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Flipping the Funnel: Unprecedented Growth Strategies with Jason Friedman | RR255
Episode 25523rd April 2024 • Relationships Rule • Janice Porter
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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: 

http://JanicePorter.com 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/janiceporter/ 

https://www.facebook.com/janiceporter1 


Thanks for listening! 

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Transcripts

Janice Porter:

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

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