The Secret to High Converting Copy with Kris Jones

The Consistency Corner Podcast with Ruthie Sterrett & Kris Jones

Ruthie Sterrett: [00:00:00] Mhm. Welcome to the Consistency Corner podcast, the summer season. This summer, we're actually taking a step back here at the Consistency Corner while we reevaluate how this podcast fits into our marketing ecosystem. If you're like, what the heck is a marketing ecosystem? Well, we've talked about that a lot here on the podcast.

We talk about how social media alone is not a marketing strategy and how all the pieces and parts have to fit together. Into the marketing bundle, you know, you have effective places to attract, nurture, and convert your ideal audience. So behind the scenes, we're doing a little bit of refreshing of our brand.

And because we wanted to stay consistent, of course, with the podcast over the summer, we'll be rerunning some of our favorite episodes from the past and dropping in some shows from other podcasters who I know you will love to learn from because we're also all about community and cheering each other on.

[00:01:00] Here at the Consistency Corner, I encourage you to also take a look at your marketing strategy and see where you can take a step back this summer and reevaluate whether it's stepping away from social media without sacrificing your visibility. Of course. Or taking off the marketing hat altogether and outsourcing to a strategic partner like a fractional CMO, I want to encourage you to do what lights you up in your business.

Do more serving your clients, do more leading your team, do more being the visionary and coming up with what's next for the evolution of your brand. Or just do more taking a breath. We started this business so that we could have some freedom, right? I want you to have that over the summer. And because consistent doesn't have to mean constant, I want you to reevaluate the intensity that you're showing up so that you can drive the results that you want, but also not burn yourself out.

Be sure to come over and say hello to me on Instagram at the consistency corner. And let me know where you're reevaluating your marketing [00:02:00] this summer. You know, I'm cheering you on and can't wait to hear from you. Let's get to the episode.

Hold on. One more thing really quick before we get into today's episode, I want to share with you my top CMO level strategy tips. This is what I have learned from over 20 years in sales and marketing and exactly the types of things that I talk about with my clients in our CMO strategy sessions every single month.

CMO podcast. which is also linked in the show notes to sign up for our monthly newsletter with CMO level strategy that you can implement so that you can market your business without the overwhelm. All right. Welcome to another episode of the consistency corner podcast. I'm super excited to have Chris Jones here today to a number one nerd out with me on story brand because she's a story brand certified guide, but to talk about the signature collaborative process that [00:03:00] she uses when it comes to writing.

Sales copy for your website. And we're going to get into sales pages and homepages and what sales copy really is. But she can create copy that sells in two and a half hours flat with her signature collaborative process, which is amazing. I mean, if you guys have ever sat down and tried to write copy, you realize like, It takes a long time and I was actually talking to a friend earlier today about time management.

We were talking about small business owners and all the hats that they have to wear and all the things on our to do list and how often we put something on our to do list and we think it's going to take 15 minutes and it's really like a three hour project or you might even estimate that it's a three hour project and it's really a 10 hour project.

So I'm really excited to get into how you do this in such a short amount of time and give people that time back while still getting results. So, Chris is a copywriter. And like I said, a certified story brand, um, designer. And she's worked with brands like Nike and [00:04:00] Adidas and is extremely passionate about helping women owned small business owners, coaches, and service providers get website copy.

So they can actually multiply their revenue. And she has had some incredible transformations for her clients, including increasing revenue by 300 percent record breaking lead calls and clients booking and scaling from 30 K months to 300 K months. Which that sounds amazing. Um, and then charging six times more for the same service by creating that brand value.

So Chris, thank you so, so much for being here today. I'm excited to have you on the show. Welcome to the consistency corner. You Ruthie. I am thrilled to be here. Yeah. And so we connected originally, I think, inside of Holly's mastermind. You spoke in Holly Haynes's mastermind, which I'm a part of, and you and I connected through your podcast agents, different people that we were on.

So we're kind of in the same circle and I'm really excited to dive into this today. But before we get in, can you share a little bit more about your business journey and how you got to where you are today and kind of what you do for your clients today? [00:05:00] 

Kris Jones: Yeah, absolutely. Um, I have been at this. A little over 20 years, which is just mind blowing to me, but it goes to show you that like, I love my work and I thankfully figured out like what I love to do early on in life.

Um, but it was definitely a journey into becoming self employed. I spent many years like working in house at, at Nike and Adidas, and I worked. In some agencies as well. And I think that that was important for me to really, you know, learn the craft. Um, entrepreneurship has always been part of my soul. Um, so kind of make taking that leap to becoming self employed felt pretty effortless for me.

It was also at a time in my life that I just didn't have a lot of overhead. I didn't have children. I just could [00:06:00] really. explore this without a lot of risk. Um, and that was back in the day when, you know, I, I, I would say that I've always been a visual storyteller. That's, that's kind of my first love.

That's what I, how I played as a kid. And that's what I ended up doing. In my early twenties, a lot of branding work, a lot of design work. And that eventually led to me being self employed and doing more web design work, um, as time went on and the landscape of. The internet changed, um, it became really clear to me that, you know, the beautiful websites that I was creating weren't as effective as they had been.

And it's just, this is back in the day when like, if you had a beautiful website, that's all you needed to really thrive as a business. And that changed. And the reality [00:07:00] was even my own website wasn't bringing in the clients that I needed on a consistent basis. I was. Pretty much relying solely on referrals.

And so I had a client come to me. Her name was Elise and she had a publishing background and had a really great business idea and hired me to create a website for her. And she, she was comfortable with the copywriting process. So she was going to tackle that and then bring that to me. And then I was going to bring it to life with really beautiful design.

We set a deadline for the kickoff of the project and she came to me like she called me I think it was the day before and she's like, I don't know what's going on. I'm I consider myself a great writer I cannot write this website copy like it. It feels impossible. I'm stuck. I keep spinning round and round and round and Nothing [00:08:00] feels Like it's good enough.

And so we brainstormed a bunch of things like, okay, you could hire a copywriter. You could ask some of your old clients, you know, for their feedback. You can, you know, run it by your cousin who used to be in advertising and, um. She tried all the things, I mean, she hired multiple copywriters and she, none of it was working because ultimately, you know, what I learned from that is that you really can't outsource your own voice.

And when you do, it usually just doesn't feel quite right. And then you end up kind of feeling cringy when you're sending somebody to your website because it doesn't feel really aligned and authentic to you. And so, thanks to Elise. I just went on a quest on a mission to never let this happen again. And I flew across the country for deep dive [00:09:00] workshops.

I read books. I, I just, I ended up connecting with Donald Miller and got to study under him and further my learning and eventually became a certified certified storybrand guide. Um, I was one of the, one of the very first, it was before building a story brand. The book even came out and. After that, after I went through that journey, I of course started applying this approach of storytelling.

Like I essentially felt like I could now create a beautiful visual story, but I could marry it with a really powerful written story. And that was that kind of secret one, two punch that was needed in order for major changes to happen for my clients. So shortly thereafter, like immediately when I started applying the things that I had learned, I was getting calls, like you mentioned, like, Oh my gosh, I'm [00:10:00] charging six times more for the exact same service.

I was on the verge of burnout and now my business is thriving. And like this month we broke our record for how amount of lead calls book. It was just shocking how like relatively. It's simple, that combination of, of visual story and written story when you combine them, how powerful that is and how few people are actually really doing that on the internet.

Too often people invest in design or they invest in copy, but they don't really invest in both. Um, And so the same thing, of course, I applied it to my own business and the same thing happened. I was getting booked out. The fun thing that was going on is that I'd get on sales calls and instead of selling, people would already be excited and ready to work with me.

They just wanted to like, you know, get in the calendar. And so it just took a lot of time and energy. [00:11:00] Um, it. Gave me a lot of time and energy back because I didn't have to sell the website became kind of my top sales employee Which as a self employed person if you can kind of outsource the sales to somebody who will do it for free aka your website I'll take it.

So that's That's kind of how things unfolded for me. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah. I love that journey of realizing like, this is something that people need, like there's people that can help them with copy. There's people that can help them with web design, but you're right. I, there's not a ton of people that do both and they have to work together.

Yeah. Just like a book. Like, I think about like when the books you read to your kids, like the story and the pictures have to go together and your website is the same way. 

Kris Jones: Yes. Yeah. And yeah, yeah. And when you're, when you're looking on the internet, like it's all too often, even people that are really familiar with [00:12:00] story brand and I'll do a website audit or do a review and, and.

There's so often a disconnect between what's being said in the words and what's being said with the visuals. There's a total disconnect and somebody might not pick that up if they're viewing this site, but they'll feel it. They'll feel it on a, maybe on an unconscious level. And so, um, it's, it's incredibly important.

Yeah, 

Ruthie Sterrett: I'm curious from your background, having worked with Nike and Adidas and serving product based businesses. I know you and I chatted a little bit before we hit record that I'm similar. If I have a professional background with a product based business, but now serve a lot of service based businesses, how did you make that shift into that niche and why is it that serving female led businesses is so important to you?

Stay with us. We'll be right back. Are you longing to step [00:13:00] away from social media, but don't want to sacrifice your visibility? Well, my friend, you need to know about the Instagram nine grid strategy. This is a set it and forget it content strategy where you turn your Instagram grid into a mini website so that as people discover you, they know exactly what they need to know to get to know you and learn whether or not you are able to help them.

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Kris Jones: Oh my gosh. Well, I mean, for so many reasons, [00:14:00] um, for me making that shift was a really organic because I understand that type of entrepreneur because I am one. And so it, it just, it. Like deep, deep, deep in my soul, the freedom that I gain from being self employed and being able to call my own shots and make my own schedule.

Um, I, it feels so good to me that I want that for anybody else who wants that for themselves and I want to help them get there. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah, I totally align with that. I know when I became an entrepreneur and I was like reluctant to call myself an entrepreneur for a long time or even a business owner, it was like, well, I just want to do something that helps other working moms, but I don't really know what that is.

And so like as my journey went along, it was like, I want to help them have a schedule and freedom. That they can go to the field trip and work and do something [00:15:00] that they love and are passionate about because we should be able to do both. And it's hard to do both in the corporate world for 

Kris Jones: sure. It's really hard, especially when you become a mom, it's really, really hard.

And it's such a gift as a mom. If you can be a self employed because you've, you just got to have that flexibility. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah, although I will, my, my son thinks that I do nothing all day. He's definitely like, we just started second grade and he's definitely said, it's no fair that you get to just stay home all day.

And I was like, well, I do work. And then last night it was, well, mommy, you tell me that I shouldn't have too much screen time and your work is just looking at the screen all day. I was like, I know you're a, you don't quite understand. 

Kris Jones: You're like, I'm not really watching movies all day or playing video games.

Ruthie Sterrett: I'm not playing Pokemon, like I'm thinking and creating and working and selling and doing all these things, but that's besides the point. Um, well, you know, it's funny, you were talking about your client, Elise, [00:16:00] and how she tried to write her own copy. And I think a lot of people are like, Oh yeah, like I can just write the copy.

It's no big deal. And then they sit down to do it. It's really a bigger deal than they thought. Why do you think, or what are some common mistakes maybe that business owners make when they are trying to write their own copy? 

Kris Jones: Well, I'll, I'll start by sharing, I'll, I'll start by letting everybody off the hook who tries to write their own copy.

And there's a thing called that I call, I guess, the bottle effect. And essentially the bottle effect is. As business owners, we are really inside of a bottle and we're trying to read the label that can only be read from outside the bottle. So that's why it's so hard. It's because you don't have the perspective that you need to really write about what you do with fresh eyes and a fresh mind.

And also what happens is the curse of knowledge. Which is really that you get so ingrained [00:17:00] and familiar with the work that you do that you forget what it's like to not know what you know. And so we end up using language and words and overwhelming our readers or whoever comes to visit our site, overwhelming them with too much information.

And they have to work too hard to understand what we're saying. And so they leave our website. And it's really an unfortunate thing. I think that, um, it's an unfortunate thing. It's super common. And, um, but I think a lot of people struggle with it so much and they think that something is wrong with them or that they should be able to do it.

And I just. I just want to say that it's really hard because it's your own business and you're just too close to it. 

Ruthie Sterrett: And I think too, like I can see with clients a lot of times, like when we'll, we'll go over creative for social or whatever, and I'll show them something and they're like, Hmm, this isn't quite it.

And I'm like, Hmm, you're not the customer. Like let's go [00:18:00] back to what your customer needs because you are the expert and your customer is not. That's why they're hiring you and I think so many people like we believe this lie that we have to come across as the expert. Right. But if it's so expert that they don't get it, they're not going to consume the content.

They're going to bounce. 

Kris Jones: Right. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. And I think I, if, if I, you asked, you know, if there is a common mistake that happens, I think just genuine, generally struggling with your own copy is the most common mistake and forcing yourself to do it. Having that on the to do list and then just it never leaves the to do list because you, it moves to the bottom of the to do list every day.

The other thing that happens is people think that cloud based builders, whether it be Squarespace or Wix or any of those, which I'm honestly a big [00:19:00] fan of, like, I think cloud builders are fantastic because it, they're, they're very intuitive. Um, but, uh, sites like that or builders like that, um, website builders like that, they are in the business of brochure websites, so the templates are there to be beautiful, but they're not there to be high converting.

And so what a lot of people do is they're like, okay, I'm. I'm going to do this. I'm, you know, signing up for Squarespace and then they spoon feed you a template. That's really meant to be more of a brochure rather than a sales tool. And so you kind of fill in, they give you a paragraph here, a paragraph here, a headline here, a button here, and you kind of just do what they tell you thinking that they know what they're doing.

They're in the business of being a website builder, right? But, Again, it's not that there's anything wrong with the builder. [00:20:00] It's just the templates that they provide and they, they want it to be easy for you. Um, but really your website should be so much more effective and powerful for you than just a, you know, kind of a bump on the bump on a log brochure website.

Ruthie Sterrett: And I can imagine that for business owners who have maybe invested a lot of into their design, whether it's time or money or both, that it can be hard to hear like your website isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing. Yeah. 

Kris Jones: Well, and you know, you can tell them that, but they know it. You know, already, because if your calendar isn't getting booked out with calls or your course isn't selling or whatever it is that you want the website to do for you, if that is not happening on autopilot, then you know, it's not working for you.

And we all know, I think we all [00:21:00] fundamentally fundamentally know is. That when you have real estate online, it should be working for you. It should be effective. And I think it can be a real disappointment to, you know, build your own website in Wix and then a year goes by and you think back and you're like, not one person has actually come from the website.

All the people that I'm working with are coming from referrals. And again, nothing wrong with referrals, but it's really hard to build a reliable business. On only referrals because you can't, you know, it changes month to month and you can't really count on it. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah, that's so true. And I hear a lot of business owners who will, you know, when we talk about social media that they'll say, like, well, I don't get any clients from social.

I get them from referrals. Like, okay, but when somebody refers you and that client gets a referral from another person, Where are they going? They're going to your website and they're going to your social [00:22:00] media. Yes. So are those tools nurturing that relationship so that the referral actually 

Kris Jones: converts?

100%. They don't have to be a cold referral to be valid. It can be, you know, a lot of people have like just their website or their social is strictly for warm leads, but they're converting those warm leads over and over and over again. Yeah, 

Ruthie Sterrett: yeah, for sure. So, you know, you said earlier that outsourcing to a copywriter can sometimes feel like a disconnect because they don't get your voice.

They don't get some of the nuance. What is your collaborative process do to kind of combat that? And what does that two and a half hour process look like so that we get those results we're actually looking for? 

Kris Jones: Yeah, well, I'll, I'll walk you through the process. So essentially, I think. Most business owners end up kind of in that pickle of, I want to outsource my copy [00:23:00] because it feels like torture to write it myself, but the person I'm going to hire to write my copy there, they charge five grand or 10 grand for one sales page.

And I don't have the budget for it. And a lot of people come to me and say, I've already hired a copywriter and I spent so much time going back and forth with. Changes and corrections that it actually took me more time than it would have to write, than it would have to write it myself, than it would have to write it myself.

Um, and so that just often doesn't feel right. Um, and then of course writing it yourself is just, just daunting. It's like the homework project that just never goes away. And so because I've been doing this for so long, I figured out a way to streamline the process. And I think that the, the reason I can always [00:24:00] promise it will be done in two and a half hours flat is because.

It works like I've, I've proven it over and over, over again. And the reality is I know my clients so well, they they're spread too thin. They ha they're spinning multiple plates and they don't have the time to deal with the copy. And not only that, if they did have the time, they don't have the time to learn how to write.

Really high converting strategic copy. So essentially the process begins with me extracting the gold from their brain. And that involves asking the right questions. And I like to say the metaphor for this I use is. We all have so much information in our brain our story is inside of us our high Converting compelling story is inside of us, [00:25:00] but we're we're too close to it And there's so many other things going on in our brain It's kind of like our if you imagine a garage full of like crap You know your garage is full stuffed full with with just A bunch of stuff, right?

And so in order to clean out that garage, you have to empty everything out. And what I like to do is through my process, you empty everything out. And then I get to go through the piles of stuff and pick out the treasures that I know are the essential components of your story. So that is, that is step one is just extracting that story from inside of your brain.

And then I, because I've pulled all that out of you, I can write your copy for you. So I can, I can get an essence of who you are, the nuances of your industry. It's all kind of. Done in [00:26:00] that phase one that I pull everything out. I have everything I need to write your high converting sales page or your high converting homepage.

And so I do that for you. So you don't have to do it. I mean, I think so many courses and services out there end up, you know, showing you how to do it, but then you still have to do it yourself. And this. process is a done for you service. So would 

Ruthie Sterrett: you, I'm curious, would you consider it a done for you or would you consider it a done with you?

Kris Jones: Well, the writing part is done for you, so you don't have to do it, right? I extract that gold from your brain. Then I write it for you. And then the most important part of the process is step three, where we apply your voice and infuse the nuances of your industry. So that's when you and I, that this is the done with you part of it, where you and I get on a call and 90 minute call together.

So we have plenty of time. I [00:27:00] walk you through the entire sales page and we. You get to understand the why and the strategy behind every word that's on the page. And then if there's anything that doesn't feel fully aligned, we tweak it, refine it until it just feels completely perfect. And the page is a long format page.

So it's comprehensive in that when people land on the page, It will provide them all the information that they need in order to click on that call to action. They won't have to bounce around to multiple pages. I think it's much more intuitive for people to scroll down on whether they're on a phone or a computer, scroll down the page versus bouncing from page to page.

Um, so we, we make it easy for them to gather the information they need to feel confident about booking that call with, with you for purchasing your course. So We do that together and then [00:28:00] you basically have, similar to like an architectural blueprint, a blueprint that would be created before you build a house, this is a blueprint for your website.

So you've got all the words, you've got the font size, you've got the hierarchy, the flow, wireframe. And that's just like a blueprint and then you copy that over to your website. So it's just a simple copy and paste, copy and paste over to your website. My team can do that for you too, if you just don't want to deal with it.

So we get that copy over to your website. And then I put on my design hat and when the page is ready to go live, I go through and review it and I review, I make sure that that visual story that's being told is aligned with the written story that we've crafted. And so we talk about photography, we talk about palette, we talk about [00:29:00] fonts, we talk about flow and hierarchy and how this mess, how to get this message.

really absorbed in a quick amount of time because, you know, the, the reality is people don't really read websites anymore. They scan them. So we have to write it and design it in a way that can be, it can be digested as it's scanned. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah. That's interesting that you say that, that people don't really read websites anymore because I've heard people say like, well, then why do you write all this copy if people don't really read websites, but some people do.

And you can use that copy in other places. 

Kris Jones: Yeah, well, the thing is, people read websites, let me put it this way, they scan websites, so if you write it in a way that it can be digested as it's being scanned, it will get absorbed. Mm hmm. If you write long bodies of copy that require a lot of, uh, A brain energy to [00:30:00] digest, it won't get read.

So the way around that is to use like shorter, shorter bits of copy, pair them with icons, bullet points are your best friend. So people are going to read it and digest it. It just has to be designed in the right way. And the fonts have to be just right in the flow. Um. Yeah. And then essentially after you've, you've made sure that the design is aligned with the written story.

Then you just literally turn on that client getting faucet and that just keeps working month after month after month. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yes. Client getting faucet. We all want that. That's 100%. We all want that. I love that. Yeah. So if somebody is thinking about like, okay, maybe I am ready to invest. I'm curious, where do you start?

Do you start with a sales page for a specific offer or do you like to start with a homepage or is it like, no, you got to do it all at [00:31:00] once? What do you recommend? 

Kris Jones: It, I believe every self employed business owner needs one page on their website that sells for them, that just acts as their top sales employee.

And during our initial call, we'll decide if you need it. Specifically for a sales page or if you need it for, for a homepage, but it be, it becomes always very clear to me, which one you need, depending on what your goals are and what's happening with your business. Um, so it just, it really depends. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah, I love that.

And I think that's one of the things that like, I see people get stuck in the internet world of like, well, such and such person said, I need this. This is the one thing I need. And it's going to change my business. Like, well, it's not always one thing, or if it is one thing, your one thing is different from somebody else's one thing.

So it's important to have that strategy conversation and [00:32:00] determine for your unique business, your bandwidth, your goals, your brand, what's the thing that is going to be the biggest needle mover and work on that first. 

Kris Jones: Exactly. What is going to bring income into your world? And that becomes really clear during that first conversation.

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah, for sure. So before we wrap up, I do have a couple questions that I want to ask you to get to know you. This has been such an enlightening conversation and I'm sure all of our listeners are like, Oh my gosh, I want to go redo my whole website and I'm going to hire Chris to do it. But before we wrap up and they can find out where to connect with you and learn how to do that, I have a couple of questions that I want to ask that we always ask our listeners just to get to know them a little bit better.

And we talk a lot about brand values around here and I would love to know what is one of your brand values and how did you land on that? 

Kris Jones: Well, I think, I think it goes back to that freedom for sure. I think freedom is probably one of my biggest values, and that has just been [00:33:00] inside of me my whole life.

So it's not really something that I landed on. I just know that the more freedom that I have, the better that I feel. And um, and that doesn't mean that like, I think freedom is really working on your own terms. It doesn't mean that I don't like work a lot some weeks and, but I like being able to be in control of my time and my schedule.

And I think the other, the other value I would share is just less is more. I just, that also just, it feels good to me when, you know, I'm in an environment, whether it's a physical environment or an online environment, that's just curated and streamlined for me and thoughtfully, thoughtfully done. There's a letter, I want to say, One of the, one of the early presidents, I don't know if it was Lincoln or who it was, I have to, I have to Google that and find out, but he, he wrote this letter and he said, [00:34:00] I would have written you a shorter letter, but I didn't have time.

And I, I love that phrase because it does take extra energy to streamline and simplify your messaging and your design, but it's so worth it because the person on the other end. Feels the difference between you and somebody else who hasn't taken the time to do that. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah. A curated collection is worth so much more than all the things, because then you're right.

The person on the other end isn't expending the energy. And that's so interesting. You say that I remember from when I was in my corporate days and we were talking about website navigation and the idea of shop all. And I was like, nobody clicks shop all it's too much. It's overwhelming. Like maybe the like 1 percent super fan that shops your website all the time.

But if you are a product based business, like curated collection, 

Kris Jones: navigation. Totally. [00:35:00] Yeah. I mean, our brains are really wired to survive and thrive. So when we come up against something that's going to expend a lot of. Brain energy for us. We will bail 100 percent of the time it is. It's just too much energy, too much work.

It's not going to be the quickest path for us to thrive. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah. And it's, it's interesting. I heard something on a podcast recently that was talking about that people are exposed to more information today in 24 hours than people were a hundred years ago in their entire lives. 

Kris Jones: No. No. 

Ruthie Sterrett: And so it's like our brains are just on, are being overloaded.

And so, and, and also coming from the corporate space and working in even like physical stores, I remember I was talking about like, well, people don't read, they don't read the signs. Well, it's not because they don't want to. It's because their brains are just like full. 

Kris Jones: Right. No, it's. It's so true. It's so true.

So making it easier for people. 

Ruthie Sterrett: [00:36:00] Well, speaking of reading things and things that we do want to consume, I will have to ask one of my brand values is personal development. And so I always love to ask our guests, what is your favorite, either personal development book or podcast, or if you're like me and cannot pick a favorite, something that you've read or listened to recently that you really loved.

Kris Jones: Well, I, I'm a big fan of the marketing made simple podcast because I think they do a great job of just reminding us what's essential. It can be really easy to chase shiny objects and get on Instagram and kind of everybody has their different solution to your point earlier, and it's easy to waste money and time with.

So shiny objects, and I think the marketing made simple, just is a way to ground and remind yourself what are the essentials of an incredible, powerful business and keep, keep plugging away at that. Um, and then I [00:37:00] think of course the book. That I think is probably the most helpful as far as, um, business related is building a story brand by Donald Miller.

Um, from a personal standpoint, like self improvement, um, Oh my gosh. I, I really love the life coach school podcast. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Um, 

Kris Jones: and I also love Jody more. Like I think those guys just the thought work around not believing your own thoughts. And being intentional, how to kind of unravel, um, from being so close to your own thoughts.

It's similar, I guess, to what we talked about, but I think those are the things that really have impacted my life. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah, I love that. The story brand, um, book I loved, but I loved marketing made simple the book. And that's always my go to recommendation of like that book, just, it was like a light bulb turned on when I read that the way that they put the [00:38:00] things that you could actually understand.

And it's like, you know, like you said, the foundational things, and I even think about it from an athlete perspective, like. If you have the super fancy equipment or the expensive this or that, it doesn't matter if you don't also have the foundational pieces in place first. And with your business, those foundational things are sometimes boring.

And so we want to gloss over them and get to the like trendy fun stuff. But if you don't have the foundational stuff in place, then building a sustainable business is going to be really challenging. 

Kris Jones: And I think a lot of people can, um, spend a lot of energy trying to figure out what tool, whether it's like what web builder is a Kajabi is that, you know, which email platform and people can kind of think, Oh, the answer is in the tool that you choose and it's totally not.

All of them are perfectly capable of doing the job that you need them to do. [00:39:00] I liken this to like, um, When people look at the Mona Lisa or a Van Gogh, they don't say what brand of canvas did he paint that on? It doesn't matter, you know, it's your masterpiece is out in the world on the worldwide web. It doesn't matter where it's built or what email client you're using as long as you're, you're using it.

Ruthie Sterrett: Yes. Oh, that's so true. I love that. Well, uh, speaking of using those things, my last question is to ask something that you are really consistent with either in your business or in your personal life that you are really proud of. And I will remind all of our listeners as well as you, what I teach is that consistent doesn't have to mean constant.

So something that you are consistent with. 

Kris Jones: I, the big thing for me is. Calendaring. So time blocking on my calendar, what it took me a while to get into the groove with it, but now, [00:40:00] um, on Sundays, I really try to take the time. If I don't do it on Sunday, I do it on Monday just to plan out the week and give myself some margin and breathing room in between items and just.

You know, I color code things. So the whole calendaring thing really works for me. And so I keep doing it over and over. The other thing that I would like to share because I'm so excited about it is that I. I am on day eight of giving up sugar and flour, and I am feeling so great about it. Really? Mm hmm.

That's, that 

Ruthie Sterrett: is inspiring and also sounds incredibly challenging, so good for you. It's 

Kris Jones: not as hard as I thought it would be. I, my, I have a five and a half year old, and so, um, I feel like in hindsight I've been using food to kind of [00:41:00] comfort. Me through the, the challenging parts of parenting for five and a half years and I.

I'm finally making this change and it feels like it just feels like a kind of a gift to myself to be doing it. And that's awesome. Yeah. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yeah. 

Kris Jones: So I love it. And 

Ruthie Sterrett: I love that you use the word calendaring. I used to always say calendarize and my team was like, Ruthie, that's not a word. I'm like, yes, it is.

We're going to calendarize it. We're going to put it on the calendar. I like that better, 

Kris Jones: actually. I'm going to use that. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yes. I love, I was always all about calendarize. So that's 

Kris Jones: so funny. It sounds like a superpower of some sort. Yes. 

Ruthie Sterrett: Yes. Well, Chris, thank you so much again for being here and sharing your wisdom and insights with our listeners.

If they are interested in learning more and connecting with you, where do you hang out online and where can they find out more? 

Kris Jones: Yeah, the best way to connect with me is just to go to my website reddoordesigns. com. That's R E D D O O R [00:42:00] D E S I G N S dot com. Reddoordesigns. com. You can find everything that I do there.

Um, the great part about the website is that you can get my freebie, which is how to write compelling copy in five minutes flat. And it's a really simple five minute tutorial video and a little bit of a worksheet that you can use again and again and again if you're writing your own copy. And then also my copy that sells in 2.

5 hours flat offer is there too. And so pretty much everything is there on Instagram. I'm at red door design with no S at the end. Awesome. We will link all 

Ruthie Sterrett: of that in the show notes. And again, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me, Ruthie.

Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the Consistency Corner podcast. Be sure to connect with me on Instagram at Consistency Corner for more marketing made easy [00:43:00] mindset tips and behind the scenes of working online. If today's podcast was helpful, I'd love it if you would leave a review wherever you listen to podcasts and share a screenshot and tag me in stories so I can cheer you on and learn more about how to support you in building a brand that truly sparkles.