Lauren Jefferson: Build Systems, Not Just Better Copy

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Houston, Texas. It’s time for Houston Business Radio. Now, here’s your host.

Trisha Stetzel: Hello, Houston. Trisha Stetzel here bringing you another episode of Houston Business Radio is my pleasure to introduce you to my long time friend Lauren Jefferson, who is the co-founder and CEO of FocusCopy. Lauren is a faith driven entrepreneur, strategic copywriter, and systems thinker who helps high growth service businesses transform their messaging into scalable business assets. Rather than treating copy as a one time marketing project, Lauren helps organizations build messaging systems that strengthen every customer interaction, eliminate communication gaps, and fuel long term growth as a business owner, wife and mom, she also understands firsthand the challenge of the challenge of leading a growing company while having navigating life’s unexpected demands. Lauren, welcome to the show.

Lauren Jefferson: Glad to be here. Yeah, I was just thinking before the show, we’ve known each other for almost seven years in the fall.

Trisha Stetzel: Seven years. Yeah. That’s crazy. And we met in B and I, I think that was our first encounter.

Lauren Jefferson: Well, yeah, I had just launched FocusCopy and, you know, maybe 2 or 3 months beforehand. And here we are about to celebrate our seven year anniversary in August.

Trisha Stetzel: That is amazing. And happy anniversary. That is a very big feet when it comes to being a small business owner. And we’ve seen the ups and downs and the ins and the outs and the becoming a mom and a wife and all the things, right?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. All of the things. Yeah. I always thought entrepreneurship was supposed to be a linear, like you just go up and up and up and it has not been that way. Well, I tell everybody that mentor now like, hey, absolutely scrap and rebuild.

Trisha Stetzel: Well, and we like to call those challenges opportunities.

Lauren Jefferson: Yes.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. For learning. So before we jump into our content for today, or even just having a conversation around your business and all of the things that you’re doing for your clients, tell us just a little bit more about who you are.

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. So like you said, I’m a CEO and co-founder of Folks Copy. We’ve been doing this for almost seven years. I have two amazing little boys, one and three years old. And so things are a little chaotic, but it’s it’s so much fun. Um, got my degree in entrepreneurship from University of Houston, um, their Wolff Center for entrepreneurship. And so I always knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. And so it took me through this whole wild journey until we figured out, okay, let’s focus on copywriting. And that’s when we started. But obviously, AI has changed the game a lot over the last couple of years. So we’ve reinvented ourselves over the past year and a half or so. And so that’s where we are today. And that’s the description you just read.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. I so we’re just going to go straight there with you because AI has really changed, uh, the marketing landscape almost overnight. We know. I mean, it’s moving fast on my side, I’m sure even for you and the business that you’re in, things have shifted so much. So where do you believe AI adds the most value and where should businesses still rely on human touch?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah, that’s a great question. Ai can do a lot. It’s proven to be I think it’s called the Turing test, like how it can imitate a lot of what humans can do. And so as we’ve kind of reinvented ourselves, we’ve figured out, okay, what can I do? Like we’re not going to be competing against AI. I’m not that fast. I’m not don’t have, you know, who knows how much computing power that they have, um, to be able to do that. But then where do we step in? And so humans really thrive on strategy, on creativity, on thinking outside the box. Where does AI can take all of that and run it? And so the big thing that we’ve figured out is let’s build all the documentation for AI to run accurately and efficiently versus writing. You know what’s commonly known as AI slop. Um, we don’t want that at all. So we’re able to really train AI now with the stuff that we produce, um, and document and use our brains and being really creative. Um, so it kind of goes hand in hand. But yeah, it’s been four years now since ChatGPT really took the world by storm and really became commercialized. And so we’ve been studying it a lot. User behavior is changing. We’re seeing the pendulum swing back to humans already in the past six months. But things change every week now.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, I know. I can’t even keep up with it. And I’m so glad that we have people like you out there trying to harness that because I and I think that that’s a really good word for it, is just harnessing the power and also knowing the capabilities of what it can actually produce for you. I’ve never heard AI slop, and I’m just going to have to use that later or language or whatever you said. I was like, yeah, it is slop. It is terrible.

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. I saw one graphic the other day that kind of it’s so beautifully illustrated, the struggle that’s going on. So pre AI, you have a small amount of ideas and then a small amount of execution. Like we were kind of the execution was really the bottleneck. Now we have a ridiculous ton of ideas, but we still have the same 24 hours. And so and then it’s trying to figure out like, how do you execute? How do you fix what AI is executing? And like, you know, making sure that it’s all accurate. And so now the whole ideation stage is your bottleneck to figure out what’s actually useful. And so it’s interesting how things have changed. And I think that’s where us humans can really lean into and using our discernment, using our knowledge, using our experiences and expertise to really steer the ship.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. So let’s take a little deeper dive into this whole writing thing or what we’re getting out. And you talk a lot about, um, building messaging systems instead of just simple copy. It’s not just words on a piece of paper. Yeah. Right. Uh, but this messaging system. So what does that mean? First off, and why is it so important for businesses that want to scale?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. As we were looking at reinventing the wheel because we write blogs, we’d write newsletters, website, copy all that, and then it would end there. And it didn’t translate from the marketing over to sales over to your operations or your fulfillments over into how you cross, sell, upsell, down, sell. How do you turn your clients into referral generators? And so we started looking at the client journey as a whole and finding gaps in your client journey as it pertains to messaging. And so we’ve systemized a lot of that starts a lot with documentation and figuring out, okay, how, what do we need to say? How do we need to say it? Who do we need to say it to? How do we respond and be proactive in our messaging? And then how do we get every single person on our team that’s communicating to communicate with our voice? And so I always use the example of, you know, even you sending an invoice, it should reiterate the benefits of working with you and how excited you are and really reducing some of that buyer’s remorse that way. They’re actually excited to pay the invoice versus looking at that as another expense.

Trisha Stetzel: I love that. I never even thought about that. But your voice should show up there as well.

Lauren Jefferson: Every single piece of communication should go out.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay, interesting.

Lauren Jefferson: But how do you train non-writers or non marketers how to do that. And that’s where the systems come into play.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Very interesting. So let’s take a little bit deeper dive because my experience with you and focus copy was old school. This is like before, before we had all the systems. So there was a lot of work on both of our ends. I had a lot of work that I needed to deliver to you so that you could speak in my voice and write the messaging. How has that relationship with your clients changed with this technology that you have now?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah, a lot of it comes down to accountability and just having somebody to extract whatever’s in your head, organize it in a clear and concise fashion and then telling you, hey, we’re not going to focus on that because that’s not your goal and that does not serve you like this is a shiny penny. We’re going to leave that on the side. We’re going to put it up there. Um, we may completely trash it or we may just leave it up on the shelf. Um, and then we direct you in producing. So now we build out a whole 90 day roadmaps. That way we are very, very clear on, okay, what are we going after? What are we actually doing? And then how are we going to get there?

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Okay. I love that. And you told me before we started recording today that you get to spend more time with your clients.

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. Yeah. We’re going deeper. Very, very deep. Whereas before, I mean, uh, with the old model, we’d do a handful of blogs or newsletters or do a website copy project. And yeah, we are able to get deep as part of our process. But I want to see businesses really transform. I want to see people able to build businesses. I actually serve them in their life versus, you know, suck the life out of you and then you’re burnt out and you aren’t able to live in your personal life as well as your business life.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Work to live instead of live to work. I’ve heard that one before. Um, all right, so tell me, uh, let’s take a little bit deeper dive into what focus copy does your business, what is your business doing for its clients and who are you serving?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. So we serve high growth service providers that are in some sort of operational transition. So that can mean they are doing a massive, uh, process transformation and fixing something in their business, whether that’s onboarding or their whole marketing system or whatever the case is, they’re working something on a process. Um, it could also look like they are adding a new offer or in some sort of M&A deal or multi generational transition. So something’s happening on the operation side, and they don’t know how to translate that onto the marketing. And that’s usually how they define it. They don’t realize that our messaging is going to go through the entire client journey. Um, but that’s kind of where we start at. And so we start with a, what we call a priority stage action plan. We assess their entire client journey, figure out the problem area and where we need to focus on first, build a 90 day roadmap and then we go in and execute it.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. Okay, I love that. So I know that there are some folks who are already interested in having a follow on conversation with you, learning more or even connecting. What’s the best way for them to do that?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. So you can follow me on LinkedIn. Um, I’m very active over there. You can send an email to L jefferson@focus.com, and you can learn everything that we’re doing over@focus.com. I provide a lot of resources over there, um, on our blog, whether it’s our revenue engine diagnostic, which is a whole client journey assessment, that type of thing. So there’s a lot of different places where you can find me online.

Trisha Stetzel: And be on her distribution list because I have received so many, uh, blogs, articles, even just emails that have a plethora of information in them. And I appreciate you sharing so much information out there. And you really help us as clients stay organized and keep us on track. Keep us on track.

Lauren Jefferson: That’s, that’s my joy. That’s my joy is holding that accountability. Um, so yeah, I have a blast writing our newsletter. Um, we call it the coffee roasts. We’re a little coffee addicted over here, so.

Trisha Stetzel: Only a little, only a little coffee.

Lauren Jefferson: A little. Yeah. Um, so.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, I want to take a circle around to you doing everything. You’ve been through it all. Uh, and I might, I might even use the word burnout. You might not, but it happens.

Lauren Jefferson: Absolutely. Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: So talk about that journey for you as an entrepreneur, a wife, a mother, a doer of everything and taking care of everyone. What, what did that look like? And how is it different now?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. So I mean, we’ve been as big as having six copywriters underneath me. So I mean, it’s a pretty good size team. And I learned very quickly I don’t like managing. And so we created a lot of systems. I know shocker as an entrepreneur, um, you know, not wanting to be or not wanting to be boss and then not wanting to boss. Um, and so we created a lot of internal documentation, had a lot of things that felt more like conversations versus directing. And I found team members that wanted to work on their selves. And so everybody worked remote. There was no office hours or anything like that. Some people would write copy at three in the morning and I was like, cool, as long as you hit your deadline, we’re good. And so it was really, really great. But definitely when we got into some of the more people issues, that’s where it sucked the life out of me. And so, um, and that was all pre-baby too. And so once the babies came in, that became a lot different because now my time was limited. I wasn’t able to do sales. And so when you don’t have the sales, then it became a cash flow issue keeping on employees. And so, um, even as you know, late as last year, it, you know, everything, thankfully not thankfully kind of imploded in the business the week I actually gave birth to my second son. And so, but it provided me a great opportunity to be like, okay, unfortunately, we’re going to have to, you know, severely reduce hours of my, um, full time copywriter, but it allowed me so much bandwidth to think about, okay, what is this business actually going to look like now? What’s the next stage? And so, um, I heard one person say the other day, he’s like, yeah, you’re going to rebuild your business several times. I’m like, nobody talks about that. How you can just scrap everything and rebuild. And that’s totally okay.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah. It is okay. I like to call it zero based thinking. You’re just going to start over and, you know, take all of the opportunities that you learned in the past and implement that into your, your new plan. Yeah.

Lauren Jefferson: And so now we’re going to be, you know, I’ve built this massive network. And so now it’s, I’m going to focus on the strategy and the high level. If we need more writers, I have a ton of writers that we can pull off the bench. But then also, uh, we have one project right now that requires PR. I’m not a publicist, nor do I have any expertise in public relations. I know a little bit to be dangerous but don’t know how to execute it. And so we pulled one of our PR partners on. And so she’s white labeling underneath us. And it’s going to be a great engagement. So we’re going to see a lot of fruit from that. And so really using my people versus Relying only on me to know it all.

Trisha Stetzel: Okay. Yeah. All right, let’s talk about networking. That has been. That’s one. That’s the way how we met. And two, that has always been a big part of who you are as an entrepreneur. So let’s talk about networking. How important has it been and have there been ebbs and flows in that space as well?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. We were talking before we hit record. Um in Q two. I met with 200 new people and over 100 existing people in my network. And so it was exhausting as an entrepreneur or as an introvert rather, um, which people always think I’m an extrovert. Nope. Don’t want to be in a room. Um, I’d much rather have a one on one conversation with you. And so it does take a lot of time. So I dedicate seasons for we’re going to push a lot of networking. But then in the seasons where I’m not pushing networking, like Q3 is going to be a little lower on networking and so severely limited my calendar and all that, but I’m still continuing it. I still have those consistent relationships where I’m pouring into, um, but the big thing that’s really helped me in networking is having automations. And so every, you know, 3 to 6 months, every single person that I have a virtual coffee with will get an email, hey, we need to reconnect. And that’s how we’ve been able to maintain a relationship over, you know, almost seven years now. And I’ve had multiple other people where, you know, three, four, five, six years where it just started with one networking event turned into virtual coffee. And then we’re passing thousands and thousands of dollars between each other.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s amazing. And I’m always jealous that you chose a different BNI chapter than the one that I was in. I’m just saying, you know, it was really cool about that though, is you had your network and I had my network and we were able to even expand networks that way. I’m curious, are you doing all of your networking one on one now, or do you belong to an organization where you’re doing group networking?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah, I do belong to the connective. It’s a virtual B2B networking group. And so that’s been really good. I’ve only been a member for now about three months, but, um, met some really, really incredible people. Higher level people than I was tapping into previously. And so it’s been really good. Um, and that’s how I found like one of our new PR partners, but I’m also really intentional about keeping the relationships to like, I have Houston marketing Alliance, for example. And so there’s six of us marketers that we’ve been meeting with each other for at least once a month for four years now. And we know all the highs and lows of each other. So that’s kind of the one group where I’m like really, really deep on that. And so I’m trying to pick out my people in a networking group. Like I’ve picked you, for example, from our BNI days to we’re going to go deep on this relationship. I’m going to try to figure out how to send you business. You’re going to figure out how to try to send me business. But also we’re just going to be friends and figure out how to support each other as entrepreneurs.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. How important is it to have the right people in the room? So one of my favorite books is Who’s in Your Room? Uh, coauthored by Ivan Meissner. Again, bringing it back one more time. I know, shout out. Um, how important is it to have the right people in the room or surround yourself with the right people as you move through this journey that you’ve been on?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. Critical. And sometimes it will take you meeting 200 new people to find those people. And so, um, as much as I’d love to say every single of those conversations that I had in Q2 were amazing, and a lot of them were, but there’s definitely a couple that stood out. And so it’s, I have them on like a strict follow up to where it’s like, okay, we’re actually trying to find some sort of project to work on together. And so I want to go deep as quickly as possible, but you can’t go deep with everybody. So you kind of have to pick and choose your people who you align with. And I find that when I find those people, we align spiritually. We align life stage or just like emotionally or experience wise. And so figuring out, okay, what’s going on? Do we connect with each other on a personal level? If so, you’re more likely going to do business.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. And making sure that a lot of them are bigger, better, faster, stronger than you. So that we learn from them. Right. I heard you say that a lot of these people that you’re meeting with from this one group are at a different level, and that also matters.

Lauren Jefferson: Oh, yeah. I had a conversation just this morning. He was like, okay, you’re talking about this. What about, you know, blowing up this inflection point and like just giving me advice of how I can better have these virtual coffees. I’m like, we’re going to take that and we’re going to apply that. So, um, you know, that’s just a quick lesson from this morning in a virtual coffee. And so really trying to find people that are not only behind you. And so you can pick them up quicker. But then also people that are ahead of you that can pull you up. And so I find it when you approach networking, it’s more of like a mutual giving and receiving becomes a lot more fruitful for everybody involved.

Trisha Stetzel: Absolutely. I, and I know that you’ve been very involved in mentoring and bringing those up behind you. So tell me a bit about that work. If you’re still. Yeah, you’re involved in that and what that really does for you as an entrepreneur.

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. So I still mentor for the Wolf Center for entrepreneurship, which is the number one undergraduate entrepreneurship program in the nation. I think they’re now up to like 6 or 7 years in a row. Um, so really, really great program. But I mean, they take these students through the wringer for 18 months. They own you. And I say that from experience and it’s the best experience, greatest personal development, um, that you will ever deal with. And so, um, yeah, I get a student every year and I walk with them for 18 months or every other year, I guess, and I walk with them for 18 months, and then I continue their relationship on afterwards. And so whatever they’re going with, whether they become an entrepreneur immediately after or whether it takes a couple of years, like for me, it took a couple of years after I graduated to start my own business. And I actually started my business my first year of mentoring, which was kind of fun to like walk her through. And then my next, um, mentee or sorry, my mentee was, um, the one where it was trying to figure out how to be a mom. And so she got to see that whole experience. And so just, we’re figuring it out together. And so I don’t act like an expert in all things. I’m still learning every single day. And so it’s just having someone come along and see what it actually looks like and taking them out of the classroom.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. I love that, and I love that you’re still giving back to the community. It’s such a blessing to have people like you in our community. And by the way, the last time you were on the show, Lauren, we were highlighting serving the community. And I think we talked all about the Wolf Center. So if you guys want to know more about that, uh, well, center for entrepreneurship, if you guys want to learn more about that, just pop over to our past episodes of the Serving the Community series. All right. I want to circle back around to because I, I see a theme that keeps coming up here is you do a lot and you’re still doing a lot. Yes, you have symptoms, but you’re still mentoring, you’re still running a business. You’re a mom of two boys. You’re a wife. You are networking. Uh, one of the book recommendations that you sent over to me was rest. Why you get more done when you work less? What have you learned about the relationship between rest and productivity?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah, I mean, motherhood has been the biggest adventure. Um, when I had my first son. Becoming mom was the biggest identity shift for me and I struggle with it. Like have pretty severe postpartum depression. Um, didn’t know what was going on, didn’t know who Lauren was or where Lauren was. And so, um, was trying to figure out that. And so, um, coming from that, I realized like to work effectively, you don’t necessarily need to work, you know, the 40 hours or the 60 hours or the 80 hours, 90 hours that I was working before I had kids. Um, and so you don’t have to work that much in order to be productive in order to be profitable. And so I do have a lot of systems, but I’ve also identified what activities do I actually like doing. And so there’s a lot of this, whether it’s connecting with people, whether it’s mentoring, whether it’s writing, um, I genuinely enjoy that. And so I always call it in my play time. And so it’s like the boys will be playing out in the playground and, you know, 9000 degree weather and I’ll be out on the patio and I’ll be, you know, doing my work and watching them or, you know, I’ll take a break and we’ll go do X, Y, Z with the boys. And so, um, creating space for me to do that has been the greatest blessing, but also opportunity for me to give space for my brain to even think. Um, I saw one thing that was saying, you should pick up a hobby that doesn’t even require a computer like gardening or like something more tactile. And it actually helps the CEOs and an entrepreneur’s brain to give space to actually think.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Okay, so I have permission to garden. That’s what I heard out of all of that. I heard like, I have permission to garden that. And, and that is something that I, I truly miss a lot of days recently is just stepping away to do something that I would, I would call it mindless where you don’t, It doesn’t require thinking.

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah.

Lauren Jefferson: And it’s it’s amazing. Like, I love weeding, which I would have never said, and I don’t really like dirt, but like, it has been great and like, even like doing the dishes or even cooking. Like I love cooking like a big homemade meal every single night. And like that time is my me time. And I’m able to think and oftentimes like, I’ll, you know, write a little note on my phone of like, okay, we’re going to think about that, dump it, we’re going to continue on and make sure we’re not starting a fire or something. Um, so, but, um, creating space. So, you know, just creating the life that you actually want to live. We don’t always have to work the same way everybody else works. And I think that’s kind of the cool thing about entrepreneurship is you get to build your life and it doesn’t look like everybody else’s and shouldn’t should look like yours shouldn’t.

Trisha Stetzel: That’s right. And there are seasons in all of that. Yeah.

Lauren Jefferson: Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, postpartum. That’s a very unique season. Um, and dealing with little boys. And so oftentimes my boys will hop up in meetings and it’s like, if anybody on the other side of the camera doesn’t enjoy that, I’m like, you’re probably not my people.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, exactly. I think the last time you and I connected, one of them had lipstick or something. I don’t, I don’t.

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. Oh my gosh, I remember that there was lipstick all over the couch all over. And so like, it was just like, it’s the couch, it’s the face. It’s, you know, whatever. We’re still getting stains out. But like, it was just like, you’re going to do what you’re going to do. And everything’s, you know, I words are a powerful thing. So like, I’ve been training myself. Try not to say chaos. Um, but it’s an adventure. It’s fun. There’s never a dull moment.

Trisha Stetzel: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I really appreciate you being on with me today and I have I would love for you to. If you could just pick one thing from our conversation today to leave the listeners or hope that the listeners picked up on today. What would it be?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah, I think the biggest thing is you can build a business that works for you. And a lot of that starts with documentation and building in systems and then imagining what you actually want your life to look like.

Trisha Stetzel: Mhm. Oh, that’s so powerful. Yes, absolutely. So where can the listeners learn more about Focused copy and the work you’re doing?

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah. You can find out everything on Focused copy.com. Um, and then if you want to have a conversation, let’s have it. Let’s book that virtual coffee. So connect with me, either email at Lauren or L jefferson@focus.com or on LinkedIn. Let’s start the conversation.

Trisha Stetzel: Lauren, I’m so glad that you came on with me today. This has been so much fun.

Lauren Jefferson: Yeah, it has been. Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: We need to catch up again. Maybe we’ll have to do another episode of who Knows What. We’ll figure it out.

Lauren Jefferson: Who knows what color lipstick can we get out?

Trisha Stetzel: We’ll just go back to zero based thinking. I’m sure there’s something we can talk about. This is amazing. Again, I really appreciate you taking the time.

Lauren Jefferson: Absolutely. Thank you.

Trisha Stetzel: All right, you guys, that’s all the time we have for today. If you found value in this conversation that Lauren and I had, please share it with a fellow entrepreneur, veteran or Houston leader ready to grow. And be sure to follow, rate and review the show. It helps us reach more bold business minds just like yours and your business. Your leadership and your legacy are built one intentional step at a time. So stay inspired, stay focused, and keep building the business and the life you deserve.