Career Growth Lessons from Kris Jones, StoryBrand Copy Strategist | Career Advice for Women in Business and Tech

2B Bolder Podcast – Episode 85
Featuring Kris Jones

Episode Title: #85 Behind the Red Door: Kris Jones' Path to Entrepreneurial Excellence

Host: Mary Killelea
Guest: Kris Jones



Mary Killelea: Hi there, my name is Mary Killelea. Welcome to the 2B Bolder podcast, providing career insights for the next generation of women in business and Tech. 2B Bolder was created out of my love for technology and marketing, my desire to bring together like-minded women and my hope to be a great role model and source of inspiration for my two girls and other young women like you, encouraging you guys to show up and to be bolder and to know that anything you guys dream of, it's totally possible. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.

Hi, thanks for tuning into the 2B Bolder podcast. Today's guest is a woman who has a successful career helping businesses convert visitors into paying clients. I'm so excited to have Kris Jones on the show. She's the founder of redo designs and the story brand guide. Kris has over 20 years of experience with clients like Nike under her belt and is extremely passionate about helping business owners and entrepreneurs create website copy that sells so they can multiply their revenue and focus on what they do best. Kris believes creating copy that cells should be quick and easy and that your website can be strategically set up to convert new leads with ease. Her approach is based on authenticity, trust and connection and storytelling methods that convert without being pushy. I love it. Kris, thank you so much for being here today.

Kris Jones: Thank you for having me, Mary. I'm thrilled to be here.

Mary Killelea: Before we get into your business, can you tell me a little bit that led you down this path? You know, how you decided to start your own business versus going down another path?

Kris Jones: Yeah. Well, we could have probably had a long conversation about this, but I've always been an entrepreneur at heart even at the age of eight. I had my mom make me business cards, and the business I had back then was called Kristen's Krafts with a K. Crafts with a K, which is hilarious. And I had like rainbow balloons all over the front of the card, and I would give people my card and offer to customize them. I basically bought a bunch of acrylic goods and then I would paint pens on them customized for my client. And so anyway it's just like in hindsight it was just in my bones. I always like coming up with ways to kind of make money, and I mean one of the things I was probably younger than eight, but I mushed up like I picked a bunch of neighbors flowers, I mushed up the petals and then I sold it as perfume, basically. And I'm sure it was ugly. I remember it being like an ugly green color, but my poor neighbors. Anyway, it's just how I'm wired. So earlier in my career I tra after college, I traveled abroad and I ended up in Turkey. I fell in love with Turkey and no Americans traveled to Turkey at that point in time. It was just really kind of like a foreign land, and I fell in love with Turkey. And it was there that I recognized like, oh my gosh, I've only known about this one way that Americans think about you get on the hamster wheel you start you know you buy a car you buy a house and you kind of feed that money or that lifestyle and there's nothing wrong with that, but I just hadn't been aware that there was an alternate way. In Turkey where I was living it was like a headquarters for a paragliding and so there were a lot of sporty sport lovers from like all over the globe who'd come visit there and they' they'd be there for the summer and then they'd travel and out of there in the winter and go all all over the world. It just opened my eyes to a different way of life. What ended up happening was I came back to Portland and I got into graphic design. So, I went to school for graphic design and like minute one of my very first class I was like this is my purpose. I just loved visual storytelling and I dove in deep and ended up getting some jobs. I worked at a design firm then I worked at an ad agency then I worked at Nike and then you know I kind of just got good at what good got good at the craft, right, and got good experience under my belt. And then at that point I decided to go out on my own. I had enough relationships by that point in time and I was still young. I mean I started the company 21 years ago and so it was like, I didn't have overhead. I think my monthly rent in Northwest Portland was $543 a month. It was like just I mean, that time I thought that was a lot, right?

Mary Killelea: Right.

Kris Jones: But like it was compared today. Can I save enough to get a computer? Can I pay the rent? And it just wasn't like I was jumping off like a big cliff to do this. It just felt inherent in how I'm wired, and so I just plugged away at it and there were weeks and months where I would like to go to my office and organize my fonts because I didn't have any client work. So, I just kind of kept you know plugging away and trying not to freak out in the process and then yeah and so that kind of continued. The Red Door designs became a thing and I've never looked back. It's just it keeps working year after year, but I have to tell you that you know there was a point in time as things evolved I got kind of more and more into web design and back in that day you could have a beautiful website you probably can totally get what I'm saying all you needed was a beautiful website and your business would thrive.

Mary Killelea: Right.

Kris Jones: And that's all you needed and to get respect and to get trust and to get clients. And after a handful of years the landscape changed and I started to realize like my website actually isn't working anymore. How can I number one, I've got to get my website you know working, and number two my clients were kind of having this same issue where they needed a new website but the beautiful part of the website wasn't enough.

Mary Killelea: Right.

Kris Jones: And so like one client in particular I mean this happened with several clients but one client in particular she was the face of the brand and when you are the brand it really needs to feel like your voice. And so she came to me and we dialed in the project start date. She was a writer so she was going to write her copy and then I was going to design the website and make it beautiful. Well, she was struggling writing her own copy and that is just so common. It's so hard to write for yourself because we're so close to our own business. And so she was having that same struggle that we all had. And so she decided to hire a copywriter who did a great job, a very professional copywriter, but it didn't feel good for her because you can't really outsource your own voice.

Mary Killelea: Yeah.

Kris Jones: And so she went through multiple copywriters and that project was such a big learning for me in so many ways. Number one, because I was kind of struggling with the same thing on my own website. I was watching it happen for her as well. And at that point I just knew I had to find a better solution for my clients. And so I went on a mission, which I would say was more like a quest, to discover the secret of combining visual storytelling with powerful writing. And that's when I came across Donald Miller and his book Building a Story Brand. I don't know if you're familiar with that book, but it's really if you're thinking of taking a leap to being self-employed. It's a wonderful book.

Mary Killelea: I'll include that in the show notes and I haven't read it and I'd love to get my hands on it.

Kris Jones: Yeah. I mean we've all got a lot on our plates. The audio version is really great too. You can do it while you're washing the dishes. Anyway, I attended one of his workshops and I just soaked it up because his approach was very much less as more of an approach to storytelling and my approach to visual story storytelling was really aligned. Basically I loved the workshop. I soaked it all in. I couldn't wait to get home and apply the framework to my own website. And as luck would have it the next day toward the end of the day Donald requested a volunteer to review, have their website be reviewed, and with a little bit of trepidation I kind of raised my hand. And as he pulled my side up on the big screen, he gave me some, you know, some great feedback. But then the thing that happened next was really what blew my mind, which was that the workshop ended and I turned around and there was a line of people lined up wanting me to apply the framework and do the same thing to their website. So at that point is when I really realized the power of storytelling, like both visual and verbal. It wasn't like my great website. It was about what happens when you tell a powerful story visually and verbally together. What does that do? So of course like I didn't stop there. I went to Nashville and Donald actually asked me to come down to Nashville and further my knowledge and become a story brand guide, and literally from that day I have applied the framework in some way shape or form to every project I've ever worked on. It's just mindblowing what I've seen happen. I've watched clients like an increase in 300% revenue. They started having consistent six figure months; they were able to charge six times more for the exact same service and just quadrupled the amount of leads booked. So like all the things that you need and want as a self-employed person, so yeah it's just the kind of the story of how it all unfolded and I just I love the work because at its core it's about creating a connection. It's about evoking resonance and really building trust, and that is storytelling at its core.

Mary Killelea: I agree and I think storytelling one evokes that emotion but the way that I've, you know, I've looked at some of your stuff and it is less is more and it's very effective and with today's busyness that we are all, you know, bombarded by if you can capture attention and like hook me right in and then I like all the noise gets quiet around me and I'm okay this person's talking to me they can help me.

Kris Jones: Right, I mean that's it.

Mary Killelea: It is really powerful.

Kris Jones: I mean like an example of this would be like it we've all got our phones dinging and emails coming in and kids needing us and we just have a lot on our plate. I don't, it doesn't matter who you are. And when we go to a movie and we go and sit down in that theater and we've got the popcorn on our lap and the movie begins we don't think about our to-do list. We don't think about our phones or anybody. We are, we are pulled into that movie for 90 minutes. I mean can you think of anything else that has the power to do that to capture our attention in that way? And the reality is the story brand framework and the approach that I take is doing exactly that. Using that same kind of framework or formula on your website, your website can do that same thing to pull people in.

Mary Killelea: I love it. I'm curious, how did the Red Door design name come about?

Kris Jones: Well, red is my favorite color so I knew immediately it had to be red had to be in there somehow. As I was kind of brainstorming and coming up with different ideas I found that the red door culturally like historically represents hospitality and prosperity and those two things combined really felt like true to me and what I wanted business to be about.

Mary Killelea: I love that. What advice do you have for someone who is interested in web design and storytelling but doesn't know where to start? Because I don't know there's just so many choices out there. Do they do traditional school? Do they do, you know, self-taught? Do they get really good at a type of platform? Whether it's WordPress or Wix, you know, or coding? What I mean, there's a lot of overwhelm, a lot of choices.

Kris Jones: Yeah, there is. I think, I mean what's really incredible about this day and age is the cloud-based platforms. You really don't need to code anymore. So I would say multiple things that you just shared. I would say number one, like pick a platform and get really good at it. You know, pick one that feels easy for you. Squarespace is a great cloud-based platform. Get really good at that. Start doing websites for free if you can. Take classes at a local community college or, you know, get with other people who are learning the same thing. Like it, it's great to learn some design principles because, you know, you want to know what you're doing from a design standpoint. And I think the best, I mean in hindsight the very best thing I did was get an internship, yeah.

Mary Killelea: Who did you have your internship with?

Kris Jones: A company called zap graphics. That really helped me, like I was going to school and having the internship at the same time and I found that like I was learning at such a rapid speed at thKris Jones: e internship, that I eventually never even finished school because the internship was like a masters. Yeah it was so great yeah and then pick your platform and don't dabble around in a bunch of different different platforms it doesn't matter. Nobody asked Van Gogh what kind of canvas he painted on. It's just a blank canvas. It doesn't matter that's your platform and know it through and through in and out and that's what you do for your clients. It really gets complicated when you start trying to dip your toe in multiple platforms.

Mary Killelea: I agree with that. How do you hone your skills on storytelling? Or what do you like? How do yeah I guess, how do you hone that? Or there's everything a story around you and you're overwhelmed because you're like oh I'm analyzing this story.

Kris Jones: Yeah, I mean the best thing you can do is read the book Building a Story Brand. I think that would be a good start. That'll change the way you view the world. It'll change the way you interact with movies and books because it's all the same. It'll probably ruin a lot of things for you but in a good way. And you can also go to a business Made Simple which is the author of building a story brand. He basically has courses for people who don't want to go back to school but really want to get good at messaging their business and grow their business. So businesssimple.com is a great resource affordable too for kind of practicing your messaging skills. And then again like do it for friends, do it for free, you know, keep practicing.

Mary Killelea: How do you stay focused as a business owner? When I had my own business, I got shiny object syndrome. Where like I would go down this rabbit hole, I'd go down that rabbit hole because everything was new and intriguing and I wanted to learn it and I wanted to share it but then it gets overwhelmed.

Kris Jones: Yeah, give me like tell me I'm just curious out of my own curiosity. Like give me an example of that.

Mary Killelea: Oh gosh. Well, like, did I want to become an expert on Facebook ads? Or did I want to learn, you know? Like you said earlier, I think there's a need to become an expert. And so back when I had my own company. I'm glad I diversified. I had SEO, I had social media, and I had web design. Had I not I probably would have gone under during the difficult time, but at the same time I wasn't able to because there's so much that was evolving and coming at us and now there's so much new software and it's just hard to stay focused as a business owner. So how do you stay focused from setting goals or not getting distracted?

Kris Jones: Well, I think the main way to figure out what you want to do is just do what you love to do the most. And do the thing that you are watching your results your clients get results from and that will kind of organically start to happen. Because they'll be referring you to their friends and so you just want to I totally have done what you're talking about like I was doing social media too and this and that and when somebody came to me the other day for Facebook ads and I'm like no like and that is not it will serve you better to go to someone who only does Facebook ads. So I think you have to kind of play around, do a bunch of things at first and then and then double down on the one thing that you love the most and kind of put your stake in the ground around that and just be the best at that.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, I love that advice and I think it's hard to say no to potential money when you are a business owner but I think it's the right thing to do for the reasons that you mentioned. What's the hardest part about your job?

Kris Jones: I love my work so much. Like, it brings me such joy every day and it is really hard. I think that the hardest part about my job is probably as you know a business owner staying focused on the things that bring in revenue and not getting distracted by, you know, there's so many tasks there's so many to-dos and I always feel like my list is way longer than what's humanly possible and I have to practice like okay pick the three things. What are the three most important things that are actually going to lead to more money, yeah, and that's how you're, that's how you keep growing.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, absolutely. So speaking of that kind of life work balance, how have you been able to establish that and find time for personal family and self care?

Kris Jones: Yeah, the ultimate question. I had a son five years ago. His name is Jude. He's almost he'll be in kindergarten next year and he has been an incredible gift to me for that reason alone. Number one, I love him so much and, you know, he's my top priority. But also because the demands of children are like I need to pick him up at a certain time and I can't like halfway doing work and halfway being with him. I like it especially at that age. Sometimes I wish I could but so it's like full on work and then it's full on Jude and at five I go pick him up. And we had a whole evening together and, you know, by the time I put him to bed there were no brain cells left in my brain. So I think that's really how I do it is like I work prior to Jude I overworked. I had a tendency to like to give my time away and work kind of with very loose boundaries and Jude has really taught me how to create clear boundaries and the value of my time. Because it's limited and I don't think I really fully felt that until I had a child.

Mary Killelea: How did your experience working at an agency and Nike help you to be the business owner that you are today?

Kris Jones: Wow. Well, when I worked at Nike, I grew up in Portland. So we're, you know, Nike whisky we've all heard about Nike all our lives or as long as you're here you hear about it a lot. I knew it was a big company but I didn't realize what a big deal Nike was until I started working there. And so I got to work in their brand design department and when I looked around at the designers that I was working with they had all they were all from different countries. They had cherry picked all the best designers from all over the world and they all just jumped at the chance to come move and work at Nike. For me it was being around people of that caliber that up my game kind of like when you play tennis with somebody better than you get better and so I got to be around these incredibly talented people and I just gleaned I gleaned information from them and I got to build my confidence and work on projects that were kind of high-profile and so that would be probably the biggest gift that Nike gave me and Adidas too. And then also on the flip side of that I knew that driving out to Nike every day and working in a cubicle was little by little kind of sucking the life out of me. So as much as I am deeply grateful for that experience it also nudged me in the direction to do my own thing at the same time.

Mary Killelea: As a business owner you not only have to know business development but you there's operations and then there's sales and the work and everything. How do you think about your business in setting up processes and automations and efficiencies?

Kris Jones: Well, I love automations and I love efficiency. But I also am fundamentally kind of an artist at heart and so that's never been a strong suit. I follow my ideas and my inspiration and I always take care of my clients and I but I love to create and so it wasn't until I hired I actually hired an online business business manager about a year ago and her gift is exactly what you're talking about so she figures that out and then she just says, okay show up for this meeting and this is due tomorrow and so I just do what she tells me to do.

Mary Killelea: Ah, that's great. I love it! Because you knew you knew what your strength was and what you wanted you to focus less on but you knew it was important so you felt you filled the void there, yeah. What would you tell your 20 year old self?

Kris Jones: Ah, I love that question. I would say don't give away your time knowing your worth, don't work so hard. I think, you know fundamentally like I come from a family of hard workers and I still work really hard but it doesn't feel like work because I love it. I still think that there's definitely room for more balance in that regard. Yeah, I think I would just, you know, say keep going. Like you follow that golden thread, follow that next little thing that you're drawn to. And in hindsight, you know I've I look back and I think oh this is happening but it couldn't have happened a year ago because I hadn't, you know, had I wasn't prepared for that then but now I am so things tend to just there I really believe in Divine timing.

Mary Killelea: Right, so you mentioned that you traveled to Turkey. And the gift of, and I'll just say what you said the gift was, you know kind of being open and exposed to diverse experiences that maybe you didn't have. How does that help you as a storyteller?

Kris Jones: Well, I think that you know travel of any kind broadens our perspective and I think especially when we can venture out to different cultures and really put ourselves out of our comfort zone. It allowed us to kind of get into the flow of life in a new way. Like we're out of our routine. It's uncomfortable and usually tired or whatever jetlagged. But I think there's like beauty and kind of shaking it up in that way and I think that how did that experience enhance my storytelling? You know I think that story has been with me for so many years and it is kind of atypical and I think just even sharing that story about that time in Turkey when I, you know, I lived right off the beach in a hostel for a dollar a night and worked at a Turkish deli. Like there's just opportunity stories there's opportunity for storytelling in a way where you can tell that people are like, what? Like tell me more when people are like leaning in and like that's wild like okay and then what so I think it's helped me practice like and yeah just practice kind of how to tell a good story.

Maryy Killelea: What does to be bolder mean to you?

Kris Jones: To be bolder, to be unapologetic about your truth.

Mary Killelea: Fantastic. Well, it's been a pleasure to meet you and I appreciate you sharing your story of continued success.

Kris Jones: Oh, it has been such a joy to talk with you today, Mary. Thank you for having me.

Mary Killelea: Thanks for listening to the episode today it was really fun chatting with my guest if you liked our show please like it and share it with your friends if you want to learn what we're up to please go check out our website at 2bbolder.com, that's the number 2 little b bolder.com.