How to Leverage Storytelling in Your Business

The Emily Hibard Show, with Emily Hibard and Kris Jones

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Welcome to the Emily Hibbard Show, where I, Emily Hibbard

interview fascinating people from different backgrounds, experiences, and

faiths. Joining me today is brand strategist Chris Jones of Red Door Designs.

Chris, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:15):

Thank you for having me, Emily.

Speaker 1 (00:17):

Oh my gosh. Okay, so I'm your number one fan because I

love the psychology behind what you do. Anyone who has this, I dunno, anyone

with psychology, I feel like gets in my head and kind of trips me out. And I

think that's what fascinates me about you is that you bring so much psychology

into branding.

Speaker 2 (00:37):

Yeah, it's a big part of it. I mean, so many decisions

that we make are actually not made consciously. They're made unconsciously. So

it's really important when you're doing your branding or you're running your

business, that you really understand the psychology of the people that you're

working with and that you're serving.

Speaker 1 (00:56):

Now take me back, how did you get into this? Did you study

psychology, graphic design, psychology? How did this merge?

Speaker 2 (01:08):

Well, I have been doing design and branding and all things

marketing for about 20 years, but I feel like if I were to go back and get

another round at college, I would definitely major in psychology. That aspect

of it really fascinates me, and I've just always been into brain science and

biohacking and things like that outside of my work life, and so it makes sense

that I've woven the two together.

Speaker 1 (01:42):

I mean, this past year I've had the opportunity to hear

from a lot of your clients who are singing your praises about what you've done,

what you've done for them, whether it's their website, whether it's branding,

just overall the strategy of it. And there's that so much psychology and it

seems like everyone that I've worked with is so pleased because you're able to

take it past just creating a logo, take it past, just picking some colors that

you think might appeal to that niche or that audience. Where did that come

from?

Speaker 2 (02:17):

So like I said, I did a lot of years as a graphic designer

and making things really beautiful, but eventually I started to really

recognize the power of copywriting and design and copywriting go hand in hand.

So you can't have beautiful design and mediocre copy and you can't have great

copy and mediocre design. So I eventually really learned how to create a

message that really resonates. And what I understood or what I came to really

learn is that psychology, a lot of psychology is really about story and how

story as humans, we are just wired for story in so many ways. So there's really

some powerful tools to weave story into your brand and into your messaging. And

I guess it was 2017, I got certified as a StoryBrand guide and started to

really, and yes, it's about story, but it's also very much about psychology.

(03:29):

They work together and it's about kind of tapping into

that survival part of our brain, that amygdala in the back that wires us for

surviving and thriving. And this is how we've evolved as humans. We're

constantly scanning our environment to figure out how am I going to survive?

How am I going to thrive, whether it's through relationships or making money or

feeling good. We're constantly wired for that. We're also really wired for

connection and story just touches on all of those components. So when you start

to really understand the architecture of a story, whether it's a book that

you're reading or a movie that you go to, or even a website that you visit, if

it's done well, they all have those same fundamental components of story and

they all tap into that part of our brain that is trying to survive and thrive.

So that's kind of how it all came to be. And then after becoming a StoryBrand

certified guide, my website design business just blew up because the websites

became so much more effective and fundamentally we're really connecting. So my

clients, I was creating websites for my clients that were really deeply

connecting and deeply resonating with their clients, allowing them to grow and

thrive and creating a better connection.

Speaker 1 (05:09):

That is absolutely fascinating. For someone that's not

familiar with StoryBrand or what it means to be a StoryBrand guide, what is

that?

Speaker 2 (05:19):

StoryBrand is? Well, there's a book that Donald Miller

wrote years ago back in, gosh, I think it was 2017. I became a guide before the

book even came out. But Donald Miller wrote this brilliant book called Building

a StoryBrand, and it just really broke down the components of story, but from a

business owner's perspective and from a marketing perspective, because for a

lot of business owners, marketing is just this mysterious black box of where do

I begin, what do I do? And so it empowered business owners to really understand

what story is and how to craft a story for their own business that allows them

to attract more clients. And so yeah, StoryBrand was kind of the beginning of

that, and a lot of StoryBrand guides are specifically just writers, but I found

as a designer, it really combining those two things, both really high-end

design and really story-driven copy was the one two punch that was missing on

most websites on the internet. So combining those has been incredibly powerful

for my clients.

Speaker 1 (06:45):

So if you were to go on, I don't know, average Joe

Schmoe's website, and you're going to look at that through the StoryBrand guide

eyes that you have, what are the top things that you look for immediately?

Speaker 2 (07:01):

Well, I'll start by sharing what most people get wrong,

because once you become aware of this, then you'll know how to fix it. So often

what business owners do or companies do, and it doesn't matter if you're

selling a widget or selling a service or you're a large company or a small

company, story works for all of it. So what happens a lot is business owners

make themselves the hero of their own story. And that can look like just

talking a lot about yourself, talking a lot about what you do, and I totally understand

why this happens. It's like, okay, this is my website, what am I going to fill

it up with? And you know, and your work. And so you kind of just start writing

about yourself. But what that approach does is really allows, it forces the

character and the story so that the business owner becomes the hero of the

story.

(08:10):

Where what we really want and what creates connection is

when your customer or client or buyer is the hero of your story, and you step

into that story as the guide. So think like Karate Kid and Mr. Miyagi Karate

Kid is the hero of the story, and the hero is actually the weakest character of

this story. We're not sure if he's going to learn the karate chop moves that he

needs to learn to win. So Mr. Miyagi's been there, done that. He knows the path

and he knows how to guide that hero to success, but it's really up to karate

kid to kind of do the work. So we, as business owners on our own websites, we

really need to embody that like Mr. Miyagi or Yoda, if you will, for your Star

Trek people. We need to embody that role as the guide and then really invite

our customers to be the hero of our story. And when you make that flip in your

website or your marketing, or even just the way you talk about your business to

someone you're talking to at a cocktail party, the dynamic really changes

because you're speaking with empathy and authority and you're embodying the

mindset of the hero and it changes the dynamic.

(09:52):

So that's one big thing. I mean, it's a big thing.

Speaker 1 (09:56):

It's not, oh, it's huge. It's absolutely huge. The website

about the company, about the person, or is it about the user? I mean, that

right there is huge. Who's it about?

Speaker 2 (10:06):

Who's it about? And really two things around that is

really what do they want and how you can help them, and what problems are they

experiencing? So when you can do this one thing, I'm sure you have experienced

this before where someone's talking about their problem or you go to a website

and they're talking about, have you faced this problem? Are you behind on your

budgeting or bookkeeping? Are you, whatever the problem is, they're naming that

problem and automatically when someone can name the problem that you're

experiencing, you think, oh, they're the one that they can fix it

automatically. It's a weird thing in our brain. We think when you can name our

problem accurately, then you must be the right one to fix it. So I always start

my websites really simply. They start with, okay, what do you want? So it might

be like, if I was working with an accountant, we'll just go with that theme. It

would be like bookkeeping made simple bookkeeping done for you so you can focus

on what you love. So that's really in a simple way, I'm saying, I'll do your

bookkeeping and then you're going to benefit from that by getting to focus on

what you love. You pack in multiple problems and benefits, and then write after

that is where we really hone in on the problem. So it would be like if

bookkeeping were my issue and I didn't have a bookkeeper, it would be like,

your accounting's unorganized, your receipts are all over the floor.

(11:57):

You're still trying to catch up on last year's taxes. What

are these problems? So you list out three to five, and then automatically

you're really, what it's doing is really letting the viewer, your potential

customer, feel like they're understood and that they're not alone, and that

somebody really knows their problem and that that person can help them solve

it.

Speaker 1 (12:24):

Oh my gosh, why do, so you said this is one of the issues

that you see that a lot of websites, a lot of small businesses don't do well.

They talk about themselves or they make them the hero of their story. What do

you think it is in us as people where we naturally sort of default to that?

Speaker 2 (12:48):

Well, that's a really good question. I think number one is

we really are the heroes of our own stories and our lives. So we come at it

from this perspective, and this is not a bad thing. We are living our own

hero's journey just by being on this planet. So we like to talk about ourselves

because we know ourselves. I mean, this is not a character fault. We are all

relatively self-centered, and this isn't our wiring, and this is why we have

survived so well over many, many, many years because we are really kind of

self-centered. It gets a bad wrap and it has a negative connotation to it, but

it's really not. It's just the way we're wired as humans. So it just takes a

little bit of knowledge really to kind of go, oh, let me kind of consider what

life is like in their shoes and what problems they're going through.

(14:01):

And I think especially with service-based business owners,

well, as business owners in general, we all have big hearts and we all really

want to help. So again, it's not to no knock on any business owner that's the

hero of their own story. It's just because we don't know the structure of story

and we're all just doing our best. It's pretty intimidating to build a website

or design a website and have someone say, okay, what do you want to put on this

page? It's like, of course you're going to talk about your great grandfather

who founded the company and whatever else, but it just doesn't include your

customer in a way that really puts you in a position of trust and authority.

And so when you step into that guide role by just doing a few little things, it

totally shifts the dynamic.

Speaker 1 (15:04):

That's fascinating because I am, as you're talking, I'm

thinking of so many aspects of my life that I could apply that to not just with

websites, not just with branding, but oh, what can I do for someone? I meet

someone at a cocktail party? What would that mean to them if they feel heard?

If I talk a little bit less about me and I see more interested genuinely about

them, what could I unlock in people? The psychology it gets in my head, where

do I go? And I just, me, me, me, Emily, Emily, Emily, where can I go? And

really to get to those deeper, those deeper layers, which I think are precious

of a person, what can I do to bring that out?

Speaker 2 (15:50):

Well, and that's huge and totally would change the way

anybody would experience a social event. But when it comes to your business and

your work, which is often a topic at these, at any social event, what do you

do? And dah, dah, dah. So I could say I'm a bookkeeper, and then all of a

sudden the conversation kind of falls flat. Or I could say, at the end of the

year when your taxes are due and you've got receipts piled all over the floor

and you can't remember what you spent on this donation, and you're just

frazzled and you have a million things to do that you'd rather be doing well, I

help business owners get organized with their bookkeeping so they can really

focus on the work that they love. I have a three-step plan. First, I organize

your receipts and your bookkeeping. Then I streamline and automate what can be

automated, and then I plan ahead for the next year. So that doesn't happen

again. It totally changes the way.

Speaker 1 (17:05):

Totally, totally.

Speaker 2 (17:07):

You're

Speaker 1 (17:07):

Making some fake story and I'm drawn into your fake story.

You can't even help it. I was drawn into your fake story,

Speaker 2 (17:16):

And then that's the beginning of the story because you're

pulled in and you want to know more, and maybe you need help with that, or

maybe you have a friend that needs help with that. So I've just opened up

potential opportunities to grow my business in a really authentic but connected

way. Yeah. Yeah, it's fun. Brilliant. It's really fun.

Speaker 1 (17:37):

Yeah. Okay, so I want to talk about your ebook, why we

click.

Speaker 2 (17:42):

Oh, okay. Okay.

Speaker 1 (17:43):

So talk about that.

Speaker 2 (17:45):

Okay. So a lot of my clients come to me and they're just

like, fix my website, make it better. I hate it. I'm embarrassed to send people

to my website. I dread making a change. I can't get into the backend. And so

this is really a guide called Why We Click and it tells you the nine steps of

psychology behind a website that actually works and helps you convert new

clients. So it gives you really the why behind what you're going to do. I tell

you exactly what to do, but then you understand the psychology behind it. So

then you can really apply that not only to the website, but every aspect of

your business.

Speaker 1 (18:30):

And I'm assuming you take the same storytelling approach.

Hey, you know that time at the end of the year when your receipts are all over

the floor, and just kind of draw that in. Where can you find that ebook?

Speaker 2 (18:42):

That ebook is@reddoordesigns.com. That's Red Door with two

Ds, red Door designs with an s@theend.com. And when you go to the website,

you'll see right at the top it says Free resources, and you go to that page.

And why We click is right there.

Speaker 1 (19:02):

Awesome. Awesome. Well, Chris, thank you so much for

joining me on the show today and talking a little bit about the psychology of

what you do and branding and all that. You are absolutely amazing. Like she

said, visit our website@reddoordesigns.com. So that concludes another episode

of the Emily Hibbard Show. Connect with me on Instagram at Emily Hibbard. I'll

see you guys next time.