Episode 549 Copywriting With Todd Jones The Brand Clarity Stack

---

Show Summary

In this particular episode, Rob interviews Todd Jones about his Brand Clarity Stack, a tool designed to help businesses define their brand and create key messaging, particularly for elements like their “about” page. The discussion highlights the importance of the often-overlooked “about” page in building trust with customers in the current market landscape. They also touch upon the role of AI in developing and utilizing the Brand Clarity Stack, emphasizing the need for human input and discernment when working with AI tools for content creation and business strategy.

Resources

Blog post about the Brand Clarity Stack.

Get your Brand Clarity Stack Here.

Show Notes

Rob Cairns: Hey everybody, Rob Cairns here and today I have Mr. Todd Jones with me. Hey Todd, how are you today?

Todd Jones: I’m I’m doing all right. It’s a Friday, so not bad.

Rob Cairns: Yeah, I I know. It’s been one of those weeks. So, goodbye good riddens. Long weekend is here, so I’m good. Um, today we were going to talk about your new clarity stack. So, how did this come about being and why?

Todd Jones: Well, I tell you um and actually I’ve got this article I wrote about it to the kind of the backstory which um you know I’ll leave the link with you to share with the users but really it started you know I’m I’m trying to teach myself to use AI more and more and and I’m like can I create prompts right what is that like can I create pro I mean you and I and others, we kind of mess around with it until it, you know, do this or do that and we kind of massage it a little bit, but like can I actually create a prompt? And so a set out was me. It’s like, well, maybe I can create a prompt for assembling an about page uh you know, um help people write better, assemble a better about page, whatever. And uh so I I tried to do a prompt and in in the process I kind of solidified my about base framework, the six keys. Uh I think we’ve talked about that on the show and um and I I I um put it out in a uh private well a community for community consultants um that I’m in and I had a couple people, in fact, one lady p me on LinkedIn said, “Hey, I just want to let you know I downloaded your I think we connected and she said, “I just want to let you know that I downloaded your your about page prompt thing. And it was really, you know, basic, really helpful. Kind of helped me clarify some things. And I’m like, whoa, that’s that’s different, you know, I mean, it’s not just an about page. And then I started playing around with this idea that about page is more than an about page. People, it’s the forgotten page. It’s the one that people either just kind of throw together at the end or they don’t some heck, I’ve seen a lot of companies don’t have one at all. And especially SAS companies, but A lot of SAS companies don’t have one uh at all and and then then you have some that have one and it’s very vague generalities and you know whatever. Okay. Um but um it’s really an it is the core. It is where it is the center of your brand. I I think I mean um that that is so crucial to have especially in 2025. Um people are looking they’re trying to find somewhere where they feel trusting of a company anymore. It’s, you know, the trust factor, we’ve talked about this on previous episode, has diminished, right? I call it the trust gap. Um, in 2010,

Rob Cairns: no question.

Todd Jones: Actually, before 2010, people were getting on Craigslist and buying stuff from complete strangers on the other side of town. And, um, you know, it maybe started off okay, but eventually it resulted in some very unsafe situation. So much so that I don’t know about in Toronto, but in your town, in our town, you know, they were saying, “Hey, you know, around here, they were saying you got to if you’re buying somebody, meeting somebody up, and this goes for Facebook Marketplace, too, by the way.” They were saying you could actually do it in the police were saying in our parking lot. Um there’s lights and there’s police around

Rob Cairns: or take somebody with you, especially if you’re female because that’s recipe for disaster.

Todd Jones: Yeah, I agree. So, but but now and people now I will say people will buy at the drop of the hat even on a phone but they do it with brands they already trust. So, Amazon, Teemu, uh IKEA, you know, I’m I’m just mentioning the top retailers. You know, people will buy from a brand they trust at the drop of the hat, but if they don’t know you, if they don’t

Rob Cairns: Yeah.

Todd Jones: And so, the trust there’s a trust gap. And so, anyway, the about pages are really crucial and like you know it’s almost like a mission to get people to build an about page or assemble about page. So I thought well maybe I can do a prompt. This will be a good test for me. And so I did the prompt and in order to do the prompt to do it the way um I do about pages I had to you know it’s really not one prompt. It’s a modular prompts a term that they use because you’re kind of going through different stages different steps right. And um but it turns into a brand page really which actually in fact one person used it and they actually use it more as a internal branding document. Um Todd Nilson who we’ve had on the show he said hey I I just used it as a it really helped me kind of clarify some stuff. I I use an internal brand document like oh my gosh. So I realized what I had was more than an about page prompt, right? And so I started adding some stuff and I had this old worksheet I had uh I did a long time ago, core messaging worksheet or something like that I called it. And um it it based on the four to six things you really have to know to like really nail your core the core of your messaging and like well let’s start there. So I created ended up creating a modular prompt for that um and um and added it to the about page or the sixp framework and the about page, which to me is all one thing, but really if you take them sequentially, they’re actually two things. Uh so I was like, well, I’m going to go ahead put this out. And then I went ahead and added a final prompt uh to take all that information and summarize it into like an internal branding document. Um it’s not like what you’re going to get from a major marketing consultant, but it’s a really good start if you’re sitting there and you got a mess in your head, as I like to say uh it’s a great place to get started. So that’s kind of how it came about.

Rob Cairns: Yeah. And what I should say is this is a good example of using AI artificial intelligence to help you, but you still need the human in the middle of it. So I come back to this

Todd Jones: there. It’s like a Q&A thing, right? The the the guide asks you the human the user questions which you have to answer and then you will then use that data in the prompt. prompts. So, absolutely. I mean, it can’t be there’s only so much that it can do. The prompt or AI, chat, GPG, whatever you’re using cannot see inside your head unless you’ve worked with it enough, then it can see inside your head. But that’s another that’s another issue. But, um, really but but really once you put that stuff out, it really helps you sort through it. And that’s what the prompt does. And it can help crystallize like when people start saying, you know, what do you do you know um so it’s a very helpful tool I think and um

Rob Cairns: yeah

Todd Jones: so it’s low cost um mostly to get people to try it um there may be some further movement with this uh with some other stuff to go with it but u this was definitely a great start

Rob Cairns: so costwise what are we talking and uh where do you get it

Todd Jones: right now 27 bucks. Um, and you go to the website, I’ll share the article with you, but then there’s also a landing page, copyflight.com/stack. Um, I priced it low enough that, you know, you can, it really doesn’t cost much to try it out. And, um, so it’s there the and and I’ll tell you something, you talk about AI, right? So, there’s a guy I mean that I I am learning from other AI masters. name uh Jason Parker that I follow. He had this GP GPT it’s a chat AI bot thing that I used to help develop the ideology behind how I framed it. So even then uh like so it’s called you know this stack has three parts to it. It’s called the clarity sequence um it’s called the brand framework uh frame method and the messaging core. Um, and the the bot actually made those names for me, including the clarity stack and framed the messaging for it. It was fantastic. And so, uh, you just, like I said, you’ll you’ll download it and, you know, it’s been used with chat GPD, but I don’t see why you couldn’t use it with any other AI. In fact, if you buy it and you do, please let me know. Um, because I want to see I want to the feedback say, “Hey, I used it with Gemini. It worked great.” Whatever. or I had this issue or I used it with claw and I had this issue whatever. Um I would really like to see you know hear people’s feedback on that saying it worked fine or it you know there’s an adjustment needs to be made whatever uh to polish it up a little bit if needed. But um it should work fine with chat GPT the free you don’t need a bot you don’t need a GPT to do it. I will say this though when you do this you need to keep everything in one thread. Um Don’t don’t put up different Yeah, you keep it all in one thread. So, um that way when you go through it, you can come back to the thread, it keeps, you know, as long as you’re logged in, you can come back to the same thread. Um and then um the the the output of course at the end and there’s there will be like summaries as you go about different areas. Um the output at the end is a assembled about page which you you may need to edit which is fine. Um and then uh a assembled internal brand document that you can store Google Drive or Notion or whatever.

Rob Cairns: One of one of the things I’ll I’ll say and you kind of hitting on those you might be able to edit. What people need to be careful with AI is AI isn’t always 100% accurate. So, um

Todd Jones: the good thing about this kind of prompt is you are putting the information in. So, it’s basically uh reg now you you might want to you know check what they say did they say what you meant whatever that kind of thing but you’re not having it’s not having to um retrieve information elsewhere per se because you are putting what you think about these particular things in these are the kind of prompts I like because it’s user initiated uh versus saying hey write me an article about you know the three ways to blah blah blah I don’t recommend that use of chat GP or any day out to be honest with you. There are ways to do it. There are ways to uh generate stuff that uh far more uh but you’re you’re right. I mean um all of them struggle with can struggle with accuracy. I call them out on it’s kind of funny actually. Uh all of them can struggle with accuracy uh about what they’re giving you. And that’s why I suggest when you’re writing something um you know If you’re using AI for some kind of content, you should be putting the information you want it to give, you know. So, that means you have to do the research. Now, I will tell you, um, I I’ve been frustrated with any chat, any particular AI writing tool I’ve come across because it basically is

Rob Cairns: output this for me.

Todd Jones: And that is a that is, you know, okay, I go back to how a writer writes, like a content writer, there’s always a data dump. at the beginning. We may not call it that. We call it research or whatever you want to call it. Same thing.

Rob Cairns: Yeah. You’re going out and you’re finding the information to support your your argument, whatever. Um, you know, because you’re going to link to it. If you’re looking for a study, you’re looking for the original source, those kinds of things. Quotes, subject matter experts, all that stuff. It’s data dump.

Todd Jones: You can actually, that would be a great use case for AI in my opinion. Um, seriously. And, um, So, I have yet to see any AI writing tool do that really. They they they it’s all about going out and finding they’re basically they’re using the AI to think for you. And that’s not a that’s not the way I would do it. And that’s why I’ve not been happy with the tools that I’ve come across for writing. Um, but my my thing is if I set all those people doing these tools down, I’d say look, if you’re going to do anything to help writing with AI, work on using AI. uh to help the workflow, not to support the workflow, not write the article. Uh now, that being said, um you can edit. Perplexity is really good at editing. Um

Rob Cairns: yeah,

Todd Jones: so I’m working on an article now that was hacked down from 4,400 words to about 1,200 words, maybe actually a little bit less than that, Rob. And uh it kept the it made it more concise. ice and kept the spirit of what I was trying to say. It kept a lot of my words. And I’m actually going back through and editing, post editing for me because I’m adding some stuff back that it cut out. But I’m sitting there looking. I basically had a 4,400 word uh bra uh uh brain dump or data dump. And I’m like, I need I told I told Claude, I said, I don’t need this to be 4,400 words. I need to be more like 1,200. And and eliminating stuff and some of it I want to put back but not much. I like, yeah, you you pretty much, you know, this article doesn’t need to be 4,400 words. Now, I could take the original 4,400 words and like turn it into an ebook or something like that, you know, and maybe clean it up and make it an ebook. That’s fine. But the article on a on a website doesn’t need to be 43 words. It needs about be,200.

Rob Cairns: No question.

Todd Jones: But anyway, I will give you the link to the the backstory and then a link to the um landing page and of course the landing page link is on the backtory uh blog post as well.

Rob Cairns: Hey Todd, thanks for sharing talking about the brand clarity stack. Go get it if you need to help your brand and certainly if you need to build an about page, it’ be a big tool in your toolbox. Thank you sir. Have a wonderful day.

Todd Jones: I’m thinking I’m thinking about when somebody comes to me now on just having them to fill that out, get started as an ongoing deal. So that’s how powerful it is. I thinkRob Cairns: Yeah, I agree with it. Thanks so much for sharing as always.