:scaling. They're they're they're they're they've kind of
Jason Friedman:plateaued, they have a ceiling that they can't break through.
Jason Friedman:Some of them have chronic refunding problems where people
Jason Friedman:buy their program, and then they or their products or services or
Jason Friedman:whatever. And then they hate it. They don't like it. They asked
Jason Friedman:for a refund within a window of refund period. Some of them
Jason Friedman:defect, like they just stopped paying on like a payment plan
Jason Friedman:and just disappear. And then a dead beat out on the on the
Jason Friedman:business. Right? Y'all know why? Yeah, some of them leave. They
Jason Friedman:have massive negative social proof issues with people and a
Jason Friedman:hating on them on social. So there's all sorts of reasons
Jason Friedman:that people kind of come to us. The problem that we see is that
Jason Friedman:they're generally speaking, solving the wrong problem in
Jason Friedman:their business, right? They're like they're trying to solve,
Jason Friedman:like, why am I ads not converting? Or why are people
Jason Friedman:getting to a certain point they're not staying? What
Jason Friedman:they're not focusing on is like, what exactly does success look
Jason Friedman:like for our customers? How do we have our customers have that
Jason Friedman:success? repeatedly? What system? What processes do we
Jason Friedman:have in place that virtually guarantee that if someone steps
Jason Friedman:inside and it's the right fit client, that they're going to be
Jason Friedman:happy, not not satisfied, or happy where they tell other
Jason Friedman:people about it? That's what we help them do. And so when we
Jason Friedman:talk about the ideal result, it's about customers who rave
Jason Friedman:about their experience. They returned to buy more products,
Jason Friedman:they renew their subscriptions and memberships. And they
Jason Friedman:recruit they definitely go out there and grab people and bring
Jason Friedman:them like a Salesforce to your business because they love what
Jason Friedman:just happened for them and they want more people to have have
Jason Friedman:that success? Yeah. And what I see more often than not the
Jason Friedman:problem is like, what is the success metric? To me success is
Jason Friedman:that are for right the rate of return renew and recruit, not,
Jason Friedman:you know, I was talking to someone about this, they said,
Jason Friedman:well, so if I had a weight loss company is and they lost 20
Jason Friedman:pounds, that's the success, I guarantee that they're gonna
Jason Friedman:lose 20 pounds. And I said, That's awesome. But that's not
Jason Friedman:what success is success is I feel more confident in my body.
Jason Friedman:Like, when friends call me to go out to dinner, I'm like, excited
Jason Friedman:about picking something out of my wardrobe, because it fits me
Jason Friedman:now. And I want to go out, in fact, I'm now calling my friends
Jason Friedman:to go out. Versus when I started, I'm sitting alone with
Jason Friedman:a shovel full of ice cream going in my mouth, watching television
Jason Friedman:on the couch. And when someone calls me to go out, I'm like,
Jason Friedman:I'm sorry, I can't tonight. And then I feel bad, because I'm not
Jason Friedman:going because I don't feel good about the way I look. And I
Jason Friedman:don't have clothes that I can wear. Right? So the result is
Jason Friedman:not the 20 pounds, the 20 pounds is what your system does. And
Jason Friedman:it's awesome. It's the tool or the mechanism that you're using
Jason Friedman:through your process to get that feel. Right? feeling at the end,
Jason Friedman:right? And so we teach people how to uncover that how to
Jason Friedman:deeply understand their customers, we use theater
Jason Friedman:tricks, if you will, right. So like, for example, like we all
Jason Friedman:talk about avatar, who's our ideal client avatar, right? Or
Jason Friedman:how are our ideal fine avatars, but we tell them how to get into
Jason Friedman:characters, if you were going to be an actor, playing your
Jason Friedman:customer on stage, the depth of knowledge that you have to have
Jason Friedman:about them. It's beyond what any of us think about in a normal
Jason Friedman:business. And what I want you to think about is earlier on in
Jason Friedman:their career before the that customer before they even got to
Jason Friedman:you what happened in their life that got them to even be
Jason Friedman:searching for a solution to this problem, got them that problem,
Jason Friedman:got them to be aware of your product or solution. So we do
Jason Friedman:all this deep work to understand that. And that's the story like
Jason Friedman:what we do, we believe, again, theater. The reason that, like
Jason Friedman:if you came to a theatrical performance, or a rock show, or
Jason Friedman:anything that we did, it was you, every audience had the same
Jason Friedman:reaction, they laughed at the same moment, they gotta give you
Jason Friedman:standing ovation at the same moment. That was not accidental.
Jason Friedman:That was tension all the way. It started with an idea. And a
Jason Friedman:story that became a script that then got brought to life with
Jason Friedman:characters in the interaction and sets, lights, costumes,
Jason Friedman:props, you know, things music, sound effects, whatever. And,
Jason Friedman:and through that journey, like we rehearsed it over and over
Jason Friedman:again, when there's something that's really important. You
Jason Friedman:choreograph it, you script it out. And so I want people to
Jason Friedman:start out by scripting, what is the ideal customer testimonial?
Jason Friedman:What is the ideal things that they would say? Not just, oh,
Jason Friedman:it's amazing. I got I lost 20 pounds, and I feel better. Now.
Jason Friedman:Tell me the story. Tell me your your story. So when you found
Jason Friedman:me, what was happening, what was going through your head? What
Jason Friedman:what happened? What did what did I say? What did I show you? What
Jason Friedman:did they teach? What did I do that got you to have that moment
Jason Friedman:of like Wonder inspiration or momentum that you said, Well, I
Jason Friedman:want to try this. And then really chronicle that story with
Jason Friedman:juicy words and adjectives as your client, like if you were
Jason Friedman:looking through their glasses, and when you do that, we call
Jason Friedman:that an ideal customer script that gives you the, the whole
Jason Friedman:journey mapped out now you can reverse engineer all the things
Jason Friedman:you need to do on your customers path, to make sure that as
Jason Friedman:they're going through it, they're having those moments,
Jason Friedman:they're having those insights, they're having those epiphanies,
Jason Friedman:they're having those breakthroughs. And you're
Jason Friedman:actually reminding them all through that what those memories
Jason Friedman:are. So when they go to share it at the end, it is scripted. And
Jason Friedman:it's not an accident. And it's not manipulation, because we're
Jason Friedman:genuinely helping them have that experience in a perfect way. And
Jason Friedman:so that's where we start, we start at the end, we script what
Jason Friedman:we wanted to believe me by flipping the funnel, and we
Jason Friedman:flipped the funnel. If when we focus on having you have an
Jason Friedman:amazing experience as a customer, those are the stories
Jason Friedman:that we share to get more customers in. They bring other
Jason Friedman:customers in right now. Everyone's all the Guru's
Jason Friedman:everybody out there is teaching how to get more clients how to
Jason Friedman:how to get more ads, how to do better ads, how to do better
Jason Friedman:marketing, how to do better launches, how to do better
Jason Friedman:stuff, but we're there and they have budgets and resources and
Jason Friedman:teams devoted to that they have very little budget for client
Jason Friedman:success, if any, they haven't even thought about it.
Janice Porter:So it's okay on that theme. I totally agree with
Janice Porter:you that we're always hearing about, you know, go out there
Janice Porter:and find new people. And this is how we recommend that you do
Janice Porter:that. But what about like I teach LinkedIn? What about the
Janice Porter:5000 connections you have on LinkedIn already? What are you
Janice Porter:doing with them? You know, the clients that are already your
Janice Porter:raving fans are you looking after? Or maybe they're not what
Janice Porter:they could be because you're not looking after them. And so I
Janice Porter:focus more time and energy on the clients, the past clients,
Janice Porter:the present clients that you already have Don't be always
Janice Porter:looking to the future. Right?
Jason Friedman:Yeah. And we have to look to the future to
Jason Friedman:some extent, right, we still have to be feeding the beast.
Jason Friedman:But the best way to feed the beast is by having such a great
Jason Friedman:business, that's great those results, because this what
Jason Friedman:you're going to do in your marketing, like, like, if all
Jason Friedman:you did think about this for a second, like, so I tell people
Jason Friedman:all the time, like, if you wanted to have like an affiliate
Jason Friedman:program, why, let's say you're gonna, you're gonna compensate a
Jason Friedman:customer. So you say to a customer, this was amazing,
Jason Friedman:like, if you love the experience, will actually give
Jason Friedman:you a percentage of sales, like, you know, for all or, you know,
Jason Friedman:whatever. Okay, that's great. But so people do what you pay
Jason Friedman:them to do. So I'll give you X dollars, you do that. It's an
Jason Friedman:exchange of some sort. But here's the thing. People do what
Jason Friedman:you pay them to do. But people love doing what you reward and
Jason Friedman:recognize them for doing. So let's say that you're marketing,
Jason Friedman:instead of being I have a great program, I have like, for me, I
Jason Friedman:have a great program, I can help you scale your business better
Jason Friedman:than anybody else is doing it because XYZ blah, blah, blah.
Jason Friedman:Okay, great. What if I tell you the story of Janice. So Janice
Jason Friedman:has a program where she helps people, you know, optimize and
Jason Friedman:upgrade their LinkedIn presence that really helps them build
Jason Friedman:their social presence there and use that as a strategic
Jason Friedman:marketing and sales tool for their business. And so when
Jason Friedman:Janice came to me, and she genuinely wanted to help other
Jason Friedman:people, let me tell you about Janice's process a little bit
Jason Friedman:and what we did. And so what I'm doing is, I'm literally selling
Jason Friedman:your business as a case study of how I helped you. Now I'm
Jason Friedman:recognizing you as a badass as this amazing entrepreneur who
Jason Friedman:has an amazing company who's doing amazing things out there.
Jason Friedman:And I'm helping to bring more customers into my business.
Jason Friedman:That's a better formula. Because now at showing my, the amount of
Jason Friedman:interest how I'm interested in my clients results, versus being
Jason Friedman:interesting being that dancing bear me, me, me, me, me, right?
Jason Friedman:That's the magic of flipping the funnel right? Now I'm using
Jason Friedman:those stories. And in fact, if I helped you do that, and your
Jason Friedman:business really transformed, you would be like, How can I help
Jason Friedman:you? What can I do to help you? Right, and so it's a, it's a
Jason Friedman:virtuous cycle, or a vicious cycle, you get to choose if you
Jason Friedman:make them angry, and don't help them it's a vicious cycle, if
Jason Friedman:you help them and support them and, and sing their praises.
Jason Friedman:It's a virtuous cycle. And that's what you want, you want
Jason Friedman:that momentum to build. Of course, of course, the secret
Jason Friedman:is, it feels a whole lot better in your business, a whole lot
Jason Friedman:better, when all your clients are feeling great. Your team is
Jason Friedman:more excited about coming to work. When you're having these
Jason Friedman:kind of wins over and over repeatedly, it doesn't get
Jason Friedman:boring. What gets boring is the complaints and the customer
Jason Friedman:service problems and the issues and the defection and the
Jason Friedman:refunds. And my job instead of being like a customer advocate
Jason Friedman:becomes a customer refund transaction processor, like
Jason Friedman:right up for that. But that's the job right now. So it's the
Jason Friedman:magic that happens, all the byproducts is super amazing. You
Jason Friedman:will transform your culture, inside your company and outside
Jason Friedman:your company when you do this work.
Janice Porter:So do you have a little story of somebody just
Janice Porter:recently that you've turned their business around? And so
Jason Friedman:many so many? Like, I'll give you I'll give
Jason Friedman:you a very basic example. So we had a guy come to a workshop. I
Jason Friedman:think it was this past June, so a few months back, right? He
Jason Friedman:flew over here from Portugal. Oh, wow. You heard about our
Jason Friedman:program. I speak on stages all over the place. He heard me
Jason Friedman:speaking and whenever he got here to New Jersey, and he
Janice Porter:just lately laid the land for me. So you do have
Janice Porter:what an all day workshop or
Jason Friedman:three day immersion workshop, literally
Jason Friedman:teach you all the things you need to know. And we you map
Jason Friedman:your journey. Our coaches support you, you're in a room
Jason Friedman:with a few other businesses, you know, that are working on it
Jason Friedman:together and we share we Yeah, so it's a it's a very intimate
Jason Friedman:and awesome experience. And what's even more fun about it is
Jason Friedman:there's a meta experience that you're having while you're
Jason Friedman:learning how to do it for your customers. So we're delivering
Jason Friedman:everything that we teach we're doing. And then we have what we
Jason Friedman:call meta moments where we take you behind the scenes and show
Jason Friedman:you what we just did so that like you can be like, Wow, that
Jason Friedman:was cool onboarding that was awesome. Like, so like, we
Jason Friedman:practice what we preach in our program. Right? So anyway, so
Jason Friedman:his name was Ricardo Costa shout out to Ricardo an awesome,
Jason Friedman:awesome human being. And if you're ever in Portugal, he runs
Jason Friedman:this. This boat company called magnifico, Douro. It's on the
Jason Friedman:door River in like the North, I guess Northwest northeast of
Jason Friedman:Portugal. And it's where all the wine country is where they make
Jason Friedman:all the delicious port wines and things like that. He has a fleet
Jason Friedman:of boats and takes you on these tours of, of these different
Jason Friedman:things. And it's amazing. It's like people have like, the most
Jason Friedman:unbelievable vacations of their lives. And he bought this
Jason Friedman:business in years and years ago, when it was falling apart. And
Jason Friedman:he, like single handedly, like, renovated and transformed the
Jason Friedman:old rickety boats into these like amazing experiences. And he
Jason Friedman:knows the area like so intimately, he knows everybody
Jason Friedman:and the tours and the tour guides are like, incredibly well
Jason Friedman:trained. And so he's like, he's like, man, he's like, we're
Jason Friedman:having more competition, like people buy a boat. Now they're
Jason Friedman:on the river, and they're there, they're charging less. And
Jason Friedman:they're not doing as good a job. They don't get great reviews,
Jason Friedman:but they're still eating into business. And he came in and
Jason Friedman:like, as we started to map out his journey, like, I asked him,
Jason Friedman:like, Who exactly is the right customer for you like, because
Jason Friedman:he was so focused on getting as much of the customers as many of
Jason Friedman:the customers as he could, he wasn't focused on the right
Jason Friedman:customers initially, right? So we started like, we started
Jason Friedman:there, like, who are the right customers, what do they most
Jason Friedman:want. And he has two customers, he works with four companies
Jason Friedman:that you know, sub him out just as the boat piece of they're
Jason Friedman:bringing people over there. And he has end users like end
Jason Friedman:customers that just reach out to him. And so he was treating
Jason Friedman:everybody the same, and they're not, right. And then within the,
Jason Friedman:you know, direct customers, they're not all the same,
Jason Friedman:either. Some people are on chemo, and some people are
Jason Friedman:younger kids. It's all over the map. And so we need to get clear
Jason Friedman:on that. And as he started to go through the journey, he's like,
Jason Friedman:wow, he's like, there's so many things we do really well. But
Jason Friedman:there's a lot of things that we do that adds frustration, or
Jason Friedman:friction, as we call it. And so he started like, analyzing it,
Jason Friedman:because we walked him through this process. And by the end of
Jason Friedman:that, like it was probably one of the best testimonials I've
Jason Friedman:ever had. He gave me this amazing testimonial. But what he
Jason Friedman:said in the room, he's like, Jason, he's like, I've been
Jason Friedman:doing this for many, many years. He's a slightly older gentleman.
Jason Friedman:He's in his 60s, older than me. And then he said, he's like, you
Jason Friedman:know, he's like, I started this business, and I was in love with
Jason Friedman:it. He's like it along the way, I fell out of love with it, to a
Jason Friedman:point where I kind of don't even want to go in every day. He's
Jason Friedman:like, and that's not why I started. And that's when I'm on
Jason Friedman:the boat, where I'm with the people, I love it. But there's
Jason Friedman:so much resistance, getting on it, whatever. He's like, I am so
Jason Friedman:excited to go home and work on my business and be part of it.
Jason Friedman:Like I see it through a different lens than they saw in
Jason Friedman:the beginning. But I have even more ideas for my business than
Jason Friedman:I've ever had before. I cannot wait to get home, get my team
Jason Friedman:involved and make this happen. And he's been like slowly but
Jason Friedman:surely employed in imploring employing some of these things
Jason Friedman:and doing these things. And I get a text from him on WhatsApp.
Jason Friedman:And he's like, he's like, This is amazing. And so I had the
Jason Friedman:good fortune in November, I was in Portugal after he was in the
Jason Friedman:workup, yanked out on a boat tour. And he did so many hits
Jason Friedman:me, I didn't do enough. I didn't do that. And he did. And he's
Jason Friedman:seen the results like people are leaving more reviews online that
Jason Friedman:are five star reviews, positive reviews, his tour operators are
Jason Friedman:giving him more options to do more things. Just all his team
Jason Friedman:is more excited about what they're doing. And so that's why
Jason Friedman:we do this, right. It's just Yeah, it's I hate to say it's
Jason Friedman:like textbook, but it is and some of it is just basic
Jason Friedman:fundamentals. Right?
Janice Porter:That you care, right showing that you care,
Jason Friedman:but you have to systematize it and you can't
Jason Friedman:assume that when you bring on an employee, like I had one
Jason Friedman:customer, he was an electronics retailer in, in the northeast,
Jason Friedman:kind of like a Best Buy, if you will, right. And they had a they
Jason Friedman:had a brand. And he used to say to them on the North were the
Jason Friedman:Nordstrom of consumer electronics were the Nordstrom
Jason Friedman:right, which he was we were the gold standard where the best
Jason Friedman:customer service focused organization. So he brought us
Jason Friedman:in because they were having some problems. And he brought me into
Jason Friedman:a manager's meeting. And they had I think they had eight
Jason Friedman:stores or nine stores at the time with about 40 managers in
Jason Friedman:the System System Managers in their conference room. And I
Jason Friedman:walked in and was kind of sitting off to the side. At some
Jason Friedman:point he introduced me as like, the Savior, right? Like, like
Jason Friedman:the guy that's gonna save our business and whatever. And this
Jason Friedman:was when we were doing things for people right back in the old
Jason Friedman:old days. And he's like, you know, he's like, we're the
Jason Friedman:Nordstrom of consumer electronics like bla bla bla bla
Jason Friedman:bla, big rallying cry, and he introduces me I get up in the
Jason Friedman:front room. I said, you know, I'm really glad to be here. I
Jason Friedman:said, I have a question. Just quick show of hands. How many
Jason Friedman:people in this room have ever been in a Nordstrom? Not one
Jason Friedman:hand other than the CEO went up. Interesting, right. And so So I
Jason Friedman:said to them, I said who knows what he means his name was Leon
Jason Friedman:means when he says we're the normal consumer electronics,
Jason Friedman:blank stares in the room. It had no meaning it had no text. And
Jason Friedman:so like in our businesses, we assume like we have these big
Jason Friedman:ideas, we assume we hire people that they understand what we
Jason Friedman:believe is a level of good customer service. What is a good
Jason Friedman:customer experience what a result should be? And we're not
Jason Friedman:training them on that, right? We train them on the skills like
Jason Friedman:how to use the CRM, how to use the phone system, how to email
Jason Friedman:somebody, we don't train them, how to be good stewards for a
Jason Friedman:client success, how to be a good relationship person. And it's an
Jason Friedman:art form that is lost.
Janice Porter:Yeah. Yeah. You know what I woke up in the
Janice Porter:middle of the night last night with a meme in my head that I
Janice Porter:was creating for. I posted it this morning on LinkedIn. And
Janice Porter:all it said, I had to try and remember what I remembered what
Janice Porter:I'd said. All it was was be curious. See, now forgotten, be
Janice Porter:curious. begin conversations. And what was the third be? And
Janice Porter:be getting begin conversations and hang on. Now I'm really mad
Janice Porter:because I can't remember it. Here it is. Got it. Be curious,
Janice Porter:begin conversations, build relationships. That's it. And
Janice Porter:that's kind of how I operate and the rest will come. You know,
Janice Porter:the rest will come but you have to care. You have to show an
Janice Porter:interest in people. You have to start those conversations. You
Janice Porter:have to engage with people, and you have to build trust and in
Janice Porter:those relationships, right. So I see that you reminded me also of
Janice Porter:my Nordstrom story, actually, because of course, I'm on the
Janice Porter:Pacific West Coast. mothership and Nordstrom, by the way, was
Janice Porter:in Vancouver for two years, we had their flagship store in
Janice Porter:Canada, and then all of a sudden they close it down. We don't
Janice Porter:have it anymore. We were so excited when we had Nordstrom,
Janice Porter:but I was in California staying at my daughter and my sisters.
Janice Porter:And I went out to Nordstrom in wet Westland Woodland Hills Mall
Janice Porter:or something in the San Fernando Valley. It was a Sunday, I went
Janice Porter:Sunday morning, I had seen this jacket and I really wanted it.
Janice Porter:So I bought it. But I was leaving that night to come home.
Janice Porter:So I brought the jacket home. And now Now I'm packing in the
Janice Porter:afternoon. And the jacket has one of those tags on it. The
Janice Porter:electronic tags, which they've forgotten to take off. I got out
Janice Porter:of the store. But would I get through security at the airport?
Janice Porter:I don't know. So I phoned the store. And they sent the sales
Janice Porter:clerk over to my sister's house with the thing to take it off.
Janice Porter:That's a Nordstrom. That's that's what they needed to know
Janice Porter:right about
Jason Friedman:Nordstrom. Yeah, they know what it looks like to
Jason Friedman:deliver that service. And what business would take the time to
Jason Friedman:do that? Nobody, nobody cares. But you're telling the story to
Jason Friedman:1000s of people right now? Later because it left them it left an
Jason Friedman:imprint, right? Yeah, that was just the opportunity to leave
Jason Friedman:those imprints with every customer we have every day of
Jason Friedman:our lives. Right. So So if we think about competition, like
Jason Friedman:you, there's no competition when you behave that way. When that
Jason Friedman:is the experience you create. Competition disappears.
Janice Porter:Right? Yeah, it's there's enough out there for all
Janice Porter:of us is a better mentality, the abundance mentality. But it's
Janice Porter:true that, you know, people don't all think that says I'm
Janice Porter:all
Jason Friedman:for abundance. But at the end of the day, if
Jason Friedman:we're not thinking about how we deliver greatness, you're gonna
Jason Friedman:start feeling scarce. Right? Yeah, it's fulfilling prophecy.
Jason Friedman:You know, one of our tag lines that we use is, you know,
Jason Friedman:experience dot dot dot your unfair advantage. And I believe
Jason Friedman:that to be true, right, it is your unfair advantage when you
Jason Friedman:focus on that. And you know, we say experience a lot. I just
Jason Friedman:want to define it for a second experience when I'm talking
Jason Friedman:about it, like the experience for your customers. It's how
Jason Friedman:they feel, yes, your brand, it's a feeling right. And, and it's
Jason Friedman:not the something you do, like you actually don't create an
Jason Friedman:experience. What happens experience is the effect, right
Jason Friedman:experience is a sum of all the things you do. So while
Jason Friedman:technically you are creating the experience, what you're doing is
Jason Friedman:you're creating results success, you're removing frictions,
Jason Friedman:you're creating a positive journey for people so that they
Jason Friedman:genuinely feel great throughout the experience. That is what
Jason Friedman:that experience is, that's what creates like that unique
Jason Friedman:fingerprint that differentiates you from all your competition,
Jason Friedman:right? I just see so many people that commoditize their business.
Jason Friedman:So in so many ways in every way like you know the the pricing,
Jason Friedman:they lower pricing, they discount they try and do what
Jason Friedman:everybody else is doing. Instead of standing out it's like, you
Jason Friedman:know, it's like there's no benefit and being like The
Jason Friedman:cheapest second cheapest guy out there, right? So if you can't be
Jason Friedman:the cheapest, there's gonna be the most expensive and deliver
Jason Friedman:on something that that makes the value right
Janice Porter:and be able to articulate that in such a way
Janice Porter:that you're believe it and it's true 100% I see the passion in
Janice Porter:your in you in what you do. And I love that so much. Before we
Janice Porter:we wrap up, though, I want to just sort of sideways a little
Janice Porter:bit and just ask you with button questions. So having been in
Janice Porter:theater and you love the music scene, so I'm sure when you're
Janice Porter:on the East Coast, I'm sure you've been to shows on
Janice Porter:Broadway. Do you prefer plays? Do you prefer? musicals? What's
Janice Porter:your favorite show that you have experience? Like,
Jason Friedman:oh, gosh, you know, I love theater. I love
Jason Friedman:shows. I you know, I like it depends, right? You know, like,
Jason Friedman:there's been a bunch of musicals I've been to that we're not
Jason Friedman:quite up to snuff. They've kind of feel forced in the story
Jason Friedman:feels a little bit, you know, inauthentic. I've been plays,
Jason Friedman:you know, I, I like, I like good theater. I'll leave it at that.
Jason Friedman:Like the format. Like sometimes it's like improv is awesome.
Jason Friedman:Like, you know, in the round is awesome. musicals are awesome.
Jason Friedman:Like, I love theater. Like, you know, Blue Man Group. For
Jason Friedman:example, I love Blue Man Group is awesome. Music Theater, you
Jason Friedman:know, whatever.
Janice Porter:Do you are you a movie buff? I watched
Jason Friedman:movies. I see movies. I'm not I don't run to
Jason Friedman:the theater when a new movie comes out. Usually. Yeah, my
Jason Friedman:kids, my kids, like a superhero movie comes out we go. But other
Jason Friedman:than that,
Janice Porter:yeah. Okay. All right. Are you a reader or a
Janice Porter:listener? Or as a person? Or a video?
Jason Friedman:I am a reader and a listener more than a video
Jason Friedman:person.
Janice Porter:Do you still like to read a hold a book to read?
Janice Porter:Or do you read it on screen?
Jason Friedman:i It depends. So I love reading when I travel.
Jason Friedman:But carrying the amount of books that I sometimes need with me
Jason Friedman:gets unruly. So I do kindle a bit. But I actually have like a
Jason Friedman:real Kindle where it's got like the paper so that I'm not like
Jason Friedman:looking at the blue on the fun like the computer tablet or
Jason Friedman:whatever you prefer. I love real books. I love marking them up. I
Jason Friedman:love dog earing pages, I love coming back to it. I believe
Jason Friedman:that, you know, authors put so much time into their book. And
Jason Friedman:we read them once or kind of once. And I so like, I love
Jason Friedman:coming back and reading books a second third time I take a new
Jason Friedman:thing away. Sometimes it's like I've changed between times I've
Jason Friedman:read it, it's not read it sometimes, like there's a
Jason Friedman:different thing going on in my life that I hear it a different
Jason Friedman:way. So and one of the gifts I give to people that are
Jason Friedman:important to me, is I books that I love that I've marked up and
Jason Friedman:dog eared, I have an assistant of mine go through and make
Jason Friedman:replicas of that exact book. So we boy buy multiple copies, and
Jason Friedman:we mark them up exactly as mine is. And I send them to people
Jason Friedman:that I know they would benefit from that book. And I maybe even
Jason Friedman:add a couple notes there a couple of spots that I think
Jason Friedman:would be helpful for whatever I know is going on in their
Jason Friedman:business. I send those out to them. And they love that it's so
Jason Friedman:thoughtful. And it's fun. It's fun to do. So I use books a lot.
Jason Friedman:That That one
Janice Porter:I'm puzzled by because I'm like you like I like
Janice Porter:to have my felt pen and my marker, you know, my highlighter
Janice Porter:there mostly when I'm reading obviously business books or self
Janice Porter:help books, those kinds of things. But if you sent me a
Janice Porter:book that was already marked up, I'm not sure I'd like that.
Janice Porter:Because that would
Jason Friedman:love to try it and say, Yeah, that's really
Jason Friedman:what's cool about it. So like, it's, it's like, it's not like,
Jason Friedman:like every page you turn is like, you know, blocking all
Jason Friedman:sorts of stuff. It's like these are really cool highlighted
Jason Friedman:important things. Like if you look in your Kindle, now, you
Jason Friedman:get that same experience, you see what other people are
Jason Friedman:highlighted and whatever. And it's interesting, like some of
Jason Friedman:those I agree with some of them I don't agree with and that's
Jason Friedman:fine, like I wouldn't, and hopefully what it's Sparks is a
Jason Friedman:conversation between us. That's stopping like, hey, like so I'll
Jason Friedman:get someone to be like, Hey, dude, like, why don't you like
Jason Friedman:Mark this? And I'll be like, let me ask you a question. Like,
Jason Friedman:we'll start this like conversation. He's like, holy
Jason Friedman:crap, I didn't. I didn't even think of it that way. And I'm
Jason Friedman:like, well, like,
Janice Porter:well, and that would be the one thing that I
Janice Porter:would see is that it would be an insight into you.
Jason Friedman:100% right. It's a way to build deeper
Jason Friedman:relationships. Yeah, exactly. And like if I can do that you so
Jason Friedman:I'll give you a great so I one of the books I recommend
Jason Friedman:everybody write is a book called predictably irrational by Dan
Jason Friedman:And I really I don't know if you've ever met it. Yeah, you
Jason Friedman:should definitely grab a copy. Or maybe, just maybe you might
Jason Friedman:get one, right. So so so if you're struggling with pricing,
Jason Friedman:for example, right, so he's a behavioral economist, he looks
Jason Friedman:at, you know, different, you know, patterns and things like
Jason Friedman:that. And he's got these great stories and explanations about
Jason Friedman:it. So the one of the one of the case studies, and there's about
Jason Friedman:the Economist magazine. And so they do this thing where he
Jason Friedman:shows like, they did this test where they had the digital
Jason Friedman:version was like 65 bucks, and the print version was like 125
Jason Friedman:bucks. And what do you think? What do you think sold more? The
Jason Friedman:digital or the print?
Janice Porter:You think the digital,
Jason Friedman:right? So the digital did sell more? Right? So
Jason Friedman:they it was a significantly increased amount of people, I
Jason Friedman:don't remember the exact numbers off the top of my head, or I'd
Jason Friedman:share them. But then they did another test where they did
Jason Friedman:three options. And so in the second test, they did the
Jason Friedman:digital only for 65 bucks, the only for 125 bucks, and the
Jason Friedman:digital and the print for 125 bucks. Oh, so that wasn't a
Jason Friedman:mistake. The second two were the same. So you got that. So what
Jason Friedman:do you think happened at that point? Well, what do you think
Jason Friedman:sold the most?
Janice Porter:I think the third option, exactly what happened.
Jason Friedman:Right. And so why did that happen? Because you
Jason Friedman:can contact the know the con? Yes, you think it's a deal. But
Jason Friedman:the comparison at that point is between the $225 options. They
Jason Friedman:already discounted. Right? Yeah, right. So like, let's say that
Jason Friedman:you are struggling with like those kinds of things in your
Jason Friedman:business, which I have a lot of people that come into my world
Jason Friedman:that are, this is a great thing to send them because it starts
Jason Friedman:to unlock something that like, and he's a masterful writer. And
Jason Friedman:it's, you know, just a great book. So, like, I would find,
Jason Friedman:like reasons why I won't send somebody's book, another great
Jason Friedman:book is made to stick by Chip and Dan Heath. I don't know if
Jason Friedman:you've ever read that. But like, people, yes. Like, it's a great
Jason Friedman:book, so many people that I know, like, they talked about
Jason Friedman:the curse of knowledge in that book. And so many people that I
Jason Friedman:know, are experts in their field, and they lose sight of
Jason Friedman:like when customers are coming into their world, they lose
Jason Friedman:sight of really where they are like, they may have been in
Jason Friedman:touch with them a long time ago, but they don't now and they're
Jason Friedman:talking way above their head and in different ways. And they're
Jason Friedman:not telling sticky stories and all that. So I might use that
Jason Friedman:book as a way to help you know someone and get them unstuck.
Jason Friedman:So, people, I've never had anyone say, Dude, why did you
Jason Friedman:send me this dirty marked up book? Yeah, having that
Jason Friedman:experience, you might be my first we'll say. But, like,
Jason Friedman:there's also a cover note that goes with it like, of why I
Jason Friedman:chose this book. And like that, you know, there's there's
Janice Porter:I can see that your heart is is at the
Janice Porter:forefront of it. And I love people notice
Jason Friedman:that right? So it's just an interesting thing.
Jason Friedman:So but again, for your business, like what is it that you think
Jason Friedman:will help people and touch people and show that you're
Jason Friedman:interested in their success? This is just one of my things
Jason Friedman:that I've kind of done and developed over the years, that
Jason Friedman:seems to work really well. And you sent me an amazing gift,
Jason Friedman:right? That was like super awesome. And it personalized and
Jason Friedman:like it was just it was amazing. So you know, you have your ways.
Jason Friedman:And so like, I just think for all of us, it's like, how do we
Jason Friedman:connect more deeply? And those are very personal one on one
Jason Friedman:kind of things. We might have businesses where we can't be as
Jason Friedman:directly one on one. That's okay. The question is, how do I
Jason Friedman:deliver that kind of feeling of one on one at scale? What would
Jason Friedman:it look like? And so the question I like to encourage
Jason Friedman:people to ask is not like, it's like, how could I? Like just ask
Jason Friedman:the question, how could I? And see what's there? See what you
Jason Friedman:uncover? I'm just percolate on it a little bit and see what see
Jason Friedman:what love
Janice Porter:it. I think we need to wrap up because we have
Janice Porter:gone over time, because I love listening to your stuff. Sorry,
Janice Porter:sorry. Oh, don't be sorry. I love it. What you have to say it
Janice Porter:speaks to me. And I hope to my audience in the sense that it's
Janice Porter:all about the customer experience. It's all about
Janice Porter:caring about people and showing them that you care. And so if
Janice Porter:you're not doing that in your business or through your
Janice Porter:business, then you need to take another look. And you need to
Janice Porter:see what Jason has to offer. So Jason, how can people find you?
Janice Porter:Yeah, so
Jason Friedman:you can definitely jump over the website
Jason Friedman:that you were talking about earlier, CX formula.com. But you
Jason Friedman:know, Janice, I'd love to do a little special something,
Jason Friedman:something for your people, if you're cool with that. So I have
Jason Friedman:a really cool PDF that I have put a bunch of time into that is
Jason Friedman:like a really awesome strategy and tactical kind of approach at
Jason Friedman:the same time. So I'm not going to tell you what it is. It's a
Jason Friedman:little secrets a little surprise, but it will take you
Jason Friedman:less than 10 minutes to go through. I did a
Jason Friedman:gift.cx formula.com/relationships rule. We'll put it in the show
Jason Friedman:notes. Just two favors from anybody that grabs it like,
Jason Friedman:please do like, I want you to have it. There's no, no strings
Jason Friedman:attached, you know, it's free. But the only thing I ask is that
Jason Friedman:you, if you download it, please look at it, don't let it sit on
Jason Friedman:our drive and not look at it. Because I think I do that, like
Jason Friedman:it's so many of us do it, we download it, we get busy, it's
Jason Friedman:something that will really help you. And I was really selective
Jason Friedman:about what you can't find this on my website, when you go to
Jason Friedman:see it from and you won't find this thing. I'm not sharing it
Jason Friedman:with everybody. I'm sharing it only with, you know, special
Jason Friedman:groups of people that I get to talk to. And it's a killer. Sure
Jason Friedman:I teach this. It's part of my course, that I'm giving you. So
Jason Friedman:again, just I think I think I know it'll help you. And I think
Jason Friedman:if you give it the 10 minutes, you'll be like, Wow, this is
Jason Friedman:cool. And then the second favor is like if you're moved by it
Jason Friedman:and you decide you're going to use it, send me an email about
Jason Friedman:what you did and how it worked. I'd love like literally want to
Jason Friedman:hear how it worked for you. So my email address will be on an
Jason Friedman:email that you get from or delivering it, just reply back
Jason Friedman:and let me know what you think.
Janice Porter:That's very generous of you. Thank you,
Janice Porter:Jason, I look forward to having a look at it myself. So thank
Janice Porter:you for being here. Thank you for your wisdom. And thank you
Janice Porter:to my audience again for being here. And please, if you like
Janice Porter:what you heard, remember to leave a review. We all love
Janice Porter:that. And it helps the algorithms help move my forecast
Janice Porter:up and so of course that's that's something that I'm always
Janice Porter:working on and appreciate. So remember to stay connected and
Janice Porter:be remembered