Episode 63: Deliver Your Message With Brevity, Soul, and Wit with Judi Harrington

Episode #63

Mike O'Neill: Welcome back to the Get Unstuck & On Target Podcast. I'm Mike O'Neill with Bench Builders and we specialize in helping leaders solve the tough people problems that are slowing their company's growth. Joining me today is Judi Harrington. Judi is the founder of Judi 4 1 1 and is a business storyteller and a writing problem solver. She helps business owners get their story out of their head onto the page and out into the world. Whether it's a website copy or developing your social media message and content, Judi helps her clients keep their brand true to form and function. Welcome Judi. 

Judi Harrington: Thank you very much for having me, Mike. It's great to be here.

Mike O'Neill: Judi is joining me from right outside Boston. And so I've had so much fun and getting to know her. But what you will find pretty quickly is the topic that I'd like us to discuss Judi and I've entitled this is how does Judi help her clients manage their message with brevity, soul, and wit. I love that tagline, Judi. 

Judi Harrington: Thank you. Little play on Oscar Wilde. 

Mike O'Neill: Now see if I was as literate as you think I am, I would immediately picked up on that. So I know all of our listeners knew that play. What is Oscar Wilde's? 

Judi Harrington: Now I said it now do I know, right? I know I stole it from him. Like all good writers. We, we adopt and adapt. 

Mike O'Neill: Well, there's some things about that.

Judi Harrington: Yes. 

Mike O'Neill: Manage their message with brevity. Let's just jump right into that. You are a message expert. Why brevity? Why is that important? 

Judi Harrington: It's important to get your point across as quickly as possible, particularly in this age of the internet, where you really have just seconds to distinguish yourself whether it be on your website or people are searching you on the internet and they search results come up. A little teaser that comes up underneath, you know, the, the search result. You want to be able to have people click on that right away. So it's important to get your point out there as quickly as possible and as succinctly as possible. 

Mike O'Neill: So if the goal is quick and succinct, how in the world do you add soul to that?

Judi Harrington: It's part of my secret sauce. I think, well, for me, when I work with clients, I really try to get into their personalities. And I often say that good copywriting content creation is a lot like being a method actor. Like you kind of absorb that person's personality for a little bit and invoke it into their content and copy. For instance, I work with a mortgage broker who is in one of actually had become one of my really good friends. And she like me is a vivacious personality has a lot to say. But her tagline is it's more than just the rate. So I think that speaks volumes because if you see that immediately you're like, what do you mean? It's more than just the rate? Isn't that the big note, all the noise we're hearing right now rates are so low rates are so low. And what distinguishes her from other mortgage brokers that she really wants to take a look at your larger financial picture and see if this is the right time for you to refinance and find what is the goal of why, why now? And this is a question I often ask my clients too. I'm like, okay, why now do you need to revamp your website? Why now? And kind of getting down into those details is really what helps you bring out really where people are coming from and what drives them to be the business owner that they are. So that's how you can get a little peek into the soul of your of your clients. 

Mike O'Neill: That's very insightful. Did you use the term method actor, and that is if I'm hearing you correctly, you're trying to understand the world from their perspective, because you're trying to kind of capture their voice. If you would.

Judi Harrington: Exactly. And one of the term, one of the, quips that I use is, it's hard to read your label when you live inside your own bottle. So it's, sometimes it's hard for folks to see how they're perceived out in the world and they sometimes that's why we have mirrors, right? We need those mechanisms to tell us when there's spinach in our teeth, that we're not presenting ourselves in a way that we want to be received. So that's kind of another way that I talk to folks about how they can manage their message and make something really individual out in the world. 

Mike O'Neill: I know you work with clients whose message can be a bit complicated. 

Judi Harrington: Yes. 

Mike O'Neill: And I think that's one of your niches. You help those who have a complicated message with their ability to convey it with brevity, to capture their soul. And you try to add a little wit to the process. Tell me more about wit I mean, I know that word means, but, and I've got no, you a little better. That's a natural word for you. 

Judi Harrington: It's a natural word for me. We don't always want to, when people think of wit I think that their default is to think of it as sarcasm. And that is not always true while that sometimes can be true. Okay. What you w I think about when it comes to wit is so to dial back a little bit, when it comes to complicated concepts, most of the writing that I do is within real estate finance and law. And, you know, I came from this from years of being a paralegal, working as a regulatory analyst, different, very dry esoteric information. And I'd find myself, you know, a cocktail parties or cookouts people, like, what do you do for work? And I say, well, you know, all that stuff that you get from like your 401k and all those proxy statements that you probably threw in the trash and they say, yes, I'm like, well, I made sure that they will, they met all the regulatory thresholds and that no one went to jail for saying something stupid. So you kind of just frame it in a different way, kind of, you know, add a little humor to things. But in truly in a more serious sense, it is really conveying to people what is important about having certain say for example, financial vehicles, like when it comes to the insurance industry that people think they're just paying a premium for not getting much in return. And one of my clients, who's a commercial insurance agent. We have built a lot of content over the past year, devoted to showing how coverage matters, which is his company's tagline. And one of the ways we do that is showing what happens when you do have the right coverage and how it can help you when, you know, for lack of better term disaster strikes or, you know, those risks that you were trying to avoid sometimes happen. And so at th that's a better way of approaching, showing the importance behind insurance than telling people all these doom and gloom stories. Well, they didn't have the right car insurance, or they didn't have this coverage. And look what happened. It seems very shameful. But really celebrating and displaying for people what happens when you do have the correct coverage and how it does help you in the long run is a better way to frame it. So I think that's a little bit of how wit works. 

Mike O'Neill: You know, it's hard to me imagine adding it to some of the dull subjects that you might have to kind of deal with, but I've had the pleasure of just bantering with you and it's come through very, very loud and clear. The name of your business is Judi 4, 1 1, and that is people are reaching out because they've got questions. What, what are the kinds of questions that prompts them to pick up the phone or drop you an email or click something on your website? 

Judi Harrington: Well, I think I know a little bit, a lot. I know a little bit about a lot. And if I don't know the answer right away, I know where to go find it. So by way of background, I have a degree in professional writing from UMass Boston, and I'm a trained researcher. I have a master's degree in, communication and research from Emerson college. So I know where to go find the answers and how to vet out fact from fiction. So think what has happened over the years is that people have come to me ideally as someone who can be trusted, who knows where to go find good information and how to convey it, honestly, and clearly in a way that compels people to do something about it. So again, you talk about how can you make insurance exciting here's one example. So back to my insurance client, They have, a wide network of, carriers that they work with. And one of them happens to be a carrier that specializes in covering new drivers. So that can speak to teen drivers or people who decide to get, get their license later in life. And the way we introduce that topic was to say, remember what it was like when you got your license or as a parent, do you remember how great it felt watching your kid make that, you know, go through that, rite of passage and at the same time, you all that euphoria, and then you get that huge premium change. That's not fun, but here's some good news. There are carriers out there who specialize in covering newer drivers. So here's a way to find out about that. Contact us, we'll review your policy. We'll see what we can do for you. So that's one way we kind of introduce things in a little more and I call it a fun fashion, but I think really what it comes down to is being relatable to the reader.

Mike O'Neill: We've talked a little bit about branding, maybe a company, if you would. How about personal branding are you in essence doing that with your clients as well? Or is it more company branding? 

Judi Harrington: It's mostly message branding. So it's really talking about clarifying what their voice is, whether it is very casual. Like in some cases, people want to talk and I think largely people want to talk in a conversational manner, but there are also certain aspects of their business they want to really drive home on a regular basis on a regular basis. So for example, back to my mortgage broker client, she, and she's really firm that we need to find out why it is that you want to refinance, not just because your neighbors are doing it. So there's, there's a larger financial picture that she's interested in helping folks with and helping them understand that. And then that also cultivates her as a trusted advisor to her clients. So she's more than their mortgage broker. She is someone who can refer them to say an estate planning attorney or a financial advisor, like she picks up these hints from them as she's having these conversations on what can be helpful to them. So it was really kind of going down that path a little bit more. So I don't know if that really answers what you're looking for, but I think that's kinda my approach. It's not so much when I think of branding for me. Then there's the messaging side of it, but there's also the visual side. I definitely stick with the messaging side of things. As I like to joke my stick figures, be to go on a diet there, I'm not an artist. I know what I like when I see it, but I couldn't conjure an image myself or commit to paper or any other medium. But I'm more of a message branding person. 

Mike O'Neill: So, if you are helping with message, and you said that you early on try to kind of get to know them and kind of get their voice. It's interesting. It sounds as if a lot of your clients are in advisor roles, they are in fact trusted advisors. In this case, you are a trusted advisor to trusted advisor. What do you think is most important when you're beginning our relationship. How do you go about establishing a sense that this is a good fit for me, and I may be a good fit for them. I, is there a, a process you follow? Or is it more gut. 

Judi Harrington: It's definitely more gut. I have been gifted with a really good instinct. And I've also learned not to ignore it. And usually the way I start conversations with potential clients it's very, it's very conversational. It's like, okay. So, you know, what's new and good. And what are you working on? And things like that. But I also, I follow the advice of, we have two ears and one mouth for a reason. So we want to listen more than we talk. And we want to ask questions that are going to provoke a conversation or enhanced conversation. So do you do this? Yes or no answers aren't ready to get very far. So it's more of, you know, how are things going or what is interesting in your industry right now that you think people are not aware of? Like, those are the types of questions that I'll ask and the conversation really just organically grows from there. 

Mike O'Neill: Judi, you said something earlier caught my attention for two reasons. One literally within the last hour, I've heard this said by two different people, and that is an early in the conversations for you as you're talking to a potential client, you ask that client, okay, now I know what is you're looking for, but you ask them why now? 

Judi Harrington: Yes.

Mike O'Neill: Elaborate on that. Why is that such a powerful two word question? 

Judi Harrington: Well, you'd be surprised what answers I hear. Well, I think I'm supposed to have, I'm supposed to check. I'm supposed to update my website every two years. Okay. Well, have you changed your service offerings a whole lot? Are you looking to cultivate a different type of client? You know, just because you hear this supposed to doesn't mean that you have to, there's a, you know, the whole concept of keeping up with the Joneses. That can be, you know, that that's a transferrable that transcends whether you're in business or in your personal life. People see other business owners doing something, oh, I should be doing that. Or like that I call it the shiny object syndrome, like, oh, wow. I saw this really great website. And now I think I should have a really great website or I saw this really great newsletter and I think I should have a newsletter. And while I do think it's really important to have a newsletter and we can talk about that in a little bit. It's you have to have, there's gotta be something more compelling than I think I'm supposed to be doing this. And that's where I really try to dig into with clients. 

Mike O'Neill: You know, and keeping with the theme of this podcast, can you think of a situation where you maybe had a client that got stuck and once that realization was that they're stuck, what did you do to help them get unstuck?

Judi Harrington: One of the biggest areas where I see clients getting stuck is that, and I see this a lot with with business owners who are on the cusp of maybe scaling up or they're at the big change is on the horizon for them. And so, for example, I work with a lot of clients who've been in business for like five years or more. That's usually the typical client I work with. And in those first five years or so they are doing all the things, right? That's the beauty sometimes of being an entrepreneur is that you get to dabble in a lot of different aspects of business, but it can also be your Achilles heel that you spent all this time doing. Like, we always joke doing all the things, doing all the things like it's something to be glorified, but at the same time, if you're spending three hours trying to write a newsletter, when your business is bookkeeping, then that's not the best use of your time. So why not lean to someone who can, you know, hear what your ideas are and convey them in a way that gets your audience excited. So sometimes letting go of that task can feel like there's something about it that people feel that they're letting go of some control over it when actually it frees them and sometimes I find myself in this in a, not quite a power struggle with trying to get people to see, you know what is this the best use of the time that you have to grow your business? Is this growing your business or is it a way for you to procrastinate doing the next big thing? So sometimes there's a lot of psychology that goes on behind it. You know, sometimes writers are like hairdressers, but we hear everyone's big problems of what their struggles are and their business. What do you think are some ways that you can change that for yourself? And often it is I might need to let go of things like doing my own newsletter because I can't get it out on a timely basis, or it takes me hours to write something that frankly you could write in 40 minutes. So I think sometimes people, and I've done this too. Sometimes we get in our own way. Cause we think we have to be doing all the things because that's what it is to be an entrepreneur, but there's a real gift and to yourself in letting go of some of those things and letting other people take over for you.

Mike O'Neill: So sharing with them, why letting go of that can kind of get them unstuck. You mentioned early on, you spend a lot of time trying to get to know them and kind of get their voice. Over time do you find that your clients just began to say, Judi gets me, she has my voice. She knows what I'm trying to do. Do you find that once they've let go, they tend to basically say I trust whatever you're putting out.

Judi Harrington: I have clients who say to me, you know, my voice better than I know my own. Or people don't I've had one client who didn't her, her clients didn't know I wrote her newsletter. They thought it was her. And she finally, you know, preferably came out of the closet about it. And people are like, what? It's not, you she's like, no, it's Judi and she writes it as if it were me. She sounds more like me than I do. So it happens, it happens. Another thing I hear clients say a lot. Once they make that shift to, you know, relinquish some of that control and, you know, have me do something like write their newsletter or start an email campaign for them is that they're like, oh, I feel now I feel like rejuvenating about my business. Like you get me excited about my business in a whole new level, because you're taking this task off my plate. And now I can really focus on, you know, cultivating more sales or coming up with a new product or, or working in whatever their zone of genius is. Whether they're an attorney, whether they're a financial advisor, whether they're a real estate agent, those are the things that, if that's way that you started this, because you wanted to do the thing, you'd know how to do best. And that may or may not always be writing your newsletter at the same time. 

Mike O'Neill: Now, Judi, you have shared with me prior that when you're not writing for clients, you are writing for yourself. 

Judi Harrington: I am. 

Mike O'Neill: Can you share a little bit about what you're working on? 

Judi Harrington: Sure, sure. I am lucky enough to be able to be working on a book right now, which is a life long dream of mine. I've always wanted to write a book and I have over many years cultivated a whole collection of memoir type humorous stories. That are now being pulled into a book. So as I like to say, they are a collection of, salty stories in the memoir humor, genre, and that I'm working on that book. Is going to be available for presale probably in spring of 2022. The title has yet to be determined. There are a couple in the running. They're all quite, salty and sarcastic. I'll leave it at that. But I I'm really looking forward to see that, come out into the world, just like I do for my clients that get these thoughts out of my own head, onto my own page. And I went to into the world for myself as another is, is a great source of joy for me. So that is, that is in the works. 

Mike O'Neill: Well, I'm excited for you now. You've been collecting these for years, but is putting these things down in a format that would appear in a book. Is it relieving you to get these things kinda memorialize? 

Judi Harrington: Oh, yeah, totally. It's great. And you know what, it's, it's the same, it's fundamentally the same thing. Like I was talking about with, you know, entrepreneurs, sometimes they feel like they have to do all the things like I, what held me back from getting this book published was that I thought I had to go and learn how to do all the self-publishing things. And finally, I just said, Judy, you can find professionals who do that. I'm sure they're out there. Just by that thought alone, through a networking, partner of mine she put me in touch with the company I'm working with. Just sometimes the thought itself just manifests the result. Cause I'm very blessed. 

Mike O'Neill: So Judy you know that our listening audience, these are decision makers, these are business owners. These are entrepreneurs. These are people who, when they make a decision has impact. Sometimes that can really kind of mire us down. What do you do personally, to keep fresh?

Judi Harrington: In terms of? 

Mike O'Neill: So you don't get stuck in a rut. 

Judi Harrington: So I don't get stuck? 

Mike O'Neill: Yeah. 

Judi Harrington: Rest is best. Actually true story this weekend I didn't do a whole lot of, writing. I spent a lot of time reading and a lot of time listened to podcasts and kind of freeing my brain from my usual engagement on a screen or with a pen in my hand. Sometimes it just really need to stop, you know, put a pause on going at 90 miles an hour. I think that, that, I think that's also very American. We are very much when we take less vacation time than any other country in the world, we tend to glorify working through the weekend. And while I often say that my work doesn't feel like work because I love what I do. There's really only so many words that one person can be expected to churn out in one day. Sometimes I've been known to really try and push that limit, but this past weekend, and I said, Nope, I'm going to hit the pause button, going to sit and read and sleep in, go for a walk, leave my house, see some people, do things that are not necessarily directly related to your business. I think that's a great way to kind of free yourself. 

Mike O'Neill: Judi, you work with people in all sorts of industries. You've shared a little bit about kind of how you help them. Tell us a little more about you, how, what maybe I should have asked about you that would kind of give our listeners a better feel for who you are and how you help them?

Judi Harrington: I like to joke that I spent, many years of hard time working in corporate America. At several large financial institutions that will remain nameless to protect the innocent. And, and I w worked in a number of different law offices and, but what was always the common denominator was that everywhere I worked, I somehow became the resident writing expert. If there was a difficult message we had to deliver to a client ask Judy she'll know. If there was, you know, a procedure manual that needed to be reviewed ask Judy she'll know. And people sometimes the business owners themselves, and very often attorneys would come to me say, I'm not really sure how to frame this. I'm like okay. Well, here's what I suggest you say and thought there was a lot of successes. I've witnessed a lot of people, being able to enact change from the words I gave them. And I felt, I got to a point where I said, I should just be doing this for my full-time job. And I have a way to, I am persuasive. I can, compel people to do things that they may not have been willing to do in the first place. And I think that is the essence of really good copy and content writing is that you're persuading people to look at something differently, to consider things that they've previously overlooked or maybe things they've misunderstood, get a different perspective and then decide they're going to act on it. And that's the essence of marketing is getting people to do. And I seem to have a knack for it. So that is how I've come to this juncture in my career. But it's really from me from years of honing a craft for always writing, I've always been drawn to the, to the written word and just picking up a lot of different, as I said before, I know a little bit. And just picking up nuggets of wisdom along the way. So I have enough working knowledge to discuss with financial advisors, just how the market's working, or I get into the details of how different financial products work. With attorneys. I can get down into the details of what it is that they do, and what's different about them verses other attorneys or what their philosophy is, say about estate planning or, you know, litigation, what they do when they don't do. And so again, like I kind of just get more into the details of what people are doing and try to find a common way to bridge that communication gap between them and the people they're looking to bring on as clients.

Mike O'Neill: Judi, what prompted me, asking you to be on this podcast is we had kind of a one-on-one conversation and Judi, you're a real hoot. You've got, I love your, your sense of humor. And when I learn more the kind of clients you often work with, it just struck me as what a dichotomy and, and that is no offense, but the, some of the things you were working on strikes me as just boring. 

Judi Harrington: Boring? You've got a boring topic. Bring it to me. I love talking about boring things. People are like, what? Like, again, here's a, here's a topic that no one wants to hear about artificial intelligence. Just wrote a blog post about it for a company that creates these, you know, content mining. They have these products that can kinda read data at a large level and get into the, the meaning of what clients are saying and helping people, you know, leverage artificial intelligence. Like it basically is like Siri is, does artificial intelligence. When you think about that, that's really what it is. And, you're talking about that topic. And so I was like, yeah, sure sign me up. You probably could not write about what my kind of find, like, I don't know. I used to read the dictionary as a kid. I I'm just drawn to dry esoteric things and then figuring out how to it's like using a word of the day in some way, shape or form. And, you know, putting those messages out in the universe. I, I don't know what it is. My therapist doesn't either, and, but this is what I'm doing. I don't know what else to say. Yeah. If it's a complicated topic I'm your gal.

Mike O'Neill: And reading a dictionary for as, as a kid. Yes. That, well, I mean, obviously it's worked well, it reinforces, let's see, you know, a little bit about a lot of things. 

Judi Harrington: That's how the 411 came along. It actually is a nickname friends gave me years ago because in addition to and having all this, you know, professional knowledge, there is a phenomenon in the world where I am almost always the person chosen out of a cast of thousands to ask directions. You know, what time the bus is coming, people just stop it. Like I am. I joke that I'm the world's most approachable woman. That people stop before pre pandemic or BQ before quarantine as I call it, people will be walking along and people would you know, stop and ask me all sorts of things. Then why do they ask you? Why don't they ask me? I'm like, I don't know. I look like, I know what's going on. Somehow I'm always mistaken for being in charge. Like I've been literally mistaken for an accountant and attorney a professor, an airline pilot, like I had the list goes on, but there's something about me that just exudes this beacon of knowledge coming out of my head. I, I just, I fought it for a long time and now I just said, you know what? This is my place in the world. I'm going to make something out of it. And that's how one of my friends said you're like a walking information booth Judi 411. And that's how it all started. 

Mike O'Neill: For those who are watching, they can automatically see why you could be mistaken for all of those. For those who are listening, if you have heard something that, that Judi has said, and you want to reach out Judi, what's the best way for folks to reach out to you and connect with you online? 

Judi Harrington: The best way is to first check out my website, which is Judi 411 .com. It's judi411.com. People are welcome to email me at judi@judi411.com. I'm also on all the social media things is I like to say Facebook. Well, mostly Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. LinkedIn is probably the best place to see my professional persona, I would say, and a little more playful and more of, the quote jester on platforms. But I would say LinkedIn is the best place to check out my, my articles, my body of work, and to follow me on my social, my social media on there, particularly word nerd Wednesday, which is my, my favorite thing to put out in the universe each week at some. Interesting or interesting to me, maybe boring to others, but somehow people now think it's church on Wednesday. So some little known fact about words or language or writing and, it enjoys a really good following. So I would say check out word nerd Wednesday and, come along for the ride. 

Mike O'Neill: Well, We're going to include all of that in the show notes. We are recording this on a Monday afternoon. So now I can't wait for Wednesday for word nerd Wednesday. Hope I'm saying that right. 

Judi Harrington: Word nerd Wednesday. I know it's a tongue twister, which is part of the fun of it. I really am a nerd. 

Mike O'Neill: You have been a very entertaining nerd and we've learned a lot. 

Judi Harrington: Thank you. 

Mike O'Neill: Judi.

Judi Harrington: Thank you. 

Mike O'Neill: I appreciate it. I'm glad I also wanna thank our listeners for joining us today. You know, every Thursday we upload the latest episode to all the major platforms. So if you haven't already please subscribe. So here's my question for you. Are people problems keeping you up at night? If yes let's talk head to bench-builders.com to schedule a quick call. We'll explore ways to help you solve your people problems. So you can again, focus on growing your business. So I want to thank you for joining us, and I hope you've picked up on some tips from Judi that will help you Get Unstuck & On Target. Until next time.